TIPS

While we are discussing tips and since it seems to be a hot topic lately; Waiter Rant,LV Review Journal, I must discuss it further.
When and who do you tip?

I only tip in restaurants and at the car wash. That is it.
Oh yeah, my hairdresser. Yes I have one. Also the pizza delivery guy.(Even though there is already a "delivery fee" added to the check by the pizza place)So, I break my own rule and tip a few other people. In a nutshell as long as you are provided good service regardless of the setting or place, it should be a good gesture to tip.
The problem is when certain places or jobs expect a tip.
Example-The drive through window at Starbucks. WTF!
Isn't it enough that you are paying out your eyes for hot dirty water?. OK I am a hypocrite, I indulge in Chai Tea Lattes.
Fast food places are also some where you are "supposed" to leave a tip. I don't. Why?....
There isn't much that is provided in service or quality. IT IS FAST FOOD!
Yes, the people working there don't make that much hourly, so I am supposed to subsidize their wages?...Yeah, once they split the tips for the day, they get about $5.00 a day..
Oh well.
There's the door bell...
UPS Guy.
Do I tip him?

TIPS-TOKES-MONEY!

Our local paper, The Review Journal, reports that the Wynn (As it is known in town, because it is owned by Steve Wynn) is going to "split" the tips that dealers make. The split is going to include "Supervisors and or Pit Bosses."
Historically, all tips that dealers (those people dealing cards, shuffling dice, standing at tables waiting to empty your pockets, etc) earned for a day, are divided evenly amongst all dealers working that day. SO everyone gets an equal amount each day, regardless of the shift worked or the game worked. At the Wynn, according to the paper, this can amount up to 100K per year.
Of course because the supervisors or floor managers do not make that much in "salary," the hotel/casino management is attempting to make it more "appealing" to dealers, to move up to supervisory and managerial positions.
I think the casino management is just being cheap.
By dipping into the pooled tips to give to supervisors, they are avoiding having to raise salaries and or wages for managers. Since the dealers are not represented by a Union organization, Read More, the hotel can do whatever it wants, short of taking all their tips away.
Now when you talk about food servers or other position where they are not making 100K a year, that is a different story and I will let you in on that on my next post.

The Interior Designer

Aside from being a great mom, Melissa is also a very creative and visual person. What does visual mean?...
Well.
Look at what she did with Anthony’s room. The room went from being a bland white walled room with just the basics; bed, dresser, blinds and a mess of stuffed animals on the floor and in the closet. (I wish I would have taken a picture of what it looked like before, but I just described it to you).


Now look at the new room.

The curtains or drapes she got from Pottery Barn-a bargain (they were on sale and because they gave her the wrong size to begin with on one side, when she returned to exchange it, she got another 10% discount. The wall she painted a light green with blue dots-circles all around. She also added some shelves to the wall for toys, pictures and other things that Anthony likes to have, mainly dinosaurs, yu-ghio stuff and such.
Here is another shot.

and another one

The Week Ahead

Kids are out of school.
Anthony went camping with his grand parents-Not just camping, all the way to Mammoth (California) in one of those nice trailer home things....
Olivia will be going to San Francisco to hang out with her grammie and auntie.
Me?...Work work and more work. This week we are expecting a flow of 15,000 people at work. Large network company is in town for their big celebration, so that means work, work and more work.
Melissa is enjoying her last weeks of freedom then, off to school. 6 classes?..God bless her. I probably won't wee her till Christmas.
Yes, we are lucky to have such normal lives while in other parts of the world, people can barely sleep or eat because of all the mindless violence.
I suppose there is something good to be said for "taking the war to them" as Mr. Bush likes to say, rather than fight them here on our "homeland"...Although my feeling is, it's just a matter of time before have to deal with that kind of violence. I keep picturing George Bush poking at an ant's nest and if you've ever done that, you'll know what I mean.
Poke at the nest and they all come out in droves in all directions seeking to defend their nest.
This time they caught them before the act (London). But you know they (Terrorists) are all over the world now.
So, you must keep your eyes and ears open..

ECONO GIRL

I red this blogg a few weeks ago, posted a link to her blogg and for a while I though she had been silenced. However, she is back.
You can still read the ongoing string of comments on the old post. a piece on torture and the main reason why she got fired from the CIA.