Okay, it’s Thursday, but I’m having some issues getting this blog on some kind of schedule. I plan to do book reviews on Wednesday and I did start this last night, but it got too late to finish it.

When I started this blog, I hoped it would be a place to generate some interest in my writing, kind of a place for promotion and news. It, of course, hasn’t turned out that way. After some discussion with the Man, I’ve decided to use this blog as a place to post writing and reading topics, especially those concerning romance and fantasy.

My old blog, which many of you used to read, will be resurrected as a place for my personal life stuff, memes and general bloggy-ness. Please check out both of them and bookmark me!

Still suffering a bit with the remains of this cold, but I’m well enough to work on paying some bills. If you remember, I had to make a trip to the local emergency room just to get some pills because our pharmacy closed with my pills inside. Well, in this week’s bills is one from the ER doctor for over $300. Now, let me refresh your memory:

He came into the exam room and asked what was I there for.

I told him I just needed three pills – THREE – to get me through until the next morning when I could get the rest from the drug store. These aren’t party drugs, but immunosuppressants – things transplant recipients take to keep them from reject the organ. Kinda necessary.

He listened to my lungs, more out of needing to do something than any medical reason. That’s the feeling I got as he kinda stood there looking a little baffled.

Then he went out to write the Rx, came in to verify which pills I actually take, then took 20 minutes to write the Rx.

For this we’ve paid the co-pay and over $100 to the ER because our insurance didn’t cover it. Now the doctor wants almost $400 for that little bit of effort.

I called the billing company today and was told it was based on a code for whatever I was treated for. Okay, so the code for “I should have known when the drug store closed on Fridays and shouldn’t have left my pill bottle there, could you help me?” costs almost $400 for 20 minutes????????????????

Maybe some one out there can explain this to me???

Well, everyone, I haven’t posted anything since Friday because I finally got the cold that has been tearing through this family since before Christmas. Right before New Years, I did have a fever and something, but since then, the rest of the family has been dealing with fevers, sore throats and hacking coughs, and I’ve been immune (kinda weird given my whole immunosuppressed status!). I think the whole “Mommy CAN’T be sick” thing was working for me.

However, Friday night I started coughing a bit. Just enough to make me think something was coming. Well, it’s here. After feeling tired and draggy yesterday, but still having to be “on” due to DH’s returned fever and general fatigue, today I’ve got it full-blown. I don’t think I’ve feverish, but I’m very draggy and worn out.

In the midst of all this, I’m trying to figure out what I can do to make a little extra money for the family. If I were at my goal weight (about 20 pounds to go), I’d go to work for Weight Watchers, but as it is, I’ve ended up signing up, unintentionally, for a couple of “scams” online. Nothing that’s taken any of my money; I’m a little too smart for that, but I did sign up to “take surveys for cash.” Okay, I realize it sounds stupid, but someone who apparently is no longer on myspace befriended me and she said she was doing it successfully. I took a few surveys but realized that in order to “get my money” I had to sign up for whatever “free” product the survey was about – a free trial of Blockbuster Online or some coffee delivery thing. I always stopped short of doing that.

I have been contacted by two reps of two different work at home programs that in the end led to the same company – a “leading” wellness company that will pay me to refer people to their products. While it may be legit, there’s just something about it that seems wrong to me.

I did, however, on the bright side, sign up for a company that does editing work. I know this is legit because they didn’t as me to pay anything and I took three tests of grammar and sentence structure. People will, presumably, see my site with them and “hire” me to edit their work. DH has high hopes for this, but I’m less sure.

I also am thinking about doing some sewing. I have a fabric wallet I made for myself and have gotten interesting comments about it. One person said, “You could make those and sell them.” Maybe I’ll try that.

Anyway, I’m getting tired again, so it’s back in bed for me!

Appetizer
Name two things that made you smile this week.

1. My son, while playing with a friend who was dressed in a superman costume, saw his friend fall down and went over to him and said, “Superman, are you okay?”

2. Later that same playtime, when “Superman” was being rude to his mother, my son said, “Superman, you shouldn’t talk to your mommy that way.”

Soup
Fill in the blank: Don’t you hate it when ________?

You’ve set your DVR to record your favorite show, then you find out when you sit down to watch it, that while it was scheduled at its normal time, something happened to make it start early or late (sports or something) and you only got about 75% or less on tape, meaning you missed the beginning or the end.

Salad
When you can’t go to sleep, what is your personal remedy to help yourself drift into Lullabyland?

Gosh, I wish I had one. I sometimes takes a generic Tylenol PM type thing. In the past I’ve tried warm  milk, but usually I lay in bed and toss and turn and worry about not sleeping.

Main Course
What is something about which you’ve always wondered but have not yet found a good answer?

How people can look around at this world and not believe in God. How people can deny the damage sin causes in their lives.
Dessert
What is your favorite pasta dish?

Does macaroni and cheese count?

I heard about this on the radio. It gave me the idea to do this:

Thirteen things an adoptive mom wonders about Angelina’s adoption:

1. How many visits from a social worker did she have to go through before being approved?

2. How many stupid forms did she have to fill out?

3. How many times was she questioned about her ability to race a child of a different race?

4. How many articles and book chapters about her child’s culture were copied and handed to her with the “recommendation” (read: order) that she read them?

5. How many post placement visits will she have to endure?

6. How many times has a social worker questioned whether she will race her child in their own heritage with the implication that her child’s heritage and that of any other children in the family (of a different race) need to be all honored and every possible holiday celebrated regardless of timing, convenience or relevance?

7. How many times was her style of parenting questioned?

8. How many fingerprint checks have she and Brad gone through?

9. How many times did a social worker question how large the room the child will sleep in will be?

10. How many times was she given the name of a multi-cultural adoption support group and had it “suggested” that she join?

11. How often was she asked if she had chosen a “cultural” guide for her child?

12. How long did it take for her homestudy to be approved?

13. How much money did she “donate” to that orphanage to find a child for her?

Okay, yes, I have a some issues here. As a devout Catholic woman who struggled for TEN YEARS to adopt a baby and went through major stress, tears and prayers to be able to say the Boy is MY son, I just wonder about these celebrities that walk into an orphanage and walk out with a baby!

Go to MyHeritage.com to find this for yourself. I got it from Christine.

I can live with these results!

I snagged this one from Esther.

A List of Books: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, underline the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) – I read this trilogy a LONG time ago to impress a guy and don’t remember much. After falling in love with the films, I want to read them again.

7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)

8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)

9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)

10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)*

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire(Rowling)

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)(although my brother read it)

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)

16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)

17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)*

18. The Stand (Stephen King

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)

20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) – I’ve started it a BUNCH of times, but I can’t get past all the French.

21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)*

25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

31. Dune (Frank Herbert)

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)(I liked the movie, but heard some strange things about the book from a friend who read it.)

33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

34. 1984 (Orwell)

35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)

38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)

39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)*

40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)*

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)

42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)

43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)

44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)

45. Bible

46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)