Chookah

Naughty

Yeah, he's getting sassy in his old age.  He wanted me to take a picture with my phone this morning and then refused to smile, only make silly faces.

Hummingbirds

She will be missed.  Cindy Lee Maestas (formerly Lamb, nee Shimizu) lost her battle with pancreatic cancer on November 9, 2006.  Cindy spend almost all of the nearly 52 years living in Salt Lake City surrounded by, caring for, living and being loved by her family and friends, and she died the same way.  She will be greatly missed by her husband, Gordon Maestas; her children, Jeff and Jessica Lamb; her siblings, Debbie Rice, Mark Shimizu, Stacey Shimizu, and Birgitta Humphrey; by the members of the 'widow's cluub and by her many friends,  The daughter of Nisei, Cindy danced in the Obon Festival, made mochi by hand, and for a while played the taiko drum.  As the child of a Swede, she baked peparkakor at Christmas, loved the snow but hated the cold, and had a dry, sly, wicked sense of humor.  Like her mother and grandmother before her, found great pleasure in small animals and growing things; one of her great comforts while ill was to sit in the sunlight in her garden and watch the birds at their bath.  In the end, she wished that those who knew her would think of her whenever they saw a hummingbird in flight.

Goodbye, Cindy. Thank you for the wonderful memories, your support and advice and your love.

FSA PITA

I know that I've been bitching and moaning lately.  Deal with it. :-)

Today's gripe: IHC and Wells Fargo FSA program.

I paid two medical bills using my Wells Fargo FSA credit card back in FEBRUARY.  After a few months, I received a letter demanding documentation for the payment - no, I didn't buy gardening stuff, deck materials or scrapbooking stuff (not that I scrapbook...).  I faxed the invoices to them.  I got another letter two weeks later.  I faxed the invoices to them again.  I called to make sure said faxes were received.

My FSA account is now frozen.  Apparently, I didn't fax them the invoices.  This is bullshit.

So, I spend an hour on the phone with IHC billing.  No dice, they don't have the invoices.  I call IHC physicians billing.  They have one of the invoices on file but they have to get APPROVAL to release my own invoice to me.  I even verified my blood type to ensure I was who I claimed to be.

Now I have to track down the OTHER invoice.  This is going to be a neat trick.  Apparently the service dates were back in 2005, I know this is totally ridiculous, and they're going to have to contact their archive service which could take up to three weeks and then it will have to go through the approval process too.

IHC and Wells Fargo, kiss my ass.  You suck.

Morning, Sunshine

My bedtime routine with Sebastian is pretty cool for both of us.  Tub, pajamas, books, cuddling in the chair and talking about his day or singing a song and then bed.  While he's laying in bed I cover him with his blanket (or blankets based on the whim of the day), rub his back and we chat a little bit.  I stroke his hair and his face, kiss him and tell him, "Night, baby. Have good sleep. I love you."

In the morning I hear him close his bedroom door behind him (he always does this, I don't know why) and about 30 seconds later blankets, dinosaurs and random stuffed animals are hucked up on the bed.  If it's really early or I'm especially lazy and not ready to get out of bed, I hoist 35 lbs. of toddler up onto the bed with me.

He lays down next to me, I cover him with his blanket and he gently rubs my arm or my back, strokes my hair and face and gives me kisses.  The same thing I do every night to him he does for me in the morning.

What a great way to start the day.

Row, row...

"Row, row, row your boat gently down the street,
Merry, merry, merry, merry like is but a deeem."

Sing *that* in a round.

Go Vote!

I dare you...

Reports of failed voting machines in Utah county, untrained voting officials and (my personal experience) lines over 1 1/2 hours long. Yes, 1 1/2 hours.  That's how long the line was at the location where I vote.  The line went out the door, down the sidewalk and into the parking lot.  Say it with me now.. "Screw this."

It's no wonder there's a low voter turnout every election.

Now, like many others, I have to leave work early, pick up Sebastian and wait in line so I can exercise my Constitutional right to vote for candidates who don't have the slightest hope of winning in fair Davis county.  Should be interesting with a toddler and a loooong line.

Get on the ball assholes.  Seriously.

Update

I did it!!!  I voted for every single candidate who won't unseat the Republican incumbent!  It only took 20 minutes and I have to say that the new touch screens are really cool.  (Just use some Purell afterwards) ;-)

Check this out

Lauren's husband, Kevin, found this old picture from high school and Lauren was kind enough to scan it and send it to me.

This is me and the gang on my 16th birthday (which also happened to coincide with school Lagoon day). Yes, folks it was 1991 so I don't want to hear any cracks about my John Lennon glasses, the wearing of multiple shirts and high-waisted jeans.

Thanks, Lauren and Kevin! (I'm hoping that if I post this pic in a public forum that the risk of blackmail goes down.)

(props to Lauren for the cake-decorated box and the tasty cupcake goodies held within)

Walls!

Holy Crap!  IKEA has walls!

I drive by the construction site every day.  For the longest time they were futzing around with the foundation and all I saw was an endless stream of concrete trucks.  "Wonder how they're going to complete this sucka in 4 months," I thought to myself. Then one day as I'm driving past there's a wall sticking up into the sky!  Wow.

I guess they've poured the walls on the ground and then lifted them into place vs. pouring them in an upright fashion.  Needless to say this technique has resulted in the lifting of many walls over the past couple of weeks.

It's a Swedish post-modern furniture and meatball lunch barn raising!

I'm just counting down the days until the thing opens (sometime in March, according to the newest catalog).  I can't wait to blow my paycheck on $2 glass vases, melamine bookcases and other assorted goodies whose names I can't pronounce.

The Not-So-Candy Man

What is normally a one night event turned into a literal Carnivale of Halloween festivities this year. To say that we have a lot of candy in the house is an understatement. 

• Class party
• Company trunk-or-treat
• Neighborhood trunk-or-treat
• Trick-or-treating

Whew.  I don't remember having this many diabetic-coma inducing opportunities when I was a little kid.

If I let Sebastian loose on the 50-lbs of candy he's collected, he'll take two or three pieces and he's done. Lucky for me Sebastian has my sweet tooth. This is a good thing when I'm wrangling a toddler and encouraging (manipulating) him into what I want him to do.  I'm thankful that I don't have to deal with the sugar rush and crashes that afflict so many kids this time of year.

The favorite treat passed out this year?  Little tubs of Play-Dough.  Awesome!