Devi found an open box with mostly stuffed animals in it. She's slowly sinking lower and lower in it, sound asleep. MK's at my feet (he's been hanging out more downstairs,) Loki is crashed out in chair, slowly slipping out of it. Putting one of the monster ac units on energy save and a set temp of 76 upstairs with a fan directed down the stairs keeps everything under 78. I got a smaller lidded trashcan so don't have to smell that (seriously, it takes a couple days to fill a normal grocery bag now, but it smells faster, so this is perfect.)

All's right in Sara's house.

In other OMG news, check the crazy person in the comments on this chow.com column:

Wow. That is ringing some bells from the past.

Damn, that is one crazy person.

Tipping etiquette makes my head hurt. Is 20% the norm now? I've been doing 15%.

I discovered recently that my parents don't grok that tipping your server is unofficially mandatory. We went out to an IHOP, and our waitress said there would be a 15% gratuity added to our bill, and my dad got all huffy. I was confused because we would have been paying that anyway, and he was all, "No!" If I went out to eat alone, did I leave a tip? Uh, yeah. Well, I didn't have to! Uh, yeah I do.

It was so bizarre.

Oh, sure, mock me now. But I won't be the one with roasted corn stuck in my ear.

Oh, god, don't let me ever have roasted corn stuck in my ear .

20% is definitely the NYC norm.

I am really weirded out by the fact that the antibiotic I am taking (clarithromycin) smells like vanilla pudding mix. And it is a pill.

My dad is a pain in the ass tipper. He's not cheap, he's got it stuck in his head it should be 10%. My mother tries to take the bill, but if he shells out (yeah, both their money, but it depends on who has the cash on hand) she always supplements. I see this a lot when they visit, because usually dad carries the cash for various reasons I don't get and we heckle him, he looks confused and affronted and we drop extra cash. It bugs my mom because they're paying and she doesn't want me to pay tip, but there's my dad, being clueless and I'm often faster than her or have the cash on me.

I really don't get it. I feel bad for his servers when he's travelling alone. OTOH, when travelling abroad, he's overly generous. He's got a blind spot for waiting wages US, I guess.

Oh, and I think 15 % is standard in Rochester. I usually tip a bit more because I double the tax (8%) and then round up so that it is even or everyone in the party can pay their share without using coins.

20% is definitely the NYC norm.

SF, too. (Notsomuch South San Francisco, which is where I wait tables. A source of frustration at times, it is.)

20% is easier on my head than 15%. DH and I both have worked for tips before so we tend to over tip. When I eat out alone, particularly at a cheaper meal like breakfast it is a much higher percentage because I can't leave $1 when someone has saved me the trouble of making my own breakfast. I only worked waiting tables for 2 weeks, decades ago, but it was the hardest work I ever did.

Tennis this morning was awesome. Then we had the outside picnic festivities that we couldn't do yesterday because of the awful weather. Calling the day a win.