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 Will this be the subject of news stories discussing how woefully out-of-date a school's textbooks are?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 Are they going to have massive fire sales to clear their shops of outdated solar system models?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.

A good Hollandaise makes my toes curl

A good Hollandaise sauce does it for me. And I hadn't found one at a restaurant here in the Denver metro area until today.

We had brunch at The Delectable Egg in Westminster this morning. I finally got brave enough to try their Hollandaise sauce - I was starting to think that Denver had a different definition of Hollandaise than the rest of the world, cause everywhere I'd had it it was sour or clumpy or way too runny, so I've been avoiding ordering anything with Hollandaise sauce unless I really trusted the kitchen, and even then it was bad (shame on you, Racine's!). This Hollandaise was divine - every mouthful had me closing my eyes to savor it. I could have eaten two plates of Quiche Lorraine crepes, it was so good.

Is it bad when the only nice thing I can say about my bank is that, since I've had to go in so many times to fix things they've done to our accounts, find out why deposits haven't been credited, why accounts are locked, etc., they know me by name enough to cash a check for me when I can't find my wallet?

A sign your kid watches too much Food Network

"Welcome to Iron Chef America. Today we're going to make carrot soup and learn about the color black."

I actually got a call back from a Kaiser administrative assistant straight up at 8 am this morning...who unfortunately wasn't able to help me. She said she would have a rep call me back by mid-morning. It's mid-morning, no call back. So I can't run any of the errands I needed to run until they call back, I can't even go out to work on the yard since our cordless phone is on the fritz (one of the errands I needed to run today was to pick up a new one).

Why did I put this off until a few days before I needed to have this taken care of, you ask? Well, the goal was to get this done last week, but I had to go out of town for the funeral of my great-uncle. He was a wonderful man, and he is loved and missed by everyone who knew him. How many men do you know who would take on the full-time care of two great-grandchildren? He brought a smile to the face of everyone he met. He volunteered as transport for the sheriff's office, and took the opportunity to minister to the over 1,000 inmates and juveniles he transported for the county - but he never came across as preachy, at least not to me or anyone else in my family. He co-founded the mounted police for his county, and they were gracious to retire his MP number upon his death. Uncle Bob, you are missed.

Update: after a few more calls, I got a call back from a rep who was actually HELPFUL! And who answered my questions! Thanks, Stacy!

Kaiser Permanente customer service

We're switching our insurance from Pacificare to Kaiser Permanente since the insurance rate is about to go up to $1115 to insure the four of us. That's $1115 a month, not $1115 a year. Kaiser will still be taking a chunk, at $871, but it's not quite as painful a chunk. Our season tickets to the Colorado Rapids for all four of us, on the center line of the field on the fourth row, so close we can spit on Fernando Clavijo, don't cost as much as one month of health insurance.

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to how long it will take me to get someone on the phone at Kaiser to answer questions about coverage so we can plan our flex bux and find a pediatrician? It's been 20 minutes so far. This includes three transfers and a hangup.

This isn't much worse than the service at Pacificare, though - I've spent at least an hour on the phone with Pacificare over the past two days trying to figure out 1) why they just withdrew payment on an urgent care visit last January (they don't have it in their system that they withdrew payment, but the explanation of benefits they sent says they withdrew the payment), and 2) why they haven't paid two claims that have been submitted twice, rejected once, and ignored the second time - which they also say they don't have in their system, including the rejection.

Been on the phone for an hour now, been transferred to nine different people, been hung up on twice, been told I couldn't be heard twice. Left a message in one person's voice mailbox, got transferred to another voice mailbox that hasn't been set up to receive messages yet but said their office closes at 5 (it's 4:55). I've tried just waiting

I'm not much for government interference in much of anything, but right now I'm all for requiring automated phone systems to deliver a caller to an operator when the caller presses 0, at least during their regular business hours.

Hour and twenty minutes. Reached someone in appointments (person number eleven) who said to call appointments tomorrow and have someone transfer me to benefits, because the main customer service line is nothing but a loop. But benefits closed at 5:00 pm. Lovely.

CNN is so cute

Headline on CNN: Education law leaves children behind.

How cute.

Of course, nothing in the article reflects that the No Child Left Behind Act is what's failing the students. NCLB requires teachers to be certified proficient in what they teach. It holds states accountable to parents and the federal government for the quality of their school systems. And it expects schools to show that they are improving academically. How this law has left children behind is beyond me, but CNN thought they'd be smartasses and make it look like the feds should take the fall.

Several states didn't even make an effort to meet their NCLB requirements. I'm becoming more and more convinced that school districts are trying to fail the NCLB requirements on purpose because the act was put in place by a conservative president, and can be cited as a failure since schools aren't passing it. Never mind that it makes the school districts look like idiots - they can't even bother hiring teachers that know the subjects they're teaching, they don't utilize the federal money available for tutoring, and they whine about standardized testing instead of recognizing that the standardized testing covers the most basic of knowledge. Anyone remember the tests that were required in school during standardized testing days? Some of us took CAT tests, some of us took ITBS, but I think most everyone would agree that they were fairly easy. I remember thinking the tests I took in high school really only covered material that was taught in junior high, and I wasn't in some fancy-schmancy suburban school district. Where do these school districts get off thinking students don't need basic reading and math skills? Where do they get off thinking they're not expected to do their jobs? Where do they get off thinking that our tax dollars don't need to be spent educating our children?

I thought part of the protest today was to not spend any money, to bring our economy to a screeching halt.

If that's the case, then why were corn and pork rinds being sold at the protests at the Colorado State Capitol?

Showing me a picture of plumber's butt is not going to do anything to improve my opinion of illegal immigrants.

Update: Hey, they changed the picture. I guess someone told them to cover up the crack. Is it shadowy journalism to change part of your article (i.e. a picture) after it's been published?

Boo is furious with the Easter Bunny.

This morning, Boo and Rich went out to gather Easter eggs. I thought I had hidden eleven, but only ten came back. Boo wanted to keep looking for the last egg, but we told him that the Easter Bunny probably just needed a snack while he was hiding his Easter eggs. Boo pitched a fit, demanding that he wanted his egg back.

I'm so looking forward to Easter next year. We had a difficult time getting Boo to sit in the Easter Bunny's lap for pictures - he said he'd rather wait until Santa Claus came back. With any luck, next year Boo will kick the bunny in the rubber parts.

Am I sleep deprived?

Last night I woke up to find myself hitting the snooze button to get Mudbug to stop fussing.

Questions kids ask

When a child walks up to you and asks you out of the blue, "Where did your baby come from?", the correct answer is, "Where did your mother tell you babies come from?"

This correct answer hit me about thirty seconds after being asked.

More teenage blackmail material.

Since we've all been sick forever, we have a large number of ear thermometer probe covers lying around the house. They look like this:


Boo has observed me pumping breastmilk for Mudbug with my Medela pump, whose breast shield looks like this:



He walked up to me with two probe covers stuck to his chest and announced that he was going to pump milk for Mudbug too. Such an act of love has never been shown by a big brother for a baby sister, I think.

"An Evening with Kevin Smith" is on, and he's discussing Chasing Amywith a lesbian who thinks it was a bad idea for Banky to make his "serious deep dicking" comment, while Smith is arguing that Banky was the movie idiot, and everyone should have recognized where the comment came from.

I bought my mom's partner a copy of Chasing Amy a few years ago, not because she's a lesbian or because I think it's a movie about lesbians, but because she liked Clerksand Mallrats. My mom ended up watching it. She's now convinced that Kevin Smith is quite the homophobe, and specifically mentioned that line when she was yelling at me for bringing that trash into her house. All I could respond was, "It's not a lesbian movie, and anyway, I didn't buy it for you."

And why doesn't the View Askew Store sell hockey jerseys with the number 37 on them?

TurboTax is lovely.

I was making some last-minute changes to our return, when I noticed that health insurance carried on the self-employed is tax-deductible. I put in the deduction (I am self-employed, I just don't bring in nearly the income I did when I held a desk job, and am carried on my husband's health insurance but we have to pay out the nose for it), then decided I should ask my neighbor, a tax attorney, if it was a legitimate deduction. He said no (since it was paid for with pre-tax dollars), so I went to remove the deduction. Went to deductions, all I could find were pages that said a deduction had been applied but no way to remove it. I sent a support question to TurboTax.

Their answer was to delete my return and start over.

Yay TurboTax! F%$^ing morons. Is this the answer they're going to give to some poor soul at 11:00 PM April 15?