Bumpy Shopping

Normally Little Kat and I go shopping at Target every Sunday. However there are some things that we can only find at Walmart. So we went to Walmart today. I knew we were in trouble when I saw the cars parked in the overflow Walmart parking lot.

Inside the temperature was hot. And it was more crowded than usual, which seems impossible because it is always very crowded on the weekend. I spied Little Kat bumping into at least three people at the store. Then he crashed into me from behind. Not good. Little Kat said he was hot and tired. We need to fix this problem pronto.

The good news is that we found a lot of those things that only Walmart sells. We got the apple cinnamon Glade air freshener that Momoko loves. We also picked up a bunch of Mean Green, which nobody except Walmart seems to carry. Walmart cokes are way too expensive. So we got the knock off brands over some sodas.

Power Outage

The power was fluctuating yesterday afternoon. We cooked and ate dinner early just in case. That turned out to be a smart idea. We lost power in the evening. The kids brought out the candles. I went to bed early because power or not, I had to go to work the next day.

The power was out all night. And it snowed. I got up real early. I shoveled a path down the driveway. Then I dug out my car from the damage the snow plow did. It took a long time. The rest of the family was asleep because school was cancelled.

Finally I got the car out. I rewarded myself with a McDonald's breakfast. During lunch I bought a couple bags of rock salt. After lunch, Kit Kat called and said the power finally came back on. Momoko pumped the heat up about 10 degrees higher than normal. We needed it.

iPhones and Snow

Momoko bought the whole family iPhones. We waited until they all arrived via mail. Kit Kat's was on back order. Momoko complained and they sent Kit Kat an iPhone 4. The rest of us got iPhone 3GS ones. It took Momoko 2 days and many hours to get the phones activated. Now we are all set up.

Today Momoko and the kids were off from school due to snow. I still had to go to work. I planned to shovel my way down the driveway to my car. There was just one problem. The keys to the shed with the shovels were missing. We always keep the keys in the same location. I informed Momoko, and she woke up the family. Little Kat thought that he might have left the keys in his jacket pocket. Yep. From now on, no kids can touch these keys. We need to be able to make it into our shed.

Loading up the Truck

Since I have been sick for a while, I had been skipping out on my duty to go shopping at Target/Walmart. Today I was not 100%. But I was well enough to shop at Target. Little Kat and I went out at lunch time.

They had a sale on Cokes at Target. We loaded up the car with a bunch of Cherry Coke, Sprite, and Regular Coke. Good stuff. We also got all those things we had on the list for Target.

Little Kat was happy because we had enough time at the end of shopping for him to get a iTunes card. He already bought Legend of the Guardians with his card for the computer. All in all a good day.

Hungry Saturday

I went to sleep on time last night for once. So I was up at a reasonable time this morning. It was before 9:00am. I checked around the house. All the other cats were sleeping. I did some reading and cleaning up.

After a few hours, I was really hungry. I checked in with Momoko. She was still sleeping. What? I told her I needed some food. She is the one that feeds me on Saturday morning. It was already afternoon. She suggested I heat up a pizza in the microwave. Weak.

Instead I drove a long way to my favorite Chinese buffet. Got some big pieces of Hong Kong Chicken. Ate some veggies like broccoli and mushrooms. Had a few dumplings. My dessert was hot and sour soup with a ton of fried wonton. Delicious.

Getting Better

I have been totally sick for about a week and a half. Took a couple days off from work. Worked the rest of the time from home. I was very weak. But I am starting to eat again now. Got to build up that strength.

Today was the first day I headed back to the office. I had a coughing fit on the drive in to work. But I made it. It is nice to be out of the house for once. It is also easier to work at the office. That way when I leave, I am done with work. At home people just keep calling me all the time.

I plan to sign up for a new programming class this spring semester at school. I hope the class won't be cancelled due to lack of interest. This is the one I have been waiting to take for a couple semesters.

Seriously Sick

This weekend I got severely ill. Personally I blame Momoko for giving me the germs. I had a massive fever for a few days. I even took some days off work.

Now the fever has subsided. I still have no appetite. I have trouble breathing at night due to the phlegm in my lungs. Momoko advised me to sleep in a sitting up position. Easier said than done.

Propping up the pillow works for a while. But I eventually slide down. Now I am trying sleeping in a chair. This feels even worse. This position is hard on your butt. When will I ever get well again?

Ready for iPhone

Today Kit Kat needed to go to the library. Momoko and I were going to drop her off and go shopping. But it turns out we only did the shopping. We started out with some lunch at the diner. Then we headed south to find the AT&T store.

We talked to a young guy in the store. He had an iPhone 3GS personally. He said they only sold the iPhone 4 there. It was out of stock. Then he highly recommended some Android phone. I thought the iPhone 3GS was the best deal at $50. The monthly charges were a bit high.

After we came home, Momoko figured out what she wanted to sign up for. She spent a long time on the telephone, speaking to AT&T. Then she went to bed. I hope there is an iPhone coming in the mail for me. We shall see. I am ready to download and run some apps.

Recycling Problems

The cats did not come this week to pick up our recycling. This is unusual. They are normally consistent. That meant we had a huge container of recyclables overflowing. I did what any cat would do under these circumstances. I threw out the recyclables with the trash.

And the end of this week we had three trash bags of regular trash. We also had three huge trash bags worth of recycling. That might make you think we recycle half of the stuff we throw out. Not quite. Trash guy comes twice a week. Recycle guy only once. So we recycle about a third of the stuff that goes out. Pretty good though.

I am the trash man in our house. Therefore it makes my job easier if we put things in the recycling bin. Therefore most everything that can be recycled goes in there. I don't know if we are helping the environment. I do know that our trash bags are less full than ever.

Homework Surprise

Momoko had a meeting after school. So I got off from work early and picked up Little Kat. The school parking lot was jammed. So I parked on the street and walked over to Little Kat's patrol post. he stands in front of the bus line and makes sure student go in the correction direction.

I brought Little Kat home. We beat Kit Kat home. Usually she is the first to arrive home each day. I gave Little Kat 30 minutes to eat his snack and relax. Then I had him do his homework. About an hour or so later he said he was done. We all waited for Momoko to come home.

Momoko checked Little Kat's homework when he came home. To my surprise, he had not completed his Spanish homework. He had a lot of excuses as to why he did not finish. I was unhappy that he earlier told me he was done his homework. I don't like Momoko coming home late and finding problem like this on my watch. Looks like Little Kat is going to get his electronics confiscated until he gets his school work under control.

Kit Kat cooked us some pancakes and bacon for dinner. I wish I had remembered this was the menu for tonight. I had the "baconator" burger for lunch at Wendy's. Too much bacon for just one day.

Phonce Choices

It has been over two years since we got some cell phones under contract. The current monthly cell phone bill is way too big. I want to get it lower. Momoko wants to get more services like web on the phone. Finally our cell phone provider keeps ripping us off. The result is that it might be time to get new phones and a new cell phone plan.

Way back when I heard about this G-phone from Google. Now I think this falls under the umbrella of the Android operating system phones. However Little Kat recently introduced the family to iPod Touch games (apps). They are very fun. And some of them are free. The iPhone can play these apps.

So is it time for us to get the iPhone? We plan to go to the phone store to play with iPhones this weekend. Little Kat is all for us getting him an iPhone. We shall see.

Purchase Failure

Each year, Momoko and I use the same version of tax software to do our taxes. Her idea was for us to alternate years in purchasing the software. That way we can both use the same software, and pay only half the cost each every 2 years.

This year Momoko asked me to buy the software. Now that is not fair. I bought it last year. She told me that she would buy it if I could produce a receipt of my purchase.

Luckily, I bought the thing online. It only took a minute to find the exact day I bought the software, and when it shipped. Fail. I think Momoko should now buy the software for the next two years.

Jukebox Surprise

Momoko and the girls went shopping this afternoon. That left Little Kat and I to fend for ourselves at lunch. Little Kat advised me to take us to the Silver Diner. I had a coupon that expired today. Must be our destiny.

Little Kat tried to get me to approve a milkshake, bowl of soup, gourmet burger, and sundae dessert. I laughed at first, then informed he was authorized for a large water and half a salad. He was a bit dejected. However the salads there were good.

Then Little Kat wanted me to give him a quarter for the jukebox at our table. Last time we were there, Little Kat lost his quarter in the machine. So I declined. He played with the machine and chose a song. I found it strange that the song he chose played over the loudspeaker.

Maybe it was chance. Little Kat chose another song. The machine clicked and then his second choice played without the need for a quarter. Little Kat had me listen to another 30 minutes worth of songs. Finally we had to go. Little Kat said he ended up selecting $15 worth of music without putting any money in the machine. Let's hope the other customers enjoyed his selections.