wednesday 11.18.09

cait! cait! cait and the girls playing at high noon! cait is the manager of the middleton barriques, and an exceptionally talented musician. taking in her happy hour show with tristan - my former fellow la crosse erbs & gerbs sandwich maker - and the old sauk barriques staff (+ kourt).


-bkh

tuesday 11.17.09

out on a walk with ryan and liza. got back from my colorectal cancer prevention initiative meeting right as ryan was taking dog out to let out some of her energy. joined them for the 30 or so minute walk around the neighborhood. november is so beautiful this 2009.


-bkh

monday 11.16.09

washing dishes at barriques. working with heidi. washed out the dustpan, too. it was coated and caked with coffee grounds.


-bkh

sunday 11.15.09

cleaning up after dinner. baked potato and brussel sprouts. usually i get real antsy when a baked potato is cooking, and eat ‘appetizers’ until i’m not hungry anymore when the potato is finally done. i played it right this time around and popped it in the toaster oven while i went to an hour long yoga class. perfect timing. roasted brussel sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinaigrette, and honey. the honey bottle says in big letters: ‘do not feed to infants under the age of 1’. not really sure why? but i guess i won’t argue.

-bkh

saturday 11.14.09

spanish wine tasting at monroe street barriques with jess & andy. shannon, leah, and liz too. barriques old saukers night on the town. andy getting the nose feel or whatever, trying to find the pencil lead and gooseberries in his wine. enjoyed the eight (plus one times two) wines before heading to meet tracy, travis, cait & others at the frequency for some tunes that sounded like death metal and yoko ono guitars, and looked like a band with my hair and a mess of a dance party through my wine and spotted cow lenses.


-bkh

friday 11.13.09

working the barriques on monroe street. spanish wine tasting going on over on the other side of the counter. matt & finn were looking for someone to help out with the coffee side of barriques. and i could see why. monroe gets owned by wine tasters! wow. the joint was packed. michelle, jason, and i were busting our butts running around. cheese boards, and mediterranean experiences, and wine by the glass, and conversations about wine… i did not make a single latte drink in my five hour shift.


-bkh

thursday 11.12.09

watching ‘the office’ online with ryan. finding out what happened in the past few episodes before watching this week’s episode. awkwardly balancing the computer on the arm of the couch between the two of us and angling it so we can both kinda-sorta see the screen. fred and shannon joined us, finding a standing spot behind the chair. when will we be able to access internet from the tv so we don’t have to watch nbc.com awkwardly? maybe some people already can?


-bkh

wednesday 11.11.09

working with heidi. holding down barriques like pros. we’ve committed ourselves to barriques-improvement projects or whatever every monday and wednesday we work together. getting a little elbow grease in our shift. she scrubbed down behind the espresso grinders, and i tackled behind the big grinder. took a little bit of extra work, but, oh how it shined when we were done. wednesday we have an extra hour to close than mondays, so we can be extra effective in our cleaning the latter part of the week. got started on sweeping the floor, appropriately an hour later than mondays.


-bkh

tuesday 11.10.09

watching ‘lost in translation’ with fred and shannon (...and liza). took a short break to instruct fred on the steps to gift wrapping. his kind request to have me ‘wrap this’ gift was denied, though i felt it appropriate to teach him how to fish, as the saying goes.


-bkh

monday 11.09.09

working with heidi. food is already cleaned up. i am ready to go. did some cleaning and closing right when i got it, which was good cuz i was ahead by the time old travis stopped in, and was able to spend a bit of time catching-up with the former co-worker without getting owned by the closing to-do list. it was nice to see him again after so long.


-bkh

sunday 11.08.09

making dinner. hummus-grape-almond-honey pizza. it may not sound delicious, but that is exactly what it is. jason made one of these back in my baldwin street days, and it was mighty tasty back then. i had been meaning to make it for a while now. when i saw grapes on sale at coops, i knew today was my day. cooked it up, and enjoyed it in front of ‘the us vs. john lennon’. oh, uh, and the weekend first-aid kit was slowly making its way back to the bathroom by way of the stove, it appears...


-bkh

saturday 11.07.09

at edo (eato? eto? eadto.) sushi restaurant on park street with bjorn, shannon, fred, noreen, and ryan. having some food after a day hike at devil’s lake. does a better day exist? (other than the unforgiving hangover that plagued the house) i think not. i asked the waiter to leave the pitcher of water on the table (please note the small glasses in front of fred), but since it's a sushi restaurant he instead brought me a bigger glass. and was very attentive in filling it. someone got a good tip. and someone got made fun of by her friends.


-bkh

friday 11.06.09

bjorn! bjorn! bjorn in town from viroqua! sharing stories from his 3,500 mile bike ride to and from the pacific northwest. and reading about the movie festival going on over the weekend in madison. fred ryan and shannon are grilling out our food outside, and getting the bonfire ready for a night of friends, fire, and beer (and jim beam and 99 peaches?)


-bkh

thursday 11.05.09

watching the news. flipping msnbc to cnn to fox waiting for the press conference on the fort hood shootings. it kept being delayed and delayed. never ended up seeing it. i had a meditation class at 8. i got a whole lot of ‘information’ (read: speculation) though. oh the joys of this non-stop 24-hour news world we live in.


-bkh

wednesday 11.04.09

cleaning the espresso machine at barriques. getting ready for the last power hour and a half with heidi. trying to stay ahead of the curve so we get on out soon after we lock the doors at 9.


-bkh

tuesday 11.03.09

heading down into the basement. started doing laundry (maybe the first time since i got back from europe…?) but got distracted by the village of empty detergent containers, dryer sheets, sock widows (for you, mom!), lint balls the size of my head hanging around on the floor. i am quite sure they have all been there since i moved in. probably since stacy moved in. so i did a bit of power cleaning. after 20 minutes it looked like a whole new basement.


-bkh

monday 11.02.09

barriques with heidi. someone dropped off his/her coffee cup at the end of the bar before heading out. taking it back to the sink to put with the other ‘for here’ dishes ready for the dishwasher. we have a tub bucket or whatever by the door, but about ¼ of customers seem to prefer putting their dishes on the counter. fine. it’s closer to where they need to eventually go. it’s funny, though. we’ll find dishes abandoned there throughout the day, but no customer will just drop it there and walk away if we’re standing there. they always ask ‘where do you want me to…can i just leave this here, or…’ as though they can’t just leave it when we’re there, but don’t mind passively dropping it when no one is looking. people are interesting.


-bkh

sunday 11.01.09

sushi dinner with some of the barriques staff! i really like my social time with my barriques staff. and it is much too few and far between. jess and i have been trying to have dinner for ages, and we finally (finally!) succeeded and brought a long a bunch of co-workers, too.


-bkh

saturday 10.31.09

happy halloween. hanging around the house, playing trivial pursuit, drinking some hot bourbon cider, ryan playing fred’s bass. ryan nick and i cooked up some homemade pizzas using the wealth of pasta sauce i had from thursday. and hung around the house before getting all dressed up and heading to the big 10 to meet up with the wilkie bros.


-bkh

friday 10.30.09

working at barriques. but at monroe street barriques, not old sauk road barriques. got a mid-morning email from the owner looking for a barriquer to help hold down monroe at some point between noon-8. sure – why not? got to meet some new folks, see a new store, make some money. win-win. monroe sure sells a lot of wine by the glass. about 10 times as much as old sauk.


-bkh

thursday 10.29.09

cooking dinner. roasted tomato and pesto marinara sauce to go with pasta. tasty recipe i picked up from either vegetarian times or eating well. it made a lot of sauce. a lot of sauce. i used the amount i needed for the box of pasta, and could have easily added three or four boxes of pasta. i have some awesome leftovers. for months.


-bkh

wednesday 10.28.09

just getting home parking my car and packing up my stuff to bring inside. went to ‘the time traveler’s wife’ and dinner with deniz. the movie was a whole heck of a lot better than i anticipated. i would highly recommend it, and not just to ladies. and best off all, we saw it at the 'cheap theater' on the west side, so the ticket was <$3. every city should have a cheap theater. they make me so happy.


-bkh

tuesday 10.27.09

dane county immunization coalition’s annual immunization symposium. this year’s topics?: seasonal flu, H1N1, and vaccine refusal. no surprises there. listening to donna weaver from the cdc (centers for disease control and prevention) before dr. conway from UW speaks. sitting behind the group health cooperative immunization person (i’m the unity immunization person), and next to my boss.


-bkh

monday 10.26.09

monday nights are barriques nights. barriques nights with heidi. washing up dishes. staying on top of the dishes, otherwise we’ll be there oh so much later than 8:00.


-bkh

sunday 10.25.09

mckinley street house has a mouse situation. a severe mouse situation. setting up some mouse traps with ryan to catch the little shits. after a couple episodes of ‘arrested development’, we went back to the kitchen to survey the damage: all four traps successfully fulfilled their role in life. yowzas. mckinley street has a mouse problem.


-bkh

saturday 10.24.09

lounging around the house with ryan and jackie (jackie! another day in madison with us!) we accidentally stayed up all night last night, and were real nice and tired by the time saturday evening rolled around. the weekend started wednesday, so we were well due for a quiet night. picked up some stuff to make some stir crazy popcorn and popped in ‘savages’ followed by ‘mallrats’. brandy old fashioneds made an appearance. you can tell because the liquor cabinet has it's lights on. when there's drinking, the mood lights illuminate the 'man room'.


-bkh

friday 10.23.09

yonderfest day 3. ryan kara jackie. jeremy, heather, katy, kay, and kay’s roommate, too. oooo – what good people. out to dinner & drinks at jolly bob’s in madison. a little light on the drinks for most of the table given the previous two days for most of ‘em. hearing about jackie’s law school life, and the cases she’s working on in st. paul. good people.


-bkh

thursday 10.22.09

yonderfest day 2. after a day of drinking, ryan and benny decided to shave their heads (whaaaat?) jake doing a bit of one-handed touch-up on ryan’s hair. fred had to intervene so jake could concentrate on more important things (read: his pbr). though, jake couldn’t do much more damage to ryan than benny did during the ryan-benny-kara-katy-fight-for-the-razor scuffle. ryan is now the proud owner of a small bald spot and an inverted rat tail.


-bkh

wednesday 10.21.09

yonderfest! day 1. in my backyard. hanging out having some beers, boxed wine, straight whiskey, getting ready for the avett brothers show. people in town from chicago, rice lake, seattle, appleton, st. paul, stevens point, milwaukee… for the week(end). kara brought some birthday hats in honor of ryan’s recent and stacy’s upcoming birthdays. so many reasons to (over)celebrate.


-bkh

tuesday 10.20.09

making a decaf skim latte. for here. apparently the gentleman did not realize barriques closes in thirty minutes. luckily my co-worker, jess, is so darn sweet, so he wasn’t upset when she started vacuuming around him at 8:00.


-bkh

monday 10.19.09

closing with heidi. my first (of many to come) shift with heidi. trying to keep on top of the dishes. putting away some silverware at barriques. knives for our in the dining room. sometimes people don’t notice/acknowledge that we have silverware, and just go straight for the plasticware. come on, people. this is madison!

-bkh

sunday 10.18.09

happy anniversary mom & dad!


watching some tv with fred. and probably shannon and ryan. got back late(rish) after a nice afternoon/evening with steve & megan in milwaukee.


-bkh

saturday 10.17.09

reading some ‘us weekly’ so i of course must be at marissa & nina’s place in milwaukee. reading about ‘twilight’ in the twilight decorated apartment, hanging out with marissa and her itunes top 25 listened to list that definitely did not contain miley cyrus songs. spent the day with marissa, marques, and chris. seeing good people and the city. now just waiting for the mrs. to get home from work.

-bkh

friday 10.16.09

watching ‘the life of david gale’. by myself. ryan and his folks came back from dinner & shopping right at the climax of the movie. kinda like they did when i was watching ‘pheobe in wonderland’ a while back. seems to be ‘their thing’. after the movie i riled myself up from what could have been a quiet evening. went with ryan and nick to ‘st. vincent’ show at high noon. not as good as i hoped. one band i’d say is better recorded than live.


-bkh

thursday 10.15.09

sitting around the house. it appears as though fred has slowly undressed in the living room.


-bkh

wednesday 10.14.09

movie day. my life is awesome now that netflix came into it. ‘amelie’ with fred. though fred is reading his new palahniuk book on the couch. so i suppose i’m watching amelie by myself. hadn’t seen the movie since freshman year of college. the french professor had our class over to her apartment to cook a french meal and watch the movie. ryan and i stayed in the montmartre district in paris, which is where amelie was filmed. the tour we took of the area pointed out a lot of places from the movie. i had many memories of the trip watching the movie.


-bkh

tuesday 10.13.09

barriques with jess. and training new co-worker travis. new co-worker travis is sticking around longer than new-co-worker mike/matt did. showing travis how to close up the food stuff for the night. pull out the bins, cover them with the plastic covers, put them below – making sure to pull out the breakfast stuff so the morning people can grab them in a sleepy second.


-bkh

monday 10.12.09

working with ryan (not roommate ryan or brother ryan; barriques ryan). ryan is a master speed-worker. always antsy to get moving out the door. i’d take it personal if i were someone who took things ryan did personal. but luckily i’m not. folding up the clean towels for the openers while ryan shuts down the soup station for the night. getting ready for the mad-rush of closing duties that starts half an hour before close.


-bkh

sunday 10.11.09

movie time. watching ‘stranger than fiction’ with ryan (sorta) and fred (kinda) and picking away at some facebook stalking. sundays are a great day for multi-tasking.


-bkh

saturday 10.10.09

oooo – nap. big nap. the house was coooold when i got back from barriques. heat was not yet turned out. crawled up in to my bed for a bit. it felt like camping. if you don’t know what that means, well i don’t really know how to describe it better. ‘men in black’ was playing on the tv in front of ryan when i got up, so that was good. we decided the only way to warm up was to go to whole food to pick up some cider for hot apple (bourbon) cider before going to steph & carson’s vegas shindig.


-bkh

friday 10.09.09

happy birthday, schryver!

mmm…pizza. cooking up some pesto, tomato, mushroom, and mozzarella pizza. my allergies knocked me off my feet in a big way. ryan was ready to be moving and partying for his birthday. but i was hearing none of it. sick sick sick. me, my pizza, and ‘slumdog millionaire’ (god i love netflix) spent the night on the couch. good decision.


-bkh

thursday 10.08.09

barriquing with jess, again. warming foaming frothing some milk to 140 degrees for a beverage. hot chocolate, maybe? latte? we close at 9 on thursdays, so we have a bit more time to get all the closing stuff done, and we have quite a few more customers at 7:30, since they have ninety minutes to enjoy their drink ‘for here’ if they’d like.


-bkh

wednesday 10.07.09

making myself some pesto. spinach-almond-garlic-parmesan-olive oil pesto. my favorite. mixing it in with gnocchi and veggies. still a favorite meal for me. and a quick quick meal, too. which is exactly what i need for a late start to my dinner. i picked up some potter’s crackers, and fontania cheese at the store for a personal appetizer while dinner was in the works. good idea, breanna.


-bkh

tuesday 10.06.09

working barriques with jess! it has been aaaages since i’ve worked with jess. her & i will be holding down the joint tuesdays for the fall, it seems. fantastic. taking out the garbage here. attempting to take out the garbage here. the garbage was apparently not collected mid-day, and was impossibly heavy by the evening shift. jess required a bit of assistance getting the bag from the can. that’s why there’s two of us running the place.


-bkh

monday 10.05.09

happy birthday, dad!

took a walk to hilldale mall. in the clearance room at anthropologie. checking out the pretty color shirts dresses pants skirts etc. i can barley justify buying things on clearance – and even then is usually the bottom of the barrel multiple mark down clothes. so i don’t even bother anywhere in the store but clearance, fitting room, and register. my bank account appreciates my self-restraint.


-bkh

sunday 10.04.09

packing up my gps to sell. it doesn’t work in my car. the vw’s cigarette lighters/car electronic chargers are broken. so the gps can’t work. which sucks, because i really want it. but, such is life right now. i found a buyer on craigslist. making sure it’s all there and accounted for. and getting my netflix ready to be returned to the factory or whatever so the next ones can come and be viewed.


-bkh

saturday 10.03.09

barriques work. working with leah. getting ready to close – a nice 8pm closing on saturday. checking out one of the leftover single espresso shots. we pull double shots always, so if people want a single shot drink, there’s an extra one hanging out. what should i do with this? wait for someone to order a single or triple drink? make myself a drink? reserve it for a milkshake? or…? counting down the hours until i head from barriques to chris koza at the union.


-bkh

friday 10.02.09

willy street co-op dinner. fred and ryan are both out of town for the night. so i’m having a night at home by myself. my life gets pretty interesting/exciting in winter, so i signed myself up for a netflix subscription. things are going pretty well with that. in addition to dvds in my mailbox, i get to instantly view some movies online, too. so i spent the night with ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ and half of ‘paris, je t’aime’.


-bkh