Fall is for playing in the leaves...

Thank goodness the Allisons have the necessary trees.

Adoption

Some of my very best friends in the world recently adopted a baby girl. Isabella Hope was born October 31 and is now part of the fabulous Miller family in Atlanta. I'm so excited for them that I can't resist posting some pictures of the bigger Miller family.

Negotiate the green beans

My brother-in-law Dick shared the following story in an e-mail update of his:

Jennifer had cooked a wonderful spaghetti supper but was thoughtless enough to make the fatal mistake of including green beans. Zack and I went to war. My last remark was to turn to the clock and say, "Zack, it is 6:15. At 6:20 I am going to give you one spanking for every bean that is left on your plate." Luke, ever the merciful brother, immediately bounced over to the clock and began watching the seconds tick by announcing 6:20 with something that suspiciously looked like glee.

Nine beans remained and so the negotiations began. It was the usual litany from my about-to-be-disciplined sons, "Your hand or the spoon? Pants up or pants down? Hard, Medium, or Soft? Can you have grace and give me a discount?" Thinking that nine smacks of the board of education to the seat of discipline would be a little excessive, Zack was able to negotiate me down to five. Then he began to cry before I spanked him, and so I asked, "Zack, why are you crying? I have not spanked you yet."

With a voice cute as a seraph and the eyes of a little lamb, he looked up at me and said, "I don't want to die!"

Poor little fellow. He thought that five spankings would be the end of him.

Learn to spell

So, Starbucks does a great job training its baristas...except in one area, spelling names. We have what's called "The Name Game." When you order a drink in the store, we ask you for your first name so that your drink doesn't go to another customer.

Well, newer barista Joe is catching on really well in many areas of being a barista but he falls short in "The Name Game," basically because he has a hard time spelling names.

My favorite two misspellings from last night were Rachel spelled "Rachle" and Wendy spelled "Windy."

I've Seen It All

About a week or two ago, as I'm working the drive-thru, I hear the "ding" in my headset, telling me that someone has pulled up to the speaker. "Good morning. Thank you for choosing Starbucks in Hermitage. This is Jackie; how may I help you?" The older gentleman in his pick-up truck orders his coffee drink, I give him his total and he pulls around. Everything seems normal enough.

As he pulls around, the "ding" goes on and off again, which makes me think he's pulling a small trailer of some sort through the drive-thru. And even that's semi-normal enough.

When I walk back to the window with his coffee, I see that his pick-up is about six or seven feet from the window and he's getting out of his truck and walking over to pay and pick up his coffee. Glancing to the right, I see why he's pulled that far from the window. He was towing a 30-foot sailboat through the drive-thru!