Are We Broke Yet?

August is always an expensive month, but this year is especially bad. I feel like I'm just flinging money in all directions!

In order for our children to attend the excellent public schools here, we have to pay for all sorts of things that state funding no longer covers. The parents' club at each school and the local educational foundation each request a large donation per child to cover what they provide (music, art, languages, textbooks, other optional things like that). Then there's all the other stuff. For M, I was surprised by the cost of the yearbook ($105), resigned to paying for new PE clothes ($30) and an optional school sweatshirt ($40), and utterly appalled by the $75 charge for his required ID card. Oh, and we had to prepay for his school photo, sight unseen. (He came home from registration today, and informed me that, of course, his photo was hideous.)

B's yearbook was cheaper, and her ID is free, but the requested donation at the middle school is nearly twice what the high school requests. We prepaid her lunches for a semester, and we also prepaid her ballet school tuition for the next year (we get a discount if we do that).

On top of the expected school expenses, we had a couple surprises this month. First, our oven door refused to open when DH tried to bake cookies. After calling several highly recommended appliance repairman, we were informed that we had to go through the manufacturer's designated service people. We got an appointment last Friday, and found that we need a new door latch kit, which has to be special-ordered from the manufacturer. Next, our minivan's oil change turned into oil change + two new tires + new front axle. Finally, the tree in our backyard (which has been in need of a trim for a while) suddenly started dropping large branches not only in our yard, but also in our neighbors', so we made an emergency appointment with a tree trimmer.

For any appliances/cars/kids who may be listening, we're out of money, so please stop asking for more!

Electrical Mysteries

We purchased our Honda Odyssey in 2003, and it's been an extremely reliable car. It has had a few electrical quirks, which I understand are fairly common. About five years ago, the clock on the dashboard stopped lighting up. The clock kept time, but I couldn't read it at night. When we asked the dealership about it, we decided it wasn't worth the time and effort to removed the dashboard and investigage.

About a year ago, the clock suddenly lit up again! At the same time, the right-hand climate control knob (the one that controls the rear heat/AC) stopped lighting up, so we joked that there wasn't enough electricity to turn everything on at the same time.

On Wednesday night, as I was driving to Voci rehearsal, the car started to warm up, then about 1.5 miles from my house, the heater fan simply stopped. I tried turning everything off and back on, without any success. I turned the whole thing off, parked it for three hours while I was at rehearsal: still no fan. Now, since I live in California, I can get by without heat or AC most of the year, but I discovered the following night that the defroster was considerably more important: I spent a cold & rainy night driving with my window open so the windshield wouldn't keep fogging up.

Today we got the fan fixed (there's some power transmitter that often goes out). Lo and behold, everything on the dashboard now lights up properly!

Triple Digits

It's hot here! Yesterday was the first day of summer, and it reached 104° at our house. Fortunately, we have just joined the local swim club, so the kids were able to spend some time at the pool, while I sweated under an umbrella.

Today was almost as hot, so I decided to give both of our cars a badly needed wash. In honor of EBMUD's water rationing, I drove the cars onto the front lawn, so that the runoff wouldn't be wasted. (Since I watered the lawn yesterday, does that count as watering two days in a row, which isn't allowed?) The cars look much better now--it's probably been over a year since they were properly washed.

Keep cool, and make sure you have plenty of popsicles :-) We are having fried rice tonight, which is one of M's favorite meals.

Magnetic Tires

This morning, DH got up before I did so that he could pick up a colleague at the airport. As he was putting gas in the minivan, he walked around it and inspected it, as he usually does. Lo and behold, we had yet another flat tire. We have owned this car for five years, and the tires just seem to attract nails and screws. This is the fifth that we can definitively remember, and we're both pretty certain we've forgotten one or more.

The first one happened before we had even put 1000 miles on the car. We drove from San Diego to Berkeley, and discovered a flat tire when we arrived at the hotel. We had to buy a completely new tire, because that one punctured the sidewall. I remember two other incidents from our San Diego years. There was the time we were leaving B's music performance. And the time I backed out of the garage to go to my allergy shot appointment, and heard a "flap flap flap flap" sound. I think there were more. And this is our second flat since moving to the Bay Area a little over a year ago.

So, after picking up B from her slumber party, we headed out to spend the afternoon at Costco. In the 2.5 hours it took them to put our new tires on, we managed to eat lunch, go down every single aisle, and only purchase a half-dozen things (most of which we had planned to get, anyway). Oh, and we tried out several chairs in the garden section.

DH and I have collectively owned five cars since we met each other, and this is the only one that attracts sharp objects. Our other car is driven to many of the same places as this one, and it never gets flats.