Health Insurance is Annoying

I've learned a lot of things recently, but one thing I've learned over the last 6 months is that both health insurance and health care are broken.  My insurance company first declined my claim (after sitting on it for a month) and sent it back to the doctor to be proven medically necessary.  My doctor's office immediately (literally the same day, I checked) sent back a response.  The insurance company sat on the claim for another two months before deciding to approve everything on the claim EXCEPT one thing.  They approved laboratory services, drugs, surgical supplies, the hospital stay, EVERYTHING... except the surgery.  SERIOUSLY?  This of course necessitated a phone call from me.  About 10 minutes later, the helpful customer service representative on the line looked through the documentation (she was impressively informed, helpful, and empowered) and determined that "Whoops.  Our mistake.  It looks like it should have been approved.  We'll take care of that for you."  Which will, undoubtedly, take another couple of months.  In what way is this cost efficient?  And, as an aside, this is all after the insurance company negotiated the bill down to 15% of the hospital's original cost.  How much does health care cost, anyway, and who actually knows what those costs are?  (By the way, the ambulance company billed $51 for the use of their glucometer.  You can buy your very own for like $20.)

San Francisco: Sunday

Sunday was our last day in San Francisco.  We met Brian, Sarah, and Claire out at Land's End, where we did an "easy" hike.  The Sivitzs encouraged us to continue on the one-way hike, and they picked us up at the other end.  As soon as they turned around, it turned into a hillier, rocky hike (I wouldn't call it all that difficult of a hike, but we had a stroller and a three year old...).  But the walk was nice.  If it had been a bit less foggy, the views would have been better...  After walking, we met Lucky in his neighborhood for some tacos, which were delicious.  We headed back to his place (which was FABULOUS) and hung out a bit before the Sivitzs drove us to the airport.

San Francisco: Saturday

Saturday, we started with breakfast with the Sivitzs, Lucky, and the Smalls.  From there, we went with Brian, Sarah, and Claire up to Twin Peaks (I think) for a foggy view over San Francisco.  Then we went to the playscape in Golden Gate Park for a little before we headed to a going away parting for the Sivitzs out in Walnut Creek.  (It was in the 60s in San Francisco and in the 90s in Walnut Creek... a 30 minute drive away.)  The party was really fun, and Maya had some new kiddos to play with.  After the party, we took a train back in to San Francisco, and started walking on the Embarcadero around to Fisherman's Wharf.  We stopped off at a delicious Peruvian place (La Mar) for dinner, and then finished off with sundaes at Ghiradelli Square.  (Even Lucky hadn't been before!)

San Francisco: Friday

This morning, Tim again headed to his conference, while Maya and I grabbed a trolley and rode most of the way over to Washington Square.  Maya got in some playground time before we met Tyler and Trish for breakfast at Mama's.  After that, we walked a bit, including walking up the beautiful Lombard Hill.  (See the before and after pictures below, though Maya was mostly faking the after pictures.)  We headed back over to the hotel to meet Tim for lunch and coffee.  Then Maya and I walked China Town by ourselves picked Tim up back at the hotel, and then met Tyler, Trish, and our friend Justin out in Sunset for a great dinner at a restaurant that appeared to have both the freshest menu and ingredients.  It was delicious.

San Francisco: Thursday

Today was our first day in San Francisco.  Last night, we had a great, boisterous dinner with the Smalls, Sivitzs, and Lutkehaus.  This morning, Tim headed for his conference.  Maya and I wandered down Market Street to the Ferry Building, where we met Tyler and Trish and all took the ferry over to Sausalito.  Maya and I grabbed a taxi and went to the Discovery Museum, while the Smalls wandered around the hills.  Maya had a GREAT time at the children's museum.  We got a taxi back into "town" where we met the Smalls for a small bite to eat and wandered in a couple of galleries.  We rode the ferry back across the bay and wandered our way back to our hotel.  The Smalls headed out for a run and evening dinner with some other friends, while the three of us Juliens went to John's Grill... a steak and seafood restaurant not far from our hotel (not, in fact, up the huge hill we walked first...).  Dinner was delicious, and Maya is in fact now sound asleep (though she wasn't asleep when I started typing.  Here's hoping that the rest of our days here are as beautiful as the first.  Here are some photos of our day (note, Maya did in fact take the first photo).

New Preschool!

Maya started at a new preschool today.  We're in LOVE with the new place.  Alright, maybe not love, not yet, but we really like it so far.  Maya had a great time today (today included playing in the sandbox, coloring, doing some letters, circle time, Spanish class, sponge painting, and a BIG nap).  She was singing songs about it in the shower this evening.  The center even took the time to email us in the middle of the day to tell us Maya was having a good day and send us this photo:

Galveston for Memorial Day

So, this past June 10, we'd been married for 10 years!  Tim planned a weekend getaway to Galveston over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate.  I had been briefly for a conference a little over a year ago, but we really haven't gotten a chance to see the city.  So we stayed in two different bed and breakfast places, sampled a couple of restaurants, and saw some of the sights.  They are still recovering quite a bit from the hurricane.  We went out to Seawolf park, where there were two decommissioned Navy ships (a submarine and a destroyer escort).  We also toured a couple of historic homes, and just generally enjoyed wandering around the city, looking at restored Victorian homes.  The hurricane did in almost all of the oak trees on the island; in many places, they've cut them off at 4-6 feet tall and have commissioned artists to make sculptures out of the trunks.  It's very neat.

DC in (ahem) April

Yeah, so I've gotten behind again.  Here are some pictures from a trip I took to DC in April with my mom and Maya.  I went for work, for a meeting with Jamie and Catalin, and Jamie also brought along her mom and little one, baby Alex.  After we finished our meetings, we had some time to see a few of the monuments, museums, and other highlights.  Here are some photos of our trip.

Fifth of July

Tim had Monday off, Maya's school was closed, so we decided to spend another day around Central Texas.  We went to Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park--the birthplace of Texas.  It was in Washington that great Texans signed their Declaration of Independence from Mexico in the 1800s.  The town was also a big steamboat stop, once the cotton trade picked up--so big, in fact, that they told the railroad it wasn't necessary to build tracks into town.  So the town disappeared shortly thereafter.  At Washington-on-the-Brazos, we saw the Barrington Living History Farm (the farm belonged to Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas), had a picnic in a lovely Pecan grove, saw the Star of the Republic museum (which was actually quite good), visited a reconstructed Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was signed), and wandered the old streets of Washington (there are no buildings remaining, but there are nice interpretive guide signs).  It was super hot, so we stopped in Brenham for some ice cream on the way back.  If you know what we're talking about... well, you know what we're talking about.  :)  Brenham is the home of Blue Bell Creameries, the best ice cream in Texas, and probably the US.

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was the first non-rainy day here in a week, so we took advantage of the nice weather and drove out to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.  We'd been out here, oh, about 8 years ago, when we took a vacation to Texas while we were living in Missouri.  We haven't been back, even though it's only a little over 100 miles away.  There are so MANY different state parks to explore in Texas!  Anyway, the area is a beautiful expanse of Texas granite rocks, a couple of which are HUGE.  The walk we did, in particular, is the summit trail; it's basically 3/4 of a mile up the face of a big granite boulder (a 625 foot elevation change).  It's amazing what vegetation and creatures we found up there (huge spiders, lots of grasshoppers, and even shrimp).  We had a snack at the very windy top, Tim took some photos, then we climbed (rode) down for a picnic.  Maya made use of the carrier about half of the way up and all of the way down (she napped on the way down).