Bedroom Trouble

Little Kat's room was getting messy. We had him clean it up before the end of the last time off from school. Then Little Kat decided to remodel his room. I bought him a bunch of new furniture. He assembled it all. The problem was that he did not get rid of the old furniture. He also kept all the packaging material from the new furniture.


I tasked Momoko with overseeing the clean up this time around. She requested some assistance. There was a lot of heavy old furniture up there. Little Kat and I carried it out of the house today. It was a strenuous activity. Then Little Kat got rid of the packing material. That was just the start. Momoko guided Little Kat to declutter.


We might need to keep better tabs on Little Kat's room. He just does not have the ability to stop hoarding.

Time for a New Grill

A while back, Little Kat said he wanted us to transition to a gas grill. We bought him a single burner gas grill. It was just a started grill. He liked cooking with it. So we upgraded to a bigger grill with four or give burners. I got it at Walmart.


The Walmart grill had quality problems. The front doors would not stay shut. I had to call up the manufacturer because the grates broke. After two years, the thing had rusted through so that you could not use it to cook.


I consulted Little Kat. He still wanted to grill. So I found some better quality grills. Little Kat said he wanted a lot of burners. But he also wanted a "side searing" option for meats like steak. I found a few that met this need. They had one of Nexgrill models at the local Home Deport.


Little Kat and I borrowed my brother's truck. We went to Home Deport. Found the grill really quick. Got a guy to help us. He had to pull the box from the top of the shelf using a fork lift. The grill cost twice as much as the Walmart variety. I hope it lasts twice as long.


We did have a positive surprise with this grill. It has a rotisserie you could plug in to make the meats turn over the flame automatically. I am planning for Little Kat to give the thing a test run this week.

Double Oven

Momoko and I have always wanted a gas over. We had one in my house when I was growing up. Momoko had one in her old house too. Unfortunately we have been living with electric ovens for the last 10+ years. Imagine out excitement when I found our handyman said he could run new gas lines to our kitchen and hook up a gas over for us.


I recently made some money with a stock trade. So I figured it was time to get that gas over. We went to the Sears home appliance store. They said they had lots of gas ovens. Momoko has been cooking a lot more recently, as Kit Kat move into her dorm, and Little Kat works. Momoko says our oven take forever to heat up. Defective perhaps.


We saw a lot of nice ovens. But the real bonus was the double ovens. When we first moved into our current house, we had an ancient double oven which broke down many times. It was electric though. There were about five different gas double oven models in the store. Little Kat liked the knobs on a KitchenAid. Momoko thought it was pricey but good.


The sale sticker price on the model was high. I told the salesman we wanted one in black. Figured it would be easier to clean. The sales guy said the system told him black costs more. Nope. Stainless steel is the one that always costs more. I inquired about what was wrong. Apparently the black model was not on sale. Time to walk?


Momoko asked me if we should switch to the stainless steel one. Not a good tactic. I paused and let the sales guy sweat a bit. I wanted to give him the sale. But I was not going to pay full price for this thing. A quick search on Google showed some models for less at other stores. I don't like to browse in a store and then run off and purchase it somewhere else. That is just a bad practice.


In the end, the sales guy found another supplier that could get it to Sears cheaper. They were going to pass on the savings to me. I mean everyone is still making a lot of money on this sale. Figure this was a win-win scenario. We pick the new oven up at the store in a week and a half.

Graduation Time

Little Kat is graduating from high school in about a month and a half. The grandparents said they would come to see it happen. Little Kat's aunt and cousin decided to also come. They initially thought they would drive to our house. Momoko and I took that drive once. That is too far. Instead, we are having them fly into town.


We surveyed our guests. They all want to stay at our house. That makes it easier to stay up late and be together all the time. Just makes is a challenge to figure out where everyone will sleep. We no longer have a guest room (it became my study). We might have to acquire another mattress or two. I am sure we can make it work.


My brother and I have another unoccupied house we could use. The problem is that it is at least a 30 minute drive away. I think we will only use it as a last resort for bunking visitors. If need be, we might rent a room or two at a nearby hotel. That is a pricey option. Plus it is not as fun as having everyone stay in the same house.

Desk Shopping

Little Kat decided he needed a change in his bedroom. He asked if he could have a new desk and dresser. I did not see why not. We would need to go to stores to touch and feel the dresser operations. However he thought he could research desks online.


Little Kat went through a few iterations of ideas for his desk. He settled on a black desk from IKEA. I looked it up online. It said they had it at our local store. We scheduled to go after work today. I waited for my bro to come home with his truck. Then Little Kat and I headed out.


Traffic was bad close to the store. Rush hour I guess. The parking lot of IKEA was not full as usual. Good sign. We snuck in the back way to avoid the maze of their showroom. I printed off the aisle and bin numbers where the desk was in their warehouse.


We found the desk quickly. Got a cart and loaded the thing up. It came in two boxes. Checkout lines were short. The guy in our line turned off his light. I asked if he was closed. I asked again. He apparently said he could check us out. He just did not look at us or speak loud enough.


Little Kat and I loaded the boxes onto the truck. We drove home in record time. Even made it before dinner was served. We carried the boxes up to Little Kat's room. Next up - dresser shopping.

Applying to College

I have been quizzing Little Kat about this college plans for some time now. At the beginning of the school year, the school said it would be optimal to apply to college scholarships weeks. So I encourage Little Kat to do some. Sometimes I require that he do at least one scholarship application per week.


Recently Momoko and I have been requiring Little Kat to apply to colleges. He applied and got into some community colleges. Now it was time to apply to a four year college. For a few weeks in a row, Little Kat failed to apply to a local four year college.


I gave him another week and told him to get it done. Otherwise he would be in trouble. As usual, Little Kat failed. I made him pay the fees to apply to the college. Also made him go out in the back yard and saw a huge branch (like a tree) into manageable pieces to move.


Then came the super fail. The night before Little Kat was yet again required to apply to this college, he came and said he thought it might be too late to apply. The failure level was getting too high in here. I told him he needed to get the job done. Otherwise he would be put to manual labor building me a retaining wall in my back yard.


Little Kat built a good sized retaining wall one summer for me in the back yard. It was grueling work. He got paid a lot of money to do it. He also knew the pain it took that complete that task. Turns out, by hook or by crook, he finally got his college application in.


Now let's see if Little Kat learned any lessons about getting tasks done when I assign them to him. If so, he is going to be on one of the first steps towards success in life. Otherwise, I am going to be getting some good landscaping done in my back yard for free.

Fender Bender

I had a meeting in our office building on the other side of town. So I left a little early in the morning. The highway was a parking lot. Took a while to get to the next exit. I turned around and came back up by my home. Had to take the back roads.


Turns out some truck was blocking the back road I wanted to take. Plus traffic was bad there in general too. I got to my meeting 10 minutes late. Later I saw an email from the meeting organizer saying traffic was bad. Hah.


On the way home, I had a lot of things on my mind. I used the GPS to plot my course home. Was getting close to a highway. Stopped at a red light behind a Lexus RX. I could have sworn the Lexus did a right turn on red. So I watched the traffic, saw a spot open, and tried to make a left turn on red myself.


As I hit the gas, I saw the Lexus still in front of me! I hit the car. Oops. The lady in front of me got out and surveyed the damage. She thought the scrapes on her bumper could be buffed out. If case it did not, she got my insurance info. Lesson learned. Keep your mind on driving when you are in the car,

Beach Departure

Momoko wanted to visit the beach at the end of spring break. I rented two ocean front rooms so everybody could get their own bed. We checked out of the hotel today. I went down to the bistro inside the hotel to inquire about cotton candy for Kit Kat. The lady behind the counter said she was busy, but that she would spin some up.


We got out cotton candy. I checked us out of the hotel, getting them to resolve a discrepancy with the bill. The winds were ferocious. I think one of the hotel doors broke due to high winds. Little Kat brought the car around from overflow parking. We had to hang onto our things as we loaded the car.


Half way through the journey home, we had a Sonic breakfast. There were warnings and restrictions on a long bridge we had to cross. We finally made it home. My brother and I went to my dad's house to load up some bulky trash on the curb. A neighbor asked if he could take some of the stuff. I told him he could have it all.


Back at home, we took Kit Kat out to an Italian dinner. As usual, we drove two cars because of our family has brown by one (my brother). Kit Kat then packed up and went back to her dorm. Momoko and I watched the season finale of The Walking Dead. Somebody got killed by Neegan.

Spring Break Beach Trip

We had to wait for Little Kat to come home from work before heading out to the beach today. Momoko bought Little Kat some McDonald's for dinner that he ate on the road. We crossed the big bridge with heavy crosswinds.


The car GPS told us to take a right turn. We decided to go straight to proceed to Sonic. There was an accident that had traffic at a standstill for a while. Made our late drive even later. We made it to Sonic and grabbed a snack.


My bro took the wheel of Momoko's car. He did not turn on the headlights. A copy pulled him over and gave him a warning. He tailed another car most of the way to the beach. I was concerned but did not say anything. I figured my bro may have been frazzled by the police stop.


Made it to the hotel in one piece. There was some mix up at the front desk. They thought I wanted one room for six days. Nope. Need two rooms for three days each. The A/C has not been turned on int he hotel yet.


At least the vending machine works and they sell cokes for a buck.

Slow Fridge Moving

I scheduled the first bulky trash pickup for large items at my dad's house that we want to get rid of. Was surprised at the fast turnaround for the pickup. The fridge was going to be taken in two days. I got up early this morning and went to my dad's. Figured I would use the dolly to wheel the fridge out to the curb.


Turns out the fridge did not fit through the basement door. They had a new, smaller door installed since the fridge was moved in. Well I had to take the doors and some other pieces off the fridge to fit it through the tiny door.


This took a lot longer than I had planned. This made me late to work. Got there just in time for my Thursday conference call. I was sweating though. Luckily I worked from home today. So I could take a shower at lunch time. It did cut into my time I normally spend with Little Kat learning how to drive manual transmission during his Spring Break though.