Everything Else
by ::G @ 2009-02-03 01:00
Somehow I can never find enough time to write on here in a timely fashion. I should take Thoreau's advice.
A couple weeks ago, Giada came down with a fever, and it ended up being a urinary tract infection. Since it was the first time she'd gotten sick, it was nerve-wracking. Apparently 105 degrees for babies isn't life-threatening, although it likely indicates a bacterial infection. We saw a different pediatrician than our usual doctor, who was nice and explained things for us. She noted that Giada had some adhesion that could've contributed to the UTI, but also ordered a renal ultrasound and VCUG. Giada had a catheter put in, then had her blood drawn (which took two tries), and got a shot of antibiotics. Even so, we ended up having to check her into the hospital the next morning because she threw up and hit the 105 degree mark that night. She had the delightful experience of an acetaminophen suppository. Odds are she wouldn't have been able to keep down the antibiotics, hence the hospital stay where she got an IV of antibiotics.
She recovered, but last night after Neil's and Pavi's Super Bowl party, Giada came down with a fever again. Neither Sachie nor I got much sleep and we had to deal with trying to get in to the doctor's again today. Now we've got a referral to a pediatric urologist at Mayo. What the hell! This parenting thing isn't easy.
Speaking of medical care, I recently got a bill from OMC for the remainder of Giada's hospital care. Four months after the fact. I'm pretty sure it was the crummy insurance provider that was dragging their feet, because one of the charges was approved three months ago. What really cheeses me off is that if I'd known another $1k+ was coming, I would've loaded up my HSA and saved a third in taxes. Live and learn, I suppose, but it still makes me mad. Another interesting thing is that when paying the balance in full over the phone via credit card, OMC gives 10% off. The first couple co-pays I paid via check through the mail and missed out on the discount. Even with all the issues, the frustration doesn't render me stupid enough to want socialized medicine: when the government is partly involved it's enough of a headache—when they become fully involved, nothing but boondoggles can result.
The biggest problem with the medical bill is that it impacts my ongoing acquisitions. With the economy as the way it is, I should probably take it easy, but the moronic majority in Congress are already murmuring about the vile legislation they're going to pass. Still, $2k to have a kid, all in all? It could be worse. The best is yet to come, I'm sure. (Pardon the sarcasm.)
Hitachi GST laid off 7% of its workforce last week, although mostly in SJ. We were bled pretty well last year so were left untouched. Well, I at least want to be able to collect the bonus that I stuck around for. Things are looking pretty sour in the tech industry right now, though. My backup plan for if I get laid off (presuming no other jobs are forthcoming) is to join the military. Hey, after seven and a half years in HDDs, the kind of change of pace where I can shoot guns and blow stuff up for a living would be great. On the other hand, I would have to get all the kids out that I want prior to enlisting, just in case.
Sachie and I watched Kohaku this year, albeit a couple weeks late because our satellite dish went out of alignment, forcing us to borrow a burned copy from one of Sachie's friends. An electronica girl-group called Perfume caught our ears with their song "Polyrhythm", which, go figure, has a polyrhythm in the chorus. I couldn't even really make it out until I heard the instrumental (karaoke) version. I went on something of a BT-binge and now I have their song "Akihabarabu" stuck in my head. When I get to Japan next, I'm going to have to buy some of their CDs....
Sachie took a liking to Angela Aki's "Tegami" I found the lyrical content to be somewhat narcissistic, and furthermore although she says "haikei", she doesn't say "keigu"—ha! Tonight I saw Aki's version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and it actually made me upset. Axl would be very, very upset too. Despite the travesty, the TV Japan preview music played sometime afterward was actually very soothing, so I'm not too bent out of shape right now, hehe.
It's just everything else.
A couple weeks ago, Giada came down with a fever, and it ended up being a urinary tract infection. Since it was the first time she'd gotten sick, it was nerve-wracking. Apparently 105 degrees for babies isn't life-threatening, although it likely indicates a bacterial infection. We saw a different pediatrician than our usual doctor, who was nice and explained things for us. She noted that Giada had some adhesion that could've contributed to the UTI, but also ordered a renal ultrasound and VCUG. Giada had a catheter put in, then had her blood drawn (which took two tries), and got a shot of antibiotics. Even so, we ended up having to check her into the hospital the next morning because she threw up and hit the 105 degree mark that night. She had the delightful experience of an acetaminophen suppository. Odds are she wouldn't have been able to keep down the antibiotics, hence the hospital stay where she got an IV of antibiotics.
She recovered, but last night after Neil's and Pavi's Super Bowl party, Giada came down with a fever again. Neither Sachie nor I got much sleep and we had to deal with trying to get in to the doctor's again today. Now we've got a referral to a pediatric urologist at Mayo. What the hell! This parenting thing isn't easy.
Speaking of medical care, I recently got a bill from OMC for the remainder of Giada's hospital care. Four months after the fact. I'm pretty sure it was the crummy insurance provider that was dragging their feet, because one of the charges was approved three months ago. What really cheeses me off is that if I'd known another $1k+ was coming, I would've loaded up my HSA and saved a third in taxes. Live and learn, I suppose, but it still makes me mad. Another interesting thing is that when paying the balance in full over the phone via credit card, OMC gives 10% off. The first couple co-pays I paid via check through the mail and missed out on the discount. Even with all the issues, the frustration doesn't render me stupid enough to want socialized medicine: when the government is partly involved it's enough of a headache—when they become fully involved, nothing but boondoggles can result.
The biggest problem with the medical bill is that it impacts my ongoing acquisitions. With the economy as the way it is, I should probably take it easy, but the moronic majority in Congress are already murmuring about the vile legislation they're going to pass. Still, $2k to have a kid, all in all? It could be worse. The best is yet to come, I'm sure. (Pardon the sarcasm.)
Hitachi GST laid off 7% of its workforce last week, although mostly in SJ. We were bled pretty well last year so were left untouched. Well, I at least want to be able to collect the bonus that I stuck around for. Things are looking pretty sour in the tech industry right now, though. My backup plan for if I get laid off (presuming no other jobs are forthcoming) is to join the military. Hey, after seven and a half years in HDDs, the kind of change of pace where I can shoot guns and blow stuff up for a living would be great. On the other hand, I would have to get all the kids out that I want prior to enlisting, just in case.
Sachie and I watched Kohaku this year, albeit a couple weeks late because our satellite dish went out of alignment, forcing us to borrow a burned copy from one of Sachie's friends. An electronica girl-group called Perfume caught our ears with their song "Polyrhythm", which, go figure, has a polyrhythm in the chorus. I couldn't even really make it out until I heard the instrumental (karaoke) version. I went on something of a BT-binge and now I have their song "Akihabarabu" stuck in my head. When I get to Japan next, I'm going to have to buy some of their CDs....
Sachie took a liking to Angela Aki's "Tegami" I found the lyrical content to be somewhat narcissistic, and furthermore although she says "haikei", she doesn't say "keigu"—ha! Tonight I saw Aki's version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and it actually made me upset. Axl would be very, very upset too. Despite the travesty, the TV Japan preview music played sometime afterward was actually very soothing, so I'm not too bent out of shape right now, hehe.
It's just everything else.
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you voluntarily watched kohaku? i felt like tearing my cochlea out and choking myself with it after an hour or so
Yeah. Since it was after the fact, we were able to skip over the enka. (Although I did watch Jero and the non-poppy performance of the dude from Aibo, Mizutani Yutaka. There was one enka chick that was actually kinda hot, although I forgot her name.)
I know you disdain Japanese pop. I say you're too snooty about music =) This is more like junk food, where I know it's bad for me but I consume it anyway because doing better takes time and attention. A lot of Kohaku isn't my cup of tea, but that's the way it is, an amalgamation of the old and the new.
Hmm, nobody called me out on the part about "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". For some reason, the GNR version popped into my head. I knew Bob Dylan wrote it. No, really!