Tire Trouble

Kit Kat is having problems with one of her tires again. Last time this happened, she needed to buy a new tire. It cost around $150. She has the sport version of her car model. That means the tires are bigger and are performance based.

This time around, we went to two places to try to get the tire patched. No luck either place. Today we had a tough time getting to the tire shop. The guy there said it would only take 20 minutes to complete the work. Kit Kat and I went to lunch at Chick Fil A while we waited. The guy called back to tell us the tire could not be patched.

Our next idea was to purchase a used tire. We can't keep spending big bucks every time Kit Kat drives over a nail. Kit Kat found a local place that had a used tire in stock for her model. But we could not find the place. Kit Kat has the action item to call the guy back and find out how to get to his store. Google Maps was of no help.

Old Friends

Momoko complained that see never sees much of my old friend from college any more. He pretty much comes by once a month. However we just go out to eat. At most, he says hi to Momoko and the kids. It was time to reaquaint him with the family.

So we got Little Kat to grill up some burgers and hot dogs for Memorial Day. Also had Kit Kat make her patented devilled eggs. Then I invited my college buddy over for the cookout. Before coming over he asked if he should bring dessert. I said yes.

We ate a delicious late lunch. Little Kat and I showed my friend the new grill, along with the retaining wall project Little Kat is undertaking in the back yard. During lunch, I spied my nemisis Woody Woodpecker out the bay window. I was going to run out and spray him with the hose, but he flew away.

Woody Woodpecker is pecking on my house exterior in the mornings. I need my sleep. He harassed us a few years ago until I got the hose on him. Now he is back. Looks like I got to send him the message again with the hose.

Flower Box

The flowers I have in my shed's flower box were getting a bit faded. Yeah they are imitation flowers. I was reluctant to replace them because my mom gave me a lot of them. However they were not looking good. It was time for a change.

I went outside today to count up how many flowers I stuck in the box. It was disturbing to find that the flowers were all wet. The boxes were filled with water. There are holes in the bottom of them. Guess they got clogged.

I removed the stagnant water and drilled a couple more holes in the bottom of each box. Then I went to Michael's to buy some replacements. Previously I had bought bunches of flowers. Now I just got a lot of singles. They are looking quite good. Might add one or two arrangements to the mix.

100% Success

Little Kat took the Linksys router I gave him. He attached the super antennas to the back for alleged better WiFi signal. Then I guess he stopped to get something to eat. I quizzed him on his progress. Specifically I asked him whether he could print wirelessly to our three printers. He told me he was having problems. I told him to get busy.

Little Kat decided to reconfigure the Wireless router. This time around, he asked me some very basic questions like what was the communication protocal and which security mode was being used. How the heck did he get through this the first time without knowing the answers? He also did not know the usernames and passwords to configure the printers.

Later I quizzed Little Kat on his progress. He tried to give a long answer. I made it easy for him. I asked him how many of three printers were working. He said two were working, and the third had a wireless problem. He tried to blame the problem on the hardware. Luckily I had printed to that printer recently. The hardware was fine.

Little Kat tried to tell me he had no time to talk because he needed to go to a movie. I have experienced such failure in the past, with Little Kat running out and having fun while business was not done. Well I had to call a family meeting. The result was that the movies had to be postponed. Little Kat ended up getting all printers working. We documented the answers to the questions he had, as well as all printer passwords on some cheat sheets.

Come on Little Kat. When you take on a job, you must see it through to the end 100 percent!

Old School

I went over to my dad's house today as I usually do on Fridays. I work out of his basement. That is the beauty of telecommuting. I can pretty much work from anywhere that has an Internet connection. I had an early afternoon meeting. So I only had time to go to McDonald's for lunch. That's okay. Dad like eating their french fries. I also had a coupon to get a free Quarter Pounder.

Parking is terrible on my dad's street. My brother calls me when he is coming home from work. Then I pack up my computer, and jump in the car to vacate my brother's parking space. Normally I go straight home from dad's. But today I was meeting a friend from college to work on a programming project for the summer.

I was a bit early because my brother came home early from work. I arrived at the meeting place 30 minutes before the scheduled time. I figured I should fill up my gas tank. Played with my GPS until it showed the local gas stations. Hey. It displayed one that was across the street from my old college. I went by for old times sake.

Turns out the gas station was a rip off. They charged four bucks for gas. Last time I go there to fill up. I did drive by the college. Went into the parking lot of the building where I took most of my classes. Then I headed back to the library. Traffic was picking up. Got there just in time to meet my friend.

Boosting Signal

Little Kat has been spending more time out on the patio now that I got him a five-burner grill. He has found that the wireless router does not reach out to the patio. That is strange because the router is on the wall right up against the patio.

Little Kat asked me to buy a new set of amplified antennas to stick on the back of the wireless router. That sounded legitmate to me. I bought them and gave them to Little Kat. However he found that they did not work with our version of the router. Fail.

I told Little Kat that I could buy another router that works with the super antennas. He sent me a link to the router online. Amazon told me that I had already purchased that model from the recently. Wouldn't you know it? That's the backup router I keep tucked away in my closet.

Little Kat might be boosting our WiFi signal this weekend.

Days Gone By

My cousin from my mom's side of the family is planning a visit this summer. She is going to be staying with my dad and brother. But I think I will be seeing a lot of her when she comes over. She is the only one from my mom's side of the family that I still keep in touch with.

My cousin sent me some pictures of when I visited her, her mom, and grandma a long time ago. I don't remember anything about the trip. I was just a toddler. I was surprised to see how young both my mom and grandmother looked in the pictures.

Another strange thing about the pictures was that my aunt, uncle, and cousins were there too. I don't have any connection to that side of the family any more. My mom did not talk about them very much. I got the impression that they were wealthy. But that's about it. Weird.

I also was amused that I looked a lot like my little brother when I was younger. In fact, at first I thought the pictures from my cousin were pictures of my little brother. But they could not be. They were taken so long ago that my brother was not even born yet.

Chair Shopping

After breakfast, Momoko and I went chair shopping. She needs a new chair for her wo-man cave. We headed to our trusty furniture store. We circled the whole store one and a half times. Found a couple cool recliners that rocked and had power recline.

Over in the clearance section, Momoko spotted two chairs she liked. I called them lounge chairs or deck chairs. They are kind of like half a sofa. They have a permanent area to prop your legs up on. I don't like them. But Momoko thought they were just what she wanted.

I got the measurements and came home. There I got my truck and Little Kat. We returned to the store, paid for the chair, and loaded it up in my truck. After securing the chair to the truck, we prompty drove home via highway.

After unloading the chair, I was going to go to shop for some construction materials. Little Kat is building up my retaining wall in the back yard quickly. As I drove down our street, my truck pulled to the left. It had a flat tire. I returned home and pulled into the driveway. Found my power jack. Lifted the car up. But I could not remove the lug nuts holding the wheel on the car.

Guess I will need to schedule a tow to the tire store. Time to sign up for AAA?

Young Cats For Hire

Little Kat is looking forward to his summer abroad. He thinks he needs some money for travel, as well as purchases to prepare for travel. He told Momoko he wanted to be hired for odd jobs to make some cash.

Last year I gave Little Kat some long term goals. Those goals came with significant rewards. Now that Little Kat needs some cash, it is long overdue for me to give him some new goals. He wants some healthy (expensive) rewards. So I will propose some hard work.

At first my tasks revolved around getting Little Kat to chat up and spend time with some girls. Momoko and Little Kat unanimously shot that idea down. Now I plan to hire Little Kat to build a retaining wall in our back yard for me.

We have a steep hill. It is difficult to cut the grass on it. I plan for Little Kat to build up a wall and level off the land for me. This is back breaking work. I built a similar retaining wall a few years ago. It took me weeks and weeks to do it. I figure Little Kat can do it in a month if he is out of school for most of that time.

Little Kat wants me to buy him an NVIDIA gaming system. He also wants parts to put together a high powered desktop computer. If he can build this wall for me, the sky is the limits for his rewards.

New Car Time

My car had been giving me some problems lately. I was concerned because it is the car I use to teach Kit Kat manual transmission driving. My mechanic could not solve the problem. This was the second used car in a row I bought that had trouble. Time for a new car.

Kit Kat and I went to a dealership that was around an hour away. They had the lowest prices. I opted for Nissan because they have the most inexpensive entry level cars. I test drove a bare bones model, as well as a tricked out version.

Today I decided to buy the bare bones version, mainly because it had a manual transmission. I qualified for some incentives that further brought down the price. This dealership gave me a good value for my trade it. I feel like I got the new car for a steal.

I left work early today. Took one four lane highway that was moving slow like a parking lot. After spending almost an hour getting nowhere, I got off and found another highway. I was surprised at the number of people at the dealership during work hours. I bought the car with little fanfare.

After leaving the dealership, I got confused while reading the fuel gauge. I tried to fill up the gas tank. Only a gallon would go in. Then I figured I was reading the gauge wrong. The tank was already almost full. I grabbed a Sonic snack, then headed home in the rush hour traffic. Momoko wanted a test drive immediately.

Meeting of Friends

Kit Kat and I had seen some new cars this weekend. The time flew. I was scheduled to be home to have some friends come over. So we booked home. Luckily the friends were a little late. Whew.

My brother arrived first. Then my friend from my last college came. I asked her to bring one of her sisters that I had never met. After introductions were made all around, we went to the store. My friend chose Safeway. Perhaps it was for the fresh ingredients.

We picked up all kinds of raw material at the grocery store. My friend was going to make me some chicken parmesan and New England clam chowder. Her sister helped her cook. Their cooking took a few hours. It is tough when you prepare meals from scratch.

Finally the dinner was ready. Momoko and the kids joined us to form a line to get our food. There were so many people that the kids had to eat out in the living room. We got to know my friend's little sister a bit. It was all over so fast.

The kids did a good job of cleaning the kitchen afterwards. We have taught them well.

Final Exams and a Chair Deal

Today was my final exam for my college class. My instructor said the exam would start early. I figured I would need to leave an hour early from work to make it on time. Wouldn't you know it? The customer at work wanted to schedule a meeting right when I was to leave.

What's a busy guy supposed to do? I left for school two hours early. Then I called into my work conference call from the parking lot at school. Luckily I had prepared for the meeting and had all the answers.

In other news, I saw a leather chair for half price in the office supply store circulars. Who has time to go pick up a chair? Not me. But working in my dad's basement is a pain because they have some weak chairs down there. I solved my problem by ordering online. Even got an extra $15 off with a coupon Momoko gave me.

Operation Griller

Little Kat and I were scheduled to go grill shopping on Sunday. In fact, we planned to buy a grill we had seen before at Target. Unfortunately they had sold out. We did spy a small table and chair there though. A Target associate brought out a cart and we bought the table/chair combo.

The Target associate liked my Walking Dead tshirt. He also thought my truck was the smallest he had even seen. The poor guy was a little green. We loaded up our goods and headed to Walmart. I could tell from the full parking lot that this was going to be tough.

Little Kat and I checked out all the grills for sale. We found one with five burners, as well as an extra broiler. There was even a double door below to house the propane. I found a dolly and we got into line and waited. After what seemed forever, the cashier rung us up. He said my credit card was declined. Luckily I had more cards ready to make the purchase.

Working at Dad's

I work from home for a living. No I do not run my own company. I work for a company. They just let me telecommute almost every day. That means I can wake up at 8:45 am, run down to the basement, and be online and working by 9:00 am.

Recently I started working a few days a week from my dad's basement. Dad is a bit lonely in the mornings when my brother goes to work. So I swing by his house in the morning. We usually chat before work, then he goes out and runs his errands.

Dad and I eay lunch together when I come over. I buy lunch from a pizza shop at the bottom of the hill of my dad's neighborhood. The pizza place is strange in that they only accept cash as payment. Weird.

I am starting to take over my dad's basement room. It is mostly used as storage right now. I am finding a lot of familiar items down there. There is the computer desk that I learned programming on. Then I see my wooden desk I used to study on. Today I spotted my high school textbooks on the shelf.