I've been hearing the word "no" a lot lately. I'm sure, in the past, I've mentioned that I am a small child. I don't do well with no.
I tried to list my DeStash on the Ravelry ISO/DeStash group and my thread was closed. Why? Because I have an Etsy store. I was told that the group was only for people who didn't have an Etsy Store, Ebay Store, or website where they could, potentially, sell their yarn. I protested saying, "You're telling me I can't list because I just happen to have an Etsy store?? That store is strictly for my Stitch Savers." She said I couldn't list. She said if she made an exception for one, she'd have to make an exception for the 7500 others that are in the group. I pointed out that the yarn was my personal yarn and the Etsy store was my business store. I also said that out of the 7500, how many did she think had "websites" that were also blogs and how many had mentioned their destash on their blogs? I told her I wasn't asking for an exception to the rules but that maybe the rules should be rethought? She said they were constantly being rethought and that's how they came to their current status.
Drag.
So now what do I do?? It never occurred to me to use my Etsy store to sell my stash. I still don't want to as I don't want to have to A) list it all (it took me over a week to list it all on Rav!) and B) I don't want to have to pay fees to sell my stash which is already listed at half of retail on Rav. Maybe I'll put up one of those fake listings on Etsy and just link to Rav? Do y'all have any suggestions? Maybe y'all can help spread the word? The link is here. Also, if the page doesn't load for you, hit the search button and, although it won't be alphabetical, you can see all the pic's!
So, yesterday, I go to the drive-thru of my bank (Wells Fucko) and give them checks worth $5495. The big $5K check was my latest placement/commission check with my "real" job as a headhunter. The teller told me she couldn't deposit that one because it was made out to my company and that company wasn't on my biz account. My biz acct is My Corporation Name dba My Biz. I said, "That's not true, see, because I've been through this three times with this bank already!" I was reaching for my glove box where I keep my dba paperwork, just for this occasion. Then I realized I wasn't in the van where that glove box is located, I was in our car. I told her I was coming inside. I went in and ripped into the manager and he pawned me off onto a bank associate who did some useless frittering around on a computer only to tell me that, in fact, they hadn't solved the problem any of the three times I'd already been through this. Then he tells me he's not a business banker and doesn't have anything to do with the business accounts. I asked why the manager had him helping me then? Was he just getting rid of the crazy mad lady so he didn't have to deal with it?? So I got another big fat "no" and had to leave the bank with a lot of signed, undeposited checks. We can't really change banks either. We have Dave's biz acct, our joint acct, my personal acct, my biz acct and the boys' savings acct's there.
I'm going back today to make them fix the problem (again) and I'm having the manager of the bank do it.
All right, technically it's only 2 "no"s but they were/are frustrating enough to feel like more.
Looking for a yes, Ruth!
Showing posts with label Frustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frustration. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I is for Insurance
A few months ago, Dave woke me around midnight with those three little words every woman wants to hear....
"Don't freak out."
He was wearing his robe (which he never wears) and for a split instant my brain jumped on the fact that one of the kids was missing and he'd gone outside to look for them. Thankfully, this was not the case.
He'd been having mild chest pains all day and around midnight, he'd gone to the bathroom and suddenly started shivering and shaking and couldn't stop. He put the robe on to be warmer but still couldn't stop shaking. That, combined with the chest pain, convinced him he should go to ER. This is a man who is typical in that it has to be a visible bone before he goes to a doctor.
I offered to drive him but he refused and drove himself. Which I thought was stupid, considering he might be having a heart attack!
He was fine. They tested him thoroughly and he has the heart of a lion, which I already knew.
So why am I telling you about this months later? Because I've been saving up this rant for awhile. If you want to skip it, there's a contest from another blog at the end. Really good one, too! Great cause and over 60 yarny prizes!
OK. D went to the ER at the hospital here in Parker. Our insurance is with Kaiser Permanente. We've been contemplating for months about switching to another company. Several reasons:
A) Being self-employed, we pay over $500 a month for something we never use. Our family is unnaturally healthy *knocks on wood*.
B) I've been investigating HSA's and it seems like a much better fit for our family. Doesn't cost too much less but at least we get to keep our money. With KP, it's like throwing money into a hole and then throwing in a flaming torch. And when the flame goes out, throwing in a rabid weasel. (It irritates me, can you tell?)
C) There's no KP place for us to go to in Parker.
C is one of the biggest problems I have with it all. When we first moved here and bought our insurance, we didn't know any better. It wasn't until months later when I was scheduling my annual that we found out. If KP had any integrity at all, they would've pointed out the fact that we were going to have to drive 30 minutes to get to the nearest KP providers. WTF??
When D went to the ER that night, he was taken back right away (as they do with anyone who thinks they're having a heart attack) and once they were sure he was stable, they started all the testing that goes with a suspected MI. He was, of course, there for several hours. At 7 am, I called to see how he was doing (since, obviously, he wasn't calling me and after 5 hours the frantic was overtaking the patience). He told me they had one test left to do but they were going to transfer him by ambulance to a hospital in downtown Denver to do this last test. "Why?", you ask? Because the hospital in Parker isn't a KP provider.
They transferred him to St. J's in Denver. Via ambulance. It's nearly an hour's drive from Parker. For one test.
Does that boggle anyone else besides us?
Again, Dave's fine. They don't know what was causing the shaking but his heart is perfect.
So about a week or so later, we start getting those papers. If you've ever used your insurance, you know the ones. "This isn't a bill, we just want to show you how much money we saved you by having our insurance" papers. They made me sick. They made me furious. They made me want to go find a rabid weasel.
That ambulance ride? Forget the extra cost of checking into another hospital. That ambulance ride alone cost nearly $1000 dollars. One thousand dollars!! For one more test. It seemed so stupid and wasteful. Wouldn't it have been easier (on both the staff and the patient) and definitely cheaper to just leave D where he was and do a little extra paperwork??
We must've received 12 of those papers. For various things around the hospital (well, hospitals really) and the ambulance ride and the testing and the..... everything.
I pretty much demanded D find us another provider ASAP. ASAP for D means he did it at the end of the year. And now we have some lame "temporary" insurance. That whole episode means D might have a pre-existing condition and we've been turned down by 2 other companies now.
Again, I say, WTF?? If anything, it proved he has the healthiest heart in the house! (At least among the adults). It's insanity.
For about a week, we had no insurance. I didn't want anyone to leave the house. Or their beds. For fear of an accident that would bankrupt us. And how sad is that? The fact that something like 40% of people losing their homes right now is due to medical bills! Not just the mortgage fiasco, but people who got involved in the mortgage fiasco by getting 2nd mortgages on their homes to pay hospital bills. It's pathetic and disgraceful in a country of our affluence that this should ever be possible.
Other things in the insurance world that have been boggling me lately...
My FIL has to sleep with oxygen. He has a machine with some mighty long tubing that ends up with a nose cannula. He pays $30 a month co-pay while his insurance company foots another $200 a month for this machine. My FIL did some research and discovered that for a flat $600 you could buy a whole brand-new machine!! And that's at retail prices! So that means between my FIL and his insurance company, they could buy the equivalent of 4.6 Brand New, retail priced machines a year!
He told us he was going to write a letter to the insurance company and we assured him they already knew and didn't care. Why they didn't care is a riddle that would stump the Sphinx.
The midwife (Karen) who birthed D2 needed to get out of midwifery and move back East to help out with a family situation. Her medical malpractice insurance wouldn't let her out of her ungodly, expensive coverage unless she paid them something in the neighborhood of $20,000 dollars. Twenty. Thousand. They claimed it was to cover any future malpractice suits that might come up from the births she'd attended/assisted. You know what? That's fine. I actually kind of get that one. Here's how it should go down, if I ran the world. You need $20K to cover future suits? Here it is. Only you have to keep it in an interest-earning escrow account and if no suits come up within the statute of limitations (or even 5 years after, because we know how the legal system sometimes works), then Karen gets that money back. With the interest. She was held hostage to this clause for months until she could come up with the $20K and leave town.
Also, did you know that if you have a heart attack while driving and it causes a wreck you probably won't be covered by your car insurance? Most car insurance companies consider that car-wreck-causing heart attack an "Act of God" and they don't cover Acts of God. And you can be damn sure that while your health insurance may cover your body for the heart attack, they ain't coverin' your car. Check it out for yourself!
Awhile back we watched Michael Moore's Sicko movie. We tend to watch all his movies but we watch with a huge grain of salt. Michael Moore is a sensationalist and a propagandist and he tends to get overly dramatic with his way of showing us things. But that doesn't mean what he's showing us isn't true. If you ever want to get good and pissed off, watch a Michael Moore movie.
For me, the most shocking part of the movie was when they interviewed the young woman with Cervical Cancer. Sicko isn't about people without health insurance, although at the beginning, they touch on that. It's an even more frightening movie for focusing on the people getting screwed who have really great health insurance. That young woman? She had excellent (and fully paid up) health insurance. She got Cervical Cancer at age 24. Her insurance company refused her claim saying, "Not possible. Women as young as you don't get Cervical Cancer." Again I say - What. The. Fuck.
I know a lot of really conservative people are harping on the socialism factor of free nationwide medical care but what people don't seem to realize is that a lot of our daily lives are already socialized. I didn't realize either until I watched Sicko. MM points out that having a police force, a fire department, public schools, public libraries - all that is socialism. It's benefits we receive for the taxes we pay.
I'm hoping, as most of us are, that with this new Executive Office, things will get better. I'm also hoping that soon we can find some good, affordable, locally-available-facility insurance.
And on the subject of hope! I hope I win any of a number of fantastic prizes here. She'll be drawing winners in about 2 weeks. Give and give big!
Ever hopeful, Ruth!
"Don't freak out."
He was wearing his robe (which he never wears) and for a split instant my brain jumped on the fact that one of the kids was missing and he'd gone outside to look for them. Thankfully, this was not the case.
He'd been having mild chest pains all day and around midnight, he'd gone to the bathroom and suddenly started shivering and shaking and couldn't stop. He put the robe on to be warmer but still couldn't stop shaking. That, combined with the chest pain, convinced him he should go to ER. This is a man who is typical in that it has to be a visible bone before he goes to a doctor.
I offered to drive him but he refused and drove himself. Which I thought was stupid, considering he might be having a heart attack!
He was fine. They tested him thoroughly and he has the heart of a lion, which I already knew.
So why am I telling you about this months later? Because I've been saving up this rant for awhile. If you want to skip it, there's a contest from another blog at the end. Really good one, too! Great cause and over 60 yarny prizes!
OK. D went to the ER at the hospital here in Parker. Our insurance is with Kaiser Permanente. We've been contemplating for months about switching to another company. Several reasons:
A) Being self-employed, we pay over $500 a month for something we never use. Our family is unnaturally healthy *knocks on wood*.
B) I've been investigating HSA's and it seems like a much better fit for our family. Doesn't cost too much less but at least we get to keep our money. With KP, it's like throwing money into a hole and then throwing in a flaming torch. And when the flame goes out, throwing in a rabid weasel. (It irritates me, can you tell?)
C) There's no KP place for us to go to in Parker.
C is one of the biggest problems I have with it all. When we first moved here and bought our insurance, we didn't know any better. It wasn't until months later when I was scheduling my annual that we found out. If KP had any integrity at all, they would've pointed out the fact that we were going to have to drive 30 minutes to get to the nearest KP providers. WTF??
When D went to the ER that night, he was taken back right away (as they do with anyone who thinks they're having a heart attack) and once they were sure he was stable, they started all the testing that goes with a suspected MI. He was, of course, there for several hours. At 7 am, I called to see how he was doing (since, obviously, he wasn't calling me and after 5 hours the frantic was overtaking the patience). He told me they had one test left to do but they were going to transfer him by ambulance to a hospital in downtown Denver to do this last test. "Why?", you ask? Because the hospital in Parker isn't a KP provider.
They transferred him to St. J's in Denver. Via ambulance. It's nearly an hour's drive from Parker. For one test.
Does that boggle anyone else besides us?
Again, Dave's fine. They don't know what was causing the shaking but his heart is perfect.
So about a week or so later, we start getting those papers. If you've ever used your insurance, you know the ones. "This isn't a bill, we just want to show you how much money we saved you by having our insurance" papers. They made me sick. They made me furious. They made me want to go find a rabid weasel.
That ambulance ride? Forget the extra cost of checking into another hospital. That ambulance ride alone cost nearly $1000 dollars. One thousand dollars!! For one more test. It seemed so stupid and wasteful. Wouldn't it have been easier (on both the staff and the patient) and definitely cheaper to just leave D where he was and do a little extra paperwork??
We must've received 12 of those papers. For various things around the hospital (well, hospitals really) and the ambulance ride and the testing and the..... everything.
I pretty much demanded D find us another provider ASAP. ASAP for D means he did it at the end of the year. And now we have some lame "temporary" insurance. That whole episode means D might have a pre-existing condition and we've been turned down by 2 other companies now.
Again, I say, WTF?? If anything, it proved he has the healthiest heart in the house! (At least among the adults). It's insanity.
For about a week, we had no insurance. I didn't want anyone to leave the house. Or their beds. For fear of an accident that would bankrupt us. And how sad is that? The fact that something like 40% of people losing their homes right now is due to medical bills! Not just the mortgage fiasco, but people who got involved in the mortgage fiasco by getting 2nd mortgages on their homes to pay hospital bills. It's pathetic and disgraceful in a country of our affluence that this should ever be possible.
Other things in the insurance world that have been boggling me lately...
My FIL has to sleep with oxygen. He has a machine with some mighty long tubing that ends up with a nose cannula. He pays $30 a month co-pay while his insurance company foots another $200 a month for this machine. My FIL did some research and discovered that for a flat $600 you could buy a whole brand-new machine!! And that's at retail prices! So that means between my FIL and his insurance company, they could buy the equivalent of 4.6 Brand New, retail priced machines a year!
He told us he was going to write a letter to the insurance company and we assured him they already knew and didn't care. Why they didn't care is a riddle that would stump the Sphinx.
The midwife (Karen) who birthed D2 needed to get out of midwifery and move back East to help out with a family situation. Her medical malpractice insurance wouldn't let her out of her ungodly, expensive coverage unless she paid them something in the neighborhood of $20,000 dollars. Twenty. Thousand. They claimed it was to cover any future malpractice suits that might come up from the births she'd attended/assisted. You know what? That's fine. I actually kind of get that one. Here's how it should go down, if I ran the world. You need $20K to cover future suits? Here it is. Only you have to keep it in an interest-earning escrow account and if no suits come up within the statute of limitations (or even 5 years after, because we know how the legal system sometimes works), then Karen gets that money back. With the interest. She was held hostage to this clause for months until she could come up with the $20K and leave town.
Also, did you know that if you have a heart attack while driving and it causes a wreck you probably won't be covered by your car insurance? Most car insurance companies consider that car-wreck-causing heart attack an "Act of God" and they don't cover Acts of God. And you can be damn sure that while your health insurance may cover your body for the heart attack, they ain't coverin' your car. Check it out for yourself!
Awhile back we watched Michael Moore's Sicko movie. We tend to watch all his movies but we watch with a huge grain of salt. Michael Moore is a sensationalist and a propagandist and he tends to get overly dramatic with his way of showing us things. But that doesn't mean what he's showing us isn't true. If you ever want to get good and pissed off, watch a Michael Moore movie.
For me, the most shocking part of the movie was when they interviewed the young woman with Cervical Cancer. Sicko isn't about people without health insurance, although at the beginning, they touch on that. It's an even more frightening movie for focusing on the people getting screwed who have really great health insurance. That young woman? She had excellent (and fully paid up) health insurance. She got Cervical Cancer at age 24. Her insurance company refused her claim saying, "Not possible. Women as young as you don't get Cervical Cancer." Again I say - What. The. Fuck.
I know a lot of really conservative people are harping on the socialism factor of free nationwide medical care but what people don't seem to realize is that a lot of our daily lives are already socialized. I didn't realize either until I watched Sicko. MM points out that having a police force, a fire department, public schools, public libraries - all that is socialism. It's benefits we receive for the taxes we pay.
I'm hoping, as most of us are, that with this new Executive Office, things will get better. I'm also hoping that soon we can find some good, affordable, locally-available-facility insurance.
And on the subject of hope! I hope I win any of a number of fantastic prizes here. She'll be drawing winners in about 2 weeks. Give and give big!
Ever hopeful, Ruth!
Friday, November 7, 2008
A Little Political Foofaraw
I'm not a political person. I have, as you know, many opinions but I don't follow politics like I should. Hell, I get most of my news from The Daily Show and Boston Legal.
Here's some opinions, nonetheless...
I was joking with Dave that since Sarah Palin was in the spotlight so much and some of the idiot things that came out of her mouth, I wondered whether she'd even be re-elected as Governor of Alaska! He reminded me of the fact that Alaskans just re-elected a convicted felon to the Senate. Now, I'm no genius and I say idiot things all the time but I'm a bit baffled by this. Isn't it illegal for convicted felons to vote? Then shouldn't it be even more illegal for them to be elected to office? (See, idiot things - "more illegal"?? Is that like more pregnant or more dead? sigh) And if it's illegal for felons to vote, how can he even do his job as a Senator as? I mean, isn't a huge part of being a Senator voting on things on a national level?
Here's another thing I don't get and this applies to Congress as a whole, not just Ted Stevens, but he's an excellent example. I think there should be a limit to the amount of times someone can get re-elected to Congress. I don't think people should be able to be re-elected until they DIE. Ted Stevens is 84 and according to Wikipedia's article about him, he's been a Senator for 40 years!! WTF? This may be age-ist but I don't want people driving a car past 80, much less driving our country. Strom Thurmond left office at age 100, after having been in office over 47 years! Both of those men have/had been in office longer then I've been alive. Again, maybe I'm being age-ist but I feel there's something wrong with that.
I also feel that when you have someone so firmly entrenched, they get complaisant, set in their ways, and lazy. I don't want a quick turnaround, because you need some training and experience in the position to be really effective. I think 10 years, 12 max, should be plenty. And don't even get me started on the BS that is their self-voted lifetime pay and health benefits. Again, I say - WTF?
And speaking of term limits, let's go presidential. Have y'all read The Daily Show's book called America? I highly recommend it. Despite being a great laugh, it's got some very interesting points in there (and I'm not talking about the naked pic's of the Supreme Court). One piece (I believe it's a Stephen Colbert contribution) talks about how the President of the United States spends 2 years being president, then another 2 years trying to get re-elected. I'd never thought about it like that before I read this piece but it's sadly and entirely true. I think one 6 year term, no repeats, should suffice.
I also like the way Canada does it. The link is to the Harlot's description of how they manage their Prime Minister position - it's at the bottom of that post in the PPS. I think that makes the most sense of any political process I've ever heard.
In our town, we had 3 bonds on the ballot that didn't get passed. 2 were for more schools - so we could stop this year-round nonsense and have enough schools to accommodate the children in this state. The third was for a bigger, better library.
OK, our library is pretty good and maybe we don't really need a whole cultural center in our smallish town. But we definitely need those extra schools. I heard people say things like, "Doesn't matter to me, my kids go to private school" and "I don't even have kids! What do I care?" Here's the scoop - these kids that "don't effect" you are citizens in your community. If they don't have proper schools and great places to hang out after school, they will be hooligans and grow up to be bad citizens. I can't believe people don't get that.
Trying to pay more attention to politics, Ruth!
Here's some opinions, nonetheless...
I was joking with Dave that since Sarah Palin was in the spotlight so much and some of the idiot things that came out of her mouth, I wondered whether she'd even be re-elected as Governor of Alaska! He reminded me of the fact that Alaskans just re-elected a convicted felon to the Senate. Now, I'm no genius and I say idiot things all the time but I'm a bit baffled by this. Isn't it illegal for convicted felons to vote? Then shouldn't it be even more illegal for them to be elected to office? (See, idiot things - "more illegal"?? Is that like more pregnant or more dead? sigh) And if it's illegal for felons to vote, how can he even do his job as a Senator as? I mean, isn't a huge part of being a Senator voting on things on a national level?
Here's another thing I don't get and this applies to Congress as a whole, not just Ted Stevens, but he's an excellent example. I think there should be a limit to the amount of times someone can get re-elected to Congress. I don't think people should be able to be re-elected until they DIE. Ted Stevens is 84 and according to Wikipedia's article about him, he's been a Senator for 40 years!! WTF? This may be age-ist but I don't want people driving a car past 80, much less driving our country. Strom Thurmond left office at age 100, after having been in office over 47 years! Both of those men have/had been in office longer then I've been alive. Again, maybe I'm being age-ist but I feel there's something wrong with that.
I also feel that when you have someone so firmly entrenched, they get complaisant, set in their ways, and lazy. I don't want a quick turnaround, because you need some training and experience in the position to be really effective. I think 10 years, 12 max, should be plenty. And don't even get me started on the BS that is their self-voted lifetime pay and health benefits. Again, I say - WTF?
And speaking of term limits, let's go presidential. Have y'all read The Daily Show's book called America? I highly recommend it. Despite being a great laugh, it's got some very interesting points in there (and I'm not talking about the naked pic's of the Supreme Court). One piece (I believe it's a Stephen Colbert contribution) talks about how the President of the United States spends 2 years being president, then another 2 years trying to get re-elected. I'd never thought about it like that before I read this piece but it's sadly and entirely true. I think one 6 year term, no repeats, should suffice.
I also like the way Canada does it. The link is to the Harlot's description of how they manage their Prime Minister position - it's at the bottom of that post in the PPS. I think that makes the most sense of any political process I've ever heard.
In our town, we had 3 bonds on the ballot that didn't get passed. 2 were for more schools - so we could stop this year-round nonsense and have enough schools to accommodate the children in this state. The third was for a bigger, better library.
OK, our library is pretty good and maybe we don't really need a whole cultural center in our smallish town. But we definitely need those extra schools. I heard people say things like, "Doesn't matter to me, my kids go to private school" and "I don't even have kids! What do I care?" Here's the scoop - these kids that "don't effect" you are citizens in your community. If they don't have proper schools and great places to hang out after school, they will be hooligans and grow up to be bad citizens. I can't believe people don't get that.
Trying to pay more attention to politics, Ruth!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Why Washington Shouldn't Be In Charge Of Washington
Has anyone else seen this on the internet? My husband read it last night and emailed it to me...
I'm against the $850,000,000,000 bailout.
Instead, I'm in favor of giving $850,000,000,000 to America in a ""We Deserve It Dividend"".
To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $850 billon that equals $425,000.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a "We Deserve It Dividend".
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.
What would you do with $297,500 to $595,000 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college - it'll be there
Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth
Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ("vote buy") economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we're going to do an $850 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult US Citizen 18+!
As for AIG - liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.
Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
"We Deserve It Dividend" more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .
And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic.
Now, I think the actual number is $700 Billion, not $850 Billion - is that right? So by this man's thinking, that comes out to $350,000 per US citizen over 18 which would still be something like $245,000 per person after taxes.
Creative Citizens always seem smarter, Ruth!
I'm against the $850,000,000,000 bailout.
Instead, I'm in favor of giving $850,000,000,000 to America in a ""We Deserve It Dividend"".
To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $850 billon that equals $425,000.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a "We Deserve It Dividend".
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.
What would you do with $297,500 to $595,000 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college - it'll be there
Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth
Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ("vote buy") economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we're going to do an $850 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult US Citizen 18+!
As for AIG - liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.
Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
"We Deserve It Dividend" more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .
And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic.
Now, I think the actual number is $700 Billion, not $850 Billion - is that right? So by this man's thinking, that comes out to $350,000 per US citizen over 18 which would still be something like $245,000 per person after taxes.
Creative Citizens always seem smarter, Ruth!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Back Story
This is a long story. And if you didn't read my last post, you'll likely be confused. Otherwise, get a snack and some knitting and here we go....
I've kept quiet about my backstory knowledge for a long time. There's been so much flak here about the whole thing and J has been more then gracious about it. Certainly more gracious then I would ever be capable of - but y'all know me! She's wanted to avoid the whole mess and just concentrate on running her business and providing a good, solid yarn shop. She's never said a bad word about K or her shop, only nice things. I know she'll probably be very unhappy with me telling all that I know but it's not fair that the other side isn't being told. It's not fair for people to judge J when they don't have all the facts. I've kept quiet as long as I could. These are the facts as I know them to be true....
So there I was....
Dave and I were looking to buy a business and leave Tucson. We started that search in 2005. One broker told Dave to figure out what our interests were and call related businesses. Even if they weren't listed as "For Sale", sometimes a business owner has it in the back of their mind that they want to sell and just needs that little push of outside interest to pursue it.
We went to YarnArts the first time we came to Parker, CO (November 2005). It was a nice little shop, well stocked but in a really bad location. On the outskirts of Parker in this sort of rundown shopping corner. I went in and looked around while D waited in the car. I picked out yarn for a scarf for D's aunt and when I went to pay, the nice, lovely older women running the store realized they hadn't even turned on the register! It was 2 in the afternoon. Not a particularly good sign, but it was a Tuesday so no worries.
After that bit of advice from the broker, I would call YarnArts every now and then (when we were still in Tucson) and talk to the owner, K. After explaining the business broker's advice, I would ask if she was interested in selling and she would laugh and say, "No, we only opened less then a year ago!"
A year later, D and I moved our family to Parker when D bought the FedEx route in town. I went to visit YarnArts again and found that it had moved. It was in a much better location and a much better space. Very spacious and open and at least twice the size of the previous location. I was surprised to see that with all that extra space, she didn't have much more yarn then before. A bit more but the shelves were never quite full. I introduced myself in person and joked that I was the vulture calling every now and then to see if she wanted to sell. She laughed and said if I'd asked her a month earlier she certainly would've! She'd just installed a new computer system and was having nothing but trouble with it. I gave her my info, sat and knit awhile and then left.
I went in the shop several times and liked the place just fine. A few months later, K put out an email to her entire email list of people that she was considering selling. I went over there to talk to her about it and it turns out she wanted to talk to me about it first but had lost my info. So she put this email out there and hoped I would see it (and also to put it out there to others in case I'd changed my mind).
I talked to D about it and he said to get her info. I went back to K and we talked for several hours over several days. Then weeks. Then months.
When she and I talked initially, she wasn't sure if she wanted to bring on a partner or just sell outright. The first time we talked, it was for 2 hours. At first I was all for a partnership and if she wanted to phase out after 6 months to a year, we'd put in the contracts to revisit these issues at that time. After our initial talk I knew there was no way I'd partner. In her own words, K is "very scattered". I'm not Joe Businesswoman by any stretch of the imagination but K was telling me crazy stuff that I couldn't get behind. She had an employee that was double billing her - billing her for both a teacher pay during classes and employee pay in the same hour. You're supposed to get one or the other, not both. K said she didn't catch it for a couple of months. She also told me this, "You know the little finger-walking symbol associated with the Yellow Pages? Well, it's not trademarked and people send out scam bills. I paid these for 6 months before I finally called Yellow Pages and asked why I was getting a bill every 2 weeks or so. They told me about the scam bills and I stopped paying them." ????? 6 months??
I told here that in our yearlong search for a business, D and I had some pretty decent experience as to what we needed to see on paper. Buying and selling a business is a ton of paperwork and some of those papers we'd be needing were things like her FFE's (list of fixtures, furniture and equipment and their current worth), her tax returns since opening, her P & L's (profit and loss statements) since she opened, and her inventory list.
I asked her for these papers forever. It took her over 5 months to get them together and get them to me (around August/September last year) and the stuff she gave me (as far as P&L's) were only through April, not to date (i.e. August/Sept). During this time, she'd had 2 big yarn sales. Her store was really bare bones and she wasn't restocking because, as she told me, "I don't want to restock in case the new owner wants to take the store in a different direction and carry other things." Well that's all well and good if she was ready to sell right away but she wasn't. As I said, it was months (and 2 big sales) before she got me any paperwork. I know there were other parties that were interested and she told me they hadn't gotten anymore paperwork then I. So now she's actually losing clients - I mean she's gotta be, right? With very little in stock, the same little stock, why would you keep coming back? And the new owner will have to spend a significant amount of money right off the bat (I'm talking between $5K - $10K) to bring the shop back up to the level one would expect to find in a yarn shop, particularly one of that size.
She finally got all the paperwork together and gave it to me. I was looking through it and asking her what price she was going to put the store up for. She said she had a lawyer who specialized in pricing businesses. When she finally got all her stuff together and called the lawyer, the lawyer told K that it was going to be another 2 weeks before she could get to it as she (the lawyer) was going on vacation. K lost it. She was almost in tears when she told me this and she said she was just going to give the papers to her landlord and he would help her. She swore he was a great business man. I asked her if she really thought he'd be working in her best interest and what made her think he was a "great business man"? She said, "Well, he owns a couple of places here in town and he's really nice. He's always telling me I can get out of my lease at any time because he has 2 other businesses lined up that want my spot as a restaurant and he can charge them more." Again, I'm wondering why she thought he'd have her best interest at heart since it seems like he'd be just as happy to have her out of there.
OK, so he gives her a price. $100,000. One. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars. After seeing her tax returns and P&L's and stuff I knew what our answer was. Being open less then 3 years, she wasn't losing money per se but she wasn't clearing more then $6,000 (six thousand) a year either.
Just to be fair and get a more impartial opinion, we took the paperwork and the price to both our business broker and our accountant. The accountant said he'd slap us silly if we bought it. Our broker was more charitable and rational. After he stopped laughing, he said, "No way." He simply asked what were we getting for that price? For that much money, he posited, couldn't we open our own place and make it look like we wanted, carry what we wanted? "In fact," he asked, "Couldn't you open your own, the way you want, for much less?"
Indeed.
So, of course, we passed. Towards the end of our dealings with K, we started the process of buying the business I currently have. She didn't sell it (shocker) and she moved it again. I'm on her email list but I never got any notice of her moving. Apparently, neither did most of the people who frequented her place. We all thought she just closed her doors. It was until a couple of months later, when she sent out an email about her latest sale, that I knew she even still existed! She moved to downtown Parker in this little upstairs side shop. It's smaller then her original space but, still not as well-stocked as you would think.
One of the other interested parties for K's shop, J., did just what the broker asked us about. She decided that, for the money, she could open her own place and make it what she wanted. It was a very Fate oriented thing for her. She talked to a friend (who owns a shop in northern Denver) and others about the ethics of opening another shop in Parker (population about 40,000) and everyone told her to follow her heart and live her life. She found the perfect spot that she wanted but it wasn't really available. Someone else was looking at it for something else but the landlord said it wasn't a done deal and they were in "escrow". J said to herself that she'd give it until a certain date and if it didn't work out for that space, then that was that.
On the morning of J's arbitrary final date, the landlord called her and offered her the space. She opened her shop (late Dec? early Jan?) and it's fabulous!
I've kept quiet about my backstory knowledge for a long time. There's been so much flak here about the whole thing and J has been more then gracious about it. Certainly more gracious then I would ever be capable of - but y'all know me! She's wanted to avoid the whole mess and just concentrate on running her business and providing a good, solid yarn shop. She's never said a bad word about K or her shop, only nice things. I know she'll probably be very unhappy with me telling all that I know but it's not fair that the other side isn't being told. It's not fair for people to judge J when they don't have all the facts. I've kept quiet as long as I could. These are the facts as I know them to be true....
So there I was....
Dave and I were looking to buy a business and leave Tucson. We started that search in 2005. One broker told Dave to figure out what our interests were and call related businesses. Even if they weren't listed as "For Sale", sometimes a business owner has it in the back of their mind that they want to sell and just needs that little push of outside interest to pursue it.
We went to YarnArts the first time we came to Parker, CO (November 2005). It was a nice little shop, well stocked but in a really bad location. On the outskirts of Parker in this sort of rundown shopping corner. I went in and looked around while D waited in the car. I picked out yarn for a scarf for D's aunt and when I went to pay, the nice, lovely older women running the store realized they hadn't even turned on the register! It was 2 in the afternoon. Not a particularly good sign, but it was a Tuesday so no worries.
After that bit of advice from the broker, I would call YarnArts every now and then (when we were still in Tucson) and talk to the owner, K. After explaining the business broker's advice, I would ask if she was interested in selling and she would laugh and say, "No, we only opened less then a year ago!"
A year later, D and I moved our family to Parker when D bought the FedEx route in town. I went to visit YarnArts again and found that it had moved. It was in a much better location and a much better space. Very spacious and open and at least twice the size of the previous location. I was surprised to see that with all that extra space, she didn't have much more yarn then before. A bit more but the shelves were never quite full. I introduced myself in person and joked that I was the vulture calling every now and then to see if she wanted to sell. She laughed and said if I'd asked her a month earlier she certainly would've! She'd just installed a new computer system and was having nothing but trouble with it. I gave her my info, sat and knit awhile and then left.
I went in the shop several times and liked the place just fine. A few months later, K put out an email to her entire email list of people that she was considering selling. I went over there to talk to her about it and it turns out she wanted to talk to me about it first but had lost my info. So she put this email out there and hoped I would see it (and also to put it out there to others in case I'd changed my mind).
I talked to D about it and he said to get her info. I went back to K and we talked for several hours over several days. Then weeks. Then months.
When she and I talked initially, she wasn't sure if she wanted to bring on a partner or just sell outright. The first time we talked, it was for 2 hours. At first I was all for a partnership and if she wanted to phase out after 6 months to a year, we'd put in the contracts to revisit these issues at that time. After our initial talk I knew there was no way I'd partner. In her own words, K is "very scattered". I'm not Joe Businesswoman by any stretch of the imagination but K was telling me crazy stuff that I couldn't get behind. She had an employee that was double billing her - billing her for both a teacher pay during classes and employee pay in the same hour. You're supposed to get one or the other, not both. K said she didn't catch it for a couple of months. She also told me this, "You know the little finger-walking symbol associated with the Yellow Pages? Well, it's not trademarked and people send out scam bills. I paid these for 6 months before I finally called Yellow Pages and asked why I was getting a bill every 2 weeks or so. They told me about the scam bills and I stopped paying them." ????? 6 months??
I told here that in our yearlong search for a business, D and I had some pretty decent experience as to what we needed to see on paper. Buying and selling a business is a ton of paperwork and some of those papers we'd be needing were things like her FFE's (list of fixtures, furniture and equipment and their current worth), her tax returns since opening, her P & L's (profit and loss statements) since she opened, and her inventory list.
I asked her for these papers forever. It took her over 5 months to get them together and get them to me (around August/September last year) and the stuff she gave me (as far as P&L's) were only through April, not to date (i.e. August/Sept). During this time, she'd had 2 big yarn sales. Her store was really bare bones and she wasn't restocking because, as she told me, "I don't want to restock in case the new owner wants to take the store in a different direction and carry other things." Well that's all well and good if she was ready to sell right away but she wasn't. As I said, it was months (and 2 big sales) before she got me any paperwork. I know there were other parties that were interested and she told me they hadn't gotten anymore paperwork then I. So now she's actually losing clients - I mean she's gotta be, right? With very little in stock, the same little stock, why would you keep coming back? And the new owner will have to spend a significant amount of money right off the bat (I'm talking between $5K - $10K) to bring the shop back up to the level one would expect to find in a yarn shop, particularly one of that size.
She finally got all the paperwork together and gave it to me. I was looking through it and asking her what price she was going to put the store up for. She said she had a lawyer who specialized in pricing businesses. When she finally got all her stuff together and called the lawyer, the lawyer told K that it was going to be another 2 weeks before she could get to it as she (the lawyer) was going on vacation. K lost it. She was almost in tears when she told me this and she said she was just going to give the papers to her landlord and he would help her. She swore he was a great business man. I asked her if she really thought he'd be working in her best interest and what made her think he was a "great business man"? She said, "Well, he owns a couple of places here in town and he's really nice. He's always telling me I can get out of my lease at any time because he has 2 other businesses lined up that want my spot as a restaurant and he can charge them more." Again, I'm wondering why she thought he'd have her best interest at heart since it seems like he'd be just as happy to have her out of there.
OK, so he gives her a price. $100,000. One. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars. After seeing her tax returns and P&L's and stuff I knew what our answer was. Being open less then 3 years, she wasn't losing money per se but she wasn't clearing more then $6,000 (six thousand) a year either.
Just to be fair and get a more impartial opinion, we took the paperwork and the price to both our business broker and our accountant. The accountant said he'd slap us silly if we bought it. Our broker was more charitable and rational. After he stopped laughing, he said, "No way." He simply asked what were we getting for that price? For that much money, he posited, couldn't we open our own place and make it look like we wanted, carry what we wanted? "In fact," he asked, "Couldn't you open your own, the way you want, for much less?"
Indeed.
So, of course, we passed. Towards the end of our dealings with K, we started the process of buying the business I currently have. She didn't sell it (shocker) and she moved it again. I'm on her email list but I never got any notice of her moving. Apparently, neither did most of the people who frequented her place. We all thought she just closed her doors. It was until a couple of months later, when she sent out an email about her latest sale, that I knew she even still existed! She moved to downtown Parker in this little upstairs side shop. It's smaller then her original space but, still not as well-stocked as you would think.
One of the other interested parties for K's shop, J., did just what the broker asked us about. She decided that, for the money, she could open her own place and make it what she wanted. It was a very Fate oriented thing for her. She talked to a friend (who owns a shop in northern Denver) and others about the ethics of opening another shop in Parker (population about 40,000) and everyone told her to follow her heart and live her life. She found the perfect spot that she wanted but it wasn't really available. Someone else was looking at it for something else but the landlord said it wasn't a done deal and they were in "escrow". J said to herself that she'd give it until a certain date and if it didn't work out for that space, then that was that.
On the morning of J's arbitrary final date, the landlord called her and offered her the space. She opened her shop (late Dec? early Jan?) and it's fabulous!
If she'd waited a year or whatever to open, she wouldn't have been able to get this space that she wanted and if, by chance it was still available, there's no way she would've been able to get it for the same cost. It's near the movie theater and there's now plans in place to build a Brunswick Zone (giant bowling alley/fun center) in the open field in front of the theater. Upping the traffic significantly - also upping the price for new tenants in the area.
I was still going to both shops but eventually stopped going to K's place. I couldn't stand to listen to her. She would complain to anyone within earshot about the new store. She would bad mouth and spill bitterness in your ear every chance it came up. And believe me, if it didn't come up, she'd bring it up. I asked her why she was so mad at J in particular and K told me that J had her P&L's and used those to open her own place. With the dealings I had with K, trying to get paperwork out of her was like pulling teeth and I'm pretty sure whatever J might've had, wasn't all that accurate (if it's anything like what K gave me) and like I've already said, for the price K was asking? I would've done the same thing J did if I'd had the resources.
The last time I went into K's, she was at it again. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Complain, complain, complain. I couldn't take it anymore and finally told her, "K. Stop. You have to stop this! You guys aren't that far apart physically [about 2 miles, but in Parker, it's a world away] but you have completely different styles and Parker is only growing so there's plenty of business for everyone! You don't even carry the same stuff."
K: Well, well...she's carrying Berroco and Lamb's Pride. And she has Rowan and I don't know how she swung that since Rowan has territories. The Berroco guy told me she straight up lied about where her shop was going to be.
Me: OK. Let's be reasonable here. Every yarn store carries Berroco and Lamb's Pride and the Berroco yarns she has are completely different types then what you have! Rowan hasn't had territories in over a year now and like the Berroco, she has different Rowan yarns. And as far as the Berroco guy "lying", he's just covering his ass (or trying to avoid confrontation). I mean think about it, K, he had to ship that yarn somewhere and I'm sure he's got access to MapQuest. You have to stop worrying about her and run your business like a business.
After that, I stopped going to K.'s except for sales. The next sale I went to was a month after the conversation I'd had with her. I went because I wanted to get some Rowan (the only time I buy Rowan is on sale!) but it was all gone. I asked her where it was and she said she'd sent it back to Rowan - she didn't like the way they did business. She was always doing stuff like that. It seems like shooting yourself in the foot to me.
K closed her doors last month. Here's the letter she sent out about her closing:
Dear Friends of YarnArts:
As many of you already know, I have for quite a while been wanting to get out of the retail business to spend more time with my wonderful supportive husband and three children whom I adore.
So many people have asked me not to close because they love the cozy atmosphere and friendly, caring social aspects. But I stayed open mostly for the fantastic loyal friends that have helped me out at the store these past three years.
Sophia, Hanny, Pixie, Nancy, Kristina, Kathryn... I can't say "thank you" enough. I feel I have been truly blessed with their support and integrity of these trusting and honorable "gems" as one customer called them. You are all op-notch ladies with so much talent and willingness to help others, I could not have done it without you. Now, for the first time in three years, I will have some free time to actually learn from your awesome knitting and crochet artistry teachings.
Over the years I have met many wonderful customers, whom I now consider friends. Thank you for your patronage, it has been my honor and pleasure to serve the "commuKnitty". It's been an exciting and interesting ride, and I have learned many lessons about business (including how cutthroat it can be at times). I'm simply not competitive enough to play like that, it's not in my nature, nor do I have the desire to be like that. Many people have asked me what I want to do next. That's easy, I wish to take a walk to remember and smell the roses with my family and friends.
All my best wishes to those of you who have supported YarnArts. Thank you so very much.
It makes me sad that she had to get that last little dig in. "Cutthroat"?? "Competitive"? Really? J is the least cutthroat or competitive person I've met. When people would come into her shop and say that they were sad that K's place had closed, J would say, "Oh she's not closed! She just moved!" and would tell them how to get to K's new location (which also means that roughly 3 months after K moved, people still didn't know she'd moved and not closed). J would also refer people to K's (or any other store) for things K carried that J didn't have.
So, yea. She's closed. I'm sure she blames it on J but from what I've seen, she wouldn't have survived the year either way. I only say she blames it on J because to hear K tell it, that's how she feels. And don't get me wrong - I do understand how it can be frustrating and disappointing when you're trying to sell your business and then someone goes and opens competition close by.
I have very serious, very valid reasons for believing K wouldn't have survived the year either way. I've seen K's paperwork, I've seen how K runs her store - both behind the scenes and as a customer. If you've been open 3 years and you're not carrying knitting magazines? Why?? It wasn't until her final location that she finally got knitting mag's to sell. Ever since that first sale after her first announcement to sell last year, she hasn't replenished her addi turbo needle stock. At. All. She never fully restocked her yarns after that first sale either.
I went to her final sale (who can pass up a good sale?). I was there right when she opened that first day of her last sale. There were 2 yarns that had enough skeins to actually make a sweater (one had 2 colors with enough and the other had 3 colors with enough). That's how it always was with her place. One of the things K told me was that she learned to knit only about 6 months before she opened her shop. She saw a need in Parker and decided to fill it. Her shop had all kinds of novelty stuff and tons of felting wool. That's what she makes - scarves and felted bags. Once you were past the scarf and felted bag stage of knitting, there was really nothing else there for you.
So K and her "loyal" fans are completely poisoned against J. But my thinking is, a) they only have one side of the story and b) why not find out for yourself? Why be bitter about something that didn't even belong to you and why listen to someone who clearly couldn't see the other side? If K was honest with herself she'd admit that J's opening had very little to do with K's closing. At her second location, when I was talking to K about buying, I'd come to see her and she'd be laying down on her couch in the store, dozing. The couch was towards the back but still - you can't do that sort of thing! So unprofessional! And she was always telling me she didn't have time to do half the things she wanted to do with the store (like making the phone call necessary to have knitting mag's to sell) but, again, can't get much done if you're napping.
If you read all the comments on knitmap (the last of which, as of my last post, was asking about broomsticks), you read Marly/YarnThing's comment. She's so much more eloquent and diplomatic then I. I adore her! If you don't like J's shop or are unhappy with her opening or whatever, then don't go. Waste the expensive gas to go to shops that are 15 - 20 minutes away. But don't play little, bitter, sabotage games. It just makes you look small.
Which brings me to String in Highlands Ranch. WTF is going on out there? At one point, there were 63 snotty, mean comments on knitmap. Well, not all 63 - some were good. But whenever a person left a good comment, the mean girls would shred them. Then all the comments were gone and 3 new comments were left. One good, 2 mean. Erased again and already 6 mean comments (which may all be gone again, not sure). Let it go people! Why so bitter? If anyone has the backstory on that, I'd like to know (on your blog, not on mine - linky, linky). But either way, why try to sabotage the only game in your town? If you don't like it (policies, inventory, staff, whatever) - go somewhere else! If there's legitimate complaints (like how they never used to answer their phone. They do now.) fine but I just don't think knitmap should be the venue to be able to vent personal issues.
If knitmap were mine, I certainly wouldn't allow anonymous comments. Step up people, leave your name and if you have something bad to say then say it - don't hide behind a computer screen. And if there were obviously personal issues coming through, I wouldn't allow those comments to be published. That's just me though. When I rule the world....
I've linked to this backstory in the Purls of Wisdom comments section of knitmap so I'm fully expecting a vicious sh**storm. And I'm sure most of it will be anonymous. Bring it on. In fact, my personal email is under my pic on this blog. Let's have coffee and discuss it like adults.
Ready to weather it, Ruth!
P. S. Warned you it was long! Next week - yarn, I promise!
I was still going to both shops but eventually stopped going to K's place. I couldn't stand to listen to her. She would complain to anyone within earshot about the new store. She would bad mouth and spill bitterness in your ear every chance it came up. And believe me, if it didn't come up, she'd bring it up. I asked her why she was so mad at J in particular and K told me that J had her P&L's and used those to open her own place. With the dealings I had with K, trying to get paperwork out of her was like pulling teeth and I'm pretty sure whatever J might've had, wasn't all that accurate (if it's anything like what K gave me) and like I've already said, for the price K was asking? I would've done the same thing J did if I'd had the resources.
The last time I went into K's, she was at it again. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Complain, complain, complain. I couldn't take it anymore and finally told her, "K. Stop. You have to stop this! You guys aren't that far apart physically [about 2 miles, but in Parker, it's a world away] but you have completely different styles and Parker is only growing so there's plenty of business for everyone! You don't even carry the same stuff."
K: Well, well...she's carrying Berroco and Lamb's Pride. And she has Rowan and I don't know how she swung that since Rowan has territories. The Berroco guy told me she straight up lied about where her shop was going to be.
Me: OK. Let's be reasonable here. Every yarn store carries Berroco and Lamb's Pride and the Berroco yarns she has are completely different types then what you have! Rowan hasn't had territories in over a year now and like the Berroco, she has different Rowan yarns. And as far as the Berroco guy "lying", he's just covering his ass (or trying to avoid confrontation). I mean think about it, K, he had to ship that yarn somewhere and I'm sure he's got access to MapQuest. You have to stop worrying about her and run your business like a business.
After that, I stopped going to K.'s except for sales. The next sale I went to was a month after the conversation I'd had with her. I went because I wanted to get some Rowan (the only time I buy Rowan is on sale!) but it was all gone. I asked her where it was and she said she'd sent it back to Rowan - she didn't like the way they did business. She was always doing stuff like that. It seems like shooting yourself in the foot to me.
K closed her doors last month. Here's the letter she sent out about her closing:
Dear Friends of YarnArts:
As many of you already know, I have for quite a while been wanting to get out of the retail business to spend more time with my wonderful supportive husband and three children whom I adore.
So many people have asked me not to close because they love the cozy atmosphere and friendly, caring social aspects. But I stayed open mostly for the fantastic loyal friends that have helped me out at the store these past three years.
Sophia, Hanny, Pixie, Nancy, Kristina, Kathryn... I can't say "thank you" enough. I feel I have been truly blessed with their support and integrity of these trusting and honorable "gems" as one customer called them. You are all op-notch ladies with so much talent and willingness to help others, I could not have done it without you. Now, for the first time in three years, I will have some free time to actually learn from your awesome knitting and crochet artistry teachings.
Over the years I have met many wonderful customers, whom I now consider friends. Thank you for your patronage, it has been my honor and pleasure to serve the "commuKnitty". It's been an exciting and interesting ride, and I have learned many lessons about business (including how cutthroat it can be at times). I'm simply not competitive enough to play like that, it's not in my nature, nor do I have the desire to be like that. Many people have asked me what I want to do next. That's easy, I wish to take a walk to remember and smell the roses with my family and friends.
All my best wishes to those of you who have supported YarnArts. Thank you so very much.
It makes me sad that she had to get that last little dig in. "Cutthroat"?? "Competitive"? Really? J is the least cutthroat or competitive person I've met. When people would come into her shop and say that they were sad that K's place had closed, J would say, "Oh she's not closed! She just moved!" and would tell them how to get to K's new location (which also means that roughly 3 months after K moved, people still didn't know she'd moved and not closed). J would also refer people to K's (or any other store) for things K carried that J didn't have.
So, yea. She's closed. I'm sure she blames it on J but from what I've seen, she wouldn't have survived the year either way. I only say she blames it on J because to hear K tell it, that's how she feels. And don't get me wrong - I do understand how it can be frustrating and disappointing when you're trying to sell your business and then someone goes and opens competition close by.
I have very serious, very valid reasons for believing K wouldn't have survived the year either way. I've seen K's paperwork, I've seen how K runs her store - both behind the scenes and as a customer. If you've been open 3 years and you're not carrying knitting magazines? Why?? It wasn't until her final location that she finally got knitting mag's to sell. Ever since that first sale after her first announcement to sell last year, she hasn't replenished her addi turbo needle stock. At. All. She never fully restocked her yarns after that first sale either.
I went to her final sale (who can pass up a good sale?). I was there right when she opened that first day of her last sale. There were 2 yarns that had enough skeins to actually make a sweater (one had 2 colors with enough and the other had 3 colors with enough). That's how it always was with her place. One of the things K told me was that she learned to knit only about 6 months before she opened her shop. She saw a need in Parker and decided to fill it. Her shop had all kinds of novelty stuff and tons of felting wool. That's what she makes - scarves and felted bags. Once you were past the scarf and felted bag stage of knitting, there was really nothing else there for you.
So K and her "loyal" fans are completely poisoned against J. But my thinking is, a) they only have one side of the story and b) why not find out for yourself? Why be bitter about something that didn't even belong to you and why listen to someone who clearly couldn't see the other side? If K was honest with herself she'd admit that J's opening had very little to do with K's closing. At her second location, when I was talking to K about buying, I'd come to see her and she'd be laying down on her couch in the store, dozing. The couch was towards the back but still - you can't do that sort of thing! So unprofessional! And she was always telling me she didn't have time to do half the things she wanted to do with the store (like making the phone call necessary to have knitting mag's to sell) but, again, can't get much done if you're napping.
If you read all the comments on knitmap (the last of which, as of my last post, was asking about broomsticks), you read Marly/YarnThing's comment. She's so much more eloquent and diplomatic then I. I adore her! If you don't like J's shop or are unhappy with her opening or whatever, then don't go. Waste the expensive gas to go to shops that are 15 - 20 minutes away. But don't play little, bitter, sabotage games. It just makes you look small.
Which brings me to String in Highlands Ranch. WTF is going on out there? At one point, there were 63 snotty, mean comments on knitmap. Well, not all 63 - some were good. But whenever a person left a good comment, the mean girls would shred them. Then all the comments were gone and 3 new comments were left. One good, 2 mean. Erased again and already 6 mean comments (which may all be gone again, not sure). Let it go people! Why so bitter? If anyone has the backstory on that, I'd like to know (on your blog, not on mine - linky, linky). But either way, why try to sabotage the only game in your town? If you don't like it (policies, inventory, staff, whatever) - go somewhere else! If there's legitimate complaints (like how they never used to answer their phone. They do now.) fine but I just don't think knitmap should be the venue to be able to vent personal issues.
If knitmap were mine, I certainly wouldn't allow anonymous comments. Step up people, leave your name and if you have something bad to say then say it - don't hide behind a computer screen. And if there were obviously personal issues coming through, I wouldn't allow those comments to be published. That's just me though. When I rule the world....
I've linked to this backstory in the Purls of Wisdom comments section of knitmap so I'm fully expecting a vicious sh**storm. And I'm sure most of it will be anonymous. Bring it on. In fact, my personal email is under my pic on this blog. Let's have coffee and discuss it like adults.
Ready to weather it, Ruth!
P. S. Warned you it was long! Next week - yarn, I promise!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
It Makes Me Sad
Friday, November 9, 2007
Swallowing the Bitter Pill
You ever have that person in your life that makes you feel all warm and needed and loved and then they yank the rug out and you see that they really were just fooling you? Again. And you feel all hurt and betrayed and pissed? You’re mad at them but really you’re mad at yourself for letting them fool you again?
My mom was supposed to come for a visit. She was flying in tonight and leaving next Tuesday. She sent me an email yesterday to let me know she’d cancelled the trip. A fucking email. I called her to see why and got her machine. She sent me another email to say she had the flu and she’d call me later because she didn’t want to talk about it at work. Didn’t want to talk about the flu at work? If she has the flu, why is she at work? And she didn’t have the flu the day before when I called her.
So she calls last night and says, yes, she had a flu shot and was having some reaction to it but I could tell that wasn’t all and so asked her what was really up. She said she didn’t want to come out when there was all this drama with Dave’s truck and she didn’t want to be the “mother-in-law” in the way. (Dave’s FedEx truck broke down and cost us nearly $6000 to fix) She said she’d come out next month. I told her there’d be drama then, too because that was going to be peak season and she wouldn’t see Dave at all because he’d be so slammed with the route.
I said, “There’s always going to be drama, mom. So whatever. When you feel like you want to come for a visit and deal with the “drama” that is our family you come on out. I’ve got to go.” And I hung up.
Our drama?? Yeah, we have drama. We’ve had drama since we moved here a year ago. It’s been a financial nightmare. But that’s life. And this coming from a woman who is completely addicted to drama and chaos. If you think I've got drama it's because, baby, I learned from the best. And I’m always the one she calls and I’m the one who is there for her.
She’s been saying, “I wish I could be there for you,” when I call her upset with things going on here but when it comes down to it, she doesn’t want to deal with it. Just like always. She’s helped out financially here and there in my life but when I need her emotionally, it’s too much trouble. Anything beyond listening on the phone is too much trouble.
I cut off all contact with her for most of the 90’s because I was tired of her lies and chaos. Through the magic of therapy, I reconciled with her. And we’ve had this really great relationship as long as we never talked about the stuff we really needed to talk about. She was visiting us every year after the boys were born and when her husband got sick we came out there. That’s the last time we’ve seen her, when we visited her summer before last, because her husband was dying and we knew she couldn’t come see us.
He passed this April and I called her every day for about 4 months to make sure she was OK and always answered when she called me. Then there’s this whole drama about her inheritance that she put in the safes of her 2 adult stepsons and how half of it is missing now. I’ve been dealing with her shit for… well, forever.
I feel tricked. I feel like Charlie Brown forever running for that damn football. And, if I’m honest, I did it to myself. I keep having this fantasy that she’s going to act like a real mom someday. And I’m not talking about June Cleaver - she’s great at that. She sends cookies at Christmas and sends the boys cards and presents. I don’t need cookies.
And the boys. I’ve been pumping this visit for 2 weeks now and I had to tell them last night that she’s not coming. Davis is too little to know/care much but Trev was pretty upset (I used her flu excuse). And again, being honest, he’ll get over it. I don’t know if I will.
All this time, I’ve been telling myself that she’s like that because of the husbands she’s had. They were bad guys and controlling. I knew deep down it wasn’t true and now I know for sure - there’s no husband for me to blame anymore.
I’m so angry, I can’t see straight. I’ll get over it, but not anytime soon. So, yeah, she can visit whenever she wants and we’ll have this nice fluffy visit. And as far as her dealing with our “drama”, she won’t have to anymore. We can have a nice fluffy relationship, too. She can keep her damn football.
In yoga (or was it Tai Chi?), there’s this move called Swallowing the Bitter Pill. You put your arms at shoulder height and curved like you’re holding an enormous beach ball. You do these wavy movements with your arms, making the “ball” smaller and smaller until it’s tennis ball size then you make these movements in front of your face and down your throat to signify swallowing the bitter pill. I never understood it. Why would you want to swallow a tennis ball sized bitter pill? Why internalize that? No thank, you.
Spitting it out, Ruth
My mom was supposed to come for a visit. She was flying in tonight and leaving next Tuesday. She sent me an email yesterday to let me know she’d cancelled the trip. A fucking email. I called her to see why and got her machine. She sent me another email to say she had the flu and she’d call me later because she didn’t want to talk about it at work. Didn’t want to talk about the flu at work? If she has the flu, why is she at work? And she didn’t have the flu the day before when I called her.
So she calls last night and says, yes, she had a flu shot and was having some reaction to it but I could tell that wasn’t all and so asked her what was really up. She said she didn’t want to come out when there was all this drama with Dave’s truck and she didn’t want to be the “mother-in-law” in the way. (Dave’s FedEx truck broke down and cost us nearly $6000 to fix) She said she’d come out next month. I told her there’d be drama then, too because that was going to be peak season and she wouldn’t see Dave at all because he’d be so slammed with the route.
I said, “There’s always going to be drama, mom. So whatever. When you feel like you want to come for a visit and deal with the “drama” that is our family you come on out. I’ve got to go.” And I hung up.
Our drama?? Yeah, we have drama. We’ve had drama since we moved here a year ago. It’s been a financial nightmare. But that’s life. And this coming from a woman who is completely addicted to drama and chaos. If you think I've got drama it's because, baby, I learned from the best. And I’m always the one she calls and I’m the one who is there for her.
She’s been saying, “I wish I could be there for you,” when I call her upset with things going on here but when it comes down to it, she doesn’t want to deal with it. Just like always. She’s helped out financially here and there in my life but when I need her emotionally, it’s too much trouble. Anything beyond listening on the phone is too much trouble.
I cut off all contact with her for most of the 90’s because I was tired of her lies and chaos. Through the magic of therapy, I reconciled with her. And we’ve had this really great relationship as long as we never talked about the stuff we really needed to talk about. She was visiting us every year after the boys were born and when her husband got sick we came out there. That’s the last time we’ve seen her, when we visited her summer before last, because her husband was dying and we knew she couldn’t come see us.
He passed this April and I called her every day for about 4 months to make sure she was OK and always answered when she called me. Then there’s this whole drama about her inheritance that she put in the safes of her 2 adult stepsons and how half of it is missing now. I’ve been dealing with her shit for… well, forever.
I feel tricked. I feel like Charlie Brown forever running for that damn football. And, if I’m honest, I did it to myself. I keep having this fantasy that she’s going to act like a real mom someday. And I’m not talking about June Cleaver - she’s great at that. She sends cookies at Christmas and sends the boys cards and presents. I don’t need cookies.
And the boys. I’ve been pumping this visit for 2 weeks now and I had to tell them last night that she’s not coming. Davis is too little to know/care much but Trev was pretty upset (I used her flu excuse). And again, being honest, he’ll get over it. I don’t know if I will.
All this time, I’ve been telling myself that she’s like that because of the husbands she’s had. They were bad guys and controlling. I knew deep down it wasn’t true and now I know for sure - there’s no husband for me to blame anymore.
I’m so angry, I can’t see straight. I’ll get over it, but not anytime soon. So, yeah, she can visit whenever she wants and we’ll have this nice fluffy visit. And as far as her dealing with our “drama”, she won’t have to anymore. We can have a nice fluffy relationship, too. She can keep her damn football.
In yoga (or was it Tai Chi?), there’s this move called Swallowing the Bitter Pill. You put your arms at shoulder height and curved like you’re holding an enormous beach ball. You do these wavy movements with your arms, making the “ball” smaller and smaller until it’s tennis ball size then you make these movements in front of your face and down your throat to signify swallowing the bitter pill. I never understood it. Why would you want to swallow a tennis ball sized bitter pill? Why internalize that? No thank, you.
Spitting it out, Ruth
Friday, October 19, 2007
Pumpkin Eater
Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater
I don't understand cheating. It seems so stupid and unnecessary. I think if someone feels they need to cheat, they shouldn't. They should either fix what they have or get out of it.
I had a client in Tucson, (we'll call him F). F's friend (we'll call him B) was calling him daily for about 2 weeks. And F would call this B a lot, too. B's wife cheated on him and eventually left him for a younger guy. B was damn near suicidal (hence all the phone calls). They had grown children who were also upset about the whole thing.
F says my "fix it or get out" theory is oversimplifying the matter. I don't see how. Once you feel you need to start looking elsewhere for the love or companionship or sex or whatever you feel you need, shouldn't you stop and take a good, long look at what you're already in??
I can't stand to hear people say, "You can't help who you fall in love with." Especially when used to justify cheating. That's such bullshit! It's a cop out of a statement anyway, but when used to justify cheating, it's twice as stupid. You absolutely can help it. If you don't flirt or go on a date or to a motel with someone, there's really no shot of falling in love with them. Is there? It's not like your car slipping on black ice and hitting a tree or like stepping in a puddle you didn't see (that's not a gross euphemism. Ew, now it is!). To cheat is a lot of damn work. All the lying and sneaking and covering one's tracks! (OK, that sounds like my yarn stash. jk) It's not something that happens by accident.
I'm not blameless. I've cheated twice in my life. Once when I was 19 and once when I was 23. Both times it was a revenge cheat (I was cheated on and then I went and purposely cheated to get back at him). Both times, after the revenge cheat, I realized how stupid it was and just dumped the guy that cheated on me. Both times, I didn't tell the guy who cheated on me that I revenge cheated.
When I was stationed in Germany, I spent most of my tour at a base where the ratio of men to women was 100:1. (Good times!) Whenever I dated a guy, I would tell him, "Look, nobody's here long enough to get serious. I'm going to be dating other people and you can, too. If you can't handle that, then we can't go out." Some could handle it, some couldn't. Either way, I was honest upfront and no one got hurt. I did get a little serious about a couple of guys in the 2 years I was over there and then I'd stop seeing other people.
My friend Elizabeth got stationed in Korea (also 100:1, they call that tour "Queen for a year"). While there, she became friends with "Stacy". Stacy was heavily involved with "Brad". Brad got sent stateside and begged Stacy to get herself stationed at the same base (Ft. Campbell). She had to do a lot of maneuvering but managed it. She also found out, about a month after he left, that she was pregnant with his child. She called him and told him and he was ecstatic and asked her to marry him. Sent her a ring and everything! Well, it was about 5 months before her tour in Korea was up. She arrived at Ft. Campbell, pregnant and excited to see her fiance. Only she couldn't find him. The unit he was with didn't exist, he wasn't returning her phone calls and he was nowhere to be found!
I was out at Ft. Campbell helping Elizabeth with her own baby when all three of us found Brad. We were at the Commissary together (that's the grocery store on post) and all of a sudden Stacy's eyes lit up. "Brad!", she shouted and ran over to him hugging and kissing him and crying and asking where the hell he'd been and generally making a very happy scene.
Until his wife and 3 kids came around the corner.
This is seriously one of the biggest WTF?? stories I've got. Why would he go to all that trouble trying to get her to be stationed with him when he had no intention of being with her?? That day at the Commissary, he tried to pretend like he didn't even know her and that she was just some crazy pregnant chick! But Elizabeth knew them both (and the whole story) and set him and his wife straight. What a mess.
Happy ending for Stacy, though. She went on to meet a man while she was still pregnant and he loved her and accepted her (and, equally important, accepted her baby). They went on to get married and had another child together, last I heard.
This rant brought to you by a dream I had this morning of Dave cheating. It was really messed up because I couldn't move out and had to live in the basement! Clearly I'm insane. sigh.
Still irritated with Dave even though it was a dream, Ruth!
I don't understand cheating. It seems so stupid and unnecessary. I think if someone feels they need to cheat, they shouldn't. They should either fix what they have or get out of it.
I had a client in Tucson, (we'll call him F). F's friend (we'll call him B) was calling him daily for about 2 weeks. And F would call this B a lot, too. B's wife cheated on him and eventually left him for a younger guy. B was damn near suicidal (hence all the phone calls). They had grown children who were also upset about the whole thing.
F says my "fix it or get out" theory is oversimplifying the matter. I don't see how. Once you feel you need to start looking elsewhere for the love or companionship or sex or whatever you feel you need, shouldn't you stop and take a good, long look at what you're already in??
I can't stand to hear people say, "You can't help who you fall in love with." Especially when used to justify cheating. That's such bullshit! It's a cop out of a statement anyway, but when used to justify cheating, it's twice as stupid. You absolutely can help it. If you don't flirt or go on a date or to a motel with someone, there's really no shot of falling in love with them. Is there? It's not like your car slipping on black ice and hitting a tree or like stepping in a puddle you didn't see (that's not a gross euphemism. Ew, now it is!). To cheat is a lot of damn work. All the lying and sneaking and covering one's tracks! (OK, that sounds like my yarn stash. jk) It's not something that happens by accident.
I'm not blameless. I've cheated twice in my life. Once when I was 19 and once when I was 23. Both times it was a revenge cheat (I was cheated on and then I went and purposely cheated to get back at him). Both times, after the revenge cheat, I realized how stupid it was and just dumped the guy that cheated on me. Both times, I didn't tell the guy who cheated on me that I revenge cheated.
When I was stationed in Germany, I spent most of my tour at a base where the ratio of men to women was 100:1. (Good times!) Whenever I dated a guy, I would tell him, "Look, nobody's here long enough to get serious. I'm going to be dating other people and you can, too. If you can't handle that, then we can't go out." Some could handle it, some couldn't. Either way, I was honest upfront and no one got hurt. I did get a little serious about a couple of guys in the 2 years I was over there and then I'd stop seeing other people.
My friend Elizabeth got stationed in Korea (also 100:1, they call that tour "Queen for a year"). While there, she became friends with "Stacy". Stacy was heavily involved with "Brad". Brad got sent stateside and begged Stacy to get herself stationed at the same base (Ft. Campbell). She had to do a lot of maneuvering but managed it. She also found out, about a month after he left, that she was pregnant with his child. She called him and told him and he was ecstatic and asked her to marry him. Sent her a ring and everything! Well, it was about 5 months before her tour in Korea was up. She arrived at Ft. Campbell, pregnant and excited to see her fiance. Only she couldn't find him. The unit he was with didn't exist, he wasn't returning her phone calls and he was nowhere to be found!
I was out at Ft. Campbell helping Elizabeth with her own baby when all three of us found Brad. We were at the Commissary together (that's the grocery store on post) and all of a sudden Stacy's eyes lit up. "Brad!", she shouted and ran over to him hugging and kissing him and crying and asking where the hell he'd been and generally making a very happy scene.
Until his wife and 3 kids came around the corner.
This is seriously one of the biggest WTF?? stories I've got. Why would he go to all that trouble trying to get her to be stationed with him when he had no intention of being with her?? That day at the Commissary, he tried to pretend like he didn't even know her and that she was just some crazy pregnant chick! But Elizabeth knew them both (and the whole story) and set him and his wife straight. What a mess.
Happy ending for Stacy, though. She went on to meet a man while she was still pregnant and he loved her and accepted her (and, equally important, accepted her baby). They went on to get married and had another child together, last I heard.
This rant brought to you by a dream I had this morning of Dave cheating. It was really messed up because I couldn't move out and had to live in the basement! Clearly I'm insane. sigh.
Still irritated with Dave even though it was a dream, Ruth!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I Should Really Learn To Count (or MY EYE!!)
I almost frogged my Mason Dixon nightie AGAIN!! I thought I had 10 more stitches on one side then the other.
I shit you not, friends, I counted at least 15 times. Stitch markers every 30 stitches and everything. I was just about to (burn it) pull the long side off and frog away when I saw that one stitch marker seemed a shorter distance then the others. I counted, yet again, and realized I'd marked at 20 sts instead of 30.
Someday, I'll learn to count to 30. sigh.
In other stupid news...
I recently pulled some batteries out of one of the many kid toys in this house. The batteries were leaking and I wouldn't let the boys throw them away (which is usually their job) because I didn't want them to have that acid on their hands. I washed my hands really well and an hour later rubbed my eye. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! It burned. So. Bad. What are you supposed to do to get that stuff off your hands? I did wash and quite thoroughly. That was 2 days ago and I'm still wary of touching my eyes!
I did the same thing a few years ago with arnica cream. It was given to me by a classmate in massage school after I sprained my ankle really bad. (Which would put it more like 10 years ago instead of a few.) Arnica is a type of pepper and the cream was more of an oil-based ointment which meant there was no getting that stuff off your fingers. It's amazing at making bruises go away but you have to wear gloves either to apply it or for the next few days until it wears off your skin! Another eye-burner, for sure. Ask me how I know.
Which makes me think of yet another eye story!
So There I Was....
sitting at my desk in the eye clinic in Germany. (I was an optician in the Army for 5 years. We screened the patients for the optometrists. Stationed in Germany for two years.) I look up at my little window where people check in and there's a young soldier standing there looking back at me with one completely blown pupil.
OHMIGOD!!!! I said. To myself. To him, I said, "I think we need to take you down to ER". You see, when one pupil is completely open like that and the other is normal size, it's a HUGE indicator of a serious head injury. And the boy was just standing there! Not talking and looking in at me, waiting for me to say something, I guess. I actually knew him. He was one of the medics for one of the signal corps at that base. They worked in the basement of our building when they weren't in the field.
Anyway, the boy told me that ER had sent him up to us and that it wasn't a head injury. Here's what happened:
In the gas masks that are issued to soldiers, there's a little side pocket that holds 2 0r 3 ampules of atropine. Atropine is a sedative (as I remember it) and if you're gassed before you can get your mask on, you're supposed to self-administer the atropine. You take off the cap, shove the needle in your thigh, hit the top to shoot the medicine in, then you stick the needle through your shirt pocket flap and bend the needle so it hangs there. Stick and Bend, Stick and Bend. It's something we all learn in Basic Training. You hang the empty ampules on your shirt so when someone finds you, they know how much you've already administered. Basically, if you're using the atropine, you're fucked. It's going to keep you comfortable and sedated so when the gas you were exposed to kicks in, either you won't feel it or you won't care that you're feeling it.
OK, the medics in the basement were going through all the gas masks and getting rid of the expired ampules. They were sticking and bending the full ampules onto squares of cardboard to send back to the manufacturer so they could get replacements. One of these ampules when stick and bended (?), popped open and shot this medic kid dead in the eye! He walked upstairs to our little ER and they sent him up to us.
I got him in to see the optometrist (Cpt. Renee Allison, where are you?) and she laughed her ass off! He asked, "Is there an anecdote?". That made her laugh even harder, "No. This is an anecdote. You mean antidote and the answer is still no. There is no antidote." She gave him quarters for 2 days (sent him home, basically) and gave him a prescription to wear sunglasses 24/7 for a week (yes, in the Army, you need permission for such things). She laughed for days over this. Easily amused, loved her!
That poor kid, though, eye all messed up, being laughed at and probably high as a kite. Come to think of it, maybe not so "poor kid" after all! Even with his eye all messed up and being laughed at, he was probably too high to care.
Good times, Ruth!
I shit you not, friends, I counted at least 15 times. Stitch markers every 30 stitches and everything. I was just about to (burn it) pull the long side off and frog away when I saw that one stitch marker seemed a shorter distance then the others. I counted, yet again, and realized I'd marked at 20 sts instead of 30.
Someday, I'll learn to count to 30. sigh.
In other stupid news...
I recently pulled some batteries out of one of the many kid toys in this house. The batteries were leaking and I wouldn't let the boys throw them away (which is usually their job) because I didn't want them to have that acid on their hands. I washed my hands really well and an hour later rubbed my eye. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! It burned. So. Bad. What are you supposed to do to get that stuff off your hands? I did wash and quite thoroughly. That was 2 days ago and I'm still wary of touching my eyes!
I did the same thing a few years ago with arnica cream. It was given to me by a classmate in massage school after I sprained my ankle really bad. (Which would put it more like 10 years ago instead of a few.) Arnica is a type of pepper and the cream was more of an oil-based ointment which meant there was no getting that stuff off your fingers. It's amazing at making bruises go away but you have to wear gloves either to apply it or for the next few days until it wears off your skin! Another eye-burner, for sure. Ask me how I know.
Which makes me think of yet another eye story!
So There I Was....
sitting at my desk in the eye clinic in Germany. (I was an optician in the Army for 5 years. We screened the patients for the optometrists. Stationed in Germany for two years.) I look up at my little window where people check in and there's a young soldier standing there looking back at me with one completely blown pupil.
OHMIGOD!!!! I said. To myself. To him, I said, "I think we need to take you down to ER". You see, when one pupil is completely open like that and the other is normal size, it's a HUGE indicator of a serious head injury. And the boy was just standing there! Not talking and looking in at me, waiting for me to say something, I guess. I actually knew him. He was one of the medics for one of the signal corps at that base. They worked in the basement of our building when they weren't in the field.
Anyway, the boy told me that ER had sent him up to us and that it wasn't a head injury. Here's what happened:
In the gas masks that are issued to soldiers, there's a little side pocket that holds 2 0r 3 ampules of atropine. Atropine is a sedative (as I remember it) and if you're gassed before you can get your mask on, you're supposed to self-administer the atropine. You take off the cap, shove the needle in your thigh, hit the top to shoot the medicine in, then you stick the needle through your shirt pocket flap and bend the needle so it hangs there. Stick and Bend, Stick and Bend. It's something we all learn in Basic Training. You hang the empty ampules on your shirt so when someone finds you, they know how much you've already administered. Basically, if you're using the atropine, you're fucked. It's going to keep you comfortable and sedated so when the gas you were exposed to kicks in, either you won't feel it or you won't care that you're feeling it.
OK, the medics in the basement were going through all the gas masks and getting rid of the expired ampules. They were sticking and bending the full ampules onto squares of cardboard to send back to the manufacturer so they could get replacements. One of these ampules when stick and bended (?), popped open and shot this medic kid dead in the eye! He walked upstairs to our little ER and they sent him up to us.
I got him in to see the optometrist (Cpt. Renee Allison, where are you?) and she laughed her ass off! He asked, "Is there an anecdote?". That made her laugh even harder, "No. This is an anecdote. You mean antidote and the answer is still no. There is no antidote." She gave him quarters for 2 days (sent him home, basically) and gave him a prescription to wear sunglasses 24/7 for a week (yes, in the Army, you need permission for such things). She laughed for days over this. Easily amused, loved her!
That poor kid, though, eye all messed up, being laughed at and probably high as a kite. Come to think of it, maybe not so "poor kid" after all! Even with his eye all messed up and being laughed at, he was probably too high to care.
Good times, Ruth!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Technophobe
I've been listening to David Sedaris on audio books. He's hysterical!
I'm hysterical this morning. But a different kind of hysterical.
Sedaris talks about how people call him a technophobe but that's incorrect. A phobia is a fear of something and his feelings toward computers is not fear. It is hatred. A nurtured, stoked, steadily maintained hatred.
I know how he feels.
I've just spent two hours trying to hook up my wireless network. To no avail. And the guy we know that's local and would trade for massage is on vacation. So I've got to pay someone lots of money to come to our house and set it up. My husband didn't want to let the free guy finish the job because it was going to involve buying a $50 piece of equipment. Now it's going to cost a lot more.
I've got a raging headache and I'm going to go lie down til either the phone guy (who's scheduled to be here btw 8a-5p) or the computer guy (who's supposed to be here around 4:30p) gets here.
More of my whining on Monday, Ruth!
P.S. Just kidding, on Monday, we'll actually have some knitting content 'round these parts.
I'm hysterical this morning. But a different kind of hysterical.
Sedaris talks about how people call him a technophobe but that's incorrect. A phobia is a fear of something and his feelings toward computers is not fear. It is hatred. A nurtured, stoked, steadily maintained hatred.
I know how he feels.
I've just spent two hours trying to hook up my wireless network. To no avail. And the guy we know that's local and would trade for massage is on vacation. So I've got to pay someone lots of money to come to our house and set it up. My husband didn't want to let the free guy finish the job because it was going to involve buying a $50 piece of equipment. Now it's going to cost a lot more.
I've got a raging headache and I'm going to go lie down til either the phone guy (who's scheduled to be here btw 8a-5p) or the computer guy (who's supposed to be here around 4:30p) gets here.
More of my whining on Monday, Ruth!
P.S. Just kidding, on Monday, we'll actually have some knitting content 'round these parts.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Funyuns and Chicken
I'm in a piss-poor mood. I spent 2.5 hours at the DMV on Friday trying to get my CO license. I spent another 2.5 this morning and still no license. Some of it (OK, most of it) was my own stupidity but some of it was the fact that they only have 2 or 3 people working 5 or 6 lanes! Hate the DMV. 
Then there's Target. Hate Target. Not true. Dig Target. Hate working there. There's this little tiny woman who pulled the same coupon scam twice on Saturday. She tried a third time on Saturday and again on Sunday but by then, they were on to her. She gets the Target coupons in the mail (the shiny ones, not the ones you can download from the Target website. I don't know how you get the mailed ones, sorry). She hands them to a cashier face down, scanny-bits side up and they scan them and the computer automatically takes them because they are Target coupons. If one were to turn the coupons over, one would see that she doesn't actually have any of the coupon items in her cart. She got $70 off her two shopping trips. OK. So the ETL's (mid-level mgmt people) are on to her now. They give all the cashier the coupon speech and tell us to be on the lookout for her. They do this two or three times. We GET IT!!
About 8:30p, I look over at McKenzie (one of my favorite co-workers, she's very sweet) and she's got this huge cart full of bagged up stuff sitting next to her spot. I ask what that's about and she said Scam Lady had been back and when McK. told her she couldn't use the coupons she had because none of that stuff was in her cart, she said she'd be right back and, of course, just left. I said, "She came back again?" We both wondered why she'd try the same scam in the same store three times in the same day. "And why would you do that for Funyuns and chicken??", McK. pondered.
So here's where we are reminded, yet again, that when someone decides they don't want some cold food item (milk, frozen stuff, meat, whatever), we have to throw it away!!! It's not even a Target thing, it's an FDA thing, from what I understand. And I do understand it. People will walk around Target for hours and you can't risk other people's health with this tepid-used-to-be-cold food. Still. What a waste. Horrible Phone Lady had a $50 prime rib when she walked out.
Then there's Stupid Banana Lady. I was working the express lane on Saturday when these two young guys bought some stuff. They had a huskie puppy with them on a leash, eyes so pale blue they looked white. It came around the register to say hi so I bent down and rubbed it's ribs for about three seconds. The lady behind them was buying one banana and had set it on the counter. After the boys left, I reached over and slid the banana onto the scale. She said, "I really don't think I want you touching my banana after you touched that dog." I thought she was making a joke, so I joked back, "Well, it's got that thick skin." (The banana, not the dog.) I realized she was serious when I saw the sour look still on her face. I sighed. (In my head, I was rolling my eyes so hard, I could actually see my own brain.) I picked the banana up with a bag over my hand and inverted said bag so the fruit was inside. She handed me a dollar and I laughed before I could stop myself. She snapped, "What's so funny?" I looked her in the eye and said, "Ma'am. That dollar you just gave me, and all the other money I handle all day, is about 100 times filthier then that dog could ever be." She snatched the bag off the counter and stormed off. I was about to also mention all the chemicals they spray bananas with but she was already gone. Hey lady, uptight, much?
Here's as far as I got with my TDF KAL socks....
sigh. No jersey button for me, I guess. Not that I could figure out how to put it up anyway.
I need a damn massage. Here's Massage Monday:
If you need a damn massage but are finding it cost prohibitive, see if there's a damn massage school in your area. Find out how much it costs for student clinic. In Tucson, at DIHA, student clinic was $25 an hour. Skip student clinic. Put your name on the "practice client board". Say something to the effect that you need a student who has their own table to come to you and that you'll pay. They'll all call you because they're all starving. Try out a few and keep the one you like.
If you have kids and a partner, one watches the kids, the other gets a massage, then you switch. If you have kids and no partner, maybe you can swap with a friend who also has kids or maybe you could interest your kids in a little Baby Einstein for awhile or something. Anyway, once you find a student you like, make a standing appointment. It's in your home, on your time, and it's inexpensive! When they graduate, get a new one! (haha) Even if the school is up to an hour away, some students commute, so check anyway.
Going to go pout some more, Ruth!
Monday, July 16, 2007
F'er
Flikr - I hate thee.
Does anyone know how to upload a batch of pic's to Flickr?? I spent an hour on Friday photographing all the yarn I have that's not organized in bins. Then I spent an hour and a half trying to figure out Flickr!! (Thanks Throws for the help and sympathetic ear. We still couldn't find how to upload a batch, though. sigh.) So far, I've found that you can drag/drop pic's, but only one at a time! That way lies madness, friends. I'm doing this so I can organize my stash on Ravelry. Once I got the pic's on Flikr and named them all, the Ravelry part its pretty fast and easy. But still, the whole time, during the whole process, all I could think was this small mantra:
I could be knitting now. I could be knitting now.
The good news is: Holy crap, I've got lots of yarn!!
The bad news is: Holy crap, I've got lots of yarn!!
The good news for others is:
a) my summer stash swap partner is going to get hooked UP
b) I'm having a mini-contest!
My next post will be my 100th!!
Send me a link to your 1st and (if you have one) your 100th post and I will enter you in a drawing for some mystery yarn and some bonus little baubles I've been playing with making. (If there's some type of yarn you are completely opposed to, let me know in your comment.) If you don't have a blog, send me a link to the first really memorable blogpost you remember that got you into reading blogs. This contest will close on Friday, July 20, 2007 at midnight. I will be picking a random number (actually, I'll have the boys each pick a number, then I'll add them together and divide by 3). (Just kidding!) If I get over 50 entries, I'll pick two numbers. (One entry per person.)
Here's an update on my slow TDF KAL socks...
Pattern: Baudelaire (knitty.com) Yarn: Claudia Handpaints Butter Pecan
Needle: Size 1 Addi Turbo
Massage Monday: short and sweet today, gotta give my life this week to Flikr and Ravelry (the inlaws leave Tucson, driving out here starting Thursday).
Sit in an unsoft chair (desk chair/dining chair, that sort of thing). Grab the edge of the seat between your knees with both hands. Round you shoulders and pull on the seat. This stretches your midback quite nicely.
On to my latest time-suck, Ruth!
Does anyone know how to upload a batch of pic's to Flickr?? I spent an hour on Friday photographing all the yarn I have that's not organized in bins. Then I spent an hour and a half trying to figure out Flickr!! (Thanks Throws for the help and sympathetic ear. We still couldn't find how to upload a batch, though. sigh.) So far, I've found that you can drag/drop pic's, but only one at a time! That way lies madness, friends. I'm doing this so I can organize my stash on Ravelry. Once I got the pic's on Flikr and named them all, the Ravelry part its pretty fast and easy. But still, the whole time, during the whole process, all I could think was this small mantra:
I could be knitting now. I could be knitting now.
The good news is: Holy crap, I've got lots of yarn!!
The bad news is: Holy crap, I've got lots of yarn!!
The good news for others is:
a) my summer stash swap partner is going to get hooked UP
b) I'm having a mini-contest!
My next post will be my 100th!!
Send me a link to your 1st and (if you have one) your 100th post and I will enter you in a drawing for some mystery yarn and some bonus little baubles I've been playing with making. (If there's some type of yarn you are completely opposed to, let me know in your comment.) If you don't have a blog, send me a link to the first really memorable blogpost you remember that got you into reading blogs. This contest will close on Friday, July 20, 2007 at midnight. I will be picking a random number (actually, I'll have the boys each pick a number, then I'll add them together and divide by 3). (Just kidding!) If I get over 50 entries, I'll pick two numbers. (One entry per person.)
Here's an update on my slow TDF KAL socks...
Pattern: Baudelaire (knitty.com) Yarn: Claudia Handpaints Butter Pecan
Needle: Size 1 Addi Turbo
Massage Monday: short and sweet today, gotta give my life this week to Flikr and Ravelry (the inlaws leave Tucson, driving out here starting Thursday).
Sit in an unsoft chair (desk chair/dining chair, that sort of thing). Grab the edge of the seat between your knees with both hands. Round you shoulders and pull on the seat. This stretches your midback quite nicely.
On to my latest time-suck, Ruth!
Monday, June 25, 2007
You're Not Supposed To Talk About....
Religion.
So before I go and lose all my readers (hope not!) let's start with
Massage Monday:
Another seated stretch.... As always, you want to take these into a stretch, not into pain. Sit with your back in the chair and both feet on the floor. Take you right ankle and cross it over your left knee ("sittin' like a man" as my gma used to say). Now just lean your body forward (you want to lean from the waist, not from your shoulders). You should feel a great stretch on the outside of your hip, going into your butt. This can also be done standing, just lean on a wall, bring your ankle to your slightly bent other knee and lean forward. As always, rinse and repeat on the other side. I love this stretch!
On to our subject.
I got a lot of cool mail last week. First there was this...
That's one skein of Knitting Notions Sock Yarn (420 yards in Midnight Blue) and two skeins of Knitting Notions Lace Yarn (388 yards each in Thyme color). 726 yards of laceweight, wtf am I gonna do with that?? That's what happens when you shop at midnite! Don't worry, I already have ideas for it. Do you see the needle in the Midnight yarn? The war against my knitting ennui has begun.
Then I got this big box from my swap buddy at a yarn swap I signed up for over at Swap-bot...
There's two skeins of Lion Brand Wool-ease (which is perfect because I was going to go get some to make my MIL some slippers) and two skeins of Red Heart SuperSaver. She also put the yarn in a lovely basket and added a big tea bag of sorts (I'm guessing it's tub tea, it's huge!) and these books...
Best. swap-buddy. ever!
Then I received another big envelope....
Yarn Pirate, Rain color. Gorgeous!
Then there was this....
The yarn is some hand spun/hand-dyed yarn I'd won on a blog contest. It was a blog I'd never been to and I found it through a link from a blog I adore. Truthfully, most new blogs I read, I find through other blogs linking to contests.
So the woman sends me the yarn and a book about Jesus. I can't begin to express how much that Pissed. Me. Off. And before anyone starts gettin' on me about talking behind someone's back, I've already emailed her. The email I sent was, I think, very diplomatic. It went a little something like this: "Thank you for the yarn. It's very pretty and I really think you did a good job with it. That being said, I was rather upset and very disappointed with the book you sent with it. We ARE NOT Christians. My husband's an atheist and I follow Taoism. I can't help but wonder how you would feel if you'd won some yarn on my blog and I sent it along with a copy of "The God Delusion"?
I'll probably be talking about this on my blog come Monday. I won't be linking to you or using your name. Just giving you a heads up.
Again, great job on the yarn. I hope you keep doing that and knitting. Don't really know what else to say. By for now, Ruth"
So here's my thoughts. I don't care what religion you are and you shouldn't care what mine is. I grew up baptist. My family went to church three times a week. Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night was youth night (anyone out there remember AWANA? It's like boy/girl scouts for church). I loved it as a kid, and that's not belittling anyone that still loves it. I'm just saying, some of my best memories are from vacation bible school, AWANA olympics, and church summer camp!
When I was around 12, things started happening in my life and at my church that made me take a different direction. I never understood the philosophy that God had this unconditional love.... unless you were gay, unless you had (or thought about having) an abortion, unless a hundred other things that made the love so conditional. At church I was seeing a lot of hypocritical people who would say one thing at church and then go commit criminal acts. Or just plain exclusionary acts against new members that made them uncomfortable (like the young couple with a baby - she had lots of piercings in her ears and he had a mohawk and the ice cream social the church had been pumping for weeks was not even mentioned that day).
I started doing my own research. That, a divorce, and a mom smart enough to realize that if I did my own research, I could make my own decisions. My decision was that church and Christianity as a whole were not for me.
I've had people of faith (many different ones) ask how we will raise our children. DAMN that's presumptuous! I tell them all the same thing. We will teach them right from wrong. We will show them by the way we live. We also have an entire shelf on our bookcases that's devoted to religion. There's a Bible, a Book of Mormon, a Koran, books on Eastern and East Indian religions, and many others. When they are old enough and have questions we can't answer to their satisfaction, they can do their own research and make their own decisions.
It's like tattoos. The only people who care if you have tattoos (of which I have six) are people who don't have them. I agree with Whoopi Goldberg, "Organized religion is bad for you. It says we are and you are not." But I don't push my views. And I won't allow others to push their views on me. I find it offensive, rude, and unbelievably presumptuous. I understand that a big part of Christianity is testifying, spreading the word of God. (Acts 9:15 " Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel." That's from memory.) I've always held the belief that the best way to spread the word of god (any god) is to live the best life you can. To lead through example is better then a thousand words, even those in books sent through the mail.
Hoping you all stick around, Ruth!
P.S. Incidentally, she hasn't emailed me back and her blog is gone.
So before I go and lose all my readers (hope not!) let's start with
Massage Monday:
Another seated stretch.... As always, you want to take these into a stretch, not into pain. Sit with your back in the chair and both feet on the floor. Take you right ankle and cross it over your left knee ("sittin' like a man" as my gma used to say). Now just lean your body forward (you want to lean from the waist, not from your shoulders). You should feel a great stretch on the outside of your hip, going into your butt. This can also be done standing, just lean on a wall, bring your ankle to your slightly bent other knee and lean forward. As always, rinse and repeat on the other side. I love this stretch!
On to our subject.
I got a lot of cool mail last week. First there was this...
That's one skein of Knitting Notions Sock Yarn (420 yards in Midnight Blue) and two skeins of Knitting Notions Lace Yarn (388 yards each in Thyme color). 726 yards of laceweight, wtf am I gonna do with that?? That's what happens when you shop at midnite! Don't worry, I already have ideas for it. Do you see the needle in the Midnight yarn? The war against my knitting ennui has begun.
Then I got this big box from my swap buddy at a yarn swap I signed up for over at Swap-bot...
There's two skeins of Lion Brand Wool-ease (which is perfect because I was going to go get some to make my MIL some slippers) and two skeins of Red Heart SuperSaver. She also put the yarn in a lovely basket and added a big tea bag of sorts (I'm guessing it's tub tea, it's huge!) and these books...
Best. swap-buddy. ever!
Then I received another big envelope....
Yarn Pirate, Rain color. Gorgeous!
Then there was this....
The yarn is some hand spun/hand-dyed yarn I'd won on a blog contest. It was a blog I'd never been to and I found it through a link from a blog I adore. Truthfully, most new blogs I read, I find through other blogs linking to contests.
So the woman sends me the yarn and a book about Jesus. I can't begin to express how much that Pissed. Me. Off. And before anyone starts gettin' on me about talking behind someone's back, I've already emailed her. The email I sent was, I think, very diplomatic. It went a little something like this: "Thank you for the yarn. It's very pretty and I really think you did a good job with it. That being said, I was rather upset and very disappointed with the book you sent with it. We ARE NOT Christians. My husband's an atheist and I follow Taoism. I can't help but wonder how you would feel if you'd won some yarn on my blog and I sent it along with a copy of "The God Delusion"?
I'll probably be talking about this on my blog come Monday. I won't be linking to you or using your name. Just giving you a heads up.
Again, great job on the yarn. I hope you keep doing that and knitting. Don't really know what else to say. By for now, Ruth"
So here's my thoughts. I don't care what religion you are and you shouldn't care what mine is. I grew up baptist. My family went to church three times a week. Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night was youth night (anyone out there remember AWANA? It's like boy/girl scouts for church). I loved it as a kid, and that's not belittling anyone that still loves it. I'm just saying, some of my best memories are from vacation bible school, AWANA olympics, and church summer camp!
When I was around 12, things started happening in my life and at my church that made me take a different direction. I never understood the philosophy that God had this unconditional love.... unless you were gay, unless you had (or thought about having) an abortion, unless a hundred other things that made the love so conditional. At church I was seeing a lot of hypocritical people who would say one thing at church and then go commit criminal acts. Or just plain exclusionary acts against new members that made them uncomfortable (like the young couple with a baby - she had lots of piercings in her ears and he had a mohawk and the ice cream social the church had been pumping for weeks was not even mentioned that day).
I started doing my own research. That, a divorce, and a mom smart enough to realize that if I did my own research, I could make my own decisions. My decision was that church and Christianity as a whole were not for me.
I've had people of faith (many different ones) ask how we will raise our children. DAMN that's presumptuous! I tell them all the same thing. We will teach them right from wrong. We will show them by the way we live. We also have an entire shelf on our bookcases that's devoted to religion. There's a Bible, a Book of Mormon, a Koran, books on Eastern and East Indian religions, and many others. When they are old enough and have questions we can't answer to their satisfaction, they can do their own research and make their own decisions.
It's like tattoos. The only people who care if you have tattoos (of which I have six) are people who don't have them. I agree with Whoopi Goldberg, "Organized religion is bad for you. It says we are and you are not." But I don't push my views. And I won't allow others to push their views on me. I find it offensive, rude, and unbelievably presumptuous. I understand that a big part of Christianity is testifying, spreading the word of God. (Acts 9:15 " Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel." That's from memory.) I've always held the belief that the best way to spread the word of god (any god) is to live the best life you can. To lead through example is better then a thousand words, even those in books sent through the mail.
Hoping you all stick around, Ruth!
P.S. Incidentally, she hasn't emailed me back and her blog is gone.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Back Story
Here's a yarn smile for everyone. I actually tossed this onto the floor to take a pic and that's how it landed. What are the odds? It's the Mason-Dixon After Dark Nightie in progress. Doing the front and back at the same time (hence the two skeins). Yarn: Ornaghi-Filati Gong. Needles: Addi Turbos US 8, 32".
LOVE the stitch definition...
Alright, from here on out, it's some of what's going on at Casa 5elementknitr.
We first came to Parker, CO around Nov. 06. We were looking to buy a business and there were two around here (ish) that we flew out to see firsthand. It was also our first trip with just Hubby and I since T was born May/01. It was a whirlwind of a trip. We flew into Denver Tues. morning, spent the night in Colorado Springs (the site of the second business we came to look at) and flew out of Denver Wed. night.
We fell in love with the Parker/Castle Rock area. We knew we had to live there. We searched different businesses for over a year and finally settled on buying the FedEx route in Parker. I know, who knew those were for sale? Turns out the FedEx Ground guys are all independent contractors. Not FedEx Home or Express, they are employees.
We took a second mortgage on the house in Tucson, used it to buy the business and moved to Parker. A year, almost to the day, after we came out here the first time. We still love it.
We bought our house in Tucson in Jan/03 for about $130K. We sold it in Apr/07 for about 215K. Tidy little profit only the money was already gone, used to buy the business and move. And, if you're doing the math, we paid for two domiciles from Nov/06 - Apr/07. We are strapped to say the least.
We figured any money I'd make from a job would get sucked up in childcare so I've been a stay at home mom. We are paying around $600 a month for health care. Health care we never even use. We are all insanely healthy. But, you can't go with out it because, healthy or not, if there's an accident (broken leg or whatever) you're screwed. Like 10's of 1,000's of dollars screwed. So we pay.
We finally decided I had to get a full-time job with benefits. Again, anything I made, we knew would be sucked up into childcare but we figure the benefits would be worth it. (Not that they are exactly free either but at least not $600/month.) So I got a job at Target. As a cashier. Not exactly where I saw myself at age 37 but whaddya gonna do? And I shop at Target all the time plus the Target here has a full grocery store so we figure the employee discount wouldn't hurt either.
Well here's the dilemma. I'll be making $8/hour and any hours I work Monday - Friday, I'll be paying $10 an hour for childcare. Minimum. (Not like I want to go bargain shopping for childcare. It'd be dumber (and more dangerous) then bargain shopping for a tattoo.) The employee discount is only 10% and I won't be eligible for any benefits for 6 months.
Once Dave's parents move out here, whole different story. They'll watch the kids and I can work whenever. But they've just put their house up for sale in Tucson and with the market what it is.... who knows when they'll get here?
It sucks. Total Catch-22. Why is health care so god-awful expensive? Especially for really healthy people? When I run the world....
1. Health care won't cost nearly as much. It won't be free, I'm not that Utopian.
2. If you don't use the health care you're paying for, then you'll get at least a partial refund of the bucks you put out.
3. Free health care for kids. (I know. It's contradicting what I said in #1, but, they're kids.)
Speaking of people who should get refunds....
Karen, the midwife that delivered Davis got out of the midwife scene a few years ago. It cost her something like $16,000 or more to get out of her malpractice insurance! It was like they were holding her hostage. She couldn't stop being a midwife til she paid. The reason being that even though she was no longer in the business, someone whom she'd previously helped through a delivery could come along in the next 10 years (or whatever the statute of limitations is) and still sue her. So I say, when that time is up and there's no lawsuit, shouldn't the insurance company give her the money back?? Just sayin. Insurance companies suck ass.
Frustrated and going in circles about it, Ruth!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
ProstiTots
Did anybody else watch Boston Legal last nite? A mother wanted to sue the "family-oriented" department store for selling Tarties. Tarties are fictionalized versions of Bratz dolls. The mom called them "ProstiTots" which is dead-on appropriate. Sometime last month, the Sunday paper had an article titled "Are We Sending the Wrong Message?", also citing Bratz dolls. Then I turn on the computer and this article is on the front cover of MSN.com
Dave and I initially wanted a boy, then a girl. We got two boys. That's fine, had a moment or two of... I don't know, not disappointment but... a little bummed? Of course, we couldn't be happier with the way things turned out and when I think about it, yeah, thank fate we didn't have any girls. I am so not a girl-mom. I would never buy Barbie. I'd let the daughter collect her allowance and buy her own if she had to have them. However, I would never let a Bratz doll of any kind into our house.
Have ya seen 'em?? They are these little, scantily clad, overly make-upped, trashy looking things. That's all well and good. They have cars and little play night clubs so you've got to figure them to be at least 21. When you're 21 you can wear whatever you like. But then they came out with Baby Bratz.
They were marketed as being the Bratz girls when they were babies. Hmmm. The dolls are tiny babies wearing diapers, midriff-baring tops (some with pierced belly buttons), sassy hair and tons of make-up. The company has just succeeded in selling these wildly popular, completely sexualized baby girl dolls. It makes me nauseous. They have Bratz tots now too. In case the sexy baby is too young for your taste and you prefer your sexy girl to be at least 2 years old. And the news article has the nerve to ask "are we sending the wrong message"??
This article defends Bratz over Barbie by saying how Barbie is white and has limited career and man choices and Bratz are ethnic and represent individuality and more realistic body shapes. The Bratz dolls brought in about 100 million dollars last year, Barbie stilled topped out at about 2 billion worldwide. Personally, I think they both suck as role models/toys for girls. Even when I was a girl, I never like Barbie. Loved her cars and her shoes but she seemed so weird to me. My mom is a curvy, pretty woman who rarely wore make-up.
At the spa I used to work at, they cut hair for Locks of Love . One day I was getting my hair cut the same day an 11 year old girl was getting hers cut for this organization. The hairdresser asked the girl how she wanted her hair done, like Brittany Spears or like Pink? The girl said she wanted neither, that neither one of those girls was a good role model. She proceeded to explain the haircut she wanted, comparing it to no one, just saying, "Short, layered, no bangs please." Her mom was standing behind her smiling proudly. And rightly so. Girls like that (and the moms who raise them) give me hope.
Still, though, glad to have boys, Ruth!
Dave and I initially wanted a boy, then a girl. We got two boys. That's fine, had a moment or two of... I don't know, not disappointment but... a little bummed? Of course, we couldn't be happier with the way things turned out and when I think about it, yeah, thank fate we didn't have any girls. I am so not a girl-mom. I would never buy Barbie. I'd let the daughter collect her allowance and buy her own if she had to have them. However, I would never let a Bratz doll of any kind into our house.
Have ya seen 'em?? They are these little, scantily clad, overly make-upped, trashy looking things. That's all well and good. They have cars and little play night clubs so you've got to figure them to be at least 21. When you're 21 you can wear whatever you like. But then they came out with Baby Bratz.
They were marketed as being the Bratz girls when they were babies. Hmmm. The dolls are tiny babies wearing diapers, midriff-baring tops (some with pierced belly buttons), sassy hair and tons of make-up. The company has just succeeded in selling these wildly popular, completely sexualized baby girl dolls. It makes me nauseous. They have Bratz tots now too. In case the sexy baby is too young for your taste and you prefer your sexy girl to be at least 2 years old. And the news article has the nerve to ask "are we sending the wrong message"??
This article defends Bratz over Barbie by saying how Barbie is white and has limited career and man choices and Bratz are ethnic and represent individuality and more realistic body shapes. The Bratz dolls brought in about 100 million dollars last year, Barbie stilled topped out at about 2 billion worldwide. Personally, I think they both suck as role models/toys for girls. Even when I was a girl, I never like Barbie. Loved her cars and her shoes but she seemed so weird to me. My mom is a curvy, pretty woman who rarely wore make-up.
At the spa I used to work at, they cut hair for Locks of Love . One day I was getting my hair cut the same day an 11 year old girl was getting hers cut for this organization. The hairdresser asked the girl how she wanted her hair done, like Brittany Spears or like Pink? The girl said she wanted neither, that neither one of those girls was a good role model. She proceeded to explain the haircut she wanted, comparing it to no one, just saying, "Short, layered, no bangs please." Her mom was standing behind her smiling proudly. And rightly so. Girls like that (and the moms who raise them) give me hope.
Still, though, glad to have boys, Ruth!
Friday, April 20, 2007
More Bad Dogs
I talked about a different kind of bad animal here. While that kind of animal enrages me, the type of animal I'm talking about today merely annoys me. A lot.
I'm a firm believer that there are no bad dogs, just lazy, irresponsible owners. Occasionally, you'll find a dog that's ruined before you get her. The only thing you can do at that point is give it lots of love and keep it away from small children and anything that's going to set off it's triggers.
My neighbor has little dogs. Little yappy dogs. Little incessantly, won't-shut-the-hell-up dogs. Seriously, what the hell. This morning, they were going off at 5 am.
Usually, dog barking doesn't even bother me. In my old neighborhood, in Tucson, we had a veritable dog chorus. They were, for the most part, big dogs. Maybe that's the difference. Also, it was actually a good thing - people who had lived in that neighborhood since it was built 20 years ago say there's never been a robbery. They attribute it to all the watchdogs. Our own dog, Maggie, was a 90 pound, embarrassingly harmless Rottweiler. Maggs wasn't allowed to bark at nite and if she did it was something we needed to check out (like the time we had a 4' rattler in our back yard - a story for another day).
These dogs next door (and there are 3 of them) have no rules. This year was the first time I was able to watch the Superbowl in 7 years (I used to work every Sunday at the spa). Those dogs were put outside where they proceeded to bark for 2 hours straight. No joke. 2 hours, non-stop with the owners home and doing nothing about it. That's just thoughtless and rude.
Normally, I'd say something to these people but they are fairly nice women and since we only have a lease that's up in Nov. .... why bother.
Question of the day - Should I say/do something? What would you do?
Gritting my teeth, Ruth!
P.S. T just came downstairs with his toy keyboard. It's the kind with a bunch of pre-programmed music. The tune he was playing has a sort of smooth jazz feel to it and he asked, "Is it a date song?" I said, "Kinda". A date song? What 5 year old talks like that? He cracks me up!
I'm a firm believer that there are no bad dogs, just lazy, irresponsible owners. Occasionally, you'll find a dog that's ruined before you get her. The only thing you can do at that point is give it lots of love and keep it away from small children and anything that's going to set off it's triggers.
My neighbor has little dogs. Little yappy dogs. Little incessantly, won't-shut-the-hell-up dogs. Seriously, what the hell. This morning, they were going off at 5 am.
Usually, dog barking doesn't even bother me. In my old neighborhood, in Tucson, we had a veritable dog chorus. They were, for the most part, big dogs. Maybe that's the difference. Also, it was actually a good thing - people who had lived in that neighborhood since it was built 20 years ago say there's never been a robbery. They attribute it to all the watchdogs. Our own dog, Maggie, was a 90 pound, embarrassingly harmless Rottweiler. Maggs wasn't allowed to bark at nite and if she did it was something we needed to check out (like the time we had a 4' rattler in our back yard - a story for another day).
These dogs next door (and there are 3 of them) have no rules. This year was the first time I was able to watch the Superbowl in 7 years (I used to work every Sunday at the spa). Those dogs were put outside where they proceeded to bark for 2 hours straight. No joke. 2 hours, non-stop with the owners home and doing nothing about it. That's just thoughtless and rude.
Normally, I'd say something to these people but they are fairly nice women and since we only have a lease that's up in Nov. .... why bother.
Question of the day - Should I say/do something? What would you do?
Gritting my teeth, Ruth!
P.S. T just came downstairs with his toy keyboard. It's the kind with a bunch of pre-programmed music. The tune he was playing has a sort of smooth jazz feel to it and he asked, "Is it a date song?" I said, "Kinda". A date song? What 5 year old talks like that? He cracks me up!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
AHHHHHH!
Apparently, if you make a post and save it as a draft (you know, to put up on those days when you are too busy/lazy to think of something new). It's going to post on the date you saved it. I did a Visual DNA after seeing it on some other sites. Scroll down to April 14th! Below the Food Hangover post.
Still learning, Ruth!
Still learning, Ruth!
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