Lil Spill

Friday, July 20, 2007

C’est bonne!! Finally last night we received our bag. Thank god. Wearing the same clothes for three days is my limit. Today Jackson and I are going to a town called Villefranche sur Mer. It is a medieval port town. Supposedly it is very magical. We met a daughter and Mother traveling together . They are from Lebanon going through Italy and France shopping. They are Armenian by ethnicity and the mom knows 7 languages and the daughter knows 5. Very impressive. Man they can shop. She knows every price to every designer bag in every city. As americans you get your information from CNN, news paper, etc. Beirut, their home, is only featured as a horrible, violent city. What the mom told me was that the city is not what it used to be and their is definitely a lot of danger but she also told me about another side to the city. Swimming , shopping, parties. The daughter is 15 wearing Burberry, carrying Louis vuitton, and wanting her fashion choices to imitate Hillary Duff. They are a cute team.
Finally Jackson spoke french yesterday. He has been very shy about speaking so I have had to summon my high school french lessons to communicate. I know this is not solid parenting but I got a bit annoyed yesterday ” Jackson you have gone to french school for 3 years ” speak french”. I am hoping he starts stepping up.
I have no idea what’s going on in the bars today.

posted by Liliana @ 4:03 AM

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

C’est magnifique. Jackson and I arrived in Nice, Fance this morning. Unbelievably beautiful. I am so thankful it is beautiful cause as tradition would have it the airline lost our luggage. It’s like a curse with me.
I had planned this vacation for many months. But like a consumate company man Jeff W made sure I had a few meetings while I’m here. I have to laugh cause this was the easiest way for the company not to have to pay for my trip. Thanks to starwood I got 5 nights free at a few gorgeous hotels cause I have so many points. I still have about $30,000 points left. Delta sucks. I have 100,000 points and they told me that I still could not upgrade. Airline points are such a rip off now adays.
I forgot to write about something funny that Travis wrote in a manager’s log. ” why can’t I hire any normal, balanced people?” ” I asked our new door guy why he had so many bruises on his body and his response was ” cause I have to crawl through the window to break into my house every night.” C’est la vie!
Thank god my i phone works cause as luck has it I can’t use my new camera. When I arrived here I realized that they never took the security packing off the memory stick. jackson and I have tried to beat this thing with a hammer and we still can’t get it open.
Please god let my luggage come tomorrow!!!

posted by Liliana @ 12:43 PM

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Denver and charlotte are rocking this week. It’s exciting to wake up in the morning and run to the computer in antiicipation of the numbers!! Great job.
Really great GM seminar. I have a lot of good people working in the company. I called jeff W today and told him that he would be so proud of all of corporate. I felt like everyone of the corporate employees really did an excellent job of teaching and describing what they do. Even as an owner I felt like I learned a lot. I wish that Jacqui and jeff W could of made it because it would of made everything complete.
The one downfall was that the ac broke so we spent 2 days in the corporate office just drenched in sweat. Jeff M and chantel called in our local ac guy. But he does favors for us and can only come when he is finished with his appointed rounds. I said to both of them ” don’t you think this was an important enough situation to call someone else in for an emergency fix?” On those lines too, ” could you pay someone a couple hundred bucks to clean the office from top to bottom?” You have to love both of them because the idea of paying anyone for anything doesn’t occur to them. I taught them well. Unfortunately I’m old and I need AC when it is 95 degrees outside, I also need to have a bathroom that is clean. Very sad state of affairs when I can say that the bar bathroom is 100 times cleaner then the corporate office bathrooms.
Fun notes ” The first night that the managers were in town, the New Orleans regulars threw an incredible bbq at the bar. I want to say thanks! The New Orleans regulars always do so much for everyone at the bar. They treat everyone with such respect and they went overboard with this bbq. I am so gratefull guys thank you. Blaine bought all these steaks and Gaslight marinated everything and made an incredible potato salad. Those are only two people but there are so many more that are part of our Coyote family.
After the BBQ everyone went back to my house and went swimming. I received this comment from daniel ” Lil you just earned so many points by playing chicken in the pool” I have never heard a word of praise from Daniel ever. I would of expected praise to come from my hard work but I will take it where I can get it and if playing chicken in the pool scores me some points , then great. Kellor from austin and Gabe from Denver were the drunkest. When I went to drive the whole lot home , Lee and Chris B could not get gabe to put on his pants and shirt ( swam in underwear) He wrapped a towel around himself and left in the car. I was a bit upset with him about his behavior but when I went outside the next day to clean the yard and pick up his stuff, I realized he had left all of his belongings in direct line of the sprinkers. So His clothes, phone, and passport were soaking wet. You reap what you sow.
Last night Travis outshined all the male managers by proving that he knew in entirety the dance “sugar” ( a choreogrphed dance) . It was quite funny and the female managers were laughing considering he probably did the dance better then some of the girls. All and all a very fun and educational seminar.

posted by Liliana @ 2:04 PM

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

We are throwing a GM seminar in New Orleans this week. It is nice to see all the GM’s together. It occurred to me last night how wonderful the people are who work for me. It is so nice to be around people who have such a love for their bars and the company. It makes me feel very good to be part of that. It’s funny how things work out. Yesterday we focused on bartender training and how important it is to train these girls on strict drink service. After all my meetings were over I stopped by the New Orleans bar, my home bar and Chantel’s home bar. Chantel is the supervising regional manager. That being said the girl who worked at the New Orleans bar was the worst trained girl I have ever seen. Chantel and Travis will be spoken to today.
When this is all over I can’t wait to take Jackson to the new Harry potter movie.

posted by Liliana @ 8:52 AM

Friday, July 06, 2007

The san Antonio girls looked so beautiful last night. So wonderful to see how proud they were on their 3 year anniversary party. Some of the Austin staff came down, which is always trouble. I think kellor was drunk and sick by 9:30. I don’t think the girls truly get how much I care for them, in all the bars. I take pride in watching their progress . I like hearing about what is going on in their lives. I spent time with Lyndsey’s baby. He is so beautiful and good. ( heavy) I forgot how much your arms hurt when they are that age. I am really proud of the staff there. They did a 180 from last year. I am so happy.

posted by Liliana @ 9:53 AM

Monday, July 02, 2007

I am exhausted. I had an appointment with the passport agency to renew jackson’s passport. 3 hours waiting in line. that sucked.
Jackson does not get how lucky he is. His old passport had stamps from all over the world. This teenage girl came with her father and was applying for her first passport. When she saw Jackson’s she seemed a little upset.
I just read the managers logs from last night. A new girl from Ft Lauderdale was working her first shift and asked to leave cause of period cramps. “Adrianna give her the boot. ” I hate that shit. ( although a girl who leaves in the middle of her first shift probably has no intentions of coming back)
I was reading Kyle’s manager’s log. ” Pisser and the crapper were clogged.” Sometimes you think things in your head. And in your head you use a very loose vernacular. But come on you don’t still have to use that style when you actually write it and send it to many people. How hard is it to change it to ” the urinal and the toilet were clogged.”? The brutal truth is that it made me laugh , so for that I am thankful.
Daniel called me a few days ago because I asked him to book my favorite hotel in San Antonio. He calls me back ” Lil they hate Coyote there” I love this particular hotel so I know it involves me checking in and tolerating the 5 minute lecture on how the SA bar sucks and then groveling ( with dignity) . We all know the san antonio bar is great but there was one time they sent hotel guests to the bar. One of the woman in the group got sprayed with water on her new dress . And the group was a bit appauled by the language the girls used on the microphone. Recently they can’t stand us because the girls bring flyers to the hotel. Again I love this particular hotel so I will listen to the complaints from the concierge , I will apologize and tell the San Antonio staff not to bother them.

posted by Liliana @ 1:18 PM