Whoa, even Blogger has changed...

...since the last time I stopped here. Oops. Oh well, though. It's nothing new, the whole deal with me failing to do things in a timely manner. 

A lot of other things have changed. We've been to Europe and back, for instance. The trip was nice, even though I have to admit that taking three weeks off work and then flying all those miles back and forth makes you feel like you never had a vacation in the first place. We had some huge plans for our holiday, yet we did pretty much none of it. But it was still just fine; just seeing family and friends was worth it. 

We celebrated Easter over there, ate some good foods, wandered around. Okay, the latter was mostly me (with my family and friends), while Derek slept, played games and did whatever else a guy does on vacation. I suppose he was mostly being lazy. Our original plans included a trip to Budapest and then Rijeka, as well, but we pretty much didn't leave Zagreb at all. One thing I noticed - I really missed my car. I love walking, really do (it's something I greatly miss on this side of the world), but it's nice to have the four-wheeled pet in the garage, too, waiting to go places with me, whenever and wherever I want it. 

 

At a family dinner, some random Wednesday when we all went out, Derek decided to eat some frog legs and he loved it. I have to admit I didn't feel like even taking a bite. The idea of biting into that kind of animal just sounded icky. Yes, okay, I'm a hypocrite. Some animals I eat without much thinking. Ohwell! I might've tried frog legs before, though. They are not an uncommon food whatsoever.

And here is, finally, a picture of us. This was taken our last day in Zagreb or, well, the picture itself was not even in town. We went kind of shopping, but we spent the majority of time eating some sushi-like foods. I enjoyed oranges the most. I guess I am sometimes just weird. Or every once in a while, I might actually even have a good reason for my weirdness!

And then, finally, time for some old news. Mostly old. Technically, it's big enough to at least get its own blog post, but there is no way I'll post twice in a day!

In case there's still someone in the world who has not seen our shark/rat/badger/blob... well, here it is. This is our offspring at 8 weeks 0 days. It had a strong heartbeat that day, too (and it's been heard once since). We go in for another appoinment on Monday, then yet another just a week after that. We're still in our first trimester (10 weeks and counting), but I kind of feel everything's going to be fine with this little person-to-be. If it isn't, I have to admit that someone is pulling a huge joke on me and my body. I look like I've swallowed a smaller watermelon, or at least half of it. Good part of the deal is that I've gained only about half a pound. Bad part of the deal is that I'll likely gain more, of course. Not good, especially right after you get done working your butt off to take a ton off. But oh well. C'est la vie, I guess. It's not like we didn't plan for this, it just took a bit longer than expected... and in the end was almost absolutely unexpected. 

No idea as of yet what the little sharkie actually is, but if anyone asks me, it's a boy. Yup. (Or so I think.)

Map Project - Art House Co-op

Here they go again.

This weeks project: Map Project. It's free, just like any other time.

Draw, build, print... just create a map, or something similar and mail out by the due datem, which for this entry is April 30th 2012.

I'll get mine going. Thanks to these small projects, I've been feeling at least reasonably accomplished!

Random Ramblings

Have I had one of these moments before? I must have, but maybe not under the same title? Who cares, actually. 

Tonight, I'd simply like to share my frustrations with the American healthcare system. It's not even about the financial side of it: the whole deal is expensive, yes, and we all know it. You pay a ton for your insurance, then you pay a few more tons almost every time you see a doctor. Eventually, when/if you get really sick, you end up piss poor and voila - nobody cares. That's all fine and dandy and we've talked about it a million times. There really isn't anything new I could say about it.

I suppose I am lucky enough because I get insurance through work so my little policy is actually part of some group deal, blablablawhatever. Neat. It covers some things, but doesn't cover what I actually need right now. No suprise there. Almost every time I see a doctor, I need to invest a few hours into studying paperwork, dialling numbers and yelling at random people. After that, I can finally relax because my sky-high bills all of a sudden become at least partially covered, just like they should be. Why? Because the freaking policy I pay for says so. It's the service I buy, which they don't deliver. Why? Simply because they are thieves and they can get away with the shit they do. 

I am not quite sure why that keeps happening as if it were okay. Maybe it simply is, because no end user other than myself (and maybe someone else here and there) actually gets upset when they are being charged for what needs to be free? Maybe because nobody actually understands how things work? Or maybe everyone here happens to be so rich that they don't care, at all, where their money goes? I really doubt the latter is the right answer.

I do notice that many people I get in contact with have no clue what even happens with or to them at their doctor's office. They'll take some drugs because their doctors prescribe them, they'll do tests because they doctors say they should and life will be good. I can't do that. I do nothing, nothing at all, if I don't know what it is, its name, its purpose, the reason I should be taking it, or put through it. I want and demand to know how it works, why it works, why it wouldn't work and what to expect during and after the treatment, procedure or any other thing. I demand to see all of my test results and actually archive my own copy of whatever paperwork they might gather and put into my file. It's mine, it's about me and I want it. All of this probably annoys the majority of doctors I've met in this country, but at the same time, I have to admit that, after a long search (errr, trial and error, actually) I did manage to find three that I can work with. Hell, I actually even like them. But they do have to work a bit for their money, that's for sure.

So now that I've shared the fact that I am a little bit of a medical freak (yup, I probably know more than you should, if your college degree has nothing at all to do with a med school of any sort), I can move onto another thing that I find horribly frustrating.

From what I've heard, both in person and through the media, many Americans are scared of any and all forms of universal healthcare systems. They consider them to be an evil creation of communism, or probably something even worse. They tend to believe that, should a system like that get introduced here, that they would be banned from just about any choices and options. (They also seem scared of others, who I won't name or describe in any way, somehow spending all of their hard earned money by using health services 24/7 and not paying a penny for any of it, but this part of the story is a lot less relevant here.) So they believe that they would no longer get to choose which doctor to see, or which hospital to go to. I suppose that's how they imagine communism, then, because I can't possibly  understand where else a fear like this would come from.

 At the same time, in this big country of apparently any and all opportunities, I can't seem to find a doctor, a nurse or just about any healthcare provider of any sort who would work with me the way I want it for my own money. In Croatia, as well as in many other European countries (likely elsewhere in the world, too, but I tend not to talk too much about things I know little to nothing about), these kind of doctors would be referred to as private practice, which means they wouldn't collect their money through insurance, but instead straight from your pocket. They are simply governed by the free market and they operate like any other business. 

A doctor (with his medical degree and all other certificates, permits, credentials and funky stuff they need) gets himself a nice office, buys some equipment, gets a nurse or two or twenty and runs his own small business. They advertise their services and you buy their shit. It's really that simple. Some of these doctors are affordable, some less so, but it all works out in the end, as pretty much all of them find their own target group. Don't have money for these? That's fine, there's still the regular healthcare that's paid through taxes and for the most part if works just fine. 

Well, here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, etc. etc. etc., I can't seem to go anywhere and get what I want, just simply because I want it. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to get something illegal done, or even immoral, hell, not even questionable or weird! Today, for instance, all I wanted was an ultrasound scan. One simple scan. One of those where you walk in, say hi, ask them to put a nice wand into your private part and take a few looks. Then they also may or may not print some pictures for you which you proudly get to take home, even if they're just an ovarian cyst (such as my dear late friend Fifi, who disappeared sometime between 2009. and 2010.) or something as stupid as that. That is all I wanted today. It wasn't anything important, serious or, god forbid, something my life depended on. I was not in pain, I was not pregnant, I was not miscarrying, I had no STDs or any other big issues. I pretty much got curious (err, okay, angry and perhaps somewhat worried) because of some out-of-line number I was given today as a result of my yesterday's blood work. So I wanted this scan. I wanted it bad.

And I couldn't get one. It's just not possible to schedule it. I talked to my ob/gyn's nurse (nice lady, I can't complain), but she couldn't do anything about it. The doctor himself (also very nice guy) couldn't help me. He wasn't concerned about that thing, he didn't really order the blood work either (he wrote the referral, but I demanded it and apparently nearly lied in order to get it approved) and he couldn't then, for no good reason at all give me an ultrasound. Imagine? An ultrasound! I wasn't even requesting a third breast implant in the middle of my left elbow, followed by a completely unnecessary toe removal. Nope. I wanted a routine scan and I couldn't get one.

I didn't even want it to go through insurance, since I didn't care to argue with them, or even to put the doctor in a stupid position where he has to explain things to whoever takes care of the claims there. I would have paid for it out of pocket, at the spot, with my own money, straight into the hospital's register. But I couldn't, because this country does not even have an option of that sort. There are no places, at least that I know of, where I could nicely (and above all legally) walk into and ask for a service I would pay for. Instead, you need to play a stupid game by who-knows-whose rules, wait a million years for an appointment and, in the end, often get next to nothing done. Once you do accomplish things, then it's hard to get your medical records and answers to any and all of your questions. I guess it scares them if you actually know what's going on? Maybe they are also scared you would fall into a raging fit if you knew that your blood sugar was 4, progesterone 45 and that your kidney actually had a stone or ten in it? And it's all happening for your own money.

Shitty. Very shitty.

All I got was a piece of dead cow...

I really wanted steak today. I wanted one yesterday, too, but I couldn't come up with a place to go to. I am by no means a fan of meat, but every once in a while, I just want steak, ok? It didn't feel or sound right to go buy a piece of something and prepare it myself (no grill in Minnesota in March), so we decided to go out. We chose Olives, a really nice place in the downtown area (I'd personally move them out of the hotel building they're in, but I don't think anyone's asking for advice, really) and all I got was - a piece of dead cow. No, I'm not turning orthodox vegetarian and calling steak names, it's just that they overcooked my poor New York Strip to the point where it resembled a shoe sole of some sort. Meh. I hate things that bleed on my plate, but I don't really eat rubber either. No idea what happened because last time we were there, my well done piece of cow was really pretty damn good. As for its size, the little chirpy waitress either horribly lied about 10-12 ounces of meat, or the process of cooking squeezed not only life out of the cut, but some odd 7 ounces as well. I also learned I shouldn't really ask for substitutes often either, because they replaced a baked potato with some sauteed vegetable mush I didn't even touch. Ick!

So that's my steak frustration of the day. 

Here. I stole something from the internet. I bet it tastes better than my dinner!

I guess today was overall a very bad food day. I've been lazy this week so there was no homemade lunch today and I had to forage for food around noon (unfortunately, my March schedule forces me to believe I am hungry at least an hour too early). I went to the Coffee Hag and got all excited about their salad of the day: Pad Thai! The ingredients sounded just right; they were exactly what I wanted. I took a bowl (cheap!) and drove home and then: BAM. Cilantro. Freaking cilantro everywhere. Blergh. I can't think of a flavour more repulsive than that damn herb. I ended up eating Noodle&Co's Bangkok Curry. Yay for junk food. If anyone wants a serving of Cilantropad Thai, please have at it. It's in my fridge (should I take another photo?), probably waiting for a raccoon to munch on it. 

And this is all I have to say on this great day. Or night. Perhaps evening.

I do have a photo

I guess nobody gets to kick my butt.

I won't be submitting this one, though. I need to get the real camera and take a better shot. The contents of the fridge are likely to be the same, except for maybe all the nasty soda part. Derek might go through it before I am done taking pictures.

The Things Found Series - hopefully I will find mine!

This is a place I like: Art House Co-Op. They do all kinds of projects, I try to participate, I often fail. The story of my life, where procrastination takes over and time runs out and things go unfinished forever. Currently, I am actually working on my Sketchbook and it should  be done before it's too late. I mean, hello, I've done the cover, okay? Most of the cover? And I finally have a concept in my head. Once those things get into my head, it's a lot easier to get them out of it too. Or so I believe.

Last week I failed to submit my entry for a free project they were running. It was nothing complicated, all they wanted were pictures of people's meals, all taken at the same time. I think it was last Thursday, but unfortunately the time they asked for did not work out for me. I had no food on me at work and I couldn't eat at that particular moment even if I wanted to. Blergh. I can't wait to see what they got and came up with, though.

This week's free project is called The Things Found Series. Go ahead and sign up for it! I have and I will do this one. I absolutely will. It's not even time-sensitive, at least not in terms of when  it needs to be done. I might take my photo right away today and be done and over with it.

Just kick my butt if I don't, okay?

Have I given up on my blog? No, I haven't!

But okay, it's fair to say that I really have abandoned it a bit.

I've been busy, but I am not particularly sure with what exactly. I suppose when you add up the regular, everyday stuff, there is not all that much spare time left? Work devours over nine hours a day (I keep trying to get rid of my useless lunch break, but nobody seems to care!), then there's cooking, a bit of cleaning here and there, school, as in one long class a week, and the gym. And that's it. It's midnight before I even know it. I still don't sleep as much as I should, either, but if I've made it so far in life, I suppose I'll keep surviving. I guess I will sleep when I am dead, even though I guess that's a lie, too, because you don't really sleep when you're gone. Ha.

The gym is still my friend. Most of the new faces that showed up around New Year's are now gone, which is pretty good, even though my favourite equipment still gets taken. Hmph. The other day, I wanted to pretty much nuke a woman who sat down (yes, sat down) on my favourite elliptical and watched some vampire show, while snacking on some bars and sipping from a huge beverage container. Seriously, wtf, woman! She annoys me greatly on a regular basis, though, because she keeps hogging any and all ellipticals with an incline, yet she never uses that feature at all. Too bad she doesn't seem to be one of the quitters.

I'm down 26 pounds, according to my FitnessPal friend, which in reality translates to 11.8 kilograms. I'm okay with that, especially since I'm now pretty much safely within the 2nd third of what I decided to lose. It's like my second trimester. Lolz.

Because of the missing pounds, I need new clothes. Well, okay, new bottoms, as my tops are all pretty much still okay. So far, I haven't really been able to find any - my legs are too short, no matter what, yet they're too long for those petite/short/ankle styles. At the same time, my waist is either too wide or too narrow for whatever is considered to be a size I'd normally fit in. Or should fit in. Or, well, do fit in, but partially. All in all, I am mostly just stuck with oversized pants and it annoys me greatly, even though, at the same time, it does feel good, too. Maybe I'll find something that fits me when we fly to Croatia.

Speaking of which, we're getting ready for the big trip again. We've purchased our plane tickets and my vacations days have been sorted out... for the most part. I've not yet seen the final approval for the unpaid bits, but oh well? It's done now, right? I have the tickets and all. We'll be in Croatia for Easter and I'm looking forward to it. I'll get to see my family and friends, but, man, there'll be food, too. Like - real food!

Easter eggs will be yellow on the inside, not pale greenish! And we'll eat bread and pizza and even horrible little hotdog sausages in buns from horrible little bakeries. I'm so totally looking forward to it all, even the Croatian-junk-food-fix that I am bound to get. Then there'll be fish and octopus and squid and all other things I've yet to see in the US. Okay, I have to admit that I have seen some things that tried to go under those names, but in reality they were disgusting rubber-like substances.

As far as the people go, I hope there will be enough time to see everyone and to do things. Whatever things; it's not like we have a ton in mind right now. We'll be the ones on vacation, while everyone else will still need to work. I guess I am partially prepared to be a double alien - there will be too many things I won't have a clue about and too many things to, overall, just catch up on. Then, once I'm back to our little middle-of-nowhere town, I'll jump right back into my regular alien suit.

I wish I could stay a lot longer than just three weeks, but I need to work with what I manage to scrape up. It really is a decent vacation, in terms of length, but if you try to organize a little field trip here and there, it just doesn't seem to be enough. I'll be okay with staying in Zagreb pretty much all the time, but Derek would love  to see more of Europe, or even more of Croatia, yet it likely won't happen. I suppose we'll need to retire first, like any good American does before they are able to travel. Hmph. No matter what, we'll really miss our spoiled kitty, who is staying at home with a babysitter. Catsitter. Someone she knows, of course. While I'd love to take her with me, there's just no way she would appreciate it. She'll miss us, too, but she'll be better off at home, in her own surroundings, than in a small carrier for over 16 hours, as well as at my parents' apartment, which is on the 7th floor of a building, without screens on the windows.

Another new thing is my haircut. I understand haircuts are not a big deal, but when your favourite hairdresser runs off to Ireland and you're left off with random people you just don't trust... finding someone nice and reliable really is a big thing. So last Thursday we went to JDH and had Jeremy fix the stack of hay on my head (as well as Derek's). I am very pleased with the result and getting that stuff cut off took nearly a pound off my total. Ha. What a nice way to add to my weightloss. I don't really have anything to show off in this post, so here's a picture of me, haha.

And that's about it. Nothing else is new. We still live kind of in the middle of nowhere, at least when it comes to any entertainment and/or social life. I still kill time at the gym or wandering the stores, pretty much by myself. Someone once suggested meetup.com as a good source of interesting things to do and I really did browse the website some weeks ago. It was very informational and overall interesting but, guess what? Nothing on it was pretty much in any way related to our little town. It just seems life is not happening where we live, or if it does, then I guess nobody either informs us of it, or we just really don't care for the things that are offered. According to that site, and many other sources I often look at, there are things in Minneapolis I would love to see or participate in, but with a full time job with a shitty, fixed schedule, those are pretty much out of reach.

Maybe I should turn this blog post into some sort of advertisement, huh? So, uh, yeah. If you happen to live somewhere close and are up for some interesting things, let me know, huh? I like to go out and walk, I go to the gym, we watch movies (yes, okay, I admit, most of them are not Hollywood blockbusters), we watch shows, but not really reality-style (while I do admit that I've been watching this last season of The Biggest Loser). I read books, I cook a lot, we enjoy food, I love biking, we love going places, but we don't care for bars and/or movie theaters, for instance. We play board games and own a ton of them. I like to paint, draw, create things out of nothing(s). Etc.

Anyone?

P.S. Just ignore any and all typos. I'm too lazy to go fix them and this little window usually messes up about one third of what I write.