As much as I love our three dogs, sometimes I feel like beating them to death.  The other day I came home for a quick lunch, and as I planned to go out again, I just put my shoes under a chair in the kitchen.  Upon putting them on I was filled with anger as I saw that Ricky had chewed off the back of one of them!  And the dog only goes for leather, too.  He will not chew a cheap shoe.

Arnie, because he’s thirteen and a half years old and blind, is also extremely irritating.  I know he can’t help it, so don’t bother berating me for being a hard-hearted dog owner.  But honest to God, his eye-rubbing, snuffling, panting and general incessant turning at 5:30 AM is going to lead to no good.  Yet it seemed like such a good idea to put a cute six-week-old puppy into bed thirteen and a half years ago.

As well as baking and packaging, I’ve continued my marketing campaign.  The Burnaby Buy-Low is now going to carry the Totally Decadents.  Nesters in Kelowna is going to carry both kinds.  So, although slow, store by store I’m making believers out of skeptics.

I also had a nice order from a marketing firm in Calgary.  They ordered 100 Totally Decadents to give as gifts.  I had to ship these post-haste as they wanted the first 25 by Wednesday.  Fortunately, I have shipping pretty well down to a science and am no longer stymied by stuff like that.

However, I’m still completely stymied by any kind of proper record-keeping system.  So far, it has consisted of a free Re/Max Calendar.  On a given date, I will write, “Mail to Dufflet Pastries” or whatever.  That’s my ‘bring forward’ system.  Also, some people ordered but don’t want to receive the product until closer to Christmas.  So, I employ my same sophisticated system for that.

Regarding sales, I have a spiral-bound notebook.  The pages are headed up with words such as date, amount ordered, company name, etc.  As orders come in, I dutifullly note the invoice number and later whether or not payment has been received.  As you can imagine, there is the odd glitch, and it’s always associated with the grey matter of the idiot entering the info.

Highway 97 is closed between Peachland and Summerland due to a large construction project that has apparently rendered the highway unsafe.  That means there’s no way for me or my product to go south anytime soon.  I’m hoping that doesn’t have some sort of deleterious effect on the business.

There are always so many unexpected barriers on the road to success, whether it’s having your sleep ruined by a dog, or your deliveries ruined by a highway project.  The best solution is to just ignore all of it, and continue as though you really did know what you were doing.