COVID Strikes Again

I heard my phone buzzing before I woke up. Thought it might be work related. Instead I got an image from Momoko. It was some type of COVID test. Not sure what that was about. I went back to sleep. Later I got another text from Momoko. I think she wanted to inquire about breakfast. What?

Eventually I woke up and found that Momoko tested positive for COVID. She went to work but came back home real quick. I told her I could pick us up some McDonald's. When I went outside, I saw a lot of branches on the ground. I picked them up and added them to the yard clippings bundles on the curb.

I went to Momoko's McDonald's. They have two parallel lanes which I don't like. There was only one dude in one of the lanes. The employees could not understand that Momoko wanted a Big Breakfast with a English muffin instead of a biscuit. They eventually got it right.

Asian Food Mart Run

Momoko came home from work. She needed somebody to take her to the Asian food mart. We decided to go after dinner. Little Kat cooked dinner 1 hour early. So we had a good start. Due to daylight savings, it was dark when we left.

There was a lot of traffic on the highways. I also hit a pot hole while driving fast. The Asian mart was not crowded. They did not have my favorite cookies for the second week in a row. In the parking lot, Momoko put in a mobile order for Sonic drinks. Once the order was placed, I was free to drive to Sonic.

We had to bring a drink to Kit Kat. Momoko told me to take the back way there because it was faster. I drove through residential neighborhoods with school zones and speed bumps galore. We made it to Kit Kat's place. We had trouble opening her building door lock with out key. I saw Kit Kat's Xmas tree and gerbil, then we came home.

Yard Clippings

We had rain a couple days this week. So I did not collect as many leaves as I normally do. Today was leaf collection day by the county. They had not come to pick up by lunch time. So I went out into the yard to collect some more.

I used small paper grocery bags. I went on the hill. The leaf blower was no use as the leaf were moist. So I raked the leaves into piles on the hill. I used the lawn mower to collect the leaves. I mowed a straight line. I came back and tried to pull the mower up the hill. I fell. Luckily the mower went down the hill.

I am sore from the fall. I did work methodically to fill each small grocery bag and add it to the bags on the curb. The dregs had heavy items. I partially filled the dregs into small bags. Then I distributed those small bags into the different cans I had on the curb.

At the end, I realized I had half of a 30 gallon tall leaf bag in the shed. I did one more pass around a lot of the yard. Then I filled the big sticks in this bag. Topped it off with the last of the leaves I collected. And set everything out on the curb.

Weekend with Kit Kat

Kit Kat lives in her own apartment now. I don't see her often. I was off for a holiday. So I joined her and Momoko to meet up with some friends at a dive bar. Two friend came with their new baby. That was fun. Baby did some chirping but did not cry.

Afterwards, Momoko and Kit Kat stopped by a bakery and I picked them up in front to drive them home. Momoko and I eventually bought Kit Kat some Wing Stop, which we made our dinner. They gave us syrup-less drinks, so Little Kat got a refund from Door Dash.. Momoko had us watch New Amsterdam, which she got hooked up. We watched it during and after dinner.

Kit Kat stayed in our new guest bedroom. She said the bed was fine. In the morning, Momoko bought us Chick Fil a for breakfast. It was tough with all the cars there to even get to curbside delivery. We watched more New Amsterdam during breakfast. Momoko and Kit Kat went to CVS to pick up medicine. Then Kit Kat headed out with Little Kat to play D&D.

Return to Chick-Fil-A

We used to go to Chick Fil A every weekend. Then I got parked one time. Five people behind me in the drive through got served and left. Seemed they forgot about me for a while. Next time they tried to park me, I told them I won't be parked and forgotten about. Had to argue with three employees. At least I got my food.

I decided that was too much smoke. So I started going to other places to eat on the weekend. Momoko did not like this. But why would I go support the place where they just make me wait forever for my food. I figured there could be a compromise. I could order on the app and get it delivered to my car.

Today I downloaded the app. I got what everyone wanted. But I found no place to order sauces. We needed sauces. Momoko downloaded the app too and showed me the trick. When ordering a sandwich or chicken strips, I need to scroll down to a place where I can customize my order.

We went to a closer Chick Fil A that has the double lane drive through that I hate. We parked and had our order pretty quickly. Apparently they track my phone and start getting the meal ready when I am close by. This might work out. They did get the sauces right when I specified them using the trick on the app.

Newspaper Pricing Gone Wild

I subscribe to the local paper for daily and weekend delivery. Sometimes I read every issue. I know my brother reads the Sports page. I also use old newspaper to wrap items up. If I ever need to start a fire, the old newspaper is also a good fire started.

The paper has started an annoying tactic. They will label certain days as special editions. Then they charge me extra money for that day's paper. Once in a while this is warranted, like when they do some massive election coverage and research. Most of the times it is a money grab. Okay.

Just now they also increased the price of the subscription. That on top of the special editions is just too much. I would cancel. But my brother loves the Sports page. I decided to maybe cut out weekends and save 25%. I called them up today.

The guy on the line said that while the daily only costs less, they have no specials for daily subscription. Okay. He did not want me to drop weekends. He said if I kept daily plus weekend, he could offer me a 30% discount. Sounded great. Then he tried to get me to do automatic credit card billing for a 50% discount. No thank you. I will take that 30% discount. Price hike averted.

Moving my Study

Last time I moved my study, I went from the basement to Little Kat's old room. His room was small. I had to significantly downsize. Went from three bookshelves to one. In the end, it all fit.

Now that Kit Kat moved out, I renovated her room. Painted the walls and trim with HGTV colors of the year. Got new carpet too. So today I moved the remainder of my study from Little Kat's old room to Kit Kat's old room.

My brother and I took off the top of my heavy desk. We tried moving the bottom. It was too heavy. Therefore I disassembled it too. Found out that one of the bolts broke. We made due. Now I am in my new study with artwork hanging on all the walls. Plus my degrees are also framed and hanging on the wall.

I think it might be time to get more bookshelves in here.

Hand Rail Hell Redux

I had thought I had a good work around for our basement hand rail problems. I had inserted a piece of wood behind the drywall. Then I screwed the brackets into that piece of wood. The top of the hand rail was secure. It was good times until the middle bracket broke. This made the middle of the rail wobbly. Then the top brackets started coming undone.

I went to the store and purchased a replacement bracket. Problem was that I could not get the old broken bracket out of the wall. The screws had weird heads. They did not seem to be Philips head or flat head screws. There were some sort of star pattern. I had one tiny star screw driver. But it could not remove the screws.

I ended up just trying to re-tape the broken bracket with duct tape. It is holding for now. I really need my busy handyman to come and provide a permanent solution. Not sure if we need more brackets that tie into the studs behind the drywall, or something more extreme. I am just tired of this rail getting broken. The whole family relies on it.

Flying the Friendly Skies

I was browsing Reddit. Saw an ad from Southwest airlines. You can save 50% of fares for the next two days. Thought this was too good to be true. There were a ton of blackout dates. But I found a week early in January that qualifies. Each way to and from grandpa kat's town was $92.

Since I reclaimed my vacation car from grandpa's driveway to my house, I would need a rental car. I wanted the option to reserve and pay when I pick up the car. At first, even the least expensive cars went for $450 a week. That seemed pretty steep. I guess I could go and just borrow grandpa's car. But I drive a least a couple times a day. It felt like an excessive ask.

I contemplated visits to other places like Buffalo, NY. But that would also incur hotel fees. I checked Expedia for check motels. There were some that would cost me $500 for the week. But the reviews were not too enticing. I would also need a rental once I got there. So I was definitely priced out of NY.

At the last minute, I somehow found a rental for $365 a week in grandpa's town. I immediately made a reservation. It is for a small sedan like a Chevy Malibu. Momoko's brother-in-law rental one once. He said it had no power. As long as it gets me from point A to B, I am not complaining. My flight is booked and paid for. Momoko and grandpa did not see the notification from Southwest about my trip. Oh well.

Global Citizen Festival

Momoko tuned into the Global Citizen music festival on Amazon to watch Jung Kook. He is a member of BTS, and was headlining the show. While waiting for him, I was doing some chores. I missed the first half of another KPOP group called Stray Kids.

This was a performance by a subset of Stray Kids that goes by the name of 3RACHA. One dude wore a jacket backwards and was a good singer. Another had orange gloves and was a great singer. The third member wore a lot of pink and was mid.

This group really rocked the house. I thought they outperformed Jung Kook. They seemed to rap a lot. I think their music was a blend of Korean and English. They had a lot of wild sounds. I tried to find a video of their performance on YouTube but failed.

At the end, D Nice had a tribute to 50 years of rap. Common did some rapping. The surprise was that Busta Rhymes finished this segment.

Almost a Road Trip

My buddy's dad lived in the local area. But he eventually moved back to his home town 6 hours south of here. He died recently. I found out the funeral is in the middle of this week. I talked to my boss and was able to get some time off to go to the memorial and funeral.

I had planned to stay at a cheap motel. Figured I could drive down the night before. Spend the day at the funeral. Stay in the hotel the next day and actually work from there. Then come home on the weekend. Since the motel was cheap, the total bill would be a few hundred dollars.

Well I called my buddy today and told him about my plans. He told me he and his family were stressed out. And that me coming might only add to the stress. So I let him halt my travel plans. There is a virtual funeral online. But that does not seem right. I guess the flowers I sent will have to be the total of my contribution.

WayFair - They Got Just What You Need

My power recliner stopping reclining. I tried to order a new one from Amazon. The seller said they could not ship it to me. It was trouble to get my money refunded. I contemplated trying another seller on Amazon. But it seemed risky. I did not want to wander around town like I did last time I bought a recliner.

Instead I decided to shop at WayFair. Their motto is "We got just what you need". I thought I wanted a power recliner. However some items were called electric recliners. The one I ordered boasted USB charging as well as power reclining.

Today FedEx delivered my chair. They just left it in my carport. Only reason I knew it was there was that FedEx sent me an email. I moved out my old broke recliner. Ran the sweeper underneath. Then I unpacked the new one. Assembly was easy. It felt a bit wider than the old one.

My brother and I packed his pickup truck with the old recliner plus some other items we no longer want. We parked his truck under our carport because they are calling for rain tonight. Tomorrow we shall drive to the dump and get rid of the old recliner. I hope this new one will continue working for years to come.

Hand Rail Hell

The hand rail on the stair leading to our basement keeps getting loose. It happens near the top of the stairs. I thought I was set when I added a second bracket near the top of the stairs. But now that bracket had screws that were stripped. This was getting old. Wall anchors did not help any.

I can up with a plan. I got a small piece of sturdy wood. I drilled holes in it spaced to match the bracket. Then I put two piece of rope around the wood. I jammed the wood in through the dry wall. I used the rope to pull the wood taught against the back of the dry wall. Then I screwed the bracket into the wood.

It is holding tight for now. This is just a work around. I figure I can have my handyman find some studs and screws the brackets into the studs. I do need to patch the hole I made in the drywall. At least the hand rail is sturdy now. Everyone probably uses this think when going downstairs.

Dead iPhone

Every time I took my iPhone off the charger, the thing would go down to 10% or even 1%. Then it would turn off. I finally got around to making an appointment with the Genius Bar at the Apple Store. I went at lunch time today. Went to the mall. Got a good parking spot. The Apple Store was on the other side of the mall.

I walked over. The Apple Store had no sign on it. Just a picture of an apple. I saw a queue at the entrance. I asked if they were in line. One guy mumbled that he had an appointment. A couple employees came up. I told them the queue order. Eventually I spoke to a guy. He told me to start a diagnostic test on my phone, and have a seat.

The tech guy eventually fetched me. He said my battery was fine. The phone was bad. The could not fix it. They did have an updated version of my phone. I bought it for $429. While walking to the food court, I was behind an old dude and a couple kids. I spied a girl in black dancing by a kiosk. She singled me out. I determined she was trying to sell lotion. I got outta there.

At the food court, I spied all the vendors. Ended up going to Chipotle. I bought s steak burrito and chips plus queso. The bill was a whopping $16. Big spender today. I drove home and ate my food. I had a meeting to attend. So I could not immediately set up my iPhone. After dinner, I found the new phone would not connect to my PC to restore the backup.

I ended up backing my old phone to the iCloud. Then I setup my new phone using that backup. I moved the sim card. My password manager had been updated and would not show my passwords. I downloaded a new one and manually set it up. I tested the phone. It could make and receive calls. I ordered a new case.

Lawn Mover Flat Tire

Ten days ago, I noticed my lawn mower rear left tire was shredded. It was affecting my ability to cut the grass. I went to the manufacturer web site. I tried to order a new tire online. It redirected me to a local dealer. No reason to ship it from there. I could just pick it up.

The local store did not have my tire in inventory. So they ordered it. They said it would take a couple days. I waited 4 days and called them back. They said they had it. I used Apple Car Play to navigate me there.

Traffic was heavy close to the shop. The navigation took me to some other building. I called them up and they told me they were across the street. Inside they did not have lawn mowers, just a ton of motorcycles and some ATVs. I brought my tire home.

Today I found out why the front and back wheels are different. This is a self propelled lawn mover. It has rear wheel drive. The back wheels has a gear to help the engine turn the wheel. I installed the new wheel and I am good to go again. The other tires now seem really worn though.

Shed Ramp Repair

Our next door neighbor has a dead tree in their back yard. The branches hang over our property. Sticks and branches fall down into our yard. Normally I just clean them up and send them with the county collection. The other day, a huge branch fell. It had the size of a log. It smashed down on the rails of the ramp leading up to our big shed.

Half the rails were destroyed by the falling tree branch. I asked my handyman to repair it. Then another log fell. I thought I had better hold off on the repair. The rails looked terrible. I decided to perform some makeshift repairs. I went to Lowes and bought 2x4s and 2x6s. Today I measured and cut the wood. Then I nailed in some supports to get the pieces in place.

One 2x4 was cut too short. I shored up one side with a shim. The other side required a whole 2x4 to bridge the gap. Now at least it does not look horrible. Who knows? This fix might have to stay for a long while.

Lunch with Kit Kat

Momoko and I drove up to Kit Kat's apartment today at lunch time. We brought her the Torrid clothing order she had shipped to our house. In Kit Kat's apartment, we saw her gerbil Chai. Kit Kat had to scoop her out of the tunnels she dug. Kit Kat gave her a peanut as a treat.

Then Kit Kat took us the back way to a New York Jewish deli. It declared itself as world famous. The most interesting thing was their pickle bar. You had to pay $1.99 for all you could eat at this bar. Kit Kat's boyfriend sometimes orders that.

This place is known for its large sandwiches. Momoko and I ordered sandwiches named after famous people like Woody Allen or Jerry Seinfeld. I also tried a potato dumping as a side order. There were so many types of meats on my sandwich.

Certification Exam Failure

One of my professional works goals this year is to pass some certification exams. I bought a few books. Also downloaded an online book and test software. I read the online book over two weeks. I also studied during my vacation week. I kept taking the practice tests until I scored around 85%.

I purchased an online exam voucher. But I could not figure out how to register for the exam. I had to contact technical support. Apparently I needed to be an admin and assign the test to myself. Then I could register. There were only really early morning slots later this week. But there was a 7:30pm slot today. I signed up.

I reviewed my notes. Got my identification ready. Moved Momoko's desk into Kit Kat's old empty room. I cleaned out the A/C filter in there and waited. Once it was check in time, I had to download some secure browser. I also had to do a video zoom call with my ID. Then I was off to the races.

This exam was hard. But it is just the precursor exam to the one I really want to take. I honestly knew the answer to about half the questions. I figured since I am usually a good test taker, I could get pass some of the questions I did not know. I needed 63% to pass. I only got 61.9% correct. Thus I failed.

I am kicking myself because I am now out the $245 exam fee. My company will only reimburse me if I pass. I only purchased a couple cheap books. I theoretically need to pass these to meet my company goals for the year. I am not sure if I need to buckle down and retake the test, or to throw in the towel.

Summer Road Trip

Momoko and the kids took off on a summer road trip to visit grandpa today. They were supposed to leave at 6pm. However Little Kat saw bad traffic on Google Maps. So they delayed departure for a few hours. That gave them time to Door Dash some Arbys. It also gave Kit Kat one last chance to play with her gerbil.

The family added grandpa to the phone app that let's you locate other people in your family. This is intended to be a temporary addition during the trip. They decided to drive Little Kat's car, as it has Apple CarPlay. Kit Kat did not want a lot of miles added to her relatively new car.

Little Kat brought his mini car fridge to keep small things cool. The kids recommended driving straight through. The whole trip should take 20+ hours if there are not stops or bad traffic. They don't plan to stop anywhere except for quick food stops.

Momoko thought they could have a few hotel stays along the way. But the kids want to get there, get it done, and return ASAP. My own gas tank was running on empty. So when the family left for their trip, I went to Exxon to fill up. I saw the family there filling up Little Kat's car.

From Battleship to Scrabble

Little Kat needed a lot of help with his Battleship final project in Java II. So this summer I said he needed to implement another game in 2 weeks. I chose the game Scrabble. The game itself is not too complicated. However the implementation of the full game was beyond Little Kat's ability.

We made some assumptions. The computer would go first and put a word vertically on the screen. The user would have to put a word horizontally that intersected with the computer word. Whoever got the highest points from their word wins.

There is no double/triple letters or words. There is no bingo. Initially Little Kat had some bugs. But he eventually got the game running pretty well. It scores both player words correctly. It detects when you enter text that is not a word. It detects if your word goes off the screen. It detects if your words does not intersect the computer word. And so on.

Little Kat actually finished his program 1 day early. He wanted to go play D&D on the last day when Scrabble was due to me. Now that his Java game development skill has increased, he can take the summer off to rest for the start of the fall semester.

Wendy's Deal

I found out I had two lunch meetings. So I decided to get some food beforehand. I had a couple for Wendy's. It was 2 meals for $10. I drove to the local Wendy's. A manager called me on the way. I pulled over and answered his many questions.

When I got to the local Wendy's, I found that it was closed for renovations. I recalled there was another one in the next town. I took the back roads. I went by Kit Kat's middle school. Then I got to the second Wendy's. There was nobody in line.

I got two small cups. There was a single soda machine with most of the flavors out of order. I chose a raspberry Fuze. At the counter, they tried to give me 2 more cups. I just took my food. Got some ketchup and took off.

The manager called me again on the ride home. Pulled over as he conferenced in another developer. We debated the schedule for running some job tomorrow. This made me late for my other lunch meeting. I did eat enough food to keep me full all day.

Flying Home

I got in my rental and left Momoko's dad's house. Took a while to find a gas station close to the airport. Security made me take my suspenders off. Inside the terminal, I got a steak burger. I put my drink down to get ketchup. Then I studied my Oracle notes as I ate hash browns. Realized I left my drink by the ketchup.

The gate attendant said it was a full flight. I was glad to have an A boarding pass. I went to the back and got a window seat. A mom and her 6-year old daughter sat in my row. Mom was chatty. She said she was in the Navy, which broke her body. She said she is disabled now. Civilian life has been profitable. She was flying out to attend her master's degree graduation.

We eventually touched down, but not before the captain said there was smoke in DC. Apparently it had blown down from Canadian fires. I hardly saw anybody from my flight at the baggage carousel. I texted Little Kat because he was my Metro ride. He called me during the flight. I could not hear him due to all the train noise. At the destination station, I called him back and he said he parked somewhere new.

I Saw Hamilton

I saw the Broadway musical Hamilton today. I picked up Momoko's niece at her house. Gave her two bags of clothes from Kit Kat. Then we drove downtown. We got to the theater a couple hours early. That allowed us to get front row parking. I tried to pay for parking at a kiosk. The screen was not working well. I got a pass for only 1 hour. I needed closer to two. Luckily when I entered my license plate, it allowed me to add time to my current pass.

Momoko's niece said she walks 1.5 hours a day. So she thought the walk to dinner would be no problem. We ended up having to sit down half way there. She had to do some texting before dinner which was odd. We got dinner at a Thai food restaurant. At first we were the only guests. I ordered Pad Thai. The noodles were much thinner than I expected. They served crushed peanuts on the side. We waited until 30 minutes to the show. The we walked back to the theater.

We got through security and visited the bathrooms. Then we entered the theater. I asked an usher how to get to my seats. She told me to go down the center aisle and we would be right at our seats. I was confused as our seats were 5 and 6, but the numbers I saw were 105 and 106. We sat down anyway. Eventually another usher asked to see our tickets. She said we were on the correct row. But we needed to move further right.

The view was not as good in these new seats. But they were much roomier, with each of us having our own arm rests. Momoko's niece studied the cast before the show. She immediately realized that Hamilton was being played by the first understudy, not the main actor. His voice was not strong. The buy playing Aaron Burr was a good singer. It was a long first act. I thought the musical was over. But it was only intermission.

I was surprised when Hamilton's wife used real fire to light a piece of paper on stage. I was also perplexed that the whole cast took a bow, However, they did not come out individually after the show. We snuck out the side entrance. But had to walk all the way around the building. I saw an opening and backed out of our spot and got in line to get the heck out.

This live version was a totally different experience than seeing the musical on TV. Even though most of the singing was piped through speakers, it was wild seeing everyone dance around on stage. I was thinking this may have been the show of the century. It was good. But I have high hopes to maybe catch Disney's Frozen one day.

Going to See Hamilton Muscial

I got tickets to see the musical Hamilton. But I had to fly out to Momoko's niece's city for it. Little Kat drove me to the train. I tried to find a direct train ride to the airport. A worker told me there was no such train. So I took the next train out the terminal and switched to get on the correct train.

At the airport, I spied small shops that had sandwiches available. I checked my bag with the airlines, taking out the laptop due to some new rules. Then I got an expensive Italian wrap. At least I did not have to download an app to order the thing. I thought a fruit punch would quench my thirst. But later, I had to buy a second fruit punch.

My boarding position was B-1. There were 60 people ahead of me in the A section. And prior to any B section boarding, military and families with kids boarded before me. By the time I got on the plane, there were no window seat. I chose an aisle seat. Luckily nobody sat in the middle seat.

I had reserved a compact rental car like a Nissan Versa. Instead I got the much bigger Nissan Altima. Unfortunately, it did not have Apple Carplay navigation. It also did not have power seats. But I managed. My phone kept losing charge. I went to a Mexican place for take out. But they had no taco shells, tortillas, or beans. I decided to get dinner elsewhere.

The Battle over Battleship

Little Kat was taking his second programming course with Java this semester. He had a course other courses this term. So although he had 2 weeks to complete his final project, he really got nowhere in the initial week and a half. He was tasked with implementing a computer version of the game Battleship.

Initially he poked around, and I though he had finished over half the game. Unfortunately what he created would not even build, let alone run. Even if he fixed the errors and built a game, there was no chance it would work. I had him spending some time rewriting the game from scratch. He worked on small increments.

Then I read his rubric. It expected a lot more than the minimalist game he was writing. And it had a lot of requirements for the code. We pivoted and started working toward earning full marks per the rubric. Little Kat had maybe a rough version of half the game late at night, the day before it was due. Then in the afternoon when it was do, he said he messed up his project and it would not build.

I helped him figure out his build problems. Then his game would blow up when we ran it. I helped him resolve those problems too. Then I identified 5 things he still needed to meet the minimum requirements. Little Kat and I had to work together to get these things done fast. We had 1 last bug that took a lot of work to resolve.

Little Kat then added commentary to his code, as required. His final product looked good. He submitted it with 3 hours to spare. Then I asked him to send me the final product. It would not even build on my machine. We figured out that problem, and he resubmitted an updated version. The thing actually play a game of Battleship against a computer controlled opponent.

Just in Time Delivery

Normally I can hear the trash and recycle trucks as they come in the neighborhood, especially when they drive down the street next to me. So I have an advance warning of when they come. Today my next door neighbor had pest control making a lot of noise. And somebody else was using power saws to cut down trees. So I was in the dark.

Right after lunch I decided to hurry up and collect 1 extra bag of trash from the house. I debated whether to also collect the remaining recyclables so I could make 1 trip to the curb. But I decided against it. What if the trash truck comes while I am gathering stuff. Therefore I ran out to the curb. That was the right decision. The trash truck was 4 houses down on my street. Got that last bag in the can right before they came.

I like adding one more bag to the trash pickup on the day when they are scheduled to come. That is one last bag that will be very old by the time they come back next week. It worked out today. Afterwards, I collected the last recyclables and took it out to the curb. For some reason, the recycle guys are a bit later than usual today.

Remembering Cammy the Gerbil

Momoko was scheduled to cook us some fried egg sandwiches. She approached me and said there was a change of plans. Kit Kat's gerbil named Cammy was not doing well. So Momoko was going to Kit Kat's apartment to bring a heating pad to help the gerbil. Before Momoko left, we were informed that Cammy had died.

Cammy one of two gerbils (the other being Chai) that Kit Kat and Momoko bought while Little Kat and I were visiting grandpa. Cammy was the chonky one. She loved human food. It made her bloated and big. So she was frequently on a diet.

In the later days, she started getting jumpy around the other gerbil. Chai would chase her around. And when Chai go close enough to touch her, Cammy would jump high in the air, often injuring herself. Eventually Kit Kat got a bigger cage with a separator in the middle to protect Cammy.

Celebration of Life

A teacher that Momoko and Kit Kat had a celebration service for her late father today. This is no ordinary teacher. She is a friend of the family. I told Momoko she is actually more like actual family. She taught Little Kat. Kit Kat and Little Kat play D&D with her. They attend all her parties.

Kit Kat had to go out afterwards with her friends to see a live version of Spirited Away. So she drove her own car. I made Momoko drive us to the funeral home. We got there early. Some valets directed us to park next to the home. They packed us in.

We went in and saw Kit Kat. Momoko and I viewed the picture books, which had photos that the late father had taken. I met another D&D teacher. Also saw an old teacher that retired but lives in our town. The service was a guy speaking about the father.

Afterwards, Little Kat drove us to the Italian restaurant where the reception was held. We stuck around the funeral home for quite some time afterwards. So I was suspicious that we were the first ones at the reception. Luckily Little Kat got to park in the garage next door.

I ate a lot of garlic cheese bread, which was in the form of pizza without the sauce. They were thin slices. Momoko initiated our visit to the buffet. I tried the ziti. It was okay. I loaded up on some meatballs then, plus on my return for seconds. I handed Momoko a couple cannoli.

We had Little Kat walk Kit Kat to her car in a garage quite a ways away from the restaurant. He had to walk back in the rain. Kit Kat could not drive him back because she was late. But she provided an umbrella. I drove us home and was tired, falling asleep in my recliner as we watched K-Drama.

Fence Repair

I noticed the fence in the back yard was rotting away. For a while, I would just nail new pickets. But everything is rotting. Nailing causes more damage to the fence than it fixes. The right way would be to tear everything down and start from scratch. That is a ton of work and money. So I improvised.

When they installed my mega driveway, they save a few spans of fencing which I kept. Therefore I cut out some rotting sections of fence. I left up the posts. Then I nailed this old fencing to the posts. It does not look great, as it is just the middle section of my whole fence. But it gets the job done.

One interesting finding was that two of the posts were falling down. I ribbed them out with the pickets attached. I thought about digging a new post hole. However there was concrete in the ground. I used a spade to remove the dirt in the middle. Then I sledgehammered the original post back in the hole. Bingo.

I should be good for another 6 months to a year easily. Maybe even longer if I can put up with the shoddy look.

Kindling Container

Every week I pick up small sticks in the yard. Normally I send them off to the county for disposal. However I keep the sticks that are right sized for kindling. I used to put this kindling in old trash cans. All the cans are filled up. Next I started piling them up behind the house under a tarp. But the sticks keep falling down the side of the pile.

It was now time to build some kind of enclosure for this kindling. Eventually I was a huge enclosure for them. Right now I just want to prevent the kindling from falling down the side of my pile. I measured everything. Then I decided I would brace two sides of my pile with walls.

The walls were just assorted pieces of wood I had. I joined these pieces together with 2x3 lumber. The overall effect was kind of patchy due to the lack of wood and the weird size of the pieces I had. The nails were too long and stuck out when I nailed through. So I added blocks to the nail points for safety.

Now that this is done, it seems my kindling pile is high. I might be able to add to it for a little while. But it will rise above the sides of my walls I just constructed. Time to buy more plywood and lumber to build a huge kindling enclosure. I have a spot on the steep hill in the back yard where I think I will locate this new storage.

Kit Kat Needs an Assist

Kit Kat has taken possession of her new apartment. She will have movers officially bring all her stuff there next week. However she has been slowly emptying her storage unit and setting up her apartment. Little Kat spent the night at her apartment, helping Kit Kat shop and assemble small furniture.

Today Kit Kat was expecting a delivery of a couch cover. Since her couch is being delivered to the apartment, the cover will come there too. But Kit Kat had plans to see a movie with her friends and brother. So Momoko went over to her apartment this morning to wait for the delivery guy.

I got a call from Momoko. She was trying to install contact paper in the bottom of Kit Kat's shelves and cabinets. But the top cabinets were too high. Momoko was also hungry. So she had me get pizza for her and an Italian sub for me. I also brought along folding tables, plus a step stool to reach high cabinets.

I ate lunch with Momoko. Then we took out a lot of trash, which included a lot of empty cardboard boxes. We brought them to the dumpsters near Kit Kat's apartment. They were overly full. Luckily I stuffed a ton of boxes folded into another to save space. I left Momoko to continue lining the shelves. I have my own weekend chores to do.

Kit Kat Takes Possession of Apartment

Kit Kat took the day off from work today. She was scheduled to get her apartment today. She left in the morning to get a certified check from our bank. She had all the other things she needed, like proof of renter's insurance and utilities turned on.

Then we got the text from Kit Kat. She got her apartment. It was on the second floor. Immediately her and Little Kat went to Kit Kat's storage locker to pick up some stuff to bring to the apartment. Momoko and I had scheduled an afternoon visit to the apartment after work.

Kit Kat has a fireplace in the living room. There are also two pocket doors that lead into her study. So she is not sure where she can put her couch and TV. Her couch will come from IKEA. They have 6 at the local store. But delivery is not available right now.

Kit Kat has full size washer and dryer in the closet of her bathroom. He kitchen is more spacious than the model we saw. She has a full size fridge and dishwasher. There is a balcony with its own outdoor closet. The bedroom and den are carpeted. Everything else has a gray laminate flooring.

You need a key to unlock the front door to Kit Kat's building. Then she has to use another key to open the deadlock and handle to her apartment door. The hall in front of her front door is spacious. There are strangely 2 doors leading into her bathroom. One of from the hall and the other from her bedroom.

Tough Day to be on the Road

I had a bunch of meetings at work. So I got up early and left to get some breakfast. On the way to McDonald's, I saw that the opposing road was blocked due to emergency vehicles. I did not want to be jammed up in that mess. So I did a quick U-turn to go to another McDonald's.

I went on the highway. McDonald's is only one exit North of me. The Southbound traffic on the highway was a parking lot. Maybe it was due to rush hour and/or an accident. I made a not and decided not to return home via highway.

Picking up breakfast was easy. I got a Big Breakfast without the hotcakes. As usual, I substituted English muffins for their biscuit. On the way home, I decided to take a back way. It was all backed up due to traffic too.

 I immediately got off that road and went the normally slow back way. There was construction that closed one lane. But hardly anybody was there. So I got home, ate my breakfast quickly, and ran up to my first dial in meeting.

Dominos Does Not Deliver

I had a $3 coupon from Dominos for picking up my order last time. I stacked this with a buy two for $6.99 each. I was annoyed that bone-in wings cost extra. But I settled for boneless buffalo wings. Ranch sauce cost extra. I added Parmesan bread bites. Had to accept the 32 count big box. The 16 count was not available.

The food tracker said my order would be ready in 10 to 15 minutes. I drove to the store. Arrived around 11am. The front door was locked. Strange. They open at 10am. There were people inside busily running around. I called the store on my cell. They ignored the call. I waved at them. Eventually a buy let me in.

I told the guy I placed an order online. He said the store was closed, and that there were not any cooks available. The only reason he let me in was he thought I was the Coca Cola delivery guy. They told me a manager might be back around 30 minutes from then to help me cancel my order. I called back 45 minutes later. Nobody answered the phone. I guess they would have to figure it out themselves.

Amazon Delivery Failure

I ordered some Arm&Hammer baking soda for the fridges from Amazon. Got a notification that it was delivered this morning. Outside the house, there were 4 packages. One of them was for the neighbor across the street. I brought their package to their door. However my package was nowhere to be found.

I tried to go online. Amazon did not have an easy way for me to call them. The automated system said the package might be delivered later. That was a cop out. They obviously mis-delivered another package. Who knows what happened to my package.

I kept going through the maze of Amazon menus until I could talk with a human. The guy said a tracer was placed on my package. So he could not do anything for another 48 hours. I told him I would just have to call him back in 48 hours then. He said he could set up a call back from him.

This baking soda only costs $10. But it is the principle. When things get delivered fine, Amazon is great. Otherwise they make it hard to get any customer service. They just try to get you to navigate some online menus which just don't take care of the problem. This is a downside of dealing with the beast.

Kit Kat Apartment Hope

Kit Kat looked again at an apartment complex where the monthly rent was $1764 for a 1 bedroom plus den. That price was obviously too high. However they had a similar but bigger unit coming available in a few months. That unit was going for $1592 now. It seemed like a steal. Kit Kat applied on her own and got accepted. She already signed a lease.

This unit has one bedroom. It has a bathroom with access from the bedroom and the hall. There is a den which is essentially a second bedroom. There is a balcony with its own storage shed. The kitchen is nice but very narrow. There are full size washer and dryer in a closet off the kitchen. There is some nice storage.

So now Kit Kat just has to wait until the current tenant leaves the apartment. That will take about two months, including the complex cleaning the apartment to make it ready for Kit Kat. She has already started making purchases for the new apartment. A new bed got delivered this morning while Kit Kat was at work. I had them bring it into our library for safe keeping.

If all goes as planned, Kit Kat will be moving out in two months into her own apartment. A bit sad for us parents. But overall good times for Kit Kat. Strangely enough, Little Kat is excited too. He seems to think that Kit Kat will be able to buy a pet cat when she moves out.

Kit Kat Apartment Update

Kit Kat continued on her apartment search. She set up an appointment with a place with "lower" rent that looked good. I got busy at work. So Kit Kat brought Little Kat with her. She liked a unit and applied. They denied her because she did not make enough money. I told her I would be a guarantor to help her qualify.

I scheduled a visit to this apartment myself. The worker had a tough time opening the apartment front door. There was new carpet everywhere. The kitchen was entirely remodeled, with granite counters, and a small front load washing machine.

I asked what the price for the unit was. They told Kit Kat is was $1619 a month if she moved in at the end of the month. They told me the price would depend on move in date. I asked them what the cheapest date was. They said today, and it would be $1552 a month. I said let's do it. They told me I needed to apply. LOL wut?

Apparently they had to reopen Kit Kit's application and process my guarantor application. I told them let get going, and asked what was stopping us. They said they needed a guarantor application fee. I ran to my local bank and got a certified check for that. They said they would review it.

On the weekend, they came back and said we were approved. However they said we could move in right away for $1619 a month. I had Kit Kat ask them how we could get the $1552 rate, because she could probably qualify on her own at that rate. They said her rate was fixed based on application and tour date. I had her remind them that I just applied and toured and the price was $1552. They would not budge. So they were out.

Certificaton Renewal

Six or seven years ago, I passed an exam and got an industry certification. It seems good for certain Department of Defense contracts. The certification expires after 3 years. The last time this happened, I figured the easiest way to renew it was to take some vendor training. You need to pass the assessments that come with the training to prove you are worth to keep the certification.

Well my 3 years were up again. So I decided to do the vendor training one more time. I think the training was expanded. There were more new topics this time around. And I swear the assessments were a lot harder. It seemed like I needed to retake each assessment 3 or 4 times to pass it. You need to get 100% of the questions correct to pass.

Next time I need a better strategy. I think I might let my certification lapse, then sit for the regular certification exam again. You probably only need around 70% correct to pass that exam. I will need to go into a testing center to sit for the exam.

I do have another idea. You can earn credits to keep current. You just need to justify the credits and get them approved. You still have to pay some sort of fee to renew your cert. But at least I won't need to take all these exams all over again. So I downloaded a book on this certification. I am searching for ideas on what to research and publish to use to qualify for the next recertification.

Apartment Shopping

Kit Kat has decided she wants to move into her own apartment within the month. She has targeted the area where she and her boyfriend often eat. It is about 20 minutes north of us by highway. She requires a washer/dryer inside her unit. She optimally wants a 2 bedroom unit. However those are too expensive. She will settle for a 1 bedroom with den.

The first unit we looked at seemed a bit dated. It was a two bedroom apartment. The kitchen cabinets and appliances were tired. However the apartment had a lot of space. The layout had good feng shui. The pricing seemed high to me. They also nickel-dimed Kit Kat, even charging $40 per month for her gerbils. The overall cost seemed way too high for my liking.

The second unit seemed a lot fancier. However there was less room. And the layout of the apartment was wonky. Kit Kat did talk to a woman who was walking her dog. This may have been Kit Kat's future neighbor. I was troubled by the trash on the floor inside the apartment hallway. The unit was located close to Kit Kat's old community college.

The last unit we saw cost $200 more than the other two. Kit Kat went into the office of a woman who looked like a bustier Charli DeAmelio. Momoko had trouble keeping up with the brisk walk to the apartment. There was a lot of storage in this unit. The den seemed like a second bedroom. I thought it was strange for there to be two doors into both the bathroom and the den. In the end, the niceness did not seem to justify the high price.

We are waiting for an actual one bedroom plus den to become available at the first complex we visited. Momoko wants us to negotiate away the pet fee, since gerbils are tiny animals and most apartments only charge a pet fee for dogs or cats.