Greetings, and welcome to this week's edition of "The Scoop", featuring news, rants, and raves from Mad Maggie's Ice Cream.

While the days have been cool, the "Leaf Peepers" have been out in force, as our weekends have still been busy, and we've had healthy sales on most of the sunny weekend days. The weekdays are a little scarier, as there are some nights when it seems like NO ONE is out and about, and I keep the kids busy with cleaning details.

All in all, we can't really complain about the weather, as we've had only a handful of rainy days since our August 2nd opening at the new location. I'm hopeful that the good weather keeps coming, as we still have a bunch of startup bills to be paid, and the good weather helps drive traffic.

Halloween

This will be the first time we've ever been open for Halloween, and we're not quite sure what to expect. My scooping team members who are signed up for their fixed Wednesday night shift are discussing costume ideas for the night, so we'll definitely have some spooky decorations for the night.

We'll have a special giveaway for anyone who drops by the store in costume during their Trick or Treating, so if you're out with the kids, make sure to stop by the store to say hi!

Order Those Cakes!

Want to make a big hit at your Halloween party? Why not order a delicious ice cream cake to bring along? We've received our shipment of Halloween cake decorations, and can make some positively spooky cakes that both look and taste great. Our chief cake decorator, Carolyn, is busily working on these, and in a pinch, Maggie (and even I) can do a passable job of decorating these.

Maggie made two last Thursday, and they both sold that afternoon. I decorated three of these myself on Sunday, and one was sold within an hour of putting it in the display case!

We'll have a handful of these pre-decorated and available in our cake freezer, but if you want to make sure you get one, don't fret, just fill out a cake order form, and we'll make one special, just for you, in your choice of flavors!

Speaking of cakes, we're selling so many of these that Carolyn just can't keep up with them. So we're looking for another cake decorator to help with the volume. If you know of someone looking for work who has decorating talent, please send them our way!

Food Woes

On weekend nights, I normally try to close up in time to get to one of my favorite local haunts for a late dinner and maybe a cold beer. Since we've moved to North Andover, my choices aren't as good as what I had in North Reading.

There, I could count on the Horseshoe Grille, and had my choice of a bunch of options. My favorites are their excellent Chili, or a delicious pulled pork Quesedilla, or (my #1 favorite) their Sirloin Salad.

While there are a lot of restaurants around us in North Andover, the late night selection is a little disappointing. I've yet to find a decent salad that comes anywhere close to the 'Shoe's and the rest of the places seem to only have fried pub foods that are a little too greasy for me late at night.

I did manage to get out in time last Saturday night to both deliver the fresh batch of ice cream pies (Candy Store Floor and Apple Pie) which the Horseshoe serves on their dessert menu, and to beat the kitchen closing time of 10:30pm, so I treated myself to a Sirloin Salad while I watched the end of the Red Sox slaughter of the Indians.

If you haven't tried eating at the Horseshoe, I encourage you to give it a try. It's by far the best dining in the area, even if you don't want barbecue. And if you do like barbecue, you're going to love it!

Brittany Shapes the Future

On Saturday night, we had the back room TV on, as the Red Sox tried to stay alive in their series against the Indians. They loaded the bases in the first inning, and with two outs, JD Drew came to the plate.

"This guy stinks -- he'll never get a hit!" I moaned, knowing the lousy season Drew has had.

Brittany, our upbeat, positive, clown, was standing next to me, and said "Don't say that! He's good -- he'll probably hit a home run!"

Believe me when I tell you, the words were barely out of her mouth for a second, and Drew swung and smashed his grand slam to center field.

"Wow -- that was spooky!" I told her.

"See? I told you!" Brittany crowed. She spent the rest of the night enjoying telling everyone how she predicted the home run.

I think I'll ask her if she'll predict a record warm winter, and HUGE ice cream sales!

Hey Rocky! Watch Me Pull A Rabbit Out of My Hat!

Those old enough to remember the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoon show might remember the closing, where all of the characters would parade across the screen as the credits rolled, leaving a trail of confetti and feathers behind them. At the very end, after everyone else had exited stage left, a short little janitor would cross the screen, sweeping up the mess left by the star players.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm that I'm playing the role of that janitor at Mad Maggie's. The scooping team gets the starring roles, serving the ice cream. After they've counted out their tips and gone home, I do the behind the scene jobs -- checking up on the cleanup tasks, finishing up anything that didn't get done, ordering the supplies we're low on, paying the bills, and a hundred other little tasks that they don't see.

I was reminded of that this week, as after my exhausting weekend (see below), I didn't have the time to break down, clean, sanitize and reassemble our soft serve machine on Sunday morning, as I normally do. So I had to do it on Monday night. One of my crew who has worked for us for a couple of years now, watching me scrub the sixty odd tiny parts that go to the machine (uttering an occasional curse under my breath...) asked me "Why are we cleaning that machine now? We never cleaned it at the other store...!"

I asked her "Did you ever work an 8am Sunday morning shift at the other store?"

"No, we didn't have 8am shifts!" she replied.

"Well, that's why you've never seen it done before, 'cause that's when I clean it -- every week!"

That got me thinking about the kids' views of our little business. I'm sure most of them think that we're running an easy business -- after all, they do all of the hard work of serving! They see me count out the cash registers each night, and probably think that I'm off to a fancy restaurant with all of the cash.

I guess they don't always realize that when they pull on the soft serve lever and the fresh, clean ice cream comes out, or they go to grab a new box of cups, or open the registers to find them full of change, or reach for a clean utensil, or a fresh can of hot fudge, that there's a lot of behind the scenes work that goes in to making sure those things are there for them.

I can't really expect them to understand all of the work that goes into it, so I'm pretty happy just knowing that I've got a great team of kids, working hard to keep the ice cream flowing. And I'll keep my broom handy, and stay in the background as much as I can!

"Real Life Blonde" Jokes Just Keep Coming!

Boy, it's been quite a while since I've had to go out looking for blonde jokes, as the fair-haired members of our team seem intent on providing me with an endless supply.

This week, it was my better half herself. We're in the process of ordering sweatshirts for our serving team, to keep them toasty warm during these cooler fall shifts at the window. I had a sample shirt that the printer had dropped off, so that we could try it on for size.

I told Maggie to try it on, and when I looked back at her, she had put it on backwards. Now, the shirt is a "hoodie", so putting it on backwards meant that the hood was in front of her face. I watched her struggle, trying to get her head through the opening -- it reminded me of a clip I'd once seen of raccoon that had somehow gotten its head stuck in a jar, and wandered about crashing into things.

The kids and I had a good laugh over it, but we were nice -- we only let her walk around like that for half an hour or so before we got tired of picking up the items she kept bumping into and knocking over.

I suppose we'll have to get a special printing done for the blondes, with a big "THIS SIDE FRONT" printed on the front of their shirts.

Long Weekend!

Just another little story to demonstrate the trials involved with running a small business. Last Saturday night, the traffic at the store died down early (I suspect a lot of people were home watching game 2 of the Red Sox/Indians series), and we finished our cleanup early. I was eagerly anticipating getting home in time to watch the tail end of the game.

As I walked to my truck at about 10:15, I passed the compressor for our walk in freezer, and heard it clicking on and off on about a ten second cycle. That didn't sound good to me, so I listened to it for a minute or so, then figured I had better go back inside and check things out. I was dismayed to find that our walk in freezer was up to 15 degrees, rather than the zero degrees it normally runs at.

I made an emergency call to our refrigeration repair service, and sat around waiting for the call back. It finally came at around 11:15, and after I described the symptoms, I got the bad news: "Sounds like your compressor is shot -- we won't be able to get a new unit until at least Tuesday!"

Yikes! So, instead of being curled up on my couch, watching the end of the game, there I was stuck with trying to find room in our other refrigeration units for the 60+ tubs of ice cream we had in the freezer! Since all of the other refrigeration equipment is on the main floor, and I can only carry 3 tubs at a time, that meant 20 or so trips up and down to the basement.

I finished up at around 12:30am, and drove home, dog tired, anticipating a disasterous Sunday while we juggled ice cream tubs around while trying to serve customers, and a huge repair bill to get the compressor replaced.

(On the bright side, I was so tired that I fell right to sleep, so I was spared the agony of watching Eric Gagne cough up the Red Sox game!)

The good news is that the next morning, our reliable refrigeration serviceman happened to be in the area picking apples with his family, and swung by to check on the unit. He found an adjustment that was not set correctly, and with a few turns of the screwdriver, declared the unit back in business!

While I was relieved that everything was working again, I still had to move those tubs (plus the 15 or so fresh tubs we had made on Saturday morning...) back down to the basement, on 5 hours of sleep! Fortunately, our dependable cake decorator, Carolyn came in at noon, and helped me moving some of them, but believe me, I was one tired puppy that afternoon.

Flavor News

Lemon Nerds is back! And with a twist!

We made Lemon Nerds a lot in our first couple of seasons. It's a real kids' flavor, as the ice cream is a neon yellow, and with the multi-colored Nerds candy mixed in, it's -- how do I describe it? Disgusting?

Still, the kids love it, and even though we haven't made it in over a year, people keep asking for it.

Well, on Saturday, a gentlemen at window made a request: "Can you please make Lemon Nerds again?".

"What the heck, I'll make a batch tonight!" I told him. He was back at noon the next day, and sure enough, we had it ready for him.

Now this is one sick looking ice cream, and I decided that it should only be eaten by kids. So that's what we're doing -- we'll only serve this to customers under the age of 18.

My serving team came up with a good suggestion: Anyone over 18 who wants to order it has to do something silly to show that they've still got the kid inside them. They can either sing a few bars of "I wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Wiener", or they can do the "Funky Chicken" Dance.

They're pretty strict with this stuff, so if you're over 18 and want this flavor, you'll need to warm up your singing voice, or polish off your dance moves.

[ Late update: I made that batch on Saturday night, and as of Tuesday night, we were scooping our last tub, so I made another batch. If this batch sells as quickly as the last one, it won't last long. So if you want to try it, better get to the store FAST! ]

Our second test flavor is "Pumpkin Cheesecake". A friend of mine from Vermont claims that this flavor is one of his best sellers at this time of year. I made a batch, using Philly cream cheese and our pumpkin puree. Personally, I much prefer our Pumpkin Gingersnap, but it'll be interesting to see how it sells.

Staff Profile

This week's featured team member is Alexandra, from Andover.

Alex is a long time friend of the family, as over the years, she and my daughter, Amanda, have run around in the same crowd of kids, so we've known her since she was about six. Alex's mom worked with Maggie back in her days as a banquet waitress at the Andover Country Club, and asked Maggie if we'd hire Alex this spring.

If you've read my past emails, you know I'm always a little bit leary of hiring the children of friends, as if it turns out that they don't enjoy the job, it can make for an uncomfortable situation. Luckily, we didn't have much to worry about, as Alex took to working in the store like a duck to water -- early in the year, I spent so much time raving about what a great job she was doing that Maggie finally told me to shut up about her!

Alex is a great kid, she's very diligent, and has natural leadership abilities, and a really fun personality. She's one of the few who don't fall for many of my pranks around the store. She's done such a great job that I promoted her to a Team Leader position this month, and she's now our youngest ever team leader (narrowly beating out long time favorite Katie!)

Alex attends Andover High, where she's a Junior and participates on the Cross Country team. And she dances in her spare time -- both taking a formal dance class, and bopping around the store when one of her favorite songs comes on.

We're very lucky to have Alex as part of our team. If you find her serving you at the window, make sure to say hi to her.

Newsletter Coupon

Tell our scooping squad that you read about it in the Newsletter, and we'll upgrade any cone order to a waffle cone, for free. You have to utter the magic phrase "Bagana umballa!" to get this offer, so make sure to write that down on the back of your hand so you don't forget it.

OK, that's about all I can shake out of this cluttered brain of mine for this week, so I'll end now.

Thanks for reading, and we sure hope to see you at the store soon!