Oliver and I go to Starbucks for a break between school and a vet visit.
Clerk: If you make that cappuccino a Christmas drink, you can get it for free.
Me: Like what?
Clerk: How about a Holiday Spice Flat White?
Me: Can I have that, but without the holiday spice?
The clerk smiles: we’ve entered into a conspiracy together. He spends a frustrated minute trying to make this happen.
Clerk: I’m afraid I can’t make the till do that.
Foiled by technology.
I expect that if it weren’t “buy one holiday drink, get another one free” day, with the resulting deluge of customers, he might have been able to nudge-nudge, wink-wink this to the colleague standing 5 feet from him who was about to be charged with the conjuring of my drink.
But not today.
I am 
You can subscribe to an