10 for Tuesday

I'm a copycat. Here goes.
1. Today I got a bill from the doctor. The foot doctor. Remember that story? Yeah, I didn't really think so. Anyway, even though the last time I spoke with them they went on and on about monthly payments from their patients with no insurance, today's bill has a little note at the bottom "FINAL NOTICE. IF THIS ACCOUNT IS NOT SETTLED WITHIN THE NEXT 30 DAYS, IT WILL BE PLACED IN COLLECTION." Let me point out that I've been making monthly payments. Grrr.

2. Speaking of those payments I've been making, with the first payment I included a letter explaining that I was disputing the decision of the insurance company to not cover the appointment. And I have been--disputing the decision. I sent faxes to everyone at the insurance company for whom I could come up with a fax number. The President and CEO of the company was one of the intended recipients of the fax. Good news: I got a letter of acknowledgment with an assurance that the matter would be looked into with the hope of speedy resolution. Then I got another letter, apparently from the person who looked into the matter. Paraphrasing, it said, "Suck it. Better luck next time."

3. I learned a new term. "Detrimental Reliance." I sent more letters back to the insurance company. This time cc-ing the general counsel and using this newly learned legalese. I'm still waiting to hear back from them, but I'm glad I have lawyer-type friends who encouraged me not to give up on this yet (and taught me new words).

4. More legal stuff. I got a ticket. :( Last month. I was on my way home, about a block from my house when the blue lights came on. My registration was expired. Oops. I hadn't realized it because I didn't get the renewal notice in the mail. Probably because we moved and the DMV didn't know my new address even though I'd told them the new address when I got a new license with the proper address on it.
But anyway, my registration was expired, and this highway patrolman noticed. Here's my bad luck. I've been pulled over twice--once for speeding on my way home to Minnesota after a weekend in Iowa, and then last month. Both times I got full-fledged tickets. No warnings. Just tickets.

5. My court date for the ticket is this week. Last week I started wondering about it--see, the fine itself was only $25, but the "court costs" part of the ticket was over $100. Rumor had it that by going in to court I could get the fine waived, but not the court costs. So I began to wonder, is it worth $25 to take at least 2 hours off work to spend part of the day at the courthouse waiting in line?

6. Enter my dear husband, Marty. I expressed the dilemma about the ticket to him, and he says, "Let me see what I can do. Maybe I can have power of attorney and take care of it for you. I have more time on my hands during the day." So, last week Marty made a call and then took my proof of registration (because I came home and registered the car online within an hour of getting the ticket) and the ticket in to the courthouse and waited. At the end of his waiting he had the good news that all charges were dropped and all fines waived--even the court costs. Hooray Marty!

7. Before Marty told me the good news about the ticket, he tricked me and told me that he'd gotten upset while at the courthouse and been found in contempt.
He got a good reaction out of me before telling me the real story.

8. Speaking of Marty, he has a job interview on Friday. It's the next step from a phone interview he had last week. Please, keep him in your prayers.

9. And on the topic of prayers, please keep Marty's sister and her husband in your thoughts and prayers. They are in the midst of adopting a beautiful baby girl, Norah Noelle. However, apparently the biological father is trying to stop the process. Please pray for their family and for all involved that the situation can be resolved quickly and according to God's will.

10. Well, I made it to #10. Dessert time. Last week I went to a conference where they served an amazing dessert. They called it "Flourless Chocolate Cake," but that's a major undersell. It was more like "Triple Chocolate Mousse Heavenly Delight." It was layers of mousse-like consistency, starting with a dark chocolate bottom layer and successively lighter chocolate layers on top, with a final dollop of whipped cream. It was creamy and light and absolutely divine. I've had fond thoughts of that dessert ever since. Mmmm. Yummy, yummy goodness.

Miscellaneous

I have a lot of pictures I've meant to do some blogging with.

First, here are some pictures of Harvey's family playing Rock Band with us. I admit, I wasn't excited about Rock Band when Marty got it for Christmas, but it has been a lot of fun. We even got Dad to play with us when he came to visit last week.

Next up: Crafty stuff. Here's a quilt I finished up recently. I used a fuzzy throw I got on discount after Christmas for the backing and the front was from fabrics that I had--either just lying around waiting to be used or leftover from other projects. I got this pattern from the quilting book I got from Mom's library several years ago. This pattern is called Kaleidoscope. I'm a big fan of it. I thought it looked pretty cool in the sketched-out drawing in the book, but I think the finished design is much better. I gave this quilt to the friend of ours who has taken care of Cher for us the past several times we've left town. There were a few times that I considered just keeping this one and giving her a different one. I settled for pictures.

And finally, Barbies. I came home from Mom and Dad's house with these three little dolls. I guess all the fun playing Barbies over Christmas and seeing how Harvey's girls enjoyed these three dolls encouraged me to do some Craigslist searching for Barbies. A few days and $6 later I added 10 Barbies and a Ken doll to my collection. Here's the thing about free Barbie collections--the dolls don't always come fully clothed. In fact, poor Ken only had a ratty old T-shirt and no pants whatsoever. I did some Barbie clothes mending, purchased a few outfits, and even tried my hand at designing some of my own--the black dress, black skirt, white top, belt, and black and grey swirly dress are the ones I crafted. Anyone wanna play Barbies? I'll let you pick first. And then we can play spin the Ken.