What's on your Wednesday Menu?

Good Morning! Oooof it's raining cats, dogs, donkeys, and cows here. I actually slept pretty well because I caved in and took .5 of a sleeping pill last night, but I was awakened at 3am by insanely hard rain hitting the roof. We are supposed to get as much as 4" of rain here and that doesn't include the snow that is going to melt and hit the drains, too, so it's bound to make a lot of areas flood today. Yikes. Thankfully, I don't need to leave the house today!

I do have some exciting news--all of a sudden I am getting attention from employers! I have a phone interview today, I got another call yesterday from someone else who wants to schedule an interview, and I applied to a job where I am closely connected to the Executive Director and feel confident that they will at least consider me. The jobs are all back in education or education non-profits, but whatever. I have resigned myself to sticking within the industry and I am going to try to change my attitude about it.

QOTD: Do you eat things you don't like, just to be polite? I definitely do. It doesn't come up too often, but sometimes my mom makes something I don't like but I would never tell her. And if I won't tell my mom, I can't imagine I would say anything to anyone else. I'll just eat it.

QOTD2: Hit me with an interview question so that I can think about it and practice!

• Protein coffee
• Veg egg bites
• Veg burger
• Pulled chicken & baked beans

Good morning. We're busy on our ark. The rain and wind are bananas. At least it's not snow. I don't even know how many feet this would be.

I got the bill for the second knee replacement yesterday. For a 24 hour hospital stay, surgery, and everything -- just in that 24 hour period -- it came to a little more than $59,000 bucks. They disallowed 350 dollars worth (!!!), but didn't say for what, or why. Thank God, my portion only came to $250. But 59 grand for 24 hours. It's insane.

QOTD: No, I stopped being polite about food. But it's extremely rare that I'm in a situation where I might insult someone by refusing food. Everyone I might eat with knows me pretty well.

QOTD2: if i were interviewing you in a zoom call today, i imagine i would be asking the question "Who is that man walking around in the background, and why isn't he wearing pants?"

Thankfully, this interview is just a phone call! Phew!

Medical bills are just crazy. Love the QOTD 2 answer.

I always thing about ways I wouldn't mine dying. Death by Bear doesn't sound bad.

Coming from a "socialized" medicine country these prices still shock me. My shoulder was about $25K and I didn't even stay at the hospital. My portion was about $1000 and still so mu*****omparison to Europe.

I have a friend who was traveling in Italy during Xmas. She and her kids came down with Covid/RSV symptoms and she was panicking. So she called me to ask what to do. She was worried about the cost. By the end of it all (Dr visit, medicine, etc) I think she paid $10 with the apologies of the staff to having her pay that much. She thought she was in an upside down world. No dear, we live in an upside down world in the US where healthcare is a business.

I remember Jay Leno, many years ago, talking about his MIL getting hospitalized in England while on vacation. They flew right over, and he kept telling the hospital and doctors that anything she needed, whatever it cost, he'd cover the bill. Money was no object. In the end, he got a bill for 10 bucks, for an extra blanket she kept.

We have a seriously, grotesquely flawed system in this country.

It sure is flawed.
When my brother got sick (brain tumor) in UK, they said it was inoperable but prescribed 10 radiation sessions.
1) the Italian consulate provided a private airplane for my brother to fly from UK back to Italy. Because of his brain tumor he couldn't get on a long train or car ride. The private plane landed in a military airport next to the hospital in Pisa, so minimal car travel. My mom and my sister were along with him, he was not traveling alone. $0 cost to us.
2) we started the radiation. I was in a meeting with his Dr and he said because my brother is young and strong let's increase the radiation sessions from 10 to15. I don't know if it was stress or what but I burst out crying. The Dr was perplexed and asked if I didn't want to do the radiation sessions. I said it was refreshing to see the Dr making the decision what is best for the patient instead of the ins companies. He couldn't even understand what I was talking about.

Good mornin y'all! QJB, glad to hear things are looking up in the job search.

I'm working on little sleep, itchiness and soreness. Yay? lol. I should be used to them by now but it still sucks as much as it always has. Not a whole lot planned for the day. I do have an appointment with my peer support pal. I doubt we do much else. Yesterday my mom wanted Thai so I just got the satay. I just can't do rice or noodles for more than one reason. I did splurge on a shrimp roll though. They are on the smaller side and was deliciously worth it.

The are saying Sunday night we'll have a low of 1°. Not thrilled with that cold of a night. The high is supposed to be 17 I think. This next Monday I have an appointment at 7:45 for the test injection on my back. It's gonna be one coooooold morning to have to get out in.

I'll chainmaille more today. I splurged ona hoodie for myself with some extra money I got for the last order I sent to my "boss". I also found some stickers from their website. Teepublic.com, it has independent artwork from hundreds of different people that they print and it's high quality. You can find just about any subject matter. I own six tshirts from them that I love.

QOTD: not always, I will try it but if it's really off putting for me then no. I have a bad gag reflex that sometimes just the texture will do it.

QOTD #2: what is your view on the use of AI in the educations sector? Do you see it as an asset or liability?

B: eggs and coffee x2

the rest is unplanned...as usual.

I'm always surprised that it gets as cold as it does down there. You are wayyyy to the south of us.

I think it's the textures in some foods that bother me more than the taste. I have very little sense of smell, and that affects what I taste, and that in turn makes texture more important.