I just read a story about 4 pitbulls that were siezed and set to get euthanized because they killed a cat. I hope there is more to the story then that and believe me I feel for the owner of the cat. But am I going nuts by thinking that it is a natural instinct for dogs to go after cats? Do cats get euthanized for mauling mice? If I read the story correctly the cat went into the backyard where the dogs lived. The dogs were pitbulls and yes I have seen how dangerous it can be when a pitbull bites something or someone. And for that reason I will not have a pitbull with my son. But that does not mean that every pitbull is mean or horrible. The owner of the dogs broke into the animal shelter and rescued the dogs. But he was foolish and brought the dogs back to his house so he was arrested and the dogs were taken. Let me repeat, the story was not very decriptive so I do not know if the dogs had done other things. But from the snipet that was in the paper, it seems like the punishment far exceeds the crime.
The bars sucked last night. Thank god for Nashville and Memphis cause all the other bars had pitiful nights.

Yeah right Michael Vick found Jesus. He should be fried. I don't understand the depravity in people that makes them torture animals. I am just disgusted.
My teeth are permanently blue. Jeff M and I polished off 3 bottles of red wine last night.
OK September 5th I will be taping the " Big Idea" show. I am very excited because Kat kora from the Iron Chef will be on as well. The producer called me today and said " Donny is going to ask you at some point to give advice to people at home. Do you think you can be inspirational?" Crap now I'm stressed out. Funny I can do. Serious I can do . But inspirational may be out of my range.

Brooke from New orleans told me a funny story about her son yesterday. She said that she waited for him in the parent's area on the first day of school. When he came out, in front of all the parents he said " mom let's get out of here. It's hot as balls." She was mortified. I told her that I stopped getting upset by those comments cause I realize if I can't stop saying certain things in front of jackson I certainly can not expect him not to say them. So "crap" and :freakin'" are an everyday part of his vocabulary. She also told me that her son said to her after the first day of school " You better not think I'm going there every day." Very funny.
I think Jackson's first week of school went very well. He might not say the same thing but I have resolved myself to the fact that Jackson will be the kid who always complains about school. " Mom, she's pure evil. She works us so hard." " good" " mom what do you mean "good"? Your son is being tortured." " Jackson it's the really hard ones that you learn the most from. " We were walking in the grocery store and he was telling me some stories about his teacher. I said " Jackson, man, you need to learn to play the game. Raise your hand to answer a question every once in a while. Speak french without getting prodded every once in a while. If you do that you will keep her off your back. But if you keep trying to hide and not participate she is going to keep picking on you and I won't feel sorry for you." His dad keeps saying to me " I wish he took after you in school." I was the kid that got straight As without studying. I did quite well untill the end of high school and I attribute that fall to teen age angst and rebellion. (Although, I now feel I have some real evidence against the quality of my english education. I received high marks in those classes yet as the world can see I can't spell or use proper grammer.) Yesterday jackson had " etude" , which is a homework class. The teacher, Jackson affectionately calls the " dark Lord". Yesterday When I picked Jackson up from school he was still in etude. I walked in the classroom and jackson said " mom I keep on forgetting one word." his assignment was to memorize a french poem." When we left Jackson told the teacher that he called him the Dark Lord. The teacher, who speaks very little english said , in his heavy french accent " I like this"
The company work week.. I sent Lee, Kevin B, and an architect to Australia to get specs on a space we wanted to aquire. They fly all the way over there and the day before the meeting Lee gets a call saying the landlord has decided to rent to someone else. I was pissed off, that trip cost me a lot of money. So despite this Lee and Kevin have been busting their asses to find us a new space out there. I am crossing my fingers that they find something.
I haven't looked at last night's numbers but thursday night was pretty mediocre, the only bar that showed improvement was Miami. So I was pleased with them.
Two days ago Travis called me up and said that he went to City hall and paid our property tax bill. In New Orleans there is a tax you pay as a business that is on the estimated worth of your equipment. We have been debating our bill because the new Orleans bar is very small and the equipment is over 5 years old. I said to Travis " great I am glad you straightened that out. But I also said " are you sure it was the right tax?" Because I personally know how disorganized the New orleans system is and how easily it is to make a mistake. A half an hour later I get a call from Travis who is sitting at our accountants office. " Lil I paid the wrong tax, it was actually a tax for the building not the bar." Fucking great. That particular bill I did not want to pay yet because 1. it was huge and 2. the accountants told me to hold off untill they made sure that the city had factored in certain deductions etc. So I had to tell Travis to put a stop on the check but part of me is scared that they meaning " the man" is going to be pissed off we stopped the check and add on penalties ect.
Nothing like a little stress to keep you on your toes.

Yesterday morning I get a call from one of the people at the " Big Idea" show. She tells me that I have a 6:30 am flight out of New Orleans. I will be on the show as the 4th guest after the Sam Adams beer demonstration. Then I will head back to the airport at 2pm sit there all day until my 8 pm flight which is not direct on coach. She asked me if I could gather some video footage of one of my bars. I told her that she could call CMT for that.
Her: " Why would CMT have footage?"
Me : " Well we have done 2 seasons of a reality show with them"
Her: " You have a reality show?"
Right then I realized that they had not done their research and after watching the " Big Idea show" I was in the spot where you get bumped. I was very cordial but I declined. I just couldn't face such a long day to get bumped by a Sam Adams rep.
Regardless of all that, they have been calling me to reschedual another appearance. Perhaps someone did a little homework this time. I am not sure when I will film. I will keep everyone informed. Very funny stuff!

OK I found childcare and I am doing the show " The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch. I spoke with the assistant producer tonight. " oh Lil by the way we started a new format which is with a live audience." Freaking Great. I then quickly added " can I bring Jacqui and some of my New york girls?" God I hope they get them tickets so I have some back up in the audience.

My baby started second grade today. I was very weepy yesterday about it. He was so cute today when I brought him to school and he showed everyone his new supercool pencil case.
I was asked today to be on the show " The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch . They only gave me a two days heads up and I just don't want to pull Jackson from his first week at school to fly to New Jersey. I went on line to check out the website and I saw interviews with Al Gore, Kathy Ireland, and many other famous people. So of course I am thinking " how many people backed out before they hit the bottom of the barrel and asked me? It would of been fun. Maybe they will ask me again. Oh well

This is a letter I received this week from Wiggins my former employee:

Comments: Get a life! Do you teach your son the same dispicable behavior that you possess? There is no amount of money in this world that will repare your character. You are a mean, selfish, greedy, pathetic, and sad person. Some day someone will wrong your son and you money and power will not be able to fix things. I pray for you...you need it!

MY response:

Wiggins,

I remember taking you as a traveling Coyote. I remember picking you as one of my top 5 girls for the show. I remember asking Jacqui to choreograph a routine ,just for you, after the show. Why don't you look deep inside yourself and assess who is truly at blame for this.
As far as my business and my son go, I will protect them with everything I have. I started this company with my own blood sweat and tears and I won't allow a former employee to use the Coyote Ugly name without permission. Now as far as my son goes, don't bring him into this because he is far out of your league. He has a heart as big as an ocean and we have a bond that is stronger then any humans can have.
Good Luck with your life. I will tell you now if I see you using my good name to solicit yourself or another club I will come after you. It's time for you to make your own way without me or my company.
Lil

Last week someone found a flyer stating that Cassie ( 1st year's show winner) and Wiggins were going to be performing at another bar. The flyer actually read as if CMT and Coyote Ugly sponsered this event. The flyer even suggested that they would show the crowd certain things specific to Coyote. So I called Jeff, he spoke with the CMT lawyers and we called our trademark lawyers. The promotor is a sleazy gut fully aware that he can not use these girls in a manner that has anything to do with Coyote Ugly. His claim is that Cassie and Wiggins found him and hired him to promote them. Regardless all the employees have to sign employment aggreements stating that they can never teach or use the name of coyote ugly outside our bars to soliciet themselves blah blah blah ( even after they are no longer employed by my company)
Both of these girls were fired. Cassie the first year's winner, to be perfectly frank, was never very good. She only won because CMT would not allow the veteran girls to be involved in the first season. But if you put her against the veteran girls she was at the bottom of the barrel.
Now Wiggins was phenomenal. I always thought she was the best dancer in the system. But she came back from the show with such a chip on her shoulder that the GM from Ft. Lauderdale let her go. As the expression goes " there is no i in team". Even after Wiggins was fired I always wished her the best. But now after this letter and the threat to my son, that goodwill no longer exists. I hope she finds her own way instead of being a parasite off my company. Good riddance

What a great time at the Charlotte anniversary. That staff rocks!!! I can't even begin to explain all the funny things that happened during the night. Before we went to the party some members of corporate took Chris W ( Charlotte GM) out for a great dinner at Capital Grill. He is not a big drinker so by his second glass of wine he became very animated. We heard how he was a kung fu master. We heard how he had become a makeup artist. Daniel made some joke and Chris said " man I'll grab your throat with the eagle's claw and then I'll do your make up Bro" I thought Daniel was going to fall of his chair laughing. WE really spent most of the dinner laughing. Kevin showed up with a horrible case of poison ivy so we laughed with him from a distance.
When we got to the bar the girls were awesome. Dwayne was told to be my body guard for the night , he is so great. The staff gave me a Fossil watch but they had it made to have the face read Coyote Ugly. It is gorgeous. I feel so bad because I was so flabbergasted by this wonderful gift that I forgot to give them my presents. I am a fucking idiot!
Let's back track. The morning of the party I went down to the bar to speak with Chris and see Jacqui at dance practice. John one of the bouncers showed me that he had gotten the letters BMF tattooed on his arm. ( We call all of our bouncers BMFs because they are all Bad Mother Fuckers. This is a term that has become synonimous with honor, respect, and love). He then told me that the whole security staff had done this to honor the bar for its 3 year anniversary. I was unbelievably touched. So I turned around and looked at Kyle and said Let's surprise the security tonight and get BMF tattoos. So John was sworn to secrecy and he took us to his local tattoo parlor and we got ourselves BMF tattoos. At night at the party I made an announcement revealing my tattoo along side Kyle. I think the staff was shocked. But it all made sense when one of the security guys came to me and said " I always knew that we were a family here but I never realized how much you guys loved us." Wow I almost cried. Very wonderful night.
" Sherri. I don't understand why you don't believe me when I tell you but I will say it for the world to read. You are an incredible person. You are an unbelievable employee. And we all recognise your dedication and loyalty. YOu have a big future with us."

Whatever they did to install the new ac has created a major flood in my bathroom. When I woke up this morning the leak was so bad that it was leaking through the ceiling of my office. I am in a very aggitated state today. My new ac doesn't work. My rug in my office is completely ruined. The only positive thing to happen today is that my computer was not ruined.
I haven't eaten potatoes in years. I went out and bought a bag of potatoes and made a potato salad which I ate all of. I will be wearing a moomoo to the Charlotte anniversary this week!

I would like to issue a blanket apology to anyone I annoyed yesterday. I was at the New orleans bar and drank way too much so I figure a straight generic " I'm sorry" should suffice. Sometimes I can reach a level of annoyingness that is unsurpassed by others.
On a good note this 21 year old navy guy had ordered a drink from me. When I asked him if he wanted another beer he said, using his best " sex look" " what I want isn't on the menu". 21 That's the same age Bengamin was in the movie " the Graduate". I still got it!

Jackson's school has not started and he has no camp so everyday his dad and I trade off watching him while the other one works. Today Jackson spent the day with me . We swam and played computer games. He has joined this online computer site called webkinz world. You have to physically buy a webkinz stuffed animal then register it online to be able to participate in this online site. There is a section of this site devoted to arcade games and there is one game that I am quite fond of called Goobers Lab. If you know the game bejeweled it is similar to that game. It definitely involves a math mind . To make a long story short , we found an area on webkinz world where you compete against other players around the world , playing your favorite arcade game. I decided to play Goober's lab. It took me four tries but on the fourth try I won the tournament. At that moment Jackson and I were estatic that I won this game. But now I am feeling a bit bad because I probably beat out players under the age of 10. In my defense this particular game can be won by anyone. It's all about how quickly your mind works with patterns and I have seen jackson and my nephew play this game on the same level as I do . But yes I feel rotten that I played on a child's website and beat some kids. Although genius does not escalate or decline with age so I may have been playing against a 10 year old genuis who should of easily beat me since I am more of an idiot savante then a genuis. If I was in the movie " Defending your life" This would be one of those moments played back that I would have to defend.
I want to talk about a book I read recently call " Eat, Pray, Love". this book was written by a former employee Liz gilbert. She wrote the article the" Muse of Coyote Ugly" that caught the eye of Disney and started the buzz for the movie " Coyote ugly". This book she wrote was a personal memoir about the year after her divorce. It was really a wonderful journey through sadness and depression to love. I remember running into Liz at the NY bar quite a few years ago and she told me that she was learning Italian so that must of been the start of her year's memoirs. Her solution to her depression was spending 4 months in Italy, eating. 4 months in India praying. And the last 4 months in Indonesia loving. It's interesting knowing her and reading about her personal resurrection. Jacqui and I speak all the time about some of the main topics in her book. She talked quite a bit about how hard it is for her to meditate and I have those issues currently. The book was really wonderful and after I finished it I called Jacqui and told her how in this book Liz was able to find a true inner peace and happiness unlike anything we have known. And both of us are always talking about trying to reach in ourselves and find this place of true peace. So I ended the conversation with Jacqui " look if Liz can do it, so can I!" Unfortunately the 4 months in three places around the world won't work for me so I figure I'll watch the travel channel and go to more yoga classes.

90 degrees in my bedroom. Sicboy, Pump, and frank came over and put in a new system. thank god. i felt sorry for them because they were working in my attic with no fan. Sicboy told me that he used his laser sensor and it read 192 degrees in my attic. I definitely owe them.
Won a big lawsuit in denver today. I'm very pleased. This guy was so full of shit. Jeff W told me about this man's history of lawsuits across the country in different establishments. Get a fucking job and become a useful person in your community. This is the second time this year that I felt that " I won one against the MAN" I love that feeling. San Antonio kicking ass. Nashville and memphis running a close second and third.
Going to the new orleans bar tonight and have a few cocktails.

A quote from Mike's log last night ( Nashville) " This ain't Applebees Honey!" I had to laugh. Nashville kicking butt last night. On my way to meet Jeff M. He just returned from scouting Australia. Let's see what he has to say.

I just hung up the phone with Kyle and realized that I said " later this week let's plan a three way with you, me , and Chris B." Three way call people. That's what I meant. I am so happy to get back to work!!! I don't feel relaxed after my vacation. Eating and drinking your way through the south of France takes its toll on you.
While I was on my vacation I received a hysterical email from Chantel.
"Lil,
Needless to say I covered for travis yesterday and of course the most
strange things happen when I work a night shift. Tara had to leave because
she slipped at her other job and busted her chin and possibly has a stress
line fracture in her jaw. At about midnight the cops show up with this
Arabic man to speak to Ray one of the bouncers. They step outside to talk.
The Arabic man threatens to cut his hands and feet off because Ray owes him
money. The cops tell the man to leave, they run Ray's name and he is
cleared to go. So he stands back at the door. He tels me that he is going
to run to the bathroom. Well he ran alright, he ran out the back door down
the alley and left dust in the wind. Are you kidding me????"
LOL
New Orleans seems to beat out the other bars with the most insane employee stories.
By the way thank you Blaine. Blaine is a regular at the new orleans bar and he is always doing nice things for the staff and the bar itself. Blaine bought a flat screen TV for the bar so that he and his friends could sit in their favorite area and have a closer view of the games. Thanks!!

San Antonio with another stellar night. Outstanding.
I have not gone through my emails yet. I spent two hours yesterday deleting junk mail and still had over 800 emails waiting to be read.
So glad to be home even though my bedroom ac doesn't work. In France there was no ac in the house that we rented in Bar sur Loup so I was prepared.
Judy my assistant stayed with Cheeto at my house. Holy crap the house is spic and span. In fact I would say that my house has never been this clean. She actually organized my bathroom things which kind of unnerved me a bit but it is nice to have all my products in little containers.
My trip was definitely magical but the last week both jackson and I got very home sick so I pushed up our return trip. I'll post some pictures when I figure out how to download from my new camera. One of the funniest days was going to Monte carlo and gambling with my brother in law. I never play rouletterbut we played a few spins in honor of the Bond Films. I moved to craps after that but my third roll bounced off the table and hit an older woman in the face so I decided to play black Jack. That was a lot of fun. Talk about money. I have never seen so many people driving Ferraris in my life. It was crazy.
Jackson and I were walking on the boardwalk in Nice when an italian guy came over and was chatting ( hitting) on me. Like a New yorker I was trying to walk fast and get away from him After we were in the clear Jackson could not believe that this man liked me. Jackson said to me " That guy was dumb didn't he realize that you're with me." So cute. French women, tall and thin. I was shocked to see how they do not adhere to the new sunblock craze. They put oil on their skin and did not care at all about wrinkles. The pharmacies had more cellulite products then facial creams. I loved the fact that you could go in and just ask for a prescription medecine without a prescription. I ran out of Zyrtec ( prescription allergy medeicine) I went into a pharmacy and was able to get it over the counter. I also got sleeping pills over the counter.
I am now trying to decompress after the trip. I need to jump on my precor machine. Eating cheese everyday is definitely not good for my figure

Jackson and I are back in Nice waiting to take our plane to NYC. What a beautiful country france is. On Monday I will be back at work and I will speak more about my trip.
A big congrats to San Antonio. At the Gm seminar I spoke to the San antonio management about not being second banana to Nashville. Well that got the managers, Daniel , and the staff going and July was the first month in quite a while that San Antonio topped the nashville numbers. Congrats!!! So proud of the whole staff.
I have not read my logs for the last few weeks so I need to catch up this week end. Merci