Flying the Friendly Skies

Little Kat arranged the dates when he is going to visit his dad this summer. That allowed us to plan another trip for him. Little Kat is going to spend two weeks visiting grandma and pop pop. During that visit, he also plans to be hanging out with his uncle as well.

The family visited grandma last Christmas. Little Kat felt he did not get enough time out there. So now he is going to spend two more weeks this summer in the midwest. I found some nonstop tickets for Little Kat to fly out and back. They were expensive. But it is a good investment.

The airline detected Little Kat as a young traveler. He will not be an unaccompanied minor. But he is also not a full adult yet. This should not be a problem. Little Kat has been flying by himself for a while on the airlines. Little Kat assured me he would have no problem unless he had to switch planes anywhere.

TGIF

We celebrated some birthdays this week. One of which was Kat Kat's. Momoko allowed Kit Kat to choose a restaurant of her choice for dinner. We almost went to Pizzaria Unos. But it was expensive and far away. Therefore we ended up going to TGIF.

I am not a huge fan of Fridays. However they had some specials going on. We arrived during happy hour. Too bad the happy hour discounts only apply to the bar side of the restaurant. We did find some "two for" deals. I got a two for $12 which actually turned out to be a two for $10.

Little Kat got a two for $16. We traded appetizers. He got the crunchy green beans. I got the spinach dip. I was the lone guy with the chicken finger entree. Everyone else got sizzling chicken and shrimp. After dinner, we headed home to open gifts for Kit Kat and sample the cake Little Kat made her.

Easter Dinner Minus Two

Kit Kat was away at her dad's house this Easter. We decided to invite my dad and brother over for an Easter dinner. Little Kat took the lead in cooking. We got what we thought was a small ham. It was cooked. He just needed to warm it up.

The oven thermometer said the ham center was cold. The thing had been in the over for an hour and a half. Maybe the over is broke. We got the ham hot. My brother came over in time for dinner. He said dad decided to stay at his home. His tooth really hurt so he could not eat.

Little Kat did pretty good. The instant potatoes were surprisingly good I thought. I liked the oversized croissants that got baked. Carving the ham and disposing of the mess in the pan was a lot of work. The only help was that the ham was mostly precut.

Next step is to cook another big meat in the over to test whether it can heat correctly.

Exxon Mobile

Today was the last day of our vacation. We went to Sonic for a delicious breakfast. Then we searched around for an Exxon gas station. I decided we should head home, looking for Exxon. We saw Tom's gas. And there was Sheetz and Royal Farms. Did not see Exxon.

Half way though the trip, we saw our first sign for Exxon. I got off the highway. There was no sign of Exxon. Momoko used her iPhone to locate the nearest Exxon. The directions took us through some narrow back roads. We got to see some mansions in the woods. Never found Exxon.

One time, way back when, Momoko tried another gas station with her previous SUV. The car died shortly after. Coincidence? We were not taking any chances. We always like to fill Momoko's car up with genuine Exxon fuel.

7B for 7B Details

Cast:

• Ruth
• Jeb
• Nathan
• Daniel
• Mrs. Hoallum
• Ephraim
• Sarah
• Mr. Hoallum
• Alice
• Zeke
• Adam
• Dorcas
• Preacher
• Caleb
• Gideon
• Frank
• Luke
• Milly
• Joel
• Matt
• Benjamin
• Liza
• Martha

ACT ONE

Scene 1: Pontipee Farm

Bless Your Beautiful Hide
Gallant and Correct

Scene 2: Town Square

Bless Your Beautiful Hide (Reprise)

Scene 3: The Pontipee House

Wonderful, Wonderful Day
I Married Seven Brothers

Scene 4: Pontipee House

Scene 5: Pontipee House, The Next Morning

Goin' Courtin'

Scene 6: Harvest Social

Challenge Dance
Cut-In Dance
The Fight

Scene 7: Pontipee House

Love Never Goes Away

Scene 8: Pontipee Barn

Sobbin' Women

INTERMISSION

ACT TWO

Scene 1: The Town

The Kidnapping

Scene 2: Echo Pass

Where Were You?

Scene 3: Pontipee Barn / Pontipee House

We Gotta Make It Through the Winter
We Gotta Make It (Reprise)

Scene 4: Pontipee Trapping Cabin

Am I Stubborn?

Scene 5: Pontipee House

Glad That You Were Born
Love Never Goes Away (Reprise)

Scene 6: Dense Forest

The Chase

Scene 7: Pontipee Farm

Wonderful Day (Reprise)
Wedding Dance

7B 4 7B

Little Kat, Momoko, and I went to a dinner theater tonight. It featured Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (7B 4 7B). We arrived just as the buffet was being served. This was a well attended event. We only had a few tables to choose from. Momoko decided to sit up front.

The front turned out to be a good idea. A wagon prop was used many times in the play. The wagon was right in front of us. The buffet food was nothing special. I was happy they had a salad bar. I got a plate of salad twice.

The musical was pretty good. One actor had an arm brace. Another actor almost tripped when on top of a table as he failed to jumped over an axe he held in his hands. I bought Little Kat a drinking glass from the dinner theater.

Candy Factory

Today we went to visit a candy factory. It was a long drive from the hotel. There were a lot of people at the factory. We did get a good parking place. Little Kat and I left Momoko in the gift store to rest. Then Little Kat and I went into the free ride.

The ride educated us on how they created the candy. The ride was made for younger kids. I enjoyed the ride. I looked forwad to another outdoor tour of the city. I went up to the ticket desk, but found out that all tours had sold out for the day.

Momoko was very thirsty from our large breakfast. We zipped over to Sonic for half price drinks during happy hour. Then we went to a military surplus store Momoko and I visited the last time we were here. The store had moved down the street from where we last visited.

The military store was a lot smaller now. They sold off a lot of the cool old fashioned items they used to stock. The new store was nothing special. We left without buying anything. It was a long drive back to the hotel. Rush hour traffic did not help any. We spotted a local CarMax auto store on the way back.

Train Ride Details

Dining Car

Ticketholder may be seated with other patrons if necessary.

General Conditions:

1. The Railroad is not responsible for delays caused by livestock on tracks.
2. Passengers are requested to refrain from spitting tobacco on stoves.
3. All pistols must be checked with the conductor.
4. Positively no shooting of pheasants or cattle from train.
5. Games of chance permitted only in baggage car.
6. All male passengers must assit crew in shoveling snow or pushing if necessary.
7. The Conductor is authorized to collect tickets only, no produce or IOUs.
8. Like us on FaceBook, follow us on Twitter.

Passgengers:

Be on the alert for cardsharks; do not ride on roofs or platforms; do not touch steam lines on locomotive; keep heads and arms inside windows in case of Indian attacks; watch your valuables and children.

Steam Engine Train Ride

One of the main reasons we chose our current destination for vacation was to ride a steam trade. This was what Momoko most wanted to do here. She found a specific train ride that would let us eat lunch at the same time.

We had trouble geting Momoko's car GPS to find the location. Luckily I had an approximate address that the car recognized. After parking the car, Little Kat and I went hunting for train ride tickets. We crossed a train track where you had to look both ways before crossing.

I found the train station. Got three tickets. Went back to the car and waited with Momoko until 15 minutes before departure. They don't let you on the train too early. We boarded a the train after climing a steep set of stairs.

The food was nonthing special. We did get a few carafes of sweet tea and lemonade. Prior to boarding, we made Little Kat take a bunch of pictures. The train moved slowly. But it shook the train left to right enough to make it difficult to eat our lunch. It was still fun.

Afterward we visited a couple train gift shops. I bought a few items from each of the shops.

Spring Break 2014 Begins

This morning I picked up my car from the shop. We initially wanted to take it on our Spring Break vacation so Little Kat could practice driving. However Little Kat said he wanted to relax this vacation. We decided to take Momoko's car instead.

I went to the store to pick up some bottled water for the trip. Then I went to work on the yard before leaving. It took longer than expected to spray for bugs, put down grass killer, move some firewood, and clean up the patio. I came in the house right when we were supposed to leave.

After a quick shower, we hit the road. Momoko was at the steering wheel. Her car's navigation directed us. We found our hotel. It had separate bedrooms for Momoko and I, plus another one for Little Kat. There was a full kitchen. There was a total of three TVs.

We were hungry upon arrival. Initially we tried to map directions to the local Sonic. Momoko's GPS could not find the road. So we went to the Sonic two towns over. After a late afternoon lunch, we needed to return to Soninc for a late night snack. Delicious.

Mkaing a Way

Momoko had some files on a floppy disk she wanted to retrieve. I could read the disk with my old desktop computer. However I could not get them anywhere else. Today I decided to work on that problem. First thing I did was install a network card in the machine.

Windows 98 booted up. It asked for a Linksys disk with the drivers for the network card. I no longer have the disk. Had to download drivers online. What version of the network card do I have? I pulled the card out of the machine, and found the version on the side of the card.

The drivers were an executable that would not run on my laptop. I burned a copy of this executable onto a CD-ROM, then ran it on my desktop computer. Great. Now I could get on the Internet. Ooops. My browser on the computer was too old for anything.

I decided to revert back to some old tricks. Opened up a command prompt on my desktop. Used the command line FTP to copy the files up to my web host server. Then from my laptop, I was able to download the files. Now Momoko has her old pictures again.

Going Old School

Momoko was looking for some old pictures. She had the physical picture. But she wanted the digital copy. All she could locate was an old 3.5 inch floppy disk. What the heck is going to read that ancient technology?

I hooked up my oldest computer. The thing needed to connect to an external CRT monitor. I could not find a PS/2 style mouse to plug into the thing. Although it had USB slots, nothing I plugged into them worked.

The computer was noisy. It also took a long time to boot up. The first boot screen (after the BIOS) was what looked to be MS-DOS. Then Windows 98 came up. I created an account and logged in. I only had keyboard access.

The thing could read the disk. The problem was how to move the files on the disk. This computer could not burn CD-ROMs. It had no wireless or hard wired network connector. For now this project is on hold.

The Sorting Begins +1

Little Kat applied to enter the computer networking track at his high school. We had been on him to make sure he applied on time for about a year. He got his application in. Next we made sure he kept in touch with his counselor regarding any other actions required to get into networking.

The other week, Little Kat missed a meeting for the networking track. We needed him to go to the program administrator to find out what he missed. Of course Little Kat dragged his feet. His excuse was that he could not find the teacher.

Momoko and I had him email the teacher to schedule an appointment. Little Kat had to demonstrate that he was hot for networking. Unfortunately Little Kat got a sad reply from the administrator. Little Kat was not invited to the meeting he missed. He was not chosen to enter the networking track.

Momoko had a contingency planned for this scenario. Little Kat is also set up to go into a work study track at his high school. That is not as advantageous as the networking track. If Little Kat wants to get into networking, he need to turn around his college experience, pump up his grades, and hope to make the jump when he starts college.

Bird Invasion +1

Kit Kat complained that is sounded like birds were in her walls. Apparently they were getting in from the attic. The side of the house have soffets that let air up into the overhand next to the attic. On Kit Kat's side of the house, the vents that lead into the soffet have their covers off. Darn birds.

I figure we need to hire some type of exterminator. Need to get those birds out of the walls so Kit Kat can get her sleep. Before that, I want to get those soffet vents locked down. Sounds like a job for my handy man.

It just so happens that I will see my handyman soon to give me an estimate on some major bathroom rennovations. Let's hope he can fit in some soffet work too.

Upgrades +1

I have been using Momoko's iPad2 for a while using the old iOS 6 operating system. The family all upgraded to iOS 7 a long time ago. I decided I did not need to upgrade. Why mess with something that works?

Recently I tried to download and install Microsoft Office for iPad. It just came out. Unfortunately it requires iOS 7. So I upgraded to iOS 7 on the iPad. But then I had a problem. I could not see the book I was reading on the iPad with the Amazon Kindle app.

First I uninstalled the Kindle app and reinstalled it. No use. Could not read my book. Then I fought with iCloud. Had to jump through hoops to get me logged in instead of Momoko. Still no help. Finally I needed to unregister the device as a Kindle reader and re-register it.

I hope this is the last time I need to upgrade the iOS.