Spear side I think, the alley really echos. So maybe it's on the Embarcadero.

Hrm.

Speaking of food cravings, I really want some fries. Mmmm, fries.

Crap. We've got a wind chill advisory tomorrow morning.

I think I'm going to sleep in for sure and maybe lounge and drink hot tea while avoiding the outdoors.

I've got to go into the bookstore for a short (4 hour) shift tomorrow, but that's it. I'll spend the rest of the weekend finally getting things done around the apartment.

I just have to remember to get up early on Monday and get here by 8:30 at the latest for a meeting I set up just now. Considering I usually get in around 10:00 or so, it'll be an effort to remember this!

Speaking of food that's not all that good for you, even Uno's is doing an Obama promotion now! Granted, there's the Chicago thing, but still.

Ooh, Kathy, I have to remember to dress up on Monday, but not come in early.

I would have preferred it later in the morning, but one of the two people I'm meeting with already has 9:00 and 10:00 meetings, so I had to squeeze it in earlier. Oh, well, at least that means I can get home before it's dark.

ION, I want to eat like a giant cake or maybe a pie. I could definately down a few cinnamon rolls. Chances of me sneaking bad for me food around mac is zero. I could buy him something in order to have soemthing myself. bad mommy.

I have this problem with Olivia. Owen could care less what I'm eating. Olivia, however, wants in on every piece of junk food I pick up.

Timelies all!

Only thing we're planning to do this weekend is go to a friend's birthday party tomorrow. It has the theme "spaghetti and cheese". Spaghetti westerns and cheesy snacks.

This is pretty cool--Obama chats in Indonesian with a State Dept. staffer.

I don't know why it never occurred to me that he would be at least somewhat fluent in Indonesian. Of course he would remember quite a bit of it, since he spent four formative years of his childhood in Jakarta.

It's weird, but when I get the statements from the insurance company, the doctor bills twice as much as the insurance company is willing to pay, and I don't make up the difference. So I'm wondering where the extra money comes from.

It doesn't, usually. Insurance companies bargain with hospitals and doctors' practices for what they're actually going to pay. Sometimes it's by the procedure and sometimes it's a percentage. The "price" is set artificially high, in part because of some of the percentage agreements, and the only time doctors are actually paid that insane amount is if someone isn't insured.

Except for some specialties, most doctors don't really net that much anymore, which is one reason why we have fewer doctors, particularly general practice doctors. I have a friend who manages a joint replacement practice who spends her days pinching pennies. She says Medicare just barely pays the cost of renting the operating room and buying the supplies, so that they only make money on non-Medicare patients and have to fight for every dime they get from the insurance companies.

The "price" is set artificially high, in part because of some of the percentage agreements, and the only time doctors are actually paid that insane amount is if someone isn't insured.

So it's like college tuition then.