Kit Kat Car Trouble

Kit Kat went to happy hour with Momoko. After that she planned to drive straight to work. Momoko said that Kit Kat's car was acting up. The "check engine light" was one. Kit Kat drove the thing to work. However, Little Kat had to meet her at work and escort her home in case her car stopped working.

The next day, Little Kat and Kit Kat took the car to our mechanic. As usual we planned for Kit Kat to use my car while hers was in the shop. And I would borrow my brother's extra car. This is happening too often. Time to figure out the end of life for Kit Kat's car.

Momoko considered buying Little Kat a new car this time. Then I could let Kit Kat drive my second car. That did not work out on many fronts - too much money for a new car. Plus Little Kat loves my other car. Now we are thinking I will sell my current car to Momoko for Kit Kat to use. I will go get myself another car.

Dining Failures Abound

Dinner is cooked by Kit Kat, Momoko, and Little Kat. They split the week up. I have other weekly chores to make up for not cooking (cutting the lawn, raking leaves, etc). Recently there have been some screw ups with dinner. There was a hot dog night without mustard. Then there was baked potato soup night without cheese.

Three strikes and you are out. I am not going to let it get to there. Time to implement a new process for managing the ingredients that go into dinner each night of the week. Tomorrow we start. All cooks need to submit a menu with detailed ingredients required. Then they need to shop. Afterwards there will be a check that items purchased match the required list.

This is just phase one. The basics. Later we will tackle staples that are shared among multiple chefs. Also will eventually need to address scenarios where ingredients are used up during meals other than dinner. This should not be too big of a problem. Organization and diligence will overcome the slack here.

Traffic Trouble

Today is my class night. We only meet once a week. So I have to make it count. I got to work early. Made sure to knock out the high priority tasks so I could leave on time. When my boss told me to take care of some extra tasks at the end of the day, I alerted him that Monday's are school nights for me. Therefore, no working late on Mondays.

Kit Kat came home from her work day job. She told me the route to my college was jammed up. Apparently a dump truck lost its payload when it crashed. Momoko also called me up and warmed me about a garbage truck backing up traffic on my route. Ouch.

I decided to take the long way to school. It is also fraught with traffic. But at least it is a predictable slow route. Momoko got me some nachos on the road. I ate them while I waited in traffic. Not easy. Not recommended. But I had no time to stop off for dinner due to my detour.

I did end up making it to class on time. I knew other students would be trickling in late. A lot of people take the road I do to get to college. I was glad I got there on time. The instructor was walking us through some challenging topics in class. These topics would help with my lab and next week's quiz. Plus it is essential knowledge for my field.

The End Draws Near for the Monte Carlo

Little Kat went shopping with Momoko this weekend. When they came back home, they had bad news. The car I let Little Kat drive was acting up. I just dropped $1300 to fix assorted problems with it. The thing already leaks when it rains hard. I thought this might be the end.

We took the car to the mechanic. They were closed. I tried to get a car rental. They were closed too. So we just parked the car in the mechanic's parking lot. Little Kat returned today to ask the mechanic for an estimate.

I started thinking about what I would do next. I previously had three cars. But I got rid of the Scion xB. Little Kat and I both drive a bit for school and work. We make full use of both of my cars. Wouldn't you know it? This was the week Kit Kat wanted to borrow one of my cars when she puts hers in the shop.

So I thought perhaps it was time to get a two door Fiat 500. I love how it fits in any parking space. Little Kat prefers a coupe or sedan that has a trunk. Then again, I always wanted to have a truck to haul stuff. Momoko things a Nissan Altima would be good for Little Kat to drive the family around.

Turns out the problem with Little Kat's car was a broken ABS wire. Total cost is $370 to repair. I am going to fix it. However the writing is on the wall. I need to prepare for the purchase of another car. I should have done that when I offloaded the Scion xB.

Fire Pit Causes a Tumble

After dinner, Momoko suggested we go out and enjoy our fire pit. The weather was chilly for September. Little Kat had set up the pit with newspaper, kindling, and logs. We all went out and sat around the fire. I brought a drink with me. The wicker table was not stable enough to put the drink on.

When the fire was roaring, I went in to get a cushion to put on the wicker chair I was sitting in. A lot of the smoke blew my way. I shifted my weight to flip the wicker table to see if it could be secured underneath. I heard the chair make a funny sound.

I did another motion in the chair. Nothing special. I heard the strange noise again. Both front legs of the wicker chair gave out. I tumbled backwards. Luckily I was okay. The chair, however, was put in the garbage pile for a future trip to the dump.

Kit Kat did not join us at the fire pit. She was out with her friends celebrating a birthday and going to a play downtown. Little Kat searched for sand to put out the fire at the end. Not finding any, he resorting to spraying down the fire with water from the hose.

Goals at Work

At work, I am supposed to submit yearly goals. These are then used to gauge how well I do during the year. This past year, I think I just copied whatever goals I had from last year that seemed doable. My boss responded and said I should add another goal to "grow my professional network". That means get out there and meet people outside of my project team.

It took a while to get back to goal setting. But I pretty much added what my boss asked. Now I had to make some progress on that goal. The year is already 66% done. My first stop was my community college. Surely there is some type of club with tech people different than myself. All I could find was the Cyber Defense club.

There didn't seem to be much info online about the Cyber Defense club in general. I found a phone number to call about clubs in general. But nobody picked up. Instead I shot out an email to the contact for all clubs. Turns out the president of the Student Government Association responded to my email!

The Cyber Defense club had gone defunct. But the faculty member who sponsors it was thinking about trying to restart the club. Not sure if I want to get in on the ground floor here. I want to find an established organization and infiltrate its members to meet my work goal.

I did find a promising lead. There is a meet up that focuses on independent game developers in the area. Unfortunately they meet when I go to lunch with the family on the weekend. Might have to skip lunch to crash their meeting.

Good Times at the Office

On my last project, I used to go into the company office around once a week. Sat in a big conference room with the same couple people. They were all cool. One of them emailed us all, proposing a get together lunch. I was down. I voted for us meeting in the same conference room we used to work out of.

I got up early and headed to the office. Had not been there in over a year. Was surprised that they started locking the front door. Keep the riff raff out? I saw my peoples. But my old team lead was not there. I suggested we go to my favorite local Ruby Tuesday's restaurant. Choice approved. They did not have the sliders special. But I got a burger and added the salad bar anyway.

Took off from work early. Headed over to my college campus. It was weird that the bookstore allowed us to roam the aisles full of textbooks. They only had used copies for my class. Then I tried to get a parking decal for my car. Had to run back to the parking lot to find my license plate number for the form.

I thought I might need to sit for a picture to get a new ID. Turns out I could use the old one. They just put a sticker on top that indicated I was enrolled for the current semester. Not too shabby. I am prepared for the school semester now. Next time I might choose Chegg to rent my textbooks like all the other kids. Feels like a waste when my company foots the bill for new textbooks though.