Sad day.

Last year Taco Bell had a really good deal for tacos.  When the Rockies scored more than 7 runs AND won the game, the next night at Taco Bell you could get 4 tacos for $1.  Pretty sweet deal.  Well this year, you can get 4 tacos for $1, but you have to buy at least a small soft drink with it.  That means that your total would come to around $2.50 for 4 tacos and a soft drink.  Really, it's not too bad of a deal for someone who was going to buy a drink anyway, cuz you get a one for around 5 cents.  

However, for people like Jake and me, it's horrible because we wouldn't buy a drink, especially since we have decided to stop drinking pop at least until this whole half-marathon business is over (assuming we get to do it).  So now we don't get any deal on tacos, and get a drink that we won't even use.  Boo.  So, I'm officially mad at Taco Bell.  No special tacos for us this summer. :(

Pudding FunPops

Jake and I found this in my Jello cookbook for kids (I know we are not kids anymore but we still like the stuff).

Pudding FunPops

*Make instant pudding as normal (I think chocolate would be best- but we haven't actually tried any others)

*Add anything to it that sounds fun (we added Oreos since they were on sale)

*Pour pudding mixture into small cups (Dixie sized)

*Insert a popsicle stick into the center of each cup

*Freeze until firm, about 4 hours or overnight.

*Dip pops in hot water for 10 seconds to unmold.

*Then, EAT!

I think they're yummy.  They're basically homemade fudgesicles!  You can put sprinkles on the bottom, or nuts, or make them S'More Pops by adding mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips to the bottom.

Enjoy!

Lack of integration between insurance companies and Christianity

I'm starting to become more and more convinced that insurance companies are evil.  In fact, it's hard for me to rationalize someone being a Christian and working in an insurance company.  My mom works with some of the bills at a chiropractic office (only SOME of what she does there- she is severely overworked in my opinion- love you, Mom!) and she told me that at least 25 percent of the claims that they submit are rejected by the insurance companies, saying that they never received the claim.  She knows that they received them because they submit claims electronically.  Ridiculous.

Anyway, I think that they set up deductibles and coverage in such a complicated way based on your specific plan that there is no way that a doctor's office can submit a claim and everything goes through nicely.  I just found out that a portion of my doctor's visit will not be applied to my deductible simply because of the way that it was submitted.  The doctor has no way of knowing that, and I wouldn't have known unless I was calling about multiple other things.  Also, insurance companies send so many documents that don't make any sense that you stop caring and paying attention to your deductible.  That's their plan.  You get so confused that you stop paying attention to everything and just pay what they ask for and they end up making money.

I'm sure there are people who work in insurance companies that don't even recognize how poorly things are set up.  However, I'm thinking that there is absolutely no way that I could ever work at an insurance company and justify it with my Christianity.

Our table

Jake's been working on a major paper that he has that's due next week.  Today he went to the library and checked out like 24 books or something, and I'm pretty sure that 26 books is the limit at the library.  Well he's been spreading out to work on his paper for the next few days.  I just started dinner, and as I looked at the table, I said "So I'm thinking that we're not going to get to eat at the table tonight; what do you think?"  Here's a picture of what our table currently looks like.

So I thought I was funny anyway.  Let's just hope that at some point he cleans up.

Taste-testers

Last night Jake and I had a taste-testing contest.  When I was little, I used to love going over to the babysitter's house to play that game.  It's a little different when you're older, but it's still fun.

We each got 5 guesses- 3 of which were simply with our eyes closed and 2 were with eyes closed AND with noses plugged.  It turns out that we're both really bad at guessing when our noses are plugged.  We both were able to correctly guess the first three (bacon bits, brown sugar, and sprinkles were the ones Jake guessed correctly; chocolate syrup, honey, and dry hot chocolate mix were my correct guesses), but we both missed the ones with our noses plugged (spaghetti sauce & pears were the correct answers Jake missed; tarter sauce and mustard were the correct answers I missed).

I thought the tartar sauce tasted like it had Italian seasoning in it, and I thought the mustard tasted like soy sauce.  They both tasted gross.  So, it turns out that being able to smell your food while you eat it is quite beneficial.  Anyway, it was fun.  When we realized that we tied at the end, Jake said "We're good tie-ers!"  I thought he meant "tires" even though he tried to emphasize what he meant.  I wasn't sure how playing with food made us tires.  Whoops!

Snow?

Today was just kind of weird.  It was supposed to snow, so I had been waiting for it all day, but nothing came until around 4:30pm.  I heard thunder (which was actually kind of fun because I haven't heard any thunder in a long time) and then looked outside and saw snow pellets falling down that looked like white dippin' dots.  It fell down fast, and within about 20 minutes the ground was lightly covered.  Then it stopped and all melted, probably within an hour.  We're supposed to get up to 3 inches, but I don't buy it.

I also set up an interview for an internship site for tomorrow.  I'm not really sure what to think, but there is a little bit of excitement and interest about it inside of me somewhere.  What?  I told you I'm not sure what to think.

Ok, I'm going to stop now so that Jake can let out his laughter and read me more quotations.  I think he's dying to read some to me.  And I almost forgot, Jake and I ate a lot of brownies tonight.  We got free dough from the bread shed, and since it was expired, we had to eat it fast. ;)

Delayed birthday goodness

So Jake reminded me yesterday that he still owes me my birthday trip to go mini golfing and go to the batting cages.  Except Marley and Me came out today, so he got me that instead!!!  I'm really really excited to watch it, but The Biggest Loser is on tonight, so we're going to have to wait until at least tomorrow to watch it.  Jake is working right now and I am at home, so he made me promise that I won't watch it while I'm at home.  It's really hard, but I told him that I'd leave the plastic wrap around it so that he would know I didn't watch it.  So instead, I watched every movie clip on the internet that I could find.  

I seriously want a dog.  I realize that this comment comes right after a post about how bad I was at taking care of my fish, but come on.  A dog has so many more benefits to it than a fish.  A fish is fun when you decide you want to do the whole follow-my-finger thing, but other than that, what can you do.  With a dog... you can cuddle, you go go outside to the park, you can go on a walk... the possibilities are endless.  I also realize that taking care of a dog is a LOT of work- especially since I want to get a puppy, but they are just so much fun.

So anyway, here is another reason why Jake can believe me that I did not watch the movie today.  I vacuumed the carpet and cleaned the couch/chair (they smell much better now!), I made lots of phone calls about an internship, I worked out and watched Divorce Court where Ted & Gayle Haggard were on (that provided some great conversation with the lady next to me!), and I showered.  See, I was productive today! :)