Anne Thrax

Oh yeah. I completely forgot about that. :-)

I was gonna mention earlier that last year Costco switched from Coke to Pepsi products (the pits -- damn straight!). And every single time I've gone there since, I put a note in the "suggestions" book saying that I HATE diet Pepsi, and would actually pay more for the drink cup to be able to fill it with diet Coke instead.

I've been working in the plaintiff-side civil litigation biz in California for over 40 years. Never once heard the phrase "five times medicals" until right now. Just sayin'. Although it's no surprise to me that Vicki would CLAIM to have incurred "hundreds of thousands" in medical expenses, it's absurdly unrealistic to believe any such thing. If she'd been hospitalized in intensive care for a week, THEN I'd believe that. Insurance companies aren't stupid. They have medical staff to review plaintiffs' medical records to determine the actual injuries incurred and the appropriate amount of treatment for them, and believe it -- they don't pay for more than what they decide is appropriate. Furthermore, if someone is deemed to have over-treated on the physical therapy, they won't recover the whole amount. Also, I personally had 2 MRIs in the past 3 months. Total charges sent to my insurance company were around $2,600 each. I was out of pocket $165 for each one, and I have the crappiest PPO coverage known to man and a huge unsatisfied deductible. Of course, if a claimant's attorney believes the amount being offered in settlement is too little, he or she is free to take them to trial. And most lawyers simply won't to go to trial on personal injury cases where the injuries are not life threatening or caused permanent disabilities, or where there might be quasi-workers comp issues. Jury trials are just too costly and the outcome is uncertain at best. That's what I've seen. Many, many times over.

I sincerely doubt Vicki would be able to "walk away" with a seven figure settlement for that accident, since she probably was required by Bravo to sign some sort of waiver of liability before going on the trip. And anyway, rule of thumb in the industry is three times medicals. She wasn't even admitted to the hospital so her medicals are probably in the $10,000 or $12,000 range (a lot of which was probably covered by her medical insurance policy) she most likely didn't miss any time from her all-important WORK so no lost wages claim, and I doubt she suffered any permanent injury she could claim limits her ability to work or do other things, so my guess is if she's entitled to any recovery, it would be maximum low- to mid-five figures. And surprise -- if she recovers any money on the accident, her medical insurer will investigate fault and put a lien on the settlement in order to be reimbursed for whatever they paid out for her medical expenses.

Not if it's done properly. (crap: I can't get rid of this box below)

I wish I had a dollar for every time I turned around at some store and Mr. Thrax was nowhere to be seen. I suppose I could cop an attitude and immediately take off in the car, but you know what I do in that situation? I call him on his cell phone, and guess what happens then? We find each other pretty quickly.

No, you're misstating my post. I never said Meghan was selfish for wanting a child. Had she married a man with no children (for example, someone her own age) or a man whose children were already raised to majority, I'd have no problem with it. What I said Meghan was selfish for was pushing HIM to make another one, when everyone can see his record for staying married and raising them to adulthood is zero for four. THAT is what I have a problem with. If you want a child, then DON'T marry a man who has a current responsibility to raise existing minor children -- and Jim has been a real failure at that. Twice already. He got divorced both times, and now he sees his kids whenever he can fit them in amongst all the other women and children in his life, not to mention his work commitments. In my book that does NOT qualify as proper parenting. And the odds of his making the same mistake again in this marriage are far greater than in his previous marriages. Too selfish for words -- it's the prospect of Meghan's baby as the FIFTH one of Jim's kids growing up with divorced parents that worries me. As for criticizing her sob-fest -- let's don't forget that everyone in the room knew or should have known that this was a gamble, especially because they chose a less viable embryo which they were informed the male was. When someone bets the rent money on a crap game, I just cannot muster any sympathy for tears in the event they roll snake-eyes. And since you brought up Meghan's step-children, I'm taking bets on how long she can maintain the fiction of her professed great love for them as if they were her very own once Baby Girl makes her debut.

I have a friend whose only child was conceived via IVF at Loma Linda University -- pioneers in this technology. She told me that the embryos are ranked according to some sort of 1-10 scale that takes into consideration each one's viability (gawd knows how that's arrived at). She had x number to choose from, and they were advised to implant two, so they chose the only two that were ranked a 10. The rest were ranked lower and are still frozen somewhere all these years later (their son will graduate college next summer). She said they were happy with one healthy baby, and didn't want to risk trying again with any of the lower ranked ones and be disappointed that it didn't work out, since they had to mortgage their home for the first try. I think the only reason Jim had his sperm frozen prior to the vasectomy was NOT because he thought he might someday want more, but because he fell for a killer sales pitch from the cryo-folks who make major beaucoup bucks keeping such things in the deep freeze indefinitely. In Meghan and Jim's case, they chose the strongest one, which was female (I'm guessing Jim throws mostly girls) and then decided to risk a lower ranked one because it was, IIRC, the only male in the bunch. So Meghan threw the dice anyway knowing the male was risky, and she STILL couldn't be an adult about her choice not panning out. To my eye, Jim didn't seem the least bit disappointed, and I think Meghan made up that story about him being SO devastated that he wanted to have another look. If you listen to the man's words at the time, he kept saying "it's okay" over and over. I think because it was okay with him, and he was letting her know he didn't feel let down. I mean, he already has a son, so it's not as if he would be deprived of ever having one. Personally, I think they should both be horsewhipped for bringing another child of his into the world when he already has four children, ALL with broken homes, and HALF of whom still need raising. Selfish on both their parts, but I fault Meghan more because she pushed so hard for him to make another one.

Yeah, thanks for your kind invitation -- I'm there. Bringing chips and my nobody-can-resist guacamole too to go with the wine and cheese.

Given what we've learned about David's mother and father, it suddenly becomes clear that the apple didn't fall far from the Beador family tree. I mean, David pulled some pretty sucky shit all on his own. After seeing what spawned him, I remembered that he once handed his wedding ring to one of his daughters to return to their mother. He knew the side piece's kids were on the same basketball team with his own children, and that said side piece went on to cultivate Shannon's friendship. NOW we hear that Beador Senior deserted his marriage, and David's side piece had dinner at mama's house. My advice to Shannon is to keep the vodka and tequila handy. It'll be easier to stand being married to this guy for the years remaining til the children leave for college.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only cynic who thought Megan was SO devastated mainly because it's not as Special to give birth to just one baby. And even though the embryo was at the stage where it still could be mistaken for a reptile, all her sniveling about "losing our baby boy" makes me wanna hurl. It was an embryo FFS -- not all embryos make it, whether man-made or naturally occurring. Stop acting as if it was a fully developed infant that she carried for months. There was probably a reason for what happened there, so I hope she is satisfied with her "healthy girl", and doesn't go all "I'll always celebrate that 4-weeks-along embryo that never developed". It would get tiresome after about the second mention. Okay, going to my corner now to face the wall.

Unfortunately, this is SO true. My MIL (hubby is her only child) finally kicked off after we'd been married 31 years -- a couple of weeks before her 90th birthday.

Well, can't blame them there -- money is SO much easier to love than Vicki.

I watched the rollover several times, and the cause was definitely due to Tamra's shitty driving. Had she steered right at the top of the dune instead of left (stupid!), they'd likely have zoomed straight to the bottom of the dune with nary a mishap worse than contracting temporary hearing loss having to listen to Vicki's ear-splitting screaming as if she was being knifed to death. Oh, and pop that beer afterward, Kelly! My god she probably went half an hour without an alcohol infusion.

Actually, Nanny Pants - it used to be one year. In California now, it's two years after the accident.

Vicki would do well to take this as a sign of things to come. My brother is an LVN in a nursing home, and he told me once that there are more than a few patients there who don't have visitors. Since Vicki has made a career out of being a self-centered pain in the ass to everyone, if she ever has to live in a nursing home, she better get good at Rummy or Canasta or something, cuz she's going to be one of the ones who doesn't have many visitors. Sad but true -- an undeniable example of reaping what one sows.

Maybe someone else has pointed this out, but no way! The only action Vicki could possibly bring against Bravo for her injuries at Glamis is a worker's comp claim. Your employer can injure you with much more impunity than anyone else. You don't get near as much in a settlement in a worker's comp claim as you would in a civil lawsuit. Plus, I don't believe Vicki was all that seriously injured if they released her after only 9 hours.

This -- for certain! When Vicki and Bri were leaving OK, I thought it was a little bizarre how huggy-kissy she was with him, when not that long ago she SO had her nose out of joint because he married her daughter without HER permission. Vicki must be so horribly starved for close physical contact with a male person at this point that she'll even use her son-in-law to get her jollies. Just ick. No, Double Ick!!

Damn right!! We bought our home in an OC beach town during our 3rd year of marriage and still live in it today after raising our 3 kids here. We did get help from FIL -- he donated his real estate commission on our purchase. But we lived here for 7 years(!) before we could afford proper draperies in the living room. Before that, we had bed sheets covering the windows. And we felt LUCKY!

Didn't you know narcissists don't really give gifts? They make deals that they take credit for as gifts. And don't try to say it isn't a gift, either or you'll get an earful about how ungrateful you are when they were being so good to you.

Lordy those lips!! And the huge veneers!! She does this thing with her upper lip sometimes in her THs that I swear makes her look like Mr. Ed's little sister.

I've been with you on that, Scottish Girl, for a while -- it really bugs me too. It's SO disingenuous of her to use it as a cheap, silly mannerism that's merely an attention-seeking ploy to her. Plus when she's doing it, her hand looks like a wet dishrag that doesn't even make contact with the stations of the cross. It's obvious she has never been taught the proper way to do it, which indicates to me that she's never been Catholic to begin with. So phony baloney and not fooling anyone.

Ugh! I'm wondering how his young daughters know their father has wet dreams? I mean, just UGH!!

Talula -- I think you meant Michelangelo's statue of David. :-)

Thank you very much, RedheadZombie, for your wonderfully articulate analysis rendering a view of Jim from a different angle. We needed that (or at least I did).