No Hot Water

I worked outside in the yard today. Clipped the bushes. Did weed trimming around the driveway. Cut the grass. Afterwards, I was spent. Drank a leftover McDonald's Coke. Then I went to take a shower. I let the water run for a few minutes. But when I got in the shower, the water was not hot. Even on the hottest setting, it was lukewarm at best.

Afterwards, I checked the vanity. The hot water was tepid there too. So, it was not specific to the shower handle. I went downstairs. The gas range produced a flame. So, it was not the gas supply to the house. I grabbed the hot water heater manual. Reviewed how to relight the pilot. The instructions seemed different from when I last read it.

In the basement, I saw the green light for the furnace was dim. That indicated the pilot light was indeed out. I thought you were supposed to click the lighter three times. Nope. The manual said keep clicking once a second for 90 seconds. I must have clicked for almost 30 seconds before I saw a blinking green light and hear the flame from inside the unit.

Last time I called a plumber and spent a lot of money for them to just relight my pilot flame. No can do that any more.

Air Quality Problems

Momoko and I went to Giant to do grocery shopping. Little Kat usually does this. But he is away on vacation. We then went to McDonald's to get happy meals with BT21 toys. We got to the drive through exactly when lunch started being served. We got parked for a long time. But we got the meals anyway. The toy was Mang again for the third time.

Momoko had noticed a lot of old people with masks on when we were out. I noticed a haze in the air. It was like a bad fog. Momoko knew this was due to fires in Canada. And the smoke traveled all the way down to us. Momoko said the air quality index was a whopping 300. It should be around 100. We were supposed to stay indoors, or wear a mask outside.

I was going to mow the lawn. But the air was too bad. I did mow the next day. But I wore a mask outside for that. The air quality got better the next day. It hovered between 160 and 175. We were scheduled to get rain. That should help the situation.

Search for a new Plumber

Little Kat discovered the kitchen sink faucet leaking again. This time he took a video. In the morning, I called the plumber. I ran to lunch while I waited for a call back. They called me while I was on the road. The plumber was coming.

Plumber found two problems in the spout. He did not have replacement parts. He thought I might get them from the manufacturer. But I remembered a separate problem coming from the handle last week. I opted to replace the whole apparatus. Bro said he could sell me the hardware for $1000. No thank you.

I ran to Lowes. I found my exact Moen faucet for $128. We like the look. I hope the quality is high. I called back the plumber to install. He provided multiple options for a quote. Some involved an extra $4000 water softener. Others tried to get me to sign up for a recurring maintenance plan. In the end, I just told him to get me a cost for just the install.

After he started the work, he said the hot water shutoff valve did not work. I asked if he could fix it. He said yes, but for another $300. Oh hell no. This guy is already the expensive option. He just shut off the main water valve for the house. He installed the new pieces and showed me a spout without any damage in it.

I am looking for a new plumber. Our last one just won't answer their phone. And this latest guy charges 50% higher than anybody else. So, the hunt is still on.

More Water Under the Sink

We previously had a problem with our sink sprayer. It was leaking. The fix involved replacing the kitchen sink faucet and sprayer. I thought we should be good for a while. This week, I noticed dirty water on the side of the kitchen sink. Then today, I also noticed some more water.

I looked under the sink. Water was pooling on the shelf under the sink. I asked Little Kat if he knew about anything. Maybe splashing in the kitchen or his bathroom upstairs. He said no. When the kitchen sink was turned on, water was leaking out the base.

I had to take everything out from under the sink and dry it off. Then I soaked up the water on the shelf using my dirty bath towels. I sprayed Fantastic on the shelf, cleaned it up, then dried it with paper towels. I had all the items from under the sink on top of newspapers on the kitchen floor.

Tomorrow, I need to call a plumber. Momoko will relocate the items on the floor that used to be under a sink. I told the family not to use the sink. Momoko will also put something up to deter family from using our kitchen sink.

Father's Day Postponed

Father's day came and went without a peep from the kids. What kind of unfilial children do we got here? Later in the week, Kit Kat came over and said they could take me out to eat. But it would be a delayed celebration. She asked me to pick a spot. Initially I said Fuddruckers in the city.

Momoko thought the trip to Fuddruckers was too much. Kit Kat did not think so. But I did choose Arby's instead. I wanted to try their new steak and cheese. We scheduled to go today. I called Little Kat 5 minutes before our trip. No answer. He did eventually wake up and be ready by himself. He drove me to Kit Kat's apartment.

I thought I could then hope in the back seat so we could have Kit Kat with us. Little Kat said his back seat was too full. Kit Kat would have to drive. Her navigation took us the long way via highways, which were backed up for some reason.

The steak and cheese was not tiny and some Tiktokers have stated. Little Kat got the Reuben. I planned to purchase two apple turnovers to go for Momoko and myself. They only had cherry ones. I passed. We stopped by Kit Kat's apartment on the way home to see her cats. They liked when Little Kat picked them up.

PC Troubles

I was doing some work with my desktop computer. All of a sudden, Windows file explorer would not work. I killed it and restarted the application. Still would not work. Okay. I guess I needed a full PC reboot. Problem is the machine would no longer boot up.

I tried a Windows repair. It said it could not repair Windows. Something fatal must have happened to Windows. I really needed the data off my PC. All my job search data was on there. I need that daily. I thought I might be able to take out the hard drive and put it in another working PC.

Google AI recommended I do take out the hard drive. But instead, I should just connect it to something that would link it to a USB port. I was going to buy such an adapter. I asked Little Kat for advice. He said he had an advanced solution. We took out my hard drive. He then put it in some enclosure that had a USB connection. I was able to copy my files to our family computer.

I ordered a minicomputer to replace my desktop. I have copied the crucial files to my new computer. I had trouble installing Microsoft Office. It said I used up all my copies. And I could not make a call to resolve that. I ordered a new copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate. Hopefully that will come soon.

Job Search

I was working on a project at work. We do software maintenance. The yearly option for the contract was coming to an end. Usually, the customer just turns us on for another year. This time around they said they were not renewing. In theory, some government people could take over. The hope was that a new system would be in place. Then they would not even need maintenance for the old system.

The money on the end of the project was tight. I was forced to take some vacation days. Our company is working on the replacement system. I thought I could slide to that project. My boss said he could see me working there for at least a couple weeks. I was only given one week. Then I had no project. The boss said without me, they could not deliver. So, he tried to get me to come back for a couple weeks to wrap up. He was only able to get money for a week and a half. After that, I am again without a project.

I am looking far and wide. Applied for 7 jobs at the company so far. Couple of them rejected me. I think my best bet is to go outside the company. I found one that pays even better than my company. They gave me a link to an online assessment. The company running that was unable to process a copy of my ID with a picture taken from my video camera. I went and tried to get a scanned copy of my ID. By then, the exam got disconnected.

Eventually I got the company to request another exam for me. At first, I was taken aback. It wanted me to code in the JavaScript programming language. Don't think I have used that for 14 years. I did find a way to switch it to python. There were only 4 questions on the exam. They all required writing a program to pass all the tests. I got the first 3 questions right 100% passing all tests. I did not have enough time to finish the last one. It only passed 4 out of 10 tests.

I was supposed to have an interview with my recruiter at the company today. He said he had to cancel because I failed the assessment. LOL wut? I got an 85%. Maybe because they offer so much money, they require 100% passing. My recruiter told me I would need to wait 6 months before they would consider me again. Back to the drawing board.

Portable A/C to the Rescue

A friend of the family had her A/C system fail recently. She has a geothermal one. The repair guys said the required part to fix it was on back order. Although it is still spring, the weather is getting hot. The friend and her cats were suffering in the hot house.

Momoko suggested we could loan a portable A/C to the friend. Little Kat used to use a portable A/C in his bedroom. It has since been replaced by a mini-split A/C. Little Kat dug the old portable out of the closet. He located the accessories. Then he gave them to our friend.

The friend called and said the unit was blowing hot air. We had a second unit in our home. But we sort of hard wired it into our dining room window. Little Kat was able to disconnect the hose leading to the window. But he was too busy with friends to deliver the unit.

Momoko and I drove to our friend's house. Momoko made me stand the unit upright in my car. I carried the thing up the stairs to the master bedroom. It was a huge room. I swapped it for the broken unit, which I took back down to my car.

Initially it was 83 degrees in the master bedroom. After an hour, it was 78 degrees and falling. I hope the cats know to come upstairs to the master bedroom to sleep tonight. I figure by midnight, it should be 68 degrees or lower.

McDonald's $4 breakfast meal deal

 

Our handyman was coming over this morning to finish up some work on a bathroom fan. So, I ran out early to get McDonald's. There were a lot of cars in both drive through lanes. A truck with stuff sticking out the bed was in the left lane. I went right. The car two ahead of me took forever.

I planned on getting the sausage McMuffin $4 meal deal. It comes with a sausage and cheese McMuffin, a hash brown, and drink. I chose a large Coke no ice for a $0.50 upcharge. The person taking my order was slow and seemed distracted. When I got to the window to pay, they thought I ordered a biscuit. I corrected them.

When I got to the second window, they handed me a biscuit. I told them the sandwich was wrong. They then proceeded to give me a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin. I did not complain. I found a bonus of an extra hash brown in my bag.

All in all, it was a hassle to order. But I got two bonus items in the end.

Getting Rid of the Chaise

Momoko said she needs more desk space in her study. It is time to get rid of her chaise. I recall having a really hard time getting it into her study. So, this weekend I decided to cut the thing in half. I turned the thing over to get access. I put two boards underneath to protect the carpet.

I used a chainsaw to cut through. It took a while to get all the way through. Some steel wires popped out. A lot of fluff fell on the floor. I called my brother. He said he could be home in 10 minutes to help carry the stuff out. We started with the biggest piece. It was half a chaise, but was hard to get through the doors.

At first we put both halves in our carport. But the big piece was sticking out. So, I moved it to the patio outside our sliding glass door. There was one square cushion that came apart. I ran the sweeper when we were done removing the chaise. There should be a lot of room for another desk, or at least a longer one.

Introduction to KATSEYE

Momoko and I watched a series on Netflix called "The Debut: Dream Academy". This was an 8 part series of hour long shows where they found the members of the band KATSEYE. The training was based out of Los Angeles. They weeded out a girl or two, ending up with a list of 20 candidates.

One of the first people to be booted was Adela, a strong blonde singer from Slovakia. She did not fare well with fans. I thought the judges would overrule the crowd voting. However, they sent her home early. I thought she was the best singer in the initial group. Her dancing skills were mid.

Then they started adding new candidate girls even as late as 12 months into the show. One was Lara, a girl from LA who was Indian. She made the final list. There was another girl I liked named Emily. She was a short blonde girl good at dance. She made it to the final 10, but was but when they determined the final group of 6.

Big Thrifting

I have been watching shows like Storage Wars and Pawn Stars. So, I got the bug to acquire second hand things of value. I figured I could return to the local thrift store in town to do so. I waited until Momoko had a day off. And we went early, around an hour after they opened.

The parking lot seemed full for a weekday. Up front they had jewelry. Off to the side, they had home ware wrapped in small plastic bags. I made a bee line to the first couple rows that had sporadic art. Another shopper told us the art was in the front corner of the building. Momoko grabbed a cart.

I first surveyed all the art there. I kept an eye on price. Did not want anything for $20. Felt like $10 was near the top of my range. I did pick up one item for $12.99. The cheapest was $1.99. Momoko and I paid separately. It was all self checkout. Momoko had trouble with the credit card taker. She paid cash.

The shopping cart had a pole preventing you from wheeling it out of the store. I carried stuff to the curb in front of the store. The exit door was one way and locked. I pulled the car up and loaded my goods in a no parking zone. Here are some treasure I picked up:

• A large framed portrait of dogs playing billiards. On the back was another of dog playing poker.
• A heavy mid-sized frame picture of an owl
• A black stretched outline of a baseball playing made out of words
• A photo album with an old time cover image, dirty but still nice
• A huge artwork that Momoko through looked nice
• An open top tool box with our local baseball team logo on it
  

Desk Chair Swap

I was working out in the yard. I saw some delivery guy come to our house. So, when I was done working, I went in front to see what we got. There was a large box in front of our door. It was for Little Kat. I figured I would bring it into our house. The thing was heavy. I needed the dolly to wheel it in.

Momoko thought that Little Kat broke his chair. All of a sudden, a chair appeared in our library. It did not appear to be broken. Momoko thought maybe Little Kat assembled his new chair in our library. That made no sense. Why would he not build it in his room where he needs the chair.

Later, I quizzed Little Kat. He said he upgraded his chair to one with more lumbar support. He was giving away his old chair. My brother did not want it. Little Kat thought it did not fit Momoko. I just happened to start noticing my desk chair in my study was not comfortable. So, I took the old chair and am sitting on it now. Let's see if it is comfortable in the long run.

Betting Against Avis/Budget

People noticed how bad the rental car company Avis had been doing. So, they piled on, shorting the stock. A large firm decided to just buy Avis shares. They bought about half the outstanding shares of stock. Another big firm joined in. They bought the rest of the shares. In theory, there should be no shares for the shorts to buy to close out their positions.

This was a textbook short squeeze. The stock was starting somewhere around $100. The squeeze caused the price to run up to $800. I got in and out a few times of the stock before I really understood what was happening. Then the stock dropped to around $200. I figured it was still way too high. Earning are going to be announced this Wednesday.

I transferred most of my cash from my checking account to my brokerage account. I tried to buy puts, essentially betting against the price of Avis. The brokerage denied my option trades. They want me to wait until the transfer of funds clears. This is giving me deja vu, back to when my brokerages outright prohibited shorting GameStop stock.

I had a few grand across a couple trading account. I used those meager funds to bet against Avis stock. Unfortunately, even if I am right, my profits are capped due to lack of funds to work with.

Tooth Brush Trouble

The bottom of my electric tooth brush started to smell. I clean it. The next day it smelled again. I traced it to the base of my charging station. I cleaned it as well. The smell persisted.

I started dumping mouthwash on the bottom of my tooth brush after each use. The smell kind of masked the odor. But the thing kept smelling. I used AI to find a solution. It said sometimes you just need to replace it.

I found my prior order on Amazon. I re-ordered it for $39. It was suspicious. Amazon said they would let me know when it had a shipping date. After a couple days, I figured out this meant it was on back order.

I cancelled my order. The only other options were a battery charged one for $19. No good. And a similar charging version for $49. That charging one came a day after I ordered it. I need to do a better job cleaning my tooth brush I guess.

BTS Arirang Tour

Momoko and I watched a free BTS tour teaser on Netflix. It was a 1 hour special. They sung a bunch of new songs from their new album. This week, their full world tour started in Korea. Momoko purchased an e-ticket to stream their second concert.

I wanted to watch too. So, Momoko enlisted Little Kat to help her project the concert from her laptop. Little Kat ordered a cable or two from Amazon. They did not work. In the end, he discovered Momoko's adapter had an HDMI port. We used my plain HDMI cable to connect her laptop to the big screen TV.

We woke up early this morning. Convert was to start at 6am. But you could log in as early as 5am. We were set up, watching the pre-concert show. Then we lost connection. Momoko scrambled to re-verify herself. There was no hurry. The band was 10 minutes late to start the concert.

There were trying a new concert setup. It was a 360 degree view. Their center stage rotated slowly. Their backup dancers had all kinds of items such as computer screens that show different images. They also later brought out the sheets.

At one point in the concert, the whole band walked off stage down and circled the stadium. They were singing the whole time. RM was pushed in some sort of chair on a chariot. They did a lot of talking to the fans. There was no encore. They did not play Mikromosmos, my new second favorite song. At least there was not bad weather like their tour opening show.

Adventures Flying Home

Yesterday, Little Kat and I flew home. I proposed eating outside the airport. I chose a Mexican fast food place I liked. I only ate two big chips and dip. Little Kat also had chips and dips, but added some chalupa looking thing. He had trouble connecting his phone to the car rental afterwards.

We went to go through security. I showed some guy my ticket, proving I could get in the TSA pre-check line. But when I went past it, I was confused. There were conveyor belts with lots of empty bins. But there was nobody trying to go through security. I put my stuff in a bin and pushed it through the screening.

I could not figure out how to pass through any metal detector. I asked some guy working there. A lady came and opened up one metal detector. I waited a long time for Little Kat on the other side. He told me I was wilding, because I skipped the ID check in, and also crossed over to TSA touchless check in.

When I tried to board the plane, the attendant said because they changed the type of place we were on, my seat changed. Oh no. I checked in 24 hours earlier to ensure I got a good seat. I was demoted. The attendant must have sensed my pain. He seemed to then give me a seat upgrade.

I went down the plane and found my seat. Some girl was sitting in the aisle seat. I told her my seat was beyond her by the window. She changed seats to the window seat. I told her that her seat was the aisle. She said it was ok. I was not going to argue, as I had a seat upgrade.

This plane was a lot larger than the tiny thing we flew in on. I had tons of leg rooms. Even side to side it felt spacious, even though there was just a skinny young girl next to me. I got a whole can of Dr. Pepper. I did go to the back to use the bathroom. I don't think the ceiling height was more than 6 foot.

Bad Weather Ahead

Momoko called me. She said there was bad weather coming to her dad's house last night. She advised me to find a flashlight and the storm shelter. I was too tired. She called Little Kat to do the same. I heard the rain come heavy outside.

Little Kat exclaimed that the water stopped working in the bathroom. We had large bottles of water to flush the toilet. The electricity kept flickering. The internet went out for a while. I just used my personal hotspot from my phone. I waited the storm out. Eventually, the water returned to the home.

I had planned to go out for a midnight snack. Little Kat was not interested. I looked online. Taco Bell stayed open until 3am. I found some cheap items on their menu. At the drive through, the guy kept asking me about my mobile order. I did not place one. I ended up getting a mini taco salad, a bean burrito, and cinnamon twists. 

All You Can Eat Sushi

I had wanted to eat Mexican food with my niece and her boyfriend. I told them last time I was here that we would do it on this trip. I texted her when we touched down, asking when we could go. She said the day after I arrived. Her boyfriend texted me and said he would shore up the time when my niece woke up.

Later, I got a text that plans changed. They were going to go eat sushi at an all you can eat place. I was invited. They had more than sushi there. Little Kat drove our rental car to the place. We left early just in case rush hour traffic was heavy. We got there 15 minutes early. The niece and her boyfriend were going to be late.

Inside, it was not what I expected. There were no stations to go up to get your food like other all you can eat shops. Here they gave us a small iPad where we ordered items off their menu. Then they would serve us the food. We could order as many times as we want. We just could not waste the food. Otherwise, we would be charged extra.

I tried a shrimp hibachi. It turned out to be a small bowl of a couple baby shrimp. Next I ordered all things tempura: chicken, shrimp, broccoli, onions, veggies, and so on. I got some crab rangoons. I ate until I was full. My niece mostly ate California rolls. She did not care for sushi either. Her boyfriend paid for my meal. Little Kat did not know the boyfriend. So, he said he would pay for himself. I told my niece and her boyfriend I would pick up the tab next time.

Afterwards, followed the niece's boyfriend with Little Kat back to their apartment. We played with a friendly kitten. Another kitten was afraid and only spied around the corner. Eventually we went into their guest bedroom. Little Kat worked on making the niece's PC run faster. He spent a lot of tie customizing the mouse. Eventually I said I was tired and wanted to drive back to Little Kat's grandpa's house. Little Kat decided he would spend the night at the niece's house.

I was tired on the drive home. I called Momoko up back home to talk. It was really late. 

Spring Break Trip

Little Kat is off work for Spring Break. He decided to go visit his grandfather. He asked for volunteers to be his buddy on the trip. I volunteered as tribute. Normally, we take SouthWest as they are the cheapest. But SouthWest is changing. They have assigned seats now, and charge for baggage. We went with American Airlines. They are cheaper. The fares are still the highest I have paid.

One drawback is that we are flying on a CRJ 700 plane. It is tiny. The good thing is that there are only aisle or window seats. No middle seats. I thought it would be a bumpy ride. But it was fine. I also worried we would need to climb stairs from the tarmac to board. Nope. They just lowered the connecting bridge from the gate.

We heard horror stories about long security lines in the area. We made sure to arrive 3 hours before flight. At TSE pre-check, we went straight to the front without trouble. A large chested girl was in front of me. She took off her jacket to a revealing tank top. Her and Little Kat were stopped at the metal detector and had to be wanded. We ate inside this new section of the airport at PF Chang's. My meal cost a whopping $40.

It took a while for our plane to pull up. They were a little late. However, the rep from the airline said the plane was in maintenance. That lasted for 2 hours. I read my ebook and even fell asleep. Little Kat and I sat next to each other, even though we bought our seats separately. I heard you would get a cheap seat assigned at the gate. But we checked in 24 hours earlier and got our assigned seats. There was no leg room. My window to the outside fogged up. The window shade was backwards, and would not stay closed.

I had reserved a rental car. Little Kat insisted I pay an extra $12 a day for him to be able to drive too. The lady at the car rental place kept insisting it was a great car since it was a 2026 model. Little Kat was not eager to take the wheel. Our spring break adventure begins.