Christmas time

It is hard to get the Christmas spirit here.  No manger scenes, just commercialism to get people to shop.  All the malls have 'christmas trees', a very tall metal frame with lights strung vertically.

I'm placing a reminder here for myself, to add the photo of my storefront.  Here it is christmas eve, and only a week ago I finally got around to painting my storefront Christmasy.

Peter becomes a better and better baker.  Definitely still an apprentice, though.  He did cookies alone yesterday.  I wandered into the kitchen as he was pulling them out of the oven.  Time is up, he said, so they're done.  For the thousandth time I reminded him, time is only one indicator.  You need to touch, see, sometimes even feel.  We tapped the top of the Tollhouse cookies and they dented.  Nope, not ready yet.

But he's much better with the breads now.  It's a great relief to me, I can really count on him to work independently in some areas.

We're having just a dreadful time with breads sticking to the pans.  I had to throw out a whole batch of six loaves, because they all stuck so bad.  I was sad, because two of those loaves were the NY Deli Rye, and I expected them to be the best ever.  I have tried everything I know, but cannot fix this problem.  Now we are lining the pans with parchment paper, but that is an expensive solution.

I am having trouble with Tina.  She is a sweetheart, and I suspect there's intelligence there.  She is easily distracted.  Could it be ADD?  Poor girl, she has a knack of screwing up everything she touches.  Bottom line, I cannot count on her to be my manager, as I had hoped.  She is the proto type of the student we teachers all talk about.  Incapable of thinking independently, creatively.  No problem solving skills, no curiosity.

I don't trust her anymore, because she is being very shifty about why she's taking days off.

We have a new part-time mother of 5 year old twins, Linda (Chinese, of course)

Went to a private luncheon where the speaker was a pre eminent traditional chinese medicine doctor, working at the local TCM hospital.  Only two guests showed up!  After the lecture, he gave us a private pulse reading.  My appetite has come back to normal since i've been taking his meds.  Kidney system out of balance.

Cats.  Bought a trap, am catching strays and giving them away.  Taking responsibility for neutering them, but now my vet has given me coupons for a few neuterings.

Xiaolan took three days off in a row (she has two days off anyway, but she shifted the days) to attend her brother's wedding.  It's local, but he wanted her by his side as he made preps.  Sweet.  Hence Saturday was just Peter and me.  Business has been way off this week, so our shelves and freezer are full.  Nothing for Peter to do.  We tried some new stuff, he's so eager to learn.  Then I sent him on an errand I've been dreading, since it's a long bus ride.  He bought more cooling racks.  We need them in the oven to lift things off the stone that need air under them.  Can't find them on Taobao, or any of the closer restaurant supply stores.  He got the job done.  Today I'll send him to Metro to buy cheese.

More later.  I'm late for work!  The boss will kill me.  Oh wait, I am the boss.  :-)