Thread Killers Untied! (no Tker left behind...)

[racetrack18kb]

M&N-I think you passed the test all right. You may have made a friend for life with DD. Just warning you for next time.

I still have to scan the pictures from the chocolate factory. Today, I hope.

 

[kimluvswdw]

whgrn-ooops, I guess I forgot to put down who is who. I'm in the green. Are you all ready for your trip?

MagiKitty-Yeah, that's the only unavoidable hill. There is also a zoo that is included in the price of admission but we didn't get a chance to go this year. Kids chose to play in the water park. You know, if David Cook didn't want to talk about his girlfriend, maybe he WAS talking about you. Maybe he didn't want the paparazzi swarming around you and interupting your life.

Shmu-so glad your DD is better. A date weekend with DH....I'm still waiting for that to happen here. This was the first Tker meeting that I know of. Hopefully we can do it again soon.

Kim-I wanted to take SIL mind off of what is going on with DB for a little so I asked her about the tip thing. She said her tips have been bad lately too. So maybe it is the sign of the economy.

I had started a thread about tipping on the community board yesterday morning and it has gotten ugly at points. I more wanted to know if servers had run into the same problem and it has become a nightmare of people telling why they tip and how much they tip. It is not what I was looking for. Unless people are servers they can't understand how hard we work. They leave crappy tips because they think we don't do much. People don't think how we have to pay taxes on a portion of our total sales, not on the tips we get. When people stiff us it hurts more than they know.

 

[racetrack18kb]

I had started a thread about tipping on the community board yesterday morning and it has gotten ugly at points. I more wanted to know if servers had run into the same problem and it has become a nightmare of people telling why they tip and how much they tip. It is not what I was looking for. Unless people are servers they can't understand how hard we work. They leave crappy tips because they think we don't do much. People don't think how we have to pay taxes on a portion of our total sales, not on the tips we get. When people stiff us it hurts more than they know.

I saw that thread but I didn't read it. I was hoping some people who had experience with this sort of thing would help you out. I know there use to be a poster on the dis that is a waitress but she's not allowed to post here anymore. That's a shame since I bet she could have given you some good insight. Oh, and just to warn you, there is this poster that pops up around here every now and then who really dislikes waitresses. She just may decided to pay your thread a visit is she hasn't been banned already.

I've heard alot of horror stories from my SIL. And it's just not physically hard work. Mentally and emotionally. I mean you have to be nice all the time even when customers are being downright rude to you. And honestly, I think everybody should have to be paid minimum wage. I know tips are suppose to be part of your wage but it's not guaranteed.

 

[kimluvswdw]

I saw that thread but I didn't read it. I was hoping some people who had experience with this sort of thing would help you out. I know there use to be a poster on the dis that is a waitress but she's not allowed to post here anymore. That's a shame since I bet she could have given you some good insight. Oh, and just to warn you, there is this poster that pops up around here every now and then who really dislikes waitresses. She just may decided to pay your thread a visit is she hasn't been banned already.

I've heard alot of horror stories from my SIL. And it's just not physically hard work. Mentally and emotionally. I mean you have to be nice all the time even when customers are being downright rude to you. And honestly, I think everybody should have to be paid minimum wage. I know tips are suppose to be part of your wage but it's not guaranteed.

I was hoping to get more opinions from servers than I have. Why in the world would someone hate waitresses? The food does not make it to the table without them and the drinks don't get refilled without them. I would not want to have to wait on half the people that posted on that thread. Some of them seem like they understand, but some are just plain cheap.

 

[racetrack18kb]

I don't think alot of people understand what it means to be a waitress. I also think they don't understand that when you get a tip, it's just not yours. There are so many other people involved in their restaurant experience that get a cut of that money. The customers see that you have 6 tables and if each table gives 5.00, wow you made 30.00 for an hours worth of work. They don't need to tip alot because in their mind, you just made more than they did in a hour. Unfortunately, they don't realize that once you split that tip with everyone else and pay taxes on it, you are really only making peanuts. Too bad everyone couldn't spend a little while waitressing to see what it is really like. I bet then they wouldn't think twice about leaving a nice tip.

Oh, and here's a link to that posters blog site. It is a real opener and I sure wouldn't wish my worst enemy to ever be her waitress.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2036770_be-good-server-restaurant.html

 

[kimluvswdw]

For all she thinks a waitress should do, she should be paying them in gold tips.

 

[Pikester]

Hi Everyone,
Well 72 pages wow, I started reading and tried to catch up and then couldn't get back. Well now I have even more to read.
Lot's to do, but wanted to check in hope to be back soon!!!

Disney54us - Welcome back! Was wondering about our tech guru and when she'd return. Were you on vacation? Can't remember. Hope all is well.

Don't even get me started on the tipping thing. That is a hot topic. I could play devil's advocate, but I don't want this thread to get locked. Kim - hope things improve for you.

racetrack - Glad you had a good time at Hershey. Can't wait to see pics.

Magikitty - How was your wild weekend???

I think it is a combination of both. My personal rule is to tip 15% period (higher if someone went above and beyond). My daughter is having the same problem right now at her job.

Pikester...that recipe sounds delish! Of course, I have neither one of those ingredients, but they're one my shopping list! Big congrats to DS on his major accomplishment. What a great job he did!

My weekend was fantastic! The wedding was gorgeous, we had perfect weather. My high school girlfriends and I had such a blast being together. The bride just glowed and we all cried together when standing up at the chuppah together. The groom is wonderful and is completely ok with the fact that although he married one, he got the rest of us three for free! We partied way into the night, and even tolerated the mosquitoes. I had entirely too much to drink, and am still paying for it today! But what a wonderful time and I am just so happy for my friend and her new husband.

I too have so much to catch up on, and I have few days until graduation on Saturday. I've decided to get the twins their own fridges for the dorm rooms. I know, not the most exciting graduation gift, but something they're going to need, and something I can get delivered.
talk to you later everyone!

Let me know what you think about that recipe.==I'm glad that you not only had an awesome time at the wedding but that you like the "new hubby" too! ==I'm sure the fridges will be much appreciated.

Been really hectic around here today. I think I mentioned that things were getting bad between DB and SIL. They have only continued to get worse and I feel very conflicted about what it going on. Believe me, I love my DB. I mean, he's my brother you know. And you all know about SIL. She can truly drive me insane and alot of times I just want to shake some sense into this girl. But I feel so bad for her right now. I'm trying to keep her from doing something dumb and not react out of anger at my DB. And believe me, if I was in her place, I would be just as angry. I just want her to realize that she needs to put their little boy first.

Sorry to hear DB and SIL are having problems. I don't remember reading about them (I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning) but I hope those issues can be worked out.

Ok, I hope you all don't mind a bunch of pictures even though I only managed to have 1 of me and M&N taken. Sorry, I was busy chatting away and didn't even think to stop and take a bunch of pictures for all of you.

Well, here we are. And with one of favorite kinds of candy...Peppermint Pattie. Chocolate and mint, what's not to love.

I figured out who was who once I saw the picture of your daughters. Hershey Park looks awesome! I may have to try to talk my DH into making a trip there someday. We plan on driving to Disney this year so driving to PA would be much shorter then that from NH.

Thanks again everyone for the prayers for my DD. She bounced back quickly and is in West Virginia on her trip.

YAY for the pictures

So is this the first official TK meet or has some of us met before and I missed it?

The pictures I'm getting for Flat TKers are looking great.

Looks like we all have a lot of family stuff going on, good and bad.

OH, I didn't even realize it but it's going to be me and DH alone again this weekend. DD will still be in West Virginia and DS is going to Maryland for a karate tournament.

This is the second time this season. Seeing how the kids have ALWAYS been with us since we home schooled, this is a big treat.
DH even said he is trying to work out his schedule so he doesn't have to work on Friday. I told him maybe we can go to Stone Mountain Park. We use to date there all the time and he proposed to me on top of the mountain. I'll take pictures if we go.

To Everybody.

Have a great day and I'll try and check in again tonight.

Happy to hear that your getting more pictures for the flat Tkers. Enjoy your weekend alone with your DH!

Praise the Lord!!! Hope she has a great trip. And hope you and DH have a great date!

I found a smilie for you.

I hope I'm not offending you but for some reason I thought you would like it. Please ignore it if you don't.

It is a quiz. Who has a season pass? Who has a refillable cup? Who is retired and thus older? Who is who?
And I do agree---her children are adorable. Except when DD5 was picking on me! She was just playing-giving me little nudges-making sure I was ok. I think I passed.

Happy to hear that you made a few new friends and had a good time!

I was hoping to get more opinions from servers than I have. Why in the world would someone hate waitresses? The food does not make it to the table without them and the drinks don't get refilled without them. I would not want to have to wait on half the people that posted on that thread. Some of them seem like they understand, but some are just plain cheap.

Could you give me the link to your thread? I would like to take a look.

 

[racetrack18kb]

I know! She really does have an obsession with her condiments though. I really think she just doesn't like to tip and makes her waitress/waiter jump through hoops for a couple of bucks.

 

[whgrn]

It is a quiz. Who has a season pass? Who has a refillable cup? Who is retired and thus older? Who is who?
And I do agree---her children are adorable. Except when DD5 was picking on me! She was just playing-giving me little nudges-making sure I was ok. I think I passed.

OK, I guess then racetrack is in the green! And I got it right even BEFORE I read the next post!

whgrn-ooops, I guess I forgot to put down who is who. I'm in the green. Are you all ready for your trip?

Hard to get excited when we still don't know if we're going! The flooding has our part of the river closed to all traffic. It's day to day...

==I'm sure the fridges will be much appreciated.


I found a smilie for you.

I hope I'm not offending you but for some reason I thought you would like it. Please ignore it if you don't.

I LOVE it!!! Thanks!

It's POURING here, and I have to take the kids to the orthodontist...

 

[D&DDisney]

Pikester - Is your waving smilie making a face at me here or are you just saying "Hi"?

Kim - I thought that thread would turn ugly fast. Tipping, refill mugs and pool hopping are not threads received with open arms on this board, regardless of their intent. Sorry you didn't get the information you hoped for.
Also just wanted to say one thing, and please don't be offened, but don't put all people who tip less than 15% into the same category. Not everyone is cheap or should stay home if they can't afford the 15%+ tip. I was a server in buffet and table service restaurant for many years in high school and college. Went into it just expecting the minimum for wages and felt that anything over and above that was a bonus. I know all servers don't feel that way but that is just my opinion. I don't always (and I emphasize sometimes) tip my servers or my hair stylist or whomever the standard 15% and it is not because I am cheap. Just don't always have the extra money to give and I give what I can. We're all people just trying to make it in the economy and we try to help each other out when we can. Again, just my opinion for what its worth. No offense meant.

Racetrack - I LOVE those pictures. That looks like such a fun place to go. Maybe for next years vacation, when we come visit the Liberty Bell like my DS wants to, we'll have to stop there too. Glad you two had a good time.

Only 18 more days until camping in Colorado. It is our ultimate budget vacation. $18 campsites, bringing our own food and camping w/ relatives from Austin, TX. Our biggest expense will be the gas money. Who'd of thought that would end up being our biggest expense when we planned this last year?

 

[pepperw23]

Hello everyone! I just caught up on everything...I'll try to remember what I can (I should just learn how to multi-quote already...)

Pepper, sorry to hear DH and DS aren't going anymore. Busch Gardens in Va? Or Fla? We went to the Va one last year---it really is a gorgeous park and some really crazy rides.




My weekend was fantastic! The wedding was gorgeous, we had perfect weather. My high school girlfriends and I had such a blast being together. The bride just glowed and we all cried together when standing up at the chuppah together. The groom is wonderful and is completely ok with the fact that although he married one, he got the rest of us three for free! We partied way into the night, and even tolerated the mosquitoes. I had entirely too much to drink, and am still paying for it today! But what a wonderful time and I am just so happy for my friend and her new husband.

!

The one in Va. We go once a year with work. They pay for it too. Totally good times. I will take some pics to share with everyone.

DS and DH are not big Disney people anyway. They are more in to the big rides. Me and DD are looking forward to a "slower" trip with my parents and no one to "talk us in to" the big rides.

Sounds like the wedding was awesome! Are you working your way up to your "27 Dresses" HA HA.

Multi is not working right today:

Racechickeydudette- My Dad is doing really well...knock on wood... Thanks for asking!!!

Turns out he did not need to change Doctors on his own because they referred him to a Thoracic Surgeon. His needle biopsy was "inconclusive" but they said that basically means no signs of cancer in the fluid around his lungs. The reason it is inconclusive is because they know he has cancer in the lung...or something like that.

Because of all of our research on doctors (when we were getting ready to pull out from this Dr.) my Dad was able to tell them who we wanted to be referred to. He is still trying to get an appointment. According to his current Dr. they will have to do a lung biopsy around the mass before they can do surgery to remove it. We are hoping though that the Thoracic Dr. will just say "nope, gonna just remove it" like they did with my Father In Law (he had been told the same thing by his Dr. before being referred too).

Looks like you guys had a blast at Hershey Park!!!!

I know there are lots of comments that I have missed...so hi to all!!!!

My Dad says he feels great (Smoke free for three months now). A lot of his symptoms were from the COPD(think that is what they called it) and now his body is healing more and more each day. Positive thoughts!

So far Disney is still on. He said his very first question is going to be "Am I okay to go to Disney World?"

 

[racetrack18kb]

whgrn-sorry, I was only thinking of the trip to Scotland. I see the countdown ticker in your siggie about Scotland and that's the trip I always think about with you. I always seem to forget about your river cruise trip.

I hope all works out for your closer upcomming trip.

pepper-So glad your dad is doing well. Please tell him that I greatly admired his outlook during this and I am wishing him a full recovery. We used to take trips to Busch Gardens and then spend a few days in Virginia Beach.

D&DDisney-

18 MORE DAYS Hershey would be a nice little side trip from Philly. It is really nice there. We actually live about 15-20 minutes from another amusement park but would rather drive 1 1/2 hours to get to Hershey.

Pikester-

 

[lighttech]

Hey everyone! You've been busy again... I'll have to kill some time catching up once more. I swear if I keep playing "catchup" I'll never actually get to talk to you guys again!

Pepper - Yours was the only post I read b/c it was the only one on the last page. (Don't want everyone else to think I'm snubbing them... where'd that snooty smiley go? ) I'm really glad to hear that things seem to be moving in a good direction w/ your dad and that he's hanging in there. I'm not totally in touch w/ what's happened over the last few days, but I'm glad he's headed to a doc that he researched and that there's the possibility things will be simplified as they were in your FILs case. and prayers to you all.

Everybody else - I haven't had time to catch up, but I did get a flat TK pic to Shmu... hope I'll have lots of flat company on my flat vacation! (Who knows when I'll take a real one again!)

For everyone who has asked... Thanks! Things are going so far so good w/ Baby Lighttech. Had another check up today and all went well. It was w/ my fav doc at the practice, and I had to bring DS. The Dr. was great, he let DS hold the microphone from the special stethoscope thingy they use to listen to the baby's heartbeat and turn it on and off, and DS was giddy. His whole face lit up to be helping a real doctor w/ "real doctor tools." Too funny.

Ok, still gotta finish laundry (I only have like 2 pairs of maternity pants I wear to work, and one just got a whole... so the other is in the wash), make and pack DSs lunch, fold and pack his naptime sheets for school, layout clothes, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and I'm going to get to bed early to finish kicking this cold Yea right! At least the doc gave me a list of a few drugs I can actually take. I try to avoid everything, including tylenol when I'm pregnant, but I might breakdown to get a good night sleep w/ this one.

Take care everybody! I'll be back to play catchup more later or tomorrow.

 

[lighttech]

Hi racetrack! Posted at the same time...

 

[pepperw23]

I called my Dad to let him know your well wishes:

Message from my Dad to all of you:

"Awww, that's sweet dahlin'. Tell those ladies with the funny names thank you. I think it is sweet they asked about me.."

 

[racetrack18kb]

I called my Dad to let him know your well wishes:

Message from my Dad to all of you:

"Awww, that's sweet dahlin'. Tell those ladies with the funny names thank you. I think it is sweet they asked about me.."

Your dad's funny. I may have to take a little side trip on our way back from vacation to meet you all.

When we were in Hershey, I could just imagine what people were thinking hearing M&N and I talking using everyone's screen names.

 

[M&N]

I called my Dad to let him know your well wishes:

Message from my Dad to all of you:

"Awww, that's sweet dahlin'. Tell those ladies with the funny names thank you. I think it is sweet they asked about me.."

I guess we can be glad that the only thing he thinks about us that is funny is our names.

Lighttech: You just keep catching up. We seem to do enough talking for the 2 of you....counting baby lighttech in that. I guess we need to call DS Dr DS now.

Kim: Here's your smilie!

Pikester:

I just felt I needed to give you a wave.

Racetrack: Maybe I should call you zoom?

Did you hear Mark Martin's leaving DEI and going to Hendrick's? I guess next year.

D&D: Great place for vacation this year. No floods or fires. I guess you have to watch out for bears though. I used to love camping as a Girl Scout.

Kim: It is amazing how people get off on their own ideas and not address what was originally asked. I saw in this mornings paper about bartenders saying they were down in tips too. It sounded like several states were considering making min wage higher for servers so tips would not be as big a factor in their wage. I do think it was good that some pointed out to make complaints to the management and not take poor food out on the servers.

 

[Pikester]

Pikester - Is your waving smilie making a face at me here or are you just saying "Hi"?

Only 18 more days until camping in Colorado. It is our ultimate budget vacation. $18 campsites, bringing our own food and camping w/ relatives from Austin, TX. Our biggest expense will be the gas money. Who'd of thought that would end up being our biggest expense when we planned this last year?

Is this one better?

Here's another

Are those two smilies roasting the other? Have fun camping! I keep telling my DH that I would love to go camping if he would only buy me a portable motel room.

 

[Pikester]

I called my Dad to let him know your well wishes:

Message from my Dad to all of you:

"Awww, that's sweet dahlin'. Tell those ladies with the funny names thank you. I think it is sweet they asked about me.."

Go pepperw23's Dad!

Your Dad sounds like a really great man!

 

[whgrn]

I don't think alot of people understand what it means to be a waitress. I also think they don't understand that when you get a tip, it's just not yours. There are so many other people involved in their restaurant experience that get a cut of that money. The customers see that you have 6 tables and if each table gives 5.00, wow you made 30.00 for an hours worth of work. They don't need to tip alot because in their mind, you just made more than they did in a hour. Unfortunately, they don't realize that once you split that tip with everyone else and pay taxes on it, you are really only making peanuts. Too bad everyone couldn't spend a little while waitressing to see what it is really like. I bet then they wouldn't think twice about leaving a nice tip.

Oh, and here's a link to that posters blog site. It is a real opener and I sure wouldn't wish my worst enemy to ever be her waitress.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2036770_be-good-server-restaurant.html

OMG, that's a bit over the top, isn't it?? And racetrack is right--are we obsessed with our condiments or WHAT?!? God help whatever poor soul has to be her server!

whgrn-sorry, I was only thinking of the trip to Scotland. I see the countdown ticker in your siggie about Scotland and that's the trip I always think about with you. I always seem to forget about your river cruise trip.

I hope all works out for your closer upcomming trip.
Hershey.

Now SCOTLAND I'm getting excited about!! LOL, and it's the later trip! I can't believe it's only 32 days away!

I called my Dad to let him know your well wishes:

Message from my Dad to all of you:

"Awww, that's sweet dahlin'. Tell those ladies with the funny names thank you. I think it is sweet they asked about me.."

Too cute! Your dad sounds like a character. Must be a dad thing--mine is too!