Vanilla Haagen-Dazs… it must be made from angel’s milk.  Sheer ecstasy. What heaven must be like (please!). I savor each lick until my taste buds scream in pain for more. And when I reluctantly swallow my last bite—that’s what hell must be like.

I recently allowed myself to have this sweet-bitter experience at a local Haagen-Dazs store. While eating, I temporarily awoke from my blissful nirvana to see (in horror) that I had licked off all the ice-cream on top. I was not ready to bite into the cone (that is the beginning of the end!). So I went back up to the counter with a big milk covered smile (yes, angel’s milk) and said, as charming as I could muster, “for a real passionate lover of your great product would you kindly add a gratuitous small shaving to the top here (holding my topless cone out to her) to help extend my joy… just a little longer?” Even with a strict policy against such allowances, she said, “It would be my pleasure” and plunked another full (albeit hollow) scoop of vanilla bliss on my cone. The charm must have worked (or the promise to promote this story on my blog – I’m kidding!).

When I came back to the table with my new (free!) scoop my wife couldn’t believe it! One, that I asked… and two, that she gave it me! I said simply, “it never hurts to ask.”

This is true in most instances, most every day. I’m a big believer that you only get what you ask for. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. So why not ask for everything? The worst possible thing that can happen is they say no.

Ask, and Ye Shall Receive. Ye Have Not, Because Ye Ask Not