a new addition to the Collins fam

Jon and Tristen got a puppy!! Her name is Mele (i think it's a she). How cute?!? Almost as adorable as my lil bugga roxie! I was told it is a mix between a black lab and a *terrier.


I finally got the letters out for my Germany mission trip - they sent me new business reply envelopes (without postage paid, boo - sorry guys) so I had to wait for the package of new ones, which took a couple weeks, and then unstuff and restuff. it really only took a handful of minutes but, anyway, you should be receiving them shortly.

Last week I bought 576 lollipops, just under a quarter each, at a fundraiser website... they are shaped like soccer balls and I am selling them to raise money for the Chicago Eagles Summer Academy. So tonight Jessica and I brought them to the doubleheader bball game (men's/women's) against Fresno Pacific for a trial run and we sold 70. People asked me if i thought that it was a good night and I told them I wouldn't know until next time =).

Serena and I were arguing about the selling price. She thinks we should sell them for a $1 and i think we should sell them for 50 cents. I figured if we sold them at a dollar we would sell waaay less (even though it provides for the possibility of higher profit if we sold them all), and i also figured if we sold them for 50 cents we would sell out right away - and then if we wanted we could buy more lollipops in bulk. Taryne chimed in and suggested a compromise at 75 cents - in which I replied "who sells something for 75 cents?". my final decision:
marketing genius - yes, thank you. someone comes to buy 1 lollipop and then I upsell them another one for a quarter... result: rapid lollipop buying @ 50 cents each. =)

not so mysteriously missing...

SATURDAY night, my night off of work, I was asked to come in anyway after I got back from San Diego and close the restaurant. The night went incredibly smoothly and after cleaning the store, counting/posting inventory, signing off commissary, adjusting credit card tips, setting the tills and posting deposits for the evening I got out of there by 12:30am. What's even better is that I was Cash Over around $40.

when I returned to work on Sunday I found my manager counting money in the office and he greeted me with, "so how sure are you about your deposit last night?" loaded question? - you bet! my first thought was: was I a little off?, no biggy... what was it? what I replied, "I only counted it once, why what's up?" His face was expressionless and he flat out gave me the most annoying news ever: "There's $160 missing from the cash deposit."

so I'm suspect of stealing cash from Papa John's. My Manager, AJ, told me that he really didn't think I did it - but the guy doesn't even know me so he could just be feeding me lines. it would be pretty easy to rule me out just on simple logic: if im going to steal money I'm not going to do it on a night that I post the deposits or a night that I close the store - because no matter who steals the money IT'S STILL ON ME. AJ talked to the orange country PJ chain store owner and they decided that its not going to come out of my paycheck.

when I left Saturday night after closing I didn't have keys to the building so I kept the magnet lock on the door... earlier that day my former manager, Brandon, showed me how you can strip the magnet lock by forcing the door open. When I left that night he and his friend were sitting in a car eating pizza out in front of the store.

this is my third weekend closing as assistant manager and every night that I have closed the store has been short hundreds of dollars, even during training, with the exception of this last weekend. my first weekend of training Brandon made it sound like it was normal to have cash shortages and gave vague explanations as to why. he also has a huge story about why he's leaving the store but we all know he was fired somehow.

the other possibility is that the day assistant manager swiped eight 20's out of my deposit in the morning. after I found out about the shortage I text Brandon asking him: "did you come in after I left last night?" he replied "No. Is everything ok? I just at a slice of pizza and left minutes after you." I never replied back. Later that evening Brandon called the store and talked to AJ who relayed the following information: "Brandon says that Chris - day manager- called him and told him about taking the money." Ha. How legit that info is do you think?? I have no idea, but my better judgment would say that its a bunch of baloney.

Brandon, the one that potentially was fired, is the manager that gave me the promotion. I'm curious if he has used me to close on the weekend so he could pilfer store cash. pathetic.

I told AJ that I don't want to put up with this tish anymore and that I don't need the stress nor the responsibility. Truth is, I don't even need the job - I'm just trying to help out while I'm in school and doing things like this summer mission trip. So I proposed that we follow procedure when dealing with money: 1. use the time delayed safe to store the deposits and the till with the store cash, 2. every time we have a shift change we should count the tills and make deposits so we know which manager incurred the cash shortage, and 3. the BIG PAPA - every night I want my closing driver to count my cash deposit AFTER I do and when we come to a consensus we BOTH sign the deposit slip (accountability, AND a witness). I am confident that after a weekend of following these procedures we will experience no more major cash shortages, nor will anyone get away with stealing Company money.