I've done and moved

Beep beep. Moved to my new domain: cobdavis.com

Meet the new TV stand: part 1

Liz was looking to update our 'TV Stand' and wanted to get something mid-century modern. I didn't really have a problem with the as-is stand we got from IKEA, pictured left, but what did I know. So we went antiquing for a credenza that we (meaning I) could convert into a TV stand. We saw expensive-as-hell super-nice ones that we'd still have to disassemble in one fashion or another - then we saw a $98 'needs a bit of love' taller credenza that was hard to pass up. We saw it, hmm and hawed over it, walked around the place one more time, made sure this is what we wanted and discussed what we might be able to do with it. Sanding, painting was decided upon. We bought it, left the shop and headed out to Home Depot.

At 'da depot' we picked up a Roybi detail sander a couple cans of paint, primer and all the trimmings that comes along with painting. Note to reader: when painting wood, always get a foam roller. I had asked the "bro" at the counter witch roller to buy for painting a piece of furniture. "Oh the foam ones are great b/c they don't leave behind hairs. But the 'pros,' they use these." Of course he points to the fluffy pink rollers. I think to myself "well, it to look like a pro, not some jack ass slapping up some primer and garbage on there. So of course we buy the fluffy pink guys. Last, we pick up a hook for my stuff so it's not laying around anymore. Every thing has it's place.

A day later, we brought the big bastard home, skuffed up our floor a touch and put it on extra flor tiles we had. There it sat for a couple more days. Finally I got up the guff to sand.

It took about an afternoon and a half to sand. I'm no expert by any means. I love watching 'This Old House' and 'Yankee Workshop,' but translating that into real life isn't always 1:1. I tried sanding just by hand but I was going no where fast. There are also tiny nooks that were a real pain in the ass to get to. I read a bit online, watched a couple videos, re-read those articles and watched a video three of four times and decided I didn't want to go out and buy a sanding sponge. I thought the next best thing would be something I devised - a metal scrapper wrapped in 120 grit paper. It did it's job, well enough. The larger surfaces I used the detail sander.

Stay tuned for part 2 - the chilling conclusion to our story.

Two weeks / months & brownies

Two weeks and still no word from out beloved olive oil guy. So it goes.

There is one post that I'm dreading to write. Fat Witch Brownie Mix. The box comes with everything you'd need to create your own famous at-home brownies save for the two sticks of butter you need to slap all of the ingredients together in a way that makes it seem like a cohesive eatable jumble of garbage. Some may praise Fat Witch for their delightfully 'moist' and 'heavenly' brownies created in the island of Manhattan - I mean in scene of seclusion from the outside world and that it is an island - where it seems that they love their desert to sit and meld at the bottom of a pan. Now, I may have made them wrong, though I'm pretty sure I know how to add room temp butter to a mound of mixture. I'd skip these if you enjoy the fully light and not throat clogging thickness that are these.

When we were in NYC for the show, we came across these hip, modern, and styled cocktail starters: Modern Cocktail. They were shoved into the back of the showroom floor, a new company that could soar under the ever growing market that is specialty food items. Two months we tired to call, leave a message, e-mailed, faxed. No response. Sure they might be super busy because of the overwhelming response to their pithy product - but let the small businesses know. I know it seems rife with holes, picking up the phone or responding to a fax, but is it that much a struggle. What happened was they got a 10k order from whole foods and shoved everyone else to the side to fill their HUGE order. Whole foods reorders, and pushes everyone else back, they can't keep up demand, they try to expand but don't have enough time/money. We get stuck not getting their kick ass product. Oh well.

Day off because of sickness. Here is to it.

Banging it out

Yesterday I wrote a few blogs, just pounding them out. I'm finding more and more interesting ways of describing food which is fun. I created a tumblr page for some reason. We'll see how well that goes. Yeah, sure I struggle to get stuff on this blog alone day to day, but I think b/c of the phone plug in, I'll be able to post small snippets there (longer than twitter & photos etc) instead of feeling the need to shove out something that isn't long enough to constitute a post.

I've been milling over the Google/Verizon paper for a couple of weeks and I think it's a mistake on Google's behalf. They were always seen a kind of 'underdog' gone pro. This way they kept their head on straight about being total fuck offs about net neutrality and brought out cool products us nerds love (see gmail, google reader, voice, etc). We can't make the distinction between wired and wireless internet. Talk about a slippery slope into disaster, where no one wins but the companies. Where I see a problem is in commercial. We have a shitty internet connection at work as it stands now. Lets say in five years wired internet is gone b/c of leaps in 4G and LTE etc, but this paper pushed legislation to make it "easier" for us to get "certain" data. We try and check people out at work, but cannot get through to the POS servers because we are a small company and cannot pay the big fat bill to pay for a quick POS connection. So we lose customers because our wait time at check out is longer, and spiral down. Cut to Target, Lowes, big stores. They don't have a problem because they pay the big bucks to get their POS data pushed through before ours. Tis but a single example, but one that some might understand better and hit closer than "you can't load youtube as fast."

Folded up paper, wasted time and money

So the other day I had a flier sent to me. A person had cold called the store (which I can't image to be very fun) and asked if we would carry their stuff. I told them the same thing I tell every single company, vendor, or joe/sara schmoe that tries to get their stuff on our shelf - "Bring in a sample, we'll try it out and we'll let you know." I guess I don't say those exact words but that is a rough outline of what I tell them. I learned this from my boss, who has delt with this for seven years, so I assume she knows what she is doing. I proceed to tell this person our normal deal. Of course they soft-of listened. Sure, they'll bring in a sample, but they wanted to send me this near worthless sheet of paper (what a waste) and asked when a good time to show up for a tasting would be. This is where I try to nail people down to a time, because of a couple of reasons; I can and like to work from home, as well as when samples are left for more than a day it can either be eaten or taken home within a day or less. So to try to set something up where they can come in and talk to me about their wonderful olive oil, but for some strange reason this person cannot be tied down. I even tried to give a general time when it would be best and that didn't work for them either. I just had to breath heavy, roll my eyes and say what amounted to "whatever." Not the best way to start off with someone that will be one of two votes on getting your product on the shelf.

I'm not flaunting my power over a vendor, but it's kind of a waste of their time and money to send me info I could and would much rather get from them personally. Which I would like to set up a good time for the two of us to talk about the ins and outs of their olive oil. Sure it's nice to crack open a letter mailed to me at work, something I rarely get, but come on.

Today I'm board at work without my boss here. I wrote a blog. I posted on facebook. I know I could be doing more, something a bit more productive than posting here on my blog but I'd really rather avoid work. Just one of those days I guess.

Tonight I'll take photos of the Sweetwater Bath stuff. It was pretty damn good and am looking forward to writing that post. That'll be tomorrow though.

Notes on a Saturday

I took a couple notes for future references at work on Saturday.

• Girls with ugly guys & vice versa
• Full beard with bald head
• "This is what it's like downstairs"
• Guys who "stand too close"

Pickles

shot_1282230043880, originally uploaded by Jacob D.

I'm supposed to put out pickles for people to try today 'at lunch.' I made menus this morning, and posted  to facebook and twitter about our surprisingly successful Cupcake contest. I'm trying to find more work, and make sure I keep this job.

Cookies

IMG_4712, originally uploaded by Jacob D.

Wheatfingers

Whole wheat flower, sea salt, butter, egg, sugar, sugar in the raw, butterfinger, vanilla, baking soda. Heavy modified Martha Stuart recipe.

Home office

Today I'll be working from home (hopefully) banging out a handful of new food blogs for SPG. I've got a couple things to do around the house but, it shouldn't stop me from getting work done. I brought home a couple items from work yesterday. Tasting and writing about the BBQ bath should prove interesting - I know the Peach vin rules, but I want to make sure to get the taste down on paper as well as try a few recipes.