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.

Celebrating Little Kat

This morning we celebrated Little Kat's birthday. There were some gifts that were delayed for one reason or another. For example, Little Kat got to open the huge box we had in our computer room. It was a weight bench. However the dumbells that are to be used with it are still being shipped.

Little Kat also got some type of Zombies game for the PC. I think he plays the same game on his iPhone a lot. So does Momoko. I got Little Kat a few gifts. The main one was a handheld radio. It runs on batteries and can also tune radio station audio. With some cash gifts from friends. Little Kat purchased himself a new power cable for his laptop.

Although we had red velvet birthday cake around lunch time, we also took Little Kat our to eat for dinner. He chose Friendlys so that he could get ice cream as well. They had a seasonal special where they served ice cream out of Frankenstein's head. You get to keep the Frankenstein mug when you are done. Of course Little Kat got that. Momoko also picked up one of those mugs for her classroom. All in all an eventful day.