Boysenberry, Blueberry and Diet Coke With Lemon Do Not Mix...

Last night, Dana and I went to IHOP to meet Beth after she was done at the dealership. She got a NEW car!! I'm excited for her. New cars are the best! I normally love IHOP, but this was probably the worst experience I've had yet in a restaurant.

The waitress we had was really bad. I pretty much tip on XXX things. Do they keep my glass full of Diet Coke? Do they check back to make sure my food is okay (at least twice)? Do they ask if there is anything else that I want before they give me the check?

She started off okay. She checked back to see if we were ready to order. We started off with an appetizer. Came back and asked if we were ready to order, or were we going to wait until our friend arrived. Dana was craving wings, so we ordered those. This was probably the last time we saw our waitress for about 45 minutes. Try having about a half of a glass of Diet Coke and eating Buffalo Wings. By the time I was on my third wing, I was out of Diet Coke and only had the lemon wedge and ice to try to cool off my toungue. I was left with trying to cool it off by eating some of the blue cheese dressing. Didn't help. Eventually, it went away.

We saw her several times in that 45 minutes that we were waiting, but not because she was helping us at all. You'd think that if you only have 3 tables that you would check with each of them. Nope. Not at all. We were the forgotten table. When she finally did come back, we decided to order. I ordered Pumpkin pancakes. I thought that they would be good. Not too flavorful. She brings Dana's order out and tells me that mine is still being made. "You have to cook the Pumpkin all the way through." Yeah, because I wanted to eat the batter!

I get them and realize that just maple syrup isn't going to be enough. They don't really have that Pumpkin flavor I was hoping for, so all the flavors came out. Okay, not the Strawberry. Don't like that one. The syrup is the best part about eating pancakes in a restaurant. Especially if they have multiple flavors. I started with Butter Pecan, then on to Boysenberry and then the Blueberry. If only I had milk. Nope. I did, however, finally have Diet Coke. I did realize that there is one issue with having Diet Coke. Boysenberry, Blueberry, and Diet Coke do not mix.

Beth got there just as Dana and I were finished. We asked for the check and Beth asked if she could order. Our waitress told us that she was done, but she would get someone else to take her order. You would think that that would actually happen. Nope. I think we sat there for about 10 minutes and no waitress to take her order. Our waitress basically made excuses and said she told the other person. She is good at blaming other people. While we were sitting there, she had no problem blaming the cooks or anyone else for that matter.

Beth gave up. We paid and then went to see her nice, shiney new car. I have to say that this was the smallest tip I've ever given anyone. Even a delivery person for Pizza. $3.00. If you know any of us, we do not hesitate to tip big. In the past, we would challenge ourselves and it wasn't unheard of to give our waitperson a tip the size of our check. We were even told at one time that we were the major funder for a dvd collection.

Well, off to work for the day. 3 minutes until I have to actually start taking wonderful calls. Woo hoo!

Accident Prone..

I am inspired by Firebear's comment to my last blog. Common sense took me down memory lane and I thought that I'd blog about it. These were days that Common Sense took a holiday.

I used to work for Mc Donald's and have had a few interesting injuries. I've been hit in the mouth by a heel spatula (think cookie sheet with a handle) as I was behind one of my co-workers as they turned around to get some buns out of the bun toaster. I've also managed to get my hand caught in the Big Mac bun toaster. That left a nice little scar on my hand. Thankfully, it wasn't on my entire hand, but it still hurt.

This is actually the best one where somehow, common sense wasn't really present that day. I'm not sure if it was mine that was missing, or if it was actually management.

So I was fishing hashbrowns out of the fryer. There were "floaters." Meaning that some of them escaped from the basket. I hated that. Not because I had to rescue them, but because the tongs that we used were crap. Imagine a piece of metal bent in a U shape without a spring to help them open/close easily and that they were probably about 6 inches in length. Any idea where I am going with this yet? So far, I've got a burn on my hand and a split lip..... (it actually happened in the same week, not the same day)

So I'm trying to rescue the nice little hashbrowns when I have pain in my finger. Hmmm...got a little too close to the fryer and my right finger decided to take a dive. In case you ever wondered about what it feels like, IT HURTS! Then there's the wonderful burn spray. Not a good idea if you've just done this. It actually bubbles as well as hurts.

My manager, the nice and wonderful person she is, gave me my lunch early. Gee. That really helped. I swear that she had it in for me that day, as it just kept going downhill from there. I come back from lunch, my thumb is throbbing and I'm trying not to scream from the pain, to find out that I am going to be on fries. Hmmm...let's see...salt, the fryer, hot sticks of potatoes and a heat lamp. Yeah, that's going to make it all better. I had to do that for about 30 minutes. Then I was put on the production line, which meant wrapping all the sandwiches that came up front from the grill. Hmmmm...now there is the opportunity for small little paper cuts and the whole issue of the incessant throbbing and PAIN that I am still in.

My last duty for the day was to direct 3 trainees in the grill area. You would think that that wouldn't be so bad. Should give me more time to ease the pain. Oh no, that isn't my luck. Besides being pulled in different directions by the trainees, I was pulled in several others by the rest of the store. I think I would have been better off just going home. I did manage to survive that day and my finger escaped with out a trace of a scar. I really don't recommend trying this, however. :) HA

So on my next job adventure, I worked for a convienience store chain. The store I worked at had a restaurant, which was my new home. There were several days that common sense took a holiday, but I will share 3 of those with you.

The funniest one was the day that a customer asked for fried onions. Keep in mind that the only way I knew how to do that was with pickle juice. That's how we did it at McDonald's. It works if the vents for the grill are actually directly over the grill and can catch the steam and whatnot. Not a good idea if the vents are actually near the ceiling. The guy working the register actually turned on a flashlight, put it on his head and started making foghorn noises.

The next two happened in the same week. I was in the back room trying to open a tote. All I had to do was cut a small tie, about the size of a garbage bag tie. Normally, I don't have problems with this. I've done this hundreds of times. This time, I not only cut the tie, but decided to slice open the meaty part of my left thumb. Probably about an inch or so deep as well. The best part about it was that it really didn't bleed. I'm a rather curious person by nature and couldn't resist opening up the cut to look inside. Being the way that I am, I naturally thought that others wouldn't mind looking either. Yeah, not a good idea.

This is probably the stupidest thing, next to the fryer incident. I was in the back room again trying to grab cups to fill the dispensers in the coffee area. To do this, you either have to climb on a milk tote to reach them, or use "the hook." The hook was similar to a meat hook that we actually used to pull milk totes in the cooler with. Pretty simple and easy task, really. Not for me that day. I managed to hit the flourescent lightbulbs above me. I decided to look up in wonder at the fact that I hit the lights above me. After the fact, I realized that my forehead was actually bleeding. I went and checked my face in the mirror and ended up with a circle the size of the lightbulbs on my forehead above my right eye. If I would have moved about a half inch, I could have lost my eye. Common sense took a holiday that day! :)

I'm sure I have some other good ones, but these are the most memorable for now.