While It's Fresh In My Mind
Notes to self and impressions of Cookie Sale 4/18/15: Took a test run to the rest stop on Friday, because I'm a visual person. You can describe things to me until you're blue in the face, but I won't understand it until I see it. At the rest stop I saw/learned: 1. How to make coffee in the thirty-cup percolaters (turned out to be wrong, amount of coffee he said was too little for thirty cups. He said fill with water to line, then add a rounded styrofoam cup of coffee. There are four lines on the coffee pot. There were two sizes of styrofoam cups. First pot was too weak. Second pot was way too strong. By third pot, I think we got it about right. I don't drink coffee, and Harry likes it strong. I felt kind of sorry for the folks who got the "experimental" coffee, however no one complained.) I think it would be helpful to have the instructions for making coffee posted somewhere in the booth. There is a bulletin board. Seems it would save everyone money & stop wasting pots of coffee. Do they assume everyone just "knows" how to make coffee in large quantities? 2. How to display the product. (There are two racks, each two-sided with clips to hang plastic bags or granola bars. I got the idea to put some of the crumbly/loose toppings cookies in a plastic snack bag, after wrapping in plastic wrap. Then folks have a chance to eat all of the cookie, even though it crumbles. (Those kinds went to the sale this year, but I won't make again.) We use large aluminum trays with signs telling the name of the cookie, some ingredients, including nuts, for display. Next time I will put more ingredients on the sign. I think the Butter Cashew cookies would have gone faster if folks knew there were also chocolate and butterscotch chips in them. There were old (unknown how old?) store bought donuts, rolls and cookies, some in plastic bags, some not, but none labeled as to ingredients. There were homemade cookies in resealable plastic bags and flip top plastic bags, but only one kind was labeled. I tasted one which turned out to be a no-bake chocolate/oatmeal (maybe coconut) slightly stale, hard lump of a cookie. Some looked like there was powdered sugar in the bag, but I had no clue what any of the ingredients might be. Didn't try any of those and certainly wouldn't pick them to eat.) 3. The layout of the buildings. The booth is in between the two restroom buildings, but under the same roof. In front of the booth there is a bank of three Coca Cola vending machines. On the other side of that wall it looked like there were two large screen TVs, but I didn't go there. Across from the TVs, there was another wall, and on the other side of that wall, I think there were maps. I didn't go there either.
After we got done there, we took the back road to Cheney, to eat. On our way to the rest stop, we didn't see any animals/birds at all, which we thought was odd, but we were on the freeway. We did see a farmer on a tractor raising a big cloud of dust while tilling his field. Some fields were already green, while others lay fallow. It's always interesting to see the patchwork quilt of fields during different seasons of the year. On the back road, we saw a big hawk floating on the wind, and a few small horses in a wooded area. The restaurant where we planned to eat in Cheney was out of business, and we didn't see anywhere else that caught our fancy, so we decided to go to the casino to eat. I'd forgotten what a smoke-filled room smelled like. Whew! We got there ten minutes before the buffet opened. It was a little pricey, but there was a myriad of seafood to eat. I had shark, catfish, and cod. Harry had many crab legs, sea scallops, shrimp and calamari. I would have had some calamari, if it had just been the rings, but there were also itsy, bitsy, teeny tiny whole octopus in there too, so as my stomach turned, I passed on those. I have to say, I kind of felt like the Clampetts in the big city. After we ate, we had to go back through the smoke-filled gambling part. Harry saw some penny machines, took a penny out of his pocket, but couldn't figure out where to put the penny into the machine. It's a whole different world at the casino, Jed! I just felt like the staff was looking at us like, "Who let those ignorant hicks in here??" As you can probably tell, we rarely go there to eat, and never to gamble. Our waiter was very kind and efficient though, so that helped. They also had tiny cups of Creme Brule'. Heavenly. Harry & I had two apiece.
I'm too tired to write more, so this will be continued.................
I'm grateful for the Subaru, which my wonderful daughter gave me.
I'm grateful for the beautiful day today.
I'm grateful for my good health.
I'm grateful for God's Grace, which surrounds me every hour of every day.
God Bless
After we got done there, we took the back road to Cheney, to eat. On our way to the rest stop, we didn't see any animals/birds at all, which we thought was odd, but we were on the freeway. We did see a farmer on a tractor raising a big cloud of dust while tilling his field. Some fields were already green, while others lay fallow. It's always interesting to see the patchwork quilt of fields during different seasons of the year. On the back road, we saw a big hawk floating on the wind, and a few small horses in a wooded area. The restaurant where we planned to eat in Cheney was out of business, and we didn't see anywhere else that caught our fancy, so we decided to go to the casino to eat. I'd forgotten what a smoke-filled room smelled like. Whew! We got there ten minutes before the buffet opened. It was a little pricey, but there was a myriad of seafood to eat. I had shark, catfish, and cod. Harry had many crab legs, sea scallops, shrimp and calamari. I would have had some calamari, if it had just been the rings, but there were also itsy, bitsy, teeny tiny whole octopus in there too, so as my stomach turned, I passed on those. I have to say, I kind of felt like the Clampetts in the big city. After we ate, we had to go back through the smoke-filled gambling part. Harry saw some penny machines, took a penny out of his pocket, but couldn't figure out where to put the penny into the machine. It's a whole different world at the casino, Jed! I just felt like the staff was looking at us like, "Who let those ignorant hicks in here??" As you can probably tell, we rarely go there to eat, and never to gamble. Our waiter was very kind and efficient though, so that helped. They also had tiny cups of Creme Brule'. Heavenly. Harry & I had two apiece.
I'm too tired to write more, so this will be continued.................
I'm grateful for the Subaru, which my wonderful daughter gave me.
I'm grateful for the beautiful day today.
I'm grateful for my good health.
I'm grateful for God's Grace, which surrounds me every hour of every day.
God Bless