A little photography...

Wow, I haven't been posting much here, like I should be. I've been posting updates at our Facebook page lately, and don't make it over here too often. Sorry about that...

Nemo's has had really decent sales, in spite of the weak economy. I can't quit my dayjob, but it is great to not worry about breaking even.

Here are a few photos of mine, that I have been playing with in an after market Photoshop plug in called Topaz. It can do some interesting things...

Click on any image to see a larger version:

Long time, no blog...

Wow, two months plus since my last post... Sorry, we've been really busy, and we have been utilizing Facebook for much of our day to day info distribution.

Just a quick recap...
March 2009 set a record for most sales in a month! As good as that was, April 2009 beat that record by a solid $1400 if I remember right! We are on pace to have a great May2009, but not necesarily record setting with the Memorial Day weekend coming up (we are open Saturday, but will be closed on Monday).
Bottom line... THANK YOU to all of our wonderful and amazing customers who support us!!!

We continue to do our live bluegrass music every Monday night. We often have 15 or more musicians, but our spectators have dropped off. We used to have a crowd up until the 2008 Winter Holidays. They tapered off as expected through December, but we expected things to pick up again after January (once everyone recovered from the busy holiday season), but it hasn't happened. If you are up for some great music, stop in on a Monday night!!

Speaking of live music, we have Erica Dawn and Luke Flowers playing live on Saturday night (tomorrow night!) from about 6:30pm until...???
They are both great musicians, and it is going to be a fun time.

Here are a couple of photos from recent weeks/months>

What should we teach our kids?

Let me start by saying that I have really great kids. Tracy and I have taught them right from wrong, and we don't allow disrespectful or ungracious behaviour. We are really proud of who they are becoming.

However, I've been wondering if it is enough to make sure they do their homework, be responsible with their school clothes and backpacks, and simply expect them to make the right choices, which we have discussed with them since they were toddlers. I see so many kids in the world today who have no manners, no respect, and no character (no good character, anyway). Now, is this all because I am 43 and I'm not supposed to understand the next generation. I don't think so... I honestly feel there are too many kids and young adults who just don't get it... Our basic culture has gone off the beaten path.

For a long time, I couldn't figure out what to do about it. I felt like there isn't anything that I, as an individual, can do to impact where America is headed. I finally figured out what it is that I have to do. I need to teach my kids about integrity, honesty, responsibility, accountability, humility, graciousness, kindness, charity, forgiveness, motivation, patience, being frugal, to pay cash for everything and use credit for nothing (except a house), and the list goes on and on. Anyone who knows our kids knows that we have done well by them. However, I don't think we have done enough. I am going to start having discussions with them weekly about a different character trait. I need to educate them on how to be an example to follow in this world, how to be a leader, how to be a cultural army of one. Can I change all of America by teaching these things to my three boys? Chances are, no... Can I help my kids to go out into this world, and maybe affect a change in their sphere of influence, throughout their lives. Yes, I can do that. If Tracy and I do it, and our friends who feel the same way do it, and many, many others who are strangers to us do it... then I think there can be real change in this world. It is time to get real, and make values important in our lives. It is much more important than video games, and going to the movies, and trying to make the most money, and who knows what all else...

We are going to do it, and we think our kids will have better lives because of it. It seems like this concept got lost along the way somewhere, when you look at our country as a whole. It's time to get back to basics, back to what is important. Anyone care to join in?

Fake Photography Studio

Tracy sponsored a Stampin Up event at the shop on Saturday. We normally close at 2:00, but the rubber stamping party was going on until 4:00. I had an hour to kill and decided to see what images I could come up with without any special lighting equipment. I took a book, and a couple sheets of white paper to use as a background. I found a few simple objects in the shop to experiment with. I had on camera flash, which I blocked from hitting the subject, but used strategically placed sheets of paper to reflect the light where I wanted it.
Here are the results... Click on the images to see larger (and more detail).

The Egg


The Boylan's Soda Bottle (which I drank in order to be able to do this!)


And a small demitasse (espresso cup)

Ethan's new bike...

I'm going to start posting a few photos from the past every now and then.
Here is one from last July, when Ethan got a new bike. It was just before dusk, and he was riding around in front of our house. I shot several images of him with a slow shutter speed, trying to 'pan' or follow him with the camera during the long exposure. This blurs the background, and gives an interesting effect. I also had the flash fire.



And here is one of Josh in 2003 at Mt Vernon, George Washington's estate in Virginia:



And one of Jonah ready to take on the world in July 2004:

What Recession???

Tracy and I prepared ourselves for the worst when we saw what was coming with the economy. We've known for years that things were going to crash. There were too many people in $500,000 houses that work normal middle-class jobs. They were able to get the houses on interest only loans at 2% interest, with a balloon payment in 5 or 10 years. We've been waiting for this bubble to burst for some time...

What we weren't sure about, though, was how bad it could be, and how will it affect Nemo's. Well, so far, we continue to see growth, not a downturn in sales. We decided long ago that it is all up to God. If He wants us doing this, then we'll show up everyday and work hard. If not, then it isn't in our best interest to fight upstream, trying to do something that is not God's will for our lives.

Whether God is bringing us customers, whether we are experiencing normal growth for a business about to enter its third year of operations, whether it is an anomaly in otherwise difficult economical times... who knows. All I know is that we are having solid sales, and if this keeps up, we will be able to weather the storm. I say this now, but things could be completely different in a month, or six months... That is where faith comes in, and we have plenty of that.

It is our job to provide the best possible quality products, the best customer service based on real interactions with our customers, and to provide a clean and comfortable environment. We do that. Our growth could be because the unemployment office is next door, and they are having record increases in patrons. Are unemployed people buying coffee and lunch from us? I don't know. It could be that word is slowly but surely getting out to the market about who we are, and what kind of shop we run (an awesome one!). It could be that people are cutting back on extravagant luxuries, and settling for the simple luxuries in life (like good coffee). It may very well be a huge mix of everything. So be it. God owns the place, and we'll keep showing up for work. Owning a business requires a great deal of humility, and being humble goes a long way. Knowing that our shop's future depends on everyone except us is kind of crazy. Learning that you are not the one in control is a difficult lesson in life, but well worth the trip. We do what we do, and we do it well because we care. That's all I have to say about that...

I've spent some time over the last several weeks consolidating digital media from seven or eight different computers, all into one computer. I started by having my film based photos put on a CD. I could then open them in Photoshop and do the most amazing things in a very short period of time. Ansel Adams would have loved Photoshop! I started using digital cameras more than film in about 2000. The consulting firm I worked for bought the first Sony Mavic digital camera. It had a slot for 3.5" floppy disks right in the camera! Olympus then started producing consumer based digital cameras, and I had a couple of those. The quality wasn't there, but the convenience was, and the ability to work with images in Photoshop was life changing! Nikon finally noticed, and began producing their Coolpix line of cameras. I paid more money for a 'prosumer' Coolpix 5700 than I had ever paid for a film camera body (and I have some very nice Nikon film bodies!). That camera was stolen, and I replaced it with a Sony F-717, which was groundbreaking at the time. Through all of these advancements, I knew in the back of my mind that the quality was still lacking. Finally, people started manufacturing DSLR's, interchangeable lens camera bodies, just like our old film bodies, but digital. I bought a Canon 10D and fell in love with photography all over again. The 10D is a great camera, but then the Canon 20D came out, and I had to have one. I started shooting weddings, and knew that you crush peoples dreams if you have any technical difficulties and can't shoot photos (reality for film or digital shooters). So, for redundancy, just in case a camera fails in the middle of a wedding, I bought a second Canon 20D. I shoot weddings with a Canon 24-70 f2.8L lens on one body, and a Canon 70-200 f4.0L lens on the other. Works perfect... short, wide range on one, longer range on the second, both lenses are Canon's professional L series glass. Just last week, I upgraded to a Canon 5D, which is a DSLR with full frame sensor (Google it if you don't know what that means). I also have numerous video clips from those many point and shoot cameras (I also have several Canon Sureshot cameras A80, and the flagship point and shoots Canon G6, and a Canon G9, etc...) that also shoot video, as well as hours and hours of footage with my Panasonic GS-400 3 CCD digital camcorder.

As digital camera sensors improved (more megapixels), so did the amount of space the files took on your hard drive. You can easily turn a 3MB image file into a 60MB, 70MB, 80MB or even larger Photoshop file with a few layers, adjustment layers, styles, etc... Then, you progress as a photographer and finally start shooting RAW instead of JPGS, and each image file takes up 12MB each. If you shoot 800 images at a wedding, batch process them, then create custom edited Photoshop files or TIFs with the 200 best images, you have a project folder approaching 20GB in size. It would take almost no effort to fill up a 200GB hard drive. Knowing that a failed hard drive can lose all of your wedding files for a client, it is imperative to have the project folder duplicated, or backed up to a second hard drive. Now do this, both for personal photos, and for clients for 6, 7, 8, or 9 years, and you can really take up some storage space. Then, buy a pro-level film and slide scanner and begin converting your tens of thousands of film negatives to digital files, and... well, you get the idea. I have an entire array of external hard drives, not to mention five internal hard drives in my Photoshop computer. I also have another seven or eight computers, all housing various personal photos and video.

Well, I have begun the process of consolidating all of this data onto one computer, my main Photoshop and video editing machine. Did you know you can now get Tera-bite hard drives for under $100??? I remember my roommate in the Navy buying 500MB hard drives (1/2000th of a tera-bite) for $1100 when they first came out. Crazy...
Anyway, there is a problem with backing up all of my photos, and all of my clients photos on multiple hard drives, and external hard drives. If our house burns down, you lose everything. Grabbing my computer on the way out of the house is certainly part of my fire drill plan. There is a service called Carbonite that will back up an unlimited amount of data to an offsite backup place. The data is all encrypted before it leaves your computer, so it is safe. Bored Carbonite employees on the night shift are not going to be looking through all of your personal photos, and putting your most embarrassing moments in life on the internet. Anyway, I purchased Carbonite service for our POS computer at Nemo's. All of our financial data, all of our forms, all of our everything is backed up at Carbonite. If anything ever happens to our computer, we get everything back with very little hassle. All this for $49 a year. Well, I'm going to do the same for my Photoshop computer, but first, I have to get everything onto a single computer. The great thing about doing this is that I have looked at images I have not seen in years. I have spent the last couple of weeks watching my kids grow up all over again. It's really been great! If you have entered the digital world, and you don't have a backup plan in place, I suggest you get one pronto. I currently have four hard drives that won't work. I can't help but wonder what amazing photos and memories are locked inside, never to be retrieved (unless data recovery service drops from the current several thousand dollars to a more reasonable several hundred dollars).

Well, I guess you could say I'm rambling. Bottom line... get yourself some digital backup if you don't have any. I'm going to bed.
Good night!
JD

Nemo's will be on the Lunch Bunch show!

If you are a long time reader of our blog, you might remember that a local TV show (Mike Boyle’s Restaurant Show) did a 20 minute segment on Nemo’s Coffee right after we opened. It aired over and over again for several weeks, here in Colorado Springs and in Denver.

We have always been hesitant to sink money into print advertising. The exposure by print media is very limited, and the costs are extremely high. Why pay a very high price to put an ad in a paper that goes city-wide, when our target market is the 80909 and 80910 zip codes? We have marketed Nemo’s via word of mouth, mostly, by keeping our customers happy. We also use Facebook to invite new people to Nemo’s, identified as potential customers by where they work (Memorial Hospital, Olympic Training Center, medical complexes on Printers Parkway, etc…).

We have an opportunity to work with Mike Boyle again in June. He is going to broadcast live from our location, as part of his “Lunch Bunch” tour. He broadcasts from a different location every Saturday, and the host restaurant provides a special deal on their products. The radio station is KVOR 740, so our specials have to be based on a 740 system. Here are the deals we will be offering:

$7.40 2 sandwiches and specialty iced teas
$3.70 sandwich and specialty iced tea
$2.96 2 homemade breakfast burritos
$1.48 single homemade breakfast burrito
.74 scones
.74 medium specialty drink (lattes, mochas, caramel swirls, etc)

The sandwiches will be Tracy’s chicken salad sandwich. She pressure cooks chicken in the shop, and then shreds it after it cools. She then mixes in mayonnaise and spices. The sandwich is served on either a croissant or organic sunflower wheat bread, with provolone cheese, dried cranberries (craisins), purple onion, and romaine lettuce.

The breakfast burritos are VERY large, and are also homemade on site. We use Jimmy Dean sausage, real scrambled eggs (we crack the eggs! We don’t use that egg in a juice container product), potatoes, cheddar cheese, and homemade pico de gallo (salsa, for my friends from the Midwest).

Tracy also makes the most incredible scones from scratch. She even grinds her own wheat! Some of her signature scones are ‘lemon ginger’, ‘raspberry white chocolate’, ‘cranberry orange’, and dark chocolate espresso.’ She has many other original scones, and she is always experimenting with new versions.

We also have other pastries, breakfast sandwiches, homemade soup, salads, fruit smoothies, etc.
…and don’t forget about our private conference room with available projector.

New X-Rays Today

Well, I got new x-rays today, and as I already knew from the way it feels, my clavicle is not healing well. It has been 3 1/2 months since my bicycle wreck, and there is very little new bone growth at the break site. I did re-break it twice after the original accident, but hey, who's counting???

Here is a photo I took of the lcd screen (x-rays are digital these days) in the doctor's office:


The clavicle should be a solid, one piece, horizontal bone going from the sternum to the shoulder. As you can see, mine is a total train wreck. The break did not line up end-to-end to heal. The right piece of the clavicle went under the left piece, and that is how it fused together. This x-ray was taken today, and as you can see, there is very little bone growth. The doctor expects to see a lump of new bone growth around the entire break site. Mine has almost none... The amount of overlap between the pieces is significant, also. The dimension from my neck to shoulder is now two inches shorter on my injured side than it is on my normal side.

Another interesting thing to note is the top rib that is angled down and overlapping the second rib from the top. I ripped that rib away from the sternum in 1988. I never went to the doctor, so I never really got to take a look at it. I knew the rib was moved to the wrong place because of the immense pain, and the weird lump on my chest. It healed over time, but in the wrong place. It is interesting to see an x-ray of it now, 21 years later.

So, what's next? Well, I go back for x-rays, or possibly a cat scan, in six weeks. I suppose we'll make a decision then on whether or not surgery will be required to re-break it and install a metal plate. Sweet...

Gotta run,
JD

Nemo's 2-16-2009

Tracy and I (and Carl, one of our new employees) provided coffee and espresso services at the Stargazer Theater and Event Center for the Tyrone Wells concert Friday night. We had a lot of fun, and look forward to doing more events at Stargazers.

We have had pretty solid sales days lately. Even with the doom and gloom that is being spewed by the government and the media, we are showing solid 10% or more growth compared to last year. That is great news for us! Showing growth during such a downturn in the economy is a real blessing...

My collar bone is just not healing very well. I am functional, but definitely not healed. I get new xrays later this week, and I'm expecting my ortho doctor to suggest a surgical repair. I'm not opposed to that because I know it is what is needed to get this injury back to some type of normal state. However, starting from square one again, though, is disheartening. Uugghhh... Bummer...

We recently swapped out artwork in the shop. Thank you soooo very much to Nikki Connon, who showed her beautiful paintings here for so long. We really enjoyed having her bigger than life oil paintings in the shop. And it was so kind of her to give Tracy one of her paintings! How cool is Nikki?

Joseph Bishop is now showing his work, which is wonderful. What makes his artwork even more extraordinary is that Joseph was born with a lobe of his brain missing. He has never walked, never talked, and has involuntary motor control issues. His paintings, however, are completely amazing and let's us know there is a fully functioning, thinking individual at work. A lesson to be learned is to never assume ANYTHING about someone who appears to be disabled. God places talent in everyone, regardless... Joseph has discovered his God given talent and has given us some wonderful images to see... I'll post a few photos soon (don't have a card reader with me tonight).

Nemo’s Update

1-We have had a great week, with a number of out of state participants in seminars at the Pikes Peak Work Force Center and at Premiere Global. That translates to HUGE lunch hours. We also had orders for 30 breakfast burritos by seminar hosts, my company RK Mechanical had a training seminar in the studio on Tuesday, the Photography Meetup Group had a Photoshop seminar in the studio today, etc, etc…. Every event we schedule in the studio/conference room not only helps to boost sales, but it is a marketing machine. When someone comes into our shop because of an event, that is one more thoroughly impressed and satisfied customer walking out the door to help spread the word about Nemo’s!

2-We are planning a movie night in the studio for the kids and their friends. The projector shows movies at 7 feet high x 12.5 feet wide on the studio wall. While the kids are watching a movie, us parents are going to have a game night or something like that out in the café. Looks to be a good time…

3-We would like to thank the 70-80 people who took an interest in our advertised Barista position. We met many wonderful people through the interviewing process. All of you were keepers… If we were a Barista Adoption Agency, we would have taken all of you. Unfortunately, we were interviewing for either one full time position, or two part time positions. Based upon having flexibility in the schedule and to avoid issues if someone is sick or on vacation, we chose to hire two part time individuals. It was very difficult to narrow the field down to just two, out of so many outstanding applicants. We would like to welcome Sarah and Carl to our team. Not only do they both have coffee experience, they have dynamic personalities with a dedication to the customer service experience. We have a great product, so our main focus when hiring is to look for ENERGY, dynamic personalities, SMILES, and an easy interaction. If you interviewed and were not chosen this time, we will keep your application on file. All of you were great!

4-I met with a supplemental insurance company last week. They do not offer full medical coverage, but they do offer accident insurance, hospitalization coverage, vision, dental, short and long term disability, and a wide range of other options. As an employer, we can offer this coverage to our staff, pre-tax. I need to set up a staff meeting and determine if it is something they want to implement…

5-I received payment for three video projects, so I have the cash in hand to buy the Canon 5D MkII... however, my gut feeling is telling me to hang onto it... I'm going to throw it in the bank and sit still for a few months. This is not easy to do, but I'm sticking with it.

6-I saw in the news that Starbucks is closing 300 more stores, 200 of them domestic, and it will result in approx 6700 layoffs. One item mentioned in the article is that they are going to stop brewing decaf coffee every hour on the hour. We figured that out in about two days... It is not fun to dump shuttle after shuttle of decaf coffee down the drain. After awhile, you see dollar signs in the sink instead of coffee. We now make decaf Americano's for our non-caffiene friends. Americano's taste better than brewed coffee anyway, and it saves us lots of money. Starbucks indicated that this move will save them $400 Million dollars a year. I think we are saving just a little less than that... LOL

Gotta run,
Take care and God bless…
JD

Starbucks "Cuts the Cheese"

I was reading an article about pending Starbucks layoffs, and I couldn't help myself after reading this paragraph:

Initially, Schultz said he was eliminating heated breakfast sandwiches because their smell overwhelmed the aroma of coffee. Then, Starbucks decided to keep the sandwiches because it found a way to minimize the smell (by subtracting a piece of cheese).

I thought "WOW, this will make a great opportunity for a blog entry title!"

Starbucks sales continue to slide, and they are laying off lots of corporate staff, and regional/district managers. I just wonder how far they will slide before they concentrate on what is really important, which is getting their product quality back to where it was in 1995. Maybe they have grown so big that they have no chance of doing so. They are also facing a new foe with McDonald's opening espresso bars. McDonalds has also opted for the "crummy drink generators," otherwise known as Super Automatics. Shops who are dedicated to making great coffee have very little to fear, but I imagine Starbucks will take another hit on sales. If you can get an equally crummy latte, along with some of those sweet Micky D's french fries, why on earth would you ever go to Starbucks again??? And, yes, I am serious about the french fries. They are my favorite...

As for Nemo's, we will continue to grind and tamp fresh espresso, and time our shots for the optimal espresso flavor and quality. Sorry, we don't serve french fries, though.

Take care,
JD

Wanting to market photography more...

I've been getting steady photography and video work, and I really enjoy doing it. I was taken out of action with the broken collar bone for awhile, but I'm able to shoot again without too much pain. I've been shooting two Canon 20D bodies for weddings, one with a 24-70 L and one with a 70-200 L. I held out on upgrading bodies through the releases of the 30D, 40D and 50D. I seriously considered a 5D, but heard a 5D MkII would release 'soon'. I think I have waited for about 18 months, and the MkII is now a reality, although no one has any in stock.

So... I've been waiting for this, and now it is here. Do I get it, or not? It is an amazing camera, and would be a huge asset to have for future work. The body is around $2700, so it is a big investment. I just billed for three video projects, and that income is $2600. My gut instinct tells me to save that for now. I have two more video projects coming soon, with more to follow. I'm struggling with that need/want problem. I can get by right now without it, but it really would be an improvement, especially for large 20" x 30" prints. It is 21 megapixels vs. 8.1 megapixels. There would be absolutely no comparison in image quality between the 20D and the 5D MkII. The image quality is unbelievable in low light, when shooting at high ISO ratings. My 20D creates nearly unusable images in the same situations (which occur frequently at wedding receptions, and sometimes the ceremony too).

I've pretty much made up my mind to get one, but I won't do it unless I can pay cash for it. I think I'll wait for a few more video projects... It took me most of my life to become financially responsible. I can't waver on that now...

Nemo's had really great days for the last two days in a row. We have posted sales that are 65% higher than sales on the same days in 2008. Woo Hoo... Keep it coming!

Gotta run...
Now, here is a little thing I put together really fast... What do you think of this?

Staffing

I mentioned recently that Tracy and I are very happy with our staff at Nemo’s right now. Well, Matt is interested in moving back to Hawaii, and gave his notice early this week. Tracy and I have been reviewing applications and have five interviews tonight. We have some really great applicants, but their availability does not line up with our needs. We have other great applicants as well, but our favorites from the bunch are not going to work. It has taken a couple of years to learn, but there are subtle hints in applications and resumes that help us to weed out potential candidates. One thing to look at is job history. If an application looks stellar, but their job history shows they do not remain in positions for more than 3-6 months that is a huge red flag. This means they are flighty and fickle with regard to their employment desires (which is not uncommon in teens and early twenty-somethings), or they are not good employees and get cut loose often. If we ask individuals why they left their last several positions, and they say they were treated poorly by ‘bad management’ at every single place they have ever worked, there might be a problem with their attitude, work ethic, attendance, etc… Sure, there is bad management out there, but it should not be the reason for leaving five jobs in a row, after two months at each place. A more subtle version of this is if people leave a job because they do not get enough hours. Well, we know as business owners that you give the bulk of your schedule hours to your best assets. Less valuable employees get fewer hours. People you want to get rid of get single digit hours until they decide to quit. Learning how to hire well is very important for your business success. Another trap to avoid is to hire and keep nice people who are not optimal employees. It is very hard to cut someone loose when they are very nice. Sometimes it is impossible to know what kind of employee they will be until you see them in action. It can damage your business, though, to keep an ineffective employee just because they are pleasant and nice people.

I’ve been out of my sling for nearly a week. I’m usually in a great deal of pain by the end of the day, but I can see improvements day by day of range of motion in my shoulder. I have tried hard not to favor my left arm/shoulder, which results in discomfort. Better to use it and feel the pain than to favor it forever. The doctor was concerned that it might break again without the sling, but so far so good. …three more weeks until my next date with the x-ray machine.

Gotta run…
Hope everyone is well. If you are on Facebook, look up Nemo’s Coffee. We would love to be your friend!

JD

Quick Update

I would love to summarize 2008 and set some goals, hopes, and desires for 2009, but I don't have enough time right now to do it well, so I am going to hold off...

Quick rundown for us, though:

1 - We continue to operate right around the break even thresh hold, but without paying ourselves. We'd love to put some money in Tracy's pocket this year...
2 - January is typically a slow month for retail, and especially for discretional food/beverage spending. People are typically tight on money after the Christmas season, and people start their healthy, lose-weight resolutions in January. They usually fall off the wagon by sometime in February. We are seeing sales growth in Jan09 of about 15% compared to Jan08. That is good...
3 - I went to the orthopedic surgeon today for follow up x-rays on my clavicle break. The good news is that my injury has improved enough that he did not schedule me for surgery. The bad news is it has not healed as it should, and he is giving me four more weeks before he makes a decision. If the bone density is not good by then, it is surgery to re-break the bone and install a metal plate to hold it together. Then I get to start this miserable process all over again. However, my arm has been in a sling for 2 1/2 months. He does not want my shoulder to remain immobilized, so the sling is gone! I have to start physical therapy next week to regain range of motion in my shoulder, but no strength conditioning, as my clavicle will break with very little stress due to the lack of bone density at the break location. He figures that if it is out of the sling and breaks again, then he can go in and fix it. If it doesn't break and continues to heal, then so be it. I'm just hoping that if I do have surgery, I can get one of those red Terminator eyes to go with the new bionic shoulder... Maybe he can fix some of my personality defects while he's at it!
4 - The kids are all doing well, as is Tracy.
5 - Work is miserable, due to the extremely heavy workload right now. I'm looking forward to six weeks from now when I'm past this difficult and stressful time.
6 - Oh yeah... I also want to mention that Tracy and I are incredibly happy with our staff at Nemo's right now. It has taken a year and a half for us to make mistakes, learn from them, and finally dial our staff in the way we want it to be. Everyone we have right now is absolutely wonderful. Great people... Stop in and say hello to whoever is working. We are sure you will like them all.

Gotta run...
Hope everyone is well.
JD