Is it just me, or has the “tip jar” custom developed into a practice that is completely out of control? It seems to be that no matter where I turn there is someone there with a tip jar waiting for me to give them extra money for doing a job for which I just paid them.
Please don’t get me wrong. It is not that I am cheap (contrary to what W.E. may think). I often tip waiters at least 20 percent if there service is above and beyond and they are attentive to my needs. I just don’t understand why I should tip the little asian girl who spoons in my two items along with my fried rice and lo-mein noodles into the little styrofoam tray. I think I actually take more steps than her as i walk back and forth in front of the glass covered steam table trying to decide what my two items will be. We then walk together to the register where I pay and she puts the container in a plastic bag with a big red smiley face on it. If I beg and smile she will put two soy sauce packets in the bag with a napkin and plastic fork but I don’t think she is really happy about it. What can I say? One packet is not enough to bring the fried rice back to life. But I digress. There, in front of the register, is a tip jar. I just don’t see what service has been rendered that warrants a tip.
Continue reading “Guest Blog: Tip Jar”
One of my favorite activities at our perennial family get togethers is to do a puzzle. Over the years we’ve done a lot of different puzzles in different styles. We’ve done oddly shaped puzzles, we’ve done massive puzzles, and we’ve done intricate puzzles.
The truth is, though, I am really bad at puzzles. I usually will sit down for 5-10 minutes, try to put in a few pieces, then get bored or frustrated and move on to another activity. If you want to know who the true puzzle queen is in our family, it’s my mom. (Tio and Aunt Sherrie do a good job too, but Mom is the ultimate puzzle focuser.)
I’ve found the trick to participating in the puzzle, though. I join early and strategically claim the part of the puzzle with the most detail, which will be easiest to put toegether. Things like rooflines, people, even lattice work or anything geometrical will do. What you don’t want to do is come to the puzzle late when there is only one or two things left… the sky or the water.
Continue reading “Celebrating Singleness: Putting the Pieces Together”
On my recent vacation, I took the opportunity to visit my brother at his place of employment: the full service meat counter of a grocery store chain. They take great pride in their meats, and boy did he have some interesting stories and perspectives that I felt that we all should know for our own enlightenment and understanding, so we can become more courteous shoppers:
Continue reading “When Buying Meat…”
You know something is wrong when you’re Googling: “how to change a lightbulb”…
Yes, my friends, last night I arrived home to find that I had, indeed, left my exterior lights on all night and all day long - and I noticed that one of them was finally burned out (2.5 years is pretty good for an exterior incandessant bulb, no?)
So time to replace the bulb, right? Continue reading “WhiteEyebrows vs. The Lightbulb”
So, I finally caved in and started watching a few Olympic competitions. NBC is, of course, still the HNIC of broadcasting anything Olympic. In fact, when I was younger, I remember NBC’s peacock logo beign synonymous with the Olympic rings, and substituted the John Williams Olympic theme for the NBC sound (you know, the three xylophone/bells/marimba tones…)
But for all of the Olympic staples (the music, the rings, the McDonalds sponsorships), nothing surpasses the ubiquity of Bob Costas.
Continue reading “Someone Go Get Bob out of Mothballs”
Frequenters of the WhiteEyebrows Blog may have noticed that, a few weeks ago, some nifty Google Ads started to creep up on my site. This was not a result of Google’s merciless monopolization and commoditization of each and every corner of the inter-web, as you might be thinking…. This is an example of my own merciless commoditization of every corner of my life…
How else am I going to retire by the time I’m 40? It actually all goes back to the Snow Cone Stand, really… but that’s another blog. I hope YFC will one day write a guest blog about it… Continue reading “Google AdWords Sucks!”
Depending on which chapter of my life you came to know me in, you may or may not know that I was pretty involved in the theatre. Deeply. Heavily. Sickeningly. I graduated in it, for the pity’s sake.
Since 2005, however, I have been only cursorily involved in a few things. Lately though, I’ve seen a lot of shows… more in the past two months than in the past year, I think…
Continue reading “How Dramatic”
