Tiny Christmas Tree

This year, Kit Kat was in charge of setting up our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, she was busy completing her graduate program in college. So the tree did not get put up. Momoko then thought the children could stand up a tiny Christmas tree. She said she purchased one for each of the kids in the past.

Little Kat said he gave his tree to Kit Kat. Thought Kit Kat does not remember that, she thought her tree was somewhere in her closet. Once final papers were submitted for the college semester, she looked and found her tree. We had her put it on top of a TV tray in front of the fireplace.

I used this as an opportunity to place my gifts under the tree. Little Kat followed suit the next day. My brother and Momoko later put their gifts under the tree. Momoko put this year's family ornament on top of the tree. It is a mask to symbolize our COVID-19 trials this year.

Just Say No to College Group Projects

I am still trying to get eligible to enroll in a class at Little Kat's 4 year college. In the mean time, I am going to the night school at another local college. I figure while I am waiting, I can sign up for a class at this night school for next spring.

I need to take a statistics class because it is a prerequisite for all the other good classes I want to take. Since I will be out of town in the beginning of the spring, I decided I could only to an online course. I found one such class.

Before enrolling, I spied on the class syllabus from the last semester. I did not like what I saw. They put you in groups and want you to interact with your group to learn stuff together. I am sure that benefits instructors, as they push off the learn to other students. It also benefits slackers, as they can be pulled up by their peers.

Unfortunately for a person like myself, groups are essentially a total waste of time. Nobody has any time for that. I therefore hatched a plan to try to skip this class. When I was an undergraduate originally, I took an engineering statistics class. I hope I can use that to bypass this class.

Scheduling Certification Exams

I had got approval from my boss to take a week off from work to study for and take a certification exam. This was to coincide with a trip I was going to take with Little Kat. Well I figured I had better get my stuff lined up. The exam date is less than a month from now.

I determined which books I wanted to purchase for exam prep. Now I probably don't need all these books to pass the exam. But my company is weird. They only pay for books if they are required to pass an exam. So I guess I need them to pass the exam. Understood?

It would have been easy to just order all the book directly from Amazon. But that would have been one huge package. That is no fun. Instead, I ordered through Amazon. But I bought books from third party sellers. I mostly chose used books to keep the price low. Now I am going to get a ton of packages this month.

The trouble happened when I tried to schedule and pay for my exam. The exam seems to be offered only one time next month. And that day it outside of Little Kat and my trip abroad. So that will not work. Instead I decided to sign up for a test administered close to home the weekend before we take off. The only problem is that I need to study now, instead of the week off work I planned to train.

Coding Python 24x7

I have read through 12 books on the Python computer programming language. They are stacked up on my desk. Around half of them have notes for future programming I need to do based on ideas from the books. Purchasing print books was expensive and also bulky. I have a new plan: read e-books.

My college has access to Safari Online. This is a digital library of almost all the computer books I could ever read. Right now I am going through an e-book that has around 80 projects for me to complete. To get this done in a reasonable time, I am trying to do 8 projects a day. It is challenging.

There are at least 9 other Python e-books that I would like to read. Not sure when I am going to get the time, especially when most of them require you to also write programs along with the reading. It does not help that I am going to school to learn Data Science at the same time as well.

I plan to sit for a Python certification exam in one month. The company will pay for that certification. And if I say I need some books to prepare, they will cover the cost for those too. Therefore I plan to buy 7 more print books at a price of around $200. My boss said that is okay. The company will pick up the tab.

Mexican Lunch

Kit Kat had gone to a Mexican restaurant that the family frequented in the past. Momoko and I decided to eat lunch at the same place on the day after Thanksgiving. We assumed they would be opened. That was only partially true. They opened late (4pm). We instead had to opt for Wendy's and go home to watch Love and Redemption, a Chinese drama on Rakuten.

Today we got up early for the weekend and ate Chik Fil A for breakfast. And again we watched some Love and Redemption. After watching the first half of the Big Noon college football game featuring Ohio State and Michigan, we went to lunch.

We returned to the familiar Mexican restaurant. On the walk from the car, I advised Momoko to walk around a slow senior who used a cane. We got seated at our favorite table. I asked for the lunch menus because they are much cheaper. Later I found that they usually don't allow lunch prices on the weekend. Not only did they give us the lunch special price, they gave us one meal on the house.

Retaining Wall Moved

Today I put the finishing touches on the retaining wall section that I moved. It previously was directed diagonally, ending very close to our back chain link fence. That prevented me from easily walking past it down the hill on the other side. Instead I moved the 8 foot section to be perpendicular to our chain link fence.

I realized that as I nailed the wire mesh into the wood lumber, I used nails that were too long. They stuck out in the back of the wall. That seemed like a dangerous hazard. I was not going to unearth the crushed rock and pull the nails out. Instead I just hammered some thin wood to the back of the wall. This covered the exposed nails.

Today I needed to collect leaves on the hill, which is located on the other side of the retaining wall. First I used the leaf blower to send them in a pile near the bottom of the hill. Then I ran my lawn mower past the new wide entry between the chain link fence and the wall. Easy. I wish I had done this a long time ago.

In the future, I may add another 8 foot section to the retaining wall. There is the start of some erosion higher up on my hill. A retaining wall extension could prevent that from happening.

Search for Drainage Rock

I went to my local store to pick up some drainage rock. Getting close to completing the relocation of part of the retaining wall in the back yard. There was a sign for the rock in the store. But there were no stones. I asked a worker there. They said if it is not where I looked, they don't have it. Fail.

This morning I got up and went to Chik Fil A. Got an early lunch and drove it to the sister store 20 minutes north of us. Ate my lunch in my car. Then I went in. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot. I almost went home to try the next day. Glad I did not. I found the rock. Took a while to find a sturdy cart to haul the rock to my car.

Many of the bags were falling apart. I set those aside. I grabbed 10 good bags, because that is all I thought I could carry. Loaded then in the back of the Benz. On the way home, I heard a pop from the back of the vehicle. Not good. After I unloaded all the bags and stashed them behind my big shed, I investigated the car. Apparently half of the back floor popped up. I guess the weight was too high. I lowered it back down.

I had a surprise after digging holes for my posts. The concrete in the big shed must have gotten moist. It was all caked up like a big rock. I used a hammer to decompose it. Cemented in the two small posts before the rains come tomorrow. I think I will wrap up this retaining wall move this weekend at the latest.