When Yvette sent me this Starbucks gift card from Georgia, there was a bit of doubt as to whether it would work on this side of the border. She had tried to buy one online in Canadian dollars, but had trouble with the site. She then went to her local coffee shop and asked for a gift card in Canadian dollars. Apparently, the staff member looked at her as if she had asked the bizarrest question on the planet. I would have liked to have seen that! Eddie want to bet me it didn't work because of infra-structure technicalities and other nerd-dom speak ... he told me that the world didn't revolve around me when I asked "But what about customer service?? People travel you know." When we went to the Starbucks to use it the first time, I handed it to the fellow behind the counter. "It won't work." But swipe and voila!! No problems!! Heck, it even did a conversion from US to Canadian dollars. I couldn't help but laugh and turn to Eddie and say "See??! The world *does* revolve around me!!! Whoo hooo!!" I should have bet him. ;p

39/365 I have been rereading my huge book of quotations this past week. In our culture, coffee seems an essential. Sadly, I could find no such eloquent testimony to the virtues of coffee. Is it that coffee to us is the working man's fixer-upper while tea is viewed as something for the idle rich to savour? We serve coffee in big, sturdy mugs, paper or styrofoam cups and metal travel mugs. No glamour, no grace - just function and utility. I think it might be difficult to compose a pretty picture of coffee. :)