Superstar's Birthday Extravaganza Thread

Patch wrote:Last night my son calls me from college saying he over did his ab work out and has stomach pains. He goes on to tell me that it hurts until he burps then it goes away. I tell him he has gas and it hurts because he over did his workout. I tell him to drink lots of water and have some fiber.

He calls me back around 10 and is on the way to the ER. He says he's 90% sure his appendix is the problem. I tell him to stop by a pharmacy and get a laxative, give it a half hour and see if it's better. He insists he can't wait. He goes into the ER. They rule out the appendix and say he might have a kidney stone, but need a C-scan to find out. I tell him again, it's gas. He tells me he's 100% sure it's a kidney stone.

1:30 this morning, and $2500 later, it was gas. They gave him a lax and told him to drink lots of water.

Also my Ex called and gave me crap for not jumping in the car immediately and driving to the hospital. She did. By the time she got there he was already discharged.

How did he get from "releasing gas relieves pain/pressure" to "appendix exploded"?

Seems like a strecth.

Patch wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

(whispers) Sunday is Polk's birthday.

Awesome. Guess we can set up a Polk B-day thread. Fill it with beer and pizza.

don't make a fuss on my account. I'm scaling back my plans. Basically going to run around doing errands. Need to buy new work pants, get some new work shirts embroidered with the Cell Phone Mining Corp, Inc. logo, have my free birthday meal at Genghis Grill...

Maybe drink one of these Deep Ellum IPA beers.

I'm at the stage where I am dreading and depressed about the birthday.

Also Cell Phone Mining Corp Inc has conspired to ruin my fun. More on that later.

Last night my son calls me from college saying he over did his ab work out and has stomach pains. He goes on to tell me that it hurts until he burps then it goes away. I tell him he has gas and it hurts because he over did his workout. I tell him to drink lots of water and have some fiber.

He calls me back around 10 and is on the way to the ER. He says he's 90% sure his appendix is the problem. I tell him to stop by a pharmacy and get a laxative, give it a half hour and see if it's better. He insists he can't wait. He goes into the ER. They rule out the appendix and say he might have a kidney stone, but need a C-scan to find out. I tell him again, it's gas. He tells me he's 100% sure it's a kidney stone.

1:30 this morning, and $2500 later, it was gas. They gave him a lax and told him to drink lots of water.

Also my Ex called and gave me crap for not jumping in the car immediately and driving to the hospital. She did. By the time she got there he was already discharged.

rkwsuperstar wrote:

(whispers) Sunday is Polk's birthday.

Awesome. Guess we can set up a Polk B-day thread. Fill it with beer and pizza.

Patch wrote:Morning campers

(whispers) Sunday is Polk's birthday.

Morning campers

Patch wrote:

NebulaJack wrote:Another day, another poll. Also, I'll be off to school soon for my first class in a little over a year. Wish me luck.

Let us know how it went

It's off to a good start so far. I'll be doing my first batch of homework tonight, and hopefully it won't melt my brain.

Also, congrats on your kid doing well in football.

Also also, there's a new poll up.

rkwsuperstar wrote:Hey, you can eat anything as long as it's a single-person meal and it's within your per diem. And no alcohol, of course.

No alchohol? But what am I supposed to use to wash down the beer?

James.k.Polk wrote:

Patch wrote:

kegs wrote:

Damn. Now I want to work for you just to see what the weirdest thing I could get away with would be.  "Why yes, I did order the sautéed flamingo, but they were out of veggie burgers so it seemed the obvious choice"

I think we should all go to work for Supes. She just thought the new girl was trouble.

If Arkay wants to see weird, she should come and work for me.

No, thank you, I get enough weird and enough idiocy where I am.

Hey, you can eat anything as long as it's a single-person meal and it's within your per diem. And no alcohol, of course.

kegs wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

NebulaJack wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

James.k.Polk wrote:

Oh, he consumed it.  He was spending money like crazy on this trip.  His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted.  So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed.  Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol.  He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour.  If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.

I can only assum e that working for a large state entity encourages people to become bad liars and borderline thieves.   If I turned in expense report with sightseeing tours and tips included I'd be laughed all the way to the unemployment office.

I only ever knew one guy who could get alcohol reimbursed and it was because he had connections to the company's CEO.  He's not with the company any more and iI miss him.  He was fun to travel with because wealways ended our work day with Long Island ice teas.

When I first started, we didn't collect receipts for meals.  We just paid whatever the per diem was for that city.  So, indirectly, people were getting reimbursed for alcohol, or other things that weren't reimbursable, because we paid the max regardless of what you spent.  Then, when we got into the financial trouble that Rick Perry said we weren't in, we changed to paying for actual meals in an effort to save funds, so itemized meal receipts are now required, and have been for about 4 years now.  People are still resisting it, claiming they don't know that they needed receipts, or that they couldn't pay for someone else's meal, too, but demanding to be paid anyway.  They all think if they don't say anything, it's going to slip through the cracks and get reimbursed, or if they throw a big enough fit in my office, somehow the state will change the rules just for him.

Tips just started being reimbursable in the last couple of years, but you have to use grant money, not state funds for it.  The new thing they are doing now to try to get extra money they didn't spend, is to take their personal cars rather than a state vehicle, and claim mileage.  It's become enough of an issue now that I am starting to be required to do a cost comparison between driving a personal vehicle and any other option (car rental, airfare, etc.) and then we pay whatever the least amount is, regardless of their choice of transportation.  It's a lot of fun for me.

Do you ever get people trying to get reimbursed for weird or embarrassing stuff like watching pornos on the hotel TV?

Not so far, I haven't had anything weird.  

Damn. Now I want to work for you just to see what the weirdest thing I could get away with would be.  "Why yes, I did order the sautéed flamingo, but they were out of veggie burgers so it seemed the obvious choice"[/quote]

Patch wrote:I have to brag on my son. If he keeps playing this way, he's going to give offensive coordinators nightmares.

He plays defensive end and was playing with a bad foot, but still got 10 tackles, stopped them on 4th down twice, stopped their 2 point conversion, busted up their only pass attempt, (7th graders don't throw the ball often) by driving his guy right into the QB, busting up their screen. He stuffed their running back in the backfield 3 times, forced a fumble (they recovered) and drew 2 holding penalties when they couldn't stop him by blocking.

The game ended in a tie 6-6 but he was happy, they didn't score to his side of the field.

He didn't play offense due to the foot, but the coaches said they want to move him from wide out to RB, if his foot gets better soon enough. He's excited about the chance, but really loves playing defense.

Good for him.

I have to brag on my son. If he keeps playing this way, he's going to give offensive coordinators nightmares.

He plays defensive end and was playing with a bad foot, but still got 10 tackles, stopped them on 4th down twice, stopped their 2 point conversion, busted up their only pass attempt, (7th graders don't throw the ball often) by driving his guy right into the QB, busting up their screen. He stuffed their running back in the backfield 3 times, forced a fumble (they recovered) and drew 2 holding penalties when they couldn't stop him by blocking.

The game ended in a tie 6-6 but he was happy, they didn't score to his side of the field.

He didn't play offense due to the foot, but the coaches said they want to move him from wide out to RB, if his foot gets better soon enough. He's excited about the chance, but really loves playing defense.

James.k.Polk wrote:Good morning all.

Today's my only 12 hour work day this week.  also Friday I have meetings in Grapevine and when they are over I have no intention of going back to my store.

Yay for Polk.

Morning Polk. Good for you. (not the 12 hr part, the friday part)

Patch wrote:

kegs wrote:

Damn. Now I want to work for you just to see what the weirdest thing I could get away with would be.  "Why yes, I did order the sautéed flamingo, but they were out of veggie burgers so it seemed the obvious choice"

I think we should all go to work for Supes. She just thought the new girl was trouble.

If Arkay wants to see weird, she should come and work for me.

kegs wrote:

Damn. Now I want to work for you just to see what the weirdest thing I could get away with would be.  "Why yes, I did order the sautéed flamingo, but they were out of veggie burgers so it seemed the obvious choice"

I think we should all go to work for Supes. She just thought the new girl was trouble.

Good morning all.

Today's my only 12 hour work day this week. also Friday I have meetings in Grapevine and when they are over I have no intention of going back to my store.

Yay for Polk.

NebulaJack wrote:Another day, another poll. Also, I'll be off to school soon for my first class in a little over a year. Wish me luck.

Let us know how it went

rkwsuperstar wrote:

NebulaJack wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

James.k.Polk wrote:

Oh, he consumed it.  He was spending money like crazy on this trip.  His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted.  So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed.  Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol.  He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour.  If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.

I can only assum e that working for a large state entity encourages people to become bad liars and borderline thieves.   If I turned in expense report with sightseeing tours and tips included I'd be laughed all the way to the unemployment office.

I only ever knew one guy who could get alcohol reimbursed and it was because he had connections to the company's CEO.  He's not with the company any more and iI miss him.  He was fun to travel with because wealways ended our work day with Long Island ice teas.

When I first started, we didn't collect receipts for meals.  We just paid whatever the per diem was for that city.  So, indirectly, people were getting reimbursed for alcohol, or other things that weren't reimbursable, because we paid the max regardless of what you spent.  Then, when we got into the financial trouble that Rick Perry said we weren't in, we changed to paying for actual meals in an effort to save funds, so itemized meal receipts are now required, and have been for about 4 years now.  People are still resisting it, claiming they don't know that they needed receipts, or that they couldn't pay for someone else's meal, too, but demanding to be paid anyway.  They all think if they don't say anything, it's going to slip through the cracks and get reimbursed, or if they throw a big enough fit in my office, somehow the state will change the rules just for him.

Tips just started being reimbursable in the last couple of years, but you have to use grant money, not state funds for it.  The new thing they are doing now to try to get extra money they didn't spend, is to take their personal cars rather than a state vehicle, and claim mileage.  It's become enough of an issue now that I am starting to be required to do a cost comparison between driving a personal vehicle and any other option (car rental, airfare, etc.) and then we pay whatever the least amount is, regardless of their choice of transportation.  It's a lot of fun for me.

Do you ever get people trying to get reimbursed for weird or embarrassing stuff like watching pornos on the hotel TV?

Not so far, I haven't had anything weird.  [/quote]

Damn. Now I want to work for you just to see what the weirdest thing I could get away with would be. "Why yes, I did order the sautéed flamingo, but they were out of veggie burgers so it seemed the obvious choice"

NebulaJack wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

James.k.Polk wrote:

Oh, he consumed it.  He was spending money like crazy on this trip.  His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted.  So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed.  Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol.  He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour.  If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.

I can only assum e that working for a large state entity encourages people to become bad liars and borderline thieves.   If I turned in expense report with sightseeing tours and tips included I'd be laughed all the way to the unemployment office.

I only ever knew one guy who could get alcohol reimbursed and it was because he had connections to the company's CEO.  He's not with the company any more and iI miss him.  He was fun to travel with because wealways ended our work day with Long Island ice teas.

When I first started, we didn't collect receipts for meals.  We just paid whatever the per diem was for that city.  So, indirectly, people were getting reimbursed for alcohol, or other things that weren't reimbursable, because we paid the max regardless of what you spent.  Then, when we got into the financial trouble that Rick Perry said we weren't in, we changed to paying for actual meals in an effort to save funds, so itemized meal receipts are now required, and have been for about 4 years now.  People are still resisting it, claiming they don't know that they needed receipts, or that they couldn't pay for someone else's meal, too, but demanding to be paid anyway.  They all think if they don't say anything, it's going to slip through the cracks and get reimbursed, or if they throw a big enough fit in my office, somehow the state will change the rules just for him.

Tips just started being reimbursable in the last couple of years, but you have to use grant money, not state funds for it.  The new thing they are doing now to try to get extra money they didn't spend, is to take their personal cars rather than a state vehicle, and claim mileage.  It's become enough of an issue now that I am starting to be required to do a cost comparison between driving a personal vehicle and any other option (car rental, airfare, etc.) and then we pay whatever the least amount is, regardless of their choice of transportation.  It's a lot of fun for me.

Do you ever get people trying to get reimbursed for weird or embarrassing stuff like watching pornos on the hotel TV?[/quote]

Not so far, I haven't had anything weird.

Another day, another poll. Also, I'll be off to school soon for my first class in a little over a year. Wish me luck.

rkwsuperstar wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:

James.k.Polk wrote:

Oh, he consumed it.  He was spending money like crazy on this trip.  His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted.  So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed.  Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol.  He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour.  If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.

I can only assum e that working for a large state entity encourages people to become bad liars and borderline thieves.   If I turned in expense report with sightseeing tours and tips included I'd be laughed all the way to the unemployment office.

I only ever knew one guy who could get alcohol reimbursed and it was because he had connections to the company's CEO.  He's not with the company any more and iI miss him.  He was fun to travel with because wealways ended our work day with Long Island ice teas.

When I first started, we didn't collect receipts for meals.  We just paid whatever the per diem was for that city.  So, indirectly, people were getting reimbursed for alcohol, or other things that weren't reimbursable, because we paid the max regardless of what you spent.  Then, when we got into the financial trouble that Rick Perry said we weren't in, we changed to paying for actual meals in an effort to save funds, so itemized meal receipts are now required, and have been for about 4 years now.  People are still resisting it, claiming they don't know that they needed receipts, or that they couldn't pay for someone else's meal, too, but demanding to be paid anyway.  They all think if they don't say anything, it's going to slip through the cracks and get reimbursed, or if they throw a big enough fit in my office, somehow the state will change the rules just for him.

Tips just started being reimbursable in the last couple of years, but you have to use grant money, not state funds for it.  The new thing they are doing now to try to get extra money they didn't spend, is to take their personal cars rather than a state vehicle, and claim mileage.  It's become enough of an issue now that I am starting to be required to do a cost comparison between driving a personal vehicle and any other option (car rental, airfare, etc.) and then we pay whatever the least amount is, regardless of their choice of transportation.  It's a lot of fun for me.[/quote]

Do you ever get people trying to get reimbursed for weird or embarrassing stuff like watching pornos on the hotel TV?

rkwsuperstar wrote:

James.k.Polk wrote:

Oh, he consumed it.  He was spending money like crazy on this trip.  His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted.  So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed.  Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol.  He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour.  If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.

I can only assum e that working for a large state entity encourages people to become bad liars and borderline thieves.   If I turned in expense report with sightseeing tours and tips included I'd be laughed all the way to the unemployment office.

I only ever knew one guy who could get alcohol reimbursed and it was because he had connections to the company's CEO.  He's not with the company any more and iI miss him.  He was fun to travel with because wealways ended our work day with Long Island ice teas.

When I first started, we didn't collect receipts for meals.  We just paid whatever the per diem was for that city.  So, indirectly, people were getting reimbursed for alcohol, or other things that weren't reimbursable, because we paid the max regardless of what you spent.  Then, when we got into the financial trouble that Rick Perry said we weren't in, we changed to paying for actual meals in an effort to save funds, so itemized meal receipts are now required, and have been for about 4 years now.  People are still resisting it, claiming they don't know that they needed receipts, or that they couldn't pay for someone else's meal, too, but demanding to be paid anyway.  They all think if they don't say anything, it's going to slip through the cracks and get reimbursed, or if they throw a big enough fit in my office, somehow the state will change the rules just for him.[/quote]

Tips just started being reimbursable in the last couple of years, but you have to use grant money, not state funds for it. The new thing they are doing now to try to get extra money they didn't spend, is to take their personal cars rather than a state vehicle, and claim mileage. It's become enough of an issue now that I am starting to be required to do a cost comparison between driving a personal vehicle and any other option (car rental, airfare, etc.) and then we pay whatever the least amount is, regardless of their choice of transportation. It's a lot of fun for me.

James.k.Polk wrote:

Oh, he consumed it.  He was spending money like crazy on this trip.  His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted.  So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed.  Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol.  He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour.  If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.

I can only assum e that working for a large state entity encourages people to become bad liars and borderline thieves.   If I turned in expense report with sightseeing tours and tips included I'd be laughed all the way to the unemployment office.

I only ever knew one guy who could get alcohol reimbursed and it was because he had connections to the company's CEO.  He's not with the company any more and iI miss him.  He was fun to travel with because wealways ended our work day with Long Island ice teas.

[/quote]

When I first started, we didn't collect receipts for meals. We just paid whatever the per diem was for that city. So, indirectly, people were getting reimbursed for alcohol, or other things that weren't reimbursable, because we paid the max regardless of what you spent. Then, when we got into the financial trouble that Rick Perry said we weren't in, we changed to paying for actual meals in an effort to save funds, so itemized meal receipts are now required, and have been for about 4 years now. People are still resisting it, claiming they don't know that they needed receipts, or that they couldn't pay for someone else's meal, too, but demanding to be paid anyway. They all think if they don't say anything, it's going to slip through the cracks and get reimbursed, or if they throw a big enough fit in my office, somehow the state will change the rules just for him.

Oh, he consumed it.  He was spending money like crazy on this trip.  His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted.  So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed.  Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol.  He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour.  If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.[/quote]

I can only assum e that working for a large state entity encourages people to become bad liars and borderline thieves. If I turned in expense report with sightseeing tours and tips included I'd be laughed all the way to the unemployment office.

I only ever knew one guy who could get alcohol reimbursed and it was because he had connections to the company's CEO. He's not with the company any more and iI miss him. He was fun to travel with because wealways ended our work day with Long Island ice teas.

James.k.Polk wrote:

rkwsuperstar wrote:One of our professors went to Manchester, UK, for a conference.  I'm working on his travel reimbursement.  It's all in pounds, so I have to convert it.  He bought some Cokes from the minibar in his hotel room-several times.  Maybe he thought 3 pounds wasn't a bad price...I wonder if he knows that in US dollars, he paid almost $5 for one soda.  He does get reimbursed for it, up to a max per diem allowance, so I'm sure he's not thinking about it as he would if it were completely out of pocket, but he is using his own project money to pay for this.  In 6 months, when he wants to buy something he actually needs, he's going to wonder why he has no money left.

Last time I was in Vegas there were trays of snacks in the rooms.  Even if you just picked an item up but didn't consume it,  the hotel *might* bill you for it.  There's a scale built in your the tray.  They think if you pick it up,  you're probably dropping something else on the tray of a similar weight.  

Oh, he consumed it. He was spending money like crazy on this trip. His wife went with him, and her part isn't covered, but he also seems to forget that everything is adjusted. So if your meal is, for example, $100 and your part is $50, and you've tipped 10% of the total, you don't get the $10.00 tip reimbursed. Your tip is adjusted to meet your part of the meal, minus any alcohol. He gave me a spreadsheet "to save me time" from doing it myself(nice, but I can't use it, we have our forms we are required to use) and he claimed the full amount of the tip on every meal, he claimed newspapers he bought, he tried to claim a bus fee for a sightseeing tour. If you turn in a receipt for a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and then a receipt for a "bus tour" on the same day, and then try to tell me it was from the airport to the hotel, I'm not going to believe you.