Working for tips?

I’ve never worked in the food industry where part of my wage comes from tips from customers. But I am a customer, and I tip lots, and I’m very particular about my tips. Great service gets a great tip. Bad service get’s a bad tip. And when I tip someone, I have to accept that they may have to share that tip with other employees, even though I don’t like it.

But what I heard yesterday absolutely blows my mind.

There’s a food industry business in Dartmouth (I won’t mention Tim Hortons, by name), that has a policy where new trainees, don’t get their fair share of the tips for the shift. In fact, they don’t get any.

I am so blown away by this. I feel lied to, I feel cheated, I feel deceived. I tend to give trainees a little bit more, or go out of my way to leave a tip for trainees because it is a very busy environment, and people get really, really cranky if they don’t get their coffee the way they like it. So an extra tip for a trainee is an extra little pick me up. It was bad enough they would have to share with the crew mates. I can understand that. But to find out, they don’t get one cotton pickin’ red cent of it. I’m infuriated.

To be an employee, work along side of the rest of the shift, do the same work; ok it’s going to be slower, but it still gets done. And then to have the other employees, take your share of tips, that most customers leave specifically for their server. It’s mean spirited, it’s un-inclusive (Is that a word?), and it’s nothing better than stealing from your co-workers.

Shame on this company for letting this happen.

Karaoke Songs

A friend offered to make me a 10 song karaoke CD, so I graciously took him up on his offer. YEA!



Here's my list



1. Better Things to Do - Terri Clark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMHv3a0RwLA



2. Suds in the Bucket - Sara Evans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n47ku7Tznto



These two, I've been singing forever, but Better Things to Do is hard to come by, so I don't always get to sing it. And I didn't want Sara to feel left out by not including her. HA.



3. Signs - Five Man Electrical Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiJk6MeBx54



This one is for Luc. HA HA. There's a video of him singing it a while ago. Craig keeps trying to get him up to sing it again, so maybe once he can practice it at home he'll be more comfortable in public.



4. No One Else on Earth - Wynona Judd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmAMti3NeLY



5. I Feel Lucky - Mary Chapin Carpenter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt84Y7Thyz0



6. Every Little Thing - Carlene Carter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns4Ow4mDzXY


7. Blame it on Your Heart - Patti Loveless
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8AUgKFr6W8


These four I'm learning to play on the guitar, so I thought I would throw those in there.



8. Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4rPIjWqMRc


9. My Sister - Reba McEntire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LI42Z0cM7c&feature=related


10. I Think the World Needs a Drink - Terri Clark
(Of course, I can't find a video for this one)


These last three I thought I would throw in for kicks and giggles.

Anyway, I have the CD, now I just have to practise.

Nintendo being sued over Wii-mote

Interesting.

Nintendo being sued

Hillcrest is accusing Nintendo of infringement in four patents dealing with
technology for a handheld three-dimensional pointing device and a display
interface system for organizing graphic content on a TV, it said.

Blog to share

I stumbled across this blog called Marc and Angel hack life.

http://www.marcandangel.com

There some pretty cool posts. They have everything from posting about aspirations, careers, relationships.

How about 101 dirt cheap ways to enjoy yourself. http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/07/14/101-dirt-cheap-ways-to-enjoy-yourself/

40 positive affects of a TV free week.
http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/07/28/40-positive-effects-of-a-tv-free-week/

25 Acts of Body Language to Avoid
http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/07/07/25-acts-of-body-language-to-avoid/

I thought I would share

I'm obese

Yep. That's what the Wii Fit tells me. And then my little Mii blows up into an obese cartoon character. Boo-urns.





Apparently some of the complaints about Wii Fit are that you can't maintain a high heart rate. Granted, that is true, because you are constantly stop and go. And that it isn't a great workout. I have to say, for a couch potato like me, the Wii fit is a lot of fun and I can work up a good sweat, and lose a pound or two in the process.

There's some games I like, and some I don't. But I try to get in a little bit of each section in my workout. I like the yoga and I do everything that is open to me. I do a little bit of the strength training. I don't do anything on the floor, like the push ups and jackknifes. That's just way to painful. I like doing the advanced step, and the rythym boxing. The hula hoop spin is kind of fun too. In balance, I like the ski slalom, and ski jump. Although they don't do much for heart rate.

Ow. Ow. Ow. I ache

I'm a Wii bit sore today from a couple of evenings of boxing, bowling and golfing.

That's right. After a year of saying I wanted one. I finally got one. A Nintendo Wii.

Actually had Luc up playing golf and bowling last night. He was having a blast.

More stuff...

HA. The never ending list.

• Cancel the other campground (I booked two because I couldn't figure out where any of the campgrounds were in New Glasgow)

Things to do...

What do I have left to do before we go.

• I have to clean out the cupboards in the MH. They are not very organized. I can barely stand it for a weekend, I will go insane for 9 days.
• I have to finish making muffins. I am going to make some muffins and freeze them for breakfasts instead of greasy old bacon and eggs.
• Put the new dishes in the MH
• Pack clothes
• finish menu planning
• get groceries
• Go to the library and get a book or two to read
• Pack up the computer and cords
• Make sure to have batteries for the gps for geocaching
• camera and charger
• mp3 & speakers
• guitar and books
• Get Gary to sign the letter to take the kids to the states.
• Get US cash
• Make sure to have all the birth certificates and custody papers
• Take Courtney to get her beginners.
• Make sure the kids have their school ids
• Write serial numbers down for electronics being taken to states
• Load GPS with coordinates
• Write notes for Nicole to take care of fish and cat
• Clean fish tank water

That's all I can think of for now.

Vacation 2008

And so it starts. Vacation 2008. 2 weeks off. Yip-fricken-ee.

It's Sunday night. Where did the weekend go? Well Friday night we went for wings and beer as usual, but we did stay longer than we anticipated. Ooops.

Saturday morning Michelle, Zoey, Tammi, Jen, Melanie and I went to Cora's for breakfast. That was the first time I've ever been there. It was really yummy.

I had Peggy's poached. Poached eggs on toast, with a side of fruit and cottage cheese. The eggs were a little over done, but it was still good.

It was so good, I went out this morning and bought pancake mix and fruit for breakfast. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy.

Today was a cleaning day. I cleaned all the bedding from the motorhome. We went to Wal-mart and picked up some new dishes.

My other summer vice. Big Brother.

So, now that that is done...

I finally got all three blogs merged into this one. Phew.

This is better anyway, I think. I bounce around with so much stuff that I just can't have a blog for each thing.

Now, before I make this a public blog, I must go delete a couple of posts.

This isn't funny...

It still gave me a giggle.

http://www.900chml.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocalGeneral/Story.aspx?ID=1003929

http://www.900chml.com/Pics/Channels/1197/Thumbnail/geocache.jpg

Geocaching game gets blame for calling out of bomb squad
Jay McQueen
4/10/2008

Police say a suspicious package found behind Costco and Home Depot thought to be a bomb, was actually part of a game.

A store employee called police yesterday morning after finding a cylindrical device with a wire attached to it hanging from a tree behind the Meadowlands Power Centre.

The Emergency Response Unit and bomb squad were sent to the scene and determined the device was actually part of a worldwide game for GPS users called Geocaching. Players seek out the device using their GPS units and then sign a piece of paper with a pencil, which were contained inside the tube.

Police say there was nothing illegal done but are asking Geocachers to notify property owners if they plan on placing these packages on private property to avoid tying up police resources and causing undue distress.

The package was placed in the tree on January 13th and police say the paper inside had been signed by 38 people.

I went to another card making party on Sunday afternoon with Michelle. The host is a stampin' up rep in the area. This was the third or fourth party now, that I've gone to. I really have fun going.

Anyway we made 4 cards, and I bought some stuff. I bought the earth elements sample pack of 8.5 x 11 paper, a chocolate chip stamp pad, and some watercolor pencils and blender pens.

I took today off, because Wednesday's are Luc's day off, so it's fun to have a day together.

I actually had him out geocaching with me. YEA!

I had a list of nine to look for today, but he had to run into work for a bit, which of course took way longer than it was supposed to. We ended up looking for two.

Up in around Russell Lake in Dartmouth, there is a series of caches called the turtle series, set up by a cacher called durango0072.

They are little green turtles about 10 inches wide, where you screw off the back and there is a treasure inside.

We found this one... Turtle Pond

We looked for this one, but we ran out of time before we had to head home. Turtle Brook

On an un-geocaching note, we fired up the barbecue for the first time tonight. Yummy. We had chicken, potato and greek salad.

Then Luc and I went to Walmart and bought one of these.

And we are going to put it here...

It's kind of hard to see, but there is a gazebo frame on the lower deck. Apparently Luc is going to build a 5 foot wall with a one foot lattice, and a roof around the spa.

I think it will be pretty neat when it's done.

I guess, we'll have to put the friends that ask too many questions, some where else. LOL.

This is a project from Environment Canada involving schools and geocachers. Spreading information about the local watersheds. The objective is to get local high school students to gather information about the local watersheds, and pass that information off to the local geocachers through hiding caches.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/geocache/default.asp?lang=En&n=E923094B-1

Here is a local geocache with regards to this project.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=aec87a82-2dd5-4dd2-987e-3baafd2a2c8e

This geocache was set up by students from Sackville High School.

Here is some information about watersheds.


http://www.ec.gc.ca/geocache/default.asp?lang=En&n=065E5744-1

Off to send an email off to Courtney’s high school. I'd love to see our local high school get involved with this.

Hidden Treasures to be Discovered.

Here is an article in a local community newspaper about geocaching.

http://www.halifaxwestclaytonparknews.ca/index.cfm?sid=119083&sc=204

Next time you're shopping at the Joseph Howe Superstore, take a look around the parking lot. One of the lamp posts holds treasure.

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game where participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) to find hidden containers.

For Clayton Park and Halifax West adventurers, there are a multitude of caches to be found in the area.

Jim Cyr, president of the Atlantic Canada Geocaching Association (ACGA) and one of the founding members, became involved in geocaching in the fall of 2005.

The group now boasts almost 400 members across Atlantic Canada, the majority of them from Nova Scotia.The first geocache to be placed in Canada was in East River, near Chester.

The ACGA formed to celebrate the sixth anniversary of that cache and placed a plaque at Graves Island to commemorate it.

This international game of hide and seek began in 2000 with the formation of a GPS newsgroup.

"Someone went into the Oregon woods with a log book and pencil and took co-ordinates. They posted it on the group and gave up the challenge - 'I dare you to find it,'" said Cyr. "The first one was found three times in a day or two."Now, there are more than 500,000 caches in more than 225 countries around the world.

Last month, Nova Scotia surpassed the 4,000 mark."East River was the 41st overall, (so) we've been doing geocaching since the beginning," said Cyr.

A GPS is all that's required to get started. In 2000, GPS's were less accurate and more expensive than today. Now GPSs can be as accurate as six feet or less. Cyr recommended using one relatively recent on the market. Geocachers then register on the official site at www.geocaching.com and type in their postal code to find caches in their area.

Cyr said the majority of their members are over 30 and include singles, couples, retirees, military personnel and young families."There's nothing kids love more than finding treasure chest or a cache," he said. "We find that they're interested from children to early teens.

Then they discover dating and we lose them for a while, but it starts again in university."Caches can be found on walking trails around HRM, in Hemlock Ravine Park, the Kearney Lake Trail, the Mainland Commons and Bayers Lake."Most of them in parking lots are called Park and Grabs. You'll usually find these ones hidden in a lamp post in a film cannister. You just have to lift the bottem of them up," said Cyr.

Traditional caches are placed in a waterproof container and contain a log book and trinkets, such as unusual coins or small toys. The coordinates are then posted on the website.

There are rules of etiquette for searchers. Since many of the caches are on trails, geocachers try not to disturb the environment and use existing trails and paths. Always put the lid back on properly so water doesn't get in and ruin anything and if you take a trade item, leave something of equal or greater value to replace it.

Glenbourne area resident Todd Beal has been geocaching for more than four years. The treasurer of the ACGA and also a founding member was into hiking and the outdoors when he accidently came upon it.

Since then, he has left about 20 caches around HRM."I thought it was neat thing to do. Some call it a sport, I call it a hobby. I like going outside and enjoying nature and finding spots I didn't know existed," said Beal. "I started without a receiver. That didn't work so well and was hit and miss, so for Christmas that year I got one.

It was much more efficient."For newbies, Beal advises to keep it simple and to find at least 50 caches before hiding their own to see what people are doing. He estimates there are at least 100 caches in the Clayton Park Fairview area and about 1,000 in the HRM."When I started, there were less than 100 in Nova Scotia," he said. "It's really taken off."

The ACGA offers workshops to new geocachers. The next one is being held on April 16 at the Trail Shop on Quinpool Road.

In the meantime, Cyr had some tips."Always remember safety when going out for first time. Know where you're going and go to familiar areas," he said. "Do your research and mark where you parked the car."He also said to make sure batteries are charged, dress appropriately, tell people where you're going and know the weather."Especially around here, you could slip and fall, (or) the weather turns," he said.

For further information, go to www.atlanticgeocaching.com or www.geocaching.com

What is geocaching?

So here it is, the what is geocaching post.

Geocaching is a world wide hi-tech adventure game of hide and seek. It’s the most expensive sport in the world. HA HA. The costs are out of this world. The beauty of it is though that governments have already spent billions to make the sport happen by launching sattelites. For us players the equipment for the sport only costs a little bit. You can get a basic hand held GPS unit for $100 or so.

The object of the game is for a hider to hide a cache. A cache is a small waterproof container to hold a log book, pencil and maybe some small trading items (SWAG). The hider posts the coordinates of the cache to the internet at a website like http://www.geocaching.com/ and all the seekers try to find it.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s one thing to know where the item is, it’s another to actually find it. Besides the sometimes long hikes to actually get to where the cache is, it could be hidden under a rock, in a tree trunk, in a hole in the ground. The cache could be large enough to contain lots of treasure, but it could also be as small as a 35 mm film canister.

Geocaching itself has only been around since 2000, after the removal of satellite selective availability from GPS, this allowed for greater accuracy. It is similar to letterboxing which has been around for about 150 years. In letterboxing a box is hidden and clues were left in magazines. Each hider and seeker had a stamp and a logbook. The hiders stamp was in the cache with their logbooks. The seeker stamped the hider’s logbook with their stamp and stamped their own logbook with the hiders stamp.

There are a few variations for geocaching. A few of the more popular ones are the traditional which includes at a minimum a log book, a multi cache where each cache holds the coordinates for the next one, an event cache which is an organized event for many cachers, a Cache In Trash Out event which is organized to remove garbage from an area, an earthcache where the idea is to learn about the geology of the area where the cache is found, and a new type called whereigo which is an interactive story game like Myst except it’s in the real world.

There are some ethics involved with geocaching as well. The number one concern is to protect the environment. With that in mind the coordinate hosts have rules that need to be followed before they will post coordinates of a cache.

So I'm still putting together the "What is geocaching" post. I have some notes. I just need to put it together. There is just so much else to do, to talk about.

So I finally bought another GPS. I bought the garmin legend handheld. That's fun. The battery lasts for.ever. OK 18 hours, it just seems like forever. I think it must have been a return because lo and behold it has a Nova Scotia street map on it. Well that just makes this machine so much fun. It doesn't talk to me, and it doesn't have a color screen, but it makes finding the deceptively easy caches not so easy to find. HA! And of course the kids much prefer the pretty screen and the talking voice of the Maestro. OH WELL.

I have to take minute to talk about these little guys again. HA HA HA. People are going to get sick of looking at him. I think he's just so darn cute though. This little guy is Signal. He's the mascot over at http://www.geocaching.com/ . I made him using my cricut machine. He's 2.5 x 2 inches and I've numbered them and put my username was here. I think it's a cute little card to throw into a cache that I've found. It's unique. It involves my other hobby.

I made my first etsy sale. I'm sure someone must be feeling sorry for me. HA. I sold a card. This card. I really like this card. So I'm pretty excited that someone else out there likes it too.

Another hobby I've gotten into is geocaching. Fun stuff. I have another blog about those misadventures here. I wanted a little something to add to the cache that was unique. So I made these little guys.

This little guy's name is signal. He's the mascot over at geocaching.com. I made him with my cricut, geordge cartrdige and design studio. I think he's pretty cute. He's about 2.5 inches high by 2 inches wide. on that back I wrote my username was here. I think that's pretty unique. My son and I spent a couple of hours on the weekend putting these little guys together.

Wheee.








A couple of purchases lately. I bought the Doodlecharms cartridge for my cricut machine. I haven't used it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. This is one of the cartridges that has been on my wish list almost from the beginning.


Another great purchase that has been on my wishlist is the crop a dile. It can punch holes, set eyelets and snaps. No more hammers, loud banging and crappy sets for eyelets.

Just a little update

So I went on another little hunt. My daughter and I went looking for a cache that was located in a local sportsplex. I hadn't decoded a morse code hint and so we looked around stairwells and plants and under stairs. There were lots of muggles around so we didn't get too far.

What's a muggle you ask? Apparently it has something to do with Harry Potter. In geocaching it has something to do with someone upsetting / stealing / wrecking a cache. I will have to research it some more just so I know what I'm talking about. Both references actually.

Oh yea, back to the cache.

So Son and Daughter had soccer registration at the same sportsplex the other night so I thought I would give it another go. This time I decoded the morse code. Well, that answers a lot. It was a number. It was a number to what I assumed was a book in the library that was in the sportsplex. AHA! So off I went. Well, after I spent half an hour standing in lines to get the kids registered for soccer.

I found the number and the book in the Reference section. Isn't that nifty there is a book in the library about the Atlantic Geocachers. Oh wait. I'm a numbnut. It's a book with a printout on the spine. Anyway, the book was cut out to hold the cache. Pretty clever if you ask me. I found it. Wheee!

In other news, I'm working on a history of geocaching and a what is geocaching post. I am more than likely going to get a garmin legend anyway, even though I took it back. The Magellan batter just doesn't last long enough to do anything with, and it's just too delicate to walk through the mud and the much with.