Gobble, gobble

Happy Thanksgiving, all!  I hope everyone’s holiday is safe and merry.  And I hope my own is a success…We are hosting Thanksgiving for 15-16 people, complete with two turkeys for a taste-off.  One turkey is Amish, billed as better since it hasn’t watched tv, and the other is the classic Bell and Evans.  Stay tuned for details, though I fear they may get mixed up during the day.  If that’s the worst that happens, though, I can live with it.  We’re also mixing families for the first time full-on, so we’ll see how that goes.  I don’t anticipate any problems, but wonder if families may take to their separate corners. 

Anyway, the kitchen’s a go and I’m incredibly nervous.  We scaled it back, but it’s still $$$$ and could be a total disaster.

Monday morning

This is sort of interesting.   I stress “sort of.”  I really don’t want to start Monday off on a sour note, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Go Packers!  That game was awesome.  Did you see the Sunday night game?  My only thought is that Bill Belichick had money on Indianapolis to win because that call on 4th and 2 made absolutely no sense to me.  I pinched myself because I thought I might have been dreaming when I saw they were going to go for it.  Nope, it really happened.

I’m almost done reading At Home in the World by Joyce Maynard and I really recommend it.  I flew through the first two thirds and stalled for a bit after the Salinger affair ended, but that was a mistake on my part.  The part of the book that takes place post-Salinger is really just as interesting.  I urge you to check it out if you haven’t already done so and are looking for a book to keep you turning the pages.

Zombieland.  We saw it Saturday night and it did not disappoint.  Clocking in at well-under 90 minutes, this newest zombie comedy is icky in its gory-ness, but fresh in its snappy dialogue, characters and plot.  Really, truly a cute, funny movie.  Woody Harrelson does not disappoint.  And while I tend to think of Jesse Eisenberg as a poor man’s Michael Cera, I enjoyed him for the second time in a movie that contains significant scenes at an amusement park.

Desperation

I am using this space to vent.  Bear with me.

I am refinancing my second mortgage from M&I to UWCU because my M&I rate is 6.75% and UWCU will do 4.99% with no closing costs because, it turns out, a second mortgage is actually a home equity loan.  Who knew?  Well, probably everyone but me.  In any event, what was promised me was a seamless, easy process.  What I have gotten so far is anything but. 

First, it costs $350 to have the appraisal done.  This is annoying, but fine.  Then, I actually needed to fax back some borrower’s something or other.  Fine.  Then I need my insurance company to get in contact with the credit union to get them the insurance info.  Fine.  I call our condo’s management company and ask them to forward the information.  Fine.  Only, wait, turns out they don’t have that information.  So, American Family, who apparently insures our condo, does have it and they will contact the credit union.  Ok.  Then I come into today to a message from the credit union telling me that I need to call AmFam because they “have some questions for me.”  What kind of questions could there possibly be?  I pay my dues, part of that goes to the insurance, what’s new?  So, I call and Sharon tells me that she needs the “mortgagee clause” from my mortgage company, Bank of America (who holds the first mortgage).  After going around in circles for awhile, I get from her all that she needs is some sort of address/contact info for BoA in the event that something happens to the condo.  Ok.  Apparently, though, AmFam has zero other clients with lowly Bank of America that this information is not available to anyone but me.  So, I log on to BoA’s website and can’t find the information anywhere.  In fact, it takes me forever to get to my own account and I cannot go to “account details” because everytime I click on it, a message comes up saying that my insurance policy expires at the end of the month and I’d better do something about it.  So, I go to the customer service section and call the number for “all mortgages or all states.”  This seems easy enough.   But when I call, I get a prerecorded message that says, “Get a pen and write down this number.  Call Ten Fifteen Fifteen Eight Thousand.”  And it just repeats that over and over.  I hang up and attempt to call this wack-job of a number, but, surprise surprise — it doesn’t work.  So, I go back to the website and try to “chat live.”  Well, after logging in, that feature is not available right now.  So, I find some other telephone number to call and after going through the motions (one for English, any other number not to talk about some fun promo they have going on, etc.), I am asked to enter my account number (which I cannot get to because of the previously mentioned insurance message prohibiting me from seeing anything resembling a detail on my account) or my social security number.  Hooray!  Well, of course I know that.  So, I enter it.  Three different times because I am continually told that it is “invalid.”  Yes, invalid.  After I use up my alloted attempts, I am asked if I would like to speak to a customer service representative.  Yes, please.  As I await transfer, a recorded message comes on that says, “I’m sorry, we’re now closed.”  And then I am hung up on.

And people complain about government.  I’m just saying, from where I sit, giant private corporations are pretty &^%#( frustrating.

On a positive note, I’ve had nothing but excellent, excellent customer service from CB2.  New table comes tomorrow!

Shameless plea for advice

What kind of phone should we get?  We no longer have a landline (haven’t for a few years now  — Ben and I got rid of ours circa 2007, I think) and Aaron and I both have pretty craptastic phones with contracts up so that we are free to do as we please!  Aaron is leaning towards an iPhone, but I am scared of the costs of service (not so much the phone itself as a one-time fee is something I can deal with).  I do want kind of a fancier phone as I’d like to be able to have a real calendar on it and all that.  But maybe that’s silly.  Of course, we also don’t have to do the same thing, but family plans seem cheaper and, of course, then there’s just one bill, which is nice. 

Help! Peeps, please advise.

I’m no expert

But that’s not going to stop me from writing about this.

Health care.  I don’t know if you guys are aware, because you have to be REALLY paying attention to have caught this, but there’s a huge debate going on in this country about the health care system.  It’s true.  If you don’t believe me, just google it and go to, say, page 10 or so and something is bound to come up.

Here’s the thing.  I don’t know the answer.  Though I think a nationalized health care program sounds more like the answer than anything else I’ve heard.  At a basic level, it seems like not only the morally right thing to do, but the option that would be best for our economy.  Having government control health care seems, to me, like it would reduce costs for American industry making it more competitive at home and overseas and give greater oversight into spiraling costs. I’m also one of those odd individuals who, despite a sometime Libertarian streak, actually thinks the government does a generally decent job in the things it runs.  For example, I think the criminal justice system is fairly decent while dealing with Charter is ridiculously bureaucratic and dumb.  In any event, the thing that truly bugs me about the whole debate is this: the popular talk that health care costs would be significantly lower if we could somehow just tame those nasty personal injury lawyers and put an end to extreme malpractice lawsuits.  This irks me for several reasons.

1.  Sometimes I think there’s some sort of feeling out there that if a doctor or nurse or hospital or anyone attached to the medical profession screws up, there should be little to no recourse for the victim.  People sometimes seem to think, “Well, it wasn’t on purpose, so let’s just move on.”  Of course it wasn’t on purpose.  People also don’t purposely run red lights or drive over the center line and cause accidents.  We have car insurance for just such non-purposeful events.  The same is true for doctors.  The same is true for lawyers or nail technicians or veterinarians or restaurant owners.  We have to have insurance to cover unexpected events — accidents.  And yes, of course it’s going to be more expensive for the medical industry since a lot more is at stake.  That’s just the nature of the job.

2.  There has already been a tremendous amount of ‘tort reform’ in that multiple states have capped the amount a jury can award a victim of medical malfeasance.  I don’t agree with these policies, but they are in place now and the insurance lobby has been very successful in obtaining them.

3.  And here’s probably the most important one for me.  The actual affect that medical malpractive litigation has on health care costs is so minimal it is almost not worth discussing.  I don’t know if Talking Heads use tort reform as a constant in their arsenal on reform because they really believe it is that important or if because, and this is the reason I actually suspect, it’s easier to use the lightning rod of lawyers than to try to affect actual change.  The thing is, every statistic I have ever seen shows that litigation costs (and malpractice insurance) account for — maybe — up to 1% of the cost of health care in the US.  Even if this is wrong, and it’s twice as much, that’s 2% of costs.  Eliminating those costs entirely would do just about nothing to change the out-of-control situation we’re in.  So I really wish people would cut it out and move on.

I know – you’re thinking, well, well, Kate, then what IS driving up costs.  Hell if I know.  I suspect it’s ridiculous profit margins, crazy expensive (and often unnecessary) tests and equipment, big salaries and little to no incentive to reduce costs.  But I don’t really know.  I know, though, that it’s not the lawyers. 

Look, I know it’s popular to hate so-called ‘ambulance chasers.’  But I really urge you to think twice about this and maybe to read John Edwards (I know, I shouldn’t speak his name just yet) book, ‘Four Trials.’  I feel like people are usually apt to embrace movies like ‘A Civil Action’ and ‘The Verdict’ (both of which I like very much, as well), but when it comes to a case in the news, or when politicians use litigation costs as a platform, public opinion flips and suddenly the lawyers representing the victims are the bad guys.  And that’s something I don’t get. 

Now of course the court system is vulnerable to huge abuse — by both lawyers and pro se litigants.  And by those hiring the lawyers.  But just because there are crappy claims out there doesn’t mean that there aren’t good ones and deserving people who need access to the legal system.  I venture to say that way more often than not the victim is the little guy, pitted against the megainsurance company and the odds are stacked way in you-know-whose favor. 

Sorry for the rant but I’m officially bugged by this.  And I really don’t think it’s because I’m a lawyer.  But maybe I’m wrong.  Thoughts?

Babyface Favre

How annoying will this post be?  Probably super annoying to those of you who can’t stand football, ie Communist Feehan.  And probably pretty annoying because all I’m doing is rehashing my venom for the man.  You know who I’m talking about.  Especially because I mentioned him in the title of the post.

I canNOT stand Brett Favre.  I know, I know, who would have thought this would ever happen?  I had a poster of him in my freshman-year dorm room.  I had bought in Rosendale on the way to Green Bay for something or other.  I LOVED him.  My dad used to call him Stonehead, but I had fallen hard for number 4.  He was dreamy and cute and smiley and he loved to play football.  I mistakenly translated that into a love for the green and gold, a love for Green Bay.  Boy was I wrong.

After years of dancing around it and making us wonder, “Will he?  Won’t he?,” Favre finally annouced his retirement from the NFL in early 2007 and I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news.  I was in the bathroom at the Palmer House packing up my stuff from an oral argument I’d had in the morning at the Seventh Circuit.  I don’t remember a thing about the case (not surprising), but I remember getting a simple text from my cousin Maggie saying, “He’s retired.”  It took me a bit to figure out what she was talking about, but then I began to cry.  The end of an era.  He’d left us.  I didn’t really blame him — football’s a rough sport, afterall — but I was crushed.  We then spent months thinking, “Maybe he’ll change his mind; he won’t be able to stay away; he’s coming back soon.”  But then he didn’t.  He thought about it that spring and Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy flew down to Mississippi to get him back on board.  But he backed off again.  The Packers drafted around Aaron Rodgers that spring, not Brett Favre.  That summer, the Packers told Aaron he’d better get ready to lead the team, and that’s what he did.  He hosted players over for dinner, he showed up for training camp, he assumed his role as quarterback — a role he’d patiently waited around on the sidelines for years to get.  He’d been the understudy for too long and he now deserved to play.  To start.  All systems were ready to go.  Fans got behind him and eagerly anticipated the first preseason game in August.

And now it was August.  And who comes flying into town on a private jet while the local papers screamed, ‘Touchdown?’  You guessed it.  Favre and Deanna waltz into town with serious chips on their shoulders and demands that couldn’t possibly be met.  Favre was already upset that the team had moved on and hadn’t jumped at the opportunity to take him back when he started to indicate at the end of July/early August that, oh, he might be interested in playing again.  Well, who can blame anyone — at least anyone involved in the business aspect of the team — from hesitating and thinking twice this time before assuming that Favre spoke the truth.  Did he really want to come back?  Well, that hesitation led to Favre crying like a baby and throwing a tantrum that he wasn’t being well-treated.  And that led to Thompson and McCarthy saying, “You know what?  Rodgers is our guy.  He’s here, he’s reliable and — and this is important — he’s been training in the off-season and practicing during training camp, things that Favre has never been very interested in.”  So, they think, we’ll talk to Favre and see what the deal is but we’ve been fooled so many times now, we’re not promising anything.  Favre meets with McCarthy and McCarthy comes out with the impression that Favre is no longer at all interested in playing for Green Bay.  Well, enough said.  It’s been enough.  It’s been too much, really.  And Favre is released (with serious stipulations such as he can’t play for a team in the NFC North; and if the Jets, who ultimately take him, reach the Superbowl, the Packers get a certain draft pick; should the Jets reach the playoffs, the Packers get a different specific draft pick; etc.  Of course none of this matters because after a great start, the Jets stink up the remainder of the season and don’t reach the postseason).  And it’s done.

And then we all see Favre in a green-and-white jersey and it’s weird.  More Jets games are shown on Wisconsin television than ever before (or ever will be again), I dare say.  But that’s really about it.  Since he’s playing for a team the Packers never play, it’s not the biggest deal in the universe.  Since the Jets end up sucking, it’s a little bit easier to swallow.  Don’t get me wrong: I was pissed.  But it was nothing compared to my feelings this year.

Favre is a Viking.  He is a traitor.  And, as Terry Bradshaw stated, a liar.  He wanted to beat Green Bay for revenge and to say otherwise is so unbelievable it makes me wonder about his sincerity when it comes to anything that comes from his mouth.  He’s a diva.  He’ll play for the Vikings because they have maybe the best offensive line in the country.  I can’t really blame him for that.  I don’t want to get hit by professional football players, either.  What bugs me about this, though, is that I don’t think he wanted to come back to GB in the first place, but he’s convinced himself that he has been wronged and others have jumped on this idea and now he is getting sympathy for it.  Long-time GB fans are blaming Thompson and McCarthy for Favre no longer being a Packer.  And maybe they’re right; but I think they made the right move.  They put the diva’s feet to the fire and he cried.  A football team is just that: a team.  Favre was no longer a team player, if he ever was.  The end result of this all is that we have pretty much the worst possible scenario: we have Packer fans who are now Vikings fans. 

Completely unacceptable.