Looking for a Bonus

Today is the last day of the month. I filled out my time card and found I had worked a lot of extra hours this period. Unfortunately I am a salaried employee. That means I don't get any extra pay if I work extra hours.

Since I did a good job and worked long and hard, I figure I deserve something out of it. So my plan is to ask to be sent to some training. In fact I want to attend this software conference out in San Francisco later this year.

My company is normally very generous with their training budget. However I can never get the time off from work. They always seem to need me. I even had to make a big case just to get a week off during Christmas vacation. We shall see how my training "bonus" works out. I am hoping for the best.

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I have been very busy lately and it was nice to have a long weekend.

Kit went camping with the cat-scouts but she got rained out and ended up leaving early and spending the last night at her cat-scout leader's house. Little had a friend stay the night on Friday and Little and I went shopping after we dropped his friend off at home on Saturday. We had to pick out his Halloween costume. He wants to be a scary cat this year. On Sunday, Little helped my clean up the cage of our new class pet, gerbils. There are three girls named after constellations: Ursa, Vela, and Lyra. On Monday, the kittens were home and we spent some time cleaning and running errands but we still managed to rest, read, and relax a little.

Working Weekend

This was a hectic weekend. My team needed to release some software early Monday morning. The team was tired. I got assigned to make sure the software got built and ready to ship on Monday. In other words, there was no weekend for me.

I knew I was in for a lot of work. So I did not stay late on Friday at work. Good move. On Saturday the rest of the programmers were supposed by be done by noon. Turns out they were not done until 9:30PM. I had to wait for them to finish before I could do my part. Once again I was lucky (or smart). I told them I would be busy until late at night. That way I did not waste time waiting around all day for them to complete.

By midnight Saturday I had completed my piece. I got a call Sunday morning informing me there were problems. I diagnosed them and had the next team start their work. When the software was ready, I did a quick check. I found a lot of problems. My plan was to ship the software anyway. That did not work out. The other developers had to fix their stuff. Then I needed to start again getting the software ready to ship. I did not catch many breaks this weekend. The only result is that I try to bolt out of work each day around quitting time. I usually can't leave early. But there is no way I am going to stay late on the weekdays if I had to work through the weekend. On a positive note, like my coworkers always remind me, at least I have a job.

Room To Clean

Kit Kat has been busy lately. Last weekend she was partying with a friend for a birthday. This weekend she is camping the whole time. You add this to the fact that she has been sick lately. The result is a very messy room.

It is disturbing to walk by Kit Kat's room. There is just all this stuff on the floor. Now I am not a freak for cleanliness. But I insist that things be in order. Everything should be in its proper place. It just seems nothing is in the right place in Kit Kat's room.

After work today I took a nap. I had nightmares about Kit Kat's room it was so bad. This caused me to wake up. I was determined to tell Kit Kat that I would have to intervene and make her clean up her room. However it turns out that as I was sleeping, she started taking on the massive task of cleaning it up. Unfortunately it had to get worse before it could get better. Good luck to us.

Planning a Party

Little Kat is having a birthday pretty soon. There have been all kinds of debates about how we would celebrate. Little Kat had visions of lot of cats attending a party. He also wanted a sleep over with some friends. Then there was an idea about renting some lanes in a bowling alley. I scheduled the date in my calendar.

Tonight Momoko and Little Kat came back from scouting out the local bowling alley. Apparently Little Kat did not want to do bowling. He said it was too confusing. I guess we need to do a little practice bowling with the family before we have a big bowling party for Little Kat.

Now plans are in flux again. There is a new idea. We shall see how that goes. And maybe Little Kat can blog about what we actually do on his birthday.

The Movie 9 Released on 09/09/09

Kit Kat spent the weekend away again. First she went to the Renaissance festival with her friends. Then she spent the night at her friend's house to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was just Momoko, Little Kat, and myself at home.

Momoko was sick yesterday. Today she was just too busy. I had to mow the massive lawn today. Little Kat ended up playing video games. Luckily the cat next door was alone and wanted to play. I had Little Kat come out and they played all afternoon.

Momoko thought Little Kat should get some good since Kit Kat was partying this weekend. But like I said before Momoko was busy. I ended up taking Little Kat to the show to see "9". This was a Tim Burton movie. I got some nachos. Little Kat got popcorn and candy. We also both got some Slurpee drinks. We enjoyed the movie. I thought it was a bit on the scary side. Little Kat said it was tame.

Book Bonanaza

Little Kat requested that some books be shipped to the local library from other libraries. We got a call informing us the books came in. Momoko was a bit sick this week. And Little Kat was busy with homework. So Kit Kat and I went to pick up the books.

I figured that since I was going to the library, I had better take a look at some books. Normally I don't go to the library with the family. I asked the reference desk to show me their books on computer programming.

Well I did find some interesting programing books. However I also checked out some related titles like:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Best Business Books of All Time
• Hacking for Dummies
• Web Pages That Suck

This will have me busy reading for the next couple weeks.

Getting Little Kat

Today Momoko informed me I would need to pick up Little Kat from school. Normally I have to work late every night to keep up with all the work. But I told everyone I had to leave early today. I kept a close eye on the clock. I was not too ambitious with my work. Priority 1 was to leave on time to get Little Kat.

Traffic was good. I got to the school early. So I broke out the newspaper and read all the headlines. By the time I was done and went over to Little Kat's school, I was still 5 minutes early. Good timing!

They let the kindergartner's out of class first. They get escorted to the buses. I guess they don't want the real little ones getting lost in the commotion. It was good to hear the announcement that "walkers" were being released. That meant Little Kat. I saw him shortly after that. We even beat Kit Kat home. That's a first. Now it is time for us to do our housework. Hurry home Momoko.

No Dinner

Tonight Kit Kat has some back to school night function. That means Momoko and her are going to her school. That leaves Little Kat and I alone. Now I figured we would just eat dinner early so everyone could be on their way. No such luck.

I found out that everybody was on their own for dinner tonight. For a while I toyed with the idea of going to the movies for dinner. We do have some free passes due to the technical difficulties the movie theater had last time.

But I figured somebody had to keep an eye on Little Kat. So here I am blogging and hungry. What is a cat to do?

Amusement Park

My company rented out a whole amusement park. Our family went to enjoy the rides. There was free food and drinks. Plus there was lots of free ice cream.

Kit Kat invited a friend from school. They went to ride a scary roller coaster by themselves. After a few hours of waiting in line, they were informed that the ride was out of service.

Momoko took Little Kat and I to the go-kart race track. I rode in the car with Little Kat. It was a wild ride. We crashed into other drivers, and the side walls as well. This wasn't supposed to be bumper cars.

The family joined back for the kids to ride some type of twister ride a few times. Kit Kat dug down deep, got some serious courage, and rode a roller coaster with the rest of the boys. Although she screamed like a kitten, she survived.

Momoko spied a souvenir shop on the way out. Everything in the store was $10 or less. They got a lot of business from our party. We are now at home safe and sound. There is just a lot of homework for all the cats before Monday morning. What a weekend.

Arrival of Fish

We had Momoko's fish at home for the summer. But she went back to work last month. The fish went with her. She asked me whether we could keep a tank at home. At first I was hesitant. Then I thought what the heck.

For a while we had an empty fish tank. Momoko has been too busy to go fish shopping. Today that ended. She went to the local pet store with Kit Kat and Little Kat. They picked up a few fish.

I had some company over today. When my guests left, I saw some fish in a bag on the counter. What the heck? I thought those were just for transporting the fish. Apparently they were bought and forgot about. They still looked alive. Come on kids. Give these fish a fighting chance to live.

Back to Work

It was tough to wake up for work after a long holiday weekend. I was the last one of of the house today. Things were better once I got home. Even though Kit Kat was tired, we had her give us a detailed account of her trip this weekend.

Kit Kat cooked dinner for some of her friends. She visited a museum. And she also saw a play, at which she purchased all kinds of souvenirs. She did a lot of walking this weekend. And her paws were sore yesterday.

Little Kat finished up his homework and chores early. So he broke into our new PlayStation 2 game. It is some underwater fossil hunting game. Little Kat took a while to learn how to control his creature. He now reports that he can defend against attacks from the bad guys in the game.

Labor Day Dealings

Momoko, Little Kat, and I went out to lunch together. We visited a restaurant that served New Orleans style cooking. Momoko chose it. But I found it strange since Momoko does not like spicy food. We ordered this bow tie pasta with spinach and artichoke dip as an appetizer. That filled us up real good.

After lunch we headed over to the theater. Good thing we gave ourselves enough time. The line for tickets was long. We skipped buying any popcorn or sodas. Something was wrong when the film started. All of the projected movie was not on the screen. After a while the film stopped, and a theater guy said they were working on the problem.

The movie restarted after a few minutes. We watched The Shorts. It was different than I thought it was going to be based on the commercials. The theater gave us coupons for another free movie since we had an interruption in the middle. For dinner we went to Arby's for some roast beef, then got Kit Kat late at night. She returned safely from her weekend trip.

Dinner Motivation

Momoko and Little Kat went out to do some errands. At first I just watched some animation. But then I got to work. I cut the grass in the front and back yards. It was grueling work. However it needed to be done.

Then I came in, took a shower, and passed out. I awoke to a persistent knock on the bedroom door. Momoko was hungry. And we were supposed to eat out today to celebrate Labor Day weekend.

I mustered up what little energy I had. We got us some Chinese buffet. It was a 30 minute drive to my favorite Chinese restaurant. We found that it was worth it. Little Kat got full, and was saved when the waitress took his plate while he was in the bathroom.

Momoko and Little Kat wanted to see a movie afterwards. I needed to get home to rest. The funny thing was that we had Little Kat navigate us home. He was able to chose the right directions for the whole 30 minute trip. If he were a bit older, he might be ready for a driver's license.

Falling Down

Last night I went out to eat with some old cats I used to work with. We chewed the fat and had a good time. Afterwards we took a joy ride in the new BMW one of the guys bought. It had a convertible top and rode fast.

When I got home, I found out that Little Kat took a tumble down the stairs at school. Rumor has it he was pushed. For shame. Little Kat got a band aid for a scrape, and injured his wrist.

This morning Little Kat complained that his wrist hurt. He was unable to use his left paw. This made his chores hard to do. Momoko might take him to the doctor today. We think he may just need a soft cast to immobilize his arm.

In other news, Kit Kat took off very early this morning for her weekend trip. But I will hope that she writes about it on her blog.

Sneaking up on Kit Kat

I got to work to find out my computer would not operate. This was a disaster. I had a big delivery due today. My boss told me to get the network guys to figure it out. A network dude came by. He told me he could not help me. After wiggling the wires and trying over and over again, I got the computer to work.

Then I rushed through to get my delivery done. I had to eat fast food in the office. How shameful. Lunch is the best part of my work day. It paid off though. I got done on time. This was the first time this week I could leave work on time.

I hurried home. That's when I came up on Kit Kat with my car. She just got off the bus. She was listening to music and walking. I only got her attention after I got out of my car. That's when I saw she was wearing flip flops ... to school even. Well it is time for me to meet some other cats for dinner. Happy Labor Day to all.

Trip Preparations

Today I was scheduled to drive Kit Kat to a meeting. She is planning to go away for Labor Day weekend. They need to solidify the plan. I made sure I got off from work plenty early to grab dinner before taking Kit Kat to the meeting.

When I got home, Kit Kat told me she needed a compass. You know. That's the thing that let's you draw circles. Well I pulled out my old compass. It was not strong. We decided to go shopping for a new one.

The local pharmacy was no help. They did not have that many school supplies. There was no compass to be found. Luckily the grocery store had a pack of school goods, one of which was a compass. Sold. Even after the shopping, Kit Kat and I were early to the meeting.

I decided to take a drive with Kit Kat to see if we could find an office supply store. No luck on that front. After the drive we waited patiently for Kit Kat's meeting to start.

The Great Escape

We needed to deliver some new software to the customer tomorrow. My team mate stayed up late the previous night finishing the code. So I came in early today to get the release ready.

I found some problems. Luckily my team mate woke up and fixed them. I got the software assembled in time for my noon deadline. Then I needed to switch gears and work on another task.

It seems everybody needed help from me today at work. Don't they know I am busy and was already distracted by putting out the new software. I wanted to leave a 3:00PM because I got in so early. However I was not able to break away until 5:00PM.

Ouch. I got to practice the quick getaway from work a little more.

Virus++

So I have at least one virus left on my machine that is hard to beat. It keeps launching Internet Explorer in hidden mode. I see the process in Task Manager. It must be some type of click fraud.

I want to battle this virus. However I can't figure out how it is running. I don't see any other evil processes in Task Manager. It seems tied to Explorer.

It is time to get hard core on this virus. I have a dangerous plan. I search the Windows and System32 directories for recent files. I back up my data and delete the new files.

After I reboot, I cannot log into Windows. I try to recover using a boot disk. It is no use. I have fried my system. Luckily I did a backup. To completely get rid of the virus I restored my system back to its original state. Now I got Mcafee running to prevent new viruses from coming in.

Woke up to a Band

I had a tough day at work today. So when I got home, I dozed off. Then I woke up to some banging. Kit Kat was knocking on my door letting me know dinner was ready.

Momoko picked up some burritos. We watched some chick series on cable. I think it is called Divas or something.

Tonight I sat through the first session of my online college class. It is not as fun as being there in person. I do not think I am going to enjoy this semester as much.