#ooc

how was nerd night?

big fight practice, got some sewing done

I am happy for a friend of mine - he's trying to be a knight, which is what we call a "peerage," a kind of society-level recognition that requires consultation by the crown with all the existing knights to make a new one

politics for that tend to be very kingdom level, even though the award carries across kingdoms

I think I have mentioned "taking a belt" for my peerage path in Arts & Sciences

ANYWAYS, friend is a transplant from Florida, which is a different kingdom

He has been a squire (wearing a belt under mentorship of a knight) for a while, but his knight is in Florida too

Having a knight in-kingdom is good to have a voice on the council when the crown is considering candidates for elevation

make sense?

Anyways, looks like Friend is about to get a "foster knight" to be his advocate/mentor here, since his knight-knight is far away

Makes enough sense 🙂

Happy for Friend, and presumptive Foster-Knight is a really good dude. I would like Friend to do well.

Also, frankly, having a few knights showing up at our practices is also good for getting more people to show up at practices & events, which is good for the group as a whole. Hobby politics!

waves G'morning!

morning!

Am getting a headache from reviewing insurance plans. My insurance is going up some several hundred dollars a month. I already pay almost $1500/mo for health coverage

it's through my employer, but he only pays $100/mo towards employee health care. 😕

jesus that's expensive

YEah. Most employers cover a large percentage or all of the cost of health care.

Us? $100.

There is another plan being offered that would save me ~$400/month, but it's much more complicated as a partial self funded plan. That basically means that the employer covers a portion of claims vs. it all going through insurance, and they also need to get stop-gap insurance to protect THEM from unexpectedly high claims

it's very messy and my boss won't want to deal with it. So, not sure why the option was even presented

That way they can claim to have offered options.

there are all of TWO employees taking advantage of this jhealth plan including myself, so we do not get a very favorable rate

Catnik, everybody can see the bird?

Rae, would the ACA make more sense?

Possibly. Going to ask Gyrf to do some research

everyone can see the birdie

We may need to suck it up and move to a lower tier plan. The higher plan made sense last year as I had pregnancy related concerns to ensure coverage for

And having Max might open up different ACA options 🤞

Yeah. $1400 a month is a BIG chunk of my pay, and we're a single income household, sooooo

ouch, yeah

Max needs to get a job

CHIP is possibly an option?

not familiar?

who coded this?

I had my son on ChIP for a while. It's an insurance program designed to cover health care needs in children.

CHIP is coverage for children, even if you make too much for medicaid

I think I make too much for that, but will check it out

fair.

sometimes I see folks typing, and I'm like - oh, I post too fast,

all is good!

Sometimes I get distracted mid-post, and it looks like I'm still typing.

often I start typing, but wait to see the next post before sending or editing