I found another electricity drain today.

Since we moved here in 2001 our electric bills have been insanely low. So have our gas bills, as this is an energy star home.

Anyway, well, this is what we thought. Until last spring when they came out and worked on our meter and our bills about doubled. I guess we were undercharged all these years? Said our mete was broken. (Don't ask me how they knew). Bummer. They are still quite low for the size of our house. But we certainly weren't doing as good as we thought we were!

So I have gone from kind of eh, how could we save more energy (we don't need to), to, well, let's try to save more energy.

I noticed a new one I hadn't today. The baby monitors!

We will keep using them for a while. But I think LM is getting to an age where we can try to remember to turn it off when he is not sleeping in his room. we have just been lazy and have been leaving it on 24/7.

He turns 3 in July and we will probably remove the gate from his room and give him free roam. Particularly as we expect he will be moving to going diaper-less by then. If he is free to get up and roam, I don't think we need the monitors. We have never used them at night. We just use them for when we our downstairs and they are sleeping upstairs. Though sometimes it is nice as they get older and play upstairs on their own now, to hear what is going on. Though when the screaming ensues, you can probably hear it anyway.

Dh might use them once in a while after that - he often watches movies while they nap - in his theater room. so he still uses the monitors a lot so he can watch a loud movie in here, but know if anything is going on in the rest of the house.

For now we will be nice and use them so we can hear when LM wants out of his room in the morning. He isn't particularly loud and sometimes you can't hear them calling for us from the upstairs, without the monitor.

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On the flip side, we are barely into May and they are calling for some 100-degree+ weather this week. The ironic thing is today is WINDY. A little stormy. But Thursday will be 103? Ugh.

I think our A/C will get a workout this week.

Reminds me, we were visiting the fam this week, in San JOSE. My FIL told me that that their house used to get into the 90s about 4 days a year, but these days it is more like 20 days a year. I don't know if it is global warming or what. But people out of the region are always shocked we don't have A/C. I always think, "we don't need a/c." Think mostly 60-80 degree weather year round. Throw in the very occasional cooler or hotter day.

BUT my parents broke down and got A/C a couple of years ago. Their electric bills are insane (probably because A/C is rare and they charge like crazy for that excess electricity usage). But my mom doesn't do well in the heat.

We actually had A/C in or condo, but it sucked. Though it was nice on the really hot days since we were stuck in an upper unit. IT certainly wouldn't have cut it in Sacramento weather.

Anyway, though the weather is so much more brutal up here, I generally find it more pleasant, if I stay inside, since every home has A/C. I mean here, every home has to. So now when we catch a hot day in San Jose - it is brutal. I don't remember the last day I had to suffer inside a house over 80 degrees. Up here anyway. Reminds me, if we go to SJ for any weekends in the summer we'll have to stay with my parents in their chilled oasis.

Well, I am glad I mentioned to my boss Friday that I didn't think the A/C in my office was working. I would have mentioned it sooner if I knew it was going to be a 100-degree week. Yikes!