I forgot to mention -- yes, Grace and I had a wonderful time in DC with the whole fam damily. More to follow later. Check out some photos!

Being a grown-up is an expensive proposition.

I don't think I want to be one anymore!

For those of you who have been following the refrigerator saga, the fridge still is not dead. For this there is much rejoicing. However, it did attempt to assert its supremacy over J, who was caring for my house while I was gone, but J promptly laid down the smackdown and now the fridge knows who's boss. In other words, it's working perfectly. The freezer is holding within the Safe Zone marked on my $3 freezer thermometer, and so I am quite happy.

While the fridge was attempting to assert its supremacy, it decided to stop working and leak the melted ice all over my kitchen floor. By the time J realized what was leaking, the temperature inside my fridge was way too high for food safety. Hence, I lost all of my refrigerated items.

Which brings us to the first point as to why being a grown-up is so expensive. I had to replace most everything in my fridge to the tune of $130. Seeing as my normal commissary bill is more like $60 when I live alone, this is a lot of money.

I did also find a dead container of ricotta cheese in my fridge that was so gross I would have puked had I not had the foresight to hold my nose and breathe shallowly through my mouth.

Gross.

Another thing that happened while I was gone was the kitchen sink decided to leak all over the inside of my cupboards. J noticed it only when it overran the bounds of the cupboards and soaked my kitchen rug. So she shut off both the hot and cold water supplies to prevent more leaks. Yesterday I had the plumber out (I had figured out it was the hot water supply that was leaking), and I have a new hose for my hot water supply that cost me $6. The labor to install this hose cost me $90. The plumber had to charge me for an hour's worth of work even though it took him five minutes to change.

What gets me (and it's so not his fault) is Kurt attempted to change that hose out right before he left. Unfortunately we bought the wrong size hose, and ran out of time to get the right hose before he left. This meant I could have saved $90 in labor if he had time to do it.

That is the second point to why being a grown-up is so expensive.

Third point: The original plan for getting me to the airport on June 1 was to take my husband's SUV, which J would drive back home for me. This way I paid for gas and the truck got a good long drive since it's 100 miles to the airport from here. Everything was packed into the truck, Grace was strapped in to her car seat, and we were on our way. Only when I turned the ignition, I just got a lot of clicking.

We piled everything into J's minivan and left my truck to rot in the driveway.

I thought it was the starter gone bad, so I emailed Kurt when I got back to Washington to ask if he minded if I just left the truck sit for the next four months. He was okay with it, and I figured I didn't really need two vehicles at my disposal. But yesterday I tried to start it again, and this time I had no electricity at all. This morning I jumped it with my car and took it to Sears for a new battery. They also replaced my serpentine belt (which cost me $55 for the part and $45 for labor) as well as installing ($10) a new DieHard battery ($65), which brought my total up to $180 for the day.

But with the new serpentine belt I swear the truck runs better. Usually the clock to the radio starts running slowly, and I didn't notice it doing that. Then again, it may not have had time to run down yet. Also the cruise control is working like a champ now, which hasn't happened since we moved here two years ago. So I'm wondering if (A) the new serpentine belt is causing the electrical system to behave (the mechanic told me if it went bad, I wouldn't have an electrical system anymore), or (B) the mechanics knocked around some wires to the point where the cruise control decided to behave again. Either way I am a happy camper.

Which brings us to the moral of the story -- it's expensive being a grown-up!!!

I think I'll fly back to Never Never Land now...