Mistaken Identity

Today I had to stay late at work. While I was leaving, I saw two cats come out of a neighboring building. They were dressed casually with t-shirts, sweat pants, and sneakers. At first I thought they must have been the cleaning ladies.

I spied on them as they headed to their cars. One of them walks up to a top of the line Lexus sedan. Bamn. The other one drives off in a top of the line Acura sedan. And it was brand new.

Well if these cats were the cleaning crew, they must actually own the company that does the cleaning. You don't drive an Acrura RL if you make just minimum wage. That will teach me to make any snap judgements based on people's clothing.

Sick Puppies

Everyone seems to have a little bit of a cold around here except for me. I have been trying to dodge the mountains of used Kleenex and used Halls wrappers. I am being serenaded by the sound of sniff sniff cough cough sniff sniff cough cough for many days now and I have realized that I have been surrounded by a relaxing rhythm of sickness. I made chicken soup and made sure we were stocked with sprite in hopes the family will feel better soon. KEEP BLOWING!!!!

The Gig is Up

Some time around a year ago, I realized our cable bill was getting out of control. It was something like $150 a month. Now that is ridiculous. Slowly I worked on getting the costs down. First I got rid of the pay channels like HBO and Starz. Then I sent back the Digital Recorder box. Even that was not good enough.

It was time to get radical. I cut our Internet speed option down to the slowest one available. Then I asked to cut out all but the local channels. The price of cable TV plus Internet plummeted down to $50 a month. That is reasonable. The good thing is that they forgot to turn off some of the cable channels we were receiving.

We rode this accident out for about a year. The whole family has been enjoying cable channels like Lifetime and Cartoon Network and such. Not any more. I just got a letter from the cable company stating that they realized we were getting too many channels and not paying for it. They are cutting out the extra channels next month.

What are we to do? I might be able to sign up for some special 6 month deal, then cancel again in 6 months. We can only hope they make another mistake and forget to turn off the good channels. Now it is time to start slashing the cell phone bill. The thing was running $130 a month...

Big Screen TV

On Thanksgiving I woke up at 6:00 am. I heard Little Kat's alarm go off. He must have forgotten to turn off his school alarm. That's ok. I needed to get up anyway. I got in the truck and drove North to Sears. Got there at 6:50am. There were people already waiting outside the doors.

I figured it was cold outside. So I thought I would wait in the car until 6:58 or 6:59 before getting out. There were already a lot of people there. If I got out immediately, it would do not good. I was shocked as the Sears employees opened the doors at 6:55am.

People all seemed to head towards the electronics department where I wanted to go. I got out of the truck and ran to the front doors. Other people were waiting in their cars like me and I needed to beat them. Once inside I saw a sales associate chatting with a customer. I gave the customer the evil eye and he left. Yes.

The salesman sold me a 50 inch Zenith plasma TV for $499. I've been watching the prices on these TVs for about a year. They seemed to hover between $599 and $699. I did see an inferior one go on sale for $550 once. I bought a better one for $499. I ran out and drove to the merchandise pickup. The thing fit in the back of my truck (barely). When I got home, I used the dolly to wheel the thing into the living room. Nobody was up yet. I figured I would wait for Little Kat to wake up before opening the thing. He was just as excited as I was about getting a big screen TV.

Little Rat Emerges

Today we played tennis as a family to make up for skipping it yesterday. It got dark real quick. Afterwards Little Kat and I separated from Kit Kat and Momoko. Little Kat and I went on a mission. We spied on a Thanksgiving day sale at Sears. They got big screen TVs for super low prices.

Turns out they don't have many TVs at the low price. After the shopping, Little Kat and I needed to get some dinner. We started heading North towards Sonic. However Little Kat said was too hungry to wait during the long drive to Sonic. We instead ate at a New Orleans style restaurant. We ordered a pasta spinach dip appetizer, along with an order of fried pickles
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During dinner Little Kat saw his reflection in the mirror behind him. He confessed that he has an alter ego inside him that is bad. This version of him is called Little Rat. The Little Kat that we know is the good version of him. Although this all sounds a bit suspicious, it also kind of makes some sense. Got to keep an eye out for the Little Rat.

Living Room Furniture

We have some old furniture in our living room. Momoko wants it replaced which is fine. She also decided we should move the old furniture down to the basement.

There was just one problem with this plan. Both pieces of furniture are very heavy. Kit Kat tried to "slide" the love seat into the basement. It got stuck on the way down the stairs. Somehow we managed to lift the love seat back up the stairs to get it unstuck. My back and Kit Kat's arms suffered as a result.

Now I have made a new and final plan. I will buy some new furniture for the living room. But the cats that deliver the new furniture must take away our heavy couch. My back is is just too important to throw out just to save the couch. I am sure Kit Kat agrees.

All Leaves

I had plans to eat lunch with my buddy today. So I got up real early even though it was the weekend. Woke up the family to get us out in the yard working. Little Kat worked with Momoko to remove the leaves stuck in the bushes in the front yard.

I used the leaf blower to remove all leaves from the patio. Then I used the rake to pull leaves away from the perimeter fence. Kit Kat used the lawn mower to pull up all the leaves. We bagged a ton of leaves.

In the end, we filled up all the trash cans. Little Kat went with the ladies to see the new grocery store. I got some fish for lunch. Then Little Kat and I went to Target. He told me that he and Kit Kat wanted some Cran Grape juice. I hooked them up.

Sonic Found

Yesterday Momoko talked me into going out for dinner. We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Afterwards we watched The Last Airbender on DVD. I hurried up and took a nap. Because I watch the poker Big Game in the middle of the night.

This morning I was the first one up. Momoko wanted to see Harry Potter with the family. So I woke up Momoko, who in turn woke up Kit Kat. I thought the show we wanted to see was at 11:00am. It was actually at 11:30am. That was a good thing. We were 30 minutes early, but the theater was full. Any later and we would not have been able to sit together.

Afterwards we drove up North to search for a new Sonic that had allegedly opened. It was 30 minutes from the house. The traffic was terrible. But the Sonic food was awesome. Now we don't have to drive 2 hours to get to Sonic. Shhh. Don't tell Little Kat. He spent the night over his friend's house and missed out on the Sonic goodness.

Wrong Way

I was driving home from work. Came up to a traffic circle. There were many cars coming from the other side of the circle. Luckily most of them were just passing straight through the circle.

One oncoming Toyota vehicle decided to make a right turn. However something did not seem right. They missed the actual right turn out of the circle. Instead the went down the wrong way of a one-way street.

I kept an eye on the vehicle. Would they figure out what went wrong? Yes. They were going head on with another vehicle coming the right way. Before I drove off, I saw the car stop and turn around on the street.

This was almost a bad accident in the making.

Rainy Day Blues

Today a bunch of workers from our global team came together at my office building. We hardly ever see these guys in person. So at lunch time we all went out together. I know the local area. Therefore I volunteered to drive.

On the way back to the office after lunch, a coworker asked if he could roll down the window. I said sure. He wanted some fresh air. Maybe I should have turned on the vent. The window down on the drive to the office was fine. But he forgot to roll up the window when we parked.

After work I saw the open window and realized the error. Luckily it was not all the way down. I did not get a flood, just a little rain. Speaking of rain, it looks like our Tuesday tennis session is cancelled. Boo. I love that tennis exercise.

Dojo Scare

When I came home, Momoko told me that our Dojo fish had quite the scare today. Little Kat must have made too quick a move by the fish tank. Dojo was terrorized. He dug himself fully under the rocks at the bottom of the tank,.

Kit Kat was concerned because our Dojo never puts himself under the gravel. So she tried to scoop him out of the rubble. By the time I came home, he half buried himself again.

I guess the fish does not have a great long term memory. He now has come up above ground and seems ok. Be careful around the fish tank children. We don't want too much stress on our fish.

Value Searching

Little Kat and I have the weekly duty to do the Walmart / Target shopping. This week was no different. We usually go on Sundays. I subscribe to the newspaper 7 days a week. The Sunday paper has plenty of coupons. You know I am clipping them to maximize our value.

One coupon I clipped was to save on some plastic bags. I brought Little Kat to the aisle where they were. He showed me the brand they like. I told him I had a coupon for another brand. But the coupon does not tell the whole story. We compared prices between the favorite brand and the discounted brand. Turns out the favorite brand was cheaper (most like due to a store discount). We ended up getting the brand the kids like. Using coupons is nice. But the main objective is to save money.

In other news, we bought a new Christmas tree today. I thought we should get an imitation Douglas Fir. However Little Kat voted for an imitation pine. Momoko concurred with Little Kat. Now he wants to put up the tree really early this year. I am a bit sad that we are retiring the tree we have been faithfully using each year. But it is getting to be time.

Never Again

Some time ago Momoko and I went into the city to visit this Italian restaurant. We used Momoko's car because it has GPS navigation. That was little to no help. The GPS kept telling us to go the wrong way. That is no fun when you got a lot of city traffic on the streets.

Momoko wanted to return. But there was no way I wanted to be driving back in that mayhem. Well Momoko said that if she got her diploma from grad school, she would like to return to the city restaurant. Her diploma came in the mail. So today we headed back.

As soon as we entered the city, I knew we were in trouble. The traffic was heavy even though it is the weekend. There were people walking the streets everywhere. And there was a lot of traffic. Random lanes were closed down due to traffic.

We enjoyed something called The Bookmaker Salad as an appetizer. It has salami, boiled egg, tons of shrimp, and a delicious house salad. Although I loved the food, I definitely don't like this evil city driving.

Family Game Night

Today I had to work late. Momoko and the kids were off from school. It was also family game night at home. Little Kat and I voted for Monopoly. Momoko and Kit Kat protested. The flip of the coin gave us Monopoly as the first game.

Nobody wanted to do any property trades with me. Luckily I got a monopoly by myself on the green ones (Pacific Avenue, etc). The rest was just building houses and raking in the rent.

Little Kat did not want to go to bed. Momoko suggested we play the Game of Life. Kit Kat loves this game. Strangely enough we do not have the directions for the game. Little Kat and I were fighting for the win by the end. We both ended up at the millionaire's mansion trying to get some extra life tiles. Little Kat won it all.

Communication Fail

I had to pick Little Kat up from school today. Momoko is staying late for parent conferences. I asked Little Kat how much homework he had. He said only 2 lil things. Kit Kat got home just after we did. I asked the kids if they were ready for tennis. Kit Kat she needed 15-20 minutes to take care of some things. I told the kids to meet me outside when they finished what they needed.

So I made the most of my time. Used the leaf blower. Then started using the lawn mower to pick up leaves. The kids were taking an awfully long time. I came inside. They said they were almost done with their snack. I went back out and mowed up more leaves. A long time later I came in to find what the delay was. The kids were watching a DVD. Huh? They said they were waiting for me. I was waiting for them. Fail.

We did some tennis. Little Kat got beaned in the eye with a Kit Kat tennis ball serve. He sat out for a game. Little Kat whined that we only play tennis. So we wrapped up our tennis game, and headed to the football field behind the tennis courts. It was nice. They were all the yard lines painted with some white stuff. They were night lights making the field very bright. We practiced throwing and punting the ball.

When I got home, I asked Little Kat if he could wrap up his homework in an hour and a half. He said no way. Then he informed me he had 4 homework assignments (instead of the four earlier). I had him complete them all. He was crying that his hands hurt from so much typing. Well he has tomorrow off from school. The 3 day weekend should allow him to recouperate.

(P.S. The image above is the cover of Little Kat's poem assignment. Good stuff.)

Five and Below

Yesterday I drove Little Kat to a store called "Five and Below". Everything in the store costs $5 or less. This place is better than the dollar store, where Little Kat says they have a lot of junk.

Little Kat ended up buying a laser pointer and a book on dogs. I did not pick up anything yesterday. But today I started thinking that I passed up on some good deals. So I left work early and headed over to Five and Below.

There were a lot of computer games and DVDs for sale at $5 a pop. I picked up a total of five games including Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. The DVDs were nice too. Some were 2-disc sets. Others had some extras in the DVD jacket. I have a feeling I will be returning to Five and Below soon.

Daylight Savings

Today I rushed home from work and found that everybody was already home. Great. We can go to tennis early right? No luck. People needed to eat a snack first. I still wanted to get out there early because of Daylight Savings Time. We run out of sunlight much earlier now.

Well we did get to tennis a bit early. There was nobody else there at the tennis court. We all did a lot of running to catch the balls. This tired everybody out fast. Momoko took a break, returned, and voted for us to go home. What? We were supposed to be there for exercise.

I talked everyone into playing one last set of tennis. However that did not last long. At least we get home early for dinner. Kit Kat is cooking brats. Good stuff.

A Sick Momoko

Late last week, Momoko started coming down with a cold. She blamed it on allergies. I just thought she was sick. By the time the weekend came around, Momoko was sleeping all day.

I thought that might mean that Momoko would stay up all night. However she slept through the night as well. She is sleeping again today. Me and the kids had to do the yard work without her.

Momoko needs to get well because this week is parent-teacher conferences. And now for a little good news. It looks like a new Sonic has opened up 30 minutes away from us. Let's go.

Gutters and Curbs

We had to cancel tennis late this week due to rain. I went and raked up some leaves on the backyard hill. It was hard because the rain was coming down when I did it. The leaves were very heavy due to being wet.

Today I came home and decided to do more leaf removal for exercise. First I raked the leaves out of the curbs in front of the house. Those leaves were wet too. Then I climbed the ladder and scooped the leaves out of the gutters in front of the house. That was hard because I had to keep moving the ladder to reach all the gutters.

I hope the weather is good this weekend. Then the family can come out and support me in removing the leaves from the front lawn. It might sound easy. But the leaves have invaded our gardens. Got to remove the leaves without pulling out all the mulch.

Poker Challenge

These days I am hooked on this poker show on cable. The bad news is that it is on in the middle of the night. Not good when every night is a work night. Yesterday I took a nap in the evening to be able to stay up late enough.,

Today was tough because after work I had to go to school. Before heading to work, I stopped by Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed in my car. They knew how to turn off the sensor on my dash. I like that they vacuum my car too. These guys tried to ignore my $5 off for coming in at the right time. I got that fixed at checkout.

My class was about a short chapter in our textbook. So our teacher let us out halfway through the normal class time. Next week we must go over the huge chapter in the book. Might have to start studying right away. Bye for now.

Voter Fail

Today Momoko and the kids had a day off due to elections being held in school. I was the first one up this morning because I had to go to work. While I was collecting the trash in the house and taking it outside, I woke up Little Kat. The rest of the family was asleep when I went to work.

Before work I went and cost my vote for governor and other local issues. Some dudes were in the way when I drove to our voting location. Then these slackers asked me to vote for their candidate. Yeah right.

After work I came home and found a house full of couch potatoes. Not much happened at home. Momoko did not vote. I think Little Kat played with his new laptop. Everyone else watched TV. I thought tennis would pep the family up. Nope. Little Kat was dragging his heels the whole time. Fail.

When we finished tennis, Kit Kat drove Momoko to the polls. By then there were too many people so they turned around and came back home. We were thinking about going out for some steaks. However Kit Kat does not like them, so we are staying home instead. Boo.