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.

Left Behind

Momoko and Little Kat took it easy yesterday. So they have to run their errands today. Kit Kat came home late yesterday from school and tried to arrange some activities today with her friends. Unfortunately she needed a ride to all the places she wanted to go. Momoko was busy. That means I am driving Kit Kat around today.

Kit Kat's friends have their driver's licenses. So they just drive their cars to wherever they want to go. Kit Kat does not have her license yet. It would be a whole lot easier if she did. I am hoping that will motivate her to step and pass her driver's license test. They are tough to pass in our state. I don't know how these other girls made it.

I usually sleep in late on Saturdays. Today I had to set an alarm to be up in time to drive Kit Kat to Target, the girls' first meeting place. We got there 5 minutes after the scheduled meeting time. I thought we would see Kit Kat friends. Kit Kat called one of them up. She was in the next aisle over. As I left Kit Kat with her friend, I saw another of Kit Kat's friends waling in. All set.

The Daily Walk

The family had planned to walk three times this week. On Wednesday it was raining. Momoko also had a tough day at work. So I let us skip Wednesday. Little Kat said he made up for the missed day by walking on the treadmill on Thursday.

Today Kit Kat had an after school activity. She wanted to eat dinner with her friends after that. So the family decided to walk without her. For some reason, Little Kat decides to run ahead of us until he is out of site. At the half way point where we normally turn around to go home, Little Kat suggested we go a bit farther. Momoko said we could but she would not join us.

So Little Kat and I went to the next bend in the road. I was surprised with the amount of trash I found on the streets. Need to bring a trash bag and a little grabber next time we walk. The grabber let's me pick up items without bending over or touching them. When Little Kat and I got hoome, we found Momoko on the bench outside out house. She did not have a key to get in. Ooops.

Gerbil Mania

I was tired this morning and decided to stay home from work. That's okay. I was ahead of schedule at work. I also have the ability to work from home. People who really need me know how to track me down to call me.

I was being productive in our computer room. Then I heard a commotion coming from our TV room. The noise would not go away. I came in to see a flurry of gerbil activity. Out home gerbils were wrestling with each other. They were also running in their wheel, with bedding flying around.

The main disturbance was coming from the big school gerbil cage. I guess Little Kat did not bring them back to school today. Some gerbils were violently scrating at thier little wooden house. Others were scrating at the cardboard box placed in their cage. another was in their bath flinging corn meal around. And some were digging like crazy, making the bedding fly.

Not sure why these lil guys were wild. Maybe they heard me and wanted some attention. Perhaps the leaf blower or lawn mower noise from outside drove them batty. Eventually they calmed down and went to sleep. Sheesh.

An Uphill Battle

Last week the family took a walk for exercise purposes. We went to Kit Kat's morning bus stop. Momoko had a tough time walking there and back home. She said her legs and back hurt. This was disturbing because we did not walk that far. We did have to walk up a steep hill.

We contemplated how to fix this problem. I figured we should walk more often. I also thought we could take a new path that did not involve steep inclines. Momoko thought we could do swimming instead. That might work in the summer. But we are too busy to go to the swimming pool on a regular basis during the school year.

Today we tried out the new path. Momoko said her legs were fine. Her back still hurt. We only had to stop once on the way home. We plan to walk two more times this week. I hope we can walk a little further the next time.

Gerbil Scare

This weekend the kids found something wrong with one of our gerbils. She was shaking bad. Kit Kat did some research on the web and feared the gerbil might have epilepsy. We cannot know for sure.

Momoko and Kit Kat took turns holding the gerbil in a blanket. They gave her some water when she would take it. Little Kat prepared an incubation gerbil cage, just in case the illness was contagious. The gerbil seemed to sleep off the problem.

After a while the gerbil was up and drinking. We kept her in the separate cage for a little while. Kit Kat covered her in bedding to try to keep her warm. Then we returned her to the main home gerbil cage. The other gerbils slept in the little house with her, hopefully keeping her warm.

Introducing Breakout

I am taking a programming class at a community college. Got to keep those skills up. You never know when you need to look for another job. More skills means more chance at success.

This semester the instructor has agreed to substitute a final project in place of a final exam. I was planning to create an electronic football game for my final. Then I saw a demo of the old arcade game Breakout, and knew I needed to write it.

So far, Breakout is doing pretty good. The ball bounces around the screen and knocks out bricks. Most of the time it bounces off the paddle. Still got a bug or two to correct. I want to add a cool startup screen.

You know I am in good shape when I am worrying about tiny details such as a startup screen. The credits in the game state that this is an "A+ Production". Get it?