Co-owner Dan starts nail school this week. That’s right — Lieutenant Dan will be happily taking orders from the instructors at West Valley Occupational Center in Woodland Hills. It’s the same vocational school I graduated from in 2004. The program is 400 hours, and he should graduate by February. Dan thinks the routine’ll be great (as you can imagine, things have been tame for him here compared to when he was serving in Iraq) and I’m thrilled we’ll (Nadine, Dan, and I) be a solid team of nail techs.

At the salon site, the build-out continues. The second floor is up, and even my dad climbed up the ladder to check out the beginnings of the VIP treatment rooms, office, and outdoor patio. The plumbing work started this week, and the elevator pit is being dug. We’re on schedule.

We have kind of a cool idea for VIP and management parking in the alley behind the salon. We’re going to have hydraulic car lifts, which are like the things your mechanic uses to lift up your car, so cars will be parked literally on top of each other. (The team is already joking around that they might park my car up there permanently, so I can’t leave the salon.) For additional staff parking, we’ll also trying to contact the city garage across the street to arrange for regular parking.