Thanks to Chili's and a Leather Case

Last Thursday evening, I lost my cell phone, a fact I didn't deduce until several hours after the fact. I called the number--not in the house. Went outside--not in the car or in the driveway.

The next day, I went to work, called the number. Not in my office. I realized there were probably only a few hours of power left on the phone, at which point the "call the number" strategy becomes ... um ... powerless. In the meantime, I talked to the folks at Chili's, where I'd eaten the night before. No phone there. I became resigned to the thought of buying a full-price phone. (I'm not currently eligible for an upgrade, since my current phone is less than a year old.)

So imagine my surprise when a Chili's employee called me at 4 p.m. to say that a manager coming on duty had found the phone in the parking lot and brought it in. Given that it had been out in the lot all night, I became happier than ever that that I'd blown an extra $15 on a leather case for it--I'm not sure it could have withstood a night and day outside without it.

After asking a few "identify your phone, please" questions, the nice people at Chili's let me take it home, where I put my lost one to bed with a nice warm recharge. Thanks, Chili's--it's not only your skillet queso that I will appreciate from now on.