~~~SANDBOX 77~~~

congrats smoove auntie! and congrats stepuncle steen?

dammit, hoos, just saw this. i'm so sorry. was it near shaw again?

Gratz to everyone.

I just dyed my hair a dark scarlet red. More later when it dries.

Damn. Sorry, hoos. All you can do with shit like that is live your way past it.

I sort of did get mugged once.

In 2004, a tourist from Ireland named Joe stole my wallet and cell phone after I didn't have cash for the cab we split.

I met him when he and I and another stranger took shelter from a severe thunderstorm under an awning and smoked cigarettes. After the worst of the storm, we all went to a 4:00 bar and got shitty. When it closed, he and I took a cab to a 5:00 bar. All I remember is that he was pissed because I didn't have cash and when I offered to buy his drinks or go to the ATM, he shoved me against a tree, got in my face, [apparently took my stuff], and then I walked home.

The next day I was without wallet or phone, so I called my voice mail number. I had a message from Joe that said, in a this accent, "Yeh, this is Joe. I have your cell phone, if you want it back. I got in a car accident and I'm upstairs in St. Joseph's Hospital."

I went to the hospital and after much persuasion, the receptionist searched for "Joe" who was "upstairs." She and found him and called him, but he told her he was not accepting visitors.

yarg, i'm having the worst luck with flying recently. my flight on the way out of dc was cancelled, as i whined about a few days ago, and now, upon arrival, my bags are missing. i'm heading to the airport bar. fuck it.

maybe i should just live in the airport. they have everything!

yeah great transport links

As I often boast and tempt fate, I've only had one significant flight delay in my life (~5 hours in Atlanta due to a storm in 1988), and never a canceled flight. And no lost luggage. Once it was delayed b/c it wouldn't fit on the puddle jumper to Key West, but I got it a few hours later.

if you're back in dc, just go home and make them deliver the bags

also f u jesse

Also no significant turbulence. Only some small bumps, like running over a pothole in a car.

You know this means I'm going to die in a heinous aircrash, right?

if you're back in dc, just go home and make them deliver the bags

eh, i thought about it, but my medicine is in there, and also a bunch of my work clothes. i didn't want to mess with them delivering it during the week when i'm at work. and plus it's supposed to arrive in about an hour, now (apparently it's on the next flight from philly?) and i have some work to do on my computer anyway.

my only canceled flight meant i got to delay my holiday by three days hanging out by the pool in a hotel

was that in Orlando? didn't you also watch Mark Ruffalo movies ?

carry-on only over here *brushes dirt off of shoulder*

yes i also watched mark ruffalo movies! also watched the same movie on the flight back too. but they edited out his ass.

Rark! Muffalo!

i know i'm being a fusspot but i would rather deal with the vagaries of checked luggage than go around town with dirt on my shoulder. xp

I will admit it's perhaps an uneven tradeoff *continues brushing dirt off*

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/Pig-pen_peanuts.PNG

urgent tipping question: some guys are coming in an hour to clean and fix the gutters on our roof. $260 for the job. should we tip and if so how much??

oh god really?

I know I can't believe I'm sullying the sandbox w/ a tipping question

I wouldn't if they were self-employed builders. If they're guys working for a wage, maybe round up to $300 if you can afford it, as it's Christmas.

Would you tip if you paid somebody to mow your lawn? Or to shovel snow/rake leaves?

I don't know the answers to any of those questions (renter for LIFE!), but they seem like a reasonable guide. I think cleaning gutters is more like cutting grass than, say, fixing your roof, which I would not think would necessitate tipping.

the payment is the tip for those first two cases

I think it's more about fixing the roof - nailing the gutters to the side of the house so it doesn't come loose in a windstorm. so maybe the tip is built into the $260

No tip.

that's the kind of affirmative response I'm looking for, thank you jeff

wouldn't hurt to throw a double fingerpoint at them though, *maybe* even with a wink

i don't know the answer, dayo.

what i do know is that a child in a village india is making microprocessors for satellites from scrap items he finds in his garden. sometimes you don't have to go to washington or beijing to find ideas that are transforming our ecenomy and our world.

was gonna use hand guns myself but duly noted

Thank god that's settled. I'm not joking. I was using some valuable mental bandwidth on the question.

My can driver is wearing a suit. A relatively nice one (idk from suits, but it's not crap) and a crisp shirt and nice looking tie.

*cab not can

-they showed up an hour late
-they want $40 extra for 'materials'

guess that solves the question

really they are being quite silly I think

Was that $40 materials fee or the possibility thereof in the original agreement? If not, that's BS.

I think the guys who did show up were subcontracted out by the company we called, and no I don't think it was in the original agreement, so yeah we're fighting them about this

"Materials"? What sorts of materials?

My cab driver took an "interesting" route, which added ~$5 to what I should have paid. Or maybe it was a surcharge for the suit.

Yo is there an effective way to call cab drivers out on shit like that?

Yes, but it's more than $5 worth of hassle.

when that happens I usually pee on the floor

(for anyone familiar w/ Chicago who cares, a normal route from my house to work would be Clark to LaSalle, to one of various Loop streets, to Peoria + Jackson. this guy took LSD to lower Randolph, which Google maps says added 1.9 miles)

that seems weird but aside from asking him to state his intended route before you enter traffic, what are you going to do, argue about it? probably not.

you could just give him what you think is the right price and leave

Usually I don't think they're hustling. They're either totally unfamiliar w/ the streets (no "Knowledge" tests here) or they think it's the best route.

I have spoken up before the driver got huffy and sort of argued (yeh yeh it's the same, the same) and I compensated for the difference by not tipping.

Today I just didn't have the energy, and honestly, the route he took was faster, despite being 2 miles longer.

cab drivers in beijing were pretty terrible - as soon as the cab started the driver would ask you what route you wanted to take, if you gave the wrong answer s/he would know you were not a local and would take you for a spin

my dad and the gutter guy have been arguing for nearly an hour now - I don't think this work is getting done

oh wait - he just took a new gutter off his trailer - we may have some action