WTF-Beta

Does the article say why we are still raising so many of them if we don't need the wool? For meat, milk, and cheese?

I got the measles vaccine, and either it was already the combined MMR, or I got the rubella vaccine separately, because I never had either. By the time I was pregnant with my first, my immunity had waned, according to a routine rubella immunity test. It was too late to get revaccinated for that pregnancy, so I did that later. Then, to be admitted to grad school in 2012, I had to redo several of my shots and get some that hadn't been available to me as a kid.

I wonder if some portion of the collective memory that measles weren't such a big deal is that people are confusing actual measles, which our parents' generation called "red measles" with rubella, which they called "German measles."

I did have chicken pox and mumps. My older two got chicken pox just before the vaccine was available. Muffin never had them. None of them had mumps.

I know I'm not alone here in being so grateful that vaccines were available and we got them and were able to get them for our children. I feel so bad for the children who are suffering.

I love the cast iron magpie!!!!

When I've got one of those dutch ovens loaded up with food and I have to get it into the oven, I really struggle. I have to drop into a wide-based squat to manage it. I'm sure it's good for my glutes.

I'm of two minds about cookware. Expensive stuff that's heavy and pretty attracts me like a magpie, but it's very hard on my arthritic hands. Quirt had so much cookware that I haven't bought any in years, but when I did, I avoided the heavy stuff.

@dolmansaxlil I've had a Le Creuset casserole chip, too. They may--or may not, I don't know--use a heavier or more durable enamel, but it has its limits.

Muffin's Sister went to a Le Creuset event in Phoenix that apparently travels from city to city. It was held in a warehouse in a part of town where she was a little nervous to go, but she and a friend went together for solidarity and personal protection. When they got there, they found tons of bougie people like themselves.

They both got mystery boxes. (I'm not sure if they also offered regular sales where you got to pick what you were buying.) She said the boxes were curated pretty well, with each one including some staples like frying pans or dutch ovens, plus some more unusual pieces. Everything in each box wasn't the same color, but the colors were chosen to coordinate. She said there was a bustling black market in the parking lot where people were trading what they got in the mystery boxes for the pieces and colors they wanted, which sounds like a whole lot of fun. We have more kitchen gear than two humans could possibly need, and that makes me a little sad, because I would totally enjoy the Le Creuset black market.

We gave some off-brand enameled ironware that we got from Costco--a large- and a medium-sized dutch oven. I've had a couple of pieces of Le Creuset in the past, and I can't tell that these cook any differently. We've only had them for a few months, but I have no complaints. They're a beautiful blue that's as pretty as the Le Creuset colors, and the price difference was breathtaking.

Our splurges are all related to moving. We left our frayed living room furniture behind and bought a leather couch and chair-that-reclines-but-doesn't-look-like-it. (Much classier than the big ole comfy 60s-style recliners. )

The movers broke our adustable bed, so we got a new one.

Ooh--this is a big one. The house didn't have a primary bath, so we added one with some spa-style amenities--a huge whirlpool tub with physical therapy-level jets all the way down the reclined back and a bidet with a heated seat.

I like light roast, and dark roast was in vogue for so long that its nice to have the option. I didn't know there were places that had stopped offering dark roast, though.

We have a variety of coffee preparation devices, and we use them depending on our moods--a Keurig, a Nespresso, a pourover that Muffin got me for Christmas and that I have learned to use. We have a nice frother/heater thingie, and frothed milk is all I need if the coffee isn't too bitter.

I literally saw some bit of heinous news last night and thought, "I need to post a 'Hey, Cindy, what's going on at work?" thread. Thanks for the update, dispiriting as it is.

Tell us about the triplets!

@Jodi Yes, that's the way I remember the day, too.

Kathy was just like she was on the board, very friendly and sweet. You and your mother played beautifully. It was a lovely time.

I'm so sorry, Mark.

Sounds like you're having fun, and you're getting to see a historic weather event. The videos of blizzard conditions from New Orleans are amazing!

My goodness.

I love vegetables and have coffee and chocolate every day, so this is good news. (The chocolate is milk chocolate, but never mind that. It's got polyphenols in it, plus a smidge of calcium and protein from the milk. I'm sure my statin will deal with the milk fat.)

She had a stroke and is in rehab. Details here:

https://www.facebook.com/kathy.gray.9026 /

@Bernard said in Minimalist, you say?:

Not as bad as some, but the price is outrageous. Interesting choice of materials, I guess it doesn't get that cold in CO. The right decor could warm it up a bit.

A basketball hoop and chandelier in the same room? LOL.

A basketball hoop, a chandelier, a hot tub, and a pole in the same room.

What on earth?

Each of these things has its place, but I wouldn't say that it was one place where they would all coexist.

wtg, I had forgotten about Cuban's project. It will be interesting to see how it disrupts things, and it will also be interesting to see if anything arises to disrupt other aspects of health care costs. Prescription drugs are fairly easy to deliver. Nursing homes and end-of-life care, not so much. It is in those areas that it is easiest to see the way that the wealth of a generation could be transferred into the pockets of a few instead of to the next generation.

@Quirt-Evans said in An Interesting Article About Health Insurance ...:

"all of us, even the relatively healthy, now use a lot of health care. It’s no longer an unexpected need — an insurable risk. It has turned into one of our largest expected needs. Expected needs aren’t insurable."

I think this is true. I have also thought for a long time now that health care is something that just doesn't work on the free market. If I want some trinket and the price goes too high, I don't buy it. This is a pretty direct control on the price of the trinket.

By contrast, I would empty my pockets to save my life or the life of a loved one. I have been in enough physical pain to know that the point would come when I would empty my pockets to relieve my pain or the pain of a loved one. Thus, I--and I presume most people--would not walk away from overpriced lifesaving or suffering-relieving treatment in the way that I would walk away from another overpriced item.

It follows that there has to be some kind of external control on prices, or the people who control lifesaving or suffering-relieving treatments will eventually take all we have. Health insurance companies are emphatically not going to do that for us; they prefer to just deny us coverage. No viable alternatives have arisen that I know about that would allow us to take our business somewhere where we can get better treatment or better rates. Governmental regulation seems the only alternative, but health insurance companies pretty much own our government. Anybody can see that our system is unsustainable, but I don't see any way to reform it.

I have taken hydroxychloroquine for many years for its on-label purpose (mild autoimmune stuff). As far as I know, I've never had any side effects at all. It's like taking sugar pills, except my hands and feet hurt when I forget to take it. I wonder if the side effects you felt happened because you also had Covid doing its thing in your body and there was some kind of interaction.

I've also wondered whether taking hydroxychloroquine as a maintenance drug has anything to do with the fact that I've only had Covid once, and it was a very mild case. Also I don't react nearly as severely to the Covid vaccine as Quirt does. Our bodies are complicated machines.

Oh, and I'll go to Muffin's Sister's in February for her birthday. I wouldn't want you to think she was getting left out.