Monday, August 25, 2008

game night

last night we finally had the game night we'd been trying to arrange for weeks. and it almost didn't happen because our friends were stuck at dinner from 6.30 to 9.30. they eventually showed up at the house before 10pm and we played the ZAPiT Game Wave for over 2 1/2 hours.

we started with a round of 4 degrees because it was still in the console from the last time we played. a brief explanation that it is similar to trivial pursuit and breakdown of the scoring and the game was on. c mentioned that he'd heard of Game wave, but then couldn't remember if it was because i'd mentioned it while back when i first got it. m was excited that i was able to do this trial just like the LypSyl Bzz campaign.

the next game we tried was veggie tales. it took some time to load and we had to eject to remove a smudge from the disc. for some reason we found this a little more difficult than the 5 & up designation. perhaps we were making it harder than we should have. my past skills at memory match when i was a kid were thwarted when i only matched 1 set of cards. it is nice for children though because there are no losers, only gold, silver, bronze & honorable mention.

after some not-so-family-friendly cursing at the veggie tales game, we moved on to click! c & m had wanted to play the wheel of fortune-like game from the start. unfortunately for s, 3 times her knew the answer to the puzzle, but accidentally clicked past the solve button on his turn, which gave m the win. we played 2 rounds as a result.

next up was lock-5. once we realized it was similar to yahtzee we go the hang of it and played 3 games. if it hadn't been after midnight & i had to work at 7am, everyone else wanted to play more. for good measure, we played one quick game of re-wind to round out the evening. our guests words: "this was fun! we have to do this again soon!"

i'll have to remember to find the coupons from my bzzkit (the came in the 1st box with the non-working console) & tell them about them & see where we can purchase locally. we're still talkinga bout picking up the bible trivia game.

ps~this is a copy of my review for bzz

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

grrr, insurance bills

today i received a bill for $118 from the hospital (where i work). reading it over, i found out it was for 'cytology' during my annual well-woman exam (gynecology nurse practitioner) on 7/1/08. the only thing i had done was a regular pap smear and exam (that part was covered). found my explanation of health benefits form & it said the reason it was denied was that testing must go through my pcp or co-care provider. my np is my primary & if your gynecologist isn't a "co-care provider" then who is? it was covered last year (6/28/07, so it didn't overlap) & why would an annual well-woman exam be covered, but not that testing every year?
and to think, i want to become an insurance claims/biller/coder. i'll be calling bcbs tomorrow and find out exactly why this is a problem and if necessary contact sue (my np) to either resubmit or fight this. i'm almost 30. having an annual pap is preventative for more expensive conditions that insurance would need to cover; you'd think they'd want to avoid paying for treatment for dysplasia or cervical cancer or something.
rargh!


today i also had my 7 week remicade infusion. totally flipped out on s this morning because i was worried about having an allergic reaction again. this pretty much exacerbated all the other worries & insecurities in my head, so i let it blow all out of proportion. got upset about not knowing exactly what's happening in my life (work, love, etc) & i feel like i'm forcing myself on s to spend time at his house. at 7am s was the only one who was there to vent to, so he took the brunt of it.
i only broke out due to the benadryl & zantac (who knew that stopped allergic reactions, too?). yes, i had a reaction to the drugs that keep you from having an allergic reaction! where the iv entered my arm, all the veins were inflamed like a spiderweb up to my elbow while the drugs pumped into my system. it was weird & my arm felt cold to the touch in that spot (inner forearm below the elbow.) it went away before they started the actual remicade and i didn't break out in hives this time. not sure if it was the zantac/benadryl combo or the fact that they only infused it at 60ml/hr at the fastest. i broke out last time when they upped it to 80ml/hr.

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

arti-choke

last night i attempted to cook an artichoke for the first time. they were on sale at the store, so i picked one up, thinking "i love (spinach) artichoke dip; this should be interesting" a week passed before the opportunity to steam the sucker arose, what with s & the whole moving into a new place business.
i read up on a bunch of cooking sites about the best ways to prepare the scary & spiny-looking thing. clipped off the sharp ends of the leaves, trimmed the stem & the pointy end & threw it in a pot to boil with a little lemon juice. i don't have a steamer big enough or i would've used that method.) boil, boil, boil. remove from water & let cool briefly. then i started plucking away at the leaves(?). dipped the end in a little butter & sucked/teethed them off. okay, s tried it too when he got there.
until we got to the choke. yes, that is what the center, fuzzy part is called. so i cut it off as recommended, waiting to find the good part, the heart... to no avail. seriously, there was nothing underneath that resembled anything edible, unless you're supposed to eat the top of the stem? um yeah, am not so good with odd vegetables.
but we had leftover chinese for the rest of the meal, so it's not like we starved.
ps~i'm pretty sure i gave myself a concussion when i got home from work (after meeting suzanne's sister to procure my very own, signed (thank you, thank you!) copy of her book). yeah, i'm a klutz. thwacked my head into the doorframe while talk to my mom on the phone & bending over to grab something. it brought tears to my eyes & in the next day or two i'm sure to have an enviable black eye. yikes!

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Friday, August 08, 2008

flop house?

here's the long-awaited list of problems with the house s is living in for the next year. (i hope this works because i don't know how to link google docs for public viewing yet.)
and i didn't catch everything. one of the other guy's mom thinks they need to send the list to the housing authority (what w/ a decades-if not 100 yr-old house & peeling asbestos paint, no egress, mold in the bathrooms, etc). and cc the property management/slumlord. they (read s & i) already dropped off this list at the place because they were given 3 days to say whether the place is liveable.
s has finally decided that he's not going to shower there anymore because the wall behind the plastic showerstall/liner is pulling away & damaged and there is pretty much no caulk along the edges of the tub & shower area to keep it up. yergh! he informed me he'll be showering at my place tonight.

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

bad food choices

much like suzanne i made some terrible decisions this evening. i do not recommend a german chocolate blizzard (pecans, coconut, chocolate syrup) followed by hummus and pita. not to mention hotdogs with ketchup & mustard, and then the rest of the blizzard.

um, and a kosher pickle half. (no, i'm definitely not pregnant.)

oooohh, i don't feel so hot.

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Monday, August 04, 2008

the hazards of moving

i can't imagine what it'll be like to move my 6+ years of crap whenever i end up moving out of my apartment. last year when i helped s move i nearly lost one of my toes by dropping a piece of his desk on it. this is what happened last wednesday when helping move the new kitchen table (8' long with all 3 leaves in it)




i managed to jam the table legs right into my ankle. good times. i'm such a klutz.

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Sunday, August 03, 2008

bad mar

so i've been lax on posting this week because i've been helping s move into his new house. for a short time i had a roommate when he was in between places, sunday-wednesday. on wednesday he was able to move into the pit that is his house for the next year. there will be 4 guys living there. the slumlords who rent the place didn't so much as clean anything. the previous tenants had pretty much trashed it & since it's around 100 years old, it's not like the place was spic 'n span to start with. although i've stayed there wednesday night through saturday, i'm not sure how much i will be over there, at least until it's cleaned. the room s chose was the best of the bunch, but i still don't relish the idea of walking barefoot anywhere in the upstairs. i'll be posting the (4 pages typed) list shortly of all the things wrong with the place.
anyway, on to the titular phrase. yesterday we ran some errands & s had an informal interview for a theft prevention job (ie walking around in street clothes to catch shoplifters in the store). basically he has it, though they have to complete a background check & pee test on monday. he'll have no trouble passing those. i bought some shoes while he had his interview. my keen's easily have over 1,000 miles on them in the last 3 years, so it was time for mama to get a new pair of shoes. i checked out the selection and settled on these. partly because they are named for my mother, dolores. and they fit really well. hopefully they work out as nicely as my keens.
s had been saying all week that he wanted to take me to a movie, so after the mall we hit the theatre for 'the dark knight'. it was really well done. i'm not sure if i think heath ledger deserves a posthumous oscar, but he did do an excellent job. and christian bale is yummy to watch. then we snuck into the mummy 3. thus the bad mar reference. by that time it was about 8.30pm and we walked across the parking lot to the pet store. i really wanted to see what a scottie puppy looks like up close, but alas, they had none. instead s had them take out this perfect little dachsund cutie for us to play with. he was just a little lap mooch & would go from one of us to the other. so adorable. i want a puppy, but i would never buy one from petland.
such was my week/weekend. now for chores. and homework. and fly killing because my apartment seems to have more than a couple buzzing around since i've been absent. oh yippee!

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