The State of Book Reading

I just finished reading a massive tome on the long history of IBM. Wanted to follow it up with something light. Started this weird graphic novel called Sharknife.

I was reading multiple technical books on the Oracle database this year. I have quite a collection of such books. The remainder in my library seem mid. Thus, I have started reading my Oracle e-books.

I was also following a print book that had python programming exercises. I started to get bored of these small exercises. By the 90th program or so, I was just about done. I sped through the last couple exercises. Now I am going to do exercises from an e-book on python programming.

Finally, I downloaded some Kindle books for free. They were made available due to Momoko's Amazon Prime membership. I have been downloading free e-books forever. Time to start reading these things. I have started with a book called The Chemistry Test. A girl gets a new fancy wheelchair to up her confidence as she starts college.

Five Beyond

 

Momoko ordered some stuff for school from Five Below online. It had free shipping to the local store. Today we went to pick her stuff up. She also wanted to purchase some additional items from the store. I thought I might get some nice cheap items too.

I saw a mirror for $35. LOL wut? Then there were inline skates for $25. Hello? What happened to a cap of $5 on each item. Momoko commented that they were now doing a Five Beyond pricing. That makes no sense. Every store has the ability to price items to infinity and beyond.

Not saying these items were not worth the higher price tag. But I am at this store to sub $5 items. The last straw was that they don't have checkout clerks. You need to scan and  pay for the items yourself. Fail. I don't think I shall be returning to this store. Maybe time for Dollar Tree.

Missed Out on Airlines Deal

I saw a TikTok video about a 50% discount on SouthWest flights. I checked online. It actually was 40% off my desired flight. I thought I had a month and a half to decide. After a couple days, I found that the deal had expired.

I tried another deal I saw online. It was just 20% off. Unfortunately, it was only for SouthWest employees. I ended up paying full price. I am expecting SouthWest to nickel and dime me to the tune of $35 per bag each way.

The only good news is that I can borrow my father-in-law's vehicle during my stay. I won't have to rent a car, which would have cost me $500+. I did notice there were cool cars available at the lowest price. Things like a Mustang convertible or a 4-door Jeep. Oh well. Too much money.

Food Melting Soon

Kit Kat has a service that provides her raw ingredients for her meals. She usually has the box shipped to our house on Fridays. She chooses from some meal options. They give her the recipe. And all ingredients are provided.

Yesterday Kit Kat was a bridesmaid for her college dorm mate's wedding. Her food package came. I was tired because I had just returned from vacation.I should have asked Little Kat to deliver the box to Kit Kat's apartment. But I did not.

Today we figured Kit Kat would come and pick up her box. But she got sick due to some wedding food. Momoko asked Little Kat to deliver the box to Kit Kat's apartment. Apparently Little Kat was booked. He was helping set up a new player for his D&D campaign.

So it was up to us. My brother, Momoko, and I went to Kit Kat's apartment. We brought up the box. But we left immediately to get lunch at Subway. I left my keys with my brother, who stayed in the car and left the car and A/C running.

House Search Redux

Momoko would not do any more driving. So I had to take the wheel. I went by McDonald's to order some new chicken tenders. The line was too long. And the drive through had two speakers that merged into one lane. I left and went to the first house.

Started looking at a house from the alley. It was a brand new townhouse. It had two carport spaces front to back. The whole neighborhood was new town houses. There was no grass to mow. It had a $50 HOA fee. At least it was an end unit.

Next I tried looking at a cheaper new house. It was close to the town house. It boasted mini-split A/C units in the bedrooms. And it had a leaf guard on the rain gutters. However when we saw the house, it was not a single family as advertised. It was a duplex. Nope.

Finally we looked at another single family house. It had a narrow but very deep back yard. It was built in 1830. That was big concern, as we just saw a Mike Holmes show that uncovered tons of issues in a really old house. This turned out to be moot. The house was on a totally busy street.

Afterwards, I went to a Sonic drive through for a SuperSonic burrito. We got there one hour before the place closed. I brought the food back to our hotel room. The ride back to the hotel was short. That means the ride from these places, which were all close to each other, was very short to Fuddruckers. 

Getting Lost on the Mountain

I was dreaming about winning the lottery jackpot. Then with the proceeds, I would buy a vacation house up north near a Fuddruckers restaurant. I had Momoko drive me to a few houses for sale. Today I took the wheel to see some more expensive houses. The last one was on a mountain road.

The GPS told us to take a road that had a covered one lane bridge. I skipped that road because it was hard to navigate. We were headed to the mountain road. Some guy in a sit down lawn mower came down a hill fast and almost came out on the street in front of us. We passed him and found the house for sale. It was too close to a busy road.

We went on and ended up by some faire grounds. Momoko entered the address of a restaurant by our hotel to guide us home. She later said her phone had a glitch. This mountain home was 10+ minutes from our hotel. However the GPS said it would take a half hour to get back there. I had to pull off the road for Momoko to calibrate the GPS. We essentially did a U-turn and back tracked to get back on the road we came from.

I am now safe in the hotel room. I plan to do some studying before the July 4 holiday. That way we can just have it be a travel day without any extra chores.  

The New Yorker Sales Pitch

I got an advertisement in the mail to subscribe to The New Yorker magazine. It is published weekly. Cover price is $10. They were willing to give me a 26 week subscription for $1 a week (total $26). If I ordered online, the price would drop to $21.

I don't know much about the magazine. But I do know a good deal when I see one. I went online to subscribe. Almost got to the checkout. Then I saw the fine print. They plan to use my credit card to automatically resubscribe me at $180 a year.

I detest this kind of sneaky practice. So much so that I am definitely not subscribing. They got so close. If they would only have had stand up practices, provided me with great content, I may have resubscribed at will. But no. They will never get the chance because of this underhanded technique. Shame on you New Yorker.