The tone of minimum wage service industry work environments is one of constant hassle, disrespect, and total control via middle management. It comes from the customer, but it’s mirrored exactly by the business owners. At Chipotle in particular, they are pressured to keep the line moving at a break neck speed. Once…

I just had a brief run-in with a kid who deliberately waited until I had left the dogs sitting in the shade for a moment. He ran up to them and petted them. I quickly bought a few grocery items, my eye on them the whole time through the window. I returned to them, and the kid circled the dogs like a guilty shoplifter.…

As a pet sitter, I don’t allow the dogs I take care of to approach other dogs on the street. It frequently creates awkwardness with other pet owners, but I don’t care. My job is to keep the dogs I care for safe, and if that means they don’t get to meet a stranger on the street, then so be it. I tell you this because…

I spend a lot of time in other people’s houses, and lately I’ve noticed that the majority of homes have funky smelling towels. It must be a slow development and nobody notices. I’ve noticed that just switching laundry detergent can change that. One detergent cleans out another? Not sure.

Here’s another good habit to abandon; stop thinking the word “perfectionist” is a compliment, when what it actually means is, intransigent, obsessive compulsive, and exhausting to other people. Unable to abandon a bad idea.

The flip side to this dilemma is that changing your mind after constant nagging gives them a clear message: ask again and maybe this time you’ll get the desired result!

I think the tradeoff should be that you promise to be fair and reasonable and they promise not to nag you into the dirt.

But did you try adding shredded chard and topping with soy sauce, cayenne, and butter? Because I think this would have made the list.

Works for me.

I guess what I would suggest is a tiered alternative. Fill the perimeter with drought tolerant plants and set aside a much smaller area for grass. Just enough to sit on during an early summer evening.

Crushed granite is a favorite ground cover in my area, and it invariably gets stuck on the bottom of people’s shoes and scratches up their wood and laminate floors. Not so pretty. Also, it hurts like the devil when you step on it, so no going outside with bare feet, not even just to get the paper.

Regarding dying cacti, that would be me. Turns out that the plant in question is an agave plant.

I love the idea of filling a yard with a variety of alternative, drought-tolerant plants. What I don’t like is the idea that filling your yard with rocks is a great choice that everyone can turn to in case they don’t enjoy watering their yard. Actually the above photo of the yard with a cactus in it (?) bums me out.…

And if I was your future neighbor in your future home, I’d give you dirty looks every day of your life. Not only is that an ugly choice, it’s terrible for the environment. Why don’t we just make the entire country a parking lot?

How do you get rid of the boogs in your nose then? I’ll stop if it’s a real problem, I just can’t stand it when my nose is full of green monsters.

None of these muhfuckas spent any time raising a family? Children? That tells you everything you need to know about the lopsided war of the sexes.

I prefer chard or any leafy green as an addition to my ramen. In this manner I can pretend I am eating a healthy meal, despite all the butter and soy sauce I’ve added.

Definitely yes to the addition of eggs, preferably scrambled. I’ve also done eggs, black bean, and ramen if I feel like I need to maximize my meal.…

I took a math course in my final year in college that encompassed some of these topics. Even then, it felt like too little too late. I mean, small children can learn about these things quite easily.

I am going to take advantage of all these tips. Thanks!

But if you are yelling at your line cooks, you are probably making your own job harder for yourself, or you have lousy cooks. Don’t fall into the time-honored trap of thinking that because you work in or near a kitchen everything has to be stressful and awful all the time because that’s just the way it works.

I’ve never heard of a to-go person at a restaurant. I’m sure it’s a real thing, but in all the restaurants I visit regularly, the to-go person is either the manager of the restaurant or whoever happens to see me while I’m standing at the counter or front booth. This probably explains why to-go orders are often wrong,…