Questionable

FAIL!

We just got a brand new Rainbow near our house. I'm pretty excited about this grocery store because we actually don't have many decent options that are nearby. The newish Cub is dirty and gross. The Byerlys is expensive. And, the SuperTarget gives me heart palpitations. It is always so crowded and the selection is horrible. After our first visit to Rainbow last week, I'll continue to visit. The selections are generally good, the place is clean, and the prices are right. But I'll also keep my expectations low, since this is what happened when we went to the meat counter.

J: Do you have grass fed beef?
Clerk: What's that?

Lazy Linking

Just the other day, I was just thinking about the pink and white frosted animal cookies I used to love. Then, today, this horrid news:

Mother's Cookies, an Oakland institution for 92 years, has been shuttered, its owner seeking bankruptcy protection for the company.

Have you seen The Speech Accent Archive? I could spend hours weeding through the voice samples listening to the variety of English accents.

The speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed. The archive is used by people who wish to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers.

Sexist? Hilarious? Sad? Welcome? Popular Mechanics has published a list of 100 skills every man should know. Is it okay if I know how to do some of these things? What if J doesn't? I was going to prattle on about how stupid some of them are ("Make a drum-tight bed" and "Drop and give the perfect push up" are two that come to mind), but why? I'm too tired to care.

Three down, ? to go

I had my first chemo at the new location yesterday. I'm glad I'm over there because I get the "good" doc, but really prefer chemo at my first location. The new place is a zoo. Lots and lots of chemo chairs, different nurse each time, competition for chemo appointments, etc. It will be fine, but man do I feel like a number. Nonetheless, lots of good came out of my appointment. First, my friend E picked me up and we went out for a fantastic, high fiber lunch at Birchwood. It was great to catch up with her. Second, I'm off the steroids today. I slept a total of 7 hours last night (with a break halfway through) and I am not feeling any more nauseated today than I did with the steroids. Tomorrow will be a better test, but I've been able to sit at my computer today as well as move the sprinkler around and basically just stay upright.

I have a new constipation management plan for this week including basically only eating fiber with just a bit of protein and trying some different medicines. I think part of my problem last time was eating too much red meat. For at least today, the plan is working. And that's all I'll say about that for now. :)

Have I mentioned what a pain in the ass it is to deal with the medical billing? First, every different procedure or appointment generates a number of different bills. For example, the docs are in a different medical group than the radiologist or the clinic. Second, one of the Fairview groups creates a different account number for each bill. Online bill pay is a nightmare when the account number changes. Third, yesterday I received a bill for almost $5,000. The damn thing isn't even itemized so I have no idea what's what. Don't you think that when a bill is over a certain amount, it should come itemized? I'm trying to figure it out compared to my EOBs but the whole thing is a nightmare. The hospital double billed for my node biopsy so maybe this bill has to do with that. Medica/UHC also refused to pay about $1000 of my biopsy that I need to follow up on. It was supposedly refused because I had alternative medicine. Not in that case. It was a regular outpatient procedure and really straight forward. I don't have the energy for forensic accounting this week. I'll tackle it after the holiday.

Good news on the dissertation front. I sent a hard copy of the whole thing to my chair last week. She got back to me today saying chapters one through four were excellent and the second half of chapter five was also good. She is sending me some recommendations for the first half of chapter five and then I'm supposed to edit and send the whole thing to the committee. I think should have it to them by the end of next week. At this point, I'm still on track to finish by the end of the year.

Some less happy news: I found out an old friend of mine, who I haven't been in touch with for about six or seven years, died about a year ago. She was never a well person because of lots of complications due to her juvenile diabetes. But what ended up killing her was a really, really rare (only 250 people in the world have it) disease. Even though we haven't been in touch in years and I knew she probably wouldn't live to be 80 or 90, it is still really sad to think of someone my age dying so young.

Little Bits

I forgot to mention yesterday that Sherry is going to the Humane Society. I'll still get a big bag of steroids with the chemo, but don't have to take them with my anti-nausea medicine after the chemo. YAY! Plus, did you know that steroids cause zits? I've been getting this weird breakout and been blaming it on Nef, but I should have blamed the damn cat.

How weird is this? About 10am today I was sitting here, in my office, at my computer when I noticed a small Westie-type dog in my (fenced) backyard. I went downstairs and it squished under the fence and ran away. I walked around the front of the house looking for it. I couldn't find it, but some people passing by told me it belonged to a house up on the corner and that it wasn't a friendly dog. So, I walked back to the backyard and found ANOTHER dog in my backyard. My neighbor's dog managed to dig under the fence. So two dogs, in the span of five minutes, in my fenced backyard. Is this a sign of something?

And in more animal weirdness - We occasionally get raccoons here, particularly at night. But yesterday at like 7pm, when it was still light out, we saw a gigantic one standing right next to us in the alley. It ran in my neighbor's back yard and was not scared enough. I really don't need a rabid or people-friendly raccoon wandering around.

My poor little nieces. First Grandma B lost her hair. Now they know that I'm going to lose my hair. At least one has started asking when she is going to lose her hair. Something little kids shouldn't have to deal with.

Have you seen the practical joke being played against Obama supporters? Using this website, you can text any cell phone (as long as you know the provider). It is being used for nefarious purposes, like texting good friends that Hillary is Obama's running mate.

Cleanin' out the clutter

One of my goals, when I finish school, is to clean out my house. Get rid of the clutter, the junk, the stuff, the crap, the old electronics, the extra dishes, blah, blah, blah. Well, I have a little time right now to start working on this project. I am waiting to mail my dissertation to my committee and they are all on vacation until the end of the month. (Yes, I could start working on some articles, but I really, really don't have the energy for that.) My first task is to clean off my desk, starting with a huge stack of People magazines and NY Times Book Reviews. I have been collecting them for about two years waiting for a time I could go through them and add things I want to read to a list I keep. Ay yi yi, this is tedious. I have about 200 different periodicals to flip through looking for literary gems. But, won't it be great when I'm done?

Best toe color ever

Once you go big, you never go back

When J and I met, we each had a queen bed. He moved into my place, so we slept in my bed and his went in the guest room. When we moved into our current house, we donated my really old bed and bought a king bed. His bed is still used for guests. You know what the downfall of getting used to a king bed is? You can't go smaller again. We can't stand sleeping in a queen bed anymore. It is hot and squishy. There jut isn't enough room. When we planned our trip up north, we realized we would have a bedroom with a queen bed and a room with two twins. We thought we'd push the two twins together to make a king, but when we got here we realized the twin beds were so soft neither of us could sleep in them. So, what did we do? J discovered that the small couches each pulled out into a twin bed. He lay down in one and was so comfortable, he let me sleep in the queen bed. Each night, he has slept in this really little twin pullout with a thin mattress and has been completely content. I can't even wake him up in the morning he is sleeping so well

Five, five, five, five, let's sing a song...

Finally catching up with blogging after being gone for the last week. First on the agenda, I've been tagged.

5 things found in your bag:
1. 2 pens
2. Tiny, unlined, colorful notebook
3. Kleenex
4. Squished up receipts
5. Uncharged Bluetooth phone headpiece thingy

5 favorite things in your room:
1. The color (very bright fuchsia/purple)
2. My blankie (a queen-sized cotton comforter I roll up in)
3. Four B&W pictures I've taken of various landscapes around the world
4. Watercolor painting of Jake done by our pet sitter
5. Travel books and atlases

5 things you always wanted to do
1. Travel the world after...
2. ...winning the lottery
3. Be able to sing
4. Write a mystery set in Sheboygan
5. Hike in the Himalayas

5 things you are currently into
1. Birds
2. My nieces
3. Gardening, however reluctantly
4. Walking
5. Lost

I'm late to this party so I'm not sending this one on.

When fast isn't fast enough

Seen connected to a gas station outside Manitowoc, WI:

McDonald's Express

Lazy Linking

Just two for you today:

Last week, I think, either Kottke or Boing Boing linked to a list of equipment being carried/pulled by Ben Saunders as he attempts to get to the Geographic North Pole from a Ward Hunt Island, unsupported (meaning he carries everything he needs), and on foot (mostly skiing). He is attempting to break the previous record of 36 days and some odd hours. He's actually trying to accomplish this feat (about 400nm) in 30 days. He is about 5 days into his journey and each night he posts one message plus a picture about his progress. I'm fascinated by the whole thing and am enjoying reading about it.

Website here and blog here.

Ken Jennings writes a blog that is part social commentary, part trivia, and part puzzles. I subscribe to it, but don't always read it. However, in the last few days he had a three-part interview with a retired Jeopardy clue writer. If you like this show, you'll love the insight from this guy.

Part one, two, three.

Finally, be sure to also check out the bedroom mural Jennings is creating for his daughter.