prick!

I hate needles. I hate needles. I hate needles. I hate needles. Yep, I hate needles. You get the picture. And tomorrow I have to get blood drawn for a series of diagnostic tests. Needless to say, I'm freakin' the f%*k out in anticipation. I'm such a wimp.

This is going to be way more difficult than getting my dangling bits groped by the male doctor and an ultrasound tech. There are six things that may happen at 9 a.m. tomorrow...

1. I may throw up.
2. I may pass out.
3. I may (unintentionally) smack the nurse.
4. I may run away while screaming like a girlie b#tch.
5. I may cry.

or, finally...

6. I can man up and take a prick without causing a scene.

Let's hope No. 6 happens, otherwise it's going to be embarrassing. I wonder if they charge more for Nos. 1 through 5?

matters of health and wealth

Shopping for medical insurance for the family may incite violent and uncontrolled rages. I haven't cracked yet, but I'm starting to feel the pressure. The clock is ticking away and I have little time left before Z-Jay arrives and I need to have health coverage arranged for the family.

I have insurance for myself through my employer. They pay the entire premium and it's decent coverage. Actually, I don't really know if it is, because I've had it for two years and have only had to use it once. It could suck for all I know. This leads me into the reason why I don't have the entire family enrolled. It all has to do with cost. Those greedy f%#kers at the insurance company want $1,136 per month out of my paycheck to enroll HotMomma, Z-Dub and Z-Jay. That SUCKS! It's the cost of a frickin' mortgage. It's robbery!!!!

Because of the high cost of insurance through my employer, Z-Dub and HotMomma have been enrolled in the health care plan at her work. The coverage isn't quite as good as mine, but it's much, much, much less expensive. We're talking less than quarter of what it would be on my plan. But now we have a problem. When Z-Jay is born HotMomma will go on maternity leave and her insurance will go COBRA, meaning we have to pay 100 percent of the premium to insure all three of them. That's almost $900 per month. Again, robbery!!!

Additionally, after Z-Jay is born HotMomma is considering taking a voluntary furlough for up to three years so she can stay home with the kids. That means I need to find an affordable and acceptable insurance plan to cover all three of them. I've been doing my research and I'm getting close to finding something that'll work and not break the bank.

The first plan is a standard POS plan with a $1,000 individual deductable ($3,000 for family) for roughly $450 per month. It only covers 80 percent of medical costs with the deductable waived for preventative care. The second is a HSA plan with a $5,000 family deductable for $220 per month with preventative care covered at 100 percent.

I had an HSA plan through my previous employer and it was awesome, so I'm leaning towards it. It also gives you control of your money, because instead of paying a high premium you get a low premium and you put additional pre-tax money into a health savings account to cover medical expenses. Any unused money you get to keep. It puts you in control of your money instead of the insurance company stealing it.

I haven't completely made of my mind yet on which I'll choose. I'm doing budget research to see what will work better for us. The good news is that if HotMomma decides to take the furlough Z-Dub won't be sent to daycare/preschool anymore, which will make up for the cost of having to pay for the insurance.

This isn't a political site and I don't generally write about political issues, but something finally needs to be done about medical insurance and costs in this country. We've gone way too long with promises that aren't kept.

I'm not at all satisfied with either presidential candidate's healthcare proposals. Hopefully the ultimate winner will prove me wrong and actually make some real changes.

saving cyber-face

I feel like a bad, bad cyber friend. Apparently way back on September 28 Kim from Jogging In Circles randomly awarded me the Peanuts Holiday DVD Collection that includes "It’s a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Deluxe Edition" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas Deluxe Edition." Due to my insane work schedule lately, resulting in a severe back log of unread posts in my feed reader, I didn't realize I had won until yesterday. Making it worse, it took an e-mail from Kim to bring it to my attention.

I feel like a total douchebag.

I would like to apologize to Kim for my late "thank you." I do greatly appreciate being the winner of the really cool prize. I remember watching these movies while growing up and now I get to share them with Z-Dub.

Today is Thursday, which is actually my Friday because I'm taking tomorrow and Monday off from work for my birthday weekend. So hopefully I'll have time to catch up on my blog reading.

here comes the leper

The pain emanating from my severly sunburnt noggin had subsided. In fact, the redness did as well.

That is until this morning.

As I showered large blobs of skin started accumulating on the floor near the drain. My head was peeling like a molting snake. As I observed (and felt) what was going on I began to dread what I might look like when I glance in the mirror after emerging from my cool and relaxing chamber of wetness.

To help the peeling along I came up with a brilliant idiotic plan to use some of HotMomma's expoliating facial cleanser. You know the kind. It has microbeads or something that makes it feel like you're washing with sand. Well that was a really f%#ked up idea. The sting was extremely painful and I think it pissed off my skin.

Now I have large areas of my skin peeled away, revealing still-burnt and pissed off pink skin. To make matters worse, the freshly exposed skins hurts. BAD.

I'm wearing a ball cap today at work. If I reveal my peeling noggin I'm sure to be sent to leper colony.

*And, no I will not be posting any pictures!

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In other news....Z-Dub has been SeaWorld obsessed ever since the weekend. Everytime we go to leave the house he asks, "We go to SeaWorld?" When the answer is no, there's hell to pay.

elections!?!

According to the newspaper, there was very low turn out in yesterday's Primary Elections here in Nevada. I'm an avid voter. It's my right and I exercise it. Except for yesterday though.

Want to know why?

Well, because I didn't even realize yesterday was an election day. Apparently a lot of people didn't know either...or didn't care.

I guess because we held Republican and Democratic Caucuses earlier in the year to select our presidential nominees, though equally important, yesterday's primaries were less exciting. The day came and went with little fanfare.

No "I Voted" sticker for me. I feel so un-American today.

sunday confessions

Some of us like to think of ourselves as super dads or moms. We're fully devoted to raising, along with our spouses/partners, smart, happy and confident children. Only problem is we're humans. We're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Luckily, most of us recognize this and learn from our mistakes. It's part of the learning experience that comes with the job of dad, or mom.

To repent my parenting sins, I bring you Sunday Confessions. What did I do this week that could have potential screwed up my kid? What did I do to remedy it, if at all? What did I learn from it? Some are minor infractions. Some are major. Either way, I'm laying them all out for you, the readers. We're not really church-going people anymore, so this will have to do.

*I'm stepping into the confessional booth (actually, I'm sitting in a chair and Disney Playhouse is playing on the television, but it'll work).

 Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned...

On Wednesday, Z-Dub's first day back to school after a long vacation, I woke up and rushed to get us ready and out of the house on schedule. Just as we were heading out of the door I realized that I forgot to brush Z-Dub's teeth. I paused a moment and quickly contemplated whether I should take him upstairs to brush his teeth or skip it altogether. Since this is a confession, you can probably guess what I did. Yep, I skipped it. I dropped Z-Dub off at school with stinky breath and unclean teeth. It didn't set a very good example for him and I regret it. Also, he'll never get a girlfriend with rancid breath. The ladies don't like that. To make brushing his teeth during a rush more convenient in the future, I'm going to get another toothbrush and toothpaste and put it in the downstairs bathroom.

Yesterday Z-Dub was in a foul mood in the afternoon after his nap. We couldn't figure out why. But he was clingy, whiny and defiant in everything he did. After dinner I was trying to clean up and take care of a few things and he kept latching onto my leg. I was getting fed up, so after numerous times of having to pry his freakishly strong arms off my leg, I decided to ingore him and walk wherever I needed to go. His little body was flung all over the place until he finally lost his grip and fell to the floor. Don't worry, he wasn't injured. I probably could of handled it a different way, but after hours of his ridiculous behavior, my patience was gone. It was mean, I will try not to do it again in the future.

Also yesterday, in the midst of Z-Dub's foulness, under my breath I said he's acting like a "little prick." That was just uncalled for and cruel. At least he didn't hear me though.

Now it's your turn. What parenting sin did you committ this week that you'd like to confess? Come on, get it off your chest.

appropriate charges?

Each year hundreds of children are killed when they are intentionally or accidentally left unattended inside vehicles. Most of the time this happens during the warmer months when temperatures inside vehicles can reach scorching temperatures resulting in death by hyperthermia. These incidents are shocking and horrible tragedies that can easily be prevented through awareness and education.

A highly publicized case here in Las Vegas that resulted in the death of a four-year-old boy last month is a little more complicated. The child, the youngest of eight, was left inside a family vehicle for 17 hours. The fact that the family cooked and ate dinner, watched movies and went to sleep, despite the fact that the child, who also had some special needs, was noticeably absent is rather disconcerting. He was found dead in the car by one of his teenage siblings the following morning.

Since the incident took place, the parents have gone to the media to spread the message that it wasn't their fault. They claimed to have made an earnest, yet unsuccessful, effort to look for him. They've also shifted from placing blame on their 19-year-old son to blaming the kid himself because of his propensity to seek out sleeping spots behind furniture. When that came up the first questions that came to my mind were do they feed the child? Or bath him? Also, if they were really worried about their missing child wouldn't they have searched until he was found?

Since their little media tour a number of reports since 1988 were released by the Child Protective Services revealing allegations of physical abuse, neglect and sibling sexual abuse. Though none resulted in charges, the fact that 21 reports were made against the parents over a 20-year span is shocking. So when the parents were arrested yesterday for second degree murder as well as other child abuse charges, it was no surprise to me. In fact, I celebrate the fact that the District Attorney has worked so hard to build a case against the couple. Though they are partly responsible for the death of this child for not acting on previous reports, I also appreciate the fact that Child Protective Services finally removed the other minor children from the home and a judge has refused the couple's recent attempts to regain custody of the children.

Of course, the family does have sympathizers, as usual, that believe that their acts were honest mistakes and that the death of their child is punishment enough. They also site the fact that the family has too many kids to keep track of. That's a pathetic excuse if I ever heard one. If you can't handle multiple children, then why have so many. What do you think?

On a side note, HotMomma and I would never, ever go about our routines without considering the whereabouts or safety of Z-Dub or any of our future kids. It's our number one priority 24/7.