Board Games and Card Games make me feel like a kid again. I started playing cards early with my Grandma Great (aka Great Grandmother). I was probably 4 or 5 but I could play a mean Old Maid. Then I moved on to Rummy with my grandmother where we had a running score sheet that got saved throughout my college years and we played whenever I was home. My grandmother would complain when I beat her, which I did a lot, but it was our thing. Now, I am really into Phase 10 and this new Mystery Card game that we played through out the Christmas holiday. Tom and I played against my parents and we lost bad every time. There was histrionics, whining, laughter and a little bit of crying. It did not help that my parents weren't good winners as my Dad paraded around the dining and living room doing his happy dance! Oh well, next time!
I love trying new restaurants especially if they have been in one of the magazines because a movie star has eaten there. I have dragged Wendy to L.A. Farm because of a Jennifer Aniston sighting and to Spago and the Ivy because anyone who is anyone wants to be seen at those restaurants. We have drank too many martinis at Dolce (Ashton Kutcher's restaurant) and traipsed to Table 8, L'Orangerie and Osso because they were featured in In Touch. I dragged Scott to Tavern on the Green in NYC for an overpriced lunch to be able to say I had this experience, which is hindsight is a great thing, because they have not shuttered their doors forever. Tom has been on the Rachael Ray culinary tour of Cleveland and Maui and has lived to tell the tale. Maybe my love of food and trying hip restaurants has fed my Top Chef addiction, but I want to go to Volt Restaurant in Frederick Maryland and The Dining Room at The Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, CA because of the Voltaggio brothers. I want to eat at French Laundry before I die (I just need to plan my trip to Napa ahead of time) and I am looking forward to trying a couple of new restaurants with Ann Arbor's Restaurant week starting this January.
Las Vegas is another winner - you can never get bored there and you can never go there too many times. I have been there 12 times and I always find new things to do. Given my love of restaurants and trendy bars, there are always new ones to try. There are always crazy adventures (the rooftop at the Venetian, Mr. Connecticut and the Cirque shows), once in a lifetime experiences (like getting married, shooting at AK-47 and indoor sky diving) and never to be repeated times (the nightclub Rain, New Year's Eve and being stuck in Vegas for 2 extra days due to an ice storm). Our last trip included old standbys - a baseball game and a movie in addition to the Caesar's sports book, Serendipity 3 and a Vegas buffet.
Trip to Vegas in 2010? Unlikely - too many other trips planned. Cards, Rachael Ray restaurants and fun in Florida? Most definitely!
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Customer Service - Does this Mean I have to Service the Customer?
For those of you who know me well, you know I don't stand by quietly when I get poor service. I actually can turn into quite a stark raving lunatic when I feel that something is not quite right. Who wants to pay good money for bad service? I don't and everyone knows about it when it happens. My first run in was when I was about 8 and I was at Chucky Cheese with the family. Another kid was not following the rules, and rules are there for a reason, so I said with all seriousness, I am going to call the manager to deal with you!
Let's take Northwest to start with. I fly over 75,000 miles a year and I think I am #1 in their frequent complainer club. One of my biggest pet peeves is waiting to deplane when I get back home to Detroit. Why does this happen? It is not like we have snuck in under the radar. We are not Special Forces. We are not invading a foreign country. The FAA knows we landed, otherwise we would be on the nightly news. Why does no one from Northwest know this? How hard is it to get 3 people to a gate on time to get us out of the tin can? How about the fact that there is no gate? Again, really? There are 76 gates in the A terminal. If they are all full, Houston we have a problem. No one would be going anyplace as there would be too much air traffic. And why, please tell me, do they always park us at the absolute farthest gate from baggage claim and our cars? After spending a long day flying, the last thing I want to do is walk 2 miles dragging my suitcase and lap top bag dodging vacationing families who travel once a year and do the stupid things.
Restaurants also seem notorious for bad customer service. One night I was out to dinner with my family and we were cold, I mean it's going to snow cold. We asked the waiter to see if they could turn the hurricane strength gust of wind above us off. They did that but the air was still colder than a freezer. Here we are trying to eat dinner and I am in my parka with my scarf! Finally, I figured out what was happening. The greeter kept opening the door to the area between the outdoors and the restaurant for no reason except to flirt with some young girls! I went over to tell him to stop, I could really care less if he ended up with some digits at the end of his shift, but as the meal progressed, it continued. This is when I lost my cool and snapped. I demanded a manager and started to gesticulate loudly as to why I was dissatisfied. Let's just say most of our meal was full (and there were 6 of us at dinner), my parents were embarrassed and had to stay away from the restaurant for 6 months, and I was still freezing cold!
Let me tell you about the baseball game we just tried to attend. I said tried. Apparently after this local team passed out hundreds of schedules to the public, they decided to end their home season early. How is that even legal? Can I call the MLB and tell them that this local leagues are giving them a bad name? What would possess them to leave fans standing outside a stadium with absolutely no sign even to tell you that there was no game? As you can guess, this team is know dead to me.
Customer Service means you actually provide a service to the customer. It means you don't inconvenience me, you don't irritate me, and you certainly do not stand me up, unless you want to hear about, unless you want to give me free services and unless you want me to write about it!
Let's take Northwest to start with. I fly over 75,000 miles a year and I think I am #1 in their frequent complainer club. One of my biggest pet peeves is waiting to deplane when I get back home to Detroit. Why does this happen? It is not like we have snuck in under the radar. We are not Special Forces. We are not invading a foreign country. The FAA knows we landed, otherwise we would be on the nightly news. Why does no one from Northwest know this? How hard is it to get 3 people to a gate on time to get us out of the tin can? How about the fact that there is no gate? Again, really? There are 76 gates in the A terminal. If they are all full, Houston we have a problem. No one would be going anyplace as there would be too much air traffic. And why, please tell me, do they always park us at the absolute farthest gate from baggage claim and our cars? After spending a long day flying, the last thing I want to do is walk 2 miles dragging my suitcase and lap top bag dodging vacationing families who travel once a year and do the stupid things.
Restaurants also seem notorious for bad customer service. One night I was out to dinner with my family and we were cold, I mean it's going to snow cold. We asked the waiter to see if they could turn the hurricane strength gust of wind above us off. They did that but the air was still colder than a freezer. Here we are trying to eat dinner and I am in my parka with my scarf! Finally, I figured out what was happening. The greeter kept opening the door to the area between the outdoors and the restaurant for no reason except to flirt with some young girls! I went over to tell him to stop, I could really care less if he ended up with some digits at the end of his shift, but as the meal progressed, it continued. This is when I lost my cool and snapped. I demanded a manager and started to gesticulate loudly as to why I was dissatisfied. Let's just say most of our meal was full (and there were 6 of us at dinner), my parents were embarrassed and had to stay away from the restaurant for 6 months, and I was still freezing cold!
Let me tell you about the baseball game we just tried to attend. I said tried. Apparently after this local team passed out hundreds of schedules to the public, they decided to end their home season early. How is that even legal? Can I call the MLB and tell them that this local leagues are giving them a bad name? What would possess them to leave fans standing outside a stadium with absolutely no sign even to tell you that there was no game? As you can guess, this team is know dead to me.
Customer Service means you actually provide a service to the customer. It means you don't inconvenience me, you don't irritate me, and you certainly do not stand me up, unless you want to hear about, unless you want to give me free services and unless you want me to write about it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
