Yesterday I walked upstairs to my condo -- which is on the 18th floor -- after work. Wow! It was a brief but intense workout. Even going pretty slow, I was wobbly-legged and out of breath by the time I got to the top.

I got a notice that my next dental checkup is schedule for June -- I get them every 4 months since my problems started in '08 -- and it brought all my aggravation with the dental bills rushing back. I've had two appointments with the new dentist I switched to when my job switched insurance again. One was a regular checkup that cost over $200 -- they eventually refunded me $45 but it was still the priciest checkup I've ever had. The other was a brief exam after I'd had an infection -- about $300 and all they did was look around, file down one of my teeth (I've had that done before and it never cost much), and give me some special mouthwash.

They said the higher price was because I needed periodontal maintenance, not just a regular checkup, because of the problems on one part of my mouth.

I looked back at the receipts from the last dentist I had before I switched, and they were looking at the same mouth but just called my visits "periodic oral evaluation." So I think I need to try and find an in-network dentist who will regard my visits as regular checkups; clearly this wasn't a problem for my last dentist, nor the one before that.

I hate the gambling aspect of flex spending. Last year I had $200+ left over, and ended up getting glasses (which ended up being about $500 and eating into THIS year's; forgot that they'd charge for lenses and exam separate from frames). This year I'd reduced my flex spending so I wouldn't have so much left over. Well, I've already blown through it and then some. This ALWAYS happens -- either I have hundreds left over at the end of the year, or I use it all up in the first quarter. I wish there was a way you could just make purchases pretax when you need to, rather than trying to predict the unforeseeable.