Surprise Skaters

Yesterday that kids planned to go ice skating at the local rink. I was thinking about going to watch them. But I heard they charge you to enter, even if you don't skate. That was sad. Because the menu at the skating rink cafe looked like a good deal.

Kit Kat is our local skating pro. By that I mean she can skate without holding on to the rail on the side of the rink. So I thought she would be the one showing the other cats who was boss.

However both AmKat and Little Kat reported that they increased their skill very fast. Turns out they were skating circles around Kit Kat. Very strange. Kit Kat was happy about skating though. Momoko was too tired to drive the kids to the rink. So I took them instead. We ended up driving up right behind Kit Kat's friends' car. Hehe.

Cake Corner

Today we went to the gourmet cake store to order a cake for AmKat's b-day. Little Kat looked up the hours of the store. He said he does not call stores. He uses the Internet. Momoko made me drive. We headed into the sun in the afternoon. It was hard to look into the sun and find the store.

When we got there, I was impressed that they had a Scion xB parked out in front of the store. It was their delivery and advertising van. Unfortunately, there was also a sign on the front of the door saying that they were closed. Doh.

Luckily we had a second errand to run. We headed to the library. I actually picked up 9 books and am reading one now. Kit Kat and AmKat got some books too. We made Kit Kat drive us home. She did it under protest. She just does not like to drive. AmKat showed me the computer program she wants to get to allow her to author some songs. I already forgot the name of the thing.

BBQ Dinner

We spent the afternoon at the mall today. It was very crowded there. I felt like we got the last two spots in the parking lot. The kids had gift cards and money from Christmas. They wanted to spend.

Little Kat and I checked out a weight bench on sale with some weights. Looked ok. But they were out of stock. Try again later. After the mall we returned home to deal with dinner. We deliberated over a restaurant that everyone would enjoy. And the choice was Famous Dave's BBQ.

We got seated immediately at a big table. Little Kat was most interested in all the BBQ sauces they give you. Everyone chose meals that came with corn on the cob, muffins, and two sides. Nobody left hungry. The favorite sauce was some type of Sassy Southern sauce. I usually like really hot sauce. But the saucy BBQ sauce was indeed superior.

The Year of the Camera

Momoko woke up around 9am on Christmas morning. I was tired because I stayed up late Christmas eve. She found the kids still in their bedrooms. However they were both awake.

Little Kat came outside my bedroom door and started knocking. He only knew that he was supposed to know. I told him to go away. Later he came back to tell me the family was waiting on me to open Christmas gifts.

Kit Kat got the most present by count. However it seems everybody was getting cameras this year. Kit Kat got a purple digital picture camera. While Little Kat got a digital video camera.

It seems even Momoko's niece AmKat came with a new Cannon camera. However that's a story for another blog post.

Thug Life

Being Christmas eve, I had to drop off some gifts today. I brought Little Kat along for the ride. Momoko assigned me the task of picking up dinner for the family. I took orders from the family for Chinese food. I figured I would go to our favorite take out restaurant.

I was disturbed to find our favorite take out restaurant was closed. So Little Kat and I went to a Chinese food restaurant in the hood. Turns out this place is actually a liquor store that served Chinese food on the side. Little Kat said he was scared. There were a couple times where I planned out my moves in case some cats got out of line.

Both Little Kat and I noticed one dude who looked like he was about to steal some beer from the store. Luckily at the last minute he came back and returned the booze. When we got our order, we high tailed it out of the liquor store. We will not be going back there any time soon. The food tasted ok. It was our lives we were fearing for.

Game Proposal

Every weekday our family plays a game of Scrabble. This serves many purposes. Momoko really loves the game. It helps the family get together. I think it also helps the kids with their vocabulary.

Little Kat really wanted us to play the game Scattergories instead. Kit Kat told me she dislikes the game. Momoko and I have never played. I told Little Kat that we would only play it if he could talk us into playing the game.

At first Little Kat tried to explain the game to us. That was a fail. We ended up playing Scrabble again. However Little Kat tried again. He skipped the rules. Instead he listed the merits of playing the game. He got Momoko and I to give it a try.

The game was not that hard to understand. It was hard to well in. Of course Momoko won the first game. You try to think to words that begin with a certain letter in timed rounds. On my last round, Kit Kat kept coming up with the same words I chose. That disqualified us both.

Power to the People

There have been some crews digging up the ground on the next street over. I figure they work for the gas company. Poor cats are out there in the cold digging with shovels.

Today the crew had taken over the right side of the street. I passed them on the way to pick up some lunch. When I came back home, one cat looked at me as I drove up. He clenched his fist and rose it in the air.

WTF? What is that supposed to mean? At first I thought he wanted to say, "Power to the people." But this is no revolution. The look on the guys face became frantic as I came up on him. Then I guessed that he wanted me to stop. My hunch was confirmed when I saw some hoses running across the street. The dude pulled the hoses out of the way so I could pass.

Come on utility man. You are in black cat's domain now. Better learn the correct usage of universal sign language. If you want a car to stop. You hold your hand up, palm facing the car, with your fingers spread out making the "5" sign. That's how you halt a car in my neighborhood.

Mail Box Fail

Our current mail box is broke down. The flag is always falling off. Then I need to hunt around the ground to find the nut and bolt to reattach it. That got old the second or third time it happened.

I decided it was time for a replacement. So I picked up a copper colored bigger mail box. It seemed to have a sturdy flag. Today I got up the energy and removed the old mail box from our post. Then I put the new one on top. There was just one problem. The new box is bigger, and does not fit the board underneath it.

Dang. It took a while to cut a piece of plywood to have a fit for the new mail box form factor. By the time I was done, it was getting dark. Plus it was about time the mail truck comes. So I am saving the switch out until tomorrow.

Christmas Pwnage

Momoko had been talking about getting Little Kat a weigh bench. You know. It is like a mini home gym where you do bench presses and exercises with your legs. Well I saw a bench and weights on sale for $90 at Sears.

I first headed to lunch with an old friend today. After that, I drove my truck to the mall by our house. I should have known something was wrong when there was a ton of traffic on the road that leads to the mall. Finally I arrived at the mall and saw the problem.

The entire mall parking lot was full. People were illegally parked everywhere. And there were traffic jams of cars trying to get into the parking lot. I did my best to turn the truck around and go home. Maybe Little Kat's weight bench will have to wait until after Christmas. Or maybe I need to get up as soon as the store opens and grab a bench.

An Eclipsed Weekend

For Saint Nick's day, Kit Kat got the Eclipse DVD. This is the third installment in the Twilight series. Momoko and myself saw the movie in theater. I think Kit Kat went with her friends to see it in the theater as well. Little Kat is the only one who had not seen it.

I asked Kit Kat if we could watch the movie as a family earlier this week. She told us that she had secretly watched the DVD by herself in her room. Doh! We were punked. Well I then scheduled for the family to watch the movie this weekend.

I slept in until about noon. Kit Kat needed her rest. The rest of the family was in different stages of being sick. However I did wake up the family and we started watching the movie. Finally we get to find the secret about Jacob's family and clan. We took a quick lunch break in the middle of the movie. I thought the movie was quite funny.

Little Cough

I had a terrible drive home from work yesterday. There was snow falling, making the traffic bad. And a truck broke down on the road leading out of the office park. Double pain. So today I decided to work from home.

I got up early enough to see Kit Kat leave for school. Normally she leaves so early that I don't see her most mornings. After working for an hour or so, I thought I heard some noise upstairs. I figured it was just the house creaking or something.

Around lunch time I heard a cough coming from upstairs. This was strange. I saw Momoko go to work. And I was there when Kit Kat left for work. Maybe Little Kat was still home. Yup. He said he was still sick. He slept in a lot, then lounged around the house all day.

Cold Times

Momoko complained this afternoon that she was cold. This happens every day. However I also felt extra chilly. Checking the thermostat, it read 60 degrees. Ouch. We have the heat set much higher than that.

Some searching exposed the air conditioning was on. That must have confused the furnace. But turning off the air conditioning did not fix the problem. I was thinking about calling the HVAC guys tomorrow. But it was getting just too cold.

I tried out a new HVAC company. They came real quick and figured out the problem. Bad news. It was going to run us $689. But hey, we need to stay warm. When they were done, they presented me with a bill for $815. WTF? They tried to add on a service charge and some tax. I refused the service charge. They did not mention this when they gave me the total estimate. However they would not budge on the tax. I am happy they fixed my heat. But I probably won't be using these bait and switch guys again.

Preparing for Snow

Everybody in the house has their own snow shovel. It helps keep things going when we need to clear the driveway. Momoko told me that Little Kat's shovel is broke down. I been looking for a snow shovel replacement for almost a year.

Now it is snow season. I headed over to the store. There was a shovel in the front of the store for $25. The thing felt flimsy and broke down. No way I was buying a lemon like that. I found some other stuff in the store. I saw a guy with a bunch of snow shovels. He pointed me to the back of the store where they had all the shovels.

I picked up a steel shovel for Little Kit. It was a standard thing. I also bought us this mega shovel. It is mostly plastic. But it is huge. It has some special handles to help you lift a lot of snow. We shall see if this is all hype or not. Next Momoko is trying to talk me into buying a snow blower. It might be just the thing we need to save our backs this winter. They are calling for a lot of snow again

Driver Fail

After work I needed to do some shopping. That's ok. There is a Walmart and Target one exit down the highway from my work. So I start driving down the highway. I must not have been concentrating. Before I knew it, I missed my exit.

It was a total fail, because after I missed my exit,
I hit a traffic jam. I thought I could just turn around at the next exit. No luck. There was a traffic jam on both sides of the highway.

After shopping I was running out of gas. I spied a gas station out of the way with 87 octane going to $2.89 a gallon. That sounded good until I started pumping the gas. The $2.89 was only valid if you bought a car wash. That's the last time I am going to that gas station.

Sick Little Kat

Not feeling well, I went to bed early on Friday night. Turns out Little Kat stayed up very late. The next day Little Kat was the first one up. During the day he complained that he did not feel well. Then he whined a lot when we had him fix the Christmas tree.

I thought he should go to bed. Too bad he brought his laptop up to his room. I don't think he had much sleep. At night he was scheduled to go ice skating. In hindsight, that should have been postponed. He went anyway. Kit Kat went with him. She said he looked sick at the skating rink. She thought she might need to call Momoko. He stayed out the night.

At night Little Kat got sick. He has been ill ever since. Little Kat spent the whole day Sunday in bed. Momoko stayed home today from school to take care of him. He stayed in bed the whole day again. He has not eaten anything in 2 days. Tomorrow he goes to see the doctor. We have to be more careful with Little Kat during these cold days with the flu going around.

Leaning Tower

Last night Momoko stayed up late. Around 4:00 am I asked her to go to bed. She agreed. That's why I did not find it strange that at noon she said she still needed some more sleep. Little Kat loves this. He sneaks downstairs and has the big screen TV all to himself.

Finally the family all got up. First Kit Kat drove to pick us up some fast food. Then it was time to get to work. I have been sick recently so we have had no company over the house. It was time to get this house ready.

The big chore was to get our Christmas tree standing up straight. It was leaning a little bit. Then the kids put a star on top, making it tilt some more. Little Kat tried to figure out what was wrong with the base. No luck. They ended up sticking some paper under one of the legs, like you would a wobbly table. Now the thing it reasonably straight. We even got a few gifts under the tree already.

Big and Small Wins

Today I got caught up with a lot of work. So did my lunch buddy. I almost skipped lunch. But I just got too hungry. Headed over to Burger King because I saw this buy one get one free deal on TV. They had it. Paid $4.23 for an original chicken sandwich. Got another one free. Yippee.

Kit Kat came home late from school. She showed me this deal on the web. Apparently she had "won" either a $1000 Walmart gift card, or an iPad/iPod combo. Well it looked fishy to me. The catch was that she had to provide her cell phone number. My guess was that by giving her number, her cell phone would be charged some bogus fees. Let's hope Kit Kat does not take the bait.

Rescue Tools

Momoko had a tire that was running a bit flat. Kit Kat took my tire pressure gauge, and headed to the gas station. Oooops. Somebody was using the air machine there. Then the one at the next gas station had a broken air machine. Bad luck.

But hold up. Kit Kat forgot about the obvious - Black Kat's garage. I actually have an air compressor in the back of my truck. The thing works very slow. But it works. You plug it into your cigarette lighter, and wait a long time for it to fill up the tires.

Turns out all of Momoko's tires were low on air. So Kit Kat hooked her up. Now Momoko should be good to go. I am glad I bought these tools like the air pressure gauge and the air compressor. They come in handy on a cold day like today.

Out with the Old

Today the kids got some DVD videos for St. Nick's day. I was told that I got a video too. However it went straight into the DVD library. That will teach me to not put out my shoe.

Tomorrow is trash day. In the cold outside, I sadly loaded up our old Christmas tree parts into the trash cans. It was time to retire that faithful tree.

Momoko had to take Little Kat to the doctor today. She took advantage of the day off by purchasing a new star for the top of our Christmas tree. It is a red glittery thing. Looks good.

After work, the family watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice with Nick Cage. Momoko and I actually saw it in the theater. It was new for the kids though. Was just as enjoyable the second time around.

Relient K Christmas

Kit Kat postponed having her friends over for Friday. So the kids decided to decorate the tree instead. Momoko had me put on some Christmas videos on the TV. The best one was one Sleigh Ride by Relient K. You got to see it.

Momoko bought a new Polar Express train for under the tree. The train is more trouble than it is worth. It falls off the track a lot. The track gets messed up when people step on it. Fail.

Now it is Saturday. Kit Kat's friends have come over to spend the night. The girls are playing Wii. Perhaps Momoko and I will play with Little Kat to get him out of their way. Scrabble anyone?

Family Game Night Fail

Last Sunday the family decided that tonight would be our family game night. Little Kat and I were excited because the both of us purchased some new games last weekend. After work, the family went to the tennis courts for exercise. It was cold. There were a bunch of hoodlums smoking pot next to the court. We called it quits as soon as it was too dark to see the ball.

At home Little Kat cooked us up some goulash using a new recipe. Then we were ready for family game night. Or so it seemed. Kit Kat said she needed to do her homework all night. That sounded suspicious. We had her spend half an hour to see how far she would get. She did not get very far. Then it came out that Kit Kat thought we had enough games last week, and that we should not be holding game night tonight. Oh snap. No kids are allowed to cancel family game night. Not in this house at least.

Momoko supervised Kit Kat doing some more homework. However she is going to be spending the rest of the night doing her homework. The backup plan is for us to hold family game night tomorrow. That is a bit inconvenient for Kit Kat. Her friends are coming over and spending the night (to see the big screen TV). However family game night preceeds everything except homework. I guess Kit Kat's friends will be joining us for family game night. Little Kat is happy, since he usually does not get to play with Kit Kat's friends.

Intuition

I stayed a little late at work today. So I had to drive straight to school after work. Traffic was good, so I had time to stop off and get a steak and cheese sub. I got to the college campus with time to spare.

Now I had already read the chapter for this week. However it was not a meaty chapter. So I decided to read ahead into the next chapter before class. I almost finished it. Turns out this was a good move.

Our instructor breezed through the chapter for the week. Then he moved ahead to next week's chapter. I was prepared. The instructor also cancelled the final exam. Bold move. He said he already knew the grade he would give each of the students in the class. If I was not already making a strong A in the class, I might have protested.