Inaguration or Free Cosmetics?

That’s easy. Free cosmetics of course. Those were my two choices for lunch on inauguration day. While most others were watching the 4 year debacle in the making, I hit it big getting free moisturizers at the department stores. I guess the big cosmetics companies settled a class action law suit by giving away free products, so that is what I did for a distraction from the nonsense going on in Washington. (150 million dollars could have bought me a lot of night cream.) At least if I die in a terrorist attack, my skin will look good.

Now, I didn’t totally shun the festivities. I have playlist on my Ipod called “Hippie Music,” so I thought inauguration day would certainly be an appropriate day to play it. I listened to “Uncle John’s Band,” (how can the Greatful Dead sound so good? Weren’t they high all the time? Stoned or not, they have great harmonies.) “This Land is Your Land,” “Put Your Hand in the Hand” (of the man who stilled the waters…) and everyone’s all time Hippie favorite “Kumbaya.” I only wish we could have had a campfire in my office and we all could have stood around it in a circle and held hands.

I thought this article put things into perspective.

http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/01/20/peek_obama_depression/

2009

My 2009 goal takes a completely new turn from 2008. By now, we all know that Cook County Illinois has the highest sales tax in the nation. You know how this upsets me and necessitates trips to Lake County and Birch Run. So my goal is to keep track of all the sales tax I pay in 2009. I have started a spreadsheet to do this. (Does anyone know, can Quicken do this?) After just 4 days of spending entered into it, I can already tell it is a great idea. I am going to attach it here as soon as I figure out how to attach an Excel file. (I have already tried for an hour now.) I know some members of my family have a word to describe me with money, and I think the nice version of the term they use is “frugal.” Now you will have hard evidence to decide if this really is true or not because all my spending will go on the spreadsheet. As soon as I can figure out a way to get it on here, I am going to disclose my spending for all to see so we can see just how much sales tax even a frugal person pays in Illinois and Cook County. I welcome your comments.

Along with the numbers, I am tracking how easy or hard it is to decipher the amount of tax paid, the tax rate, and the specific jurisdictions the tax applies to. My early results show disclosure on receipts is limited. Why would the taxing bodies want you to know what you are really paying? Why would they want you to easily discern that you are paying 6.25% to the state, 1.75% to Cook County, and varying percentages on top of that to municipalities? If you could figure that out, you might get upset, make your purchases elsewhere, or even vote the politicians who enacted the taxes out of office! Oh silly me, never mind. This is Illinois, even politicians who sell US Senate seats stay in office!

Another Prescription

I had to get another refill for Cota at my favorite Meijer Pharmacy. I went though the drive through, with the top down, since it was probably the last day of nice weather until April. I was lucky enough to have the same pharmacist wait on me too. Of course, she commented on the car, but that was really all she said. I was a bit disappointed. I guess at the drive through, it’s not the ideal setting to discuss new-age animal therapies.

A couple idle thoughts - This one has to be very quick. What a season for the Spartans! There are 2 games left, and I don’t want to jinx us, but what a great season thus far.

I love the new Led Zeppelin channel on Sirius. I knew a lot of their songs, and now I actually know the names too.

Birthday

I am a little late writing this one, but it is a good story. It was my sister Juliann’s birthday 2 weeks ago on June 15th. For her birthday, Mom and Dad, and my Uncle Mike and Aunt Toby, and I went to Mackinac Island where she is living for the summer. We walked around the island, took a carriage ride, and had a very nice dinner. After dinner, of course we had cake, and of course we sang the “Happy Birthday to you…” song. For the first time in a very long time, I had met my 2 drink minimum that evening. (Jamaicans make very strong daiquiris.) I thought we should also sing the Beatles “Birthday.” So I started into “You say it’s your birthday, It’s my birthday too…” Well, four pairs of 64+ year old eyes stared at me like I was crazy! Their looks were priceless; you could just see the “Our daughter/niece has gone insane” looks on their faces. Juliann and I had to explain to them that this really was a song. It is a Beatles song. I wasn’t making it up. They had never heard it before. Their reply was that the Beatles were after their time, so why would they know a Beatles song? Well, then I guess I should not have been singing along with Miley Cyrus to “I can’t wait to see you again” when I heard it on the radio a few days ago. (Aside from the fact that it is just plain embarrassing for anyone over the age of 13 to know a Miley Cyrus song.) So, there are 4 people on this earth who do not know the Beatles “Birthday,” and I was in a hotel room with all of them. What are the odds? I should have played the lotto that night.

Prescription Refill

Do you know how to be popular at a pharmacy? Get a prescription filled for a dog. I’ve been back to pick up refills a few times, and even if my favorite pharmacist was busy when I came to the counter, she recognized me and always waved. The last time I actually spoke to her, she had another dog story. The theme again was how pets are important to us and how they can get expensive. Again, I think this story was from her sister. Her little dog was outside loose (I didn’t ask if this was the same dog from before) and the mailman came by and sprayed the dog with Mace. The dog had to go to the vet, of course, racking up big bills.

Another time, I called the pharmacy to see if the refill was ready. I didn’t speak to my regular pharmacist though. I think I got the pharmacy manager instead, because I remember seeing his name plaque on the wall. But he also proved amusing. He told me that the refill was ready, so I said I would be in to pick it up after work at about 5:00. He kindly informed me that they are open until 9:00, so if I got an offer to go out to dinner after work, I should feel free to do that! Since no dinner offers came through, I saw him promptly at 5:00.

This sadly may be the end of the pharmacist stories. I am getting one more refill at Meijer, then I may be getting Cota’s prescriptions by mail-order because it lots cheaper. With a price tag of $90 a month, maybe the pharmacists think I should have some entertainment while spending all that money. I have enjoyed it.

Is it Mustang time yet?

Thanks to the weather, no, it isn’t, and it’s just as well because it is sitting in the garage with a dead battery. Thinking back to the winter of 2006, I thought it would be a good idea to back the car into the garage in case it needed to be jumped, that way the battery would be easier to get to. But nothing happened last winter. It started up right away last spring. Now jump to Fall 2007. The battery was fine last winter, so why bother to back it in again, right? The battery was fine last winter, so why bother to periodically let the car run for a few minutes to keep it charged? It was so cold this winter, why would I want to spend one second longer outside than absolutely necessary? It was fine last year. Well, I should have done all of the above.

When I discovered this, since I didn’t back it in, the front of the car was under the storage cabinet in my garage, and I couldn’t raise the hood to get to the battery. So I called AAA and explained that the car might have to be pushed or towed to be able to open the hood. When the AAA guy got here, we found that I couldn’t even put the car in neutral to try to push it. He ended up wedging the hood about open four inches and was able to squeeze the cables in. Car started right up. I was late for a meeting, but I thought rather than rush off, I’ll at least turn the car around and back it into the garage. Then I remembered all the trouble I had doing that last year. There is a slight curb up to my driveway, so I have to give it a little gas to get over the curb. This is quite manageable when pulling in forward, but in reverse it is a bit trickier. (At least it is for me, someone whose parallel parking skills can evoke laughter.) So on the first attempt of getting over the curb, then slamming on the brakes so I didn’t crash into the garage (the door opening is narrow), I remembered that last year, I put the top down when I did this because I could see better. So, in the dark, at 35 degrees, and in March, the top came down. On the third try, hoping that none of my neighbors were watching all of this, I succeeded in backing it in, with no damage to the car or garage. But I was late and in a hurry, so I put the top up and turned the car off. It was only after I pulled the key out that I thought maybe I should have let it run for awhile. But considering all the time it took for this whole ordeal to unfold, it was already running for about 10 minutes, so it should be okay, right? Wrong! It wouldn’t start again. So there the car sits, but at least it is turned around now.

Cota

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Cota, tailgating right outside Spartan Stadium this fall. You have to get the last little drop of soup out of the cup, don’t you? She has Spartan spirit! I took the other picture today. I think she is just as cute as Uno, the beagle who won the Westminster dog show. What do you think?

Thank you to those who have expressed concern about Cota. She is doing fine. Cota has chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She was diagnosed about a year ago. Even though her white blood cell and lymphocyte counts were high, she didn’t seem to be affected by it, so I decided to wait on treatment for her. I took her back to the vet for her regular check-up a couple weeks ago, and every measure in her blood was worse than a year ago. I reluctantly started her on a chemotherapy drug this weekend, and she seems to be taking it well.

All of the many vets I have taken to her say she should be feeling lethargic. But she’s not. Cota is such a trooper; you wouldn’t know anything is wrong. She acts like she always has, and still has her personality, energy and appetite.

I went to Meijer Friday to pick up her prescription, and had quite an interesting conversation with a very chatty pharmacist. Right away, she could see that the prescription was for a dog, so I asked her if she had any experience with this drug and dogs. She said no, but launched into a crazy conversation. Apparently this nice pharmacist was also trained in France in acupuncture. Her sister once had an accident where she backed over a small dog who was too fat, and pretty much destroyed the dog’s hip. The dog underwent acupuncture treatment and subsequently recovered. Then this lady went on about how animals are good for us, always happy to see us, and truly appreciate us. We get attached to pets. She said she does not have a dog, but for a time she and her daughter had a pet rat. Her daughter dropped the rat (accidentally I’m sure) and it hit its abdomen on the edge of the trash can. The rat was hurt very badly and they cried for 3 hours. But they nursed the rat and it lived for awhile after that, but when it eventually died, they had cried so much before that they didn’t cry when it passed away. Thankfully, another customer came up behind me at that point and she had to turn her attention to them.

So I left the pharmacy area and escaped to the deli to get liver sausage to hide the pills in. I guess the good thing about this is a dog doesn’t know it’s getting chemotherapy. To Cota, it’s a big hunk of braunschweiger that she wolfs down, and then since it’s sooo good she licks her bowl completely clean at least 3 times to make sure she gets every last little bit. That can’t be so bad.