checking things off the list

relatively sane property lease? check.

resolution to the phone service issue? check. for now.

final approval on bank loans? check.

payroll setup? negative.

chart of accounts finalized? negative.

paper checks? negative.

credit card processing set up? nope.
–
i’ve got one foot in the happy bucket, and the other in a big pile of “holy s&%t i’ve got a ton of stuff to do!!” the good news is that the most important and urgent stuff is taken care of. the bad news is that the stuff that isn’t finalized is the stuff that’s going to be the hardest to do while running the business. i think my books are almost ready, but i don’t know what values i’m supposed to put in everything. i think the payroll should be easy to put into place, but i’ve never done it before. i really don’t want to hire a bookkeeper, but i’m thinking about doing it for a few months, just to get everything set up and happy.

recommendations?

exercise in futility

the landlord has sent me approximately eleventeen documents today, and still hasn’t sent me a completed and correct set to sign and take to them. they’ll get one right, and get three wrong. fix the ones that were wrong, but send me a version of the one that was right that has been changed, meaning it’s now wrong. then when they send me versions of everything that are correct, they’re marked as non-executable, meaning i can’t sign them.

to recap:

who’s on first.
what’s on second.
why’s playing left.
because is out in center.
i’m assuming this is an american league team, so i’m going to insert “whereas” as my designated hitter.
(why whereas? because i’ve read that word so many times on contracts today that i might start using it as my name.)

and, of course, i don’t know is playing third.

the home stretch

so much for the calm before the storm…2 days until closing and the following “hurdles” have popped up:

-my application with the bank for the loan sat dormant for a long enough period that it was closed. 48 hours to get it reopened, approved, and ready to send a wire. the banker says it’s doable, but even he sounded a little stressed.

-the leasing company has decided to change the lease terms on me, and we’ve been in a sparring match of proposals, counterproposals and revisions for the past 4 days. i don’t mind changing the lease, but i can’t help but feeling that every email my attorney types and every contract he revises costs me gobs of money.

-comcast just called and told me that they can’t port the phone number (transfer it from at&t to comcast) on friday because i don’t currently own the phone number. so i have to have the current service changed from the old owners to me, wait for a bill from at&t and then call comcast to move the number.

let’s recap: 46 hours 48 minutes until I close. 59 hours 47 minutes (clock changed) until I take over and i have no loan, no lease and no phone.

pass the maalox.

truffle shuffle 01.21.08 (t minus 9 days & counting mix)

hope everyone had a good weekend. aside from a cold that had me layed up for a couple of days, mine was pretty fun. the preds won twice, i got “pre-launch” work done for the crag, including almost finishing the icon (see below), and had a temporary crown put on the tooth that i had root canaled a month ago. oh, and i found a bag of rubber bands to add to my rubber band ball at comp usa while i was sorting through power supplies and other odds & ends for the gym.

i think i’ve got my marketing calendar all lined up for my first year. i won’t open the box and give all my secrets away too early, but i can safely say that we’ll be running a ton of promos, specials and events in the first year. i hope that one or more appeals to you and that you’ll be able to come visit me at THE CRAG!!! i’ll go ahead and tell you we’re running a valentine’s day promo that i think will be lots of fun.

sorry you didn’t get a shuffle out of me on friday. i was in headless-chicken mode getting stuff lined up for the closing & takeover. i met with my web guy friday nite, my interior designer thursday nite, worked with my graphic artist all weekend and spent an hour on the phone last nite with my signage guy (that’d be my brother, father of the ever-beautiful kaya rose). i’m not one to disappoint, so i’m making up for it today, on this sloppy monday. hope the shuffle brightens your day (or possibly the corners, hat tip to pavement). looking back at it now that i’ve run through the songs, it certainly is brightening mine!

bring it on, babies:

1. far, far away – wilco (being there, disc 1)
2. my little japanese cigarette case – spoon (ga ga ga ga ga)
3. do ya – peaches (impeach my bush)
4. nothing can change this love – otis redding (sings soul ballads)
5. beautiful freak – eels (don’t know the album)
6. countdown – john coltrane (giant steps)…album and song both so appropriate.
7. wished for song – kate york (sadlylove)…i so love my friend kate york. if you don’t currently listen to her, you’re only hurting yourself.
8. someone take the wheel – the ‘mats (all for nothing)
9. somebody’s sleeping – ryan adams (live at mercury lounge, nyc 08.08.98)
10. use it – the new pornographers (twin cinema)

oh, and here’s the logo. sorry for the crappy picture. it’s a camera phone pic of a screen shot, uploaded to flickr. that’s the visual equivalent of a 6th generation bootleg…

on taylor swift and the death of country music

last nite as i was walking through the living room i just happened to notice that taylor swift was the musical guest on the tonite show (for the record, i don’t like the tonite show, nor do i care for taylor swift). with a guitar that was louder than porter waggoner’s suits it was hard not to notice! she’s a cute girl, and i understand that she writes her own songs. that’s cool and all. nonetheless, she’s bad for country music. here’s why:

while ms. swift looks country enough, her band looked like a bunch of rejects from some sort of music reality show. the guitar player and drummer got kicked out of the emo band for not having the right haircuts (but they kept the emo drum kit and prs-les paul knock off). the bass player decided that ska was dead, but still liked wearing the outfit. the acoustic guitar player apparently was an extra on the partridge family: the “whatdya mean feathered hair’s out?” years. the banjo player didn’t know whether he was doing studio work for hootie and the blowfish or was shooting a wrangler ad with brett favre. not a cowboy hat, western shirt, cowboy boot or steel guitar in sight.

and they want me to think this is country music? i had to listen, just to see what this melting pot of mediocrity sounded like. it pretty much sounded like it looked. like pop music with a fiddle and a banjo added for decoration. the only reason this crap is country music is because they market it to people as such. if atlantic or capitol or whatever label put this crap on the shelves decided it was gonna be teeny rock, all they’d need to do is swap out the fiddle and banjo for an extra electric guitar and an organ player, tell taylor to lay off the hickville twang, and maybe give someone a visible tattoo.

God help us all when john prine, kris kristoferson, willie nelson and george jones die. all we’ll have left to keep us from entering the seventh level of shitty music hell will be george strait, and he doesn’t even play the damn guitar! he just holds it like he was born with it around his neck!

for the record, i blame the eagles. the eagles and garth brooks. the eagles for turning gram parson’s vision of country music into a glitzy, shiny shmaltzfest and garth brooks for doing dumbass stuff like smashing acoustic guitars on stage, swinging from rope ladders, and generally turning country music from something you two step and waltz to into a frickin’ circus.

yup, just one more reason to hate them both.

(edit 12.14.08: i’m tired of people commenting on this post, so i’m turning comments off. let’s move on…)

decisions, decisions

the short list of things that i have to decide on and get done between now and february 1st when i open (takeover?) the crag at cool springs (sorry for the name drop):

-color scheme and style guide
-logo/icon/meme
-signage
-website/url
-accounting/gl code setup
-electric & gas switchover
-approval on lease transfer
-phone & internet setup
-clean
-paint
-install signage
-software system setup & training
-learn how to process payroll
-learn how to do pretty much anything related to human resources
-learn how to process taxes, both sales & payroll
-learn how to screen print
-print staff shirts, and hopefully some shirts to sell
-somehow find time to create some collateral

…and i thought i had a lot of shit to do when i was working for the man!

1 ticket to slimville, please

the first full week (and a few days) of project185 has been a big success!! i dropped 2.4 pounds from the 6th to 14th, and i was diligent about being on the bike, despite all of the other madness going on with buying the gym.

last week i logged 40 miles on the bike, plus an hour on the trainer doing a race simulation dvd from carmichael training systems. i did a good job limiting my alcohol to one drink a day, except for saturday when i allowed myself 2-3. i’m still struggling to not “give calories away,” with compulsive snacking and poor food choices, but its getting better.

question for the audience:

i want to set benchmarks along the way, but i can’t decide how many carrots i need, nor can i figure out how large they should be. my initial thought is to get myself something sorta smallish when i hit 200lbs (maybe slaphot and mystery, alaska on dvd), something a little bit nicer when i hit 190 (?) and a nice new riding jersey when i hit my target weight. does anyone with experience with this sort of stuff have a recommendation?

ps-
turning in a 2 week notice is sort’ve like having a 2 week victory lap. i actually just told someone that i couldn’t wait for the coffee machine because i have some “serious dicking around to do.” ohhhh, the liberation.