I really don’t watch too much tv. I’ll watch True Blood when it comes back (I think in the Summer). I watch How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory on Monday nights and The Office and 30 Rock on Thursdays. If I happen to watch live, I’ll get up and clean while the commercials are on. And I’m usually doing something on the laptop at the same time.

On to other things, Becca is going to a little cheer leading camp tomorrow. It’s a fundraiser for the High School cheerleaders. They take kids K-5 (K and First in the A.M. and 2-5 in the afternoon) teach them a cheer and give them a t shirt. Then they get to perform their cheer all together at a basketball game this week. For $30, I thought she would have some fun. I’m interested to see how it all goes.

Oh, and to get back to some boring, serious, political stuff…I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that a judge told Dan Onorato that he couldn’t use the money from the drink tax for anything other than mass transit. Finally, Score one for the restaurant owners! Of course, he’s going to be a big ol’ weenie about lowering it down below 7%. Which irks me. He just can’t seem to be a big enough person to just admit that he screwed up and fix it. In fact, if he did just admit to his screw up and fix it, he may win back some votes later on down the road. But because of his pride (or male ego, or stubbornness…whatever) he won’t. So now his budget is screwed, and it looks something like this:

ROCK DAN ONORATO HARD PLACE

Well, enjoy the snow that they’re calling for this weekend! If you live in Pittsburgh, I’m sure you already made your mad dash for your milk and bread ‘cuz you’ll be stuck in your house for a whole whopping 24 hours.

After owning the restaurant for seven months now, I have realized that there really isn’t money in this business. Don’t get me wrong, we are able to pull a salary – enough to pay our bills and the extra mortgage on the house that we got so we could buy the bar. But what’s crazy is the sheer amount of money that needs to go OUT. Our electric bill is about $2,000 a month. Gas is about the same. Payroll is crazy. Insurance? Holy crap. Liquor liability insurance is completely insane! Then there’s our health insurance! We picked some crappy tier with UPMC, and Tony has a $2500 deductible per year. I’ve been reading a lot of restaurant-owner-related-crap, and for every $1 in sales, owners are lucky to see about a nickel. That seems about right. But I really don’t think that other people realize that.

All in all, though, Tony LOVES having the restaurant. And his happiness is worth it. And we won’t be living in a van down by the river any time soon. Tony is one of the hardest working people I know, and considering the economic times, the restaurant is doing really well.

How about that for a venting session? :::takes deep breath::: I feel better now

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Wow, lots. But it mostly has to do with buying the restaurant. So, bought a bar/restaurant.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, I don’t really make New Years’ resolutions. But I did have goals for the year. Not to be redundant, but one goal was to get the restaurant. The other was to make $1,000 a month online. Some months I hit that one, some months I didn’t.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nobody super close. An old friend did give birth last month.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Lots of funerals this year (but nobody in the immediate family)

5. What countries did you visit?
Um, I don’t even think I left Allegheny County this year. Scratch that. I went to Washington County. And Somerset County. But no COUNTRIES.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More family time

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory?
May 27th – 2 days after my youngest’s birthday, 2 days before my oldest’s birthday, and our first official day of business at Downey’s House.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I didn’t collapse and stay in the fetal position in tears.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Keeping up on my house. It’s terrible.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope (OK, everybody knock on some wood for me. I just did.)

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My laptop

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Chloe’s, because right after January 1, 2008 I felt confident enough to leave the house without her in a pull-up.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Nobody specific, but lots of politicians. (Hello Dan Onorato and Allegheny County Council!)

14. Where did most of your money go?
ALL of our money went to the restaurant. Um, the money’s still there.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I know that ‘the restaurant’ is the short answer. But it was REALLY seeing Tony realize his dreams, and having all those ideas that were stuck in our heads really come to life.

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2008?
Nothing really specific here, but I did have fun picking out the ‘alcohol themed’ songs on our myspace page.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier/sadder,thinner/heavier,richer/poorer?
happier, poorer and about the same weight. Well, OK, maybe a couple of pounds heavier.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sleep

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Christmas Eve with the Downeys and Christmas Day afternoon with the Sarnowskis!

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Tony, because we’re really not together all that much

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Uh, no.

23. How many one night stands in this last year?
Um, none. But I do have a night stand. There are milk stains on it and it’s covered with dust.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Stuck between ‘The Office’ and ‘True Blood’

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Dan Onorato

26. What was the best book(s) you read?
I’m trying to think if I actually read a book this year. Well, an adult book. I don’t think I did, but I have been reading the Junie B Jones series to Becca. They’re very cute.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Um, yeeeaaaahhh. I discovered that I still remember some of the words to songs you learn in preschool.

28. What did you want and get?
Restaurant

29. What did you want and not get?
Peace and quiet

30. What were your favourite films of this year?
The only one that I really watched. Sex and the City

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I don’t really remember what I did on my birthday. I do remember that I turned 38.

32. What’s one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I’m pretty satisfied.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
21st century comfortable mom

34. What kept you sane?
The nights that the kids went to bed by 8:00 and I stayed up and had time to myself.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I still think John Krasinski is adorable

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
That damn drink tax

37. Who did you miss?
My grandmother. I thought about her a lot this year.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Can’t pick just one, but I love my employees.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Realizing your dream isn’t really a ‘happy ending.’ It’s more like a ‘new beginning.’

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
‘I’m so-o-o tired. I haven’t slept a wink” – The Beatles

Now, as for the lowering of this asinine tax, 7% is better than 10%, but it’s still too much. And council even said that it was too much (basically). They said that it would be easier to lower it again if it was too much. Later. Probably another year. So, this is what I’ve decided. There’s really not too much I can do about the drink tax specifically (and there are plenty of other people trying damn hard to get it lowered even more). But I CAN try to get people not to vote for Dan when his term is up. Now, I understand that’s quite a while away. He’s only a year into his second term. And you know, I’m not normally one to hold a grudge. But I can take a few years to point out every time he screws up (and there will be many, I’m sure). I’ll make some anti-Dan t shirts, start talking politics and what not. It’s not exactly what I enjoy doing. But really, he’s ticked me off that much.

Oh, and to top it all off, he’s a bad tipper.

So, please send me any links you might have about Dan and his screw ups. I may start a whole new site.

OK, my rant is over. I’m going to finish out my night working here on the laptop while lying in bed. The lack of sleep compounded with the energy I spent writing the schedule, giving extra attention to a sick and boogery Chloe, and writing/printing a new drink menu means that I may work for an hour. Or less. 6:30 comes pretty damn quickly.

Friday (Sept 5th) I started taking the starter pack, which puts the drug into your system gradually. Monday (the 8th) I went to work, and I don’t know what was up my @ss that day, but I wore heels. Later that afternoon my knees were hurtin’ something fierce. I chalked it up to the heels and the cooler weather. Wednesday I woke up (at the lovely, regular time of 6:40!!) and opened my mouth to brush my teeth. This crazy pain shot into my jaw. Sort of like an ice pick going into my ear. I thought it was odd, but I had shit to do. I had to get the troops ready. As I was drinking my coffee (smoking my cig), I remembered to take my morning Chantix. Literally, as the pill was going down my throat, a light bulb went off in my head. “Huh, I wonder if this crazy pain that’s happening every 10 minutes is related to this pill?”

So, I hop online and check the Chantix website. No mention of jaw pain as a side effect. Well, then I Google it. I read stories about joint pain and jaw pain, and one man who complained of jaw pain, walked out his front door and dropped dead. Needless to say, I stopped taking the Chantix. I called the doc and told them the story. They called me back with “We talked to the pharmacist and he read the insert. There’s no mention of jaw pain.” Wow, thanks. But did I not tell you that I can read, and I already know that it’s not listed as a side effect? So, I bitched out politely told the nurse that I would either call her in 2 days and tell her that it WAS the Chantix, or I’d call her in 2 days to look at my frickin’ jaw.

Then I talked to my father, who reminded me that jaw pain is a symptom of having a heart attack. Which completely freaked my out and I totally over reacted and contemplated the fact that I could drop dead at any second. I drank a ton of water, took some aspirin and clung to life.

So, the point is, I guess Chantix does work great for some. But if you get the funky symptoms that I got, get the hell off of it. Quickly.

In other news, we (the kids and I) went to Rock the Quarry (a fundraiser for the Panhandle Trail) on Saturday. The kids had a blast, even though we got rained on a little bit. My SIL won $200 in the duck race, and we all ate too many snow cones. But the cutest thing was Chloe. She SOOOOO wanted to work at the ‘Beer Store’ that Aunt Mary and Aunt Missy were at. She sat in a chair behind the table and was just itching to help. She kept asking me if I wanted a beer, and told me that I needed to be her ‘cutomer.’ She did end up helping, taking money from the customers and handing back change. She desperately wanted to pour a beer, and reached her fat little hand up when Mary would pour a draft. It was just really darn cute.

And here is the whole thing that really motivated me to write on this blog tonight.

Yet Another Bush Jr. Jersey T-Shirt

Um, is that t-shirt not just hysterical? I saw it on the CafePress blog in bumper sticker form. I really don’t buy political stuff (Well, except for my Onorato’s a Jagoff t shirt, but that’s more personal). I think this one might get bought.

OK, happy day!

You don’t know me. My husband and I bought a restaurant/bar in May. You are ruining our family.

‘What?!?!?.’ you might ask. Well, let me explain a bit. We are living my husband’s dream. He has always wanted to own a bar. He and I put our time in working for others in restaurants. Once we got married, purchased our home and had our children, this was what we concentrated on…our own place. We worked hard, did our research and took a gigantic risk. Our restaurant, Downey’s House is truly a labor of love. It is a family affair. We are partners with my husband’s brother and wife. The place is comfortable, not corporate. We are straight up and law abiding. We become friends with our customers and truly love what we do. So far, no problems, right? Think again and read on.

As we were getting into the business, we saw the Allegheny County Drink Tax come into play. Now, I’m the numbers person in our operation. I didn’t let my head think about the numbers before we were actually ‘in business.’ As we opened the doors and started selling, my head had to go to the numbers. Because we opened at the very end of May, I knew the true test would be our June Drink Tax. I paid a few hundred dollars for May and placed the Drink Tax in the back of my mind.

In the mean time, our business was chugging along. It’s hard. Tony and I have two small children, Rebecca (5) and Chloe (3). We hired his sister to watch the girls three days a week so I could come to the restaurant to do the administrative work. Tony was at the restaurant a minimum of 12 hours a day. I believe that after opening on May 27th, his first day off was Father’s Day, June 15th. But Tony was happy being at the bar. He was on cloud nine.

At home, the kids missed their dad. A lot. And, quite honestly, I missed my husband. But we knew that the first year would be rough. We aren’t just owners. We are owner/operators. We were not blind to the fact that it would take a lot of work and a lot of hours. June came and went, and the day to figure out the taxes was here. After I wrote out a check for about $2,000, I just about threw up. July comes and goes. Today I sent in my check for about $3,000. Those amounts would make the normal person assume that we are having fantastic sales, and therefore rollin‘ in it. Um, not the case. But that’s not the point. I started to think about what my business could do with an extra two or three thousand dollars a month. The first thing that came to mind was not to give ourselves a raise. I thought ‘Wow, I could hire a manager to run the bar a few days a week. I would actually get some family time back!”

Would I like to see the drink tax go away? Absolutely. But even a little bit of consideration would be nice. The Drink Tax is a very large, bitter pill to swallow. It might be a little bit less bitter if it were 5%. From what I’ve read, it seems that you’ve already collected the money you needed for the Port Authority. I don’t believe it is necessary to continue to bleed the small businesses that give Allegheny County its character and individuality. It doesn’t seem to me that politicians are creative people. But I ask you, dig deep and tap into the creativity that is inside you to come up with another solution other than the Drink Tax. To say that it is the Drink Tax or Property Tax is simply absurd. Think outside the box.

And maybe I’ll get my family time back.