I'll be around all day, Nora, and actively procrastinating instead of doing the work that really should have been done last week. I'm sure I'll be glad to look at work by anyone but me.

-t, I hope everything goes well in New Orleans.

Another entry in the continuing Buffista saga, "Am I too petty?"

I went out to dinner last night for the birthday of T, a woman who cannot order dinner without having every dish explained to her and then asking the restaurant to alter various parts of the dish she finally orders and who sent her marguerita back twice because it was too sweet. She attempted to dictate the exact recipe for the bartender to use. I digress, except that this was the beginning of the erosion of my last nerve.

Another person at the table, B, and I have often complained about several guys of our acquiantance who say, "Oh, let's just divide it four ways," when they had the three martinis and we had a beer. She's now dating a new guy who last night did the "Let's just split it five ways" thing. I said no. He said, "We all had a couple of drinks and an entree. It should be pretty close." I said, "I had the house margueritas and the chicken. They had Texas margueritas and more expensive entrees." He said, "Well, I had the house margueritas and I don't care." At that point, I was reduced to muttering "I do care." B said not a word. Okay, it wasn't much money. Mine would probably have been $10 less. Should I have been pissed off?

Ginger, I hate that. It's not petty at all. And yes, you can be pissed off.

I'm having a rough morning. I just want to go crawl back in bed. I'm trying to make a list, but most of the things require leaving the house, which I don't want to do.

Should I have been pissed off?

Justifiably so. Forcing someone to pay more than his or her fair share is rude, and that's all there is to it.

Annoying, Ginger. I'm one of those who generally prefers to just split it up as long as there's not a great difference, but I strongly believe that the moment someone voices concern, that should end the matter. It's not fair to put someone in the position of having to push about that.

In other news, my knee hurts. It's always been a bit tricky (slightly arthritic), and I did something yesterday to aggravate it. Now, my ankle and hip hurt from compensating for the ouch.

So, I'm going to try to stay off my feet for a much of the day as possible, and go out of my way to avoid using the stairs. Fortunately, my bedroom is on the ground floor.

Ginger, I'd have been just as petty with the buildup of the margarita sending back and stuff. That kind of thing just makes me tense.

Going out to dinner in a big group is really tough, for me, for the reasons you mention, as well as the whole get the group there and sitting down factor. The most civilized way I've seen this play out is, everyone looks at the bill and throws in what they owe. The only problem with this is sometimes people underestimate or round down or whatever or don't take into account tax or tip. As someone who often likes that extra cocktail or treating myself to steak, I never suggest splitting however many ways, unless its really pretty clear everyone's on the same page, ordering-wise.

But I tend not to try to economize when going out with a group of folks, because I know I'll pay for more than what I had. If that makes any sense. May has well have the nice wine and steak, I'll be paying for it either way. But those are just my gluttonous ways.

Uh, not here. Writing paper. It's going OK so far.

Ouch, Anne! I hope it feels better soon.

I am reminded of Friends. Sometimes even the $10.00 difference is enough to have serious impact, and since the point is supposed to be about the joy of the company and not about being an ass, the bill should be split properly and no one should grumble about it. Mostly, I dislike any situation where my concerns are taken to mean I'm stupid, petty or tightfisted.

Number 4 was Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time, or as Brendan called it, If I Could Straddle The Military.

We call that video, "If I Could Find My Clothes."

I normally don't drink, and so I'm very very touchy about that particular habit. I have started taking the bill and telling everyone what their share is, if people have ordered different things (some alcohol, some not; some appetizers, some not).

The WORST was a b-day dinner where one person asked the waiter to bring a nice wine for the table. The waiter, smelling profit, did. I didn't have any, neither did another person, and our dinners were about $10 each. Including splitting the b-day person's dinner 8 ways, the bill came to FIFTY DOLLARS A PERSON.

To be fair, not even the guy who'd gotten us into that predicament thought it was okay.

Question: My sewing tasks are piling up (repairs, drapery hemming, etc). I was thinking about getting one of those handheld stitcher thingies so I don't have to worry about power/voltage issues. Has anyone used one? Are they decent for small jobs?