Looks good for us to go on our weekend trip. I've been checking to make sure the wife's okay, and will continue to do so. Cross your fingers.

This entry is made of equal parts venting and updating, in case you don't hear from me for awhile, as I go fight dragons.
Still dealing with the uncertainty of the dental bills, and my mom didn't sound as resolute in helping me as she was last night. I sent off letters to the dental plan website (via snail-mail) and to the plan in question letting them know the problems I've been having, that it's unacceptable, and that they should do something about it, not me. I've done more than my fair share. Until you hear otherwise, don't think of putting dental, plans, or .com close to each other, alright?
The wife's feeling better today, but a little tender. She did eat some scrambled eggs for lunch.
Dunno if we're going down to Louisville this weekend. She said I could go by myself, but I don't wanna. And I (and everyone else we're meeting on the trip) don't want to push her into going.
I didn't get to blog about the good times we had Tuesday going to see the fireworks. We went to the next town over, opened up the back of the vehicle that was pointed toward the show, and she thought we had the best seat in the house. We packed up a cooler full of drinks (Diet Coke and water) There was an announcement at the beginning about how the Indiana Republicans sponsored one particular upcoming display, and I joked that the Indiana Democrats were sponsoring one sparkler to be lit up. It started to become a diatribe against the way things are (if you're a long time reader of this blog, you know what I'd say) that I quickly squelched. It's a party, and things like that should be tabled.
And I'm having computer problems, this time it's my laptop. Before I was having problems with the power cord charging up the laptop, but if I jiggled the cord or the connection, it'd work. Then on Monday I had to do a lot more jiggling and a lot more time until it finally worked. Then on Tuesday when I moved after situating the laptop and cord, couldn't get it to work again. I e-mailed myself the documents on the laptop in case it went totally dead. I suspect the problem is the cord, because there's a rectangular box that the cord connects to and the box has a cord that connects to the laptop, it would have a small green light that came on when plugged in that didn't come on anymore. A preliminary check shows that a replacement cord would run around $30. If that doesn't take care of the problem, it'll be awhile before I can address that problem. I do have a regular computer I was using, but have been working on the room it was in and using the laptop in the meantime. All that's left to do is to stain the trim around the floor, doorways and window. I have the paint tape around the edges. So I can do that, move my desk and computer back in, and be back in business.
Which I intend to do, as in the meantime I've been using others'computers. The local library computer didn't let me access most blogs, then I used my parent's until the connection kept disconnecting, and then I travelled 5 miles to the next town to use the library computer. They should call this library the Library That Treats You Like You're 5 Years Old, because they only have an hour limit to use the computer, and there wasn't anyone waiting to use it, but when I tried to log back on, the screen said to wait 5 minutes. Problem was, I was in the middle of this posting. Fair enough, I went to read the papers. Came back and still was told to wait 5 minutes, even though it had been longer. Asked the librarian in that area for assistance and was haughtily told that it was actually 15 minutes. I was then asked what I wanted to get back on for, and then decided to help me before I could respond. She said she would make a special exception to log me on as a guest. When the name and password didn't work, she said she set it up on a different computer and moved me to one next to it, that she can see better. I guess I was the bad student that has to get moved next to the teacher, huh?
And that's the crap I've been dealing with, how'z'about you?

Well, the big day finally arrived. It didn't help our anxiety to be called by the dental office and told that the dental plan I signed up for still hadn't faxed them the fee schedule needed. So I spent some time calling, getting the runaround, elisting my mother's help... Long story short, I got socked for the full amount of what was done today. Tried to call again after getting home, got more runaround. And while the wife's resting off getting 3 wisdom teeth and another tooth pulled, instead of being close by ready to comfort her, I'm calling, writing, etc. to get this resolved. My mom works for the union, so between her skills and utilizing their benefits rep, hopefully this'll get resolved eventually.
I'm so tired, so please understand if I stop writing now.

Okay, I'm gonna give it a shot...
Friday: Got everything ready waiting for the wife to get home from work after 1pm. Took off and stopped at Cracker Barrel in Columbus IN to eat and fuel up. It's next to an outlet mall that had a Book Warehouse and KB Toys Outlet. I had the fish fry and she had her favorite, the Old Timer's Breakfast. As everyone else was still eating when I finished, I decided to run over to those two stores in the outlet and check them out while they looked around at the Cracker Barrel. Didn't get anything, but saw the Betty and Veronica dolls for $12.98 each, and KB Toys was doing a crazy 8s sale where the 2nd item was half off if you bought something that the price ended in 8. There was also a MyScene Lindsay Lohan doll at the store. But it looked like any other KB Toys, as they had new stuff like Pirates of the Carribean toys there. Ran back to CB to find mom and dad rocking on the chairs up front, the wife said she was told by my mom that she could pick out something in CB and she picked out a quilt. Went to go fuel, and I ran in to get a pop and the papers to read. Came out to find them waiting for me, and decided to be more careful about having them wait for me. Got to Hazard KY around 8pm, went to Food City to pick up some stuff, and they had Grippo's Barbeque Potato Chips for sale there, they don't have them in the stores around here, and they had them in the vending machines at work that I liked so much that I went to their web site and ordered some a while back. Then the wife and I went out to get something to eat. Originally we were going to go to Wendy's, but in the mini mall behind them, I saw what looked like Little Caesar's Pizza, but was a former location now called King's Pizza. But they still offered the Crazy Bread, and their large 1 topping was $5, with $1.25 for each additional topping. Little Caesar's Pizza is another example of a restaurant that ain't there no more (at least in Indiana) so we were happy with getting that. And yes, I got to soak in the Jacuzzi like I was hoping for. At first, I thought my dad wanted to leave for the reunion at 10am. I thought it was early because it started at noon, it was 30 miles away, and even with navigating the mountain road, I thought it was kinda early. Then before bed, my dad called and said he wanted to leave at 9:30, or even sooner.
Saturday: We got up around 8am and ate the complimentary hotel breakfast. And we ended up leaving around 11am. The directions my dad had were a bit lacking, and he even called about halfway there to make sure we were on the right track. And we did get there before noon. Before we proceed, I should point out it was 2 family reunion Colletts and Blantons, because the matriarch is a half-sister my dad did not know of until a few years ago, who was a child of my grandfather's first wife who died in childbirth and was given up for adoption. We met her and she was the center of attention. In fact, I was concerned as she was eighty-something and checked with her to make sure she wasn't overwhelmed by all the fuss. But I was told later on she enjoyed it. We did adjourn to the backyard with a pool and food put out. The house was close to the mountains, with some of it looking like it was dug out. Although it was 90+ degrees and sunny, there were umbrellas and tents for shade. I went swimming and spent time with the people there. For the Colletts, the only ones there were my mom and dad, wife and me, plus my uncle Junior, his daughter Joanie Jones (the Manhuntress from Mars ^_^) and her kids.
But after 4, my mom, wife and I were getting tired and wanting to go back to the hotel. But my dad wanted to stay with his half-sister for awhile so she wouldn't be by herself. This was a concern about us riding up with him vs. driving down, that we might want to leave before he did. He assured me that something could be arranged, but it didn't look like it was happening. A few minutes later, I was able to persuade him to let us drive back and I could pick him up. We went back to rest, etc. Watched an episode of Bonanza guest starring Dawn "Mary Ann" Wells as an Indian maiden (holy fetish, Batman). I called mom after 8 to check, and she said he came back 15 minutes before, brought back by my uncle. Went out to get something to eat (ate plenty at the reunion, in fact Sheila, one of the ones throwing the reunion at her house, was a home ec teacher and a caterer who makes the food from scratch vs. prebought as other ones do. Plus we snacked at the hotel, so we weren't really put out) and went to the Wal-Mart we passed by earlier. Got the wife an ice/snowcone maker and 2 bottles of V8 pina colada smoothies (during the trip to the reunion earlier in the day, while dad was calling, we were by a Hawaiian Ice stand that she wished to get a pina colada from one of those places. But it wasn't open and she didn't feel like one at that time, anyway) and found the Superman Returns Lex Luthor Kryptonite Armor figure I was looking for. But with the shirt and tie, he looks more like a salesman than an arch-menace. Both of us (at separate times, get your minds out of the gutter) soaked in the Jacuzzi. Got food and Wendy's and brought it back to eat. Started getting things organized for taking out to the car the next morning.
Sunday: Before going home, my mom said she wanted to see the town of Hazard before leaving, having not been in that area before. Looked around and drove towards Berea to visit one of the relatives (Clayton) that we saw at the reunion (who also grows tomatoes, correction TOMATOES, that dad hoped to get some plants he offered to grow (both of us love tomatoes, so that was sounding good) We were going to eat at a local place that mom and dad found and loved, but it was out of business. Cracker Barrel was full (mom said to check how many people were rocking on the rocking chairs up front to get an idea of how long a wait there was. There were a lot) and we didn't see any other promising prospects through town, so we went back to KFC and ate. Dad's milk cartons had an ad for milk being good for your Bones, with a cartoon of Phoney Bone offering to trade you your milk for a million and your sandwich. There was a link to Scholastic Bone site, so I assume it was Scholastic's doing. We went to Clayton's house and no one was home. So we gassed up (I was back at the car before dad! Ha ha!) and got home just after 6pm. When I go on a trip I get anxious coming home. Since I was a kid I had a fear of coming home from a trip to find the house burned down. This time, I reasoned that my nephew or brother who live nearby would call my mom or dad if that happened. But I was also worried about the welfare of my kitties. I left plenty of food and water, but it had been over 90 degrees both days, and other things could happen. But every one was all right, but I had been feeling down in the dumps the whole day, from the trip ending to my mom starting a crusade to want to come over and work around our house (that I didn't want to do for a variety of reasons, including letting the wife enjoy her vacation and wanting to get some stuff done first) I guess karma's paying me back.

I made it back. Although I had a good time, I have been in a very cranky mood all day today. Still am, even 2 1/2 hours after getting home. Guess I'm still decompressing. Hopefully I'll write more about my trip.