A new habit of my (Guatemalan) coworkers.

Whenever they're around me, or rather a lot of the time when they're around me, some of my (Guatemalan) workers refer to my running joke that I had started with the one a few months ago, but now they just go and mutter, "Diablo" ("devil").

Like, one is starting to wipe down the industrial refrigerator at the end of the night and I'm over by there, and without looking at me, he just mutters, "Diablo."

Or, one is ferrying out a rack of washed glasses and passes by me in the little hallway that leads to the kitchen, and he goes by with a smile and looks at me and is like, "!Diablo!"

Sometimes I say "Diablo" to them, but sometimes it lands, and sometimes it doesn't.

Though, the other day one was wearing red and was out by the tables for take-out with another one, and so I pointed to him and turned to the other one and was like, "Rojo, como un diablo" ('Red, like a devil').

And, they both laughed at that.

So, I guess that worked, as a joke.

But still, it's a little weird.

Feats of conservation: Old issues of my puzzle magazine.

My one (Chinese-American) coworker really likes to do sudoku and sometimes crosswords, and so a few weeks ago on lunch shift when it was slow and I pulled out an issue of my one puzzle magazine to try and go and finish a puzzle, I decided to show him a few types of puzzles in there that he might like.

And, he really liked them.

So, after I finished these special types of puzzles that I like to do in some back issues that I had been saving, I brought them in for him to hand off, and he was so happy, and he said that he had already sought out on the internet the one type of puzzle that I had introduced him to.

And, I told him that I usually just threw the back issues I was done with in a local 'little free lending library' out on the sidewalk by the public library in town and people would always take them there pretty quickly, so if he didn't want them or was done with them, he could always put them there.

Victory!

I'm really making sure that those puzzle magazines get maximum use.

Results of the sunflower seed experiment, redux:

The next day I go to water, and every place except one place where I planted, the seedlings were torn up and gone and half-eaten.

The squirrels got them, or maybe the rabbits.

Work suprise: Layered strawberry cream-cake.

The other week at the (Thai) restaurant where I work now, my one (middle-aged) (Thai) coworker who's a whiz at the phones was like, "Here, try some," and gave me a small teacup plate with a small piece of layered strawberry cream-cake on it, like this lovingly and carefully frosted cake, where there were small dense layers of pastry with cream in between them, and a carefully cut-up slice of strawberry directly on top.

"This is good," I was like, and I started to ask her how old she was when she started baking.

By herself, as a teenager, and with help, she can't even remember, she was so young.

She said her mom was always baking in her family, when she was growing up, and she would always help her.

Two customers with issues...

 ...the other day at the (Thai) restaurant during the lunch shift:

1) My (chubby) (Thai) coworker sets the free side salads down fast during a very busy rush of customers, and the bowl of one bangs on the glass table in front of this one (older) (South) Asian customer with (darker) skin and a (bald) head who was there with a (white) guy and who had ordered some curry.

"Don't be mad at me!", he was like, to my coworker.

"I am sorry, sir, it was an accident, I am busy," she was like, to him.

And, he picked up his hand, and raised it towards her and shook his finger at her, with a furrowed brow and a decently mad look on his face.

2) This one (plump) (middle-aged) (black) lady with strange mannerisms but who was otherwise pleasant goes to load her curry in the plastic takeout bin and dumps a lot of the leftover rice in it -- she ate most of the curry, but barely any of the rice -- and then asks if I can get a bit more curry sauce from the back for her.

(It was obvious she wanted more curry to even out the leftover rice, so she'd have another better-balanced meal later.)

"I don't think that's possible, ma'am," I was like, explaining in so many words that we don't have a pot of curry just sitting out in the back that we can just go and scoop some sauce out of, but it's made fresh for each order by combining a lot of ingredients and they have to cook it in a pan for a while, and they can't really do that for someone to have some extra sauce, because it takes a lot of time and at that point it's really a whole separate order.

"It's dry," she was like, at that point just making sh*t up to make it sound like she was unhappy, though she really just wanted extra for free.

So, I was like, "I think that's the case, but I can check for you," I was like.

And, she nodded at that, and so I did go and check, and what I thought was the case was indeed the case.

So, to try to mollify her when I got back, I started to explain to her that since she didn't want any onions etc. in her curry, the next time she could request extra sauce at the beginning of the order and there wouldn't be any surcharge for that since it's a "sub" and not an "add," but as I started to explain this and was like, "...since you didn't get any onions in your curry.." she leapt in over my words and was like, "I didn't get enough sauce?", and I had to be like, "No, ma'am, your dish had the standard portion of sauce," and then I had to double-back to what I was going to tell her.

It was totally like she was looking for any reason for us to take off some money or for her to get extra, though she wolfed everything down and wanted more for later.

Anyhow, when her (white) friend left the tip, it was like $5 on a $38 bill.

My new running joke at the (Thai) restaurant.

So, after the news of the (Thai) (female) serial killer who seems to have poisoned like a dozen people, I now have started cracking jokes about it with my one (chubby) (Thai) co-worker.

Like, "People who don't tip you should be careful, (Thai) women can get dangerous when they need money."

I also said that I should be careful when our one (older) (Thai) coworker who's a whiz at phones brings in baked goods and offers them to everyone. 

That first day when I started making the joke, too, I had clocked out and was heading out the front door to go home after the lunch shift, and my one (chubby) (Thai) coworker asked me to switch the fans off on my way out.

"And what will happen to me if I *don't* switch the fans off?", I was like.

"Poison," she was like, very slowly and very seriously.

A thought that I had the other day about (Indian) restaurant clients...

 ...after this young college-age couple came in, and left nothing on a bill that was over fifty dollars:

What do they think I am, the waiter caste?

 . . .

(After this table, my one [chubby] colleague then saw another [Indian] couple come in and was like, "Indians, again!", though after they left it turns out that the woman, who I recognized, left like a 16-17% tip.)