Grumpy Snickles

7 years ago today

2009-07-08T16:46:00.002-06:00

7 years ago today I sent an email to a very cute boy on match.com. 5 days later I met the cute boy in person, and am proud to call him my husband and best friend.

Canadian, Please

2009-07-07T10:10:00.005-06:00

Check out this mildly entertaining video I found:

25 things about me and my spouse!!!

2009-07-03T10:54:00.000-06:00

This is kind of like the 25 things - except there are pre-decided questions and it's about you and your spouse, not just you. I'd love to see you put this on your own blog so I can read your answers...

♥ What are your middle names?
Anne, Joel

♥ How long have you been together?
Married 5 1/2 together 7 years

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
3 days

♥ Who asked who out?
I think he asked me out to a movie, I don't remember!

♥ How old are each of you?
I'm 32, he's 33

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?
His sister. I have no siblings.

♥ Do you have any children together?
not yet

♥ What about pets?
2 fuzzy cats, and a tank full of fish

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
I think infertility has definately been hard to deal with.

♥ Did you go to the same school?
Nope, we didn't even live in the same country!

♥ Are you from the same home town?
No, different countries

♥ Who is smarter?
We are both smarter at different things. For example, I spell really well, but suck at Math. Austin is good at math, but can't spell at all.

♥ Who is more sensitive?
Definately me.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
mexican

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Holland

♥ Who has the craziest exes?
Me, although my exes weren't all that crazy.

♥ Who has the worse temper?
Totally me. I think I've only seen Austin get mad once!

♥ Who does the cooking?
Me mostly, only because I am a control freak. He is an excellent cook though.

♥ Who is more social?
Definately me, in most situations

♥ Who is neater?
Definately HIM. I am a slob!

♥ Who is the more stubborn?
Me, without a doubt.

♥ Who hogs the bed?
Me again. and I hog the covers too. Between me and the cats who also sleep on the bed, there isn't much room left for Austin!

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Used to be me but i seem to sleep longer now

♥ When was your first date?
July 12, 2002

♥Where was your first date?
Dinner at Rock Bottom. I had smoked salmon fish and chips and Austin had a chinese chicken salad. We then went to see Mr. Geeves!

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Definately Austin. Although I am closer to my family than he is with his extended family.

♥ Do you get flowers often?
not often, but when he does its great!

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
We try to alternate with my family and his famliy as much as possible

♥ Who is more jealous?
totally me

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
from the moment we met!!! I knew he was a keeper.

♥ Who eats more?
depends on what it is! Usually him but I have my moments

♥ Who does/ did the laundry?
I do the laundry and we put it away together

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Definately Austin

♥ Who drives when you are together?
It depends. If we are in my car I drive, if we are in the mini cooper he drives.

Debunking Canadian health care myths

2009-07-02T16:43:00.002-06:00

This article from the Denver Post is an incredibly interesting one, and one I completely agree with. As a Canadian living in the US, I long for the days back when I still lived in Canada and didn't have to worry about co-pays, making sure I was within network, and non-coverage for things such as blood work becuase I miscarried again. Not only that, but in the last year we have spent over $10,000 in infertility treatments becuase my medical plan doesn't cover infertility treatments, which is now being paid off painfully slow as it's on my credit card and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. It'd be less painful (although still painful) if we were actually pregnant. I shudder to think if either one of us got something like cancer. You'll get diagnosed with cancer, but by the time you are done with chemo etc you will have such a huge medical bill you won't be able to pay for it.

A for profit medical system is bad business, except for the executives who make money off people who are sick and need care.

http://www.denverpost.com/popular/ci_12523427?source=pop

perspective
Debunking Canadian health care myths
By Rhonda Hackett

As a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years, I am frequently asked by Americans and Canadians alike to declare one health care system as the better one.
Often I'll avoid answering, regardless of the questioner's nationality. To choose one or the other system usually translates into a heated discussion of each one's merits, pitfalls, and an intense recitation of commonly cited statistical comparisons of the two systems.

Because if the only way we compared the two systems was with statistics, there is a clear victor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to dispute the fact that Canada spends less money on health care to get better outcomes.

Yet, the debate rages on. Indeed, it has reached a fever pitch since President Barack Obama took office, with Americans either dreading or hoping for the dawn of a single-payer health care system. Opponents of such a system cite Canada as the best example of what not to do, while proponents laud that very same Canadian system as the answer to all of America's health care problems. Frankly, both sides often get things wrong when trotting out Canada to further their respective arguments.

As America comes to grips with the reality that changes are desperately needed within its health care infrastructure, it might prove useful to first debunk some myths about the Canadian system.

Myth: Taxes in Canada are extremely high, mostly because of national health care.
In actuality, taxes are nearly equal on both sides of the border. Overall, Canada's taxes are slightly higher than those in the U.S. However, Canadians are afforded many benefits for their tax dollars, even beyond health care (e.g., tax credits, family allowance, cheaper higher education), so the end result is a wash. At the end of the day, the average after-tax income of Canadian workers is equal to about 82 percent of their gross pay. In the U.S., that average is 81.9 percent.

Myth: Canada's health care system is a cumbersome bureaucracy.
The U.S. has the most bureaucratic health care system in the world. More than 31 percent of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S. goes to paperwork, overhead, CEO salaries, profits, etc. The provincial single-payer system in Canada operates with just a 1 percent overhead. Think about it. It is not necessary to spend a huge amount of money to decide who gets care and who doesn't when everybody is covered.

Myth: The Canadian system is significantly more expensive than that of the U.S.
Ten percent of Canada's GDP is spent on health care for 100 percent of the population. The U.S. spends 17 percent of its GDP but 15 percent of its population has no coverage whatsoever and millions of others have inadequate coverage. In essence, the U.S. system is considerably more expensive than Canada's. Part of the reason for this is uninsured and underinsured people in the U.S. still get sick and eventually seek care. People who cannot afford care wait until advanced stages of an illness to see a doctor and then do so through emergency rooms, which cost considerably more than primary care services.
What the American taxpayer may not realize is that such care costs about $45 billion per year, and someone has to pay it. This is why insurance premiums increase every year for insured patients while co-pays and deductibles also rise rapidly.

Myth: Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it.
While HMOs and other private medical insurers in the U.S. do indeed make such decisions, the only people in Canada to do so are physicians. In Canada, the government has absolutely no say in who gets care or how they get it. Medical decisions are left entirely up to doctors, as they should be.
There are no requirements for pre-authorization whatsoever. If your family doctor says you need an MRI, you get one. In the U.S., if an insurance administrator says you are not getting an MRI, you don't get one no matter what your doctor thinks — unless, of course, you have the money to cover the cost.

Myth: There are long waits for care, which compromise access to care.
There are no waits for urgent or primary care in Canada. There are reasonable waits for most specialists' care, and much longer waits for elective surgery. Yes, there are those instances where a patient can wait up to a month for radiation therapy for breast cancer or prostate cancer, for example. However, the wait has nothing to do with money per se, but everything to do with the lack of radiation therapists. Despite such waits, however, it is noteworthy that Canada boasts lower incident and mortality rates than the U.S. for all cancers combined, according to the U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group and the Canadian Cancer Society. Moreover, fewer Canadians (11.3 percent) than Americans (14.4 percent) admit unmet health care needs.
Myth: Canadians are paying out of pocket to come to the U.S. for medical care.Most patients who come from Canada to the U.S. for health care are those whose costs are covered by the Canadian governments. If a Canadian goes outside of the country to get services that are deemed medically necessary, not experimental, and are not available at home for whatever reason (e.g., shortage or absence of high tech medical equipment; a longer wait for service than is medically prudent; or lack of physician expertise), the provincial government where you live fully funds your care. Those patients who do come to the U.S. for care and pay out of pocket are those who perceive their care to be more urgent than it likely is.
Myth: Canada is a socialized health care system in which the government runs hospitals and where doctors work for the government.Princeton University health economist Uwe Reinhardt says single-payer systems are not "socialized medicine" but "social insurance" systems because doctors work in the private sector while their pay comes from a public source. Most physicians in Canada are self-employed. They are not employees of the government nor are they accountable to the government. Doctors are accountable to their patients only. More than 90 percent of physicians in Canada are paid on a fee-for-service basis. Claims are submitted to a single provincial health care plan for reimbursement, whereas in the U.S., claims are submitted to a multitude of insurance providers. Moreover, Canadian hospitals are controlled by private boards and/or regional health authorities rather than being part of or run by the government.

Myth: There aren't enough doctors in Canada.
From a purely statistical standpoint, there are enough physicians in Canada to meet the health care needs of its people. But most doctors practice in large urban areas, leaving rural areas with bona fide shortages. This situation is no different than that being experienced in the U.S. Simply training and employing more doctors is not likely to have any significant impact on this specific problem. Whatever issues there are with having an adequate number of doctors in any one geographical area, they have nothing to do with the single-payer system.
And these are just some of the myths about the Canadian health care system. While emulating the Canadian system will likely not fix U.S. health care, it probably isn't the big bad "socialist" bogeyman it has been made out to be.

It is not a perfect system, but it has its merits. For people like my 55-year-old Aunt Betty, who has been waiting for 14 months for knee-replacement surgery due to a long history of arthritis, it is the superior system. Her $35,000-plus surgery is finally scheduled for next month. She has been in pain, and her quality of life has been compromised. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Aunt Betty — who lives on a fixed income and could never afford private health insurance, much less the cost of the surgery and requisite follow-up care — will soon sport a new, high-tech knee. Waiting 14 months for the procedure is easy when the alternative is living in pain for the rest of your life.

Rhonda Hackett of Castle Rock is a clinical psychologist.

Food Inc

2009-06-27T11:05:00.001-06:00

I am at the movies waiting for food Inc to begin. Have been looking forward to this movie for a long time.

-- Post From My iPhone

Bye Canada :(

2009-06-22T13:38:00.002-06:00

I am waiting for my flight to depart from Vancouver to Denver. It's always a bit sad when I leave to go back home to Denver. I miss Canada...a lot...but my life is in Denver, and a good life it is. But I also really miss being in my "other" home. The more I stay away the more and more I realize I am becoming much more Americna than I really would like. The month of June actually marks the 10th year that I have been in the US, and when I look back at how stupid I was to actually move donw, I am surprised but then again my life probalby would have been much different if I hadn't come down. It was fate I suppose.

Anywhoo, I'm excited to see Austin and the cats and get back into my regular routine. I hope my next trip to Canada is within a year!!!

Dinner

2009-06-20T19:45:00.001-06:00

My moms cooking is the best. Just had another wonderful meal. Yuuuuummy

-- Post From My iPhone

Hello Canada!

2009-06-19T23:14:00.001-06:00

Descent into Vancouver - view of the island
Originally uploaded by GrumpySnickles

I arrived thursday around 10:30 am after a small delay due to a mechanical issue on our aircraft. A quick swap of the planes and we were off from Denver to Vancouver. I had to clear customs and immigration, and then I attempted to catch an earlier flight to the Island. I was successful, but I had to hurry and it is quite a distance from international arrivals to the island planes. Anyways, i made it and all was well.

Settled in at my parents house, and then we went to see the World Parrot Rescue and Sanctuary. It was a neat experience...very loud but really neat to see all of those birds and in the last room we could walk around with them. We also went to Coombs to see the goats on the roof market, and then went to the Dutch store.

Butchart Gardens

2009-06-19T23:09:00.004-06:00

Butchart Gardens
Originally uploaded by GrumpySnickles

Today we headed to Butchart Gardens and the Victoria Harbor. This is my 3rd trip to the Island since my parents moved here 6 years ago but I have yet to experience Butchart Gardens. It was...in one word....AMAZING. Absolutely beautiful.

Click here to see all of the photos from today! I got some great close up shots of the flowers too...

Why is it?

2009-06-17T15:10:00.001-06:00

Why is it that my pants are either too small or too big but never in that happy medium area? I just don't understand.

-- Post From My iPhone

Red Wings

2009-06-12T20:42:00.001-06:00

Dude, the fans watching the Detroit Red Wings lose to the Penguins are complete assholes. I can't believe they have been booing for 5 minutes now. The game is over, your team lost, suck it up. Booing is nothing but poor sportsmanship.

a little premature

2009-06-09T21:03:00.003-06:00

but i wanted to be able to put this somewhere where I could come back to it in several years when we actually have the money saved to pay for the adoption. I came across this photo one day while I was on a message board and loved the colors and would like to do something like this for our baby's room. My favorite color obviously is green, but Austin is so sick and tired of everything in our house being green that I anticipate that he will veto it.

But it's SOOOO cute! I love the two toned curtains too.

Broomfield funnel cloud

2009-06-09T17:40:00.002-06:00

Apparently the weather gods have mistaken us for a state such as Oklahoma or Kansas. Today we have all sorts of shitty weather again, which popped up out of the blue. A funnel cloud was spotted 1/2 a mile from our house. Freaks the frick out of me. My god. We need to move to Canada where they don't have tornados (well they don't get many).

Jeesh.

2010 Winter Olympics - Vancouver

2009-06-08T13:52:00.002-06:00

The 2010 winter Olympics will be in Vancouver Canada, and I'm pretty excited about that. Not only becuase I really like Vancouver (my parents live in Vancouver Island) but also because it's the 2nd Olympics that will be hosted in a City that is so familiar to me. I was in 6th grade when the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics took place and it was an absolutely AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING experience. I was fortunate to take part in a lot of the events that were being held, as well as attend the award ceremonies. It was pretty darn awesome!

Austin and I have thought about trying to go to the 2010 Olympics, and we'll have to see. With us doing some major saving to come up with money to adopt a baby that is cutting into our vacation/travel fund, but man it would be pretty awesome to attend another Olympics in my home and native land. Some of you may not know, but I am still a Canadian Citizen, with only my green card. I can apply for US Citizenship, but have chosen not to since the only real change it would do is allow me to vote. So I'm still VERY proud to be a Canadian :)

Tornados in Denver

2009-06-07T16:30:00.003-06:00

This afternoon was an interesting one. I decided to use a gift certificate I had for a pedicure and Austin went to a movie. I was checking my twitter account whilst my toe were being prettied up, and saw there were some reports of tornados in Broomfield and elsewhere in the Denver metro. WTFFFFFFFFF. I hate tornadoes. One would think I would be a little used to tornado warnings going off after living in Atlanta and Kansas City, but alas the fear is still in me, this uncontrollable panic of "oh my god my house is going to blow away with my cats in it".

The storms passed, but not without causing some damage in southeast Denver and Aurora. Luckily, when I got home the cats were safe and sound, and the house was in the same location I left it in. And I wish I had a xanax because my nerves are WAY up there now.

Jeesh

Tornado

2009-06-07T14:03:00.001-06:00

Apparently a tornado was spotted near where we live in broomfield. I am actually out getting a pedicure and I am freaked out our house is being tornado'd away.

Never mind the cats are probably freaked out.

-- Post From My iPhone

Oh canada

2009-06-04T13:29:00.001-06:00

I had airline miles on air Canada that were going to expire soon so I booked a quick trip to to visit my parents on Vancouver island. Whoo.

In two weeks from today I will be visiting my home and native land. So excited!!!!

-- Post From My iPhone

Air France Crash

2009-06-01T13:31:00.002-06:00

Austin loves to watch CNN when we get ready in the morning. This morning we woke to news about an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris missing and falling of the radar map. I've been on edge all day today waiting to hear more news about the plane, it's passengers, and crew members and it's not looking very promising.

Hopes fade for missing plane survivors... link here to read story

This makes me really sad. Aviation and anything airplane related has always been near and dear to my heart, ever since I was a little kid. Perhaps it came from being fortunate enough to travel A LOT overseas during my childhood. I still remember playing this game with my dad when I'd see an aircraft in the air and asking him where he thought THAT airplane came from. He'd come up with the most random places, and the gullible sucker that I am believed everything he said (he was of course, my dad!!! of course I believe him!) I've always loved to fly, and I love to hang out at airports. I worked as an airport planner for a number of years, which was also very interesting (although I didn't get to work for any super COOL airports, just smaller general aviation airports....there were a few larger ones here and there but for the most part I worked on smaller airports). I also dated a pilot for several years when I was young, dumb, and irresponsible and that was an interesting experience I'd prefer not to ever do again.

Anyways, right now the "authorities" are doing trying to find the aircraft, which at this point has likely sank to the depths of the Atlantic ocean. But they don't know where it is. It seems really odd to me with all of the technologies of today that they can't figure out where the aircraft is...

I'm sure they are doing their best, I am just anxious (as I am sure are the families of loves ones on that flight are) to find out what happened/is going on. I'm not a praying kind of person, but I sure do hope and wish that everything turns out well...

Catnip ball

2009-05-31T20:12:00.001-06:00

I came across a catnip ball and jones absolutely loves it. He rubs it and licks it and plays with it. George thinks it's ok but nothing like jones.

-- Post From My iPhone

Jones is my month of June cat on my calendar

2009-05-29T11:10:00.001-06:00

-- Post From My iPhone

Sigh

2009-05-29T09:36:00.002-06:00

I'm a bit depressed today. My period showed up, which I am pretty bummed about. I had convinced myself we were going to be one of "those" couples who after they give up going to the doctor, stop all of the hormone and infertility treatments, we would get pregnant. Things were looking pretty good, until last night when I started spotting. Ugh.

On a bright note, it appears that my body is ovulating again which it wasn't doing a year ago, but on medications I was ovulating and not maintaining a pregnancy. I think both of us were ready for the emotional rollercoaster that is infertility would not be such an intense ride, and it certainly was better this last month but I got my hopes up for absolutely nothing.

Also looking at finances, it's not looking very promising that we are going to be able to come up with the money anytime in the immediate future to be able to adopt. I'm young, 32, but I really don't want to be 40 by the time I actually get a child. And I only want ONE child. It's frustrating that right now money is the only thing really stopping us from moving forward with our dreams of adding a little one into the mix.

New Kicks

2009-05-26T20:48:00.003-06:00

Austin has always been a basketball shoe lover, specifically Air Jordans and lately Air Force Ones by Nike, who has been re-releasing some of the old retro shoes that we all wore back in our high school days and thought we were THE SHIT when we wore them. He's got a good 10 pairs of the SAME shoe, just different colors etc.

I have a shoe thing myself, but it is more to do with black shoes for work (probably stemming from the fact that I can't wear sneakers to work). Anyways, Austin managed to get his hands on some new Air Jordans today, and saw a pair of green and white Air Force Ones for women he thought I would like. He took a picture, emailed it to me, and I responded pretty darn quickly with SOLD!! BUY THEM FOR ME PLEEEEEEEASE and becuase he is the wonderful husband that he is...he bought them.

I love them. I don't want to get them dirty!!! So pretty. I'm already trying to figure out how I can wear them to work tomorrow lol...

Spoiled Milk is disgusting

2009-05-26T16:02:00.002-06:00

We have milk delivered from Royal Crest Dairy. They deliver to us on monday mornings and they have good tasting milk for a decent price. They deliver sometime in the middle of the night and then when we get up in the morning the milk is waiting for us in a cooler by our front door. However, the last 3 deliveries have resulted in sour and spoiled milk. This morning I took a big jug of milk and a box of cereal with me to work so i could eat it ALL week. I made myself a nice bowl of Oatmeal Squares, and proceeded to pour the milk at my desk. Grabbed a spoon and dug into it, and spit it back out almost immediately. Once again, milk went back. Disgusting. I HATE spoiled/rotten/bad milk. I called complaining and wanted them to cancel my whole service, but we are going to first try them delivering milk with an ice block first and see if that helps.

I'm pissed. And pretty hungry. And I still need to buy milk and bring it into work. Grrr.

My darling cat...

2009-05-24T16:26:00.002-06:00

Originally uploaded by GrumpySnickles

Here's what my darling cat did to me when he didn't want to come inside after being outside on the leash. Bugger. It hurt a LOT the first day or two, but now is fine. Bugger. He's lucky he's so stinking cute.

The tile project is done!

2009-05-24T16:24:00.001-06:00

The tile project is done!
Originally uploaded by GrumpySnickles

Today we worked hard to put the dining room and kitchen back together (and get our living room back, since that is where all of the kitchen appliances and other STUFF went into). I am pretty happy with the way the project turned out, and think it looks great!!!