Another priceless headline

The question is, a hit of what?

Yep, this is why we want undocumented aliens coming across our borders unchecked.

Chicken with Chicken Gravy

Mudbug tried Gerber Chicken with Chicken Gravy out this morning. The cats liked it much better than she did.

Band on the Run

Boo's interpretation of the Wings classic, Band on the Run.

He calls this the 'owie dance'.

This is a recipe for some really awesome chicken. We made it last weekend, even though there were no lemons in the store so we had to use bottled lemon juice, and it was still really tasty, tender and flavorful. I've got the real thing with real lemons (although I still didn't get around to brining the chicken) cooking in my oven right now, and my stomach is rumbling and my mouth is watering from the smells coming from my kitchen.

Plus the recipes on this guy's site make me laugh. I just wish he'd get around to posting his Hollandaise recipe, or at least make an email available so I could ask him if really good Hollandaise tastes like the stuff I had at the Delectable Egg or more like the crappy yolkey-tasting stuff that I've had the misfortune to have at a couple of restaurants and created in my own kitchen. He promised he'd post his Hollandaise recipe someday in his Eggs Benedict recipe, and I want it now, dammit!

Hyperreactive bronchial airways

I was surprised to find that this Google search only has one hit. Am I the only person in the world who develops a persistent cough after any kind of respiratory illness?

God hates Westboro Baptist Church

As much as I dislike most of the causes the ACLU takes up, I understand their purpose - someone has to take the extreme position. I think they've gone too far this time, though. The ACLU is filing lawsuits on behalf of Westboro Baptist Church in three states to challenge laws designed to keep protesters like the ones affiliated with Westboro away from funerals, and is conducting an inquiry in Illinois as to whether the law to keep hate away from funerals is being properly upheld. Apparently the ACLU doesn't consider phrases like "God hates fags", "God hates your tears", "God hates America", and "Thank God for dead soldiers" fighting words.

Half of the Phelps family are ministers (if they can be called that) in Westboro Baptist Church, the other half are lawyers - does the ACLU really think they can't take care of themselves?

The Phelps family also recently threatened to picket the funerals of the Amish girls murdered in Lancaster, PA, claiming the Amish brought it upon themselves by practicing a false religion, unless someone agreed to give them air time to spew their hatred. In effect, they were holding those little girls hostage again. They picketed the Sago Mine funerals, and Coretta Scott King's funeral. Apparently no one but members of this cult are exempt from hate.

I remember years and years ago when the Phelpses would come down to Oklahoma City to protest at the funerals of people who had died of AIDS-related illnesses. Back then, a lot of people thought it was funny. Is it so funny now?

On a side note, if any of you are thinking about voting Democrat to keep people like Phelps down, please consider that Fred Phelps was a delegate at the '88 Democratic convention, for Al Gore, and has been very active in fundraising for Gore. Plus Gore invited Phelps to both of Clinton's inaugurations. The Republican Party may not be fighting for gay rights, but they're not pretending to be on your side while stabbing you in the back (yes, Clinton, that's directed at you and Don't Ask Don't Tell too).

(h/t: Discarded Lies)

Udi's and Saxby's

I'm usually wary of sandwiches in plastic boxes, especially sandwiches with mayonnaise - to me they're reminiscent of that nasty egg salad sandwich that's the only sandwich left in the vending machine, that you don't dare eat because it's been there for six months. Plus I'm just not that crazy about mayo. But I skedaddled to a coffee shop* to get some work done today, and I was tired of bagels, so I tried an Udi's Curry Chicken Wrap. This sandwich is *really* good.

Interestingly enough, the Saxby's I frequent isn't listed in the store locations on their website, even though I am certain the storefront picture on the website is this location. It's a shame, because this is a pretty excellent coffee shop for a chain. The coffee's good, they use Monin syrup (which is the only way to go if you like sugar-free syrups), the staff goes the extra mile, and they keep your freebies on their computer so you don't have to carry around yet another coffee card.

UPDATE: My Saxby's quit carrying Udi's. They got me hooked on the Curry Chicken Wrap, and then they yanked it away from me. Waah!

If it were me, I'd be asking the ad designer for my money back.

Happy (late) birthday to me!

I think I had one of my best birthdays ever yesterday, even though it wasn't a terribly remarkable day.

We started off by dropping Hubby off at work since we had evening plans. I was planning on taking the kids to breakfast at either the Delectable Egg or Racine's, but I had an abrupt change of plans. Since it was too early to go to lunch, we went to Colorado Mills mall, where we found this little gem in black for Boo. Of course, the best part about it for Boo is that it has a nice, long, soft tag. He has a thing for tags, running them through his fingers constantly, even in his sleep, even to the point of asking me to hold clothes in the dressing room at the mall so he can play with their tags. We also found a pair of light-up shoes since he's just about outgrown his last pair of sneakers.

Then, off to lunch! We had taken Boo to Casa Bonita for birthdays one, two and three, but we were too tired after three hours of bowling to make it there for birthday four. Hubby has never understood my fascination with this place, but we went there for birthdays almost every year when I was growing up, and so even though the food is not great, it still tastes exactly the same as it did thirty years ago, and it tastes like a special occasion to me. The Casa Bonita that was in Oklahoma City has nothing on the Denver Casa Bonita - the Denver Casa Bonita is over 50,000 square feet, complete with a waterfall, cliff divers, a (fake) gorilla, and a mariachi band. It was slower than I've ever seen it yesterday - normally we end up standing in line at least 45 minutes to get our food and be seated, but apparently once school is in session, their crowd drops noticeably.

Boo thought Casa Bonita was the coolest place ever, looking around with his eyes open wide and his mouth agape. He loved the cliff divers, and was thrilled when one came over to talk to him. All he talked about afterwards was that mommy got to see divers and a gorilla and a man with a net (to catch the gorilla) on her birthday. Mudbug had no comment.

After Casa Bonita was Little Gym, where Boo is taking a sports skills class on Wednesdays. They're currently learning soccer, and Boo got to be the goalie!

Then it was off to the Rapids game, where the Rapids handily dispatched the Chicago Fire, 1-0. For once, Joe Cannon just didn't have that much work to do - the ball rarely even approached the goal. Mudbug amused everyone by trying to grab for my Italian Sausage dog, and Boo was his usual charming self.

After the game and putting the kids to bed, I got the coolest birthday present money could buy - a pair of fuzzy zebra skin Chuck Taylors. I mentioned several months ago that I had my eye on these, but had refrained from buying them since I knew Hubby was making notes for birthday presents. Hubby had to hunt all over for them, because they were made in an extremely limited supply and everyone was sold out of my size by the time he got around to shopping for them. He found a shop in
Canada that specializes in out-of-manufacture Chucks, and fortunately, they had a pair in my size.

I also got the best present money can't buy - a day with near perfect behavior from the kids.

Joe the Spider

My husband is terrified of spiders. It's probably his biggest fear, right up there with flying and water and illness. When I worked in an office, I had a coworker who would bring me spiders, and I'd keep them at the office in a terrarium because there was no way I was going to torment my husband with arachnids.

A few weeks ago, I found a pretty good-sized spider in our house. Wasn't sure what it was, so I scooped it up in a jar and took it out to our flowerbed. In the process, I accidentally lopped off one of his legs.

Last night, when Hubby came home, Boo greeted him at the door with, "Daddy! Watch out for that spider by your head!" Sure enough, there was a pretty good-sized spider on the curtain, mere inches from my husband's noggin. He jumped away, I went to get a jar. I scooped up the spider and asked Boo if he wanted to accompany me to take it outside. He said, "Mommy, we can't take him outside! He's my friend, and his name is Joe!"

So off I went to the pet shop for a terrarium and some crickets. When I had spiders at work, I'd order lunch delivered from the BlackJack Pizza next door to the pet store and have them add a couple dozen small crickets to the order, so I rarely had to go out to pick up crickets. That pizzeria doesn't deliver to my area, and the pet shop closed down anyway. Looks like I'm going to be making a weekly trip.

I really want to post something profound and wise today, but I just can't find any words.

I listened to the CNN rebroadcast of their 9/11 coverage today. The only bright spot in it was Tom Clancy chastising a reporter for the mainstream media's lack of support for the government and the intelligence community.

I find it interesting that Slashdot, which was one of the few websites that had any news that also had the bandwidth to handle anything five years ago today, was strangely silent today regarding the September 11 attacks. Apparently the attacks are no longer "stuff that matters", at least in the eyes of the Slashdot editors.

I pray that my children will never have to see something like the September 11 attacks, that someday the need for a war on terror will be as remote to them as Pearl Harbor is to us Gen-Xers.

2,996

There's a wonderful tribute to the victims of the September 11th attacks happening at The 2,996 project. Unfortunately, I don't have much spare time over the next week to research a victim - but I'd like to at least help get the word out about the project so that some of the more prolific bloggers can join in.

A bucket.

This article wins the prize for best picture caption. And I am mighty glad they made the decision to use the picture they did instead of the picture they could have used.

Pluto not a planet anymore?!

I'm tempted yet again to put WTF?! in the title of my blog entry.

What kind of name is USB313? Why in the world would you call something that kids are going to have to learn in first and second grade a name with a subscript? Given the enormous stress that teachers are already under, why would you force them to also teach kids typesetting and fonts at such an early age?

The new definition of 'planet' says that, in order to be a planet, the thing must have cleared its orbit of other objects. Since Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit, and Neptune hasn't cleared Pluto from Neptune's orbit, does that mean that Neptune isn't a planet either?

This also means that we're never going to have a super-cool planetary collision when Neptune and Pluto's orbits finally bring them into contact with each other. Planetary/dwarf planetary collision just doesn't sound super-cool.

And who's going to pay for all the poor school systems to update their planetary charts? Is the new standard of how current your science textbooks are going to be how many planets are listed? Will this be the subject of news stories discussing how woefully out-of-date a school's textbooks are? And what about all those stores selling orreries? Are they going to have massive fire sales to clear their shops of outdated solar system models? Did the IAU even THINK about the shopkeepers? This is an outrage, I'm telling you!

Kaiser lies, lies, lies

Here's a list of what the Denver, Colorado Kaiser Permanente's customer service department has lied to me about, so far. Keep in mind, we have been members of Kaiser for less than a month.

1. In my phone call with Stacy, I was told that the two medications I take, Synthroid and Lactocal-F, were on Kaiser's formulary. They're not. The generic for Synthroid, levothyroxine, is in their formulary, but the brand name is not. Since my previous forays into taking levothyroxine in an effort to save a few bucks backfired badly (my TSH went from 0.01 to 7 in the space of a month and a half), taking the generic is out of the question.
2. In my phone call with Stacy, I was told that our $15/$40 drug benefit meant that there was a $15 copay for drugs, or $40 for a three months supply. It turns out Kaiser did away with their three month plan last January, and the $15/$40 drug benefit is $15 for generic, and $40 for name brand. When we planned our flex dollars, we budgeted both my medications (which aren't going to be covered at all, let alone at the $15 rate) and any prescriptions for Boo's ear infections at the $15 rate instead of the $40 rate. This is probably going to cost us a couple of hundred dollars.
3. In my phone call with Stacy, I was told that Kaiser had 24-hour urgent care at the Exempla Good Samaritan hospital. I think having 24-hour urgent care is pretty imperative when you have two small kids, especially when one has a tendency toward ruptured eardrums. There's no 24-hour urgent care at Good Samaritan - their after-hours care is only from 6:00 to 10:00 pm, and they triage quite a few of their problems to the ER. How did I learn this? See point #6.
4. In my phone call with Stacy, I was told there was no charge for meet-and-greet appointments to find a physician. This is the case with pediatricians, but not with family practice doctors. With family practice doctors, you pay the copay - even if the doctor is more interested in her computer than she is in your symptoms, and feigns knowledge of your medical conditions even though it's obvious that she doesn't, for instance, know what a normal TSH level is, or how to help a mother keep breastfeeding when her milk supply is drying up (Dr. Sarah Goldberg).
5. When I called to set up meet-and-greet appointments for the family, Rich and I decided to find him an internal medicine specialist because of the undiagnosed pain he's had for years. I was told by the customer service rep I spoke with that it would not be a problem for me to set up a visit with an IM in my name, and interview the doctor for my husband if he wasn't able to make it, since he works downtown and the clinic is by our house - a drive of up to an hour from his work in normal traffic. I showed up for the visit, and was first told that Rich needed to sign a HIPAA form before I could see the doctor (Dr. Gauri Aggarwal) for him. After the customer service rep faxed the form to the wrong number, and we finally got it signed and faxed back, the doctor refused to see me.
6. I called yesterday at 12:32 to set up an appointment for some female pain and fever. Kaiser has a department specifically for female advice, appointments, and concerns. I was told that everyone was out to lunch but that I would be called back when they returned. At 3:30, I still had not received a call back, so I called and was told that there was a four hour window that they considered an acceptable time period for a callback. At 4:35, I received a call back and was told that I couldn't be seen that day, but that my symptoms warranted a visit to Urgent Care. I was told that if I had gone to the Westminster clinic during the day, they have an Urgent Care facility there, but that it closed at 6:00 pm. I asked where the nearest Urgent Care facility that had evening hours was, and was told that it was at Arapahoe and Holly - an hour's drive in the middle of the night, and more like an hour and a half during the hours the facility is open (6 to 10 pm), or I could go to the Rock Creek Good Samaritan hospital, at 200 Exempla Circle (this is directly from my notes), and their ER also triages to after hours care. A person representing herself as a nurse supervisor called back about 15 minutes later and offered to make me an appointment for the next day, but considering how much worse I felt from 12:00 to 4:00 I decided to go on in to urgent care and fork over the extra $25 for an urgent care visit, and the 'nursing supervisor' agreed that I needed to be seen ASAP. I went to Good Samaritan's ER, told the front desk I was there for an urgent care visit, and also told the triage nurse that I was there for an urgent care visit. I didn't find out that I had been triaged as an ER patient until after they were done with the pelvic exam, which means I was stuck with a $200 ER copay instead of a $50 urgent care copay. Apparently Good Samaritan NEVER triages anything requiring a pelvic exam as an urgent care case. After calling Kaiser back today to find out why I was sent to a facility that doesn't treat female issues as urgent care, I found out that the person who I spoke with on the phone at 4:30 wasn't even a nurse, she denies giving me directions to Good Samaritan or to the facility on Arapahoe Road, and she claims that the person I spoke to at 4:45 is not a nursing supervisor. A customer service rep also informed me that there is no daytime urgent care at the Westminster Kaiser clinic. I can't seem to get a supervisor on the phone, and so far I'm not getting calls back. I'd really like someone at Kaiser to listen to any phone recordings of my calls yesterday, but the not-a-nurse who directed me to Good Samaritan claims that, despite their message that all calls are recorded for quality control purposes, there are no recordings to review.
   

There have been a few bright points in our road trip to Hell with Kaiser - Dr. Susan Merrill seems definitely interested in clearing up Rhys's ear infections and getting him speech therapy if it is deemed necessary. Dr. Michelle Glasgow seems to have a good understanding of hypothyroidism - she even told me something about bone loss and hypothyroid treatment that I was unaware of, she is willing to maintain my TSH at a level where I feel good, and she seems very supportive of our decision to breastfeed WeePeep (Mudbug's current moniker) through next winter to minimize the likelihood of ear infections. I'm not sure a couple of good doctors, surrounded by a morass of incompetency and bad information, is going to be enough to make Kaiser Permanente an insurance plan worth keeping.

News blackout?

Israel just, for lack of a better word, invaded Gaza, and the TV stations CNN, Fox News, and Headline News are saying NOTHING. WTF?!

New CD, please

For once in my life, I want AOL or Earthlink to send me a sign-up CD. I need a new coaster for my desk.

I've had it with these motherf#@&ing snakes on this motherf*$^ing plane!

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to Samuel Jackson's new flick,Snakes on a Plane. Even my husband's looking forward to it, and he hates flying. The only way the movie could be more of a nightmare for him would be if it was Spiders on a Plane...over the Ocean. Maybe that will be the premise of SoaP II.

Time had a great interview with Samuel Jackson a couple of months ago, that I've been meaning to blog about but haven't had the time. I'll just say, I'm glad they left the title the way it was, and I admire Samuel Jackson for standing up for his artistic beliefs.

Oh, and if anyone feels gifty, I wouldn't mind having this.

Now...why did I choose now to mention SoaP? Because this poor pilot had it happen - for real. All I can say is, if he "sure like(s) to know where they are", he should have kept Mr. Wiggly instead of setting him free.

(h/t Ace of Spades)

Another reason why it's bad to give your toddler alcohol (as if toxifying your kid wasn't enough): your kid might like it a little too much.