This was the first Saturday in August that I was able to go to Jazzercise, and it just happened to be Yachiyo's birthday. Marcelline brought balloons and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Here we are doing a tough ab routine with the ball, "SOS". It really kicks.

After coffee and on my way home, I dropped the car off at the Firestone place to get the oil changed. They called me after a while to tell me that it needed a bunch of other stuff too--there was oil leaking so I needed some kind of new valve gasket ($139); I have a leak in the water pump and that should be replaced ($303); the serpentine belt is cracked so I need a new one of those ($100); and cooling system should be flushed ($70). I just know they're trying to soak me for more stuff than my car needs... So I catch our "friendly mailman" Doug, and ask him what he thinks. He says that I should only get what is most critical and forget the other stuff. When I call them back I ask what things are worst and decide to have the valve gasket and serpentine belt replaced--I can wait and see with the water pump and cooling system. After all, I haven't had any idiot lights going on in the car, and haven't noticed any different (bad) sounds so I'm not going to shell out the money this time. Hopefully I've made the right decision.