must...have...more...space...bags...

So apparently you're supposed to have a vacuum with a hose attachment in order to use space bags, but I've found that a little bit of body weight and a good set of lungs do the trick.

Problem is the goodness of my set of lungs is questionable, so I feel like I'm going to have an asthma attack at any moment...

But I'm still thoroughly convinced that everything I own needs to be stored in one of these bad boys. Bedding, pillows, jackets, sweaters, the cat...

Everything.

Must have more space bags, and possibly a refill for my inhaler.

Hooray for vacation!

Ahh, vacation. I'm catching up on sleep, enjoying some quality apron time (that's what my boss calls it when she hears me telling everyone I can't stay late because I need to go home and cook dinner), and getting a bunch of other small projects done. I haven't cleaned the house, but hey, I'm on vacation right?

Today I spent a large portion of my day sorting through bills, filing stuff, that sort of thing. I filled out the paper work for reimbursement through my health savings account, printed return labels for a few things we're returning to amazon.com, found my passport (not that it's any good to me now that my name is changed) and checked Hayzeus's medical records to see when his next set of vaccinations are due.

I spent at least an hour writing a scathing letter to MGH's Emergency Department because their billing department is completely incompetent. In November of 2005 I went to the ED's Walk-in clinic for some symptomatic treatment of a respiratory infection. They billed my Dad's insurance in November of 2006, a full year later. Basically the insurance company denied the claim because it was over a year after the time of service and because I was no longer receiving benefits from the policy. So then, three months later in February of 2007, MGH decided to bill me for it. I called to find out why it took them 15 months to bill me and they told me it was because the opening of the new ED caused delays. Piss poor excuse in my book, so I told them I was absolutely not going to pay the bill, especially since my insurance would have covered it if they'd submitted the claim in a timely manner.

They kept sending me bills and I kept telling them I wasn't going to pay it. Then, in August, my bill had a mysterious payment made on it. I soon found out that my Mom had made a payment on her account and they'd credited it to mine because we had the same first and last name. I called them and told them it needed to be credited to her account and the next bill they sent me had the credit removed, stating it had been transferred over to account #XXXXXXXX. So not only had they failed to double check they were applying it to the right account in the first place, they also listed my Mom's account number on MY bill.

It turns out that account numbers associated with individual patients are considered Protected Health Information. Can anyone say HIPAA violation?

But the last straw came today when I called them about a different bill. When I hurt my back at work I went to the Express Care clinic at MGH's ED. While I was there I game them the forms from my employer authorizing them to treat me and informing them of our worker's comp insurance company's name, address, and claim number. Still, I recieved a bill in the mail for the services provided to me that day. So again, I called to tell them they had their heads up their asses and they simply proved my point by telling me they didn't have any record of the letter from my employer authorizing them to treat me nor did they have record of our worker's comp insurance company's name, address, and claim number. I told the lady on the phone that I'd provided all of that information at the time of service, but she kept asking me for it as if I had it in front of me but was trying to keep her in the dark.

So I spent a lot of time tracking down my old insurance information, asking my Dad to look for the Explanation of Benefit forms to go along with the November 2005 visit, researching HIPAA, and composing an extremely curt letter for MGH's Emergency billing department, which I plan on sending copies of to the CEO of MGH, the Better Business Bureau, JCAHO, and maybe even my state rep, just because I can. I don't even care if they all think I'm some crazy person so long as MGH writes off my bill from November of 2005.

I also went to the dentist today and had the first of three crowns put on. It's weird having a whole tooth where I used to have fragments of one, but I'm pretty jazzed about it. I'm also excited because Joe and I beefed up our health savings accounts to pay for all my crazy dental work (and other health expenses he and I will certainly accrue) so the expense won't seem as painful for us.

The day after tomorrow we're going to my Mom's for Christmas. I guess that's Saturday, but I don't really know what day of the week we're on right now so I'm taking Joe's word for it. Right now I think I'm going to go make a beef pot pie with the left overs from last night's pot roast (and gravy, which I recently learned how to make from Joe's Mom!).

Christmas Time's a coming...

I think we're almost ready for Christmas. At least I am...but Joe says he still has major shopping to do (for me) this weekend. Ever since Thanksgiving we've been avoiding WalMart and most other shopping holes like the plague because of the crowds the holidays bring. While I've been able to do the majority of our Christmas shopping online or at small local stores we've finally reached the point where we need to go shopping for non-Christmas items - stuff like toilet paper, shampoo, etc etc. So tomorrow I'm going to try to get that done before work (at like 7:30am). Then I have a handful of things to pick up at the grocery store after work, no big deal. On Saturday Joe and I are both getting our haircut at the place in the mall (our stylist works there, we love her) and while he's getting his done I'll snag the last two items we need and then I'll get mine cut and go home. Joe says he's going to need a couple hours to shop for me.

After shopping we'll head out to my Dad's for Christmas there. I'm hoping to be there by 2 or so, but realistically we won't make it until 3 or 4. After we're done shopping we still have wrapping to do and then we need to get everything together for our trip to Joe's parents house on Sunday. We're still debating on whether or not we'll come home after my Dad's house and then leave from here on Sunday or if we'll just stay down there and leave from good ol' Little Lake. It will probably depend on how prepared we are to leave, etc. etc. Plus, we should come home and pet the cat before we go to Grayling...he'll never forgive us if we don't.

Tonight I have one last Christmas craft project I need to finish up and hopefully I'll get to do a little wrapping too. We also have to make an appearance at a co-worker's Birthday dinner. I probably should have done some wrapping and stuff last night, but we relaxed, had some pizza, and watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3. So today, tomorrow, and Saturday will be action packed days...but what's Christmas without chaos, right? :)

Random Christmas Stuff

We put our tree up last weekend while Joe's sister and brother were here. Much to our surprise, HayZeus hasn't destroyed it yet. He's actually made himself a little lair underneath the branches. More often than not (assuming he's not running around the house like a madman) he can be found here:

We also acquired a china cabinet from my Mom and Steve last weekend. Joe put all of the nice glasses and such we got for the wedding on display in it:

Apparently the cat thinks he's one of the nice things we got for the wedding.
On Thursday I stayed up wayyyy too late to finish up my contributions for the cookie exchange at work. I'd regretted signing up the instant I put my name down, but it was too late to drop out so I sucked it up and made up some bags of assorted candies. I don't like making cookies...I don't mind making the dough and putting the first cookie sheet into the oven, but after that I get bored/tired/distracted and I usually end up burning half of them. I try to stick to candy and bars instead.

Unfortunately, by the time I was done with everything on Thursday I was throwing things and swearing a lot. Nothing ever goes right when you're overtired and trying to dip truffles into chocolate that just won't melt correctly. On the plus side of things, I think I'm nearly done with my Christmas confections - I have a batch of Chocolate Raspberry Crumb bars in the oven now and have two more bar recipes I want to try.

Last night was my work Christmas party. The dinner that management put on was fine I guess, although you could tell half the people in the room didn't want to be there. That was the half of the room I was on....along with all of the people that had attended Andy's Pre-Christmas Party Party. We all got together at his house beforehand and worked on a quarter barrel of Bud Light...I think there were about 25 of us there. Words cannot describe my hangover today, but we all had a great time.

We also spent some time yesterday at Joe's co-worker's house for a cookie decorating party. I spent over an hour decorating cookies, and these are all of the ones I made:

Yeah, over an hour on four cookies. This is why I don't make sugar cookies.

Anyway, back to the kitchen to finish up. Then I think I'm going to catch up on ANTM and Grey's via the internet. Toodles~

Baking Woes

On Sunday I started in on my Christmas baking/candy making. I got my ingredients organized, made a couple batches of fudge, and decided I'd finish out the night with a batch or two of Butter Brickle.

Try more like 4 batches...only one of which is edible.

For some reason or another, I was always under the impression that Butter Brickle was difficult to make. So until last year, I never made it. I also don't remember liking it as a kid - crunchy candies weren't my favorites, so I would usually just lick the chocolate off the top and slyly leave the rest on a napkin somewhere. But last year (or the year before?) I decided I would start making my Grandmother's recipe as part of my Christmas confections.

After making it for the first time last year I remember thinking how dumb I was for assuming it was difficult to make. The recipe has 5 ingredients, including the Hershey's bar melted on top! Combine sugar, water, and butter and cook until golden brown (hard crack stage), stirring constantly. Add pecans, put in pan. Rub Hershey bar on top when set but warm. Use wooden spoon and medium heat. So no big deal to make it this year, right?

Wrong.

Everything was going fine until I got to the almost golden brown stage (soft crack stage). Suddenly the butter started separating out and the sugar began to crystallize. By the time I added the pecans and put it in the pan it was a mess! Just a bunch of burnt sugar with butter standing on top. Gross.

So I did what anyone would do. I tossed it and tried again, figuring I'd stirred it too much or not enough or that I'd added something wrong, etc etc. But the same thing happened again.

And again.

At this point, I was in tears because I was so pissed that I'd messed up such an easy recipe. I'd called my Mom and asked for advice, I'd tried adjusting the heat, I'd read like the whole Joy of Cooking, I'd tried everything. I even broke out the candy thermometer, which I never do because I purposely don't make candy that requires one. And still, just burnt sugar with butter on top.

Finally, I started to scour the internet. No way was I going to quit. So I searched and read every candy site I could find. My first problem was that Butter Brickle is really a type of toffee, but once I found that out things were easier to look for and I finally found my answer.

Salt.

I'd picked up butter at the day before, and it was in a cooler with two types: salted and unsalted. I didn't think anything of it...just grabbed the two pounds I needed and went on my way. I'd picked up unsalted butter, which really should make much of a difference in most things....except candy.

Salt, I read, helps to stabilize the mixture, therefore keeping the butter from separating out and the sugar from crystallizing.

Simple chemistry.

I hate chemistry.

Perhaps more now than ever before.

Anyway, my fourth batch finally turned out. I'm certain Joe thought I was insane - crying, growling, yelling out the temp at different crack stages. Total lunatic.

So today I decided I would make another batch before work and a batch of peanut brittle, another easssssssy recipe.

The butter brickle is too soft and the cashew brittle is a watery mess.

I give up. Everyone's getting store bought candy and cookies this year.

The cat has gone bananas

Hayzeus is trying to eat a banana out of the fruit bowl.

I'm sorry, but that's totally fricken weird.

A Snowy Weekend

Over the past 48 hours or so we've gotten somewhere around 8-10 inches or more of snow. I'm loving it. I'm personally of the opinion that if everything is going to look dead and it's going to be cold and gloomy then it might as well be white! Plus, it's just not Christmas unless it's snowy outside. Here's what the trees near our parking lot look like now that it's stopped snowing

Snow puts me in a Christmasy mood, so I've been doing a lot of online shopping. I'm also getting the urge to bake, so I spent some time taking an inventory of the ingredients I have on hand as well as making a master list of everything I'll need. Then I cross checked them and made a grocery list. I've been slowly accumulating baking necessities over the last month or so, which is nice because now I won't have to endure the shock of buying everything at once.

I was also craving chocolate. No, that's not quite the way to put it....I REQUIRED chocolate (you ladies know what I mean). It's been months since I needed chocolate that bad, so I had to make some no-bake cookies, which are like all chocolate (otherwise I probably would have eaten an entire bag of chocolate chips). Not exactly on my diet, but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

Mame and Steve got married this past Friday. Mame spent two weeks looking for a dress--buying many and returning all of them before finally settling on one that was soooo the opposite of a wedding dress. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to go shopping with her. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the quality time with Mame, but I'm not a shopper. Mame, on the other hand, has to touch everything in the store. So it's rather excruciating. I almost got my sister to take her, but in the end Missy guilt-tripped me into going along. It was a lot more tolerable with both of us there though. And like I said, quality time with Mom is a plus.

I took Friday off and Mame and I went to the cosmo school and got pedicures, which were good, especially considering they were only $10. Missy came over when she got off work at the hospital and Joe got home about 3 with Missy's boys in tow (he'd picked them up from daycare on his way home). Mame went home to get ready and we all gathered at the courthouse around 3:45. In attendance were: Myself, Joe, Mike, Laura, Missy, Timmy, Odin, Julie, Mame's Boss and her husband, another co-worker, Rick and Cheryl and Lax and Katy (practically aunts and uncles to me) and two couples that are close friends of Mame and Steve.

And so they got married at 4:00. I think the ceremony lasted about 4 minutes and I somehow got appointed the photographer, so I'll share a few:
Before the Ceremony (with the flowers and boutinere that I made for them)

Vows and Such

Rings:

At the restaurant afterwards:

Uber cute pic of Joe and Timmy at dinner



























(For those of you who haven't noticed, I intentionally refer to my mother by her first name. I do this for two reasons: first, to get revenge for my grandmother, who hates that my mom refers to her as Betty, and second, because I've found that she flat out doesn't respond to "mom," no matter how many times you say it, yell it, scream it, etc. etc. So it's not a respect thing. It's just more practical.)

Other than that, Joe and I did very little this weekend. I cleaned the house, read two Harry Potter books (I'm re-reading them all), and sat around in sweats. We've barely left the house really, and it's been wonderful.

In other news, Baxter has decided to restructure Biolife. The company finally figured out that the phlebotomists have the hardest job in the center and that we pretty much control everything from yeild to cost per liter and has thus decided to compensate us accordingly. They gave everyone in the center a raise and also decided to cross train everyone at the basic level for every job in the center. They renamed everyone Plasma Center Technicians (instead of Phlebotomist, Medical Historian, and Sample Prep Tech).

The main phlebotomy team was given a raise on top of the center wide increase and we're all training to become "Master Plasma Center Technicians" because we're all advanced trained in what is now being termed "plasma collections". Once totally trained, this will put us "Master Techs" at more than $4/hour than we all started at - most of the phlebs were given a pretty big bump in pay this week. Unfortunately, I didn't qualify for the first round of raises because I was already the highest paid phleb on the floor (except the few that are already cross trained, because they fell into the new middle position - Sr. Plasma Center Technician). I'm a little bitter about this because I was previously cross-trained (first time I worked there) and have been told for months that I would be retrained in that area, but it never happened. On the other hand, I should be a "Master" by the spring and will get a raise at annual compensation time in addition to the yearly COLA (cost of living adjustment).

In the end it's just a lot of title changing with new, significantly higher, pay ranges for the different titles. Still, it's kind of nice to know they they finally figured out that the success of a plasma center rests on the quality of the phlebotomists. We're no longer the Interrogators and the Bruisers (our old softball team names at the annual center game) because now we're all on the same team....but some of us rock way more than the rest. :)