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.