Vacation for Little Kat

We had planned to send Little Kat to visit his grandparents for two weeks this summer. He felt he did not get enough time with him last winter when the family spent a week out there. So I found some plane tickets to give Little Kat a two week break.

Little Kat planned to return from his grandparents house, spend the weekend with us, then hop back on a plane to see his dad for the summer. Well those plans to visit dad fell through. I thought maybe we could extend Little Kat's trip with his grandparents. Little Kat lobbied for an extra two weeks.

I had some free time on my hands one night. I called up the airlines. They told me there was a flight exactly two weeks after the original one Little Kat had planned to take. I worried that I would be charged some exhorbitant flight modification fee. Turns out I only needed to pay the difference in airfare price which turned out to be ten bucks.

The family drove Little Kat to the airport this weekend. We accompanied him in the check in line. He already had his boarding pass thanks to Kit Kat printing it out the day before. When we arrived at the bag check counter, the guy in front of us was annoying and arguing with the airlines rep.

Luckily Little Kat had a departure gate that routed him through a security line that was short. Unfortunately his flight was delayed for about an hour. I heard that Little Kat was greeted at his destation by grandma and pop-pop. They took him right to Sonic for a delicious dinner. The next morning he went with them to the movies. I predict a fun summer for Little Kat this year.

Reward for Hard Work

This year Little Kat built a retaining wall in our back yard. It was really wide. Maybe spanned 24+ feet. It was between one and two feet high. The wall was difficult to erect because it is on a hill. Little Kat muscled through the effort.

Some of the work digging post holes was done as a punishment because Little Kat kept getting zeros at school for not turning work in. The majority of the work was done in exchange for me buying him an NVIDIA Shield and a gaming computer kit.

The NVIDIA Shield is a small handheld Android device. As such, it plays Android games (apps). It is supposed to make the games easier because the Shield itself is a super joystick/gamepad. I had actually heard of the Shield before.

Little Kat wanted an awesome gaming computer. He needed a good Intel CPU. He also needed a kicking video card. Little Kat figured the best bang for his buck was to buy a bare bones computer kit that he would assemble himself.

Initially I told Little Kat I would fund $300 worth of computer parts for his gaming computer. Unfortunately he found that the games he wanted required more horsepower. His minimal specs required $500 of computer parts. We renegotiated our agreement, added some more work to the retaining wall job, and his budget jumped up to $500 worth of computer parts.

Today we finally purchased his gaming computer kit. The video card had been out of stock for a few days. When I first clicked the purchase button, the web site froze. I removed all items from my cart. Then I added them again. The transaction went through. Since Little Kat is spending a month with his grandparents this summer, I am shipping the parts directly to their house.

Building your own computer should be part of any young man's coming of age. I am glad to play a small role in that quest for Little Kat.

Lunch Time

I had to work on Monday. Could not get that many days off. That's okay. I planned to work from my dad's basement. When I arrived at my dad's house, he was concerned that my cousin was still asleep. She went out the prior night. So maybe she was worn out.

My dad worried my cousin was sick. Nope. Just a case of jetlag. I had planned to go out to lunch with my cousin. Took a long lunch break from work. I drove to a restaurant that I used to frequent at my last job. I also asked some friends to come join me and my cousin for lunch.

We arrived early. Strangely enough, the restaurant did not even open until 11:30am for lunch. Weird. We were the first customers. My friends arrived and we all ordered. I just wanted to get some of their help yourself soup bar. Delicious broccoli and cheddar soup awaited me.

After I came back to the table from a soup run, my cousin exclaimed that my friends were very young. Well yeah. I met my friend at community college. She was older than the typical kids that are normally in my classes. But she was still young. She brought along her younger sister to make matters worse. LOL.

This restaurant was pretty weak this time around. The soup was delicious. But they stopped serving the wraps that my friend enjoyed so much. Plus they were late serving my cousin a pizza that turned out to be missing the toppings she requested. I think we shall not be returning to this restaurant. Come to think of it, the waiter screwed up my order the last time I went. I am crazy for going back.

I looked at my watch and lunch was over. My cousin took a quick picture of me and my friends outside the restaurant. Then I drove home real fast to get back to work. After work I helped my brother retrieve my mom's car from the auto body shop. Some neighbor backed into the fender. My brother also got the back bumped painted.

Family From Abroad

My brother and I took off from work on Friday. We drove out to the international airport on the other side of town. Fought rush hour traffic that was not too bad. My cousin from overseas came to visit us. She recognized us before I recognized her. Her hair was different from her last visit.

We dropped by the house first. My cousin and dad cried as they thought about my mom's passing away earlier this year. Then my cousin called up a couple of my mom's friends to arrange a meetup. After that we went to my brother's work.

It had been a long time since I went to my bro's work. And back then I only saw the front of his work. This time we went into one of the buildings. My cousin wanted to meet my brother's boss and coworker who were there when we buried my mom.

We met at the ballroom, which they rent out for events like weddings. Everything was outlined in purple for the next day's wedding. After seeing my brother's coworkers, we took a tour of the grounds. They had a lot of land. There were many improvements planned for this year like cottages and putt putt golf.

Next we went to my mom's grave. My brother pulled out the old flowers from before. He replaced then with new ones that he staked into the ground. Next we went grocery shopping. My cousin wants to cook for my dad and brother. Back at my dad's house, my brother had to throw out a lot of old food so my cousin would not cook it.

My dad was surprised we were gone for so long. We hit up three places. I guess that took three hours. This is going to be a busy visit for my cousin. It might be the last time we see her.

Missing Defiance

Today I left work a bit early to meet my friend at the library. We are about to take our video game to the next level. The prototype works good. The rules are in place. It is now time to expand this thing. There is one problem this week though. My cousin from overseas is coming to visit. I am not going to have a lot of time to work on this game.

Tonight I was scheduled to watch the first episode of Defiance season two. This is a Syfy channel original series that caught us by storm last year. I have been looking forward to the new season for quite some time. I got home in time, ate my dinner, and had an hour to kill before the show started.

Since I am on a tight schedule, I figured I would work on the video game. An hour went by fast. Kit Kat called me from upstairs and said Defiance had started. I was in the programming zone though. When you get the in zone, you got to bang out code. It is when you are most productive .There are a million thoughts that need to get put into action. You can't stop when you are in the zone.

Obviously I missed Defiance today. Luckily Syfy is on demand. I can watch it later. I did come upstairs an hour later to tune into the season premier of Dominion. I thought that was going to be a series about angels and demons. Turns out is more about politics in some post-apocalyptic time. Go figure. I might watch Dominion this season. Who knows?

Car Trouble

Last month, a neighbor hit my dad's car. Luckily it was an extra car that nobody ever drives. My brother decided to take it to a local auto body shop. I gave my bro a ride home. The guy at the shop told my brother he would give him a call when he gets to the car.

I eat lunch with my dad three times a week. He was complaining that the auto body work was taking a long time. I did not give this comment much thought. After all, nobody drives the car. They don't need it.

Today my dad kept complaining about the timeline, telling me we should have told the body shop that we needed it quick for a trip. It was then that I figured my dad was trying to communicate that he wanted his car back.

I looked up the body shop online. It took a while because I had their name wrong. I found them and called them up. We are actually getting two things done - damage from the neighbor and some bumper painting from a previous accident.

The body shop guy said the neighbor's insurance was trying to save money and get them to use a used car part. The body shop guy rejected two broke down used fenders, then finally talked the insurance company into springing for a new part.

The car is going to be done Monday afternoon. Finally dad can get his car back. Then again, the thing is just going to sit in the street. My brother forces himself to drive the thing once a week so the car does not fail from non-use. Next time we will get a time estimate when we drop the thing off.

Hard Labor

Every week the family does about an hour of family cleaning. Usually we split up some long term tasks. Sometimes we need to work together. We used to do this cleaning at the same time. Now we just hand out the assignments and let the family work at their own pace during the week.

This week we were moving items out of Momoko's study in preparation for us turning it into a man cave. Or more precisely, it will be Momoko's woman cave. Kit Kat did not want to carry any heavy furniute down the stairs. Therefore she volunteered to separate Momoko's desk from her hutch. That way we could carry down the big pieces separately.

Of course Kit Kat could not get the hutch off the top of the desk. She needed a lot of assistance. Eventually it was decided that we would detach Momoko's desktop and carry it attached to the hutch. That took around an hour just for the disassembly.

With all the moving of furniture and boxes, we spent around three hours this weekend moving half of Momoko's study downstairs into the library. We were all very broken after that. And I needed to go visit my dad for father's day.

I felt sorry for the kids because they worked hard and long. Therefore I decided to go out and pick up Kit Kat's choice of fast food for a late lunch. We chose Wendy's. I brought Little Kat along with me because he was unsure of what he wanted me to order him.

Little Kat eventually chose a large Baconator meal. We walked into Wendy's and waited a while before our meals were ready to bring home. I only had a side salad because I had a huge breakfast. I left the family eating back at home so I could see my dad and return to cut the grass outside.

Summertime

I took the day off from work last Friday to help Momoko pack up her classroom for the summer. Both kids were scheduled to help. Momoko had to teach a half-day of school on Friday. I let the kids sleep in late. Then I drove the trucked I packed the night before to the Silver Diner.

The kids and I ate lunch. I let them get what they wanted. Then we headed over to the school. The secretary laughed as I brought the dolly fully of items into the school. I also wheeled in a spare desk we no longer need at home.

We got to work right away. Momoko left us a huge lift of things to do. After an hour, an administrator told us Momoko wanted us to come eat leftovers in the cafeteria. Wut? We had planned to eat lunch at a restaurant. It was a false call.

Momoko later needed a drink and a snack. She sent Kit Kat out on a McDonald's run. That slowed our momentum a bit. We repaired the wobbly legs of all the large tables in Momoko's classroom. Then we stacked the tables and chairs. There was a long list of items to do.

Eventually we finished up all the tasks. We were so tired. It was late. Kit Kat did another McDonald's run to feed us dinner. Luckily I had the kids clean out house before we left for school. We were all very tired, and turned in early.

Trapped

Little Kat wanted to skip the last few days of school. He said they just round up all the kids in the cafeteria. There are no classes. Nothing is learned. Momoko allowed him to skip. However he needed to complete all his homework.

Unfortunately Little Kat did not have all his English assignments. His plan was to have Kit Kat drive him to school in the morning. He would get his assignments from his English teacher and return home immediately. Things did not go as planned.

As soon as Little Kat arrived at school, they made him go to the cafeteria. He could not leave. Kit Kat did not get dressed. She just hopped in the car with her pajamas and was hoping to return home quickly. No such luck. Momoko followed up and made some phone calls on Little Kat's behalf.

Luckily, Little Kat was able to leave the cafeteria and see his English teacher. He obtained his assignments. It just took a long time. Kit Kat had been waiting for a long time in the parking lot. She had to return home to get dressed to go help Momoko. Little Kat got a pick up later in the morning. But he had to go with Kit Kat to help Momoko at school.

The lesson learned here is to not allow the kid to skip school. Problem solved.

Boys in the Hood

Today I met my friend at the library near her house to go over progress on a video game we are writing. She wanted to play some billiards afterwards. I tracked down a pool hall close to the library. Before I got to the library, I went to scope out the place.

My GPS took me the long way to the pool hall. When I got there, I saw a lot of people on the tables. It was a bit sketchy since I had to head towards the city. The neighborhoods are not too good the closer you get to the city from my side of town.

I asked my friend if she felt comfortable going into such an environment. Normally she said she tries to stay away from the city. But I guess she was game and hungry to shoot some pool. We brought her little sister along. I guess that was for moral support.

We got a table near the front of the place. There was a least one nice chair to sit in by that table. We pretty much all sucked at pool. My friend's little sister hit quite a few balls into the pockets. There were three of us playing the same table at the same time. It was informal fun.

I was surprised at how low a price we got charged for playing. We were there less than an hour. I think the manager gave us a nice discount. My friend's sister was happy with this arrangement, and bought an ice cream at the billiards hall.

Hedge Trimming

We have some short hedge bushes in the front of the house. They seem to grow quickly. I trim them about two times a year. It is always a tough chore. The hedges are surrounded by mulch. When I trim the hedges, the clippings fall in the mulch and make it look bad.

This year I decided to remove the mulch first. That was a painfully long process. Then I trimmed the hedges. Picked up as much of the clippings as I could gather. It is a tough task as the clippings mix in with the mulch. Finally I replaced the mulch over top of the clippings.

The end result looks good. Everything is nicely trimmed. There are no clippings to be seen. I am just very sore from working on this project. I got to think up a better way for next time.

Billiards Search

A friend of mine wanted to go shoot some billiards. We set up a date next week to try it out. I used to head over to the other side of town to play. But I figured why not try some local spots? I was meeting up with another friend to go out Friday night. I decided to do some leg work on finding a good billiards hall.

I had the address of a place in a good section of town. I asked my friend if we should GPS the location. He decided we could play it by ear. We drove down the road the pool hall was on. I kept an eye on the street addresses. We turned around when we went past the address. We were close.

My friend pulled into a parking lot that had to house the pool hall. We kept looking at the store address signs. We just could not find this pool hall. My friend drove around back of the shopping center. He almost hit two cars looking for the place.

Then we passed a Gold's Gym. Some fit hottie was walking outside. My friend ogled her as he drove. Luckily I saw that there was another hottie texting walking in the middle of the road. My friend stopped in time. The girl kept texting! Finally she saw that we were going to plough her over. She waved and we moved on.

Finally I spotted the address in the back of the shopping center. My friend drove around to get to the front of the building. Unfortunately another store bought out the billiards hall and converted into a dollar store. So sad. Got to find another place. Might have to go to less desirable neighborhoods.

Surprise Return

I had previously bought a chair from Office Depot. It was half off. The chair was really nice. I brought it to my dad's house. However I have two computers in my dad's basement. I got tired wheeling the chair between the two computers. So I ordered another one.

The second chair was a disaster. The thing was totally uncomfortable. I figured I had better warn other customers. I wrote a scalding review on Office Depot's site. Someone from the store emailed me to see if I wanted to return the chair.

I had a bunch of questions. I emailed Office Depot's support staff. Instead of answering my questions, they scheduled a return of my chair. WTF? I called them up and said I needed questions answered, not a return. The customer support rep answered my questions. Look like I can return the chair with little hassle.

Passports Please

The day finally came for us to apply for our passports. The night before I found out the old forms we filled out had expired. We filled in the current ones. Then today Kit Kat found out they require us to submit a copy of our licenses. We scrambled to get that done. Luckily one of our printers at home doubles as a copier.

Kit Kat drove us to the local municipal center. It is very close to our house. I had actually did a drive by the last time I went near it. There were a quite a few groups in front of us. Eventually we got called in. Someone verified our documents. Then they took possession of my birth certificate. They promised to return it in a month.

I have never been without my birth certificate. Now I am sorry I did not get and turn in a copy. It will be worth it though. You never know when you need to flee and get past the border. The passports should do the trick when they arrive in the mail.

At first I was pleased because the cost did not seem as high as I had extimated. Turns out you pay in two phases. Yep. It costs a lot to get passports for the whole family. Once we do get the passports, our first border run will probably be to visit Canada. Got to set up a vaction up there.

More Tire Trouble

I have been living with a flat tire on my wheelbarrow for a long time. This is the wheelbarrow that Momoko bought me. So I am hesitant to through it out and buy a new one. I figured I could get a new wheel. Easier said than done.

Last week I got a catalog with a cheap wheel for sale. Too bad it was too small for the wheelbarrow. I did some research on my tire. Seems there are a lot of things to measure. Tire outer and inner diameter. Tire width. Rim diameter. Axle diameter and width. And so on.

I worried that I would buy the wrong tire. So many choices online. They do not always specify all these dimenions. Finally I found a "universal tire". This was still not a slam dunk. Many people complained that it did not fit all wheelbarrows. I gave it a shot and ordered one online.

The tire can today in a large box. Luckily it had a bunch of spacers to ensure it could fit on many sized wheelbarrels. There were not too many instructions with the thing. I got my old wheel off easily enough. Put some gloves on and thread the old axle with the new tire. Good fit. The spacers helped place the wheel in the center. I am good to go.

Now if only I could get my truck tire replaced, I will be a happy driver.

Tire Success

Kit Kat had a lead on a local used tire store. We drove around but could not find it. The guys are the store would not pick up their phone. We were in trouble. Kit Kay finally got in touch with the guy from the store. She got detailed directions with landmarks to get us there.

I thought Momoko should go along with Kit Kat. This is Momoko's car that Kit Kat was trying to fix. Momoko asked me to go. I had to be bribed. I have been running around trying to get Kit Kat's tire patched for some time now.

When Kit Kat and I arrived at the tire store, I knew why we could not find it. It was tiny. And there were cars taking up every inch of their postage stamp sized parking lot. Kit Kat and I parked next door. We went in and told them what we needed. I took Kit Kat home in my car.

The guy called back. He felt bad replacing a tire that seemed so new. He attempted to patch the tire but filed. Instead he sold Kit Kat a used tire that did not have much tread on it. Kit Kat was happy. The tire pressure sensor warning light on her car was gone. She no longer needs to fill up the tire with air every couple days.

I might have a source to replace my blown out truck tire. But I am not sure how I can get my truck towed to that small busy parking lot.