Communication Failure

As an innkeeper, I say the same phrases over and over, year after year. Check in is anytime after 3. Check out is at 11. We do take pets in most rooms. Do you have an email address we can use to send a confirmation?

And then there are times when the usual phrase fails to communicate.

Me: And would you like to hold the room with an American Express, MasterCard, or Visa?
Guest: You only take American Express?
Me, more slowly: We take American Express, MasterCard, and Visa.
Guest: Well, I have a MasterCard, but it's from Citibank.

I assured her that would be fine.

Labor Day Hike

Labor Day morning, the kids and I hiked up to a popular lookout. We had planned to hike up around lunchtime and have a picnic, but the noxious odors of the spray-on insulation drove us out of the house earlier in the morning.

My hiking companions were, from left to right:

• An avid naturalist who insisted on pointing out every single fungus we saw. Twice (coming and going).
• An almost-ten-year-old drama queen who forgot to bring her sweatshirt and was therefore chilly.
• A teenager who figured that since Michael wasn't there, the position of male parent was his to fill, thus setting off the drama queen.
• A three-year-old who attempted to stomp on every fungus he saw, thus setting off the naturalist (who nevertheless continued to loudly call attention to every fungus).
  

Our time on the ledge admiring the view and petting all the dogs (quite a few valley residents and visitors also decided to do that hike on Monday), calmed everyone down, and the hike back to the car was quite pleasant. LW did the entire 2.2 miles by himself.

Here are two examples of the fungi we saw:




As you can see, we are still in the beginning of foliage season.

Chip off the Old Block

LW: Mama, guess what I'm planning.
Me: What are you planning?
LW: A trip to Disney!