Car Trouble

Momoko and Little Kat were late coming home from school yesterday. I played some computer games. Kit Kat was reading on her new Kindle. There was a furious knock at the door. That seemed strange. It was our neighbor from across the street. Her car would not start.

I told her I had some jumper cables. So I drove my car up her driveway. There was a problem. Her car was parked front side in her garage. I pulled my car up as close behind her car as possible. My extra long jumper cables reached. However the jump did not work. Her problem must not have been a bad battery.

This was troubling to my neighbor since she just brought the car in to the dealer for a lot of work. She said she spent over $1000 on the maintenance. I advised her to call the dealer and have them tow the car back to the dealership and fix the darn thing. She already paid her money. She did say that her car was an old one. But come on. It is a Volvo.

Rescue Tools

Momoko had a tire that was running a bit flat. Kit Kat took my tire pressure gauge, and headed to the gas station. Oooops. Somebody was using the air machine there. Then the one at the next gas station had a broken air machine. Bad luck.

But hold up. Kit Kat forgot about the obvious - Black Kat's garage. I actually have an air compressor in the back of my truck. The thing works very slow. But it works. You plug it into your cigarette lighter, and wait a long time for it to fill up the tires.

Turns out all of Momoko's tires were low on air. So Kit Kat hooked her up. Now Momoko should be good to go. I am glad I bought these tools like the air pressure gauge and the air compressor. They come in handy on a cold day like today.

Home Improvement

Last week our neighbors started digging up the area next to their house. Then we saw that they poured some concrete there. What was this? Perhaps it was a driveway extension. Nope.

Then we saw the lumber go up. These neighbors already had a garage. I guess they needed an extension for the garage. This will be a separate 1 car garage, next to their existing one.

They framed the roof. Some shingles went on top that matched their roof. Momoko said the brickwork on the front has started. I would like one of these garages. Right now we are still saving for a shed.

Home Shopping Weekend

Momoko's real estate agent came back from vacation today. So we went out to look for houses. The first one was in our current city. It was only two levels. The master bedroom had just a shower. I want a nice bath in there. So that, combined with the fact that it was small meant that it was out.

Next we visited a house close to Momoko's school. I liked the separate tub and shower in the master bedroom. The tub was shallow but big big big. There was a sign on the stairs inside saying we had to take our shoes off to go upstairs. Weird. The basement did not flow well. And the back yard was sloped down toward the house. Although the back yard was fenced, the fence was wobbly and even falling down at points. This house was also out.

Finally we returned to an older house that we had seen before. It still had a tree blocking the entrance. The agent initially forgot the code to unlock the key. However Little Kat tried the front door and found it open! This house was huge. The basement had a great sized room with huge built in bookshelves. The kitchen was large. There was a deck over top of a big garage. The top level had massive bedrooms. The only thing I hated was the steep hills on all sides of the house. I don't want to mow that grass. Momoko found a lot of work required on the inside as well. This house is still a maybe.

Next I am going to have my agent figure out how much I can expect to sell our house for. That might decide whether we can even afford to move and get another house.

Searching for Sofa

Last weekend we visited a furniture store. I think we sat on almost all the sofas in the store. Momoko wants a sectional sofa. Little Kat thought we should get this cool sofa. It had drink holders and a secret deep compartment under the arm rests. Check out the picture above.

The problem is that we don't need all this. We just need a low cost sectional that feels good. It seems that is a hard combination to get. That reminds me of Momoko's house hunt. She is trying to find us a new house in the good school district. We want a two car garage. The master bedroom bathroom need a bathtub. A total of three full baths would be nice.

The style of home we want is a colonial. That's the one that has three levels. Of course we would love if all three levels were finished. And I like gas powered stoves, as well as gas water heater and furnace. All these things we want we can find. The only problem is that houses that meet all those specs cost a lot of money locally. We need to find a gem, a great deal. I hope there is a diamond in the rough somewhere around here.

Attack of the Ducks

There is plenty of parking at my work. However by the time I get there, I have to park far away from my building. Normally that does not matter. A nice walk in the morning is good for me. That is all fine unless I am carrying my big bag with my computer. Then it is a chore to trek from the remote parking lot.

That is why I was excited when they built a new parking garage right next to my building. It seemed to take forever before they were done. Then it opened to the building residents. Things were great. There was always enough parking right by my building. Then the ducks came.

There always seemed to be ducks in the neighborhood of my building. That is no big deal. They stick to themselves. However one pair of ducks became annoying. Apparently the one ducks laid some eggs. She built her nest right on the walkway from the parking garage to my building. And daddy duck would attack anyone who came near. The construction guys closed off the walk between the parking lot and building. Then they started roping off more and more area around these ducks because papa duck kept attacking people walking from the garage. This darn dark even flew up at me a couple time. He seemed to wander around a bit, but kept thinking he needed to protect the nest. The nerve of these ducks. I tell ya.