Oh, I thought you owned a condo or something.

ETA: Does each apartment have a separate meter?

Yeah. That's why he doesn't include water in the rent.

I think tommyrot will enjoy this robotic chess set.

My water/sewer bill was $42 last month. Each of our apartments have separate water and power meters. As a renter my trash and recycling are paid by the landlord, either as property tax or a flat fee. (Never owned property, so I never bothered learning which.) Either way, I'm sure it's rolled into my rent. My electricity bill's gonna be ginormous this month, I expect, as the summer heat's here and I've been running the AC pretty constantly. By "ginormous" I mean more than the $40-50 I pay when the weather isn't at one extreme or the other.

I just paid my electric bill. $82!!! I have GOT to remember to turn down my AC when I leave the house in the mornings!

Ouch! My electric/gas bill seems to run from $40 to $60 a month. PG&E does offer this plan where they calculate your average bill for a year and you just pay the same amount every month, but I'm not sure how it accounts for your actual usage if you're over or under at the end of the year.

I think tommyrot will enjoy this robotic chess set.

Cool!

My first electric bill for the new townhouse wasn't toooo crazy. Trash collection is expensive though--something like $30 a month? But it only comes every three so it's a chunk. Haven't got a water bill yet, but the gas bill was what shocked the hell out of me. $50 for half a month, and I hadn't even used the stove or the fireplace!!!

I'm not sure how it accounts for your actual usage if you're over or under at the end of the year.

Vegas odds. Sometimes the house wins.

PG&E does offer this plan where they calculate your average bill for a year and you just pay the same amount every month, but I'm not sure how it accounts for your actual usage if you're over or under at the end of the year.

If you're the company in N.O. my cousin uses, when you finally get someone out to check the meter, you send a ginormous bill.

If Sue is around (or other Canadians), do Canadians use government/administration the way we do here in the U.S., or does "government" refer to the present administration, as in Europe?

I have now considered the usage of "government" so much, I'm not sure how we use it.

People def. refer to the current administration as the Government.

People will also use goverment to describe the bureacracy that supports the Government.

The governing and opposition parties as a whole are the Parliament federally, legislature or legislative assembly, provincially.

The elected ministers in charge of portfolios are Cabinet or Privy Council (fed.) or Executive Council or Government in Council.