open_wound

So we got a call from a fellow who needs his back yard revamped with a new design. He's getting older, and maintenance is getting tough for him. We went to his home and looked over the property--really nice place, huge home and yard. He told us his name, and it rang a bell, but I couldn't immediately place it. Well, we made some sketches of some ideas we had, which he seemed to like, and we quoted him a design fee of $2,500 (which is low, but we have no overhead as we work from our homes). He completely balked and said there was no fucking way he would pay that much. Then he tried to keep our sketches--he wanted our ideas for free!

Sumner Fucking Redstone.

Google it if you want, but he's the head of Viacom, and the one who dissolved the partnership between Paramount and Tom Cruise.

He's worth $8 BILLION, and he tried to talk us out of a measly $2,500 fee. He makes that much in interest on his investments about every five minutes, but that's a month's rent for me.

We passed on the gig.

Kind of a boring 4th of July. It's so dry out here (and 120 degrees today) that fireworks are not allowed except at the civic center, where parking is a nightmare so we bailed on that. Just played in the pool and charred some animal flesh (with apologies to my vegetarian and vegan friends).

Last weekend we went to San Diego. My girls have always wanted to learn to surf, so we took a whole crew (I think there were 35 of us all together) out to the YMCA Camp Surf. It was such a riot. I'll post pix when I get them off of my camera.

Have a great weekend everyone.