HBE4

There is a lot of fuzzy math going on in the example of Jessica the bartender. Reminds me of the fuzzy math Royal employs during the "sales" events. From the website: "Let's say Jessica is a bartender in Florida who receives an hourly wage of $11.00, the Florida minimum wage. During an hour long scheduled shift, Jessica receives $4.00 in tips. For that hour, Jessica's employer can credit $3.02 of the received tips against Jessica's hourly wage of $11.00, so they will only pay $5.44 in cash wages for that hour. However, including both the cash wage and the $4.00 in tips received, Jessica's total earnings are $9.00. In the next hour of their shift, Jessica receives no tips. Because no tips were received to be credited against the minimum wage, the employer must pay Jessica $11.00 in cash wages for this hour." So is Jessica paid the minimum wage of $11 per hour or the other minimum wage of $8.46 per hour? The example specifically says $11 twice yet in their calculations, they use $8.46. Then again, they say $5.44 + $4.00 = $9.00. Now, I'm no mathematician but I keep coming up with $9.44. Heck, even Royals "sales" events math makes more sense.😄

Well, it's not inappropriate. 🙂 Having said that, I probably wouldn't do that myself but others feel extra generous when on a cruise and that's OK. I'm more inclined to tip as you did. Usually with the wait staff I wait to the end of the cruise. With the room attendant, I may give some upfront and the rest at the end. Not sure why, I think someone suggested that to me on my first cruise and I've being doing ever since. Not at all. That's probably what I would be tipping as well. On a 7 day cruise, it works out to be a little less that $10 per day on top of the auto-gratuities. . Not at all. Usually this is where I would write that I don't care what others tip. They can over-tip, under-tip or not tip at all That is between them and their server. How people choose to spend their hard-earned money is not my business and will not affect the quality of my vacation. However, I consider myself average tipper, maybe slightly above average. So I guess I do care what others tip so at least I know I'm in the ball park. You're welcome (for sure!) HBE4

Well that is certainly a way to get the adrenaline flowing for an exciting trip. Glad you made it & now you have stories to tell at the wedding reception!

Timing is everything. When I was in Napa, it was over Memorial Day Weekend and it was packed. The main road was bumper-to-bumper traffic and the tasting rooms were pretty crowded. Some of the wineries could handle the crowds better than others. There were one or two where we felt we were rushed thru the tasting and began to wonder if it was because we were wine novices or just not part of the "regular" crowd. Maybe that is why Laird felt more special to me. While less crowded than others, it did have a fair amount of customers. Despite this, the person serving us made us feel like we were then only customers there and took their time answering all of our questions (some probably silly) in detail. Hope you enjoy the rest of your time there. EDIT TO ADD: V. Santicci was one of the busy wineries that could handle the crowds easily. Also, didn't make us feel stupid. LOL. Probably too cold but they have nice picnic grounds and a deli where you can by sandwiches cheese, etc. Not sure why I didn't recommend it earlier as there is a framed picture of me & DW standing in front of it in the den. If you can squeeze it in, it's about "halfway" up the valley.

But that has to be shared with 2,000+ crew members so it works out to a little less than $5 each. Cheapskate! 😉

Bacon would have made it better! 😃😉

Breakfast for dinner?? I love having breakfast for dinner. Need to do it more often.

@h20skibum I'm joining the prayer list for your daughter as well. 🙏

That is hilarious 😁 I need to spend more time on the main boards & enjoy some of the "playful" banter. 😉

If you see all the obvious typos I had in post # 87620, you'll understand why I rarely post from my phone. 😄 Maybe it is time to upgrade to a bigger phone. Those that follow the FOB thread will get what I mean.

Yep!

Looking forward to seeing some pictures. I read in one of your previous posts that you are planning on going to Laird vineyard in Napa. Hopefully your experience will be just as positive as mine was.

Yes, on my cell phone but it's not there on my laptop.

I had one of my credit cards hacked years ago. It happened when I tried to check into a hotel and found out my account had been frozen. My credit card company monitoring system/department had noticed suspicious activity and suspended the account. Of course, I was freaking out being away from home and visions of someone racking up tens of thousands of dollar of purchases. In actuality, it was many small, frequent purchases made at various drug stores. The thing is, it wasn't a card that I used for any Internet purchases (I have a separate card for that). When I spoke with their Fraud department, they said my card into was most likely stolen in one of two ways. 1) Someone with an RFID scanner hidden in their pocket was able to "swipe" my info just by being in close proximity to me when I was using my card for purchases at a gas station or retail store or 2) said gas station company or retail store had a data breach and my info was stolen that way as well. Just to muddle the picture even more, it could be many months or even years after my CC info is stolen before it is used by some nefarious organization out there on the "dark web".

Good lord, I just saw all the typos in my above post. Too late to edit now. I am really sober, I swear. LOL. Maybe just tired from the almost 3 hour drive back.

Drove me niece back to her home in Philadelphia. With all the recent talk about who has the best chees steak, I was tempted to do a taste test at Gi\eno's v Pats. Instead, went to a local sports bar - Founding Fathers - and has short rib tacos and margarita pizza along with a hazy IPA (not pictured) from New Trail Brewing in Williamsport, PA. It did not disappoint. Oh so good! 😋

Depending on my mood, my go to stations will be Ch36 (New Alternative) or Ch 33 (First wave - 80's Alternative music) or Deep Tracks/Classic Vinyl which is 70's & 80's classic rock with Deep Tracks focusing on lesser known songs by popular artists. No Shoes Radio, several other country stations as well as some hip-hop / R&B / Motown are also regular stops as I channel surf. Honestly, I get bored of listening to the same music so I'm always mixing it up. When I want background music that doesn't make me think or remind me on anything / anyplace / anyone, I'll turn on one of the Dance or EDM stations. When I don't know what to listen to, I'll go to Ch 28 (The Spectrum) which plays the full spectrum of music from The Beatles to Nivarna to whomever is popular today. Check out recently played music here: https://xmplaylist.com/station/thespectrum For me, the 50's & 60's stations has been moved to channels 72 & 73 respectively. Not sure why as I always liked the music decades matched the channel number starting with Ch 4 (1940's) and up to Channel 10 (2000's) and 11 (2010's)

I usually go back 5 pages, unless there seems to be an in-depth, interesting, long running conversation I might back track even further. Or if I'm really bored & have plenty of time on my hands.

Happy Anniversary! A few parallels as I started dating my future wife in Dec of 1986, although we had been friends for about 2 years at that point. She was a couple years older than me, single mom to a 4 year old daughter who definitely was NOT shy NOR quiet. LOL Took me a little longer to pull the trigger but we eventually married in 1993, on the same day you met your future hubby - Nov 6th.

I totally forgot about Beatlemania! I saw it as part of a class trip back in 1977-78 time frame. I guess that could be considered my first concert. Or was it a play since it was in a Broadway theater? 🤔

So sorry to hear this Lenny. Please accept my condolences on your loss.

As long as we are discussing concerts, has anyone watched "Trainwreck: Woodstock 99" on Netflix? For some reason, I don't remember this happening. I guess working in IT, I was probably busy saving the world from the Y2K Computer Crash non-event that was going to usher in the end of the world. 😉

I'm a big Beach Boys fan even though their peak years were a few years "before my time". I can probably credit my older siblings who played their albums when i was a mere pre-school child, But their music is still the "quintessential" summer music. I saw them several times in the late 1980's and while the first concert was pretty good, let's just say they..and their voices.... did not age very well in the later concerts. Speaking of bands before my times, one of my first concerts was a 1986 20th anniversary tour featuring The Monkees, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, Herman's Hermits and the Grass Roots. I became a fan of The Monkees while watching reruns of their silly sitcoms in the mid-1970's, long after they broken up. I expected all the fans to be at least twice my age and was pleasantly surprised when a good majority were around my age. Apparently they all watched the show in their childhood as well.

Jimmy Buffett gave one of the best concerts that I was never at. He was performing at the outdoor Jones Beach theater one evening. The parking lot was also one of the beach parking lots - mostly for late arrivals as it was one of the furthest from the beach. After spending the day on the beach, we returned to our car in the parking lot only to find it packed with concert goers. I've never seen so many pop-up tiki bars in one location in my life. We spent the next few hours tailgating - or tiki bar hopping to be more precise - while listening to music from both the theater and everybody's car radios / boom boxes. Turns out, he has quite the dedicated following of people that just park outside wherever he's performing to have a parking lot party. Felt guilty for a bit as we had nothing to trade and nobody would take out money for the food and drinks they gave us, but I guess that's' life in Margaritaville. ⛱️🏝️🍹

DW & I had tickets to see Kenny Chesney when the pandemic cancelled his concerts. We had heard he puts on a great show. Got to see Garth Brooks multiple times as well a Toby Keith, both interact well with their audiences as well. Having been to rock, pop and country concerts, I have to say the country music concerts tend to be the most enjoyable.