This is pretty bad. — 13 minutes ago

My maiden name was very plain and boring — 2 hours ago

so when I married the first time I was happy to change my name because (1) it was customary and (2) I really liked his last name. My whole maiden name felt kind of abrupt to me, not enough sylables to suit me. When we divorced, I kept his name as I still really liked my name just as it was, I didn;t want to go back to the abrupt sounding not enough sylables maiden name . . . and we had three children whom I shared the name with.

When I remarried (to my curent husband) I did not change my name. By this time I had a professional license and run an appraisl business and am firmly established in the business with the present name that I have. He (Mr. Hippiechick) had no problem with this. When we do social things though, I am often referred to with the current Mr. Hippiechick’s last name and I am fine with that.

Mostly I know who I belong tyo and where I sleep and he knows that I know that so no one is really offended or upset. It works well for us.

The oither thing is that in 1979 when I first married, it was very easy to change your name. You didn’t have to jump through nearly as much hoopla as you do today.

Souhaitez un "agir aujourd'hui" anniversaire à La Vie En Rose Auguste 24 — 8 hours ago

scary!! — 8 hours ago

To get you in and out they actually slide you — 8 hours ago

in and out. The bed/platform that you are laying is on rollers or whatever. I did it to save my foot, but it was with the help of “Prince Valium” that I made it through.

and BTW . . . — 8 hours ago

of course I would vote Pug, but the boston terriers are pretty cute too!

I have been thinking about the bottle tree — 8 hours ago

all day yesterday since I saw and responded to your post. I found myself perusing my back yard for the perfect place.

I had this idea that I might want to develop. In the pool area there is a flower bed which we always forget to water. Consequently nothing ever fares very well there. I had this thought about making a row of “bottle bushes” instead of an actual tree. I am thinking that it could be kind of fun and they wouldn’t require too much water.

I do that . . . take pictures when I like something — 8 hours ago

I am a real estate appraiser so I have the opportunity to go all over the state and when I see something I like I take extra pictures.

When I am at someone’s house doing it, they think I am so thorough. They don’t realize that I am just landscaping my own yard!!

Good Job Jamie!!! — 17 hours ago

I have never had an MRI, but I did have a total of 40 sessions in a Hyperbaric Chamber. That was a real bitch. It was uncomfortable for one thing because of the pressure and even though it was a clear acrylic vessel, it still made me claustrophobic as there was no way to get out unless the technician took me out she had to depressurize the chamber first so if I HAD to get out, it would have taken her about 15 minutes to get me out. Each session was 2 hours long. I had to take some valium each time before I went in so I could sleep through the whole thing. I hated that sucker, except that it did help my foot heal though. (This was during the pseudomoneaus infection time and the IV meds)

It was so hard to make myself go there everyday. So hard.

I am generally a pretty decent tipper I think. — 19 hours ago

I most always leave 20% regardless of whether it was dinner or lunch. I suppose that I might leave more maybe if I was at a really high end place, but face it, I am not a high end kind of gal. So where I eat 20% is reasonable.

If I feel that I have gotten really crappy service, I try to think about why I got crappy service. Was the place really busy? If it was, that is not necessarily the servers fault. If the food was crappy, that wasn’t necessarily the servers fault either. I would still tip, but I might register a complaint with the manager if it (the food) was really bad. So, before any adjustments are made, I try to think it through. I guess it has to be pretty horrible before I make any adjustments because I usually just do the 20%. If it wasn’t the servers fault, then reducing the tip is putting the blame on someone who didn’t deserve it.

I do not tip at places like Starbucks where you go up to the counter and get your stuff or the drive through for crying out loud where all they did was hand you your stuff but they have a tip can out there. No tip then.

A time when I do leave more is if I am at the person’s table for a really long time (maybe I am eating with someone I haven’t seen in a long time and we want to catch up) I figure that my just sitting and talking has probably cost the server some tips from someone else who might have been at the table I just spent a really long time at. In that event, I will generally leave more.

There was a time when I inadvertently left like 40%. ooops!!! My oldest daughter was having a large birthday dinner at a local Italian Restaurant. There were 17 or so people at the table and we had appetizers, dinner, desert and drinks . . . oh yes drinks . . . many drinks. So the check comes and I throw down my credit card and when they bring the receipt to sign I add 20% tip, hell maybe even more. I was cocktailed. Later (much later) I realized that they had already added like 18% to the bill because of the large number in our party. So that server got like $125 or something like that. Hope that helps!!

^{Next time maybe I won’t have so many cocktails}