Mid-afternoon, I again start the prep work for the next day's breakfast and begin preparation for evening wine and snacks.
On Friday & Saturday we host wine and snacks in the Great Room from 5:30 to 6:30. This is an opportunity for us to get know our guests and for our guests to get to met each other. (Another blog will tell some stories of our guests during wine & snacks.) We offer a white and a red wine for tasting, each from a different winery, and often one from Amador and one from Fair Play. We talk about the wine and winery mentioning some of their other wines. We inquire about dinner plans and make their reservations when needed. By 6:30ish folks are ready for their dinner adventure, in their room or at one of the great nearby restaurants. They usually have selected their DVD from the library.
This is wine and snacks at one of our Murder in Fair Play weekends. We never know what our guests will do, but it is guaranteed to be fun.
We clean up the plates and glasses, put away the wine and snacks, that were not devoured, so the kitchen is ready for the next morning. Then we start thinking about our own dinner and what we need for the next day.
I keep an on-going shopping list in the kitchen, adding depleted supply items and adding new things for future breakfasts and snacks. Since we are mainly a weekend business, I concentrate planning menus for those meals and fill in for weekdays. To plan for next week's meals I refer to our Webervations guest management system. I find who is new and returning guests, then I look into our meals log section for each returning guest to find what they were served that last few times they were here, so i don't repeat their menus. I look for anyone with food restrictions or allergies or special diet requests. Is someone gluten free, veegan, peanut allergic? I need to accommodate those needs to know what to serve so I know I have the correct ingredients.
If we have the opportunity, on Sunday afternoon we try to visit a couple area wineries, to stay in touch and know what they have and what is currently the "good stuff". We must also keep up on the local gossip. Monday and Tuesday are usually focused on cleaning and laundry. Then there is always website review and refreshing, marketing activities, rack cards to be distributed and minors repairs around the Inn that needs done. (Light bulbs! If you haven't noticed we have about a 1/2 million of them.) Our shopping for the weekend is usually Thursday. By that time we normally have an good idea of how many guests, and what their needs are, for the following weekend. There is a bouquet of flowers in the dinning room most of the time and flowers bought on Thursday will last the weekend.
We try to go to the movies once a week. It is our opportunity to relax and most important, eat popcorn. After our movie we enjoy going to the Wine Smith in downtown Placerville. There is usually someone we know there and it is a quiet place to enjoy a glass of wine (or beer).
Whew. That makes me want to take in a movie then a glass of wine.
That's all for now.
Lucinda
PS: I'm still learning the blog process. Some day I might learn it, maybe.
PS: I'm still learning the blog process. Some day I might learn it, maybe.
