Molly Piper

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Abraham and I flipped through our local channels last night, all the while adjusting our rabbit ears.

One of the things Abraham mentioned while watching that really struck me after he said it was, “It’s incredible. We’re watching the first African-American become President.”

It really is incredible.

Just 41 years ago, there were still laws on the books in many states outlawing black-white intermarriage. Only 41 years ago.

Regardless of what people might believe politically, it is a historic moment.

With all the talk of the economic crisis/downturn/recession/slump (insert your adjective of preference here), many people are talking about wanting to save money.

Now many of you might already know this secret four-letter word, but for the rest of you, consider this a favor from me to you:

A-L-D-I

Say it with me now: “ALDI!”

Good job.

Yesterday I found that I had not a single can of beef broth in my cupboards, which was the only thing I lacked to make Abraham’s favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. We have an ALDI within walking distance of our house (another way to save money!), so I thought I’d hike it over there and pick up a couple cans.

Now, one thing that I consider an inconvenience about my ALDI is that they don’t take my debit card; I always have to pay with cash. And considering I never carry cash, I began the process of spare-change scrounging.

I was able to collect about two dollars off my dresser, so I stuffed that into my pocket thinking, “That should be enough for 2 cans, right? Then I’ll have one for next time.”

I get over to the store, find the broth, and check the price to make sure I have enough money. And much to my delight/shock… 39 cents. I think I did a triple take. Thirty-nine cents?! I was able to leave the store with $1.22 in my pocket!

This is good economics, people. At my regular grocery store, I would have paid at least twice that amount. I can’t say I’d buy all my groceries there, but for pantry stuffs, they can’t be beat.

To those of you without an ALDI in your neck of the woods during this time in our economy… God be with you.

It’s hard to conceive of, but there have been other things going on in my life since Morrow’s arrival. Actually it’s been a really busy few weeks. Here’s a quick update:

• Duplex: The “tenants” who were in the house when we bought it finally left the first floor on 8/31. They left it a total disaster, as far as cleanliness goes. We were pretty sure that was going to be the case. Since then we’ve been cleaning like crazy, painting like crazy, installing a new IKEA kitchen, and trying to get it ready for our awesome, extremely forbearing, new tenants. They should be able to move in next week. Right now all the hardwood floors are being refinished. It’s going to look so good when it’s done!!
• Books: I’ve been going through the comments that were left on my post about funny books awhile back and systematically requesting them from my library. I read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods and nearly died of laughter. Right now I’m making my way through Alexander McCall Smith’s series The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. They are delightful novels, set in Botswana. If you haven’t read them, do it! Basically I need books that will keep me awake during nighttime feedings.
• Our house: We’ve had a really promising lead come up for renting our current house—praise God! Turns out it’s a friend of a friend who found me via blogging. I LOVE THE INTERNET! But seriously, they are good friends with one of my best friends from college, so that excites me, making new connections and all.
• Knitting: I finished a pair of socks that I’ve had on my needles for a year and half. It was a lace pattern and they turned out nice, it just took me forever to have the motivation to get ‘em done!
• Marriage: Our fifth anniversary is on September 20th! I can’t believe it’s been five years. More on that later.
• Felicity: Following quickly on the heels of our anniversary is Felicity’s birthday on 9/22. There are so many thoughts going through my head about this. That will have to be its own post.
• Oh, and also this has been on my mind a lot.
  
  
  (via JT)

I’m sure others are experiencing this too, so I had to mention it. Abraham and I have spent every night this week staying up way too late to watch the Olympics. Here are some of my observations:

• They show the hottest events/sports later in the prime time slot (starting at more like 10pm) so that you watch the lesser-desired events/sports earlier in the time slot while you wait for your favorites. Perfect example: Beach volleyball, though interesting and pretty cool, just doesn’t come close to the women’s all-around gymnastics competition for most people. But you just keep watching and watching because you don’t want to miss a minute of the gymnastics.
• Sports announcers are driveling idiots sometimes. I think because they basically have to be talking every single minute, they just come out with some of the most off-the-wall stuff. They went on and on about how Phil Dalhausser made the transition from balding to shaving like a cue ball.
• I’m not that impressed with Michael Phelps. I mean, he’s an amazing swimmer, but it seems like it’s all about him whenever they show anything swimming related. I’m kind of tired of all the hype. Anyone else?
• This whole experience is causing us to lose lots of sleep. We stayed up so late every night this week that by Friday night we were completely crashed by 10:15pm. I don’t know how much more of this my body can take.

Before we move into the second floor of our duplex, we are planning to remodel the kitchen. This is happening for a number of reasons:

1. My husband is very nice and wants me to have a nice kitchen.
2. The current kitchen is quite small and not laid out very well.
3. We are hoping for this house to be the one we stay in for many years, so figure the investment is worth it.

Our remodel will begin with taking everything out of there, and finding out what’s beneath the current linoleum. We’re praying it’s hardwood, since that’s what’s in the rest of the place. That will make our flooring choice very easy!

Then we will knock out the wall between the current kitchen and the back bedroom of the apartment, making it one large room. This will give us a larger eating area in the kitchen and a place for people to mill around and talk to me while I’m in the kitchen. Or it might just end up being where the kids play while I cook.

Right now I’m really torn about what counter tops to get. Here are the contenders and my feelings on each:

Granite PROS:

• It’s very pretty.
• It will last a long time.

Granite CONS:

• It seems kind of fancy. I’m not very fancy. So it just doesn’t feel like me.
• It can chip.
• It’s not repairable.
• It’s porous, which can gather bacteria.
• Very expensive.

Quartz PROS:

• It’s very pretty.
• It’s durable.
• It doesn’t seem as fancy as granite.
• Not porous, so good for keeping out bacteria.

Quartz CONS:

• Not repairable.
• Can chip.
• Expensive.

Corian PROS:

• A little more affordable than granite and quartz.
• Repairable. You just melt a new piece in there and it’s fixed.
• Can have the sink integrated right into the counter top! (This is my favorite feature!)
• Lots of colors, and the look is not too fancy.

Corian CONS:

• Still pretty expensive.
• Seems like it stains like crazy (from what I’ve read on the internet).
• It scratches (though I’m told you can buff out any scratches very easily).
• Don’t know if I’d like a Corian sink, and you have to have one if you want to do the integrated sink.

Laminate PROS:

• Very affordable.
• If I hate it in 10 years, or if it gets badly damaged, I can replace it (because I didn’t spend as much the first time around).
• Lots of color choices.

Laminate CONS:

• Not easily repairable.
• Not as cool as the other options. (Just being honest.)

So those are my thoughts. Any feedback?

Okay, I know so many people love Super Target (“Super T” as some of my girlfriends call it). And trust me, I do too. But I come away from every grocery-buying experience disappointed thinking, “Wow, they’re more expensive than my regular grocery store.”

So if we’re just talking about price, does anyone else find this to be true?

If it is true and you still shop there, that’s fine with me. I just want to know what other factors you weigh into your grocery-buying decision (well-organized stores, proximity to home, Starbucks inside, etc.).

I think I’ve already tipped my hand as to my deciding factor.

So there was a TON of response to the tipping question—I was kind of stunned. I wasn’t expecting so many people to weigh in on the matter. I’m glad you did, but now it seems I have more options than I ever considered, so now it’s more confusing! Thanks a lot!

I didn’t want to go too far into the story that happened to us, but I’ll reveal it now…

[Begin story].

We sat down in the outdoor area of the restaurant to eat, and the waiter came over and greeted us. He was not over-the-top friendly, which can be nice, but it can also be a warning that he’s really not into his job. On one hand, I don’t usually like when a waiter or waitress feels fake because they’re trying so hard to be “friendly,” but I also don’t want someone who’s aloof.

Abraham told me later that he could tell right from the beginning that this guy wasn’t going to be any good. I did not have the same premonition. (I don’t tend to be very intuitive.)

The food came out quickly enough, but the chips and salsa refills were a little slow. Not that big of a deal, I figured, since we were downing them like it was our job.

About halfway into the meal, I thought I’d like to have a lemonade. Abraham said he’d order it for me, but then as we looked around again and again, the man was nowhere to be found.

From time to time he’d pop back onto the patio and get something for another table but never made his way down to the end, where we were seated.

So we were endlessly trying to get this man’s attention. When we finally ordered it, it came quickly enough. We continued on with our meal, Abraham helping me ingest the lemonade at record speed (easy to do when you’re eating Mexican food).

We asked him for a refill, and he took the glass away to refill it. Then we didn’t see him for literally five minutes. Maybe more. It was a really long time. By this time we had eaten all of our food and were just waiting on the lemonade refill. It felt like we were sitting there forever.

Eventually he came back to our table, asking if we needed anything else. Abraham said, “We’re just waiting on the lemonade.” And he was kind of apologetic, but not really. So he hurried inside, and I thought, “Okay, it’s coming now.” But then he didn’t show up again for another five minutes at least. And this was not fresh-squeezed lemonade. All he had to do was go to the fountain and fill ‘er up.

So he finally brought the refill with no further apology. And we sat there and drank it, more out of obligation at that point than true desire for it.

[End story.]

I know it’s not the worst ever. It’s not like he brought the lemonade out and had his Band-Aided thumb in the glass or anything. But waiting that long for one refill? And there were plenty of other staff around that he could have handed the task off to.

Aaron posted a pretty long comment, including an article that was really helpful. Aaron is one of my oldest friends, and he, in a former life, was an excellent server and restaurant manager. I take what he says about customer service seriously, because he thinks about it all the time. He posted a link to the article on his blog, so feel free to read it if you get a chance.

The mercy/justice tension is always there if you’re thinking about the undeserved favor that we as Christians have received from God, but that we still live striving for holiness in all we do.

I also understand the argument for the underlying issue/personal matter, but honestly know that if I let my personal problems affect my job, I would be in major trouble and not be rewarded for my performance. If doctors do it, it’s a lawsuit; if designers do it, they don’t get paid for their work; if teachers do it, their students fail and they are let out of their contract. Why is the standard different for servers?

I think the suggestion to talk to a manager when service is bad or good is definitely something we should do more often.

Sometimes I try to put it into a global perspective and remind myself just how privileged we are to sit down in a restaurant with tons of options for meals on the menu and money in our wallets to pay for it, unlike most of the world. However, what does that mean when we actually do live in America and there are different standards for service provision here?

Thanks for all the thoughts, readers. You’ve got me totally bamboozled.

Does your state have a helmet law? I’m thinking specifically of motorcyclists.

The great state of Minnesota does not require motorcyclists to wear helmets. And my former home, Pennsylvania, used to have a helmet law and actually repealed it back in 2003. Not surprisingly, head injuries and deaths have risen dramatically.

Being a speech pathologist, I have seen the devastating effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). During my summer internship in the summer of 2002 while I was in graduate school, I helped treat the patients in a special lock-down unit for brain-injured people, many of whom had sustained them riding motorcycles or other ATVs carelessly and/or without a helmet.

I suppose I care about this issue more because of my profession. It really gets me fired up when I see someone weaving in and out of traffic with no helmet. Knowing how quickly and totally their life would change (or end) always affects me.

On a recent eating out venture, we had a pretty bad waiter. We really try to be very gracious and generous to waiters and waitresses in general, knowing full well that both of us would be terrible at that job.

But seriously, this guy was not good.

Which left us in a sticky situation—should we give him a bad tip? If so, what is that communicating? Is he going to assume that we’re just stingy or will he honestly try to evaluate himself to figure out what he’d done wrong?

Should a bad tip come with an explanation? Should there be bad tips? Just curious about what you all would do.

Lately I’ve been thinking about more natural ways of living, more simple ways of living, etc. I hesitate to say “going green” because that means so many different things to so many different people. One area I’ve been researching a bit is safer cosmetics.

Some of what I’ve found is alarming. Some of what I’ve found is overwhelming. I simply don’t know how far to go with this stuff. Do we only put natural, “safe” cosmetics on our skin to prevent things like cancer, neurological disorders, and reproductive damage? Or do we live with what the cosmetics industry gives us and trust that they are going to do the right thing by the human race in general? Or is there a middle ground?

Most of my internet research has been at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website. On this site, they identify companies that have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

Part of why I feel like I just want to give up on this whole issue is that there is so much information to know, so many products to avoid, so many more dollars to spend on “safe” products. I’m just overwhelmed.

Here’s the tension:

• I want to be responsible with my body and the bodies that God has entrusted to me as a caregiver.
• I also want to be financially responsible with the resources God has given me. I simply cannot afford to go out and buy all new stuff and experiment with the hundreds of brands out there until I find one I like.
• As a Christian, how “safe” can I be in this world? I read one verse like this: Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe,” and I question the issue as a whole.

If any of you out there have committed to safer cosmetics, or have been researching and are farther along than me, I would love your advice and feedback. For others, what do you think about this issue in general? Obviously I haven’t made a decision either way, so I’d love to hear other people’s opinions on the matter.