monday 12.28.09

and back to madison i got. back in the swing of life at barriques. (kinda. i didn’t know i was supposed to be working! first time i missed jotting down a shift!) making some post-holiday drinks (though still full of mint mochas and more) for the west-side madison folks. doing dishes. with heidi.


-bkh

monday 12.07.09

working with heidi at barriques. not feeling too hot. i think i used my netti pot wrong? and now i feel sick? a little off my game. heidi was a champ with me. washing up some wine glasses cuz we were running a bit low. threw them in the dish washer, and let them sit and dry on their own. if i put them in their crate upsidown to dry, i don’t have to dry them off with a cloth. which is nice cuz they are fragile and i always feel like i’m going to crack the glass when i’m drying ‘em off (and they’re expensive).


-bkh

saturday 12.05.09

barriques barriques. closing it up with kari. soaked the milk thermoses and clips in the…stuff, and am putting them all back together.


-bkh

wednesday 12.02.09

a barriques night with heidi. the drawer was a bit low on quarters, so counting out the tips putting the coins into bills so not to open a whole new roll of coins. makes it easier on the closers and the openers. counting 70 quarters evening morning and evening isn’t really high on my list of favorite things.


-bkh

monday 11.30.09

grabbing some gloves. at barriques. about to head over to the food cooler to shut it down for the evening. pull out all the food bins, cover them, and wash the utensils and dividers. make sure my coffee hands don’t get all over the sandwich food. no one wants that.


-bkh

wednesday 11.25.09

working barriques. me & heidi. washing the bakery oven. wiping off all the…crap?... that gets on it and accumulated throughout the work day and week. plenty of time in the work day to tidy up some of the store.


-bkh

monday 11.23.09

happy 25½ birthday, me and bkhainje!!

celebrating my half birthday at barriques. with travis, aka ‘new heidi’. putting away the soups. it’s time to get moving and going! i have some leftover cookies i’m going to need to be eating at home soon!


-bkh

friday 11.20.09

barriques downtown. wine tasting night! reading up on local activities in the isthmus. waiting for steph birr to come join me so we can get this cali wine train moving. enjoyed a few hours of good wine and excellent conversation before walking (it was a generous tasting this day...) over to the high noon for the haley bonar show.


-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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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