Let’s catch up, shall we?

It feels just like yesterday when I sat down and wrote my farewell to tech journalism in May. So much has happened since then.

Last I wrote, my wife and I were working on opening a pizza food truck. At the time, we had a thousand different ideas for what we wanted it to be and look like. We spent months looking at trailers and trucks, and each time would get excited about at the prospect of what was in front of us.

But, each time, after taking a step back we’d ultimately decide it wasn’t a good fit; either the trailer was too small, or the truck needed too much work to fit our ever changing vision.

Part of the problem was due to me being set on using either Gozney or Ooni ovens in a commercial setting, which complicated the process due to health and fire department regulations and restrictions. We would have to jump through a ton of hoops to make that specific vision work.

It’s definitely possible, there are many successful mobile pizza businesses that rely on those specific ovens, but we’d have to be creative with the setup.

Then, in July I had the opportunity to attend Wood Fire University in Denver that’s hosted by Fire Within, a manufacturer of mobile wood fire ovens.

The three-day class covers everything you need to know about running a mobile pizza business, with the anchor of the business being a wood fire oven that’s built onto a trailer.

I went into the class intending to learn as much as I could about running the business and learning more about things like dough management and preparation for large events. In my mind, the wood-fired aspect of the class was just something I had to sit through.

The ovens I wanted to use are propane-powered, which is far easier to control and maintain, leading to a more consistent end product for the customer.

However, by the time I left the school – which included setting up and running a full catering service on the last day – I was convinced that a wood-fired oven was the answer to all of our problems.

The Eureka! moment for me came on day two of the class when Chef Tommy was going through all of the various decisions we’d have to make on our journeys, and he talked about how some people suffer from analysis paralysis when starting a business, and how easily it could lead to failure.

Analysis paralysis?

Analysis. Paralysis.

I’d never heard that phrase before. But it hit me like a ton of wood fire oven bricks.

Within a week of the class, my wife and I looked at a used Fire Within trailer. Two days later we made and had an offer accepted, and before the end of August we were owners of a Fire Within Concessionaire trailer.

Shortly after Labor Day, we brought the trailer home after a quick stop at the Fire Within factory for some minor work to make it like-new.

All-in-all, six weeks after attending Wood Fire University, we had a logo, trailer, oven, branded tent, tables and all of the supplies we’d need to setup and run our mobile wood-fired pizzeria.

The only downside? It’s too late in the year to pay for and go through the process of getting licensed. We’ll officially open next spring.

That said, we wanted to learn our new oven, test our processes and get unbiased feedback from people outside of our close friends and family. People who would be honest.

So the first weekend in October, we held two private preview events at our house. On the first day, we made roughly 25 pizzas. On the second day, we made almost 50 pizzas, half of which happened in a 35-minute span!

We didn’t charge anyone, but we did ask them to take a short, anonymous, survey. The feedback was incredibly helpful and something we’ll use to improve before launch.

I’m still so proud of my wife and kids for how they handled all of it. I’m lucky to have them by my side. Much more to come about Sips & Pies.

As for writing, whether it's for this site/newsletter or elsewhere – I'm working on it. I've been testing pizza ovens for CNN Underscored and will have a couple of reviews going live by the end of the month. One of the Gozney Arc XL, the other of Ooni's Koda 2 Max.

I realize some (most?) of you signed up for my newsletter with the expectation that I'd be sharing news, reviews and tips related to technology to your inbox, and while I hope to still do that, I definitely plan on sharing a bunch of pizza content as well.

At the end of a long break from writing on a daily basis, my mind misses it. The creative part of my brain is screaming at me, and I'm going to start listening to it.