Sunday, December 15, 2013

Merry Christmas to me...

The post Thanksgiving shopping binge has kicked off.  Did you pick yourself up something nice on Black Friday?  I hope you did.

Several years ago at our family Christmas, I (somewhat jokingly and somewhat not) suggested that instead of exchanging gifts each year, we should discontinue the practice and everybody should just buy themselves something nice and then at the get together we can all tell each other what we got.  Well this idea didn't exactly take off, but I'm pleased to report that we did restore some sanity to the madness and all agreed to limit gifting to buying gifts for the kids only.  I'm also pleased to report that since we've instituted the practice our Christmas joy has not diminished...

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Dog pee etiquette

While dog poo etiquette is well established - if your dog poops in a public area, clean it up, dog pee etiquette isn't clear at all.  Mick the wonder dog loves his walks; they are a continuous series of going a few feet, sniff, pee, repeat.  Yes, Mick likes to pee about as often as a 60 year old diabetic.  But one needs to ask themselves, what is expected in regards to dog pee.  Are you expected to bend over and make a cursory motion to "clean it up"?  I experienced an incident about a year ago when a real butt head, who's home abuts (couldn't help myself) the Crossings Park off Knauf Lane continued to yell from his home in response to Mick squatting and marking his sniff points.  Either this individual needed better binoculars or felt that if your dog squats, the owner should squat as well.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

MTQ Cooking: Easy Turkey Soup

Here's a perfect solution for your leftover Turkey.  It is super easy - if you can cut potatoes and carrots, you can make this!  You can make this soup a day or two after you cook your Turkey or you can cut and freeze your Turkey to make this soup another day.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

MTQ Easy Cooking - Squash Parmesan or Squash Lasagna

Well I warned you that this was an eclectic blog.  Maybe its the need to do penance for swearing in last week's post or perhaps the need to inject a coping mechanism for life stress.  Cooking can be relaxing and a dish like this is particularly good as a stress release as it does not require rigid adherence to a set recipe.  Feel free to experiment.

I have known this dish as Zucchini Parmesan, but perhaps "Lasagna" may be more palatable for young ears.  It is also a great cooking project if your kids enjoy learning to cook...if they help cook it, they are sometimes more likely to try it.  This dish is easy and delicious and a nice way to celebrate the harvest season.  An additional fun "something to do" is that you can incorporate a trip to a local farmer's market.  In selecting zucchini, I prefer the smaller, slender zucchini.  I find them to be tender and more flavorful and often have small or sometimes no seeds which I prefer.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Mooove over

Cow, Constantine Farm, near the Crossings Park, Colonie, NYI was walking over a lunch break at work recently when I encountered 3 ladies coming from the other direction.  As the distance closed, I scrunched to the right and in fairness there may have been a slight scrunching on their behalf, but it was not enough and I clipped elbows with the nearest member of the trio.  Such encounters have always fascinated me as I've frequently wondered why there isn't more collisions.  As the sidewalk constricts space and as the distance closes between two opposite traveling parties someone needs to make a quick decision as to who will "slide over".  For example, does a member of the trio position themselves ahead or behind their cohorts to yield space or do they make an attempt to "scrunch" to make it work as in my encounter?

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Oh, Kmart... some MTQ solutions for you.

If you're an old fart living in the great northeast and wish for some nostalgia, look no further than a trip to Kmart.  Before Target and Walmart arrived on the scene there was Kmart and other, now gone, discount stores such as Bradlees, Ames, Caldor, The Big N, and Montgomery Wards.  If I were to have bet on the survivors and casualties back 25 years ago, I don't know if I would have picked Kmart to be the living dinosaur among us.  To its credit, Kmart has never appeared on the MTQ Shit list, but that is because Kmart is not a regular MTQ destination and there are many other choices that make shopping at Kmart unnecessary.  So it was, that this MTQ author took a special journey to Kmart for this post.  Upon entering the parking lot of the Albany, NY Central Avenue Kmart, the first thing that strikes you is how vacant the parking lot is.  Unfortunately, this is normal and this parking lot is rather empty every day and I like many others often wonder, how does this store keep open?

Sunday, August 18, 2013

I’m not speaking to you

I was one of those optimists when President Obama was first elected.  Worn down by 8 too many years of George W and hopeful that a new administration would translate to new ways of doing things; and in fairness, some things have been new.  I’m sure paying much more for my health care than ever before, so that’s different.  Thinking back to that first election following the George W stint, I recall the Republican candidates all trying to avoid being painted as “Busch Lite”.  So it is with irony and chagrin, that in some ways, our Democratic president might have taken a sip of “Busch Lite” in his foreign policy.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Solving Problems - MTQ Solutions for the Armed Forces

This post will contain controversial proposals to difficult social issues.  It will certainly offend some readers and a jump break has been placed at this point to assist readers with avoiding contact with perspectives that they may not wish to read.

Friday, June 7, 2013

More Yachting with G


Sooner or later, every blogger will experience a post that widely surprises expectations in terms of popularity.  So it is with my first posting of Yachting with G which has turned into one of my most popular posts.  I still do not understand why, but I'll take it.  

Sunday, May 12, 2013

MTQ's For Real Mother's Day Tribute


If you're looking for that sappy, crappy stuff, grab your tissue box and proceed to a different blog; you're definitely at the wrong place.  These "personal" posts are always the most difficult for me.  Maybe it's a guy thing - many of us are not inclined to share feelings and I'm not one to encourage my family to read my blog.  After all, the name of the blog is "My Turn," not "Family Turn" or "Wife's Turn" or "Your Turn".

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Reflections of Nursing Homes and more

It's been quite a few years since B and I were involved in traveling and oversight of many contracted nursing homes in the Albany, NY and outlying area.  B, an extraordinary master level's nurse is long retired and I have long since moved into an entirely different position (dabbling with data and technology).  Despite the lapse of time, I am taking this opportunity to share some thoughts and reflections in regards to nursing homes and related issues of aging.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Long Term Care (LTC) Insurance - not for me

Some time back, Kristi on her popular "On the Edge" blog asked readers the question, "Should I purchase long term care insurance".  I had commented at the time that I believed this question included a large philosophical decision in addition to the financial risk management analysis that is generally applied to the decision.  It occurred to me that I should elucidate this response in a full posting.  For many years, I served as a licensed social worker coordinating a contracted nursing program for a large organization.  In addition to this posting in regards to Long Term Care (LTC) insurance, I am also planning a future post in regards to nursing homes in general.

What is a nursing home?

While this question appears simplistic and unnecessary, I wish to dispel the notion that a nursing home is somewhere you go when you get old and need a "little" help.  The word "nursing" is key; in billing circles nursing homes are referred to as "skilled nursing" facilities which designates a "level of care."  Long past are the days of nursing equating to maid service and bed pans; today's nurses are highly skilled technicians.  When someone needs a nursing home, it is not because they need a "little" help; it is because they need "a lot" of help. Indeed, in order for one to "qualify" for this level of care, they must score appropriately on a formal assessment referred to as the Patient Review Instrument (PRI).

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Naked Pictures and thanks for the aid, Geneseo

It’s that stressful time again.  Daughter #2 is preparing for college; she’d like to become a doctor and I hope she does.  The disappointment was palpable after receiving the most recent financial aid package from the State University of New York at Geneseo.  Geneseo was the “affordable” pick as it is a state college and as such it is understood that they do not have large private endowments to draw upon.  Regardless, I can’t help but being a bit offended by the verbiage which reflected that she was entitled to “aid” (no kidding, that is the word that is strewn throughout the letter).  This “aid” consisted of a parent loan of about $7500 per semester and student loans of about $4000 per semester and $0.00 in grants or scholarships.  This financial aid letter asked her to sign and indicate whether she would accept this “aid” in whole or in part (or not at all).

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Reflections of an (Ex) Landlord

It's been quite a few years since I was a landlord.  I don't miss it a bit.  All "hands on" landlords will have their share of tales to be told.  There was the time when I was faced with pursuing an eviction after a tenant failed to pay for several months and when the eviction hearing day came, the tenant called me up for ride to the eviction hearing.  And then there was the ex-Marine and his wife and kids who turned out to be my best tenants ever, despite their choice of pets - a couple of very large pythons... In fairness, they told me about these pets well in advance and after gathering their very favorable references, I proceeded despite my fair share of skepticism.  What can I say, they turned out to be honest hard working people, and I never, ever received a phone call complaining about a barking python keeping someone up all night or a python pooping in the neighbors yard...

Sunday, February 3, 2013

A step down towards equality

It continues to be my contention that when it comes to oppression of the sexes, it's us men who are the ones who are oppressed.  So it was with a mixture of amusement and sadness when I learned of the announcement that women will be allowed in combat positions in the armed forces.  As expected, such an announcement brings all of the talking heads out of the woodwork with the usual banter about upper body strength and defecating in the foxhole.  I find this debate boorish as I have little doubt that women can cope with combat as well as men.  I don't think it takes too much upper body strength to pull a trigger and given my bad back, I think a wounded "comrade" would probably have a better chance of being pulled off the battlefield by a woman than by me.  As far as a woman watching me take a poo, well, I'd prefer that nobody watches me take a poo (they probably would too), but if bullets are flying I'm thinking it probably wouldn't matter too much whether the observer was a male or a female.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Jobs, Doctor's Notes and Modern Reality

I've been sick; real sick.  It started when my wife and I were awoken about 2:30 AM one morning by our 14 year old son who was vomiting.  It is never the morning greeting that starts the day well.  By about 4:00 PM that day, I started my bout.  I had been experiencing a flair up of my diverticulitis a couple days prior and had upped my dosage of fiber.  I believe this may have compounded the impact of this stomach bug as the retching definitely exacerbated the stomach pain of the diverticulitis and I believe the fiber helped to set me up for uncontrollable diarrhea in addition to multiple episodes of vomiting.  I have no doubt that I became severely dehydrated and it was a huge struggle just to make my way from my chair to the bathroom.

Unfortunately, my employer has one of those arcane policies whereby if you are out sick for 3 days, you need to return with a doctor's note.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

HIPAA - That bill is private, but pay it anyway!

Over the past several years, I have watched as HIPAA - the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, has been rolled out.  It is good to see more emphasis on keeping your health information private.  Many months ago, I first encountered the down side of privacy - that is, lack of information.  I had received a bill and after contacting the health care provider was essentially informed that 1.  No, they could not provide me information about the service (due to HIPAA) and 2. Yes, I was responsible for payment.  I found this provider's conclusion very interesting and their logic flowed something like this:
1.  The family member who had been treated was of legal age, thus they could not disclose medical information without their consent AND
2.  The "guarantor" is the primary holder of the insurance who is ultimately responsible for ensuring payment.
In contrast, my logic flows something like this: