Wardrobe Weekend

Momoko decided we would build her new IKEA wardrobe this weekend. We could not do it early on Sunday. Little Kat had his friend spend the night. So Momoko and Little Kat took his friend home. Kit Kat and I stayed back and started the work.

First I moved our bed to find a ton of dust underneath. Kit Kat ran the Shark vacuum under there. Then we put the bed to the side for wardrobe assembly. Luckily I had some guys deliver the wardrobe boxes to our house this week.

Kit Kat and I hauled some long and heavy boxes upstairs to our bedroom. We had to move these boxes in stages, because we could not make it the whole way without passing out. It was tough to make it around the corner at the top of the stairs. I kept getting my hand crushed between box and wall.

Once all the boxes were up there, I went to Lowe's to buy a level. Momoko read the instructions. She had Kit Kat and Little Kat assemble two monstrous wardrobes. In the middle of the day everyone was staved. So we went out to Outback for some steaks. The assembly then took the rest of the afternoon and night. We had to go out again for some "breakfast" at IHOP. Now we have two massive wardrobes for all of Momoko's stuff. And I get to have part of the closet in our bedroom. Good deal.

Out with the Old

We got this old couch in the basement. My grandma gave it to me when I got my first apartment. The thing is 15 or 16 years old. It started sagging 10 years ago. So I put a board and blanket under the cushions to give it more support.

Now the back is giving out. It is time for the old couch to retire. My bro tried to help me carry the couch out to the curb for bulky trash pickup. The thing would not fit through our door. I pulled the legs off the couch. It was still a tough fit. I damaged the screen door trying to stuff the couch through the door.

The plan is to move our living room couch downstairs where the old couch was. Then we will get some new living room furniture. The couch from the living room is coming apart at the seams. It is still comfortable. But it does not look good enough for a living room. Not sure how we are going to get this couch downstairs given all my trouble fitting the old couch out the door.

Vote for Dale Peterson

There is a guy named Dale Peterson trying to get the Republican nomination for the Alabama Agriculture Commissioner. Before today I had never heard of this guy. But he put a campaign ad on YouTube that is being called the best campaig ad ever in the history of politics. You must see it.

In the video, Dale briefly gives his credentials. He has been a farmer, cop, and marine in Vietnam. He then goes on to bluntly say that thugs and criminals are trying to keep the public in the dark. They "don't give a rip about Alabama."

Dale also complains that illegals are being bussed into Alabama by the thousands. He says his opponent brags on FaceBook about taking bribes. Then he asks "who on earth would support such a dummy?"

Dale scoffs at his opponents stealing his yard signs at night. He exclaims, "We are Republicans. We should be better than that." Dale promises that "he will name names and take no prisoners." He wants voters to show Alabama that they mean business. I don't even live in Alabama, and I want to vote for this guy. Let's hope he runs for president in 2012. Dale Peterson has my support.

Contractor Comes

Yesterday my contractor called and said he could come over today. I told him to come on down. Woke up early this morning and made sure all the bedrooms were accessible. He showed up on time. He decided to tackle the window air conditioning in the study.

I was glad I hired this guy. It seemed like a simple window A/C install. However the window was not level with the storm window. He had to build up the bottom to make it level. Then the contractor's brother arrived with some lumber. They went to work putting another A/C unit through the wall in our bedroom. That took a long time.

Before the guys left, they also fixed a leak in Little Kat's ceiling. And they attached some shelves to Little Kat's bed. I can't wait until these guys return to install the rest of the A/C units upstairs. Kit Kat is already saying the upstairs feels cold. The upstairs is never cold ... until now.

End of the Heat

I got 4 window air conditioning units ready to go. Tomorrow my contractor is coming to do some installs. Let's hope he stays long enough to put all the A/C units in. They will be going in each of the bedrooms upstairs.

Things have been just too hot recently. I don't even sleep in my bedroom any more. I sleep in the basement where it is actually cold. The problem is that we have the best pillow top bed upstairs. The basement only has an old queen sized bed that is not as comfortable. But I can't get any shut eye when the weather is too hot.

Tomorrow night I plan to sleep in my bed again. If the A/C units are all in and working, I will crank the temperature down to extra cold. Might even need a comforter on the first night. Ahh I can't wait.

New Fish

Momoko had the kids move our fish tank out into the living room so we could see it all the time. Actually Momoko bought a new tank. Then our fish moved from the old to new tank. To tell you the truth, now that I saw them, the fish did not look too exciting. Their colors were drab. And the fish seemed to not move around too much.

This weekend, Momoko took me to the pet store. I spied two huge and brightly colored fish. Too bad they were the aggressive variety and would eat up all our fish. They were expensive too. I ended up buying some tropical fish. There was a black molly, red mickey, red wag platy, and red glass barb. Those names mean nothing to me. Hopefully all you fish enthusiasts know what I got.

The trend is that I got some bright red fish that seem to move around a bit. One of them (the red glass barb) swims back and forth, up and down with abandon. I hope it does not use up all its energy a die. They rest of the new fish seem to swim around a lot, and go up high in the fish tank. The older fish seem more excited too.

On a totally separate note, I had to get up at the crack of down to drive across town to headquarters. Had a meeting with some managers. It went ok. Ate lunch with a new employee I had not seen for a couple year. Visited Momoko's college and picked up an application for graduation for her. Come on Momoko. Get your degree.

Good Car Deals

Momoko said there was a car parked on the corner we drive by every day. It had a for sale sign in it. Asking price $150. Too bad they took the sign down before I noticed it. That sounds like a great deal. The car was an older Buick or something.

While on the subject of cars, here are some cars which cost between $4k and $6k, which Consumer Reports says are good buy:

• 2001 Acura CL
• 2000 Acura RL
• 200 Acura TL
• 2003 to 2005 Hyundai Sonata
• 2000 and 2002 Infiniti G20
• 2000 Infiniti I30
• 2001 to 2002 Lincoln Continental
• 200o to 2001 Mazda B Series
• 2000 to 2002 Mercury Marquis
• 2000 Nissan Frontier
• 2002 Nissan Xterra
• 2000 Toyota Avalon
• 2000 to 2001 Toyota Camry
• 2002 Toyota Corolla

There were more. But these were the ones I would not mind owning. Maybe we can get Kit Kat to buy one of these after she gets a job. Here is what MSN says are good car deals:

• 2005 to 2006 Honda CRV $11k to $16k
• 2006 Cadillac DTS $22k
• 2006 Toyota Takoma <$10k
• 2005 Porsche Carrera <$40k

Get Cold

The clouds and rain have gone away. Now the weather is warm. And the house is getting hot. Luckily my 4th window air conditioning unit got delivered today. Ordered them from Amazon. I called up my contractor and asked him to fit us in sometime.

We are pretty much going to have a guy cut some holes in the walls upstairs. Each bedroom will get an air conditioning unit. Kit Kat and Little Kat will get ones that have a remote control. With 4 A/C units going, I have a feeling out hot upstairs will be getting nice and cold. That's the way I like it.

The first A/C arrived a week ago. I had to drag the thing inside even though Kit Kat had already come home from school. Now when a heavy package arrives, Kit Kat drags it in for me. That is only fair as I have to carry the darn thing up the stairs. Come on contractor. Install our A/C units please.

Bathroom Vanity

The drawers in the kids bathroom vanity are broke down. And the faucet does not really match the stopper. So it is hard to pull up the stopper. Momoko and I decided it was time for a new vanity.

I got a contractor to come in. He said he could get us a vanity. However we want to choose our own and he will install it. First we went to Home Depot. The choices there were not that exciting. We have certain size limits due to the limited space in the bathroom.

Momoko talked me into going to Lowes. I really don't like that store. But we found a vanity, top, and faucet combo that we like. Momoko is excited because the vanity has built in shelved in the bottom. I kind of like the marble top. Little Kat tried to talk us into some funky faucets. We decided to go with one that matched in color, and was easiest to turn on and off.

Now I just need to return to Lowes with the truck and buy us our new vanity. While we were there we spied some cool stuff for a future basement bathroom remodel. More on that later.

Dealing with the Cats

Today Momoko starts her last class of her degree. Little Kat wanted to go to computer club after school. So I had to go pick him up from school. I got him easily. I headed home to go get Kit Kat.

Kit Kat received her new Samsung Intensity cell phone yesterday. It is all charged up. She and I went to the cell phone store. They transferred over her number from her old broke down phone. Now she has a texting phone that actually works.

Things are hot on the top floor of our house. I am hot as heck and am not going to take it any more. Went to Home Depot and bought a wall air conditioning unit. Then I ordered three more for all the bedrooms upstairs. The first of these got delivered today. The box is heavy. Can't wait to have a contractor install the darn thing.

Wardrobes, Intensities

Last weekend, Momoko and I went to IKEA to spy on some wardrobe options. They had some cool stuff. We came home and measured the bedroom. It looks like their big wardrobe will fit. So we ordered a white one last night online.

Momoko will pretty much move her stuff into the wardrobe. I will then put my stuff in our closet. Then I will ditch my armour. Our bedroom might turn out ok after all. Momoko's wardrobe is going to have the neat modular stuff like pull out drawers and jewelry drawers and such.

Switching subjects, there was a package jammed in the mail box when I got home today. It was a new cell phone I bought on eBay for Kit Kat. Her current cell phone is some fancy thing with a touch screen. However the touch screen just does not work right. Go figure. Turns out Kit Kat wanted the same new phone that Little Kat got, the Samsung Intensity. We got to go to the cell phone store to get them to set it up and everything.

Two Rolls

Kit Kat has a project due this weekend. She needed to do a video with her friends. So her friends were going to come over our house to work on it. She called up their friends. They said they would walk over to her house.

I was impressed because her friends live a few miles from our house. When they got here, I took Momoko and Little Kat out to eat. This was to get us out of their hair. We went to this restaurant that specializes in appetizers.

Momoko got brave and ordered Vietnamese shrimp spring rolls. How bad could it be? The things came out looking like jellyfish. And they were served chilled. Yikes. I took a shrimp or two out and ate them with spicy sauce. Only Momoko ate a whole spring roll. Little Kat ate half of one. Yuck.

On the way home, we drove straight out of the shopping center. There was a car blocking traffic on the opposite side, trying to make a left turn against us. It was a new Rolls Royce! I have only seen one of these in person one other time in my life. The thing costs something like $400,000 without options. License plate was a vanity one, saying "JEZEUS". I wonder what that was about.

An IKEA Weekend

The vanity in the kids bathroom is falling apart. That is no good because that is the most used bathroom in the house. I got a contractor to come in and price a replacement. Momoko wanted to pick out her own sink. She said she saw something cool at IKEA, the furnishings store from Sweden. So Momoko and I went there this weekend.

IKEA wants to take care of you while you shop. They have extensive child care, as well as a big cafeteria. Momoko and I both had their 99 cent breakfast. We added all you can drink sodas for an additional 65 cents. That was good. Then we went to the bathroom section of the store.

We could not find the exact sink Momoko saw in the catalog. Their vanities also look like they only fit non-standard faucets. I am very particular about the type of faucet I buy. It must be a brushed nickel surface. And it must have a tall spout that is not too close to the edge of the sink. So I think IKEA will be a no go for our vanity.

We did see some nice clothing storage options. Momoko has a broke down mini dresser that is not meeting her needs. Only thing we need to figure out is whether the closet sized storage furniture will fit in our bedroom. Momoko did pick up a bunch of finger puppets at IKEA. On a totally separate note, you must see this video I found describing what pwned means.

Topping Lady Gaga

I like Lady Gaga. Her outfits are always out there. But her songs are actually very catchy. Who knows whether she has lasting power in the music industry. But she is in right now.

Check out this video of a 6th grader in a talent show doing a cover of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi. This guy has mad talent. The kids would say he is a beast. I say he can take it to a whole 'nother level.

Trouble Filling Up

Coming home from work, I noticed my gas tank heading towards empty. So I stopped by the gas station to fill up. Some cat approached me and said he was out of gas, and out of money. He asked if I had any change.

I took one look at his car and figured something was not right. He was driving a new Nissan 350Z which costs $30,000 at the minimum. This is not somebody who should have money problem. I told the guy I had no change. What I meant was that I had no change for him. You got to be cautious in this day and age.

Leaving the gas station, I had to wait for the light to turn green before making a left turn. There was a car in front of me. As we made the turn, the car in front of me slowed down to a crawl. I wondered why he was doing this. We had the green light. Then I saw it. A truck coming in the opposite direction had jumped the median and was coming straight for the guy. We both dodged the truck and went by him without incident. Yikes.

Sick Cats

Yesterday Little Kat came home from school tired. He lay down on the floor and could not get up. So Momoko sent him to bed. He slept right through dinner and all through the night. Kit Kat got stuck cooking us some dinner.

This afternoon I felt really hot at work. And I was tired. This was the work of a fever. I made it home ok. But then I went to bed. The fever had me freezing. I could not get out of bed to watch Glee. Finally I bundled up and went downstairs for some dinner.

Tonight I plan to sleep downstairs in quarantine. No need to get Momoko sick too. It is just not fun at all.

Iron Man Weekend

Today the family finally came out and helped me with the yard work. Kit Kat and Little Kat were my main helpers. Luckily I had already cut the grass during the middle of the week. So we finished all our work in an hour or two.

I needed a rest after that. However Little Kat wanted to take Momoko to see Iron Man for Mother's Day. They wanted me to come so I had to wake up. We went to the least popular theater. And they had the movie playing every 30 minutes. The one we saw was on the big screen. The theater was still crowded. I was glad we could all sit together.

After the nice movie, we went out to eat. We went to a restaurant we had never been to before. It served "California" cooking. We pretty much ordered appetizers all night. There were nachos and stuffed mushrooms and eggs rolls. The best thing there were these freshly cooked donut holes. We are definitely going back.

Fireflies

Everybody and their brother are singing Fireflies by Owl City on YouTube. Here is the problem. Most of them are just not that good. But I tell you what. Krazy Katherine and her friend have the best video out there.

No. They are not the best singers out there. But you know what? They got heart. They got a lot of heart. So they get my support. Big ups to you Krazy. May the force be with you. And may you turn out to be as successful as Justin Bieber.

All we need now is for the cast of Glee to do a cover of Fireflies. You heard it here first.

Hard Day's Work

Yesterday I did my best to get out of work before it got too late. I ran to the store and bought some goods. Picked up a window air conditioning unit to try out. Also bought some weed-b-gone.

Spent a few hours in the yard. Cut the grass. Weeded. Watered. Spread out some mulch and fertilizer. The yard is looking better if I do say so myself.

Earlier yesterday I woke up quite early. Kit Kat had not even got up yet. She normally leaves the house before I wake up. I looked at the time and wondered whether she had gone to school. I peeked out the front door window, and saw Kit Kat walking down the street to her bus. She had her rainbow purse in tow, and her purple backpack on her back. All was well.

Hacked!!

I just so happen to check one of credit card accounts to see how many rewards points I have earned because I was thinking about doing a little shopping. While I was perusing my account, I noticed a charge for $226.68 to a Paypal account. This was very strange because the only thing that I had charged to this particular credit card account this month was a few pizzas from Papa Johns on 4/29. I know I wasn't shopping on eBay and that is the only place I use Paypal account so I called my bank to find out more about the purchase. No luck, I called too late and I will have to deal with it in the morning. I decided to do a little snooping so I checked out my Paypal account. I could see the details of the transaction clearly. Somehow an unknown person with an email account "jailbrek" had lifted $220 plus $6.68 fee from my credit card and this transaction had the subject "You've got money!" so I guess they decided to take it!!!! I filed an unauthorized transaction report at Paypal and I am awaiting the results of the investigation (10 days) to see if they will refund my money. I changed all my passwords and deleted my credit card for this account. It really makes you wonder how secure online banking/shopping really is.

Birthday Fun!

I hope Granny Kat enjoyed her birthday. SHHHHHHH maybe she did not want people to know. Oh well, the cats out of the bag now. I did get a chance to speak with her a little today. I hope she gets everything she wanted ....errr....asked for.....errr...asked for within budget...happy birthday to a special kat!!!

Love you bunches!!!

Fighting the Bushes

We have 4 or 5 bushes out in front of the house. It has been years since I trimmed them. They are now more like one big bush. So I went to work on them today. First I spread out newspaper to catch all the clippings. Then I got some big shears and cut away. It was very hot today, so this took a lot out of me.

Speaking of the heat, our house is messed up. The basement is totally freezing. And the upstairs is hotter than you know what. At first I thought an HVAC guy could help. Now I am leaning toward installing window A/C units on all the bedrooms upstairs. We got to do something about this crazy heat. I am spending a lot of $$$ on the electric bill. All that is doing is keeping the basement frozen.

Windshields and Titans

Yesterday I stayed home from work to have my car windshield repaired. The guy came on time. When he was done, I saw some strange paper stuck on the outside of the windshield. I showed the guy and he tried to cut it off. However that uncovered a defective windshield. He needed to go back and get me another one. Nice.

Today I picked up Kit Kat and her friend from school because they had an after school activity. I drove Kit Kat's friend home. Then I had Kit Kat drive us to our house. Kit Kat's friend watched in awe as she took off driving out of his driveway. It was a long ride home. Kit Kat did not want to take the highway. Instead we went on the bumpy back roads. With our luck, a car was abandoned on the busiest road in our lane. Kit Kat had to do a difficult merge in the middle of traffic.

When I got home, Kit Kat and Momoko proposed we go out to eat and see a movie. Little Kat is spending the night over his best friend's house. So I chose to go out to a little Mexican restaurant off the beaten path. Momoko and Kit Kat had full meals. That left no room for dessert. We headed up to our old favorite theater. That is where we watched Clash of the Titans. Good stuff.