A Busy, Busy, Expensive Week

Yesterday evening, DH took B to her ballet class, while I went to a meeting at her school about fifth-grade camp. Our rule is that whoever has the kids gets the minivan, so I got to drive the Saturn. On the way to school I noticed that it was even harder to steer than usual: when I got home, both front tires were noticeably low on air. We've known for several months that the car needs new tires, but haven't gotten around to taking care of it. This morning DH went out to look at it, and the left front tire is entirely flat.

So, the schedule for today ended up starting with driving DH to work. Normally we carpool, but I was already planning to work at home because of some other things on the schedule. He would have taken the car in for new tires today, but he had an appointment with the optometrist. (Yes, he needs new glasses, and so do I--my appointment was yesterday.) Tires are on the schedule for tomorrow morning.

First planned stop of the day: B got her braces off this morning, and her upper teeth look beautiful . But, the orthodontist has referred her to an oral surgeon to have four ankylosed baby teeth removed a.s.a.p.

Next scheduled stop: Poppy gets to go to school this afternoon. M's science class is having Dog Day, when students bring in their dogs. (They're studying genetics right now.) At least this one isn't going to cost us anything, other than a $3.99 bag of doggie treats.

Then, a quickie house cleaning before the piano teacher arrives. Dinner will be a frozen lasagna (B requested homemade, but I told her it wasn't going to happen this week.)

I've spent almost all of my spare time this week balancing the checkbook. Every year we swear we won't wait twelve months to do it, and every year we end up doing it all in February and March. I do have to balance the checkbook before I can do our taxes, because of the myriad of work expenses and reimbursements and honoraria that DH accumulates every year.

S&P dress rehearsal tonight from 7:00-10:00. Come hear us this weekend!

Procrastinators Unite!

Taxes are finally done, and have been e-filed. Every year it happens later and later. The tax forms are not the problem: I've been using TurboTax for years, and it makes filing taxes much less of a chore, even a little bit fun. My personal holdup is that fact that I need to sort out the previous year's expenses before doing taxes, and since I procrastinate entering things into the "checkbook" (a.k.a. Quicken), it takes a really long time to organize twelve months of receipts and bank statements. Every year, I tell myself I won't let things slide for a year, and every January I suddenly realize another year has gone by.

There are other things I tend to procrastinate on, too. In about half an hour, I'm leaving to get my hair cut. I just realized, after entering all those receipts, that it's been a full year since the last time I got a haircut. I MEANT to get it cut last fall (I aim for twice a year, since I have long hair), but again I just never got around to making the call. This time, I'm trying a salon closer to home (the previous one was picked for its proximity to B's old ballet school, which she left two years ago), and B is also coming along for a cut.