8:05 a.m.: Start a French press coffee with Peet’s French Roast (my favorite coffee). Share with my wife, LaVeryl.

8:14 a.m.: Breakfast today is a glass (each) of Bolthouse chai protein drink, carrot juice and Green Goodness.

8:22 a.m.: Shower and get dressed.

8:52 a.m.: Leave house for first meeting of the day: our weekly Mutt’s Amazing Hot Dogs management meeting at 9 a.m. (yes, with traffic, I’m five minutes late). Today we try some new coffee and tea options from our friends Tish and Leland Tate. We agree to switch to what we all agree are better products, discuss some staffing issues, and talk a little about upcoming specials and holiday hours.

9:42 a.m.: Head to Big Truck Tacos where we are training a new office manager and implementing some new accounting procedures. Spend an hour and a half going over paperless office software, accounting software, cashhandling procedures, etc.

11:18 a.m.: Leave the BTT office for my regular Tuesday lunch with my friend Gene Parsons. He is a real gentleman, full of great stories and good advice. I always look forward to our lunches. This week is special because we are being joined by Kirk Purnell, John Cresap and Lee Allan Smith at The Metro, and have a wonderful lunch starting at 11:30. It’s starting to feel like the holidays!

12:55 p.m.: Leave The Metro, race home and meet an alarm repairman for a scheduled appointment at 1 p.m. Forget to check my phone message that came in during lunch. It was the repairman calling to say he’s ill and rescheduling for tomorrow. I wait at home for a few minutes before I check my messages and discover he’s not coming.

1:27 p.m.: Head back to BTT to see how the office manager is doing. Everything seems to be well. Check emails again, and get a call from a contractor about a geothermal heat pump system for home. Talk to Linda Lee, our managing partner at Irma’s Burger Shack, about last month’s financials. Spend more office time getting receipts scanned and stuff organized.

3:15 p.m.: Leave BTT to go back to The Metro for a kitchen interview. A young man who has a full-time job at another restaurant in town is very interested in expanding his repertoire and looking for a part-time position. We have a great interview and agree that he’ll come in on Saturday to start training. (He will call later that night to say that he can’t do it.)

3:38 p.m.: I run to the grocery store to pick up some odds and ends for some of the caterings we are doing this weekend. It’s “all hands on deck” in the kitchen at The Metro during this busy season, and I’m happy to save them some time running around.

4:35 p.m.: After spending a little more time at The Metro, heading to Forward Foods to pick up some nice cheeses, some charcuterie (love their Spanish hams and salami), and swing by the neighborhood market for some Italian-style sourdough before heading home.

5:40 p.m.: Start the “NBC Nightly News” on TiVo and pop open a bottle of Whetstone Pinot Noir.

6:05 p.m.: LaVeryl and I sit down to some bread, olive oil, cured meats and great cheeses, and have a simple, light dinner. This is something we seem to be doing more often recently.

7:20 p.m.: Our son, Sam, who is in finals week at OU (and only has two tests later in the week), comes home and suggests watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s new show, “The Layover” (again TiVoed). The show we watch is about Miami. Funny, typical Bourdain (“irreverent” would be putting it mildly).

8:36 p.m.: Crash on the couch and spend some time catching up on The Week, Businessweek and Harper’s.

9:53 p.m.: Tired of reading, ready for bed. Check email one more time. Get texts from restaurants with sales figures and any exceptional happenings. Looking forward to an early morning workout.

10:30 p.m.: Drifting off.

Photo by Mark Hancock