I will blink and he'll be 16

As I was brushing my teeth this AM, S calls in - Mommy. I need someone's keys. I asked - what for?. His reply was so casual - I'm going to drive myself to school.

We've asked the kids to buck up and do more for themselves since we've been sick. They've been tucking themselves in at night, Trinks has changed S's bed when he wet it the other night, and overall they have been really picking up the slack for us. I guess S thought driving was the next logical step. Nice try buddy, but I see how you drive in Mario Kart. I have 12 years to turn that into responsible driving.

Parle vous Mario Kart?

Since hubby had a dr appointment at 5:45, I had the priviledge of picking both kids up, cooking dinner (it's still cooking and it's almost 7!!!), coaching S with his homework and paying bills. I know poor me - wah! I was in her trying to pay the cell bill when S calls for help from the living room. He put Pac Man from Playstation in the Wii, the somehow switched it to French. Now we have a new icon for the French Mario Kart. UGHHHHHHHHH!

Strep

F-ing strep yet again. But this time it's hubby and me. Of course in our new, frugal mindset, he went to the dr and got tested for both of us. He's on penicillin. I'm allergic to that, so we'll have to figure this out.

We must be sick

Although Hubby jacked the heat up to 65 last night, the two of us were up pretty much all night shivering. We both are achy, have sore throats and are downright miserable. I learned you should never take Nyquil at 4AM if you hope to be at work on time. Hubs took today off, but I am the only one in my department right now, so I played the role of martyr and went to work. I wrapped up in a blanket/shawl thing and alternated between Dayquil and Advil. Advil wins hands down. I just had one dose left though. During Trinks' class tonight, I will drag myself out to get more.

Changes

I just ordered the new TV. Expect a really good post after March 4 - maybe even from Hortense. On that day, the TV will be delivered, Comcast will install internet and HD cable, Horizon will do the 6 month heating/AC check up, Artesian will update our water meter, and hubby will be home. I'll see if I can get my Promise Pink laptop to arrive on the same day. And then I think we are done spending money for the rest of the year.

And we are going off the grid. After careful consideration, we decided we have no use for a landline. It's going as soon as Comcast comes over and sets up the internet. I didn't want to cancel Verizon internet without something else to back it up. I look forward to only using Verizon for cell phones. Apparently it's the only thing they do well in around here. And I know there are tons of people who have enjoyed good service with Verizon DSL. We just don't happen to be one of them, nor do they care to help us become happy with their services. Just ask "Corey", the latest tool I dealt with over there.

Breaking news.....

Hubby returned from dropping S off at school and brought home a NEW CABLE BOX. Maybe now we can watch proper cable on a broken TV. Since the original cable box didn't even last 2 months and we have been watching cable out of our DVD player for two years, this is pretty exciting.

Toshiba sucks

And I hope their warehouse gets flooded and ruins all of their TVs so no one will have to deal with the damn thing never working. This is the second time in 8 year the stupid thing has broken. Last time it cost $500 and nine months to fix. I think it's time to recycle the piece of shit. Hubby has had his eye on the Consumer Reports best pick for a while. Since it's being phased out it may be worth exploring. And it's not a Toshiba.

So the upside of being very aware of the financial picture is I know we can get a new one. The question is should we? It's clearly a want, not a need. As addicted to Mario Kart as I am, do we really need a 50 inch plasma monster in the living room? I think we watch entirely too much TV as it is. Hubby falls asleep watching TV on the couch every night. Wouldn't we be better off not replacing it? I think I will lose that battle as well as my desire to get rid of cable. Sports will always win.

Blah

I haven't posted anything of substance lately because I have been doing so many incredibly stupid things. Seriously. I can't believe how dumb I have been. I've also been pouring over finance books and working on a budget and trying to figure out where the money is going and how to stop it from going so quickly. I'm a little slow when it comes to financial planning, so it's been taking a while.

So, in the stupid category. I will mention my first completely moronic issue this year. Remember how I raved about Danny Deckchair? LOVED IT! I thought I put it in the lovely Netflix envelope. Guess what? It wasn't Danny Deckchair in the envelope. As near as I can tell, it was Good Will Hunting, one of our most frequently watched movies. So I actually called Netflix, hoping to hear "We'll return that right to you." Nope! They have no idea that the wrong disk was returned. All I can do is return Danny Deckchair. So I got to thinking that they make out so much better on this deal than I do. So far, I haven't returned the movie. The next stupid thing I did is so ridiculous that I will wait the 4-6 weeks it takes to rectify it before I confess.

And in finance. I discovered that we are keeping the house 5 degrees colder than last year and paying tons more money. I don't get it, but we definitely can't afford to keep the heat at 65 anymore. We're getting used to 60 - robes are a good thing. I guess it's colder this year, and electricity is just more expensive. I also discovered we are spending too much on the home phone and internet. I am looking into either dropping the landline to local only or dropping the landline. Hubby wants Vonage, but I'll have to compare. The good news is we will soon ditch Trinks' dance fee of $59/month, just after spending $18 per ticket to see her show. I already spent $70 on the costume and that doesn't include tights. I explained to her that this is her last year of dance. I can't handle the whole routine anymore, and the expense of it pushes it over the edge. But then we have to set up camps. Ugh. I think if we pull S out of daycare and put him in camps, we won't have to pay for so many weeks that he just isn't there. My dream of sending Trinks to horse camp will have to wait. But it's not all dreary news. I am just looking for ways to cut the expenses so we can do more fun things and take more exciting vacations. I am looking forward to a 3 week trip to Greece in about 10 -15 years. I think it's plenty of time for me to learn some basic Greek.

And that's all I have tonight. Nothing substantial, but just where my mind is these days. Now I can go read a trash book. Phew!

I woke hubby up for this

I laughed so hard I was crying. I can see hubby doing this to a telemarketer. He's already done some pretty funny things to a marketer.

Even the Today Show knows how good these are!

Snuggies are awesome.

What a pain!

A couple of weeks ago our credit card number was compromised. No one at Citi could tell me what happened, but we needed to report the number as lost or stolen. What a pain in the ass! We have so many things linked as auto pay to this card. Essentially it's the only card we have used for the last 14 years. We put everything on the card so we have only one payment per month. It's easy and we get money back. I never realized how many things we have linked to the card until I had to contact all the companies individually.

From this experience, I have to say EZPass DE has the worst website. The person who did the programming never has to use the damn thing. But I fought my way through it and now I can continue to fly through the tolls. Every other company had really easy to use, intuitive websites, or I changed the card in person. These days companies should really go for the good technology. Service is really going to count in this bleak economy.

But the good news is 2 days after we reported the card lost, we received our new cards by Fed Ex at no charge to us. Nice. Let the games begin.

Sometimes I know when not to speak

It's rare, but sometimes I actually THINK before I speak. For example, today I decided to get gas (okay - my car with the FEED ME light on decided for me) so that meant I could leave work, fill the tank and go to the LIBRARY. The library is so awesome at lunch time. I don't have to sign any little people on computers, nor do I have to run around making sure they don't trash the place. So I had about 20 minutes to browse and grab books off the shelf. I'm pretty sure I didn't sing out loud.

But the funny part happened when I was checking out. The very kind librarian let me know I still had two books out Kids and Money and Do It Now - break the procrastination habit. I was just about to blurt out that I was interested in the Do It Now book, but I just hadn't taken the time to read it. Then I realized that I would have to spend about 5 minutes explaining why I was on the floor laughing at my own lame joke, so I kept my mouth shut. But I got some pretty good books - The Tao of Warren Buffet, The Frugal Woman's Guide to a Rich Life, Shiver (a nice trashy murder mystery), Someone to Love and Twenty Wishes (nice trashy books), 7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life. And a Brad Paisley cd.

For Nothing Knew

We had a gathering this weekend for the sole purpose of getting Girl Scout cookies. Yes, you read that correctly. Nothing Knew and Ivy had to bring us our cookies, so we invited Mets Fan (or should I say Steelers fan?) and family to hang out for the day. Of course we played Wii. I think I impressed Nothing Knew with my ability to stay on the road for the most part in Mario Kart. Not bad for only having the game for a week.

So today, we really did nothing. I took the opportunity to "open" new circuits, although I had to do the circuits I don't like to open the star circuit. But, I am proud to say that I came in first for all the star races and opened up the special races and completely bombed. I also got a new character - King Boo. Although I haven't played nearly as long as Nothing Knew, this progress is impressive. I still do my best playing alone.

S comes home tomorrow and can't wait to get his grubby little hands on the "new Wii". He sounds like he really missed the games, but not us. I've missed the little bugger - can't wait to see him.

And if you missed the post of insults from Nothing Knew to me, check it out here. I may have post a transcript of the conversation I overheard on the Myrtle Beach trip, or talk about Chip, Dorito, Chip.