Current mood:	chipper
Current music:	none

Hodge Podge
Wow...it's been 4 months since I've posted. Well, when you sit in front of a computer for 8 hours Monday thru Friday, guess what you DON'T want to do when you get home?? If you guessed, Sit in front of a computer, you are correct!! *DING* Thank you for playing.

Work-wise, things are going okay. Rather than verifying new claims, I've been doing claim audits. What that means is, I pull up a spreadsheet list of claims that were verified on a certain day. I call and, hopefully, speak to the person who previously verified the claim, and basically verify the same information that has already been verified. And, why, you might ask, am I re-verifying claims that have already been verified? The answer is simple--two words--Quality Control. The assignment was given to me by my supervisor and the manager of the Verifications Department. They had seen my work and knew that I was doing my work correctly. So, bless their dear, sweet hearts, they had the confidence in me to entrust me with this "Special Project." It's had its moments, but truth be told, I'd rather be doing audits than verifying new claims.

Things are going well since we moved our church membership back in April. I'm helping with the 4-year-old class on Sunday mornings. There are 4 little boys in the class. Pat is helping out as far as song-leading, helping with a "Pew Packers" class for kids after Sunday evening service, and helping pick new tracts to put in the tract racks. And I haven't had any more tachycardias since March. Hallelujah!!

Speaking of health issues, my PCP referred me to an endocrinologist because my thyroid levels had consistently been running low. Turns out, it's because of the Rythmol I've been on for heart rhythms. The Rythmol is putting way more iodine in my system than what I need which is "choking out the thyroid" (direct words from the endocrinologist), making it not work correctly. So I've moved up to a higher dosage of Synthroid, but I'm still on the Rythmol. I saw my cardiologist last week, and she said my heart sounds good and the EKG looked good. I told her about the Rythmol/iodine/thyroid thing and she said she will look into it. She also wrote me a prescription for the generic version of Rhythmol when I told her how much brand name version is. When I got a new refill in late June, it was $91 for a month's supply, and that's after the insurance paid $254. So here's hoping the generic version will work as well as the brand name.

I've also been on a walking regimen. Part of it was in participation of a "Healthy You" fitness challenge they were doing at work, which ended late June. But I'm still trying to keep up the walking. During the "Healthy You" thing, everybody got a pedometer, and the goal was to walk at least 10,000 steps per day. I did pretty good in the beginning but I kind of slacked off a little in the end. But I've gotten back into the swing of things. I do a mile on the treadmill during my lunch break and a half-mile during my afternoon break. And a few days a week, I'll do 2 miles after work. Yesterday, I actually did 2.5 miles after work. I put the big-screen TV on the Food Network and watch Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals.

And now for other stuff. For those of us living in Memphis/Shelby County, we turn on the news and we get to hear about either the latest homocide, or, over the past week, the petition to try to persuade Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton to run for mayor of Memphis. Which he has already said in the past that he wouldn't do because Willie Herenton (current city mayor) is his friend and he doesn't want to run against him. The deal is, people believe Wharton's done such a good job running the county (while Herenton's done such a lousy job running the city), so they're apparently hoping that Wharton will be the "miracle cure" that they feel the city of Memphis needs. Plus they're probably afraid of how much their taxes might go up if Herenton gets his way and they tear down the Liberty Bowl to build a bigger football stadium. Shall we now direct our eyes downtown to the shiny pointed wonder that is The Pyramid, which now sits empty thanks to the great dome-topped popcorn popper known as the FedEx Forum. (My parents had one of those popcorn poppers when I was a kid.)

I have to laugh at the popcorn popper analogy because my mom has told me about this commercial for Puffed Wheat that used to be on TV when she was a kid. The music in the commercial was the "1812 Overture", and at just the right time in the music, puffed wheat would shoot out of a cannon. Wouldn't it be funny if, during the 4th of July fireworks display on the river, as the Sunset Symphony plays the "1812 Overture" the roof of the FedEx Forum would open up and shoot out popcorn?? It would be kind of like the end of the movie REAL GENIUS (starring a much-younger Val Kilmer) where they put this set-up that is basically a mack-daddy-sized popcorn popper in this guy's newly renovated house as an act of revenge. Let's just say, this guy mentions to Val Kilmer's character early in the movie that he doesn't like popcorn, and Val's character says something like, "Great. Now I know what to get you for your birthday." Or something like that.

I was at Oak Court mall today, enjoying a slice of meat pizza from Sbarro (ham, bacon, pepperoni...I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.) There's this guy from Subway who, apparently drew the short straw and had the privilege of walking around the food court in this costume (from the waist up) of what was supposed to resemble a Subway sandwich. He had a box of Subway cookies and was offering a free cookie to everyone who was eating lunch in the food court. At first I thought it was just for people eating Subway food because when I first saw the guy, he was offering cookies to people who had chosen Subway as their lunchtime dining. But, as I finished eating my pizza, I saw that he was offering a cookie to everyone. I thought, "Hmm. A Subway cookie would be a nice dessert." Apparently he ran out before I got to my table and went back to get some more. So I decided to wait. And then I realized how pathetic I probably looked, gazing over at Subway, waiting for a guy in a ridiculous-looking costume to bring me a free cookie. So I went and did a bit of window-shopping, and then went back and purchased some cookies from Subway. They had a Buy-3-Get-1-Free deal going on. So, tax included, you got 4 cookies for $1.52. Can't beat that. I ate 2 and took the other 2 home for my redhead1der.

As part of my "window shopping" I went into the Hallmark store. The poor souls who work there must not have a calendar to know what month it is because they already have their display of Hallmark Keepsake Christmas Tree Ornaments up. Yes, you read that right. Hallmark Christmas tree ornaments. IT'S JULY, PEOPLE!!!! It's still about a month and a half till Labor Day!!! Why the rush???

But they also had this display of coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets, and other assorted items that had some cute sayings on them. Being the sweet person that I am, I bought a magnet for a friend of mine who sells Creative Memories scrapbooking supplies. It says, "If it's not in the scrapbook, it didn't happen." I thought she would appreciate that. I wrote down some of the other sayings to share with all of you wonderful people. Until next time, peace, and God bless.

"Live bodly. Take risks. Make someone say 'What the hell was THAT all about'?"
"A good friend knows how you take your coffee. A great friend adds booze."
"What doesn't kill me makes me bonkers."
"If beauty is a state of mind, then I'm a freakin' genius."
"In this house, carrot cake counts as a vegetable."
"If you have no regrets, you need to get out more."
"Just take it one gigantic, earth-shattering crisis at a time."
"Coffee buzz or panic attack...your call."
"Aunt. Like mom, only cooler."
"I'm not late. Everyone else is just way too on time."