Olive Garden Difficulties

Now that we are on vacation, Momoko wanted to go to lunch at Olive Garden. I agree that their food is tasty. And if you don't order crazy stuff, the price is right. My beef is that the local restaurant has terrible service. I don't like giving my business to places with bad service. The only way to get a chance at decent service is to arrive early before the lunch rush.

Yesterday Little Kat and I had to take his car to our trusty mechanic. At a minimum, we needed his front driver's side tire replaced. The tire store said they could not find a problem with it. However the thing deflates to 10 or 15 pounds after a day. It is supposed to hold 33 pounds of air pressure. My mechanic said he could do that work and the rest of the stuff we needed. However his suppliers were closed yesterday for the extended Christmas holiday. It would just take a while.

Since we were out later during the lunch hour dealing with this car business, there was no way we could go to Olive Garden and get decent service. So the lunch was postponed until today. For some reason, we both slept late today. We missed the opportunity to get to the restaurant early. But we got there before the rush. Momoko got fettuccine Alfredo and I got ziti. It tasted good. We shared a salad and lots of bread sticks with butter.

Late Christmas Shopping at BAM

Momoko needed to do some last minute Christmas shopping. She needed a buddy to go to Books a Million in our local strip mall. I volunteered as tribute. I cautioned that the store may no longer be in business. We drove to the mall. I was right. The store got replaced by a Korean BBQ and HotPot.

Momoko searched for another Books a Million. It was located in the next town north of us. She did not want to drive there. So instead she said we should go to Target. I said Target would not have the best selection. Plus it would be very crowded, it being one week before Christmas.

I talked her into heading north to the next closest Books a Million. She told me I should drive her there. Nope. This was her party. So she had to drive. I put the store in my Google Maps. Momoko complained that she could not drive and listen to the directions. So I put my phone on silent, and told her where to go.

It turns out Books a Million is in a big mall. We parking on the third level of a parking garage. We took the elevator down, and headed into a big store. Then we came out into the mall. The directory said that Books a Million was close to us, one level above.

The store had a bunch of people in it. But it was not too crowded. The magazine selection was substandard compared to other Books a Million stores. Momoko did find some gifts. I saw a couple magazines of interest. But they cost $16 to $17. So I left them there. Even pamphlet sized magazines were $7. Too expensive.

Season for Boxes

My Amazon Alexa alerted me that I had two deliveries made. So I went outside to find a mountain of boxes in front of the house. I presume some of these were people in our house ordering Christmas gifts.

The boxes for me were not gifts. I had recently ordered Charmin toilet paper and Bounty paper towels. So that accounted for two pretty large boxes.

Not everything was from Amazon. Kit Kat is part of some meal ingredients delivery service called Every Plate. So she had a box with food that was being cooled by some ice packs inside. I left her box outside by the side door so the contents would not melt.

Shelving Trouble

After dinner, I put my trash in the kitchen trash can. Behind it one of our shelves was awry. The mat on one of the shelves was crumpled. So I started taking off the pot covers that were on that shelf. Then the whole shelf fell down. I inspected and found a missing peg on the front left corner.

I looked around and could not find the peg. So I stole a peg from the shelf one level below that held the trash bags. Then I measured the height of the trash bag shelf. I went outside and cut a piece of wood to be that exact height. I attached tape to one side of the wood, and mounted it under the shelf. Works for now.

Later Momoko said she purchased extra pegs. Wish I would have know that earlier. This was a tough job since it was really hot in the kitchen due to multiple dinners being cooked.

Trouble Getting New Sheets

We alternate between two sets of sheets on our beds. Momoko likes the gray sheets. But she does not care for the red ones. We decided the solution was to buy another set of the gray ones. I was sure I ordered them from Amazon. So I looked up my order, and placed a reorder of the same sheets. Even got them in the same color.

When they arrived, I realized I only purchased a set for a single XL twin bed. That is only half of our split king size bed. Therefore, I ordered another pair. Then I kept them handy until it was time to change sheets again. At the appointed time, we threw out the red sheets and put on the gray ones.

I washed the new sheets to prepare for the next time we need to change sheets. It is then that I realized that although I ordered the same sheets as last time, they were not the same. Amazon must have changed manufacturers or something. I hope these new sheets are adequate, if not different.

Leaves are Falling

Last weekend, I put out 25+ leaf bags on the curb. There have been a ton of leaves falling from the trees. This week, I have worked a couple hours each day collecting leaves. Yesterday I cleaned most of the leaves on the hill behind the fence. That worked cleaned me out of tall paper leaf bags.

Today I went to Lowes to buy some more leaf bags. I could not find them. An employee told me they ran out. Then I went to Home Depot. An employee showed me where they kept the leaf bags. The box was empty. He said they had bags. Then he came back and said somebody would bring the bags in a few minutes.

After waiting over 15 minutes, I gave up. Ordering these bags online cost too much. Therefore I decided to revert to putting my leaves in plastic bags. The leaf collection truck from the county will only pick up leaves in paper bags. I will give them the last of my bags, filled with leaves. The rest will have to go in plastic bags with the trash man.

Luckily I had black 13 gallons bags that I ordered by mistake. There are 40 bags in the box. I decided to fill these with leaves. The bags are much smaller than the paper bags the county requires. And they are harder to work with. At least I don't need to spend any more money on them.

Flat Tire Failure

I had planned to run some errands with Momoko's brother-in-law. But first I needed some lunch. So I headed out to get some Mexican food. I heard a weird sound as I drove the car out of Momoko's dad's driveway. I immediately turned around and pulled back into the driveway. There was a severe flat tire on the passenger rear side.

I came inside to look for some tire stores. Momoko's dad said we could go to his local Sam's Club store. He called them up and they were open. I used his air compressor to fill up the tire to 30psi. Then I followed him to Sam's. They were not busy. We had to go inside the store to officially request assistance. They immediately took the car in the bay as we waited outside. We had a good feeling when they put the tire back on the rim and checked the air pressure.

Inside, I asked the guy what he found. There had been a screw in the tire that they removed and patched. I did not need to get a new tire. There was no charge for the check and patch job. I guess it is built into the Sam's Club membership. Got lucky this time. I then picked up Momoko's brother-in-law. We got some PowerBall lottery tickets. Then I drove to Momoko's car wash. The brother-in-law did the cleaning of my car. I then got my Mexican food on the way home: burritos, chips, and queso.

Dinner Pandemonium

I am on vacation staying with Momoko's dad. I asked him what he wanted to do for dinner. He was flexible. Therefore I opted to get Chinese food. Momoko called me close to the time when I planned to pick up dinner. I tried to speak briefly with her. But she had a lot of stories to tell. After she started going into solo music from BTS members, I told her I had to go.

I called up the local Chinese food place. They said it would take a long time to cook our food. I headed out anyway, and filled the car with gas. There were a lot of cars at the Chinese food restaurant. I waited in line at a small window to pay for the food. Then I got a pager. The pager did eventually go off as I waited outside in the rain. Luckily the guy saw me come in. He gave me my food without me having to get back into line.

Back at Momoko's dad's house, we watched Fire Country while eating out Chinese food. I told Momoko we would need to postpone our college discussion with Little Kat by 1 hour. I called them up after dinner. We went through Little Kat's weekly schedule. We also reviewed a tree containing course prerequisites. Finally I quizzed him on chapter 1 of all courses that start this term. Momoko had her own dinner delivered, so she said she would call me back.

After waiting over an hour, I called Momoko asking what happened? She said she got distracted by a comedy show. The next day we scheduled when she would call me at night to talk.

Dinner and a Movie

Today I planned to go to dinner and movie with Momoko's niece. I had her pick me up in her Volvo. She drove us down to the theater. A parking lot attendant asked us why we were entering the parking lot. We said the movies. They let us in. The niece bought some popcorn, toppings, and a drink. We were the only two people in the theater with our movie.

We saw Smile. This was a horror film. It was the compromise me and the niece arrived at. After the movie, we picked up a huge bag of popcorn for Momoko's dad. Then we tried to drive to the niece's favorite restaurant. She swung around the block a couple time near the restaurant. She could not find any parking. I told her we should have just walked from the theater. We returned to the theater parking lot. However there was no parking left.

We found a paid parking lot. We tested the exit. They actually were not collecting any payment. So we got out and headed towards the restaurant. The niece wanted to rent Zip scooters to ride to the restaurant. I thought that was a bad idea since we did not know where we were going. I was right. We had to climb some stairs. We had to navigate narrow walkways above the canal. Zip biking would not have worked out well.

It turned out that the restaurant was closed. However it was a chain restaurant. So the niece drove us to another one of its locations. The place seemed deserted. I told her we came all this way. So we should go check what was up. They were indeed open with only one other customer. I ordered spicy shrimp and prosciutto. It was delicious. I also had a side Caesar salad. The niece drew on the paper tablecloth with crayons the waitress provided. The niece was tickled that she was able to pay her bill on her phone. I opted for credit card payment the old fashioned way.

Taking a Trip to Hadestown

Tonight I took Momoko's niece to see the Broadway musical Hadestown. We drove down to the theater in the middle of the day to scope the thing out. My GPS was acting weird. So we used the niece's phone to get us there. We searched for parking nearby. Everything was either paid or private parking. We tried out one of the pay per hour spots.

I had trouble navigating the parking payment kiosk. Had to enter my license plate number. I gave us a bit over an hour. We walked by a close museum. However we skipped it because they had a cover fee. The actual theater was closed during the day. We found the main entrance. Then we stopped by Jack in the Box on the way home to get lunch fast food to go.

I drove over to the niece's house and we headed down really early. Got there 2 hours before curtain open. Parked really close to the front doors of the theater. We walked to a nearby pizza place. The niece had to stop mid way to get the blood flowing in her legs. She also collected Pokemon using her app. We say at a table at the pizza joint. We both had Sprite to drink. Some random waitress topped us off with water. WTF?

Eventually we finished dinner and walked back to the theater. We went inside through metal detectors. Had to wait until 30 minutes before the show to enter the actual theater. We were in the upper orchestra section. It was elevated. I was surprised how far back we were from the stage. Was also surprised that there was a big live band playing along with the singers. And this show took us to Hadestown, where Orpheus had to travel to retrieve Eurydice.

In the musical. Hades has his wife Persephone for half the year. He has also talked Eurydice to join him down under. I was surprised that Hermes was our narrator. We knew this was a tragedy. However we still wanted to hear Orpheus with his musical skills charming everybody. After the show, we stayed in our seats until the crowd died down. So did a woman next to me who had taken off her red high heels. The drive home was surprisingly clear of most traffic jams.

A/C and Heat War

Kit Kit and Little Kat went to the Renaissance Festival today. It was the last weekend of the season. Tickets from earlier weeks had sold out early. Momoko went downstairs to wash our bedroom sheet. She thought she heard a noise like Little Kat's portable air conditioner on. She checked his closet and deemed it off. Good thing because we have had the central heating on for a while.

I then went downstairs later to do my own laundry. In the laundry room, I heat air flowing through the A/C exhaust duct. I went into Little Kat's closet. I moved his hanging clothes out of the way. He air conditioner was on. WTF? I told Momoko to call Little Kat. He was done with the Renaissance Festival. But he was eating dinner.

Later we had an emergency family meeting to find out what happened. Momoko turned the whole house central heat on. She texted Little Kat to have him turn off his A/C. He never did it. Last month the electric and gas utility bill was over $500. I cannot afford the A/C and heat to be on at the same time. We had to put in place some procedures to make sure this never happens again. If it down, perpetrators will start paying the electric bill.

Calculus Prerequisite

My next data science course at college requires Calculus as a prerequisite. I took Calculus way back in high school. The college said they needed proof of that. I actually took and aced the AP Calculus exam. I contacted the college board. They could not electronically transfer my exam results as it had been a long time since high school. So I requested they pull my results from archive and forward them to my school.

I called up my school once I got the exam results. The college said they received my exam results, and assured me that I had met that prerequisite. I clarified with them that I could now sign up for the class on my own online. They concurred. Since my company no longer provides advances for college classes, I waited until the day before the course started. And then, I found I could not enroll.

Today I called up the college. Told them I could not enroll in the class. They said it was because the class already started. I told them I tried before class start, and it still did not work. I also told the rep that my Calculus prerequisite was being met by my high school math course. They tried to enroll me and ran into the same error. Luckily, they were able to override this restriction. And now I am enrolled in class.

Kindling Shelf

The whole back part of my property is essentially woods. There are dead branches fall down on the ground all the time. Normally I collect them and bag them for the county to come collect them. However some time ago, I started keeping them to use as kindling.

It takes some time for the wood to dry. So I was putting the sticks in old broke down trash cans. I have 4 or 5 cans. But they are all full. The sticks and branches don't stop falling though. It was finally time to erect a sort of kindling shelf. I figured a piece of plywood on the bottom, raised above the ground to keep wood dry should suffice. Maybe put a tarp over top to keep the rain out.

I had previously built a similar structure on my property behind the back fence to hold grass clippings. It would allow the grass to dry out before bagging it and letting the county collect it. Now I use a multi-bag system. So I don't need to let the grass lay out prior to bagging.

I disassembled the old grass drying structure. Pulled the plywood from the lumber. Wiped off the spider webs and pulled out the nails. Then I put down the plywood where the old trash cans for kindling was located. I put the plywood on top and nailed it down. Then I tossed the loose branches on top. Finally I put a blue tarp on tap, held down by a large stone.

Taking a Trip to Hadestown

The Broadway musical "Hadestown" is taking its show on the road. I am on vacation end the end of this month. So I planned to go see this musical with Momoko's niece. Initially I thought we could get some box seats for a good price. However it took a while to confirm the niece's availability. During that time, the box seats more than doubled in price.

Okay. I guess we could get some tickets in the middle of the floor. The views seem okay from there. I went to the web site and tried to purchase the tickets. The only option of receiving the tickets was through mobile. LOL wut? They want you to download the tickets to you cell phone. No paper tickets seem available.

I did not want to miss out on this musical. Some people rave about, calling it the best thing to come out of Broadway in the last 5 years. The promoter of the show say, "Welcome to HADESTOWN, where a song can change your fate." Man. I am sold. I bit the bullet and purchased the tickets. I could not find anything called passport on my phone. I did find my wallet. And by hook or by crook, I added my digital tickets to my wallet.

Now I need to get over to my niece's, and do a dry run to find out where this theater is. Seems to be downtown. The details on parking seem a bit vague. There does seem to be some free parking available. And there is a lot of pair parking by third parties. On a positive note, if we do swing by, there is a city art museum right across the street.

I am not the Customer

In the past, I have subscribed to assorted fashion magazines. Usually I wait until there is a sale. They are a bit tricky. Magazines automatically enroll you into continuous subscription. That means they renew your subscription by default. Often times that comes with a hefty price increase.

That's okay though. They end up having to bill me. And I always cancel. Usually they will try to get me to resubscribe. Nope. Not unless I get the good deal again. Today the good deals came in the mail. I got a letter from Heart Magazines. They publish a ton of magazines. Some I have not even heard of.

The offer was $5 yearly subscription to any of the many magazines they listed. I immediately signed up for Cosmopolitan. I have subscribed to that magazine a couple times in the past. I was happy when they did a big article on one of my favorite YouTubers - Emma Chamberlain.

Here is the thing though. At $5 a year, and 12 issues, that is just 60 cents per issue. The postage along probably costs way more than that. I think Cosmo is one of the thicker magazines too. So how does the publisher make any money at all? The answer is that I am not the customer. They work for the big companies that run ads in their magazines.

They just need me to be a "paying customer" so they can flaunt their subscription numbers to their advertisers. I think this is a fair trade. I get a monthly magazine for a bargain. It is chock full of pages, half of which are ads. I do actually look at the ads. Not that I can afford to buy any high end luxury brands. It is still fun though.

Tiktok Dance to Carbi B "Up"

I frequently watch Sofia Gomez on her spam Tiktok account dancing to "Up" by Cardi B. Now Sofia does know how to dance. But her Up dance is some type of farce that is taken to a whole new level. The best way to describe it is The Faces.

Sofia is does not have the best dance to this beat. I actually love Mariah Amato's version. You got to wait until the end to see the lit handstand she does. It is not fair really. Mariah dances for a living. Or more accurately she teaches dance.

Hard Knock Life

My stock option investments went south. So there went a lot of my cash. Now I need to conserve like a poor person. We had the banister pull out from the wall in the stairs leading to the basement. Time to call the handyman? Nope. That would cost a lot of money. I had to try to fix it myself.

I usually go out to lunch every day. While I should cut that whole expense out, I try to choose less expensive meals instead. No more $10 chicken sandwich from Popeye's. Instead I get a $6 lunch special from the cheap Chinese restaurant. You can't hardly beat that.

I have two pairs of New Balance shoes. One is on its last legs. The other does not seem to fit right. A new pair costs $82. That is just too much for shoes for a poor guy. Instead I opted to buy a used pair for $27 from Amazon. They were rated "like new". Luckily they seem pretty good. Maybe a return?

Continual Fall of Viacom

About a year ago, some hedge fund got its margin called on their speculative bets on Viacom. This caused them to be forced to liquidate their huge position. The result was that Viacom stock fell from $100 to under $50. I thought that was a good time to load up on the stock. My dad was a believer in CBS.

Well the stock continued to fall. This month the stock was down at $25. If I liked it at $50, I absolutely loved it at $25. So I decided to purchase stock option contracts. I was better the thing would bounce up to $30 or $35. My expiration horizon was short.

The last quarterly earnings came and went. The stock did not rise much. My options essentially expired worthless. I gathered a lot more cash and doubled down. I purchased more short term stock options figuring a jump was right around the corner.

Unfortunately the overall market tanked these last few days, causing my options to effectively be worthless again. I swear. This thing has got to rise up sooner or later. I guess it will occur later when I am insolvent.

Broken Handrail

Momoko found a piece of metal on the stairs leading to our basement. Turns out it was a broken bracket that was holding the top of the handrail. This has happened before. So I knew they had replacements at Lowes. When I visited Lowes, the employees could not tell me exactly where to look. They had me checking wrong aisles. Finally I tracked it down myself. I bought two brackets for good measure.

At home I grabbed some 4x4 posts from my shed. I propped the loose handrail up to get access to the wall behind it. Then I completely removed the base of the broken bracket from the wall. Then I installed a new bracket in its place. I used my own screws with wall anchors. I tried as best I could to use an electric screwdriver. It was still painful. And the clasp that ties the bracket to the bottom of the handrail would not stay flush.

I decided we needed a second bracket at the top of the stairs. I installed this one at an angle, so the clasp would be oriented properly to attach flush to the bottom of the handrail. It was hard to install the second one with the first one already holding the handrail in place. I put the bracket as high as I could. It was still a bit under the handrail. So I folder a piece of paper to act as a shim to make a good contact. Don't know whether these 2 brackets will survive the heavy weight people put on the handrail. However 2 is better than 1.

Mulch Project

The garden in front of our house sometimes has a lot of weeds growing in it. I decided to put down plywood underneath the mulch. So I bought a lot of mulch. I started with the area directly in front of the front door. That took a while. I was worried that the plywood was too bouncy when I stepped on top of it. Eventually it fit down in place.

 I had been putting off dealing with a section of the garden in the front but down by the neighbor. There were a top of weeds and grass growing in the garden. Recently I was ahead of schedule on yard work. So I tacked this project. There were some plants and bushes in that part of the garden. Therefore I measured where each of the greenery was. Then I cut a plywood to fit snugly.

When I put the mulch on top, it looked great. Then I had a couple extra bags of black mulch. I sprinkled the mulch over the whole garden to give it a newly mulched look. Things are looking up. The best part is I no longer have a pile of mulch bags on my back porch getting in the way. Win.

Moving Back Into Study

Momoko's niece came out to visit us this summer. she stayed a total of two weeks. I let her sleep in my study upstairs. It had more room than Momoko's study. I did have to move out and relocate to our library. Well Momoko's niece flew home. So it was time to move everything back into my study.

First Momoko, Kit Kat, and Little Kat put away our guest bed. It is kept in plastic in our laundry room. Momoko also washed the sheets from that bed. Kit Kat took back her portable fan she lent her cousin. And Momoko took back her folding table that served as a night stand.

The weekend I prepared my furniture in the library for moving. Little Kat thought my small desks were one man jobs. My brother took both of them. But he bumped into the walls carrying them all the way up. Not good. We moved everything in a smart manner so it was easy to get everything where it belonged in a single carry.

Today I finalized everything by setting up my home computer on the small desks. I also set up my work computers on my big desk. Things feel like they are falling back into place. It is just in time for my fall semester class at college.

Clothes Shopping for Niece

Momoko's niece is visiting us for two weeks this summer. She is running low on pants that she owns. And she just ripped her only good pair. Kit Kat provided a stop gap by giving her some pants. However she needed some work pants for when she goes back home.

Momoko and I took her niece to Target today after I got off from work. We got to the store okay. Inside I saw signs for women' wear. However the whole clothing portion of the store was enclosed in a huge plastic wrap. I asked an employee. He said they sold clothes. But we would have to come back in a few weeks.

So Momoko decided to drive down the street to Target. Her niece tried on some men's pants, since they usually come with good pockets. None of them fit. I had her take in one style of pants with assorted sizes. She found a good fit for her waist. But the thighs were still no good. Momoko decided to look in the plus women's section. She found a few pairs of pants.

Momoko's niece tried on the women's clothing. She found one pair that fit. We bought two more pairs of the exact same pants. Tried them on to be sure. Then we headed to the shoes section. We were looking for black work shoes. There were many empty boxes and lackluster inventory. After giving up, we looked for some Crocs. They were too expensive. Luckily the pants were 25% off at the register. We will need to go to a shoe store in a few days.

Game Night

Today I only worked out in the yard for an hour. Not too strenuous. This was to prepare for Saturday game night. We had planned to finally play Monopoly. It was Momoko, Little Kat, Little Kat's friend who is staying with us, and me.

Little Kat did not want to play with the $500 free parking rule. He was overruled by majority. We played classic Monopoly with actual cash. Momoko rolled first and seemed to acquire the most property early. Many people landed on free parking for a windfall. I scored the first Monopoly.

We only set a time limit of 1 hour. By that time, it seemed like Momoko had the most cash plus properties. Little Kat and his friend were close behind. There were a couple deals proposed by Momoko and Little Kat during the game. But they were all declined.

Wall Painting Problems

Momoko wanted us to get the main level bathroom walls painted. Previously they had some old wallpaper on them. Momoko chose a paint color that matched the floor. I hired our handyman to do the job. He initially came and spent the whole day tearing off the old wallpaper. He needed to remove the toilet and vanity to get that job done.

The next day, our handyman removed the toilet and vanity again to paint the walls. He had to apply two coats of paint because our paint was not top quality. It looked funny afterwards. But it was fine once it dried. The only problem was that the toilet no longer correctly flushed, no matter how much plunging we did.

Kit Kat called a plumber who came and ran an auger in the toilet. It seemed to flush, but later reverted back to not working. The plumber came back and said something must be wrong underneath. It would cost a couple hundred to open up and diagnose. He recommended they replace the whole toilet for a little over $500.

They came the next day. They were unable to find the toilet that we had chosen (the least expensive model). So instead they gave us an upscale Toto brand toilet. I told them I did not care what kind of toilet it was, as long as it would flush reliably. The plumber said there was some "flange damage" underneath that they tried their best to repair. Replacing it would cost a couple more hundred. That will have to wait.

Continuing Education

I am going to college part time to learn Data Science. Need to keep up with the new kids on the block. I don't think I will get another degree. Instead I want to get a certificate. I found out that there is some lesser analytics certificate. I thought maybe I would go for it.

Recently I found that I would need to take one class I do not like, and another that will be a waste. Then I can qualify for this lesser analytics cert. This does not seem like a good use of time. Instead I plan to go for the big Machine Learning cert. That will require a couple more courses.

Right now I am half way through one summer course. I will need to sign up for another follow on course that starts towards the end of the summer. No rest for us data scientists.

Kit Kat's Friend

Kit Kat's friend from high school was staying close to our house this week. So Kit Kat went over and spent some time with her. The friend dropped by to say hi to the family. She had recently got her MFA degree in New York City. I asked her about her experience there.

She said she lived in East Harlem by the East River. She lived in an apartment with three other roommates. The roommates were of varying ages. She said her bedroom was about as big as a closet. But their common areas were larger than normal.

She told us that initially she needed to live close to college due to mandatory in person classes. Then COVID changed all that and her first year was online. She said she chose her college because one of her favorite poets taught there. She took a class from this professor during her first semester.

Kit Kat's friend has another month left on her NYC apartment lease. Then she plans to come back to our area as she looks for a job. She said she has been really busy because she is in the wedding for two close friends from college. Kit Kat broached the idea of them moving in together into an apartment.

Kit Kat Gets a New Car

I got a text from the car dealership today. Kit Kat's car had made it from North Carolina to our local store. This was two weeks earlier than predicted. So at lunch, Kit Kat and I swung by the dealership. They let us take the car for a test drive by ourselves.

Kit Kat boosted the A/C. She hit the gas, and the car was responsive. We stayed on the main strip, as local highways were all jammed with traffic. Kit Kat drove all the way through our town and made a U-turn at Arbys.

The car appeared to have only 343 miles. It was a 2022 model. So it was essentially a new car. Kit Kat tested the heater too. Everything seemed in order. I asked the sales guy what the monthly payment would be for a 5 year loan if we put half down. He said it would be around $250. Woot.

 Kit Kat electronically signed a lot of papers. Then we went into the "signing room" to physically sign some more papers. Then our sales guy led us out to the garage where the car had a large yellow bow on it. This was for photo ops only. I thought we would take pictures of just the car. Kit Kat wanted to be in the pictures.

We drove home, and at night, Kit Kat took Momoko for a test drive to Starbucks. The Apple Carplay worked well. We tested out the speakers with Kit Kat's music. I was able to sit in the back seat for a short drive. Kit Kat calls this her "starter car". I let her take the EZ pass from the car I just sold.

Goodbye Benz

Kit Kat and I went to the car store this weekend. We both drove separate cars. The toll roads made it easy to get there. We quickly talked with an associate. I gave him a key and they checked out my car. We then proceeded to their lot to look at used cars to buy.

I needed help from an associate to locate their Hyundai Venue. The outside looked cool. However the front and back seats were just too small. Hardly enough room for a big cat like me. We checked out some other cars, but got tired. We headed into the waiting room.

In less than an hour, I had an offer for my car. It was $1000 higher than I thought it would be. I ran out to grab the things out of my car. Then I told them I was ready to sell. I handed over the keys and paperwork. We had a seat in the waiting room again.

With this sale settling, I told Kit Kat I could pay for half of her new car. So I went online, and asked the car store to ship an almost new Hyundai Accent from North Carolina to the store near us. The web site hung. But texts and a call from the car store confirmed that the car is coming to us. Kit Kat bought us some drinks, and got 2 for 1 in the vending machine.

Now I am hunting for my next car. I called two dealers. Their ads were misleading, and I decided to forget about them. Most new car dealers these days are trying to extract a huge markup over MSRP.

Plywood Assignment

Grandpa  purchased two 65 inch TVs. He has them both in his living room. He wanted to move one of them to his bedroom. However these new TVs are just too wide to fit on his dresser. So he wanted to get some plywood to sit atop the dresser to brace the bottom of the new TVs.

I borrowed Grandpa's car and drove to Home Depot. I asked an associate there to point me to some plywood with at least one finished surface. He showed me some that had been sanded down. He told me to go to the back of the store to get it cut. A guy was driving a fork lift out the back of the store. He returned to cut the wood. He said to make sure the sticker was showing on top.

I went to the front of the store. There were a bunch of people in line. When I got to the front, I found that I was in the line for contractors. Luckily there were not many people in the regular lines. I had a hard time fitting the 6 foot boards in the back of Grandpa's vehicle. I put the wood in his garage and thought that was it.

Grandpa insisted that we help move the 6 foot board into his bedroom. He said we could lift the existing TV atop the dresser and slide the wood underneath. There was already a shorted piece of plywood on the dresser. I had Little Kat lift up the TV, as he was the tallest. Grandpa pulled out the old wood. I tried to slide in the new longer one. It was tough because wires hung down from the TV. Little Kat struggled to hold up the TV. Afterwards grandpa needed Little Kat to reattached some wires. We went above and beyond a reasonable duty there.

Couch Delivery

We were scheduled to have grandpa's new couch delivered. I set my alarm and woke up early to wait for the delivery. It came to be lunch time. So I woke up Little Kat and told him to wait for the delivery. I went to pick up Momoko's neice for lunch.

I planned to take the neice to a local steak house. She told me a place where they had the best ribeye. She forgot the name and had to look it up. It was the Outback Steak House. We both ordered some ribeye. It was costly. It had been 6 months since I last talk with the neice. She thought she might be able to move out and live in an apartment with Kit Kat. She said she talked to a friend that is a guy that lives in Germany. We spent 2+ hours at lunch.

When I returned back to grandpa's, the delivery guys had just arrived. They said they would not take or even move the old couch out. Little Kat and I cleared a path. Then we found it would not fit through the kitchen door. I asked the delivery guy to remove the feet from the old couch. Then Little Kat and I pushed it through the door out to the carport.

The delivery guys took the feet off the new couch. They had a harder time getting the new couch through the door. They installed the feet and left. Little Kat and I unwrapped the new couch and put everything back in its place. I visited the landfill to find the rules for dumping the old couch (need an ID and water bill). I visited Home Depot and U-Haul to rent a pickup truck. Neither had anything to rent.

Grandpa ended up asking a neighbor with a truck to take the couch to the dump.

Car Business

I called Little Kat to make sure he would be home to drive me to the rental car place by the airport. I had reserved an Audi vehicle for the week. We get there and the guy behind the desk says I have a luxury sedan reservation. I told him I thought I reserved an Audi. He said Audi was one of the cars in that category. He instructed us to go out and talk to an attendant in the car lot.

The attendant told me we could take a Mini Cooper. That was not equivalent to an Audi. I asked if they could rent me an Audi. She said they had some but not right then. She told me I could pick any car on their lot to rent. They did not have many. I opted for a red Dodge Charger. It had less than 5k miles on it. It had a moon roof, heated/cooled seats, power front seats, etc. It was okay. But it did not have a Hemi V8 engine.

Little Kat and I drove to the local Chevy dealership. We dropped off my Spark for maintenance. The mechanic said it would cost $175 which seemed steep. Then we went furniture shopping for grandpa. His couch was no longer supportive. We went to the store where we bought his current couch. Tried to find a couch with electrical outlets. Those only came with recliners. Then we had to find couches with detachable cushions. I purchased one for delivery the next day.

Back at the car dealership, I tried to pay my bill with points. They said they needed my member number. Had no clue what that was. I did know my email and password to their site. They logged me in and captured my number. No out of pocket cash costs for this maintenance.

Flying the Friendly Skies

Momoko took the day off from work to drive Little Kat and I to the airport. We had practiced how to park at a train station near us. Little Kat and I got on a train to head into the city. However we kept on the train through the city to the other side. There we got off at the airport. It was a long walk to the terminal. There was some confusion over how to check our bags. The airline employee told Little Kat he was supposed to wait somewhere far down the hall until they called us up.

We found our departing gate. After a while, Little Kat and I got Italian subs for lunch. The server told us to pay first before he would give us our subs. That is not how the airport worked before. We got on a Boeing 737. Little Kat and I both sat in the last row, each of us at a window. Two large dude came to the back row and sat next to me, making it a tight fit. The steward warned us of oncoming turbulence. He was not wrong.

Little Kat's uncle picked us up at the airport. We were over 30 minutes late. Previously Little Kat had agreed to eat with grandpa that night. When we got to grandpa's house, Little Kat suspiciously asked us when we were going to eat. I told him we would eat later when we were hungry. But I sensed some ulterior motives. I asked Little Kat if he was planning to leave us. He said if we did not eat right away, he would leave and not eat with us. Double crossed. We ended up all eating Mexican food. Little Kat's uncle came with us and got Mexican for his family too.

Cooling Little Kat's Room

In preparation for hosting his friend at our house this summer, Little Kat moved his bedroom down into my study in the basement. It was a much bigger space than his old bedroom upstairs. I moved my study into that small bedroom. The only apparent problem is that now this basement room is really hot with all of Little Kat's electronics.

I asked my handyman if he could install a window unit air conditioner in Little Kat's new room. He said that was not possible because the back of the unit has to be exposed to the outside. Little Kat's new room is completely underground. However my handyman thought we could use a portable A/C unit. We actually have an extra one we keep in the dining room.

Today my handyman came to our house with his son to work on this portable A/C project. He cut a hole in Little Kat's closet wall. He ran a flexible duct through the wall, along the ceiling of the utility room, and out the back of the house. There was already an old unused exhaust hole in the back of our house from an old bathroom that could be widened and reused.

Now the remaining task is to have our handyman install an electrical outlet in Little Kat's closet to power the A/C. We currently have a long extension cord connecting the A/C to an outlet in Little Kat's room. Eventually we will need a new door for Little Kat's closet so that the door can be closed but the cool air can blow through into his room.

Communications Course Disaster

Little Kat took a communications course at college this semester. Momoko and I helped him with writing his speeches. They each needed a lot of revisions to get acceptable. They turned out okay. This class required a group project. This was Little Kat's downfall.

Apparently Little Kat's group froze him out of the group at first. Then bad grades were given to the group. Little Kat made it sound like he provided evidence of this to the teacher. What he failed to mention was the the teacher responded to him, and Little Kat effectively did nothing.

We almost were going to fight the teacher on the group project grades in this class. Momoko and I did our due diligence. We eventually found the information from the teacher. Little Kat had some excuses as to why he did not see the emails. We only found out about them late. Little Kat had to take the hit in his grade.

Attack on Titan

It has been a long time since Momoko and I first watched an episode of the anime series Attack on Titan. I think we might have only watched the first episode of season 1. The main character's mom's legs were broken as a house fell down on her. Then a titan ate her. Our initial reaction was no thank you.

One of the Tiktok content creators that I follow has been an Attack on Titan super fan. She cosplays assorted characters from the anime series. She seems genuinely excited about the series, especially the later seasons, the most recent of which came out last year.

I saw the series on my brother's Hulu account. So Momoko and I gave the thing another try. Momoko was bored during episode 1. But the series picked up in subsequent episodes. We binge watched around 15 episodes this weekend. We are still chugging along in season 1.

Car Purchase Failure

Kit Kat, her boyfriend, and I took up trip up North on a lead for a new 2022 Hyundai Accent. My car was in the shop. So I drove Little Kat's car. Halfway to the dealership, we shopped at Dunkin Doughnuts for breakfast. It seemed like the dining room was closed. They set it up for us and we dined in.

When we got to the dealership, we found it small. The wind kept banging on the large windows behind the sales guy's desk. We were dismayed to find they did not have the car. It was scheduled to arrive sometime this month.

The sales guy tried to get Kit Kat to put a $500 deposit on a car that would arrive in the future. I reviewed the numbers. The top line was much higher than MSRP. I pressed them on this discrepancy. They confessed that there was about $1400 of markup built into that price. It was for add ons.

I said that since they have not taken delivery, they could skip any add-ons and remove that garbage fee. They said they would not do that. They tried to argue that CarMax sells used cars for more than them. Kit Kat got them to agree to a special low financing, and argued with them about a new college graduate discount.

Even with assorted incentives, they were still $500 over MSRP. I told the sales guy we needed to talk privately amongst ourselves. We went out to Little Kat's car. The sales guy came to the car and said there was another customer on the phone wanted to put a deposit on the car. I told him we still needed time to talk.

The salesman returned to our car again and said the manager needed to know immediately whether we would put a deposit on the car. I told him I would answer for Kit Kat. And the answer was no. We were not even sure if they were getting the trim we wanted. Too much shifty stuff going on. When pressed, the sales guy told us the deposit was non-refundable. Fail.

Calculus Troubles

Little Kat got a 73% on his Calculus quiz. I asked him some questions about the material. He did not have very good answers. So I worked with him on Chapter 3 that he needed to go through. Little Kat would read the sections and try to answer the questions. Then I would make sure he understand everything.

Little Kat had a midterm exam. He did fine on the Chapter 3 material. But he bombed all the Chapter 1 and 2 questions, resulting in a failing grade. I also noticed that Little Kat was taking a long time going through the reading in the current Chapter 4. He also had trouble doing the homework.

The deadline for the first couple sections of Chapter 4 came up. Little Kat was not going to be able to complete his homework on time. We had to get together and read through the sections, trying to understand the sometimes confusing textbook. On the last day before his assignment was due, he had to spend all day working. I was on call just in case he could not finish an assignment.

Now we are preparing to get back on track. Some other classes had a lot of work due at the beginning of the week. This is putting us behind again on math. We will need to catch up and try to get ahead before the next homework deadline and quiz. So our current plan is to do math together whenever Little Kat has the time.

Weed Prevention

There is a rectangle outside our front door that I cover in mulch. However it has been overtaken by weeds. Previously I had put down multiple layers of black cloth to prevent the weeds from growing. This seemed to have no effect. The weeds grew right through. It was time for some more serious blockage.

I pulled up the black cloth. Many weeds and grass were growing thick in it. I decided to repurpose this black strip to lay over the trench that formed behind my back fence on my property. Water runs down a path, and the ground gets washed away. I previously tried to fill the trench with gravel. The gravel all washed away.

This time I put down the used black cloth with weeds growing in it. Underneath the cloth I put some more gravel, and covered the gravel with soil. Then I used metal spikes to tie down the cloth so it would not wash away.

Back in the front, I put down long pieces of plywood. Then I covered that with some leftover vapor barrier from Little Kat's new vinyl floor install. I mainly chose it because it was black and would mask the color of the plywood. I put some mulch on top of the wood and barrier. The wood is a bit warped. I hope the weight and water will put it down straight.

Vacation is all I ever Wanted

This morning Momoko and I picked our belongings. We waited for Kit Kat to wake up. I quizzed her on her recent trip with her boyfriend. She gave me a pretty detailed synopsis, even though she had just purchased some chicken from Door Dash. After that, Momoko and I took off on our vacation. She said she heard a buzzing in the back seat. So I rolled the back window down hoping the bug would exit.

I knew the first couple legs for our trip. There was light traffic on the highway by our house. It turned out to be some huge trucks stopped on the side of the road with a person standing in one lane flagging people to slow down. I started getting hungry. I figured we could eat 30 minutes into our trip. At most I thought it would be an hour. When we hit a big city, I tried to decide on a restaurant with Momoko. No decisions were made and we passed the big city.

I decided to make a command decision and stop at the first fast food restaurant in the next big city. There were some cops stopping somebody on the highway. It made all traffic slow down. Upon coming into the next city, I pulled over into Popeye's. I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich. Momoko ordered a shrimp tackle box. My food took 5 minutes to cook. I scarfed it down, but it was really spicy.

Then we proceeded on the highway. They closed a 5 lane highway down to just a single lane. There were dudes holding signs on the highway for us to slow down. Traffic was going nowhere. We finally made it past the construction. Momoko used Google Maps to direct us on the last leg of the journey. We entered the parking lot of the hotel. It was crowded. Some guy was going the wrong way down an aisle. He signaled me and told me the road was one way. I concurred, but said he was going the wrong way. He pointed to a sign that contradicted what I said. I told him I was following the big arrow on the concrete below us that pointed against him.

Inside the hotel, they tried to give me the keys to an 18th floor condo. I told them I reserved a room that was in the hotel on floor 5 or lower. They told me somebody had upgraded me without informing me. I told them I would like to be downgraded back down to the room I reserved. They found me one such room. It was hot. But we opened the screen door to cool it off. We tried to go to a restaurant we liked. But they were only open for carryout. We went to another restaurant we knew. They asked us to be patient. I got a cold lasagna. They heated it up more for me. Momoko got a big pizza.

At night we called Little Kat to check up on his college. The main point of our call was quizzed Little Kat on functions, graphs, limits, and continuity. Little Kat did not seem to grasp the basics of limits in Calculus. We need him to study this topic. The rest of Calculus will build upon it.

Flooring Install

The day had come for Little Kat's new vinyl plank flooring to be installed. The installers were scheduled to come between 8am and 11am. So I woke up at 7am. I waited for their call. As it got closer to 11am, I got a call from the company. They said the installers were running behind, and would arrive between 11am and 1pm.

I told Little Kat that our afternoon plans needed to change. We put Momoko in charge of waiting for the installers. Little Kat and I took my brother's truck to IKEA to pick up the frame for his new bed. Little Kat got a text that the frame was now in stock. We headed out, but returned to get my mask. On the road, the install called me and said he was on his way.

Little Kat and I found his frame. We thought there was only 1 there. So I left Little Kat to guard the lone frame as I hustled to get a shopping cart. We loaded up all 5 boxes and headed to checkout. His frame is cheaper than his mattress, even though he has a headboard and two drawers underneath. We rolled the cart out after paying and loaded everything in the bed of the truck. All items were heavy. So we did not need to tie anything down.

Momoko called to ask which way they should lay the flooring. Little Kat said perpendicular to the door frame. Momoko also told the installers to stop the floor at the door, and not go out into the hall. They were also instructed to make the edges of the floor look good, even in the closet. They ended up putting down shoe molding in the closet with glue. Upon inspection, there seemed to be a problem under the entry door. Turns out it was just some saw dust. Everything else looked strong. There were a lot of leftover materials I put in the big shed.

Today, Little Kat and I carried his bed frame boxes from the living room to his bedroom. His mattress is on back order. If necessary, we can purchase a queen size mattress from any old store. But we like the feel of the IKEA one he picked that is on back order.

Couch Shopping

Our current living room couch is at the end of its life. Momoko researched some local furniture stores. We visited them this morning. The first store was the furthest away. It had nothing of note. The second store was weird. There were a lot of items that looked gaudy. They seemed to be trying to make the items look regal. I saw one couch for $9000. No thanks.

The third store was a hole in the wall. The sales people were pushy. There were no price tags on any items. The sales people tried to get me to agree to buy a couch and love seat, stating that the couch alone would be more expensive. They said most of their couches were from Ashley Furniture.

While going to these three stores, Momoko spotted a fourth one that was named similarly to the third. I found there to be a few cars in the whole strip mall parking lot. We went in and found rows of couches. There was plenty of room in the aisles to navigate. Momoko narrowed down the couches to a short list of three. She chose the most comfortable one, which also happened to be the cheapest. I placed an order for it. It should arrive at the store in a few weeks.

Airport Dry Run

Previously we were able to get direct flights from an airport just North of us to Momoko's dad's city. After the pandemic, the only flights from there require at least 1 layover. I hate wasting time touching down in some random airport, only to catch a connecting flight to my destination.

Earlier this year, Little Kat discovered that an airport just South of a major city by us offers direct flights. The only problem is getting to this airport. We can take the subway there. But the walk from the subway exit to our terminal is very long.

Today I did a practice drive with the family to this new airport. It was treacherous driving through the city to get to this airport. People drive crazy downtown. The walk from the parking garage took 7 to 8 minutes to the terminal. That is pretty good. Even Momoko could walk it with a bad leg.

On the drive home from this airport, I tried to take a faster route. We ended up getting stuck in construction traffic. Then we somehow were driving even further South from this Southern city. Google Maps helped us get back on track. It was a treacherous ride home. Not sure if it is even worth driving there. The subway is sufficient.

Kit Kat Car Shopping

Kit Kat has been getting serious about car shopping. Previously she wanted a Toyota Prius. But with apartment prices rising like crazy, she thinks she might want a more economical model. Say hello to the Hyundai Accent. She likes this car in the admiral blue color. She wants Apple Car Play. That requires at least the SEL trim.

Today coming home from work, Momoko called around and could only find a 2019 used Hyundai near our closest college town. So after work, Kit Kat and I drove there. We tried to speak with the sales guy Momoko spoke with. It took a while for him to become available. He told us they already sold that car.

Kit Kat got nervous. It seems there are no Accents around anywhere. She called up a dealership that is usually an hour north of us. They had a blue model. But it was not the SEL trim. We decided to brave the rush hour and rain. Google Maps told us it was an hour and a half drive. We went through a tunnel we normally don't travel. Eventually we arrived.

We spoke with a guy. He pulled up the only Accent they had. The color was admiral blue. It looked nice. Kit Kat and I fit fine in the front seat. It was hard to get into the car because you had to duck your head. The display screen on the dash was small. But the SEL trim has a larger one. The trunk space was fine.

In the rear set, my head was hitting the ceiling. Kit Kat took the car for a drive. The acceleration was much better than her current anemic car. She was able to drive around in the rain. For a small car, I thought it handled the bumps well. With destination charges included, this car cost $18k. That is a bargain for car prices these days.

We left the dealership and ate at a local McDonalds. It required that we place our orders via kiosk. I tried to pay at the register. The lady had trouble finding my order. We were the only people in the restaurant. We got our burnt food. I ate it because I was hungry. Kit Kat called a dealership 4 hours away. The admiral blue SEL trim they had was "on hold". Kit Kat asked them to hold it for her if that deal falls through. Fingers crossed.

Office Furniture Shopping

 

My brother and I attempted to move my heavy desk from my study to the library. We got it up a few stairs. Then my brother was unable to move it up any further. I had him come down and take my end. I ran out the back door and took up the position on the top. We struggled, but got the thing to the main floor. I decided there was no way to move this thing any further. It needs to go to the dump.

The desk had a lot of cubby holes and four drawers. So I ordered a shoe rack to replace the cubbies. Then I went to Office Deport looking for a filing cabinet to replace the drawers with the hanging folders. I saw a lot of options. I was not sure if my folders were letter or legal size. At home I found them to be letter.

I also spotted a dent and scratch deal at Office Depot. It was a black filing cabinet with two small top drawers. It was perfect for me. But it was a letter sized cabinet. The best part was that it was a $200+ item on super sale for $27. The next day I returned to buy it. But it had already been sold. I opted to get a used $77 similar cabinet from Amazon. I hope since it is used, it will come assembled.

Downsizing the Library

Little Kat is moving into my study. And I am relocating to his bedroom. My space is going to be cut in half. So I am seriously downsizing my footprint. First thing to go is most of my technical books. My buddy is learning the Python programming language. I must have over 20 books on Python. Today I met my buddy for lunch, and gave him 2 of my best Python books.

There are a few choice books I will keep, such as The C Programming language. I will also keep Oracle SQL*Plus. My Java book has my name written on the edge of the pages. Until I figure out how to easily remove that name, I will hang onto that book as well. For now, all the other books have gone out on the patio. There are too heavy to dump into the recycle bin all at once.

I still have 8 more Python books relating to data science that I need to read. And I have a ton of fiction waiting for me to read. Those will stay too. I figure I will go from 3 bookcases down to just 1. I still need to determine how many desks I can fit in my new rook. Right now I have 3 big desks. Will keep at least one.

A Nice Lunch Surprise

I ate some grilled chicken early for breakfast. The I spent time trying to make some progress at work. When it came time to take a break, I went out to check out shed in the back yard. There was a mouse in one of the mouse traps I set up in the rafters. I wrapped it up and threw it out. Set up some new traps to catch more mice.

Since I was already dressed, up, and about, I figured I should maybe get a little lunch. I am going out to dinner with a college friend tonight. That might be a late dinner. So I should prepare now and chow down. I got a coupon for Burger King. Three bucks gets me a double cheeseburger, small fries, and a small drink.

I drove to the nearest Burger Kind. I saw a truck with a trailer attached at the drive through. I placed my order, and the truck was still at the drive through. I could not get close to the window to pay. Then there was some commotion at the food window. The truck driver paid some more money, got their food, and left.

As I drove up to the pay window, the employee told me my meal was already paid for. He handed me a realtor business card. That was strange. The truck in front of me was some type of lawn service vehicle, with a bunch of chopped trees in the trailer. Interesting way to do advertising. I do have my own realtor who is very good a assisting sales and purchases of homes. But you never know.

Grill Repaired

This winter, I finally received a replacement part for our grill. The igniter would not light the flames on the burners. The item was back ordered for a long time. Eventually they sent me one as long as I paid the postage.

It was too cold to work on the grill recently. But today the weather was okay. So I unscrewed the old igniter. I left it hang underneath the grill with all the connection wires. Then I slowly, one wire at a time, disconnected the old igniter, and connected the wires to the new one.

Then I moved the battery into the new igniter as I screwed it in and secured it to the grill. Initially, this replacement would not light any of the burners. But I remained calm. I replaced the battery with a fresh one as the old was seemed a bit corroded. That did the trick.

Now we can light all the burners and cook food on the grill again. There is no doubt that the quality of our grill is super low. So I plan to buy a replacement grill, maybe within the next year. Next time I will get one with a slightly higher quality. I don't want to spend a fortune, as grills break down and rust. I also don't want to cheap out and end up with another dud.

Superbowl Pizza Problems

Momoko wanted pizza for our Superbowl watch party. I volunteered to go pick it up. One and a half hours before kickoff, I called in an order to 2 large pizzas. I knew it was busy because I was on hold for a while. They told me it would take 20 to 25 minutes to have the food ready.

I headed to the gas station to fill up my car. Had to kill a little time. I arrived at the store 30 minutes after I placed my order. The guy behind the counter said it would take another 5 to 8 minutes. I figured that short duration meant I was good.

There were a ton of other people waiting for pizza there. Most were Door Dash drivers. I just sat tight. Thirty minutes later, I was still sitting there. Eventually the guy who initially helped me found my order. He apologized for the delay. He said I could have some free food.

When I got home, I saw the free food was some plain wings, and another medium pizza with black olives, onions, jalapenos and other toppings. Momoko actually liked that one. I did make it back just in time for Superbowl kickoff. Not a good move to order pizza on that one day of the year.