Easty Access Parking

Things are much easier with our expanded driveway and new parking pad. Three cars can park side by side now. Each of them can get out of the driveway without moving the other cars. I am loving life now.

I moved the truck out to the street. Momoko's car has been moved into the carport. My Scion xB and the new Honda Fit park side by side in the parking pad. I love that I can come out of the house and get in my Scion xB immediately. I used to have to walk down to the street to get in the car.

Today my brother is coming over to watch some movies with me. I used to have to squeeze two cars parking out on the street. Now I just tell him to pull into the driveway. This is a taste of the high life. Next project is to get us a new shed in the back yard.

Shake Shake Shake

I was in the office after lunch talking with my coworker. Then the building started to shake bad. We are on the top floor of the building. I took a look down the hall and saw everyone coming out of their office. The shaking stopped. I ran back into my office, pulled my computers out of the wall, and hurried to the stairwell leading down.

Everyone else was doing the same as me. There were many people on the stairwell. We were backed up all the way up to the 4th floor. I was thinking that these people had better move before we get an aftershock or another earthquake. Eventually I got to the bottom. The guy in my office asked me to wait for him outside so he could make sure I made it out alive. Silly guy. I told him to hurry down and worry about everyone else later.

Most people were just standing around outside the building. I got in my car and headed home. I thought about whether I should chance it and drive on the highway. Fate made the decision for me. It was early, but the highway was all backed up. I took the back roads home. There were not many signs of the earthquake at home. Some thing that were standing up fell down in the house. No real damage was done. I waited for the rest of the family to get home to see how they fared during the 5.9 Richter scale earthquake.

New Student Orientation

This semester I am switching to a new community college. The old one kept cancelling courses on me. Today I went to the new student orientation of my new college. They told me to get there early. So I did. I found the secret back entrance to the college.

Somehow I think I have been to this college before. It must have been some meeting 15 or 20 years ago. Today I found the registration area. It was too early when I arrived. Then they started handing out registration materials. I got in line. But when I got to the front, they said they were halting registration. Huh?

I took the opportunity to go get a student ID and parking pass. Then I dropped by the bookstore. My one book cost over $100. Ouch. Luckily my company is paying for the book. The general orientation session was okay. Our student government president was a poor public speaker. We then went to breakout sessions for our major.

I went to the Computer Science small group discussion. Most other people there were comp sci majors. Some of them wanted to focus on games. Later I went to a session covering online services. I won a thermos bottle by answering the quiz questions the fastest.

Bike Upgrade

Little Kat has been complaining about his bike for a long time. He says it is too small for him. I was scheduled to go bike shopping with Little Kat this week. However the work on the driveway put us behind schedule.

Today was the last day of my vacation. So I planned to go shopping with Little Kat. There were some bad thunder showers. Little Kat asked us to postpone the shopping trip. Momoko directed us to go today. We manned Little Kat up, and drove the truck to Walmart.

Little Kat had specific requirements. He wanted a pedal brake as opposed to hand brakes. He also wanted a dirt bike. The bike needed to be a 26 inch one. In the end, the handle bar grips and bike seat comfort sealed the deal. The bike was within budget. At home we had Little Kat take the new bike for a spin before we headed to the airport to pick up Kit Kat.

Concrete Front Yard

Yesterday morning the construction guys came to the house at 6:30am. I was ready for them. The concrete mixers were soon to follow. Yeah. We needed two full mixers to fill our new driveway expansion.

Little Kat had his friend spend the night. I woke them up at 10:00 am. Then I went back down to keep watch on the construction guys. Then it was an hour later and I did not hear from Little Kat. The guy fell back asleep on me! He complained that his friend's phone kept going off all night.

After the driveway was complete, I took Little Kat shopping. We returned some jeans, bought some replacement jeans, and bought Little Kat two pairs of shoes. He got some updated Nikes that look like his current show but are bigger and a different color. He also got some Vans at the recommendation of his friend.

We dropped Little Kat's friend off at his house. Then we picked up some chicken, and proceeded to spend the evening helping Momoko get her classroom in order.

Driveway Work Begins

Yesterday our concrete contractor was scheduled to come start work on our driveway expansion. They said they would arrive between 7:00 and 7:30am. I woke up before 6:00am to be safe. This was a good move because they showed up before 6:45am.

I thought I would need to move the mailbox which is located where the new driveway apron would go. Nope. The foreman did that for me. I also guessed I might need to cut down some bushes to allow them to move the dirt they dug up to a spot in the back yard I need filled. No again. The foreman used a bobcat to lift the bushes out of the ground.

I was surprised how efficient the bobcat machine was. They used it to dig up the ground. That is expected. They also used it to bust up the existing concrete that needed to go. Aha. There was a hiccup in the plans. They guys took their dump truck pick up some gravel for under the driveway. On that trip their tire exploded causing an accident.

They regrouped by having another dump truck do the gravel delivery while they got their tire replaced. I also thought these guys would be done by 2:00pm. No. That was just the time when the boards would be in place on the sides for an inspector to check. Turns out these guys stayed until 5:30pm. I was weary of keeping an eyer on them all day. Luckily Little Kat was home. He cooked me snacks whenever I got hungry.

The Fall of PetFail

Today Little Kat and I delivered the school gerbils to Momoko's classroom. We also brought the one school goldfish. Momoko asked us to buy some additional fish for the school tank.

First we had to get some lunch. Little Kat wanted subs. We visited a sub and both got Italian subs. Little Kat got the works on it. I added selective toppings. For some reason, I was very thirsty. The all you can drink fountain soda came in handy.

Then we visited Petco to buy the goldfish. One employee was helping another customer. I found it odd that the custonmer asked for some type of frog fish, and the employee answered that the customer did not want that. WTF? The customer just asked for it. Then the employee helped another customer for what seemed forever.

When the Petco employee came to us, I showed him the goldfish we wanted. I was shocked to find he would not sell us the fish. He said our fish tank was too small. Again. WTF? The guy was arrogant, as if he was some righteous animal advocate. At first I thought this was a scam to get us to buy an expensive big fish tank.

Little Kat and I got the heck out of there. We proceeded to Pet Smart. The employee there advised us to the fish tank requirements when the fish grew to full size. Then she proceeded to sell us the fish. Guess which company will get all our follow on business? It will not be PetFail, I mean Petco. Heheh.

The Delivery Cats

Kit Kat got up early this morning to babysit two kids of a teacher she knows. It was the first day of work for teachers today. These two were a bit wild, running around our house. I had to tell them to listen to Kit Kat.

Little Kat and I picked up and delivered lunch to Momoko. We got her fettucini alfredo, along with some garlic bread topped with provolone cheese. There was a lot of stuff for school at our house. Little Kat and I loaded it all up into the truck and hauled it to Momoko's class.

While picking up lunch, an employee runs out of the pizza shop asking Little Kat whether he was wearing an Angry Birds shirt. Nope. It was Perry the Platypus from the Finneus and Ferb show. Our mailman later was excited when he saw the shirt on Little Kat.

Little Kat and I went to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes today. The theater was not too crowded. I treated Little Kat to a slushie at the movie. On the way home he was falling asleep with the slushie cup in his hand. I was worried it would fall over and get my truck messy. We were saved because he drank all the slushie.

Welcome Home Little Kat

Today I woke up very early to make it to the airport. Luckily there was not that much traffic and I got there early. It was kind of empty on the arrivals floor. I brought my newspaper to pass the time. Read it from front to back.

Little Kat came out with not much fanfare at the airport. He had a wild head of hair. Looks like he did not get that hair cut he needed this summer. There were a number of people on his plane. But they were mostly just passing through to their destination. Little Kat said about 5 people got off the plane in our city.

Strangely enough Little Kat said he stayed up the while night last night. We still made him come to school in order to assist Momoko set up her classroom. He was a bit cranky. He crashed hard on his bed when we got back to the house at dinner time. Little Kat went to bed without eating even a piece of the pizza we ordered for dinner.

False Start

I finally got a permit for our new driveway. It was an additional driveway lane that leads to a wide parking pad. I had to put up a $2000 bond for the changes to the county curb.

My contractor came out and did some recalculations based on the new stuff. The price estimate went from $3500 to almost $7000. We need this driveway. So I told him to go ahead and do it. He had the foreman come out and look at the job. Last night the foreman returned to go over the final details.

The foreman was more exact that the estimate guy. After he marked off where the actual driveway would go, I found that there was not enough room to turn into the wide parking pad. There was no way to make the design of the existing permit to work. This means I need to return to the dreaded permit office to make some modifications. Unlucky me.

Driving Instructor Fail

Kit Kat finished her classroom drivers education. Now it is time for her to do the hands on driving. She has schedule three days of 9 to 11 am on the road. The instructor called before the first session, saying he had to work with another driver who is about to get her license. So he needed to move the first day's session up to 7:00 am with Kit Kat.

I heard a noise around 9:00 am. At first I thought it was Kit Kat arriving back from her drive. Nope. The slacker instructor picked her up at 9:00 am. WTF? If you make an appointment at 7:00 am, you best show up well before 9:00 am. Then I heard that the chump was doing the crossword puzzle as he went with Kit Kat. Wake up slacker. Give Kit Kat the instructor she deserves.

It is a good thing that I did not pay for Kit Kat's driving instruction. I would want my money back, or a replacement instructor at the least.

Getting to Work

I got to work early today. There was a lot to do. When I got there, I got some more tasks to take care of. In the afternoon I got a call from Momoko. She was at her school setting up her classroom. She needed some help doing the heavy lifting. I left work as soon as I could.

I stopped by home to pick up a dolly to help with the heavy items. Momoko left me a message to bring some drinks with me as well. I had a tough time moving out all the cars to get the truck out of the driveway. When I got to Momoko's school, there were some seriously heavy filing cabinets to move across the room.

Kit Kat and I had to set up all the desks. Momoko had put down a seating plan on paper. But when we started arranging the desks, there were some tweaks in positions. At one time, Kit Kat stubbed her toe with the desk leg. She was wearing flip flops. Ouch.

After the long day, Kit Kat and I went to return some library books. Momoko texted us to pick up some dinner. Bucket of chicken it is.

Two Better Than One

We tried to put the new gerbil in the cage with the others one more time. Poor thing got chased and chewed. It was just not working out. One option was to return the new gerbil to the store. That sounded sad. I was getting to like the little girl.

There was one more option. We could keep the gerbil in a separate cage. The other older gerbils were going back to school with Momoko in the fall anyway. This could be our new permanent home gerbil. There was only one problem with this. Our new gerbil would be lonely.

Problem solved. Kit Kat, Momoko, and I went to the pet store. We purchsed the sister of the new gerbil. This sister has read eyes. I thought they would be happy when they got reunited. Nope. The first gerbil was still running away from her own sister. At least we got them a cool wheel to run in.

New Guy on the Block

Momoko's gerbils from school are getting a bit old. She decided to inject some new blood into their cage. Thus Kit Kat and Monmoko went gerbil shopping today. They got a new white one. I was expecting some miniature gerbil. This one is smaller than the rest, but is not a baby.

Kit Kat took all the old gerbils out of their cage. They she let the new one run in there for a while. They say the other gerbils will accept the new one if they smell her scent in their cage. Not working here. One of the old gerbils will not leave the new one alone. The new one's tail got chewed pretty bad.

Luckily Momoko also bought a second gerbil cage. So for tonight, we are goinag to let the new one stay in a separate cage. She got beat up too bad in the big cage. I think the old aggressive gerbil needs a time out myself.