If I Could Turn Back Time . . .

. . . I would have remembered to turn back my clocks last night before I went to bed! I woke up this morning and merrily started my laundry, thinking it was 8am. I watched a Star Trek DVD that my sister loaned me, and then prepared to watch Judging Amy at 9. That's when I discovered that I had forgotten to turn back the clocks! All I could do was laugh . . . and be grateful that I got an early start on my laundry.

Plans for today: head over to Penningtons and see if I can find some more long-sleeved shirts and sweaters (at reasonable prices) seeing as my classroom is really, really cold these days, and outside is cold too. Wish me luck!

Potluck Potpourri

Last night I went to an Italian potluck dinner. It was very, very yummy! I got to see some friends that I hadn't seen for a while - so hooray! I have to admit that I was a little concerned about going after having lunch with two colleagues from work on Tuesday. They were talking about all the times people go to potlucks and get food poisoning. One of the guys told us that his wife got sick two separate times after two separate potlucks. That's when I chimed in and said "gee, I'm going to a potluck on Friday" to which both guys just laughed. Sigh. Thanks M and B!

You'll notice that I am posting these thoughts on our potluck the day after the potluck. I didn't want to gross anyone at the potluck out, particularly after my friend Amy told me that she has been reading my blog. Hi Amy!

Once again I wished for my camera last night. When Jennifer and I took the bus to her place last night we passed by several houses who had gone all out to decorate for Halloween. I LOVE halloween and I really, really wanted to take pictures of the spookiness. Jennifer reminded me that I have a camera phone, but the quality of those pictures leaves a lot to be desired.

I also wanted to take some photos of my friends at dinner last night. There were LOTS of "kodak moments" when Jennifer and Lance broke out the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) video game for little Kazzie to enjoy. He danced the night away with various dance partners including Lance, Jerry, Amy, daddy Koji, me, and Jennifer. Watching everyone dance was lots of fun.

Before I leave you all for the day, I want to share this pearl of wisdom from the four-and-a-half year old Kazzie: "my head gets really long when I jump!" It took me forever to figure out what Kazzie was talking about! We were standing in front of the stove checking on the progress of dinner. There was a big, shiny pot of water boiling on the stove for the spaghetti. The image in the pot was really distorted and lengthened everything! When Kazzie jumped up and down his head got really long. It was the first of many previously mentioned photo opportunities!

The new and improved me!

My hair before the cut. Notice how the length really drags me down. When I told me stylist, the uber-fantastic Daphne, that I had had this cut for the past ten years and that I really needed a change she got all excited. This is only the second time that Daphne has cut my hair, mind you, but she said she lives for days when someone tells her that they aren't sure what they want to do and asks for her help. I was very pleased with her suggestions, so I will definitely continue to see her. We discussed putting some highlights in at some point in the future. When I explained that I was very low-maintenance with my hair, Daphne told me about something called peekaboo highlights, which don't go over the top of your hair and lie under the first layer of your hair. I'm definitely thinking about some of those for the future!

Voila! I LOVE it! She cut side bangs into it, but I'm not so sure you'll really be able to see them unless I part my hair the opposite way. When she was asking me about my part I got flustered and told her the opposite of what I usually do (hey, cut me some slack! I was nearly blind 'cause I wasn't wearing my glasses, and I was looking into a mirror!) She cut the bangs opposite to how I usually wear my hair, but that's okay because I discovered that it looks good either way! Daphne told me that if I blow dry my hair and put some mousse at the roots that I'll have lots and lots of volume and it will look like porn star hair! I might have to buy some mousse and and a blow dryer in order to try that out!

Sexy, no?

Okay, seriously . . .

what's up with Lorelai this season on GG? She is supposed to be with Luke, NOT Christopher! I get the fact that he's Rory's dad, but this is just weird. C'mon, we're supposed to believe that all that sexual tension and chemistry over the last six years was leading up to Lorelai and Christopher getting back together?! Does anyone else have any thoughts on this new season? I'm thinking that the episodes have been fairly lacklustre so far. I miss all the snappy dialogue. There have been a few flashes of it, but not really enough to justify a full hour's worth of show. What do you think?

Now House is a show I've missed lately. I'm currently watching a rerun. Someone, in their infinite wisdom, decided that while the World Series was on we shouldn't have any new episodes of House. Who the f*ck thought that was a good idea? There won't be a new episode on until Halloween! I don't know if I can last that long! Today is the first day in three weeks that I've watched House. I'm surprised that I didn't experience withdrawal symptoms. I think it's because Hugh Laurie is one of the pictures on my sexy British men mug and his is the display picture on my MSN Messenger.

And finally I thought I should remind everyone that I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. If my students drive me totally nuts maybe I'll get her to shave my head bald so that I can go get an awesome wig and go to work dressed as someone they don't know. Then they can't bug me. Yeah, right!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Or in my case, Wednesday evening! I was supposed to get a haircut this morning, but when I arrived at the salon I was told that my stylist had called in sick. They couldn't call me because I was the first appointment of the day and my stylist called in right before the appointment. Anyway, I opted to make a new appointment than have my hair cut by someone else. I'm looking forward to possibly getting a new look (or will I chicken out and just ask for a trim?) - I've had my same hairstyle with varying lengths for at least 10 years now. All I want is something easy to maintain. I've even started to think about dyeing it (my students all think I dye my hair anyway, so I may as well!) or getting some highlights. I hesitate though because I don't want to have to return to the stylist all the time to maintain the colour. We'll see. Definitely won't be dyeing it on Wednesday, but it's something to think about for the future. I have this fantasy of sitting in the stylist's chair and saying to her "it's just hair. Do whatever you want to it, it'll grow back." Anyway, if my hair turns out really different I'll try and post some pictures after it's done :-)

Tipping

Ever had this experience? You're sitting in a restaurant with a friend. You order your beverage and it seems to take forever until it arrives. It's not a fancy drink, just a regular coke. You order your food and wait and wait for it. While you and your friend are talking you see your waitress standing around and chatting with the other servers, even though you could use a drink refill and you're wondering where the hell your plain ol' burger is. When your food finally arrives you attack it, starving, only to realize that your glass is empty and your waitress never offered you a refill. You spend the next five minutes trying to flag down your waitress to ask for a refill, which predicatably, takes five minutes to get to your table. After you finish eating, a good hour at least after you've entered the restaurant, you wait for your bill to arrive. It comes and you and your friend put your money on the table. You now have to debate the eternal question, "how much of a tip should we leave?" The standard seems to be about 15 to 20 percent. You wait and wait for the waitress to return and ask you if you need change. You ask for a certain amount back and you wait and wait for her to return with it. Does any of that sound familiar to you? More and more often it's situations similar to the one I've just described that I encounter when having lunch with my best friend. We have a standing date every Saturday afternoon for lunch and one of the few constants it seems we can count on is crappy service. We always leave roughly a 15% tip, but there are times when we debate leaving a tip at all. I can't speak for her (though I'm sure she shares these thoughts), but I'm getting sick and tired of tipping for sub par service. Don't get me wrong, I understand that service people like waiters and waitresses rely on tips to make ends meet. I have no problem tipping my waiter or waitress, but in return I expect some service that's at least halfway decent. I'm tired of my waitress walking right past me multiple times when I clearly need a beverage refill. And why does my waitress always seem to disappear for her coffee break at the exact time that I'm ready to pay my bill and leave? Would it kill my waitress to stop by the table once in a while to see how I'm doing with my meal? Today my friend and I experienced our usual level of poor service, so we decided to do something a littler different. We always split the bill 50-50. Since we've usually just been to the cash machine we always only ever have $20 bill, nothing lower, so we always need at least a couple of dollars in change. Today we were debating about whether to each leave $1 as a tip (which would have been approximately 12% of the bill) or $2 (just over 20% of the bill). Our money sat on the table for a little while. Our waitress walked past us a couple of times and we decided that if she came for our money within a couple of minutes we would give her the higher amount, but if she continued to walk past us we would give her the lower amount. We ended up giving her the lower amount and she looked quite peeved as she gave us her change. I really didn't care since she could have quite easily stopped at our table to pick up our money any of the 3 or 4 times she walked past us. What ever happened to the days of decent service? Or service with a smile? Seriously, why should I tip you for crappy service? A tip is meant to be a thank you for a service performed. I'm not willing to give you a generous tip unless you've actually given me some decent service! My friend and I even had a waitress take her own tip out of our change once. We gave her our money and asked for a certain amount back in change, which included roughly a 15% tip. The service had been okay, but nothing special. When the waitress returned a few minutes later with our change she said that we must have made a mistake on the tip and that she had corrected it by bringing us the "correct change", which was a couple of dollars less than what we had asked for. At the time were so shocked by her nerve that we left without saying anything, but I often wish I could talk to that waitress, whom we never saw again, and give her a piece of my mind.

To those bloggers reading this who currently work in the service industry or have in the past, I just want you to know that I do respect the work that you do and I know that crappy service sometimes isn't your fault. I have never not left a tip, even after really crappy service. But as someone who eats out on a weekly basis, I feel perfectly justified in asking that my waiter or waitress not ignore me or repeatedly walk past me when I'm trying to pay. Is that really too much to ask?

Happy Turkey Day!

I had my Thanksgiving dinner last night at my mom's place. The kids and spouses and two grandkids were all there. I'm the only single one now . . . but that's okay. I do have to say that watching the two newlywed couples (my sister and her husband, who have been married for a little over six months, and my step-brother and his wife, who have been married for two months) was a little uncomfortable sometimes. All the gazing into each other's eyes and private jokes and sweet nothings . . . yuck! Whatever. You're talking to someone who's ALWAYS been single, so I really can't relate to people in love.

Dinner was delicious! And abundant . . . ham, turkey, vegetable casseroles, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, perogies . . . enough to feed an army! Even for dessert . . . we had pumpkin pie, plum cake (yummy!!), and apple pudding. Not to mention ice cream and whipping cream to put on top. I ate so much, but it was worth it! All the kids were counting on taking home leftovers and we weren't disappointed! I took home three chinese food containers (the large round foil containers with cardboard lids) full of leftovers so I don't have to worry about what I'll be eating for lunch or dinner tonight!

I woke up this morning briefly contemplating a day spent cleaning. I know it should be done, but screw it, I want to enjoy my day off so I'll leave the cleaning for another day. I'm done everything I have to do for work tomorrow so today I can do whatever I want. Unfortunately I don't know yet what I want to do. Goodbye for now blog buddies!

Walk a mile in my . . .

. . . new shoes 'cause they are so freakin' comfortable! I would post a picture of them, but I don't feel like hauling out my camera right now. So I'll use my English teaching skills to describe them to you instead. They look a lot like bowling shoes actually. They're tan in colour with a couple of olive green stripes along the side and a couple of darker brown patches near the toes. They have olive green laces. They look and feel like suede, but I'm not sure that they really are. I bought them this weekend at Payless Shoes (LOVE that store!) I hadn't planned to buy anything new this weekend, but I after I got dressed to go out on Sunday I realized that I didn't have any kind of casual shoes in brown to wear so I headed off to the store to see what I could find. I'm glad that I don't have to wear my running shoes every day :-)

Now for a complete change of topic . . . I've had to make some new bug juice to put next to my sink in the kitchen. The fruit flies are getting annoying again. Karen was able to kill 30 of the little beasties when she made the bug juice last week. I'm torn between wanting to find 30 in my mug (though EEWWWW! That means there were 30 of them flying around my apartment) or wanting to find only 8 or 9 (though that seems vaguely disappointing since it's much more fun to think I've killed lots of yucky fruit flies!) Okay, you can't tell this just by reading this post, but I stepped away from the computer for a moment to do something in the kitchen and I noticed that I already have two flies in the mug! The bug juice has only been sitting in the kitchen for half an hour. Wahoooo!! Die little buggers!

Before you think I'm completely bloodthirsty let me assure you that I'm not. I usually don't experience the overwhelming urge to kill any living beings except for fruit flies and squirrels. Fruit flies because they're completely gross, and squirrels because they're nasty rodents who destroy nearly everything they come into contact with. Trust me, I know. About 4 or 5 years ago a squirrel got into our attic and it started to chew through the ceiling . . . right over my head while I was sleeping! I woke up one morning to find a small pile of plaster from the ceiling on the pillow right next to where I was sleeping! Luckily no squirrels ever fell on my head, but now I have an extreme dislike of squirrels. And I do mean EXTREME!

Now my lovely blog buddies, I'm off to read some of your blogs. Have a good night!