I had a breakthrough with the insurance exchange this week. I waited 45 minutes to speak with one of their customer service reps to find out whether or not any subsidies were available to me. He was a fellow with an East Indian accent, and he told me that looking at my application was giving him a headache. I said the same thing was happening to me. Then he discovered that I'd incorrectly selected "Cobra" coverage for myself, M and C. (Cobra is what I have now). He says, (say it out loud or in your head with an east indian accent), "Your problem is, you have snakes in your application. In fact, you have three snakes in it. Let me remove the Cobras for you. There, that's better. I remove the snakes, you get xxxxx thousand dollars. Can I do anything else for you?"


He was a charmer indeed!

When I moved to California in 1990, the state was experiencing  a drought. I moved into a beautiful house with a woman who was the student government president at UC Berkeley. Her bathtub was filled with buckets meant to catch the excess shower water. That water was then used to flush the toilets.


We are experiencing a drought currently, supposedly worse than the one in 1990, and no measures have been imposed, just some suggestions to wash only full loads of clothing,  and a reminder to turn off the running water while you're brushing your teeth – things you probably do anyway.


In good news, it rained yesterday.

Last night C asked me what would happen to the money in my bank account when I died. I told him it would go to  "Daddy" or to him. Then he asked me how he'd go about getting it.


Perhaps I should just buy him that bike with gears he's been asking for…

Tried to catch up to a guy who had a tattoo peeking out from under the cuff of his sleeve. It looked like it might be the tips of grasses blowing in the wind, or feathers, or fur. He was taking the stairs two at a time, and I kept up with him for awhile until my legs burned and I feared I'd trip in my wedge boots. Made up some time in the station straightaway, but lost him again on the steps up to the street. That dude was fast. What was that tattoo????

Dream: partied w/ Bon Jovi last night; Jon was pretty taken with me, and I him, except that I was slightly put off by the excessive whiteness of his teeth.

Had an impromptu party on Friday nite – discovered the next day that the kids had used my pears as ammo for the potato gun.  Lots of wee, pear-smelling, pellets all over the house. Also found a white towel that had evidently been used to mop up a pomegranate juice spill. That's the last time I'm inviting kids to a cocktail party.


Ran into Santa the Hutt on the way to a Google party (do you like how I simultaneously name drop and engage in self-promotion?) His teeth were yellow, but the clothes were cool:   http://www.betabrand.com/?m=14878

Today the BART driver faked us all out. He/She stopped, and as we all readied ourselves to disembark, he/she did a quick accelerate-then-slam-the-brakes move. We all went flying into each other. I was forced to grab a handrail; this is something I actively work against doing. I walked like Lady Macbeth to the nearest bathroom.

Experimenting w/ fermented foods; hoping to enhance digestibility and increase nutrient content of our food. Last night before bed, I mixed together some rolled oats, warm water and a bit of keffir in a pot and set it covered on the counter for its prescribed 7 hours. This morning, I walked into the kitchen just as M was about to dump what he thought was pot of neglected oatmeal down the drain. The oatmeal had a slightly tangy undertone, which I suppose one has to embrace when heading down the lactobacilli road.

I tried a new route to work today. It took almost twice as long and cost 4 times as much as the regular route. I'm hoping at least that I got some new neural pathways out of the deal.

I forgot about the omp too!  

Outlook "corrected" 'omp' to 'imp' - but I would never forget the Imp!  Can't wait for Tyrion to come back to us.