I have pet envy. Is that a real thing?

If you experience it, it's a real thing.

I have a big pot of white bean-rosemary soup on the stove, and a batch of hermit bars in the oven, and it's only 2PM. I think this means I win.

Although I should wash my hands; they're sticky with molasses...

Jilli, insent.

The answer, apparently, is that the price from the manufacturer fluctuates, so one month we're paying $50 for a three-month supply, and the next month we're playing $25. This seems completely bonkers to me, but they assured me it's normal.

I have one prescription like that. The price has varied from $35 to $95 a month. Now my pharmacy doesn't even carry it. I get it by mail-order from the company that handles my prescription coverage. At least from them the price has stabilized. Bonkers.

I've never had a prescription vary like that. How odd.

ION, I bought a pumpkin spice danish from the Clearance rack on my way to work. Being diabetic, I should stay far away from pastries, but, well. Half price cinnamony, frosty goodness. In recognition of my "shouldn't eat pastry" status, I'm only eating the bits that have the pumpkin-spice filling and leaving most of the bready bits. That's the healthy choice, right?

When my MiL was on an Rx chemotherapy, her Rx insurance hit the donut hole so the first month it cost something like $150, the second it was $3,000. DH & I had to pay and she freaked out so we wrote to the manufacturer to see what they could do. They gave it to us basically for free, so the next month it cost $3.

I guess we've just always been insulated from this by having a plan where we had a fixed copay, rather than a percentage.

This year, for the first time, we've hit the drug co-pay limit. My pharmacist went, "Yay, look at that! Refill everything you can before the year is out!"

My mother, having had three surgeries this year, is having her knee replaced in late December, because why not? She needs it sooner or later, and god knows they've hit their numbers for the year.

We used to play "How early in the year can we hit the deductable!" 3rd week in January, one year.

Edit: I should make my company give me something for reducing next year's medical insurance bill.

So at some point I need to try a properly poured absinthe.

Oh, hey, I recommend the absinthe service at, um, I'd have to look up the restaurant but it was in Vegas. Lee might remember. There were a lot of flaming vapors involved, pretty spectacular.

I guess semi-productive is about what I am managing. The lawn is sort of half-mowed and I have basically decided to buy a new lawn mower. The push mower just can't handle my grass unless it's already pretty short. At least with me pushing it. Of course, this time of year there isn't the greatest span of choices available, so I think I'm going to have to order one, so it's unlikely I will finish mowing the lawn today.

While I was out trying and failing to buy a lawn mower I at least got my grocery shopping done. Even that, while I got everything on my list I can't help but feel like I didn't get everything I need, somehow. Oh well.