Money out, money in

Yesterday was an exhausting day, though for no traditionally good reasons. Sunday night with nothing really good on TV (the football game was a 62-7 blowout of teams we don't care about and the baseball game is.....baseball, which unless you're a huge sports fan or live in the city of one of the teams playing, is unwatchable anymore), we decided to rent a movie at about 8:30 which didn't finish until about 11:30 and it about another hour before we got to bed.

The next morning started early, 6 a.m., for both of us, leading to my exhaustion. The reason I had to get up was to take my car into "my guy" Dave because my brakes needed work and I wanted him to check out the suspension on my car. Turns out I needed new struts, which isn't unexpected on a car with 120,000 miles on it. Since I bought my Toyota before their company went to hell in a handbasket, it could probably go for another 50,000 miles if I treat it right. The prospect of a car payment makes me bristle, so I was happy to part with the $1,400 to get the car in good working order again. A trip to "my guy" without my car involves walking 6-8 blocks to a train and then walking another 5 blocks or so Dave's garage. It's not bad when the weather is good which is why I wanted to get the work done sooner rather than later. When it gets cold outside, it's an unpleasant trip, especially if you're paying money to do it!!

On the other side of the ledger, I went to the grocery store to get food for dinner and saw a sign that said "$25 gift card with flu shot". Now, I've been wanting to get my flu shot but the timing hasn't been great with how busy I've been (I don't want a weak immune system when I get the shot), but I've been pricing them out at various stores and they run you about $25-$30. So I meandered back to the pharmacy and said "is this deal for real?". Sure enough, though the pharmacist could barely believe it herself, it was a net $4 for the shot! So I got shot up and then the pharmacist says that I can submit the bill to Blue Cross and they'll reimburse me! Outstanding!!

Dinner was porterhouse steaks encrusted with garlic and blue cheese. Those and a bottle of wine is also why I didn't get my entry done last night!!