Michael And finally, there's a picture of our new car! It continues to drive very well; we've already put 4,000 miles on it since the purchase date. Figure 1 shows me parking it on the steep 23rd Street just around the corner from us. The clutch is smoking there.

As we were recently driving back from a weekend trip to Point Reyes, we passed by the "Buckeye Roadhouse" restaurant and decided to quickly stop for dinner. Unlike previous visits, there was now a liveried employee waiting there, and a sign indicated "Valet Parking." By the way, Americans like to pronounce "valet" in their inimitable way as "Wuh-layyyy" in a sort of pseudo-French manner.

Valet is an American custom typically found only in very expensive restaurants, where you drive your car right up to the entrance (preferably a Ferrari), and after a uniformed guy opens your car door, you get out and leave the key in the car. The valet then gets into the car, and while the owners head into the restaurant, the employee drives the car to a nearby parking lot. When you come out of the restaurant, the valet rushes to get the car, drives it up, quickly jumps out, and lets the owner get in with the engine running, then there's a tip, and off you go home.

Unfortunately, our Ferrari is still at the dealership, so we unexpectedly got to experience this valet circus with our Acura, which hadn't been washed in three months and had paint peeling off the roof. I was so surprised to suddenly see the valet sign that I almost backed up, but the guy waved me over friendly, opened the door, and -- what a laugh we had -- I was wearing shorts and was barefoot! The valet was very friendly and said we should take our time to get ready, and then he would park the car for us, plus the valet parking was "complimentary," meaning free.

Well then! So we did, and after we had a nice dinner, he promptly brought the car back for us -- just like for Mr. & Mrs. Millionaire! Unfortunately, we didn't have a travel guide with us, so we didn't know how much to tip in such a situation, but the valet guy was visibly pleased with the five dollars I gave him; we read up on it at home: two dollars would have been appropriate. Every day is an adventure.

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	Units of measurement and weight
  	Automated Telephone Services
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  	U.S. Store Chains
  	Guns and violence
  	Bay to Breakers
  	Shopping On the Internet
  	Soccer in America
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