Too Much To Do

Well, I'll never complain about being bored again. Mrs. Troubadour and I have been busy getting the doors open to our new business and remodeling an historic home. One night about a month ago we were in bed, exhausted, when I joked that we were wasting six hours every night just laying there unconscious. "We should adopt an infant," I said. Mrs. Troubadour really needs to pay attention to the subtle verbal clues I give when I'm trying to be funny. A few weeks later she adopted a puppy, and we have added "housebreaking a stubborn mutt" to our mile-long list of things to do.

Phase one of the remodel is complete, now we just need to paint most of the rooms and unpack most of the boxes. Our oldest daughter, The Professor, remarked via Skype that "Mom must be unpacking like a mad ass." Indiana Jane and The Professor will both be visiting next month, so hopefully they'll be able to sleep in the guest bedroom instead of on the living room sofa.

As for the business, even though I was sent on a month-long wild goose chase by a misinformed health department employee and the T.A.B.C. caused most of my remaining brown hairs to either join their gray brothers or abandon ship, I can now say it was worth it. Gourmage of Texas is now open, and although we haven't publicized the store yet, the word of mouth traffic has been positive and gratifying.

Gourmage is Mrs. Troubadour's invented word for gourmet fromage, and we have a wide range of cheeses from around the world, as well as a nice selection of hard to find wines, dark beer, French desserts, and hand made chocolates. The shelves are filled with organic and natural grocery items, the walls are adorned with reprints of vintage French and Italian advertising posters, and the air is often filled with the aroma of fresh baked baguettes and croissants. With the exception of the wine and dark beer we have personally tasted everything in the shop. Not a bad deal, and good work if you can get it.
Speaking of good work, we hired a sommelier, Sam Hovland, to personally taste and choose the wines we carry. The only criteria we gave him was that we wanted to be able to offer little known great wines at a reasonable price. We had our first tasting yesterday, and all agreed that Sam did a wonderful job.

Now all that's left to do is paint the house, landscape the yard, publicize the business, housebreak the puppy, lose ten pounds, finish recording my CD...