The Return of Roys

The opened up a Roy Rogers restaurant in a new shopping center by our house. I planned to visit immediately. But the thing seems to always be crowded. Today I finally decided to charge in. I went during lunch rush hour. The place was busy. By the time I finished my lunch, people were waiting to find a table to sit down at.

Now there used to be a lot of Roy Rogers restaurants around the area. Then I thought they went out of business. Perhaps they did. But they are back. Just not in full force. This is a burger joint, kind of like McDonald's or Burger King. They also serve chicken.

There are two reasons why I love Roys. They have a "fixins" bar where you can put all kinds of toppings on your burger. And they have the best tangy BBQ sauce. I found both of these options to be intact in the new Roys. I will be returning. Roys also holds a special place in my heart because they were on and near the campus where I went to college. Ahh good times.

Ghost Town

Today I woke up very tired. Slept 30 minutes past the alarm. Ouch. When I did wake up, I had to go straight to work without a shower. Luckily that just means I head down to the basement and log on. My boss had some emergency in the morning. Me and another senior guy figured it all out. That was a good start. Then I got some hard core coding done.

Pleased with myself, I took a shower at lunch time. By then it was getting to be the lunch rush hour time. I could not go to Arbys. The lines would be too long. Subway would probably be a madhouse too. I decided to give Dominos a try. I placed my order online for some wings and bread bites. Their chicken is delicious.

Now on the weekends, Dominos is very crowded. They are slow to fill your order on the weekends too. Today was a different story. I pulled into an empty parking lot. The front door of the stoor was open. But there was nobody there. I stood there in front of the bullet-proof glass for a while. I figured the lone dude in the store must have been taking a break.

I noticed a receipt on the glass at the bullet-proof glass window. I figured somebody must have left it behind. Finally I heard a voice say that he would be right with me. Eventually the guy came out. He told me to sign the receipt on the glass. LOL. He had been waiting for me. The food was already cooked and on the shelf for me to pick up. Looks like I made the right choice today.

Work to be Done

The family woke up around noon today. Momoko and Little Kat went to pick up some Chinese food. I moved my truck out of the carport so Momoko could park there. These days I move my truck to create a space in our driveway for my brother to park when he visits.

After lunch, Kit Kat started to wake up. She got ready to go grocery shopping with Little Kat. I went upstairs to take a nap. Little Kat put our new carpet cleaner together. He left a mess of boxes in our library. However the new carpet cleaner was ready. Little Kat had been putting off his carpet cleaning work because our old machine broke down. No more excuses.

I had a bunch of work to do. Had to pay the bills and do my laundry. That includes changes the sheets on our bed. And I needed to do a lot of studying for my college class. It was all so overwhelming. Therefore I slept for a few hours. When I woke up, I went outside to put the flowers my mom had bought me into the flower boxes on our shed.

Little Kat made a chicken pot pie I found hard to eat. It was all vegetables inside. Afterwards we had our mandatory family meeting. Then I got to work on laundry and homework. There was a part of the homework that I found difficult. I was supposed to download and install this free software on my computer. I could not find it. All I could find was a trial version.

Usually I get my company to buy stuff like this software for me. But it costs $1000 a copy. That just seems too steep. For now I am using the evaluation copy. I studied late into the night. The only good news was that I had already read one of the chapters assigned for this week. Whew.

In Search of Soda Cans

I had to work a little extra today to wrap up some tasks. Tonight is my school night. I like to take a quick nap before heading out to school. However I had to visit the school library before class tonight. No nap for me. Kit Kat told me Momoko needed empty soda cans for her class tomorrow. It was good I got the message. I was about to take out the trash to the curb.

I put on some latex gloves and went to work. First I spread out some old newspaper on my outdoor workbench. Then I pulled out the contents of our kitchen trash onto the newspaper. Some cash were crushed, probably from some slackers in the family that like crushing cans.

That's okay. I found five or six intact cans. I washed them in our sink and left them to dry for Momoko (who was out partying with her coworkers). I told the kids to make sure they did not throw out these soda cans. I did not go through the trash just to have someon pitch the cans back in.

At school I headed to the library. I turned in a reference book I checked out. I had my company buy me a copy. When I turned in the book, I asked for a receipt. You never know when a library error will result in a bill for you. The kid behind the library desk told me they cannot generate receipts on check in. I had the guy produce me a hand-written receipt. It is better than nothing.

Introducing Lucky T

The family finally finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. That was some heavy stuff. It talked about "The Soul of the World". Now it is time to move onto some lighter reading. Last night the family read part of Chapter 1 from Lucky T.

Yes. Little Kat has declared this is a chick book. The main character got a T-shirt that she believes gives her outstanding luck. And wouldn't you know it? She loses the shirt in the first chapter. I have a feeling things are going to go downhill for this girl.

But how bad could it be? Will she lose her boyfriend? Will she get worse grades at school? And gasp! She might not land the leading role for the school play. Like I said. This is going to be some lighter fare than The Alchemist. There are some tough vocabulary words in this book. But that is perfect for Little Kat to be learning.

Next up we will read Warm Bodies. Little Kat is excited. Everyone in the family except me saw the movie already. This is the story about a Zombie boy that falls in love with a girl. And that love makes him return to his humanity. Sure the premise is sappy like Twilight. But if anything involves the zombie apocalype, Little Kat is in.

Afternoon Surprises

I had a busy morning at work. Was presenting a document first thing in the morning. The at lunch I was the lead technical guy for a discussion with the customer. I did not have a lot of time to eat lunch. That's okay. Kit Kat was planning to cook us fried chicken for dinner. That meal is always good. So I just grabbed a five dollar footlong sub at Subway

Early in the afternoon, I heard someone come come. It was Kit Kat. She took the afternoon off from her work to take care of some business at home. Fine by me. Around quitting time, Little Kat called me up from my study for a family meeting. Momoko wanted to take Kit Kat shopping at Target. That meant she could not cook dinner. Oh no. Little Kat stepped in and made us some spaghetti instead.

After dinner, we were supposed to do our weekly cleaning. Momoko was just too tired. The kids scrubbed the kitchen floor. This was long overdue. I gathered the recyclying and took it to the curb. I also set the trash cans up, since they were wet from being on the curb last night in the rain.

Then I turned off our central heating, and went to the basement for a nasty job. I planned to clean out our furnace blower of dust. I wanted to hire the electric company to do this. But I never got around to it. When they last came over to service the heating system, it seemed like there was a large buildup in there.

I was very surprised to find very little dust in the blower. Where did all the stuff go? I cleaned out our electric filters. Then I grabbed some dust piles and bagged them up. Was done in less than a half hour. Sweet!

Meet Hercules

Last week I went outside and tried to open the back gate on my car. I pulled the handle up. However the gate did not come up. Instead the handle came off the car. Oh snap. I suspect the locking mechanism was frozen or something. Great. Now I could not use my back hatch on the car.

On Friday I got a ride to the dealership to put the car in the shop. I was initially shocked when the service consultant told me she thought the part would cost around $300. She was not sure. But she wanted to prepare me. I said I needed that handle ordered and installed. When I got home, she called and said the part was on back order for 3 to 5 days.

Luckily I have another vehicle to drive. However the truck is not as fun as my car. So I end up driving Momoko's car more when she is not using it. Today I had some great news. The total bill, including labor, was $225. They also were able to get the part quickly. My car was ready today. Momoko gave me a ride to the dealership, and I picked my car back up.

It felt good to be back in my own car. Thinking back on why the handle broke in the first place, it could have been a defective part. But this thing is a Toyota. So probably not. Instead there is a theory that I have massive muscles and do no know my own strength. This is the Hercules theory. I am going with that idea. Got to be more careful or else I will be shelling out more dough to the dealership.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Momoko and I had planned to eat some Mexican for lunch today. However Momoko did not feel well in the morning. So we heated up some leftover pizza instead. Then Momoko went back to sleep. I think she slept the whole afternoon.

The kids slept in too. Kit Kat woke up a bit before her 3pm appointment to go grocery shopping. She had to grab a bite to eat. Little Kat decided to sleep right up to 3pm. They both went to buy the groceries for the week. Kit Kat called back in the middle of shopping with some delimna. She could not find any chicken breasts at the store. Momoko set her straight.

I spent the afternoon going through my mail and paying my bills. I got a bit ahead of myself, paying any small bills that are due in the next few weeks. The only bills I saved were ones that were over a thousand dollars. Those I would pay closer to the due dates. I had planned to do some studying for my college class. However I decided to wait on that until the evening.

Kit Kat is scheduled to cook us a casserole this evening. It is a chicken and mushroom mix, served over mashed potatoes. Since I only had a few pieces of pizza today, I am sure I will enjoy whatever she whips us. Since Momoko has been sleeping so much, I think Little Kat has been taking advantage. He is down in the basement playing video games.

There is no rush for Momoko and Little Kat. They have the day off tomorrow due to holiday. I need to go to work tomorrow. And Kit Kat goes to school. We need to keep reasonably diligent.

Super Car Deal

Momoko and the kids went to the movies early this morning. I am still recovering from being sick. Plus I need to catch up on my sleep on the weekends. So I stayed at home. Eventually I got up, and went out to get some lunch. My car is in the shop. I took Momoko's car out for a spin.

At lunch I was waiting for my steak and cheese sub to be cooked. I went to the Saturday autos section. It is the best day of the week to see car ads. There was one amazing offer. A 2012 Nissan Sentra hatchback was going for $15,000. The big deal was that they were offering $5,000 on any trade in, making the final price $10,000.

The Sentra hatchback was the favorite car I saw when we were searching for a car for Kit Kat. I have been keeping my eye out for deals on them. I figure this type of vehicle may very well be my next car. We will need a car in the family when Little Kat gets his license some time in the next year. This could be the time to make that move.

I really have only one car I would be willing to trade in for $5000. That would be my pickup truck. It is old. I had it appraised at the dealer in town who offers the most for used vehicles. They offered me $1500 a while ago. There are a couple problems with trading it in. I use the truck every few weeks to haul large stuff. Plus I plan to use it to teach the kids how to drive manual transmission.

At home, I looked up the dealership that was offering the great deal. Their inventory was online. Woo hoo. They have two black Versa hatchbacks in stock. Oh no. They are both manual transmission. I knew there had to be a catch. The other catch was that they are 2012 models. It is okay if the car is a year old. But I need automatic transmission. The real surprise was that the cars were listed for a sale price of $10,000 (no trade in required).

If only these cars were automatic transmission, I would run over and write them a check today. Oh well. Got to continue keeping an eye out for great deals.

Fat Vampire

The latest Amazon Kindle book I have read is Fat Vampire. From the title, you would think this might be a weak book. No chance. This book ruled. The main character is pathetic. And you have to love him for it. I could not put this book down. The only disappoint was that the book was short. 150 pages total.

This book was really a teaser. Fat Vampire 2 is available for a $2.99 purchase. I just wish it came in a paperback version. I don't mind shelling out some bucks for a physical book. But I had paying hard earned money for an electronic copy. The other disappointment is that the sequel is itself only around 150 pages.

The author of the book is Johnny B. Truant. This is obviously a handle. The guy has turned out over 12 books, most of which were published in the last year. Darn. It looks like he only sells eBooks. Maybe I will wait and have someone give me another one of his books for my birthday.

I thought I was gong to continue the genre by reading The Oldest Living Vampire. However some bad reviews of the book gave me pause. Instead I have moved on to Without, a story of a guy who shines during the apocalypse. Apparently he has been preparing for the end of the world for some time now.

Expensive Meds

My mom wanted me to do some research on a drug that her doctor was recommending. So I did a Google search. Printed out a bunch of pages from some reputable government sites. My mom read up on the drug and figured it was the right treatment. Then she got the bad news. This drug costs a fortune. Luckily mom has some insurance. However her copay for each treatment of the drug is a whopping $700 plus.

Mom tried to research some public assitance for obtaining the drug. However she could not get in touch with anybody. She and my dad decided they needed to move forward with treatments using the drug. Initially mom is going to get three doses of the drug (at $700 a pop each time). Then the doctor will review the results, and she will probably have to receive more treatments.

Mom said the only protection she has is that there is a maximum out of pocket expense limit from her insurance. After she pays a certain amount in a calendar year, the insurance will pick up the rest of the costs. It is still a lot of money that my parents need to spend. I guess they decided there was only one option available. Pay the big fees so mom can live.

I thought perhaps the materials used to manufacture the drug were themselves rare and very expensive. My mom thought it was more that the drug is very specific and not widely used. Therefore the limited number of patients using the drug need to absorb the huge costs.

Near Tax Error

I started doing my Federal Taxes last night. Ran into a few problems. I use TurboTax software. It could not find last year's tax return. Oh yeah. My computer hard drive got hosed. So I had to key in a bunch of stuff manually. My other problem was that a lot of companies did not send me the forms I needed to fill in all the details. That meant I had to look stuff up manually. That took a lot of time.

Finally tonight I decided to look everything up that I needed. Got to the point where I started working on my state tax return as well. Used TurboTax state edition to tackle it. Everything seemed to be going well. I was receiving a tax refund on both my federal and state taxes. Bazinga. Now it was time to actually file. I printed out my returns. I file by mailing in paper forms. No need to make it easy for anyone to audit me.

I had gone as far as adressing the envelope and stapling my W-2 to the tax return. Then I looked through all the forms one more time. I found a form missing! And that missing form meant I was not getting the full refund I deserve. I checked the main form, and I was indeed short about $1000.

I ran upstairs and went through the return with TurboTax again. That's when I found my mistake. I put a large number in a wrong column. After fixing the mistake, TurboTax recomputed my federal and state refunds. Both were going up. Yee-haw. Almost made a $1000 mistake. Now I could always have gone back and filed an amended tax return. But that is messy. Got to get it right the first time around.

Should get my refund within a month or two. Then we can finally start plans for getting a jet bath tub installed in the basement. We have wanted one for as long as we have been in this house. It might just be time this year to get it done.

Order Failure

Momoko needed a late night snack last night. Kit Kat was home. So Momoko was going to send her out to pick us up something. Kit Kat suggested that she just place an order online for delivery. Momoko agreed, and asked for a deep dish pizza. I asked Kit Kat to get me some parmesan bites. And I told her I needed the ranch dipping sauce. Kit Kat got herself some weird cheesy bread.

The order arrived shortly after. Kit Kat got the stuff from the delivery guy at the door. The guy was doing a bunch of flirting with Kit Kat. Once the guy left, she went into the kitchen to prepare the food for us. She told me that the guy forgot the ranch sauce. Kit Kat thought that was no big deal. I emphasized that the ranch was the most important ingredient.

Momoko told Kit Kat to call the store and get the ranch sauce delivered. The guy did not show up. Kit Kat had to call the store a number of times. Eventually she got in touch with the store manager, who said some new parmesan bites and ranch sauce would be delivered.

Two hours later, I finally got my snack. Luckily I had a big dinner and was not hurting. In the future, I think we might need to send Kit Kat in person to pick up the goods. That way she can immediately get problems fixed right at the store.

Library Adventure

The professor for my college class added a couple books to the class. He said he had acquired multiple copies of each, and would leave them at the library for us to check out. I immediately ordered the books from Amazon. However one had not arrived. So I planned to go to the library to check out the book.

This has been a busy week at work. Had to work late every day. That's tought because I have been sick too. When work is done around 8:30 or 9:00pm, I just crawl up to bed and pass out. No time to go to the library. But hey, class must go on. So I let everyone know that I needed to take the afternoon off to deal with school. Now its not like I am taking any time off. I am working so many extra hours that this is just reclaiming a few of them.

I have never been to the library. I looked up its location online. Seems it is its own building. I was going to go to the lbirary at noon. But Momoko needed some lunch. She is sick and needs some care. So I went out and picked up some Chinese food for us. After lunch we watched some TV. Oh no. I got delayed. By the time I got back on track and on the road, it was late afternoon.

Had no problem parking in my normal lot at school. There were few people out, probably due to the cold weather. I approached the library building. A sign said that the library was on the second floor. Huh? The whole building is the library. Oh well. I climbed the stairs and found a pretty busy school library. Luckily nobody was up at the circulation desk. So I got some help immediately.

The older gentleman who helped me was surprised that I could check the book out for the whole semester. My professor set it up that way so we could have the books for the whole term. An aide put some type of barcode on the back of my school ID. Then I checked out the book.

I was about to take off when the gentleman said I had better get the book demagnetized or else the alarms would sound off when I left. The aide took the book over to the machine, but on the way back dropped the book on the head of another aide by mistake. Everyone laughed except for the poor chap who got this massive book dropped on his head.

Game On

I got some messages from the guy who leads my team at work. He said there were some new problems in our programs. The customer was eager to get them fixed. I got one of the issues. Took a look at it and figured out what was wrong. Then my team lead scheduled a meeting with one of our managers.

I explained what was going on. The manager asked how long it would take to fix. I told him it would be 8 hours worth of work. This was late Friday afternoon. The manager said he would inform the customers, but wanted to know what we would do if the customer wanted us to work the weekend to get this done immediately.

Having heard about this crazy weekend idea, I told the manager that I could just as easily call it 24 hours worth of work. Then the earliest the customer would get the fix would be Monday afternoon even if I worked the whole weekend. The manager understood this tactic. Then he dreamed up the idea of rewriting the software in a better fashion. That would take us two weeks. His plan was going to be to pitch the two week solution, the roll back to the Monday delivery when the customers screamed that two weeks was too long.

Most managers don't want to tell a customer no. The bad ones just throw guys like me under the bus, promising that I will work through the weekend. Now I do make some good money at my job. But it is not good enough for me to work on the weekends just because someone could not tell a customer no. Knowing all this, I can appreciate a manager like the one I dealt with today. He knows that the customers are going to demand the world. That's why he manages their expectations. And that's a win for me.

Start of School

Today was the first class of the Spring college semester for me. The class is late at night. I was a bit tired because I worked late last night. And I had to get up early to get Momoko breakfast this morning (she is sick at home).

I got to class a bit early. The prior class was still in the classroom when I arrived. I saw a guy I knew standing outside. Asked him if he was in the class. He told me he was teaching it. Woo hoo.

Previously I had gone to the college bookstore to pick up the textbook. It seemed a bit advanced. I was worried I might not be prepared to take this class. After class got started, I found out that the majority of the material would come from some other introductory textbooks. The instructor said he used his connections to get us some free copies of the texts to borrow. I am going to the school library next week to pick up my copies.

I still want to get a copy of the extra textbooks for myself. So I ordered them using Amazon. The prices are not that bad on Amazon. Plus my company picks up the bill for training expenses. It is a no lose situation.