Treadmill Powerup +1

I planned to increase the instensity of my treadmill walkig at the end of January. I figured after two straight weeks of walking 15 minutes each day on the thing, I would have gained some stamina. Today I was feeling a little froggy. So I decided what the heck? I punched the treadmill speed up a notch.

Previously when I had tried the higher treadmill levels, I would feel like I was getting a heart attack after a few minutes. Not today. Sure, I felt it going fast. There was some extra burn. But I could handle it. I went the whole 15 minutes without getting winded.

What is this? I have only been working out on the treadmill for two or three weeks tops. I guess the daily dose of exercise, increasing the length of time I walked did the trick. I will hang tight at this need speed for a while. Maybe after a month or two I will even conquer a higher level speed. Go Voltron Force.

Bathroom Remodel +1

Our basement bathroom is in a sad state. It looks like the previous owners may have put the bathroom in. It had some colors that may have been cool in the 1970s. Everything seemed to be done by amateurs. I had to get that yellow toilet out of there. There was a whole lot more to do.

Momoko and I decided that we should add a bathtub down in the basement. Why not make it a jetted tub as well? Hey. Everyone wanted the tub to be big. Momoko wanted a huge one. The problem is that we could not fit a huge tub down the stairs. We settled for a big one.

I found a tub I liked on Amazon. It was still pretty big. I was concerned it would not fit down the steps. I built up a wooden prototype of the thing. Kit Kat and I had trouble getting it to fit down the steps. So the project stayed on hold for a while.

Momoko told me she wanted the bathroom rennovations done this year. I figured we could hire someone to get the tub downstairs. I asked my handyman to cost it for me. He told me he needed details on the tub to figure out some of the costs. Now I find I cannot find information on the tub we chose. Back to the drawing board.

Waste of Time +1

Today one of my meetings before lunch let out early. I used it as an opportunity to go visit my college. First I dropped by a hambuger shop nearby to chow down. Then I headed to campus. I was expecting plenty of parking since it is between semesters. I forgot they have a mid-semester session going on.

I did squeeze into my normal parking lot. Made a bee line to the bookstore. I told the guy behind the desk that I needed the book(s) for my Visual BASIC programming class. He came back scrolling through a tablet that listed all the books. He told me my class was changing books, and they did not have the new one yet. Fail.

Next I headed over to security. They updated my student ID for the new semester. I asked them for a new parking pass as well. The guard asked me if I had a purple parking pass. I had no clue. He told me that if I got a new pass last semester, it lasts for the whole year. Back at my car I checked. Yep. I got the purple one.

Now I need to keep an eye out for the arrival and sale of the next textbook for my class. I usually like to get the book early to get ahead on the reading. Guess I will have to study up by reading stuff on the Internet.

Emissions Testing +1 to 14

Kit Kat has needed to take her car for emissions testing. She was taking her time, dragging her feet actually. We needed to put her on the hook to get this done. She agreed to do the task today. However she needed a helper to come along with her. I volunteered to go at lunch with her.

I wrapped up my morning work. Then Kit Kat came down and we were off to the races. I told her she should take the main highway to the emissions testing center. However Kit Kat wanted to take the route that was closest to her journey to college. It was raining. We made it okay to the center though.

Right after we arrived and got in line, many other cars came behind us. We arrived at the best time. The test took little time. Afterwards I had Kit Kat drive us to a good Chinese food restaurant. They had some delicious specials available. I recalled when I used to go there every week when I worked close by. Good times.

Rumble Under the Hood +1 to 13

Every time my bro comes over, I rearrange the cars in the driveway to create a spot for him. The mail lady goes cuckoo whenever we park a car on the street. So we have to play musical cars in the driveway. This past weekend, I heard a strange noise when I drove Momoko's car to the edge of the driveway. Her brakes must be shot.

I told Momoko she needed to get those things fixed. We scheduled a time near the end of my workday to drop the car off at my mechanic's shop. It was tough leaving a little early from work. All day long I rushed to get my work done. I finished just about in time.

My mechanic was not in his shop when we arrived. But his son was there as usual. He thought he could take care of the brakes plus changed the oil in about a day. Great. Hopefully we can return tomorrow and pick up the car. I will feel better when the brakes are made whole again. I drive Momoko's car sometimes when I have the family with me.

On the exercise front, I am up to 13 minutes a piece on the treadmill and bike. That adds up to 26 minutes of exercise per day. As soon as I hit 30 minutes, I am going to decrease the time and pump up the intensity of the workout. Don't want to spend too much time in the home gym.

Food Details +1 to 12

Momoko and I received Outback Steakhouse gift cards from my mom for Christmas. We went last Sunday and had a good time. So we returned today to use up the rest of our credits. We started with a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer. The chips were so warm. It was delicious. Lots of chess was put in that dip. I drank a mini vanilla milkshake without any whipped cream. Momoko got Cherry Coke.

Next I had a caesar salad. Momoko had a clam chowder cup of soup. Then our steaks came. We both ordered the Outback Special, which is their least expensive cut. Momoko got a loaded sweet potato on the side. I ordered some remoulade sauce, which is kind of like a french dressing. I dip my steak in there. We shared some sauteed mushrooms.

Tonight Little Kat is supposed to grill us up some pork chops for dinner. Grandma taught him how to cook them right. Little Kat came in around an hour ago. He told me it took over 15 minutes to start the grill. He had run out of propane. Luckily he forsaw this possibility long ago, and had me buy a backup canister of propane fuel. Time to go get another backup can.

Hot Stuff +1 to 11

Little Kat got a heated throw (small blanket) for Christmas from Momoko. It was a big hit with the family. Little Kat found people borrowing his blanket a lot. He also found that his blanket was too short. It could not cover his tall body when he was in bed.

Momoko asked me to buy both the kids large heated blankets for their beds. She picked out the exact blankets and colors on Amazon for me to purchase. I thought I was set to get them as I recently signed up for Amazon Prime. That is a program where I get free 2 day shipping for most items they sell.

Unfortunately the blankets did not qualify for Amazon Prime. They were sold by some other company that just advertised through Amazon. That's okay. I paid for the normal shipping. Amazon estimated that we would have the blankets by the end of next week.

The kids were excited that a box from the manufacturer arrived for me today. Indeed it was their queen sized heated blankets. Little Kat was confused because there were two controls for heating on his blanket. He eventually figured that they were his and hers controls for the two sides of the large blanket.

In other news, I got so into my zombie apocalype book while walking on the treadmill that I forgot to bump up my workout to 11 minutes. That's okay. I remembed when I was on the bike, and went back to finish up my treadmill time.