I was just downstairs and heard Nicky and his long-time friend Jordan, talking.  Nicky said, “I weighed myself, and I was like, 208 – yay!”  I was just weighing myself as he was saying that and thinking how funny it is because they’re both into body building and are therefore happy when their weights go up.  Of course my response to a weight gain is the opposite.

Because of this inane body building, Nicky drinks glasses of vile whey mixed into milk twice a day, and eats like a horse.  I say cautionary things like, “well, if you get too huge it’s not nice either, is it?” hoping he’ll stop prior to attaining the George Atlas physique.  By then our food bill will be in the thousands of dollars per month I guess.

I’ve been buying pumpkin pies all week, and Nicky consumes one nightly.  Today we’re driving to Osoyoos to visit mom and Gerry for Thanksgiving dinner, so hopefully he’ll fill up there as best he can.  I hope she remembered the whipping cream.

Last week I was fortunate enough to have the Lions Club put me into their bulletin, which goes to around 400 clubs.  I haven’t heard a word from any of them, but will follow up somehow.  Sometimes I feel like the laziest entrepreneur on Earth, as even typing those words makes my heart sink.

But in small business, the follow-up e mail or phone call can often be the thing that makes the deal happen.  It’s just that it’s so painful, that I find myself circling the task, coming ever closer.  First I have to make a cup of tea.  Then perhaps I notice a perennial that absolutely should be pruned.  I decide to look for photos that I could put into frames that I bought months ago.

Finally, I’m ready and I make the call, and usually people are surprisingly receptive.  I wonder why marketing remains so unpleasant, but I think a really large part of it is the times you do get rejected.  Nobody likes rejection, so once it’s occurred you try to avoid it.

Today I roasted a huge amount of almonds for the Okanagan Harvest Cakes and also prepped the fruit that I use.  It’s a finicky recipe because before I can bake with it, I have to have the fruit prepped, meaning the dried apricots, pears and apples have to be cut into small pieces.  Then the mixture of that, plus raisins, dates and pineapple get cooked in a bit of apple juice.

Once that’s done, I freeze the bag for when I’m ready to bake.  But that bag makes just 14 cakes, so imagine how many times I’m dicing dried fruit and cooking it.  I think that’s why when people ask if I want to expand my business I look at them without speaking for a moment as I collect my thoughts.

I realize that I have the stamina to make 3,000 fruitcakes in a year.  But anything more than that will be cause for a banshee-like scream to come from my kitchen as I have chopped so much fruit I’ve gone mad.  If I do get some orders from the Lions, I’m seriously looking at this as a way to make my business valuable to some energetic person who may someday wish to become Nuttier than a Fruitcake.