Selling Bridges and The Like...

No new jokes-on-you this year, but if you want to know all the fun I've had in the past on this date, check out posts from the following years. The 2008 post really got some people going while my parents thought we were actually moving after they read the 2011 post:

2015
2011
2008
2003

District Coffee FTW!

I just learned about this cool new project that the BPU is working on to help combat issues with water main breaks in the winter time and provide a tasty new service to customers in the service area. The District Coffee project will tie into the heat exchange system of District Heating where both the water for District Heat and cold brewed coffee will be heated in separate tanks by waste heat. After being heated, the coffee will be distributed in lines that run alongside water mains, which will help keep those mains from freezing in the cold winter months. As water mains and the district coffee lines will be adjacent, it will be easy for local businesses and residents to tap into that line for an on demand supply of hot coffee. An initial hook-up fee and monthly fee will be assessed to those who opt to take part in the service. Hey, it’s a better way to get coffee on demand than using a Keurig!

When It's Time To Change, You've Got To Rearrange

There have been some big changes in the works for several of our friends recently, mostly of the moving-out-of-town sort. It's going to be sad to see some of them go, but seeing them head off for new opportunities and adventures has made us think a bit lately.

Both Matt and I have embarked on different interests outside of our regular jobs. We've discussed taking those interests to the next step. Unfortunately, there is a sense that doing that in Jamestown might not be possible. So when our friend, Candy, started sending job listings in Portland, Oregon to me, mostly as a joke, I started looking into possibilities. We've never been to Portland but based on friend's experiences and various stuff I've read on the interwebs, it definitely seems like a vibrant city that has a great art scene.

While we love Jamestown and our friends and family here, we think it may be time to chase the other dreams. With that, we've begun plans to move to Portland where we hope to start on a project Matt came up with, inspired by the Portlandia series. It will be the "Put A Bird On It" web company. Part of our goal is to target artists in Portland and provide them a venue to have websites built around their artwork. Think of it as a very localized Etsy. We figure that the sooner we move, the better given that the housing market is only sucking more and more as the months go on, so our tentative move date is April 31st.

We're very excited about these changes, but sad at the same time as we'll miss this community and everyone. Look for more details in the coming weeks!

Big Announcement!

For the past few years, Matt and I have brainstormed several ideas for what we want to do in this area. We both have typical jobs, but from time to time we've batted around the idea of going into business for ourselves. This has included everything from opening a coffee shop, to buying and running a specialty beer store, to doing something online.

Well, after lots of yellow legal pads, some meetings with the local Small Business Development Center, hair-pulling, and scoping some locations, we have a plan. Some of this was borne out of the idea that niche businesses seem to do well in the downtown areas of cities. My market research isn't perfect, but I have a hunch this could work.

So here it goes.

Sometime in the next year or so, we hope to open a restaurant that will engage the diner in something that goes beyond the simple eating experience.

This restaurant will be called: Can Julia Cook?(tm).
It's a kind of nutso thing, for sure, but I do have some basic cooking skills. We figured people like a good car wreck, so what we'd do was set up the kitchen in a format that was open to the diner. They would pick what meal they wanted me to try and watch the fun begin while I tried to figure out what blanching means. The menu would change every week to keep it fun.

Now, you're wondering how we're going to set up tables so that everyone would have a good view. That's where the location comes in. It's a huge risk, but we're going to buy the old Winter Garden theatre in downtown Jamestown. This is a historic old structure that has been in the news recently. With the stage already in place, we have worked a way to put the kitchen up there along with those crazy overhead mirrors you see on cooking programs. I will be mic-ed the whole time, so I'll have to watch my language.

The financing is almost all in place. We met with a bank last week to firm up some stuff. I'll be sure to keep you all in the loop as things progress!

What's Really Been Going On..

Ok.. now that I've had a moment to write again. Here's what I've really been up to the past couple of weeks. Matt's boss got fed up and decided not to run again for his seat, so now we're not totally sure what we're going to do (for Matt's job) after Dec. 31st. He's considering getting back into broadcasting, but that probably means moving for him. On the otherhand, he may also start ramping up his work on this computer game he's been doing for awhile. It's some sort of MUD. There's a big possibility that we're both going to start looking for jobs in either the Buffalo or Rochester area, so that we both could move if we both found something. I don't know. It's a really tight market out there now. We'll see I guess *sighs*

We also figured at this point we may as well just get married now to save on expenses since god knows when we'll have a steady dual income after the end of the year. So instead of the big formal thing, we're just going to have a small party (probably here in J-town) and probably have Matt's boss do the ceremony (so it would have to happen here since he doesn't have jurisdiction outside the city). It's what we originally thought about doing anyway. Of course, now there's the stress of figuring out who to invite and when to actually have it since we're both pretty busy. And despite the fact that his boss isn't running again, we still have a lot of election crap going on in the Fall.. so that's out as an option.

Well.. that's the short of it. I need to get to work.