Recently I started pet sitting. Yes, I have plenty here but this is just "fun" and "money". So, I did that early this a.m. and then headed to Starbucks to meet a Missouri friend, as we had scheduled. Ed came from home.

Mind you, we opt for locally owned coffee houses 99.9% of the time. So to the staff we were strangers. The young bari---coffee hound who waited on us was a R-I-O-T. At 9:30 there I am ordering decaf to which he says "It will be a few minutes. We only make it on demand." I responded, "Well, then, I DEMAND decaf." He got it. Away we went.

An hour later he came over to ask us to leave, citing that other customers were complaining. They weren't really and we didn't leave. He said, and other staff backed him up on this, that we were laughing too much and having too good a time.

I let that pass, soaked it in for a few minutes. Then I wandered over to the counter, near the door to the back room. I waited for him to come back out. Another young guy was at the counter working.

It was then that I advised them I was from corporate.

One good yuck deserves another!

BTW, the guy I'd been exchanging barbs with hesitated ever so slightly. The other guy fell for it totally.

Yes, I confessed. I'm really from the buyout company.