Car Shopping

The family went to eat lunch together as usual on Saturday. However Kit Kat had to meet her friends afterwards to go to the movies. Momoko, Little Kat, and I headed to the local car dealership to do car research. They sell a lot of used cars. This let us consider many manufacturers and models at the same place.

I was surprised how many back seats in cars did not provide adequate headroom for a tall guy like me. Some small cars such as the Nissan Sentra and Mercedes C class were obviously too small. However I was hoping others such as the Honda Accord, Kia Optima, Chevy Malibu, or Nissan Altima would suffice. Nope. Too small. A couple larger cars really surprised me like the Toyota Avalon. Even some SUVs were too small like the Suzuki Vitara and Scion xD.

Little Kat would like to drive a sedan. The only sedan that had tons of head room in the rear seat was the Buick Lucerne. We found one from 2011 that had almost 70k miles on it. It was a bit expensive. But it had a lot of toys like heated leather seats, remote start, and parking assistance. The thing had a V-6 with 227 horsepower. I took it out for a test drive and the accerleration did not disappoint.

We wanted to test drive a Dodge Caliber, which also had headroom to spare in the back seat. This car had 107k miles on it but was cheap. Unfortunately the car would not start. Dead battery? Whatever the cause, that was a sign to leave the car in the lot. Now we need to regroup and maybe try out some other large American sedans such as the Chrysler Grand Marquis or Lincoln Towncar. The only problem is that Little Kat would like to drive a small sedan. The only other alternative is to go with an SUV. But I already own an SUV, so we might be going nowhere.

Christmas Surprise

I slept in Christmas morning. I had worked Christmas Eve. And I have to work the day after Christmas. So I was taking it easy. After waking up, I took a nice hot shower. However the lights started flickering as I was showering. Then the power went out.

I did not hear any electrical storms in the area. Maybe somebody hit a power line with a car. I came downstairs to find that Momoko was in the middle of baking our Christmas apple pie. Luckily the oven will stay warm and hopefully finish the pie.

Now we have a change in plans. We were going to have an early Christmas dinner. But our electrical stove cannot cook anything without power. Luckily a couple local restaurants stay open for Christmas. Momoko reported the power outage to the power company. They say the will fix it in a couple hours. Doubtful.

Who knows? If the power stays off all day, we might have to go out and see a movie. We shall see how I feel. Tomorrow I go to work. I hope the power is working there.

Trash Trouble

I visit my dad twice a week. When I come over, I work in his basement and eat lunch with dad. There is one thing that is very disturbing about dad's neighborhood. There is trash all over the place.

Mostly I see trash strewn about in the street. This is a bad sign. The neighborhood has gone down hill. Crime is surely to follow this trend. I know a guy bought the house next door to my dad. He finally decided to sell and move to another country. The trash piling up in his yard from being blown from other yards was too much for him.

I think that the people might be getting desensitized to it. However I am still shocked by the level of trash in the street. Today I saw a lot of trash directly in front of my dad's house. So I decide to pick it up and throw it away. Then I noticed that a lot of that trash had blown into my dad's front yard. Had to pick that up too.

Doesn't anybody care about the neighborhood around here? I know the guy that started the local civic association in the neighborhood has retired and long since moved away to the country. Most of the other neighbors I knew retired as well and moved away. Now there are a bunch of rentals. What a fail.

Saturday Night Dinner

My brother usually comes over my house on Saturdays to hang out. We used to eat McDonald's for dinner. However I introduced my brother to Chik-Fil-A. He likes it. So do I. Therefore we are starting to eat Chik-Fil-A for dinner instead.

Momoko, Kit Kat, and Little Kat usually eat Chik-Fil-A for dinner on Saturdays. Last week I spied on Kit Kat trying to sneak out of the house. I asked her where she was going. She confessed she was getting some Chik-Fil-A. I added orders for my brother and myself to her list. She groaned.

Later Kit Kat complained about having to get our dinner. I ended up paying for everyone's dinner. However she said she had to go into the store for the large order instead of just going through the driver through.

Today at dinner time, I went and got everyone's order. Then my brother and I went to Chik-Fil-A. The girl at the drive through window was unsure about our drinks. Then she said I should not worry about it. No way. I handed her back all the drinks and told her to give them back to me when she was sure.

Turns out the drinks were okay. Somebody gave her a small drink, when we ordered all large drinks. But she got it right. After getting the massive amount of food, I parked in the parking lot. There was no way I was going to drive home to find out we were short changed.

I got confused by the fact that there was an additional box of chicken strips in our bag. But I do not kind getting extra food. I cannot allow there to be missing items. Back at home, Momoko was pleasantly surprised by the large number of sauces I came home with. Usually Kit Kat is stingy with the sauces she brings Momoko for dinner.

Christmas Photos

Momoko wanted new photos of the kids. So she thought she could go to Walmart. Turns out they don't do family photos. Instead Momoko found a place that would do around 40 pictures for twenty bucks. Sounded like a good deal. Unfortunately they needed to drive to the other side of town for it.

We have been trying to see this Steven Hawking film together as a family for a while. It had been rescheduled for this morning. However Momoko was able to get a photo appointment today. That bumped the movie to another time.

I went out early and worked in the yard. The kids grabbed a snack and drove a long way to get their photos taken. Momoko made them dress up and wear matching clothes. Right before their photo shoot, Momoko took the kids to eat home pho. That is Vietmamese noodles.

Momoko was only going to buy the pictures that came with the special. However there were some extra shots of Little Kat that she just had to pay a bit extra for. Now I got a couple recent photos to put in my photo ablum. It is funny. When friends come over and see the kids for the first time, they always comment on how big they are. I guess my only other pictures of them are as small kids.

He Did It

Yesterday Momoko took off from work. She went with Little Kat so he could take his driver's license test again. Last time he disobeyed the instructions of the tester. This time he succeeded. It is official. Little Kat is a licensed driver.

Momoko had previously bought Kit Kat a car. Momoko is still making the monthly payments on that thing. So I decided to let Little Kat drive my old Toyota (Scion xB). As soon as I heard Little Kat passed his test, I called my insurance company.

Bad news. My insurance will more than double if I put Little Kat on my policy. Oh well. The guy has to drive. I signed up for six months of full coverage. The only good news is that Little Kat is now authorized and insured to drive any of my vehicles. That insludes my truck and my new Nissan.

Today Little Kat took the car to school. He tried to apply for a parking pass at his school. However they need money, parent signatures, and a justification to assign one of their precious few spaces. After having gone through the trouble and money of getting Little Kat licensed, we will be getting one of those spaces.

Little Kat told me he has some problems with my Scion xB. It does not accelerate well into traffic. He also said he would prefer to have a sedan to hide stuff in the trunk. Sounds legit. We will have to start the long process of looking for a replacement car. If we can buy a used one, it should not cost that much more as the Scion has held its value. But we might go new for reliability reasons...

You Get What You Pay For

I have been going through our large trash bags quickly since the leaves keep on falling from the trees. It was time to order another big box of bags. I usually order them 160 or 240 at a time. Previously I had chosen Hefty bags because I like the way the tops tied nicely. Then I could not find them anymore.

Next I used Glad bags for a long time. The tops did not tie as easily as Hefty. But the bag were strong, really strong. Recently I tried to order them from Amazon. The price had gone up. Plus they were no longer available as a free shipping item. What is a guy to do?

I tried another off brand. They were so thin I could not put the leaves in there. Used the bags for some other purposes. Had to go back to Glad. Once again the price was high, so I tried another brand. They were thick enough. But the things kept coming apart at the seams. I have learned my lesson. Stick with quality no matter the price.

Function Over Fashion

Today was the last day of my class for the semester at school. I told my boss at work that I needed to leave early. Good thing I did that because things were busy at work today. I even had to delay lunch a bit. I did eat a hearty meal because I would not be able to get dinner until after my final exam.

The instructor gave us a little surprise at the start of class. He told us we needed to demo our final projects before we took the exam. I was happy that I decided to bring my laptop to class that had my final project in demo form.

The other guys in class had what looked like impressive projects. Their graphics were hot and they had a lot of bells and whistles in their web sites. However I noticed they did not get down to business and implement the required parts of the assignment. The instructor noticed it too. LOL. These guys got some scrambling to do after the exam to get their projects in order.

I was done the exam in no time. Part of the test was auto-graded. I got marked wrong on one answer I was sure was correct. So I decided to email the instructor when I got home. Luckily he figured out the auto-grade problem while I was driving home and fixed the answer. I knew that answer was correct.

The class I took this semester centered around learning a web tool. Personally I like doing custom programming. This class had minimal coding to it. That was strange given that a prerequisite for the course was a hard programming class. I did not apply myself this semester. It was not a complte waste. I can use the stuff I learned to stand up web sites. But I hope to get more programming in during next semester at school.

New Coat for the Weather

Little Kat said he had outgrown his old coat. The weather is getting chilly. So we scheduled a trip to the local coat factory. Unfortunately Little Kat overslept and had to grill up some dinner during our shopping time. The shopping trip got rescheduled.

Next time around, I got stuck picking up leaves outside. That's okay. The kids needed to put up some Christmas light anyway. Then I was ready to go. However Little Kat needed to grill up dinner while there was still light outside. Doh.

After grilling (and some eating), Little Kat drove me to the coat factory. I had not been to the redesigned mall. It is now an outdoor town center. The coat factory store was big. However we could not find the men's coats.

I asked a store employee who pointed us in the direction of the coats. It seems the coat factory had repurposed itself as a clothes store. There were a couple racks of jackets that fit Little Kat. He wanted one that was the right size. He needed something heavy for the cold weather. He also wanted one made of cotton.

We found a couple jackets that met all the requirements. I bought him the one that seemed best. Little Kat threw out his old jacket that was too small and damaged. He should now be good to go. I liked that the factory had good prices.

Forgetful Fail

Momoko and I went to the casino for a mini vacation. We left the kids behind at home. Altogether we stayed four days and three nights there. It was nice to have a hotel room right above the casino. It let us gamble and they go upstairs for a rest when needed.

On the last night of our stay, Momoko went to her new favorite machine called Mermaids. She seemed to be able to play for a long time and even make some money off the thing. I had lost most of my money and decided to go upstairs to the room alone. I still had some homework for class to complete.

Momoko eventually returns to the room when she was tired. She got ready for bed and realized she left her jacket on the chair in front of the Mermaids machine. She had me go back down to retrieve it. Easy right? No such luck.

I did find Momoko's jacket on the chair. Then I grabbed a bit of free ginger ale before heading upstairs. I should have known I was in trouble when I followed a large crowd towards the elevators. They were all walking slow because a dude in a wheel chair was at the front.

Wheel chair guy got on an elevator. Was not much room in it for other people. We all waited for the next elevator. A couple got off the elevator, but stuck around waiting for another elevator. When quizzed, they replied that the elevator they got off was broken.

Unfortunately no other elevators came down for us. I went into the broke elevator and tried to get it to go up. No luck. They have some security device that requires you to use your key to make the elevator go up. Another lady came into the car and fooled around with the security device and got it to work.

Too bad the elevator would not stop at my floor. The thing was defective. I rode the elevator up and had to take the stairs back down to our level. I did not trust this elevator and wanted to avoid getting stuck in it all night. No wonder Momoko did not want to go down and retrieve her own jacket. Suspicious.

Target Trouble

Momoko had a great coupon at Target. She could buy a DVD for 55% off the normal price. Last I checked, Amazon was still selling the DVD at normal price. Guess that was because it was still a new release. Momoko talked me into driving her to Target.

I walked outside and had some trouble. I was wearing my comfortable shoes which have no protection against water. Due to the heavy rain, my shoes and socks got drenched. I sent Momoko in to Target alone to buy the DVD.

I locked up the car for safety in the parking lot. However I did not want Momoko to return to a locked door. So I kept an eye out for her. I watched as people kept going into Target. Guess they were starting their Christmas shopping early.

I started to get concerned when I spotted people leaving Target who had entered after Momoko. What was taking her so long? She only wanted to buy one DVD. Turns out she could not find the DVD. Then the checkout clerk would not give her the discount ont he bluRay version.

Momoko ended up going to customer service. They also could not find the DVD. They ended up giving her the 55% discount on the bluRay. Still took forever. I did not consider this a good value after having spent so much time waiting for Momoko. At least we have a good story from it.

Help a Brother Out

I used to work with a guy in my last company. We went out to lunch every day. I left the company. He was later let go from the company when there was no more work for him to do. I moved to a new company. I tried to get this buddy to come join my company. He passed on the opportunity. He knew my company was not for him. It is too crazy where I work.

My buddy has very specialized skills. Plus he is older. That combination, along with a somewhat weak job market, means he is unemployed. Luckily he collected unemployment for a few years. He also got an inheritance to help him out. But he can't stay like this forever. He has been out of work for a while. That fact too makes it hard for him to get employer.

I was encouraged to see that he got on Linked In.His profile looks good with a lot of connection. Now he is looking to get certified in databases. I did the cerfitification thing around five years ago. He asked me how my training went. I advised him to stay away from the computer program based trainng. Those were horrible. The in-class sessions were good but very expensive.

I told my buddy he could borrow all my course materials from the in-class sessions. I have not touched the documentation in 5 years. Was going to meet my buddy at my house today. But he is having car trouble. Hopefully I will see him next week and he can hit the books. It seems having the certification badge helps you get through some doors, and hopefully a job!

Type 3 Bulbs

Little Kat got the idea that he would be a griller. We started with a small propane grill. Little Kat thought he would be more efficient with a gas grill over a charcoal one. Then I bought him a large propane grill with a lot of burners. I always make sure we have a backup propane tank so he does not run out of fuel in the middle of a cookout.

Sometimes Little Kat grills out after sunset. So I bought a two-faced spotlight. Our handyman mounted outside over the patio. I guess it works for Little Kat. The other day I noticed one of the bulbs had burned out. I waited for Little Kat to mention this. He never did. Instead he moved the grill over to the side of the patio where one of the spotlights still shined. Super slacker.

I climbed up the ladder and through I saw a marking on the light that said it took Type 3 bulbs. I pulled the dead bulb out. Momoko said she could only find Type 5 bulbs at the store. Amazon to the rescue. I found something called Type T3 bulbs on sale. I bought a big pack of cheap ones. The first one I took out of the package slid right into the spotlight. But it was a dud. The second one worked like a charm.

Note to self: Make sure you know what kind of bulbs the lights you buy use. I made this mistake with the ceiling light in Little Kat's room. The fan above the light works great. However the light takes non-standard bulbs which are a pain to find. I am planning to have the handyman swap out that light for one that takes normal 60W fan bulbs with the medium base. You live. You learn.

Gutter Job

Little Kat was off from school today. And I was off from work. I let Little Kat sleep in until the afternoon. Then I woke him up so he could eat some lunch. After lunch, I had him help me with cleaning out the leaves from the second story gutter in the back yard.

You would think that one gutter would not be that much work. You would be wrong. The ground is uneven below that gutter. So as we moved the ladder along, we had to prop up one side of it with some wood.

Another problem was that the roof is two and a half stories high back there. Plus there is a radon removal system exhaust vent located between two windows. Hard to get a good ladder placement with all the stuff in the way.

I was thinking about doing the front gutters too today. Nope. I was worn out after just the high back gutters. I did get some time in to teach Little Kat some Algebra II after gutting cleaning. Then I passed out for a few hours.

The party was not over yet. I woke up for dinner, watched an episode of The Flash with the family, then headed down to my study to work on homework for class. So much fun. Not.

No Test Tonight

I finished getting ready for work tomorrow. Shirt is ironed. Bag is packed. Ready to go. I figured it was time to take my college exam. It is an online test. Was supposed to get it a week ago. The instructor had some trouble getting to us on time. But now it is ready.

Before the test I tried to read my college email. For some reason, I could not connect to the site. I then logged in to get my test. There was a big message on the school's home page: They are having network maintenance tonight and so services will be down.

What timing. Just when I want to get the test over with, they shut down the networks. Luckily class is not for another couple nights. Still I wanted this out of the way. I guess I will try again tomorrow night.

Derailed

I figureed it was time to get back to my exercise program. So I grabbed my Kindle device and headed for the treadmill. Damn. The light bulb burned out above it. Easy enough. I would just change it. When I tried to pull down the light cover, I could not pry it loose. I grabbed a set of long plier and got it open.

Inside I found a huge flood light bulb. I tried to replace it with a regular 60 Watt bulb. It was just not bright enough. Then I pulled a mini-flood light bulb from a light in my study. Must have damaged the bulb while struggling to screw it into the fixture above the treadmill.

That's okay. I discovered I bought a six pack of mini-flood light bulbs for just an occasion. I replace the bulb I borrow out of my study. Then I screwed in another one above the treadmill. It worked well. But my old style original Kindle was too dark to read. Luckily I broke out the iPad with my Kindle app. Got busy readng and exercising.

Internet Woes

Last night I needed to work on my college class project. Spent some time writing some code. Then I needed to add some new software plugins to my system. Tried to search online for them. But the Internet was down in the house.

I told the family that I was going to reboot the router. Everyone told me they had Internet problems too. Why wasn't anyone else doing anything about this? Just waiting for someone else to do the work I guess.

A reboot of the router did not do the trick. So I connected to the router and tried to get it to reset itself with our Internet Service Provider. I gave up after struggling for a bit. I was tired and went to bed. The next morning, Momoko asked me if I got any errors. Sure I did. Everyone using our network connection would be until the problem was solved.

I unplugged the router. Plugged my computer directly into the cable modem that connects to our Internet Service Provider. I was able to get onto the Internet. That is all the Internet Service Provider guarantees: one computer directly connected will work.

I swapped out our new fancy router for our old one. It still did not work. But a single computer connected did work. Kept trying to get the old router to reset and get connected to the Internet. It seemed futile. Finally after reconnecting wires, rebooting all devices many times, I got the old router to work.

Not sure if it is time for a new Internet Service Provider or what. I do think it is time for some other people in the family to step up and learn how to debug Internet problems. They are all consumers of the Internet service when it works.

A New Found Glory

I used to like this band "A New Found Glory". They have since changed their name to New Found Glory. I consider them a rock/pop band. They link to think of themselves as punk rock. The song I most remember from them is Hit or Miss.

New Found Glory (NFG) reinvented themselves after their debut. I also recall watching their All Downhill From Here video on MTV. It was a weird animation/claymation type of video. The sound was definitely NFG. But it was modernized a bit.

Somewhere in the middle of their career they released the My Friends Over You single. Good stuff. My favorite will always be Hit or Miss. How could you not love them singing ...

Remember the time we wrote our names upon the wall
Remember the time we realized "Thriller" was our favorite song

Day Off

Momoko and I took the day off from work. We had some business to take care of. But the business got cancelled. We decided to do something fun on our day off. It was finally time to visit one of the local casinos.

There was some confusion at the start of the day. We planned to eat breakfast at 8am. Then Momoko told me we were going to eat at 9am. I studied hard the night before. I thought I would have a nice sleep in. Nope. Momoko woke me up at 8am. She reverted back to the original wake up time. Ouch.

The casino had a weird parking lot. The ramps between levels were steep. Initially it took a long time to find my Super Jackpot Party slot machines. They were nickel machines. I like penny machines. Later we found a new game that I like - Black Knight. It was actually Black Knight II. But close enough.

I spent a lot of money trying to get to the bonus round in Black Knight II. Momoko hit the bonus around five times before I got my first one. Once I got it, I quit the game. I played one more Super Jackpot Party round until I got a party. Then I was done for the day.

The real bonus was that we discovered a new Sonic that is around 10 miles from our house. We don't need to go into the inner city to eat there. The parking lot was hard to get to. No problem. For Sonic I can make do. Sonic made a mistake on our order. We ended up with two extra burgers. The kids would be getting a burger bonus today.

Amazon Delivers

Momoko added Little Kat onto her Amazon Prime account. That way he could enjoy free two day shipping on most Amazon purchases. This came just in time because Little Kat wanted to buy a Halloween mask on Amazon.

Little Kat expected his shipment to arrive in two days. When it did not come, he tracked his package. The thing got misdirected to North Carolina. Fail. Amazon guarantees two day shipping for its Amazon Prime customers. Momoko encouraged Little Kat to contact Amazon and voice his displeasure.

Little Kat wrote an email to Amazon complaining about the long wait for his package. Amazon responded by refunding his purchase price, and allowed him to keep the merchandise. That was a good move. That's why I love Amazon. They know how to do customer service even when they screw up.

The Value of the Deal

I am always on the lookout for a good deal. Amazon offers free 2 day shipping to Amazon Prime members? Sounds good. Getting a discount to Amazon Prime because I am a student? Sounds even better.

Momoko signed up for Amazon Prime for full price. Ouch. But there is a silver lining. Once you sign up for full price, you can allow your family members to enjoy the benefits as well. Lucky Kit Kat and Little Kat. Now they get free two day shipping too.

I take advantage of another Amazon Prime perk. Once a month, I am able to "borrow" an eBook on Amazon for free. This is nice because those books normally cost $$$. There is a drawback. You must rent the book on an official Amazon Kindle device. Kindle readers such as the iPad app do not work here.

Well I purchased an orignal Kindle a long time ago for Little Kat to use to read. He really did not use it. So I reclaimed it and use it to read my monthly Kindle rental. Now there is a new Amazon Prime benefit called Kindle First.

Kindle First let's you get a free book once a month if you are a Prime Member. These are books that are about to come out, but have not been officially published to the general public. You get to choose from a selection of four books each month. They become your books to keep.

Normally I jump at such opportunities. I already subscribe to Amazon Prime. Might as well take advantage of all the opportunities. The thing is that of the four books available for October, none of them really excite me. So I took a pass on it this month. I did sign up to receive an email every time new Kindle First titles become available.

Two More Months

Today Momoko took off from work to take Little Kat to test for his driver's license. He has practiced a lot. He set up an appointment around noon. I stayed home and worked. I also watched over my two handymen as they attended to assorted problems around the house.

I tried to wait until Little Kat came home from his test before heading out to lunch. But it got too late. When I came back home with lunch, I saw Little Kat. He said he failed. The closed circuit test was no problem for him. He said his tester said he did not need any more parking practice.

Little Kat failed on the road test. The tester told him to take the second left at the cones. Little Kat thought he said to take the left at the second set of cones. There was only one set of cones. The official reason for failure was that Little Kat did not obey the instructions of the tester.

Having heard about the failure, I now know what we need to practice. I usually give Little Kat very explicit instructions when he drives. I want him to learn the driving, not the interpretation of directions. I know that Little Kat knows how to drive. Just need to give him practice following vague or tricky directions.

Little Kat will return in two months to try the driving test again.

Stepping Up My Game

Today I decided to work out in our basement gym early. I had the day off from work due to holiday. At first I did my normal warm up. I lifted some weight on the barbell five repetitions. Then I started my 15 minutes walk on the tread on "setting 2". There are 10 speed settings on the treadmill. This is the second slowest one.

A few minutes into the walk, I figured I was at the point where 15 minutes on setting 2 would hardly break me into a sweat. Time to up the game. I bumped the speed to 3. That is a whole lot faster than 2. I was able to keep up for the full 15 minutes. Was not tired after the walk. But I was sweating a lot more.

Then when I went to the barbell to do more curls, I decided to up my repetitions. Did 7 lifts instead of 5. Might be time to add more weight on the barbell. Since I was on a roll, I upped the resistance on the stationary bike I ride. That was hard at first. I might not be read for an increase there.

Finished up with another 7 repetitions on the barbell. I will give this another month or two before I try to up the ante even more. Let's hope I can stick with the program.

Billiards Surprise

Today I had scheduled to take the early afternoon off to visit my friend at her college. We were going to play some billiards on campus. I had prepared by printing off directions to her new college. Then I printed a map of the campus. Finally I found the places on campus where there was paid visitor parking.

I packed my goods in my bookbag. Also loaded up on quarters so I could pay for metered parking. The morning was hectic at work. Guess the boys knew I was heading out for the afternoon. I also had to complete something for my boss. I did leave my house on time an hour before billiards time.

When I got to the campus, I made my way to the visitor parking garage close to the billiards building. This garage had an arrangement where you go to a station and buy a parking pass. As I got out of my truck, I discovered my wallet was missing. I searched my truck. No luck. Must have left the wallet at home during the ruckus at work.

I texted my friend. She came over to my truck. I told her we could search for metered parking that takes in quarters. She decided to use her credit card. Parking was a reasonable $2 per hour. I was not going to be there long.

There was another problem. I was hungry. There was no time for breakfast. My friend bought me a cheeseburger topped with jalapenos. Also drank a Pepsi. After lunch, we headed to the pool hall. It was crowded earlier. But there were almost all free pool tables when we got there. These were long 9 foot tables. Both of us were off our billiards game this afternoon.

Grill Grate

Little Kat was scheduled to grill us up some pork chops this weekend. I quizzed him about his cooking plans. He tried to modify our menu. However the time for modifications is when we decide what groceries to buy every Saturday night. With Little Kat having planned out the times for cooking, I thought we were safe for dinner.

After being outside for about 10 minutes, Little Kat came in from grilling and said we had a problem. He said he cleaned the grates on the grill. One of the grates broke. There are three grates total. Each grate has three sections. One section had broke. This was troubling since Little Kat only grills at most once a week.

I took the action item to find out if the grate could be replaced under warrenty. Had to find my sales receipt (we bought the grill at Walmart). Luckily I had blogged about purchasing the grill. Hell. We just got the thing back in May. It is 5 months old. I will call them tomorrow and request that they replace the broken part.

Let's hope none of the other grates break down before our next grilling. Luckily we actually have a backup grill. It is a junior sized grill. But it works.

Forgot the Secret Code

Last night I was tired but took care of my business. Packed my work computer in my bag late at night. I woke up this morning on time. Drove over to my dad's house to work from his basement and eat lunch with him. As I booted up my computer, I realized that I left my paper with my secret logon codes at home.

I had to drive back home. It was already past the time when I need to log into my computer. So I just logged in from my home. Momoko came home from a doctor's appoint with some Burger King for breakfast. I had missed out because I was not supposed to be at home then. So I got not Burger King for myself.

The big boss at work left me a message and wanted to talk with me during lunch. So I grabbed some food from my fridge, went over to my dad's house, ate lunch, and talked with the big boss. Then I spent the lunch hour with dad. Afterwards I returned home where my work computer was located.

Kit Kat and Momoko came home for lunch with Chik-Fil-A. Ouch. I missed out on another delicious meal. They did not expect me to be home. So they did not pick me anything up. The only positive meal I got was dinner. Kit Kat made chilli, one of my favorites. She also baked up some corn bread. Delicious. Thanks Kit Kat.

Community College

I attend community college to keep on top of recent changes in computers. My company pays all the costs. It is one of my benefits. Keeps me sharp too. Kit Kat is attending community college while preparing to transfer to her four year college. She happens to go to my college.

I occasionally interrogate the children about their college plans. Previously Little Kat wanted to leave the house for college. He was destined to attend college in California. He was not sure which college he would go to. He just knew California was the destination.

One of Little Kat's long time friends had plotted to move to California with Little Kat long ago. Turns out now this friend wants to go to North Carolina instead. Fickle kids. Little Kat may also change his destination.

I do know this. Little Kat's new plan is to attend community college first. And he also plans to attend my community college. This might not be strange if I attended our county's local community college. However I attend the community college in the county I used to live. I guess it is a good college.

College Misdirect

My friend was taking her little sister to an all day convention in the city college. My friend was just going to wait around until her sister was done. I had not seem my friend in a while. So I decided to go up to the college to hang out with her.

I googled the city college. Printed out maps. Got directions for visitor parking. I was prepared. This morning I went up to the college and parking in a garage at the south of campus. Then I texted my friend. She said she was in a certain building.

Looking over the map, I could not find the building. My friend insisted that it was on the campus map. I had her check the street address. Doh. She was really far south of me. I began a long walk to go meet her. When I arrived at the address, I figured out what was wrong. She was at the state college (which just happened to be in the city). She was not at the city college.

After hanging out for a while cooling down from my morning hike, I needed to return to my car. It was another marathon walk. I programmed my GPS to take me home. Half way through the city, my GPS froze. That was no big deal, because I can normally navigate myself fine.

When I returned home, I was disturbed to find the side door to our house ajar. I called out. Nobody answered. Eventually Momoko came downstairs. She said the kids went out with their friends. Guess somebody left the door cracked and the wind blew it open.

Kool Aid Debacle

Yesterday I took the trash out twice. The second time around, I checked out fridges to see if any food needed to be thrown out. The kids do a poor job with that. As I opened our large silver fridge, a huge container of Kool Aid fell down spilling onto the floor. It was the red variety.

I immediately called out to the family for help. We assembled a bunch of towels and sopped up the Kool Aid. Unfortunately we were not quick enough. Some of the drink went under the fridge and freezer. We moved both and cleaned the floor underneath them.y.

After moving the freezer back to its original spot, I noticed a trail of Kool Aid under its path. Damn. The Kool Aid was on the bottom of the freezer. We then had to start the arduous task of emptying out the freezer, tipping it on its side, and cleaning the bottom of the thing.

The whole cleanup took 45 minutes. That's a lot of time considering we had all four members of the family working on the task at the same time. These kids got to make sure the Kool Aid (and any other drink containers) are pushed to the back of the fridge. Otherwise we will continue to be on cleanup duty.

Lunch Choices

I had a break from work and decided to go out for lunch. It was going to be some sort of fast food. I narrowed my choices down to Jerry's Subs or Roy Rogers. Jerry's is nice because there is not much traffic in the store. Guess that is because the prices are high. Their subs are tasty, and I can get their Cheap Thrills deal and not spend too much cash.

Then there is Roy Rogers. It is the opposite. The place gets packed at lunch time. I like their fixings bar. I load up my burger with pickles and jalapeno peppers. Also fill a couple cups of their awesome BBQ sauce to dip my fries into. In the end, I choice to visit Roy rogers.

It was still early enough that they place was not crowded when I arrived at Roy's. The receipt tape broke after I placed my order. The cashier handed me a piece of my receipt. I did not care. They knew the order was for me. I spied on a guy filling up a holster of French fries and putting it on my tray. Then the cashier got my burger and put more fries next to the burger.

The cashier eventually noticed that I already had fries. She told me I would get double fries today. To me this was a sign that I made the right choice. Now my gut might not benefit from this decision. However I was a happy eater.

Hitting the Gym

Recently I noticed my gut was sticking out more than normal. Not good. I get a workout once a week doing yard work. But that is not enough. Couple that with eating a lot of bad foods means poor health. Time to hit the gym - our indoor gym downstairs.

I figured I could spend 5 minutes on the treadmill and 5 minutes on the stationary bike. First I wanted to lift some weight. Little Kat's bench press was unused in the corner of the room. There were not even any weights attached to his barbell.

I struggled to figure out how to unlock his tool box that housed the clamps to secure the weight to the barbell. It was a trick lock. Then I loaded the heaviest weights onto the edges of the barbell. I lift it to check it out. Still not heavy enough. Added some of the second heaviest plates onto the end. Good to go.

Then I walked on the treadmill, reading my latest eBook on my Kindle app. After 5 minutes of walking, I actually felt good. I was sweating. But I was not out of breath. That might be because I had the treadmill on no include and a slower speed. I decided to go 15 minutes on the treadmill and 15 on the bike.

Watch out world. I am getting fit 15 minutes at a time.

New Car Shopping

Little Kat is going to test for his license next month. He is now practicing with Kit Kat's car, a 2011 Honda Fit Sport. Little Kat has decided that my old Scion xB is not fit (no pun intended) to take to his driver's license test due to some dings in the windshield.

In the bigger scheme of things, I previously planned to let Little Kat drive my xB when he got his license. Momoko already bought a car for Kit Kat. There is no more budget for another car for Little Kat. But Little Kat says he finds my car underpowered. Yeah. It is not a sports car. It is a fun looking car.

I told Little Kat that I no longer had any strong ties to the Scion xB. The only reason I had no sold it when I got another car was that I figured we would need an extra car for Little Kat. So I plan to swap it out for a car with more horsepower. Little Kat requested that I buy a sedan instead of a hatchback fo him. We will see what we can do.

I would like to buy an entry level, minimal options new car for a low price. Little Kat is advocating for a slightly used car with a lot of high end options. Here are the 2015 models that Yahoo autos says are good (and that I think I can afford):

• Honda Fit
• Hyundai Sonata
• Volkswagon Golf
• Toyota Camry
• Chrysler 200

Fast and Slow

I bought Little Kat some red Converse knock off sneakers online recently. They were a size eleven. But they ran small and did not fit Little Kat. Had to go to the Post Office today to return the shoes. I was following an old lady from India into the Post Office. She walked slow. I was patient behind her.

Inside the Post Office, there were a few people in line but they were not ready. So I blew past them and got helped right away. That was quick. As I exited the Post Office, there were a long line of people waiting to be helped. Glad I came early on my lunch break.

On the way home, I did a right turn on red. Punched it as I pulled out in front of an 18-wheeler. I had time to spare. Plus my manual transmission lets me accelerate fast. Turned the corner on the main road to find that it was blocked off. Cops closed the road for a funeral procession.

I figured once the people got out of the funeral home, I was safe. Nope. The cops closed off all intersections all the way down the road. I just had to be patient. Sometimes you get lucky and jump to the front of the line. Other times you hurry up only to wait.

WiFi Woes

The kids complained that their videos were loading and playing slowly. I noticed that a game I play on the IPad kept getting disconnected from the server. Something was wrong with the Internet in our house. Little Kat said we needed more bandwidth.

Hey. I am willing to give anything a try. I had the economy style Internet bandwidth which gave us a 3Mbps pipe to the Internet. Recently I upgraded to 25Mbps to appease Little Kat and give us more speed. I also replaced our wireless router with a "dual-band" one that had three antennas on the back. Three antennas!

What was the result? Well I still get disconnected from my server, just not as often. Kit Kat still gets bounced off WiFi in her room. Little Kat still cannot play YouTube videos at full resolution, or even get consistent playback at lower resolution.

This is going to be a long running work in progress. To solve the upstairs wireless issues, I figured I would need to get a second router upstairs that connects to our main router. Maybe that will solve some issues. Little Kat says his friend's house has no trouble YouTube. I told him to do a real-time test to see if he and his friend can watch the same video at the same time.

I also recommended Little Kat directly plug his computer into the router to see if WiFi is killing him too. If necessary, I told him we could try upgrading to a whopping 105Mbps bandwidth. However I suspect something else is wrong with out setup. Maybe it will be as simple as tweaking a setting or two. Just got to find out which settings need adjusting.

Hallowen Comes

Momoko said that Little Kat was requesting some red Converse tennis shoes that cost $150. No way. That is just too much money for some sneakers. Momoko thought maybe Little Kat was succumbing to some peer pressure or something.

We interrogated Little Kat. Turns out he needs red tennis shoes for his Halloween costume of Bo Jack Horseman. Bo Jack is an anime series. It depicts a horse that got rich as an actor. Now he lives in a mansion and has a lot of problems.

I guess Bo Jack is a commentary on the world of acting and Hollywood. The show is actually really funny. When I have time, I watch the episodes with the kids. Bo Jack has a friend that is a dog. He also has a leech roommate who is a bum.

Bo Jack's agent is his ex-girlfriend and is a cat. Go figure. The paparrazzi are always after Bo Jack. I hope Little Kat can pull off this custome. Not sure where he is going to go when he assembles the costume. I just have to remember to take a bunch of pictures when Little Kat puts it on.

Back to School Night

Little Kat's school had their annual back-to-school night this week. Momoko could not attend because there is just too much fast paced walking involved. I did not think Kit Kat could attend because she would just not ask all the hard questions of the teachers. Therefore I was up to bat.

I made Little Kat accompany me. In fact, I made him drive to the school to get in some driving practice. The school lot was full as we arrived just as the event started. As usual, the principal was giving his pep talk. He also had his lietenants speak to us. I was impressed by the athletics director. He was a top notch public speaker.

Some of Little Kat's classes were in temporary buildings. Strangely enough, Little Kat prefers them because the heat can be manually controlled in the winter to guarantee a warm environment. I spied a number of good looking young girls that Little Kat should be meeting this year. Momoko and Little Kat disagree with me. So I am outvoted.

I took lots of notes and asking important questions such as what the teachers' emails addresses were. Little Kat's chemistry teacher went to my alma mater. The final teacher we visited was Little Kat's English teacher, who just started the day before since she replaced another teacher that left. Little Kat and I cut out of that class to beat the rush out of the parking lot while driving home.

I have already reached out and emailed each of Little Kat's teachers to ensure we have their correct email addresses. Got to start out on the right foot.

Final Tasks for Mom

Dad took care of the funeral home expenses when mom died. My brother took care of the cemetery plots. I only thought it fitting that I take care of the gravestone. Our cemetery actually does grave markers, which are granite square stones laid in the ground, topped with brass plates.

The cost of grave markers from the cemetery was high. Fine. I thought I would buy from another source. The cemetery makes that next to impossible. They have a ten page document outlining the requirements for outside grave markers. I could not find a manufacturer that could meet their specs. Criminal.

Instead of fighting this, I bowed down and placed an order with the cemetery. Dad was getting anxious that it was taking a long time to get the grave marker settled. I ordered a double wide one to cover both plots my brother bought. It should arrive in 8 to 10 weeks. This chapter will be closed out by the end of the year.

I went by mom's grave after completing the grave marker business. Grass was finally groving over her grave. I saw the potted plants my brother had left. They were staked down with some metal rods.

I still recall very vividly the many conversations I had with my mom as I visited her each week when she was sick. I often wonder if I missed some indirect guidance mom tried to provide in those last couple months. One thing was clear. She wanted me to get closer to dad. I diligently work on that task now.

Change in Plans

Kit Kat was supposed to cook us pancakes tonight. Little Kat dreaded it. He just does not like pancakes. Not sure what is wrong with him. He came up with a scheme: Little Kat found a coupon for our favorite Mexican restaurant. He proposed that he drive us there and I buy us dinner.

That was almost a good plan. But we already have plans to visit that restaurant for lunch tomorrow. Plus they are too busy on Friday nights. Little Kat's backup was for me to choose another restaurant that I had a coupon for. We decided on a new all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. It was really a seafood Chinese restaurant.

We used Kit Kat's GPS to get us there. Ended up waiting forever at this really short left hand turn signal. We even missed one of the light rotations. Then as we neared the seafood buffet, Momoko wanted Little Kat to merge into the center turn lane. He did not understand and instead did a sharp left across opposing traffic. Kit Kat and I feared for our lives in the back seat.

The seafood restaurant was really busy for late on a Friday night. They had a lot of weird looking and tasting foods. Little Kat assured me we got our money's worth just from the load of sushi he ate. The waitress was quick to refill our sodas and take away our used plates. This restaurant reminds me of a similar buffet really close to our house, but this one was not as good.

Thrift Store Surprise

Little Kat met a boy on his bus that also has a custom built game computer. This boy apparently has a whopping four computer monitors attached to his computer. Little Kat got jealous. The secret, according to this boy, was to buy the hardware at thrift stores.

So yesterday Little Kat and I went driving to the local thrift store. This allowed Little Kat to get some more driving practice in, and to check out the cheap electronics. Little Kat almost ran a few people over in the parking lot. And he almost hit a car coming home. Just goes to demonstrate that he needs more practice.

Little Kat found a tall flat screen monitor in the store for ten bucks. It did not come with any cables. Not sure if he is going to be able to hook up the monitor. The big surprise in the store was the framed artwork in the back. Most pictures were under fifteen dollars. Some were lower than five bucks.

I picked up two pictures for my study. The family tried to convince me to hang them in the kitchen. Nope. These are all mine. I wish I knew about this goldmine earlier. I spent a lot of money decorating my study with new posters. I really with I knew about this the last time I went shopping for framed fine art.

First Concert

Kit Kat had scheduled to go with her college friends to a concert this weekend. One of her friends bailed on her. So she had an extra ticket that she could not sell. Instead of letting it go to waste, she invited Little Kat to come along with her.

They all got a ride from one of Kit Kat's friend's brother. The concert was up in a big city North of us. They just needed a ride home. Momoko told Kit Kat there was no way she would drive her home. It was up to me. Since this would be Little Kat's first concert, and one of the few times we let him hang out with Kit Kat's friends, I accepted the assignment.

I printed out directions to get there using MapQuest. I also studied the map around the concert venue. Also packed my GPS with me. I brought my old car because it has automatic transmission, and it stands out in a crowd.

I left with time to spare. Got into the city early. However once I got within a few blocks of the concert venue, the traffic came to a stand still. I decided to park on a street a few blocks away. I called Kit Kat on her phone and gave her directions to get to my car. Good thing my phone has a map app that is pretty good.

When Kit Kat turned the corner, I saw her and called her. They all loaded into my car. I cut across traffic and headed away from the madness near the concert arena. We were on the highway in no time, and back home in a half hour. I dropped Kit Kat and her friend off at the friend's house. I brought Little Kat home.

It was the first time Little Kat or Kit Kat's friend had ever seen a concert. The openers were not that great. But the headliner rocked the house. I was surprised that the concert was not a sell out. Guess this is just a town out in the middle of nowhere. There sure were a lot of people out on the streets after the concert.

Sliding Glass

We have an old sliding glass door that connects the kitchen to the patio outside. These days we do not use the door. The inside portion of it is obstructed by a large shelf and our full size freezer in the kitchen. The door has double pane glass. The outside glass pane got cracked a few years ago.

I meant to get it fixed. However my handyman said he could not repair it. He could only replace it for some big bucks. He recommended I have a glass company replace the glass in the door. That's what I did. Had the local glass and mirror shop order the window. It was a non-standard size. The glass came in this week.

Had some trouble with the scheduling of the install. The guy called me yesterday. I told him I would be available today. He promised to call me back. However when he called me back, he forgot about our conversation yesterday. We set up a time for the installer to come by. Then he calls me back 10 minutes later and tries to switch up the times. No can do.

The installer arrived at the set time. I needed to prepare by taking everything out of the big shelf. Also needed to move the shelf and freezer out of the way. That exposed a nasty back wall that had to be cleaned. Then I cleared the stuff off the patio that obstructed access from the outside.

The guy who came was optomistic that he could finish the job in an hour. I continued to work on my computer while he did his business. The sliding door was taken off and moved outside to work. The kitchen started to heat up as there was a huge open door to the patio. Flies also decided to come in the house.

I heard some groans outside. Guess this was harder than the installer thought. Later he told me it was difficult to remove the glass from the old window. It was wedged between the frame of the door. Ha. I had the same problem when I tried to remove most of the broken glass before someone got hurt. I compensated by putting up duct tape to cover the exposed jagged glass.

Now that the sliding glass door is fixed, I need to move onto the stoop just outside the door. It has been sinking since we bought the house. I just saw an ad where they can deal with such problems by jacking up the concrete and filling the space below. Maybe I will give them a call.

The Real Test

It is 1:30am. Momoko and the kids have gone to bed. I have done my laundry. I have just paid the bills. I want to go to bed. It would be nice to sleep on our soft pillow top bed. But that would be the easy route. It is time to push through the fatigue and study for my college class.

Nelly says that now is the time to demonstrate the heart of a champion. It is when nobody else is looking. You are in pain. You got a choice to make. Are you going to take the easy route and quit? Or are you going to push through the pain to train? Only champions make the sacrifice and choose the pain.

Sing it Nelly: Easy work is worthless. My work habit is not a habit man. I do it on purpose. I push myself to my limit so my talent is surfaced...

Checking out the Lake

I wanted to go bike riding with my friend. So we decided to meet half way between both our houses at the lake. To tell the truth, I had not been to the lake in about 20 years. Momoko said it was still there. In fact, the area around it was built up some more.

Little Kat and I scoped the place out today. I packed my truck up with two bikes. Gave Little Kat the directions and he navigated me to the lake. As we approached the lake town, Little Kat declared that the place did not look too good.

Sure. We had to cross an industrial area to get to the lake. And the lake is in an old part of town. Things were looking up as soon as we rode our bikes out of the parking lot and past the gated entrance to the lake.

I felt the burn in my legs as we rode up a long hill beside the lake. Little Kat complained. We passed a walked and then Little Kat said we should take a break. I was disappointed that we lost momentum. But I gave in. Eventually the walker started to catch up with us. Time to get back to moving.

Half way down the lake, we rode across a bridge as a short cut to the other side. Luckily the path did not have much of an incline over on the other side. We rode back to the car and packed up. This was just a scouting mission.

Little Kat kept talking about restaurants where he could get a big drink on the way home. He helped me scope out the lake. So I stopped by McDonald's to get him a large sweet tea. It was only a dollar. I wonder how my next trip to the lake will go.

Unexpected Air

I visited dad's house today. Worked in his basement during the morning. Then I went out to pick up some Chinese for lunch. I took the long way around to get to the Chinese food place. It was already crowded early, maybe becuase it was Friday.

After getting my meal, I started to head home. Normally I jump on the expressway and get off after one exit to return to dad's. However I have found that the expressway jams up with traffic even at lunch time. Instead I decided to take the back way home to dad's.

There was just one problem. Coming out of the Chinese restaurant parking lot, I would need to make a left turn on a busy road. Sure enough there were cars lined up on the road. I spotted any opening between two cars. There was traffic on the other side of the road I needed to dodge. I spotted an opening both ways and I punched it to make the left.

I was doing a fist pump in my car as I accelerated hard into the left to make sure oncoming traffic would not come up on my too fast. Then I noticed something wrong. The far right side of the road I was driving on had some trouble. The pavement was buckled up forming a launch ramp. I was going fast right towards it.

For a second I contemplated hitting the brakes. But that may have caused more harm than good. So I braced for impact. The car launched into the air. I knew I caught air because I felt and heard the contents in the back of the car go airborn and land back down with a thud. The car survived. I just don't want to do any more Dukes of Hazzard impersonations like that any more.

Lot on my Mind

This morning I came out and found the trash cans put away. I figured Kit Kat got up early and brought the cans back in from the curb. Good for her. Something was bugging me though. Something in the back of my mind. I inspected the trash cans and found them still full of trash.

Then I figured it out. I must not have even put the cans out on the curb the night before. That is not like me. We have lived in the house 10 years or so. I don't think I have ever missed a trash day. This is a reflection on my state of mind this week, or more specifically yesterday.

Yesterday I was trying to finish up a big job at work. Lot of details to attend to. I also mowed the lawn at lunch. That was taxing because it was hot outside. Then after work I ran to night school, where I spent a few hours in class. This was the first day of the fall semester. The class ran late. Guess with all the commotion I forgot to take out the trash.

No harm. The trash is collected twice a week here. I think I just need a mental break to get my mind and life back on track. Vacation time maybe?

Last Minute School Prep

Momoko informed me that Little Kat needed a new hoodie for school. This is a bit late. Little Kat and I spent a few weeks purchasing clothes for the start of school. I ended up cutting my brother's weekly visit short so Little Kat and I could go shopping.

We were going to go to Walmart, where I like the low prices. Little Kat said he preferred Target. He drove us to the local Target. We found a hoodie that he liked. It was gray and black. On the way back home, I screamed for Little Kat to stop the car. He was headed straight or another car that had the right of way. Little Kat was slow to stop. We almost bit it.

Momoko also found out late that Little Kat wanted a new type of backpack. In fact, he wanted a messenger bag. He searched and chose what he called the largest messenger back available on Amazon. It got delivered the day before school started. Unfortuantely it was a tiny bag. I call it a satchel. It is the same size as a medium woman's purse.

Yesterday I went down the list of action items for Little Kat to get ready for school. I told him to put his ID and laniard by his bag. Little Kat assured me he could hang it on his door. He explained that it was his natural routine to take it off the door when he got dressed each morning. Of course the slacker forget his ID today. Next time I will make sure Little Kat does what I say. Time to stop entertaining ideas from the cheap seats.

Guitar Hero

I have been woring with a friend from school all summer to produce a video game. Well it is just a retro arcade game from the eighties. But there was value in developing it. To celebrate, I asked my friend to come over my house. She came this weekend with her sister.

My brother always comes over my house on the weekends. So the four of us (my brother, my friend, and her sister) went to pick up some take up. We used the GPS to find a Filipino store close to Momoko's school. Turns out it is located next door to the karate dojo that Kit Kat and Little Kat attended when they were young.

We brought a couple dishes home. Some foods were tame like an Asian pasta. Other foods were weird like the one that is called blood. I skipped that one. Then there were an assortment of weird desserts. I tried a few of them. None were as delicious as the Chinese doughnuts I love to eat.

After dinner, my friend broke out her guitar. She had metioned going to the guitar store to buy a new one. I thought she meant an acoustic guitar. Nope. She produced an eletric one complete with amplifier. I made her take it downstairs so she would not blow out our gerbils on the main level.

My friend had a whole song book for me to choose from. I opted for the old school "All Out of Love" by Air Supply. I also chose some other pop song by Avril Lavigne. My friend's sister strung the guitar and tuned it. I did not expect much, but my friend was actually pretty good at guitar.

The Extra Car

Right now I drive a Nissan Versa Note. I bought it to teach Kit Kat manual transmission driving. When I purchased the car, I held onto my old Scion xB. I figured Little Kat would be driving soon. Momoko is not going to buy him a new car. He could use my old car.

This week one morning Kit Kat started up her car. The air conditioning would not come on. The fan did not blow any air out unless it was on the highest setting. Even then, some stinky air blew out of the vents. She called the dealership. Wouldn't you know it? The car warranty had expired. The bums wanted $140 to just look at the car. Nope.

Kit Kat then called my handy mechanic. He diagnosed the problem and said he would fix it for around $140. Whew. This is not a good time for extra bills. Momoko is a teacher and does not work in the summer. Therefore she does not get paid all summer long.

Kit Kat still needed to go to work every day. She also starts school next week. Luckily my xB is not getting much use. I called up my insurance company because I recently switched to a new company. They told me Kit Kat is covered under my policy. So I am "renting" the car to her for a while, no charge of course because she is family.

Air Conditioning Trouble

I noticed water coming out the side of the air conditioning blower in the basement. Recently I changed the disposable filter. I wondered if this problem was a result of that. I had jammed extra cardboard into the space to force all the air to go through the filter.

Our unit has an electronic filter. But that filter is really hard to clean. So I pulled out the big metal blades and replaced them with a normal disposable filter. The filter really does not fit the electronic space. That's why I tried to jam some cardboard in there to make it fit.

Yesterday I scheduled an A/C guy to come out and look at our problem. Since I requested next day service, they could not say when exactly the guy would come out. Therefore I had to wake up early Saturday and man the phones. The A/C guy will call before he comes over. If nobody answers, he skips our house.

Normally I like to sleep into until noon on Saturday. Not today. I usually also do a lot of things on Saturdays. Now I need to get someone to stand in for me to man the phones while I am out. Hey. I guess cool air all summer is worth one days of hanging by the phone.

Back to School

Momoko return to school next week. Therefore she scheduled to have the family come to school to set up her classroom one day this week. We were scheduled to leave home at 10am. Little Kat could not get out of bed. So we were delayed.

Luckily I had packed up the truck in the days leading up to school day. The back of my truck was stuffed with items Momoko needed us to bring. Momoko did her homework. She came up with a list of tasks she wanted us to do. She also created a floor plan for the student desks.

Unfortunately, the desks just did not fit the way Momoko had envisioned. We spent a lot of time at the beginning getting the design right. Kit Kat wanted to leave to see her friend who recently returns to the country from studying abroad. We needed her though.

Once thing that worked right was that we ordered pizza to be delivered. Last time we sent Kit Kat out to pick up take out, and that act caused us to lose all our momentum. We worked until 4 or 5 pm. Kit Kat hurried home and was picked up by her friends.

I unpacked the truck when I got home. Then I took care of a bunch of errands. Finally I was ready to take a break and rest. Momoko then came home and was hungry. She wanted to move dinner up an hour or two. Ouch. We went out with Little Kat and chowed down at our favorite mexican restaurant.