PSoTD

I dunno, I saw this ad in a publication and I just found it tone-deaf and disturbing. Maybe it's just me.

I meant to post this over the weekend, but no matter... I'm looking for opinions on preferred kennels. I'm not looking for a dog country club, but something that we can feel assured will provide the healthiest environment for a short visit. Have a recommendation? Put it in comments.

If this is true without some sort of qualifications, it is an embarrassment to the Cumberland Valley School District:

Adjusting for inflation, the average teacher at CV in 2006 made more than $5,000 less than the average CV teacher in 1995 for doing the same job with the same experience, according to CVEA.

And yay, another snow day school cancellation.

They're disappearing around the nation. Including the one on the Carlisle Pike.

Photo by Maguis & David.

Finally, Sophia's on Market has a web site! My wife and I went there for dinner on Friday night, our Valentine's Day date. We did this last year as well - even though Sophia's is primarily a breakfast and lunch place, and only offers a special dinner or two each month, they are delicious and appropriate for the occasion. I had the Beef Wellington. The surprise hit was in the appetizers - the Raspberry Almond Brie Purses were fantastic.

But you don't have to wait for a dinner. They have excellent lunches. I love the Grilled Chicken Club on Focaccia. If you're in Camp Hill or Mechanicsburg, give Sophia's a shot - you'll be glad you did.

Please.

Small businesses need to be more creative in where they place their advertising dollars. The problem is, small business owners don't have the time to do that, because they have to wear a dozen hats or more every day. Advertising opportunities are missed because the marketing hat can be, and often is, one of the least worn ones.

Larger advertising venues - newspapers, coupon publications and the like - have sales reps that call or visit small businesses, making it much easier and less time consuming to wear the marketing hat. That doesn't make it more effective for the advertising buyer, but that's not necessarily the point.

I just wanted to go out of my way to promote some opportunities for West Shore Small Businesses to advertise themselves online - especially if their marketplace includes families with younger children. HMMS Soccer has a website that takes sponsorships - the business gets their logo on the front page.

CV Softball does the same.

As does Cumberland Valley Midget Football Association.

As a parent and a coach in sports leagues, these kinds of websites are actual destinations for me when I'm looking for schedules, school locations, rule clarifications, tournament information, and more. I'm not alone. In 2006, CVMFA reports that they recorded 49,857 visitors to CVMFA.COM and over 322,955 pages viewed. Seems like a good place to put an ad that says "After the football game, have dinner at ____________".

Actually, not far from my house. Photo by cptdrinian.

I am not overly patient about waiting for a table at a restaurant. We have never eaten dinner at Pizza Grille, so I called the Camp Hill restaurant Friday afternoon to see if they took reservations. I was told no, she asked what time we would be in, I said we'd have four people, around 6:30, and she replied "you won't need reservations, not a problem."

We pull up to the restaurant at 6:30, and the parking lot is jammed, people parking across the street and crossing to get in. I drop my wife off and I go find a parking space. The kids and I meet up with her, and she's been told that the wait was "conservatively, 20 minutes". We took that to mean that the most we would be spending would be 20 minutes.

Thirty-five minutes later, I ask the guy taking names how long until we were ready for a table. "There are two names before yours" I was told. We wait. Ten minutes later, after a party of nine, two parties of 5, and at least eight tables of two had been seated, I go up again. What's the deal, I asked? Are we next?

No - there's another table of four waiting before us.

"Ten minutes ago you told me there were two names before us. Since then, a table for nine and two tables of five and a bunch of other people have been seated. What's up with that?"

"That was two names for a table for four" he answered.

I just shook my head, and we left. We went to Italian Oven, which isn't far away from the Pizza Grille. We waited two minutes for our table. Sure, they don't serve beer, but they do serve customers. The meal was fine. The service was fine. And best of all, I could believe what to expect when I was told something.

I don't know why people accept treatment such as we received at the Pizza Grille from a business. Just walk out. You're paying for a service, including an honest appraisal of wait time, and a reasonable expectation of a table. I don't see parsing such partial answers to questions, due to ignorance or intent, as adequate, and I don't want to add to the profit of such a business. I can't see eating at Pizza Grille in the future because of that. I'm not going to wait an unreasonable amount of time to pay them for food, and I'm not going to wait an unreasonable amount of time AGAIN to decide that it's too long of a wait. I just will pass on Pizza Grille. They haven't earned my business.