Phone Calls Forever

Momoko and Little Kat got the day off due to snow. Kit Kat had a delayed opening. I had to report to work on time. Luckily I work from home today. The first thing on my agenda was a teleconference call. I had to be there because I was the guy who answered all the questions.

The call went over time. Eventually I had to excuse myself, and go to my next meeting. Guess what? That meeting ran over as well. I was hoping to get out by 11:00am to go shovel some snow. Momoko must have had the same idea. She woke up the kids and had them shoveling a bit after 11.

When my call finally finished, the kids and Momoko got most of the driveway cleared. They were clearing off their cars. I broke out the shovel, cleaned up some remnants of snow from the driveway, then went to the street to dig out our mailbox. That was not too hard. My next door neighbor is an overachiever and he pretty much cleared the way.

Afterwards I bought us all some Chinese food for lunch. They got lunch specials that are a good deal. The problem is that Momoko and Kit Kat like the deluxe meals that cost more. I splurged for once because they worked hard. After lunch, Kit Kat had to report to school. And I needed to go back to work.

New Carpet Prep

This week Momoko and I went to the carpet store to choose a new carpet for our living and dining rooms. Kit Kat asked us not to get berber carpet. Little Kat asked us not to get anything too shaggy. We found a nice dark color that would not show stains when people drop stuff on the floor.

A guy from the store came by the house to get exact measurements. The store owner later called back. The cost was higher than he originally projected, but less than I thought it would run. I called back the next day and ordered the carpet.

The installers will move our furniture out of the way. We just had to move everything else. Yesterday Kit Kat and I bought some more bankers boxes. Last night Momoko and kids started filling some of the boxes and moved them downstairs.

Today we got serious and packed up until we ran out of boxes. Little Kat disassembled a bunch of electronics. I carried some heavy stuff downstairs. Little Kat and I got the backup fish tank out of the shed and into the basement. We need to temporarily move our fish out of the dining room.

Tomorrow we need to buy more bankers boxes and finish up what we can. The hardest part will be transporting the fish into a backup fish tank. Hopefully this week we will have the new carpet installed.

Jerry's Fail

Some time ago I went to eat lunch at Jerry's subs and pizza. I like them because the restaurant is not too crowded. I normally get their "cheap thrills" deal. It is a small sandwich, drink, and fries for six bucks and change. They were doing some renovations in the store. There was a big new neon sign above the counter.

Turns out they are doing away with the cheap thrills. Okay. Some dude gave me a coupon booklet. Today I decided to use one of their coupons: regular steak and cheese sub for five bucks. Sounded legit. When I presented the coupon before ordering, the guy behind the counter started hemming and hawing about how the price of the steak and cheese went up.

Great. My coupon gives me an even better value. Eventually I figured that the guy was trying to tell me I had to pay more money. I told him that their normal price might have gone up, but the coupon price did not. Another dude came in and rung me up. Then the original dude asked presented me with the total. It was not right. I did the math out loud so he could see there was an error. He went back to telling me that they were charging me more than the coupon price.

The other dude came back. I told him I want to pay the amount stated on the coupon to get the sub from the coupon. How hard could this be? Apparently very hard. With the new neon sign came a new order entry system. The second guy eventually fiddled around with the cash register and charged me less than what I was supposed to pay. I did not argue with that lower price.

I asked this second dude when he thought the kinks would be worked out of the system. He explained a whole lot of other problems they are having. and that he had no clue when they would be resolved. Okay. Goodbye Jerry's. Does anyone at this chain know they are alienating their return customers? Guess they will find out. Time to go to another restaurant that knows about customer service and retention.

Operation Easypass

Momoko and I discussed getting an Easypass from the state. It allows you to go onto toll roads without stopping to pay an attendant. We have a new expressway near our house that only accepts Easypass. There are no humans working the toll booths.

Image my surprise when I got an Easypass package in the mail. I did not sign up for this. Was I being punked? Nope. Turns out is was a pass for the local gas station. Little Kat was excited. I pay for the gas in his car. Normally I give him cash so we can get the cheaper rate as the gas station. That means Little Kat needs to go in and talk to the attendent.

I tried to activate our easy passes. Turns out I need to know my gas station credit card number. Doh. I just signed up to get my gas card. I did not get them yet. Out easy passes remained dormant. Then I opened up the rest of my mail, and found that they mailed me the cards in a separate envelope.

Little Kat was even more excited because I ordered a credit card with his name on it. It is just for him to fill up the gas tank. Still, I was able to activate our easy passes. Little Kat is heading over to his friend's house to spend the night. On the way, he plans to fill up the car with the easy pass.

No Rules

Momoko wanted to eat some steaks from Outback Steakhouse for her birthday. Little Kat signed up to order the meals. Kit Kat signed up to drive to the restaurant. And I signed up to pay. One surprise was that the local restaurant moved from just by our house to the new town center mall.

Little Kat did his job. He chose all the orders complete with sides and customizations. Kit Kat decided to bring Little Kat along with her. I gave Little Kat my credit card to pay online. Kit Kat wanted me to chip in for a huge tip for the curb side takeaway people.

The shocker came when Kit Kat said they no longer served remoulade sauce at the restaurant. Fail. That's the main reason why I eat at Outback. I guess that means no more Outback for me. I felt ripped off that I spent so much money on our meal. At least Momoko enjoyed it.

Kit Kat was not pleased with their curb side takeaway service anyway. Time to find a new steakhouse. Longhorn anyone?

Late Night

Yesterday I had to work late into the night. It was the first run of some computer software I am in charge of at work. Last year our first run did not go well. I had planned to have a dry run during the day last week. However the customer did not want that. They just wanted it to run normal time. Thus, I had to work the night shift.

Momoko was still hungry after dinner. We sent the kids out to pick us up some Chik Fil-A. I got a spicy chicken sandwich. The rest of the family got assorted chicken meals. After the late evening snack, I went down to the basement to do my work. The first call in was set for 9:45pm.

One problem with working the night shift is that the computer operators are a bit slow. The A-Team gets to choose their own hours, and they usually choose the day shift. The first job of the night ran in a few minutes. The second job took a few hours. We were still there at midnight, and the second job kept going on and on.

The only consolation was that the computer operator who works the graveyard shift is actually very good. My second job finished around 12:30am. Somehow my manager came onto the call and was anxious for the third job to complete. I told him that we had been monitoring this thing for a few hours, so he could chill for a few minutes and let the third job complete.

The third job completed within the hour. My manager asked me a few questions that I answered. Then some other mid-level managers started to pipe in. I quickly shut them down. I was not in the mood to listen to their questions at 1:30am in the morning. I got to bed around 2:00am. My best decision was to let the team know I was going to sleep in the following morning.

By the time I started my work day the next day at noon, there were a lot of other problems to deal with. At least my software ran well the first time. I was glad to have had the extra sleep and a lazy morning. Tomorrow I finish up some new work I have been coding. Then I go off for a week full of training! My annual week of training oh boy.

Movie Weekend

I usually lead a very busy weekend. No time to do fun stuff like going to the movies. However I wanted to see Project Almanac. Momoko jumped at the opportunity and scheduled us to see a show last weekend. Little Kat was in. Surprisingly, Kit Kat decided to pass.

We got up early Sunday morning. And instead of eating breakfast with Momoko as usual, Little Kat drove us to the movie theater. We were the first customers there. The front door was locked when we arrived. We went early to get the discount tickets. It also helped to avoid the crowds.

The plot of the movie was good. Of course it was some kind of love story paired with a coming of age. I was in it for the time travel. The only disappointment was the shaky camera footage throughout the movie. Most of the movie was supposed to be documented by the main character's little sister on her camera. Thus a shaky film.

Afterwards we planned to eat lunch at Friendly's. Unfortunately we discovered that the restaurant closed down. I guess we were not supporting them enough. The shopping center had a Chipoltle. We grabbed some burritos to go and headed home. Somehow Momoko has talked me into another movie morning next weekend. How am I going to get my beauty sleep?