Monday Night Driving

I worked 5 hours, took 10 deliveries, drove 45 miles, and made $20 in tips.

It was a horrible start to the night, making just $6 on my first 5 deliveries, but then things shaped up, especially on my final 2 deliveries. I made $4 each on my final 2 runs.

Not much exciting, but I am off for a week. I have a soccer meeting this Wednesday, and then from Friday - Monday my wife will be gone, bike-riding with a friend.

In the meantime I'll try to post a few things I've been saving to use for just such an occasion!

Saturday Night's All Right For Cleaning

We have our big inspection coming up next week so tonight's main task was cleaning. Everybody had a job or 2 and a few people even stayed after close to clean.

One bad thing about this is we are overstaffed with drivers (so that drivers aren't as busy and can spend some time cleaning). Add to this the warm weather and it was a pretty slow day.

The nicest tip of the day was to a high-school aged girl's birthday party. She paid me $28 for the $25.58 order and then her dad added $2 more, saying something about the price of gas.

In 8 hours I took 15 runs, made $32 in tips, and drove 56 miles. Not an awful night but nothing to write home about, that's for sure.

Oh, my cleaning job was to clean the floor in the back hallway and move the Pepsi cooler from one side of the room to the other.

Slow Wednesday

It was a little rainy tonight but it didn't help the delivery business at all. I worked 4.5 hours and only took 6 deliveries. Tips were good tonight and I made $15. I drove 22 miles in all.

We have "Tony Tour", our annual inspection by our franchise president Tony coming up next month so everybody has had extra cleaning duties lately. My job tonight was to scrub the outside of the sinks in the dishroom.

Also of note, we had a new driver tonight, a girl named Kristie. She was a waitress / manager / part-time driver at another franchise in our chain so she should be ok.

Potty Break

A few weeks ago my nephew Zorlod wrote about his potty break experience. Mine is a little different.

Last night my mother, baby son, and I drove out to see my other 3 children's school program. Afterwards I took my kids for a trip to the ice cream stand. While we were eating, my 6-year old daughter had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately the ice cream stand didn't have their bathroom open.

I looked around and just 2 doors down was a franchise of the same pizza place I work for. My mother stayed with the other 3 kids while my daughter and I walked over to use their bathroom.

I always feel guilty using the bathroom when I'm not a customer. And I know at our shop, it is job of the waitress to clean the bathroom. So I sought out the waitress and gave her a $ tip. Also I asked who owned their franchise and neither the waitress nor the manager seemed to know.

New Headlights

The highlight of my night tonight was going to Advance Auto Parts and getting a new headlight bulb, turn-signal bulb, and a new (screw-on) antenna. When I bought the car the antenna was broken off. I hadn't listened to many of my CD's in a long time so I was happy to have a radio with a CD player, but now that baseball season is underway I wanted to get the radio working. Total cost was around $18.

Now I don't carry my own money with me to work, but at the time I stopped and got the headlight I had taken 4 deliveries and had $7 in tips. So I was confident I would earn enough $ to pay back the $ I spent from my bank.

Well on my next 3 deliveries I earned a grand total of $0.08 in tips!

Around 9:30 I needed to make another $4 and I was getting concerned.

Desiree went home early so I got the next run and made $1.42 plus my $1.05 for mileage. I did the exact math and I still needed another $1.32.

For about an hour the phone didn't ring. Then finally about 10 minutes before close, I answered the phone, and it was indeed a delivery. I never was happier to earn a $1.42 tip!

Totals for the day were 5 hours, 9 deliveries, 37 miles, and $10.20.

Good Weather, Bad For Business

Good weather outside is bad for pizza business.

For one, people who do order are more apt to come pick it up themselves in good weather than they are when it is cold or rainy outside.

Second, people are outside and away from home more. On the first few warm weekends of the year (and this was one), people will be outside working in the yard, cleaning the garage, washing the car, or doing various other outdoor tasks. They don't come in and think about dinner until much later than the time they usually seem to get hungry for pizza in the winter.

So anyways, today was a pretty slow day. I got a $4+ tip on my first run and almost $6 on my 7th and final run, but I worked just 4 hours (5-9). I asked to be sent home early, and my wish was granted. The 2 good tips I got made it a decent night, $21 total. Mileage for the night was 25.

The most interesting delivery was to a house right next to the local Pizza Pan franchise!

HD Radio?

I was trying to listen to the mash-up show on the radio tonight but somebody broke the antenna off Wardo's radio. I leaned a 2-foot wire whisk against it and it actually came in pretty good for a while! Nick took a picture and I will post it when I get it.

We were pretty slow tonight, typical for a the first few nice-weather Saturdays. People tend to stay outside later and eat later, and maybe even cook out on the grill.

I worked 8 hours, took just 14 deliveries, but did make almost a $3 average ($41 total) while driving 56 miles.

One interesting delivery was to a guy who gave me a $20 for his $11.58 order and asked for a $5 back. I didn't have a $5 so I told him hopefully 5 $1's would be ok. "Stripper money" he replied.

One that was not so good was to an apartment complex right behind the store. I got there in about 15 minutes after they ordered and the woman claimed to have forgotten that she ordered pizza. A guy walked up silently and stopped on the sidewalk several steps away. The woman was digging through her purse to find the money and eventually she borrowed $2 from this guy, who then went in her house. It was a weird situation. She paid exact change, one of 2 stiffs on the night.

Everybody else tipped at least $2 which was cool.

Oh and the last guy of the night gave me his card and offered to sell me a car. I'd never had that happen before!

Frozen Pizza?

I found this discussion on a fantasy football message board about frozen pizza. Kind of interesting. Of course I prefer delivery, but if any of my readers has a favorite frozen pizza, let me know.

Weekly Pizza Quotient

Is there a government Recommended Daily Allowance for pizza like there is for vitamins?

The woman customer at one of my deliveries tonight was amazed at how fast I got their food there. Now it only takes 7 minutes for our pizzas to go through the oven. If the cooks are on the ball I can be out the door in 11-12 minutes easy. This particular customer lived about 1 mile away, with no stop lights or even stop signs! I'm sure I was there in less than 20 minutes.

She raved on about how she heard the car and thought it couldn't be the pizza guy, but it was. Then she told me how she had told her husband that she "wasn't getting her weekly pizza quotient."

"I'm happy to help out," I replied.

Then she did a very rare thing. Their check was $25.59 and she was paying with a $50. She asked for $22 back (leaving me a $2.41 tip) then she changed it to just $21 back, saying "an extra dollar for being so efficient."

The delivery before that I got a little extra too. A toddler accompanied his mother to the door. While she filled out the credit card slip, I made friends with the kid. "Do you like pizza?" is always an easy question. I saw he was holding a bowl of pretzels. "Do you like pretzels?" I added.

"I'll trade you some pizza for a pretzel" I joked. "Mama goo goo ga ga" was close to his reply. His mother said "Yes you can give him a pretzel."

It was the buttery twist kind, and it was very good!

Totals for the 5 hours of work were 9 deliveries, 35 miles driven, and $19 in tips. Pretty slow night, especially given that Alison (looking like she is going to give birth any minute) went home shortly after 9 PM.

Crash!

No not me, but there was a big accident at the intersection in front of our shop tonight sometime around 11 PM. A SUV appeared to have hit a sedan. There were numerous ambulances, fire trucks, rescue squads, and of course police. They got things cleaned up pretty quickly.

I worked 8 hours tonight, took 17 deliveries (including 3 reruns), drove 56 miles, and made $31 in tips. A pretty crummy night, not to mention it started snowing around 7 PM.

Not many interesting deliveries tonight. There was one delivery that was on the edge of our delivery are across from a new development. They are technically outside the area but we deliver to the development so I guess we deliver to this house.

I had taken their first (and only) previous order and mentioned that they were right on the edge. They gave a good tip so I decided they were in. They ordered again tonight, $17.57, and I took the phone order and confirmed that they were definitely in the delivery area.

When I arrived the man of the house met me at the door with $22, a $4+ tip. As I was leaving, his wife handed him another dollar to give to me. "Thanks, Keep 'em coming!" I joked.

Friday The 13th

Friday the 13th was not very lucky for me. We were busy for a while but business died down pretty quick. I was the only driver from 11PM on and still only took 2 deliveries in the last 2 hours.

I took 18 deliveries in all and was stiffed (less than $1 in my definition) 6 times. Only 6 tips were $2.50 or more, with the highest being $4.32.

I worked 7.5 hours, drove 74 miles, and made $36 in tips. Not awful, but certainly not what I aim for on a Friday night.

Two other drivers had car trouble tonight. Mark got a flat tire and Tyler's brakes went bad. What crummy luck for them!

Wardo's Curtain Call

Tonight was my last night to work with Manager Ward. He has taken a job working with Driver Steve at Rent-A-Center. His last day is Tuesday and he will be missed. Ward is a good guy and as much as I give him a hard time, he knows I like him and want the best for him.

Ward has actually come a long way in the 1 1/2 years that I have known him. He started as a server (I called him a waitress) and he became a Hourly Assistant Manager, or HAM. He used to live with his mother and now he has his own apartment. And he just recently turned 21.

I hope that he finds a little more direction for his life and that he develops some ambition, but he is a good kid, very strong in honesty, integrity and loyalty. I told him tonight that I hope he fails miserably and comes crawling back to us, but I sincerely hope this move works out well for him.

His legacy at our pizzeria will be "Wardsticks", or cheesesticks with jalopenos. I plan to explain this, and other secret recipes, in an upcoming post.

Meanwhile, back to tonight's deliveries. In 5 hours I took 11 deliveries, drove 41 miles, and made $24 in tips. That's actually a decent Monday. It was helped by 2 "triples" that I took.

One delivery of note tonight and it was not a good one. Driver Alison was out on a double and I was getting ready to take another double when I noticed a 5th delivery on the screen, to the Holiday Inn.

Now the Holiday Inn is actually not in our delivery area. Our computer won't accept addresses that are out of the area without a manager override. However, if the phone number was already in the system (and theirs was), the order-taker may not realize that it is out of the area, unless there is a notation on the record. And there was not.

Now normally as a driver, I would try to not take this delivery. As a store, we would call the next franchise over that actually DOES deliver there and transfer the order. However the order was paid by credit card so this could not be done. And since my double was actually to the far edge of our area and just a few blocks from the Holiday Inn, I volunteered to take it.

The ticket said room 129 so I walked in, past the front desk, and down 2 long halls until I came to room 129. I knocked a few times and finally called the number on the ticket. It rang at the front desk and I explained that I was the pizza guy and asked them to ring room 129.

I heard the phone ringing, with no answer. The clerk soon came back and said there was no one in room 129 tonight. Weird. The clerk also checked the name on the ticket and there was no one by that name registered at the hotel. The order was paid by credit card so it was not a prank. I called back to the shop and spoke with waitress Stacy who took the order.

Come to find out, she did not type in room 129 or the name on the ticket. They were there from the previous (and only) delivery to that address, way back in November. I asked if she remembered the room number that they did tell her or the name, and she claimed that they did not give her a name or room number. I find this difficult to believe but there I was.

I ended up leaving the pizza, in the hot bag, at the front desk. They were very helpful and I told them that when the customer called us back about his pizza, we would direct him to the front desk. Also I promised to be back after we closed to pick up the hot bag.

With that I finished my runs and headed back to the store. Eventually the customer did call back and I got to speak to him. I apologized for the confusion, told him where to find his dinner, and told him that if there were any problems he could call back and ask to speak to a manager. I then asked if he had wanted to add a tip to the credit card, and, much to my surprise, he actually added a $2 tip over the phone.

So in the end, I can't say that it made me feel smarter, but I did deliver to a Holiday Inn last night.

Oh and thanks to manager Doug who picked up the hot bag as it was on his way home. We also took the desk crew a pepperoni pizza to show our gratitude for their helpfulness.

Easter Bunny Enlists Help Of Santa's Reindeer

I don't know if that is true or not but here in Northern Ohio we have enough snow that it wouldn't be a bad idea!

First off, I decided that my Good Friday novel was almost unreadable so I added some section titles. If you gave up on yesterday's post, you may want to give it another chance. I will try to use some section titles from now on when appropriate in my longer posts.

Reruns
First the reruns, I had 2 tonight, for the 2nd night in a row. Both were for pick-up orders who got home and realized we did not give them their complete order. One was for 5 cheesesticks and the other was for a 2-liter of Pepsi. The cheesesticks order actually tipped me $1 for bringing them out. A tip on a rerun is very rare but also very cool.

Asking For Tips
Next, the tips. I had a delivery where the total was $29.56. The woman came to the door with $34, handed me $30, and was kind of waving the other $4 around in the air like she wasn't sure what to do. "Is that for me?" I finally asked. She started to hand me $2 and then said "Well it's their money, here." and gave me all $4.

I'm guessing she was a grandmother babysitting and the $34 was left by the parents. I've never asked "Is that for me?" before but it seemed like the right thing to do in the situation as the woman appeared to be genuinely confused.

The other order was a credit card order. The woman signed the slip and handed it back to me, leaving the tip and total blank. "Could you fill in the total please? You don't want to leave it blank, you never know what somebody might write. It's for your own protection."

This is a line I've used many, many times and tonight it got me a $2 tip. Many people will pretend to ignore the tip but not as many are bold enough to write an actual zero on the tip line.

Bigger Tips Late At Night?
Do tips increase later in the night? They did for me tonight. I took 23 deliveries. Of the first 14, my biggest tip was $4.44 and I only had 1 other over $3.00. Of the final 9 deliveries, 4 of them were over $5! I really think the best way to make money delivering pizza is to be the closing driver.

Popcorn!
Oh and I almost forgot my most amusing delivery of the night. It was to a friend of Steve's who works with him at Rent-A-Center. The guy invited me in and as I walked in through 2 layers of plastic hanging over the door, I saw his wife crawling around on her hands and knees under the dining room table. I'm pretty sure she was trying to keep a cat from running outside.

We chatted a little about Steve. Brian commented that Steve, who works 2 jobs, was like James Brown, the hardest working man in show business. The wife asked if I remembered the side of banana peppers and Brian admitted that he forgot to ask for them. Then Brian tipped me $5 and his wife tipped me a bag of popcorn from her work, Poppees Popcorn!

When I got back I made sure to put a note on their address to always bring a side of banana peppers. Drivers like to take care of good customers like that!

New Manager
We had a new manager closing tonight that I have never closed with before, and I had to help him count his cash, as he was afraid he was short, but he found some more coins in the safe and he ended up just $4.69 short for the day.

Nightly Totals
I worked 8 hours, took 23 runs, drove 83 miles, and made $57 in tips (not counting the popcorn). A very good night!

Good Friday?

I had the day off from my day job today, but spent a busy Friday at home. Before heading to my pizza job, I filled both cars with gas, or tried to. I bought a $50 gas card at Speedway, filled up the Taurus, but wasn't quite able to fill up the Hyundai. Gas is up to $2.749! That sent me to work in a somewhat foul mood.

I haven't worked a Friday in a long time so was really looking forward to a profitable night tonight. My emotions ranged so far tonight that it's one of those nights I almost have to give a pizza by pizza description.

Surprise Tip
My first delivery was $27.58 to a house on the far side of town, where the young men who order never tip. Much to my surprise, someone who appeared to be their grandmother was there today. She gave me $30 and asked how much the change was. "$2.42," I replied. "That's for you" she said, "It's bad out there." (At this point it was starting to get cold).

Line From A Movie
My next delivery, also far away, was 6 pizzas, discounted to $62.08. I was hoping for a big tip. I got $2.92, and a guy in the background called out "Keep the change, ya filthy animal." Regular readers will certainly recognize this line from the #2 movie on my list of Top 10 Movies with Pizza Scenes, Home Alone! It was my first time actually getting this line used on me, so it was kind of cool.

Delivery / Pick Up - Mix Up
My 3rd delivery was a ways away also. When I knocked, a little dog was barking and jumping like crazy, but nobody answered the door. This was strange as a different delivery had just been changed to a pick-up before I left the shop. I called the number and got voicemail. I called our shop and spoke with Rick our GM. We agreed that I should wait a few minutes to see if they had went to the store or something. Finally a guy came to the door, and said it was supposed to be a pick-up. He took the pizzas, which were already paid by credit card, and with a $2.68 tip.

I quickly called Rick back, as I realized that the name on my delivery and the name on the delivery that had been changed rhymed, (like "Hose" and "Lowes") and there probably was a mix-up. Indeed this was the case and someone had to be sent out with the other delivery.

Rerun
My 4th delivery was my farthest yet. On the way I had to drop off a pasta from a previous delivery. I don't know if it was messed up or if the driver forgot it. But reruns usually mean no tip, and this was indeed the case.

On Second Thought, No Tip
Then the actual delivery was $19.57. The woman came to the door holding a $20 and a $5 but only gave me the $20. I don't know if she was teasing or what.

Family Dine-In
About this time my family had arrived, ordered, and was finishing up their meal. Now as an employee I get a 50% discount, up to $10 off maximum. Many times, the waitresses will also hook up employees and their families with free fountain drinks, but not today. Before the discount, our bill for 2 pizzas, breadsticks, a salad, and 7 drinks was $41.12. The discount brought it down to $31.12 but I figured I would have to work most of the night just to pay the check. Victoria left a nice $7 tip.

My next 4 deliveries were uneventful except for the fact that snow was starting to fall. And I got my first and only stiff of the night (except for reruns), $0.42 on a $11.58 delivery. Total for the 4 runs was $7.30.

Forgetting The Pepsi
Oh and I forgot the 2-liter on one of them, so I stopped at Drug Mart and bought one with my own $. The store owes me a 2-liter. I forgot to take it home tonight, I'll be sure to remember tomorrow.

Pizza Circles
On my 10th delivery I finally took my first double of the night. I made $5.45 in tips but had to apologize on the 2nd delivery. We have a new kid cutting and boxing the pizzas. This customer had ordered 4 extra ranch sauces, and Steve had put them directly on top of the pizza (in the box). Closing the box and putting another box on top causes something similar to "alien crop circles" to appear on the pizza. I asked him not to pack them like that anymore.

Don't Drink And Drive
About this time we were slow and I took a phone order for a pick-up. They wanted 2 pepperoni pizzas. We're supposed to try to "upsell", so I always ask "Do you want anything else with that? Breadsticks, chicken wings, Pepsi?"

"No, we have beer, we're ok," was the reply. I used this as an opening to try to talk them into delivery. "Beer huh. Are you sure you don't want us to bring that pizza out to you?" I suggested, but she wasn't interested.

Snow On Easter?
My next 3 deliveries were also pretty boring. I did start using a line at the door which I think may have increased my tips slightly: "When you have more snow for Easter than you had for Christmas, something's not right." Total for the 3 runs was $7.27.

Best Tip Of The Night
By now, the snow was falling pretty good and the roads were getting very slippery. A pickup truck fishtailed right in front of me! My next delivery was pretty close and I was quite surprised to get $4.42 on a $13.58 delivery from a punk/goth type young man.

My 16th run of the night got me $2.93 on a $12.07 order, not bad!

Rerun (again)
Next was another rerun (with no real order to go with it this time). Pasta again! This time the customer specifically asked for marinara sauce but the cook made the dinner with alfredo sauce. This customer had a pretty neat light-up house number beside their door. I may look into getting one, it was very nice!

Extra Cash
By now it was after midnight, all of the prep work was done, and the dishes were pretty well caught up. The other driver Steve offered me $5 to let him go home early, which I agreed to. Thanks Steve! Steve also pocketed an extra $17 due to a computer glitch which led to a voided check, and he was kind enough to split that with me also. Steve starts at 9 PM on Fridays and took just 5 deliveries, but made over $30!

Best Run Of The Night
Then we got a late order, actually 3, but 2 were to the same house. Quite far away. One was 5 pizzas for $62 and the other was 1 pizza and some cinnamon sticks. They were separate because the smaller order was paid by credit card. Each of them tipped $4. One of them was an ex-employee who has tipped very generously in the past, and with the bad weather I was kind of hoping for more, but I sure can't complain about $8 on a single delivery.

The final order of the night was $12.58 and I got another $2.42 tip on that one.

Nightly Totals
Total for the night was 7.5 hours on the road, 20 deliveries, 84 miles driven, $378 in pizza orders delivered, and $46 in tips. Pretty decent night, but a little frustrating due to the $31 I spent to buy my family's dinner.

Pizza! Get Your Hot Pizza Here!
Then there were a few pre-made pizzas that cook Steve put through the oven. There were 2 with pepperoni for me to take. We closed up and I gave Steve a ride home. Steve lives near a bar and I swung past after I dropped him off, with the 2 extra pizzas. There was a crowd of smokers outside the side door and I was able to quickly sell those 2 pizzas for $20. That made it a very nice night!

Gassing Up And Going Home
I put another $20 on my gas card, filled up the Hyundai and had $ left, and brought home $45.

Innaugural Carnival Of Pizza

Welcome to the April 6, 2007 edition of carnival of pizza. This is the first ever carnival of pizza, but judging by the number and quality of entries, it sure won't be the last! We are going to attempt to publish this on the first Friday of every month.

Reviews

First off, The Travelin' Man tells the story of A Day In the Shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge posted at STuff You Oughta Know. This post includes a review of Grimaldi's Pizzeria, which he calls "the BEST pizza, in a pizza-lovin' town."

Next, Steve Madsen reviews Seattle's Serious Pie posted at South Bank Projects, saying, "A serious pizza place for urban professionals." I'm not sure serious and pizza belong in the same sentence, but this place sounds interesting. If I ever find myself in the Pacific Northwest, I'm definitely eating here!

KevinL presents Friday Pizza Review - Marco's posted at Family Of Nine, saying, "a simple family-review of dinner from this pizza chain." Yes, that's me, but it's from another blog so I decided to include it here.

Finally, just sneaking in under the deadline, is Jon. Now That’s a JUMBO Slice of Pizza!! describes getting a slice at Pizza Mart. Jon posts at The DC Traveler.

Saving Money

In a category all his own, savingadvice gives us Easy Ways To Save On Pizza posted at Personal Finance Advice. There is lots of good advice here. As a delivery driver, I shouldn't really support the "Pick-up" or "Homemade" selections, but if you don't have the $ to tip the driver, please choose one of these options.

Top 10 Lists

Ted Reimers has a list, the Top 10 Cheap Foods/Drinks for the College Student posted at CampusGrotto. Ted says, "Pizza is part of the typical college diet." It sure was for me! We had a Little Caesars less than a mile away. Pizza! Pizza!

Sagar Satapathy lists the Top 10 Most Expensive Restaurants in the World posted at Credit Card Lowdown. I'm not sure which of those restaurants serve pizza, but it's an interesting list, so we'll include it in our carnival. Not many college students dining at any of those spots, that's for sure.

Recipes

Stephanie presents My New Stand By Meal - Pizza posted at Stop the Ride!. Stephanie describes the benefits of "quick and easy" meals and includes her favorite pizza recipe. Sounds like a good idea for busy moms!

Michelle Mitchell gives us a recipe for Pesto-Cheese Pizza posted at scribbit. A Blog About Motherhood in Alaska. Michelle provides us with a recipe for "Mrs. Green Cheese Pizza." It looks delicious!

Do you want to make your own pizza sauce? muse presents No pot tomato sauce! posted at me-ander. In this recipe, Muse explains how to make tomato sauce in the microwave. Sounds like a good time-saver!

Do you want your pizza to be more healthy? Andrea shares the recipe for Organic Pizza posted at Buy Organic. If you want organic pizza, you better know how to make it yourself because I doubt your local pizzeria has this recipe!

And after you're done eating, what should you do with the leftovers? Jane Maynard explains in This Week for Dinner: Leftover Pizza posted at This Week for Dinner..., saying, "Whenever you have pizza, store-bought or homemade, you inevitably have leftovers that never taste as good. Find out how to reheat your leftover pizza so it tastes like it just came out of the oven! It will change your life!"

Delivery Stories

D tells of the dreaded Keep-the-Changers posted at Stop the Ride!. D is a fellow delivery driver just trying to make (at least) a buck!

And finally I've included my favorite story from my own blog, The Journey Of A Quarter.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
carnival of pizza using our carnival submission form. More information can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Bank Error In Your Favor, Collect $30

This story is from a long time ago, no names will be used so as to not incriminate anyone involved.

Once upon a time, I had a delivery for about $40. There were 2 pizzas, wings, cheesesticks, and Pepsi. I arrived at the customer's and they wanted to pay by check, which we don't accept now and didn't accept back then either.

They were unable to pay cash or credit card by phone, so I headed back to the car. Just then another car arrived and the guy called out, "Hey, that's for that house right there."

"Not tonight it's not, they can't pay," I replied.

He asked how much it was, and then asked if he could buy just part of it. I listed out the itemized prices and he paid for 1 pizza and cheesesticks. He gave me a $20 and made sure he got his $2 back in change. No tip and no delivery fee.

I called back to the manager on duty and started to tell him. He said he had already voided out the order. I paused. That meant he didn't expect any $ back from me. And I already had $18!

I asked if he minded if I gave it away. He said, "That's fine, if you can make a buck on it, great."

It was late at night, so I paused to think where I might find someone hungry. I remembered a bar where the bartender had ordered several times in the past year. I headed there, but there was a different bartender working that night.

"Who ordered the pizza?" he called out as I entered.

"Nobody" was my response as I sat at a stool at the bar. I explained that this was extra and asked his permission to try to sell it. He smiled and said that was ok. By now the man 2 stools over was interested. I explained that I had a pizza and wings and wanted just $10 for it. He said he wanted half-price. I told him it was about $25 worth of food, it was already half-price. He excitedly gave me $12.

So all in all I made a quick $30. This doesn't occur very often, but it sure is exciting and fun when it happens!

Buckeyes Lose

I worked only 4 1/2 hours tonight. I left around 10:30, just after halftime ended, and came home and watched the end of the game. My Buckeyes played hard but the difference in the game seemed to be the outside shooting.

Congratulations to stepson Nathan for winning our contest!

Not much interesting during my 7 deliveries tonight. The Daylight Savings bug appears to be resolved, computers were operating normally.

I did see 2 people we knew from church. First was John, who was chatting across his backyard to a neighbor who had ordered pizza. Next was Jason & Debbie, who we were in a class with a year ago. They were dine-in customers.

Tyler swapped deliveries with me at one point tonight. He asked to take a specific order because he had taken the phone order and thought the girl sounded cute. He returned quite disappointed.

Remember last week when I wrote about giving away breadsticks to a customer that never tipped? Well Desiree had that customer tonight and they tipped her $1 and the change. And she said she also had them over the weekend and they tipped $2 and the change. So my good will seems to have helped!

Tonights totals were 4.5 hours, 7 deliveries, $19 in tips, and 26 miles driven. I'm surprised we weren't a little busier, but I'm glad I was able to watch some of the game, even though Ohio State lost.

"See You Guys Again Yesterday"

We had a computer glitch right at closing time tonight. Our main computer was fine but all of our terminals got their date messed up. Instead of saying it was 4/1, they said it was 3/31.

The first symptom was that I went to log in and it said I was not clocked in. Nobody was! But on the main computer everyone was. The problem is, the main computer can't be used to take orders, print delivery tickets, dispatch drivers, pay checks, or anything like that.

Mike (the other driver) had a delivery he was not dispatched on yet. The order wasn't printed. It's a good thing Nick remembered the phone number or Mike would not have known where to go at all.

I don't know how Ward checked Mike out when he got back. Mike wasn't dispatched on the order and it wasn't paid so the computer in the back would have had no way to know that Mike had the cash for that order!

We're not sure if this is a daylight-savings-time related bug, as this would have taken effect the first Sunday in April (today) before the recent change.

Meanwhile, I had a pretty solid night tip-wise. In 6 hours work, I took 9 deliveries, drove 51 miles, and made $32 in tips. I had several deliveries of note:

• $72 in pizza to a fantasy baseball draft being held at the local catholic high school. They tipped $8 but then seemed a little surprised that I didn't bring napkins. Hey I can bring napkins, Parmesan cheese packets, red pepper packets, maybe even paper plates, but please ask for them when you call.
• A $5 tip on a $15 order on a 12-mile round trip. Good tips on long deliveries are appreciated!
• A $5 tip on a $21 order to a guy putting together a swing set for his kids. As I was walking away I saw a cat and said "Hey kitty kitty" and the guy mumbled "hit it, please."
• A $4 tip on a $11 (discounted) order to a co-worker watching Wrestlemania 23, just out of our delivery area. We took it anyways.
• A $1 tip on a $21 order at easily the most expensive home I delivered to all night.
  

Pizza Stays Home!

With Florida's win over UCLA, the contest will be won by either me (Ohio State) or stepson Nathan (Florida).

Thanks for playing and better luck next year!