Are We Weird? We Have Three Health Insurance Policies

Yes, it’s true. My husband and I have health insurance policies with three companies. You’d think we’d be well covered, wouldn’t you? Well, not necessarily so. Here’s our story.

Our primary health insurance is a group policy that we originally got when I was working. When I retired, we continued paying premiums on this policy from my pension. It will be in force until we go on Medicare in a few years, at which time we will cancel it.

Our secondary health insurance comes from my husband’s military service. This insurance policy only pays after our primary company pays. It will continue as a supplemental policy even when we go on Medicare.

Our third health insurance policy is a supplement to my husband’s military policy. We pay around $2400 a year for this policy. It pays only on a certain portion of the claim that our secondary policy doesn't cover. Out of curiosity, I recently checked to see how many claims this company had actually paid for us during the last year and discovered that the total amount of claims paid was about $12. Hmm. I’m seriously thinking that this policy is a huge waste of our money. We want to be prepared for medical emergencies, but three policies may be overkill.

On the other hand, it might be necessary to have this third policy in force when (and if) the proposed changes to Medicare presently being debated in Congress take effect. However, at the moment, I can't anticipate what those changes may be (if any) and when or if any of that may happen. So, my husband and I are contemplating whether we should cancel this very expensive (and, at the moment, not very helpful) third health insurance policy.

What do you think? How many health insurance policies do you have?

(photo from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/low-income-health-insurance.html)

Cozy Cat Logo

I am still diligently practicing Paint Shop Pro, trying to improve my skill at graphic design. Given that I started with zero skill, it's obviously going to take a long time. My talented artist daughter whipped up a few logos for our new publishing company Cozy Cat Press so I can see how it's done when it's done right. Here are a few samples of her work and mine so you can see the difference.

My logos:

My daughter's logos:

Obviously, we want a logo that is simple, probably a line drawing in black and white that will look good on business cards and letterhead. We want our logo to feature a cat--preferably a cozy one. My logos are rather bland as you can see. My daughters' logos have more character. The one of the cat reading the book is fun but to me the cat is more energetic than cozy. In her green logo, I love the fact that the cat's tail forms the "C" of "Cozy." The only thing I like about my logos is that my cat is lying down which to me seems more cozy than a cat sitting up. My logos just aren't as inventive as my daughter's logos.

What do you think? Any ideas for a great logo for Cozy Cat Press?

Teaching Myself Paint Shop Pro

Recently I've been trying to teach myself the basics of Jasc's Paint Shop Pro which is a photo editing software program. I typically use some of its simplest features to edit the photos I use on my blogs but I've never really examined the many other nifty features that the program offers.

First, I just tried experimenting on my own to see if I could figure out what the various functions could do. Not a good idea. Paint Shop Pro is quite complex (in my viewpoint) and it's easy to get lost. I even printed and read the entire Help section offline. Still, not much help, because, although I wouldn't say I'm a visual learner, Paint Shop Pro is obviously a very visual program.

Yesterday, I spent hours scouring online sites for Paint Shop Pro tutorials. I soon discovered that there were some great ones for sale (not what I was looking for). There were quite a few text tutorials with some graphics. These I found hard to understand because they didn't allow me to visualize what was happening in the various steps. The ones that seemed to help me the most were the video tutorials and, even here, some were good and some weren't.

In some video tutorials for Paint Shop Pro that I found, the presenter speaks too fast (at least too fast for me) and the camera is too far from the screen or moves too quickly. In some, there is demonstration of various effects but no verbal explanation (impossible to understand in my mind). In some of these demonstration videos, there is even a music background which I find incredibly distracting.

The best Paint Shop Pro video tutorials were those that were simple, straightforward, and featured a speaker who explained the feature calmly and completely. The camera was close enough to the screen so you could actually see what function was being demonstrated and how it worked. Surprisingly enough, many of the best video tutorials I found were done by amateurs and were posted on YouTube. They typically featured just one Paint Shop Pro function and they demonstrated how to do it (even repeating the steps at times) in such a way that when the tutorial was finished, you truly felt that you could do that function.

Do you know Paint Shop Pro (or any digital editing program)? How did you learn it?

(photo from http://www.tkshare.com/tag/paint/)

Not Here Today--I'm at a Conference

I always loved going to Communication conferences when I was working at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. It was wonderful to get away for a few days to some large city and catch up with colleagues from other colleges and my graduate school buddies, stay in a luxury hotel, and eat at nice restaurants. It was even worth having to present a paper or two.

Today I’m off to a conference, but, guess what? I’m not leaving my house. I’m attending a virtual conference—The Poisoned Pen Web Conference. It will last all day and I’ll get to interact with mystery writers and publishers from all over the world. Needless to say, I’m excited. I won’t get to stay in a hotel or eat at a fancy restaurant, but I will get to listen to some top authors speak about the craft of writing mysteries. It should be great fun! And I can stay in my pajamas and slippers the whole time!

Have you ever attended a convention? A virtual convention?

(photo from http://www.bized.co.uk/current/leisure/2005_6/051205.htm)

"A Man, A Can, A Plan"

I have very few cookbooks. There are a few my mother gave me (hoping, I assume, that they would help me become the domestic goddess that she was). There is my wine-spattered copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking which I posted about recently. There are some my children purchased for me at various school sales (hoping, I assume, that mothers would make goodies from the recipes within and bring them to the classroom). I have very few cookbooks because there really is no need for them--I hate to cook (as I've mentioned before).

Knowing my proclivities, my brother Ken brought me a new cookbook for my collection (along with a personalized pumpkin with my sentiments regarding cooking plastered discretely on the front). The name of this amazing little book is A Man, A Can, A Plan by David Joachim.


I make this "amazing" evaluation, not from the cover alone (and it has a great cover), but from my actual testing of the recipes included. The book is unique in that the 50 recipes inside are all simple and easy to make. Each provides photographs of the actual items used in the recipe. The reason for this is, I assume, to make grocery shopping easier. Each recipe also has photographs of the finished dish.

However, the proof of the pudding (or the enchiladas) is in the eating. I have so far made three recipes from this book--Hoppin John, Pork and Sweet Potato Stew, and Island Beans and Rice. All three dishes were (as advertised)--quick, easy, and delicious. Hubby Milt loved them all. I am planning to make the Pesto Salmon Pitas this weekend. Don't worry, however. This does not mean that I'm a cook. I repeat. This does not mean that I'm a cook. Remember, the title of the cookbook is A Man, A Can, A Plan. I still hold out hope that Milt will take a hint from the title and decide to take up the culinary arts himself so I can retire. If only.

Who does the cooking in your family? How can I get my husband to take up cooking? How can I get out of cooking? How can I make cooking a tolerable activity? What do you do?

Who Is Your Celebrity Look-alike?

Do I look like Bette Midler (I do according to Jan at Better Spines) or Loretta Swit (I do according to an old acquaintance)? I don't see any resemblance at all except that we're all three blondes with squinty eyes and big mouths.

Who do you look like? Or--even--who do people think you look like? And do you agree with them?

Send me your photo (if you're brave) and I'll post about the responses I get (if any).

(photos at http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/hair/celebrity-hairstyles-curly-may07

and http://www.tvland.com/awards2009/allaccess/photos.jhtml?pageNum=2&imgNum=21&button=46#46)

Career Change--Is It Too Late For This Cozy Cat?

They say most people will change careers five times or so during their life--not just jobs, but careers. I'm not sure I could claim five, but I did make and am making some major changes in my career life.

I started out with a Bachelor's Degree in Education and a Teaching Certificate in Speech which enabled me to teach in the public schools. I did that for a VERY short period of time and soon discovered I didn't like working with high school students or in public schools.

So, I returned for my Master's in Speech and Theatre and went on to teach and direct a theatre program at a small college in Kentucky. Here, my artistic nature flourished. I got to direct shows and work with student actors and I even did lots of community theater acting myself. I enjoyed that career for ten years and couldn't really (at the time) imagine myself doing anything else.

After some major personal changes, my career path changed dramatically and I found myself, a middle aged woman, going back to graduate school. At the time I entered the doctoral program in Communication at the University of Arizona, I didn't really realize what a huge career change I was making. Where before I had been a speech and drama teacher in the arts, I now was preparing to become a communication teacher and researcher in the social sciences. This turned out to be a sea change for me--a totally new way of looking at the world. It was a major career change--and one that I soon learned to love.

After I received my Ph.D. and began teaching at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, I was not only a teacher, I also became a writer and a researcher. Dozens of my research articles and one research book were eventually published. I worked as an editorial assistant for the major journal in the field of Communication. I served as editor for eight years for a state communication journal. In other words, this phase of my career life emphasized writing, editing, and publishing, and was light years away from my previous careers.

Now I'm retired and I thought my career was over. Not so, it turns out. I still have lots of energy, enthusiasm, and initiative. Although, I no longer wish to conduct research, I find I still love writing, editing, and publishing. Yes, blogging and novel writing satisfy some of those urges. But I want more. I think I have found the perfect career for a retired Communication professor and researcher. My new writing buddy Diane and I are establishing our own publishing company which we are calling Cozy Cat Press. We intend to publish cozy mysteries--our own, of course, with hopes of expanding and publishing cozy mysteries written by other authors.

I intend to provide you with updates on the progress of Cozy Cat Press as Diane and I attempt to bring it to life. Stay tuned. Just like a cat, my career may have one more life in it still.

Have you changed careers? Would you like to?

This Is Me? Disney Says So

Lots of bloggers seem to have cartoon versions of themselves posted on their sites. Here's a cartoon version of me that a cartoonist drew some years ago at Disney World. Does it show you the real me? You can compare with my photograph on the right sidebar.

What is PR?

PR. What does it mean? If you're a blogger, it means page rank and is an indication of how the Google search engine views your blog in comparison to other blogs. If you're a Communication teacher and researcher like me (and maybe even if you're not), it means public relations--that ubiquitous career field designed to help promote the careers of others--the spin doctors, so to speak. If you're a journalist, it means press release.

However, I recently discovered another common meaning of PR that I didn't know--personal record. I discovered this when my amazing son Alex completed the Chicago marathon on Sunday (his second time) and bettered his previous time by fifteen minutes--a PR! Congratulations, amazing son!

Do you know any other meanings of PR?

Personalized Pumpkins

My brother Ken visited us this weekend. He brought me a personalized pumpkin with a slogan on it that states exactly how I feel about cooking. Hmmm. I guess he must have been reading my blog lately where I have not been shy about expressing my opinions. Of course, I return the favor and read his infrequent but excellent posts.

This delightful pumpkin was created by Ken's friend Margaret Malik of Davenport, Iowa. Margaret makes these clever pumpkins and hand paints them with individualized images as a part-time business. She also does jewelry. I told Ken he should introduce her to Etsy so she could really expand her business online. I'm sure others would love to have some nifty pumpkins created just for them.

The Demise of Hosiery

What’s happened to hosiery? Does anyone wear pantyhose anymore? What about those nice knee-high hose? I remember seeing television ads for lovely hosiery all the time. I remember photos of hose-covered legs bedecking the pages of ladies' magazines. I remember going to a department store where there was actually a hosiery department. Not so anymore.

Young women these days, it seems, don’t wear any hose when they wear dress shoes (particularly open-toed shoes), especially in the summer. In the winter, I guess most of them wear boots and either leggings, tights, or just gym socks underneath. I was raised to believe that a lady wore hosiery when wearing dress shoes—even when wearing slacks.

I guess us older women are the ones buying most of the hosiery these days. When our generation is gone, hosiery will be gone too. How sad. All that naked skin rubbing around against the inside of shoes. Disgusting. All those germs left on the inside of shoes yesterday transferred to clean feet today. Ick.

I found a site that asked the question, "Why don't women wear pantyhose anymore?" There were some interesting responses. According to Bare Necessities, an online lingerie store, the top ten hosiery brands are ones I’ve never even heard of. And, of course, you have to go online to get them.

If you’re wondering why I’m pining over the end of hosiery, I’ll tell you. My mother. She’s in another of her hosiery panics. She’s on her last pair of taupe knee-highs—the ones without too much elastic at the top (but enough, of course, to hold them up). I’ve bought her many replacements for her favorite brand, but nothing seems to satisfy her. If I find a pair with the right amount of elastic and in her size, then the color is invariably too light. If I find the correct color, the fit is wrong. My mother is very demanding and knows exactly what she wants. Unfortunately, manufacturers no longer seem to make what she wants.

Your feelings about hosiery? Great loss? Good riddance?

(photo from http://stylebakery.com/tvsegments/2006/hosiery.html)

I've Been Poisoned!

They don’t mean to poison me—the doctors, I mean. They just prescribe pills and I take them. Then I realize that the little suckers must be filled with arsenic when I start gasping for breath and rolling on the ground in agony.

Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But I am very sensitive to medicine. I wasn’t always this way. I used to actually be able to take an antibiotic or an allergy tablet and not immediately start vomiting. Not any more. The older I get—the more medications I have to put on my list of “no-no” drugs. My little sister has the same problem (sorry, Chris) and it’ll probably get worse for her too as she gets older.

So, last week when my internist decided to add Simvastatin to the Zetia I was already taking for high cholesterol, I was only moderately concerned. I mean, I am taking the Zetia and I have no trouble with it. I assumed I’d be able to add Simvastatin (Zocor) without difficulty. Not so.

As is my usual practice when starting any new medicine, I took one of the Simvastatins and placed it in my handy-dandy pill chopper. Although the doc prescribed the smallest dose of Simvastatin they make (20 mg.), I was taking no chances (I never do with new meds) because I’ve had too many bad experiences in the past. I chopped the little orange oval in half, then in quarters, then in eighths. Then I swallowed one of the eighths with plenty of water.

Within a few hours I began to feel it. Nausea. Headache. Difficulty breathing. A strange alien creature trying to remove itself forcibly from my body. The sensation increased—and increased. I tried to sleep that night—no luck. I hoped I would feel better the next day—no change. For two days I was sicker than a dog (although I have a dog and she has never gotten this sick). Not until after two days of agony did I start to recuperate from the throes of the poison pill.

Obviously, I called the doctor and reported my reactions to the new medication. She (being the astute doctor that she is) said to stop taking it. I asked if I could just take a larger dose of Zetia (as I have no trouble with it), but she said “no.” I’m evidently taking all the Zetia I’m allowed. There isn’t any other drug (according to her) that I can use to lower my cholesterol that wouldn’t cause the same reaction as the Simvastatin. I will just have to work harder (she says) at diet and exercise. I must, she says, lose five pounds at least. Oh, joy!

Oh, well. I’d rather starve and wear myself to a frazzle exercising than take any more of those poisoned pills (I mean, cholesterol-lowering drugs).

How do you respond to new drugs? Have you ever taken a cholesterol medication? Which one? How did you react?

Circle of Friends

Many thanks to my new blogging buddy Roschelle at Inconsequential Logic for the lovely Circle of Friends Award. Roschelle is a friendly, outspoken gal--just the kind I like. She makes for a perfect friend.

Now, let's see if I can find a few other perfect friends to send this cute little award to. Wow! There are so many of you in the blogosphere that it's hard to choose. My selections today include the following bloggers--who are supportive friends and excellent commenters. Please visit their delightful sites today if you haven't already.

1. Rondi at WAHM Resource

2. Liz at Mommy's Little Corner

3. Naomi at Irresistible Fascinations

4. Donna at Cute as a Buggy

5. Joel at Stuff & Nonsense

Hokey Pokey Sex

I tend to avoid reading romance novels because many are filled with what I call Hokey Pokey sex. Hokey Pokey sex is overly detailed, description of a sexual encounter that seems primarily concerned with what one body part does to another body part (as in the Hokey Pokey dance we all learned in third grade—“You put your left leg in; you put your left leg out; you put your left leg in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.”). To me, such description takes all the mystery and beauty out of romance. Often when I read such passages in novels, it seems as if I’m reading an anatomy textbook. Hurray, the author can use the scientific names of sexual organs. How clever. So what? Where’s the mystery in that?

This doesn’t mean that I don’t want romance in my novels. On the contrary, I like my main characters to find each other, become smitten, and fall in love. I don’t even mind if their relationship becomes sexual. I just don’t want to read about it in great clinical detail; it takes all the mystery out of it for me. For example, JD at I Do Things So You Don’t Have To posted the other day about the joy that women have always found in observing certain bulging body parts of rock stars. Part of that joy occurs because women must always wonder about that bulge—they don’t really know.

I prefer novelists who remember that their readers have imaginations. When one of their scenes “fades to black,” these authors know that readers can imagine what happens between the main couple. They don’t need a detailed account of each thrust and parry. These novelists understand that their readers’ most sensual organ is their mind and they let them use it. These authors don’t need to write Hokey Pokey sex scenes.

So, do you like to read explicit sex scenes? Or, like me, do you prefer your novels without Hokey Pokey sex?

(photo at http://www.racyromancereviews.com/2008/09/30/romance-novels-in-the-journal-of-sex-research/ and http://revcamp.blogspot.com/2008/10/legend-of-hokey-pokey.html )

Awards and Droppers

First of all, thanks to my top ten Entrecard droppers during the month of September (as determined by the Entrecard statistical engine--not the widget on my sidebar--which keeps a daily running tally). I really appreciate you guys (and gals)!

Dropper Drops
EzGreatLife 31
BetterSpines 31
Yummy-as-can-be 31
moms..... check nyo 31
Life's sweets and spices 31
The Modern Mom 31
Mommy's Little Corner 31
Symphony of Love 31
A Simple Life 31
The Way I See It 31

Second, I'd like to thank several blogging buddies who have sent some blogging awards my way. Mommy's Little Corner bestowed a whole parcel of these award goodies on me! Wow! Thanks!

Also, Rondi at WAHM Resource Site gave me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks, Rondi!

I think I'll tie all these lovelies together by sending the awards on to the folks on my Top Dropper List above. Here they come! Hope you enjoy!