Saturday is a special day

Saturday was a fun, full day. I woke up early and was picked up by some friends and we booked -it to Baltimore for a day of making cards. We were to make 20 cards in 7 hours. I thought it would be a piece of cake. You didn't have to come up with any ideas. The ideas were already thought out. You didn't have to do any cutting. The cutting was all done for you. You didn't have to assemble any equipment. The equipment was all set up for you. By lunch time (which was at 1:00 for us noon just wizzed by!) I knew we were going to have to seriously hurry to be done by 4:00. Putting-our-shoulders-to-the wheel we were finished just in time. We had a fun day of friends, food and laughter.

Here are the pics I took (couldn't take many, because I couldn't waste the time!) Roz, Farran, Bobby and Myself

Lincoln had been out-of-town all week and so I kinda felt bad for leaving home (just a little bit)! He and McKay had a good time going out to lunch and getting McKay ready for his talk today in church. After I got home, Lincoln and I and another fabulous couple went out for dinner and the games and ice cream. A great day!

The fire is still burning

One of the points discussed yesterday in "the summit" was whether or not to put a cap on malpractice lawsuits. I can see both points of view on this subject. The R's want to put a cap of $250,000 that a person can win from a Doctor that makes a mistake while "practicing" (what a term!) medicine. They claim that the savings would be 50 billion dollars in the insurance industry.

Obama said 50 billion was a drop in the bucket when you are talking about a Trillion (yes, with a capital T) dollar budget. Not worth bothering with, in his opinion.

The D's say that if you put a cap on malpractice suits, it will give the Docs free reign to make all the mistakes they want and that the American people will suffer for it . . . . . I can see how this may be the case. What's 250 K?

Here is my story: When I had my first child, Justin, I knew that he was the one of the last deliveries that my doctor was going to attend. Why? His entire clinic decided that the malpractice insurance was so high, that they were dropping it and getting out of the "baby" business.

When I had my second child, I lived in my home town. Very small town. Very small hospital. Very few Docs. Most of the Docs didn't carry obstetric malpractice insurance. In fact, when I got pregnant I thought I was going to have to travel 1 1/2 to 3 hours to get my prenatal care, every month for 9 months, and then since I deliver so quickly, possibly having to move to the city for the birth. Many women did just that.

What was the reason that the Docs wouldn't deliver babies? The malpractice costs were so high, they weren't willing to pay them. Lucky for me, the hospital decided to kick in and help one of the Doctor's pay their insurance. If the Doctor can't deliver, no one goes to their hospital, and they lose their much needed revenue from that area of practice. Even so, my daughter was the only baby born in that hospital for the entire month of June. She got great nursery care! One-on-one care!

Malpractice suits have many unnoticed consequences. They make the doctors pay higher rates for their malpractice insurance and then the docs raise their prices to help pay for it and then charge the insurance company more for their services and the whole process keeps going round and round like a dog chasing its own tail. (We didn't have insurance, however, paid for the birth out of pocket) I bet they'd save more than the $50 billion they talked about!

Our small town of 3000 or less doesn't have much of a voice, but I bet it isn't the only community that suffers from the same unfortunate circumstance.

Political Heaven

Today there was a six hour healthcare "summit" on TV. I loved every minute of it! Well, every minute that I watched. I had to work on a project while listening to make it all worth while!

When Obama first got elected, he made statements about bi-partisanship that made me think: "poor guy, he hasn't got a clue." For some reason, I spend a lot of time feeling sorry for him. I felt sorry for him during the State of the Union address where he actually got laughed at. Usually Democrat presidents make me want to puke. He just makes me feel sorry (and a lot scared). What bothers me most is that I think he thinks we normal citizens are stupid and don't care about the process in Washington. He pretty much said that today in one of his comments. (not the stupid, but that we don't care part) I think he is "getting a clue" now.

What does he think he is going to accomplish getting the two parties together? I admire him for it, but can't help but think there was some underlying other reason for doing it. The parties are so far apart that nothing is going to pull them together. The things that the Democrats want aren't even in the same universe as what Republicans want and vice-a-versa. Huh uh, ain't going to happen.


It kinda reminds me of a parent who thinks he's going to change a teenager's mind about something if they just reason with them. I can assure you the teenager isn't going to get a "light-bulb" or an "aha!" moment after the lecture. They are just going to feel lectured to. You might as well be talking to your living room chair. (the chair can't roll its eyes or talk back!)


No one is going to change their mind. Democrats love what the democrats say . . . . . Republicans love what the Republicans say, and tomorrow, nothing has changed at all. Oh, but how fun the process is! LOVE IT!

A good read

I'm always looking for a good read. I have lots of moods and usually have several books going at once to include, but not limited to: A PMA book (positive mental attitude), something non-fiction and educational (politics or something to do with piano teaching), something churchy (usually the scriptures, I'm not a real "church book" reader) and fiction. The fiction can be of any sort. Historical fiction is my favorite. I do like a dose of mystery now and again, or something from the classics, or maybe even a western, I've even dipped into the christian genre. Usually fantasy is at the bottom of the heap and only rises on occasion, when our book club is reading it.

Currently our book club IS reading fantasy. I read the first ten pages of the book and thought, YIKES! Dark and Yucky . . . . . I put it down and read this: You know the saying . . . . . you can't judge a book by it's cover. Well that is exactly why I chose this book. It has such a cute cover. I finished the book a few hours ago and the characters are still with me. When characters stay with you and you want more of them, you know you have a hit. It is a mystery. It's kinda light on mystery and more into character development. It is an easy read, it's funny, and gives you a peek into British royalty. I've always been a fan of royalty! Princess Di's picture could sell me a magazine! A word of warning though. . . . . it is filled with innuendo. And you know the innuendo that I mean, but it never gets nasty (sorry Dad, I know you are reading this!)

I looked up some of the other books this author has written and got quite a laugh at the cleverness of the titles. She has written quite a few books and has gotten quite a few awards. I will definitely be reading something by her again. (and will hope the books stay relatively clean)

Here are some of the titles that made me laugh from a series she calls Evan Evans: Evan Only Knows, Evan's Above, Evan Help Us, Evan and Elle, Evan Blessed, Evanly Bodies, Evanly Choirs, Evan Can Wait, Evan's Gate and Evans to Betsy. She probably stopped writing the "Evan" series when she couldn't think up any more clever titles!

Now . . . . . . . . back to the book club book and fantasy, because I should not judge a book by its first 10 pages . . . . . . I'll give it 50!

You've Got Mail!

Yes! Mail in the mail box! It was as I had suspected though . . . . . it was quite a large pile of mail. And hurrah for Netflix!

The End (whew!)

The saga continues

(If you are tired of this story, please skip it) :)

Yesterday at about 6:20 p.m. our mail truck came by. I wasn't in a position to run out and speak to the mailman, but as soon as I could I went out to inspect the box.

EMPTY!

Can you believe it? So I called the main post office again to see if they had held my mail, and they came back on and said, "Well, ma'am, you have a hold on your mail and so, yes it is here waiting for you." The voice on the phone sounded like they would like to have added DUH! onto the end of the statement. "You were supposed to call me and let me know" I wanted to say back to them with a DUH! inflected in my voice also.

I went to the post office, and what was waiting for me? ONE day's mail!

Oh for the love!!!

I took a deep breath! and started counting backwards, 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - etc. etc. "Where is the rest of it?" I asked. "With the carrier," she said.

OH for the love!!!! (with one extra exclamation point, please note)

"Didn't I take that hold off, last FRIDAY? " This postal worker, who was new to me, and who also informed me that she was the post master, could tell I was extremely frustrated. "What's wrong?" she asked . . . . . "I can't even begin to explain" I told her . . . "Well how can I help you if you can't explain?" and I in very firm and very clear language told her I couldn't and wouldn't explain, because I couldn't and didn't want to lose my temper today, again! "Just PLEASE deliver my mail tomorrow!"

Then, as if someone had lit a fire to my tail, I went in search of "the carrier." To make this long story shorter, I finally DID get my mail, (commando style). I am extremely suspicious that it isn't all of it, because there were no bright red Netflix movie envelopes included in it, but I DID get our rent money from our tenant and that is awesome! Now hopefully tonight our mail service will be back to normal. Cross your fingers for me . . . . . . :)

Mail update

Yes, Yes . . . . . I know you all care SOOOOO much about our mail situation that I must devote another blog post to it. On Friday night I visited the post office (for the third time) with the hopes of retrieving our mail. I began to get a little suspicious that something was up after the postal worker had been gone quite a while trying to find it for me. I guess after she realized that there wasn't any mail for me, she must have decided that I was a loony and a hot head and went and got the supervisor to talk to me so she wouldn't have to deal with me!!!!

After explaining that we had spent hours clearing the snow from our boxes, I took the hold off of our mail and was told that they would pull it from the delivery route so I could come and pick it up early the next morning. They asked me to call them at 7:30 a.m. to make sure it happened. I called at the appointed time and was informed that as soon as they had pulled my mail, I would get a call from them so I could come and pick it up. To summarize what happened: nothing happened. No call . . . . no mail.

Late last night I checked all of my neighbor's boxes (feeling like a Federal criminal as I did so) and what did I see? Mail in everyone's boxes but mine! May I say, I am just a weeeee bit frustrated? Where oh, where oh, where oh, is my mail???

Side note: As I was shoveling snow, my neighbor drove by, rolled her window down, and with a face that said "you're an idiot" said "you'll be done by June" rolled up her window and drove off! She is now enjoying the fruits of our labor (Lincoln and McKay finished up the shoveling after Linc got home from work), while I, on the other hand, . . . . . . am not!!

Mail woes . . . .

I've really enjoyed this snowy season and that is really saying something! I HATE snow! I do love the chance to be a hermit though . . . . and it has been fun hibernating for a while. BUT . . . . we haven't received mail for approximately 2 weeks. Our mailboxes were rendered unusable by a snow plow that decided to deposit a bunch of snow in front of them. Out of the 6 neighbors that share our mailbox post, NONE of them has taken the initiative to dig them out! I don't blame them! I even offered to pay McKay to dig them out and he looked at the pile of snow and said "no way!"

I decided to take things into hand and go to the post office to see if I could retrieve our mail. ARGHHHH! Frustration. . . . .I was very kind the first day. No problem, they said, just fill out a "hold" on your mail and we'll hold it for you and you can pick it up tomorrow.

Tomorrow came (and went) and much to my consternation, dismay and chagrin is the bit of information that they DIDN'T tell me. Which is: all the mail BEFORE I put the "hold" on it would continue to be taken out on the route with the mailman everyday!!!!! THAT is the mail I want, for heavens sake! She said I could retrieve that mail AFTER the postman came in for the day after he was done delivering (or not delivering!). . . .

We never get our mail until about 6 in the evening . . . the post office closes at 7, so when am I suppossed to get it???? Apparently when H-E double tooth pick freezes over (or in my case, when it melts!)

So today . . . . you'll find me either A. digging out the mailboxes or B. chasing down the postman when he comes into the neighborhood . . . . . .

I wouldn't care so much, except I KNOW the rent for our SL house is in that pile of undelivered mail, the other stuff I'm glad not to get! Wish me luck . . . . . will it be a mail day?

I just called . . . . to say . . . .

I love getting phone calls from my children. Yesterday, my oldest son, Justin called me with a tidbit of exciting news for him. He works for Deer Valley Ski resort which is owned by the olympic gold medal winner Stein Eriksen. The caller ID said Stein Eriksen on it! Cool! Anyway, it wasn't Stein on the phone, it was Justin.

Justin works at a ski lodge somewhere along the mountain that gives him a lot of free time waiting for customers to come in. He decided to take his guitar to work with him to pass the time easier. He had been playing for an hour or so, when someone from management came downstairs to see who was playing the guitar. I guess he was so impressed with Justin that now Justin has a playing gig at the lunch hour a couple times a week at one of the other sites on the Deer Valley property.

Justin was WAY excited, which kind of surprises me. As many of you know, he played guitar and percussion for the DC Army band and recently finished up his 6-year duty. He would NEVER play when asked to play as a civilian. I always teased him that it was a good thing he had a commanding officer to "command" him to play or he never would for other people! Maybe there is a little extra money to be had? I don't know, but I'm excited for him! Way to go Justin!

I looked out the window . . . .

and what did I see? Robin Red Breasts eating Holly Berries!! I was heading upstairs to do something and I noticed a bunch of activity out on the front Holly tree. This tree has been loaded with red berries and it is so pretty. I guess the birds are having a hard time finding things to eat because about 20 of them were picking our tree clean. Pretty neat. Here is a video I took of it:

I''m seeing blue . . . .

While I was making cookies today, McKay kept saying . . . . make them blue! and I told him I was making them pink! (kinda like the Sleeping Beauty fairies!) and when I reached for the food coloring, the gods were on McKay's side, because the red was all dried up. So here you have it . . . . cookies on testosterone! Mmmmmm Good . . . . Love Valentine's cookies (blue or not!).

History in the making . . . . . .

For the first time in my life (in my remembrance) I actually sat down and watched the Super Bowl! Our tradition for the Super Bowl in the past few years has been to go to my sister's house and the guys watch the game while the girls do anything BUT watch the game. It is always a fun time when I get to spend time with my mom and sister and nieces. WELL, this year we were snowed in and had to change our plans (though plans were never made this year for some reason!) To show you how much I "love" the Super Bowl, when Isabelle, (our neighbor) asked me who I wanted to win . . . . . I had to ask, Who's playing?!!!! ROFL!

As a result of being snowed in (I'm sure) we actually got invited to our next-door-neighbor's house with their 50-some-odd-inch-high-definition TV, to watch the game. I've been in their house, but that had been when the people before them lived there! I didn't even recognize the place! They have transformed it into a thing of beauty! and miracle of miracles, I could almost have a semi-intellegent conversation with someone about what happened in the game, WELL MAYBE . . . . . I don't think we will get invited back, because I kept carrying on conversations during the game and the ohhhhh so funny commercials :)

On another note - - Andrews AFB is closed today! CLOSED! There is so much snow that they haven't been able to clear the parking lots . . . . no parking lots . . . . no cars . . . . no work . . . . . . Lincoln has no excuse but to stay home and cut up the tree that fell down during the storm! (poor guy!) (If we were still in SL, Lincoln would probably be in on the snow removing!!)

Snow Totals

As we were out shoveling the last 6 inches that fell, one of our neighbors said they had heard that we had recieved up to 29 inches of snow. After taking this picture I think I may believe it. This snow comes up to the top of our deck railing. Pretty impressive. It is still snowing!

sNoW SnOw sNoW!!!!

We are in the middle of a major snow storm. This is our 3rd time to go out and shovel the snow and we should see possibly 5 or six more inches before it is over. I'm thinking there is 18 inches right now. It came up to my knees when I stepped out in it to go and do the most important job of all . . . . . clearing off the satellite dish!!!!

The hardest thing about shoveling is throwing the snow up on to the huge piles that are accumulating.



And miracle of miracles, our road in front of our house actually got plowed this snow storm. We had several snows with no plowing. I couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw it! They just came by again (amazing!) and since we were out shoveling they did a better job and didn't leave tons of snow in front of our driveway! Woo hoo!

Grandma Grape

Today my mom left to go and see her mother. This is a big deal. Mom doesn't just take off in a jet airplane everyday. Her mom, my grandma, is probably spending her last days on earth at this moment. Who knows? Grandma is a tough old bird, maybe she'll pull through this time. Maybe not . . . that is always the question. She has pulled through some pretty amazing things before, but this time it seems imminent. There are no worries though. She's lived a great life. She is the last of 7 siblings to go. The end of that generation in our family. Though she hasn't gone yet, she wants to. Her husband is waiting for her and I know she is anxious to see him again!

The one thing that stands out in my mind about my grandmother is that she is a very giving person. The title of this post is "Grandma Grape." Her name is actually "Grandma Blake" BUT, she has some very fruitful concord grape plants in her back yard, and during grape season, you can't go away from grandma's house without grapes, or grape juice, or grape jelly, or grape something. Some of the kids thought her name WAS Grandma Grape!!! She was always baking. When I was first dating Lincoln, his brother-in-law was a mailman. He kept talking about this "little old lady" that would give him cookies and pies and breads, in the mailbox for him as he delivered the mail. Well one day I was standing in her yard and what do you think happened? Yes, Jeff, the mailman came and delivered my grandma's mail. She was the "little old lady" he had been talking about! We got a laugh out of that! What a small world!

Note: The picture was taken in 1996. Four generations. My Mom, Me, Grandma and Halley.

Slow as . . . . .

molasses is the best word to describe our computer speed lately. It has been that way for longer than I would like to remember. So yesterday . . . another snow day . . . . and no church . . . . and with nothing better to do, I decided that I would backup our files on the computer, reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows. When you start thinking you need a new computer, and are ready to set everything aside that you had on the old one anyway, I say what the heck? Today, this old computer is running like lightening! Makes me wonder why I didn't do it before? NICE! I have a new computer program that I was pulling out my hair wondering why it wouldn't work, and guess what? It works beautifully now! YEAH!

On another note . . . . since I had time yesterday, we had scones for dinner! I don't remember the last time I made them. Probably before I started teaching piano so much. Dinner has become an affair that has to be pre-made and stuck into the oven a couple of hours before it is needed. Scones take time, and are best hot from the fry pan. McKay didn't quite know what to do with them. Butter and Honey are my first choice. His choice? sweet chili sauce! YUCK! For him sweet chili sauce is the new ketchup. He uses it on everything. What a kid!