Thanksgiving, etc.

I really don't have much to post about, but it has been too long since my last post that it makes me anxious.

Thanksgiving was nice. It was just the four of us this year. Luckily I called my cuzbro and cuzsis because as it turns out, we weren't really invited like I had told the hub. We did go there last year and we did get an invitation this year, but it was for Christmas. Pammy my cuzsis called and just in passing mentioned leaving Wednesday for Arizona. I asked,"What?" She said, "We are going to Tere's for Thanksgiving." Tere is my cuzbro Ronnie's sister. I love her even though she used to babysit me and, well, I will get to Tere in my the next paragraph. Anyhow, I said to Pammy, "You invited us for Thanksgiving." She said, "No, I invited you for Christmas dinner!" I said, Well, good thing we talked before you left or we would have come up there to an empty house and no turkey dinner." My friend Jana and I went there once for Ronnie's birthday party and noticed the house didn't look very festive, only to find out we were a week early for the party. We hung out and had dinner with them, which was nice.

Now to Tere. Pronounced Teri. As much as I love Tere, she is my cousin and not my cuzsis. Ronnie and his wife Pam are like siblings to me. Hence the names cuzbro and cuzsis. Tere used to babysit my brothers and me when we were kids. She used to love to babysit us because she could shoot pool after she put us to bed. For some reason, she used to put me to bed before my brothers. Even my younger brother. Turns out, she did so to keep me from mentioning any boys she had over. I was a tattler for sure. She apologized to me as a grown up at a Cousin's Christmas Party that we used to have annually. I don't remember her making me go to bed early. To this day, we both shoot pool well though. A sign of a misspent youth no doubt!

I remember babysitting as a teenager. I loved it. Made good money at it too. I had one Thursday night gig for a couple of years. My boyfriend and another couple used to come over and we would watch The Streets of San Francisco with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas. I know you would have been pounding your heads trying to remember those names, so I threw them in for you! We also used to drink out of their nice beer tapper! Loved that thing. You really have to love beer to buy a keg and keep it cold. The kids were always in bed by the time I got there which made the job even more cush. I had babysitting jobs on Saturday morning when the only thing on TV was Soul Train and there were exactly seven TV stations. The kids loved cartoons but when they were over, I got to watch Soul Train and dance with the kids. Even white girl dancing was fun and the kids thought so too. I have a lot of babysitting stories...for another day.

I have started my Christmas shopping and am about half done. I am proud of myself for this! I want to be organized this year and not stressed. We have a fake tree with lights, which we have used the past three or four years. This year I was thinking it would be nice to have a "real" tree. Then I remembered I would have to put the lights on it....Not to mention, it may be in the sixties this week, but we were in the nineties last week! Typical Fall weather, but how fresh are the trees coming from Washington or Oregon going to be? They were cut weeks ago and then we had all that hot weather. I have never had a tree take in water after a couple of days. I anybody can tell me how to keep a tree drinking water for three weeks, will you please share with me???

Our heater kicked on last night for the first time since last year. It was in the forties. That's chilly for this area and we might even get some rain tomorrow. "Storm Watch" on all the channels with news. We might get a half inch. It's so embarrassing when they do that. I don't know why they cannot see it.

Hope y'all had a happy Thanksgiving and a lovely long weekend!

Couple of things to ponder

If you break a mirror and get seven years of bad luck, does that mean you will live at least seven more years?

I have been watching Impressionist week on Letterman this week. Rich Little and Fred Travalena (sp?) have been there so far. They have each had work done, without a doubt. I wonder if the people they impersonate are looking at a realistic version of what they will look like if they too, have face work done. I think the impressionists were better before the face work.

One thing is for sure. George Jones has had a ton of work done too. Did you know he travels with his Barber and always has? It's true. I don't care though, he can still sing like nobody's business. What a gift that man has, even now. No show Jones showed up on Letterman and it was good to see him.

Just sayin.

Does it really cost to get good service?

I was supposed to go to lunch with a couple of friends from GS the a few weeks ago and it never panned out. We were supposed to go to the Montage. Very expensive lovely hotel and spa. Seen the likes of Denise Richards and other celebrities. A stone's throw from Richie Sambora and Heather Locklear's place. One or the other's now, I guess.

Entrance

Last week another friend told me she wanted to take me to lunch at the Montage. She had a gift cert, two actually, so her hub can go next time. We went yesterday. We had such a lovely time. Hard not to in this place. It is here in town, lovely old California architecture. Not overly pretentious. Superb service. We had a nice lunch with a gorgeous ocean view on a spectacular day. This particular restaurant called The Loft over looks the enormous pool and gardens, walkways and another restaurant as well. There are three on the property. I am pretty sure I saw one of those tabloid cover skinny girls with huge sunglasses, who like to party all night. I am not sure which one she was though. I should have snapped a photo and asked Katharine. She would have known.

View from lunch on the patio

The property used to be mobile homes and a green fence kept it hidden from Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). I am sure it was wonderful to live there before this huge place took over the land. You can be sure there was a lot of arguing about whether or not it should be made into a resort. It is not like the Ritz, which is also lovely. It is more subdued. You know the room prices begin at $500 a night, but it doesn't have the feel of a "ritzy" place. All because of the architecture.

Our gorgeous coastline

I told my friend yesterday that it has something that we used to take for granted. Good service and well trained employees. Remember when people would NOT walk in front of you when you were in a store or restaurant. They would ask if you needed anything. They would say thank you when you were done being served. Now days, I say thank you and the cashier or server tells me, you're welcome! That is just bass ackwards. It takes going to a five star resort to get the kind of service that we should get every day, no matter where or who we are?

The Loft

I miss good service. I think we should have an uprising and demand good service and manners once again. Do people not teach manners to their children any more? I know I do and most people I know do as well, so where the hell are all these unmannered people coming from? Is it lack of wages that make them think they don't "have" to be helpful and well mannered to customers? Do they think the world owes them and they are above being good at giving customers service they deserve?

This is where we had coffee after lunch

If I owned a place, the first thing my employees would get, is a course in customer service. How to make the customer feel like they are appreciated. Hopefully, they would feel special and want to come back. It doesn't cost a dime to be nice or to be helpful. It is an untapped resource. It didn't used to be! Why don't companies get that? How does a business stay one these days? Because we put up with their crap, that's how. Then we pay a fortune to get good service, like it is a commodity or something. At this point, I guess it is....Rant over.

View from the water