Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Huh (from the Boys Will Be Boys file)
On the plus side, this means my car is back and it only cost thirteen hundred and change. Well, that's quite a bargain, isn't it? Chuckles and I walked the two miles to the car dealer (ok, I walked while he sat in teh stroller and told me to go "more fast" and made truck shifting noises). It was 90 degrees out. On the way, we stopped at Chuckles's old day care to say hello to all his old teachers. I genuinely think they love him. I really do. He's loveable and was very affectionate and easy to care for. Miss Melissa almost cried when he left. Plus they had air conditioning and by this point (1.6 miles into the journey), I was not-so-fresh.
So, car's back. Woo Hoo.
Fun with math
Prognosis for my Car
So, Mr. L-S called and they told him I needed $4200 in repairs. That's right. I said FOUR-THOUSAND TWO-HUNDRED dollars. Oh yes, baby. Car repair guy needs a new pair of shoes. Let's call the car repair guy Bill. I don't think that's his name, but Bill sounds rather typical, no? So, Bill and the Mr. were talking and going through all the things Bill wanted to do to my car, which by the way only has about 50,000 miles on it, despite being almost 6 years old.
So, anyway, we picked out the eleven most critical things that are either currently broken or are imminently about to break and fail catastrophically. So, yes. The mister approved these repairs at 3 pm yesterday and they were all done by 11 am today. So, right. That's really not that much labor since they close at 5 and reopen at 7:30. Six hours of labor max, and you cannot tell me parts are that expensive. Someone is grabbing their ankles and thinking about Oklahoma on this one.
So, my car is done. Chuckles and I can take the stroller up there after nap and get it. We probably will not wait for the mister to come home from work to do this since I don't think he's coming home for a few days. Something about a business trip to Toronto. Whatever. He called this morning to say his flight was cancelled and rerouting through Nome to do something something but Chuckles was screaming, so I am not entirely sure.
So, bottom line is $1500 and I will have my wheels back. It will be good to be done with the stick shift loaner cars so I can get back to multi-tasking and don't have to spend all my time in the car, *gasp*, driving.
Pretty Neat
Job Offer
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Long Weekend
Took Chuckles to the Illinois Railway Museum to "ride da choo choo at da train staysh". He was in heaven as was Mr. Long-Suffering. I enjoyed myself. We went with friends. Had a good time. No steam engines were running the day we were there (trolleys, street cars, interurbans, deisels), so we may make a day trip to The Hesston Steam Museum, perhaps for Father's Day because I am an excellent wife.
Look at me, my face is red
Irony met Hubris in my garage
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
IRS Note
You make $50k, you only need to spend $3750 in the year on medical expenses, so two root canals, an eye doctor appointment and contacts, and 12 months of birth control pills. BINGO, you're there.
You make $100k, you only need to spend $7,500. You and your husband are infertile and need IVF (with ICSI) for $15,000. You hit it and them some. And heck, throw in a high-deductible health insurance delivery of your IVF twins via c-section, and you just played the taxation lottery and won. But, let's say the people in this example didn't have all the money right away, so they did egg retrieval and ICSI in November and babies weren't born until the following year. That twin delivery via c-section (and possible NICO stay for preemie babies) would have to exceed 7.5% again for them to deduct those expenses. Timing the expenses is critical. There is a reason doctor's offices and dentist's offices are full in January.
A little snark from people who have been down the ART road
http://www.alittlepregnant.com/alittlepregnant/2007/05/it_all_looks_so.html#comments
60-year old woman has twins
About her husband, the wife said: "He sort of pushed me in this direction." That doesn't seem like a good idea, as you are the one enduring pregnancy at SIXTY (or twice as old as I was when I had a baby or three times as old as my own mother was....older than MiMi is now.
The older, adult children talking about their parents' decision: "My mother is too old, for health reasons and for lifestyle," Alana said last night. "I don't think she's thinking about the future - being 80 or 90 and having a kid." She said her brother is worried they will end up taking care of the babies. "He's against it even more than I am," she said.
Well, someone is thinking into the future.
The couple on their other options for family building: "They considered adopting, but had heard too many horror stories." I can tell you plenty of stories of assisted reproduction (like IVF) with less-than-happy endings, so let's just say that without additional details, this doesn't persuade me.
On whether she used her own eggs for the IVF (which for the record, I do not believe to be physically possible): The new mom played coy on whether she used her own eggs, which had been frozen years before, or eggs from a donor. "I'm not committing to an .answer to that," she said. "I just want people to know there are many options for women out there." Technically speaking, eggs are not frozen, embryos are, so technical details aside, even if she had frozen embryos from her first IVF 8 or ten years earlier, she still would have been in her 50s. Healthy pregnancies that go to term are not usually achieved after a woman is 45 and most clinics will not let you do egg retrieval for IVF after 43 because of diminished egg quality (high FSH levels if you are keeping track at home).
There are real risks (for younger women and for older women as well) to undergoing fertility treatments and carrying a twin pregnancy. Those risks increase with age. It's silly to pretend that this is strictly a matter of a woman's choice. There are real consequences and real children to consider. Hers is a happy ending story, but she could have gone into labor at 23 weeks and delivered terribly ill and premature babies instead of 4-lb 11-oz darlings. She is at higher risk for blood clots, stroke, seizures, and a whole host of complications that risk not only her health and life but the health and life of her babies. I certainly don't know what the cut-off age should be, but I am pretty sure, I would put it under 60. I'd put it at 48, I think, but maybe 50. Not sure. I would not want a woman of age 50 to undergo a twin pregnancy, but as teh success rates at that age are so low, it would be hard to convince anyone to undergo single embryo transfer (oh, the technical points to this...all highly technical but I know I covered it before during March of Dines Prematurity Awareness Month).
Crisco's shelf life
Let's talk Money
Orange Juice: Did I miss the news of the frost? OJ has been super expensive (sale price of 2 for $6 instead of 2 for $4) for over a month now and I don't like it.
Fruit: Oh my word...when is summer coming? Apples are over $1/lb, strawberries at $3/lb (although two weeks ago, they were $1.25), peaches are $1.50, cherries are $7. So, we're having bananas at 46 cents/lb (only 25 cents a month ago) and grapes for $1.49 this week. C'mon summer.
Gas: Uhm, well, last week is was $3.33. This week the E-85 flex-fuel is $3.33 and regular unleaded is running about $3.59. Summer driving season, summer pollution control formula, fire at a refinery, blah blah blah. Until the price of gas makes me and other Americans chage our behavior (like car pooling or walking places or figuring out how to nap boy without the car), I vow not to complain about the price. I may make note of it, but I am not complaining. I walk quite a few of our errands (post office, Target, library, park, supermarket if I am not getting anything refrigerated), so there is not a whole lot of driving I could cut out of my life....as I will not give up the nap...you can pry the car keys out of my cold, dead hands before I give that up.
Let's Talk about Lybrel
I cannot believe how many stupid newscasters kept asking their in-house doctor correspondents about this today. It's pretty common knowledge among women, or so I thought. The really fabulous news is that within 3 months of going off of this pill 99% of women were either pregnant or at least ovulating. So, that's good news. However, this tells me that no women with anovulatory conditions (like mine) were included in the study trials...or were they and this cures them? No, they probably weren't. If I were making the trial, I would include women who were healthy, non-smokers who really did not want kids now so they would be good about taking their pills and making my numbers look good.
Technical info on the drug available HERE.
Need a little help here
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
My garden is in
This doesn't look right
I am changing the accent color on my house from red to blue. So, I am painting around the windows. I think the window on the left is too dark, and I think the windows to the right look like they have a box floating around them. What should I do? I was thinking of taking one of the two right windows and putting a lighter blue inside teh dark blue (Where the white is now) sort of like the matting you would put inside a frame. help.
There are reasons I brushed my teeth in the bathtub
Thursday, May 17, 2007
How is this possible?
By the way, last Saturday was Letter Carrier's Food Drive day. I gave away four cans of refried beans and two boxes of vegetarian meat substitute along with a jar of olive tapenade and some poppy seed pie filling and four cups of sugar-sweetened apple sauce. Random times. Random. Imagine the meal someone will make out of that.
$3.47
When we don't get nap, Mr. Long-Suffering comes home from work to find me crying, with a migraine, reaching for a beer. I need nap.
Rudy Guiliani
All Hail the White Truck of Joy
SoCraftiCarrie
So, in my spare time, I paint onesies for the babies of our friends. It's my creative outlet, I suppose.
I bought about 5 packages of onesies and some paint when my sister was pregnant and made the shower guests decorate them. Some were good, some notsomuch, but since they are undershirts, all that matters is the love. I try to make mine neat, clever, and legible. I think I do OK. But it had been a few months since I pulled the paints out and I had a couple of misfires, so definitely not my best work, but not too bad at all. If you have a baby, maybe I'll make some for you.
Monday, May 14, 2007
How I spent my Monday
Saturday, May 12, 2007
'Scuse me while I kiss this guy
Golden Earrings's (also covered by White Lion) "Radar Love" says:
Radio plays a forgotten song
Brenda Lee's "Coming on Strong"
According to the True Oldies Channel, which is preset number 5 on my car radio, Brenda Lee was immortalized in that song, and yet, no one still knows the song. I heard the song on the radio the other day, and I am telling you there is a reason no one remembers it. It's just not good. The 50s and eary 60s must have been an awful time for music because it's just plain bad. She was one of the most popular recording artists in the era (#4 behind Elvis, Ray Charles and The Beatles). This is the same era of music that had Lawrence Welk topping the charts with polka, so that that with what you will.
Anyway, about the mis-heard lyric. For years (years!) I have been thinking that "Radar Love" says something like "Radio plays a forgotten song/Revelie's coming on strong" or "Ramblings coming on strong". So, now you know.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Life is Good (in two parts)
Blog Notes
Anyway, her husband has mutant sperm that cause defects to the fetus that are incompatible with life. She's had something like 14 miscarriages and one perfect live son, Patrick. She keeps moving forward trying to have another baby because as she says, the pain of not having another child is greater than the pain of continuing to miscarry. Well, the news is, she is pregnant, again. They did genetic testing (PGD) with IVF this time, so ostensibly, the embryo is genetically normal, but PGD is still somewhat experimental with these kinds of genetic problems, so it's possible she will miscarry again, but heck, maybe not! And that's optimism.
I am going to buy this
I currently have a bid out on a Winnie the Pooh inflatable travel bed. I am the current high bidder but there are still 2 days left on the auction so I doubt I'll win, but if I do, I won't be buying the bed from amazon, so wish me some kind of luck. I don't know if I want to win or if I want the Aero Bed. Decisions!
SarcastiCarrie now $aving you more
Sign up for 10% off coupons from lowe's and home depot (very useful for me right now since the dryer died and I am gutting my bathroom...new dryer being purchased tomorrow on the Discover card where I can get double cash back on Maytag).
http://www.lowesmoving.com/register/step2.asp
http://www.homedepotmoving.com
I'm looking for Menards too, but I don't see one for them (it'd only be good on tube socks and BBQ sauce any way).
Info on Discover card:
http://www.discovercard.com/discover/data/cashback/?icmpgn=200512_dc_bn_hk_drplnk_rwd_nap_rdm_1
The Election was Cancelled due to Lack of Interest
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Chuckles is now officially Two
My Dryer Died (RIP 1969-2007)
Unfortuantely, there are three loads waiting to be washed, so I think I am going to ask my backyard neighbor if I can use his line until I get a new dryer.
I have 80 of my very own clothes pins (all currently in use plus clothes on hangers and draped over the ironing board). Each sock and pair of underpants needs its own pin, so what do you do? And the towels will be so stiff, but whatever. It's better than mildewing the clothes or trying to keep Chuckles entertained at the laundromat.