Philotic Web

Alea, yes I got a new job. Or rather my first real job. I had to back out of the part time one I was going to take, since I got offered full time elsewhere for quite a bit more money. It's a graveyard shift, which is going to be unpleasant, but I can deal.

Elf, I am looking at the higher deductible plan. It's probably a fairly decent price actually, but, like many things in Grown-Up World, I am still surprised at how much it costs.

Elf, I am looking at the higher deductible plan. It's probably a fairly decent price actually, but, like many things in Grown-Up World, I am still surprised at how much it costs.

Is the HDHP an "HSA-eligible" plan? If so, you'll be able to deposit (pre-tax) money into a health savings account to use for deductibles, copays, etc. And you can roll over your unused funds into subsequent years (unlike an FSA). It makes the high-deductible plans work a little better for the relatively young and healthy. (Plus, you can save the money pre-tax, which is pretty useful for a lot of middle-class families.)

Is the job in Alaska? Because Alaskan employers have the highest premiums in the nation. (They're over 40% higher than in Alabama. Which isn't all that surprising, I guess, given that Alabama doesn't have nearly as many mandates as Alaska does.)

I'm really interested to see what happens the next few months in Alaska, when details of plans for next year come out. Most insurance companies have been making their provider networks much more narrow (in New Hampshire, half of the hospitals have been excluded from the only plan offered on the Exchange) in order to blunt some of the premium spikes we're likely to see in 2014 and beyond. But the provider networks in Alaska are already pretty limited, so I don't know how much more they can realistically do to narrow them.

The nice thing about my last job was, we (single coverage people) paid nothing out of our checks had our cash wages reduced to pay for the best plan they offered, which was, surprisingly, really good.

Fixed that for you.

The nice thing about my last job was, we (single coverage people) paid nothing out of our checks had our cash wages reduced to pay for the best plan they offered, which was, surprisingly, really good.

Fixed that for you.

Funny. I was just telling zero the other day how much I hate the use of that online.

Yes, that is actually the case but I'm less upset over money that is taken from the get-go versus money I'm given and expected to hand right back over. The first is like a tax, which I have no problem paying. The second is like a penalty, which I do.


Buuuut. Congrats, Shannon!

My last minute work-Halloween costume requires I be all yellow or as close to it as possible. I now have yellow leggings, shorts and a trying-to-be-but-really-is-more-mustard-than-yellow thermal.

I can reuse them, which is nice. I'm thinking next year I'll be Longneck, the ironically short-necked giraffe.

When I was posting in the Ender's Game movies spoiler thread last night, I happened to noticed that my forum ranking has progressed to Toon Leader.

Yeah, when did that happen?

Then I noticed that it apparently only takes 500 posts to be a Toon Leader. So not too prolific, yeah?

But we knew that.

At the top of the list of things that I suck at is anniversary gifts for my wife! I'm also damn lucky the date is the day before Mt. St. Hellens blew up so if I ever do forget there will be no excuse. I do need help in a big way, she always wants something from "me" and I suck at that kinda gift finding and if I just go buy something at the jewlery store she dosen't seem to get so excited about it. If any of you thoughtfull types could help me out you would really be helping me out and I won't forget it. BTW I could not abide going to any prissy plays or that wicked thing she talks about or the symphony or the like, not even no way! Thanks

At the top of the list of things that I suck at is anniversary gifts for my wife! I'm also damn lucky the date is the day before Mt. St. Hellens blew up so if I ever do forget there will be no excuse. I do need help in a big way, she always wants something from "me" and I suck at that kinda gift finding and if I just go buy something at the jewlery store she dosen't seem to get so excited about it. If any of you thoughtfull types could help me out you would really be helping me out and I won't forget it. BTW I could not abide going to any prissy plays or that wicked thing she talks about or the symphony or the like, not even no way! Thanks

*little freak out moment*

Wicked it coming to Seattle and there is a very real chance of me going this year!!!

What sort of things is she into? Do you have a favorite date night or activity you both enjoy doing?

Yeah, we really need to know more about her to help out. Hobbies, interests, etc. The best thing to do is be good about listening for hints she drops (I'm sure she does) in the months leading up to the date.

Maybe you should go out in your shop and make her some jewelry?

Thanks for the help so far but the only idea so far is this fire opal string of (well like pearls but bright opal beads) opal we saw at a gem n mineral fair thing we brought our daughter Kylie to last month. Theyre expensive and I would still have to have the jewler string em up I guess. She did like em but sait too much$. We do go out some not as much as we should, I'm not so comfortable sitting for long and going to her "play thing" would wipe me out. I really can't fit in a theater seat and if I can not for long, You should see me try to fit into a airline seat! Again thanks

One of my bestest buds wife was on the phone with the wife complaning about unwrapped baby ruth candy bars being thrown or dropped in and around her new pool! There have been other complaints as well im told. All I wanna know is how does Sherry know they're baby ruth bars? Bet she ate one!

That's bizarre and hysterical!

Man, it has been forever since I've seen Caddyshack...

I don't always think it through when I'm pulling my spring pranks. The wife shops at Costco for the lunchroon stuff at the feed mill and my favorite candy bar was on sale by the big case.

The smell of fresh down hay is so intoxicating for me, I've come up with a plan to make millions by coming up with a new scent for men. Hay n Diesel for real men? Maybe I should stick with eating pie

So I need a second to slightly nerd out, and pat myself on the back haha.

Backstory: I now live in Nashville (and love it!) I work in an upscale Wine/Beer/Liquor store, and also a bar on the weekends. The liquor laws haven't really changed since prohibition and were crazy! We weren't allowed to sell anything non-alcoholic at our liquor store. No ice, no corkscrews, no mixers, no wine bags, no cards, nothing. Well the owner of my store has been fighting this for a while now and helped rewrite the laws, yesterday, it all officially changed! So we can sell, all the stuff I mentioned, plus meats and cheeses, low gravity beer (under 6.3% ABV, before we could only sell beer above that) and most exciting to me, growlers for beer! We put in 20 taps for draft beer to fill growlers and yesterday we got to start pouring!

So my being proud 1) comes from being apart of the cutting room floor on this stuff and, 2) they let me write the tap boards! So these boards will change every time we kick a keg and put something new on, and I get to be the one to be creative with them! I had never worked with chalk in my life (except on sidewalks as a 5 year old!) I was proud of it and wanted to share!

If you're ever in or near Franklin, TN come visit me at Red Dog Wine and Spirits!

That looks awesome! Great work!

Thanks!

The smell of fresh down hay is so intoxicating for me, I've come up with a plan to make millions by coming up with a new scent for men. Hay n Diesel for real men? Maybe I should stick with eating pie

I love the smell of hay, but only when I've had enough antihistamines in advance Helped my best friend load a bunch of hay into their barn before we went out for lunch today, and my shirt smelled like hay (plus the previous night's bonfire smoke and bug spray) for the whole drive back to RI. Thankfully I planned ahead and took some allergy meds, but even so I was a bit sneezy in the hay loft.

So I need a second to slightly nerd out, and pat myself on the back haha.

Backstory: I now live in Nashville (and love it!) I work in an upscale Wine/Beer/Liquor store, and also a bar on the weekends. The liquor laws haven't really changed since prohibition and were crazy! We weren't allowed to sell anything non-alcoholic at our liquor store. No ice, no corkscrews, no mixers, no wine bags, no cards, nothing. Well the owner of my store has been fighting this for a while now and helped rewrite the laws, yesterday, it all officially changed! So we can sell, all the stuff I mentioned, plus meats and cheeses, low gravity beer (under 6.3% ABV, before we could only sell beer above that) and most exciting to me, growlers for beer! We put in 20 taps for draft beer to fill growlers and yesterday we got to start pouring!

So my being proud 1) comes from being apart of the cutting room floor on this stuff and, 2) they let me write the tap boards! So these boards will change every time we kick a keg and put something new on, and I get to be the one to be creative with them! I had never worked with chalk in my life (except on sidewalks as a 5 year old!) I was proud of it and wanted to share!

If you're ever in or near Franklin, TN come visit me at Red Dog Wine and Spirits!

Awesome! Helping change local laws is a very satisfying feeling. My cousins live in Nashville, so it's possible I'll be down there some day.

Because this is complete randomness, I am gonna ask if anyone uses the chat?

not much lately, but if you'r there for a bit I would bet someone will pop in.

I'm loving that fall is here! Love the fairs"hate getting hit up to sponser every kids 4H and FFa animal project" love hunting season "forest grouse is open now here, my fav"and i love just about everything else to do with fall!

"Harvest" time here too!

This year I'm keeping track right from the start. We've picked two of our apple trees (not ours, but we "dibsy" them by getting to them first, ha!), a bunch of hazelnuts, helped a friend with her apples, got two kilos of sloes so far (lots more to come!), found spots for damsons, and that's not even counting our secret plum spot (Victorias, mirabelles, and greengages) or the blackberries. Already done up some cordial, a ton of applesauce, and we're barely even started.

Hazelnuts wow! Wish we had such round here, we only get a few black walnuts but we get lots of huckleberrys and I hit some old abandoned homestead sites for apricots apples n plums. It's kinda satisfying preserving fruit n stuff that would go to waste and then I like the old varietys of fruit better, might not keep as well but taste a lot better. I plant spuds winter squash and sometimes mellons in"wet spots" and draws between fields. Sometimes these little garden patches really grow well sometimes it just feeds the wildlife. but many years we get to give away lots and lots of spuds ,squash n other stuff. Julie says lots of people dont want veges n the like when they dont look clean or vary in size n shape! Even when its free

...h-hi?

Satya, how are you gettin on in the service? Will you be deployed ?

Hi Satya! (Had actually just been thinking of you, as I was going to post about a recent anime watch, but then got distracted.)

****

I would take ALL the veggies, buckshot. We are so not proud, nor wasteful! We never did get any blackberries this year, since with the wee one it was too complicated getting to our usual spots. But we ended up with three kilos of hazelnuts, 3 kilos of damsons, many sloes (and possibly more yet), a fair amount of apples and some pears, some elderberries, and a bit of greengages. Missed the mirabelles entirely, but found a handful of late Victoria plums. All the plums were a bit minging at our usual spot. Bah. Still have to get more apples, and perhaps pears/sloes. Also thinking of planting some winter veg like onions, if I can figure out how. Oh, and scrumped a couple cloudberry canes and some black raspberry canes, which I'm trying to get to root.

I do love this time of year.

I'm curious "EL" what are damsons? and whats to be done with elderberrys? there are a lot of wild elderberrys this year, a lot of the long canes are bending down with fruit. I can remember helping my great Gramm May pick them a few times but I think she made jelly or something like that , I cant remember.

Apparently, kitchens are a hot commodity or something.

So yeah, there are days when you're so busy thinking you're staying on top of school assignments that you forget you have an assignment due until you show up to class and have your professor say it's due, and then your face gets all warm from feeling like an idiot...

1700 words in a few hours is probably an all-time personal best. Now my brain hurts and I'm ready to be done with school. Tomorrow I'll laugh.

It's to bad about halloween! We miss having the local kids come around all dressed up n all. I'm gratefull to still get my grandkids and a very few neighbors and God kids kids come by. But even that we try to be generous with the treats I suppose their folks would burn up a lot of gas driving around farms to fill the goodie bags.

Oh man, we *never* got trick-or-treaters. Six miles from any town, and just our driveway was a quarter mile long!

So......

Brian and I are going to China.

In a month.

So much to think about. So much to do.

I hope this doesn't overshadow Christmas. Cuz it's all that Brian can talk about.

So excited for you! Are you at all nervous to be going there, specifically?