Greetings, and welcome to this week's edition of Mad Maggie's Ice Cream email newsletter!

Well, we're looking forward to bidding adieu to May, as this one has been one of the worst in memory. There's less than a week to go in the month as I write this, and I heard on the news this morning that we've had TWO days of temps above 70 degrees so far in May -- not exactly ice cream weather!

The forecast for the week was rain, rain, and for good measure, cold rain. We were so bored, sitting around the store last weekend, that I decided to try to break the spell by decorating a "Sun Cake" -- sort of like some type of pagan token to attract the sun!

Here's a link to the photo on our website:

The newsletter coupon for this edition: Be the first to print out this newsletter and bring it to the store, and you can claim this cake for your own! (It's Coffee over Oreo Cookie, with fudge between the layers, if I recall correctly...)

As part of my "day job", I was in Tucson, Arizona this week to give a seminar presentation on some geeky topic at my company user's group meeting. The weather in Tucson was around 105 degrees, so I'm hoping some of those warm temperatures will follow me back!

New Flavor

I've wanted to make a Key Lime flavor since we started this business. It's not something you find a lot around New England, but I like the taste, and it's very popular in southern parts of the country.

I've had a lot of trouble actually finding the right ingredients, as the flavoring manufacturer that most people in the business swear by doesn't have a New England distributor.

Well, a friend of mine, Ken Bethge, of Maurer's Bittersweet in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, did me a huge favor by adding some extra items to his order, then UPS'ing the Key Lime extract to me separately. We made a batch over the past weekend, and while I think it still needs a little more flavoring, it's not bad! Come by and ask us for a taste and let us know what you think of it -- we need all of the feedback we can get to zero in on the right recipe.

Memorial Day Ice Cream Show -- TODAY!

Last year we learned about the existence of the Pat Whitley Ice Cream Show when some customers showed up from Medford, telling us that they had heard of us from the show.

Pat Whitley's restaurant review talk show airs weekly on WRKO (680 AM) each Sunday morning. Each Memorial Day weekend, he devotes his Sunday morning show to ice cream, and supposedly visits each nominated shop sometime during the summer. Then on Labor Day weekend, he devotes another show to accepting nominations and listening to call in reviews.

While we don't want to influence the results, we do want to make our fans aware that the show is coming up -- in fact, TODAY as I send this! If you're one of those who likes to call in to voice an opinion, we'd obviously enjoy the exposure!

Disappointing Tribune!

I don't know how many of you saw the Lawrence Eagle Tribune for Sunday, May 22nd, but there was a front page article on all of the ice cream stands in the area, and we didn't even get mentioned! They listed stands as far away as Kingston, NH, Merrimack, NH, and even Amesbury, but we, here in their backyard, didn't get a mention.

We're disappointed with this, but it was obviously not a well-researched article, so we're not holding any grudges. I hope one or two of our loyal customers are bold enough to send feedback to their "Sound Off" forum, pointing out their oversight though!

The Andover Townsman also did an ice cream article in their special Memorial Day section, although the article wasn't exactly a hard hitting, deeply researched one.

There's also an article being done for the Boston Phoenix on seasonal ice cream stands, and I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with a reporter talking about our stand, so hopefully we'll get some publicity there as well. I *think* it'll be in next weekend's edition.

We've put a little good natured pressure on our friends over at the North Reading Transcript as well, asking if they could possibly do an article on us, so maybe a little free press from there might be forthcoming as well!

Moon Bounce

As many of you are aware from previous newsletters, we bought a blow up Moon Bounce for use during this upcoming summer. Several folks have called or written asking me when it's going to be up.

Well, again, the problem is the weather. It just hasn't been warm enough to set the unit up very often, as I think we've had it up 4 times so far this season. Unfortunately, it takes a bit of attention to set it up (actually, setting it up is easy, it's folding it back up that's hard...) and I like to be able to dedicate one of my team members to be out in the parking lot to monitor that the kids using it are of similar weights and ages, so that no one gets hurt using it. (Sometimes, they also have to help the blonde kids out of the corners...)

While the weather is still cool, it's hard for me to schedule another team member to dedicate just to this, as the amount of ice cream business just doesn't support it. As soon as the weather warms up though (how many times have I qualified a statement with *that* phrase this season???), we'll try to have it up on at least one regularly scheduled night each week, as well as on some spontaneous times.

When in doubt, always feel free to call the store and ask us if the "Bounce is Up" for the night.

Blonde Joke

This week's Blonde Joke didn't go over too well. Maggie is naturally a reddish-blonde, she calls it Strawberry Blonde, and I always try to get her to go back to her natural color, but she insists on lightening it to "real" blonde.

Well, a trip to CVS, and a swap of the color in her blonde coloring for the one in a nice Auburn, and here are the results

You know what I found out? My dog has it awfully good, sleeping out on the porch on the extra sofa -- it's not really that uncomfortable at all! That loose spring actually hits my back right in a spot so it feels like I'm getting a massage from a large, hairy, Scandanavian woman. In fact, it might even be worth trying this again in the fall...

Memorial Day Coupons

We're running ads in the Andover Townsman and the North Reading Transcript this week, advertising a Memorial Day special offer: Bring in a coupon from the papers, and we'll give you a BOGO offer: Buy One, Get One free on Memorial Day. As a newsletter reader, you don't actually need to bring in the coupon -- just tell us you saw it in the newsletter!

We're planning to open at 3pm on Memorial Day, and will likely be open until 9:30, so come on by and hope that the summer will finally start!

If we're fortunate enough to have some sun, we'll have our Moon Bounce open for the kids, and youngest son David will likely be out front making his balloon sculptures for the kids.

Looking Ahead

I think I've already mentioned it in a previous newsletter, but our annual "Pajama Party" will be held on the last day of school. I'm still not positive that both Andover and North Reading schools finish on the same day, but we'll have a definite date in time for the next newsletter.

That's about it for this edition. Take care, pray for warm weather, and we hope to see you at the store soon!