Traffic Trouble

I had scheduled to go eat with a past coworker. Had not seen him in more than a few months. I told him I could come to his house. He has a Fuddruckers restaurant nearby. I left my house early, planning to gas up my car. To my surprise, the GPS said it would take extra time to arrive. I skipped the gas fill up and hit the highway.

The first trouble was some vehicle stranded on the side of the road. I just went to the lane further away and was only slowed down a bit. Then there was construction. They closed down a lane or two. Disaster. I called up my friend to tell him I would be late. He said he would just leave his house a lot later to meet me.

When I arrived, I could not find my friend. I called him but it went to voice mail. He was not in the restaurant. I went outside and found him parked far away from the entrance. He said he would treat today. I ordered a #2 which costs $20. I should have got a #1 that was only $15. There were very similar in size.

The ride home was treacherous too. When I got off the toll road, the GPS told me to avoid the highway. I roamed the side street in the city where my company's headquarters is. Much construction there slowed things down too. I decided to stop following the GPS instructions. Took another toll road home. Next time I might take a train to visit my friend. Same amount of time, but a lot easier for me.

Evaluating Magazines

I got 3 magazines in the mail the other day. One of them I subscribed to. But the other two were new. So, I thought I would give them a look and consider subscribing. First up is Town and Country. The magazine is kind of thin. I don't know much about it. There were the usual suspects advertising in it. I liked that Kirstin Dunst is on the cover. This issue had an in depth article on OnlyFans. Cost is $10 per year (significantly discounted). It may be worth subscribing to.

Next up is Esquire magazine. I have heard of this tile before. Leonardo DiCaprio was on the cover. I still want to read it. Discounted rate is $6 per year for me. So, I suspect I will subscribe.

McDonald's BTS Tiny Tan Figures

Momoko introduced me to some BTS toys in McDonald's happy meals. They started out with a retro set of seven. Momoko got them all. I got a few. We would order 2 happy meals each. Sometimes I would get nuggets. Sometimes cheeseburgers. I always opted for 2 kids fries instead of apple slices.

Recently, McDonald's came out with the next generation of BTS toys. Both Momoko and I both wanted the Jung Kook one. He is wearing a black "bucket hat". At first, Momoko did not have any luck. They she decided we should all eat happy meals for dinner.

My brother and I went to one McDonald's. Momoko went to another. We both independently got a Jung Kook toy with the black hat. Good times. Momoko still needs one more to finish her collection of 7 of the latest versions of the toys. I am good with the black hat one I just got.

Gerbil Loses a Tail

I was going to let two gerbils out of their cage to run around on the floor. I grabbed the first one and put her down on the ramp. Then I grabbed the tail of the second gerbil to let her out. She dove down into a hole in her cage as I held onto her tail. Then her tail seemed to break off.

Momoko read up on the situation and said the gerbil might need to clean what was left of her tail. I put a bath in her cage. She came out to see what I was doing. It seems her tail did not fully break off. Instead I pulled off the fur and some skin.

Momoko directed Little Kat to clean the gerbil cage. He put bag a floor of fluff. Then he had Momoko cut a new box to be their house. He lowered the water bottle so they could drink easily. He left out most of the other stuff that is usually in their cage. Both gerbils seemed okay. Whew.

Shooting Range

Momoko's brother in law said he wanted to go shooting with me. So, when I woke up, I ran out to get breakfast. The local joint said they were out of jalapenos. That messed up my plans. Ended up ordering a bacon burrito and cherry slush. Was strange they charged 30 cents for the cherry flavoring,

Momoko's BIL called me asking what I wanted to shoot. I said a 22 gauge revolver was all I was interested in. He said he had plenty of that ammo. He came over and we headed to an indoor gun range. We decided to share one lane. Then we found out that BIL forgot the ammo. I had to buy 2 packs of it. I saved some money by opting for "mini mags".

I had to borrow eye protection from the range. BIL gave me ear plugs. I put headphone speakers over top of that. It was still loud with the 9mm guns blazing. I initially was shooting high on my target. When we put a fresh target up, I sent the target far down the lane. Was able to hit with half the shots. Some guy working there kept sweeping up the shell casings. There were a couple girls present with their boyfriends.

I got proficient at loading a 6-shooter revolver. Next time, I will come with stronger ear protection. I will hopefully save the eye protection they gave to me. I do prefer outdoor shooting. But BIL let his outdoor membership lapse a long time ago. 

High Lawn

Momoko's dad has the neighbor mow his lawn. But he only mows the front. The back lawn was over a foot high. Momoko's dad has a lawn mower. So, I decided to cut the back grass. I had to disconnect the power cord from the mover to move it out of the garage. Then I could not start the thing.

I was pulling the rope that normally starts lawn mowers. Momoko's dad explained that I needed to hold down a bar handle, and then press the electric start. I was off to the races. Mowing was a slow process. It took a while for the mower to move over the tallest grass. If I moved too fast, the mower would stall.

I also encountered some problems with sticks being on the ground under the grass. That would mess up the mower. I ran out of gas less than half way through. Luckily there was a 5 gallon can full of gas. I could not figure how to get the spout of the gas can working. I just skipped it and poured the gas right out of the can directly into the mower.

The grass so crazy that I had to mow over certain spots multiple times to ensure the grass got cut. Afterwards, I put everything away. Then I used a grabber to pick up sticks. They were hard to pull out of the weeds. I tossed them into the huge garbage can. I barely made a dent on the sticks though. Somebody must have cut a lot of stuff down and just tossed them on the ground. Fail. 

Japanese Hibatchi

Momoko's niece had scheduled a time for me, her boyfriend, and Momoko's dad to go out to dinner. Momoko's boyfriend recommended we go to a Japanese Hibatchi restaurant that he used to work at. From all the driving I did earlier in the day, the gas in the car was low. So, we went to Sam's Club to fill up the gas tank. Momoko's dad paid with his Sam's club card. When done, he said he dropped his wallet on the floor.

I searched the floor of his car. Eventually he recommended that I call his phone. The thing rang. The phone was in his pocket all along. He wanted me to use OnStar to get directions. But I did not trust his GPS direction. I used my phone plus Apple CarPlay. We headed to the Japanese Hibatchi restaurant. The GPS took us to a mall. I drove along the edge but did not see any restaurant. I called Momoko's niece. Her boyfriend said I was at the wrong side of the mall. They came out of the restaurant to flag me down.

Momoko's dad had a walker. But he had a hard time getting into the restaurant. He needed to climb a few stairs. He took a few rests. The place did not have any Yumi Yumi sauce. They cooked vegetables individually. They provided soup. But it was not Miso soup. The fried rice was not good. Shrimp was delicious. Momoko's dad got most of his meal to go. There was some $6 or $8 option to get 10k days of happiness. It seemed for birthdays. We skipped that option. Momoko's niece's boyfriend picked up the tab.