Monday Meanderings - 12.12.2011

I wore my Santa hat into the allergist's office the other day - none of the nurses wanted to give me my shot.  "Uh-uh! I'm not sticking Santa Claus. Not me. Go get Dr. Goldstein - it won't matter if he hurts Santa."

Well, I'm on another round of steroids, and as I mentioned, that's mostly all on the up-side for me. It must have a cumulative effect, or I'm just getting used to how good food tastes when you are on this stuff and the good smells just keep on coming. That, of course, tends to interfere with my new life-style, eating-wise, and I admit that there have been a few days of disappointments on the scales, but I am proud to say that I  reached a milestone this past week - down 20 pounds! Thank you.

Weight loss is not without its issues. For instance, my pants keep slipping down. I got some new jeans and I needed a new (shorter) belt, so we stopped by a men's store on Friday. I needed to try on a belt, but as soon as I removed the old one, my pants started toward the floor. I grabbed them just in time, thank goodness. It would have been awkward to explain to the clerk why my wife was collapsed on the floor in the middle of the store, laughing her **** off.

Speaking of tasting good, we were walking through an HEB the other evening and saw a gingerbread house kit. The gingerbread is already baked and cut in the needed shapes, and all the icing and other goodies are included. Barb said, "We could get one of those and put it together. And then we could eat it." I suggested that we might consider just eating it without going to all the trouble of putting it together.

The question is: was this fraud, practicing medicine without a license, or good customer service?  My doctor sent me for some blood work, but when I handed the lab technician the order, she took one look at the medical code and said, "What? There's no way they will pay for this under that code!" So she called the doctor's office and talked to several people in order to get the right number. But when she put the new number in the computer, it was came back invalid as well. "Okay, I know the number this should be...let's use this one. There you go!"

The power went off the other evening after some poor soul plowed through a major power line pole over on Cameron Road. We are properly prepared for contingencies like that, though; we got out the battery-powered lantern that gave us enough illumination to get around safely, and then we settled down foe a quiet evening at home. No TV, no stereo, no phone, no distractions. Just Barb and I in the quiet companionship of a time together with no interruptions- she with her Kindle, and me with my iPad. Nice.

And there is no truth to the rumor that we have not decorated the house for Christmas. See?