All Systems Go!

I love it, I mean really love it, when a system works as advertised!

For the first time in my adult life I participated in my company’s Flexible Medical Spending Plan. Basically, for all of you old enough to remember, it’s like a Christmas Club account where each paycheck a pre-determined amount of my salary is diverted (pre-tax) to a fund that must be used for medical expenses within the specified fiscal year. If I fail to use the money within the fiscal year the unused portion is forfeited (not sure to whom, but suffice to say it is not returned to me). I guess you could say that I was betting “The System” that I would be getting sick enough last year to spend the X amount of dollars I was setting aside. Given the fact that I have no dental insurance and knew that another crown was imminent in 2004, it was a safe wager. The plan states that when I spend money for qualifying medical expenses I need only to fax in copies of the itemized bill proving payment and I will be reimbursed (up to, but not exceeding X).

This all sounds great in theory, but in practice it is usually a fucking hassle dealing with administration, paperwork and waiting for reimbursement.

Yesterday in the mail I received a check for the amount corresponding to receipts I faxed in just last week! Holy Fucking Hell, somebody has done it right! (and there was much rejoicing!!!) Congratulations PayFlex, I love you!

When Do Ten Brains Not Fare Better Than One?
Last night at Johnny’s Pizza’s version of team trivia “Meet the Hashers”, usually a juggernaut when together, failed to answer the following question correctly.

Place the following four inventions in order of creation from oldest to newest
1) Otis passenger elevator
2) Machine gun
3) Goodyear vulcanized rubber
4) Richter scale

We got it completely wrong, plummeting us out of the money. Truthfully, I had no idea of the proper order and I still don’t. I guess next week it’s back to Taco Mac.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – mixed emotions
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Radiohead

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]