The House Smells Like Take-Out

I love cooking, I love having friends over, I love it!

I HATE IT when the smell of said meal permeates the bones of my home to the point where 24 hours later it still smells like last night dinner--in this case Sesame Chicken. It was quite tantalizing as the garlic was sizzling yesterday, along with the soy sauce and so forth....today, not so much. And since our house is small, it's wafted upstairs to the bedrooms. Now my baby smells like yesterday's take-out. Ugh!

And hosing her down won't really help, because the bathroom and all the towels in it also smell like take out. Nothing but time and some venilation will help this House of Garlic and Sesame get back to normal. The price I pay to entertain friends. ;-)

Finally...a Resolution AND- Where do YOU put your PJ's?

I've given up on the train analogy, and can't think of an appropriate song, BUT the Babe's coverage has be reinstated. There is much rejoicing throughout the land, and the 10 medical bills she incurred during those 60 days will soon be paid by our esteemed healtcare coverage. This should prevent any bill collectors from knocking on our door.

Ha! but that's not the resolution I'm referring to in the title. No, in watching the Biggest Loser, Fat-Ass Family Edition last night, I realize that it's time to stop using the Babe as an excuse and exercise my own fat ass. I'm not quite sure how (morning mall-walking has been trumped by morning nap that can start as early as 8:30), but something HAS to start happening. So today while watching our friends Matt and Katie on TV, I did sit ups. I figure it's a start. Oh, and the eating--that has to be faced too.

I think what got to me were the teenage girls on the segement--talking about how hard it is to go shopping with their friends who can go shopping at all the cute stores....and all they come home with are earring or a purse or socks. I could SO relate. And don't want that for the Babe. So things have to change now, so that when she's old enough she can make good choices, and have atleast a few "healthy" habits instilled. Here are a few random ones leftover from my childhood:

1. KFC is bad, bad, bad. So is Taco Bell. Seriously, I don't think my parents have EVER set foot in either place. I didn't until I was in High School. Frankly, I wasn't impressed. Granted, that didn't stop the late night runs to Taco Bell in college--but that was more about economics than anything else.

2. Adding sugar to beverages is bad, bad, bad. Creamer is OK, but no sugar in coffee, tea, iced tea. NO. Still don't do it, in general.

3. Always have fruit in a bowl/basket in the kitchen.

4. Eat Breakfast.

5. Seatbelts must be fastened when the car is turned on, and may not be taken off until the car is OFF. The car will be stopped if there is any clicking of seatbelts during the trip.

6. Brush your teeth!

7. This last one is actually probably a weirdo habit, as opposed to a healthy one, but I seriously never gave it a thought until I went to college and realized that most people do not put their PJ's under their pillow. Honest to God, to this day I don't know where they are supposed to go etiquitte wise, but we were trained to put them under our pillow. I generally still do.

Can't Get No...

Satisfaction. No Satisfaction.

I wonder if Mick Jagger was singing about managed care when he wrote that song. It's almost a month now--practically 2 weeks since I was assured that the mix up would be taken care of and our doctors paid. Ha!

A phone call today yeilded the information that no, no, it's not taken care of yet. But today we had a group call with the benifits center and the eligibility people, and within 24 hours it will be fixed. Can you feel the confidence in my typing?!?

I don't really understand why it is SUCH a problem, but apparently it's very difficult to make someone's coverage go retro-active. And because it's consuming my life, it's consuming this blog. And it probably doesn't make for very interesting reading. In which case, click on something more interesting.

Voice Activation Sucks
I've spent a lot of talking to the automated phone lady at our health insurance company. You'd think by now she's know my subscriber #, my DOB, etc. But each time she asks in that monotone voice, it pisses me off. And I answer her in my deep phone voice, because if I speak normally, it often doesn't register. I don't have a voice like Minnie Mouse, but I have to lower it a bit like I do when talking to my 92 year old grandma with hearing aids.

I read in the paper that those phone systems are the wave of the future-that some are able to read emotions, and some recognize explatives so that the angered customers can talk to a person right away. Never mind that the cussing, angered person probably just had a quick question and wanted it answered by a person.

I want to know why the pleasant, not-yet-pissed customer can't talk to a person right away. Makes me think that the Citibank Simplicity Card will take off like wildfire.

Five Weirdo Habits Exposed

The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits I have" and people who get tagged then write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says you have been tagged? (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

1. I'm a little obsessive about coupons and sales.

2. I read the mail over the recycle bin--NO junk mail actually crosses the threshold to our home.

3. I am a human calendar. Ask me a date, and I'll tell the day of the week within seconds, generally speaking. I also memorize birthdays of those nearest and dearest, and a few other people--like my entire preschool class back when I had a full-time job.

4. I clip my nails, not file. Can't stand emery boards. Really. Rather clip the whole nail down to a nub than file to save a nail.

5. If I'm driving anywhere that will take more than 15minutes, I generally eat an apple in the car on the way there.

Do I know five other bloggers to tag?? I can try: My Other Half, Heather, and um.....well, I'll see who else I can come up with and come back and edit later.

The caboose and the engine aren't communicating

So that crazy train known as L's company isn't moving in sync yet. The very nice people at our PCP's office called to tell us that a claim had been denied--was there still a problem?!?! Yes, nice people, there's a problem. It's not that our money is kinda funny, it's more complicated than that.

So I get on the phone, deal with the voice automated system that I hate, and finally talk to a human.....who transfers me to another automated system, but eventually I get a human.

He assures me the problem will be fixed--the "benifits center" just has to tell the "eligibility dept" that the Babe should be covered. When I said that L had been told this last week, the guy said, that, in all honesty, the info probably "got dropped".

Got Dropped?!?! WTF? How does that happen? Is there not a paper/electronic transfer trail? How is that acceptable?

So now he's going to make sure it happens. Can't you read my optimism in this post?

I did get his name and ext #, so I can track him down next week when I call to confirm.

More and more, I understand why medical costs are what they are. The more it costs to collect the fees, the higher the fees go. BLAH!!

*least anyone think me ungrateful, know, deep down, I'm grateful to have insurance to bitch about, but they don't mention "must play phone tag" anywhere in any of the HIPPA junk they are constantly sending!*

A little more about me......

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Disorder:	Low
Schizoid Disorder:	Low
Schizotypal Disorder:	Moderate
Antisocial Disorder:	Low
Borderline Disorder:	Low
Histrionic Disorder:	High
Narcissistic Disorder:	Moderate
Avoidant Disorder:	Low
Dependent Disorder:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	High
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! -- -- Personality Disorders --

So my hypochondriac self had to take this quiz....it's good to know that my only real predispotions are to linked to social acceptance, self confidence and self promotion---who doesn't have issues with that?!? Ha! Just getting a few "low" scores was enough to make me feel a little more balanced today.

the best 35 cents I've ever spent...

So yesterday I whined about the need for a drive up at the post-office...that lugging the 16lb babe into the post office for 32 cents worth of stamps just wasn't worth it.

This morning, my friend K called--she was stopping at the post office on the way over--did I need anything?!?! OMG!! An answer to unspoken prayers. So I'm giving her a whole quarter and a dime with she comes--she can keep the change :-D

COFFEE

Just wanted to share the addiction which I am cultivating here. Used to be, I'd drink coffee in the AM, and that'd be it. Maybe some decaf if we were out for dessert or something in the evening. In the afternoon if I needed something warm to drink, I was all about the tea. Not any more. Give me Java and give it to me NOW. Decaf? No need to jerk around with that. I don't know it came to this....but it's time to make pot #2 for the day.

Like Trying to Stop a Train

As with most things in my life, this doesn't fall under catostrophic--not yet anyway. But it's a huge annoyance, and could end up costing us $$ that we really can't spare, and shouldn't have to spend. But why should that surprise me?!?!

Motherhood, however, has apparently mellowed me out some. I didn't tell off the phone rep like I did the Travelocity guy this Spring. Atleast not this time around.

L works for a big telecommunications company. They are self-insured,and offer AWESOME insurance. Except for when you switch positions, a few balls get dropped and then suddenly you don't have coverage. Except that you do---but according to the computer you don't.

So during this two month hiatus from health coverage, the Babe has a few doctors visits and a chest x-ray. L has a few visits and tests. I reorder my mail order drugs. Our providers submit to the insurance, the insurance denies them. We call the doctors and tell them to resubmit, there's been a mistake, we call the insurance to tell them there's been a mistake, we think the problem's fixed.

Only partially. L's coverd. I get my drugs. The Babe however, is still not acknowledged. Three phone calls later, we think it's fixed. Then we get another bill today. It's not fixed. It's funny though--all of our providers are being very understanding. So far, they are just thanking us for letting them know. I'm sure they've heard this song before. That's why they have jobs--to deal with the headaches of payment. And we wonder why healthcare costs so much!! It's because not only are we paying the doctor--we are paying for the billing department as well.

Really, it's the principle of the thing that irks me. He was there, working. We were charged the premiums. We've alerted them to the problem. They've told us the problem was fixed. Then I called today and it wasn't.

So we continue to call, and hope that our providers continue to be understanding. Because if we pay this out of pocket and expect reimbursement....ha! Come on now, who are we kidding?!?!