Day 225: Dining, Toiletries, Pictures, Contractor, and a Tournament

Posted on | April 13, 2008 |

Another big spending day.  How long has it been since I had an honest to goodness “no spend” day?  Too long.

The day started out poorly because the contractor I hired to repair and refinish our deck – one, didn’t show to start the job on Saturday as he’d said he would (in his defense, the weather was questionable) and, two, showed up over an hour later than he’d estimated.  I wanted to be here when he showed up so I sent The Husband off to take the kids to church hoping that I’d get away in time to attend the service.  It didn’t work out that way and, in fact, I barely got away in time to pick the children up before everyone else had gone home.

I could have had The Husband stay with the children or pick them up instead of me but I’d promised them bagels afterward and a trip to the mall for stage two of The Son’s shaving equipment procurement.

So here’s the day’s expenses:

Einstein Bros. Bagels — $15.14
We purchased a Dozen Bucket Deal (a baker’s dozen of bagels and two tubs of schmear).

I let The Son have a bottled soda because he asked and, well, why not?  He drinks more soda than I’d like (but then, is the absense of all soda really reasonable in this day and age?) but if you’ve followed my grocery purchases for the past 224 days you’ll see that I rarely buy pop for household consumption.  For the most part, the kids’ soda consumption is limited to dining-out occasions.  The Daughter passed on a drink of any type; not thirsty, I guess.  I was thirsty and would have jumped at an Odwalla or some such but Einstein’s alternative-drink selection is pathetic.

The Art of Shaving — $79.71 (and $12.93)
Last week I ordered shaving equipment (razor, brush, and blades) for The Son — a beginning shaver.  Today, The Daughter and I accompanied him to The Art of Shaving to choose his products.  The Daughter and I had visited this store Friday a week ago to research the various products available locally and we’d decided on the scent that we thought The Son should choose — Sandalwood.  We thought to today’s visit would be more ceremonial than anything.  But those 13-yos, with minds of their own….  Naturally, he didn’t agree with us that Sandalwood was a manly scent.  He didn’t like it.  He liked the Lemon instead.  Actually, in retrospect, I’m not all that surprised that he chose Lemon.  The Husband is a Lemon-Lime scent guy.  The Son probably associates with the scent — even if just subconsciously.

The second, smaller purchase was for a styptic pen — because there’s no harm in hedging our bets.  He is, after all, brand new to the world of razor blades.  

ImageTek — $26.00
Small package of baseball photos of The Son and his team.

In the past, I’ve always ordered a small package and every year the photos are, well, okay.  At best.  Last year, I didn’t pay for any extra photos so we only received a team photo and a small individual photo given to each player as part of their team participation. And, naturally, last year’s photo was adorable.  This year I’ve decided that I prefer the risk of getting several less than spectacular photos to getting only one really good photo.

Baseball Coach — $37.50
The Son’s portion of an upcoming weekend tournament.

Deck Contractor — $500.00
Our deck hasn’t been refinished since we bought the house 5 years ago — and it probably needed it even back then.  For me, the biggest hurdle to having work like this done is finding someone reputable to do it.  I don’t have a huge circle of friends living the same lifestyle in the same area so I can’t call on them for references.  Not many of my neighbors have a deck so I can’t look there — besides, most of the families around here have DIY dads in residence.  I found this particular fellow on Craigslist.  I have faith that everything will go well.

This payment was the required amount to finalize the contract bid and get the work started.

Related Posts for Further Reading

• $$: Groceries, an Odwalla, & “Harvey”
• $$: NPR, Gas, Groceries, Health Care, & ….. Paint
• $$: Chocolate Milk, Chocolate Candy & Snow Pants, etc.
• Day 235: Dinner & The Theater, etc
• Day 218: Food, Parking, and a Shaving Kit
• Day 202: Jackhammer, Handyman, Easter, and a Plain Black Tee

Comments