Car Shopping

Today I woke up to find the whole family sleeping. It was almost noon. They must have stayed up late last night. I had a hard day at work yesterday, so I turned in early. The reason I got up early was that my bro was coming over to look at cars. He is ready to buy a new one.

Today was the day to see Subaru. We first looked at the Outback. This is a station wagon style vehicle. It was nicer than I thought it would be. I appreciated that they had the bottom of the line vehicles in the lot to see. Next we test drove the Forrester. I love the look on the outside. They inside was a little cheaper than the Outback.

Finally we stopped by Honda to see the Ridgeline. We test drove one before. But the sunrof took up too much headroom. I liked the one we saw today. It was all black. Unfortunately the cost was in the $30k range. My bro needs to make the final decision. Then we will return to do some price bargaining.

Pizza Pizza

Little Kat stayed home sick from school today. He told me his legs felt wobbly in the morning. As usual, I picked him up some soup when I made my run for Chinese food at lunch time. Our sink was filled with dirty dishes. So before lunch, I unloaded, and had Little Kat load up the dirty ones.

After lunch, Little Kat seems healed from his "illness". I let him watch one episode of anime on Netflix. Afterwards he watched some TV in his bedroom. Kit Kat came home on time today. Her after school activity was cancelled. She played with some gerbils and ate a snack. Then she went to take a nap.

Momoko called me from work. She said we should not let Little Kat cook since he still might be infected. So we had Kit Kat pick us up some pizza and breadsticks. They have a great deal going on at Little Caesars. Large pepperoni pizzas cost five bucks.

Kit Kat was not happy that she had to drive to get dinner. She had a headache. After picking up the goods, Momoko sent her to bed for a nice nap. Momoko also fell asleep after dinner. I figured why not join the bunch, so I took a long nap as well.

College Starts Soon

Last night Little Kat was not looking so good. Momoko sent him to bed early. He was sick this morning, so he stayed home with me. I picked him up some soup at the Chinese restaurant. He ate this for lunch. My lunch got cut short due to work emergencies.

Next semester at college starts soon for me. I am taking what looks to be an easy course. I still need to practice with some of the technology I learned from last semester's course. The rest of the week looked busy for me at work. So after work today, I went to college and bought my textbook. For once, the cost of the book seemed reasonable.

I should not care too much. My company pays for the books. I read Chatpers 1 and 2 to be ahead of the game in class. These chapters were easy, almost too easy. I did a little programming today on my own to prepare for a programming contest that happens in about a month. Even though the class might be a cake walk, I am excited about going back to school next semester. It is just one evening course. Got to work full time to make the $$$.

Go for Bravo

The XBox 360 has been permanently moved downstairs. My Wii is hooked back up to our main TV. Now I can watch my anime series from Netflix on the Wii. I do this every day at lunch. Good times.

Previously I had been watching Bravo, an anime series about a boy that became allergic to girls. I was on the second season of the series when the XBox 360 displaced me. Well I am back and have finished the series.

I have been searching for the next anime series for me to watch. I queued up about 10 of them on Netflix. Five of the ten seem superior. I will narrow it down to one. Each day at lunch I will watch one episode from the series. These will keep me busy as each season can be anwhere from 12 to 24 episodes.

Remote Start Trouble

Kit Kat was going to work with Momoko to help work in the classroom. Momoko told Kit Kat to remote start her car so it would be warm. Kit Kat comes down where I am working, opens the door, and struggles with the remote start. She fumbled with the remote control for minutes. The room I was in got so cold that I kicked Kit Kat out. She went outside and continued to fail to start the car.

Finally Kit Kat came back in and got Little Kat to help. He remote starts the car every day. Little Kat spent most of the day in the basement playing Skyrim on the XBox 360. He loved that he could go play and not get in anyone's way. I took Little Kat with me to pick up some Chinese take out for our lunch. We both got lunch specials.

Eventually Momoko and Kit Kat came home. I took a nap. Little Kat and Kit Kat must have done a bit of grocery shopping. They forgot to pick up cake. So Momoko sent them back to the store. It is nice when Kit Kat can drive by herself.

XBox 360 Setup

Our new Xbox 360 from Christmas was hooked up to our main TV. But usually the TV is being used. Plus that meant my Wii was disconnected (I use the Wii to view Netflix videos). My solution was to buy another big screen TV, which I did. But I was sick. So setup had to wait.

Slowly I started cleaning out the basement. It was a mess down there. Kit Kat helped me move a dresser to hold the TV. I assembled the TV this week. It had been in its box for a while. Then I hooked everything up. One bad coax cable had me puzzled for a day.

Today I finally moved down the XBox 360 to the basement TV. I played my Finaly Fantasy XIII game. It is sweet. Still need to arrange the furniture by the TV, and do some final cleanup. But the gaming system is a go.

Little Kat had been on restriction for the last week because he hid some laundry he was supposed to do. But I think he gets electronics priviledges back today. I bet he will be down there playing his new Skyrim game for XBox 360. He also bought Rage fort he XBox 360 as well. We are definitely reading to take full advantage of the XBox.

Prepared for Snow and Ice

Last night the weatherman called for snow and ice. By the time we went to sleep, my car was covered with snow tonight. Momoko thought it would be warm enough today to melt everything. Nope. So when I woke up, we got the family up for ice duty.

The big driveway was covered with a sheet of ice. It was thicker on the new part of the driveway. Kit Kat and Little Kat spread rock salt all over the huge driveway. I was prepared. I had around 6 big bags of rock salt. After about 30 minutes, the salt had done some work on the ice. It turned a different color. The rock salt penetrated through to weaken it.

Little Kat broke out a shovel and started scraping off the ice. I joined him with our big shovel. A new neighbor came over begging to borrow a snow shovel. We are prepared. I think we have 6 or more snow shovels. We loaned him two. Kit Kat and Momoko joined Little Kat and I in scraping up all the ice. Now the driveway looks like a rain had come by. No evidence of snow or ice.

Little Kat and I waited for our neighbor to finish his work. Then he and his son came over to return our shovels. His son was very shy and hid behind his dad. After we came in, Kit Kat cooked us all fried egg sandwiches. Very efficient.

Teepees and Spiders

Little Kat has started taking two of our gerbils upstairs to bed with him each night. Momoko was concerned that Little Kat was carrying a heavy fish tank with gerbils up and down the stairs. So we had Little Kat keep a separate tank upstairs and downstairs.

Within the tank, we have a small wooden house for the gerbils to sleep in. That house is up in Little Kat's bedroom. During the day the gerbils don't need a full house. But we wanted to give them something to hide in. So Little Kat provided the gerbils with a Kleenex box.

Unfortunately the gerbils liked chewing the box. Only two side of the box are left. The thing forms a small teepee under which the gerbils rest during the day. Let's hope they don't chew any more. Otherwise no teepee.

In other news, I finished reading a chapter in my Anne Rice book last night. I noticed a spider on the ceiling in the bedroom. So I put a chair underneath and went to get some tissue to grab the spider. When I returned, the spider was not on the ceiling. I looked around and found that the spider was hanging by its web. No problem. I grabbed it and flushed it.

Anne Rice Books

Recently I have been on an Anne Rice reading binge. I have reread a bunch of her books that I own. Most of them are about vampires. But there have been some about witches.

I just bought a few items from Amazon. So I added a new Anne Rice book to the order. Now I am reading it slowly, enjoying every word. I am forcing myself to slow down and only read one chapter a day.

In other news, I read a blog post about bad error messages. The author said you can't win when things break down. You even fail if you try to put up a cute screen. But don't you love the little doggy in the picture above?

Life in the Fast lane

As you may already know, Kit Kat got her driver's license. This week she also got a permit to park at her school. Now she is dangerous. Yesterday she drove to school. Of course I heard that she stopped by Chick Fil-A after school for a snack. Ahh. The good life.

Tonight Kit Kat has drama practice after school. Nobody has to go pick her up afterwards. She drove her car. Same deal tomorrow night. She has a drama presentation after school. She will drive her car.

The real bonus happened when Momoko arranged for Kit Kat to be on her insurance. It actually did not cost that much extra. Kit Kat is listed as an additional driver on the car. Yee haw. She has full coverage for a low extra fee. Makes me think Kit Kat should go to college locally, if only for the low insurance rate Momoko got her.

Discovery

I've have been cleaning our old guest bedroom. It is going to be my new study. There was a comforter on the floor. I found it strange that there was so much blanket. When I lifted it up, I found a basket of clothes hidden underneath. This was the work of Little Kat. Some time ago he decided to get out of doing some laundry. So he hid the basket where we would not see it. Bad move Little Kat.

Today I cleared out the final furniture downstairs to make room for the new big screen TV. We are getting rid of the entertainment center down there. It is not large enough to house the new TV. I hauled the old entertainment center up the back steps and put it behind the shed. Later we will get the thing hauled off.

I cleaned the carpet up. Now I just need to get Kit Kat's help to move a dresser over into the recreation room downstairs. The dresser will be our new TV stand. Then we will get Little Kat to hook up the Xbox 360 we got for Christmas to the TV. The plan is almost complete.

Open Window Effect

When we moved in the house, I claimed the 4th bedroom upstairs as my study. Momoko seemed helpless with all her papers. So I opened up the study to share it with her. She desperately needs a bookcase though.

Well we gave away our guest bed in the downstairs 5th bedroom. So I am going to make that my study. Today I moved my two bookshelves from the top level to the bottom. The bookcases themselves were a haul. But the books were the hardest.

I did not move a few items. For example, I pulled off the super absorbent window towels from my bookshelf. I put them on the window sills in our master bedroom. While doing so, I found one of the windows open.

Now we were freezing because it is a double pane window. Only the inner pane was open. Still, now I know why Momoko had been complaining about a cold breeze up in tghe brdroon. Tomorrow I move out shelf with school supplies up from the basement to Momoko's "new" study.

Sick Family

Kit Kat was the first to get sick. Momoko immediately followed. Little Kat and I tried to hold out. It seemed to work. Then I kissed Momoko for New Years. Then I got ill.

Both Kit Kat and Momoko complained that their illness was getting better, but returned on them. Today Momoko woke me u early. She said that Little Kat finally got sick. He was staying home with me. Little Kat remained in bed all day.

It is dinner time now. We are sending Kit Kat out to pick us up some dinner. Momoko commanded Little Kat to come down and help figure out what to order. Little Kat came down the stairs slowly. He used his sword as a cane. LOL. Enough drama Little Kat.

Kit Kat the Driver

Today Kit Kat and Momoko returned to the motor vehicles administration to take the driver's test. I got the call early in the afternoon. Kit Kat passed the test. It is pretty rigorous in our state. You need to pass a closed circuit driving test. You also have to go out in traffic with the test administrator.

Kit Kat did some practice this morning with Momoko. They practiced parallel parking. Kit Kat said she almost went over the time limit for parallel parking during the test. But she made it. Kit Kat did not ask for her test score. All she knows is that she passed.

Now that she is licensed, Kit Kat is already driving by herself. She went to Burget King for lunch by herself. She also drove Little Kat to the library. I suspect this trend shall continue. The only downside is that Kit Kat needs to be an insured driver. Ka-ching.

Big TV and Parking Exercises

Last night I looked through all the ads in the paper. The cheapest 50 inch TV was going for $599. That was just a little too expensive. When we bought ours, we paid $499. Momoko told me to go ahead and pay the extra $100. No way.

I did some googling around. Online TVs seemed just as expensive. Then for kicks I did a search at Sears. That's where I bought the last TV. For some reason Sears did not have an ad in the paper today. Lo and behold, they had a 50 inch TV on sale for $499. Yes. I snuck out of work at lunch and bought the thing.

After work I was scheduled to help Kit Kat practice her parking. We drove to a local park. The parking lot of was empty. No obstacles. So we drove back home and picked up some trash cans to simulate cars on the left and right. We practiced backing into a parking space. Then we did some pulling into the parking place.

Unplugged

We got the Xbox 360 with Kinect gaming system for Christmas. I think we let Little Kat set it up and connect it to our TV. I had him show me how to start it up so I could play my new Final Fantasy XIII game. Worked pretty good.

These days I am working from home. Each day I go out and buy a lunch. Then I take it back home to watch some anime while I eat. I use our Wii system to access Netflix video on demand. Today I grabbed the Wii controller and noticed that the Wii got moved.

I traced the video wires from the Wii and found they were unplugged. Little Kat is using the TV connection for the Xbox 360 now. Looks like we need to do something about this. It costs money to get online with the Xbox and use Netflix.

Our current thinking is to get a new TV downstairs that is big enough to hook up the Xbox 360. That will have the added benefit of a secure floor on which the kids can jump for gaming. Just need to buy a big TV and stand for it.