Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Ooooooh! I thought it was a typo. That sounds great..... ring them!

The Thanksgiving fun has started early this year. My dad just called to ask me what I'm going to do about being overweight. Is it Thursday yet?

Apparently today my parents got official notice that the military benefits cuts will reduce/eliminate much of their health care coverage starting next year. They will have health insurance, but it's going to be only minimal and not what he was promised for his entire military service. Enrollment fee alone for him and my mom is going up from $400 to over $2000.

This is very scary. My dad is going to need dialysis soon, and now he may no longer have access.

lw, I'm sorry. That is beyond awful.

That's awful lw. Is there anything your parents can do to challenge it?

When I was a kid I had a penpal from Ethiopia. Something this evening reminded me of her so, out of curiosity, I put her name into FB and I think I might have found her!

I am so sorry LW.

Is the Affordable Care Act going to make anything better for them? I just keep praying that the exchanges are going to mean reasonable cost insurance for all of us. But it may not.

Honestly, that is one reason they passed cuts to the military health care system. Military benefits went on the chopping block among other budgetary concerns. The cut backs to Tricare are part of paying for for ACA, from what I understand, but had support from McCain too, who apparently no longer cares about military vets.

I don't see why we need to take from some to give to others. We can't find a way to cover everyone properly and cut some of the other wasteful crepe that gets doled out?

But this is going to hit many elderly vets very, very hard. They have planned their late life counting on their lifelong promised benefits that are now draining away. People on fixed incomes can't absorb these increases.

I'm just so angry about this, especially since earlier I was feeling sorry for myself about not having access to mental health services. But, neither do retired military, many of whose have serious issues stemming directly from their service like PTSD. They damn well deserve that access to care.

It's a sad fact that we need a military. I don't. Agree with a lot of military actions, but that's not on the people who serve. It's really shameful if our country can't support those who have served. My dad didn't have a choice about being unknowingly exposed to agent orange in Thailand, nor did anyone he served with.

I agree with you completely. I think its tragic that we pay so much lipservice to the courage of those who serve, but don't actually back up those words with funding of programs needed to give them the medical care etc they need.

I was listening to NPR about the epidemic of soldier suicide, and it is just tragic. We are failing our soldiers.

I'm not sure about your dad's specific situation, but to my understanding, anyone with end-stage renal disease qualifies for Medicare. Not sure how all of it works or if it would mess up family health coverage... I just remember hearing that thrown around a lot when we were doing our renal unit a couple of months ago.

Here's more information if you want to read about it: http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/ ... ncialhelp/

He has partial Medicare. It combines with his military benefits, which are what will be reduced (for ALL retirees and their families).

He may be able to scramble around and find bits and pieces here and there to replace his current good care. He, and other vets, shouldn't have to do that.

He doesn't have renal disease though; he is physically missing a vein.

Truth. :-/

Tummy hurts.

My partner and I are playing with our new canning equipment and making jam for the first time! We're making strawberry balsamic jam. So excited!

Paleo diet, fork it. Wait, that should be "paleo" diet.

One of my book club members, who I like a lot (I like them all a lot, in fact), is on the "paleo" diet. There was some discussion of it last night at our meeting and someone suggested "paleo" be our theme for the holiday dinner in December. We didn't settle on that one but my reaction to the discussion surprised me - I am really upset about it. I guess because my food choices are for ethical reasons, and not that I feel I am better than anyone else, but this "paleo" thing is a fad diet and I have no doubt that it will not last for them (or if it does they will definitely cheat on it), while I cannot imagine ever eating flesh again. All of them but me eat meat (some only fish) and I don't have a problem with that but I have a problem elevating meat-eating to a level it doesn't deserve, scientifically, evolutionarily or ethically.

[While my use of quotation marks may seem obnoxious, eating bacon and hot dogs and factory/modern meat and calling it a paleolithic diet is more obnoxious - and it makes me feel a little better in an immature way.]

This is an interesting read: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/gue ... getarians/

"Just like us, our ancestors made the best of their circumstances. They were not at one with nature. Nature tried to kill them and starve them out; they survived anyway, sometimes with more meat, sometimes with less, thanks in part to the ancient flexibility of our guts." This is what I often tell people - humans can adapt to many different ways of eating.

My chocolate silk pie went over well, though - not paleo, hah! http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/0 ... fudge-pie/

Long winded, sorry, but I feel a bit better now that I got it out.

Man, is the paleo diet this much of a thing? I haven't heard one person in real life utter the phrase and I count myself as lucky, but I know it's all over the internet/press. Didn't anyone learn anything from the Atkins diet flop?

I have two sets of couple friends who are on the "paleo" diet. One set is doing it for fitness reasons (they say) and one is doing it because of other health concerns. And that is fine. My biggest bisque about it is that they are so willing to critique what I eat, but I can't do the same.

House hunting sucks. It sucks hard. The house I like, the girls hate, the house the girls love we don't think we can afford. I hate the waiting and not knowing. Because I know the landlords are going to kick us out for making them follow the law.

I think it is in your best interest to go with what you like. I remember loving a house my parents hated but they ended up buying a house that had horrible wallpaper, a bright yellow kitchen counter that my mom hated, a blood red carpet in one of the rooms, a stained baby blue carpet in another room and an ugly linoleum in most of the house. In the end, it was all cosmetic stuff that they changed either immediately or over the years (other than the kitchen counter, I think it has grown on my mom). How I look at it is if the 'bones' are good then you can eventually change cosmetic stuff.

I agree, my mom must have moved me into 10 different houses in my life and I don't think I ever liked a single one at first. Then we moved (because it was her money and her choice) and I just got used to it. I'm glad she did that rather than going with some house she couldn't afford just because I liked the swimming pool.

In our case, it is about space and neighborhood. The kids want more space, I want better space. I already have a "fix-it" fund.

It is interest that you said blood read carpet. The house the girls love... the short-ones room... blood red carpet. Which may be why she likes it soooooo much!

So, I live in a building with three separate sections. Every section has three floors with two apartments on each floor. You can pretty much hear most comings and goings from our section, people walking around one in a while, sometimes loud music, but overall it's pretty chill. The apartments aren't very expensive or fancy, and in an area where there are plenty of fairly affordable condos and houses, most people who live here are more like the just starting out types. The families settle down elsewhere. There's also a high percentage of introverted cat ladies/gents (myself included).

Buuuut! My neighbors on our floor suddenly have crying baby sounds coming from their apartment.

It's kinda weird because I had seen the neighbor a few times and she didn't look pregnant at all. Maybe she just showed really late? They could have adopted, I suppose, but I sort of doubt it.

Anyhow, this kid cries like all day. I'm home a good deal so I notice it. I don't know anything about babies. Is that normal? I'm not trying to be a jerk because she probably can't do much about it. I just feel kinda weirded out because this is my first "neighbor with a baby" experience. I feel like I have to be quiet now and not have people over late and stuff...which kinda bums me out.

Maybe she's babysitting? Or ended up with a familial-adoption sort of thing? Or it's her crying? Or is watching an endless loop of baby-crying videos?

I probably wouldn't say anything to her about it, but I wouldn't change my normal routine either. Don't go out of your way to make noise, but YOU didn't have a baby...you can still stay up late and have people over and eat ice cream in your underwear, I think.

At first I thought it was chickens, or a cat, or a weird video game. That's how much I know about babies.

I just keep envisioning horrible scenarios like I have my friends over for a dinner party on a Saturday night and we play lots of youtube videos until like 2 in the morning and drink gin and juice and the horribly upset parent knocks on my door and is like, "YOU WOKE MY BABY!!!!"

Maybe you could knock on their door sometime during daytime hours when the baby isn't crying, and just be like "Hey! Am I imagining things or do you have a baby now?" and then you'll find out if the baby is a permanent neighbor or a temporary guest.

I just got new neighbors who seem to have a kid too. I haven't actually seen the kid, but the sounds suggest this is a larger-than-baby-but-smaller-than-school-aged kid. I'm trying to work up the nerve to go over there and say hi.

I just had biscuits and gravy with vegan chorizo sausage for breakfast. So yum!

I got all excited when I was told one of our shows was on the NME website til I figured out that the NME links into most Youtube videos.