Back on the boat

Today we took the pups and went to the lake house for the day. It was the first time back in the boat this season, though my brother-in-law has already been wakeboarding a couple of times apparently. He is braver than I when it comes to cold water.

Jake and Bella absolutely love going there. They can tell we're getting ready to go somewhere exciting and this time they ran to the car long before we were ready and sat in there all by themselves in the dark garage while we finished packing. No one ever said they were normal.

So we got out on the boat and just took a spin around the lake to the other side of the peninsula. Chris did get in the water and I stuck my feet in, but it was really cold. It's not so bad once you get used to it, but it's ten times worse once the boat gets going and it's really windy. Bella actually jumped in on her own and swam back and forth between Chris and the boat, but she seemed a little nervous and wanted to get out pretty quickly. I think she prefers swimming by the shoreline. Jake of course was a big wuss and just whined the whole time Chris was in the water. He tried to catch flies the rest of the time.

pure unadulterated canine joy

Basketball Sucks

This is why, of the major professional sports, pro basketball is the worst. You name the sport and I could find a reason why it would be better than basketball. I am someone who can find something to appreciate in almost any sport, but often find it difficult in basketball.

Tonight was game three of the Nuggets and Mav's playoff series. With the Mav's being down 0-2 this was a critical game for them to win (I gave the Mav's no chance to win this series but at least hoped they wouldn't get swept). Anyway to get to the point of this post... with 6 seconds left the Nuggets have the ball down 2 points and the Mavs have a foul to give. What this means is that the Mavs can foul without sending the Nuggets to the freethrow line. So during the timeout before the start of the last 6 seconds, the "thank you captain obvious" announcers are pounding this point in to the audience as this is clearly what is about to happen. So the ultra sharp announers know it. The fans know it. The players know it. And I know it. Hmmmmmm. Someone should have told the zebras (referees).

The Nuggets inbound the ball to Melo. To make it even easier for the Mavs he bobbles the ball as he starts to dribble. As he regains control and stops his dribble the Mav player goes in with clear intent to foul. After CLEAR CONTACT from Melo's chest down to his forearms, the Mavrick player backs off with his hands up to claim the foul. Unfortuntly the ref, who is only inches away, chooses a bad time to blink and calls nothing and Melo shoots a uncontested 3 pointer to win the game.

Let me make myself clear at this point. I am not angry at this inept zebra... it's the sport itself I find that I can't stand. On the rare occasion that a game is so close that it comes down to the final play (and doesn't end in the ritual of the last 10 seconds getting stretched out for 10 minutes as the losing team repeatedly fouls in an attempt to make up an impossible 3 or more possession point difference) the game is always decided by a call or non call. This sport is impossible to officiate with any consistancy and in close games when it comes down to the last shot, the game will always be determined by whether or not the refs blow their whistle. I honestly wonder if they flip a coin before the game to decide their eternal question: to blow or not to blow?

Another Fun Work Story

My job is not really that bad. These things only happen every now and then. Thankfully.

First a little description of how the Medicaid system works for kids who need therapy. Medicaid will pay for the evaluation (and reimburses us at a surprisingly high rate!) and then our business office sends my report and treatment plan off to the patient's doctor for a signature. Once we receive that, we send the whole package (authorization request, reports, and doc's signature) off to Medicaid for approval. Don't get me wrong, they've really streamlined the process and sometimes the biggest holdup is the doctor's office. But the whole process takes at least a month if everything goes smoothly. The authorizations are usually for six month's worth of twice weekly sessions. Then a month before it expires, we do the entire process all over again to renew. (Let me tell you how much kids enjoy testing every six months...)

Enter my twelve year old patient. He's so far behind I could write a goal for anything and it would probably help him. We did the first six months of therapy and when it came time for the second authorization, they "partially denied" and gave us only three months. Without getting into too many specifics, their reasoning was that the goals we were working on were of "an educationally-based nature and would more effectively be addressed by the educational system." Ha, Right.

I bit the bullet and changed some of the goals. Like I said, we could work on almost anything. But now it has come time to renew again. This week we retested (which he was super thrilled about) and I spent at least an hour yesterday carefully crafting very precise wording about why I had chosen the particular test which was different from the one done in February (it's NOT considered best practice to give the same test more often than six to twelve months). It was a brilliant report.

Five minutes after I'm done, my boss calls me into her office and says she got an email with more information about recent policy changes from certain Medicaid providers, one of which is my patient's. She knew I had already tested but explained they probably were not going to renew the authorization unless I gave him the exact test I gave in February. She asked me not to kill her when I told her I'd just finished the report. I will ask him not to kill me when we have to test again next week.

So what exactly is the point of this? He's not going to show progress after 9 sessions on a standardized test. If that's the only thing they're looking at, they will ignore the progress I stated toward specific treatment goals and deny therapy anyway. Or just for fun, they'll only authorize three months and we'll have to test again in August. Hell, by that time he might have the test memorized and score normal. I'll have "cured him!"

Jesus Freak

Michelle got me thinking the other day when she was telling me a story about her cousin who's in high school. The details aren't important but she was giving him advice about being a Christian and suggested he listen to good Christian music instead of the boring praise/worship stuff they play on the Christian radio. I think the way she described it was "crappy teenage love songs for Jesus." So she told him to listen to the bands we used to listen to in high school: DC Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Third Day, and Newsboys. So when I dug out DC Talk's Jesus Freak album for a little nostalgic remembrance, I re-discovered this quote that plays at the beginning of one of my favorite songs:

The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

Just food for thought.