Having Fun on a Snow Day

We sent sledding this afternoon to take advantage of our huge snowfall. We're just now getting around to having our hot chocolates. I gave the packets to the big kids to open themselves. Jules RIIIIPS hers open, which usually makes it spray everywhere. This time it didn't. And her rip just happened to form a perfect spout on one side of the envelope for pouring the hot chocolate powder. And then my smart little dumpling proceeded to pour the powder out...

the other, more shredded side.

Make a Guess. Now Double It.

Did you see Amadeus? There's a part where Mozart is gleefully explaining his new piece of music to the Emperor and he wants the Emperor to guess how long he can keep up a certain musical thing. The Emperor guesses two minutes and then Mozart tells him to double it. And double it again. And the guess winds up being eight minutes, but Mozart's actual answer is 20 minutes. He's able to keep it up for 20 minutes.

So here's a fun game. I'll describe a certain medical thing and you guess how much it cost. Then I want you to double your guess. Then double it again. Then I'll tell you the real cost. This'll be fun.

So I went for my radioactive iodine treatment to finish curing my cancer. It involved me going to the hospital, having had nothing to eat all morning, and sitting in a chair. Then they took a blood sample to make sure I wasn't pregnant. Surprise! I wasn't. So then they told me all the precautions and warnings, and then the doctor came in and told me all the precautions and warnings. Then the little duder brought me a little tiny radioactive pill inside a vial inside a lead vessel. I swallowed the pill and they instantaneously ushered me out. Out! Get out, radioactive swine! And that's it. So now, do your guess. How much did the hospital charge me for this service: sitting in chair, having blood drawn for pregnancy test, counseling on side effects, and pill swallowage. Have your guess ready? Now double it. Now double that. Have your answer? And now I shall tell you the actual answer. The amount the hospital charged me for this hour-and-a-half service was:




















$8,000. Eight Thousand Dollars. Eight Grand. Eight-Zero-Zero-Zero. Lotta zeros, eh? Lotta buckage, eh? Musta been some FABULOUS counseling. Musta been a SUPER EXTRAORDINARY pill. It did cure what was left of my cancer, as far as we can tell, but eight THOUSAND bones?!!!? DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS We do have insurance. We will not be payin' no $8000 dollars for this. Don't get me wrong. I'm super grateful to have been able to go radioactive for those weeks, and to have my cancer cured. But DANG!

A Birthday Gift

I spent my birthday at the hospital with little Scotty. Late that evening Seth came to visit us and he even brought me a couple birthday gifts. One of these gifts was a Klean Kanteen. I had asked a while back for some sort of steel drinkin' bottle. Not aluminum: Alzheimers. Not plastic: reproductive harm rumors and whatcetera. So, steel. And Seth somehow remembered and brought it to me on my birthday.

Mine is the blue one. I was worried that the steel would make the water taste all metallica, and also that the water would taste bad, like remember those metal canteens from Scout campouts and hikes? Remember the ugly ones with the stripey blanket stuff on the sides. Ewww. No WAY those are ever getting cleaned out. So that's what I was afraid of. But I've been pleasantly surprised. I fill it up with my delicious Aurora tap water and I drink...delicious Aurora tap water. No yuck metal taste, no mildewy grodiness. Crisp and clean, no caffeine.

In conclusion, I really like my Klean Kanteen. The doofy "K" spelling is mitigated for me by the fact that they spell Klean with an "ea" instead of two e's. So, thumbs up!

Product Review:Toffifay

My sister Dorothy goes to this "Place" for groceries. More on that later. But at The Place you can get all this weird-o candy stuff. This last week, she brought me Toffifay and I will now discuss it.

First of all TERRIBLE NAME. How do you pronounce this???! I assume Europeans can and regularly do pronounce it somehow. But we're in America now! Talk American!

Secondly, this product is described as being "A whole hazelnut in chewy caramel with chocolate hazelnut filling and chocolate. And that's pretty much what it is. The packaging is cool looking, with each piece in its own little dimple in the golden tray. And the candy is cool-looking, like a bullseye or something.

Lastly, the taste. Yummmmm! I love caramel, nuts and chocolate. So this candy really works out well for me. Thumbs up!

Facin' It

Seth joined facebook a couple months ago. It was fun to stand behind him and watch him click "accept, accept, accept" and to watch his "friends" tally rise. And then I was like Find me so and so, and he was all, Find your own friends on Facebook. So I left it at that for awhile. And then Jodi came to take care of my family while I hung out at the hospital with Surgery Scott. And Jodi is Facebook crazy, a little bit. So she signed up me and Dorothy. I have to boast that I am a little bit more attentive to it than Dorothy, so far. It could be that during the last week since we signed up, I have been able to abdicate most of my responsibilities to somebody else due to Chillin' with Scott, but I'm sure pretty soon Dorothy will be kicking my Facebook butt too, like she does in everything we do. Love you girl!

So, join me at Facebook. Become my friend. And if you're not on Facebook, follow my lead and get over the hype and just join it up! Because it really was the hype that was bugging me. Everyone was all Facebook this, change my status that and blah blah. But it turns out to be kind of fun to see what miscellaneous people from your past you can re-connect with and it's a little bit comforting just to be able to let people know what you're doing, without an elaborate phone call or even an email. Or whatever. Just check it out.