I'm not exactly surprised....

So I'm sitting here watching the Jon and Kate "Annoucement" episode.

I can't say that I'm surprised, but I am sad for them.

They're apparently going to keep filming the show. Kate sat there crying and looking like the martyr and I could only keep thinking that she made her bed and now she's having to lie in it. Jon just seemed so darned ambivalent about it all.

I would have had much more respect for them had they said that they were going to take a break from filming and that they were going to work on their marriage and take themselves and the children out of the limelight.

I don't know how I would have handled it if I were in their shoes, but above all I would like to think that I'd put my marriage first. My faith has taught me that God comes first and then our spouse and then our children. Something tells me that their faith isn't what they have portrayed to the media or they'd be coming to a different conclusion.

I am sad for the children. As Kate said, they're now another statistic. It didn't have to be that way.

Customer service....gone the way of the dinosaur....

Okay...so this saga started on Saturday....and was only reconciled yesterday late afternoon.

(Names have been changed to protect the innocent, and me, but you can figure out who the guilty parties are easily enough...)

It started oh so innocently with me dropping off a prescription for my iron pills at the CraptasticValueShop that is around the corner from my house. I moved all prescriptions to that location because a local WalGreenjeans was horrible. Until now I've been really happy with the local CraptasticValueShop and have had no reason to complain.

Well, I dropped off that scrip and then 15 min later got a call from the pharmacist indicating that they didn't have the name brand in stock and would I settle for the generic - if I get the generic then I can get the scrip filled today. I'm not a generic drug kinda gal, so I said I'd wait for the name brand to come in on Monday.

I stop by the pharmacy on Monday afternoon, after work to pick up my scrip (as well as one for Shooter) and the tech says, "That'll be $80+ because this drug isn't covered by your insurance." I am flabbergasted because I happen to carry some of the world's best insurance and they cover practically everything for practically no co-pay. I shrug and ask the pharmacist, a gentleman who I question whether had any sense about anything, if the generic is covered and if it is I'll just take that. He comes back and tells me it's covered but they have to order it. I don't question at this point, I just tell him I'll come back tomorrow.

So....in the meantime....on Tuesday morning I call my insurance company Ate-nada and they say that they drug is by all means covered and they're not sure why it would come back as not covered. Only reason they could figure is that the pharmacy did something wrong when they submitted it in the system. Argh!

I call CraptasticValueShop back and talk to the tech who answered the phone. She's amazed at my story and puts the original scrip back into the system and says she's not sure what happened initially because it's now coming back with a correct co-pay. She puts the phone down and yells at the pharmacist, "Did you work on XXXX for a patient yesterday?" The pharmacist says, "Yea, why??" Then the tech realizes I'm not really on hold and puts me on hold. She comes back and all she says is that they'll fix the problem and my scrip will be ready that afternoon.

I mean seriously....it took me 4 days to get one prescription filled. Back and forth and back and forth...I'm surprised my filter stayed intact and I didn't go off on anyone. Here lately the baby has been sucking all filters from me and what I think immediately comes out of my mouth. Luckily for me...and for the pharmacy folks....the filter remained intact and I was able to maintain my grace and dignity. :-) ha!

Okay....double standard time....

I rarely allow myself to get caught up in the scandals that rock the beauty pagent world. Those poor girls have enough problems....

HOWEVER, everyone and their uncle in California seems to have jumped on the "Let's hate on Miss California Carrie Prejean" bandwagon and I personally think it's pretty unfair.

Fox News ran this article talking about all the celebrities who've taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure with Ms. Prejean. There's a lot of name calling and use of the word ignorant. It's all very callous and hateful. Even event judge Perez Hilton claims to have given Ms. Prejean a 0 for her answer to his question. Bitter much? Just because an answer isn't to your liking, you call the poor girl a b***h on your blog?

This girl has very strong convictions surrounding her faith and truly doesn't believe in gay marriage. Why is that any different than someone saying they really don't like the fact that the Obamas had a dog purchased for them rather than adopting one from a shelter? Both are politically charged. Both have people who are strong supporters on both sides of the fence. Why is this girl being persecuted so strongly?

I unfortunately find it terribly disconcerting that one cannot voice their opinion without fear of being publically mocked, name called and belittled. Ms. Prejean is not ignorant nor is she speaking for a small percentage of this population. I think it's time that Ms. Prejean is defended.

And no...I do not support gay marriage. I fully believe that marriage was created by God to be between a man and a woman. Period. I do have gay friends. I do believe that they should be able to have certain rights as far as the eligibility for health care from their partner's and so forth. But no, I do not agree that they should have the right to marry.

I hope Miss California continues to weather this storm with the integrity that she has so far. She is not apologetic and stands by her beliefs. For that I commend her.

L.

Someone send relief now....Pepto might work....

Okay....It's 7:45am on a Saturday morning and instead of sleeping in my nice warm bed I'm up and awake and have been for almost an hour. I was rudely awakened from my delicious slumber by my husband and the tunes of the most handsome and virile Bono (yes, Vertigo is my phone ringtone). I truly wouldn't have minded being awakened by Bono singing in my ear....but I digress.

For some reason unknown to me, the city of Atlanta and all surrounding counties are being affected by a serious gas shortage. Luckily I haven't had to visit the gas station while things have been at their worst as I don't have to drive far to pick up the commuter bus that takes me into the city. Shooter, however, got up bright and spanking early to go to work and called me to notify me that the gas station about 1.5 miles from our house had just gotten in a new supply of petrol and I needed to slap on a baseball cap and a bra and head down there.

Well, that's the way to get me going in the morning! Talk to me like that more often and things will get steamy fast.

So I jump up....grab a ball cap, a bra, jeans, sweatshirt and flipflops and flounce my way down to the local gas station. Me and about half the town it seems. Actually it wasn't that bad...I had filled up both of my cars in about 25 min which isn't bad considering I had to drive, wait, fill up, drive to house, drive to gas station, wait, fill up and drive home.

I am actually pretty darn fed up with whatever is going on. How bad is it that you have to get up at 7am to go and get gas? We tried to get some last night but the lines were so bad we decided to wait until after we'd eaten dinner. By the time we finished our lovely sushi dinner the gas had run out.

Hurricane Ike was...what....2 or 3 weeks ago? How come we're the only city in the Southeast experiencing these problems? Why can't people get their crap together and get us the gas we need. I will say this....I'm darn glad I drive low end cars that only take Regular gas. The people that drive those high-falutin' fancy engine cars are all shit-outta luck because hardly any stations are carrying any octane higher than Regular. Thanks Mazda, Nissan and Honda for making cars for the regular kinda folks.

Anyway....if you can send Pepto for our gas stations, I'd appreciate it.

Later lovelies!
L.

Say what?

I am a real jokester. I mean, I like to tell jokes. I tell my jokes in the form of stories. The stories may be real or may be born in my imagination. They're pretty darn funny regardless.

I also have a side that is a sarcastic jokester. That sarcastic joker side of me is about 90% of the time truly joking. There's that other 10% of the time, however, where I'm joking but completely serious. I find that I'm usually that way with only a handful of people. I think it's a little bit in retaliation for what I perceive to be the same sort of humor played out against me - or others close to me.

There's one particular person in my life who hardly ever gets genuine humor from me and I'm not sure they even know it. I sense that the humor directed at me is 100% sarcastic truth so I reflect that back at them. It really makes me sad that they don't seem to get it. If only they could break that one wall down, I think it would make such a huge difference in their life - personally as well as professionally.

Oh well....but if they change their ways I won't get to poke fun at them being completely serious yet laughing it off. My life will be much less funny if they straighten up. Hmmm....maybe I'm more self-serving than I believe. ;-) So go on...you self-centered, egotistical SOB - talk about yourself a little more - keep that world revolving around yourself - put me down one more time - it just gives me more fodder for my own amusement.

------------

Later, lovelies!
L.

Somebody slow down the bandwagon so I can jump on!!

Okay...so I know everyone and their uncle have been screaming about how the Chinese have been getting preferential judging....well, now so am I.

I was bolstered by reading The Fourth Medal blog today over at Yahoo!

I, however, am going to exclude the following events where the outcomes are decided by judges and not solely on the athletes physical abilities:

* Gymnastics
* Trampoline
* Judo
* Diving
* Fencing
* Equestrian

The current medal counts are:
China: Gold - 43 Silver - 14 Bronze - 19 Overall - 76
USA: Gold - 26 Silver - 26 Bronze - 27 Overall - 79

Under my new calculations the medal counts would be:
China: Gold - 22 Silver - 10 Bronze - 12 Overall - 44
USA: Gold - 22 Silver - 16 Bronze - 22 Overall - 60

I don't want to sound like some ungrateful, egotistical, pompous jerk of an American...but please, the numbers kinda speak for themselves.

And there's no way that He Kexin is 16...gimme a freakin' break!!!!!!

Later lovelies!
L.

Black Hole, Angel Food Cake and......Racism?!?!?!

Okay...ya know...I try to be as sensitive as I can to the politically correct movement in this country. BUT sometimes people, and by people I mean African-Americans, and by African-Americans I mean Black people, take it way too far.

I read the following article on FoxNews.com this afternoon and it just blew me away.

Texas County Official Sees Race in Term "Black Hole"

I mean, seriously?!?! A white person make a comment about a department being a black hole for paperwork and a black person takes offense at that? Please! And to demand an apology for the racist remark? I shake my head....

Then the idiot....yes, I called Mr. John Wiley Price, who's a black man, an idiot....went on television in Dallas and said that he thought other terms were racist.

"So if it's 'angel food cake,' it's white. If it's 'devil's food cake,' it's black. If you're the 'black sheep of the family,' then you gotta be bad, you know. 'White sheep,' you're okay. You know?" Price said.

I mean, seriously....how do you make the leap from someone making a derogatory comment like calling someone the "N" word and someone calling a local government department a black hole. To me this is straight up ignorance...that's what I have a problem with...it's not someone's skin color...it's the fact that they're just ignorant. This sounds like a sad attempt at making someone out to be a bad guy and get attention for yourself.

Oh well...I'm off to make a racist devil's food cake this weekend....

Ode to the cable company

Oh Charter, wherefore art thou with my divine HD compatible converter box? Why hast thou left me without high def? My heart yearns to see my beloved Anthony Bourdain in HD. My dearest soulmate, Shooter, longs to purchase his huge ass television, but alas cannot watch any programs in HD because we have yet to enjoy the company of one of your esteemed service technicians.


Okay...I'm done with that crap....


I went yesterday, on my day off no less, to exchange our digital cable box for an HD compatible digital cable box. Now, this is the second time in two weeks that we've tried this, Shooter went the first time and apparently missed the chance of getting the last box by a matter of hours. So, I saunter up to the counter (because I was having a FAB.U.LOUS hair day) and oh so kindly notify the clerk that I would like to exchange my cable box for an HD one. She looks at me like I've asked her if I could have a million bucks. Seriously. She says to me, "I am pretty sure we don't have any boxes back there, even the one that you have. Let me check the computer though." She types, she frowns, she won't meet my stare, she then says - "I was right, nothing." I looked at her and dared her to repeat herself. I said, "Are you serious? I mean, really. You're telling me that you don't have one, single, lone, solitary HD compatible box back there? Really?" She says to me, "No, ma'am...what we should do is put you down for an appointment for someone to come by and hook it up for you. That way you'll be guaranteed to get one." I think for a second, then "But what if you don't get any boxes in before my appointment." I think I actually stumped her because she pauses, frowns and then says, "Well, no one will show up and we'll reschedule the appointment." "Oh, I see," I said to her, "I'll wait at home for hours and then because the guy that had the appointment in front of me got the last box, I'll get stuck without one and then have to wait for hours again on another day and hope the same thing doesn't happen again." I got a blank stare from her. She then types into the computer and says, "Let's choose the 26th, that should give us time to get some boxes in." "I certainly hope so," was my bland reply.


I mean, really....I hate the cable company. They have me hostage though. I am addicted to my high speed broadband internet connected. My 5Mbps downloading speed makes me swoon. If it weren't for my internet, I'd have long ago ditched cable for the dish.


Son of a beach, sheets!!!!!! (as my boss is so fond of saying)

The Inner Child

Okay...has anyone ever accused you of being childish and immature? I was accused of that yesterday, and not by my husband (although everyone we've ever encountered knows he has grounds to do that) or by one of my friends (although lord knows they have reasons to) or by my mother (who has about a gazillion reasons and counting) - it happened in the craziest of places. The place where I am the most professional and focused - AT WORK! Now, I must confess that it wasn't just me who was accused of being childish and immature - an entire group of us were marched in to a room and we were told that we need to grow up. Apparently there are a few people in the group whose inner children aren't playing fair and are bonking others over the head with their plastic shovels. But to brand an entire group as childish - isn't that a bit much...I play fair...I share...and I smile at everyone. For Pete's Sake, why can't we lock the offending children in a room and let them fight it out....preferably put them in a room with windows so that we can all watch the hair pulling and biting and the shin kicking...