How much of a fraud am I?

Yesterday took the car to the car wash -- way overdue, plus there was the sand in the back seat from going to Baker Beach with bigjohnsf and his non-lj'ed dog Teddy (fun trip, but beaches have too much sand and should cut down on that). One of those car washes where the chain pulls your car through the soapy rags & the sprays of water, and then underpaid young people towel it down, and the lead underpaid young person raises his or her towel as a sign that they're done.

When the lead UYP raised his towel, I hobbled over to the car, handed him the claim check & a tip, and said "Gracias." Apparently my accent was spot-on, because he smiled and replied in conversational Spanish, which of course got me to smile and nod. "¡Buenos Dias!" I replied when he slowed down, and got in the car. The key was not there. I opened the door and said (in English), "Wait! The key isn't here!"

He came back, grabbed the key from the top of the right front tire, handed it to me and said (in English) "Sorry, forgot to put it back in the ignition."

And here's how much of a fraud I am.

I said "Danke!"

I my defense, I did travel to Germany twice last year. And thanked people while I was there. In French.

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Today I took scottasf and progbear to the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, an amazing place and highly recommended. They have 8 decades of pinball history crammed into 5 tiny rooms, nearly all the machines playable for free, and all of them with descriptive cards. Best example was New York, a 2-player version of Gottlieb's Spirit of 76, produced to celebrate the legalization of pinball in New York City.

Yep. Pinball was banned in NYC until 1975. Which is just weird.

What did we learn? We learned that if you want to actually play the games, you go to pinball museums as early as possible. As we left, they were ushering in a private party of 75. We also learned that I can't stand and play pinball as long as I used to be able to. Good news is that the museum is set to move into much bigger & classier digs. They have a fund set up to support the move, and we should all contribute to it!