Python Programming for Little Kat

Little Kat is taking a python programming language class at his community college. This is a worthwhile course. I am learn the programming language myself on the side. To ensure Little Kat is doing well, I read his textbook ahead of time and quiz him on the topics each week. This has led to identification of areas where he is week. Then he can do further study.

It is 2.5 months into the spring semester at college. There is only 1 month left before finals. Little Kat just took his midterm exam. I was hoping he would do well since I spend a lot of time drilling him to ensure he is not slacking off. Unfortunately he only got an 85% on his midterm. That brought his grade down in the course.

While reviewing the questions he missed, I saw that there are indeed some tough topics that Little Kat is still very weak on. There is not a lot of time before the final. I told Little Kat in the remaining weeks I would put together sample final questions and see if he can answer them. It is time to get Little Kat to really step up his game. Too bad it is taking a lot of my time.

The Passing of our Gerbil Morgan

Last night, Kit Kat found our gerbil Morgan having trouble breathing. So Kit Kat put her on a heating pad on her lap. Kit Kat thought the gerbil would probably not make it through the night. She was right. The kids buried Morgan today.

Morgan was acquired along with Bailey from one of Kit Kat's friends. Morgan had some mishap half way through her life. It resulted in her losing some of her balance. She also normally ran around with a tilted head. He real trouble was the tumor she had that kept growing.

Morgan was a gerbil that would bite a lot. She loved to come out of the cage. She would sit on the roof of her cardboard box to indicate she wanted to come out. She would crawl around our couch. The couch cover made that easy. She begged for human food from Momoko, and would eat is and stay under the covers.

Morgan would sometimes veer toward the edge of the couch and fall off. She normally would not run far. She loved to go onto the tables next to the couch. Early in her life, she would sneak through the curtains to the window ledge. This also would invariably lead to her falling on the floor. In her younger years, she was an avid wheel runner.

Little Kat Future Plans

Little Kat is poised to complete his Associate's college degree this summer. The question is what to do next. He had a lot of trouble during his college career. So I am not convinced that further college is worthwhile for him. He does want to complete his 2 year degree first.

One option is for Little Kat to get a job. If he wants to work in Information Technology, he could possibly get some credentials like industry certifications. A good start might be the A+ certification. That is an entry level one that I think he could pass with some study. A second cert could be a cloud or cybersecurity one. He already took a Python programming class at school. These might qualify him for a job.

The other option is to continue on to a four year college. He has already applied for a Computer Technology program at a local state school. He has been accepted and wants to start in the fall. I am hesitant. He already has debt from a lot of community college. It would not be optimal to get more into debt if he can't graduate from that four year college.

We are going to have him try an initial semester at the four year college. Prior to that, I will have him study and maybe sit for a certification. In the end, we need to get him some kind of career. I pay for his car and auto insurance as it stands. But that is getting old. It is time for him to earn and take over.

Moving Out

Little Kat is on the waiting list for an X-Ray technician program at his college. They only let 18 people into the cohort per year. Unfortunately Little Kat did not complete all the prerequisites for the program successfully. He flunked his Anatomy II class last semester. So his chances of getting into the program as essentially nil.

Now that we know Little Kat's college future is elsewhere, we are going to move him back home from his apartment. He already notified his landlord of his intent to terminate the lease. Luckily we had already warned the landlord that we would have him stay in the apartment for 6 months. So the landlord was already asking Little Kat about his final month.

Momoko, Little Kat, and I visited the local U-Haul rental center last Saturday. I told the guy I wanted to rent a 10 foot box truck for next Saturday. I asked to have the truck ready early in the morning. The sales rep said the earliest I could get one would be 2pm. I told him that would be fine.

Later that day, I got a text to call the U-Haul store. And then I got an email the next day saying my reservation was canceled. I tried to call U-Haul. They never picked up my call. I then realized that the guy had made my reservation for the prior Saturday, which really made no sense.

I decided to go online and make another reservation for the day before we need the truck (Friday). I am hoping to pick up a 10 foot truck the nightly before the move. That will let us get an early start on the move. It should also give us an early warning if there are further rental truck problems.

Gamestop Revisited

Because my broker disallowed purchases in GameStop stock after the run up, I decided they were not trustworthy. I transferred almost all my funds out into my bank account. Then I went back to my very first broker (which happened to also be my late father's broker). This all took a few weeks.

Lately, Gamestop stock has hovered around $200 a share. I think it is worth around $20 a share, maybe $30 tops if they have a turnaround. I doubt there will be any such turn around of selling physical games. So I did a small short term purchase of stock options betting against the stock. Pretty much lost all my money on that trade.

Well the earnings for the quarter were today. To prepare, I bought a bunch of options betting against the stock. This time around, I spent most of my money on options were either in the money, or just shy of in the money. These options cost a lot of money, especially when the expiration was far in the future.

Gamestop earnings and the subsequent call were nothing special. They did not beat analysts' estimates. However there was no announcement that they will issue more shares to dilute the value of the stock. So who knows where this thing will go. I hope the share value goes down and my puts go up.

New Idea for Dinner

While Little Kat is away living in his apartment, I cover his dinner nights at home. I don't cook. But I go get carryout for the family. Normally I pick up things like pizza or chicken. Not everyone is comfortable eating in restaurants with COVID-19. So it is always carry out.

This week we had a new idea. Momoko and I went to dinner early at Olive Garden. It was weird at the front door. We had to scan a QR code and check in online to get seated. Momoko ordered soup, salad and bread sticks. I got salad and break sticks. It was delicious.

The great idea in our plan was to pick up some to-go menu items. They were $5 each. I bought my brother a spaghetti with meat sauce. He ate that for dinner at home when we got back. Momoko got a fettucini alfredo for a future lunch. So did I.

I also got a stuffed fettuccine to go. It was a new entree. I figured if it was good, I would order it again. At night I got hungry at home. After all, I just had a salad for dinner. Luckily I was able to heat up my fettuccine alfredo in the microwave. It heated up and tasted well for a chilled meal.

We might do this again in the future. The price is pretty good. We get to eat a lot of salad and bread sticks (plus soup) at the restaurant. Only thing that could have made it better would have been to order some premium drinks at the restaurant to go with dinner.

Authentic Mexican

Momoko and I visited Little Kat at his apartment today. We picked him up and headed to a taco truck near his place. They claim to serve authentic Mexican food there. It was hard to get parking. I squeezed into a narrow space. Some big truck parked close behind me.

I told the dude in the truck this was our first time. He recommended we get pork tacos. Me and Little Kat took his advice. Momoko got pork enchiladas. The dude said it would take 10 minutes to cook. 15 minutes later we were still waiting. Eventually we got our meal to go.

Back at Little Kat's house, I found the tacos were small. But they each had a double tortilla around them. The pork was cooked with some red sauce. There were cucumbers and radishes to the side. They had red and green sauce. The red sauce looked hot but was not. I followed Little Kat's lead and squeezed lime juice on my tacos.