Christmas Cheer

Little Kat and I noticed that there were few Christmas lights on our street. He suggested we get some and hang them up. That sounded like a lot of work to me. Momoko agreed with Little Kat and bought some lights. Little Kat and Momoko hung them up. Some of the lights are a bluish-white set of icicles hanging from the gutters. There are also some bright LED colored lights in the bushes. It was a lot of pain getting those lights hung up.

While the lights were being hung, Kit Kat lead the effort to put up out Christmas tree. Some furniture had to be reshuffled. Kit Kat and Little Kat struggled to move our recliner chairs out of the room. We got the Polar Express train secured around the tree. The kids hung the ornaments, lights, and cancy canes. Now we need to add some gifts under this tree.

At night we heard a bunch of sirens outside. They kept getting closer to the house. A big fire truck came up our cul de sac. On top of the truck were two firemen dressed up as Santa Claus. I guess they are looking for some donations this holiday season.

Relient K Christmas

Kit Kat postponed having her friends over for Friday. So the kids decided to decorate the tree instead. Momoko had me put on some Christmas videos on the TV. The best one was one Sleigh Ride by Relient K. You got to see it.

Momoko bought a new Polar Express train for under the tree. The train is more trouble than it is worth. It falls off the track a lot. The track gets messed up when people step on it. Fail.

Now it is Saturday. Kit Kat's friends have come over to spend the night. The girls are playing Wii. Perhaps Momoko and I will play with Little Kat to get him out of their way. Scrabble anyone?

Dinner Meeting

Today I planned to meet an old coworker for dinner. We were to eat Chinese at a mall by his house. I was pleasantly surprised that traffic was light. Got there real early. The mall was nice. It is in an upscale neighborhood. They have nice furniture to sit in while you wait. I waited outside the Chinese food restaurant.

While waiting, I saw a kid and his mom board a mall train. It is a little train that rides through the mall. I was annoyed that the front door to the Chinese food place had a squeaky door. People kept coming in and out.

When I first entered the mall, I went to the mall directory to figure out how to get to the Chinese food restaurant. I was surprised that the map did not accurately show the shape of the mall. Come on guys. I was still able to find the place. You could tell this was an upscale mall. Everybody was dressed very fashionably. A number of people were speaking foreign languages. I got the feel that there were many European people in the area.

Downtown Meeting

My company scheduled an all hands meeting for our team. Food was going to be provided. But it was going to be held in the middle of the city at rush hour. Ouch. Everybody pretty much said they were going to take the train there. I had to buck the trend.

I made sure I left early to drive all the way into the city. The drive started out good. Then it slowed to a crawl in the city. I drove by where I went to high school. Then I missed my turn. Went around a couple circles, found the place, but missed the one parking space by the meeting place.

Well I circled around a couple blocks. Found a little VW Beetle leaving his parking spot. I did a quick U-turn, and claimed the spot. They had some weird way to pay for parking. You don't put coins in a meter by your parking space. You walk down the block to purchase a receipt to put in your window. What the heck? I only had 2 maximum of 2 hours parking. When my time was up, I snuck out of my meeting, then came home.