Car Shopping

Today I woke up to find the whole family sleeping. It was almost noon. They must have stayed up late last night. I had a hard day at work yesterday, so I turned in early. The reason I got up early was that my bro was coming over to look at cars. He is ready to buy a new one.

Today was the day to see Subaru. We first looked at the Outback. This is a station wagon style vehicle. It was nicer than I thought it would be. I appreciated that they had the bottom of the line vehicles in the lot to see. Next we test drove the Forrester. I love the look on the outside. They inside was a little cheaper than the Outback.

Finally we stopped by Honda to see the Ridgeline. We test drove one before. But the sunrof took up too much headroom. I liked the one we saw today. It was all black. Unfortunately the cost was in the $30k range. My bro needs to make the final decision. Then we will return to do some price bargaining.

Had a Bad Day

This was a tough week. I was sick but had to work. There was a very complex large problem that I needed to solve. I spent 12 hours working on Tuesday. Other people on my team had severe trouble with their work, so they needed help from me. I was hoping that today would be a quiet Friday.

By the time I woke up, I had a lot of phone messages. I could not listen to them because my home phone and cell phone were ringing. Those team members that needed help before were stuck. Their fix did not work and the customer was pissed.

I wanted to go into work and help out the team. My boss told me we did not have time for that. I had to log in from home and figure out what was up. Eventually I discovered what was wrong. By then I had missed breakfast and lunch. Epic work fail. This was not even my work. The peeps on my team had fallen down and could not get up.

The Bentley Grill

Kit Kat wants to get a job. Momoko does not want to drive her to and from work. It seems like it is time for Kit Kat to drive by herself. The scrappy option would be to let her drive my truck. However it is a manual transmission. Momoko says that would be too diffifult.

One option would be for me to sell Momoko my car for cheap, then buy a new one for myself. I had my eye on the Nissan Cube for a while. However the low price one I had my eye on looks like it got sold. Little Kat and I were driving home one day from shopping. I saw what looked to be a used Bentley in a dealer's lot.

A little research showed that this was really a Chrysler that had a Bentley grill installed. Good enough for me. The car is 1 year old. The cost is a bit high. But hey. It has a Bentley grill. If I find that it is an authentic grill from Bentley, I will buy the thing. I suspect it is a fake replica.

The Big Melt

The weathermen were calling for an ice storm that would leave everything covered in ice. Momoko talked me into bring home my work just in cast. It was a false call. The weather was just too warm. All we got is rain.

By the afternoon, temperatures were in the 50 degrees F range. Snow is starting to melt away. Rain gutters are flowing from water off the roof. Now there is still snow around. But it is starting to melt.

They are calling for another storm later this week. Personally I would prefer to see spring weather than another snow storm. I am tired of shoveling snow.

Ice Comes In

The weathermen are calling for a lot of ice on the streets tomorrow. So Momoko made me take home my work to potentially work from home tomorrow. Everything depends on the temperature when the precipitation comes. I hope it just turns out to be rain.

Today everybody in the office stayed home from work due to fear from snow. Personally it sounded more like people wanting to goof off at home. I don't have that luxury. There is a lot to do at work. It is hard to leave at the end of each day because there is so much to do. Luckily I love leaving work. So I find a way each day.

Power Outage

The power was fluctuating yesterday afternoon. We cooked and ate dinner early just in case. That turned out to be a smart idea. We lost power in the evening. The kids brought out the candles. I went to bed early because power or not, I had to go to work the next day.

The power was out all night. And it snowed. I got up real early. I shoveled a path down the driveway. Then I dug out my car from the damage the snow plow did. It took a long time. The rest of the family was asleep because school was cancelled.

Finally I got the car out. I rewarded myself with a McDonald's breakfast. During lunch I bought a couple bags of rock salt. After lunch, Kit Kat called and said the power finally came back on. Momoko pumped the heat up about 10 degrees higher than normal. We needed it.

Getting Better

I have been totally sick for about a week and a half. Took a couple days off from work. Worked the rest of the time from home. I was very weak. But I am starting to eat again now. Got to build up that strength.

Today was the first day I headed back to the office. I had a coughing fit on the drive in to work. But I made it. It is nice to be out of the house for once. It is also easier to work at the office. That way when I leave, I am done with work. At home people just keep calling me all the time.

I plan to sign up for a new programming class this spring semester at school. I hope the class won't be cancelled due to lack of interest. This is the one I have been waiting to take for a couple semesters.

Big and Small Wins

Today I got caught up with a lot of work. So did my lunch buddy. I almost skipped lunch. But I just got too hungry. Headed over to Burger King because I saw this buy one get one free deal on TV. They had it. Paid $4.23 for an original chicken sandwich. Got another one free. Yippee.

Kit Kat came home late from school. She showed me this deal on the web. Apparently she had "won" either a $1000 Walmart gift card, or an iPad/iPod combo. Well it looked fishy to me. The catch was that she had to provide her cell phone number. My guess was that by giving her number, her cell phone would be charged some bogus fees. Let's hope Kit Kat does not take the bait.

Wrong Way

I was driving home from work. Came up to a traffic circle. There were many cars coming from the other side of the circle. Luckily most of them were just passing straight through the circle.

One oncoming Toyota vehicle decided to make a right turn. However something did not seem right. They missed the actual right turn out of the circle. Instead the went down the wrong way of a one-way street.

I kept an eye on the vehicle. Would they figure out what went wrong? Yes. They were going head on with another vehicle coming the right way. Before I drove off, I saw the car stop and turn around on the street.

This was almost a bad accident in the making.

Tennis Anyone

Today the family planned to go to the local park to play tennis today. I worked very hard at work to ensure I could leave on time. People did not want me to be productive. But I had to leave on time. When I got back, there was some confusion over the dinner which would take a long time to cook. After making sure I was going to leave on time from work, I was not about to postpone tennis.

We had Kit Kat put all the gym equipment in a big sports bag. She also drove us to the local park. Momoko had her drive close to the tennis courts. Ooops. The courts were taken by tennis players. Momoko wanted to kick the one dude out who was playing tennis against the wall on one court. I thought that would be bad form.

Instead we headed over to the basketball court. Little Kat shot a basket or two and was done. I tried playing basketball with our soccer ball. But I found I had no skills. We ended up playing tennis on the basketball court. Now when I say tennis, I mean we tried to hit the ball to each other and return the serves. We were not trying to make the opponent miss. We are not good enough for that.

Luckily I picked up a bunch of tennis balls on the weekend. We each loaded our pockets with tennis balls. Then we would serve. Most of the time the opponent would miss. No problem. Just pull out another ball and serve again. Repeat until you are out of balls. Then pick up all the balls that went wild. Good times. Let's keep this up family. I am game. Are you?

Missing in Action

I was out mowing the lawn as usual this afternoon. Trying to beat the rain that is supposed to come this weekend. I was on the side of the house. Saw Momoko's car drive up. I assumed the kids were with her.

Later I finished my work and came in the house. Momoko was dozing off on the couch. Went upstairs and saw Kit Kat on her bed using her laptop. But Little Kat's room was dark. I found that odd.

I asked out loud where Little Kat was. Kit Kat outed him. He was hiding under a purple blanket behind Kit Kat on her bed. What the heck? I was too tired and sweaty from working out to investigate. Typical Little Kat shenanigans.

Hungry Cat

I came home from work and took care of some chores. Took out the trash. Deal with the laundry. After I changed my clothes, I took a nap. Then I woke up hungry. Came downstairs about 10 minutes before dinnner.

Momoko was on the computer. I asked her if dinner was ready. It had not even been started. Whuuut? I later found out what the problem was. Momoko had joined FaceBook.

Now I need to keep an eye out to make sure Momoko stays on task. Sheesh.

Every Cat is Sick

Yesterday Kit Kat said she was not feeling well. So we put her to bed in the afternoon. She was sick to her stomach all night.

This morning I was supposed to drive Little Kat to school. Turned out he was not feeling well either. So he stayed home with Kit Kat.

Momoko called me today at work. She is ill. She will not be going to work tomorrow.

I myself and not feeling that well. But I got to charge on and get to work. There is a lot to do, and I don't want my vacation next week to be affected.

It is tough times in the Chinwagger household.

Getting Out Early

We used to exercise every night as a family. I would walk the treadmill. Momoko did the elliptical. And Kit Kat rode the stationary bike. Somehow we got off track. Recently Kit Kat has been skipping exercise because she is riding her bike after school.

Friday afternoon I made sure I got off work early. I waited for Kit Kat to come home so we could ride our bikes together. Momoko had a lot of chores for Kit Kat to do. By the time she was done, she was too tired to ride bikes.

Little Kat said he wanted to ride. However he was sick this past week. I wondered whether it was a good idea. He convinced us that he was all well. We ran around out street a couple times. Then we headed down the neighborhood. We decided against going uphill much. Little Kat took me to a cul de sac curve that he called the jellybean. Unfortunately Little Kat got sick later that night. no more biking for him, at least until he is truly better.

Teacher's Pet

I had work today but the kittens were off so I smuggled Kit to work with me. She was very helpful. While I was stuck in meetings, she did the work that I needed to complete. She made copies, cleaned, organized, graded papers, and other miscellaneous tasks. I am sure you are impressed that Kit would actually come in on her off to help her poor mom. Well, I won't mention the fact that she does get paid to help out now that she is older. I find she complains a lot less that way. (I love you baby..smoochie smoochie)

We were afraid that the animals might not be alive since they spent 10 day untended due to snow. We were happy to see all the fish and two gerbils had made it through the peril of two blizzards. YEAH!!!!!!

We Are Free to Roam About

Yesterday morning I woke up hearing what sounded like a snow plow. Looking out the window, I saw a guy with a small front end loader cleaning the snow on our street. It was about time. We have been snowed in for a week. I worked from home all last week.

Today I celebrated the cleared snow by going into the office for work. Everyone else had off due to President's Day. It was hectic at work. The only good thing about going in is that when I leave, I am done with work. Working from home I get calls around the clock.

There was a lot of traffic on the road when I came home. This was because it had started snowing again. The clear road on our street also allowed the UPS guy to finally come with our big package. I bought this Shark vacuum cleaner online. Kit Kat researched about found it to be the best rated vacuum in our price range. The kids were excited and have been vacuuming the house ever since I got home. Let's hope this one lasts longer then our current one.

Autobiography of a Little Kat

I stayed up late last night. Too much exercise meant I could not go to sleep. Then I worked late today. When I got home, I passed out in the bed.

Little Kat woke me up for some chicken strips dinner made by Kit Kat. It tasted good. After dinner Momoko quizzed Little Kat about a big assignment that was due.

Since Little Kat did not know the details, he had to use a lifeline and call a friend. It turns out he had a five paragraph autobiography due tomorrow. Doh. Little Kat was scheduled to go to sleep in an hour.

Kit Kat had to study for tests. Momoko had to write a paper for her college class. That meant Black Kat needed to assist Little Kat. He chose to write about our winter break.

Little Kat listed 8 things we did during winter break on a piece of paper. I kept asking him who/what/when/why/where. In 30 minutes, he had a massive 8 paragraphs. And that did not include the introduction he had to write. Come on Little Kat. Publish your work up in here.

Snow Days!

Well, the snow came and the schools canceled classes. We got to start our Winter Break early. The kittens are playing in the snow and Black is slaving at work. I figured I should at least take a moment out of my day to write a post. I have been so busy this semester. I got an "A" in my last class and the good news is that I only have 2 more classes to go. I will be finished by June 15!!! Until then, be understanding if you do not see many posts from me.

Working Day

Veteran's Day was a work day for both Momoko and myself. Kit Kat and Little Kat stayed home because there was no school. The night before I worked until 11:00PM. So I figured I could leave work early around 3:30 then next day.

I got home and thought about raking leaves. But it was raining and I was tired. Kit Kat got a call from Momoko. She had meetings all day and still had a lot of work to do. Kit Kat, Little Kat, and I got in the car and drove to school. We helped Momoko put her classroom in order. There was a lot of furniture to move around. Some gerbils caused something of a distraction to the kids.

We finally got out of there. Momoko and I decided we should eat out since it was already late. So we headed to the local Mexican restaurant. As usual, we got some cheese sauce for our chips. But the dip was hot with a lot of jalapenos. Our plan was to get home and watch Transformers 2. However it was too late. All in all a busy Veteran's Day.

Tough Weekend

This was a tough weekend. I had to work on Saturday and Sunday. Whew. The good news is after work on Saturday, I went out and picked up a new printer for the family.

The printer is a bit odd. It consumes a lot of electricity. The lights dim when it is printing. Once when I printed 4 pages in a row, it caused the power to my computer to be shut off. But hey. It has toner and it prints fast.

Kit Kat had a tough weekend as well. She started a Windows security update. Then she went to cook us dinner. When she got back, her computer was toast. The thing won't boot, even when she chooses Safe Mode or Last Known Good Configuration. Help.