A good day gone bad

Today we were fully booked.

I've said that before, but then we only had four rooms open. Today we had all five rooms filled, for a total of 10 people. But we only have six chairs for breakfast.

Actually we have 12 chairs, but six are still at the restoration shop. So last night we figured, what are the odds that all 10 people will want breakfast at the same time? Well, it turns out those are pretty good odds.

The last time this happened (which was last week), Dawn went out and gave two of our guests a "tour" of the farm while we waited for two chairs to clear. This time, everyone showed up within 10 minutes of each other, and asking four people to wait was obviously not an option.

Fortunately our guests in the Summer Kitchen didn't mind us raiding their dining area for four chairs. We set up a second table and Dawn laid out place settings in record time, and we were set to go. Then we ran out of coffee.

Not to worry, we had plenty of beans, and soon everyone had their caffeine fix. Everything else went smoothly, and we know that 10 is a comfortable number for the two of us. (And we know to call for help if one of us isn't there.)

So that was the only stressor of the day. I had three guests checking out, two staying over, and no new guests arriving, so it was going to be a very quiet day. Dawn even made plans to go out with friends, leaving me to the chores. Then last night I got a new reservation for the Paymaster's Office. Then this morning one of the guests wanted to change rooms. Then a couple from Virginia stopped in and booked the Summer Kitchen for tonight. Suddenly I had three rooms to clean!

Then I found out Dawn had put all of the "spare" towels and blankets out. These are what I use to change the room, so I don't have to do a load of laundry in between. Without those spares, I had to do nine loads of laundry within three hours to finish the rooms in time. Needless to say, I didn't get done in time.

Fortunately our new guests were very patient, as I sent one couple off antiqueing and another off hiking. (Literally. In the park. If I was trying to get rid of them, I would have sent them off packing.) I called Dawn around 3pm and told her I needed help; she got home around 6pm and helped hang the (now clean) towels. I did forget to put the jets in one of the whirlpools and a blanket on one of the beds, but it wasn't bad. At least not compared to the Boys' Room yesterday.

Like any new business, we're "under-capitalized," which is a fancy way of saying we don't have enough stuff. We've actually been balancing two phones, three alarm clocks, and four hand soaps amongst five rooms. We have two extra pillows, four extra towels, and no extra tub mats. So it doesn't take much to send us scrambling, and we're used to cannibalizing other rooms. Well, apparently we've been cannibalizing the Boys' room a lot this week, because we forgot to do a final inspection before our guests arrived, and they were missing:

• hand soap
• bath soap
• shampoo
• drinking glass
• 2 bath towels
• alarm clock
• phone
• room journal
• 1 window candle
• 4 pillow cases

Again, they were good sports, even when we told them those were "extras" and there would be an additional charge for each item. (Kidding!)

And finally, I just have to toot my own horn on this one. One of our guests were local, and just wanted to watch some movies--that was their way of decompressing. But rather than give them a 13" portable TV, I gave them my digital video projector and white screen. So they got the equivalent of a 60" screen in their room, which was (to a techie like me) unbelievably cool. The only downside was that I couldn't hook up the speakers to the DVD player, so I gave them Dawn's laptop instead. Hopefully Dawn won't realize her laptop is gone until tomorrow.

At which point I can blame the guests.