Happy Birthday -t!

Today has taken a turn for the slightly better. After buying an accordion-style "master plunger" I was able to get my tub to drain, so I can at least take showers at home again. Though I still don't trust the toilet with anything solid, and intend to have the plumber do his darnedest to clear the pipes out next week.

Also, I somehow managed to buy $114 worth of food for $63. Not quite Virginia Chance throwing a handful of change down for two full carts of groceries, but a personal best for my couponing and sale watching.

Wow, everyone doing plumbing today! Thankfully I did not have exploding shakes or backed up tubs, just a running toilet and some slow sink drains that I got a couple of “stick plastic thing down here to get stuff out”. Got a bunch done this morning after dropping dog off at groomers but ran out of steam after that, laundry, and plumbing.

Also, we were outside the groomers waiting to go in and poor Rory was shaking and sad and laid down and gave me his belly because he did not want to go in. He wouldn’t even take a treat. He was like “I am SUCH a good boy I am not barking at that dog near us and I am showing you my belly PLEASE don’t make me go in there”. But once we get in he seems to like the people there. Not sure what to do about that—he definitely needs to be groomed.

Not sure what to do about that

Lots of visits near the groomers with his favorite treats! Gotta overwhelm the fear with good associations.

Do you have a way to air out the area?

I do and I did. It remains persistent.

I will try some baking soda to suck it out of the air. Lysol with lemon helped a little bit.

After our fire we de-funked with open bags of charcoal.

Oh my lord. I can’t even imagine.

I will second that Nature’s Miracle is very effective at killing noxious smells.

After our fire we de-funked with open bags of charcoal.

I have some leftover from JZ's dad's housefire! We've had a lot of calamity.

I will second that Nature’s Miracle is very effective at killing noxious smells.

We inherited some of this from the previous owners (who had cats) but it failed to be miraculous.

I suspect I'm missing some puddle of fermented protein which is stanking up the place. It is so exactly the smell of vomit though. Really need to clear all the counters and make sure, I guess.

I'm sympathy gagging about the 'splodey shake AND the Southern Comfort (which I got black out drunk on 13 shots of in college and can't even consider the smell).

The whole healthcare system in the US is completely fucked. My mantra is "healthcare is not a fungible commodity and does not belong in the fucking hell that is the capitalist, Adam Smith-fucking, bullshit Magic Free Market that is supposed to make everything fucking fair (which does exactly the opposite)."

*flips off Adam Smith for good measure*

DH and I have obtained Burning Man tickets for this year.

The whole healthcare system in the US is completely fucked. My mantra is "healthcare is not a fungible commodity and does not belong in the fucking hell that is the capitalist, Adam Smith-fucking, bullshit Magic Free Market that is supposed to make everything fucking fair (which does exactly the opposite)."

Let me introduce a radical notion which was the status quo from my childhood: Legally the healthcare system had to be non-profit until the 70s. This lead to doctors (and more insidiously, insurance companies) prioritizing your care over profits.

They changed that because "competition is good." But...it's bad for healthcare.

The whole healthcare system in the US is completely fucked.

109% agree. Got new insurance this year. Tried to refill a prescription, pharmacy called and said they’ll only approve six pills per month not the 9 in my prescription. I don’t actually have a huge problem with that—in theory if I get mine migraines a month I should be on preventives instead. (But I like not having to be super on top of getting more every month, and have plenty of extras to stash in travel kit and purse and so on) But he also wanted to check on the cost, $75 for six pills. I said yeah, I haven’t hit my deductible just yet and that’s fine. But how much would the other three pills be with cash? He looked….and said if I wanted to pay cash all NINE pills would be $30. Wtf I mean that’s far from the worst anything and it’s more ridiculous than awful but good GRIEF. .