Live and Let Di

I can't resist technology

As much as I don't want to narrow MY chances of winning, I must direct you to this site. I love people who give away STUFF YOU REALLY WANT on their blogs.

I think it's something like one of the above. She had me at:

It has a built in visor clip for the car or you can take it with you for a nice long soak in the bathtub and not have to worry about dropping your phone in the tub while you chat.

Now I'm adapting it for my own purposes and thinking:

A visor clip for talking while golfing!!!

Pay a visit...I get an extra entry if you do!!! Be sure to mention my name!

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 66)

There is a little "issue" in my house. The three other humans in my house, for whom I cook, clean, fill out endless forms, chauffeur and social direct, seem to think I am irritable. It's a no-win situation. I can be all laid-back for days on end and then when I am the slightest bit annoyed, the response is, "You are always so irritable!"

I'll concede the point...because I am, by nature, a little on the irritable side. Under the auspices of full disclosure, I present:

Thirteen Things that Irritate Me

1. Floors that squeak - at the house we are renting until our house is built (which will not have squeaky floors) there are several loud squeaky places...the most irritating of which is directly in front of the washer and dryer. So, as if it's not enough that one is enduring the endless toil of laundry, one gets to hear the constant squeaking every time ones weight shifts loading or unloading.

2. OPK - other people's kids. Not all other people's kids...just the ones that loudly make their presence known in public while Mom and/or Dad stand idly by, oblivious to their obnoxiousness. These kids' behaviors are more obvious here in the South where it's still OK to expect children to be seen and not heard, your kids' friends politely answer, "Yes, ma'am" when you ask them something and adults are respectfully called, "Miss Diane" or "Mr. Hurley."

3. Ignorance of Grammar and Spelling - if you don't know the language, please refrain from publishing things which perpetuate the decline in our language. Today I saw not one, but TWO ads on Craigslist for fencing for a dog "pin." When I read people's feedback on various travel topics...hotels, restaurants, etc....they seem quite well-spoken but they consistently misuse "your" and "you're."

4. Loud and annoying ring tones - I believe that most phones have a "vibrate" function. When you are in a hospital, at a basketball game or in a waiting room, utilize that function!!! We know your kids have already told you this, but it's a little embarrassing even to US that you have the theme from Shaft as your ring tone. And Nextel users, it IS possible to direct connect without having the phone in broadcast mode. I once heard a Dad on his Nextel with the bee-beep followed by "go ahead" back and forth during his son's baseball game!!!! Now I have been a sports parent long enough to know that one's children's athletic events may not hold you in thrall all the time, but have enough respect for your kid not to broadcast to the world that you have better things to do with your time.

5. Misuse of the Express Lane - Wal-Mart is pretty generous with their Express Lane...20 items or less. But can we establish that once your 20 items have been rung up, you should be poised with your credit card ready to slide through the reader? This is not the time to be rustling through your purse to see if you have exactly 89 cents. You don't wait until the cashier is finished to start looking for your credit card/cash/check. And come on...your bank offers the debit card option...writing checks is archaic, requires ID and lots of consternation on the part of the cashier, so it does NOT belong in the Express Lane.

6. Feet - They were so adorable and I wanted to kiss them all the time when you were babies. But you are big kids now. They are not that cute. That goes for my husband as well.

7. Fidgeting - When I am driving several hormonal adolescents somewhere, it's hard enough to keep my mind on driving without someone pressing the open and close button on his window, playing with the window shade and casually tapping his foot on the back of my seat. When is a car manufacturer going to come up with a soundproof plexiglass divider between the driver and the passengers????

8. Private Name/Private Number, Blocked or Computers Calling - I'm not answering. Hearing the phone ring repeatedly is less annoying than picking it up and hearing the distinctive sound of a computer-generated voice-activated message about to kick in. I got on that no-call list...but that doesn't seem to impress some of these persistent telemarketers.

9. People who buy stuff from telemarketers - don't encourage them! Your use of their products and services just perpetuates their intrusive method of marketing.

10. Blogs with music that plays when you open them - sorry...I am choosing to read your blog, but I haven't authorized you to assault my ears with your tunes. Make it an option that you can click on or not.

11. Static - tune the station in or turn off the radio.

12. Waste - I am still being bombarded by numerous Explanations of Benefits from my insurance company. It makes me crazy when I feed all of that paper into the shredder and think about the cost to mail that paper. Waste is just a small part of why our health care system is so out of control!!!

13. Thursday Thirteens that last forever - I am completely guilty of this. But don't you think that one should post another entry on Friday, no matter how small or inconsequential? Having your TT up as the current post on Saturday is kind of like leaving your Christmas lights up until mid-February.

I feel so much better now that I have unloaded this crap onto you! Please share if you concur that little things in life can be SO annoying! What bugs you???

P.S. I apologize for being Linky-less this week. When I created my new blog template, I didn't get around to re-entering the code.

P.P.S. How Di Got Her Linky Back (Mister Linky has outdone himself with up-to-the-minute code and easy-to-follow instructions. If you've been scared before, jump in!

Di

Omigod You Guys!!!

Last night was Open House at my daughter's high school. My daughter gave me plenty of advanced warning, telling me as soon as she got in the car AFTER school yesterday!!! Apparently her Drama teacher had promised 15 extra credit points to the students whose parents showed up.

***Extraneous side note to those parents with teenage daughters: Isn't teaching Drama to teens redundant???***

My daughter's response when I said I would go was (looking me up and down in my knock-around jeans and purple turtleneck), "You're not going to wear THAT, are you?" So, I have come full circle from being influenced by girls in my high school to being influenced by my daughter in high school.

And then, the icing on the cake, "You're going to wear a bra, aren't you?" As my little act of rebellion, I wore a Victoria's Secret "Pink" bra that she would find utterly horrifying when sported by her 45 year old Mom. (I do hate when they use my picture for their ads!!!)

So I showered, carefully dressed and put on make-up to pass muster so I could leave to follow my daughter's schedule. In typical "me" fashion, I started out by excessively socializing in the hall outside the gym. I bounced into the first period class and grabbed the first seat-desk in the front. In second period I slouched to a desk toward the back. I showed up for third period late. Then I blew off fourth period because the portable classroom was too freakin' far away!

Whatever she is doing in school, the Drama seems to be working...just watch a couple minutes of this:

Click above to view "Omigod You Guys!" as performed by the Drama Queen Trio AKA my daughter and her friends.

Di

Baby, it's cold outside!!!

Something you might not know about me...I grew up in New Hartford, NY (near Utica) and went to college at St. Lawrence University. Between these two places, I think I spent my first 22 years of life at or near the freezing point. While my blood has thinned in recent years, I can still remember the -20 degree days at SLU where I layered a turtleneck with a hand-knit Norwegian wool sweater and trekked to class. Now that I have lived in Florida and North Carolina for the last 20 something years, I barely leave the house when it drops below 40.

I am a hard-core winter adventurist compared to my husband who was raised in Miami and dons his flannels when the temperature shifts toward 50. So, just for a giggle today, let me show you the weather where my husband is spending the next several days on business:

Tee hee!!!

Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all

Please visualize the man pictured below throwing his hat up in the air...and then freezing in place and breaking up into thousands of pieces. Yeah...he's going to make it after all!

Di

The Pillars of the Earth

My sister Linda (see picture on right) has proclaimed The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (originally published in 1989 and now resurging in popularity due to the recent publication of its sequel, World Without End) to be her favorite book of all time. As her younger sister who counts Follett's Lie Down With Lions as one of her all-time favorites, who am I to question her selection?

I would like to reiterate that I ordered this book from Quail Ridge Books (via BookSense, of course) BEFORE the big "O" selected it as a recommended book. I have a history of doing this, including The Book of Ruth, She's Come Undone, Midwives, A Map of the World and The Poisonwood Bible. Come to think of it, I think it should be renamed Di's Book Club, as purloined by Oprah!

Don't let the size of The Pillars of the Earth scare you...try to look at it like a multipurpose book...973 pages of entertainment and an attractive doorstop.

When I say 973 pages of entertainment, I'm pretty sure I've lost a large contingent of readers. Some people don't want to make that level of commitment to a spouse, let alone a book! So humor me here and let me make an argument in favor of reading The Pillars of the Earth.

Ken Follett has a brilliant way with a story (I am using "brilliant" a lot these days since I saw Once the other night...but that is a topic for another blog). If I told you that the main plot line of this book was the building of a cathedral in twelfth century England, many of you would hightail it to read Perez Hilton or TMZ because the latest on Britney, Justin and K-Fed is far more intriguing than ancient church-building. The true center of Follett's masterpiece is the cast of characters which is peopled with human beings with complexity and foibles that make them multi-faceted and believable. The characters of Ellen, Tom, Philip, William, Aliena, Richard, Jack and the rest transcend the cardboard cutouts of good and evil that, in less masterful hands, they could have easily become.

The characters are so well-drawn that their images are etched in my brain in a way that no movie character could be. They act in ways that are expected and then in ways that are unexpected, giving the reader insights into complex, HUMAN beings rather than flat, one-dimensional characters. The story is filled with lust, violence, love, loyalty, treachery, kinship and the diabolical nature of ambition.

Providing the backdrop and motivation to the novel is the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge. While the dull recounting of cross-beams and flying buttresses would grind even the most well-written novel to a halt, Follett succeeds in conveying the wonder and grandeur one feels when standing in the middle of Notre Dame, amazed that a structure of such size and grandeur was constructed without the aid of modern machinery and stands today as a testament to the power of the humans who designed it and the humans who built it.

I strongly recommend this book. It is a classic as much as a book that was written a mere 20 years ago can be. Its timelessness destines it for greatness and its characters and plot provide readability for generations to come.

Di's Book Rating:

Di

 

Someone to watch over me!

Why, it's Toby the Dobie watching over Haley...keep that in mind next time someone implies that Dobies are vicious!

Di

I resemble that remark...

A familiar scene...

Did you know why they call it golf??? Because all the other four-letter words were already taken.

I'm honestly not sure if I'm more concerned with my weight getting lower or my golf scores getting lower!

Di

Feel Good Movie of the Year!!!

I know...you thought this was going to be about Juno or something. But alas I have not seen it (nor any other Oscar nominated films). My daughter has seen it twice and was terribly excited when she saw the Oscar noms.

My children will often call out from another room, "Mom...come on! You've got to see this on YouTube." My reaction is usually one of the following:

1. Ignoring them

2. Telling them I'm boycotting YouTube because the Church of Scientology tells me to

3. Responding, "No, because I will never have a chance to regain the three minutes I will waste watching some stupid video of a guy crashing a bike into a tree." (Oh, sorry, that was a video my son and his friend posted on YouTube.)

And I have certainly never posted a movie on my blog because I appreciate that you indulge me by just reading my words. I can't possibly impose additional minutes and a new media on you. But this video, sent by my friend and Trivia Partner, Elinor, was utterly irresistable!!! Trust me on this...take a chance on wasting two minutes:

Download FreeHugs.mov

Pass it along!

Di

Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 65)

Thirteen Songs From Before His Birth that my Son Plays on Rock Band

I really wish I could insert a video here, but my son, my daughter and their friends have been absolutely entranced by Rock Band for X-Box. Instead of being horrified by the video game obsession (after all, I was a 1st generation Tetris addict), I am thrilled to hear the strains of "classic rock" pouring from the play room instead of the drone of rap or hip-hop!

1. Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who
Year: 1971

Lyrics that mean something:
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

2. Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi

Year: 1987

Lyrics that mean something:

It's all the same, only the names will change
Everyday it seems we're wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
I'd drive all night just to get back home

3. Mississippi Queen by Mountain

Year: 1970

Lyrics that mean something?:

You know she was a dancer
She moved better on wine

4. Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones

Year: 1969

Lyrics that mean something:

Oh, a storm is threatning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

5. Detroit Rock City by KISS

Year: 1976

                                                       

Lyrics that mean something?:

for lovers of the bad boys, woodward avenue, faygo redpop, axel foley, coney dogs, the uniroyal tire, strohs, horsepower, belle isle, greenfield village, magnum p.i., greektown, the heidlelberg project, st. andrews hall, michigan lefts, gordie howe, motown records and bob fucking seger!

6. In Bloom by Nirvana

Year: 1992

Lyrics that mean something:

Sell the kids for food
Weather changes moods
Spring is here again

7. Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones (Uncle Craig would be so proud!)

Year: 1975

Lyrics that mean something:

They're piling in the back seat
They're generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The blitzkrieg bop

8. Long Time by Boston (OMG!!! We did a pom-pom routine to this in high school...yeah, like you didn't already figure out that I was a cheerleader.)

Year: 1976

Lyrics that mean something:

It's been such a long time
I think I should be goin', yeah
And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'
Sail on, on a distant highway
I've got to keep on chasin a dream
I've gotta be on my way

9. Highway Star by Deep Purple

Year: 1972

Lyrics that mean something:

Nobody gonna take my head
I got speed inside my brain
Nobody gonna steal my head
Now that I'm on the road again
Oooh I'm in heaven again I've got everything
Like a moving ground an open road

10. Orange Crush by R.E.M.

Year: 1988

Lyrics that mean something:

We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now it's time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me

11. Paranoid by Black Sabath

Year: 1971

Lyrics that mean something:

I need someone to show me the things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind

12.Suffragette City by David Bowie (I saw Bowie on the Serious Moonlight tour at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse...I can remember shouting out "Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma'am" as this played in my dorm room and my roommate and I rocked out to it)

Year: 1976

Lyrics that mean something:

Oh don't lean on me man, cause you can't afford the ticket

13. Train Kept A-Rollin' by Aerosmith (When Steven Tyler could REALLY hit those high notes and Liv Tyler was just a sparkle in her Daddy's eye)

Year: 1974

Lyrics that mean something:

I'm in heat, I'm in love,
But I just couldn't tell her

So, my friends, there is hope for the next generation. They can't refer to any of "our" music as anything but "oldies" until they adopt it officially into their generation. So, as soon as my son gets Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker on that game, I'm in:

Year: 1979

Lyrics that meant something:

Your love is like a tidal wave
Spinnin' over my head
Drownin' me in your promises
Better left unsaid

By the way, thanks to Tim for the Pat Benatar comment about my hair yesterday. That's a nice way to start the day...and I've canceled my haircut for today!

Which of these albums did you have in your album collection?

Di

Sicko - the Sequel

Sicko, the 2007 Michael Moore film, was an eye-opener for those of us who breathe a sigh of relief every day that we are fortunate enough to have insurance. We are annoyed by the capriciousness of our insurance companies when they inexplicably deny coverage for a new medication that would forestall a lengthy illness and possible hospitalization and blithely cover medications that are subject to potential abuse or dependence (I won't name them...we all know what they are) because they are available in generic form! But we soldier on, the lucky ones, the insured.

As it happens, having insurance is not a guarantee of good medical care or of avoiding the financial disaster that looms when the uninsured cross the threshold of any medical facility. Moore points out the many examples of insured citizens in the U.S. receiving care that is inferior to third world counties or being bankrupted due to the whims of managed care. While we await the election of a Democrat who will tackle the monster of healthcare reform, we can rest assured that if things get too bad, we can always go to France or England or...Cuba?

OK, now on to the sequel. The sequel will tackle the question of how insurance companies can possibly make money when they don't seem to have a lick of business sense in their collective heads.

Here's a quick question to determine if YOU have a lick of business sense:

You are a large, well-known insurance company (for the sake of this example, we'll call it True Floss...since I don't want to cast aspersions on any particular company). You need to explain to a customer what was paid and what wasn't paid during a 13 day hospital stay. What is the most cost-effective means of accomplishing this goal?

(a.) e-mail the pertinent documents to the customer

(b.) mail an itemized listing of the charges and benefits via mail

(c.) send a total of 16 separate Explanation of Benefits forms in 16 separate envelopes with 16 separate stamps on the same day

Hmmm...cue Jeopardy music. Yes, YOU have a lick of business sense because you opted for (a.), with (b.) as a reasonable back-up. True Floss, in its infinite wisdom, chose (c.)

So in the mail today I received a separate Explanation of Benefits for EACH DAY I was in the hospital, a separate EOB for the ER, a separate EOB for each test I had and strangely, a separate EOB for my release from the hospital. They even charge you to LEAVE!!! This takes us up to the day of my discharge. I have been back to the hospital as an outpatient five times since then, so I can only imagine the trees that are shivering in their boots in anticipation of the mountain of paper THESE visits will waste!

How can I feel like I am making an impact when I recycle my newspaper, carefully breakdown, fold and recycle boxes and painstakingly rescue every can or bottle from the trash and bring it to the proper bin in the garage? The amount I recycle in a week can be undone by one insurance company's paperwork on one hospital stay.

I have no more words.

Di