29 posts tagged “qotd”

What were your top 5 TV shows of 2006?

1. Daily Show
2. Colbert Report
3. No Reservations

umm, that's it.

What comedian makes you pee your pants laughing?
Submitted by pookieb.

Oh. Mr. Show. David Cross. Bob Odenkirk. Brian Posehn. Tenacious D. Paula Poundstone. Samantha Bee. Lewis Black. Jon Stewart. Dr. Stephen Colbert. Amy Sedaris. David Sedaris. Penn Jillette.

(where are the funny women?)

oh! and the IT Crowd!

What's your method for calculating a tip?

You eat here because we let you

So. I drove cab for 8 years. Worked as a waitress and in food service off and on for a long long time. Unless I'm really not pleased with the service, I give 20%.

Part of this has to be laziness. It's easy to figure. If the tab is under $10, give $2 (this does not count coffee -- I'm not going there). If a meal is $22 bucks, double it -- that's 44 -- then add the decimal -- $4.40. This gets rounded up or down depending on service.

If the service was good, I'm going to make an effort to give that tip in cash, rather than as a line item on my credit card.

But the other part of this is having worked in the service trade for a while. From restaurant to restaurant, you don't know how things are going to get parceled out. Do the waiters get paid minimum wage, or $2 something an hour? Will tips be pooled, or not?  Does the back of the house get tipped out from the front of the houses' proceeds?

What's your method for calculating a tip?

OMG! I just realized I gave a 30% tip at dinner last night. Sure didn't mean to. Yikes.

Do you believe in ghosts?  Have you ever seen a ghost? 
Submitted by Nancy.

I do, actually. When I first got to Portland, I lived in a house which had a poltergeist who moved furniture. Very unnerving. Going into the basement there was supercreepy. One bedroom was carpeted, and the carpet was frequently wet.

The most unnerving thing, however, happened on Christmas night. There was a laundry room at the back of the house. We had no washer or dryer, so we used the room for storage.

I had been disowned by my parents when I came out to them, and they had offered to sell the belongings that I had left in their care in a church garage sale. So I asked them to put it all in a storage locker that I set up. They did, and I drove back to the midwest, and collected everything. Very traumatic.

Anyways, the majority of that stuff ended up in the laundry room.

We came back from a big Christmas meal with my girlfriend's family, and were settling in for the evening. I was writing in "the dining room" some music reviews that were due soon; she was, well, I have no idea what she was up to.

All of the sudden, I noticed that it was really getting steamy in the dining room. We opened the door to the laundry room, which had been an addition on to the house, and hot water poured out the door. There were several inches of water in the laundry room.

I wasn't able to save anything. We called the landlord, who had a plumber come in, who said in the end: someone turned on that water.

We moved out of that house.

Do you remember your first flight? Where did you go? Why?
Submitted by Laurel.

Into the Sun (Airliner)

Oh, I think I do. I was flying with my mom from Lexington KY to her home town. I don't remember if Dad stayed at home, or if he just drove up. He was very fond of driving, especially road trips. As am I.

I remember the airport more than anything else. I must have been pretty small, before I started grade school, because the airport seemed like tremendously sophisticated place. People dressed up to fly(!). I remember wandering off (nothing's changed, nothing at all), and then trying to identify my mother by her legs, coat and high heels. I ended up embracing a woman who wasn't my mother at all! Oops!

Now I know that the Lexington airport in the 60s was a tiny place, serviced by tiny planes in the scope of things now. But flying was different then. I really grew up loving to fly, because whether I was with my mom, my grandma, or by myself, the stewardesses always doted on me. It was really something special, not like a bus in the sky.

Now, I still really like airports (obviously, I don't spend much time there), and I like the idea of flying, but the actual flights, going through security, getting always stuck next to a guy who invades my personal space by putting his feet under the seat in front of me, or hanging over the armrest, I'm not crazy about that at all.

I think we were just going home to visit. My mom was quite the dutiful daughter, visiting her mom multiple times a year. It was a 12 hour drive, doable, but exhausting. 

The trip when I go home to see her now is more than that, always including a stultifying 4 hour layover in Detroit, quite possibly the worst airport in the United States.

I tend towards being a basketcase when I fly: I always bring too much in the way of reading material and electronics so my carry-on is insanely heavy, and if I have any layover time in an airport, I tend to pace. I've covered all of Chicago O'Hare before. So after I've walked the whole airport several times, I just want to collapse and do something mindless on the computer and... no electrical outlets. No wi-fi. No work areas.

I'm glad they let me bring my knitting because at least I get to look like a relatively normal middle-aged woman rather than a frantic, anxious one.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? 
Submitted by Megan.

It wasn't that long ago that I was a very picky eater. Ethnic food was out, vegetables were out, most condiments were out.

The one thing that I really did like, ethnic-wise, was marinated octopus at Greek restaurants. I loved it. Still do.

But in my junior year abroad, that started to change. In Paris, I ate horse, frog legs, dandelion salads and escargot. In Germany, I had my first chinese food, ever. I learned to like dijon mustard, then other mustards, and mayonaise.

My food palate exploded when I got to Portland. I ate Vietnamese regularly. And now since I'm part of a food group, I've tried all sorts of things that I could never see myself trying. Durian bubbletea (creamy but stinky). Lengua (that's beef tongue), cabrito, lamb, eel, sweetbreads, fois gras.

The last thanksgiving my dad was alive, we had dinner at his sister's. She served a bunch of different types of game: elk, bear, venison, moose. The venison was okay, but everything else left me wanting.

I still hate onion, but I'm more tolerant of eating it cooked. I've stayed away from intestines.

So, there's not really one thing I can point to.

How many computers do you have in your house? 
Submitted by Foomper.

Umm, too many? Does it help that most of them aren't worth anything? And that most of the computer purchases have had to do with graduate school or taking classes?

Powerbooks: I have three. One that I bought used in 1996, one that I bought used in 2002, and one that I bought last summer.

Mac desktops: An iMac (table lamp) from 2002, and one of the new ones which is gorgeous but it may not stay.

PC desktops: An HP from, umm, 1999 or 2000.

PC laptops: A Sony VAIO from 1998 which died a mysterious death in 2000 or 2001. A laptop that I bought at a work auction last year (probably about 4 years old then). And a work laptop that I have on loan.

Just a couple years ago, my sweetheart filled the bed of his truck with computers which we hauled to Free Geek -- looks like it might be time to do that again.

Oh, and this doesn't count Sweetie's computers. He doesn't have the PC problem that I have, but he does have a mac problem.

What food or drink do you love when it's cold out?  (Recipes and recommendations, please!)

My favorite I'm cold through and through food is pho. It works well as both a comfort food, and a warming food.

food at pho green papaya

We tend to eat this in little vietnamese holes-in-the-wall, because nothing beats a good, rich, long-cooked beef broth, and you can specify the meats. I especially like the meatball pho. But I have made pho ga, chicken pho, at home for dinner parties, and if you're willing to be nontraditional, you can tailor the soup to any guest you might have
.

If you are going to dress up for Halloween, what will you be? Why? 
Submitted by Auweea.

A pirate. So I can knit an eyepatch! {smirk}