Playing Monopoly with Miss Darcy

Monopoly is an American-originated board game published by Parker Brothers. Subtitled "The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game", the game is named after the economic concept of monopoly — the domination of a market by a single entity. It is currently published by the United States game and toy company Hasbro. Players move around the game board buying or trading properties, developing their properties with houses and hotels, and collecting rent from their opponents, the ultimate goal being to drive them into bankruptcy. LINK

UNLESS you're playing with Miss Darcy. Her strategy (I'm using the term loosely) is to scoot around the board and buy up as many properties from different color groups (especially Ventor Avenue) and then collect the miniature rents and NOT make any real estate deals with other players. The end result is that this just draws out the game for HOURS while NO ONE is able to develop any properties. Eventually someone gets pissed off and quits and then everyone else quits and NOBODY WINS. This is pretty much like playing Checkers without jumping the opponent. And no matter how you try to explain how the game is supposed to be played, Miss Darcy is just going to keep scooting around the board and not make any deals. Basically she's turned a fun game of bartering and real estate deals into a game of Sorry... SORRY I PLAYED WITH MISS DARCY!

This is me...

Trying to lose weight again...

Seahorse Higgins

I was on a rotation at a retail pharmacy in 2006 and took a new Rx over the phone for an eye medication.

The patient: Seahorse Higgins

At first I thought it was a medication for a child of the 60s with an unusual name... I could see that, right? Earth, Wind, Fire, and Seahorse. It might even make a good name today. No, this was a medication for a real seahorse. Oh, I've filled plenty of prescriptions for dogs and cats, and even a horse or two since then, but this apparently is my only Seahorse patient.

I wonder how the little guy is doing now.

Demotivational Hump Day... Vasectomy

Here's a New Twist

Tad Elvisnor has a prescription for Carac cream. It isn't cheap. On his insurance the co-pay is $80, which isn't a lot considering the cash price is about $4,000.

He comes to pick up the medication. Flynn, our lead tech, explains all this to him. We're thinking he'll see that the $80 is a bargain considering the prices. And for once we're getting a decent reimbursement from his insurance.

Elvisnor declines to pick up the medication. He says his doctor can order the medication directly from the manufacturer and his price with the doc is only $3,900.

Flynn does a double take. What? Nope, he heard correctly, Tad Elvisnor is going to pay $3,900 out of pocket to his doctor. Why? In his words, "I'd like to save my insurance company some money."

Now there's a new one for you.

Why I absolutely HATE Lawyers

"It would just be easier and cheaper if you went ahead and paid the amount in the lawsuit."

That's what HE said to me.

HE being the lawyer representing my mortgage company. Back in 2010, I purchased a piece of property, following all the rules as mandated by local laws, such as paying for inspections and a title search.

I signed the papers and received a deed. I paid the monthly payment, including property taxes, month after month... and then one day in April, there's a knock on the door.

It's a process server, giving me a summons. I was stunned. What is this about? I look at the papers. I'm being sued, as well as my mortgage company, by some unknown company that had purchased the debt from the state for back taxes owed on the property.

A week later I get a phone call from a local ball-washing bastard representing the mortgage company. He's telling me that the company was given the summons and that the amount, some $5,000, was going to be passed on to me in one way or another.

I was told that the company would pay the lawsuit but then would turn around and sue me for the balance. Then I'm told it would just be easier if I went ahead and paid it all now.

I told that creep that I paid all my taxes. I told that creep that in this state, you can't buy property without a title search. Since I was given a clear title, SOMEONE made a big mistake. I asked him how he slept at night trying to coerce people in that fashion.

"I sleep very well, thank you," he told me. I have no doubt. For when you're a lawyer, your brains instantly turn into a cow pie and you are no longer human.

So I had to hire my own lawyer and pay money to find out that no one paid the taxes for the first half of 2010. I purchased the property in July, 2010. The title company found out about the taxes, told the mortgage company, and they paid it thinking it was for the second half of 2010. Basically a whole bunch of people screwed up.

And here I am, working my butt off every day in the trenches of pharmacy. If I screwed up like that in my job, someone would die. But I don't screw up because I pay attention to detail. And on that rare occasion when something does go wrong, I step up and take the blame for it. I don't try to get someone else to take the blame and pay the price.

You lawyers out there can all go burn in hell.

We all Live to Laugh