Franchises

Owners of franchises have to rely on their head office, who gets a percentage of every burger sold, to maintain company standards. I would say McDonald's is the best at this. You will LOSE your store if you don't keep up with company standards. Now, their standards are not high enough for me but they are consistent. With the exception of my overstuffed cup of ICEd tea recently Mickey D's does a heck of a job at being CONSISTENT. You buy a burger in SacTown or a burger in New York city and it will taste just about exactly the same, will look just about exactly the same, and will cost about the same. This contributes greatly to every Mickey D's owner. People that are satisfied with the Mickey D's quality can always rest assured their burger will have 2 pickles, 1 swirl of mustard and 2 swirls of ketchup. The meat will probably be from the same farm and the bun will be made to the exact specifications that Ronald yells from the rooftop at the home office in Illinois. With this in mind people buy burgers at Mickey D's when visiting a strange city as they know what to expect. The local diner MAY be better and it may be horrendously bad and serving horse meat.

Why am I talking about franchises today? Any of my readers know my favorite breakfast spot is the Original Pancake House... aka: the Original Pimp House. Though it is high quality it is also a nationwide franchise. Kitty Kat and I have been to the first store in Portland a number of times and also been to stores in San Jose, Los Altos, Denver, Honolulu, Scottsdale, Poway, and probably a couple more I am forgetting. They are always high quality and very similar. The decor is similar, the prices similar and the long wait for a table are similar. That is, until this past Thursday....

We were in San Diego for a couple days to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of our So Cal relatives. We hit the OPH in Escondido which is on the north side of San Diego. It was equa distance to there or the one in Poway so we opted to try a new one. We called, and following general OPH practice, they did not accept reservations even for our party of 10. However, they said there was no wait. Hmmmmmm, yes it was Thanksgiving but it was like 9:00 AM and you are telling me nobody else is going out for pancakes on Thanksgiving!? I was surprised.

We found the OPH without much trouble, parked and rushed inside to beat some others inside to get our name on the waiting list. I was SHOCKED to see the place 85% EMPTY. Finding a table for 10 could be our choice of several locations around the circular restaurant. We were seated at a marginal table near the kitchen door, overlooked the poor seating selection of the host, and began perusing the menu. The menu looked similar to our OPH in Roseville. Apple Pancake, Dutch Baby, pumpkin pancakes as the special, etc.... Prices were actually a few pennies CHEAPER than up here in SacTown which seemed odd.

We ordered an apple pancake as an appetizer. Let me start by saying I have had the apple pancake at 6 or more OPH locations and this one was NOT consistent with the others at all. It was like they used a different recipe. The thing was breaking apart, sliding around the plate, and did not have that usual eggie foundation that an apple pancake should have. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would put it at about a 4. Very disappointing!

The fresh fruit options for Kitty Kat's waffle were... ahhhhhhh... NONE. The waitress said she could get some melon if she liked. I was picturing a nice big OPH waffle with a big hunk of cantaloupe on top so was not surprised when Kitty Kat turned that down. She went for the plain waffle.

One thing that the Roseville store does different than most OPH's is bigger glasses for iced tea and they do have a soda fountain so Kitty Kat can get her Diet Coke on. The Escondido store had the traditional small iced tea glass (about three gulps for me) and no soda fountain. No biggie for me as I just had the wait staff filling me up throughout our time there. Bigger deal for Kitty Kat as she couldn't get her morning groove going without her fountain Diet Coke. Bummer.

Then the waffle arrived and... well, that's when we realized OPH needs to work on their franchise consistency. The thing was a little, tiny, flat, and BORING waffle on a plate. I would have eaten five of them as I had gone on a great 75 minute run that morning and was famished. I'll tell you about that another day; it was a glorious run along the coast and up into the Torrey Pines state park. Luckily I ordered an omelet which was normal sized though too many veggies inside. I thus was able to re-fuel my body.

Anyway, the meal was fine but certainly not what we have come to expect. It was particularly disappointing as we had guests with us who had not dined at OPH before. I think they were wondering why we would drive 15 minutes for breakfast when there was a nice looking buffet at our Marriott. The next morning we could have gone to the other OPH, up in Poway, but instead went to IHOP near our hotel. Now, IHOP was worse than the OPH in Escondido but at least we expected that. IHOP has standards that are met nationwide. It costs about 40% less than the OPH and is about one-third as good. However, it was what we expected.

In conclusion, if down in Diego go to the OPH in Poway and not the one in Escondido!

Peace out.

Random Thoughts on a Friday

I don't know about you but I really like Friday's. I hate to sound like Loverboy but I sometimes do feel as if I am working for the weekends. Anyway, I have a busy day including a 3:00 appointment. Oy vey! Who the heck schedules an appointment at 3:00 on a Friday!? Luckily I did 100 minutes of cardio at the gym this morning and feel great! Ready to attack the day!

Had lunch yesterday with a colleague of mine who is in his 50's, conservative, Mormon, and father of many kids... including some adoptees. As we ended lunch he mentioned, ironically, that the Obama win might be great for two of his adopted kids who are African American. I think he is very correct as my man, the Top Mack, recently indicated to me it's different out there now, for people of color, after the Obama win. White people are treating African Americans better says the Top Mack. I suspect it's a combination of that and some pride and a boost of self esteem. However, whatever the case that's a great result of the Obama win. However, let's get back to my Mormon friend. Traditionally members of the Mormon church vote overwhelmingly for Republicans (to quote Seinfeld, "not that there is anything wrong with that"). I wonder if they might have some interesting political conversations in the next few years in their house as the kids come of age with the pull of family and religion on one side and the pull of their heritage on the other. Only time will tell....

I was thinking about moving my 401k to cash. I have always been a buy and hold guy with my 401k. I didn't even have my on-line access information since I have never looked at it on-line. I figure it doesn't matter from day to day so I don't look. I often don't look at my monthly statement. However, as the stock market free falls maybe I need to do something!? Well, I got on-line and my stomach danced... and not a happy dance. Oy vey! From the peak this year to the current is just over a 40% drop. I felt bad for myself. My 401k wasn't huge to begin with and now it's worth 40% less than at the peak this year. Should I move it to cash? I decided it just doesn't matter. I will likely never be able to retire anyway so why worry about it!

Well, with that happy news it's time to work.

peace out.

Oh not the books...

I was watching the TV news last night. The story of the fires down near Santa Barbara came on. Let me start by saying I am very sorry for everybody's losses down there and hope the firefighters are able to contain it soon and contain it without major loss of life. As I read the paper this morning it sounds like there are more fires down in SoCal as the Santa Ana's are blowing!

The story, on the TV, was interesting. They showed pictures of multi-million dollar mansions, owned by people such as Oprah, which are in danger. My first thought was how often does Oprah really get out to Santa Barbara and does she really need a 10,000 or 20,000 square foot home there? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just rent half of the Four Season's and fly in, on a private plane, whatever of your stuff you want to have with you? Even a minor actor such as Christopher Lloyd, from Back to the Future, had his home damaged... but it didn't sound like it was his only home as his "caretaker" had to escape the flames. I don't know about you but I have ONE home and ZERO caretakers at my pad.


That's not the point of my story though. They interviewed one guy who was near tears because his house was a total loss. Was he upset about losing the family pet, his life's photos, his children's teeth that the tooth fairy had taken, or whatever other ONE OF A KIND items that he may had? NO! The old dude said, in cracking, near teary, voice... "I lost every book I have owned since I was eleven." The dude was probably 70 so had about 60 years of books in his house. Is that really necessary?

Ok, let me break the news to you dude... that's just paper. That's just paper you probably NEVER look at. That is just your OCD side kicking in that has caused you to save "every" book you have owned since you were eleven. That's scary. I used to have your problem and hoarded everything. It seemed that everything I owned was part of a "collection." You know what? That's just CRAP! It's really just a bunch of garbage.


I honestly think the fire did that dude a favor by burning up his books. I think we have all asked ourselves at times what would I save if I only had a few minutes to get out of the house. I say pets (even though I don't really like them that much), photo albums, and the kid's baby boxes with assorted stuff that I know Kitty Kat does not want to lose to a fire. However, what about my $30 or $40 g's worth of baseball cards? Honestly, it would be doing me a favor to burn them up. Sure the insurance company wouldn't give me the true replacement cost of $30 or $40 g's and would probably give me about 1/10th that amount. However, that would be fine. I would go buy a few special cards and I would gain a large walk in closet, once my house was rebuilt, for other stuff to be kept in. Actually, I wouldn't have any stuff after the fire so the kids could use that closet for hide and seek or make a little fort it in or something!?

Seriously though, I think we as a people get way too worried about our collections of crap. I like my baseball cards but every single one of them is replaceable. If I really wanted to I could buy every single one of them again. I have a list of most of them and it's saved on computers in multiple locations so the list should survive the fire. If I wanted I could go spend $40 or $50 g's and get every card again. However, would I?

I really would not. I would buy a few special cards like I have now: '49 Robinson, '63 Rose, '67 Carew, '72 Erving, '80 Bird/Johnson/Erving, '86 Jordan and of course '94 Allen. However, do I really need complete sets of Topps from 1974 through 1991? I should say NOT. What about the 25,000 ungraded "star" cards? No, I don't need those either. They all just take up space. Give me a few special cards and I am good.

I believe the book man down in Montecito should listen to this. Go to some special bookstore, maybe in New York or London, and buy a FEW great books. Put them on display so you and your friends can see them. Make sure the display can be opened so people can actually READ these books. Beyond that, why the F' do you need EVERY book you have owned since age 11? That's just plain STUPID. If nothing else you created a great environment, with all that dry paper, for the fire to spread. I would call that contributory negligence!

peace out.

Down by a river

Probably my last India post from momz and then I hope to have something good to tell you about. Not sure what yet but something will come up I am sure!


Just had our last tour this morning. Tonight is faraewell dinner. Tomorrow, Fri., we fly to Delhi. Early Sat morning we fly to London. Arrive about noon London time.

We have been out at very early hours for several days. Five thirty this morning to see people bathing in the Ganges. This ia a holy city for Hindus.

The mob scene at 6 am on the river was amazing. On the way to the Ganges River site we passed a religious procession of Sikhs and our driver went through the center divider and onto the opposing lanes -- so did everyone else going in our direction. One can experience excitement in many many ways here.

Last night we also went on a boat in the Ganges and observed one of the crematoriums. They are on the river side with steps going down. Whatever level the river is, they can get to it. There were boats unloading firewood most of the time we were there. The cremations are done outdoors in separate fires. Each body takes about 3 hours and the family and friends stay there for the entire time. They use sandal wood and incense, and there were no bad smells. It seemed rather nice and personal compared to sending our relatives to a building where we can't even see the inside.

There is a hindu service on the riverfront at sunrise and sunset. We experienced most of it last night. Huge waves of incense. Burning triangles like Xmas trees. A huge mob which we are told will be ten times the size tonight. Tonight is full moon.

All for now.
Lots of love, Mom

Indian Four Seasons

This email from India makes a Radisson hotel sound like a Four Seasons. I am going to leave the typos. I am guessing the keyboard mom is on sucks! Here you go:

It' getting easier to get a computer suddenly.

We had our train adventure today. The windows were too dirty to look out. The food trays ere dirty. The seat acks were dirty. The hot water holders were filthy. I don't nderstand why standards are not higher. There is trash on the ground in every town and few dumps. Often you see people and or animals going through the trash in the towns.

It was interesting to see the people at the train stations. They were sitting on the concrete outside having a picnic or taking a nap. It always looks like one big party here. People don't have muh, ut they are smiling.

We are in a Radisson tonight. Very attractive. Lots of staff members knocking on our door. Turn down service, fruit and cookies, who knows what else.

We had lunch at a 400 year old mansion in a small village. The youngest descendant of the person lives there in an upper apartment and there is a restarant and hotel. Lunch was fine. Then we toured a little of the mansion and had a walk arond the village with a staff member. The kids ere saying hello and asking for pens and rupees. We had been told by the staff member not to give the kids money. I told them that rupees wren't good for kids. It was fine antering with them.

Sometimes I feel like we are missing life here by being on the bus, but a few minutes at a abazaar are exhausting etween the people showing us something to buy and the beggars asking for food. I gave aay two ananas this morning and they were well received.

We see lots of little kids in no clothes or no bottoms. Often the toddlers are carried by a slightly older sibling. Women carry some babies; often they look barely alive. They look stiff.

We had a risky bus driver this afternoon. Fortunately we get a new one tomorrow. Our first driver was with s for 10 days and he was great. His helper would pass out water to us, give hand gestures to drivers on the non driver side of the bus, etc. Every bus driver has a helper. The helper opens the door for us to get out and stands at the bottom and helps us down the steps.

It would be nice to give a few bucks to every beggar, but that causes almost a riot because the news spreads quickly and more and more people want money. At the train station there was a young man with elephant sized feet. It looked like his feet had been blown up like balloons. He couldn't walk very fast and walked on the sides of his feet instead of the soles.

Tractor Guy seemed a bit better today. He did it all with the group.

Lots of love, Mom

Don't drink the water

Got another email from my momz over in India. In case you are interested:


Saw the Taj Mahal this morning (got there by 6am and waited for the gate to open) and the Agra Fort later on. Then went to a factory where they make inlaid marble products. They use semi precious gems to make designs on marble. We saw making the grooves in the marble to hold the stones and others putting pieces of stones together for different patterns. Lots of intricate hand work.

Dell feels lousy -- sore throat, cold. He skipped the second tour this morning and slept. I seem to be more or less healthy and feel good. Still some congestion and cough.

Tomorrow we have a 2 1/2 hour train trip on which we are not allowed to eat the breakfast provided. Only bottled water. Then a bus ride, maybe the same length. We will end up in Kajuraho where they have temples with erotic art. The next day we fly to Varanasi where many people go to die. It is a very holy city on the Ganges river where there are lots of crematoriums and people making prayer offerings of candles and flowers which float on the water. I read that it is not unusual to step over dead bodies in the street. We have not seen anyone that we knew was dead. When we are driving around 8-10 am and I see someone still apparently asleep on the sidewalk, I ofter wonder if they are still alive.

So much of life is in public view, it is hard to believe. When we left our camp stop (fake tent, really a cabin with a tent top on the ceiling) we rode through the little village in a home made pick up truch taxi with a water pump motor powering it. The kids along the was were all waving. We passed several men who were standing on their front stoops brushing their teeth and spitting into the dirt road.

It is amazing how many people we see bathing wherever there is water available. Some are naked, some in short shorts or undies. But, never a woman. We don't know when or where they bathe or relieve themselves. Whenever we see a man with his back to us, it's pretty clear what he is doing. I saw one faciing us, hand on penis, but busy watching our bus drive by.

The local buses are pretty interesting, too. Sometimes 50 people sitting on the roof cross legged, with nothing to hold on to. I don't know how they avoid falling off. In Calcutta the buses looked like they had had at least 50 years of hard service. They are so dented and dirty. Usually no glass in the windows which is likely cooler. Delhi had modern busses. The small towns had the pick up truck busses and jeeps (front seat and back seat) which they can fit about 20 people into and holding on at the back.

There are also lots of bicycle rickshaws and motorized rickshaws (3 wheeled taxis called took-tooks in Bangkok). We rode in bicycle rick shaws in old Delhi. The streets were so narrow that 2 rickshaws could hardly pass. Our driver would also warn people with an arm to get out of the way. The 2 seater seat behind the bibycle is of course wider than the bike. It was a fun experience in spite of the discomfort. Many stores floors are raised about 3 feet more than normal and the merchants sit on the floor. The costomers stand in front of the store in front. The whole street is about 5-6 feet wide. The streets are just body to body. Tourists and locals and school kids are riding in the rickshaws. Others are walking.

Love to all of you.

Competitive Sports

The SacTownGuy is NOT one of those crazy parents, roaming the sidelines, yelling at the coaches, yelling at the refs, yelling at the players, and doing everything possible to get himself kicked out of the park... however, the SacTownGuy is not a hippy sitting on the sideline smoking some reefer while the kids are picking daiseys. The SacTownGuy expects his kids to play with intensity, work on fundamental skills and play hard. The SacTownGuy does not want to breed a fat, sloth, who cries when they are beat. In life you win and lose... and sometimes you need to push the other guy down to get the big "W."

Well, today the Dragon's played a soccer game against the Rocket's. Let's just say the Rocket's were no match for the mighty Dragon's. The Rocket's had one player with any skill and the Dragon's had 3 or 4 on the field at all time with mad skillz. So, as coach, the SacTownGuy made sure to pull one of his strongest players and have them on defense at all time... but it's a small field so they find ways to get up and score.

We don't keep score in our league (dang PC crowd won't allow it) but we all know it was AT LEAST 6 to 1 and probably 7 or 8. I try not to keep score too closely. I know my dude had 1 today, I know Bones had 2 or 3, Ort's had 3 or 4, etc... and I KNOW they only had uno. My mad dog goalie, Mace, saved two with incredible diving plays. Well, he probably didn't need to dive either time but it really looked awesome... and he got muddy which made it all the better. Mace will be a good goalie through high school. He is too slow to play beyond that but he will be good through high school and he has that mad man component which will make him perfect for keeper.

Anyway, when we were up 6 or 7 to one we got in a couple situations where the ball was near the Rocket's goal and the Rocket player had the ball trapped at their feet. Now, the hippy side of me wanted to lay back and let them be but the competitive, go for the kill side, yelled "KICK THAT BALL... DO NOT STOP... GET THAT BALL... KICK IT IN THE GOAL GUYS!" I hesitated as I yelled it but you know what? We need to teach these kids life skills. You can teach life skills that aren't real like we don't keep score in real life or pretend it's not ok to push the other guy in real life but I want my charges to be ready to face REAL LIFE. Don't forget this can happen now in kindergarden and first grade... a little tussle on the playground, a competitve spelling bee in the classroom, etc... and my charges need to know how to react.

Anyway, I kept yelling, my kids kept shooting on goal, and I kept high fiving and telling them were doing great. I got the feeling the loser parents on the other team... oh gosh I hope that didn't sound... I mean the parents of the Rocket's, didn't like my intensity as I was more intense today than normal but I think that's my job. I don't want my kids to be daisy pickers because generally speaking daiseys do not pay the billz.

peace out.

Barak Omama

My kids were excited to see the map on TV tonight. They asked why it was there with all the blue and red. I explained today was the day we voted for president. They cut me off because they talked about it in school aparantely. My dude said, "I want Barak Omama to win." Well, at 8:00 Pacific time my dude got his wish and Barak Omama, or Obama if you prefer, has been declared the winner. It looks like a landslide.

Of course this is not the first time the black man has taken the white man to the shed like this. I remember an all fraternity basketball tourney back in college in the 80's. My frat, Tappa Kegga Brew, or whatever they were called were a bunch of beer drinking white boys. That first night many of my guys, including myself, were unable to play as we had tests the next morning, were out of town or whatever the story was. We were playing against the mighty Kappa's, the red frat for those who pay attention to colors. The Kappas were a group of primarily African American students. I heard the score was something like 134-38 or something like that... as the Kappas took it easy in the second half. 'bout like the score is turning tonight.

Good on you Mr. Omama... or Mr. Obama... or should I say President Obama, good on you! Now let's all hope that our country, blue or red, white or black, purple or green, can come together to support our new president.

peace out.

Ramdom Thoughts

On this fine Monday morning I have a few random thoughts to share:

- Though I hate the rain I had a 40 minute run in the rain on Saturday and it was quite re-freshing. I will do that again!

- 50 houses in my neighborhood, a few do not give out candy and each of my kids ended up with about 7 or 8 FULL SIZE candy bars. I don't know about you but when I was a kid we might have gotten one full size bar and we were banging away for 3+ hours back in the day.

- If you are going to use the spray bottle to clean your bike at the gym spray it into the towel and not directly onto the machine. You never clean it all and the guy sitting on the bike next to you ends up getting over spray which is not fun to breath... you f'ing moron!

- Weekends are more enjoyable than week days!

- Working a few hours on Sunday was more enjoyable than going to Disney on Ice with the family.

- I don't love Monday's... but it is another full week where I have the opportunity to make more money which is defintely the bright side of having to work!

- I am very curious about a couple of political things on Tuesday but I won't get political on you... just saying I am curious what happens.

peace out.