$$: Doctor & Panda Express (plus unreported expenses)

Posted on | October 20, 2008 |

Doctor co-pay — $50.00
Today’s activities and expenses centered around The Son’s third visit to the pediatric orthopedist to check on the status of his broken left clavicle. Once again, they took x-rays and did a physical exam.

The good news is that The Son is finally rid of that hated sling. He’s not supposed to pick up more than 5 lbs with his left arm and he’s supposed to be very respectful of what his body tells him regarding movement and range of motion.

The bad news is that he’s not laying down bone very quickly. I’ve been a bit worried about this possibility since his dad has a history of not knitting broken bones very well. Unlike his dad who eventually required surgery and a bone graft for a broken femur, we have good reason to hope that The Son’s clavicle will, in time, heal up just fine — it’s just going to take a bit longer.

The doctor said that at this point, getting the arm out of the sling and using it a bit more will increase the blood flow and, hopefully, goose along the healing process. I’ve also laid down the law as far as taking his homeopathic medicine on a more regular basis and I think we’ll push the calcium consumption even more. Luckily, caffeine consumption for minors is already a no-no in our household but I think I’ll encourage further reduction in an already fairly-conservative soda-pop consumption rate. And The Son has agreed to consume cereal with milk for breakfast and include cheese on his sandwiches for the foreseeable future. I see more fresh oranges on the horizon as well.

Panda Express — $6.19
The Son asked if we could stop by Panda Express for some late lunch after the doctor appointment. Thinking ahead to our schedule this week, I offered him the choice of lunch today or on Thursday after our One-To-One Apple computer lesson. He countered by asking if he could pay for his own lunch on Thursday and I buy today. Who could argue with such cleverness?

Plus two Saturday expenses not previously reported:

Hollywood Video — $13.86
Let me start by saying, Ugh! That’s nearly an entire month of Netflix.

What happened was I messed up the Netflix queue. I knew The Daughter had an extended weekend coming up and she specifically asked if she could put a movie at the top of the queue. How could I refuse? The Son and I dominate the queue with our chronological viewing of The X-Files and American-government-themed documentaries. Every once in a while The Husband will inquire so I’ll bump one of his movies to the top. Overall, The Daughter ends up with the short end of the Netflix-queue stick because between two sports, vigorous academic requirements, and a busy social life, she has the least amount of leisure time to devote to watching movies. Honestly, it drives me nuts to have one of her inane chick-flick romantic comedies sit around for the better part of a week (or two) until she can get a chance to watch them. We only get two movies at a time and when one of those two spots grinds to a halt because of The Daughter’s schedule … well, I don’t let that happen very often. Anyway, she requested a movie and put it at the top of the queue but somehow it was preempted. Twice. Although I have no actual memory of having put movies ahead of her selection, I have to admit that I’m most likely to blame for the fact that her movie did not arrive in this weekend’s mail. In fact, it isn’t due to be delivered until tomorrow. And as our mail-delivery-person usually shows up between 4 and 5, it won’t arrive until the evening before she’s due back in school. To make matters even worse, she has a volleyball game tomorrow night. There’s no way she’ll have a chance to watch her movie before she has to return to her usual chaotic grind.

Then, on top of the fact that she didn’t have a movie to watch this weekend, after specifically requesting one, I went and planned a surprise birthday party/sleepover on Saturday night.

So, after the pizza party, I drove The Daughter and 4 of her closest and most giggly friends to Hollywood video to select a few movies for their all-night viewing pleasure. That should have cost me about 8-1/2 bucks. But there was also the matter of the late fee incurred the last time I rented a video and then didn’t get around to returning it on time. So there was a $4.29 “extra rental” fee due.

Did I say Ugh! yet?

Starbucks — $14.36
On the way back from the video store, The Daughter & Friends decided that they all needed a Starbucks treat. Don’t ask me how it happened (my head was already reeling from the giggle-fest) but somehow I was elected to do the paying for the sweet treats. Oh well. They are awfully sweet kids. And they all were on their best behavior and thanked me with their best “Mrs. Suburban Wife, you’re the best” sweet-talking trash. I’d already coughed up for the pizza party and the cake and the snacks and the movies. Why not go that extra mile and get them all a Starbucks?

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