–My embarrassing lack of math skills causes me to be overcome with fear that, even though I have approximately eleventy billion squares, somehow Mack’s afghan will only be three feet tall. Here is the issue. Because we’ve decided that the afghan will be 11 squares across by 14 squares down AND I decided that they should all be on the point, I keep counting the rows by making a zig-zag between whole squares, which makes the whole thing very tiny. It’s a stupid mistake, and I keep talking myself out of it by reminding myself that we can’t, for the sake of this, count squares, but must actually count spans from one far corner to the other. Every row will have 11 spans, regardless of whether it has 11 squares.
–In other afghan news, I have misunderestimated (I don’t care who invented that word; it’s useful) the amount of brown I’ll need. I fear this means another trip to Walmart.
–I’m going in for a sleep study next week, but I don’t know what day. I need to call and get that shit straightened out.
–Walgreens didn’t charge me for my Advair. I don’t know if this means we’ve blown by the $3,000 spending limit. I thought for a second they might have charged my credit card, but I paid cash for it the last time (the only other time) I’ve gotten it.
–Also, I called my insurance company last night because, for some reason, the $1,500 anaesthetic bill wasn’t in-network even though everything else was and she was all “Oh, yeah, that’s weird. Okay. I’ll change it.”
–That’s in part what scares me about how healthcare works in this country. Amounts of money that could crush me get moved around with a few clicks on the computer like it’s nothing for my insurance company to just pick that up.
–I think I have a couple of reasonable answers for when people ask me what I want for Christmas now.
–I am so pissed at the “new” AT&T, I can’t even tell you. In October, our phone bill was $100 over what it was the month before, so I bitched the Butcher out, took his money and figured that would be the end of it. No, this month, also a hundred dollars more.
So, I look at the bill. I’m getting charge $60 a month now to have a home phone (which used to cost me $30) and $20 for the privilege of having long distance on that phone (which used to cost me $3) and, even though the Butcher and I are on the same family share plan for our cell phones, as of two months ago, he’s got no free texting and I’ve got 500 messages a month. Yeah, guess who sends text messages at our house?
I’m cancelling the home phone, just for starters. I’d love to cancel the cell phones and find someone new, but I’m stuck with them until July. Now, here’s what pisses me off. Clearly, we cannot go on paying what we’re paying. But we can’t get out of our contract until June. So, I’m going to have to go in and modify our plan so that the Butcher gets the text messaging minutes, which means, and you know they’re going to do this, I’m going to have to sign another fucking contract with them.
Hate.
–Also, I have seen no bills for any medical procedure. When should those start coming?
Tiny Cat Pants 
Saying goodbye to AT&T is so liberating. You won’t regret it.
Are you going to do VoIP, or are you going to give up the landine altogether?
We switched to Vonage,and I have never regretted it. Our bill is half what it was with Ma Bell – and we don’t have to pay for long distance.
But, the drawback: if your high-speed internet goes out, you are without a phone.
Have you looked at bundling? I have Bellsouth. (I refuse to call it ATT) and i pay one flat rate for phone, long distance, and internet. Total bill is less than 100 bucks.
As for text messaging charges, i believe I’d tell the Butcher to just stop texting. Use the phone as a convenience and not a toy. Otherwise, I believe the term one would use is enabling.
I can’t tell you how grateful i am about the amount of time and effort you are putting into my afghan. I’m looking forward to wrapping up in it during Winter of 09….
Apparently you may not have to extend your contract, looks like AT&T has changed their rules to compete with Verizon – reports are you can change your plan and not extend the contract – its worth checking in to.
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=24559
I’m cutting the landline all together. That’ll save us $70.
Mack, you say “enabling,” I say… “Um, look over there! Is that woman really walking around topless?”
Ha.
I mean, seriously, until two months ago, we shared our texting minutes. They switched that on us, thus the outrage.
As for the afghan, let’s say Winter of 19. Ha, no. It’s coming along. That’s the part that’s grating on me. I can now see the finish line, way off in the distance. Just 20 squares and, maybe 40 triangles, to go.
Ooo. Mgal. Good to know.
Oh, and the medical bills? Anywhere from two to six weeks after the procedures. And you will pay them all, and feel kind of chuffed because you have paid all your deductible and from now on it’ll only cost you 20% until the end of the year (or whatever your rules are), and then a full month later there will be another, belated bill that you have to pay in full because it’s one of the ones that the insurance was counting towards the deductible, but the physician’s office forgot to send it out. This seems to be a law, where surgery of any kind is involved.
it’s true about the plan changes, b. i had to do pretty much exactly what you are doing – cut down on my phone bill – and i’ve been able to do it twice online at no cost. surprisingly hassle-free, actually…
In my experience, the medical bills come about the time that you start to think you must have just already paid them if they don’t show up in a few weeks. When I had the CT scan last year in October, the bills didn’t show up until around the time we got married in March. I owed like, under $10 for some reason it took a lot of phone time to figure out, and by that time I was convinced I must have already paid them, but I hadn’t. The emergency room bill for that trip, on the other hand, came about a week after my visit.
Our phone stuff is different – but I know we got rid of long distance on our home phone for pretty much the same reason and haven’t ever missed it.
Do you have that local toll calls nonsense there? Basically, if I call my sister who lives in a north suburb of Chicago from my house in a far west suburb, it isn’t long distance but it costs more than calling, say, the people across the street. Of course, I now have to dial the area code to call across the street so it may all be the same at some point.
Also, I called my insurance company last night because, for some reason, the $1,500 anaesthetic bill wasn’t in-network even though everything else was and she was all “Oh, yeah, that’s weird. Okay. I’ll change it.”
You’re fortunate. My mom had neck surgery not too long ago and I can’t remember if it was the anesthesiologist or the radiologist, but one of them didn’t actually work for the hospital, just at the hospital so while the hospital was in-network the anesthesiologist/radiologist wasn’t! Of course she wasn’t notified about any of this until she got the bill.