I Must Be Adopted

I am truly hopeful that I am adopted, and thus not as messed up as the rest of my family.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Medical Results

Turns out the wife has a very small fracture in her tibia (the shin bone), right at the top of the bone.

Treatment - crutches and no weight on the affected leg for 6 weeks.

The doctor said he can spot those who will cheat. Said she'll cheat. She's cheating; not much but cheating nonetheless.

He told her that he'll see her back after 6 weeks, and if it's still not healed, he'll give her another 6 weeks with crutches.

Now, as for Chuck volunteering to take her place on vacation... Chuck, while I appreciate the offer, I do not believe that I would like to take someone along who is going to be hitting me all the time... I know what a pinch hitter is, but I don't like the sound of a "punch hitter."

Chuck's comment: "Do you need a punch hitter to go with you if she can't make it? "

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Sister is now a South Carolinian

It's official, my sister packed up her:

* 4 dogs (she has 6 but left 2 here temporarily with ex-husband Brad)
* 20+ cats
* 2 chinchilla's (these were a direct result of my brother living with her at one time)

and, along with Shanon drove down to South Carolina to begin her new life and job.

She rented a mini-van and Shanon drove her gas-guzzling, environment-killing, much-too-big-for-daily-commuting Toyota Sequoia (She no longer complains to me about gas prices, as I have told her, I have absolutely zero sympathy for her) down to South Carolina over the weekend.

She is currently living with all these creatures in a 35' pull behind camper/trailer that they had taken down previously. They are apparently working to purchase a 6 acre plot of land that the trailer is currently sitting on, but have to wait for everything to come out of probate first.

The plan is to then build a log cabin style home on this property. So for the conceivable future, her home is this trailer. I can't imagine it... I really can't.

I do wish her luck, and I'm happy for her, but I just can't imagine living with all those animals in that tight a spot, and I'm an animal lover.

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Help explain this phenomenon to me

So reading this article about gas rationing in Iran (ain't karma a bitch), I'm really confused about something.

The citizens are upset about fuel rationing -- I get this.

What I don't understand is why do people in these situation seem to feel it necessary to riot and destroy either their own neighborhoods (as demonstrated many times in both the US and Europe) or destroy the item they are upset about being taken away.

If you are experiencing the rationing of a commodity, such as gasoline in this instance, why would you then riot and destroy gas stations?!?!?

Not that I advocate rioting or destroying any property, but direct your anger toward something that makes sense -- government buildings for instance. AGAIN, I do not advocate this, but at least I could begin to understand.

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Wife's Medical Condition Updated

After the MRI last evening, it has been learned that there is no ligament damage at all.

Whew! Now the bad news.

She apparently has a "knee fracture". One of the 3 bones (Femur, Patella, Tibia) around the knee has a fracture in it... We have an appointment at a local orthopedic center this evening to see a specialist and discover which one, and exactly how bad.

For my immediate friends reading this (Jerry, Sean, and I believe Scott A) they are all intimately familiar with this place -- OSS. At one point in time, all of us (myself included) were going here for treatment of one thing or other.

Perhaps we really should look into that group discount we joked about.

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Monday, June 25, 2007

Just Shoot Me!

And I'm not talking about the David Spade TV Show.

I'm talking about my luck.

Two weeks to go before the wife and I leave for vacation, and she is now facing the prospect of knee surgery. She's done something to her knee, but we don't exactly know yet. She goes for an MRI Tuesday night, but the current thought is that she has a tear in one of her ligaments. Surgery is only IF the tear is big enough, but hopefully a series of cortizone shots will be the answer -- but we'll not know until after the MRI.

How is this my bad luck, and not hers? Well to be honest, this is having a greater impact on her, but it's my blog, so it's written from my point of view.

There are other reasons this is so irritating for me, but this being a public forum, I really can't get into them, suffice to say that the current situation is extremely distressing to both of us.

If you feel that you must absolutely know why this is so distressing, you can ask, but depending on who you are, I may not answer.

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Weird Billy Joel Morning

Just because I need mindless drivel occasionally...

Driving into work this morning, I was flipping through my radio presets... I have 6 presets. I noticed that of these 6, Billy Joel was playing on three of them.

Preset 3 - Piano Man
Preset 4 - Big Shot
Preset 5 - Big Shot (yep same song... about 10 seconds ahead of previous station).

Is there anyway I can play "Billy Joel" in this week's lottery? Perhaps playing the number of letters in each of his first, middle, and last names?

His realy name is William Martin Joel. So, do I play 764, or 564? I suppose I'll need to blow $2, and play both.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Capital One -- No Hassle My Ass!

Long story short, at one point had a credit card that I shared with my brother -- he used it, but he needed me on the account to have it. This account has since been closed, but I am now playing the "move the balance game" with zero interest credit cards. The idea is that he pays the balance off, but I'm trying to save him interest charges.

I, however, got tired of playing this game and just paid the balance off. I had called Capital One, and asked for the pay-off amount. They gave me the 10-day pay-off, and I sent the money, via an electronic transfer from my bank (I pay all my bills online, and apparently my bank sends all funds to Capital One electronically.)

When I called in mid-April, I asked for the pay-off amount and closed the account, I was informed that the balance would need to stay at $0 for 1 full billing cycle. No problem; never used the card to begin with.

Well, it turns out that the money got there too quickly, and I wound up with a $0.32 credit. Just realized this yesterday when I got my statement. The fact that I got a statement made me skepitcal -- why would I get a statement for a closed account? Yep, there's a credit, but wouldn't they just keep it since it's less than a dollar (just like the IRS does), or shouldn't then send me a check?

So I called this morning.

They are now sending me the $0.32, but my account needs to be at $0 for one full billing cycle before the account closes. Spoke with a supervisor... same song and dance.

"So, let me get this straight. My money got there too quickly, and I wound up with a credit. Your organization had access to my extra money for a month now, and because of this, I am now penalized? I can't close my account?"

Yep.

So when will my account be closed? August 4th (my next billing cycle starts on July 4th). The billing cycle from July 4th to August 3rd will be the first full billing cycle with $0 balance.

No Hassle my ASS!

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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Crisis #1 or Guess Which Substance Saved My Brother's Life


Well, it's happened. The first of hopefully few (but I'm sure not) crisis have occurred, as a result of my brother living with us.

Let me first explain that Traci is very picky about her clothes and laundry. She doesn't like me doing the laundry, because I don't do it the way she likes it done... So I typically will avoid doing any laundry that contains any of her dress / work clothes (how much can you mess up socks, underwear, t-shirts, towels, or my clothes).

Jeff, however, is expected to do his own laundry. No problem.

Monday night he takes a load out of the dryer, and proceeds downstairs to sort and fold (washer/dryer are on the 2nd floor).

Next day, I receive this email at work:



Subject: Dryer

It seems that I had an accident with the dryer last night. There was an ink pen in my pants pocket, so there is some blue ink marks in the dryer. When I get home I will clean it out and see if I can save my clothes. Does Traci have any hair spray I can use :P


Arriving home at lunch, I inspect the dryer. His remark about "some blue ink marks" is a classic understatement made by a condemned prisoner right before execution. Pictures will soon be added to this post, but the pen did nothing short of explode... there was ink everywhere.

Apparently Jeff realized the pen had exploded in the dryer the night before, and searched Yahoo! Answers to find how to remove ink. Hair spray was the method he found.

Wanting to see how effective this would be before I told the wife, I tried it myself. Upon arriving back at work after lunch, I started looking to see if I could purchase a replacement dryer drum, because hair spray had little effect, and the wife was going to go nuts! There is NO WAY she was ever going to stick even a pair of socks in this dryer ever again... I (and my brother) were screwed!

I did my own search for a remedy online, and found several things:

Peanut Butter - allow to sit on ink for couple of minutes, then remove.
Vegetable Shortening (Crisco) - same as above
Mr. Clean Magic Erasers
Hair Spray - Already tried. Not promising.
Full-Strength Breck shampoo
Finger Nail Polish Remover
WD-40
Rubbing Alcohol
Goo Gone

That night, I purchased some of the items listed above (polish remover, different hair spray -- extra strength, and magic erasers). I am happy to report that finger nail polish remover has saved my brother's life. I will, however, caution anybody to make sure they have proper ventalation AND to allow the dryer (mine is a gas dryer) to properly dissipate the vapor before turning it on.

I only tried the magic erasers, extra-strength hair spray, rubbing alcohol, and lastly finger nail polish remover. Once we got to the polish remover, and saw it removed 99.99% of the ink stains, we stopped trying other things (Peanut Butter and Crisco would only have been attempted in lieu of a replacement drum).

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