The Monday Morning Epistle

Just in case there's any doubt, let me state for the record that our son works for a living…and works hard! Since the end of the first quarter gave the Gruesome Twosome a four day weekend, Alex worked all four days; because the kitchen at Spaghetti's is often short-handed due to the on-going ‘hired & fired’ soap opera, Alex chose to work double shifts all four days. This means that he helped open the restaurant at 10 am, then cooked non-stop until closing time—which can be anywhere between 10 pm and midnight—then spent at least another hour cleaning the kitchen.

As if that wasn't exhausting enough, every Thursday is now ‘high school sports night’ with discounted meals and special promotions for the respective schools; this has been unexpectedly successful, and has nearly overwhelmed both the front of the house and the kitchen. Last Thursday, Alex figures he served up about 150 plates of pasta in barely two hours, and Mary joined in to voluntarily bus tables and wash dishes all evening. When the entire family stopped in for lunch on Saturday—and discovered that their dishwasher was AWOL—it was my turn to spend several hours washing dishes in exchange for complimentary pints of Guinness. (Will work for beer…)

This also gave me a rare chance to observe Alex at work, and I was awed by his industry and ability: he was the head chef for much of the afternoon, and was usually busy preparing two or three different dishes or appetizers at the same time. He would work on the cold line assembling a sandwich or wrap, then turn around just in time to expertly toss a pan of Scampi or flip a cut of meat on the grill. When waiters came in with questions—or had special instructions from fussy diners—Alex was all business; not once did I see any of the apathy or attitude that are so prevalent among his peers. We are very proud of Alex, and like I said, he works hard!

The end of the first quarter also meant report cards, but both boys brought home decent grades, so the quarter concluded without incident or acrimony. Alex's grades are significantly better than last year's, and Jacob managed a high B average even with a glaring F in Math. When Mary & I attended the Russell Middle School parent/teacher conferences, Jacob dutifully presented us with a portfolio of his work, then hovered anxiously as we reviewed it with his teachers. He was so nervous that he couldn't sit in a chair for more than 30 seconds in a row, but his teachers were generally complimentary, including his Math teacher. We both like Mr. Schmidt—who is retired military and brooks no nonsense in his class—and found out that Jacob's low grade is typical for the class, because many of the students have not yet learned how to study properly…which (along with Algebra) is precisely what Mr. Schmidt is trying to teach them!

KidBit: When I woke Garion up about 6:30 this morning, he yawned sleepily and held his stuffed monkey up to tell me “Baby wants to sleep for a few more minutes.” He yawned again, and added “…and Baby wants me to sleep with him, too.” (Baby was duly awarded an extra 15 minutes to snooze, as was Monkey-Boy.)

PotW: According to Alex, the hardest part of getting this photograph was getting the fearsome gangster to stop giggling…

Until next week…Tschüß!

,,,^..^,,,

2007.11.17-15:04