Car Shopping

My bro is looking to buy a new vehicle. He asked me to go with him to do some car shopping. Nobody in the house was awake except me when my bro arrived. I thought we were going to the Subaru dealership. But my bro decided to see Honda instead.

We went to the same dealership where Momoko bought the Honda Fit for Kit Kat. My bro likes the Ridgeline. The sales associate showed us one in the showroom. We wanted to take a ride. The sales associate got us one to take for a spin by ourselves.

The thing had a sticker price of $35k. Yeah it was top of the line. I actually did not like that the sunroof took away headroom from the front seat. My bro liked both the acceleration and smooth ride. It felt more like a car than a truck.

This thing had a lot of undeeded extras. My bro does not want them. We asked to see a truck without the sunroof. The sales associate thought they might get one this week. I told her to call me if they did. Next week we hit the Subaru dealership to compare.

Party Preparations

Kit Kat had been planning to have a few friends sleep over during the Christmas break. Momoko suggested that Kit Kat invite some boys over as well for a party. Kit Kat agreed. Her friend's love when she makes her cheese fondue. So she and Momoko went shopping the day before. Unfortunately they went late at night. There was no french baguette bread available for dipping into the cheese. They decided to return to the store on the day of the party.

The family is staying up late each night since it is vacation. I am usually the first one up around noon each day. In the mid afternoon, I warned Momoko that she and Kit Kat should go to the store and buy some bread. Two hours before the party, Momoko asked if I could take Kit Kat grocery shopping. It turns out that Momoko had to go to the library with Little Kat before it closed. Poor planning. Kit Kat drove me to a crowded grocery store. We got 4 loaves of baguette bread. Just before the party started, Momoko had me go out and buy some subs for dinner. I brought Little Kat along for the ride (and to help use some of the coupons I had). When we returned home, everyone had arrived for the party. Don't these kids know how to arrive fashionably late?

There was a lot of dancing going on at the party. The dancing was part of the new Xbox game Kit Kat bought. I was impressed with the large number of songs the game has. Momoko and I try to stay out of the way during Kit Kat's party. A couple hours into the party, I heard Little Kat talking with Kit Kat's friends. Then I heard Kit Kat trying to shoo Little Kat away. I came down to investigate. Apparently some party goers talked to Little Kat, and he was only too happy to join the party. I inatructed him to politely ignore anyone talking to him, and to stay upstairs away from the party goers. We did allow Little Kat to come downstairs to snack on som eof the pizza that Kit Kat cooked.

At midnight, we kicked the boys out of the house. I had to drive one of the guys home. Good times for all.

The Rise of Chub Chub

At the start of the school year, Little Kat and I purchased some large goldfish for Momoko's classroom. The fattest one of these was Chub Chub. We stuck the fish in Momoko's 10 gallon school fish tank. These large goldfish have grown during the school year.

For Christmas break, we decided to take the goldfish home. At first we stuck them in a 10 gallon tank in the basement. Then me and the kids went to the pet store and bought a 20 gallon tank for the goldfish. We also picked up a powerful but quiet filter for the tank.

After taking down the Christmas tree, we rearranged the furniture in our living room. This opened a spot in the corner for Chub Chub. Momoko tried buying a fish tank stand online. It turns out to be unstable. So we went back to the pet store and bought a study wood fish tank stand.

While setting up the tank for Chub Chub and the other goldfish, Little Kat declared that there was a piece missing from the air filter. I told Momoko we would return to the pet store for a replacement. Kit Kat said she knew a trick, and found the missing piece inside the filter. Now we have Chub Chub and friends in a roomy fish tank. Let's hope they don't need an upgrade to a 30 or 50 gallon tank too soon.

Chipwrecked

The family got some movie passes for Christmas. We voted and planned to go to Tintin. However I double checked our passes and found they did not work at our favorite theater. So we regrouped and decided on seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I had bad experiences at the theater that we had passes at. Their movie playing ability is suspect. The last time I was there, the volume was hosed and we had to get our money back. A big waste of time. That's why I got concerned when the screen went blank after the movie theater commercial. I said to myself, "Not again."

Some other patrons looked concerned too. The screen was blank for a minute or two. Then then movie theater commercial came back on. We were good after that. Everyone got some drinks. Little Kat bought some nachos. Momoko smuggled in candy for everyone. The highlights from the movie we a double rainbow and LMFAO's song "Party Rock Anthem."

Laptop Blues

Little Kat said his laptop is having problems. The thing won't connect to the Internet. I took a look and found some serious problems. Most of the services won't start up because they depend on something that has not started up. We tried to locate this missing unstarted dependency without luck.

I told Little Kat we could back up his data and see whether we could restore his laptop to the factory default settings. Momoko thought I could buy myself a new laptop, then let Little Kat use mine. At first I thought that was a bad idea. Then I took a look at the Sunday ads. Best Buy had a Dell laptop on sale for $350. It had 4G RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and a 15.6 inch display.

Tonight Little Kat and I try to scope out the laptop at the store. It was crowded. I asked a buy unloaded some boxes to help us out. He told us most of the low cost laptops were sold out. The only one for $350 had a small screen and no numeric keypad. The best low cost laptop Little Kat found for me cost $479. Too much.

Now we are at home regrouping.

Christmas Time

The family stayed up very late on Christmas Eve. This was why nobody was awake Christmas morning until after 10:00am. Very unusual. There was an abundance of gifts under the tree. The main gift this year was the Xbox 360 Kinect that Momoko got for the whole family.

We knew the Kinect was coming. So we asked some peeps to buy us Kinect games. The family is thinking that some of the cash we got for Christmas will go towards new Kinect games.

My family is coming over my house for Christmas dinner. Therefore I decided we should not set up the Xbox Kinect yet. We have a lot of cooking still to do. The cooking has be divided up among the family. In all the commotion, we forgot to eat breakfast. Little Kat and I are getting quite hungry.

Announcing Mr. Kat

In two months, the family plans to attend an anime convention. We are going all out. Momoko is renting a room at the hotel for us to stay in. That way we can be there the night before it starts. We can also go up to the room to rest during the day. Anime conventions can be taxing.

To get into this convention, you need to present your ID. Today Momoko took Little Kat to get his photo ID from the county. It took them around two hours. But now Little Kat is a card carrying member of the state. It has his picture on it. The card also has all kinds of info on it. Little Kat will keep the card in his wallet.

Watch out world. Mister Little Kat is on the loose.

Repair Slackers

We got some slackers in our house. A lot of them. My motto to them is, "If you see something wrong, fix it. Don't tell me about it." Nobody seems to take the motto to heart. I was reminded of this yesterday. Little Kat came up from the basement. He said the light bulb burned out over the stairs.

I directed Little Kat to put a new light bulb in. He told me he did not know how. Typical. Momoko told me to teach Little Kat how to put a new light bulb in. The kid is 14 years old. Time to step up.

Then I went upstairs and saw that a light bulb was burned out in Little Kat's room. I asked him about it. He said, "Oh yeah. It went out." I told him to replace that one. The bulb had broken from the base. Little Kat declared that this was a difficult task.

I ended up fixing that light bulb as well. Now I know I taught Little Kat how to use a pair of pliers to remove a bulb that broke from a socket. He knew better to tell me he did not know how. Just slacking.

This slackage is not limited to Little Kat. Kit Kat will be sitting there with 2 out of 3 light bulbs burned out in her room. Momoko buys the light bulbs. She pretty much never changes them.

When I saw a light bulb burned out in the kitchen today, I bit the bullet and changed it. Who am I kidding? Slackers aren't even going to acknowledge that the bulb went out, let alone do anything about it. Slacked.

The Walk

I spent a good deal of time going out on Sunday. So I was too tired to do my normal work like laundry and bills. I had to pick up that work on Monday. When the kids came home, I was tired.

However I had made plans with Little Kat to drive him to the store for some late Christmas shopping. Then Momoko wanted me to come with her to the pet store. We need a new stand for our newly acquired 20 gallon gold fish tank. After all that I was ready for a nap.

Little Kat, Kit Kat, and I had scheduled to go walking yesterday. But I had a pretty busy day. Plus Little Kat had tons of homework to do. I figured we would just postpone the walk. I heard a knock on my bedroom door at 9:30pm. Little Kat finished his homework and was ready to walk.

I put on my coat and reflective vest. Then Little Kat brought me our bright flashlight (to help cars see us in the distance). Little Kat went out and thought it warm. So he left his coat at home. No way. It was 40 something degrees outside. I made him put on a jacket. Then we walked down to the "M&M", a sort of cul de sac at the intersection of two streets.

En route to the M&M we discovered the house where a friend of a friend of Kit Kat lives. This is just 2 or 3 streets over from us. I was surprised we lived so close. This is just an acquiantance of Kit Kat since she goes to a different school. However it felt like it was a small world.

Burning the Soup

Some of the cats in our family are sick. It is getting cold out. Momoko thought it was time for home made chicken soup. Kit Kat and Momoko went to the store to purchase the ingredient. Little Kat was assigned to cook the soup.

I went out to a late lunch with a friend. When I came back, soup was getting cooked. Momoko said she thought she smelled some coffee. Little Kat apparently "burned" the chicken soup. How do you burn soup? Well in the post dinner analysis, we found that Little Kat put in 7 times the normal amount of rice in the soup.

With all the rice, the soup turned into gruel. The mush was cooked on high. Even though Little Kat said he stirred the stuff, it still burned. Momoko tried to eat some. After hearing her comments, Kit Kat did not want to eat any. Little Kat tried to put on his game face and eat his creation. He said it made him sick.

I was lucky that I was not hungry since I just ate a late lunch. We ended up dumping out all the soup. The house smells like smoke. Momoko still wants good chicken soup. Looks like Little Kat will be assigned to cook the soup again this week.

Early Morning Munchies

Saturdays are usually weird for eating. My bro comes over and we grab dinner together. We eat early, so I get hungry later a night. Normally Momoko picks me up something for a late night snack such as a salad. However Momoko was sick yesterday. So I had to make due without the salad.

This morning I felt the hunger pains. Essentially I missed one meal yesterday. So I woke up and was going to get myself some McDonalds. It was so early that my car had frost on it. Drat. I spied Momoko's car in the carport. It had a clean windshield. Problem solved.

It was cold out. I was glad that I was in Momoko's car. It has seat warmers. I used a coupon my bro gave me to get a free large Sprite. The lady in the drive through looked down in my bag, seemed puzzled, and handed it to me.

I always check the contents. As I was doing so, the lady started banging on the car window. She motioned for me to wait. Then she came back with my hash browns. Good thing too. I would have caught that. I know they pack those separately. On the way home I saw am empty McDonald's bag on the street. Someone else had the same idea I had.

Christmas Shopping

We had a busy weekend planned. Momoko still needed to do some Christmas shopping. So I drove her to "Five and Below" to load up on cheap gifts. I got out a little shopping cart. We found a bunch of good gifts. I was done my own Christmas shopping, but picked up a couple extra items. I also got a few goodies for myself.

At checkout I surprised that the line was short. It is Christmas time. Last week when I went to the same store, I waited a while to get helped. Momoko got a long item. They did not have a bag to fit it. They had to put it in a garbage bag. Doh. Then we took all our bags and wheeled the shopping cart towards our car. A guard ran out of the store and told us we could not take the cart out. Fail. So we did our best to carry all the bags. We should have made the lackey guard help us carry the stuff to our car.

Today Kit Kat had scheduled to go shopping with her friends at the mall. Momoko was going to drive Kit Kat there. But Momoko is getting sick. We decided to let Momoko sleep. Me and my bro drove Kit Kat to her friend's house. We go the friend and drove Kit Kat to the mall. The roads to the mall were fine. The mall itself was crazy. At night I got a call from Kit Kat. She needed to talk to Momoko. She said it was an emergency. I had to wake up Momoko because Kit Kat lost her debit card and needed help cancelling it.

Cold Cat

Yesterday it was surpringly warm for December. Momoko said it was 60 degrees or so. Kit Kat cooked pork chops and sides for dinner, heating our house up even more. By night time, Momoko and I were hot. So I turned off the heat and opened up a window. The house cooled down a bit after an hour.

Momoko wanted me to close the window when she went to bed. No problem. I stayed up a bit longer and went to sleep myself. Today I am working from home. At lunch time I felt that my feet were very cold. That is strange. We set the heat so that I am usually comfortable. I did not give much more thought to this problem.

Later as I walked around the house, I figured something was not right. I was cold. Then I figured it out. I never turned the heat back on. It was around 60 degrees in the house. Ouch. Let's hope this thing heats back up now.

Grubby Situation

Kit Kat went with Momoko to school today. Kit Kat needed to run some experiments for her research projects. It has to do with the way kids learn best (visual, auditory, etc). I dropped by at lunch time to give Kit Kat a pizza and Momoko some Mexican food.

It just so happened that today was Momoko's office work party. So I also dropped by the school to pick the kids up at the end of the day. Due to some oversight, we had no food to cook for dinner. The kids and I went grocery shopping. Cokes were on sale. Yay. They did not have my little microwave pizzas there.

In the classroom, Momoko's goldfish are getting really big. Little Kat and I bought them big, and they are growing. We wanted to take the fish home for the holiday. But we only have a small goldfish tank at home. So after grocery shopping, we bought a 20 gallon goldfish tank. We also picked up some gerbil food for home and school gerbils.

Af home after dinner, Kit Kat was going to play with our home gerbils. She opened up the store bag with the gerbil food and found a bunch of worms! They were white grub with little dark heads. Kit Kat counted between 20 and 30 of them. Nasty. Kit Kat and I immediately returned to the pet store for a prompt exchange. It was still oh so nasty.

Visitor Approved

Kit Kat has to do a research project during her senior year in high school. She has decided to run some tests on students. Momoko is proving as assist by letting Kit Kat interview her students. Kit Kat's friend decided to do the same thing. Momoko is her mentor.

Today Kit Kat's friend went to school with Momoko. There she shall run some experiments on the kids. She got permission from the kids' parents. I think it might be some sort of memory test. Momoko said it was sad that Kit Kat's friend just sits in the classroom during lunch time. She does not go to the cafeteria with the other students. I told Momoko I could bring by a pizza at lunch time. My work sched is very flexible these days because I am working from home. Now Kit Kat's friend is very picky about what she eats a drinks. For example, she does not like any toppings other than cheese on her pizza. Luckily Pizza Hut has personal pan pizzas. I got one for Momoko and Kit Kat's friend.

Since school was in session when I arrived, I checked into the main office. Momoko must have warned them I was coming. They knew I was there to deliver pizza. The lady behind the desk reached out with a big sticker. I asked if I was supposed to put it on the food? She laughed and stuck it on my jacket. It was a school visitor badge. Aha.

I was smart when I got the food from Pizza Hut. I dented in the little RB tab on top of the drink for Kit Kat's friend. She likes Root Beer. Momoko goes for Lipton brisk rasberry tea. Don't want to mix up our orders. Luckily Pizza Hut puts a little sticker on the pizza boxes indicating the toppings on the pizza. Mission accomplished.

Fighting the Fireplace

The last time the kids started a fire in the fireplace, we smelled a lot of smoke in the house. I bought an air ionizer. It is supposed to filter the air and remove things like smoke. So last night it felt cold in the computer room. I decided to start a fire.

I got some small logs off the massive log pile we have in our carport. Crumped up a bunch of newpaper. Little Kat got me the automatic lighter. The paper caught fire nicely. However the logs did not catch fire. Then I put some more paper in there. Fail.

Little Kat bought out the wood bellow that I purchased a while ago. It is a big fan to fan the flames. That did the trick. When we blew air in there, newspaper and wood got real hot and lit up. At first I did not smell any smoke. Check. But this morning there was a bad smoke smell in the house.

The biggest fail was that the flue in the fireplace was all messed up. The metal part of the flue that opens or closes was upside down, and fell down past the opening that holds it up. I spent a lot of time getting that straightened out. No wonder the computer room was cold.

Christmas Cheer

Little Kat and I noticed that there were few Christmas lights on our street. He suggested we get some and hang them up. That sounded like a lot of work to me. Momoko agreed with Little Kat and bought some lights. Little Kat and Momoko hung them up. Some of the lights are a bluish-white set of icicles hanging from the gutters. There are also some bright LED colored lights in the bushes. It was a lot of pain getting those lights hung up.

While the lights were being hung, Kit Kat lead the effort to put up out Christmas tree. Some furniture had to be reshuffled. Kit Kat and Little Kat struggled to move our recliner chairs out of the room. We got the Polar Express train secured around the tree. The kids hung the ornaments, lights, and cancy canes. Now we need to add some gifts under this tree.

At night we heard a bunch of sirens outside. They kept getting closer to the house. A big fire truck came up our cul de sac. On top of the truck were two firemen dressed up as Santa Claus. I guess they are looking for some donations this holiday season.

Left Behind

Momoko and Little Kat took it easy yesterday. So they have to run their errands today. Kit Kat came home late yesterday from school and tried to arrange some activities today with her friends. Unfortunately she needed a ride to all the places she wanted to go. Momoko was busy. That means I am driving Kit Kat around today.

Kit Kat's friends have their driver's licenses. So they just drive their cars to wherever they want to go. Kit Kat does not have her license yet. It would be a whole lot easier if she did. I am hoping that will motivate her to step and pass her driver's license test. They are tough to pass in our state. I don't know how these other girls made it.

I usually sleep in late on Saturdays. Today I had to set an alarm to be up in time to drive Kit Kat to Target, the girls' first meeting place. We got there 5 minutes after the scheduled meeting time. I thought we would see Kit Kat friends. Kit Kat called one of them up. She was in the next aisle over. As I left Kit Kat with her friend, I saw another of Kit Kat's friends waling in. All set.

The Daily Walk

The family had planned to walk three times this week. On Wednesday it was raining. Momoko also had a tough day at work. So I let us skip Wednesday. Little Kat said he made up for the missed day by walking on the treadmill on Thursday.

Today Kit Kat had an after school activity. She wanted to eat dinner with her friends after that. So the family decided to walk without her. For some reason, Little Kat decides to run ahead of us until he is out of site. At the half way point where we normally turn around to go home, Little Kat suggested we go a bit farther. Momoko said we could but she would not join us.

So Little Kat and I went to the next bend in the road. I was surprised with the amount of trash I found on the streets. Need to bring a trash bag and a little grabber next time we walk. The grabber let's me pick up items without bending over or touching them. When Little Kat and I got hoome, we found Momoko on the bench outside out house. She did not have a key to get in. Ooops.

Gerbil Mania

I was tired this morning and decided to stay home from work. That's okay. I was ahead of schedule at work. I also have the ability to work from home. People who really need me know how to track me down to call me.

I was being productive in our computer room. Then I heard a commotion coming from our TV room. The noise would not go away. I came in to see a flurry of gerbil activity. Out home gerbils were wrestling with each other. They were also running in their wheel, with bedding flying around.

The main disturbance was coming from the big school gerbil cage. I guess Little Kat did not bring them back to school today. Some gerbils were violently scrating at thier little wooden house. Others were scrating at the cardboard box placed in their cage. another was in their bath flinging corn meal around. And some were digging like crazy, making the bedding fly.

Not sure why these lil guys were wild. Maybe they heard me and wanted some attention. Perhaps the leaf blower or lawn mower noise from outside drove them batty. Eventually they calmed down and went to sleep. Sheesh.

An Uphill Battle

Last week the family took a walk for exercise purposes. We went to Kit Kat's morning bus stop. Momoko had a tough time walking there and back home. She said her legs and back hurt. This was disturbing because we did not walk that far. We did have to walk up a steep hill.

We contemplated how to fix this problem. I figured we should walk more often. I also thought we could take a new path that did not involve steep inclines. Momoko thought we could do swimming instead. That might work in the summer. But we are too busy to go to the swimming pool on a regular basis during the school year.

Today we tried out the new path. Momoko said her legs were fine. Her back still hurt. We only had to stop once on the way home. We plan to walk two more times this week. I hope we can walk a little further the next time.

Gerbil Scare

This weekend the kids found something wrong with one of our gerbils. She was shaking bad. Kit Kat did some research on the web and feared the gerbil might have epilepsy. We cannot know for sure.

Momoko and Kit Kat took turns holding the gerbil in a blanket. They gave her some water when she would take it. Little Kat prepared an incubation gerbil cage, just in case the illness was contagious. The gerbil seemed to sleep off the problem.

After a while the gerbil was up and drinking. We kept her in the separate cage for a little while. Kit Kat covered her in bedding to try to keep her warm. Then we returned her to the main home gerbil cage. The other gerbils slept in the little house with her, hopefully keeping her warm.

Introducing Breakout

I am taking a programming class at a community college. Got to keep those skills up. You never know when you need to look for another job. More skills means more chance at success.

This semester the instructor has agreed to substitute a final project in place of a final exam. I was planning to create an electronic football game for my final. Then I saw a demo of the old arcade game Breakout, and knew I needed to write it.

So far, Breakout is doing pretty good. The ball bounces around the screen and knocks out bricks. Most of the time it bounces off the paddle. Still got a bug or two to correct. I want to add a cool startup screen.

You know I am in good shape when I am worrying about tiny details such as a startup screen. The credits in the game state that this is an "A+ Production". Get it?

Truck Repairs

For a while, I had been ignoring the problems that my truck had. But I want the truck to stick around. The kids will need to use it to learn to drive manual transmission. So I finally got my mechanic to fix all the little things wrong with it.

Here is what was repaired: Headlight was secured to not shake. Rear view mirror reattached. Camper back window shocks replaced to hold the window up. Freon added to the air conditioner. Wipers and oild changed.

There was a problem with the cloth falling down from the interior ceiling area. My mechanic farmed that job out to an interior guy. I could smell the chemicals used to correct that.

Now it feels like I have a new truck. I am going to drive it more often.

Cameras Acquired

Little Kat and I did some Black Friday shopping today. We had Momoko wake us up at 3:00am. I ate some breakfast. Somebody dranks all the coca cola in the house. So I had to settle for orange juice.

There was nobody on the road. I guess our neighbors do not shop Black Friday. We drove up to the entrance at the mall where the sold the electronics we wanted to buy. Little Kat thought they would open the doors a little before the offical 4:00am opening. There were already a lot of cars in the parking lot, and a long line in front of the doors.

I waited with Little Kat in the car until the doors opened. Then we got out and ran into the store. An employee told us the cameras we wanted were down in merchandise pickup. He said we needed to ring up the item and pick them up afterwards. While waiting in line, I saw a dude get a camera from a display in the corner. I tried to act calm for a few minutes and not call attention to it. Then I told Little Kat to walk over and grab a camera for Momoko.

Later, a woman found the cameras Little Kat wanted behind one of the displays. Again I played it cool. After a short wait I had Little Kat go pick up his camera. Unfortunately the electronics were our only win. We tried to get Little Kat a winter coat. He was unable to use the zipper on any of them. No wonder they were selling them really cheaply. We left the coats at the store and came home. Now the family is going to "5 and Below" for some super bargains.

Back Friday Shopping

We went to my mom's for Thanksgiving dinner. My mom served turkey and ham, plus all the other fixings. Kit Kat made yams and peaches. She got the recipe from Grannie Kat. Then we came home to study the Black Friday ads.

In the end, we decided we must go to Walmart and Sears. Walmart opens early (10pm Thusrday). The electronics sales start at midnight. Momoko initially thought the whole family could goto both stores. The problem is that Sears does not open until 4:00am Friday. We all can't be shopping all night.

So Momoko and Kit Kat went to Walmart around 9:30pm Thursday. Little Kat and I stayed home to get some sleep. When Kit Kat and Momoko come back, they shall wake us up. Then Little Kat and I shall go to Sears while Kit Kat and Momoko take a nap.

After all that I plan to go to bed. But Momoko, Kit Kat, and Little Kat plan to hit some stores that open at 6:00am Friday. Good luck to them. If they do make it, I bet we will all be sleeping for most of Friday. Sales are abundant. We are taking advantage this year. Momoko also plans to do some online Black Friday shopping. Whew.

Japanese Steak House

I took a friend to a Japanese steak house I used to visit at my previous job. Momoko protested that she was never taken there. So today we went. The whole family was in tow. It was a 30 minutes drive there in the rain. I drove Momoko's car there.

We got there and got a big "table" all to ourselves. I ordered for our family. The kids got Hibachi chicken. I got shrimp. And Momoko got filet mignon. We all opted for fried rice. Good choice. The meal started with some Japanese soup and salad. The family commented that the soup tasted like a variety of meats.

After a long wait, our chef came out and cooked in front of us. He fried up the rice on the grill before us. I think the secret ingredient was garlic butter. He asked the kids if they wanted sesame seeds on their chicken. He also asked both kids if they wanted him to toss a piece of chicken into their mouths from the grill. Both Little Kat and Kit Kat declined.

I loved their white seafood sauce. Everything tastes better in it. Kit Kat and Momoko agreed. Little Kat liked the ginger meat sauce the best. He took a bunch home. The bill at the place was high. They also automatically add a tip. It was worth it though.

Beyond the Big White Gate

It is time once again to sign up for a community college class. This will be for the Spring 2012 semester. I found a class I liked. My boss at work signed off on it. The class needed certain other classes to be taken first. Now I did take those classes. But I took them at another college. That means I need to go talk to an advisor to waive the restrictions.

I am off from work today. This seemed like a good time to go to advising. It was raining though. I looked up the info on the advising center by my house. Then I drove there in the rain. The directions said I could not park in the building parking lot. I had to park next door in the shopping center. There were specific instructions to walk through the shopping center, head down the alley, and enter the building from the back.

When I followed these instructions, I came to a tall fence with a big white gate that was closed. I approached figuring I did not want to walk all the way around to the front entrance. There was a security device, which I thought would unlock the gate. I pressed on the gate. No luck. Then I thought I might try a pull. When I pull the gate, it swung open. Whew. It took a few calls by my advisor to approve my class. But it got done.

Back in the car I tried to determine my first day of school so I could write it down. Something was not right. The class meets on Thursdays. But the schedule of classses listed the first day as a Friday. Doh. I had to go back to the advisor to inquire if there was a misprint. She checked in the system and found a different start day. She called up the main campus and confirmed that the schedule of classes date was wrong. Glad I cleared that up.

Shattered Glass

Today I went outside and started collecting the leaves. Used the leaf blower to clear the big driveway. Then I ran the lawnmower to pick up the leaves in the front yard. Next I headed to the back yard. I had so many bags filled with leaves that I figured I better stack them up.

While stacking the leaf bags on the patio, I saw what looked like frost on the patio sliding glass door. That could not be right. It was warm outside. As I touched the glass door, the glass started falling down onto the ground. It was was not frost I saw. It was shattered glass.

Upon closer inspection, I saw what looked like a hole from some sort of projectile in the glass. Luckily only the outer pane of glass has shattered. The inner pane was still intact. I had to break out the rest of the glass from the outer pane. Then I picked up all that glass. It really shattered into a lot of small pieces.

The rest of the back yard will have to wait. Glass clean up took a long time.

Shoe Shopping

Momoko saw Little Kat struggling in the snow. His tennis shoes just did not have the grip required to deal with slippery surfaces. Momoko decided that Little Kat needed some boots with grip.

Kit Kat and Momoko seem to go out to eat a bit. Little Kat gets left behind. So I said that Little Kat and I should go out to eat as well. We scheduled a lunch at a fancy restaurant for today. Momoko thought we could also buy some boots for Little Kat while we were out.

I wanted a good deal. Momoko thought we should go to Walmart. I decided to go to Payless shoes instead. Little Kat said that Payless was shoes for woman. That did not seem right. We went into the store and found a lot of woman's shoes. But there was also men's shoes.

Little Kat found a waterproof boot. He liked it because it had a way to seal the top to keep the snow out. He tried them on and ran around the store. It looked good. The price was a bit high. However if you bought one, you get another pair half off.

Little Kat saw some slippers on the shelf. He said that grandpa wears those inside and outside as well. He tried some on but they did not fit. He found another pair that was on sale. We picked it up and got half off. It was a good day for shoe shopping. Walmart not required.

Saved by Kit Kat

Today was my last day at work before going on vacation. I happened to be working from home today. Bad idea. Someone on my team needed a form scanned in today. At the office, this is no problem. However at home we only have a really old scanner.

I tried hooking up the scanner to my Windows 7 PC. It failed. Incompatible. Then I went to Little Kat's computer. It was slow. I got rid of a lot of programs running. Tried to install the scanner. If failed as well. Then I went to Momoko's desktop computer. I could not log in.

I called Momoko at work. Had the front office patch me through to Momoko's room. She provided me with two possible passwords for her computer. Both did not work. I then tried to log into Kit Kat's account on Momoko's computer. Bamm. It worked. Scanner software installed. Forms scanned. Work completed. I am now off for a whole week.

Trash Can Confusion

Last night I wanted to take out the trash cans to the curb. But the mail man had not come yet. So I waited a bit. I did prepare by pulling out the cans from the back yard patio. When the mail had arrived, I wheeled out the cans to the curb.

This morning I got up and the trash had not been collected yet. I started to get into my car to go to work. In the distance, I heard the trash truck. So I went back in the house and waited. After the trash was collected, I realized that I forgot to drag out the main trash can to the curb last night. That's okay. The trash is collected twice a week. I will catch them next time.

I returned all our trash cans to the patio and hauled off to work a bit late. When I got home, the family was disturbed. Apparently I left the house door open and the lights on inside. I blame the trash guy for coming late. Need to be a bit more careful next time.

Prices Going Up

Kit Kat returned from her roadside cleaup activity this afternoon. She reported that there were many strange items on the side of the road by her school. This list of discarded items included an old computer, a small step ladder, and even a FAX machine. What the heck?

Kit Kat said she had a coupon for 20% at the local book store. She wondered whether Momoko could drive her there. Since Momoko stayed up late last night to prepare for her all day conference today, I told her the answer would be no. Instead I decided to drive Kit Kat to the book store.

There was a large amount of traffic out for it being a weekend. At the store I browsed the magazine section. I was shocked at the prices for the magazines. Some were $10, $15, and $20 for a single magazine. Sure some of these only come out once a quarter. But twenty bucks? I don't think so. I will look the info up online. I did find a couple broke down magazines for $4, but I left them in the store. Sure enough, Kit Kat got her 20% off at the register. At least somebody got a deal.

Day Off With Friends

The kids were off today for parent-teacher conferences. Momoko had conferences all day long. I worked from home today. I had promised to take Little Kat to his friend's house today. He is spending the night there.

My boss called me for a status update on my work just as Littke Kat and I were leaving. Little Kat's friend was worried that he was not on time. I was not overly concerned because they guys are spending the night and most of tomorrow together.

In other children news, Kit Kat is waking up early tomorrow to clean the side of a road with her friends. I am amazed that Kit Kat agreed to get up early on a Saturday.

Low Cokes, Low Air

We ran out of Coke this week already. Part of the problem was that we were low. Then Momoko had the kids buy a few Cokes at the store. Finally, Little Kat brought a 12-pack to school. I need my Coke. So after lunch I dropped by the store. Had to purchase Pepsi because it was on sale. I will survive.

In other news, Kit Kat was driving and the low air pressure warning on the car. Kit Kat tried to tell Momoko there was no problem. Momoko had Kit Kat go to the gas station and fill the tires up with air. We think it is a slow leak. Today I had Kit Kat go out and measure the air in all four tires. They are a bit low. But for now the air is sufficient.

Cable Upgrade

Our cable TV provider informed us they were doing an upgrade to digital cable. At first I ignored their warning. They most of the TVs in our house stopped working. I read the document from the cable company. They said our TVs would need converter boxes. Oh oh. This sounded like a ploy for more money from me.

The cable company said they would provide three free converter boxes. I signed up and they came in the mail pretty quickly. I set up one of the boxes in the basement. The TV screen said I needed to call the cable company once all the boxes were hooked up. It took a few days to hook the kids' TVs up to the new boxes.

I went online and "activated" our boxes. The basement TV and Kit Kat's TVs came on. They had more channels than before. Looks like digital cable is not that bad. Little Kat's TV just showed a "wait" message. We waited a long time. Then Little Kat thought he might have plugged in the wrong cable.

Little Kat has two cable wires in his room: one live cable TV, and one dead one. We switched the cables, reactivated his converter online, and he is in business. Now the kids and basement get a lot more channels. Life is good for now.

Heater Troubles

We were out of town all weekend. It was cold when we returned home. I thought this was no problem. I just turned the heat on in the house. Kit Kat smelled the fresh smell of heater gas. The house started heating up. Then it stopped. No air was coming out of the vents. What the heck?

I dialed up the temperature on the thermostat. The vents started blowing air. I thought we were good. Nope. It kept blowing cold air. Then I turned off the heat. The vents kept blowing cold air. I knew we were in trouble. Momoko slept downstairs because it was really cold up in our bedrooms. Little Kat cried that he wanted to use one of our portable space heaters.

Due to the cold and a long night's sleep, I got up early Monday morning. I went to work where it was warm. The kids had the day off. Momoko had to go into work to do some grading, but she did not need to wake up early. I called the heating company from work. They said they could work on our heat immediately. I ran out of the office and drove home.

The heating guy said there was a problem with the flow of water out of our heating system. That caused the safety switches to kick on and kill the heating each time we tried to turn it on. the guy thoroughly cleaned our system, and recommended we have a professional repeat the cleaning once a year. Whew.

After the heating guy left, I punched up the heat a bit until Little Kat and myself were getting cooked. Now the heat is working like a champ and the family is happy. The repair guy did not cost too much. And we are poised to keep our heating system maintained from now on.

Buffet Weekend

On Saturday we ate breakfast at the hotel buffet. I was disturbed to find that when the kids ate, Kit Kat ate with her friends, but made Little Kat sit at a table all by himself. Then we headed to the college open house. After an intro session, Kit Kat and her friends went to the science break out. Little Kat and I headed to speak with the Computer Science department.

I was shocked to find out how much a Comp Sci graduate can make right out of school. The salary goes up if you get a Masters degree. Sheesh. After the breakout session, we went on a tour of the college campus. We had the same tour guide as the last time we visited the college. Momoko stayed behind. She could not endure the massive walk the tour requires.

After the tour, we ate at the dining hall. It was buffet style. We had trouble finding forks to eat with. Minor fail. I was not impressed with the food. Later Momoko and Kit Kat did not feel well. Double fail. We still went out for Cici's all you can eat pizza at night. Little Kat played a 3D virtual reality game there in the arcade. Afterwards Momoko made me stop by Dairy Queen for ice cream.

On the trip home, there was a bad accident. We almost had to do a detour. However we were able to skirt by the accident by driving on the shoudler. We made good time coming home. It was tricky to return the rental car at the airport. Momoko did good by finding some visitor parking. They normally expect you to take their bus shuttle back to the airport.

College Snow Trip

This weekend we visited a college Kit Kat likes. We left after school on Friday. There was heavy traffic when we started our trip. We were hungry and kept looking for a place to pull off any eat. Eventually I just took an exit and we hit the jackpot. There were lots of food joints. We decided on Ruby Tuesdays. Little Kat and I discovered a deal where we could eat all the sald we want, plus 3 sides, for a great price. Excellent.

On the drive to the college town we played our DVD copy of Howl's Moving Castle. We had a DVD player in the rental SUV. There were two screens in the back for eat row of passengers. It was snowing by the time we arrived at our hotel destination. Before we went to bed, Momoko, Little Kat, and I took a test drive to the college where we would meet the following day.

At the hotel, Kit Kat and her two friends had their own room to themselves. Little Kat stayed in a room with Momoko and I. Initially we had some problems. We made Little Kat step up and get them resolved. He had the front desk deliver two pillows for him. We also had Little Kat bring the broken dish network remote to the front desk. Little Kat got confident enough to ask the front desk for a toothbrush by himself (he somehow forgot his). More on college day later.

Rental Car Time

This weekend we are going to visit a college that Kit Kat is interested in. While the college is in our state, it is a couple hour drive to get there. We invited two of Kit Kat's friends to come with us. Together with Momoko and Little Kat, our party will have six people.

We could take 2 cars on the trip. But nobody wants to drive the long trip. So I got tasked with renting an SUV that seats at least six people. I got a deal through Hotwire dot com. The only catch was that I needed to pick the car up from the airport.

I had my parents come get me up early in the afternoon. We drove to the airport and parked in daily parking. I thought the rental car place was in the airport terminal. Nope. We had to take a shuttle to the satellite rental offices.

When I got into their parking lot, the rental car company asked what type of SUV I preferred. I requested a Chrevrolet Suburban. Good choice. They had one that was tricked out. It had leather seating. I spied a DVD system to play movies. This is going to be a sweet ride.

What the Hell?

My work computer does not work from my office. So this week I am working from home. You might think that is a fun thing. I personally prefer working from the office. It is too hectic having to work from home. Oh well.

I get the Chinese take out each day. I usually drive Momoko's second car there. This is the new car she bought for Kit Kat to drive. The poor car does not get much use since Kit Kat still does not have her license.

I am getting comfortable driving the thing. So I play music while driving. Momoko has her NOW 38 CD in the car. I got hooked on the song "What the Heck?". Turns out it is performed by Avril Lavigne.

The lyrics of this song are disturbing. Some girl is telling her boyfriend that she is tired of being good. She wants to run around with other guys. Oooops. I checked out the music video for the song. Avril robs a cab. She jumps out as it crashes into a parked car. She also steals some clothes from a merchant. Oh snap.

Gutter Mahem

I woke up this morning to find that it was raining. I went outside to find our rain gutter coming off the second story of our house. Ouch. In younger years I would have climbed right up there and secured the thing. But I am not so nimble these days.

I waited for Kit Kat to come home from school to help. Then I got out the big ladder and had Kit Kat hold the bottom for me. I climbed up two stories. When I grabbed the gutter, the water in it ran down my arm. Great. Then my right leg started cramping up.

I quickly wrapped duct tape around the huge bolts that hold the gutter. Then I banged the two bolts in. They felt secure. There was one more bolt I could not reach. Oh well. Too bad. I tossed the hammer and duct tape down to the ground, yeling for Kit Kat to look out. Then I came down.

Kit Kat had a good idea. I should call our handy man. He usually takes a few weeks to schedule me in. We can get him to inspect all the gutters and make sure they are permanently attached to the hosue. Yep.

Fail by Mail

Momoko got a letter from the city this week. It was a ticket for speeding. They had pictures of her car and license plate. Momoko does not remember being on the street they filmed her. Well the alleged incident did happen a few weeks ago.

So Momoko figured it might have been Kit Kat or myself driving the car. Well the ticket was for her own SUV. Momoko is pretty much the only one that drives that car. Kit Kat and I drive Momoko's other car that she purchased as a second vehicle for Kit Kat to drive. Good thing they did not catch that car speeding.

Now I continue to "borrow" Momoko's second car she got for Kit Kat. It is the newest car, and is fun to drive. But I make sure I go pretty close to the posted speed limit at all times. I don't want to pay any speeding ticket fines. Plus Momoko will be all over us if we get a ticket in her car that she has to pay.

Mosquito Invasion

A week or two ago Momoko told me she smelled something funky in our bedroom. It was a rancid smell. We hoped it would go away. No luck. Instead, the smell remained, and we got a bunch of mosquitos in our bedroom and bathroom.

Now I was killing the mosquitos when I saw them. It was tought because they hovered on the ceiling. Had to get a chair to get taller to smush them. Last night I went upstairs and killed about 10 mosquitos. This was too much. We needed to act, and act fast.

I figured they might be coming from our window air conditioning unit, or maybe the exhaust fan in our bathroom. Both of those are new this year. Momoko recommended spraying them with mosquito repellant. I opened up the A/C and found a lot of dust and mosquitos. I cleaned it out and sprayed the repellant everywhere.

The repellent was supposed to be odorless. But I smelled it when I went to bed. This morning I turned off the A/C and opened the windows. The smell went away. When I came home and turned the A/C back on, the smell returned a bit. Might have to wait for it to get out of the system. Let's hope this eliminated the mosquito problem at least.

Among Friends

I got into work late this morning. As usual, I went through the emails that had built up in my inbox. One was from an individual in my customer's oranization. He wanted me to set up a time for a refresh. Huh? I called him up and asked him what this was about.

The guy told me that the laptop from my customer that I use for all my work is out of warrenty. They have a new one for me. He needed to meet so he could copy over my data to the new laptop. I told him I would be right over. Can't pass up an opportunity for a new laptop.

I drove to my customer's site. I timed it so that I would arrive at lunch time. They don't let you in the parking lot unless it is early in the morning, or around lunch when parking spaces free up. On the way in, I saw a could old guys that work for the customer. They waved and I smiled at them.

Next I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the customer cafeteria. The food is good for cafeteria food. In line I saw one of the subject experts in the customer organization. She said she had not seen me in a while. Yep. I have been laying low.

Finally as I was scarfing down my food, I was spotted by a woman who worked with me at my last company. She decided to leave and join the customer. She said she still had her old laptop, and was hoping to get a new one like me. With all these people I met during the hour or so visit, I wonder if there are a lot of other people who I should be saying hi to at the customer site.

Deer Crossing

I dropped by home for lunch today. Since it is my college class night, I plan to head to school directly from work. Figured I could use a break at home during lunch. After a delicious Chinese food meal, I headed back out to work.

There was a small Honda following me pretty closely. I decided to take it easy and drive slowly. The Honda made the same right turn I did within our housing development. The speed limit was 25 mph. I decided to keep it around 30 mph, which feels quite slow.

Going slow was a good decision. A deer jumped out in front of me. I was able to avoid hitting it because my car was put putting down the street. I kept it slow. The deer seemed to want to run along the side of the road along with the car. I guess it thought I was chasing it. Then the deer jumped back in front of me to cross the street again.

I looked in the mirror and saw the small Honda spotted the deer and slowed down a lot as well. Looks like I saved a deer life today. Kept my car intact took. *pats self on back*

License Denied

Yesterday Kit Kat was scheduled to take her driving test to get her license. She had done her homework. She practiced parallel parking with Momoko. She also practiced backing into a parking space with me. Her friend gave her the details on the road test at a specific test location.

Momoko took the day off from work to take Kit Kat to her driving test appointment. They went early to the test location. Kit Kat apparently passed the closed circuit portion of the test. They have a special parking lot in the back of the building where they see whether you know how to stop at the stop sign, parallel park, and back into a space.

Next Kit Kat was off to do the real road test. As she was exiting the parking lot of the test building, she says her back tire hit the curb. This caused an auto fail. She was not granted a license to drive. She has scheduled a retest next month. Perhaps we need to get out there and give Kit Kat more practice. We need that license!

Attack of the Drain

Momoko found out that the drain in the kids' shower was backed up. Oh great. They are supposed to inform me of such problems. In the old days I would just hire a plumber to deal with it. But now I like to be scrappy.

I had the kids clean out the bathroom. Then I put on a pair of shorts and showed the kids how to get drains unclogged. The first step was to close off the overflow opening in the tub. I tried putting some duct tape over the thing. Turns out I needed to remove the cover and tape it up.

Then I got the plunger and went to town. Little Kat helped out by holding the duct tape tight against the overflow opening. I knew we were in business when the plunger pulled up some black stuff from the drain. We did a test and found the drain to be working.

I like showing the kids how to take care of business like unclogging a drain. They got to learn this stuff on the job. Next time, maybe I will let them do the dirty work as I watch. The best news is that I don't have to take a day off from work and wait around for a plumber who will charge us the $$$ to snake out a drain.

Free Lunch

I had a hectic morning today. At work my normal office was unavailable. So I sat in another office. The phone was ringing off the hook all morning. There was nobody else on my team in the office (they worked from home). I pondered what to do for lunch.

Another cat told me that there was a free lunch in one of the conference rooms. I scoped it out and found a few people in the room. Then I saw a bunch of food lined up against the wall. I got a BBQ pork sandwich. There was also salami and pepperoni which I helped myself to. Good stuff. I filled my plate up.

I had a busy afternoon programming. The end of the day came quick. I needed to return home on time because I was meeting a friend to go out. We ended up eating some steaks. More good food.

Wardrobe Malfunction

I had a meeting this morning. So I made sure I went to bed early yesterday to get up on time. Somebody had taken the normal office I work out of. That's okay. I just reserved a different one when I went in. I was surprised that I got a window office. They usually go fast early in the morning.

I dialed into my call. Then I looked down and found my pants zipper was open. How did that happen? I guess I must have forgot to zip the thing up. I reached down and found that I was wrong. The zipper was zipped up. It was also broken. Ooops. I finished up my morning meeting call. Then I bugged out and went home to change.

Luckily I live close to work. Since I was out, I took care of some errands like going tot he bank and calling some people. When I went back to work, my team leader told me I could have just went home for the day. No way. When I go home and need to work, my phone rings too much at home. Instead I finished off the rest of the day with my new pants and left earlier than usual.