The Other Side of the dinner-table

 Now I'm as big a fan of "Bitchy Waiter" as anyone, or else I wouldn't have her blog on my link list. ((Which reminds me I need to delete The Langham Fat Farm... again.... HI WANDA! I LURV YOU. 8D

 But that aside, I've gotta admit, every time I read the lastest round of bad customers getting their just deserts, I remember an occasion in which I got an incredibly Bad Waitress. If you just read Bitchy Waiter you'd probably feel that there are no Bad Wait-staff, only people filled with justified rage at idiots. ((And Really, who hasn't felt some rage at various idiots in their lives?))

 Sadly they do, in fact exist.

 My sister and I were out at Applebees a few years ago, (It served as the nicest place within about an hours drive for a long time.) We were there with Turtle and Bear (Bear is Turtles brother.), and I think we were celebrating someone's birthday. I think it was Turtles. In any case. ENDE and I were treating, not, in this case, the guys.

 So the Waitress comes, and surveys the table, Boys on one side, Girls on the other, then Immediately turns her back to the girls entirely, and leans over meaningfully to show her cleavage... her navel... and probably her toes to the guys. She introduces herself and asks if they would like any appetizers. She continues to beam at them as they order, and then her smile fades into an teeth clenched SNARL as Turtle directs her attention to Ende and I. Smile gone entirely, she looks as though she'd like to overturn the table on us as she takes our order for side dishes, even though we're both pretty sure we've never met her before, let alone tap danced on her dead grandmother, which would probably deserve the sort of attitude she's radiating in our general direction.

 So that was fun, we settle in, chat for a while, make a few jokes about her flirting with Turtle and Bear (Who are collosally and amusingly embarassed by the while afair).

 Then after appetizers, we go into the dinner order. She does EXACTLY the same thing all over again. In fact, she started to walk away after Turtle and Bear had ordered, we had to drag her back to remind her that there were still, in fact, two other people at the table. She even rolled her eyes.

 ((Bitchy Waiter if you read this: I -swear- to you we did not demand lemons, anything off the menu, or kick her repeatedly in the leg while ordering. We just asked for some Sodas and a appetizer off the menu as politely as possible.))

 We got round THREE, including trying to walk away again over Desert, and this point, all of us are actually pretty fed up. We debate the entire situation over our desert selections, and check with the guys to see if they noticed what we did. They did. They very much did. They are dumbfounded by her attitude. They assume, as do we, that she figures that they're the ones paying and is vamping for tips, either that or she's genuinely hitting on them. Either way, trying to shaft what she must have assumed was other peoples dates is a pretty shitty behavior for someone who lives off tips, and not a great way to make an impression.

 So yeah, Ende picked up the check after our evil deliberations and we left her what the entire table was a very reasonable 'tip' on the tip line.

 "Girls are Customers Too."

Popcorn

 Some of you may already know that MiniMonster is a big fan of popcorn, and who can blame him? Done right it's pretty tasty stuff, and fun to make!

 Well, these days of microwave popcorn it's slightly less exciting. Throw it in the microwave and watch the bag bounce around.

 We've mostly been using the "Jiffy Pop" version, since we don't have a microwave, but we've branched out into making it in a pot on the stove. We've got an nice little pot with a glass lid, and Tilmani cooked up some popcorn in it last time.  I brought Mini over and let him watch it cook. Obviously it wasn't massively exciting at the get go, but once kernels started to jump around where he could actually see them, he found it much more entertaining than just watching the Jiffy Pop foil poof up.  He also thought it was hysterical when the popcorn reached sufficient volume to slowly lift the lid of the pot and form a pillar of popcorn. He giggled.

 He also quite enjoyed popcorn seasoned with a touch of salt, pepper and paprika. :d

 Try and find that in the supermarket aisle!

 It kind of made me wonder how many kids in his generation will ever see popcorn made that way, in these days of take out and microwaves.