News and stuff… Just the banal everyday stuff…

Well, things are going well. Ray has actually got the Volvo (he’s calling it his urban assault vehicle) running fairly well. All the cylinders fire, overdrive works, the mirror on the passenger side is now intact, and all of the headlights (and fog lights) work. Though, oil is still spewing out of the oil cap because Ray will actually have to purchase a new gasket for it rather than the one he tried to fabricate. Ray has put a lot of effort into it, and has done a great job of making it run.

Also, on the Ray side of things, he should be getting his international assignment next month, so he will get paid in £s and get British benes, so I won’t have to pay extra to carry him on mine.

That is something I don’t get, though. I have known several professional couples that do the really stupid thing of assuming that because they are married, they must share benefits. In IBM in the US, for example, it is far cheaper for Ray and I each to get our own insurance, no matter how you figure it. Even if, for example, I went with cheapest base coverage for both of us, the amount of money that would be returned to Ray for refusing coverage would not equal the amount that I would pay for covering him. Then, when you look at the different needs – that I am going to see a doctor more often than Ray and Ray is going to go to the emergency room with something broken more often than me – it doesn’t make sense for us to have the same policy. Now, if one of us worked for SAS it would be different. :-)

Anyway… My knees are both coming along really well. The left on is still bruised, as is the left ankle, but it isn’t doing too badly. Of course, Abbie rammed my bruised knee with her head yesterday. I think I came out on the worst side of that one. I swear the dogs are as clumsy as Ray and me. I guess they really belong in our family. :-)

That is all the news for now.