Vacation Provides Movie Opportunities

Momoko and I went on vacation this week. Just the two of us. I ran to the ATM before we left. I gave both the kids some cash so they could eat out while we were away. We left early so we could see a movie before we checked into the hotel. We saw Thor. It was great. There was some construction en route to the hotel. We made it though.

Our room was at a hotel. However you had to exit the atrium area to get to our room. It almost felt like a motel room. Inside it was fine. Momoko wanted to check out a new casino. She tried to get some cash at the ATM. The ATM told her to take the money. No money was found. A second ATM refused to disburse any cash either. The soul of the world did not want us gambling.

We eventually did get money and make it to the casino. It was weak. No slot machines that we liked. Momoko blew through $20 really quick. Then after her second $20 was almost gone, she hit it big. We got out of there with our cash.

Momoko was supposed to drive us to the mall to see another movie. However due to Black Friday, she opted to take us to a local theater. It was small but had assigned recliner seating. Justice League was just ok. I was hoping to see the Legion of Doom in the film. No luck there.

Momoko got sick the last day we were on vacation. We decided to check out early in the morning and get home so Momoko could recover.

Repair Visit Foiled

Today was the first day of my vacation. Had to get up early. Scheduled a repair guy to look at our dishwasher this morning. The repairman called to get my model number. Then he called again, saying he had to go buy a part. He did not get to the house until 3+ hours after the scheduled time. At least he got here.

When the repair guy looked at the dishwasher, he declared that there was no power to the dishwasher. That was news to me. It had power the last time we ran it. Checked the breaker box. No circuits tripped. He showed me that the electrical wire that leads into the dishwasher had no current. He recommended I have an electrician figure out this problem, then call him back.

I called my handyman and scheduled a visit for next weekend. Then I alerted the family. Momoko and Kit Kat both asked whether the secret switch was turned off on the dishwasher. WTF? I had Little Kat show me where this switch was. Sure enough, the power was manually killed to the dishwasher. Let's hope the repair guy can return tomorrow to figure out the problem.

Dead Dishwasher

Momoko complained that the dishwasher was smelling bad. Plus sometimes it would leave the dishes greasy with some film on them. Not good. I took an action to get a service guy to look at these problems. Been very busy at work. So this task got put on the backburner.

Then Momoko had to do the dishes again. There was water at the bottom of the dishwasher. Little Kat instructed Momoko to just run the load again. After a minute or two, I heard the beeps that signal the end of a dishwasher run. Oops.

Turns out the dishwasher will not drain the water, and will not run. We get an error code. I called up the manufacturer. They are doing recalls and are booked all month. Called a couple local repair shops that are authorized by the manufacturer. One of them is coming out Monday.

For now we eat on paper plates and plastic utensils. Drink out of plastic cups. This weekend we will eat takeout for dinner. No need dirtying pots and pans that need to be hand washed. I am hoping the repair guy can fix this appliance.

Winter Camping Day 2

Kit Kat woke us up at 4am. I was already awake. She said Little Kat was not doing well. Momoko let him lay in her warm bed. We decided it was time to cancel the camping trip. There were many challenges. It was dark. It was cold. It was the quiet hour at the camping ground.

We packed up what we could fit into the two cars. It was not everything. Then we drove back home. Little Kat took a shower and went to bed. Momoko tried to get Kit Kat to help with her flat tires. Kit Kat bailed and went to bed. I helped Momoko fill up the tires and we got Subway breakfast sandwiches.

My brother had his truck serviced. When he came up, Kit Kat woke up. The four of us returned to the camp site. We broke down the tents. I returned what little firewood we had to the camp site shed. We tossed the trash including a broke down chair. Barely fit all the items in the back of Momoko's car.

We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home. It was still delicious. I drove us home. Got a lot to unpack tomorrow. The tents and tarps are still wet. Kit Kat's car has not been emptied yet. Not a great vacation.

Winter Camping Day 1

I woke Kit Kat up early. Her can was showing some type of maintenance symbol. Turned out her tires were low on air. The kids and I proceeded to pack Momoko's car and Kit Kat's car full of camping gear. Momoko took a half day off work. We were off on our trip.

Stopped for lunch at Dairy Queen. Strangely enough they did not have burgers on the menu. I had a shrimp basket. Everyone else had chicken dinners. We split up after that. The kids made it to the camp site before us. They had gone on foot in search of the bathrooms.

The kids located their tent off the pad until they say that was prohibited. Little Kat tried to start a fire using a log teepee. It did not work. The flame went out. The wood and kindling was damp. We had to fan the flame to get dinner cooked.

Turned in early around 10pm because that is when the quiet hour began. It was already very cold.

Cleared for the next Phase in my Career

I had been on a project at work for around 15 years. Work on this project spanned me working for a couple different companies. This project is finally started to wind down. There are other systems that are supposed to take over. They plan to shut the project down. My project told me a few years ago that they no longer had a position for me.

I did find a cool project to get onto in my company. They said they needed a long time (2 years) to clear me to get onto the project. Until then, they said I needed to find some other work. At my company, you are usually on your own to find your next project.

I did find another group to work for. Unfortunately they had no needs for programming. I advised them for a while. But I was done with them in less than 6 months. I started looking around for more jobs. Even started looking outside my company.

Eventually I found my current project. They did have some programming needs. But this project sucked. Ended up doing things like working on the weekends. Get calls before I start work each day. And I get calls long after I leave for the day. This project is just totally unmanaged. And this results in just a bad time.

Last week I heard back the cool project I talked with about 2 years ago. They said their customer was ready for me to come work on their project. I need to work out a few details such as leaving my current project. But I am very excited to move onto the next phase of my career. Don't know a lot about the job. They told me to study up Certified Ethical Hacking to prepare for it.