Karma

I am not sure how we angered the Karma gods - but we have.
I always say please and thank-you. I am friendly to people. I recycle everything. We are pretty good tippers (tip related to how long we wait in Restaurant Purgatory). GAH is a faithful donator to his parents church.

Last November GAH's house was broken in to - two laptops taken and a very large pickle jar with years worth of change.
Last February my apartment was broken in to - roommate's laptop taken and some of my irreplaceable jewelry.
This week GAH and a friends cars were broken in to - each person's work bags were taken with two laptops. Also, my old external hard drive was in the bag. 40GB of memories. It was the secondary backup, so not all is lost.
But still.....

How do we appease the Karma Gods?

Definition - Restaurant Purgatory - the time between finishing your meal, getting the check, and paying for the meal. We call is Purgatory because you are stuck, you can't leave. Short time here = 20% tip, long time here = less than 10% tip.

We once went to a local chain in Atlanta that is known for serving bison burgers and a meal for two people took 3+ hrs.
First the hostess forgot about us, even though we were waiting in front of the hostess stand. When the waiter came we ordered salads and our meal. The salads came and ~3min later our meals came (delivered by another waiter). The meals were set down and then our waiter swooped in and told the other waiter we were not done with our salads, so we couldn't have our meals. They took the meals away!!!! We didn't even have time to tell them to leave the meal. 20 minutes after finishing our salads, we still hadn't gotten our meals back. We had been at the restaurant for 2hrs at that point and I was feed up and ready to go. Forget the meal.
A few minutes later, the meals came. We ate and asked for the check. It took ~3omin to get the check and pay the bill. The ordeal took 3+ hrs. No tip was left and we have not returned to that particular location or any of the other ones around the Greater Atlanta area.

-Enjoy

3

Today's post is brought to you by the number 3.



3 seems to be a theme this year for me...

-Moved to my 3rd state (New Mexico, Georgia, Maryland).


-Just about finished with my 3rd month of my new fancy "Adult" job! The best part is the pay check:)

-3year anniversary of my first date with GAH on September 30th.

-Recevied my 3rd degree - PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering.


-Purchased my 3rd Nikon Coolpix (current model S710). Okay the 3rd one was a graduation gift from GAH - but it fits the theme:)

-13.1miles - Baltimore Half Marathon on October 10th - I just want to finish it! (training using the Galloway method - 3min run/1min walk.


-Turning 30 in November! OMG!! The only goal I set (and could control) was to finish by PhD before turning 30. Done! I hope the day is special and I get to spend it with my wonderful friends in DC, MD, and VA.

I am sure there will be more occurances of 3 in the last four months of 2009.
-Enjoy!

Hello

We have started this blog because, why not? Everyone else is doing it. It will be full of random thoughts and reviews of places and products.
1. I recently donated my hair to Locks for Love (11") - everyone I know "loves the new hair" and thinks I look great. It made me start to wonder - did I look bad with the long hair? Personally, I like my new hair, but I do think it makes me look very young. Which is counter productive in my job, where I get asked if I am the intern? No - Senior Staff with a PhD!!!!

2. I just finished read "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbury. It was written in French and translated to English. I loved the book. It had many referenced to "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy, so you might want to read that first or check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina

3. Julie and Julia the movie is fantastic. If you love watching any of the cooking shows on Bravo and the Food Network, you will definitely love this movie.

4. Tad disappointed that Project Runway is now on Lifetime :( But excited it is back with Tim Gunn, Heidi, Michael Kors, and Nina Garcia. They also have a 30 min show focusing on the models - pretty neat.

5. Top Chef is back!!

6. I am getting a Kindle soon.....

-Enjoy!