Steam Engine Train Ride

One of the main reasons we chose our current destination for vacation was to ride a steam trade. This was what Momoko most wanted to do here. She found a specific train ride that would let us eat lunch at the same time.

We had trouble geting Momoko's car GPS to find the location. Luckily I had an approximate address that the car recognized. After parking the car, Little Kat and I went hunting for train ride tickets. We crossed a train track where you had to look both ways before crossing.

I found the train station. Got three tickets. Went back to the car and waited with Momoko until 15 minutes before departure. They don't let you on the train too early. We boarded a the train after climing a steep set of stairs.

The food was nonthing special. We did get a few carafes of sweet tea and lemonade. Prior to boarding, we made Little Kat take a bunch of pictures. The train moved slowly. But it shook the train left to right enough to make it difficult to eat our lunch. It was still fun.

Afterward we visited a couple train gift shops. I bought a few items from each of the shops.

Spring Break 2014 Begins

This morning I picked up my car from the shop. We initially wanted to take it on our Spring Break vacation so Little Kat could practice driving. However Little Kat said he wanted to relax this vacation. We decided to take Momoko's car instead.

I went to the store to pick up some bottled water for the trip. Then I went to work on the yard before leaving. It took longer than expected to spray for bugs, put down grass killer, move some firewood, and clean up the patio. I came in the house right when we were supposed to leave.

After a quick shower, we hit the road. Momoko was at the steering wheel. Her car's navigation directed us. We found our hotel. It had separate bedrooms for Momoko and I, plus another one for Little Kat. There was a full kitchen. There was a total of three TVs.

We were hungry upon arrival. Initially we tried to map directions to the local Sonic. Momoko's GPS could not find the road. So we went to the Sonic two towns over. After a late afternoon lunch, we needed to return to Soninc for a late night snack. Delicious.

Mkaing a Way

Momoko had some files on a floppy disk she wanted to retrieve. I could read the disk with my old desktop computer. However I could not get them anywhere else. Today I decided to work on that problem. First thing I did was install a network card in the machine.

Windows 98 booted up. It asked for a Linksys disk with the drivers for the network card. I no longer have the disk. Had to download drivers online. What version of the network card do I have? I pulled the card out of the machine, and found the version on the side of the card.

The drivers were an executable that would not run on my laptop. I burned a copy of this executable onto a CD-ROM, then ran it on my desktop computer. Great. Now I could get on the Internet. Ooops. My browser on the computer was too old for anything.

I decided to revert back to some old tricks. Opened up a command prompt on my desktop. Used the command line FTP to copy the files up to my web host server. Then from my laptop, I was able to download the files. Now Momoko has her old pictures again.

Going Old School

Momoko was looking for some old pictures. She had the physical picture. But she wanted the digital copy. All she could locate was an old 3.5 inch floppy disk. What the heck is going to read that ancient technology?

I hooked up my oldest computer. The thing needed to connect to an external CRT monitor. I could not find a PS/2 style mouse to plug into the thing. Although it had USB slots, nothing I plugged into them worked.

The computer was noisy. It also took a long time to boot up. The first boot screen (after the BIOS) was what looked to be MS-DOS. Then Windows 98 came up. I created an account and logged in. I only had keyboard access.

The thing could read the disk. The problem was how to move the files on the disk. This computer could not burn CD-ROMs. It had no wireless or hard wired network connector. For now this project is on hold.

The Sorting Begins +1

Little Kat applied to enter the computer networking track at his high school. We had been on him to make sure he applied on time for about a year. He got his application in. Next we made sure he kept in touch with his counselor regarding any other actions required to get into networking.

The other week, Little Kat missed a meeting for the networking track. We needed him to go to the program administrator to find out what he missed. Of course Little Kat dragged his feet. His excuse was that he could not find the teacher.

Momoko and I had him email the teacher to schedule an appointment. Little Kat had to demonstrate that he was hot for networking. Unfortunately Little Kat got a sad reply from the administrator. Little Kat was not invited to the meeting he missed. He was not chosen to enter the networking track.

Momoko had a contingency planned for this scenario. Little Kat is also set up to go into a work study track at his high school. That is not as advantageous as the networking track. If Little Kat wants to get into networking, he need to turn around his college experience, pump up his grades, and hope to make the jump when he starts college.

Bird Invasion +1

Kit Kat complained that is sounded like birds were in her walls. Apparently they were getting in from the attic. The side of the house have soffets that let air up into the overhand next to the attic. On Kit Kat's side of the house, the vents that lead into the soffet have their covers off. Darn birds.

I figure we need to hire some type of exterminator. Need to get those birds out of the walls so Kit Kat can get her sleep. Before that, I want to get those soffet vents locked down. Sounds like a job for my handy man.

It just so happens that I will see my handyman soon to give me an estimate on some major bathroom rennovations. Let's hope he can fit in some soffet work too.

Upgrades +1

I have been using Momoko's iPad2 for a while using the old iOS 6 operating system. The family all upgraded to iOS 7 a long time ago. I decided I did not need to upgrade. Why mess with something that works?

Recently I tried to download and install Microsoft Office for iPad. It just came out. Unfortunately it requires iOS 7. So I upgraded to iOS 7 on the iPad. But then I had a problem. I could not see the book I was reading on the iPad with the Amazon Kindle app.

First I uninstalled the Kindle app and reinstalled it. No use. Could not read my book. Then I fought with iCloud. Had to jump through hoops to get me logged in instead of Momoko. Still no help. Finally I needed to unregister the device as a Kindle reader and re-register it.

I hope this is the last time I need to upgrade the iOS.