The Weekend

Another busy weekend at the Freak Household. I worked a lot on Saturday. I feel good about the amount I got done. Plus I feel good that after I had finished one thing and sent it to my boss, I had a reply back from her (she must have been catching up) saying it was great. Positive feedback is good.

Violet has decided to be a white cat for Halloween, like Marie from The Aristocats. Ever try to find white cat ears? I bought tiger ears and white felt. I have some pink felt. We're going to try to convert them. I found a white sweatshirt for her. Tomorrow, I'm going to try another store to look for white sweatpants or leggings. Worst case, we have white tights and a pink skirt she can wear.

We bought our pumpkins today. We went to our favorite pumpkin patch (it is the most sincere). We also bought a bale of straw to keep Violet's strawberry patch warm and toasty all winter. Tonight the straw and pumpkins are on display on the front porch. Hmm, I'm betting you want me to go out tomorrow and take a picture and post it. I'll see what I can do.

I listened to a podcast on health reform this morning for work. While listening to it I tried to do a little research to figure out what we can do for health insurance come January 1st when ours ends. We won't be able to do Cobra since the company is closing and besides there were only 7 employees left. I can't qualify from my company (I've asked 2 or 3 times, they keep saying no). There is some sort of mini-Cobra program in Illinois, but from what I can tell online you have to have been dumped from your health insurance or denied coverage. We're healthy. I'll have to call the State for more information. Yay, calling the State, always a fun thing. We really need an insurance agent I guess. I'm afraid we'll have to buy privately.

So that's what gets my goat. (Well, if you've been reading here long you know A LOT of things get my poor goat.) Why are some people so violently opposed to a voluntary, government health insurance program? Because their taxes will go up? Boo hoo, your taxes will go up anyway. Because it would be serving the poor, the wretched, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Well, I'm not wretched or huddled yet. I'm not poor, at least not in the eyes of the other State insurance programs although I'm not quite sure how we are going to pay our bills and health insurance on my part-time salary. So it is really so offensive to these people that I have proper healthcare coverage for my family? It isn't our fault we're soon to lose ours.

And the kicker is, I'm a healthcare consultant. I need an insurance agent.

On a less stressful topic, Violet and I made potato-leek soup for dinner tonight. On our way back from the pumpkin patch we pulled in our local grocer and bought leeks and a big loaf of French bread. Dinner was delicious. Violet and I each had 2 bowls of soup. Mr. I. had 3 bowls. He likes soup.

Tomorrow I will turn in Violet's fall product sales. Thanks again to those of you who played along at home. She earned all the patches and all the incentives! She'll get $60 in vouchers for the Girl Scout store or program fees. (She'll spend much of it on cute little stuffed toys in the store.)

It is a less busy week coming up. We are looking forward to hanging out at home some days. Violet has a field trip planned with my parents on Wednesday. I'll tell you about it after they are home. I don't like advertising her whereabouts, even though my dad does hold a black belt in karate and usually has an itch to get in a fight. It will be simpler and involve less bail money if I just wait. I'm also hoping we can get another make-up swim lesson in sometime too. I'd better be careful or our light week will implode!

As for tonight, I'm off to read with Violet. We are reading, "Chester Cricket's New Home" by George Selden. It is one of the sequels to "A Cricket in Times Square." We've loved them all!