Health-care Shmealth-care

John has a partially torn rotator cuff and myriad other damage in his left shoulder. Don't really have any good explanation for it happening, but its there and we have to do something about it before it just up and completely tears at the most inopportune time.

We have health insurance, of course, employer provided like all engineers and this really isn't about that political hot potato. But he has called THREE times to ask how much this little do-dad operation is going to cost us out of pocket and we still don't know. THAT is what is so ridiculous. Since the insurance only picks up 80% of this, 100% of that, or 60% of something else all based on the hospitals coding and which doctor/nurse/anesthesiologist/janitor is working that day, we can't just get a x amount of money for which insurance covers y. It is really frustrating. We are still trying to get them to give us a break down before the surgery, seems like its something any customer should have and even your neighborhood plumber can do.

You want to know how bad our medical system is, just try using it.

Ma'am-my Weekend

Zara's school had an international festival today and, since we got guilt-ed into contributing, I figured we should at least drop by and see it. So Zara and Mommy (John is still in Vegas for a bachelor party) went for lunch at the fair. All of the ladies in the infant room are of Indian heritage, so that meant there was some awesome homemade chicken biryani and samosas. Yummy, that's what I call an international fair.

The weird thing is all of her teachers continue to address me as "ma'am". Um... I'm not old enough to be a ma'am especially since they all outrank me in that regard. And secondly, I'm not their boss. But it is clear they are all very concerned with this children in their care and have done a great job taking care of her the last few months.

Since I've been a tad remiss though on th eblog, 5 month pictures for Zara. She has been getting over another cold and we've had to do antibiotics for the first time since she has a persistent cough we can't shake.

Baby Stats

We had another set of vaccines this morning for Zara, which means updated stats. 12 pounds 7 ounces, 24.75in and 40cm head circumference. So that is 10-50-10th percentile as we've always been trending.

Also, Zara rolled over on the quilt on the floor last night, so even for John, she has now rolled over on a surface which meets the International Standard for Infant Mobility (ISIM).

Large-sagna

For the PW girls, I tried out PW's lasagna recipe the other day and... umm... be warned. I mostly followed the recipe, but subbed out the beef for ground turkey and the breakfast sausage for zucchini and spinach. The second sub is because I'm not sure why all recipes are either meat OR veggie lasagna. Why discriminate when you can put the sides right in the main dish? I digress.

PW's recipe has a couple kinks that I'll be able to work out better on the second try I think. First, when I think large rectangular dish, I think normal 9x13 pyrex lasagna size. NO! I got halfway through construction and had filled the pan. So I had to slide/scrape/mangle the bottom into an even larger pyrex so I could fit more in. At least once I put the second layer on it looked normalish and all cooks together in the oven anyway. But the second problem, where do all the noodles go? I only used one box of lasagna noodles but PW's recipe if you follow her directions only uses 12, 12! noodles. I ended up throwing more in with an extra layer and 5 noodle layers instead of 4, but still had 7 noodles sitting on the counter. I don't get it.

All things I can deal with better when I make it the second time now that I know and oh yes, it turned out tasting awesome still so we will be making it again.

Side note: Helga the audi is FINALLY home but will have to go back since one wheel wasn't un-rashed and the alignment is totally off. :(

Repeatability

From the National Institute for Standards and Technology, the definition of repeatability is "closeness of the agreement between the results of successive measurements of the same measurand carried out under the same conditions of measurement." This is a concept we deal with a lot as engineers and basically means your results are true when you can make it do the same thing over and over again.

Well, yesterday, to demonstrate to Daddy that I'm not crazy. I had Zara in the pack 'n play and got her to roll over from tummy to back 5 consecutive times. So she is rolling over and easily, but it is a location dependent event. I think it has to do with being on her tummy in the pack n play where she can't see anything. John alleges that since the pack 'n play is 'softer' (not really its just a thin pad in there, not a trampoline), she isn't really rolling over. I'd like him to break out the durometer and determine which surfaces qualify for the rolling over test then.

This concludes my geeked out baby analysis today.

My Way or the Highway Milestone

This morning I was getting Zara dressed for school and, along with her aweseme pink flame baby legs, I put her in a brown shirt that has a button on the back of the neck. When I flipped her over to her tummy to close that button, little miss lifted her head back and pushed off to stop me. Apparently, we can and are capable of rolling over, but will only do so to stop mommy from buttoning her shirt. So that's how its going to be is it, little girl? I didn't get a repeat performance on the second try, but I'm calling it official, she rolled over.

Le Yummy

Tuesday was my birthday (yup, Virginia day) but at least I didn't get stuck in Atlanta where the weather was bad and flights were being cancelled. Thankfully the bad stuff moved through earlier in the day and the evening flights were still on. But I made it home and my birthday present requested from John was waiting... a shiny new Flame Orange Le Creuset dutch oven. Yay!!

Now I'm trying to decide what to make first. Hmmm... made chili when it was cold recently so that's out. Maybe my favorite roast with spicy roasted tomatoes or a big pot of soup. Time to surf the Pioneer Woman and Food Network sites for some new and fabulous recipes.

A picture for Alicia. Notice PW has her green Le Crueset in the cover pic. I've wanted one of these for awhile, tired of having to sear in one pot and then transfer to the croc and stuff. Our new oven has a slow cook feature too, so I want to try out a true "1 pot" slow cook meal.

Sleep Away

In about 30 minutes I am headed to Hobby for a trip to NASA Langley, a very last minute trip. I got a call Friday telling me I should plan a trip for this week, only I didn't know the test rig I am going to work on is being packed for shipping Wednesday and Thursday, so I have to be there tomorrow to test or not at all. This test is for the crew laptop application for the STORRM (can't remember the acronym) test that is flying on STS-134 (a.k.a. the LAST ever shuttle flight). The test is for the new docking sensor that Orion is using or at least plans to use assuming we don't get put down the toilet by our "bold" and "game-changing" new NASA direction. Given how high profile this experiment now is, I've been directed to take over all the application testing to make sure it works and we have a very short timeline to complete everything.

But besides the work stuff, this is my first night away from Zara. I'm taking a pretty awful set of flights to minimize time away since we are still feeding. Given the last minute details worked out this morning to go, I am on a 4pm flight arriving at 10pm EST in Newport News, VA. I will work tomorrow and then catch a 6pm flight back to Hobby arriving at 11pm tomorrow night. Ugh. Incidentally, sorry Heather, totally would have called you to get together but there is literally no time. But I'm fairly certain the next 36hrs will be harder on me than her, but perhaps hardest on John who will experience night time feedings for the first time. LOL.

Here's a picture of Zara I took this weekend that I liked. Seems like a lot of pictures since they catch her mid motion end up with awkward facial expressions, or a startled deer in the headlights look. But this one is the face we see most often, direct and interested in what's going on, like she has something to say just doesn't know how.