Steak and Shake Adventure

Little Kat told me he would take me to Shake and Bake to thank me. Was not sure what he was thanking me for. Also was not aware that Shake and Bake was a location. Then I asked him if we might be headed to Steak and Shake restaurant. He confirmed we were.


So after practicing some manual transmission driving of third gear this morning, we got into the Chevy Monte Carlo that Little Kat normally drives. He used his iPhone running a Google app to tell us how to get to Steak and Shake. I peered over the highway overpass to see bumper to bumper traffic.


Little Kat tried to get on the highway. I told him we had better get off before we get on. There was only so much time I had for lunch today. As Little Kat was driving and staring at the traffic, he was headed for the curb. I told him to turn right. He did, but the car hit up against the curb. I hope there was no lasting damage.


I pointed Little Kat to a back roads alternate route. The Google app eventually figured out where we were and gave us different directions. They did take us through some twisty country roads. Eventually we got to the restaurant. It was confusing inside because there was no host. Little Kat found one. We got seated immediately


I hard a triple burger, French fries with parmesan cheese, and a strawberry milkshake. It took a while for the food and drinks to arrive. But when they did, they were delicious. I think the best part was that Little Kat paid, and the bill was not too high. That is the beauty of Steak and Shake.

Story About Dad

My brother and I visit my dad's old house each weekend. We go through all the things in the house. Most of the items we bag up for throwing away. Papers are the hardest thing. Got to read through them to see if there is anything worth keeping or noting.


Today we came across some interesting documents my dad kept. They were the court proceeding of a case where he was the defendant. He had borrowed my uncle's car and was driving two people. One of the people in the car sued dad. They claimed that he went off the road for no reason.


This plaintiff allegedly flew out through the windshield when dad hit a tree on the side of the road. The plaintiff spent almost a month in the hospital, and had to miss a lot of work. They were suing dad for a fortune.


Looks like dad hired a lawyer who did all the talking. The lawyer was able to settle the claim outside the court for a lot less money. The plaintiff agreed to release dad from any further claims given the settlement that was reached. Lucky for dad he had competent legal representation. I don't think I ever heard this story from dad.

Household Fund

I often tell the family that we have a "family fund" to pay for purchases that would better out household. Normally I encourage Momoko and the kids to propose items that we all could use. Now the actual payment from this fund is my pocket. But hey. It is nice to be able to get some useful items once in a while without worrying how to pay for them.


Little Kat has caught onto how handy this is. I encourage him to come up with creative pitches to sell me on some goods he wants me to buy. Sometimes he has outlandish ideas for expensive items that only he would benefit from. Those get shot down. But if he gives a good argument with a straight face, I don't might shelling out for some treats for him now and then.


Late last night I got an email from Little Kat. He wanted me to purchase an Enermax USB card reader. The thing seemed a bit pricey at $40. I tried to talk with him before he went to bed. But I did not catch him. I did some research on the thing. It has good marketing. Essentially it is a device that can give you a bunch of extra USB ports on your computer. I was concerned that it was not like the cheap ones that you plug into an existing USB port. You got to install this thing into your computer.


I spoke with Little Kat today. He knew that this was a device that took up an internal bay like a CD-ROM or disk drive. What the heck? Let's go for it. Little Kat's angle was that it would help him use memory sticks to store stuff quickly. I figured it would give him some good experience modding his gaming rig. His package arrives Wednesday.

Certified Network Pro

Today I went to my college to take a certification exam. I had to put all my stuff in a locker. I was assigned a computer. The format of the test was very familiar. Got to the first question, tried to launch the "lab" where you actually do the work. The screen froze.


I went to the person who helps administer the test. She found some work around where I could click the lab, cancel it, then click it a second time to get it to work. I needed to use that hack for every one of the 16 labs I completed for my exam.


By the end of the test, I found that I answered just about all the questions correctly. I passed the test and am now a Certified Network Pro. At home I printed out my certification. Next up, I need to hit the books and study for a similar industry standard test called Network+.

Trouble in Egypt

I have been seeing commercials for the movie Gods of Egypt. Kit Kat thought it looked good. So did I. We scheduled for her to come home to watch the movie this weekend. The whole family was planning to go. Kit Kat got a ticket for one of her friends too.


Kit Kat went to pick up her friend from community college. Little Kat drove the rest of us to the theater. We met Kit Kat there. Unfortunately, she used an app to buy our tickets and got us seats that were not our normal ones. Correction. She got the normal seats for her and her friend, but put us in the middle of the theater away from her.


We got some snacks before the movie. The previews were skewed on the big screen. It was as if the projector was turned way far to the right. I went to complain. They said someone else already alerted them. Somebody fooled around and eventually fixed the problem. But it came back. I went to alert the staff.


They gave us all vouchers for a free movie, and said they would try to get the current one working. Turns out the picture was okay after that. I really enjoyed the movie. Not sure why the critics did not. It was a surprise that actor Gerard Butler was the bad guy. Still very enjoyable. After the movie, Little Kat and I switched cars to see whether he wants to drive my Monte Carlo instead of the Scion xB. We are also going to see if the work that my mechanic performed solved the water leaking into the car.

Steptronic Surprise

I had been driving my rented Fiat 500 around for a couple days. The car felt like the transmission was about to die. The RPM would redline before shifting into what felt was the correct gear. The engine did not sound good at the high RPMs.


When I drove it to school one day, I realized I could push the shifter up and down to manually change gears, even though this is an automatic transmission. Hey. I already have a manual transmission car. If I wanted this, I did not have to rent an extra vehicle.


On the day I had to return the rental, I noticed that the dashboard display showed a "D" when I brought the shifter down from park. Then when I moved the shifter to the left to be next to the "D" on the shifter, the dashboard showed "1". LOL wut?


Then I figure it out. It was a mistake to pull the shifter to the left to be next to the "D". That puts the car in steptronic or tiptronic mode. In other words, I was overriding the automatic transmission and putting the car in manual shift mode. Duh.


Too bad I figured this out on my last rental day. The car drove a whole lot better when it was in the normal automatic transmission mode. Now I know better.

Car Switchup

Little Kat has been driving my old Scion xB. And I have been driving the Chevy Monte Carlo that used to belong to my parents. Momoko discovered that Little Kat liked the Monte Carlo. So I thought I would let him drive it to see if we should make a permanent switch.


Little Kat came back from school. He reported that the driver's side window came down and would not go up. He was telling the truth. I had some prior problems rolling up the window. Usually it would go up eventually. Not this time.


I drove the car to my mechanic. He could definitely fix the power window issue. I also asked him to look at a leak that causes water to pool up inside the car when it rains. If we can get that water leak patched up, we might be ready to get Little Kat a vehicle he likes better.


On the way home from the mechanic, I had Little Kat swing by a car rental place in our town. I had never heard of it before. They had a Fiat 500 they would rent me. It was one of the cheapest rentals on the lot. I like the look of the Fiat. The engine sounds terrible. But the body style is cute.