Back to basics

We're back in the full swing of the school year here, and that means less time for things like blogging... and I miss it! I was surprised about that myself, having truly thought that I'd be a little sick of it by the end of the summer. But I really grew to enjoy it. I guess that's part of my on-going evolution, huh? Look at the old dog learning new tricks!! I know the postings will likely be less frequent for awhile, but I'm really going to try to keep it going... you know, for my loyal fans...

Anyways, in addition to the typical fall line-up of school, work, soccer, and Scouts, we have a couple of projects of note. We are still working on the guest room redo, and are hoping to start painting this weekend. Well, at least we'll spackle and maybe primer... actual paint may be overly ambitious. We have yet to reach the point of total annoyance with the state of the upstairs, so we're still moving at the get-it-done-by-Christmas pace.

We are also in the midst of trying to answer some questions that have been nagging at us for awhile... where does the money go and does it go where we want it to go? It's taken us awhile to figure out what to do to solve these head-scratchers, but we're trying a little something to at least try to gain a little insight. For the months of September, October & November our plan is to buy only what we really need, to keep track of every penny, to buy everything using cash (not even the debit card, but actually cash), and to generally try to tread lighter on the earth. So far, it's been very interesting, and not nearly as hard as one might think it would be. In just the past few weeks we've learned that...

• nothing bad will happen to you if you don't go to Target for two weeks (and you know how I love me a little Target!)
• you can negotiate with the cable company (to the tune of hundreds of dollars a year)
• shopping around for home & auto insurance rates really isn't as painful as you think it will be, and there are some really decent agents out there (most notably the guy who told me to call my existing agent back and ask a very specific question that resulted in my auto rates going down about $350 per year)
• we have a mail-order prescription plan (although the doctor has to write very specific prescriptions so you get what you think you're going to get, but either way it'll save you some bucks)
• you spend a lot less money if you always pay in cash

And as far as the treading lighter on the earth is concerned, I found out that O's school has a paper-recycling dumpster, so I can recycle all the paper that comes through the house and earn the school a little money in the process. The irony, of course, is that most of the paper is from school (homework or memos or newsletters). You gotta wonder if they would need the recycling fundraiser if they would just send less junk home??

The final project to report on is that O & I beat the Lego Indiana Jones game for PS2 that he got for his birthday. We rock!!! Here's the photo evidence....