Guess What I Found !

                                                                            C'mon.

Guess.

Hint:  Lost in the move from O-town to SoCal just over a year ago.

And you won't believe where, how, why it was found.... but I will tell you Thursday!

Good Customer Service is Not Always Easy to Find.... Unless You Live Near Me!

I'm not really interested in promoting one business over another, but when I experience exceptional customer experience, repeatedly, I just have to say something.

This Home Depot is just down the road from me.  Usually, in the past, I have preferred to frequent Lowe's because I found that their staff was easier to find when needing assistance.  However... over the years I have learned that Lowe's associates do not always have a great depth of knowledge in their products.  When I really needed help, I would head to Home Depot, which I always found crowded and help hard to find, but when I did find someone, they knew what they were talking about.

That has all changed for me!  Now I head right for the Home Depot down the road on Katella, here in Orange, CA.  The first time I went was to have keys made for my dog walking clients.  I was greeted upon entering, directed to where the keys were made. Upon getting lost (of course) I was then asked by two associates what could they do for me.  One of them walked me to the key kiosk and then called the "key guy".

The "key guy" kept up a cheerful banter as he quickly made the copies and then suggested which would be the best key rings to use for my purpose. Inexpensive, but sturdy.

I saw the manager on my way out and explained that this was the best Home Depot I had ever been in!  I agreed to fill out an online comment sheet - which I usually don't do, but made a point of this time.

Was it just a good day at Home Depot?  How would they perform over time?

Exactly the same cheerful, prompt, knowledgeable, personal assistance in the half a dozen times I've been back.

This store has a happy staff, which means to me they have an excellent manager who knows how to treat his customers and his employees.

Love it!

Wish our people in Washington would take a page from this store's business protocol!

Where have you experienced exceptional service lately?

Come for a Stroll Around an Old Town Orange Neighborhood

The temperatures are dipping a bit today and Mr Tennis and I decided to pack up the Bostons and make the short drive to Old Town Orange and get a close up view of some of the lovely historical bungalows that line the streets.

Why don't you come with us?

Who can resist this old garage door?  I'm glad they kept it after putting in a modern door.

Attention hog, Sadie.

Don't you just love this curved room with the windows on this house?

I don't know all the architectural terms, but I know what I like and I like these old Craftsman Bungalows.

Most are a hundred years or older and bear plaques stating their "birth dates".

Hard for me to resist a stoop with a lovely feline...

or two.

 This was the era of front porches - of all sizes.

And fancy balustrades.  

These people are ready for Halloween, look at the bats inside the door!

They celebrate the milestones of these lovely houses.

Wide overhangs and lots of wood.

Angles and curves.

And again, those lovely porches.

Love this wreath!

As I said, angles galore.

Lovely restorations.

Beautiful and unique front doors.

And yes, again, those porches.

Looks like Halloween is a big event at this home.

Yes indeed.

Simply elegant.

And, not so simply elegant.

Large shaded areas to lounge in the summer.

Yes, the sky was this glorious blue today!

A pretty arbor over the driveway.

I really want a yellow house, one day. 

With a unique old wooden front door.

Please ignore the shadow monster, just part of the Halloween decor.

Another great door.

And we've come full circle back to the yellow barn door.

Thanks for joining us on our walk!

I've Gone to the Dogs

Look at these keys!

They represent my current stable of canine clients.  Just one this weekend, but in the upcoming two weeks I will be wrangling 5 dogs (2 in one house)!

I am very impressed with the lady I am working for, she has gotten this business up and running very quickly and has marketed our services very well through various websites and social media.

Of course, it was driving me slightly "crackers", as they say in the dogworld,  trying to settle on the best system to keep it all straight along with my Japanese students (and that famous time zone difference). I think I finally conquered the scheduling challenge and feel less frazzled.

Most dogs require two visits a day while their owners are gone and so far it has usually been over a weekend.  

However, I have a sweet 8 week old  Goldendoodle puppy that I visit every day during the week while his parents are at work.  He is a ball of excitement and it's hard to get a picture of him that doesn't just come out in a blur.

Oh yes, we have some fun during my noontime visit!

Thursday Thought

So, what do you think the "Honeymoon" Suite is like?

I pass this little run down "Inn" when driving from LA to our new place and it always makes me chuckle that they have a Honeymoon Suite - acutally more than one!

It's right by the very busy I-5 highway, windows are always open with drapes flapping out.  I've been trying and trying to get a picture but can't because of course, I'm on the highway.

Traffic jam this Monday gave me my chance!  

It must have been destiny!

All Work and No Play Makes TBL....

....a bit of a grumpy, stressed out mess!

 Another pretty park that allowed us access to a wonderful bike trail along the Santa Ana River.

Not that I have been slaving away teaching masses of classes and walking lots of canines, but getting it all up and running and started has scrambled my brains a bit.  Especially when trying to figure out my schedule using Japan time!

Most of the "rivers" I have seen in Socal have been very  dry, but this one had lots of greenery growing in it and flowing water.

A lovely bike trail in great condition.

It's got me all mixed up!  I almost missed teaching my first two classes thinking for days that my first day would be yesterday, Monday, afternoon.  Good thing I took another look and discovered my first day was Sunday afternoon, which is Monday morning in Japan.  They are 16 hours ahead.  So, I greeted my first students on Sunday afternoon with a "Good Monday Morning!" You can imagine how I might be a tad confused - we won't even talk about how I messed up my availability for future weeks, having to use Japan time on a confusing work schedule.

Okay, we'll talk about it.  One of my trainers emailed me that I had put down that I was available for times there weren't even classes! I "fessed" up and told her I had trouble with the time conversion and would do it all over, but that I was balking at having to wake up 2:30am Pacific Time to teach a shift of classes.  Trainer responded that I did not have to do the entire shift, I could do the latter part meaning I could teach between 6:30am and 9am, which is night time, same day in Japan, 9:30-midnight, their most popular class time. 

Oh, and we have the time change coming soon don't we?

Fun!

A very busy highway on one side, a peaceful oasis on the other.

My first two classes went really well.  I had two students in the first class who appear on my screen as avatars - they get to see my lovely face, poor things, but they didn't seem scared by that vision.  The 45 minute class flew by with little problems.  My trainer, who was spying observing, came on after the students logged off briefly and said I had done well except I had talked too much and had "talked over" the students sometimes which is considered rude in Japan.

I think that was my nerves showing and I resolved to do better in my second class.  I don't want to be thought of as rude!!

Lots of water birds enjoy this place.

Second class, one student and we were practicing some "business phrases".  "Brainstorming" was the title of class, so you can imagine it started out with a long discussion about what that term actually meant.  He had never heard of it before and wondered at what age children in the US are taught brainstorming.  Yes, it was an interesting 45 minutes and was actually fun as we did some role playing and he thanked me very much at the end.  I wasn't as rude with my interruptions and babbling, so said my patient trainer.  Who by the way lives in Mississippi.  Another time zone!

I'm looking forward to teaching four classes this Friday morning, doing a dog walking gig over the weekend as well as a Saturday evening class.

In between that Mr. Tennis and I will get out and see some more of this beautiful new area we live in.

Have a wonderful week!

P.S. We are the lucky recepients of free movie tickets thanks to The Maven who generously shares the free passes she gets through work.  Here's a very good one we saw over the weekend, directed by Ron Howard:

Don't let the Formula One racing subject scare you off, this had a great story and some pretty spectacular film work.