Domestic Geek

Man, I was so mad at work this morning I almost quit. The dough mixer at one of the stores has been broken for months. The little pin that holds the hook on (the part that mixes the ingredients) came off. We've tried JB Welding it back in its hole, but the force of mixing dough always breaks the weld. Since the store's sales have been so bad, I'm sure the manager doesn't want to tell the owner because it'll be really expensive to get it fixed. Anyway, he tried to JB Weld it again. If you've ever used that stuff, you know you have to clamp it while it dries. It expands as it dries, or something. Well, he obviously didn't since the pin sticks out about 1/4 inch too far. I had a whole mixing bowl full of ingredients ready to go and I try to put the hook on and it wouldn't go. That's when I realized he had tried to fix it. Well, I can't mix dough if I can't get the hook on. I ended up trashing the whole batch (think of how fun it was trying to get 38 pounds of wet flour and 23 pounds of water to the dumpster). Now I have to do two day's worth tomorrow (if they got it fixed). I was already torqued because they threw out some other dough because it "blew." That's when it proofs too much, becomes too airy, falls and can't be used to make pizzas. It usually happens when they pull it out of the walkin to speed up the proofing process and leave it out too long. The dough gets warm and the yeast activity goes nuts. Waste of my time when they do that. I get paid on sales, not on the dough I make. The manager of the other store I work at told me I could always make the dough at that store and truck it over to the other one. No f***ing way. If it comes to that, the idiot that caused this can do it. Once upon a time I was a loyal enough employee that I would've done it, but I won't give on this one.

I keep hearing people talk about how everyone is acting nicer to one another since the events of September 11th. I'm not seeing it. I was in Hobby Lobby today looking at stuff and people kept running into me, pushing me out of the way, etc. and not one "excuse me" from the bunch. When I excused myself to people, I was looked at like I was speaking a foreign language. Even the "thank you" and smile I issued to the clerk at 7-11 today was greeted with a scowl.