So I'm doing the bills. Arrgh. I open an envelope from Humana health insurance. Recent doctor's visit, just routine, blood pressure, some stethoscopy, some lab work. According to the insurance company the doctor billed $399 and insurance only paid $135. The insurance company didn't say that I owned a further $264.
Then further down the stack of bills I get to the doctor's bill. It agrees with the insurance company about the $399 billed. but the doctor shows the insurance paying more and I only own $26. Which is all right with me, $26 is a whole lot better than $264.
But somehow after all the insurance claims forms unwind, and the paper pushers are finished mucking around, $238 has just gone away. Bank error your favor. OK by me.
Only thing is, it makes forecasting things like Obamacare costs kinda worthless.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
To set the record straight, I'm with Ann Romney
Raising children is very important work. The future of everything rests upon the next generation, and nuture is a least as important as nature. Good child raising creates good future adults. When Ann Romney says she raised five boys, I have a lot of respect for that. That's harder to do, and more important than doing paper work in some one's office building.
The Obama people's recent slam on child raising by mothers is a not-so-subtle slam at the importance and dignity that out to be attached to child rearing. Support motherhood, it's truly important.
The Obama people's recent slam on child raising by mothers is a not-so-subtle slam at the importance and dignity that out to be attached to child rearing. Support motherhood, it's truly important.
I did my Civic Duty, all day yesterday.
I was a delegate to the NH Republican yearly meeting (not the convention, this just elects party officers, not candidates. I set the alarm clock for 6 AM, and got the Mercury on the road heading south by 7:30. The meeting was in Meredith, scenic little town in the Squam Lakes (On Golden Pond) country. Mid April is before the season, so no boats, tourists, or summer people. The leaves are just beginning to open down south of the Notch, so it was a pretty drive.
The event was held in a school auditorium, a small one. According to the signs the place was only good for 420 people. It was pretty full, and into this small room we had the political leadership of the entire state. State Reps, State Senators, three of our four Congresspeople, town and area chairmen, it was the leadership of the dominant state party.
It's the north country so it was a kinda shaggy bunch. The older guys, yours truly included, wore dark suits and ties. Lot of guys did the coat bit but omitted the tie. Then we had guys show up in jeans, T-shirts, shooting vests, full beards, pony tails, blue blazers with khaki slacks. Colorful but not very fashion conscious. As usual the girls dressed better than the boys.
The program opened with good old fashioned get-out-the-vote stemwinders from our Congressmen, our legislative leaders, and our candidates for guv'nor. Bill O'Brian, speaker of the house, got the most applause. This took us up to noon, and a break for pizza.
After lunch we settled down to some serious wrangling over bylaw revisions. After the revolt against Jack Kimball last year, they wanted to tighten up procedures for succession and removal of officers. Apparently the Kimball affair got pretty messy, all though the mess was fairly well contained, and all the survivors wanted some new tight bylaws to back them up should anything like that ever happen again.
Then we proceeded to the only contested election of party officers. The office was national committeeperson, a person to go to the national committee and lobby to retain our first-in-the-nation primary. For candidates we had Juliana Bergeron, and Pam Tucker. Both had declared weeks before and snowed me under with emails urging their election. Pam even bothered to call me on the phone. Juliana has been around for a while and has a lot of support from party people. Pam is a newer face, newly elected state rep, who is close to Bill O'Brian. Bill made her nomination speech, which carried a good deal of weight with everyone. Then we had two last minute nominations from the floor, Joe Dupre (sp?) and Skip somebody-or-other, the quy who does the GraniteGrok website. So we voted, on printed ballots, and it then being 3 PM on a lovely day, I left, before the votes were counted, figuring that I could find out who won from the papers. Stupid Beast was overjoyed to have her human return to pet her.
Not so much luck on papers. Nothing on the Union Leader website, nothing on Granite Grok, yet.
The event was held in a school auditorium, a small one. According to the signs the place was only good for 420 people. It was pretty full, and into this small room we had the political leadership of the entire state. State Reps, State Senators, three of our four Congresspeople, town and area chairmen, it was the leadership of the dominant state party.
It's the north country so it was a kinda shaggy bunch. The older guys, yours truly included, wore dark suits and ties. Lot of guys did the coat bit but omitted the tie. Then we had guys show up in jeans, T-shirts, shooting vests, full beards, pony tails, blue blazers with khaki slacks. Colorful but not very fashion conscious. As usual the girls dressed better than the boys.
The program opened with good old fashioned get-out-the-vote stemwinders from our Congressmen, our legislative leaders, and our candidates for guv'nor. Bill O'Brian, speaker of the house, got the most applause. This took us up to noon, and a break for pizza.
After lunch we settled down to some serious wrangling over bylaw revisions. After the revolt against Jack Kimball last year, they wanted to tighten up procedures for succession and removal of officers. Apparently the Kimball affair got pretty messy, all though the mess was fairly well contained, and all the survivors wanted some new tight bylaws to back them up should anything like that ever happen again.
Then we proceeded to the only contested election of party officers. The office was national committeeperson, a person to go to the national committee and lobby to retain our first-in-the-nation primary. For candidates we had Juliana Bergeron, and Pam Tucker. Both had declared weeks before and snowed me under with emails urging their election. Pam even bothered to call me on the phone. Juliana has been around for a while and has a lot of support from party people. Pam is a newer face, newly elected state rep, who is close to Bill O'Brian. Bill made her nomination speech, which carried a good deal of weight with everyone. Then we had two last minute nominations from the floor, Joe Dupre (sp?) and Skip somebody-or-other, the quy who does the GraniteGrok website. So we voted, on printed ballots, and it then being 3 PM on a lovely day, I left, before the votes were counted, figuring that I could find out who won from the papers. Stupid Beast was overjoyed to have her human return to pet her.
Not so much luck on papers. Nothing on the Union Leader website, nothing on Granite Grok, yet.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Manhatten to go with Pork Ribs
Manhatten, a simple to mix American cocktail. Two jiggers of bourbon whiskey, a jigger of sweet red vermouth, a couple of Marachino cherries, four dashes of Angostura bitters. Use a short glass, mix the booze in the glass, and add all the ice that will fit. Very smooth, and you don't want to mix a second one of these.
Goes good with pork ribs.
Goes good with pork ribs.
Pork Ribs, My recipe
Very yummy. Real pork ribs, as opposed to nice tender pork chops, need a bit more cooking than chops do. You want to braise ribs in liquid for an hour or two, and then brown them on the grill or in the fry pan if it isn't grilling weather.
Ribs can be cheap, I picked them up for $1.71 a pound for 1.75 pounds, enough for four. I made up my secret sauce, equal portions of brown sugar, soy sauce, whiskey, and mustard. I ran short of soy sauce, so I added some Worcestershire sauce. Equal parts, say like a quarter cup. Mix the secret sauce in a large mixing bowl, and then add the ribs to marinate for an hour or so.
After a good long marinade, put them in the oven at 375F for an hour and a half. Pour the marinade into the roasting pan so that the ribs are deeply immersed in the secret sauce. After and hour and a half the ribs will be tender.
To develop the flavor, brown them, either on the grill or in an iron fry pan on stove top. I did 5 minutes a side in he fry pan.
Very yummy, and I have left overs for tomorrow.
Ribs can be cheap, I picked them up for $1.71 a pound for 1.75 pounds, enough for four. I made up my secret sauce, equal portions of brown sugar, soy sauce, whiskey, and mustard. I ran short of soy sauce, so I added some Worcestershire sauce. Equal parts, say like a quarter cup. Mix the secret sauce in a large mixing bowl, and then add the ribs to marinate for an hour or so.
After a good long marinade, put them in the oven at 375F for an hour and a half. Pour the marinade into the roasting pan so that the ribs are deeply immersed in the secret sauce. After and hour and a half the ribs will be tender.
To develop the flavor, brown them, either on the grill or in an iron fry pan on stove top. I did 5 minutes a side in he fry pan.
Very yummy, and I have left overs for tomorrow.
Upcountry Republican Shindig
The Grafton County Republicans threw their annual Lincoln Reagan Day dinner at the Indian Head "resort" last night. Indian Head is right up into Franconia Notch. It got started in the old days, even before skiing, when people just came up from the summer. It tried to compete with the Old Man of the Mountains with a observation tower and gave a view of a mountain ridge that looked like a humungous Indian staring up at the sky. It still has a nice banquet room with a fine view of the White Mountains.
Everyone was there. We had NH Republican state chairman Wayne McDonald. We had Grafton County Commissioner Omer Ahearn. We had Executive Councilor Ray Burton. We had two candidates for governor, Kevin Smith and Ovide Lamontagne. For the windup speaker we had Senator Kelly Ayotte. Kelly spoke at some length and spoke very well, much better than the politicians speak on TV.
Things got rolling when the bar opened at 5:30. Lots of meetings and greetings. By 7 PM everyone was sufficiently lubricated to sit down to eat dinner. Lots of good political talk. By 9:30 the speeches were all done and people started home. Fortunately it was a warm dry evening, better than other such affairs where we had to drive home in snow and sleet.
Everyone was there. We had NH Republican state chairman Wayne McDonald. We had Grafton County Commissioner Omer Ahearn. We had Executive Councilor Ray Burton. We had two candidates for governor, Kevin Smith and Ovide Lamontagne. For the windup speaker we had Senator Kelly Ayotte. Kelly spoke at some length and spoke very well, much better than the politicians speak on TV.
Things got rolling when the bar opened at 5:30. Lots of meetings and greetings. By 7 PM everyone was sufficiently lubricated to sit down to eat dinner. Lots of good political talk. By 9:30 the speeches were all done and people started home. Fortunately it was a warm dry evening, better than other such affairs where we had to drive home in snow and sleet.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Norks in Orbit
The North Koreans have been milking the TV news for coverage of their upcoming rocket launch. If they launch and put a satellite into orbit, they will gain enormous amounts of respect. A rocket good enough to throw a satellite up is good enough to throw a nuke anywhere on earth. Say like into Washington DC.
Fox TV has been calling the North Koreans a nuclear state. That is an exaggeration. The Norks have run two tests, both of them fizzled. Yield was so small that observers waited to detect airborne radioactivity before announcing that a nuclear test had occured. Clearly the Norks haven't figured out how to make a fission bomb that really explodes. They have undoubtedly made some engineering changes to their bomb, but until they can run off a test with the same yield as leveled Hiroshima 65 years ago, they ain't a real nuclear power.
The Japanese and the South Koreans are seriously worried about a North Korea with missiles, and have threatened to shoot it down. This is a gutsy move. If they shoot and miss (fairly likely) they just look foolish and loose more face than if they just send nastygrams to the North Korean foreign ministry.
Fox TV has been calling the North Koreans a nuclear state. That is an exaggeration. The Norks have run two tests, both of them fizzled. Yield was so small that observers waited to detect airborne radioactivity before announcing that a nuclear test had occured. Clearly the Norks haven't figured out how to make a fission bomb that really explodes. They have undoubtedly made some engineering changes to their bomb, but until they can run off a test with the same yield as leveled Hiroshima 65 years ago, they ain't a real nuclear power.
The Japanese and the South Koreans are seriously worried about a North Korea with missiles, and have threatened to shoot it down. This is a gutsy move. If they shoot and miss (fairly likely) they just look foolish and loose more face than if they just send nastygrams to the North Korean foreign ministry.
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