The Dallas Mafia

I was in Dallas this last week from Thursday till Saturday for a real estate seminar, about how to wholesale property. To "wholesale" property means to buy and then sell quickly for a small profit, as opposed to keeping and fixing up and then selling for a bigger profit, or keeping and renting out.

I didn't get to experience much of Dallas, since I was in the hotel 95% of the time I was there. I stayed at the same hotel where the seminar was being held, so I didn't have to rent a car. The hotel was the Crowne Plaza, which was a pretty nice hotel, except they don't have the capability to schedule wakeup calls more than one day in advance, and someone set off the fire alarm our first night there by smoking in their room, and there were no restaurants within 100 miles besides Jack in the Box. Actually 100 miles is an exaggeration, but there were no other restaurants within walking distance. Although technically I could walk 100 miles, but probably not in one day, and definitely not in time to be back for the seminar. Unless I just walked on the treadmill in the hotel workout room. Which was not the nicest workout room I've ever seen, but having somewhere to work out in the same building where I was sleeping did motivate me enough to get up and work out every morning, which was good.

But anyway, we did go to Jack in the Box a lot. At least once a day in fact. For lunch on the first day, and for breakfast also on the other days, since we didn't want to pay $16 for the hotel breakfast buffet again like we did the first day, even though it was pretty good. But at night we got the hotel shuttle guys to take us to another restaurant for dinner. The first night we went to Jason's Deli, which I used to go to a lot when I worked in Scottsdale. I didn't realize it was a national chain, but apparently it is. The next night we went to Pappa's BBQ. It was quite excellent. So good, in fact, that we went back the next night as well. But there was one little problem: Every restaurant in the area started with "Pappa." There was Pappa's BBQ, Pappacito's, Pappadeaux, Papa John's, Pappa Bros, and Pappa's Cowboy Pickins! (OK I made that last one up, but all the rest were real, and I think I left out a few.) Apparently the Dallas mafia Dons go by "Pappa." Or something. So when the shuttle came to pick us up, of course he went to Pappa Bros instead of Pappa's BBQ. So we got stuck waiting for hours, or at least 45 minutes. But it was worth the wait, that mafia can really cook BBQ!

***

Totally unrelated note: On the Snide Remarks website that I commented on recently, I ran across this column that I found pretty hilarious. You should check it out (if you're bored and have nothing better to do than read random Internet posts, which you just proved to be true by reading this one).