Got Another Car

I have been looking to purchase a manual transmission car to teach Kit Kat how to drive it. Previously I had bought a Volkswagon Beetle that did not work out. I had my eye on a 2007 Saturn Vue SUV. When the dealership dropped the price by a few thousand, I jumped at the opportunity.

Unfortunately the car was in Kansas. Yeah out in the middle of nowhere. I paid a bunch of non-refundable money to have the car transferred to my local dealership. The dealer called me this week to say the car came in. This morning Momoko drove me to the dealership. I took it for a spin. The thing shifted nicely. It was easy to get it into first gear. The shifter almost snapped into position. This was a much better experience than the last car I test drove.

I asked a few questions to the sales guy. Then I decided to buy the car. The salesman was worried that my check would bounce. I told him I had a bunch of bank statements from the past year. He still wanted me to log in online to show him my checking account balance. I told him I am old school. I don't do online banking. I was able to call up my bank, and they confirmed my balance.

Directly after purchasing the vehicle, I drove it straight to my mechanic. I want to have him check the car out and make sure it was a good purchase. I can always return the car for a full refund in the next week. I really hope everything checks out. I spent months researching the car market to find this baby. It will be my next daily driver. Woo hoo.

Action Item Fail

Little Kat was off from school today. He is going to a festival tomorrow and needed cash. He arranged to help Momoko in her classroom. I was to drive him to Momoko's school at lunch time. He needed to first finish a list of chores, most of which were his homework assignments.

Little Kat slept in this morning. I figured he was going to skip working in Momoko's classroom. However Momoko called him up and woke him. I asked Little Kat if he finished all the items on his list. He said yes.

We swung by Subway to pick up some lunch for Little Kat (I had already eaten). They have five dollar foot longs. Then I dropped off Little Kat. Momoko later informed me that he spent almost two hours eating his sub and watching videos. That was a small fail.

Later Momoko called a meeting at home. Apparently Little Kat did not finish his list of items that needed to be done before working in Momoko's classroom. In fact he barely even started that list. The real fail was that he lied to me about finishing the items.

I had previously told Little Kat that he best not lie to me. Otherwise he gets manual labor in the yard on the weekend with me. Hey at least I get a little helper out there. I am also imposing a penatly of having Little Kat forfeit the money he earned in Momoko's classroom, as well as making him pay me back for the Subway lunch I bought him as a reward for finishing his tasks.

Let's hope Little Kat learns his lesson. If I were to make the call, I would say the festival for this weekend should also be cancelled.

Uprooted

I went to lunch today. Was going to get a buy one get one free Chicken sandwich. Then I saw a double stacker meal for the same price. Might as well get fries and a drink. When the cashier rung up the total, it was wrong. I asked why the amount was wrong. The cashier told me I ordered the medium meal which costs thirty cents more. No. I wanted the meal for the displayed price. Plus her math was wrong. Got that corrected really quick. Hey who cares about 60 cents? Not me. But I do care about the principle of sales. Don't try to secretly upcharge me and think it will be okay.

I got home to find a green pot, and small plant, and a whole lot of dirt on the dining and family room floors. WTF? The thing must have fallen down. It seemed like the dirt went on forever. I ate my meal and watched an anime. Dang it. The Netflix could not connect to the Internet. Was having a bad day all around. I rebooted our router and watched my darn anime. Wouldn't you know it? Netflix disconnects in the middle of the show.

After lunch, I went in search of cleaning machines. I saw Little Kat struggle with the carpet cleaner last time around. Skipped that broke down machine. I went for the spot cleaning machine, which the kids also said is broken. It took a while to figure out how to work the thing. It is not obvious how to dettach the water source and the dirty water containers. I figured it out. Took a lot of dumping dirty water out and rerunning the machine before the carpets looked any better. This is a hard knock life.

Luckily these are first world problems. I mean in the big scheme of things, life is good. Got the hot meal of my choice without doing any cooking. Drank as much cold soda as I wanted since we have a stocked fridge. Had machines to assist with cleaning. Dumped the dirty water into working sewer systems. Oh yeah. Hot clean water was available at the turn of the knob. I guess it is all a matter of perspective. Things might not be looking so bad as I type this blog into one of the four laptops spread out over my desks.

Homework and Illness Woes

Yesterday Momoko and I went to Little Kat's school in the afternoon. We met with all his teachers after school to discuss his grades and other matters. Little Kat has some bad grades due to missed or incomplete assignments. That is the worst excuse for a bad grade. So today Little Kat said he did not have time to practice driving.

At lunch time I saw that Kit Kat was still home sleeping in her bed. She was in the same position after lunch. What was strange was that her bedroom door was open. She usually closes it when she sleeps. I guess she was really sick today and could not bother to even close the door. She missed her college classes and work.

Kit Kat was scheduled to cook us some meatloaf tonight. She called Momoko and arranged for Momoko to pick up dinner instead. Earlier in the day I worked out in the yard after a quick bite to eat at lunch. After work I was really tired. Decided to take a nap before dinner. Just as I was getting to sleep, Little Kat told me Mokoko needed to talk with me.

I called Momoko up at work. She asked if Little Kat and I could pick up dinner. Little Kat was still doing homework. Therefore it was up to me to provide dinner. I ordered us some BBQ. Well dinner came from a BBQ joint. Nobody ate any BBQ. Momoko got catfish. I got a sausage sub. And Little Kat got a burger. At least this time around I remembered to bring my coupon to get a discount at the BBQ house.

Declaring a Successful Drive

Momoko wanted Little Kat to invite over some friends for a birthday party. She printed out some invitations that Little Kat needed to hand out. He did so at school. But there was one friend from elementary school that attends a different high school. Little Kat and I made plans to dfive over to this friend's house this afternoon.

I was running a bit late working out in the yard because Momoko wanted to discuss Little Kat's grades in school with me. I hurried up and Little KAt and I were off. I let Little Kat drive for practice's sake. He told me he knew how to get to his friend's house.

Little Kat took a strange turn. I asked him where he was going. He did not know. So I directed him back on track. We made it to the friend's house. Then we started to head home. Some guy was backing out of the a driveway and did not see us. I told Little Kat to stop so we would not get hit. Little Kat did not stop. I told him to stop again. No stop. I reached over and blasted the horn in the car. The other car heard it and stopped.

Whew. My Scion xB vehicle was saved. Then Little Kat got onto the highway. He had to merge from the ramp onto the rightmost lane. There was a dude one lane over that tried to merge into the lane Little Kat was trying to merge to. I told Little Kat to delay the merge so we would not collide. This time he obeyed me. We made it home and Little Kat declared the trip a success. He told me we attained the main objective, which was to deliver the party invitation, plus we did not die. Ha. Little Kat has low standards for success.

Bed Prototype

Little Kat has decided on a replacement for his bunk bed. This one will have drawers in the side of it. Momoko and Little Kat found the exact bed he wants online. They can ship it to us in one piece. The manufacturer warns you to make sure the thing will fit in your house. You can pay extra to have them ship it in a couple pieces. But who wants to do bed assembly if you can get it in one piece?

So Little Kat and I went to the hardware store about bought some cheap pieces of pines wood. They were not even 2x4 inches. It was a 2x3 or maybe even a 2x2. That's fine. The wood is lighter. I cut these pieces of wood down into the exact dimensions of the bed. Then I used screws to connect the pieces together. Now I have a 3D box that is the same size as Little Kat's bed.

When Little Kat comes home, we shall pretend like we are the delivery men. We shall bring the bed into the house through the front door. Then we will see if we can carry it up the stairs and into his room. This will also serve as a double check for the measuring that Momoko and Little Kat did. The thing has to fit in his bedroom.

If this test of the bed prototype goes well, I am going to order his bed online. Of course we will also have to separately go out and buy a matress. I figure Little Kat will be sleeping on this matress for a long time. So I might let him splurge and buy something expensive such as memory form or some type of pillowtop like I sleep on. These are exciting times for Little Kat.

Taking One for the Team

Today, like most weekdays, I had to work until 5pm. This is the one day of the week I attend college class after work. But before I could go, I needed to take Litle Kat driving. He needs the practice. This duty has fallen upon me because Momoko is too scared to go driving with Little Kat.

Little Kat does have some scary driving tendencies. He seems to drive too close to parked cars. And he heads towards the curb a lot. He drifts over the lines on fast roads. Yeah. It is plain disturbia. However these are the signs that the guy need a lot of practice. So I had Little Kat drive me to the gas station today.

The first gas station we hit was too crowded. So I had him take me to the expensive gas station. I ran in and grabbed a turkey sandwich. With the limited time, I needed to eat dinner in the car while teaching Little Kat how to drive. Now Little Kat is going to learn how to drive whether we skip practice on my school nights or not. What I am trying to teach him is that when you have a goal, you go all out to achieve it.

It if were up to Little Kat, he would use the excuse of my college class to skip driving. He has tried that one a few times. But here is the problem. He finds an excuse every time. I am hoping some ambition rubs off on Little Kat. I always say you need to teach by example. And Little Kat and I are going strong towards the driving practice, even if it means we suffer a few near misses of disaster each time we go out.

Stunning Software Price

Little Kat told Momoko that he would love to have the Adobe Photoshop software he uses at school. The instructor said they use Adobe Photoshop Extended 5.5 However they are moving to version 6 really soon. Little Kat is hungry for version 6. Of course Momoko asked me whether we could buy it. When she says "we" she means me.

I told Momoko that we might be able to purchase a copy. If it runs for $100, it is a no brainer. Buy. If it costs $200, then I would have to think about it, but it would probably also be a buy. Little Kat did some research. Photoshop costs a whopping $700 to buy. Doh! That is way too much.

I Googled around. Turns out this software is just really expensive. I found a few sites that would discount the price down to maybe $350. Still felt like way too much money. What the heck is this software going to do? There should be some way to get an educational/student copy for around 100 bucks. Got to do more research or something.

Bedroom Planning

Little Kat complained that his bed was not long enough. That does not surprise me. He must have grown about a foot in height over the last year. Little Kat wanted to hang on to his bunk bed. He uses the top bunk as storage. Plus it is a place for friends to sleep if the spend the night. But it is time for it to go.

Momoko and Little Kat found an extra long twin size bed online. It had some drawers where the box spring and frame normally go. That sounded like a nice bed replacement. The bed normally ships as a full unit. They warn you to make sure the whole thing can fit in your house. Little Kat and I are going shopping tonight for some cheap wood to build a bed prototype. It will be the same size as his assembled bed. We will then run a test, bringing this prototype up the stairs to his room. If that works, I am ordering the bed in one piece.

I also am contracting my handyman to disasseble Little Kat's bed (the bunk bed is pretty big and complex), and move it out of the room. I am also hiring my handymand to build some shelved above Little Kat's bed for storage. This should work out quite well. Then Little Kat can have a good night's sleep. We will finish it off by purchasing some really nice extra long matress to put on the top. Maybe a memory foam matress, or a pillow top one.

Finding the Friends

Kit Kat needed to go to the bank early this morning before they closed. Momoko and I planned to eat lunch in the same shopping center. Unfortunately Kit Kat could not wait for us. Momoko and I brought Little Kat along because we needed to pick up his friend after lunch. I made Little Kat drive us to lunch.

Kit Kat decided to stick around the shopping center to eat with us. Since she was waiting, I told Little Kat to take the highway there. Little Kat started complaining that he did not agree to drive on the highway today. I informed him that we did not need his approval to tell him where to drive. We got there fine. Kit Kat was parked in the front row of the parking lot.

We all ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant where they always treat us well. The kids got mini chimichangas. So they were a bit hungry after the meal. They talked me into getting sopapias for dessert. Then the group split up. Kit Kat drove Momoko home. Little Kat drove us to his friend's house. We used my GPS to get there. This was the first time I met this friend of Little Kat's. He came over our house to play Wii games this afternoon.

Something Stinky

Yesterday after work, I had Little Kat drive me around for practice. He said we could not drive for long. He needed to be back to start preparing the chicken dinner he was going to grill. When we returned home, I smelled something rancid in the house. Little Kat and I cleaned out our new fridge. Normally that fridge is where we keep the new foods (no leftovers). So I would hope the contents did not stink.

Little Kat pitched a bunch of old cheeses that were stinking. He also pitched some old meat. Then he got ready to marinate his chicken before grilling it. Little Kat started mumlbing about something. I told the boy to speak up. He said he was not sure if the chicken was good. They just bought it this past Sunday. It smelled a bit weird. We pitched that too.

No problem. We already got take out the previous night. So there was an extra meal for the week. Little Kat had to make steak kebabs. He started telling me the steak smelled suspicious. I think by this time it was in his head. He grilled up the steaks. Aside from being a bit chewy (must not have been a top cut of meat), the turned out fine. Well they were fine for me. Kit Kat and Momoko thought Little Kat put too much spice in the steak when he marinated it.

Now the house is smelling better. Good thing too. We have some company over today. But that's a story for a future blog post.

Fingernail Fail

Kit Kat usually paints Momoko's fingernails. She draws all kinds of interesting things on there. Her skill has improved, especially since she got some tools for finer drawing. Kit Kat gets some ideas from fingernail polish videos on YouTube. This week Kit Kat dropped one of the polish bottles as she was finishing up.

Kit Kat tried to use Resolve to get the polish out of our white carpet in the family room. She failed. Momoko asked me when we planned to get new carpet. I told her we could get new carpet as soon as Kit Kat stops painting her nails in that room. Why buy new carpet just to have Kit Kat mess up the carpet again.

Momoko told Little Kat that she would pay him if her could remove the polish from the carpet. Little Kat was motivated. He researched some home brew carpet cleaner on the Internet. He used it to scrub out the colors. Then he washed the carpet out with some water. He tried to use our broken carpet cleaner to suck up the execess water. That did not work. He resorted instead to drying the carpet with old towels.

In other news, Little Kat planned to serve up some chicken from the new propane grill last night. It was raining and there was lightning outside. Little Kat was not about to grill anything up in that weather. Momoko decided we should have some BBQ take out. So Little Kat drove us to the restaurant, and we carried out some delicious dinner. Kit Kat missed out because she has late college classes on Thursdays.

Manual Transmission Win

I have been keeping my eye on manual transmission cars for a while. Need one to teach Kit Kat how to drive stick shift. The prior car I bought just did not work out. There was a 2007 Saturn Vue for sale. It had 58k miles on it. The cost was $11,600. The only downside was that it was located in another state. Required a $750 transfer fee.

While keeping the Saturn Vue in the back of my mind, the cost went down to $11,000. That was an interesting development. Then the cost really dropped down to $9,000. I called up the store the next day. They had someone go out and check out the car. Still was in the same shape as all the pictures show online. They also verified that there were no strange smells in the car.

I bit the bullet and paid for the car to be transferred to my local store. It was good to see the car disappear from the online inventory. My associate at the store provided me with a confirmation email that the car is going to be shipped from me.

I had rented a Saturn Vue once before. It was nice except it felt cheap. Some items did not seem to be well made and were falling apart. I guess that's part of the reason why this car was being sold for cheap. I am hoping to teach Kit Kat how to drive manual transmission in it. I also hope to pass my current Scion xB over to Little Kat, who we hope will have a license in the upcoming year.

Chair Shopping

Kit Kat had complained that the desk chair in her room was no good. I told her that she could find a chair and propose it to me. If it seemed reasonable, I would buy her the chair. She found one on Amazon that was not too expensive. So I ordered it. It should be delivered today according to Amazon.

Little Kat got jealous. He thought it was not right that he had to buy his own desk chair. I told him if he thought he needed a chair, he should find one and propose it. Little Kat looked through the Sunday newspaper ads. He found some good deals at Staples. We scheduled a trip for us to visit the store so he could sit down in the chairs.

Yesterday at the appointed time, I told Little Kat it was time to go chair shopping. He was a bit whiny. I told him this whole trip was for his benefit. I didn't want to spend my afternoon/evening chair shopping for him. I am a busy guy. Little Kat decided to man up and drive us to Staples.

While at Staples, I found a good desk for my computers. Right now I am using a card table to prop them up. Unfortunately the desk was not in stock. Need to order that desk. It was a great deal. Little Kat sat in almost all the desk chairs in the store. He found one he liked, and luckily it was in stock.

The Staples associate who helped us put the chair on a dolly. We pulled the car up to the store, and loaded the chair in the back seat. We drove home and dropped off the chair. Momoko and Kit Kat were busy at Momoko's school doing work. Little Kat and I were supposed to go out to dinner together. I told him to drive us to the next town over so we could get good service at the good restaurant. Then Little Kat started whining about not agreeing to drive on highways...

Top Rap Songs

I somehow found a web site that ranked the Top 100 rap songs of all time. Went through all 100 songs. There were many I never even heard of. Perhaps if I actually listened to the song it would ring a bell. I did find quite a few gems in the list. Here were the top songs I chose from the Top 100:

1. Slick Rick & Doug E Fresh - "La di da di"
2. N.W.A. - "Straight Outta Compton"
3. Pete Rock & CL Smooth - "They Reminisce Over You"
4. Fabolous - "Breathe"
5. Snoop Dogg - "Gin and Juice"
6. LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out"
7. Naughty By Nature - "OPP"
8. Salt-N-Pepa - "Push It"

Sorry to say. But Macklemore did not make the list. I didn't even know people categorized him as a rapper. Let's give him some time.

Something Smelly

I went to visit my mom today. Was detained at home because the shower was moldy. So I first had to bleach out our shower. That is always a painful ordeal. Then I grabbed some lunch. Had a coupon to get a discount on a steak and cheese combo. It was delicious.

For some strange reason, there was actually parking near my mom's house. Usually one of the rentals across the street jams up the entire street with 10+ cars from people who rent there. I was lucky to park directly across the street from mom's house.

When I returned to my own house, I smelled something stinky in the kitchen. I thought there was some sort of natural gas leak. The stove was turned off. Plus the stove is electric. Kit Kat checked the new propane grill. Then she figured it out. It did not smell like gas. It smelled like burned plastic.

Little Kat loaded something wrong in the dishwasher. It got melted during the clean cycle. Thus we had a stinky kitchen. I was relieved that it was not a gas leak. After that disaster was averted, Little Kat and I went to Lowe's to shop for stuff. We got the most important item - a new garbage disposal. Our's has had too many problems recently. The plumber is coming Tuesday to replace it.

College Classmates from the Military

I am in the second week of my fall college semester. The class I am taking is a full one. People taking the class are mostly dudes. This is a computer programming class. Everyone introduced themselves at the beginning of the class. I was surprised at the number of ex-military guys who were in the class. They were taking advantage of the GI bill to pay for classes.

During the break, I spoke to one of the older guys from the military. He retired after 20 years of service. He told me he had served on a number of tours. The worst situation was in Fallujah. In case you do not know, Fallujah is located in central Iraq, relatively close to Bagdad. A lot of Saddam Hussein supporters lived there. If you study popular accounts of skirmishes in Fallujah, you don't see too high a death toll count. My classmate said that the reason why he hated Fallujah was the number of dead bodies he needed to retrieve there.

If that was not gruesome enough, I was introduced to another classmate. Apparently he had seen much more dangerous duty. He told me not too long ago, he was stationed overseas. I think this was his Iraq tour. He was there with another buddy, who had some type of projectile hit him squarely in the chest. The guy's head flew off, rolling past my class mate. My class mate said he dropped all the equipment he was carrying, and ran towards a secure gunner on our side. Very disturbing.

This second classmate told me that he had to deal with enemy trying to figure out where our troops were to get us bombed by mortars. My classmate needed to take these enemy out. By that I mean he needed to shoot and kill them. I am not sure if this guy is a sharp shooter. But apparently his shots seemed to hit their mark often. Unfortunately this guy and my other classmate are damaged by their duty overseas. They have some trouble just doing normal things like shopping out in the mall. Yikes.

At least these guys made it home in one piece. One of the guys looks like he belonds in the military. He looks like Rambo. Maybe I will help these dudes out if they need assistance with development. Got to give the guys that served a little break. I think I shall continue to hang out with these guys before and after class.

Back to School

Today was Little Kat's back to school night. That is when parents are supposed to go meet the kid's teachers. Momoko could not attend because you need to walk to all of Little Kat's classes. That feels like miles of running up and down stairs, and across the huge high school campus.

We were going to send Kit Kat to meet Little Kat's teachers. However Momoko went over Little Kat's grades and found a number of problems. That, combines with some suspicious comments from Little Kat, meant that I needed to attend. I cut out of work a bit early today. Little Kat drove us to Chipoltle for dinner. He was nervous about the crowded parking lot. I told him he could park out in the middle of the lot where there were no other cars.

Good thing we went early. Chipoltle was very crowded and slow. The line went all the way back to the far side of the restaurant. I tried their chicken burrito for the first time based on Little Kat's recommendation. I was not disappoited. Afterwards I drove us to Little Kat's school. We heard his principal speak. He was an excellent public speaker. So it was enjoyable.

I accomplished a lot at back to school night. Found out that Little Kat had the wrong email address for most of his teachers. No wonder the random people he was emailing would not respond to him. Also questions all teachers on a number of policy issues on communication and grading.

I was most impressed with Little Kat's cooking class teacher. The class was actually called International Cuisine. She seemed the most interested in teaching the children. The kids seemed to like her. I met Little Kat's best friend from school in that class, as well as that friend's mom. I have around 10 pages of notes from the whole night. Need to share a summary of the important stuff with Momoko and Little Kat.