Have A Good Sandwich

My first morning in Seattle I went down to a Starbucks not far from the hotel where I was staying.

I walked in and immediately felt curious eyes on me when I walked up to place my order.

I requested a mocha, and the person by the counter says “You’ve never been in here before, have you sir?”  Surprised, I said, “No, I’m from out of town.”  His response, “I thought so.  We know everyone that comes in here.”  At first, I thought it was weird… but I would appreciate it if the people there would know me.  That’s really customer service, to become familiar with your customer base that frequents your store and know what they like.  After I ordered, they greeted two or three people by name and already knew what they wanted.   Hell, there’s only one person at the McKnight Starbucks that I frequent who knows my name and what I like.

I half expect that if I frequented that particular Seattle Starbucks that they’d yell “Woy!” when I walked in.

On a side note:  Now while I know that the northwestern United States is known for salmon, it’s downright scary how much of it they try to sell you in the airport.  When you walk into a gift store in the airport, you are greeted with this:

I’m looking for something cheap to take back a family member.  Not feed a sleuth of bears back home.

Ok, so I too have been very absent recently. PhD’s are very busy is my only excuse, and I am sticking to it.

So today I write to get opinions on the best way to book internal flights in the USA. I haven’t been there for a few years, so I am not really sure which companies are now the best to book online with. I currently plan a trip from Pittsburgh to Boston and Hartford around the 10th of July for a couple of days.

If anyone can give me tips on how best to go about making that trip – let me know.

I’ll be back with an actual post sometime soon.

I just spent a relaxing, enjoyable, and oh so great week on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. In between spending time with my brother and his girlfriend and taking in the sights (including whale watching, where I learned that a whale’s blowhole smells like a paper factory on a hot summer day), I picked up on a few observations on Canadians:

1. While “Eh?” is what predominantly follows most sentences, an enthusiastic “Right On” is often heard instead. The 70’s are alive and well in the Great White North.

2. As a follow on to #1, Canadians say every sentence in what sounds like the form of a question.

3. Tim Horton’s coffee has crack in it. Seriously. You could remove the corporate logo and put methadone clinic outside and you wouldn’t know the difference.

4. Canadians use hitchhiking as a primary form of transportation. While signs are posted on highways expressly forbidding drivers from picking up hitchhikers, you see them on most side roads and are frequently picked up. This includes women traveling alone or in small groups. All the makings of a 48 Hours mystery.

5. Canadians love to gamble. There’s government sanctioned bingo halls and slot parlors everywhere… and they don’t dick around new arenas either.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Vancouver Island

Tomorrow I depart for a quick two day whirlwind adventure to Las Vegas to meet up with my brother and his girlfriend. Macker has lived in British Columbia for the past two years, where I visited him last October in what is best described as “God’s country.” I’ve missed him terribly the past couple of months, so it will be great to spend some time with him… albeit briefly.

We’ll hopefully be playing some hold ‘em out there, and I want to give special thanks to Mean Gene for providing some good casino poker rooms to go to. He also pointed me to some must read literature for low limit games, which I’ve browsed and have offered some good insights already.

Finally, I broached this idea with Gene: We should get together a hold ‘em game/tournament with bloggers. I personally think it would be a great way to meet and socialize, as well as have fun just playing some cards. Any interested takers?

Technorati Tags: bloggers, hold ‘em, Mean Gene’s Poker Blog, Pittsburgh, webloggers