The Flight Home

We needed to print our return flight boarding passes a day before the flight. The only problem was that we would be in a movie when the boarding passes became available. We wanted to get low number passes to get good seats on the plane. Grandpa volunteered to stay home and print out our passes.

The night before our flight, we packed our bags. It took an extra trip over to the kids' uncle's house to collect their belongings. The kids' cousin spent the night to say goodbye. I used the GPS to get us to the air port. Drove all the way to the back of the garage to find my rental car company return.

Inside the airport, I followed the signs to get to our gate. The family did not follow me. I came back and they told me we had to check our bags first. Duh. The line to check bags was short. I worried that Momoko's big bag may have weighed too much. It didn't.

My boading pass was first. I entered the plane and found a window seat. Unfortunately I was in front of a little kid who kicked me seat a lot. At least his parents were on guard to scream at the kid to tell him to stop kicking. Little Kat and Kit Kat say next to each other. Even though the captain said we had a full flight, Momoko got lucky and sat in a row with one empty seat.

After landing, we collected our bags quick. Took a crowded bus to the satellite parking. Kit Kat wandered the satellite lot searching for the exit. They charged us eight and a half days for parking. Kit Kat drove us home and proceeded to fall asleep in bed before dinner. We all missed our premium beds and mattresses we have at home.

Dollar Movie Theater

Gradma's town allegedly had a dollar theater. I am all for good deals like that. Sure it was probably some broke down old theater. But you can't beat the price. Plus they featured old but good movies such as Ender's Game.

I scheduled us to watch the movie Carrie. Kit Kat had previously wanted to see it on the big screen. So she was in. Her cousin came too. Little Kat completed our group. I drove the rental with the kids to the theater. I used my GPS to get us there. As soon as we turned onto the access road, Kit Kat and I recalled the route.

There was one girl handling tickets and concessions. Turns out that Tuesday movies were $2, but all other days cost $3. Still a good deal for the movie. There were $1 hot dogs. However we all opted for popcorn/nachos. Those concessions were expensive like they are at normal theaters.

Carrie was not too scary. The bottom of the film was clipped. The film aspect ratio was also off, causing people to appear too skinny. The next time we opted to go to the modern theater where admission was full price, but grandma's membership got us discounted popcorn and drinks.

The Gun Range

Little Kat and I drove the rental car over to Little Kat's uncle's house. We backed the car up to his garage. Then we loaded up a bunch of guns into the back of the car. We packed the bag of ammo I bought. We supplemented that with ammo from Little Kat's uncle's stash.

We took a long drive to the outdoor gun range. On the way there, we passed sites like the circular barn and soda store which had a huge soda bottle decoration outside. They sell cans of soda from all over the world. The last leg of the journey was a dirt road.

There were other people at the range when we arrived. An older guy shot long range targets with a loud rifle. A couple younger guys were doing skeet shooting, launching clay targets in the air and hitting them with shotgun fire.

I fired some 22 caliber ammo using revolvers like the 357 magnum. That was fun. I could actually hit targets at close and medium range. The pistols I tried had too much recoil for my taste. The rifles hurt my shoulder and would not hit the targets I aimed at.

Little Kat had decent aim. He liked the pistols and rifles more than me. We stayed later than the other people at the range. When we left, Little Kat locked the property entrance gate behind us.

Search for 22 Caliber

Once we arrived at grandmas's house, we brought in all our luggage. Grandma thought the boys could share one bedroom, and the girls could share another. Both kids complained as they figured the adult in their bedroom would snore and keep them awake. Thus I ended up sleeping with Momoko in her old bedroom.

Little Kat planned to go shooting at the gun range with his uncle. I asked to go along. Grandpa wanted in on the action too. Little Kat's uncle worried we would use up all his ammunition. We decided the I would buy new ammo for our outing.

The problem was that 22 caliber bullets were in high demand here. So instead I bought a bunch of 38 caliber bullets for uncle's weapons, and a bit of 45 caliber bullets for grandpa's handgun. Later we went to a gun shop that had small quantities of 12 caliber bullets for sale.

In all, I bought a two hundred bucks worth of ammo. We now plan to go to an outdoor shooting range with Little Kat's uncle. Then we will visit an indoor range with grandpa. Back home I am thinking I might need a gun of my own, maybe a revolver.

To Grandma's House

I printed airline boarding passes the day before our flight. We still boarded somewhere around the middle of the crowd. Momoko sat with Little Kat. I was with Kit Kat. Luckily we got our own rows of seats on the plane, with an empty seat between us. I read my Kindle book for most of the flight. Picked up a Chevy Traverse rental car. It was very roomy for all our luggage.

I plugged my GPS into the rental car. The thing would not stay attached to the windshield. It also seemed to want to want to take the long way. Therefore I relied on Momoko to guide me to her parents' house.We stopped by Sonic for some dinner first. I love the taste of their tots.

Grandma's dogs barked as we entered the house. A child gate prevented them from entering the dining room and running out the front door. I noticed that grandma had a new Chevy SUV like my rental. It looked to be the same color too.

Grumpy Cat 2014

I am a bit late in ordering a wall calendar for 2014. Usually I just pick up whatever is cheap from the stores or Amazon. This year I looked for a calendar that I would love to look at all year. That's when I saw it. There is a Grumpy Cat calendar for 2014.

Bad news. The calendar is on backorder at Amazon. I need a calendar. Don't know when I should wait for this one. There is a backup plan. Amazon has a Walking Dead calendar ready to ship now. I might pull the trigger on that one. Ha ha. No pun intended, really.

While looking at all thing Grumpy Cat on Amazon, I found that Grumpy Cat has his own book. Oh yes. This might be as good or even better than a calendar. How can I not purchase this book for myself? Things are already looking up for 2014. Thank you Grumpy Cat for being so mean but lovable.

Christmas Delivery

I had meant to give my friend a gift for Christmas. But I just did not have my act together the last time I saw him. Now I have a busy week at work. Turns out I just am not going to be able to see him before Christmas. What's a busy guy to do? Use the Post Office.

I had this DVD of the first season of Breaking Bad to give him. The package was a bit larger than a normal DVD. I wrote my buddy a note and headed to the post office after lunch. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot. I guess things get busy there around Christmas time.

I found a small priority mail shipping box that just about fix my DVD box set. It was a bit too small. But I jammed it in there anyway. A postal employee helped me tape the thing shut. It costs five bucks to send this package to my friend. I figure that's a good deal because they provide the box. Plus the get it to him the very next day. Handy.

Now I got to wrap the rest of the gifts I plan to give this Christmas. Busy busy.

Digging out of the Snow

Tonight I have my final exam for my college class. So I thought I had better clear the snow off my car. I went out early in the morning. Wanted to be prepared to drive off to get some lunch.

The hard part was that there was freezing rain after the snow. So the top of the snow was solid. I used my little ice scraper and scraped off the snow from the windows. There was still ice on the glass surface.

I decided to start up my car and blast the defrost with hot air. That helped a bit after a while. I still had to work at getting that ice off the windshield. At lunch time, I drove to get a sub. Tons of snow and ice fell off the roof once I stopped at the first stop light.

I used the windshield wiper to get most of the falling snow and ice off the windshield. Too bad for the folks behind me. I tried to speed up a bit so the snow and ice would not hit their cars. Next time I had better clean off the snow a lot earlier.

A Day in the Life

This weekend we had some bad weather. My car is still iced over. Luckily I made Little Kat drive in the snow this weekend. So my other car is cleared off. This morning I rushed at work to complete the initial part of a project that is due today. I handed it off by lunch time.

Ran some errands at lunch. I was so hungry though. Therefore I used a coupon to get a large french fries from McDonalds. Headed to the bank to cash a check. Went to the store to puchase a couple more bags of rock salt for the driveway.

On the way home, I dropped by my favorite Chinese restaurant and picked up some carry out. I love their daily specials. When I came home, Kit Kat had returned from school. She skipped work today due to it being exams weeks and there being bad weather.

I thought I would be smart and transport the huge bags of rock salt from my car to the shed using the wheel barrel. Bad move. The tire on the wheel barrel is flat. Plus I could not get enough traction to get up the ramp into the shed. I hate the cold weather. At least we can keep the ice melted with the salt.

Robbed

My brother came over late this past Saturday. I had a busy day. We planeed to watch a movie and grab some dinner. At first we just took care of some family business. Then we watched the previews and started the movie. After around 20 minutes, we went out to pick up some Mcdonalds.

I was not that hungry. So I used a coupone to grab a snack. My brother got a full meal. We watched the whole movie. It was not that long. This was the "Killing Season" starring DeNiro and Travolta. No deep plot lines here. A simple battle between two ex-military guys. It was maybe a 3 out of 5.

As my brother was preparing to return home, he could not find his jacket. He had hung it up on our coat rack. He found another jacket that looked similar. However his was nowhere to be found. I asked him if maybe he brought it downstairs. No.

I heard a commotion from the other room. Apparently Little Kat overheard our conversation. He had taken my brother's jacket. I guess he thought it was his. Little Kat's excuse was that the jacket was hung in his section of the coat rack. Fail. No real harm done. Got to protect my bro's jacket in the future from thieves.

Pregnancy Fears

Half way through my school semester, I realized the girl who sits next to me was pregnant. I should have known something was up. She was very slender. However her face started to get round. And she started wearing baggier clothes.

The older guys in the class and the instructor were concerned last week that she was still coming to class. I wondered what the worry was about. This girl was not that big in her stomach. She should have plenty of time to finish up the semester and deliver sometime over winter break.

Ooops. Two days after that class she had her baby. She didn't come to class after that. Luckily we only have one more class which is the final. Maybe she might have to petition the school to get an incomplete in her classes. Funny how the wiser guys were able to discern that it was time.

If I were smart, I would have asked her when her expected due date was. Luckily there was no labor going on in class.

Too Lazy for Homework

Little Kat missed some school. It was an excused absense because he had to visit the doctor or something similar. His teachers had given him some zeros on assignments he missed. One teach gave him some make up work. Momoko and I told him to get it done over his long Thanksgiving break. Come Sunday night we asked if it was done. Little Kat said yes.

I have found that Little Kat says yes to anything. We need proof. So I told Little Kat to show me the work. Oooops. Turns out the work was not done. Momoko and I told him to get busy. We all had a meeting at Little Kat's school to talk to counseling and some other staff that are responsible for Little Kat. I took detailed notes.

One of the action items was for Little Kat to turn in that make up assignment. I emailed Little Kat an ordered list of seven action items from the meeting. These were seven tasks he needed to get done. I told Little Kat to get busy and knock them out in priority order. Late at night Momoko asked me to check on Little Kat's progress. He did not do any of the action items.

Okay enough slacking is enough. Little Kat's answer to why he is not doing his work is that he is lazy. That is an understatement. It is time to enforce our rule that Little Kat gets hard labor out in the yard when he receives a zero on any assignment and does not resolve the problem. Looks like I will be getting some good help out in the yard this weekend.

I got a lot of hard work to accomplish in the yard. Sounds like I am going to be playing the foreman role as Little Kat gets his handy dirty out there. No slacking allowed.

New Boyfriend

I had to work the day after Thanksgiving. Had a project due. There were some security access problems on the network. I was working hard right up until quitting time. I had to finish on time. The family was waiting for me. So was Kit Kat's friend who came by the house early to meet the family.

Kit Kat had met the guy on some online dating site. He goes to the university that Kit Kat wants to get her Bachelors degree from. They had gone out on a date before. Now things were starting to get real.

Momoko was supposed to pick us up some tacos. However something went wrong with that plan. I recommended we just go out to our favorite Mexican place. The whole family piled into two vehicles. We had quite a time listening to Kit Kat's new guy talk about life. He gravitated toward very techinical subjects.

After dinner we returned home to play some board games. Then I retired to the bedroom. The rest of the family played video games with Kat Kat and her guy. Later Kit Kat and her man went out with Kit Kat's friends for a movie and a late night snack. Kit Kat came home real late. Her guy was even later getting home.

Introducing Kit Kat's new boyfriend. Woo hoo.