Ok, so yes - I have been away forever. If you're still checking my blog to see if I've added new entries...god bless you for your persistence!

So, my time over the last several months has been tied up with a new business venture. Now that the video rental empire is well in hand, I decided I needed to expand my business enterprises. I asked The Big Guy for some guidance, and lo and behold, he answered. He dropped an opportunity to own an old-fashioned soda shop in my lap. It was strange, but hey - when life hands you ice cream, make a hot fudge sundae, right? And thus began our adventures in ice cream.

The soda shop in question is a beautifully restored 1938 establishment that has been lovingly restored to the glory of its heyday. Black and white checkered floors, mirrored barback with glass shelves, pressed-tin ceiling with ceiling fans, and a wealth of historical and kitchy memorabilia on the walls. Floor to ceiling windows are shaded by striped awnings, giving lots of light but not a ton of heat. It even has this nifty luncheonette counter. I fell in love with the place in a heartbeat. BK was cool to it at first but when he saw how smitten I was, he backed me up 110%...a nice thing for him to do, even if he thought the idea might be a touch insane.

I had big plans for the place: bring in locally made ice cream, add a Wurlizter jukebox, hold a grand re-opening with a classic car show and live entertainment, cross promotions with the $2 movie theater down the street, etc. I even started redesigning the menu, and had named all of the dishes after people we know (my dear friend Lerasi advised me to create something with nuts for her, since she claims she's the nuttiest person I know, which really isn't the case. The nuttiest person I know would be yours truly, kthxbye).

All looked well as we started our ice cream dream. We worked for SIX weeks on securing funding, getting the menu redesigned, working with the current owner on transition plans, etc. We got a downpayment together, signed a sales agreement, and then called our new landlords to introduce ourselves to them and to work out the details of the lease agreement. And here's where things go south.

The landlords are...well, how does one describe people that are evil? When we first called to set up a meeting, I was told by the snippy receptionist that I had to go through an "interview" to determine if I'd be accepted as a tenant. Oh and by the way, what the hell did I know about running a food service establishment? I was rendered speechless after this phone call, which people who know me will tell you is something that is darn near impossible. I called the current owner who told me that the interview requirement was hooey and not to go in for it. So I call back, get voicemail, and leave a message indicating I'm not coming in.

An hour later, the landlord's receptionist calls back in a panic that I'm not coming in. I tell her that I want to talk to a number of people, including my accountant and my attorney, and she can sit 'n spin while she's waiting for me to find a time to come in to meet with them. This renders HER speechless and leaves me smiling as I hang up the phone. An hour after that, one of the landlords calls me. She's worries that we're getting off on the wrong foot (an understatement) and wants to get things straight. We have a more or less pleasant conversation, and I feel much better about things. Therefore, I agree to come in and meet with she and the husband to go over the lease and the transition from the old owner. We set the time and all is well once again.

BK and I go in for our meeting with the landlord...and it's a 180-reversal from the previous phone call. These people were barely civil to us, and did everything in their power to run us off. It turns out that we're caught in the middle of a nasty fight between the current owner and the landlords. They bad-mouthed the current owner, all of their other tenants, the health department, and basically everyone they mentioned during our conversation. They told us that we had to agree to open up another restaurant behind the soda shop (it would share a common kitchen with the soda shop) in order to continue prepping and serving food in the soda shop itself, they were going to charge us yearly rent increases (our video store landlord locked us in a 5 year lease with no increases), and they indicated that if the current owner owed them any money, they would come after US for it!

There's more detail I could go into here, but I won't - BK says we should take the high road in all of this, which is just like him. I'm much more hot-headed and would happily post every piece of the garbage we were subjected to during this meeting, but BK is right: we don't need to sink to their level.

Anyway, we left the meeting puzzled and angry. I mean, seriously - these people own a great deal of the real estate in the area that the soda shop is located in. If they wanted to own all of the downtown area, why didn't they just buy the current owner out and be done with it?! Why stick us in the middle of a dispute that isn't ours? Why play mindgames when it isn't necessary? And why, oh why would you badmouth your tenants when there's a better than average chance that the people you're talking to will turn around and share what you've said with the very people being backstabbed?

We did indeed return to the current owner and gave him the scoop on our meeting with the landlord. The current owner, by the way, is someone I happen to adore. He's a delightful person - down to earth, friendly, Christian, and a good ol' fashioned Southern redneck boy. We've got a ton in common, right down to the music we like (he's a Jimmy Buffet fan, as I am. Parrotheads forever!) and our love of powerboats, go figure. When we told him what the landlords had said, he about blew a gasket. I can't blame him, as the spew from the landlords was pretty inflammatory. He immediately agreed to let us out of the sale, refund our downpayment, and was very sorry about the whole ordeal. He understood how badly this hurt me, as it really was something I've been dreaming about for a long time. I mean, c'mon - how cool would it be to own your own 50's style soda shop and ice cream parlor?

So, that's the end of the ice cream dream. The sale is off, our money should be back by next Monday, and in all likelihood, the landlords and the owner of the soda shop will square off in court. I'm definitely happy to testify against the landlords, as they're conniving, underhanded people in my most humble opinion. Greed and the lust for power...when combined, they're a deadly mix. I thank The Big Guy for giving us the chance to chase the dream for a little bit, and I thank Him too, for showing us when to give up the dream. Things could've turned out so much worse than they did, that I can't help but think He meant this as some sort of lesson for BK and I. I haven't quite figured out what it is that He was trying to teach us, but I'm sure I'll get it someday. On the upside, we've got other plans and ideas that we're looking to...maybe one of those is what we're supposed to be doing instead of fudging around with ice cream (sorry, couldn't help myself).

Change of subject: we've got a trip to Vegas planned for November, woot woot!

The cost of two round-trip tickets to Vegas: $450 (much <3 for Orbitz)

The price for a one-week stay in a luxury timeshare that BK and I own: $35 (HGVC's booking fee).

Getting together with four of your best friends in the world to wreak havoc in Sin City: PRICELESS (or the cost of our bail fees).

Now, I just gotta go find me a J-O-B so I can gamble all my money away.

Ok, I'm out...I gotta go work on maintaining my video rental empire. Thanks for coming back even when I don't post anything for a long time.

Mea culpa,

Siren

holy shit! LOL. I'm so sorry to hear things went so badly, but jeez, I'm glad it happened before the sale and not after you spent all the money and are in a no way out situation! :-(

btw, you can readd your tag board if you want, they fixed the spam issue a while back with the addition of the code in order to post. I haven't had spam there since they fixed it.