Goals at Work

At work, I am supposed to submit yearly goals. These are then used to gauge how well I do during the year. This past year, I think I just copied whatever goals I had from last year that seemed doable. My boss responded and said I should add another goal to "grow my professional network". That means get out there and meet people outside of my project team.

It took a while to get back to goal setting. But I pretty much added what my boss asked. Now I had to make some progress on that goal. The year is already 66% done. My first stop was my community college. Surely there is some type of club with tech people different than myself. All I could find was the Cyber Defense club.

There didn't seem to be much info online about the Cyber Defense club in general. I found a phone number to call about clubs in general. But nobody picked up. Instead I shot out an email to the contact for all clubs. Turns out the president of the Student Government Association responded to my email!

The Cyber Defense club had gone defunct. But the faculty member who sponsors it was thinking about trying to restart the club. Not sure if I want to get in on the ground floor here. I want to find an established organization and infiltrate its members to meet my work goal.

I did find a promising lead. There is a meet up that focuses on independent game developers in the area. Unfortunately they meet when I go to lunch with the family on the weekend. Might have to skip lunch to crash their meeting.

Good Times at the Office

On my last project, I used to go into the company office around once a week. Sat in a big conference room with the same couple people. They were all cool. One of them emailed us all, proposing a get together lunch. I was down. I voted for us meeting in the same conference room we used to work out of.

I got up early and headed to the office. Had not been there in over a year. Was surprised that they started locking the front door. Keep the riff raff out? I saw my peoples. But my old team lead was not there. I suggested we go to my favorite local Ruby Tuesday's restaurant. Choice approved. They did not have the sliders special. But I got a burger and added the salad bar anyway.

Took off from work early. Headed over to my college campus. It was weird that the bookstore allowed us to roam the aisles full of textbooks. They only had used copies for my class. Then I tried to get a parking decal for my car. Had to run back to the parking lot to find my license plate number for the form.

I thought I might need to sit for a picture to get a new ID. Turns out I could use the old one. They just put a sticker on top that indicated I was enrolled for the current semester. Not too shabby. I am prepared for the school semester now. Next time I might choose Chegg to rent my textbooks like all the other kids. Feels like a waste when my company foots the bill for new textbooks though.

Change in Vacation Lunch Plans

We packed the night before to be ready to leave the hotel. Momoko and I were waiting around for the appointed time when the fire alarms went off. We grabbed all our bags and walked down the stairs. We waited for the kids to meet us at the car. After loading it up, I went to check us out of the hotel. Apparently they were testing the smoke alarm lights.

Little Kat filled up Kit Kat's car with gas. Some dude pulled next to us going the wrong way at the light out of the gas station. Little Kat managed. He did need some prodding from Momoko on the drive home for things such as his lane ending or cars trying to get on the highway in front of him. Little Kat thought it was unfair he had to drive such a long distance to our lunch location. It was what he agreed upon.

We were looking forward to eat at Dairy Queen. It was way too crowded. We instead went to a local diner. They had a salad bar with whole boiled eggs and pickled beets. We all got lunch specials which included dessert. The whole family was stuffed from lunch. Kit Kat took over the driving. The car ride home was bumpy because of the faulty shocks on Kit Kat's car. We survived.

The house looked just like we left it. My brother had set out the trash and recyclables successfully. I took a nap in my comfortable bed at home. And Momoko took a hot shower. It was good to be home. This is essentially the end of summer vacation. Luckily I scheduled up a week worth of training at work. I needed it with all the extra hours I am working on my current project.

Under the Boardwalk

Initially we planned to go to breakfast to start our first full day at the beach. But Kit Kat worried about the crowds on the boardwalk. So we had Little Kat drive us there first. Kit Kat had purchased a beach hat for Momoko. She brought it to our room. The kids sprayed sun tan lotion on. We headed for the parking at the end of the boardwalk.

I was surprised that hardly anyone was parked there. But the people came out from somewhere to be on the boardwalk. Momoko got a large Orange Julius from DQ. The kids immediately responded by buying dippin dots ice cream. Kit Kat could not find this monster decoration she purchased here in past years.

The kids left us to search for a sweatshirt for Kit Kat. I spied on a cop car at the edge of the boardwalk. A black young man got on a long skateboard. The cop came out immediately to confront him. The skateboard was screaming at the cop, and threw his hat down on the ground after handing over his ID. More cops came and I thought this guy was going to be arrested. He was let off with a warning but continued to skate and yell at the cops.

It was a long wait for the kids to get back. We were only sitting on a bench on the boardwalk. But it was hot. Eventually they returned right about when I thought we needed to call them up and tell them to hurry up. Kit Kat got a custom sweatshirt with the breach town logo for the season.

Momoko was very hot. She thought we could skip our breakfast shop and head somewhere she could get a salad. I talked her out of that idea. Little Kat took us to the breakfast place that specialized in crepes. Little Kat opted for a cup of coffee. Momoko got charged over $3 for it. I was missing my sour cream initially for my omlette.

Afterwards, Momoko had Little Kat drive the family around for her to shop for a bag. When we got back to the hotel, neither Momoko nor my key worked in our room. I had to get them rekeyed. Another fail from this hotel. They must have entered the checkout date wrong.

Car Issues on Way to Beach

Next week school starts up. So the family took a small beach vacation to celebrate the end of summer. The morning that we left, I went out and collected the yard clippings and set them out for the next day. We had planned to drive an hour or so and get some lunch. But Momoko was too hungry. Kit Kat drove us to the local McDonald's for some dollar menu grub.

On the highway I immediately noticed some problems with Kit Kat's car. It did not take the bounces well at all. Maybe some shocks problem. The power window at my seat was broken. Later we found that the air conditioner only lasts for an hour or so and then stops cooling. Also, Kit Kat's phone she used for navigation overheated and turned off.

The real bummer was that the Sonic we planned to visit for lunch had permanently closed down. We needed to take a 20 minute detour to find another Sonic. The hotel we stayed at was new for us. The kids were on the third floor with their own room facing the bay. Their front door was tough to open.

Momoko and I stayed at a beach front room. But there were two lamp posts with huge light balls outside our balcony preventing night views of the ocean. Plus there were assorted palm trees obstructing our view. The ocean was far away as well due to a deep beach.

We went to our favorite restaurant for dinner. They did not have the Italian sub I was hoping for. They were very busy but we got seated immediately, albeit at a booth instead of a table. Momoko told everyone to order only what they could eat. She ended up not eating her tossed salad. Fail. I told the family I detected our waitress was from Uzbekistan.

Clothes Washer Woes

Today I had to wash our bed sheets. Played some video games while the washer was running. I heard a loud noise. Went over to see what was up. The washer was unbalanced. I moved the heavy water soaked items around a bit. The washer kept having problems. I ended up moving the sheets to the dryer.

Next up I washed some whites. The washer has the same problem. Something is amiss. The washer is old, but not that old. I might be able to get someone to repair it. That might take a long time though. I might just go out and buy a new washer. We use the thing a lot in our house.

I am going to have my handyman over to fix a couple things in the house. Maybe I could add a washer installation to the list.

Shirt Shopping

Little Kat complained that he needed new shirts. We scheduled a time today to go shopping at JC Penney. Even though it is the weekend, I had to work today. So Little Kat and I went out on my lunch break. I made Little Kat drive to the mall.

There was some concert going on across from the mall. Lots of foot traffic getting in our way. We made it to the mall and headed straight to the big and tall section. I told Little Kat that Momoko recommended he get a long shirt to cover everything up. He was unsure if it should be an XL long or a 2XL long. He grabbed some of each and determined he is 2XL long.

Little Kat did not want tee shirts this time around. He wanted some polo and dress shirts. He got two plaid dress shirts with short sleeves. These button all the way up and have a collar. He also picked up one polo shirt. The retail prices on these shirts was quite high, running $50 to $60 each. Luckily they were on sale for 40% and 60% off.

When we got to the register, the employee rung us up and there seemed to be an additional 20% off. I did not argue with paying less. We made the purchase and came home in what seemed like record time. The only obstacle was even more people lined up across the street for a concert.

Let's see how often Little Kat wears this new style of shirt. Little Kat said we should try ordering online from Amazon next. I am always nervous buying clothes online. Last time I bought Little Kat some shoes online, I had to return them. Nobody has time for that. But if we could make it work, it would save the trip to the mall.