Gramps from Port Orange in Florida (just south of Daytona Beach) came to visit Nicholas today and it didn’t take long for Nicholas to wrap him round his little finger. OK, truth be told…that happened quite a long time ago but Nicholas in person is far more powerful presence than Nicholas on a web page.
He’s also a lot more responsive than the five-pound bags of sugar that he was experimenting with to get the feel of what holding Nicholas was going to be like.
Of course, Gramps has a little saying…Gramps is my name and spoiling is my game!. Hoo boy…Gramps and Moby Dodge certainly did a bang-up job in that department! That custom van was stuffed with all sorts of nifty baby stuff (and not so baby stuff!). One thing you’ve got to understand about my father…he has this passionate aversion to paying full price. I thought my Hungarian relatives were fierce hagglers in the marketplace but they have nothing on him and his ubiquitous and clandestine network of informants in pretty much every retail establishment in the Daytona area. Why pay full price when you can work them over so that they’re offering you 90% off? So pretty much everything that came for Nicholas today has a story that goes something along the lines of:
- I know you’ve marked it down 50%…why wait two weeks until I take it off your hands at 90% off?
- As it happens, I have this buy one, get one free coupon which combined with this sale price…
He was inordinately pleased when we found out that Nicholas was a boy so if you ever wondered why the Daytona area economy recovered quicker than anywhere else in the United States, you’ve got your answer! One perceptive clerk at Albertson’s pointed out at his latest coup which essentially netted him six nearly free half-gallon bottles of freshly squeezed Indian River orange juice (normally $3/btl.) that they are getting to the point where they’re paying him to move product. Why yes, I do believe they’ve gotten it in one…
Anywho, after the amazing pile o’ loot was brought into the house and Nicholas had a nice long nap in Gramp’s arms, we decided to pop out for a bit of dinner at Cracker Barrel where we were introduced to the adorable baby gambit for getting ahead in the queue. I’m here to testify that IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM!.
You need to have a really cute baby available (fortunately, we proved we’ve got a real winner in that department as the gambit worked!). You go up to the gatekeeper, tell them what table and section you want, and then show off the kid. Wouldn’t you know…we’re now five spots better off than we were ten seconds ago and everyone agrees that Nicholas is an adorable baby! Mind you, make sure you are subtle about it or the people you’ve just passed in the queue are likely to be a bit put out at you… 🙂
Tomorrow is the fun get-together day culminating with appropriate sacrifices to the propane gods. He brought along enough marinades that sound really tasty… guess we’re finding out tomorrow!
