WiFi Woes

The kids complained that their videos were loading and playing slowly. I noticed that a game I play on the IPad kept getting disconnected from the server. Something was wrong with the Internet in our house. Little Kat said we needed more bandwidth.

Hey. I am willing to give anything a try. I had the economy style Internet bandwidth which gave us a 3Mbps pipe to the Internet. Recently I upgraded to 25Mbps to appease Little Kat and give us more speed. I also replaced our wireless router with a "dual-band" one that had three antennas on the back. Three antennas!

What was the result? Well I still get disconnected from my server, just not as often. Kit Kat still gets bounced off WiFi in her room. Little Kat still cannot play YouTube videos at full resolution, or even get consistent playback at lower resolution.

This is going to be a long running work in progress. To solve the upstairs wireless issues, I figured I would need to get a second router upstairs that connects to our main router. Maybe that will solve some issues. Little Kat says his friend's house has no trouble YouTube. I told him to do a real-time test to see if he and his friend can watch the same video at the same time.

I also recommended Little Kat directly plug his computer into the router to see if WiFi is killing him too. If necessary, I told him we could try upgrading to a whopping 105Mbps bandwidth. However I suspect something else is wrong with out setup. Maybe it will be as simple as tweaking a setting or two. Just got to find out which settings need adjusting.

Hallowen Comes

Momoko said that Little Kat was requesting some red Converse tennis shoes that cost $150. No way. That is just too much money for some sneakers. Momoko thought maybe Little Kat was succumbing to some peer pressure or something.

We interrogated Little Kat. Turns out he needs red tennis shoes for his Halloween costume of Bo Jack Horseman. Bo Jack is an anime series. It depicts a horse that got rich as an actor. Now he lives in a mansion and has a lot of problems.

I guess Bo Jack is a commentary on the world of acting and Hollywood. The show is actually really funny. When I have time, I watch the episodes with the kids. Bo Jack has a friend that is a dog. He also has a leech roommate who is a bum.

Bo Jack's agent is his ex-girlfriend and is a cat. Go figure. The paparrazzi are always after Bo Jack. I hope Little Kat can pull off this custome. Not sure where he is going to go when he assembles the costume. I just have to remember to take a bunch of pictures when Little Kat puts it on.

Back to School Night

Little Kat's school had their annual back-to-school night this week. Momoko could not attend because there is just too much fast paced walking involved. I did not think Kit Kat could attend because she would just not ask all the hard questions of the teachers. Therefore I was up to bat.

I made Little Kat accompany me. In fact, I made him drive to the school to get in some driving practice. The school lot was full as we arrived just as the event started. As usual, the principal was giving his pep talk. He also had his lietenants speak to us. I was impressed by the athletics director. He was a top notch public speaker.

Some of Little Kat's classes were in temporary buildings. Strangely enough, Little Kat prefers them because the heat can be manually controlled in the winter to guarantee a warm environment. I spied a number of good looking young girls that Little Kat should be meeting this year. Momoko and Little Kat disagree with me. So I am outvoted.

I took lots of notes and asking important questions such as what the teachers' emails addresses were. Little Kat's chemistry teacher went to my alma mater. The final teacher we visited was Little Kat's English teacher, who just started the day before since she replaced another teacher that left. Little Kat and I cut out of that class to beat the rush out of the parking lot while driving home.

I have already reached out and emailed each of Little Kat's teachers to ensure we have their correct email addresses. Got to start out on the right foot.

Final Tasks for Mom

Dad took care of the funeral home expenses when mom died. My brother took care of the cemetery plots. I only thought it fitting that I take care of the gravestone. Our cemetery actually does grave markers, which are granite square stones laid in the ground, topped with brass plates.

The cost of grave markers from the cemetery was high. Fine. I thought I would buy from another source. The cemetery makes that next to impossible. They have a ten page document outlining the requirements for outside grave markers. I could not find a manufacturer that could meet their specs. Criminal.

Instead of fighting this, I bowed down and placed an order with the cemetery. Dad was getting anxious that it was taking a long time to get the grave marker settled. I ordered a double wide one to cover both plots my brother bought. It should arrive in 8 to 10 weeks. This chapter will be closed out by the end of the year.

I went by mom's grave after completing the grave marker business. Grass was finally groving over her grave. I saw the potted plants my brother had left. They were staked down with some metal rods.

I still recall very vividly the many conversations I had with my mom as I visited her each week when she was sick. I often wonder if I missed some indirect guidance mom tried to provide in those last couple months. One thing was clear. She wanted me to get closer to dad. I diligently work on that task now.

Change in Plans

Kit Kat was supposed to cook us pancakes tonight. Little Kat dreaded it. He just does not like pancakes. Not sure what is wrong with him. He came up with a scheme: Little Kat found a coupon for our favorite Mexican restaurant. He proposed that he drive us there and I buy us dinner.

That was almost a good plan. But we already have plans to visit that restaurant for lunch tomorrow. Plus they are too busy on Friday nights. Little Kat's backup was for me to choose another restaurant that I had a coupon for. We decided on a new all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. It was really a seafood Chinese restaurant.

We used Kit Kat's GPS to get us there. Ended up waiting forever at this really short left hand turn signal. We even missed one of the light rotations. Then as we neared the seafood buffet, Momoko wanted Little Kat to merge into the center turn lane. He did not understand and instead did a sharp left across opposing traffic. Kit Kat and I feared for our lives in the back seat.

The seafood restaurant was really busy for late on a Friday night. They had a lot of weird looking and tasting foods. Little Kat assured me we got our money's worth just from the load of sushi he ate. The waitress was quick to refill our sodas and take away our used plates. This restaurant reminds me of a similar buffet really close to our house, but this one was not as good.

Thrift Store Surprise

Little Kat met a boy on his bus that also has a custom built game computer. This boy apparently has a whopping four computer monitors attached to his computer. Little Kat got jealous. The secret, according to this boy, was to buy the hardware at thrift stores.

So yesterday Little Kat and I went driving to the local thrift store. This allowed Little Kat to get some more driving practice in, and to check out the cheap electronics. Little Kat almost ran a few people over in the parking lot. And he almost hit a car coming home. Just goes to demonstrate that he needs more practice.

Little Kat found a tall flat screen monitor in the store for ten bucks. It did not come with any cables. Not sure if he is going to be able to hook up the monitor. The big surprise in the store was the framed artwork in the back. Most pictures were under fifteen dollars. Some were lower than five bucks.

I picked up two pictures for my study. The family tried to convince me to hang them in the kitchen. Nope. These are all mine. I wish I knew about this goldmine earlier. I spent a lot of money decorating my study with new posters. I really with I knew about this the last time I went shopping for framed fine art.

First Concert

Kit Kat had scheduled to go with her college friends to a concert this weekend. One of her friends bailed on her. So she had an extra ticket that she could not sell. Instead of letting it go to waste, she invited Little Kat to come along with her.

They all got a ride from one of Kit Kat's friend's brother. The concert was up in a big city North of us. They just needed a ride home. Momoko told Kit Kat there was no way she would drive her home. It was up to me. Since this would be Little Kat's first concert, and one of the few times we let him hang out with Kit Kat's friends, I accepted the assignment.

I printed out directions to get there using MapQuest. I also studied the map around the concert venue. Also packed my GPS with me. I brought my old car because it has automatic transmission, and it stands out in a crowd.

I left with time to spare. Got into the city early. However once I got within a few blocks of the concert venue, the traffic came to a stand still. I decided to park on a street a few blocks away. I called Kit Kat on her phone and gave her directions to get to my car. Good thing my phone has a map app that is pretty good.

When Kit Kat turned the corner, I saw her and called her. They all loaded into my car. I cut across traffic and headed away from the madness near the concert arena. We were on the highway in no time, and back home in a half hour. I dropped Kit Kat and her friend off at the friend's house. I brought Little Kat home.

It was the first time Little Kat or Kit Kat's friend had ever seen a concert. The openers were not that great. But the headliner rocked the house. I was surprised that the concert was not a sell out. Guess this is just a town out in the middle of nowhere. There sure were a lot of people out on the streets after the concert.