Carpentology

Where did all the comments go?

What happened to people commenting on my site?

This is neither a high traffic nor highly commented web log, but I usually get a couple a week. I have now not had a comment in almost two weeks a week!

Day Care

I really like the home day care environment compared to the commercial day care environment for children. The only problem is that, in my experience, home day care has a high turnover rate.

As husband to someone who worked in commercial day care for two years and did home day care for two years, I am sympathetic to the situation of many home day care providers. Many of the providers that we have patronized over the past year have simply done home day care because of a lack of options. I was not sorry to see them go.

Our current, soon to be former, home day care provider was an exception to that rule. I am sorry to see her go. The boys seem to have really liked her. They even asked for her on the weekends, a first considering that they have been with five home day care providers over the last year.

I am hoping that we can find a provider with some longevity so that the boys have some stability while we are not with them. Our only other option is to hire a nanny. Yes, it is expensive as it sounds. After taxes, insurance and child care costs Beth would be bringing home about $30 a week. This almost makes it not worth working, bet the double insurance would be nice, and you cannot put a price tag on work experience.

All in all, we have some important decision to make.

Weekends

Why does the weekend seem to go by faster as we grow older? I remember the weekend being a long, long time when I was young.

My parents came to visit this weekend and it seems like we almost no time together. We did have a lot of fun, though.

Cell Phone+Glass of Water+Two Year Old=

A really ticked off father.

Tipping Tips

I just read an article on restaurant tipping from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. It puts a very real face on todays tippers. I am a bad tipper according to them.

Here is MY scale:

• Ruined my day: I will yell at the manager and get a free meal.
  This is service so bad that I would no longer be a patron of this establishment.
• Really Bad Service: 1 cent.
  This is the type of service where I have to ask more than once for something.
• Bad Service: $0
  This is service where the server does not come over and I have to ask for everything.
• Adequate Service: 10%
  This is the kind of service where the server does the minimum. By this I mean that they ask me if I want refills, and check on me and my party at least every twenty minutes.
• Good Service: 15%
  This is service where I do not have to ask for anything, the server asks me if I need anything and is pleasant in doing so.
• Great Service: 25%+
  If the service makes my visit a wonderful experience, the server should be tipped accordingly. I have left up to 50% for this kind of service.