business notes from all over

Like Peaches, I went AWOL for a bit there, but I'm back home and firmly leashed to the internet so I can't go far.

I have, however, done a little local commerce, and I'm here to report back.

Pomona
K. just got back from a week-long business trip, and I'm getting over the creeping crud, so we decided to eat out on saturday night. But where is one to go on commencement weekend, when thousands of families attack Claremont and environs? We thought Pho Ha, on Indian Hill, would be safe, but it was the most crowded I've ever seen it. And indeed, there was a graduation table -- smug-looking 22-year-old, a couple of stroppy siblings, proud mom and pop, and Grandma waving a chopstick in each hand and saying loudly "How am I supposed to eat my noodles with these things?!?"

Laverne
As you know, I'm a big fan of the Corner Butcher Shop, in the Marshalls shopping center across from Target. The other day the special on the chalkboard was a "Kitchen Nightmares Burger." Turns out that Ricky, my regular counter guy, was the head chef at Lela's, to whom Gordon Ramsay gave such a ration of grief on the tv show. I didn't try the burger; Ricky's a great guy, but I'm taking Ramsay's word on the lamb-and-chocolate combination.

Claremont
I was getting my specs tightened up at Pigale Optical yesterday when a very elderly man came in, followed closely by a woman and her daughter.
Mom: "Excuse me, sir, were you just at the California Bank & Trust?"
Man: "Yesssss..."
Mom: "Well, you left your card in the machine. The man behind you took it in to the counter."
Man: "You followed me all the way here to tell me that? Thank you!"
Daughter: "You walk really fast for such an old man!"
Mom: "Honey! Hush!"
Daughter: "But you said so yourself!"
I'm sure there's a lesson in that for everyone.

The pikkie was the first hit for a search on "Pomona LaVerne Claremont." Doesn't have much to do with anything, but who's going to turn their nose up at bonbons?