giveway

after a somewhat sick weekend (sick as in sore throat, not as in really sweet), i took my first real bike ride of the 'season' yesterday. i found some great maps on the onondaga cycling club website. each map includes a drawing of the route and the distance of each length of the route. so i thought to myself, i can't get lost doing this, its all right here! i was wrong. i made it through the first turn correctly and rather than making the second turn i ended up riding about 12 miles out of my way. i only went about 6 before i realized that i really should have come to that second turn by now and perhaps i should turn around. i found that turn and then decided to head back to my car since i had already been riding for about an hour. the ride itself was great though and reminded me of oxford in a lot of ways. for the majority of the ride i was alone on country roads - which is always nice - and passed the occasional cyclist - which is good to see.
i spent the rest of my memorial day preparing for teaching today. i decided to teach my class boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR) using bartending since they are 'challenging' students and often need a little something extra to shut their mouths and listen to me - i thought alcohol might do that. it seemed to work. they were all actually kind of excited about the topic and nobody freaked out today, so i owe some props to this article recommending using alcohol to teach these ideas, although i chose to ignore the disclaimer. i asked them to make drinks using different cans filled with colored water labeled GIN, VODKA and TONIC. i gave them recipes like: 1.tonic AND gin OR vodka 2. tonic AND gin AND vodka. -- so the idea behind all of this is that they will learn that when they put a whole bunch of ANDs in there, they will get something really specific and when they put OR in there, that makes what might come up as results really broad. i don't know if they picked up on all of that but at least i can use this to refer back to when they ask questions about searching.
yesterday was also my grandma's birthday which is the kickoff to what seems to be a birthday season. soon to follow are my mum and sister -- and erin just had her big 2-3. i talked to her (my grandma) on the phone for a moment which was nice and made me sorry i couldn't be there for the 'party.' she sounded cute as always and told me that she and my grandpa were the only ones sitting down for dinner and they were waiting for everyone else so they could eat and when she passed the phone to my grandpa, he told me he was kind of hoping the party would end before dark so he could ride his bike home. although i'm sure this is not how it went when i heard that i imagined my grandma and grandpa coming in, grandma handing the cake she most likely baked off to someone and coats to someone else, the two of them sitting at the table immediately, ordering their drinks and trying to get the dinner on the road.
anyway, talking to them made me excited for my one-day trip home for my mom's 60th b-day party at the end of june. i'll be in chicago for the ALA (american library association) annual conference for a long weekend at the end of june and i'll take a day (at least) away from there to par-tay with the mother. having a teaching job is a pain because it's really hard to take any time off so that pretty much ties me to syracuse every tues and thurs morning until aug. 13th (which i just calculated gives me two weeks off before i start school for the fall). hopefully i'll be taking one day off though to kick it with my fam in colorado this summer. we'll see.
ah, good times. i suppose i'll go read some books i'm trying to finish at the moment or i'll head to the library and return the 100 books i have checked out and replace them with something new. later (yes, this was a really boring post but i was looking to waste some time before a meeting and hopefully you were looking to waste some time while reading it).

a nice little photo from charlie's wedding - presumably there are more if you click on it. it was a good time - good to see everyone again.

when you go to a restaurant keep this in mind:

1. when you tip, leaving the change or one more dollar might not be that much for you, but to the server, it makes all the differnce.
2. if the server is busy and asks you if you're ready to order, don't say yes and then decide to look at the menu for the first time.
3. check if the dressings are listed on the menu - if they are, pick one.
4. when it's busy, tip better - especially if you get good service.
   
5. don't get mad at the server about restaurant policy. chances are he/she hates them as much as you do. at my restaurant, we have a policy about not letting people come in with outside food or drinks. this is a problem since there is a starbucks down the block. people give me all kinds of shit about this policy and chances are i hate it as much as they do - the bottom line is though, if i dont enforce it, i loose my job. so please don't give me shit about it because there is nothing i can do.
   
6. don't be a jerk - at all, in any way, ever.
   
7. don't send something back that you order unless there is something wrong with it. don't send it back because you don't like it or because it doesn't look like you thought it would. if that's the case, don't order it again.
8. i don't want to hear about the gas-x or beano you have in your purse or why you need it.
9. oh, tip well, did i mention that?
   

although i strongly reccomend against dining out with children under the age of 8, ever -- if you must, keep this in mind:

1. loud children annoy everyone without loud children and in most cases, that is everyone else.
2. sugar pakets are not toys.
3. nor are salt and pepper shakers.
4. i don't care about your child, what it likes to eat, if it's bored, if it enjoys the restaurant. that's up to you.
   
5. i don't get paid nearly enough to entertain your child.
6. let's just say, for instance, that your child gets pasta. if it throws the pasta, the napkins, the silverware, the ice, the sugar, the salt, the pepper, the menu, and the plates all over the floor at least fake an attempt at cleaning it up.
   
7. tip really, really well.
   

ok, perhaps this stems from a stressed out finals week and a strange migration of jerks into the restaurant. forgive me. in fact, things should be fine if you keep in mind that servers are people too and treat them as such - that will pretty much wipe out any of these problems. enjoy your dining experience...