decking

We ventured to Frankenmuth today. In Frankenmuth one can find what I am sure is the world's largest Christmas store, Bronners. For 20 years our Christmas tree has been dominated by Disney ornaments. Each with it's own memories of trips to Disneyworld, Disneyland or a child's obsession with a particular movie. As the kids have aged we've supplemented with the traditional kid made ornaments, sports ornaments, dance ornaments and religious ornaments. Last year we had the kids paint their names on ornaments... but nothing felt quite right. Today while visiting Bronners we came upon their international section. It's limited in a typical midwestern way, lots of western European countries well represented, but the entire African continent represented strictly as "Africa", not sure I saw any Asian countries, and virtually no Latin American. We decided that it would be fun to collect ornaments representing each country we have visited. While we weren't able to find ornaments from all the countries, we did find small flags from the remainder. We'll continue to search for the other countries.

When we got home from Bronners I was in the mood to begin decorating our home. As the boxes of ornaments and decorations were brought up from the basement, I couldn't help but begin to sing "Deck the Halls" to myself. Which reminded me of that gigantically fat woman who blocked the entirety of Scandinavia and made me wish I'd been in a decking mood then. I'd politely said excuse me, and she refused to move. I gently pushed on her backpack so to slide behind her and she remained cemented in place. Deck... yes, I thought, I would love to deck right now!

busted!

hilariously, David walked in as I was typing the last entry, thus the abrupt stop. I had a ridiculous time at lunch yesterday. He was on such a tirade. It began with the fact that he had gone to the doctor for a knee problem. It was his first appointment. Before the orthopedic surgeon even saw him a MA came out and told him that he needed an x-ray. He was seated in one of a row of chairs outside the xray room. "It looks like your last xray didn't get the right angle" the MA told him, then wandered off to retrieve another patient from the waiting room. That patient was seated next to David in the row and told "It looks like your last xray didn't get the right angle". This of course raised David's curiosity. When a third person was seated and told the exact same thing David called the MA over. "When was my last xray?" , "October 12", "As in just a month or so ago?", "yes", "I've never been here before", "Oh". The MA leaves. He returns a few moments later to inform David that indeed he had the wrong chart. David then quizzed him on the necessity of having the xray, accused the office of just raking up billable tests and blaming them for the state of our medical establishment. Mid-tirade the xray technician sticks her head out and calls him in. She sheepishly asks if he wants the xray, which he begrudgingly gets. After seeing the doctor it is decided that he needs a cortisone shot, an MRI and a knee brace. After getting the painful cortisone injection which he was told would not hurt, with the prescription for knee brace in hand he leaves the office.

Since he'd had orthotics done a few months ago in Denver he thought he had paid his full deductible for the year on his insurance, and goes confidently to the orthopedic appliance store. There he is told he owes $190. Already irritated by this whole process he calls the insurance company. As he's reviewing with them his expenditures for the calendar year to verify that he has indeed met his deductible he realizes that he has overpaid at the Denver Foot Clinic... and to further annoy him, he knows that he has $120 in unpaid bills at home from the very same clinic. He immediately calls them. After an extensive phone call that includes his wishing them unemployment after the Senate Healthcare Bill passes he is told they will be sending him a $95 refund. And so that is the curmudgeon with whom I had lunch yesterday. A lunch conversation that included his desire to rescind his US citizenship, move to haiti and live off the land. Yes, live off the land... the man who won't weed the garden, eat produce from it for fear of dirt, doesn't eat fish and doesn't hunt. Not sure which land he's planning to live off.

I'm terrible at this

Clearly I am terribly lacking in the self discipline department. I didn't even make it three consecutive days writing. Today David announced that he's taking a promotion at work that will have him at home more often. I have very mixed feelings about this, especially after today. He infringed on my quiet morning time, dragging himself out of bed at 6AM. Then when we had lunch he was on a tirade about everything from his Dr. appointment where he was sure he was being ripped off. to wanting to rescind his US citizenship... ahhhh fun!