Delayed Open

Momoko and Little Kat's schools were opening two hours late this morning due to icy road conditions. They slept in a bit more because of this. Turns out Kit Kat's college also opened two hours late. This was on her first day of the semester. In college, if the school opens late, any class scheduled before the delayed openiung is cancelled. That happened to Kit Kat's first class.

Me I just walked down to the basement as usual for work today. At lunch, I spread some rock salt on the icy parts of the driveway. I also went to Lowes to pick up some more rock salt. I found some "ice melt" bags there. I asked a lady who worked at the store if they had any rock salt. She just pointed to the icy melt bags. So I picked up two small bags of it.

Momoko was supposed to pick us up some dinner tonight. However she worked late and was not feeling well. So Little Kat got on the horn and called in a Chinese food order for us. I drove to the restaurant to pick it up. Had to bring along Kit Kat to hold the food while I drive. Normally I just stuff the bags in my trunk. But my trunk handle is broken. That's okay. Kit Kat holding the bags works just as well.

Tomorrow I need to drive to the customer's office building. There is an in person meeting I must attend. Great. I just hope there are no more icy roads. I have to leave early in the morning to beat rush hour and get a spot in the visitor parking lot. The good news is that the cafeteria in the customer's building is pretty good. I plan to start the day off with an omlet cooked to order there. I can almost taste it already.

Hansel and Gretel

Momoko and the kids planned to see the movie Hansel and Gretel today. The plan was for everyone to do their work first. Then they would go to the movie in the afternoon. The kids went grocery shopping in the early afternoon. Strangely enough, I finished all my work early too.

I took a small nap. Then it was time to make a decision. I figured I would tag along. We hardly ever all get to do a dinner and a movie. We are all so busy. Kit Kat drove us to the mall with the good movie theater. We dropped Momoko off in front of the theater to get us tickets.

We drove up into the parking garage. The top level was roped off because they did not plow the snow. When we parked and met up with Momoko, she told us they cancelled our show. So we went to dinner first instead. Got some juicy bugers and sides at Fuddruckers. Afterwards we headed to an older movie theater.

There were a lot of cars in the old theater parking lot. We got tickets fine though. Momoko and I tried sitting in the front row. It was too close. We joined Little Kat and Kit Kat on top/back row before the movie started. The movie was an hour and a half long. I agree with the other fans. This movie was hot. Glad we went.

Snow Again

It snowed again here. They said it would be another dusting. But it felt like more snow than last time. Luckily I had some salt spread down on the driveway. It must have melted some of the snow. That was a good start.

I slept in today. Woke up a bit hungry. Momoko was going to send the kids to pick up Chinese for us. I went out and started shoveling the driveway. First order of business was to clear a path for Kit Kat's car. Because if she drove over the snow in the driveway, it would be harder to remove.

I finished the path for the car as Kit Kat and Litle Kat came out. They left. Then I moved the truck under the carport, and blocked it in with Momoko's car. Had to clear a space for my bro to park when he visits me today.

It was harder clearing the snow where my truck had been. There was still snow left over from the past storm. I got the job done. Then I went back to our big shed to get some bags of salt to lay down. I shoveled the ramp that leads up to the shed. It was slippery though.

The driveway is looking good. Let's hope it stays that way. It is so cold out there.

Dusting of Snow

Momoko woke me up this morning, saying that she and Little Kat had a two hour delay for school. I peeked outside the window and saw snow on the ground. Eventually I got up and got to work. At lunch I surveyed the snow. It was on my car. It also covered the whole driveway.

I figured this was time to test out the snow blower I bought. First I had to figure out how to start the thing. You need to push in the secret key, press the start button, and pull up the safety bar. The machine does not start if you do not follow that order.

This is an electric snow blower. It was hard to manage the extension cord behind the machine. The cord kept getting unplugged. I had to worry about running over the cord when I pulled the machine backwards.

There were some other difficulties. The machine does not throw the snow far. So I had to go over some areas multiple times as the blower recovered areas already clean with new snow. The blower tube got clogged a couple times as well.

I finished up the driveway with a heavy shovel. That was harder than using the snow blower. But not much more difficult. Perhaps I will get a better understanding of the benefits of the blower when we have deeper snow.

After clearing most of the driveway, I cleared off my car. I tried to open the hash back to access the snow scraper in the back of the car. My handle came off the hactch back. Fail. Guess I need to visit the dealership to get this repaired.

Late Night Frosty Run

Kit Kat spent the afternoon at her friend's house. Little Kat tried to cook us some dinner. He found the only cheese in the house went bad. So Kit Kat had to make a dash to the grocery store. Then she went back over to ther friend house. Eventually Kit Kat came home.

Momoko wanted some dessert. She decided a frosty from Wendy's would be best. Kit Kat did not want to drive there. I figured Momoko deserved a nice dessert, having worked a long day. So Kit Kat and I drove to Wendy's. Kit Kat decided the store with the best chance of still having chocolate frosties was the one off the highway.

We took Momoko's car because it has seat warmers. The car heated up too quickly, and I was hot because I had my heavy leather jacket on. The on ramp to the highway had a stop sign at the end. There was construction on the highway. I punched it and made it onto the major highway.

At Wendy's we found a long drive through line. I was a bit disturbed when I saw their value menu "double stack" burger cost a whopping $3.77. Kit Kat bought me one of those earlier this week. That now seems like a rip off. What kind of value menu item costs more than a buck or two?

This Wendy's had chocolate frosties. On the way home, Kit Kat and I saw a bunch of police cars on the opposite side of the highway. We must have missed a huge accident by about 20 minutes. At home, we all enjoyed delicious frosties.

MLK Day

Momoko and the kids were off for Martin Luther King holiday. Unfortunately I had to go to work. Well I just went down into the basement. But I worked a full day. Sometimes during government holidays I can take it easy, even though I am supposed to work. Not this time around. I actually had a lot of work to complte on Monday.

The kids had scheduled to go grocery shopping since they postponed their Sunday shopping work. They also planned to do some family cleaning a day earlier than normal. Their cleaning task was to take down the remaining Christmas items. There were lights outside on the rain gutter and in the bushes. There was also a Christmas tree and train tracks to put away.

Basically the kids had a lot of work to do. Since I was the only one who had work, I was the only one who woke up in the morning. Momoko said she woke up before noon. However I did not see her until the afternoon. The kids took their time doing their jobs. They were still working on them when I finished work for the day.

Momoko said if the kids could finish their work, she would take them to the movie. The kids did not understand that they needed to get their work done before the evening. Momoko was not going to the movies at night on a school night. Oh well. Better luck next time kids.

Party Rocking

Kit Kat is trying to reconnect with all her friends before they returns to their school dorns for Spring semester. Momoko and I would like her to stay home with us. However we know she needs to hang out with her friends too. Kit Kat scheduled a party at our house tonight. She only invited her closest friends. They still filled up our driveway with cars, and made a lot of noise in the basement.

I am always suspicious that Kit Kat's friends will drink up my good soda. Kit Kat buys them separate soda to drink. But I have found that they get into my stash from time to time. This time around I hid the good drink in my study. That will deter them.

The only thing that protects us from too much madness is that I always kick the boys out at midnight. I usually wait for 5 to 10 minutes after midnight to see if Kit Kat is keeping time. She never does. So I go down and tell her to send the boys home.

Now that it is 12:45 am, all the boys have been driven home. The slackers either do not have cars, or don't have driver's licenses. So the girls escorted the guys to their homes. Now it is just the girls. Things seem more quiet now.

I think all the girls are going to spend the night. Usually they stay up all night. But they watch movies or something. That will work for me. Tomorrow morning, when they have all gone home, I will put my precious sodas back in the fridge.

The Return of Kit Kat

This morning I found out the big boss at work is requiring us to travel to the customer's site for two weeks. This is local travel. So I come home every night. However the customer's site is not optimal. It is hard to get parking there. And I have to fight rush hour traffic to and from the customer's building. On top of that, the big boss said we need to work nine hours days for two weeks.

Well if I am going to be jammed up for two weeks working extra hours, I figured there was no reason for me to put in a full day at work today. I told my boss I needed to bolt at noon. I went up to my college to take care of business like renewing my school ID and purchasing my textbooks.

I came home at it was almost 3pm. Kit Kat is scheduled to arrive home tomorrow. So I called her up. She was still in bed. I forgot. She sleeps in until 3pm each day. Kit Kat confirmed that she is flying back home tomorrow night. The family is scheduled to meet Kit Kat at the airport at night.

Tomorrow is going to be a bit tricky for me. I got to go into work to my home office. Then I have a few meetings. I need to return home to pick up Momoko and Little Kat. I will drive them to the airport to retrieve Kit Kat. Oh what a life.

Life on Hold

It seems our family's life in on hold due to Little Kat's school work. Well he has been sick for the last few days. He stayed home from school yesterday and today. When Little Kat is sick, he does not cook for us. That means Momoko and I need to figure out dinner.

Sundays we have a family meeting night to go over issues from the week. It had to get cancelled this week because Little Kat had to much work to do. We are supposed to read a book together as a family each night. It is only a few minutes of reading. But that is on hold indefinitely. Little Kat must spend that time doing homework.

The family does an hour of cleaning once a week on Tuesday nights. I was the only one doing cleaning tonight. Little Kat is busy putting together this science fair project. and Momoko is worn out from running science fair at her school.

The school quarter ends this week. One would think that would be the end of hte homework rush. However Little Kat is already behind on history for the next quarter. There is no end to this scene. Who knew high school was so disruptive to family life.

I had it good when I was in high school. Mom was a stay at home mom. She cooked for us. I think she did a lot of general cleaning in the house too. My brother and I were responsible for a few chores that could usually wait for the weekend. Oh yeah, we had to get good grades too.

The Sleep Over

Little Kat was scheduled to sleep over his friend's house on Friday night. Mommoko said she would be working late. So she asked me to remind Little Kat to complte his chores before going to his friend's house. I heard Little Kat come home from school on time. 30 minutes later, I had not seen the boy. I informed him that he needed to finish up his chores. He came down a bit later and said he was done.

I had Little Kat bring me his chore list. There was laundry on the list. I know he did not do his laundry. He told me he thought he could skip that because it took so long. I had him call Momoko to confirm. Then Little Kat was dismissed. He planned to get a ride from his friend. Momoko and I were too busy to drive him anywhere. I continued on with my work from home.

I heard somebody banging on the side door. At first I thought it might be a delivery guy. They usually drop a package off and knock in the door. I came upstairs to find Little Kat's friend knocking on the door. That was strange. I thought Little Kat had left already. I invited the friend in. We went looking for Little Kat, and found him playing with the gerbils. Slacker cannot even open the door when his friend visits.

Momoko eventually came home and we went out for a really late dinner. She called up Little Kat to make sure he would come home the next day in time to conduct his science fair experiment. Little Kat agreed to be prompt.

Off Task

Little Kat has his big English paper due tomorrow. Momoko already knew she was going to work late this afternoon. So she asked me to make sure that Little Kat got straight to work when he came home. I kept an ear out. Little Kat came home on time. However 45 minutes later, I had not seen the boy.

I came upstairs looking for Little Kat. He was in the living room with all the lights out. I asked what the heck he was doing. He said he was eating a snack. I knew we were in trouble. I reminded him that he needed to show significant progress on his English paper before Momoko came home.

Little Kat was not going to have time to cook. Therefore I was scheduled to pick up some Popeye's chicken for dinner. I knew as soon as I left that Little Kat would be slacking off. So I told him to stop snacking and start working. I delivered dinner on time. That was good because Momoko was too busy at work for a real lunch.

After dinner, I had to take a nap. Luckily Momoko was ready to take over to monitor Little Kat. He got his paper done in time. But not without a lot of prodding from Momoko and I. This is a massive improvement over last quarter, where Little Kat did not turn in his major paper and hoped it would blow over.

Gerbil Balls

Our gerbil pets live in cages that are about 1 foot high, 1 foot deep, and 2 feet wide. That gives them some room to run around. However they need some more exercise and diversity once in a while. Normally the kids jump at the opportunity to take the gerbils out of their cages. However Kit Kat is visiting her dad. And Little Kat is busy with homework.

The gerbils should not have to suffer because the kids are tied up. Momoko is too tired to deal with the gerbils. So Black Kat must come to the rescue. Kit Kat had pruchased gerbil balls for each of the gerbils. These balls are bigger than a soft ball, but a bit smaller than a kick ball. They have vents to let the gerbils breathe. They have a removable top to put the gerbils into the balls.

I start by blocking off the exits of the living rooms with some blankets. Don't want the gerbils getting lost in the house (or falling down the steps). Then I pick the gerbils up by their tails, one by one, and put them in the balls. Some of the most active gerbils love this and run around in the balls like crazy. There is plenty of room on the living room floor for them to go.

Initially my favorite gerbil would not run in the ball. However she is coming around, and even makes the trek across the entire living room using the ball. We still have one gerbil who does not move much. She seems to have trouble figuring out how to get the ball to move. She really only has to walk in a free direction. But her instinct is to jump up in the air, causing her to hit her head on the top of the ball.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Last Friday, Little Kat got an assignment to read the remainder of To Kill a Mockingbird by Monday. So far, the class had read up to chapter 13 in class. There are a total of 30 chapters in the book. There is no way Little Kat can read that many chapters in a weekend. Momoko's plan was for Little Kat to hear the books on tape. Well, he found the book being read aloud on YouTube.

Little Kat took forever to listen to a few chapters on YouTube. At that rate, he was still never going to finish the book on time. Momoko thought Little Kat could watch the movie instead. I could not find the movie on Netflix. Momoko could not find the movie on demand from cable. She did see the movie on iTunes.

I am using Momoko's large iPad. So I was tasked with renting the movie using iTunes. It costs $3.99 for a one day rental. It took many hours to download the thing. Luckily, Momoko started the download a day before Little Kat planned to watch the movie. It completed downloading overnight.

Little Kat spent 2 hours watching the movie. He could tell there were some differences between the book and movie. There must have been. The movie must be very condensed. Now Little Kat needs to write a complex paper on characters from the movie. Good luck to him!

Overwhelmed

Little Kat came home Friday afternoon and reported that he had a lot of homework. I told him to sit down next to my in my study and get to work. I had to go out to dinner with a friend of mine. So I left Little Kat there working a few hours later.

The next morning, I woke up late and found I was the first up. I woke Momoko up, and she got Little Kat. We had planned to go to lunch together. So we dined at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Later that night, Momoko said we needed to have an emergency discussion about Little Kat's lack of progress.

The family went through Little Kat's list of tasks. He was behind. Apparently he was getting distracted on non-essential tasks. We had him work a few more hours. Then he was to wake up early the next day to get to work.

All this weekend we decided to purchase take out to make sure Little Kat did not spend hours cooking for us. This will continue througout the week. Next I will have to help Little Kat with his science fair project. He has wood that needs to be chopped up. I can add another arm sawing the wood. Momoko usually brings Little Kat along on her shopping trips. Now she must forge ahead alone.

One thing is for sure. Without Momoko and I pitching in, keeping Little Kat on task, forcing him to continue working, none of his work would get done. We got a long way to go before Little Kat is self sufficient.

Happy New Year

Momoko and Little Kat did the shopping for New Year's Eve snacks. They got some Ruffle chips with dip. They also bought a lot of veggies to dip as well. Initially there were some nasty vegetables. But I liked the cucumbers. Later they picked up some celery too.

The big hit in my mind was the queso. We got some good corn chips. Momoko had purchased this dip heater on Black Friday. Now the queso is piping hot every time I put a chip in. Delicious. Momoko and Little Kat went crazy with other cheese purchases. We had like 5 or 6 varieties of cheese. We also had some tasty pepperoni.

I watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for some of the evening. Little Kat was downstairs playing Xbox 360 games. Momoko wanted the family to be together though. So we read some more of our new family book The Alchemist. Then we got back into Wii Mario Brothers. In that game we conquered the first level.