Who Thought That was a Good Idea?

So I'm on a blog and she has a recipe for "Easy Barbecue Pork {crockpot} Here's the link.

Then half-way through the post, here's a helpful little link-bar, and it says:

"See a peppered-pork biscuit recipe"

There is something hilarious about this to me.  Because, was I searching for the perfect "Peppered-pork Biscuit recipe?"  Is that even a thing?  Is peppered-pork really even a thing?  Pork biscuits?  Could there be anything less healthy?

It just sounded hilarious and out-of-place.  Because it IS hilarious and out-of-place.

Favorite Transformer Names

My three little brothers wished they had Transformers back in the day.  We accidentally acquired the one that turns into a cassette tape from somewhere, and another one that wasn't as cool.  I was a teen when they were That Cool, so it wasn't my scene.  I thought GoBots was a better name, but Transformers were obviously the better product.  Not that I cared at the time.

Then I got married and gave birth to four sons.  I have had Transformers in my house for more than a decade.  My boys are insane for these.  The Classic, the Energon, Whatever the New Thing Is -- we've had them all in here.  I am thankful for my nearly 14-year-old, because when I claim transforming-incompetence, he is more than glad to step in and help his brothers transform Whoever-it-is.

I seem more flippant than I am.  I am actually pretty good at remembering their names.  I know there are a couple-a girls in the bunch.  I have transformed both the car and motorcycle ones.  So yeah, I'm that good.  I have a few favorite Transformer names, since I am involuntarily immersed in Transformer Culture.  That's the reason for this post.  And here they are:

Devastator : my big boy used to pronounce this "Demastator"
Iron Hide : that's a good name, no matter what.  If I had a little fluffy pet kitty, I might name him Iron Hide
Ultra Magnus : What?!  That name is awesome! It's ultra!
Optimus Prime : A little more contrived, but so what?  Optimus Prime! My big boy used to pronounce this "Octimus Prime"  so I always picture him having eight of something.  Mini-cons? Past lives?  Who knows.
Brimstone : super bad
Cyclonus : feels a little bit Greek.  Definitely menacing.
Megatron : a doofus evil robot guy, but great name.
Unicron : as awesome a name as it is to be a robot that's also a planet.
Ravage : name says it all
Cybertron Primus : I'm sorry, but that is the best mash-up of tech-sounding power syllables ever!


I also feel compelled to share my list of Lamest Transformer Names:

Star Scream : and the guy is just as annoying as his name
Astro Train : little boys love trains, but this one is just not cool.
Rat Trap : from Beast Wars.  Eww.
Jazz : really?  Not even going to try?
Kup : allegedly he transforms into a pickup truck

I'm sure there are more.

Inspired by my Better Half

When you finish the title and hit Tab, you should be sent directly to the body section of the post.  Or email. Just saying, since I know you're scanning every word, google.

Seth likes writing.  He started writing on his blog again, zethro.blogspot.com  Check him out.  I don't like writing as much but I have this blog.  I'm not a Type A person who tells her opinions at her leisure, so I have to sneak them into the public conversation secretly, on my blog.  So I'm writing on my blog again.

Something is Wrong with the way People Talk About This

OK.  I haven't posted any opinions or news in a long time.  This one pushed me over the edge this morning.  I have to say something and at least inject my tiny amount of sanity and sense into the mess.

So people talk about Healthcare Reform.  What they're really talking about is Health Insurance Reform.  People talk about Access to Health Care.  Everyone has access to health care, if they want to go to the doctor or the hospital.  The thing people mean to say is Someone Else to Pay for my Health Care.  Then today in the paper Denver Health hospital was whining about how they have to foot the bill for so many more Uninsured People than other hospitals.  This implication that people without insurance are losers who will not pay their bills is what put me over the edge.  I have been uninsured and I have been extremely under-insured and I have always paid my medical bills.  I have had medical bills I couldn't pay immediately and in full, so I put together a payment plan with the medical providers, taking years to pay down.  I understand there are lots of people who don't.  Don't put all uninsured people in an Evil Group.

The problem we're facing is not Access to Health Care or Access to Health Insurance.  The problem is that medical care is OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE.  Since when does it cost 10,000 for a day in the hospital?  I can stay at a dang nice hotel for $300 and I can hire someone to come in and take specific care of me for about that.  What are hospitals using the other 9,000 dollars for?  "Oh, but doctors have to have so much training and specialty!"  Yes, lots of professions require additional training.  I don't see other professions claiming such a rarefied position in society that just because they forked over the dough to go to lots of schooling, they are somehow entitled to charge people 9 times the actual cost of their work.  How is that reasonable?

How is it reasonable that a single pill of radioactive iodine cost me (and my generous insurance plan, through an employer) $8,000.  How is that reasonable?  How is it that three days in the hospital for pneumonia, the only treatment for which was oxygen and antibiotics that I could have overseen at home, cost us (and our generous insurance plan) $20,000?  How is that reasonable?  I could buy the oxygen equipment myself and heck! even the pulse-ox and monitoring equipment, for a fraction of that.  Add in the $10 antibiotic and you still have five figures worth of unexplained, outrageous overage in the bill.  How is this reasonable?

I understand about all the safety procedures, the legal requirements, the lawsuits, the training, the R&D, and all the rest.  I, as a smart, logical, and reasonable person still ask:

HOW IS THIS REASONABLE!???!

...especially when EVERY doctor (and dentist) I have EVER encountered drives a top-of-the-line vehicle, wears expensive shirts, and lives in the most exclusive gated communities.  This isn't rich-poor jealousy.  It's me, scraping the family budget until it nearly disintegrates to pay medical bills, then seeing excess and yes, greed, in the medical profession.

I had cancer;  I'm grateful for medical science.  I just think they need to be grateful for what they have and stop overcharging everyone for it. The problem is the amount being charged for medical care, not whether people pay for their own or whether the government will do so.  If it's reasonably priced, more people can pay for their own.  The amounts coming through on the bills and statements are so astronomical as to be comical.  That's the problem.

Pie!

[prologue] There's a song on Just Dance 4, where the singer says,"Ladies! If your man wanna get buck wild, just go back and hit 'im up style!"  We play this game all the time and whenever I play, Scott and Mark race in to watch.

[story] So it's after breakfast this morning but Scott is still sitting at the table finishing his pears.  All of a sudden he turns to me and yells out,"Mom, Ladies love some pie!"

And I say, wondering,"Yes.  Pie is so good!"

And Scott says,"Because on Dance, they say Ladies! When you wan-na get some pie!"

Jump or Dive

Well, I have an analogy.

My college boyfriend, David Jefferies, took a diving class.  The takeoffs for jumping from the diving board and diving from the diving board are apparently the same.  They would play a game to emphasize this to the students, to help them learn the takeoff, called "Jump or Dive."  You start the take off and then as your feet leave the board, Coach yells out whether you're going to be jumping or diving.  This results in some pretty hilarious in-air scrambling until the students gain confidence in the takeoff, knowing they could do either move up until the last second.  It also leads to some belly flops and other awkward landings when they don't do it right.  The main point is, very last second decisions can result in successful dives, successful  jumps, or complete failures that help you learn to do better next time.

So I'm the organist in our ward.  I'm pretty qualified for this calling, having had piano lessons from age 5, 7 years of marching band in High School and College, Group Organ Class, Registration Class, and Private Lessons at BYU, plus working as a Pipe Organ Builder for 2 1/2 years after college. Plus I've been the organist in several wards before this.  The only thing is, that my skills at the keyboard are not top notch.  I'm no concert pianist.  I'm no concert organist.  I can practice all week and have the songs perfect 90% of the time and then totally flub the songs the other 10% of the time.  It's just how it is right now.

After the Sacrament hymn is over, the organist has to glance over and determine how much more music is needed while the rest of the bread is broken up.  Sometimes the song lasts long enough that the bread's all broken by the time we're done singing.  More often, the organist has to make a decision to play either the whole song again, the last line again, or the introduction again, to fill the time until the bread's ready.  I made this decision on Sunday, but it was like I was in Diving Class on the first day of "Jump or Dive."  Several factors combined for a Total Flub result.  I decided to do the whole song (a long one), then flubbed it, after playing it perfectly for three big long verses, and then lacked the confidence to continue when the bread was all broken, resulting in what I consider to be a cry-able musical tragedy.  I couldn't recover the flub, so as I felt the belly-flop coming, I decided just to let it happen and stopped on a major chord.  DONE.  Totally Awkward Landing.

The good thing about me, is that I already did all the crying I'm going to do over musical flubs in front of a couple hundred people.  I did what I did.  I made the call and it wasn't the right one.  Oh. Well.  Sometimes you get a successful dive, sometimes you get a successful jump, and sometimes you completely fail, right into a belly flop.  I did that...and I'm still an awesome person!  It can only help me learn to do better next time.