A Little Problem

Tonight the family played a game of Clue. Momoko insisted. We had just played a game the day before yesterday. However Momoko had not won. Today she won.

After the game, Little Kat went downstairs and returned saying, "We have a problem." There was a lot of water on the floor in the laundry room. The basin where the washing machine water goes to had overflown.

Little Kat got out the plunger. We figured the drain had clogged. Yep. Little Kat threw a washcloth in there by mistake. He used a carpet cleaner to suck up some water. Then we used towels and a huge fan to dry things up. I had to pull out the washer and dryer.

The only good news for today is that Little Kat bought a used laptop. I saw a new one in the store for $350. I figured that same model would go for $175 used. And I figured such a used model could be "sold" to a family member for around $87. Our neighbor gave Little Kat the family rate. Now he owns a Toshiba Satellite M300 series laptop.

Laptop Surprise

Previously I had wrote about how Little Kat made some money by helping our neighbor cut down some trees. I was proud of Little Kat that night. He played tennis with the rest of the family. Directly afterwards he went to work with our neighbor.

Well just last night, this neighbor came by and said she knew Little Kat was saving up for a laptop. She said she had an extra laptop, and handed it to me. She said me and Little Kat could check it out. I asked her how much she would sell it to Little Kat for. She told me that whatever Little Kat had saved up would be enough.

I checked out this laptop. It has Windows Vista on it, as was Microsoft Office. There was a 230G hard drive and 4G RAM. Dang it. This laptop is better than mine. The only problem is that Little Kat has trouble saving money. He had spent a lot of his laptop fund already. Momoko and I need to decide whether to allow the neighbor to essentially give a laptop to Little Kat.

Stepping Up

Today it turns out a lot of the family needed to go the library. But Momoko and Little Kat came home late. We had Little Kat check the library hours. Ooops. They close early tonight. So the only thing we could do was go play some tennis.

As we got to the park with the tennis courts, we saw a couple entering the courts. They usually play beside us. We passed them and went to the far court. In the beginning, Little Kat was slacking. None of his shots were going over the net. He was not moving any on the returns. He would just swing his racket wildly.

I taught him how to bounce the ball on the ground before serving. Then I tried putting him in the back court to get him moving some more. Momoko had an even better idea. She say out for a few rounds, and pitted Kit Kat and myself against Little Kat. There was no more room to slack. Little Kat had to work the whole side of the court against Kit Kat and myself. He started to step up and return some serves. A few of his hits went into the court next to us. But he continues to improve his tennis game as long as we push him hard.

More Tennis

Kit Kat and I were waiting for Momoko and Little Kat to get home today. We were scheduled to play tennis at 5:00PM. We needed to be on time so we could successfully watch Glee on TV tonight. Momoko did not show up until 5:30PM.

Then Momoko informed us that she was too busy today. She needed to grade some papers. Kit Kat has not been doing enough grading for Momoko. So we left without her. Kit Kat did the driving.

There was nobody at the park as usual. We started in the far tennis court. However the balls kept flying over the fence. We then moved to the near court. Little Kat had a couple good ball returns once he moved onto Kit Kat's side of the net. Kit Kat had some trouble when the tennis ball came right at her. Got to remember to send the tennis ball a little to the right of her for a good return.

Football Miss

We wanted to take Little Kat to a high school football game. However he was sick this weekend for Kit Kat's homecoming football game. I figured we could all go to another one of Kit Kat's high school home football games. Kit Kat was not down with this plan. She does not like football. Momoko overruled her and said she must attend.

I took the action item to find out when the next home football game is. The web did not easily show the football schedule. I called up Kit Kat's school. Got put through to the football coach. Then I found the school schedule on the web. Looks like all the home games for Kit Kat's high school football team are over. Boo. We might have to go to an away game.

Well it is time to go play tennis with the family. See you soon.

Football Afternoon

Today was Kit Kat's homecoming football game. Little Kat was sick yesterday. So we left him home. As we got to the game, a lot of people were hitting us up for donations. I needed to use the restroom. Kit Kat brought me up to the school. Good thing she was there. I could not tell which was the boys and which was the girls.

We got some tickets and went straight to the concessions stand to get food and drinks. We sat on the side of the field where the visiting team sits. There was more room there. I was impressed by the opposing team's cheerleaders. They were not many of them. But they were loud.

Kit Kat's team did not throw many passes. They did not have to. Each down they ran for what seemed to be a first down. By half time, Kit Kat's team was up 28 to 0. There were high school alumni around to watch the game. There were also some alumni cheerleaders out cheering. I wanted to sneak out in the 4th quarter to avoid the parking lot jam. Kit Kat made us stay to the end. It was ok. This may very well be the last football game we go to. Kit Kat is not that into the football. She is getting ready now for the homecoming dance though.

Deadly Beefaroni

I had to visit my customer's building today. So I did not go in to the office. Momoko had to take Kit Kat to the doctor's. She stayed home as well. We had scheduled to play tennis again today for exercise. However Momoko said her knee was hurting bad.

It took a couple reminders from me to get Momoko to go pick up Little Kat from school. When he came home, he said his leg and back were hurting. Then to add to his problems, he dropped his hot bowl of Beefaroni. Kit Kat had to come in to help him clean it all up. She said she almost died 3 times due to the slick floor with sauce all over it.

This weekend we are hoping to finally attended a football game at Kit Kat's school. It is homecoming. Kit Kat definitely plans to go to the homecoming dance. But she seems to have no interest in the game. Momoko and I both remember the good times going to our high school football games. Kit Kat should at least experience it once. Oddly enough, none of Kit Kat's friends want to go to the homecoming football game.

String to the Rescue

The other day I drove the family to a buffet. There was a strange noise coming from the back of my car. I got out to investigate. It turns out that some of the plastic that covers my bumper was hanging down. The sound was the plastic scraping the ground. At that point I just bent the plastic back up towards the car. I thought I would fix the thing permanently later.

Well I forgot about that until today. I drove the cats to lunch from work. A coworker asked if there was something wrong with my car radio. No. It was the bumper cover hanging down and scratching the ground again. When I got home, I decided to fix the darn thing before school.

I got two pieces of strong string. Used the string to tie the flapping plastic to the brace that holds the bumper. Then I wrapped a couple pieces of duct tape around the string, just for safety. Now this thing will stay up as long as I still have a bumper attached. I used this string trick on my last car. The fender by the wheel was hanging loose after running over something. String kept it tight until I sold that car.

Cat Lessons

I read an article that covered lessons on how to treat people. There were some gems in there. For example, you might find gold in the strangest of places. And you never know who you might meet on the side of the road.

In other news, I had turned in a assignment for school that I thought was pretty darn good. However the other night I found that I received a zero on the assignment. This must have been a mistake. So I tried to schedule a meeting with my instructor.

The instructor told me to drop by his office hours. Today I left work in the middle of the day to go to school. Wouldn't you know it? The instructor was not there at the start of his office hours. I saw another past instructor of mine and talked about some stuff in the world of network security. After a long wait, my instructor finally showed up. I made sure that there were no more hidden expectations for my assignment. When I turn it back in, I am expecting no less than 100% on the thing.

Close Call

Today I made sure I left work in time. We had scheduled to go play tennis again at the local park. Momoko and Little Kat were a bit late from school. However we were able to visit the park. Kit Kat drove us there. The courts were empty.

This time we were on the real tennis courts. Little Kat had some problems getting the ball to go over the tennis net. Kit Kat, on the other hand, was smacking the ball over the high fences on the side. Both Kit Kat and Momoko spent some time playing tennis against themselves by hitting the ball against a board on the side of the fence. It was kind of like Forrest Gump, except they did not have Forrest Gump skills.

Momoko talked us into playing doubles tennis. We are not quite ready for that yet. Got to work on serving and returning a serve first. When we got home, Kit Kat and Little Kat teamed up to cook us some pasta Alfredo with meatballs. Kit Kat almost burned the garlic bread. Luckily I reminded her that we needed that bread, and she ran to the over to pull out some crisp slices.

Rita's Italian Ice

Little Kat and I did our regular Sunday shopping. I usually go to Walmart because of the great prices. However today I decided to take us to Target. We got some wild bird feed which seemed pricey. Little Kat talked me into buying "How to Train Your Dragon" on DVD. We bought the 2-disc set that has an extra movie with it.

Afterwards Little Kat suggested we drop by Rita's. It is an ice cream store in the Target parking lot. We got there and found there were many options to choose from. This was our first time there. Little Kat ended up choosing a mango gelatti. It is vanilla custard in a cup with mango Italian ice in the middle. I just got a vanilla custard waffle cone.

This week I got a package that I had ordered by mail. It was an air compressor to inflate things like car tires and sports balls. Little Kat helped me test it out on my truck tires. He said the thing was slow to inflate a car tire, and made a lot of noise. It was also tricky to pull the inflating needle out of a football or basketball. We figured it out though. Now I do not have to go to the gas station when my tire needs air. I just plug this bad boy into the cigarette lighter and I am good.

Kit Kat's Day

Today is the weekend day when my bro usually comes over to watch movies with me. I took a small nap before he came over so that I would be fresh for the movies. When I woke up, Momoko and Kit Kat had gone out shopping.

Kit Kat came back. She and Momoko went to the Dress Barn. Kit Kat got invited to a friend's homecoming dance. I thought it was strange that Kit Kat had to pay for her own ticket. However it was her money and her decision.

My bro and I got some fast food between the movies. When we got home, the mail man had arrived. He delivered minimal letters. But he left a few packages. One of them was for Kit Kat. Her new cell phone has arrived.

Slacker School

The rain cleared up today. So the family had plans to play tennis for exercise this afternoon. Kit Kat, Little Kat, and Momoko were off from school. However Momoko needed to unpack a lot of boxes at school. So she brought the kids to her school to help her out.

I got off from work on time to make sure I could make it to tennis. When I got home, nobody else was here. That was strange. Momoko said she only had a half day worth of work to do at school. So I read the paper and browsed the web.

Later the rest of the family came home. There was a lot of moaning. The unpacking of boxes turned out to be a big job. Now everyone was too tired to exercise on the tennis court. There was some crazy talk about playing Wii tennis instead of the real tennis court. But even that seems like it may be in jeopardy.

So much for the playground exercise idea.

College Time

Kit Kat's school left a message on our answering machine. It said that tonight is the college fair at her school. Kit Kat said that over 50 colleges are attending. For some reason, Kit Kat is not interested in researching colleges. So she planned to skip the event. Luckily Momoko is making her go.

Two of Kit Kat's friends from school are going to the college fair with her. That should give her some good support. I had to stay home with Little Kat. We might be planting a bamboo tree tonight. However I did some role playing with Kit Kat. I started out as the high school student, and she played the college representative. Then we switched roles. Good luck Kit Kat.

Weeds and Trees

Yesterday Kit Kat drove us home from our tennis outing. The neighbor from across the street came over and asked if Little Kat wanted to make some money. Now you should know that Little Kat is saving up to buy a laptop. Unfortunately he just bought a big Nerf gun and ammo vest for $63. So you know he is looking for extra cash.

I sent Little Kat over with our hand saw. He seemed to start out doing some weeding. But then he was pulling out trees. He brought home a bamboo shoot that was taller than him (we want to plant some bamboo in the back yard). By the time Kit Kat finished cooking us up some macaroni and cheese casserole, I went to find Little Kat. He and the neighbor were sawing down trees in her front yard.

Little Kat came back to report that he made some cash. He also said our neighbor might have a spare laptop sitting around the house. That sounded strange. I did applaud Little Kat for doing a lot of manual labor just after we spent the afternoon playing tennis. Little Kat might just bulk up and be a Big Kat some day.

Tennis Anyone

Today the family planned to go to the local park to play tennis today. I worked very hard at work to ensure I could leave on time. People did not want me to be productive. But I had to leave on time. When I got back, there was some confusion over the dinner which would take a long time to cook. After making sure I was going to leave on time from work, I was not about to postpone tennis.

We had Kit Kat put all the gym equipment in a big sports bag. She also drove us to the local park. Momoko had her drive close to the tennis courts. Ooops. The courts were taken by tennis players. Momoko wanted to kick the one dude out who was playing tennis against the wall on one court. I thought that would be bad form.

Instead we headed over to the basketball court. Little Kat shot a basket or two and was done. I tried playing basketball with our soccer ball. But I found I had no skills. We ended up playing tennis on the basketball court. Now when I say tennis, I mean we tried to hit the ball to each other and return the serves. We were not trying to make the opponent miss. We are not good enough for that.

Luckily I picked up a bunch of tennis balls on the weekend. We each loaded our pockets with tennis balls. Then we would serve. Most of the time the opponent would miss. No problem. Just pull out another ball and serve again. Repeat until you are out of balls. Then pick up all the balls that went wild. Good times. Let's keep this up family. I am game. Are you?

Dinner Meeting

Today I planned to meet an old coworker for dinner. We were to eat Chinese at a mall by his house. I was pleasantly surprised that traffic was light. Got there real early. The mall was nice. It is in an upscale neighborhood. They have nice furniture to sit in while you wait. I waited outside the Chinese food restaurant.

While waiting, I saw a kid and his mom board a mall train. It is a little train that rides through the mall. I was annoyed that the front door to the Chinese food place had a squeaky door. People kept coming in and out.

When I first entered the mall, I went to the mall directory to figure out how to get to the Chinese food restaurant. I was surprised that the map did not accurately show the shape of the mall. Come on guys. I was still able to find the place. You could tell this was an upscale mall. Everybody was dressed very fashionably. A number of people were speaking foreign languages. I got the feel that there were many European people in the area.

Sports Cats

This weekend, Kit Kat's friends invited her to go play tennis with them. Little Kat was sad that she left us. Kit Kat seemed to have a good time. But she was tired from the event.

Little Kat and I did our weekly shopping at Walmart today. We both picked up a tennis racket, and a bunch of tennis balls. We debated what kind of rackets to buy. Lite rackets seemed good. A large racket head was also good.

Little Kat told Momoko that his school mates do not think he can play football at all. Momoko said we need to beef up Little Kat's football skills. So Little Kat and I bought some footballs at Wallyworld as well. Got a Patriot Nerf football, as well as a junior pigskin football.

After our weekly yard cleanup activity today, Momoko and I played football catch with Little Kat. He has got to learn how to hang on to that ball. His quarterback throwing skills are decent.

Let Me In

My brother and I saw a movie called Let The Right One In. It was a foreign flick about a vampire girl. Now they have remade the movie for the USA. I told Momoko that we should see it. She declined saying it was too scary. However some friends of her said it was a good movie. So this morning Momoko and I got up early and went to the show.

We left Little Kat watching TV. Kit Kat invited two friends to spend the night yesterday. They stayed up all night, so they were still asleep when we left for the movie. Little Kat decided his sister and friends should wake up early. So he stomped on the floor over top of them. The dirty rat.

Momoko and I got some good breakfast at the movie theater. The movie was not too good. They got the plot basics down. However they could not mimic the soul of the foreign flick. Now I wish we had seen The Social Network instead.

Going to School

Last night I did not have a big dinner. So I was hungry when I woke up. Decided to drop by McDonalds. Normally I get the sausage McMuffin from the dollar menu. But I decided to splurge and get an egg McMuffin. I was a bit taken aback by the $2.75 price. It was worth it though.

I had a lot of work to do today. It was tough. Momoko and Kit Kat were going to the doctor's in the afternoon. That meant I had to pick up Little Kat from school. I had to skip lunch because there was so much to do. It was ok. The boys that I normally eat lunch with were not in the office.

Luckily I got out of work 10 minutes early. I got a chicken sandwich from Burger King. That tasted good. I got Little Kat and asked him about his progress report from school. He lost it. His school is good though. They have all the grades online.

Little Kat told me he had to write an essay on Black History month. That was odd seeing how Black History month is 4 months away. He called his friend from class and found out he needed to write an essay about an inspiring Hispanic person. Sheesh. This guy needs to pay more attention in class and write down his assignments. Can we get him a planner to log his homework?

Downtown Meeting

My company scheduled an all hands meeting for our team. Food was going to be provided. But it was going to be held in the middle of the city at rush hour. Ouch. Everybody pretty much said they were going to take the train there. I had to buck the trend.

I made sure I left early to drive all the way into the city. The drive started out good. Then it slowed to a crawl in the city. I drove by where I went to high school. Then I missed my turn. Went around a couple circles, found the place, but missed the one parking space by the meeting place.

Well I circled around a couple blocks. Found a little VW Beetle leaving his parking spot. I did a quick U-turn, and claimed the spot. They had some weird way to pay for parking. You don't put coins in a meter by your parking space. You walk down the block to purchase a receipt to put in your window. What the heck? I only had 2 maximum of 2 hours parking. When my time was up, I snuck out of my meeting, then came home.

Dinner on the Cheap

I had to work a little late today. It is my school night. So I had to drive straight from work to school. The highway was bumper to bumper traffic. It was moving very slow. I only had time for McDonald's drive through for dinner.

My plan was to eat off the dollar menu. I got a McDouble for $1.00. Then I added a small fried for $1.00. Finally I asked for a cup of water. That is free of charge. The drive through line was slow. What was taking them so long?

When I got to the window where they give you the food, I got a bag with the burger and fried. However the dude handed me a bottle of Dasani water. I did not question it. That's a $1.29 value right there. Maybe the guy was new. Or maybe he was giving me a deal. I don't know. I did hit the gas before they asked me to pay for the water. Bank error in my favor this time.

Delayed Work Out

I had to work late today. So after dinner I decided to take a little nap. Momoko said the family would exercise in about an hour. The bedroom was freezing. Normally I only have a sheet over me. The sheet was not providing any warmth.

I tried to suck it up and go to sleep. No use. After about a half hour, I went out into the cold and turned off the air conditioning. Then I went to another room upstairs and turned off that window unit as well. I grabbed a nice blanket from the closet and got warm. Sleep came easily.

The next thing I know, it is an hour and a half later. I got dressed for exercise and came down. Momoko said the kids started without me. However she was still chatting online. We went downstairs. The kids both said they had an "easy workout" today. I tell ya. I sleep for an extra hour and the slackers come out. We spent another half hour exercising. What are we going to do when I need to be out of the house for the rest of the evenings this week. I guess exercise will be put on hold.

Birthday Boy

We went to a buffet today for lunch. It was to celebrate Little Kat's birthday. He said he likes the buffet because they have chocolate milk. Strange. Momoko loves their cabbage. Kit Kat was looking for clam chowder, but had to settle for their potato crisps. Me, I like their salad bar.

After lunch we headed home to open presents. I gave Little Kat some binoculars. This was in addition to the cell phone cover I gave him earlier this week. Momoko got Little Kat a TI-84 Plus calculator. It is the one they use in school. Little Kat was a bit disappointed. Kit Kat game him some Nintendo DS accessories. Up until this is was an ok birthday. But then Kit Kat snuck upstairs, and brought down Momoko's real gift. It was a Nintendo DSi XL.

Man this thing looks cool. It is almost like a netbook computer. Little Kat browsed the web. He also used some funny apps to draw on top of people's pictures. The thing has a camera on it. So Little Kat is dangerous. The DSi XL turned out to be the best birthday gift ever according to Little Kat. He later cleaned up with some cash and other gifts from my family. Things are looking up for the little guy.

Playing Pictionary

Kit Kat gave a card game to one of her friends recently. She told me about it. You use cards to play charades. It sounded really fun. This past Monday was supposed to be our biweekly game night. For some reason we did not have time to play. It got postponed to today.

Luckily on Wednesday, Kit Kat picked up a Pictionary card deck for our family. You know we were going to play it. This game requires you to choose teams. It was the boys against the girls. We chose the easy very of the game. However it was quite difficult. Neither Kit Kat nor myself could guess the word "Teddy Bear" for over 10 minutes. We finally gave up.

In the end, the team of Momoko plus Kit Kat won. However Little Kat and I did win a few rounds. I tried my best to give us an edge. I blurted out a lot of words that might be related. That won us a game or two. Little Kat also used more than just the cards for a game or two. I dread the day we have to play the advanced version of the game.