Clogged

Momoko told Little Kat that the toilet in his bathroom would not flush. Something was backed up in there. Little Kat went upstairs to do some plunging. Later Little Kat came down and said he needed some help. I just can't get any rest these days.

I took our power plunger, and went to work. The thing would not mate with the kids toilet. It just could not form a seal to get any traction. I used the old fashioned plunger. It got deformed, limiting its functionality. I had to keep getting the rubber back into shape.

I spent a long time plunging the darn toilet. After a few minutes, a deodorant stick popped up out of the drain. With that out of the toilet, the thing flushed fine. Job well done.

Hospital Visit

I got a call late last night. It was my bro. He said my mom could not breathe, so he rushed her to the emergency room at the local hospital. My bro just dropped my mom off. He needed to hang up and go into the hospital. I hung tight. Later he called and said my mom needed to stay overnight.

I took care of my duties are work the next day. My bro called and said my mom was still in the hospital. He and my dad were going to visit my mom that evening. I told him I would come along. After work, I headed over to my parents' house. My dad had gone to get some flowers for mom.

My bro and I waited and thought something was wrong. It was taking too long for dad to get flowers. Turns out his truck died in the grocery store parking lot. My bro and I went to rescue him. We tried to jump start his battery and car. We failed. Had to leave his truck there.

I used my bro to help navigate me to the hospital my mom was staying at. It seemed small. The bottom floor smelled like bacon (the cafeteria was on the main floor). We headed up to my mom's room. She had a private room. There were some tubes coming out of her nose. She was scheduled to get her IV hooked back into her later.

Yesterday my mom could not breathe. Today she was better. Her doctor still said she could not be discharged from the hospital. Otherwise she would not make it. The whole recovery will take up to 8 months. We all hope my mom can come home tomorrow.

The Kindle Project

Little Kat needs to read some books this summer. He proposed that we buy him a Kindle Fire tablet. That way he would not have to lug heavy books around the country when he visits his dad. In theory that is a good idea. However Little Kat would just end up playing games on the Kindle Fire if we got him one. I decided to purchase a normal Kindle reader instead.

I am going to loan the Kindle Reader to Little Kat for a year. I told him if he reads a little bit each week, I would give him the Kindle Reader. He was excited at this prospect. I sweetened the deal by promising I would throw in a Kindle gift card if he kept up a minimal amount of reading each week.

If Little Kat reads a lot over the next year, I told him I would buy him a Kindle Fire tablet. I would also throw in a bigger gift card to purchase whatever he wants on on the Kindle Fire. This really got Little Kat excited. Let's see whether this excitement lasts for the whole year.

I told Little Kat that he would need to document his reading each week on his new Blazing Books blog. Looks for entries starting on that blog as early as this week.

Crimes of Little Kat

Momoko arranged for Kit Kat to cook one of my favorite new meals - Beef and Broccoli featuring flank steak. There are some secret incredients that make this Chinese food dish taste awesome. One of them is apple juice. Kit Kat bought a big jug of apple juice at the store. She only needed a small amount for the Chinese food. Momoko still restricted Little Kat from drinking any of the apple juice. We don't want to run out of it before the meal is cooked.

I walked into the kitchen and found Kit Kat lifting up the apple juice jug. He wanted to chug-a-lug right out of the bottle. Fail. I screamed and asked what the heck he was doing. He calmly tried to pretend like he was getting a glass of apple juice. Double fail. Now Little Kat is on big time restriction. He must drink only water for a full week.

My delicious beef and broccoli was tainted by the assumed Little Kat backwash. For the thievery, Little Kat also had to purchased some apple juice concentrate with his own money.

Kit Kat Job Search

Last summer Kit Kat tried to find a job. She had no luck. It is a tough economy. She did some job searching during the school year. But she did not press too hard. No job. Now it is summer again. Kit Kat needs some cash for college. She looked around but could not find that job.

Momoko advised Kit Kat to get more agressive. Pretty much you got to find a manager and ask them what you need to do to get a job there. You can't just submit some online applications. You also cannot just talk to some employees and take no for an answer. You need to find the decision maker and ask for that job.

Kit Kat did this once or twice with nice results. Finally she got a job offer. It was at an ice cream place. It is not close to the house. But hey. It is a job. She was set to start after she returned from her beach trip. When she got back, she said she passed on the job offer. What??? Beggars can't be choosers missy. Very disappointing.

Out of the blue, a store Momoko and Kit Kat shop at called Kit Kat for an interview. She went and apparently did well. She got the job. She starts next week. We don't know how many hours a week Kit Kat has. But hey. It is a job. And the store is very close to our house. Let's hope Kit Kat makes it okay.

Concrete Mix

I had my handyman take care of some of the details for my new shed. He went and got the permit fromt he county. That was a difficult task. Then he arranged to get my old shed and concrete pad removed. Finally he arranged to get a new large 12x20 foot pad poured. This "arranging" meant he had his concrete man come to do the job.

Now the concrete pad itself looks fine. However when the concrete team had left, my back yard looked like a construction side. There was trash here and there. Lots of concrete waste was all around the place. Things near the concrete mixer got splashed. The little grass we had in the back yard was messed up. You get the point.

I like the work my handyman does. So I will keep using him in the future. However his concrete man and team are fired for life. Now I have the task of cleaning up after these messy concrete boys. Today I took one pile of concrete mix they threw over the fence, and moved it down to the edge of my property. This was painful because the concrete was heavy. It did not help that the back of my property has a steep hill.

At least I put the excess material to good use. The stream had been eroding the dirt from the edge of my property. I will use the excess concrete mix to hold down the shore on my side of the steam. Wouldn't you know it? I just got some new work boots that are killing my feet when I wear them and break them in. Climbing up and down our back yard hill with a bunch of concrete has my feet in severe pain. And I am not done will all the concrete excess yet. Ouch.

Internet Outage

Last week out Internet and cable went out. I figured it was due to the bad weather. Normally the cable company takes care of these outages automatically. No such luck this time. Momoko signed us up for som service. It tells us whether the cable company knows if we are down. They were clueless. I called them up in the middle of the night.

The dude on the phone was polite. He tried some things but could not see my cable modem. He asked me to call back in an hour. That made no sense. The cable and Internet had been out for a few days already. What good would one more hour do? He said his machine was having some technical diificulties. I called back the next morning.

This time around, I walked through the cable help menus on the phone. I waited to speak to an operator. The recording said they were not taking calls from my are. Oh hell no. I worked the menus to report an Internet outage. I got a human being. I explained that I was told to call back, so I was calling back. One again the guy tried to do some diagnostics. No dice. I scheduled a technician to come out to the house.

I woke up early the next day. Did not want to miss the technician phone call. If you do not answer the phone, they cancel your appointment. I answered on the first ring when they called. They guy was stuck in traffic, but was coming. I was fine. He was still on time. After poking around the outside of my house, he informed me that the cable signal was missing at the street.

Huh? I don't care what the cause is. I need my cable back. The technician told me he put in a call with maintenance. They would come in an hour. I waited for them to show up. The maintenance guy said some fuses had blown around the area, and he could fix it. He said I did not need to be home for him to do his work. I bolted to the office to get on with my work. Cable and Internet were uip when I got home. Finally.