Bland Middle of the Week

Grocery stores here are quite small compared to the grocery warehouses of Cali. I went looking for a jug of apple juice (only come in tall waxy cardboard boxes here) and a jar of peanut butter. I love my PB with my afternoon fruit. The apple juice selection was larger than anticipated and the PB selection not so much. Two choices: organic natural crunchy peanut butter or organic natural smooth peanut butter. The former is 20 cents more than the latter. I went for crunchy. Afterall, what is 20 cents when the jar is $7?

On Monday night I dined at my favorite restaurant, Skragata. The owner (monsieur) greeted and immediately recognized me. With a hug he welcomed me to an outdoor patio table. No order was necessary before there was a glass of red wine in front of me. Is it bad that a Norwegian restaurant owner recognizes me, but there is not one place in my hometown where even a server would recognize me? Monsieur survived the winter and had gotten a new French chef whom was excellent (he took me into the kitchen to meet her at the end of the meal). With the appetizer bread came a shaped dollop of butter that had a small pool of balsamic vinaigrette. What a sweet topping for the bread. The main vegetarian course was varied slightly (for the better) than last time. The dessert was a passion fruit soufflé pancake. My thought was that it has GOT to be interesting. It didn’t fail. It resembled a fruity crème brulee stuffed crepe with a scoop of mango sorbet atop a sugar cookie crisp. A delicious finish.

The work week is going well. I have come up with a few break-through ideas and am in the process of introducing them to the different project stakeholders. When onsite at suppliers, there is certainly a personality, process, and patience that one needs, in order to change behaviors, expectations, and accept the new/unusual ideas. It does not come easy and takes open minds on all sides. Sometimes it’s easy to find these open minds, and more times than not, there are challenges in first bringing the audience to be open-minded. This is where the creativity and the real challenge come into play. I’m working hard as my time to reach these goals is very limited. 3 ½ weeks is not much to make a big dent. Work hard, play hard, oh and eat well!