Over the past year or two, our 16-year-old car has been developing problems. Meghan and I have been begrudgingly keeping it afloat, but resenting it more each time we’ve taken it to the shop.

Several weeks ago, we took the dude’s laptop in to replace its battery, which has been in poor shape for quite some time. We were waiting for the right time to replace the bambina’s laptop’s battery, but early this week its display started acting up (partially blacking out, flickering, blank stripes). So we took that in, but they sent it back unrepaired, because they didn’t have the part necessary to “fix” (replace) the display. So she’ll need a new computer.

The car’s latest problem (finally diagnosed yesterday) is that the battery has started draining (technically the BCM), such that it won’t reliably hold a charge overnight. Meghan and I are officially done with it and are shopping for a replacement.

This evening, the gas oven stopped heating, for the third time in the past year or so.

Oh, and we just paid for the dude’s winter quarter tuition.