Surprise Assignment

Little Kat had taken the last day of school before vacation of because he was afraid of crazy people thinking it was the end of the world. That sounded like a good course of action. That is, it sounded prudent until I found that Little Kat missed his science class. He is not doing that well in science. And he was not a forward thinker. He did not get in contact with anyone from his class to find out what he missed.

Momoko was suspicious that it was so far into the semester, but Little Kat had not made any progress on his science fair project. Momoko made Little Kat email his science teacher to ask about this. For most of the vacation, Little Kat said he did not receive a reply from his science teacher. Finally Momoko could not take it any more. She asked Little Kat to log into his email account to verify that the teacher was not responding propmpty.

All of a sudden, Little Kat confessed that his science teacher had responded to his email. And it turns out Little Kst missed the asssignment for writing his research paper. Typicsl Little Kat, trying to get out of work. Now he has a bunch of work to complete this weekend. If if we not for Momoko, this would be another zero for a major assignment.

The Return Home

Today was the last day of our trip. We set our alarms to go off early. Had to check out of the hotel in the morning. Momoko drove us our of town. We went the long way, because the short cut had signs stating there was construction. It was a long 2 hour drive to get to Sonic for breakfast.

We savored the Sonic food, because it will be the last we have for a while. Then Momoko complained about having to face the massive bridge we needed to cross. It is a couple miles long. Luckily all lanes were open. So Momoko could drive in the middle lane. It was helpful that is was foggy. You could not see how far down the water was under the bridge.

Momoko wanted to avoid one of the tough merges into high speed traffic on the highway. Therefore we took the long route around the city. It was snowing when we returned. Kit Kat's friend had watched our gerbils while we were gone. So Momoko and Little Kat ran over a thank you card with some cash to the friend.

Since Kit Kit is still with her dad, we enjoyed a Chipoltle dinner. We suspect Kit Kat likes burritos from Chipoltle. However she always complains when we even bring up the idea of eating at the restaurant.

Down by the Boardwalk

I woke up earlier today. We went to lunch at the Little House of Pancakes. We were the only people in the restaurant upon arrival. I ordered a belly buster fish sandwich. Little Kat's omelette was missing sour cream. So we sent him to the kitchen to get what he was due.

Later we drove down to the end of the boardwalk. It was not blocked off by police like yesterday. I rented Little Kat a fun cycle, which is a three wheel bike that is low to the ground. It looks like a Big Wheel for adults. When Little Kat tired, I took the bike for a spin around the block a few times.

Little Kat spied a shop which advertised everything in the store for ten bucks. We went in and Little Kat bought a custom "Like a Boss" tee shirt. Then we went into a flashy arcade. By then I was tired. Momoko was cold. It was time to return to the hotel room.

Lunch Choices

I slept in late today. It is our vacation after all. Momoko and Little Kat were hungry. So I got ready quickly after getting up. Momoko was in the mood for breakfast style food. She wanted to go to Denny's. Little Kat advised against it. Momoko agreed that the Denny's by our hotel was not first rate. So we took a long ride down the strip.

Now there were about 100 blocks for us to drive by. Many of the restaurants were closed for the winter. We found a pizza place. We also passed a diner that we ate at before. However the top choice turned out to be a pancake house. The sign on the door stated that they were closing in 30 minutes. The host informed us that there was plenty of time left for lunch.

Afterwards we needed to fill up the gas tank. Someone told me there was an Exxon at the end of the strip. They were wrong. We ended up having to take the road out of town. Luckily that road brought us by an Exxon. On the way back to the hotel, we drove slowly by the hotel Kit Kat stayed when she came to the beach with her friends. We also got out and went to the boardwalk to spy on the beach. The winds were too heavy, so that only lasted a minute or two.

Vacation Time

Little Kat proposed that we take a trip during Christmas break. He thought we should hit the beach. So I made reservations for an Oceanfront hotel room. Little Kat packed the night before the trip. In the morning, I saw that there was snow on the ground. Momoko declared that I would need to drive if there was bad weather. Therefore I sent her out to get us breakfast before the trip. She did a lot of complaining about even driving down the street to McDonald's.

Before we left, I noticed mold in the shower. I could not leave for a few days while mold stayed unchecked. So I broke out the bleach and gave the shower a scrub down. That took a bit of energy out of me. I buckled down and drove the car to the beach anyway.

We drove by the Post Office on the way out to deposit our mail. We also dropped Momoko at the bookstore to purchase the Alchemist, a book the family plans to start reading on vacation. Then we were off. We left early enough to avoid rush hour traffic. Half way through the trip, we stopped at Sonic for lunch. It was most tasty.

The rain got treacherous as we neared the beach. Luckily the was not such a huge line to check into the hotel.

Vague Ending to The Giver

Today the family finally completed reading the book The Giver. However not everybody shared the same understanding of what happend in the end. Here are some facts. The boy was starving. His body was going numb due to the cold. The mountain he needed to climb was treacherously steep. And he stumbled. He had lost many of his memories.

Little Kat and I were certain that this boy died. There were too many suspicious circumstances for a boy who had come to the end of his journey. It felt more like he died dreaming of reaching his final destination. The top answer on Yahoo agreed with Little Kat and I. This boy died.

Momoko and then Kit Kat believed the boy lived on. They were not sure of the details. But they assumed there were good things in his future. Strangely enough, the author agrees with Momoko and Kit Kat. The author states in an interview that this is an optomistic ending.

Others chime in that the boy reappears in the second and third books of the trilogy. That, combined with the author's comments, made me change my mind about the ending. I still think the author did not do a good job in explaining what happened. Many say that she left the ending intentionally vague so the reader could determine what the like.

Pesky Branch

I had decided to take a buddy of mine out for lunch to celebrate his birthday. The day before I had spied the opening of a Roy Rogers restaurant close to my house. I was tempted to take him there for old times sake. But I figured he deserved something a bit more fancy that burgers and fries. We ended up going to a New Orleans style restaurant. There we took advantage of their tasty breakfast buffet.

On the way back home, I ran over a branch that was on our street. I recalled that Momoko had swerved earlier in the week to avoid this very branch. Wouldn't any slackers bother to pick up the branch and remove it from the street? I guess not. So I walked down the street and collected the branch. I was more disturbed that the end of the branch showed it was cut with a saw. This was not a random branch that fell from a tree. Somebody cut it down and left it in the street.

I gave the house by the branch an evil eye. Then I saw that there was nobody home. In fact, I rarely see the owners at the house. I guess they must not live here all the time. Still it was a fail. Can't anybody else pick up a darn stick impeding traffic? As always, I do not shy away from leading by example. Follow my lead people.

End of the World

Today marks the end of the Mayan calendar. To some, they thought that meant it was also the end of the world. Little Kat was a bit concerned about this. He did not think the world was actually ending. He was more concerned that somebody who thought it was the end of the world might want to do some damage or harm to Little Kat.

Little Kat voiced his opinion to Momoko and myself. He propsed that he stay home from school today just in case. Momoko approved this plan. So Little Kat did not have to wake up really early as he normally does to catch his bus. In fact, Little Kat slept through the whole morning.

I went to McDonald's for lunch because my bro gave me some valuable coupons. It was only when I came back that I realized that Little Kat was still in the house. He had still not woken up. Usually when Little Kat or Kit Kat stays home from school, I offer to pick them up a bit of lunch.

Luckily Little Kat eventually woke up. He needed to. He is responsible for cooking dinner tonight. Momoko is out partying again with some friends from work. So it might just be Little Kat and I for dinner tonight.

Anime Club

Little Kat is part of anime club at his high school. He seems to like it a lot. This week was his holiday party at anime club. But there was just one problem. How was Little Kat going to come home from anime club? Kit Kat is out of town. Momoko was busy with her own holiday party. That left just me.

The problem is that Little Kat gets out of anime club during my work hours. I already had to spend a few work hours this week taking Kit Kat to the airport since nobody else could. Everyone wanted to go to their holiday parties. I really could not help out. But it was just a quick 15 minute drive to the school to pick up Little Kat, right?

So I finish up a meeting at work. Then I rush over to Little Kat's school. He calls me on my cell phone as soon as I get there. I tell him I am at his school. Little Kat has bad news for me. His school just went into lock down. Nobody leaves his classroom or school. Why me?

Of course Murphy's Law kicks in, and they hold an impromptu meeting at work where I am the key guy. There is nothing I can do. I tell the security lady that I am there to pick up Little Kat. She has them page Little Kat a couple times. But his teacher needs to arrange an escort for Little Kat.

I end up waiting around 45 minutes until somebody can bring Little Kat out to me car. I punch it home. Then I run to my meeting. I join the meeting late and take charge. Luckily we were working with some code that I programmed. After working out a few kinks, the program runs super fast and everyone is giving each other high fives. I still need to stay late at work to wrap everything up.

What is the moral of this story? I can no longer transport Little Kat from anime club. No exceptions.

Food and Nutrition

Every day when Little Kat comes home from school, I quiz him about the day. The goal of this interrogation is to ensure Little Kat has written down any homework assignment he has. If it does not get written down, chances are Little Kat will forget and not turn in his homework.

When Little Kat has no homework, I dig deeper to find out what happened in class. Sometimes he forgets that he had some outstanding class work that turned into homework. One benefit of these discussions is that I hear about Little Kat's Food & Nutrition class. To me, that is just a cooking class.

That class should be no trouble for Little Kat. Momoko has been making Little Kat cook us dinner for a long time now. And he sometimes experiments with new recipes. He should be an expert by now.

Today Little Kat cooked grilled chicken. He said it turned out good. Usually he samples the foods he cooks. I think his team eats what he cooks as well. Last week he cooked some funnel cake. It must have been really good. They had him make it two classes in a row.

Kit Kat Departs

I woke up a little late this morning. Kit Kat was still sleeping. I made a bit of noise, and sure enough, Kit Kat got up 15 minutes later. It was an hour from when we needed to leave to catch her plane. I hurried and took care of immediate issues at work. Then I brought my car closer to the house.

Kit Kat spent about 5 minutes saying goodbye to all the gerbils. Then I put her large heavy suitcase in the back seat of my car. On the ride to the airport, we discussed Kindle books. I am on a free electronic book binge. Kit Kat reads electronic books as well, having just purchased the Kindle Fire tablet.

The airport hourly parking lot was crowded. I saw why when we entered the terminal. The lines to check in were huge. I had to leave Kit Kat at that point. I had a work meeting I needed to return to. Thought I could grab a burger for lunch. Should have went to McDonald's. Instead I waited forever in line at Fuddrucker's. But oh that burger was good.

At home I texted Kit Kat a few hours later. She made it fine onto the plane and met her dad. Then I decided to take Kit Kat's car for a spin. Had to get into the habit of driving it around so the battery does not die while Kit Kat is away for a whopping 4 weeks. She did not leave me a lot of gas in her car.

The All Nighter

I stayed up late as usual two nights ago. What was strange was that I heard Kit Kat moving around in her room into the late night hours. Well she is done with school. So she can stay up late too. The next morning I heard Kit Kat's alarm go off. But she was not turning it off. Disturbing.

I went downstairs and told Kit Kat her alarm was going off. I asked if she just woke up. She said she had been awake for a long time. Weird. She was a bit snippy with her response too. I guess she had to wake up early to get ready for her trip to visit her dad for Christmas.

Later in the day I ran to the store. When I came back, Kit Kat was cleaning out her car. It was then that she told me she had stayed up the entire night. Whoa. Perhaps she was anxious about her upcoming trip. Or maybe she was worried about school. I figured she had better go to bed early the following night.

Momoko had other plans for Kit Kat that night. She wanted to spend some time with her before her trip. So they watched Rock of Ages together against my better judgement.

Lunch Failure

I was scheduled to go to lunch with my friend today. He got busy and had to reschedule it. So I asked Momoko if she wanted to go out. Of course she did. Then she asked the kids to come along too. Since this will be the last time we go out before Kit Kat leaves to spend Christmas with her dad, we let Kit Kat decide on where to go. She wanted soup from Olive Garden.

Now our Olive Garden always has very poor service. I don't expect much when I go there. They continued their weak service today. Couldn't get any breadsticks until after the entire meal was done. I asked for butter to go with the breadsticks. Needed to ask a few times before I could get some. There were a lot of other failures - no lemon for the water, having to ask multiple times for water refills, long delays for the soup.

A manager came by and asked how our lunch was. I told him it was basically a failure. I gave him a few examples where the poor service pretty much ruined the lunch. The manager was apologetic. He agreed to comp one of the meals (take it off the bill). I thought that was at least an attempt to recover from the big time fail.

When my bill came, I saw that no meals were comped. I asked to speak with the manager. He said he comped my bill. Then I asked him to show me where. He then said that I must have received the wrong bill. When he came back with another bill, it was still wrong. The manager apologized and went back to take care of it.

In any other restaurant, I would have thought I was getting punked. You know, it was some type of candid camera to see how I would react to a setup. By I was in Olive Garden. I knew this was just their sorry service as usual. The only reason we even return is that the family loves some of their food.

Pumpkin Surprise

Earlier this week, Little Kat was running late for school. I thought he might miss his bus. Luckily Momoko was leaving for work at the same time. She gave Little Kat a ride to the bus stop. Disaster averted. I got up normal time, went downstairs to my study, and started work.

I got a text from Momoko. It said that she found a pumpkin under my car. What??? I do recall there were a bunch of pumpkins on the curb across the street. I looked outside and those pumpkins were gone. I went outside and sure enough, under my car, was a small pumpkin.

At first I thought it might be some kids fooling around. However Momoko later said that the pumpkins from across the street had somehow rolled out into the road. Since Little Kat was running late, I guess they could not stop to remove the pumpkin under my car themselves.

Secret Setting

My initial impression of my new iPhone 5 phone was not good. When I am at home, I like to connect the phone to the world using the wireless Internet connection in my house. That technique incurs no extra cost from our cell phone provider. With my previous iPhone, that was not a problem. The iPhone 5 kept switching over to LTE or 4g mode. That uses up my previous data bandwidth from the cell phone company.

In the first month alone, I racked up a $15 charge for going over my monthly limit. And the month was not over. I blamed the iPhone and our cell phone provider. This was a double fail since they ended up charging us more per month anyway because I got the iPhone 5.

My plan was to call up our cell phone provider and complain. I was prepared to return the darn iPhone 5 if necessary. They would not like that as we signed me up for a 2 year contract. The only difficulty is that the phones are in Momoko's name. I don't really have any direct relationship with the cell phone company. Arguing in such a position is always trickier than if I was the actual customer.

I was thinking that I might end up buying an iPad that only has the capability to run off the house wireless connection. The iPad 2, which is the previous generation iPad, costs $399. And Target was having a special this week where you could get a $50 gift card if you buy one. I told Momoko about my plan. She told me to try out her iPad 2 first.

Momoko turned off the cellular data option on her iPad 2 to ensure I would not use up her cellular bandwidth. Wait a minute. If Momoko could do that with her iPad, could I do that with my iPhone 5? Yes! Now my iPhone only uses the house wireless network. No more charges for going over my 4g monthly limit. Thank you Momoko. You saved the day. I should have known to go to Momoko with this first. She is the Apple Corporation enthusiast in the house.

Failure with Fries

Momoko promised the kids that she would take them to the movies if they hung the Christmas lights outside. Well the kids held up their end of the bargain. So today they planned to go to the movies. They like to catch the early show because it is cheap. And there are less crowds to fight in parking lot and theater. Their show started at 10:20am. So they planned to leave for breakfast at an evil 9:00am.

After a tough week with my college class and work, there was no way I was waking up Saturday morning before 9:00am. I stayed in bed all morning. I did wake up for lunch and was very hungry. When I came downstairs, I found a bunch of Arbys fries on the kitchen floor along with some other trash. I immediately left a voice mail for Momoko, telling her they had better come home after the movie to explain who caused this mess.

I figured it might have beeb Little Kat. He often puts trash in the wrong place. Normally I can just call down the kids, figure out who failed, and have the guilty party clean up the mess. However I was irked that somebody tossed some fries on the floor and took off to have fun at the movies. When the family came home, Kit Kat said she put the fries in a bag, put that bag in another bag, and then deposited the double bagged fries in the trash. She said the fries must have fallen out of the trash can.

Now we have a trash can which requires you to push a pedal with your foot to open. Or you could lift up the top with your hand. Either way, you need to be standing directly in front of the trash can to put something in there. I was not buying the story that Kit Kat lifted up the lid and did not notice the fries falling down right underneath her feet. Suspicious at best.

Amazon Kindle Gold Mine

Now that I have the Kindle Program on my computer, I am downloading free titles like crazy. Got 25 free books on my computer now. Read 4 of them so far. The last one I read was The Test. Some rich guy is about to die. He realizes that he had the wrong priorities in life. All of his kids suffered. So he sets up a will that makes his children pass "the test" to earn their sizable inheritance.

One son wants to run for president of the USA. He needs that money bad. Another son wants nothing to do with the money. There is a drug addicted daughter who needs money for her and her friends to enjoy high price drugs. And there is an illegitimate child, who herself is wearlty and does not want any of the inheritance. There is also a stepdaughter who saw daddy through his illness to the end.

Oh that was such a great book. I forgot to mention that I also read some old shor stories from Donald Westlake. I love that author. One of them was a science fiction one that was not to my liking. The other, The Risk Profession, was old but was the classic Donald Westlake that I love.

Did I tell you that all these books are free? I love free. The good thing is that Amazon is not doing this for charity. They are getting me hooked so I will move to paying for some books. I will surely do that. But I don't plan to buy any electronic copies of books. I am going to buy the real thing - some printed books.

Amazon Kindle and the Test

I have come to realize that everyone in the family except me has electronic book readers except me. I bought Little Kat an Amazon Kindle reader this past year so he could have many books in one device while traveling. Momoko has her iPads, which feature an iBooks app from Apple. Kit Kat used to have an Amazon Kindle reader. She just upgraded to an Amazon Kindle Fire, which is a tablet that can server as a reader.

Now I prefer printed books over electronic copies. Still I feel like I was just left out. I started to research my options. At first I thought I might buy the cheapest Kindle reader like Little Kat has. But I found I don't like its screen. It is just too dark. The Apple iPads are too expensive. I was contemplating getting a Kindle Fire like Kit Kat. Then I figured there must be a better way.

There is a much better way. I found I could download a free Amazon Kindle reader program on my personal computer. Woo hoo. And if you search hard enough, you can find electronic books on Amazon for free. Immediately I downloaded a title from Tucker Max, a raunchy author whose style I love. Then for grins I read a book by a gay guy who has dating advice for the average girl. Sure. That one did not apply to me. The read was interesting.

Next I downloaded a free book on getting free books. Found a nifty web site that highlights good free books from Amazon. Then I finally downloaded The Test by Patricia Gussin. To tell the truth, I had never heard about her before. But I loved her book. Maybe I will buy some printed copies of her other books. More on The Test in a future blog post.

Working on the Truck

One of the tires on my truck was a little low on air. Normally I have an air compressor that I use for such tasks. But my last one broke. I did replace it, and tested it out on the truck. Now I bought an extremely cheap air compressor. I wanted to see whether a cheap one could do the job.

The first sign that I bought the wrong air compressor was when I read the warning that came with the compressor. It said you should wash your hands after use because it might cause cancer and sterility. WTF? That is reason enough to throw the darn thing out. But I wanted to see if it could do the job.

I used my tire pressure gauge to see that the passenger side front tire had only 14 pounds of pressure in it. Oh no. It is supposed to have around 35 pounds. So I hooked the air compressor up to the cigarette lighter. The thing automatically starts pumping out air. Another sign of a cheap model. It did not have a separate on/off switch.

The air compressor had its own gauge. However after a long time it only registered 20 pounds of pressure. I just kept letting the thing go. It got really hot. My final reading showed an air pressure of 23 pounds. Just not enough. I might have to go to the gas station and forget about buying a compressor.

The Giver

Momoko and Little Kat tried to read a book together this summer. I got Little Kat a Kindle version of Fahrenheit 451. And I got Momoko a print version. That project did not turn out too well. I doubt they read but a couple chapters.

Momoko wanted to resume the reading project. I had purchased a Kindle version of The Giver by Lois Lowry for Little Kat. And I bought Momoko the deluxe print edition that had all kinds of pictures with it. They were supposed to start reading the book together. But Momoko needed some extra help. She bought an extra electronic copy for her iPad on iBooks.

I went to the library to see if I could check out a print copy of The Giver. No luck. So I went to the local boostore and picked up a copy. It was a small paperback copy. I liked it because it cost $6.99. The family was all supposed to read the book at the same time. Somehow it was decided that we would all read the book aloud, taking turns at reading.

This was eye opening. Little Kat often skips words while he reads. He also pronounces the words wrong, seeing one word but saying another. Ouch. Maybe it is a good thing we are reading aloud. When Little Kat's reading mistakes get too crazy, Momoko corrects him as he reads.

So far we have found out that the characters live in some sort of utopian society. They live in communities with a lot of rules. Everyone is given a job that they accept as professions. If you break the laws 3 times, you get "released". One would think that means you get kicked out of the community. But I think that means you get killed. We shall see.

Black Friday Shopping

Once again the family went shopping during the Black Friday sale. Personally I stay out of the fray because I have never been a Black Friday fan. However Momoko and the kids just can't stay away from the sales. Little Kat proposed that I buy some lighted lawn ornaments this year. He picked out a lighted penguin for the lawn.

I tried to order the penguin online. But it was an in-store only item at Walmart. Kit Kat wanted to buy herself some luggage at Kohls. That turned out to be the first stop on the trip. Momoko drove the kids to Kohls and they got in line. They appreciated the fact that Kohls security ensured an orderly entry into the store. Line jumpers were forced to the end of the line.

Kit Kat said she could not find her luggage in the luggage aisle. She asked an employee, who directed her to an obscure location in the store. She got her 5-piece plaid luggage set for a cool $50. Momoko then dropped the kids off at Walmart to see if they could get a lawn ornament. They fought the chaos, but were informed the ornaments were not on sale until 5:00am.

The family came home. Momoko and Kit Kat took a nap. Little Kat played his new Dishonored video game he rented from GameFly. I was asleep when the family left again for the 5:00am sales. They said Walmart was desserted by then (the masses came Thursday night). They bought two lawn ornaments, including a snowman that Momoko wanted.

Kit Kat picked up a couple pairs of boots at Kohls. She also bought a wireless color printer at Staples. There were a lot of other deals that the family took part in. Some of them may be secret for Christmas so I will not list them all here.

Breaking Dawn

Kit Kat wanted to see the final installment of the Twilight movies when it came out. However for once she did not go to the movies with her friends. They don't take Twilight seriously. Momoko capitalized on this and scheduled for the family to go to the movies today.

We like to go to the theater at the mall. But it is so crowded and expensive. The way to beat the crowds is to go early. The family was scheduled to see the 10:00am show. Ouch. I have been busy the last couple days and wanted to finally sleep in. I planned to pass on this movie.

To save even more money, Momoko suggested that the family eat breakfast before going to the theater. The theater food is terribly expensive. A departure time for breakfast was set at 8:45am. I noticed that Momoko was still asleep at 8:20am. So I woke her up. For some reason, she blamed me for oversleeping. Little Kat was still asleep as well.

Since I was up, Momoko talked me into going to the movies with the family. We hardly ever have time for all of us to see movies together. So I went. There was some delay in getting out of the house. Kit Kat and I were in the car waiting for the rest of the family to get out.

We went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast. Their drive through line was long but quick. I had never been to breakfast there before. I learned that their hash browns are actually has rounds (or cicrular tater tots). I ate in the car on the ride over to the theater. So I got out and purchased the tickets as Momoko and Kit Kat finished their food in the car.

Once we were all in the building and entering our theater, I noticed that I had lost my new iPhone 5. Ouch. Kit Kat let me borrow the keys to the car. Luckily my phone had fallen down on the car floor. Whew. All I can say about the movie is that there was a trick near the ending that had the whole theater gasping. No spoilers here though.

The iPhone 5

I am on vacation this week. So I finally had a chance to set up my new iPhone 5 phone. It has been a few years since I got my previous iPhone. That one was the iPhone 3GS. Although it was a few models behind the latest iPhone 5, it seemed to do the job fine. I got the new phone mainly because we pay a high monthly cell phone fee. Built into that fee is the ability to upgrade to a new phone every 2 years at a highly discounted rate. It was time to take advantage of the discount.

First I connected my old iPhone to the computer. The iTunes software automatically recognized it and started syncing the data. I saw my new apps fly by. I figured they must have been automatically transferred to my computer. Great. Next I tried to activate the new iPhone. That required some contact info from Momoko that I did not have. Luckily I was able to track down Momoko and get the secret info.

I rebooted the iPhone 5. Then I had to wait a while as they registered my service with the new phone. After a short wait, I could make calls with the new phone. I tested out Dragonvale, my favorite iPhone app. It seemed to be zippier with the new phone. Gave movement was much more responsive. Then I tried to launch my new favorite game Gizmonauts. But I could not find it. In fact, all of the new apps I recently installed were missing from the iPhone 5. But I synced it with my PC.

That's when it hit me. The darn iTunes must not have synced up the recent apps to my computer. Darn you Apple. Luckily I only download free apps for my phone. I only had to download Gizmonauts to my new iPhone 5. There were a bunch of other new apps that did not make it over to the new phone as well. I will have to deal with them later. Time to enjoy Gizmonauts on the new iPhone 5.

Introducing the iPad Mini

Yesterday I was in the middle of a business phone call at work. I head someone knocking on the front door. I had to ignore whoever was knocking. Business comes first. And when I am home working on my job, that is the top priority. Later I came up and saw a note from the Fed-Ex guy. Guess we had a package that required signing.

I told Momoko that I missed the Fed-Ex guy. She said this was most likely her iPad Mini in the mail. I gave her the slip from the Fed-Ex guy. She signed it, stating that she wanted the package left at the door even if nobody was home. Today I heard some noise upstairs. No knock or doorbell ringing. It was just a weird noise.

I came up immediately. In the distance, I saw the Fex-Ex guy driving away. There was a small box tucked inside our screen door. This turned out to be Momoko's iPad Mini delivery. The thing seems bigger than I thought it would be. Appears larger than a Kindle from Amazon. However it feels very light. Maybe that is because it is so thin.

Momoko immediately plugged the device in for charging. She set up the Internet connection, downloaded all her apps onto it, and was good to go. Now every night there is an iPhone, iPad, and iPad Mini on Momoko's night stand. Let's just hope the thing doesn't make any noise and wake me up before it is time.

Goal Achieved

Little Kat asked whether we would get him a GameFly membership. GameFly is kind of like the Netflix for video games. You go online and put games you like in your queue. Then they will send you a game. You keep it as long as you want. When you return your game, they will choose another from your queue, and mail it to you.

I really like Netflix. We watch a lot of movies from Netflix. I figured GameFly might be a good idea. However it does cost a minimum of $16 a month. Little Kat does not get that such a bonus for nothing. It needs to be earned. So I told Little Kat that I would get him the basic GameFly membership if he got at least a 3.0 GPA on his report card. I also told him that he could get a better membership if he gets a 3.5 GPA on his report card.

Today Little Kat presented me with a paper copy of his report card for the first quarter. The guy actually got better than a 3.0 GPA. I credit Momomoko making Little Kat do all this work in the last 2 weeks of the first quarter. However a deal is a deal. I had Little Kat bring down his laptop. And we signed him up for GameFly.

We set it up so the games comes addressed to Little Kat in the mail, but the bills come to me. Little Kat is now loading up his queue with all these cool games. He also has to order the games in his queue to ensure the best ones come first. Ahhh. The fun of having a game membership. This is timely since Little Kat just started complaining about not having new games to play.

I Was Told There Would Be Cake

Kit Kat and Little Kat are responsible for our grocery shopping. They normally visit the grocery store on Sunday afternoons. If anyone from the family needs something specific, we put it on the grocery list on the fridge. Momoko had just one request this week. She wanted some cake.

I knew we were in trouble when the kids came back from grocery shopping. They forgot the cake. Momoko tried to make do by eating some pound cake we had. But it was not the same. She really had her heart set on some coconut and/or chocolate cake. Then yesterday Little Kat exclaimed that we had run out of dishwashing detergent. That was just the thing Momoko needed to make the kids return to the grocery store and get that cake.

In other news, I have had my ancienct iPhone 3GS for a long time. Finally the phone company said I was eligible for an upgrade. I feel like they cheated me our of 6 months (you are supposed to be eligible for an upgrade every 2 years). However I did not argue. The iPhone 5 just came out. I ordered one and received it last week.

I charged up my new iPhone 5. But I have not switched over to it yet. Been too busy. Did not want there to be a problem and find myself without a cell phone. I need this thing for work and my college class. Perhaps I can slip the switch over in sometime this week.

Disposal Failure

Little Kat had dish duty today. He came and told us that the garbage disposal was not working. That was suspicious. Kit Kat and Little Kat just cleaned out one of our fish tanks. They have a tendency to let small pebbles from the fish tank go down the disposal and clog it up. Momoko interrogated Kit Kat. She said that the disposal stopped working. Her excuse was that she was going to bring it up during family meeting night.

First we directed Little Kat to clean out the disposal. He was worried that the disposal would turn on as soon as he got removed item blocking it. We told Little Kat to go downstairs to cut the power to the disposal. He did not know which circuit breaker switch killed the power to the disposal. This was an easy problem to solve. I told Little Kat to kill main power switch to the house.

Little Kat brought down our most powerful flashlight. Then he flipped the main switch. All the lights went out in the house. We could hear the gerbils running around alarmed that it got dark. The power supply to our Internet hardware was beeping because no electricity was being fed to it. Little Kat tried to clear the disposal. He failed.

Kit Kat had to get in there. The problem was compounded because Little Kat tried to put all the food down the drain, expecting the disposal to chop it up. That food got extracted first. Then the kids got a partial pebble out from the disposal. They should have done that long ago. Unfortunately the disposal was still not functional.

I had the kids climb under the sink and check the dispoal for any reset buttons. Sometimes devices like this have a switch which pops like one on a GFE power outlet. Little Kat found a red switch on the bottom of the disposal. When he pressed it, the disposal came on. $200 service call avoided.

Kit Kat's Night Out

It is hard to keep up with Kit Kat. She is always on the go with her friends on the weekends. Today Kit Kat and two girlfriends went to see the movie Wreck-It-Ralph. One of her friends brought her little sister. Another acquiantance of Kit Kat's tagged along too.

Kit Kat returned home in time for our weekly scheduling meeting. The family goes over the schedule for the whole week on Saturday's at 8pm. We figure out who is cooking each night, and what they are cooking. We also figure out all the activities for the whole family during the week.

We had to hurry up our meeting. We started late because I was stuck watching a long DVD before the meeting. I felt rushed because Kit Kat planned to go out again at night. She was tagging along with a friend and an acquintance to go duckpin bowling.

Kit Kat said she owned the duckpin bowling lanes, winning most of the games during the night. A guy in the group tried to talk Kit Kat into joining his duckpin bowling league. Silly boy. Kit Kat is way to busy for such diversions. She politely declined him.

Little Kat Math Woes

Little Kat received a "D" in his Math class last quarter. I thought he actually deserved an "F". Momoko worked with him in the last week of the quarter to bombard his Math teacher with a bunch of papers turned in at the last moment. That and a decent score on a late test pulled his grade up a bit.

So in addition to making sure Little Kat turns in his class work and homework for Math, I check him every now and then. This week I saw that he got a 30% on a Math test. That is crazy low. I figure he is still suffering from some of the Math work slacking from the first quarter.

I found the page in the Math text book where the teacher got the test questions. So I assigned some of the questions for a private quiz for Little Kat. I figured I worked with him on his homework a lot this week in Math. He had to be a bit better.

He only got a 45% on the quiz I gave him. We went over each of the problems together after he took my quiz. I taught him some new concepts, and showed him where he made his mistakes. Then I assigned him a new quiz.

Little Kat only got a 50% on the new quiz. He had some further confusion over some Math topics like fractions. That killed him. He also has trouble using a variable to represent an unknown in a word problem. I guess we will continues the quizzing tomorrow. Little Kat must learn this stuff.

Free Credit Score - Set It Off

Sometimes I really like these commercials. It seems they get some good singers to come in and do a short video. Macy's had one that I wrote about before. Now I like the one for Free Credit Score. The video is valled "Set It Off". Yeah it is a commercial. But I never get tired watching it. Here are the lyrics:

Free Credit Score dot com up in it
Haters best get to blogging
So hot right now that our designer sunglasses be foggin
This crowd is classic so we play em like Rachmaninoff
Just hooked em up with score alerts, now we're about to set it off...
Set it off like a score alert, beep beep, what!?
If you set your phone to vibrate then it might alert your butts and flies
All the girls and the guys, wanna keep that credit score high
Like a private jet Free Credit Score dotcom don't forget
*setitoff setitoff*

Getting Manual

Now that Kit Kat is a seasoned driver, I wanted to teach her how to drive a manual transmission. The hardest part about this training was scheduling a time to do it. Kit Kat and I are busy people. I figured we could do it on the weekend. But there are a lot of things going on every weekend.

Kit Kat is keeping in touch with her high school friends who went off to different colleges. She visits her friends on the weekend, sometimes spending the night at a college dorm. Or she is running around with her friends to the movies or out to eat. I watch movies with my bro every weekend. I also pay my bills and do massive yard work each weekend. Kit Kat and I were just not connecting.

I cancelled one of my commitments this weekend. Any I got Kit Kay when she was home. We headed out in my manual transmission pickup truck to learn. At first I drove and let Kit Kat switch the gears for me. We went to the local elementary school. There was nobody there. But the ground was not level. It is easiest to learn on flat ground. So we headed to the park. Too many people were there. We went back to the school.

At first Kit Kat pressed the gas too much when getting into first gear. The tires screeched and we were too fast and too furious. I had her press the gas a lot less. Then the car jerked around and wanted to stall. It is a delicate balance. Kit Kat tried about 6 to 8 times, stopping the car, starting back up again, and repeating. It was tedious because we would get to the bottom of the parking lot. Then we would switch seats, and I would drive us back up to the start of the straightaway.

It is going to take a lot of practice to teach Kit Kat the art of driving stick shift. Perhaps by next summer she will have it down. I told her she only needs to learn. After that, it is fine if she never drives manual transmission. Learning to drive it is like learning to ride a bike. Once you learn, you have the instinct and can pick it up again easily.

Close Inspection

Momoko and Little Kat had the day off for Election Day. Their school is used as a voting locaiton. I had scheduled for an electrician to come by the house. Little Kat has a funky outlet in his room. When you plug something in, the whole room loses power. We can't have that.

The electrician was scheduled to come in the afternoon. He called a few times in the morning because he was in the area. When I called him back, he said he would be over around noon. I had Little Kat man the door. Good thing I did. The guy came early.

The electrician fixed the plug, and we were good to go. Momoko wanted to take Little Kat with her to run some errands. I said that Little Kat had a lot of work to do. His room became as mess as we prepared for the electrician. We needed clear the area around the outlet.

Eventually Little Kat cleaned up the room. Then he and Momoko went errand shopping. Upon his return, I quizzed him about his homework. He said everything was done for the next couple days. I started with the stuff due tomorrow. The first paper I saw was incomplete. Fail. Then I looked at another paper. It was only 25 percent done. Double fail.

I told Little Kat that this semester was the time to get back on track at school. He definintely needs to complete all homework fully. If not, I know he will be missing the whole point of homework. Learning the material. Kit Kat and I set up a card table next to the desk in the basement where I work all day. As soon as Little Kat comes home, he needs to sit directly next to me and complete his homework.

Too Many Branches

Previously I had picked up all the leaves in the front yard. Many came down after the hurricane winds came through town. It was not too difficult of a job. I just ran the lawn mower over the leaves. That mulched them, and made it easier to bag them.

This weekend I turned to the back yard. That was not as easy. In addition to the large amount of leaves falling, many tree branches fell down as well. I ran around with my little metal grabber tool. It allows me to pick stuff off the ground without bending down. It is a life saveer.

The problem was that there were so many tree branches down. I moved the wheel barrel around the yard, filling it up as I grabbed sticks with the grabber. However when it was full, I needed to back up the branches. That slowed things down to a crawl.

In the end, I got all the branches and leaves picked up. But it took around 5 hours. I was working quickly too. Everything has been bagged. The yard actually looks quite good. I still need to take care of the leaves on the steep hills. That is a chore for next weekend.

50 Percent Times Two

Kit Kat was scheduled to go shopping with Momoko this weekend. However Little Kat needed some winter clothes. So all three of them went shopping. They went to Walmart instead of Target. There was not many items on our Target shoppig list.

Momoko found that Halloween candy was 50 percent off. She kind of thought that would be the case. She loaded up on our favorites. At the checkout register, the guy started ringing up some of the candy as full price. Good thing Momoko was keeping an eye on the prices. She informed the clerk that candy was supposed to be 50 percent off.

Momoko got the double bonus on some of the candy. The Walmart cashier just took 50 percent off all the candy prices. Turns out some of that candy was already ringing up as 50 percent off. Therefore Momoko got double the 50 percent off. If my math serves me correctly, that means she paid 25 percent off retail.

The sad part about the Walmart economics is that even when you pay 25 percent of the retail price, the store still makes a profit. Oh well. We are partying with the extra candy. By the way, Little Kat got some nice outfits. Many of them came with a shirt and cap combo.

Halloween Plans

Little Kat and Kit Kat had planned to visit the grandparents of their friend for Halloween. They have done this every year for a while. So Momoko and I made our own plans. We were going to go out to eat for Halloween. Turns out the friend's grandpa got sick. So the kids' plans got changed. They instead went out to dinner themselves.

Momoko turned out all the lights in the house. Did not want trick-or-treaters to come when nobody was home. Then I drove Momoko to the local Olive Garden. Momoko wanted to buy some special that was a "dinner for today and tomorrow". You get an entree for dinner. And you get one to go.

At first I thought it was not smart to buy some food for the next day. But Momoko pointed out that the double dinner is about the same price as regular dinner. I got the special as well. That served me fine, because I could not decide between ziti or fettucini alfredo. So I got both.

Later that night, I had to hit the books to study for my college class. The kids watched some horror movies and played with the gerbils. Momoko just seemed to nap all evening. Then when it was time for bed, Momoko could not go to bed. Too much sleep. I was tired from hours and hours of studying. So I hit the sack and was out cold.

Back to my Roots

Recently I have been going to a new place for lunch. It was recommended by a friend. They serve steamed rice, along with a couple entrees. Their food is simple. If you complete a quick survey, you get an additional entree for free. Each dish has a few ingredients. That's nice because it makes it simple for me to choose dishes where I like everything in the mix.

Recently Momoko bought me some lunch from my old favorite restaurant. They give you a lot of food for a good price. However they always seem to add vegetables that I don't like to their dishes. They also fried rice with their specials. They are a little funny. They want you to pay in cash, and assess an extra fee for credit cards.

When I did get a taste of the meal from my old favorite restaurant, I was taken back to the good old days. I recalled how I loved this place. Today I went back to my old hang out. And I recalled why I went there in the first place. There is a storm coming into the area. Most places have closed down to prepare. This restaurant was open for business. And that is how I discovered them initially. They are the only place open rain or shine. Natural disasters don't phase them. They remain open for business.

Ingredients Debacle

Last Friday, Momoko went out with the people from her work for happy hour. Kit Kat always stays late at school on Friday. So when I got off work, I quizzed Little Kat about the status of dinner. He had not started yet. I told him to make sure he has all the ingredients ready to make his dish. He had planned to make a tuna casserole that was a new recipe. Little Kat reported to me that he only had about half the ingredients. I left a message for Momoko to call us.

Eventually Kit Kat came home. She was famished because she ate an early lunch. She was most disturbed that Little Kat had not started cooking yet. I sat the kids down to figure out what to do. Kit Kat thought it would be nice if we could eat out. That way she would not have to do the dishes. The kids recommended we go to my favorite restaurant. Good recommendation.

The next day, Momoko told the kids to go grocery shopping a day early since a storm was coming to town. I sat the family down to investigate what went wrong with the ingredients for Friday night's meal. Momoko made a shopping list for the kids. This was unusual. Kit Kat usually figures out the meals and shops from her head. The list from Momoko did not have the correct quanties for the new meal. In addition, some meals from earlier in the week stole the ingredients targeted for Friday's meal.

We have a solution in place to prevent this mess again. If that does not work, I explained a second solution that would require more work from everybody. Let's hope we get it right this week.

The Power of Flour

Last week, Little Kat got assigned some homework called Flour Power. He was planning to turn it in on time this week. However the kids in his class complained and got the teacher to extend the deadline by two days. Due to Little Kat's poor homework management skills this quarter, he has a lot of oversight from me now.

Every day Little Kat prints out all his grades for all his classes. This is available online. We compare all the grades that we have been tracking. We also keep an eye out for new grades assigned. Today we detected that Little Kat got a zero on his Flour Power assignment. Yesterday the grade was not zero. The teacher must have netered the grade in the last 24 hours.

Little Kat says he turned the assignment in on time based on the two day deadline extension. So I told Little Kat to email his teacher immediately. It should be fresh in the teacher's mind. This is our new process working to detect teacher errors. Because a few weeks from now, Little Kat will not know the details of this assignment, and would be in a bad position to contest the bad mark he did not deserve.

The goal is for me to teach Little Kat to be able to track these grades by himself, so he can keep on top of any teacher errors (and any surprise assignments that pop up online).

School Meeting

Today we had a meeting with Little Kat's teachers at school. Momoko took the day off from work. I took the afternoon off. I dressed up in my power suit and new dress shoes. Momoko felt obliged to dress up as well to match my attire.

We arrived early and went to the main office. They had to wait for Little Kat to come back from outside (his last class was Physical Education). We met Little Kat in the guidance office. Most of Little Kat's teachers came in to join our discussion.

We spent most of the time talking with his Math teacher. Little Kat is failing Algebra. Some of the failure is due to low test scores. But there are other factors like missed assignments. If you get a score of zero based on a missed assignment, it just destroys your average and overall grade.

Unfortunately we could not speak to Little Kat's English teacher. Little Kat missed his English project for the quarter. If his teacher did not email Momoko, and we did not get involved, he would have failed English this semester as well.

Momoko has been put in charge of trying to get Little Kat to complete and turn in work he missed during the first quarter. I am counting the current quarter as a loss, but am putting into place a lot of oversight to track all of Little Kat's future homework.

Luckily, these days all grades for students are online. Little Kat and I will be checking every grade for every assignment in every class. We will be doing that Monday through Friday. I will also be checking up on whether he writes down his homework assignments in his planner. Since I have insight into this online grading system, there is nowhere for Little Kat to hide any more.

Buying the Barbell

Little Kat went to the weight room at his school. He tried out a bunch of equipment. He liked bench pressing a barbell with weights. Momoko had previously purchased some dumbells for Little Kat. Now he wants a barbell.

Little Kat and I scheduled a time at lunch today to go barbell shopping. I used google to find a store close to us that sells barbells. There was one at the Target shopping center. I got caught in a meeting at work. But I still wanted to go shopping. We went late.

Our first plan was to buy a barbell. That way we could attach Little Kat's existing weights to the end of it. Little Kat brought one of the weights with us so we could make sure it fit the bar. We found a bunch of "curl bars". Those are for lifting weights in a standing position. Little Kat wants to pump iron while laying on his weight bench.

We found one barbell. But it did not have much weight to it. We wanted a bar that itself weighed around 35 pounds. That way Little Kat could add a bit of weight, and the whole thing would provide the resistance he needed. Unfortunately we could not find such a barbell there. We ended up buying a barbell with weight set combo.

A store employee went in the back and wheeled out the weight set. He came with us to the truck to help us load it up. He tried to be Hercules and lift the whole weight box into our truck. The box gave out, sending the weight rolling into the puddle on the ground. Great. Little Kat had to dry everything off when we got home. He already did a few repititions on the weight bench.

American Horror Story

Last season, the family watched the series American Horror Story. Well the whole family except for Little Kat watched it. There were some scenes of disturbia. But it was an exciting series as well. Momoko thought it was a bit predictable. I thought there were enough surprises to keep it interesting.

Last night we watched the premier episode for season two. There is a whole new story. Some of the cast seems to have stayed on. Jessica Lange is still an actress on the show. In fact, her role this time around seems more central. Little Kat was busy catching up on chores and homework to be watching any TV.

All during this first episode, I noticed that Momoko was playing Dragonvale on her iPhone. That in and of itself is not unusual. But she had an avid interest in playing the Dragonvale races a whole lot. Those were fun when they first came out. Now they just seem like a distraction.

After the show I found out what was going on. Momoko had downloaded the latest version of the Dragonvale app. They added a new goal. You must put together some sort of shrine to summon a really special dragon. You get pieces of this shrine by winning at the races. Figures.

I was pleased that that also increased the maximum level you can reach in the game. Momoko and I have been stuck on level 35, which used to be the maximum level. That meant all the experience we were earning was being wasted. Now we can start climbing the levels again.

Patch Inspection

Little Kat has been prescibed some medication to help him concentrate at school. In prior years, he just took a pill. But it upset his stomach. So we switch to a patch that he can wear. It feeds him the drugs he needs to stay ADD-free. Momoko has to refill his patch prescription at a frequent pace. She normally goes to the drug store once a month.

Some of Little Kat's teachers have commented that he just does not seem focused. Then it hit Momoko. She has not bought any new patches since last March. The verdict? Little Kat is not wearing his patches. He gave some excuse about the patches causing bad side effect.

Deciding to not wear the patches is not something Little Kat is authorized to do. If he has some problems with the patch, he is supposed to alert Momoko. Then she will make a decision or consult the specialist who prescribed the patches. We informed Little Kat that he needed to be wearing his patches, and that we would be inspecting him randomly.

Today I sat ouside our front house. Got there a bit before Little Kat's bus arrives around the corner. I saw a couple boys from our street who normally ride the bus with Little Kat. I said hi to them. Eventually Little Kat came strolling around the corner.

I was playing my iPhone game, but keeping an eye on Little Kat as he arrived. I did not want him to try and sneak a patch on his body if he had not worn one today. Once he got inside, he showed me that he had his patch on his thigh. Now I got to think of another time to do a sneak inspection on his patch.

I Got This

During elementary and middle school, Momoko and I kept close tabs on Little Kat's homework. He was just not diligent enough to track it and get it done. So we stepped in and kept him accountable. It worked. The guy made it through school without failing.

Little Kat said he would take what he learned during middle school and take care of his homework in high school. His words were, "I got this." So we started Little Kat in high school without any oversight. Bad idea. Little Kat's English teacher sent Momoko an email this week. He had an assignment due two weeks ago. She never got it.

Little Kat claims he forgot about the assignment. And that he lost the assignment. But he did receive a replacement copy of the assignment. He just did not complete it. The teacher was reaching out to Momoko because Little Kat was in danger of failing English. Oh snap.

Momoko did an investigation. One of Little Kat's responsibilities was to write his homework done in the planner that we bought him. Upon inspection of the planner, Momoko found that he had not written down a single thing. Oh snap. Oh hell no.

Now Little Kat is going to get more oversight than he bargained for. And it is going to start with his English assignment. We just cannot accept failure because someone did not bother to do or turn in some work. Not in this household. Little Kat needs to get his act together. And he will be receiving a lot of guidance in that department.

Insidious Troubles

I was working until after 5pm in the basement today. When I came upstairs, I knew something was wrong. The dishes were piled up in the sink. Little Kat is supposed to wash the dishes as soon as he gets home. He gets home by 3pm every day. Then I checked the other tasks Little Kat is supposed to accomplish on his return home from school. Laundry was not done. Fail. Little Kat did say that he read his book for 20 minutes.

I got ahold of Little Kat's Kindle reader. He said he polished off three pages from the book. I read over the pages quickly. Then I spotted the word "insidious" in the text. When asked, Little Kat had no idea what that meant. I had him look up the definition in the dictionary. That turned out badly. The definition started out with "processing in a subtle way". Little Kat did not pronounce "processing" or "subtle" correctly. Oh boy.

I had Little Kat keep looking up the definitions of words. But the definitions contained words that Little Kat did not understand or pronounce. This included words such as delicate, treacherous, and deception. Eventually Little Kat was able to determine what insidious meant.

It is good if Little Kat does not understand some words from his book. That means he is trying to read a book at or above his reading level. However he can't just skip over the words in question. He needs to research them in the dictionary. Of course that will require some oversight to ensure he does the work. Yay. More work for me.

Busy Kit Kat

Kit Kat always has class late into the afternoon on Friday's. She eventually came home. But I was sick. I turned in early and did not see much of Kit Kat Friday evening. I did see Kit Kat briefly on Saturday morning. However she needed to drive Little Kat to a festival all day for his birthday.

Kit Kat came home for some planning Saturday evening. When planning was done, she went over to her friend's house to spend the night. Once again, Kit Kat checked in briefly this afternoon. She drove Little Kat for some quick shopping. Then she went to drive her friend to campus and visit her friend's college. She stayed out until late.

Once again Kit Kat came home for another meeting at home with the family. Now I will see her for an hour or two before she goes to bed. I thought we would see much more of Kit Kat on the weekends since she quit her weekend job. I am still waiting for that to happen.

Pound the Alarm

I had to fight traffic across town coming home from work today. Little Kat beat me home. Kit Kat stayed late at school. Momoko went out with the girls at work for happy hour. I had to man the door for Little Kat's friend to arrive to spend the night. Also had to watch Little Kat and his friend when Momoko went out shopping.

I decided to watch some YouTube videos to pass the time. Saw a Nikki Minaj video. Then I saw an ad for her Pound the Alarm video. This video and song were well produced. The backdrop for the video is Port of Spain, Trinidad. That did not surprise me. Nikki is from Trinidad herself. The music is very catchy. Sounds like something one would blast at the club so everyone is motivated to dance.

I tried to decipher the rap from beginning of the song. Nikki mentions that she is in Ibiza. Not sure what that has to do with Trinidad. Maybe both places cater to parties and the night life. Nikki also raps about her own line of Giuseppe Zannotti's shoes. Those shoes go for $500 to $1000. I get it. She is saying she is rich.

The main theme of the video are the Carnival parades in Port of Spain. All the girls except Nikki are skinny and hot. There are dudes dressed up in weird costume. Everyone really seems very happy. Good editing I guess.

The Mack Daddy

I first heard this story second hand from Momoko. Then I asked Kit Kat about it. She coroborated the story. Kit Kat was eating lunch by herself at school. Some dude pulls up a chair and tells Kit Kat that she was cute. The after lunch, he offers to walk her to class. Kit Kat heads to her car to pick up her art supplies. Then she heads to class with the dude in tow.

Somewhere on the route to class, the guy asks Kit Kat what the most sponteneous thing she has ever done. Kit Kat, being the ever conservative cat, did not have a good answer. Then the smooth operator tells Kit Kat that he thought it would be most sponteneous if they made out at 1:53pm. Kit Kat checks her watch. It is 1:52pm.

Now for the amazing part. Kit Kat agrees that would be spontaneous. And she kisses the guy. It was not a peck on the cheek either. Apparently they went at it. Eventually Kit Kat goes to class. The guy sends her a bunch of instant messages. He later asks whether Kit Kat is his girlfriend now.

Kit Kat was perplexed. Of course she is not his girlfriend. Dude then tries hard to set up a date on the weekend. Kit Kat turns him down. I guess the sheer confidence of the guy caught her off guard. But Romeo apparently is not the guy for Kit Kat. She has not heard from him since. He is probably getting spontenous with some other girls on campus.

Mission Fail

I gave Little Kat a directive a week or two ago. He was supposed to find the name and number of his case worker at school. Initially there were some excuses from Little Kat about not having enough time to do this job. I told him to make time. So he went to the front office.

Little Kat said he got the name of his case woker. But then he could not obtain the phone number. Later he was unsure whether the person whose name he received even worked at his school. I told him to get busy and find out the answer.

Little Kat returned to the main office a few times. He also wandered around the school looking for the classroom where his case worker or his case worker's boss was located. This resulted in failure.

Today Little Kat said his case worker came into his classroom and he got his number. But then Little Kat said the guy took back his phone number. All I got was an email address. So I emailed the guy and asked for a meeting. Little Kat needs to know how to get in touch with his case worker.

I tried to get Konner to learn how to obtain this information himself. But there comes a time when you need to step in, and that time is now.

The Avengers Cometh

I have been awaiting the release of two summer movie blockbusters to DVD - the Avengers and Battleship. Both released onto DVD today. I had these movies in my Netflix queue forever. Momoko also wanted to watch the Avengers. So she put the movie in her Netflix queue as well.

I normally watch my DVDs on Saturday. They movies go out in Monday's postal mail. Momoko watches her movies whenever. This past week she watched her movie and returned it in the mail on Saturday. This was a strategic return to hopefully time the release of Avengers and the shipping of the next movie in her Netflix queue.

Turns out Momoko was onto something. She got the Avengers. Netflix says they are delivering it to Momoko today. I was left out in the cold. Netflix now reports the Avengers as having a "long wait". In the mean time, I am scheduled to receive two B-movies tomorrow in the mail. What a fail.

If there is any consolation, a friend of mine told me she was buying the Avengers DVD from Amazon. She is going to loan me the DVD so my brother and I can watch it. Saved.