
Oh. Hey, August. Where’d you come from? Sorta snuck up on me a little bit, didn’t you?
Anyone else feel startled by August rudely arriving way before my internal calendar thought possible? I mean, now it’s basically Christmas.
Things have been spinning over here at Hurley House. Spinning hard. Not in the way I expected, but in ways I am pumped up to share with you very very soon. I swore this was going to be the year we didn’t launch anything new, but it turns out I lied. I can’t help myself.
Here’s what we talked about this week…
ONE.
Did you know you can make butter? I totally made butter. Like, made it from scratch. In less than five minutes. I can’t remember the last time my mind was blown to this degree. You take heavy cream, put it in the mixer, whip it on high until it kind of curdles, and then drain out all the liquid. You’re left with…butter. I made butter. If you see me carrying around my dish of homemade butter, showing it to everyone I know, naming it and posting photographs of it, don’t be alarmed. This last time I was this proud of something I had made, I had just given birth to a tiny human. The experiences are basically the same. I now have a butter baby.
TWO.
I listened to the most fascinating episode of the Freakanomics podcast called “5 Psychology Terms You’re Probably Misusing.” It was all about common psychology terms we misuse on a regular basis. My favorite? “Steep learning curve.” We get that 100% wrong 100% of the time. Most of the episode focuses on the phrase “bystander apathy” and its origin story. Which turns out to be a huge urban myth. The whole thing was fascinating. Knowledge is indeed power.
THREE.
PSA. We offer our Sparkle Sandwich Cookies in two sizes. The full sized ones are the ones we stock in our case daily. We also offer a cute mini size that is great for parties, and as such, we offer them for private order only. From time to time, when making the minis for a private order, we make more than we need and set them out in the case as an added offering. The minis, while adorable and bite-sized, are not free samples. If you help yourself to a mini, you will be charged.
FOUR.
In the lexicon of Hurley House phraseology, we have a new term. Fridge Head. It’s the inconvenient reality that occurs when your co-worker is grabbing something from the walk-in cooler or is standing in front of the open reach-in fridge, and it looks as though they should be able to hear you, so you begin a really great story only to have them close the cooler door, not even aware that you were speaking to them. Fridge Head. Don’t try to talk to someone who has Fridge Head. You’re just going to have to repeat yourself.
FIVE.
I hinted in the intro that something new is on the horizon. It is the kind of thing that I would file under “Big Ideas.” When you make plans to execute a Big Idea, sometimes you are plagued by self-doubt and are reminded of another file that exists called “Big Ideas That Turned Out To Be Not So Big.” It’s where Big Ideas go to die, and I have been looking at the contents of that file a bit too much this week. Did you think all my ideas were winners? You would be wrong. Staring at me from the file of failed Big Ideas are things like summer book club, family dinner events, seasonal dinner parties, a meal-planning training course, pie and anything pie-related, standing take-away meal subscriptions, and pre-packaged kid lunches. All the jeering from ideas that I swore would work, but then didn’t, is hard to silence. But I am doing my best. I believe in our next Big Idea. I won’t be thwarted.
Have a lovely weekend!
Leave a Reply