Yesterday

My exit interview was interesting. I spoke my mind, and HR took it all in. Surprisingly (or not) I hear that my feelings are not only my own. I know the guys in my group feel the same way, but it appears that others that have left may have eluded to similar issues.

Yesterday afternoon turned out pretty much like I thought it would. Jayson ended up coming with me to see Jeff. I ended up seeing Jeff, David, Nick, Jeffery, and others. It was weird to see so many people who used to work at Jeff’s company return to it. I think Lefty and I are the only ones that haven’t returned. David, Jeff, Jay and I went to Pete’s Tavern for lunch. It was nice to catch up with them.

Plan for the Day

My exit interview is in a little while. I am not leaving for over a week, but I was hoping to get some time off next week so I am doing it now. After that I am off to lunch with an old friend (and old boss) Jeff. I am going to meet him down by his office. It is usually too long between when we get together so I am looking forward to lunch.

Other than those plans, I am not sure what the day has in store for me yet.

The Brewery

After work yesterday a few of us headed over to the brewery in Union Square for some drinks and food. We meet up with John, Mickey, and Tom and had an overall good evening. John is trying to convince most of us to goto a poker tournament on super bowl sunday out on the island. I am still skeptical about the trip. Originally the buy in was high and I am not a fan of traveling way out onto the island if I can avoid it. I am waiting to see what the buy in will be for real before I make a decision.

Even-though I only had 2 drinks (in my defense they were rather large mixed drinks, but I know I am a light weight when it comes to drinking) I was pretty buzzed last night. I had my typical after drinking restless sleeping last night. I set my alarm for later than normal but still got up around my regular time since I was not able to sleep well most of the night.

The Big Game

I am told there is a big NFL playoff game today. I am skeptical since my dad is on a plane going on vacation today, but we all know my mom runs their schedule so maybe he just didn’t remember there was a game on. In any case I am about to run out for some drinks at a bar with friends while we watch the Saints game. Since Gretchen is from New Orleans and is organizing the event we are going to a Saints friendly bar. I don’t care who wins either way so it will be an interesting afternoon. I am going for some food and drinks. I mean I haven’t seen every one in so long, oh wait we went out on Friday. Never-mind.

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Steak Lunch

A few of us had lunch with EMC today to talk about some stuff that is going on. And lets face it, we use enough of there stuff so lunch is not allot to ask for. Actually our rep who is pretty cool was the one that suggested it. Like Jayson and I, he likes to eat! Well at least eat at a halfway decent place! the problem with vendor lunch’s is that they take forever. We learned allot, so it wasn’t a waste.

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Manditory Tipping?

I saw this article today and I got a little ticked off. When did the percentage of tipping go up? I try to stick to double the tax or about 15%. That varies based on the service provided to me at the restaurant. I don’t know where someone thinks a mandatory 20% is fare. So you can provide really bad service and still automatically add 20%? I don’t know what pissed me off more about this, article. The mandatory part, or the fact that the amount they want to tack on is 5% more than what I have always thought as a fair tip. If you are concerned with cost of living adjustments, the tip goes up whenever the price of the meal goes up, so the percentage doesn’t have to change.

I am not being cheap. I regularly tip 20-25% if I get good service. Especially if I am traveling by myself and get good service I have given really big tips. I just get aggravated by people expecting more and then not providing good service. I don’t care what the article says about statistics of how people tip. If I get bad service you get a bad tip, and vice versa. About half the time I go out to eat in the city I get bad service, I am not going to reward someone for that. That is not saying everyone is bad, I also get some great service, but I should be able to dictate when I tip well or not so well based on the level of service I get. That is the whole idea of a gratuity, deal with it!

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Labor Day

Today is Labor Day.¬† I don’t have anything special scheduled.¬† I am just happy that it is a Monday and I am not at work.¬† I am thinking about going to the beer garden with Jayson and Gretchen.¬† The weather is perfect for it.¬† They have to do some shopping first.¬† I need to clean up my apartment, so hopefully we will meet up later and go.¬† Other than that, hopefully it will be a restful day.

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Dinner After Dinner

Last night we went to Spago at Caesars. The food was good, but it wasn’t enough for any of us. First there was no “normal” food. Now I understand it is supposed to be upscale, but you should have one normal dish that I can identify by reading its description on it. The portions where really small also. I ended up back at the Pizza Hut at my hotel about a hour after we ate to get a mini pie since I was still so hungry. Everyone else had show tickets so I walked around the shops at Caesars for a while before heading back to the hotel on the monorail.

Really Good Steak

Last night Joe, Karen and I went to a steakhouse in Ceasers called Nero or I think that is what it was called. Man do they make great steak. My friends had a nice bottle of wine (i don’t drink wine) and we enjoyed a really nice steak. I honestly can’t remember what else I did yesterday except have that awesome steak.

On the business front, the convention is very informative so far. I am finding tons of useful stuff out.

Dinner With The Family

Went to dinner with my parents, sister and niece tonight. Probably the last time we will do that before the baby shows up. My sister is due next week. I had a head ache since it was hot and I didn’t eat lunch. I have to stop doing that. We had a good time though. Morgan was great as always. Great as in really funny, but not behaving as good as she could tonight.

Other than dinner, work was busy as usual. I meet a rep from a vendor we started using. It was an interesting talk. I had a ton of other issues that I am dealing with, and things are busy. Hopefully the die down a bit after July.