Some Tips For Tipping

Tipping dates back to 18th century England, when an urn would be placed in pubs with a simple sign that read, "To Insure Promptitude." This was later shortened to the acronym T.I.P. or "tip," as it is currently called. While originally a way of ensuring good service, tipping is now expected at most businesses where a personal service is performed.

Some establishments include a tip or gratuity on your bill no matter how small the size of your party, but this is rare. Rather, tipping is an expected and essential part of any experience. In most cases, employees working in industries where tipping is expected make less than minimum wage, and rely heavily on tips. At present, average pay for waiters and waitresses is $2.12 per hour, most or all of which is used to pay taxes on their reported tips.

How do you know when and whom to tip? How much is the appropriate amount? (Source)

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Gun Safety Tips

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How To Pocket The 8-Ball On The Break

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This Is Why I Prefer The Drumettes - Rather Than The Drums

Possibly a re-post, but hey It's good enough.

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Spice Usage Tips

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Ten Great Tips For 2010

1. Stay out of trouble

2. Aim for greater heights

3. Stay focused on your job

4. Exercise to maintain good health

5. Practice teamwork

6. Rely on your trusted partner to watch your back, and take your time trusting others.

7. Save for rainy days

8. Rest and relax

9. Always take time to smile

10. Realize that nothing is impossible

Thanks Jen!

The Importance of Resting Meat

Instructions on how to be a man: Start large fire. Cook large steaks over large fire. Rip steaks from fire with bare hands, bite down, and allow succulent juices to dribble down chin.

Instructions on how to be a smart man: Start large fire. Cook large steaks over large fire. Rip steaks from fire with bare hands, allow steaks to rest in a warm place undisturbed for 10 minutes. Bite down, and allow succulent juices to dribble down throat.

This week at The Food Lab, we're going to explore the importance of resting meat. Asides from over/under-cooking/seasoning, not resting meat properly is probably the cooking blunder that we are all most guilty of.

You mean I have to wait before I can tuck into that perfectly charred ribeye? Unfortunately, yes.

Here's why:

This is a picture of a steak that was cooked in a skillet to medium rare (an internal temperature of 125°F or 51.7°C). The steak was then immediately placed on a cutting board and sliced in half, whereupon a deluge of juices started flooding out and onto the board.

The result? Steak that is less than optimally juicy and flavorful. This tragedy can be easily avoided by allowing your steak to rest before slicing.

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10 Tips To Prevent Impulsive Buying

Impulse Buying is one of the leading causes of death for the American bank account and pocketbook. Impulse buying is simply defined as making an unplanned purchase. This can be an extra pack of cookies when grocery shopping or buying a car on a whim. Most of us are guilty of this at one time or another. Even though the term is simple, it probably accounts for the majority of money problems people have. Here are 10 tips to prevent this dreaded wallet sucker:

1. Understand wants versus needs. If your shoes are falling apart and held together with duct tape, you NEED new shoes. If you have 12 pairs of new shoes still in the box in your closet, you don’t NEED new shoes, you WANT new shoes. Ask yourself this question before making a purchase, “Do I really need this?”

2. Avoid stores or store departments where you may lose control. If shoes are your weakness, stay away from shoe stores. If you compulsively buy CDs and DVDs, stay out of that section at WalMart.

3. Pay cash for all of your purchases. It is much harder to hand over cash than to swipe a credit card. Once the cash is gone, it is gone.

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15 Tips To Avoid Nagging

It turns out that being a nag is just as unpleasant as being nagged -- so figuring out how to end nagging brings a real happiness boost to a relationship.

But even though no one enjoys an atmosphere of nagging, in marriage, or any partnership, chores are a huge source of conflict. How do you get your sweetheart to hold up his or her end, without nagging?

One of my best friends from college has a very radical solution: she and her husband don’t assign. That’s right. They never say, “Get me a diaper,” “The trash needs to go out,” etc. This only works because neither one of them is a slacker, but still — what a tactic! And they have three children!

That's something to strive for. But even if we can’t reach that point, most of us could cut back on the nagging. Here are some strategies that have worked for me:

1. It’s annoying to hear a hectoring voice, so suggest tasks without words. When my husband needs a prescription filled, he puts his empty medicine bottle on the bathroom counter. Then I know to get it re-filled.

2. If you need to voice a reminder, limit yourself to one word. Instead of barking out, “Now remember, I’ve told you a dozen times, stop off at the grocery store, we need milk, if you forget, you’re going right back out!” Instead, I call out, “Grocery store!” or “Milk!”

3. Don’t insist that a task be done on your schedule. “You’ve got to trim those hedges today!” Says who? Try, “When are you planning to trim the hedges?” If possible, show why something needs to be done by a certain time. “Will you be able to trim the hedges before our party next week?”

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11 Tips to Cut Your Cholesterol Fast

How's your cholesterol? If you think that the normal reading you got back in 2004 (or earlier) means you're in the clear, think again: Levels of the artery-clogging substance often rise with age, and cardiologists say everyone 20 or older should be screened for high cholesterol at least once every five years, with more frequent screenings for anyone deemed to be at high risk for heart disease. If it's been awhile since your last cholesterol screening, now's a good time to ask your doctor if you're due for one.

The good news? If your fasting total cholesterol level exceeds the desirable level of 200, or if your low-density lipoprotein ( LDL, or "bad”) cholesterol is above 100, getting it down to a safer level could be easier than you think.

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The Ultimate List of Firefox 3 Tips and Tricks

If you're at the edge of your Internet Explorer realm, or have already jumped in the vastly wide river which is the changeover process from IE to Firefox, like I am, then this is a link you simply MUST visit. There's truly a ton of helpful stuff here.



We have been raving about Firefox 3 for quite some time now, but we are not alone, there are tons of people who are writing useful tips and tricks that can enhance your experience while using Firefox 3.

On the other hand Firefox 3 has already been downloaded 8.3 million times in a single day. To help out the millions of users find useful information in one place, we have created the ultimate list of tips and tricks for Firefox 3 written by talented bloggers from around the blogosphere.

Safe Baby Handling Tips

These are still hilarious! They are from a book by David and Kelly Sopp entitled, you guessed it, "Safe Baby Handling Tips".