Life on our own

OK, so I took a bit of liberty to use a dramatic title to this post. As of this writing, we are three days A.A. -- After Araceli, our former cook. Ann and her dad have been manning (womaning?) the bakery on their own since we let the staff go. I joined them on Saturday, planning only to stay a few hours while Ann taught her chocolate making class to some kiddos. But there was a steady stream of customers all day, so I ended up staying until we closed.

We will miss Araceli. I do hope she likes where she will be working next. A lasting image for you that sounds like a winning joke: Araceli (speaking Spanish), Ann's dad (speaking Thai) and Ann (speaking English/Thai/poquito Spanish) all walk into the kitchen... and somehow cookies get made and sandwiches made and drinks made. Good stuff.

Incidentally, we have determined that we can not determine a pattern to customer flow. Friday was one of the worst days we've had. Saturday was one of the best (optimistically relative). Both were insanely hot outside. And I wish I could attribute it to the weekend being better, but history at the bakery shows Saturdays are not usually the busiest day for us. Go figure.

More Marc Labate / Allied Construction news

So today I find out that the contractor we hired to remodel our bakery, Marc Labate of Allied Construction, was sued and LOST in small claims court to another victim we will call Bee. Bee is one of the victims in a group of us that try to stay in touch with any updated news. From what I understand, she won her case and was awarded a good amount in damages. As of this writing, I understand she is having difficulty collecting a penny of it. (No suprise.) Another victim, who we will call Joan, settled during mediation prior to this claim.

We are awaiting the next case against Marc involving another woman who we will call Mary. Mary has been in touch with many of the victims and has gathered statements and references and forwarded them to detectives at the Austin Police Department.

And I was contacted by another victim, whom I will call X, who told me he had the same situation after hiring Marc Labate on Craigslist. The numbers keep growing by the day...