Heavy Lifting

Kit Kat and I woke up at an early 8:00am this morning. We drove down the local Home Depot in search of day laborers. We found a bunch of guys standing by the street at the edge of the parking lot. I planned to drive right up to them. But they were too close to the road. We parked in the parking lot and walked up to them. They were definitely looking for work.

I explained the small job we had. I said we needed two strong guys to lift two pieces of furniture. My initial offer was $20 for each person. The guy who seemed like the leader said that three of them worked as a team. He inquired whether the third guy could work too. I said they could bring any number of people. But they would all have to split the $40 total I was willing to pay.

The guy discussed the offer. They were speaking in another language. I could tell that they were trying to figure if it was worth their while. They ended up accepting. Two of themm followed us in their own car. At home, I led them to the basement. Showed them the love seat. Walked them up out the back steps to the side entrance where I wanted them to move the furniture. Then I left Kit Kat with them.

I raced upstairs to prepare my rolltop desk for moving. Pulled out all the drawers. Took everything off the top and inside of the desk. It took the guys a while to move the love seat. They had to compress the cushions to get it out the back door. Then they lifted the desk to bring it down the stairs. They had trouble around the corners becuase of its size. I could hear them groaning because of the weight.

They also had trouble at the foot of the stairs on the main level. They had to lift the desk in the air to get it over the banister. Then I noticed I left one drawer in the desk. I apologized and pulled it out as they continued to move the thing. They got it down the stairs and into my new study. The boys were strong. But they were winded. It took a minute or two for them to catch their breath.

I paid them both a crisp $20 bill. They asked if I could give them an extra $5 for gas and the friend they left behind. I gave them a $10 spot for all the hard work they did. Before we met, Kit Kat and I decided that we could go as high as $100 total for this short but strenuous job. That's how much pain we figured it was worth to us. In retrospect, Kit Kat and I could have never brought the desk down the stairs. It was just too big and heavy.

The guys said they do painting and drywall as well. I told them we might be meeting again in the future for some more work. Normally I use a handyman I know and trust to do my drywall and paint work. But if I could verify that these boys could do as good a job for less money, maybe I should give them a try. They did kill themselves to move our furniture.

Day Laborers

We are in the middle of some furniture adjustments in the house. I still need to fully move into my study downstairs. We are repurposing our computer room on the main level to be a library. So a heavy desk needs to be moved into the basement. And a love seat needs to come up from the basement.

Normally Kit Kat and I do all the heavy lifting in the family because we are the most able. This time around, I thought we could try to hire somebody to carry the furniture. I want to keep costs reasonable. So I decided to maybe use some day laborers to do the job. I have seen them hanging around outside Home Depot. I told Kit Kat she would have to come with me to get them.

Today Kit Kat slept in late. Her graduation cermony yesterday wiped her out. The family went out to eat breakfast without her. After breakfast, Momoko needed Kit Kat to go with her to the bank. They also visited the school. By the time Kit Kat came back to get me, it was mid adternoon.

Kit Kat and I took a ride to Home Depot. There were no laborers in sight. We decided to pick up a few items at Home Depot so the trip would not be a total waste. I tried to find some nice flowers but failed. I did pick up some ant killer, as well as some top soil. A dude a the store was impressed with my confidence in ant killer choice. He followed suit and bought the brand I was loading up on.

Outside at the car, a Home Depot employee came to help us load up. He asked if everything went well. I told him we did not find the flowers we needed. He said I should have asked an employee to help with the flower selection. I did not waste any time informing him that we surveyed all the flower they have, and found them all lacking.

I told Kit Kat we would have to move the furniture outselves. She requested we try the day laborers tomorrow. After a short conference with Momoko, we decided to wake up early to get some help in the morning.

Fried Pickles

The family ate bagels for breakfast this morning. It left us hungry at lunch time. We wanted to go to our favorite mexican restaurant. However it was closed for the holidays. Instead I decided we should visit this chili joint that Momko likes. They serve up chili mac. The real reason we like it is that they have fried pickle appetizers.

To start, Little Kat and I tried to order Doctor Pepper. The dude who took our drinks said they only had home brewed root beer. Later we felt ripped off as we found there was no free refills for root beer. They did bring out the fried pickles quickly. They disappeared and we had to order another round of them. We learned also that you could order chili mac with different kinds of chili split up on your plate.

There were some other things that were disappoint in addition to the single glass root beer. Momoko had to ask them for some corn bread. Pop pop did not get any corn bread himself. His meal was also lacking in corn chips (frito chili pie). They did not keep our drinks filled. Service was not awful. But it was not good either. The waitress got a little more than a 10 percent tip. We were generous at that.

Kit Kat drove half of the family home. Momoko and I went back to the college to spy the site where Kit Kat graduates tomorrow. We identified the way to get to handicapped access for a drop off. We also surveyed the distant parking lots where I will park the car. Then we sped home to find that Kit Kat left us to swim with her friends at the local pool. Little Kat wanted to go, but he had too much work to do. I took a nap. Later I found that Little Kat did the same.

Printer Power

I took over the guest bedroom downstairs as my new study. I needed it because I work from home most of the time now. This allowed Momoko to take over the study upstairs that initially mine, then shared by us, and now is becoming hers. There is one problem working up in that study. You got to walk all the way downstairs to pick up your printouts on the printer.

Momoko asked if she could have a peronal printer up there in her study. That sounded reasonable. I looked around. But I could not find our current printer on sale anywhere. The retail price is too high for just giving Momoko her own computer. So I was about to shut down the idea of a second printer.

I did find a newer model printer deeply discounted online. The only trouble was that it takes different toner. I wanted to have the same printer so we could just stock one time of printer toner. We go through toner quite frequently. In the end, we bought the newer printer. It has the benefit of being a copier and scanner as well.

I had quite a chore unpacking and setting up the new printer. Everything was taped down initially when they shipped it to me. I had to install some software on my computer to set up the printer to work wirelessly. The install of that software took forever. I was happy when I verified I could make copies and scan documents with the printer.

Now I had to order some replacement toner for the new printer. The original toner cartridges from the manufacturer cost almost as much as the printer. So I am going to start by trying a knock off branch of toner. Let's hope it works.

Cheap Drinks

McDonalds has had a promotion this past month. You can get a large soft drink for a dollar. No coupon is required. I have been loving it. Normally large drinks go for $1.79. The promotion was set to expire tomorrow. This was a crazy day at work. Did not have much time for lunch. So I decided to head to McDonalds.

I noticed that the big sign showing the one dollar drinks was gone. Sure enough the large drinks went back to original price. Luckily I had been saving some free drinks coupons for when the sale ended. I pulled out my coupon and got one on the house. The funny thing is that I still believe McDonalds is making money off me. Pay a few bucks for a burger. Add some fries. They make money in the end whether or not you pay for the drink.

When I got home, the first thing I did was cut another free drink coupon and put it in my wallet. McDonald's is doing good here for themselves. They provide the discounted or free drinks with coupons. Now when I need a quick burger, I go straight to McDonald's. I truly cannot remember the last time I went to Burger King or Wendy's. No wonder McDonald's owns 90% of the fast food burger market.

Fed Ex Fail

I have been busy with work this month. My team lead was on vacation for a few weeks. I took over his job when he was gone. We also have a big software delivery due at the end of the month. It is extra tough since I am taking the last week off from work for Kit Kat's graduation. Today I had to make some copies of forms I needed to send in to the main office. Since I work at home, I headed over to Fed-Ex to make the copies.

I also had to make a copy of our new shed permit. One of the pages was a larger size paper. So I asked for some help. The guy came over and got me started on the copier, but left before he could show me how to choose the larger paper. He said he would be right back. He lied. That's okay. I figured it out on my own.

The Fed-Ex employee returned and said I could copy a bunch of other paper using the automatic feeder. I said I wanted to separate one page that I needed double sided. He said the copier could handle that. That seemed odd. I put the paper stack in the feeder along with the one double sided page. Maybe this guy knew a trick to make the last sheet go double sided. Nope. He made the copier do my whole stack double sided. I get charged for each side that gets copied. He just doubled my cost for the run.

Normally I would complain and get a schmuck like this to reverse the charges due to his error. Instead I just told him to reset the copier to single sided mode. He struggled with that. Then I told him, "I got this." And I shooed him away. Luckily I did not have a huge stack of papers. I finished up my copying and went on my way to do some shopping at Home Depot. They say it is hard to get good help these days. This is the truth.

Did I mention that we got a permit for our huge shed? The county requires some extra support for the roof that will raise the cost. That's okay. The shed vendor needs special anchors placed on my concrete slab. That is driving up the cost a bit too. I think these cost overruns are within my budget. We all can't wait until this shed is installed and ready for use. It is going to be this summer. Finally.

Lawn Maintenance

I am very busy with work on the weekdays. Don't get a chance to do any yard work Monday through Friday. Saturday is my rest day. If any yard work is to be done, it must happen on Sunday. We got a late start yesterday. Then we held our weekly family meeting. It was 4pm before I got outside to do any work.

I was busy the past Sunday. So the tasks had piled up. I cut the grass in our front yard. Did the whole nine yards. Weed wacked the edges. Used the leaf blower to blow away clippings. Then I headed to the back yard. Had to pick up a bunch of branches and sticks that fell down. Then I cut the entire lawn. It was getting a little high. Finished up trying to move the dreaded steep hill. Only got a part of the way down. My right boot is broke down (shoelace is toast). So I don't have traction to work the hill.

Instead I went to the bottom of the hill and worked my way up with the weed wacker. It was still tough work. Easier than doing it with the lawn mower. What makes it harder is that the new lawn mower broke down. That is the lighter one. I have been forced to use the old heavy duty (and heavy) lawn mower for mowing. After mowing I tried to clean out the trash can. We put a dead goldfish in the trash, and it made the can stink.

After all this work, I was ready to pass out. It only lasted 3 or 4 hours. But it was hard work. I was scheduled to move some furniture with Kit Kat too. That just had to be postponed. Even after a short nap, I did not have the energy for moving furniture. Besides, my joints hurt. I only mowed the lawn. But I was broken. I even felt a small fever coming on me. I knew what to do. Get to bed and let the body recouperate.

There will be other times this week to move furniture. I might even hire some day laborers to come in and move the furniture for us. I am sure Kit Kat will be down with that plan.

Grad Prep

Kit Kat has her graduation cermony in 10 days. The thing is too big to hold at her school. So they are being held at the state college. I told the family we needed to make a dry run to the college today to scope it out.

Momoko printed out some directions from the web. As we got close to the college, there were signs for "event parking". We also saw a sign that informed us to "park in lots." That gave us a chuckle since it sounds like "parking lots." We parked in the main lot for the building where Kit Kat graduates. Then we searched for some visitor parking. We found some, but it was halfway across the campus. Did I mention that this was a huge campus?

We drove back to the main parking lot. Then Kit Kat, Little Kat, and I got outside and scoped out the building. Momoko stayed in the car to ensure we did not get a parking ticket. You need a permit to park in this close lot. The building was massive. I looked for a spot where the whole family could meet on the day of graduation.

We circled the building. On the South side we had to climb a difficult incline. It took a while to cicle the building. Then the sidewalk ended at what seemed to be a large drop. There was no way we were going to turn around. Little Kat found a path/road leading down to the parking lot where Momoko was parked. Good thing Momoko kept the air conditioning runningin the car. It was really hot outside.

Final Exam

Today is the last day of classes for the spring semester. I only take one class per semester. There is no time for two classes at once. Today was our final exam. I warned everyone at work that I would be leaving early. Can't miss that final.

After work, I had to take out the trash. Something was smelling funny. While I was doing that, I decided to wrap up some of the larger trash items we put aside. The family snuck out to eat some sushi while I was doing this. The time crept by, and I ended up leaving for college at my regular time. Of course traffic was bad on the roads. That's why I leave a full hour before class starts.

At school, my computer took a long time to boot up. That was a bit disturbing since the final is taken on the computer. That was not as bad as the dude in the front row. His monitor kept going blank. I bet that unnerved him. I raced through the multiple choice. Then I had to write a couple programs. We had a lot of choices. I did not take the easy way out by picking the easy programs.

I made sure I paced myself. The first program took up a lot of time. Luckily I wrapped everything up half way through class. I did one last test of my programs and found the second one I wrote did not work. Ooops. I overwrote the file. That was okay. I pretty much rewrote the thing from memory. Afterwards I treated myself to a large Doctor Pepper at McDonald's for a job well done.

Boss is Away

The guy that leads my team has never taken a vacation. This is not healthy. I encouraged him to take some time off. He was losing vacation that he did not take. He took me up on my offer. There was only one caveat. While the boss was away, I had to do his job.

I know how to lead a team. I just don't like doing it. Had to attend a lot of meetings. Needed to collect and report status. Interfaced with other teams. You know the drill. This lasted for the last two weeks. There was not much time to do my own job. I tried hard and maybe did about half of my job during this time. And I did about half of my boss' job.

Now the boss is back. He is refreshed. That is a great thing. I was looking forward to going back to my normal job which I love. There were a few problems though. The team leader is scheduled to attend jury duty. Let's hope he does not get chosen to sit for a long case. And the big boss was really happy with me taking the lead. He has visions of my continuing a leadership role in some capacity.

What's a guy to do? I don't want to be a slacker and screw up so I get demoted out of a lead position. But I also hate doing team lead duties. We shall see what I can negotiate.

Lawn Burn

I recently went to the hardware store to pick up some supplies with Little Kat. While there, I purchased a couple bags of fertilizer. Never used the stuff before. Thought I would give it a try. I bought bags from different manufacturers. Then I spread the stuff over our front and back lawn on one side.

Nothing happened for the first few days. Then disaster struck. Every place where I spread the fertilizer turned brown. What the heck? At first I thought maybe the grass would suffer and then come back strong. Nope. I must have overfertilized, spread it during the wrong season, and not watered the grass properly. Now the lawn is doomed.

I am not down for the count. I might just replace the burnt grass with sod. Or I could go back to the seeds and grow the lawn from scratch. It is a shame because I spread the fertilizer over some of our best new grass. I actually might as well wait a while before replanting the grass. I am having a lot of work done to get our new shed. That work will probably kill off the grass anyway.

Jammed up in the Morning

My company required me to attend an in-person meeting early in the morning at headquarters. I don't like going there because I have to drive across town. That means there is a lot of bad traffic to deal with. Normally I just wake up in the early AM hours and get to work before the sun rises. However I have been studying every night for my college class. I need my sleep. I decided to go in early instead of super early.

I woke up this morning and jumped into the car. I figured I had time to stop by McDonald's. Used a coupon to get a free drink. Nice. Also ate a breakfast sandwich off the dollar menu. I love saving money like that. McDonald's had quick service. I sped through the yellow lights to get on the highway. Things started out good. Then I hit some traffic.
What the heck? It was still so very early. Must have been an accident. They were calling for rain. But the rain did not start yet. Sometimes you just get unlucky. Good thing for me that I started out early. Still made it to the office around an hour before my meeting. It took a while to find the conference room where we were to meet. I plugged in my computer and read some email. Then I browsed the web. Another early riser came in and we started talking. Others wandered in as well.

After the first meeting, I had another all day meeting to attend. Me and a few other dialed into this meeting. They had a conference call going on. This lasted up until our lunch break. I decided to bolt of our headquarters and drive home for lunch. This got me across town and home while traffic was still light. If I stayed at headquarters until rush hour, I would spend a few hours driving home in the rain. No fun at all.

I even had a few minutes on the drive home to stop by McDonald's again to use a coupon to get lunch. As the conference call reconvened, I chowed down my food and enjoyed my drink. This is the way to live. I actually planned to be out of the office for this meeting all day. So I signed up another member of my team to cover for me all day. Smart thinking. My backup had to deal with all the emergencies going on at the job site.

The Earth is Shaking

I am moving forward with operation New Shed. I have asked my handyman to go to the county to get a permit for my new shed. The old shed is an 8x10 foot metal one. The roof is very low. The new shed will be a mammoth 10x20 feet, with a minimum 7 foot wall (and ceiling). The apex of the ceiling will be much higher than 7 feet because of the gambrel style room. In other words, the roof will look like a barn roof.

There were some bushes and a large white oak tree next to the existing shed. The new shed will be greatly expanded. The tree and bushes had to go. I checked the Better Business Bureau to see what tree cutters have a good history. The answer was not many. The top guy recommded by the BBB asked $1100 to cut down the tree, remove the bushes, grind the stump, and haul off the tree. That's too much money. The next BBB approved guy said he would do the whole job for $750. I bet I could find someone cheaper. But I wanted someone who I thought would do a good job. I hired this second tree cutter on the spot.

Initially I set an appointment for noon for the tree work. But the company called and said they could come by earlier. I said come on. I set my alarm to wake up early. They called at 7am and were here before 7:30am. The guys climbed the tree and used a chain saw to cut off the branches. I spied on the boys hauling the branches to their wood chipper. Those were some huge branches. Then finally they started cutting the tree itself after an hour or two. I got a call from work and had to take it. During the call I heard a big boom and felt the house shaking.

I jumped off the call to see what the heck happened. I assumed the tree fell down and smashed the house. Nope. This was just the last portion of the tree that they cut and let fall. The thing was so heavy it shook the whole area violently. It also made a big indentation on my lawn. No worries. This shed is high priority for me. I needed the trees gone. The grass can be repaired.

Paint Colors

Kit Kat was supposed to divide a new gerbil cage I bought in half. The big cage has been divided already. But the small gerbils can get over the mesh wire divide. It is too difficult to secure the mesh in the big cage because of the large exposed area. So I bought a new smaller cage. Kit Kat said she had no mesh wire. I figured we needed these gerbils in a single cage separated by wire. Therefore Little Kat and I went shopping.
Previously I had helped Little Kat move some furniture out of his room. We are planning to paint his walls and put new carpet in. Plus we are going to buy him some new furniture. While moving out the old furniture, I told Little Kat to put on his gloves. He said he lost of of his gloves. Fail. Well I guess we could buy him some work gloves again. I put that on our list as well.
We went to the local home improvement store. Got the mesh. Then we got the gloves. I had a long list of items to buy myself. Finally we went to the paint aisle. Little Kat knew he wanted to paint his walls green. But there were around 50 different shades of green on display. I had him choose his top three. He picked out four and we went home to show Momoko. She immediately dismissed two of the colors as being too dark. Of the remaining two, Little Kat chose the Honeydew color.
Now we just need to pick out a new carpet color for Little Kat's room. We could just choose the same color as our hallway carpet. That's what Momoko and I have in our bedroom. But since we are buying new carpet, and it is Little Kat's room, we might let him make the choice.

Trees and Grass

I need to get the back yard ready for our new shed. There is a big tree in the way, as well as some shrubs. I looked through the yellow pages for a tree cutter. There were many. However there were only two that were known by the Better Business Bureau.

The first guy said it would cost $1100 to remove the tree and bushes, and grind the tree stump. That sounded high. When the second guy quoted me $750, I hired him on the spot. They come next week. I had been very busy at work this past week. Did not have time to cut the grass. Today I decided would be the day. I had to work late, but there was still sunlight out when I finished work.

After cutting the front yard, the lawn mower ran out of gas. I filled it with the remaining gas I had in my can. Then the mower would not start. Fail. I did have one older lawn mower in the shed. It started immediately. I had to try to dump the gas out of the first mower to fill the second. Still ended up riding to the gas station to fill my can.

Celice by Delta

The kids previously painted the bathroom in our master bedroom. They took off the towel racks so avoid getting paint on them. While doing so, they lost some screws down the air vent. Now Momoko's towel rack will not stay connected to the wall. I figured it was time to get some new bathroom accessories.

Momoko and I went to her favorite store. They had a variety of choices. I wanted a satin nickel finish. There was only one variety of towel rack there in satin finish. Momoko thought it would not dry the towels well. She did find the Celice series of brushed nickel accessories from Delta. We picked up them all. That includes towel racks, toilet paper holder, bathrobe hooks, and so on.

We tried to bribe Little Kat to install all the hardware in our bathroom. He was wise to our plan. He knew it would be a hard job. He said no even though he might have earned a lot of money. Momoko and I proceeded to try the install. The base metal is screwed into the wall with some anchors to hold it. The towel racks and other accesories slide into place onto the base. This is just a poor design. It does not seem to secure the rack well. Oh well. At least Momoko has a double towel rack to herself. And we have this fancy toilet paper holder that rotates up to change rolls.