Easty Access Parking

Things are much easier with our expanded driveway and new parking pad. Three cars can park side by side now. Each of them can get out of the driveway without moving the other cars. I am loving life now.

I moved the truck out to the street. Momoko's car has been moved into the carport. My Scion xB and the new Honda Fit park side by side in the parking pad. I love that I can come out of the house and get in my Scion xB immediately. I used to have to walk down to the street to get in the car.

Today my brother is coming over to watch some movies with me. I used to have to squeeze two cars parking out on the street. Now I just tell him to pull into the driveway. This is a taste of the high life. Next project is to get us a new shed in the back yard.

Bike Upgrade

Little Kat has been complaining about his bike for a long time. He says it is too small for him. I was scheduled to go bike shopping with Little Kat this week. However the work on the driveway put us behind schedule.

Today was the last day of my vacation. So I planned to go shopping with Little Kat. There were some bad thunder showers. Little Kat asked us to postpone the shopping trip. Momoko directed us to go today. We manned Little Kat up, and drove the truck to Walmart.

Little Kat had specific requirements. He wanted a pedal brake as opposed to hand brakes. He also wanted a dirt bike. The bike needed to be a 26 inch one. In the end, the handle bar grips and bike seat comfort sealed the deal. The bike was within budget. At home we had Little Kat take the new bike for a spin before we headed to the airport to pick up Kit Kat.

Getting to Work

I got to work early today. There was a lot to do. When I got there, I got some more tasks to take care of. In the afternoon I got a call from Momoko. She was at her school setting up her classroom. She needed some help doing the heavy lifting. I left work as soon as I could.

I stopped by home to pick up a dolly to help with the heavy items. Momoko left me a message to bring some drinks with me as well. I had a tough time moving out all the cars to get the truck out of the driveway. When I got to Momoko's school, there were some seriously heavy filing cabinets to move across the room.

Kit Kat and I had to set up all the desks. Momoko had put down a seating plan on paper. But when we started arranging the desks, there were some tweaks in positions. At one time, Kit Kat stubbed her toe with the desk leg. She was wearing flip flops. Ouch.

After the long day, Kit Kat and I went to return some library books. Momoko texted us to pick up some dinner. Bucket of chicken it is.

Getting Lucky

The permit office rejected my drawings for the driveway addition we are planning. They recommended I hire a surveyor to prepare the proper documentation. It was going to cost me around $500 to get this done. I was bummed.

I had a copy of a survey done for a previous owner. The permit office said that survey was skewed. Momoko recommended that I contact the original surveyor to get a copy of the orignal. They were on the Internet. So I called them up. For a nice $25 they would send me some copies. Yes.

I just got the docs today. Now I see what went wrong. I had a copy on a normal 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. The originals were on long 8.5 x 14 paper. Now I am ready to go back and get my permit approved.

Shot Down

With Kit Kat driving a new car that Momoko bought, the parking at our house is getting tough. We line up three cars in our driveway. The problem is that our driveway is only one lane. That means we play musical cars when we need to get cars out. That is getting old.

My plan is to get a new driveway lane paved. I found some contractors who would do the job at a reasonable price. The only catch is that I have to go get the permit for the work. Today I went to the county permit office. I had my application filled out. I also came with copies of my site plan. This is a document that shows our property boundary lines, along with where everything sits on our property.

The parks and planning division immediately rejected my plan. They told me it was not drawn to scale. I told them the plan was based on documents I received when I bought the house. They thought maybe somebody faxes the documents, skewing them (they grew in height but not in width, making all the proportions wrong). Now I need to hire a surveyor to draw up correct site plans. Can you say ka-ching $$$?

Dryer Fail

Even though it was the weekend, I woke up early yesterday. A concrete contractor was supposed to come by in the morning. I waited all morning and finally got a call at noon. The cat needed some more time to get to my house.

When he came, this cat had a low estimate for new driveway lane we want paid. He quoted us less than half the cost of the previous guy. Momoko was a little bit suspicious. I have an action item to check with the county as to whether the short cuts this contractor recommends are legal.

Momoko made me get one more quote from a reputable company. In other news, our clothes dryer broke down yesterday. I scrambled to get to a laundromat to get my two loads of laundry dried. Momoko is scheduled to go out and actually purchase our new dryer. That is a relief. I am spending a lot of my time with these driveway contractors.

Construction No Show

With a new car in the family, we need more room in the driveway. So I called 3 concrete guys from the local paper. One cat came and said it would cost a whopping $10k to add a lane to our driveway. The other two cats did not show up. Dang.

This morning I woke up late to find a message on the answering machine. One of the other cats had called saying he was coming over. What? He already missed his earlier estimate of when he would come. Then he just shows up. I called him back and he seemed confused about what we needed. He told me he would need to call me back. He never did. So I guess he is out. Momoko wanted me to talk to him because he said he could do the work for $5k.

Another one of the cats I called finally called me back. This was a few days after he said he could come by. Fail. He apologized and promised he would visit first thing tomorrow morning. If he does show up, and has a good price I will consider him. We need this work done. And I don't have a lot of cheese to spend on this project.

New Car Time

Momoko purchased a new Honda Fit this week. We got the Milano Red color that we wanted. Had to go up to a higher level of trim. That bumped the cost up almost $2000. But we are just loving this color. The higher trim had some other useful things like security system, arm rest, radio controls on the steering wheel, and so on.

It seems that the family is driving the new car all the time. Momoko tried to get me to drive the thing a few times. I did not want to. It is new. I don't want to be the first person to get into an accident with it. I drove once to pick up Little Kat from the pool. Then I drove Momoko to pick up her car from the dealership. That is it.

Luckily Kit Kat likes driving the new car. I vote that she do most of the new car driving from now on. We are a little cramped with parking. My truck is boxed in the back of the carport. Momoko's car is usually boxed in the driveway by the new one. I park out on the street. Time to look into getting a larger driveway paved for us.

Firewood Friday

I saw an ad in the paper for oak firewood. Momoko has been trying to get me to buy some for a long time. We need heat when the power goes off. I called up the cat. He said he did not have any right now. But he would get some by April 1st.

Sure enough I got a call from the cat saying he can deliver today. I worked from home today. That is always a bad time. The office keeps calling my home phone like crazy. The calls never stop. Firewood cat was a bit a late. But he came.

They had a big box truck. It could not back into our driveway because they weight of the wood made it too low. The delivery cat rolled the logs into our container using his wheel barrel. Later he knocked on the door saying that our firewood holder was filled up, but there was more wood.

I created a makeshift riser to keep the firewood off the ground. So the rest of the wood got delivered to this riser on our back patio. Now I need to find a way to cover this wood in the back so the rain does not get to it. We are set for the winter, and then some.

Biking Ups and Downs

This weekend Little Kat brought his bike out of the shed. He cleaned it off, oiled it with WD-40, and pumped up the tires. Looks like he got bored riding the bike by himself. So he also restored Kit Kat's bike as well. I went out and got my bike ready. That's when I found Little Kat riding without his helmet.

We got a helmet on his head, then I rode with Little Kat in the cul de sac. The abandoned house across the street has a steep driveway. If you ride down it, you can gain a lot of speed. I needed to get back to my weekend work. So I came in leaving Little Kat still riding. Later Little Kat banged on the door. I locked him out by mistake. He had taken a spill, and cut his hand and leg. Kit Kat helped patch him up.

I don't think Little Kat got hurt too bad. We were out riding again today. Little Kat was still "borrowing" Kit Kat's bike. We expanded out of the cul de sac and rode down the street. I found another cul de sac and tried to ride up it. Too bad. It was a steep street. Half way up the hill, we turned around and came home. This time I brought Little Kat in when I stopped riding. Momoko wanted to prevent another injury.

Snow Melt

Our high piles of snow are starting to melt a little bit. I am happy. Some people tell me their rain gutters are falling down (due to heavy ice). Ours are holding up for now.

I am ready for the forecast of rain. That might melt even some more snow. There is a problem that remains with the snow. There is nowhere to park. Normally we have two spots out in front of the curb. But the snow only leaves one.

Momoko and I have been playing musical cars in our one car driveway. Then things got complicated when my bro drove over with his truck. Had to park those cars tight.

We got this old couch in the basement. It is older than Kit Kat. The darn thing is just not too comfortable. Momoko would like a sectional sofa. But that sounds like $$$.

Value City has a sale this weekend for a 500 dollar sectional. Sounds like a scam, but maybe Little Kat and I will check it out. Right Little Kat?

Snowed In

This weekend we got the Blizzard of 2009. I think there was at least 20 inches of snow in our area. Even the snow plough got stuck on our street. Momoko and the kids were off from school today. But I had to head into work.

So yesterday I went out in the afternoon and tried to dig out my car. It was tough because a plough did come by and "plough me in". Eventually I cleared a path for my car to get out. I later found out this was the easy task.

Momoko was parked deeper in our driveway. There was a lot of snow shoveling to get from the curb to her car. Luckily Kit Kat came out and helped me. Then Little Kat came out, but I think he dropped more snow on the driveway than he cleared. Finally Momoko came out because she saw we needed the help. Momoko actually went out driving today in the snow. Yippee.

Here Comes the Snow

Late last night it started snowing outside. By morning a little snow was on the cars. It was enough to keep Mamma Kat from going out to pick up breakfast.

This evening it started snowing again. The weatherman said we may get 4 to 8 inches by tomorrow. So the whole family went out to spread rock salt on the driveway.

We spread out the remainder of the rock salt bag we had. Luckily we have another huge bag that is unopened. Little Kat is hoping for a day off from school tomorrow.

Big Trash Can

I woke up pretty early this morning. But I was still the last one of out the house. Kit Kat had just caught her bus to school. As I was heading out to my car, I saw a big trash can in our driveway.

That puzzled me. It is not trash day. I checked and all our big trash cans were up in our carport. Then I noticed that all my neighbors had a trash can in their driveway too. And all the trash cans looked the same.

It was then that I figured it out. These were not trash cans. They were new recycling bins that the county had given to us. They just look like trash cans because of their shape and size. Great. Now Little Kat can start up the massive recycling project he wants to do. Right now I only put old newspapers in our little recycling container.