I sometimes have these humorous stories to write but my wife always says NO. I try to slip them by but unfortunately, she is much smarter than me, so that doesn’t work. I mean I have some great stories I could tell, but she thinks that they cross the line. Maybe I should no longer make this a PG blog but a PG13 blog. Wouldn’t that be something? Then I could talk about religion and politics. Like my story about how the Administrative side of Heaven (you know there has to be an administrative division up there) is all run by deceased DMV workers. Or how all children should be fitted with shock collars at the age of two based on the discretion of their parents. Oh no, here comes my wife. Got to go. Don’t repeat any of this.
So, I would like to make a prediction about when FlapJacks will open, but with about 10 more inspections left, I just don’t know. We could open in as soon as 10 days or as late as the next presidential election (yes, that is 2020). We are still waiting on money from the insurance company and we have a couple of contractors that need to finish some things up, but there is only a couple of days of work left for either of them. We actually have lights and water and an espresso machine, so we are close.
Oct 8 - 14
I am a nonno, which means I am an Italian grandpa. My wife got a txt at 4am this morning that my daughter was in labor and I ran down to the bay area to see little Rory Quinlan. This boy is going to grow up and be a great kid and a fantastic soccer player (his father is a unbelievable soccer coach). Now Rory is a fine name, however I tried to influence my daughter into an Italian first name. I suggested Little Francesco (my first name), to no avail. So I tried Franco and then Giacomo and again, I was turned down. I then tried to get some Papal influence, but he didn’t acknowledge my email. I thought that odd. So I have with much counseling learned to accept Rory. I think it is a great name. Maybe it is not too late to go after a middle name. What do you think of Rory Francesco Giacomo Quinlan?
Tomorrow at FlapJacks, SMUD is coming over to connect our power to their box. This is a big deal because we had to run new underground conduit. So if anyone has any influence with the Pope or SMUD, please do whatever you think might help. If we are lucky and get connected then we will get power 2 weeks after that. It doesn’t mean we can open then but at least we can turn on an OPEN SOON sign.
Oct 15 - 21
It appears I need some help exerting some force on the insurance company to pay up. I have always been proud to be a Toscana, but sometimes it sure would have been handy to be Sicilian. So, since I don’t have that kind of pull, I called our Assemblyman Ken Cooley’s office and a very bright gentleman named Jonathan Glatz comes over to the restaurant to discuss strategy. I am sure our conversation was much different then say a conversation with Michael Corleone, but whatcha gonna do? Anyway, hopefully we will get our money soon. As it is, we have power and water and a sign out front. This week, we will get gas and should get everything in place. I just don’t know how long all the little stuff and inspections will take, but we are close. A family friend suggested we change the name to OPEN SOON. I prefer it just be OPEN, but whatcha gonna do?
Oct 1 - 7
Ok, let’s just all assume I am not a lucky guy. If you were going gambling, you would not want to bring me along. So SMUD came out to hook up the electricity, and somewhere along the way they changed their box and we were not informed. I don’t know if that is the reason, but we could not connect to their new box, which now means we have to go back to the County and pull permits to dig a deep trench and run new conduit from the building to their box. It takes SMUD seven days just to re-inspect, not necessarily hook us up, so this will cost us time.
Ugh.
So I was telling one of our evening customers this story and he tells me this could take two months. I go home and go absolutely nuts. It is late and now I am trying to calm down to go to sleep and I go to the medicine cabinet to see what is left. This situation will require more than my usual Tylenol PM. I look around and there is an old prescription of dog Xanax. That is right doggy Xanax for some surgery he had a long time ago. I am so beyond stressed I take one. After 5 minutes or so I don’t notice anything, but I do manage to get to sleep. Next morning I am bright and bushy tailed. I get to work all excited and run around bussing tables and when I tell the girls what I did they seem to give me an odd look and then they back away. I was told later they were concerned I would mark my territory.
We are trying to expedite the connection and we will see.
