Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 pm by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Photo, Smurfling | 3 Comments »

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s good to know that Duncan’s pre-school isn’t too worried about being politically correct and had all of the kids go all out in honor of good old Squanto.

I didn’t see a single pilgrim hat…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 26th, 2009 at 5:55 am by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Photo, Smurfling | 2 Comments »

Duncan’s Turkey and Black Friday 1992

So tonight when I picked up my son, who turns 6 months old tomorrow, from school, as we made our way through the hallway back out to the car, four people stopped to wish him a Happy Thanksgiving.

By name.

Granted, three of them *were* employees of the school but, still, it’s apparent that he makes an impression on people. I have no idea who the fourth woman was but apparently she knows my son, again, by name.

That’s pretty cool considering I’m one of those people that thinks most babies look the same.

I once had a math teacher in high school that thought my name was Jeff for the entire school year. Mr. Sopelak was his name.

I’ll always wonder how I managed an A- in his class when, in his mind, Brainy Smurf never once attended one of his classes.

Anyway, I thought of that today as I loaded Duncan into the car because it was Black Friday back in 1992 when my mom and I ran into Mr. Sopelak and his wife outside of a now defunct department store called G. Fox.

The doors weren’t open yet and there were only a handful of people outside waiting for the store to open. Mr. Sopelak recognized me, came over, and had an impromptu parent-teacher conference with my mother to pass the time.

He referred to me as “Jeff” repeatedly. Thankfully my mom, though confused, just went along with it.

See, it wasn’t until that moment that I realized that my math teacher had absolutely no idea what my real name was.

Sure, I should have noticed in class that when he’d call on “Jeff” to answer a question and no one would answer. And then I’d notice him staring at me as I silently stared back wondering why exactly he was looking at me. I guess I just thought he was, I dunno, weird.

Either way, I never did respond well to “Jeff”. In fact, I still don’t.

Over time, though, it almost became an inside joke in the classroom. He’d call on Jeff. I’d, as you’d expect, completely ignore him, the girls in the class would giggle, and then I’d kick in with an answer after like 20 seconds of awkward silence.

In hindsight, it *was* pretty funny.

The guy must’ve thought “Jeff” was a space cadet.

Brainy, however, was worth an A-.

Go figure?

So, basically, I never made an impression and, based on tonight, I doubt that Duncan will have the same problem I did.

Posted on November 25th, 2009 at 7:58 pm by Brainy Smurf
Life, Smurfling | No Comments »

Photo of the Week: In the Toy Box

It’s been, well, over 5 months since I last did a “Photo of the Week” and since I don’t really have anything on-topic to write about today, I figured I’d just go all Mommy-Blog…

Today while cleaning Duncan’s room we decided to put him in the toy box too. And then take a picture.

Exciting stuff, let me tell you, at the Smurf household…

Posted on November 7th, 2009 at 12:01 pm by Brainy Smurf
Photo, Smurfling | 3 Comments »

The Great Pumpkin: 59¢ per Pound

So this morning we headed out on a daytrip to go and pick our pumpkin for 2009. We do this every year but this was the first time we’ve made the trip as a trio.

First we took a hay ride…

Then we roamed the fields…

And then we found the great pumpkin!

Weighing in at just over 16 pounds, he was less than $10… Such a deal.

Posted on October 11th, 2009 at 4:19 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Current Events, Photo, Smurfling | No Comments »

An Overpriced Rubber Spoon and some Beech-Nut

Today we decided, as experienced parents of over four months now, that today was the day that Duncan was going to eat dinner at the table.

A lot of preparation and money went into this. No — seriously.

Aside from the food, we had to buy him a chair to sit in and even a spoon to use.

Total cost — around $160.

I’ve never even had a $60 meal. I came close once.

Actually, no, I’ve never come close…

I’m just recalling that one time that I somehow ended up picking up the bill for an ex-girlfriend’s night out with friends to the tune of around $200. The place didn’t even have free refills… Ugh…

Makes me angry just thinking about it…

Anyway, going all “Mommy-blog” now; Duncan did just fine.

He swallowed a few spoonfuls…

Spit a few back out…

..and then he wiped his own face.

All in all, I’d call it a successful day.

Posted on October 3rd, 2009 at 8:06 pm by Brainy Smurf
Smurfling | 4 Comments »

Four Months and Counting…

Well, it’s now been four months since my son was born and though we bought him a highchair just for the occasion, I’ve gotta say…kids are definitely worth the added expense.

(For the record, I only wrote this post because Debt Destroyer called Pants in a Can a “Mommy Blog” last week. Perhaps I should change my theme…)

Posted on September 26th, 2009 at 8:41 pm by Brainy Smurf
Life, Smurfling | 7 Comments »

90 Days In…

I’ve officially been a parent for 90 days now…

Being 90 days, it’s almost like I’m at the end of a trial period, or something, so here are my thoughts…

Not only is this not very difficult, I’m not certain that I could even classify it as hard.

Sure, this past weekend was a little rough as he managed to suffer his first fever — a bout that resulted in very little sleep for anyone under this roof — and his first snuffy nose — that resulted in some of the most foul booger action I’ve ever seen.

How so much snot can come from such a tiny nose is simply miraculous…

But outside of that (and a few blow-outs up the back — one even up the front!), it’s mostly been smiles.

Like the picture.

I’d bet the next 90 days are even easier and… hopefully they’re just as kind to my wallet too.

Since birth — I’m “up” over $20k…

Woo-hoo!

Posted on August 24th, 2009 at 8:17 pm by Brainy Smurf
Life, Smurfling | 1 Comment »

Another Guest Post from D. Smurf — This Time with Video!

Well, we’re back from our weekend away and I’m going to exercise the ability to plead the Fifth when it comes to how much I ended up spending and on what.

It’s embarrassing.

Don’t worry, though, I’ll spill the beans when it comes time to list out my expenses for the month — I’m just hoping the recent surge in the market keeps up and bails me out of the “negative” month I’m currently lining myself up for…

Anyway, Duncan refused to do a traditional blog post today (at 8 weeks, he feels that he’s too old for that sort of thing) so, instead, here’s a video post:

Does anyone know what he’s talking about?

I have a hunch that it has something to do with his dad spending so much money on silly things…

Posted on July 16th, 2009 at 9:22 pm by Brainy Smurf
Smurfling | 4 Comments »

Baby Bill Finally Arrives…and We’ve got Questions…

No, we’re not disputing the amount.

Prior to that incredibly inconsiderate and premature collections call from the hospital, our insurance company hinted at what the damage to our wallets would be.

The insurance company’s explanation of benefits from a couple of weeks ago indicated that we’d be on the hook for around $1890.68.

That’s fine and exactly the amount that today’s bill indicated.

The thing is, I was really interested in seeing a detailed statement with all of the services we received, like, broken down and itemized.

You know, seeing that the fee for having that old lady escort us out was an astounding $75. Or that that horrible bowl of pudding cost us $16.99. That sort of thing.

Something to get me fired up about the ludicrous cost of health care…

Well, this is what we recieved:

Not much to look at, huh?

No joke. It was this and a return envelope. That’s it.

I dunno. Was it wrong to expect more?

I want to know what all that money went towards!

Can you imagine if something like your long distance phone bill came like this? Without an explanation of how they reached the amount due?

I know that it says that we can call to ask questions but I doubt a third party call center in Colorado (that isn’t the hospital’s number) will be able to break down a bill for a service provided at a hospital in Connecticut.

And I wonder what the reaction would be at the information desk just inside the hospital’s main entrance would be if I asked them to explain the bill to me…

In the end, we’ll just write a check and mail it off but I’ll always wonder how much that epidural cost, how much the anesthesiologist’s services cost, how much that little hat that they put on him cost, and, yes, even how much that terrible bowl of pudding set us back…

Posted on July 7th, 2009 at 10:36 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Rants, Smurfling | 6 Comments »

Baby Bill Arrives… Sort of…

So get this, my wife got a call today from the hospital.

They were calling to let us know that “Ducan” (yep, they massacred what I’d consider, while rather uncommon these days, a very simple and traditional name) had an outstanding balance for his May 26 “procedure” and that we’d need to “set-up” a payment plan.

Like a seasoned telemarketing pro, they proceeded right into the list of various payment options.

Confused, my wife interupted with a “What?”

Obviously used to this type of treatment, the caller just pressed on until my wife finally got a word in edgewise.

“We’re not going to set-up a payment plan without a bill.”

Makes sense, right?

The caller then said that the bill had been mailed…

YESTERDAY.

Now, mail service is pretty prompt around here but not *that* prompt.

My wife futher explained that we hadn’t yet recieved a bill and until we had a bill in hand, we weren’t paying anything and definitely not over the phone.

Now I know that the person on the other end of the phone encounters a lot of deadbeats that also claim that they never received a bill in the mail — I realize that — but when the they’re the one that offers up the information that the bill was mailed out YESTERDAY, I mean, c’mon…

We’re not late — we haven’t even recieved the freakin’ bill. (That was just the insurance company’s explanation of benefits last Thursday.)

So, after making my wife feel like a deadbeat, the caller apparently came to terms with the fact that it was plausible that we hadn’t yet receieved a bill…but she still insisted on knowing how we intended to pay the outstanding balance…

“Sorry, we’ll pay you when we receive a bill.”

Click.

Plain and simple, this was a collections call thinly disguised as a courtesy call…

I’m not terribly impressed.

I actually find it completely ridiculous…

Disgusting, even.

And with that, we’ll probably sit on the bill until just days before it’s due.

Had they left us alone, they probably would have had payment in full before the holiday weekend.

(For the record, it wasn’t a scam — it really was the hospital calling.)

The nerve…

Can you believe that?

Posted on June 29th, 2009 at 10:09 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Rants, Smurfling | 4 Comments »

This Post is NOT About Michael Jackson

Instead, it’s about how much it costs to have a baby.

Put simply, I like real world examples…

For any programmers out there, the classic “Hello World!” example on page one of every compter geek book is the most useless example of anything ever created.

Now, I know I’ve read a similar posts to this on other sites but I’ve never actually seen real numbers.

Just meaningless guesses really…

Like, this may be a huge tangent but remember that time that I had that plumbing problem where my whole house smelled like Starbucks coffee?

Well, I researched the crap out of that on the internet trying to get a ballpark figure of how much it might cost to get fixed…

I found a lot of advice, yeah, but every single place I found tip-toed around an actual number…

“Anywhere between $300 and $1500″ just doesn’t cut it — way too wide of a window.

I couldn’t find anyone that actually flat out said what they were charged for the same, apparently very common, type of project. No one.

Trying to fill the void, somewhat, I posted exactly what it cost me.

Sure, for some, it could be higher or lower, but that’s exactly what it cost me. A starting point for anyone in that situation…

So here’s a real world example of how much it costs to have a baby — not to take care of a baby, but just to “have” one:

I’m sure some out there will find this very informing. I know I would have…

Sadly this is just the “explanation of benefits” from the insurance company but once the more detailed hospital bill arrives, well, I’ll post that too.

Seriously, had I known that “Nursery R&B” were costing us nearly $1k per night, I probably would have insisted that we be able to take him home the first day…

What a rip off — the room wasn’t anywhere near nice enough to cost that much. ;0)

Posted on June 25th, 2009 at 9:47 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Smurfling | 2 Comments »