I am CuTRis

...bore me bore  2   (bôr, bōr) tr.v. bored , bor·ing , bores To make weary by being dull, repetitive, or tedious: The movie bored us. n. One that is wearingly dull, repetitive, or tedious. [ Origin unknown .]     Perhaps there are too many award shows???  

Created with a flashlight and an 8 second shutter speed - Kevin J. Curtis

Do you really want to go in there??? "Mark of the Beast"

I found out that I still have money in an HSA from when I worked for the school district. I won't mention what school district because they were paranoid about my blog and tried to end my freedom-of-speech with intimidation when I was at the ALC. Anyway, the rules to getting reimbursed seem arbitrary and sometimes I need the Explanation of Benefits (and sometimes not) from the insurance company—even when the amounts paid and owed are already shown on the bills and receipts submitted. After my latest attempt to get reimbursed (the previous attempt went unpaid and had to be resubmitted), I was growing annoyed by the idiotic policies and so I sent this note with my EOB and resubmitted claim. Hi NAME REMOVED, After only 10 minutes on hold with INSURANCE COMPANY NAME, I was able to get the EOB for the claim that was denied. I hope this is all the documentation necessary to prove I am not trying to falsely get my money from my medical reimbursement account as outlined by SCHOOL ...

If the minimum wage is raised so that dishwashers are making $10 per hour and college graduates are making about the same amount for entry-level jobs, what does that mean to the economy? Should this be market-driven or artificially set by the government? I think it is a legitimate question since so many incentives/bailouts have failed so miserably.

Not since the Halloween Storm of 1991, have I seen the roads as bad as they were for so long as from Friday through this past weekend. This morning, while better, the roads are still slippery in places where the ice is stuck to the pavement. Here are two images from Friday afternoon showing the highways and freeways coated with a thick layer of ice. This is also how it looked Saturday morning when I was out. Hwy 36 East 35E South

Click any photo to enlarge and click "back" to go back. 94 East - DT St. Paul    35E North 36 West - Icy   Ramp from Lexington to W36 - pushing cars  Lexington Ave. N. 

Yesterday, I sent this message to SuperAmerica corporate contact. All of your SuperAmerica stores have signs that say, 'free gas for a year.' I would like to get my free gas. Can I just fill up and leave, or do I need to 'check in?' I am ready to start receiving my free gas as your advertisement states. Also, is there a limit; like 10 gallons per day? I will need to know that. Thanks, CuTRis So far I have received no response.

  Now that the weather has gotten warmer, there are already panhandlers at numerous freeway off ramps—begging for money. They all have signs that say they are out-of-work and homeless. Some have children to feed and some say they are veterans. Many are none of those things and are looking for money without working. I've always thought about standing out there with a sign like this one. However, I don't think I would really want to do it—even though it makes me laugh!

My nephew Mason is in the hospital again. It is the fifth day since he went to emergency. Say an extra prayer for him.

When I was a child, my parents found that I was never satisfied with a meal from the children's menu when they took me to a restaurant . Mostly this was because there was no salad . I have always liked salad, even as a child. Now that I have my own child, I am dismayed by the children's Menu at pretty much every restaurant. They are filled with uninteresting, not particularly nutritious food choices. Apparently children mostly eat macaroni and cheese, hotdogs, and other foods that I don't normally feed my child. These foods while lacking as a healthy diet, also wouldn't cost me $7 if I made it at home. I can buy an entire box of macaroni and cheese for under $1 on sale. At the restaurant my child is getting a small portion of that for $5 to $8. Since my son is two-years-old, my wife and I can usually feed him some of what we are having. I imagine soon that will be unacceptable both on the restaurant side and ours--as he begins to eat more as he gets older. In fact, ...

More Snow!

It's always fun to listen to an Australian hunter from the Outback . In the USA, we probably have seen one of these guys on TV saying something like in the video below. If you want to talk like this, it is best to find a good hat to set the mood. It can get pretty hot and dusty in the Outback.

Driving in the car, I like to ask my son what color the traffic lights are and then I tell him that green means "go" and red means "stop." We talk about all sorts of things like that. So when I pointed out the big, beautiful full moon to him, he commented on it being round and yellow. Since it was low on the horizon, the moon soon disappeared behind the buildings of downtown St. Paul . That's when my two-year-old said that we would "see another moon!" I told him that I was pretty sure Earth only has one moon . Boy was I wrong! Another mile or so up the road and it turns out he was right!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all! My wife has planned ours. We will be babysitting our two nephews that evening. It wasn’t what I had in mind and I really didn’t expect it; though I probably should have. Have a great day!

Contact me if you are looking for a programming job in the Twin Cities.

My son enjoyed lunch and the music at the Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter yesterday.  

Just kidding!

I was at Target and the cashier asked if I wanted to open a Target charge card. I said, "no I don't-- haven't you heard? " She started laughing and said "they" told her she has to ask everyone... No hard feelings Target , but if I bought an ice cream cone and it blew up all over my shirt, if the ice cream guy asked me if I wanted to buy another one I would say 'no' to him too.

CuTRis Found Guilty by Turkish Internet Law UnAssociated Press February 7, 2014 CuTRis has been found guilty under a new Turkish Internet Law for posting pictures of turkeys on the Internet and claiming that they are Turkish government officials . Apparently this was against the law.

Like Syria, Iran, China, North Korea and others, Turkey has joined the list of countries who are both blocking and monitoring use of the Internet . Freedom of Speech is a scary thing for any government that wants to exert control over its citizens. By blocking news, information and outside ideas, that control is easier to maintain. By monitoring who is accessing what kind of sites, people can be watched and possibly arrested at the discretion of the government leadership. Except for use in fighting terrorism and exploitation of vulnerable individuals, I can see few legitimate reasons to do this. Most often it is to secure power for a regime's political and/or religious doctrine. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/05/turkey-internet-censorship/5220339/

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is warning airlines of the threat of explosives in toothpaste tubes—especially on flights to the Olympics in Sochi . This is ridiculous! I don't mean the warning. I mean that a tube of American toothpaste in a country like Russia could likely fetch a price on the Black Market , that could probably sell for enough to buy ten explosives on the same Black Market! Why would any terrorist waste his time trying to smuggle explosives on an airplane ? It really makes no sense at all. I certainly hope that modern terrorists are smart enough to figure that out!

I think I mentioned before that I watch the old Batman series with my two-year-old son. He likes the theme song. I was asking him if he could say the different names of the characters like Robin and Chief O'Hara. He can say the names pretty well! Then I asked him if he could say, "Commissioner Gordon." Now I am pretty sure I have heard him say, "Gordon" before, but he has a toy train named, Gordon, that he has always called (we don't know why), "Burpay." So when asked if he could say, "Commissioner Gordon," he promptly replied, "Commissioner Burpay." That was good for a laugh, as it was not what we were expecting!

Click for "Let Her Go"

The bag of snacks you're eating says, "about 6 serving s." Realistically, you now know that you can multiply the calories, fat and sodium (listed on the label) by 6 because you are probably going to eat it all. In fact, if you split up the contents into 6 even portions, it would not satisfy you and 5 of your friends.

What were you doing 10 years ago? Probably not wasting 8 hours per month on Facebook like you are today...

By the time Bastardly realized that all his money was used up, he was out of booze and didn't have enough to buy a pizza! His wife, Jena Sequa, was normally ill tempered and now with no money, and no drugs, she was downright impossible! Bastardly had by this time, reached the only logical decision to reclaim his wealth and lifestyle. He would rob a bank! Bastardly knew little about bank robbery. In fact, he knew little about anything at all. He decided to go out for a walk to think. Thinking was not something that Bastardly was very good at. One thing that Bastardly did have going for him, was that he was lucky. For some reason, in spite of his low intelligence and desire to spend his life in a drunken stupor, Bastardly somehow always had enough money—until now. As he tried to think, he was suddenly amused by one of his own fart s. As he laughed out loud, he noticed a strange looking dude nearby. The dude waved a stringy arm at him. Bastardly thought the guy must be an alien—...

Boy was I wrong that Denver might win! I thought I was watching the Vikings! The Broncos folded up from the start. Hats off to Seattle. It is nice to see a team that never won before take the championship game. I still think Peyton Manning is a class act. Now we go the rest of the winter with no football...