White Dots Keep Falling on my Head
People who know DC know that he is a practical joker. That means that he gets blamed for things that he doesn't do, as well as for those that he has done.
It turns out he is not the only one.
The background: A couple years ago, DC's coworker, Paul Wagner, left his umbrella unattended in his cubicle. DC opened it up, filled it with the dots from the 3-hole punch and secured the strap again. And forgot about it, since Paul didn't raise a ruckus about it.
A month goes by. Paul arrives one morning shouting, "You! You! It had to be you!"
DC's reply was "Huh?"
Paul then tells what happened the day before. He'd taken his umbrella and put it in his car. And it had been there for a month and not used. The day before, for the first time in months, his wife used his car to go shopping. And it rained. And she opened the umbrella and had white dots in her hair, blown in the car, every where. And she blamed Paul for the adventure.
Fast forward to last week. I brought my umbrella in to work one morning when it was drizzling. Didn't wrap it up tight since it was wet; just hung in on the wall of my cube. And forgot to take it back out to the car for a couple of days.
Paul walks by and smirks and remarks that it is a good target for chad.
I look in it and sure enough it was loaded with white dots. So I calmly walked next door to Paul's cubicle and opened the umbrella over his chair. There were dots everywhere.
I thought it odd that Paul didn't try to stop me. And his "Oh no!" when he saw the blizzard of dots falling did sound sincere, but it HAD to have been him, right? He claimed it wasn't him and he admitted he couldn't think of anyone else to blame it on either. Paul caught a lot of flack for all the dots on the floor of his office -- even our manager stopped by and asked if it was his birthday.
Last Friday the culprit confessed to Paul On Monday, Paul told me he knew who did it, but that he wouldn't tell me because "you'd never believe me!"
Monday, the culprit confessed to me.
No, the butler didn't do it. It was our manager!
In the six years I've known him, he has never pulled a practical joke. Never.
Something tells me that with the success of this initial effort, he may strike again.
Tuesday, August 21, 2001
Sunday, August 19, 2001
France By the Numbers
Our trip to France was not inexpensive, but it felt that way. The dollar was strong against the Euro and French Franc, which meant the best exchange rate for my bucks that I've ever received.
Historically, the exchange rate has always been in the 5 French Francs (ff) to the dollar range. Although, in the past, I've had to face less than 5 ff on previous excursions. In July, we received exchange rates from 7.04 to 7.40 to the buck.
That made the mental math one must do to compare prices (quick: if the price tag is 35 ff, what is it's cost in dollars?) a bit more complicated. You can divide by 5 by multiplying by 2 and moving a decimal point, but you can't do that with 7-something.
In the tourist areas (Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Paris) there are little hole-in-the-wall change offices everywhere. And they are fair. I can't say the same for airport change kiosks -- in the states or in France.
I thought about changing a few bucks at the Tampa airport before we left, but when I saw their rate of 6.65 ff to the dollar, I didn't. I didn't even try to exchange money at the Nice airport. We just got our rental car and drove to the wife's cousin's place.
After lunch and a much needed nap, I walked three blocks to a change office and cashed $500 in travelers checks for 3727 ff.
I must admit that travelers checks aren't used much anymore. The $1500 in TC's that I had cost me $15 in fees at my credit union when I took the money out of savings. I just don't like to carry that much in cash on me.
When we reached the small village where my mother-in-law lives, I cashed $300 in TCs at the local bank. That was where I got my worse conversion rate and the stinkers also charged me a 50 ff fee for doing the transaction.
I see from my credit card bill that the one night in a hotel that I spent was charged using 7.41 francs to the buck. So you get the good rates when you use your credit card. I didn't have to dip into the checking account via ATMs while I was away, but it should have been just as good. Except I bet my back would charge that damn $1.50 fee for not using their ATM.
You won't fare as well as I. I see the dollar has fallen since my return two weeks ago. You wouldn't get even 7 francs to the buck today.
Our trip to France was not inexpensive, but it felt that way. The dollar was strong against the Euro and French Franc, which meant the best exchange rate for my bucks that I've ever received.
Historically, the exchange rate has always been in the 5 French Francs (ff) to the dollar range. Although, in the past, I've had to face less than 5 ff on previous excursions. In July, we received exchange rates from 7.04 to 7.40 to the buck.
That made the mental math one must do to compare prices (quick: if the price tag is 35 ff, what is it's cost in dollars?) a bit more complicated. You can divide by 5 by multiplying by 2 and moving a decimal point, but you can't do that with 7-something.
In the tourist areas (Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Paris) there are little hole-in-the-wall change offices everywhere. And they are fair. I can't say the same for airport change kiosks -- in the states or in France.
I thought about changing a few bucks at the Tampa airport before we left, but when I saw their rate of 6.65 ff to the dollar, I didn't. I didn't even try to exchange money at the Nice airport. We just got our rental car and drove to the wife's cousin's place.
After lunch and a much needed nap, I walked three blocks to a change office and cashed $500 in travelers checks for 3727 ff.
I must admit that travelers checks aren't used much anymore. The $1500 in TC's that I had cost me $15 in fees at my credit union when I took the money out of savings. I just don't like to carry that much in cash on me.
When we reached the small village where my mother-in-law lives, I cashed $300 in TCs at the local bank. That was where I got my worse conversion rate and the stinkers also charged me a 50 ff fee for doing the transaction.
I see from my credit card bill that the one night in a hotel that I spent was charged using 7.41 francs to the buck. So you get the good rates when you use your credit card. I didn't have to dip into the checking account via ATMs while I was away, but it should have been just as good. Except I bet my back would charge that damn $1.50 fee for not using their ATM.
You won't fare as well as I. I see the dollar has fallen since my return two weeks ago. You wouldn't get even 7 francs to the buck today.
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