First night at Hennen's...

http://www.hennens.net/

Last night was my first night back at the "old" trade. It went surprisingly well. I remembered a lot from my days at Lancaster's and Somoma Cucina. (Both Bloomington, IL restaurants).

The guy who trained me was named Ivan. He is really good. Smooth talker. He has a lot of "regulars/request tables." The sections are small but the ticket sales are big :) Me likey. I think Ivan had 7 tables all night and had over $1000 in sales. Very good considering he was trying to teach someone the "ropes" at the same time.

The restaurant is BEAUTIFUL. I have never been in a place this nice. The kitchen is real nice too. Really long and skinny. More like a galley kitchen. The menu is out of this world. The chef really has his stuff together. The chef is from Alabama, but has lived all over the world. It won't be a problem making money here. The food really sells itself. I think the most beautiful dish I saw go out was the scallops over grits with prosciutto ham and arugula to garnish. The grits looked like fluffy mashed potatoes. I can't wait to try it!

The only "obstacle" I see is the computer. I haven't worked on a computer at a restaurant since 1998! All the tickets at Lancaster's were hand written. So I could basically do whatever I wanted. At Hennen's it is a little different. It is a really organized house with A LOT of rules. No eating on shift. No hoop earrings. No more than one ring on each finger. Black socks, shoes, and pants. White oxford shirt with a button down collar. And you MUST use Hennen's pens. The manager gave me 3, and said if I need more they are 50 cents. I get 1 apron, if I need another one, it is $8. Whew. Tight ship.

I am in a training period of 5 days...working 5 dinner shifts straight through is going to be tiring to say the least. At least I will get done with training fast and get my own sections and finally start making money! At the beginning of each day there is a test from the previous night. I need to get 90% accurate in order to start the next shift. They gave me a copy of the test last night to "practice" on...come to find out, nothing I learned last night is on the test. It is all in this 40 page manual they gave me! Looks like I have some studying to do this afternoon. :)

I am going to head to the mall and try and find another couple white shirts and check out mattresses. Sleeping on an air mattress is getting really really old (thanks Heidi, but the aerobed can only please a person so long :))

The weather down here is rainy and in the low to mid 40s. It is so strange to have skipped the month of February and March and jumped right into April weather. I hear things are still really cold up there. Sorry guys. :(

Take care and wish me luck on my second shift at Hennen's tonight.

Heather

Pictures from the move...

Packed truck...yup the motorcycle got in there

Larry, Jim, Shawn, and Heather finished packing

6% grade heading down the mountain

Run away truck ramp in TN

Heather driving the 24' truck with Dad and Payton

Thanks, Heather

Moving to Chattanooga...

We left Bloomington at 6:15 am on Tuesday morning. After dropping off Larry's truck at the airport, me, Dad, and Larry headed down to Chatta-vegas. We took 3.5 hour shifts. I started out in the Vue, Dad drove the big moving truck, and Larry rode shotgun for the first shift. Then Larry drove the truck, I rode shotgun, and Dad drove the Vue. On the last shift I took the wheel of the big moving truck, Dad was riding shotgun with me, and Larry was in the Vue. Heading up and down the mountain in the big moving truck was...interesting to say the least. I was really glad to have Dad there with me. We got to the house at about 4:45 pm Central time. So 10.5 hours in a big a#$ moving truck is pretty good, I think. It was still day light, thank goodness. We unloaded the Vue and got our suitcases out of the truck and grilled out. It was a really good drive and relaxing. It was awesome sharing the drive with my Dad and Larry.



The next day (yesterday) we unloaded the truck in record time. With all of us helping it went really fast. Andy, me, Dad, Kevin, and Larry got all the boxes out and put in the "right" place. We took a break and headed out to Mellow Mushroom for pizza and beers. After that, we got back to the house and unloaded most of the boxes we planned to unpack.



Last night we went to Andy's weekly poker night at the bike shop. Come to find out...I don't like playing poker. I was out in the 4th round. I wasn't too disappointed either. ;-) I thought it was boring and not a very fun way to give your friends your money. Andy did well. He got 2nd place. Hanging out in the bike shop was fun. Dad and I looked at all the bikes. We even took some out for a test ride. The Trek "Pure" was really cool cruiser/commuter bike.

This morning we took the Budget rental truck back. We got our $150 deposit back. It is good to have it done and all of our stuff in one place. Now all we have to do is find places for all of our things. I think the plan is to head downtown Chattanooga and check out the Delta Queen Steamboat on the Tennessee River and do some sight seeing. After that, balance the check book and clean the house :-P Gotta love all that dog hair!

I should have pictures of packing, moving, and living in Tennessee in the next post. Till then later taters, Heather

Closed on the house!

We closed on the house today. After some drama this weekend with the garage and our "awesome" neighbor, it is finally DONE! What a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. Here are some pictures our friend Mike Hannah took of me being very very happy...

Of course they are in reverse order. Grr. The first one is a crazy jumping pic (really nice day--notice no jacket and no shoes in February), second one is landing, third one is mid-jump, the fourth one is getting ready to jump, and the final one is "normal." So happy to be finished with this ordeal and moving to Tennessee.

Yesterday I signed over my power of attorney to my lawyer so he could close on 1116 while I was in North Carolina for work the rest of the week. By 11 am Andy and I had a fatty check deposited into our checking account ready to put down on a new house in Chattanooga. (BTW...we haven't found a new house yet, so don't start asking about that).