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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 13, 2023 10:21:11 GMT -5
Going up to Vancouver tomorrow to see TD’s mom. His sister is leaving Tuesday, and TD is going to tag team her.
We have social obligations Friday that can’t be shifted, if we can’t do it they will be canceled. We also have tickets on Saturday to the opera. Maybe one of TD’s other siblings can spell him for those 2 days? I just found out about this last night.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 12, 2023 15:05:21 GMT -5
After waking up yesterday at the buttcrack of dawn, sneezing and eyes itching (despite allergy meds), I ramped things up. I increased my dose of Benedryl, and used 2 different anti itch eye drops. As a result, I slept like the dead and didn't even hear TD’s alarm go off at 6:30. Both of us woke up at 8:30, and he had a meeting this morning. He left without coffee, his cell phone and wallet.
The Benedryl and eye drops still seem to be holding. I don’t remember last fall being near this bad.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 12, 2023 12:58:45 GMT -5
There are a lot of excision dates……which align with the major holidays. If you get booted off a flight, or the flight doesn't fly for whatever reason, you could be stuck some place awhile.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 20:01:17 GMT -5
That's what I thought, but not in the area to know for sure. Kaiser is trying hard to break into WA. It is starting to infringe on where I live now, and I have not heard anything good about it in WA. Even in CA, where it is supposedly better, there is a stone wall about getting to go to specialists who are knowledgeable.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 18:33:26 GMT -5
I will check if that is an HMO, some reason it costs a lot less. DD had botox injections all over her head today. They said about a week before it helps but she said it felt better to her already, who knows?? The neurologist prescribed her some med, she said it was super expensive and she didn't know if medicaid would pay for it. I don't know what she considers super expensive. But Cigna called just a bit ago and approved it, it was just submitted a few hours ago. These are the kinds of things I have to check in Washington as she has traditional medicaid here. Quite a few of her scrips are very expensive and they are approving brand name, but I'm assuming that is only because there is no generic equivalent. It is an HMO.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 18:19:03 GMT -5
My son is looking at Kaiser in Washington for insurance. Anyone know if it’s good? He said right now he is paying over $700 a month for BC BS and still pays a ton for deductible. The premiums are way lower. He is thinking of choosing it this year. Avoid at all costs in WA.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 16:18:25 GMT -5
Needing to meal plan is the pits. I've only been back since June and I'm tired of it. Sunday we picked up a pizza as TD was doing his pie-a-thon for Canadian Thanksgiving Monday. Monday, we took the pies across the border and at at his brother's. Last night, I did chicken pot pies and tonight I have the stuff out for a potato leek soup with garlic avocado toast. Tomorrow is SLAP, and I'm clueless as to what I'm doing the rest of the week.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 16:07:16 GMT -5
Wondering if the rules "NO promotions or spam" needs to be clearer on a FB group.
Lemme give you a hint, if you post a doctor's promotional literature, it's going to get deleted. Do it twice, you'll get tossed.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 13:14:06 GMT -5
Man! My flight got delayed again. I didn't have to get up at 5:30 this morning. I could have slept longer. I just received our third flight change for a flight we have in Jan. This one's not making me happy as I think we are going to be tight getting through customs.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 13:12:19 GMT -5
If you have damage, you're probably right about the cost being about $40K. We had this house done with Haardie Plank, and it's about 2800 sq ft, but only half the bottom floor was sided since it's built into a hill. This is a high COL area, but we also had the privacy wall rebuilt. I think we were a shade over $30K. The HELOC is the cheapest rate, I'd probably pull from that and take the other $10K from your saving's bonds.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 11:28:38 GMT -5
There have been a few times where my scheduled AmEx payment has been processed but not debited against my account. The only payment I make regularly that has no delay is paying my USAA visa with my USAA account. My scheduled payments for insurance seem to go out as scheduled.
Interesting though. When we paid off our next cruise, we planned to do it through TD’s bank account. He let me know the money was there, and I made the payment. 2 days later, he asked me if I had paid it because his account had not yet been debited. My invoice said $0 balance, so I wasn’t concerned. It took a few more days before his account was actually debited.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 8:50:32 GMT -5
Something blew in last night and I woke up sneezing, congested and my eyes itching. I think we are having a true fall, last year we pretty much went from summer to winter and I don’t remember things being this bad. Friends we met on the world cruise pinged me yesterday. They’re going to be out in WA, so we are getting together for lunch. They sent a pic of another group of friends from the cruise who are visiting them now. The week before they get here, we are getting together with the other couple who lives in Bothell. They are back home a month, then are off to Palm Springs.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 11, 2023 8:41:07 GMT -5
We crate both of our dogs at night, Pink Cashmere . But we also make them comfortable. In the Winter both crates get a nice, fluffy fleece blanket to help them be warm & comfortable. (We tried the dog beds, but both of our dogs are chewers.) Speedy loves his crate, and will actually go in his on his own when he wants a "safe" space from our other dog, or just to nap. Our girl Lola needs more encouragement to go into her crate, but does sleep in there. She's our more energetic dog, but she is younger, so I'm waiting to see if she settles down a bit more in the next year. I’ve used crates for my dogs, and we had one for Newbie. When I had my standard poodle and my Bullmastiff, when I was getting my stuff together to leave home, like my purse and keys, the poodle would go in his crate without me telling him to. By then, it was unnecessary, he had free run of the house when I wasn’t home, but him going in there was a sign to me that it was a safe place that he was okay going to. Newbie, if we told her to go to her crate, even if we left the door wide open, she was okay with being in there until we told her to come out. The crate was also where she went to hide her “treasures” (toys), under the blanket in there. Imo, crates are more than a way to contain a dog when needed, it’s also a safe space for them, where they can retreat to and not be bothered, because that is a rule for the humans, if a dog has retreated to their crate, that means they need some alone time, so leave them alone and don’t pester them. Harriet and Kronk get crated at night too. They both have fleece blankets they can huddle in, and both dogs get crated when there is no one keeping an eye on them. The cat is the only one who gets free rein in the house……because he doesn’t poop on something when he is pissed or jealous, or destroy things.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 10, 2023 21:51:24 GMT -5
7:30 and I just got my chicken pot pies in the oven. I threw the chicken in the oven to cook, but for some reason it clicked off. 30 min later, I went to check on it and it was cold and the oven was off. Grrr……
Got the oven started, and while they were cooking made the sauce.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 10, 2023 12:11:42 GMT -5
I need to figure out dinner tonight and am absolutely clueless. It poured the better part of the night and is still rainy and gloomy out.
Hmmm…..think I have it! TD still has pie dough in the fridge from baking pies. I’m thinking chicken pot pies sound good for tonight. I bought a multi pack of boneless chicken thighs from Costco, so need to pull those out.
We took my car up to Canada last night. I’m surprised the idiot light didn’t come on on the way home, I’m on fumes and Costco was closed when we passed the gas bar last night. I’ll stop on the way home from lunch today.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 10, 2023 10:14:07 GMT -5
Last night was…..interesting. There were 6 kids under 3 years old at the in laws Thanksgiving, including one that was not quite a month old yet. Last time I saw all these rug rats, most of them were in carriers! OMG! The noise they made! There was a massive exodus between 7:30 and 8, when all the kids started to crash. Then the adults got a chance to talk.
The biggest discussion was about TD’s mom. She had a fall on the patio outside her condo and it turned out she has a compression fracture in her back. TD’s sister is staying with her now, but she needs to leave next weekend. She has a large place in northern BC with a lot of horses and other critters and she’s got to get up there and start winterizing before the bad weather arrives. His step brother and wife leave for Malaysia soon after for 3 weeks, and no one thinks mom will be ready for this yet. The compression fracture makes it incredibly painful to move. So when his sister leaves, TD is talking about going up for a bit.
In the meantime, they are looking at whatever the Canadian equivalent to Life Alert is, and apparent the discussion has started about an assisted living place. His mom is so damn independent that this is going to be rough, she HATES not being in her own place. She stayed with us when she broke her wrist and lasted a week here. I guess she was at stepbrother’s while we were gone, and after 3 days started climbing the walls wanting to go home. I guess TD and his sister could tag team this for awhile, but the day is coming, and faster than any of them thought.
I did notice when we got back from the cruise that she’s lost quite a bit of weight (that she did not need to lose) and appears quite frail.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 9, 2023 15:44:34 GMT -5
Yesterday was gorgeous while we were out running around. Today, not so much. If it doesn’t rain, it will be missing a good chance. TD apparently got our phones transported over to Mint from Ting. There was some user error going on here. He put the extra SIM card that Mint sent in his phone and forgot to put a SIM card in my phone altogether. We are trying their trial service, and have 3 months to decide whether or not to go in this direction. I guess what happens when we go over the border this afternoon is the test. Our 3 month trial ends in two weeks and I'm going to buy one year plans for all three. So far, been pretty happy. My phone has issues with it that the boys don't, and the service isn't as great in the more remote areas, but for the price I'm saving it's worth it. I also heard Mint has zero service in Alaska, like nothing at all. So if we ever plan on heading back there I'll have to get some cheap burner or see if I can temporarily switch to Ting at the same time. Should be able to just pop the other SIMs back in and pay for a month I would think. Do you just need data or do you need phone and voice too? If data, try Airalo. We used eSIMs on our world cruise and it did work well. Supposedly Airalo May now include voice and text but I’ve not looked yet.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 9, 2023 13:21:09 GMT -5
Yesterday was gorgeous while we were out running around. Today, not so much. If it doesn’t rain, it will be missing a good chance.
TD apparently got our phones transported over to Mint from Ting. There was some user error going on here. He put the extra SIM card that Mint sent in his phone and forgot to put a SIM card in my phone altogether. We are trying their trial service, and have 3 months to decide whether or not to go in this direction. I guess what happens when we go over the border this afternoon is the test.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 9, 2023 10:57:34 GMT -5
Crying like a baby. My mri is normal.
Great news!
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 9, 2023 10:56:48 GMT -5
I dealt with that with my vaccination record for UNMC. The whippersnapper nurse just couldn't understand why the pediatrician couldn't email them. Because I was born in 1983! My records are in a warehouse guarded by top men! I did have my card signed by the pediatrician they accepted that. Then we had an argument about the chicken pox vaccination. Again what parts of born in the 80s do you not get? I had it before the vaccination came out.
It's a simple titer to prove I had it. A freaking older nurse had to explain it to her and that her poking me was a waste.I made sure to get a copy of my records from employee health before I left. It's in the safe. Just easier to have the paper copy in case it comes up again. I had this exact argument! Hell, I even have an old chicken pox scar on my forehead, but that wasn’t sufficient. At the time, I was 50 and not old enough for the shingles vaccine….which I wanted. My aunt had gone through shingles and was utterly miserable. I was stressed to the max at the time, which is known to trigger shingles. I didn’t have time for that shit! Anyway, I let them vaccinate me for chicken pox. My logic was that it would up my chicken pox titer until I was eligible for shingles vaccine. Probably not as effective but better than nothing.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 8, 2023 19:01:41 GMT -5
Back from the outlet mall. I was able to replace the pot, and got a freebie with it. Pot was 35% off. Also scored a pair of Columbia snow boots for $30, marked down from $130. I will need them for about 2 weeks this winter, so didn’t want to spend a lot.
Today was successful.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 8, 2023 13:38:34 GMT -5
Waiting for my sister to get back from church, so we can go hit the outlet mall. Leaving TD alone in the kitchen to bake pies to take for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Told him we’d bring a pizza home.
The lamb shanks I made yesterday turned out fabulous. I need to keep this recipe in mind, but it uses a ton of fresh thyme and rosemary (which I grow).
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 7, 2023 14:48:05 GMT -5
Oh, it’s okay. Oregon and Washington increased funding for pregnancy care in anticipation of Idaho residents coming over for services. But don’t worry, the Idaho government is totally solving the egregious abortion problem. 🙄 i feel most sorry for places like Boise, that are quite a ways from the border, and dark blue dots. I wonder how many mothers and babies are going to have to die because they can't cross state lines fast enough, for Idaho to start backpedaling?
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 7, 2023 14:34:10 GMT -5
Grrrrr...... I'm trying to buy tickets in London and when I went to pay for the tickets to Wicked, they wanted to verify the purchase by sending a code to my cell phone. My cell is currently not working because TD is trying to switch us over from Ting to Mint. His went easily, mine is being a royal pain in the ass and he's been working on it for a few days now.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 7, 2023 12:33:59 GMT -5
My knock off Le Crueset’s stock pot enamel is starting to flake off on the inside. I wouldn't normally replace it, other than I use it all the time as it’s my soup pot. This means a trip to the outlet in Marysville. So think DS and I are going to make a run down tomorrow while TD wrecks the kitchen making his pies. I offered to pick up pizza on the way home.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 6, 2023 18:51:18 GMT -5
I think you guys need to think carefully about this. My dad tried to do what you are and it really fouled things up. Because he put us on the deed rather than bequeathing it to us, we wound up having to pay capital gains on his house, plus pay NY state non resident tax on it too. Please consult some one. We had to go to our tax accountant to figure out how to deal with it. Yes, that's an issue. See bolded text from my post quoted here. I normally would say not to do it because of the capital gains. But in conjunction with their desire to provide an inheritance to their son and protect their assets from Medicaid which countrygirl2 has mentioned before, I can see doing it. After very careful thought and consultation with a financial advisor. We don't know what the law will be at the time the son might want to sell. Wouldn't it be free from state income tax, since Washington doesn't have a state income tax? Or does Washington tax capital gains? If the federal law stays the same, the $500,000 exclusion for selling a couple's personal residence would apply when her son eventually sells. The basis would be what countrygirl2 paid to buy it ($700,000, in her example), and the next $500,000 gain wouldn't be taxed if her son and family move into the house for two years before they sell. And the rest of it's taxed at 15%, I believe. But who knows what the law will be at that time. I'm not up on gift tax, and the $700,000 purchase price would be a gift to the son. The lifetime gift tax exemption would seem to apply and it appears to be quite generous. No, WA does not have a state income tax but they're trying awfully hard to institute a capital gains tax on unearned income. Again, she needs to consider what the tax ramifications are for both her and her son. I can see all kinds of ways this going sideways, especially if something happens to her son, or if her DH's family history of Alzheimer's comes into play.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 6, 2023 16:01:05 GMT -5
On a side note not about the loser but once of his "only the best" legal team: the IRS has placed a lien on Giuliani's Florida condo because he owes a paltry $550M in back taxes. Let's see what those "get HB for tax evasion - no sweet heart deals" in the House have to say about that. news.yahoo.com/giuliani-florida-condo-placed-under-124521239.htmlI think he also owes his lawyers a pretty hefty sum too.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 6, 2023 16:00:26 GMT -5
Prior to the election Don Jr and Ivanka were in the Da crosshairs for lying to potential buyers of one of Daddy’s condo towers - saying thing like 90 percent of the units were already sold, when 90 percent were not sold. Before they could get indicted daddy donated something like 25K to the DAs re election effort and the cases were quietly dropped. This is not a Trump thing - I’m 100% certain this kind of shit happens all the time. No one noticed until Trump ran for office and reporters started checking the closets for skeletons. 100% sure Trump is not the only millionaire getting away with tax fraud. If he had stayed under the radar, he probably wouldn’t have gotten into a situation he couldn’t buy his way out of. After all, his daddy was a supreme tax cheat and never got charged. Trumps problem is his need to be center stage. You can’t do that if you have a bunch of half buried bodies in your wake. I find the acceptance of this as a way of life so sad. This very likely happens everywhere. Rich people buy themselves out of issues all the time (you don't want to know how many DUIs friends of mine have dealt with bought off for their son - last time, I told my friend that this wasn't right and that her son was never going to learn that daddy can buy him out of trouble) . And I agree with happyhoix in that had Trump never run for president, this would not have gotten the traction that it did.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 6, 2023 15:06:52 GMT -5
I think this is a good idea, actually. Buy it just in his name? Or buy it in your and DH's names and file a transfer on death instrument so he will inherit it without fuss when you are both gone? Consider capital gains implications for him, and Medicaid protection for you.
Yes, we are thinking of doing that. he was saying later we could move in his smaller house and they into ours. His dad did that, he just had on it, they could have the right to live it until their death. And it has worked out well. We have not sold it yet so have to read up for Indiana and see what we will owe. But wondering why we couldn't just gift it to him or a similar one. It is about $700k, that one is above what we planned to spend, so have to think about it. What I have to read up on if he sells it later, will the whole amount be taxable to him on proceeds since he would have no money in it or how does that work?? I know how it works if he inherits it. But not sure what his basis would be the other way. We have that to deal with it on his folks and grandmas house yet. We bought out his brothers half on his folks and grandmas houses. We didn't even know they were in the boys names when we were getting ready to buy them, so only had to buy half of them. I think you guys need to think carefully about this. My dad tried to do what you are and it really fouled things up. Because he put us on the deed rather than bequeathing it to us, we wound up having to pay capital gains on his house, plus pay NY state non resident tax on it too. Please consult some one. We had to go to our tax accountant to figure out how to deal with it.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 5, 2023 12:35:22 GMT -5
Coffee. I had to go get fasting blood work done this morning, and the first appt I could get was 8:40. On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store that carries the tart cherries as TD is making the pies for Canadian Thanksgiving we are going to on Monday. He’s making pumpkin, apple and cherry. I have no idea if we need to bring anything else. Anyway, the only store that sells the frozen tart cherries is a locally owned store so decided to do a grocery shop there too. We were down on produce, and the only meat I picked up was lamb shanks because they had them. Between the cherries and the lamb shanks, that was $70 of the $177 bill. Ouch!
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