Tip of the Iceberg

Yesterday was my birthday, and before I go into a head-long explanation about what a delightful day it was (except for one thing), I want to get your opinion on something.

Fern and I are eating dinner at Zaytinya in downtown DC. Long story short, the bill comes, it's $41.80. I only have twentys so I put three in the folder and wait for my change. The waitress brings me back a five and six ones for a total of $11. Needless to say I expected $18.20. What the heck? I took my change and left, because I really didn't have time to wait around for a manager or an explanation, we had a show to get to.

What do you think I should do now? What would you do? I know where I'm going to start, but I'm not sure how far I should take my complaint.


 

Weekend Round-Up

This weekend I finished 12 scout vests. I often use a glue stick to hold the patches down while I sew them. I learned this weekend there is a window during which I need to sew after I glue, too soon and they're not stuck enough and too long and the glue is completely dry and the patches peel right up. I went through 3 glue sticks on 9 of the vests. Good thing I buy in bulk.

It feels good to get the big backlog out, now I just have three to go, one of which is a monster. This girl has been in scouting for many years and brought me about 75 things to sew on. The front got done right away, everything has a specific place, it's neat and orderly. The back of the vests is for participation patches and they just go where ever they fit. So this monster vest, I've be stalling on finishing it for a long time. It just overwhelms me, trying to get 50 patches of all different shapes and sizes on the back so they all fit and there is room for more. I finally came up with a plan I'm happy with so I should be able to knock it out this week.

Last Wednesday I bought two bookcases from Ikea, one was to be for my sewing room and one was for the living room. I'm getting rid of my ironing board in the sewing room and replacing it with a bookcase (on its side) on casters with an ironing surface on top. My logic was (actually I got this from someone else) there is just dead space below an ironing board, so why not? Now I'll have more storage available.

The first shelf went together just fine. The larger one for the living room, not so easy. I love putting stuff together, have been assembling Ikea pieces for 20 years, I have never had this much trouble before. It just didn't fit together like it should, there were gaps everywhere where the shelves didn't seat properly. I tried to take it apart and start from the beginning and that's when the dowels broke off in the shelf and I couldn't drill the pieces out.

Saturday & Ikea. Yes, I am nuts, there is a bed waiting for me at St. E's, btw. Anyway, I had a plan. I went to customer service and pulled my number: 90, now serving: 61. I had a 29-person window. I went over to the warehouse to find another set of casters for the shelf unit in the sewing room (I originally bought two and they recommend three) and to pick out a box that fits in the shelf for fabric scraps. No casters, but found a clear box, and went to pay. I actually found a "short" line, paid, and made it back to customer service. Now serving: 85. Whew.

When it was my turn I explained the problem. Evidently, since the shelf was shipped in two separate boxes, it possibly came from two different suppliers, and even if the specs are the same, the actual pieces might not be exactly the same. I got a new shelf and shorter dowels. The clerk told me if I still had trouble, bring it all back and they'd give me a whole new unit, no problem. I got it to work.

Fern and I went to week two of our ceramics class Sunday. This week we used the wheel. I love the wheel but since it's been so long since I've thrown, my skills didn't appear until about half-way through the class. I got to make four pieces. The first got totally warped when I cut it away from the wheel to move it to the drying board. Blah! The rest I'm pleased with, especially since it's been so long since I've thrown any pieces.



Next Sunday will be our last class, we will decorate/glaze our pieces. Next Sunday is also the Valentine Invitational. The Bowie Ice Arena hosts the first ice skating competition of the season in our area and Fern has been getting ready for it. She's skating in five events. Luckily, they are all scheduled for after our ceramics class so neither of us has to miss anything.

Fern is scheduled to skate her freestyle program at 3:37, then events in solo compulsories, jump & spin team, interpretive, and production team at about 45 minute intervals after that. I don't remember which event is when, but I'll be there for the duration anyway. If you live in Bowie, you're welcome to stop by to watch her skate.

Her production team had a practice last night at 6:00. That's when they could get the ice time. Go figure. Anyway, the second The Boss tells us to step away from the guacamole I get a text: come get me. I put Bruce on pause and fetched The Girl.

Somewhere between the ceramics class and picking Kevin up from skiing I went to a nearby quilt shop. It's typical for quilt shops to have big sales Super Bowl weekend. I was in a fabric mood, so I went. I took with me a filled-up punch card which entitled me to $20 off my purchases.

After all my fabric was selected, cut and written up, I had a large stack, probably over $100 of pre-sale fabrics. (Thank goodness for sale prices!!!) I handed the clerk a spool of thread, my fabric and my punch card. It was so old she'd never seen one like it, they use a different style now. And, get this, she wasn't going to honor it because it was so old. Hey--
1) I paid for the card, probably a buck or two, not much but it wasn't free.
2) There was no expiration date on it.
3) They should honor it.
I told her forget it, I'll just take the thread, not the fabric. But the fabric has already been cut. I immediately got passed off to the owner of the shop. I told her the same thing. She let me use the punch card. Really, why was this ever an issue? sheesh.
 

Home again, Home again, Jigity Jog

First, this just in: I just spoke with the senior administrator at the high school this morning. When I called the school I asked to speak with "someone in charge," the secretary wanted to pass me along to the cafeteria manager. I told her I wanted a principal; I was tired of getting passed around about Kevin's lunch situation. The administrator did not know about the situation, would check into it and call me back. And he did. He said Kevin and his classmates will be receiving free lunch from now on until the system gets fixed. He said the fact that the food service will not be getting money should wake them up to the situation. Hallelujah! I'm not so much excited about the free lunch, but that someone is addressing the situation and the principal knows about it too.

And now back to the regularly scheduled weekend round-up.

I already posted about the Quilt Show that I went to on Thursday. Friday I headed off to play golf at River Pointe. It's a lovely course with lightning fast greens. We've got slower northern grass up here, different from what they've got down there. I had 24 putts on the front nine and got the hang of the greens so only had 16 on the back. My score: 60 + 52 = 112. I'm very pleased with my play on the back, I hit the ball pretty well.

Saturday I took a drive around the country south of town. Something I've never confessed here on my blog, I "collect" counties. There are 3200+ county-equivalents in the U.S. I'd been in 1145 before this trip, and added eight in Texas and one in Arkansas for a grand total of 1154 counties. I'd never been in Arkansas before so my state count is now 47.

Pictures from this drive (subtitled: Abandonment Issues)

The abandoned sugar plant in Sugar Land, TX


Abandoned rodeo arena near Kendleton, TX


Abandoned railroad bridge near Simonton, TX

The poisonous coral snake I saw while walking back up the path after taking pictures of the bridge (in flip-flops!) Sorry it's not a better picture, he and I were both in a hurry.

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Saturday afternoon was my cousin Jen's wedding. It was small and nice. After the ceremony I hung out in the sanctuary while the bridal party had the pictures done. At one point I plopped down next John, Jen's brother. (Yes, that would make him my cousin, too.) I said to him, "Do you know who I am?"
After a long glance, No
"I'm your cousin."
No way.
"Yes way."

That was fun, messing with his mind a bit.

My grandmother, my mom's mom, had five children but only two lived long enough to have children of their own. Two died in infancy, and Uncle Ray died when he was 36 from pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs). My aunt married her second husband and moved to Texas in the 70's so I have two cousins whom I don't see much at all. The last time my brothers and I were together with John and Jennifer was in 1986.

Anyway, I reconnected with John and met his wife and their two little boys, exchanged email addresses and web pages. They invited me over to their house after the reception, which turned out to be about a half-mile from my hotel. We swapped storied and tried to remember things from our childhoods. I got some scoop about their mom, my aunt, and her third husband and why they weren't at the wedding. I'm not sure whether to sad or glad I don't live closer to that part of the family. I want to know more but am glad I don't live close enough to worry.

Jennifer and Stephen


Jen's youngest tastes the (alcohol-free) champaign


My cousins once removed

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My husband's friend has a trick for car rental return and checking golf clubs. You drive up to departures and do a curb-side check-in, then return the car. That way you don't have to lug your bags and clubs from your rental to the rental van, then to the ticket counter.

So I'm all set to try this out when I arrive at the airport to fly home. Except the line at curb-side was way long and security was tight so I couldn't leave a car at the curb long enough to get rid of the bags. So I took the car back to rental returns and asked where to wait for the shuttle. The nice guy directs me to the shelter but I see other folks walking in the other direction. I've got a $5 ready for a tip to the driver for help with the golf bag. The driver finally shows up stopping in the opposite direction of normal traffic so I have to walk around the van to get in. And she offers no help. And no apology for pulling up in the wrong direction.

When she gets us to the terminal she drops us off at arrivals, not at departures, again no help with my clubs or suitcase. Grrr. I've got to make my way past baggage claim and up to next level for check-in. Thank goodness the golf bag had wheels so it was bearable, just awkward.

On the flip side, the parking shuttle guy at home not only helps me with my bags, he puts them into my trunk when we get to my car. I'm not sure $5 was enough.

And finally, I opened my suitcase (on both ends of the trip!) to find a love letter from TSA. My suitcase has a cool laptop compartment. I didn't feel like carrying my laptop with me at the airport so I locked it in the special compartment in the suitcase and checked it through. The notice of inspection was in with the computer in the locked compartment. I wonder if the TSA guys had seen a compartment like that before? I'd guess most people carry on laptops and not check a bag like that. Just my guess.

 

ISO: Competency

For some reason when I bought my car, they forgot to install the clips that hold the floor mats in place so they don't scoot up under the pedals. And they didn't so they do. Anyway, I went to the dealership (trip #1) to get them installed and they didn't have any clips in stock so they ordered some for me. You think they'd be in the same package as the floor mats themselves, don't they kinda go together?

I get a postcard in the mail telling me my parts are in and to call for an appointment for installation. I do and the chick who needs to help me isn't available and I leave a message for her to call me. When she calls me I tell her the story and make the appointment for last night at 7:00.

So, last night at 7:00 I arrive at the dealership (trip #2) for my installation appointment. My service adviser chick is not there but someone else helps me. I've be told it's a very quick process, ten minutes, 15, tops. At 7:45 I start getting antsy and wondering where my car is. And hungry. Thinking it would only take 15 minutes, I left home without having eaten dinner. Silly me. The service adviser on duty tells me there are no service techs on duty who know how to install the clips and one guy has downloaded the instructions and is reading them. You're kidding me, right?

Why the heck did the chick give me an appointment for 7:00 if no one would be around to do the work efficiently? I finally got my car back at about 8:20. This particular dealership has a free car wash and vacuum for Honda owners to use. They had already washed the car for me so I wanted to vacuum it out. While I'm sucking out kid debris the first thing I notice is no clips were installed for the floor mat in the back seat. Second thing I notice is one of the front clips wasn't installed properly and comes out of the socket when I lifted the mat to vacuum under it. What is wrong with these people? Dinner was cold when I got home at 8:45. Sheesh.

I called the service manager this morning to complain but he was in a meeting and hasn't returned my call yet. Eventually I'll need to make trip #3 to get the rest of the clips installed. I should be compensated for this. Greatly.

Because I got home so late I really didn't get much more done on the quilt I wrote about yesterday. Argh!

 

Another Misplaced Round-up

The lovely large white envelope addressed to some office in Andover, MA was placed in the mail box in front of my office building before the 12:00 pick-up yesterday, along with a lovely large check, a full 12 hours and twenty minutes before the deadline. Moments later the state taxes were filed on-line. I should be getting that refund in a few days. Yippee.

Fern skated well at the ISI District 4 championships over the weekend, unfortunately there were others who skated better. She took home ribbons for two second places and two fourth places. She wants to do more competitions, so I can only surmise she had a good time and isn't detrimentally brokenhearted about not getting a first place. We bought the DVDs for her events, but I have no idea about how to upload the video so you all can see, too.

One of the local Brownie Girl Scout leaders asked me to come and sew badges on vests for girls during their weekly meeting last night. She gets quite aggravated when the girls don't have the insignia in the correct locations and wants to make it very easy for the parents to get it "right." There are four troops meeting at the same time in one of the churches so she was hoping for my sake I'd get a lot of business. As it turns out, I got four new clients and was able to finish vests for three of them. Then my machine jammed, the one I just picked up from the shop for its 7500 mile checkup. Time was up anyway so I brought home the fourth one. I charge $25 per year of service or $1 per badge. If a year is purchased, I feel it good service to fix anything on the vest that's loose or out of place. The last parent wanted to only pay for the six badges to be sewn on. However several more should be adjusted and I'm in a quandary as to how much work to do and how much to charge for it. I'm leaning towards thinking if she can't afford the $25 and only wanted to pay $6, then I should fix everything and sew on the new things for $7 or $8 total, and not any more. This is a pocket-change job anyway, not a mortgage payment.

I'm very glad Jason got the boot on last night's Hell's Kitchen, I didn't like him.

Photo of the Day

A Window in Pula, Croatia

Weekend Roundup

Where is everybody? It seems traffic to my comment box is down.

Oh well.

I excused myself from work on Friday and went with several members of my quilt bee to the Quilter's Heritage Celebration in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was my first time attending a large-scale quilt show. It was fun to go on a road trip with my quilty friends, it was cool seeing some really neat quilts. This won Best of Show, it had some really intense machine quilting in it. Maybe some day I'll get close to that good.




I liked the colors on this one:



But, oh my goodness, look at the quilting: (click to enlarge)



It was interesting to me to see all different kinds of quilts and to notice which ones I was attracted to; am I making the kind of quilts I'm attracted to? No. I'll have to re-evaluate my skills and tastes. I might even have to learn a new thing or two.

The trip to the show would not be complete without a stop, or several, at the vendors and local shops. I set a loose budget and stayed loosely within it. ahem. I bought some silk thread, a lot of cotton thread, sewing machine needles and a straight-stitch throat plate I've wanted for a long time and some fabric. But by the end of the day, I didn't spend nearly as much as some of the others in my group, for example, Dr. J bought a featherweight, and other's shopping bags bulged more than mine did. It was a good road trip.

Armed with inspiration from the show, Saturday I was anxious to sit down to quilt some with my new threads, but just pieced some blocks instead. I'd dropped my "big" machine off at the shop for a 75K mile check-up before I left for spring break, but evidently, my shop has the best Bernina tech in the area and the wait for service is three and a half weeks. So I used my 51 year-old Singer 99K instead. She's got a nice stitch, but I'm not used to her so the comfort curve was a tad slow.

Saturday night Dan and I went to the Ramshead Tavern to see Paul Kelly with some friends. It was a nice show, his music is so comforting and melodic. Fern and Kevin stayed home alone and she had gotten her brother into his room for bed by the time we got home. Thumbs up to her.

Sunday I got up for early church and Dan took Fern to an ice skating competition at a neighboring rink. (Think a lesser version of sharks and jets....) Her team got third out of three, they some problem with the music, but I don't think that factored into scoring. Now they've got Districts in Richmond in two weeks to get ready for.

I left before the judging was announced, Kevin and I went to a birthday party for one of his buddies from after-care. It was held at a Tex-Mex restaurant, not one of Kevin's cuisines, but he did OK, ate a ton of chips and a quesadilla, called it pizza, so all was well. The party lasted a long time, three hours, mostly because the service was so slow. Our waiter wasn't very attentive (Kevin was the last one served long after everyone else got their food!); I'm guessing because the tip was already included in the bill, he had nothing to really "work" for.

After that, I took a nap, mourned Davidson's loss (I love a good underdog) and listened the the boos as Dubya threw out the first pitch of the Nat's game. I'm still and O's fan, thankyouverymuch, so I did enjoy hearing Jon Miller's voice even if it was for them.

Weekend Roundup

I thought I'd lost one glove from my favorite pair. Leopard print, fuzzy, warm. I couldn't find it anywhere. I started a mental list of everywhere I'd been on Saturday so I could start calling places and driving through parking lots looking for it. But it was in my bag the whole time, either hiding, or I only saw one at a time thinking it wasn't the other. I was quite relieved when I pulled both of them out Sunday evening.

Dan took Fern skiing Sunday, it was her first adventure on the slopes. They left before I had to drop off Kevin for his skiing program (different resorts so The Boy wouldn't catch sight of Dad and The Girl and have a meltdown) so I had most of Sunday to myself.

I spent the hour between dropping Kevin off and going to church cleaning out the van. Lawzy, what a mess. Three pairs of socks, three half-pairs of shoes, no less than 14 writing implements, fast-food french fry cartons, fast-food toys, three containers of sun screen, all different strengths (no, the van hadn't properly been cleaned out since summer vacation to the beach), a handful of change, and so on. Sheesh. Now it needs vacuuming. I'm thinking of either hiring a child to do it, or getting my oil changed at a place that will vacuum for me. Should find a coupon for that first, I hate paying full price.

After church, excellent sermon, by the way, I went to the spa/salon to use the gift certificate I won from the radio station in December. Originally I just booked a hair appointment. I specifically asked for someone with a lot of experience working with curly hair. I was given an appointment with Theresa at 2:00. Friday night they called me to confirm the appointment and offered me a facial appointment: one hour for the price of a half-hour, can you come at 12:45? Yes, that would be lovely.

After the facial I'm told Virginia will be right with me. Virginia? What happened to Theresa? I never did find out why there was a switch. Virginia quizzes me, as with any new client, what I want, how I want my hair to look.

I'm not fashion-forward, I'm not glamorous. I want someone to be able to look at me, look at my curly cow-lick-y mess and make it look great. I am also very low maintenance when it comes to hair: wash and go. That's it, no product, no blow-dry, no brush, just wash and go, bye-bye. So I need someone who can make my hair look great with no fuss. I explain this to Virginia and she was a little surprised I didn't have a style in mind except for "short and out of my face," and replies, "OK, that's easy."

As she's cutting, I can tell she's not taking the curls in to account, it's not going to dry well. She wants to cut it long in front of my ears, which, when it dries will look like wings flapping out of my head. I asked her how long she'd been cutting hair and she said two years. At that point I confirmed the feeling I was in the wrong chair. In the end, when the flapping was fixed, the cut wasn't bad, people tell me it looks fine, it's just a lot shorter than I wanted or expected, a lot, and it'll take a long time to grow out so I can do something else with it.

When I paid I was asked how everything was and I reiterated about the stylist switch and I wasn't happy about that. The chick behind the counter told me I could call in a couple days if I wasn't satisfied with the cut. It's not the cut I'm not satisfied with you moron!!!! I said OK, smiled and left. I haven't decided if I'm going to call again and complain. The cut was free, after all, as was most of the facial.

Sunday evening Kevin crashed after skiing and Dan & Fern went to their own super bowl parties so I had more quiet time to myself. I read my new book, Circle of Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini and not much else. Didn't even turn on the game until the third quarter. Ended up winning $20 in a pool, though. Yay me.

Back Into the Swing

I guess I don't have enough of one thing for a post so I'll just summarize a bunch of things.

Went to Church on Sunday. After the sermon, a woman from our choir stood up to talk about MLK. She had been a student in Montgomery in the 50's and worked on campus in the admissions office. A frequent visitor to another woman in that office was a dashing polite man. She inquired of her colleague who that was and was introduced to Dr. King on his next visit to the office. After that he always greeted her and asked how she was. Later, this woman needed a new job and Dr. King was looking for a secretary at his church and offered her the job. She turned it down because she didn't think she could do the job to his expectations and maintain her studies. Sometime after that, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was bombed during the bus boycott. She still wonders what would have happened if she had taken the job. She went on with her story about her friendship with Dr. King. While she spoke I was made painfully aware how much I didn't know about Dr. King and how much he did for the people of our country.

After the touching speech by the woman in our own congregation, I was agreeable to going the the MLK inter-faith memorial service on Monday with AM. This, unfortunately, was boring. The person introducing the keynote speaker spoke almost as long as the speaker himself. While the main address was informative, it wasn't nearly as moving as the presentation the day before. And it ran long. The cool part of the service was the opening prayers in the Jewish and Islamic traditions, not something usually heard in the Presbyterian church.

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Back in December I won some prizes from my husband's sports-talk radio station. Business hours to pick up the prizes correspond with my work hours so I've been prizeless. Monday afternoon I realized they might be open on my day off, and they were. I made the hour drive up the pike and collected my loot.

While I was up in that neighborhood, I stopped at one of the fabric meccas in the area, G-Street Fabrics. I had two items I wanted to shop for: a printed sweatshirt fleece and zipper slides for the massive amount of bulk zipper tape I have. The zipper tape is pretty useless if you can't zip or unzip it. The sweatshirt fleece collection was a big disappointment, they just had pastel solids, no cool prints. Oh-for-one.

The lady in the notions department got me a slider, but the sample of tape I brought was separated at the end. The clerk kept saying the one she got out was the right size and I kept trying to try it out to make sure it worked. She kept saying it wouldn't work because the zipper was already separated, but it was the right size. She wrote the ticket for 1 and slid it across the counter to me. I told her I needed 10. She was very surprised, but counted out 10 and added a zero to the ticket. She couldn't get rid of me fast enough. I have to open up the zipper tape a little to get the slider on, I don't know what her problem was. When I got home I cut another piece of zipper tape and tried out my new sliders. Wrong size. They would open the zipper, but wouldn't close it back. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. Oh-for-two.

I called the store and explained what happened to the person who answered.
We don't do phone refunds.
I don't want a refund, I want to exchange these for ones that fit.
Please hold.
I'm now on the line with the notions department manager. I explain again. And how I felt rushed. I don't want a refund, can I mail these to you and you send me the correct size? Yes. Yay. I put the wrong sliders and a sample of my zipper tape in the mail yesterday, hopefully I'll get order back on Friday or Saturday.

A couple years ago I bought a spool of bulk zipper tape with the idea of making bags, like clutches and small purses. I never found the sliders I needed so I never succeeded with the project. Now I'm so close. I'll start taking orders when I get the sliders that work.

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Last night Dan and I went out to the Rams Head again, this time to see Lori McKenna. It was a good show, even bought her CD on the way out. We left the kids by themselves and things seemed to have gone alright. But I got to bed late and now I'm tired. I need a nap.

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Maybe that wasn't much of a good summary.

Quilting Woes

Friday I bought some Pellon fusible quilter's grid with preprinted 1" squares for the challenge quilt I'm working on. I thought it would be easier to use than sewing oodles of squares together by the pair because you iron your fabric squares to the grid then sew the seems

I asked for 4 yards, paid and left the store. I didn't touch it again until Sunday at 7:00 pm. I opened the bag to a piece of 3 yards. The store closed at 6:00.

Last night I took it back to get the right sized piece. I was waited on by the cutting clerk. Her nametag read "Joy." I should have known right then to come back later.

She took for-ev-er to measure my original 3 yards, then cut another 4 yard piece for me. I was trying to hurry because my husband and son were waiting in the car. I unrolled the bolt for her in attempt to help speed things up. "Don't do that, I can't cut that way." She wrapped it back up on the cardboard and did it her way. I asked her for an extra inch because I was going to cut it half for two 2 yard pieces and I needed every bit of those 72 inches. It was as if I had asked for the rest of bolt for free. "I'll have to charge you for it." Aye yi yi. I'm thinking my original piece was 3 yards and a few extra inches cut in this very same store, why can't you give me ONE extra inch?

I get back to the car and apologize for taking so long and get home. I cut the 4 yard piece in half and start to lay out my fabric squares. They are 4" squares. The preprinted 1-inch grid squares aren't; there is about a 1/4" difference between the grid and the edge of my fabric, and, yes, I measured my squares again.

Now I'm going to have to adjust the way I lay out my square and the way I sew them up. And I don't know how to do that without messing up the whole project.

This past weekend we made our way to the promised land. The place we have been promising to take Kevin for months. The land of killer steps and huge smiles, the promised land of Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. Check-in time is 4:00 pm and that's exactly when we got there. On this visit we got a "Wolf Den Suite" which has a "cabin" in the room with bunk beds and a separate TV. Our room wasn't ready yet, but we got our waterpark passes and changed into our suits in the locker rooms.

For two hours we played and had fun and around 6 pm I went back up to the lobby to get our room keys. Room wasn't ready yet. When will it be ready? I'll be right back. When the woman finally came back she told me 45 minutes, around 7:00 pm. She was very sorry, and they would take 15% off our rate. Uh, thanks. By now the girls are hungry (we took Fern's cousin, Rose, with us), so we dry off and pile the kids in the car and head off for some supper.

When we got back, our room was finally ready. Whew. At check-out the following morning, I looked at the bill. We were credited $122 for the three-hour delay. That was way more than 15%! I'm glad they made an effort to make us happy campers.

Abstract shot looking up the Howlin' Tornado ride

Kevin in his beloved tube

Fern and Rose in the lazy river

Tiffany Window

The customer service waiting area in Tiffany's Fifth Avenue store is decorated much like a hotel lobby in tones of beige, taupe, tan, with bits of brown and olive. On the tables between the thickly stuffed chairs were white Phalaenopsis orchids, not quite dinner plate-sized, but beautiful just the same. Two walls were lined with ten booths staffed by friendly, efficient, business-like representatives. The necklace I bought back in October had broken and the repair was complimentary. Here is a view from their sixth floor window towards Central Park.