24 Days of Ornaments: Dec the 8th

Ah, the Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego. We had a lovely week there about 15 years ago. I toured the top "dome" and talked the front desk into letting me into the ballroom so I could practice my songs on the piano for the Easter cantata at church. We stayed in the original building, in an odd little corner room with a view of the roof. The bathroom was terribly small and the crack under the door into the hall terribly large. I would love to go back.

This is just one of the "vacation" Christmas ornaments we've picked up. I keep it in its special box. Others include Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Glacier Bay in Montana (a gift from my in-laws), the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg TN, and Alaska.

It looks sharp to me

Since I'm behind on Memory Monday, I'll post to it tomorrow. In the meantime, a small incident from our recent trip to California.

We stayed at a very lovely and fairly expensive resort near San Diego. The service was excellent except for one very teeny, tiny thing.

I work crossword puzzles. Since my mind isn't what it used to be (it's better?), I work them in pencil. To that end, I'd packed both puzzle and pencil. Having finished the one I'd brought with me, I downloaded the Wall Street Journal's new one on Friday and started it. But my pencil, having been in use, wasn't as sharp as it could be.

So I took myself off to the front desk and asked it they had a pencil sharpener.

After the young female clerk looked at it as if it were a foreign object, she told me it looked sharp enough.

Now, it could have become ugly at this point. (pun intended) However, I restrained myself and said that if it were sharp enough, I wouldn't be asking her to sharpen it. A bit huffily, she took it from me and disappeared with my only pencil (note to self: bring more next time). A few minutes later she emerged from behind the near-invisible rear door and proclaimed that they hadn't a sharpener. I kept myself from asking if she'd know one if she saw it and pleasantly took my pencil back.

Grrr.

Everyone's a clown

I love Starbucks. I make no secret of it. So there we are in the San Diego Airport Southwest Airlines division and I'm at the Starbucks. Two talls with room is the order. The guy at the urn tells the one at the cash register: No charge for the room.

Now, that's clever. Hard not to smile and so I don't even try.

Let's hear it for levity in the most out of the way places. Thank you, Starbucks, San Diego Airport, Southwest division.