Hurricane gas.
Last Thursday night, about 24 hours or so before Ike made landfall, I took the kids out to a special dinner. The dinner was unrelated to the hurricane… except for our scouting pattern.
On the way to the restaurant, we looked at each gas station we passed, and I asked the kids to help me keep track–which had the cheapest gas? We even went a mile PAST the restaurant, then turned around to eat.
We ate at Friday’s. Rain had won a ten dollar gift certificate at a pool party (remember Dylan’s poolside wound?), and I had a $5 bonus card from buying a gift card a few weeks ago (for the neighbor who had fixed the a/c). So we saw how cheap we could get off eating. 
Rain wanted ribs, like she always does at Friday’s; which I was fine with, but brought the total a few bucks higher. So after gift cards, without dessert, our total was about seven bucks. Not bad for a nice sit-down dinner. The kids were awesome–ate good, well-behaved, as always.
On the way home, we stopped at the gas station we had found was the cheapest–$3.31. The gas station was little, had a steep driveway, and was PACKED! I waited (backed-in) behind a lady who was getting gas. When she went to drive away, and I inched forward, I slammed up the emergency brake and jumped out of the car–to run up and shut her gas-cap-door for her We both kind of giggled, and she was on her way.
I filled up the tank, and we headed home…
Now it’s what, two days after the hurricane, and gas is $3.69 a gallon. I think filling up when I did was pretty smart–I haven’t seen anything near as cheap since that moment in time. The sad part is, it will take months to come back down–if it ever does again. 
This picture is from Rain playing in the rain. I have a handful of these, and they’re all adorable. More to come on Hurricane Ike… and stuff…
