This has been one of the busiest weeks working at The Brass Elephant. It’s Restaurant Week in Baltimore, meaning many restaurants have discounted menu and specials to attract customers. Sometimes those customers aren’t the ones who are accustomed to fine dining.

The past week I’ve been part host/part coat check/part valet. Multi-tasking has become my greatest strength. I have had some time to sit back and take everything in. Some good and some bad…

The chef at the restaurant takes things too personal. There was an article in the Baltimore Sun that really didn’t bash him, however he spent 15 minutes with customers discussing his dislike of the writing? Who cares? I’ve been told I need hair plugs and fake teeth. Boo-hoo.

Yesterday we had a table of 4 that were very unhappy. They had to wait 20 minutes for their table to open up. We seated them in our front dinning room, probably our most beautiful room. About 90 minutes later, I had a gentleman tape me on the shoulder and say “I need to get my coats and pay my bill”. I was a bit confused as usually people pay before they grab their coats. I found out that it took them an hour and fifteen minutes to be served their food. Too long, way too long. We ended up comping $100 off their bill, leaving it at $40.69. They left $41. Then they tipped me $2 for getting their coats. Can’t win them all.

We have decided to extend Restaurant Week an extra week. Hopefully it will be as busy with less problems as the first one…

In my previous post, I was sorta upset that the US Senate voted to delay the digital conversion. Needless to say, I forgot Congress was made up of two entities. Today the House of Representatives denied the bill that would have pushed the conversion date to June 12. The bill actually got the majority of votes, however fell 26 votes short of the needed 2/3 margin for passage.

The House looks to pass the bill next week with a simple majority. For now, get rid of your rabbit ears so I don’t have to see any more commercials!

In a somewhat non-surprising move, the US Senate voted to extend the digital television conversion from February 17th to June 12th. The move was made so that poor, elderly, and those in rural areas can still have a chance to get a digital converter box. Keep in mind, the original conversion date was set back in 2004.

This delay in the conversion is a mistake. What greater motivation would people have than to have their TV’s turned off on Feb 17th? You know those lines at Radio Shack, Best Buy, and Circuit City would be huge.

Regardless, now I have to deal with those stupid DTV Conversion commercials for another 116 days. Thanks!

Lots of couples have their perks. Brad and Jenn adopt/have kids like children are going out of style. Ryan and Rachel had The Notebook. Tom and Katie have alien spaceships. Mari and I have our birthday wishes.

November 4th is Mari’s birthday. I can’t totally recall everything that happened that day… but something like the most historic presidential election of all time?

January 18th is my birthday. I was born in Pittsburgh, so it was a great gift to see the Steelers advance to the Super Bowl.

I can’t wait to see what we get next year…

Sorry I haven’t been posting the past few days. I started working again at The Brass Elephant, a place I’ve worked for in the past. I have been working some crazy hours, so I haven’t had the chance to update anything.

The next few days you will see a lot of entries. Enjoy!