Gun Show

 

Momoko's brother in law asked me if I wanted to go to a gun show with him. I said no, but if he was going, I would tag along. He picked me up in his Chevy Malibu rental (his car got hit and is being repaired). He printed out $2 off coupons for the show. There was heavy metal playing from his playlist in his car.

We went to the state fair grounds. It was hard to drive in as all but the main entrance was closed. Once we did get on the premises, it was difficult to locate close parking. Entry to the show was a reasonable $14. We paid $12 after redeeming the coupons.

There were more than just guns at this show. There were coins and old currencies. I liked the Japanese swords. Machine-made ones were reasonable. Hand-made ones cost a lot of money. I saw a $5 sale for t-shirts. Unfortunately they only had small/medium/large sizes.

The most interesting item was a wooden plaque custom made to load bullets into a clip. It ran for $75. I asked if they could ship out of state. They said yes, if I paid a $15 shipping fee. Momoko's brother-in-law said no to a raffle that was offered. He also bargained down a wire scorpion from $10 to $5.

 We saw one last vendor in the lobby on the way out. We took the scenic path home. Had trouble finding an on ramp to the highway. We drove by our favorite theater.

Couch Shopping for Grandpa

Momoko, Kit Kat, and I were visiting Momoko's dad. His old couch needed to go. Momoko's brother-in-law took it to the dump. Our job was to find a new one. Momoko measured the couch area. She also measured where a potential loveseat could go.

We first went to a furniture store Momoko found. The parking lot was sparse. It was also janky. There were couches in the showroom lined back to front. You could only sit on the couches in the front. All the rest were not accessible.

The sales guy pulled out couches for us to try. It came down to two fabric ones. I liked the cheaper one. It cost $799 for the couch plus love seat. Delivery was $75 in cash. The sales guy thought they could be delivered either that day or the day after. 

That day we cleared room for both pieces of furniture. We did try one other furniture store. Average couch plus loveseat was over $2500 there. We ended up going with the bargain couch store. The delivery guys came on July 4. They pushed the couches through the narrow doors.

I took off the protective plastic and cardboard wrapping. I bundled them up and put them in the second big trash can outside. Kit Kat installed the feet on the furniture. The new space allowed Momoko to host dinner for the extended family at grandpas. She server homemade chicken soup.

McDonald's Breakfast Failure

Momoko and I drove to McDonald's for breakfast this morning. I ordered a sausage McMuffin. Momoko had a steak bagel. We opted for the drive through. I checked that we had two hash browns. Then we drove home.

Momoko noted that the bag felt a little heavy. Inside, instead of our meal, there were two burritos and two McGriddles. Momoko asked if I wanted either of those wrong items. Nope. So we got back in the car and headed back to McDonalds.

The drive through line was long. And the breakfast hour was nearing its end. So Momoko went into the store. I had my receipt from the drive through. And we brought back the food. The replacement bag was short one hash brown. But Momoko noticed right away and got it fixed.

All the extra time meant I did not have much time to eat before my next work meeting. So we could not watch anything interesting on TV while we ate breakfast. The moral of the story is to check all food items from the drive through, especially the sandwiches.

Oven Repair

The kids complained that the bottom oven in our double oven would not heat above 160 degrees. I called the manufacturer. They put me in touch with a local authorized repair shop. A guy came out and said we needed a new igniter.

Later I found out that the part was on back order. The repair shop had no clue when it would be back in stock. I called them after two weeks. They still had no ETA for the part. After a month, they finally called and scheduled another visit.

The tech had a hard time getting the old igniter out. He had to disconnect some parts from the back of the oven. He was unable to get the oven door off the oven. So he had a tough time working inside the oven. Eventually he detached a bunch of pieces, and could replace the part.

The guy let me go behind the oven to clean up. I sprayed a lot of Fantastic, and used at least 10 paper towels to wipe up the floor. There was assorted food, grime, and dust back there. Luckily I brought a small grocery bag with me to dispose of the junk.

I asked the tech when we should think about replacing the oven due to old age. He said our oven was a good one. It had good burner options on the stove top. It had a double oven. And the purple oven interior was a sign of us choosing the good one. He said he would personally keep replacing broken parts.

Birds Attack Car Mirrors

I started letting Momoko and Kit Kat park in the carport. They drive to school every day. And they both have problems backing into the driveway next to the carport. This works out good for them. But my car is now in the driveway. The birds are targeting it.

Every day the birds poop on my mirrors. I tried cleaning them right away. The birds come back multiple times a day and soil the mirrors. A quick fix was to put plastic grocery bags of the mirrors. That deters the birds. It also makes the car look bad.

I bought some spikes to put on top of the mirrors. They also work well. But they were hard to mount onto the mirrors. I had to use two-sided tape. That is hard to remove when I take the spikes off to drive the car. There has to be a better way.

Academic Dishonesty

Little Kat has been doing well in college this semester. There is no other option. Momoko and I are watching him like hawks. I am effectively auditing his two computer classes, quizzing him each week and forcing him to better learn the material. Going into the last week he had all As. Then he got a zero on a Python programming assignment. Not good.

The instructor told Little Kat to call him. Apparently the instructor accused Little Kat of cheating. He had two options: take a 0 for the assignment, or fight the accusation. Little Kat chose to take the 0. Initially Little Kat said he got a 0 because he used Google to find some materials outside of class. That did not make any sense. I actually know the instructor. He is not some crazy dude who would say that.

Upon further investigation, I found that Little Kat could not figure out how to complete his programming assignment. So he Googled around. He found some code that he did not understand. That code solved the assignment. So he submitted it. This was a fail. Even if Little Kat did not copy the code directly, there is no way an outside investigator could tell the difference between a copier and a guy like Little Kat who had no idea what he was doing.

Hopefully we got some lessons learned from this episode. Dig in and get help from instructors, parents, tutors if you cannot figure out your homework. Use Google, but make sure you understand what you read so you can produce your own material that you can defend. And in the worst case, just take the lower grade by not completing an assignment you cannot figure out. Let's hope the lesson sinks in.

Getting Breakfast

This morning I woke up and dialed into my first meeting of the day. Normally I stick around for an optional second meeting. But today I was too hungry. I went upstairs and brushed my teeth. Then I put a load of clothes in the washer. Finally I departed for McDonalds.

When I pulled into the parking lot, there was a big armored car trying to make a U-turn in the parking lot. I gave them plenty of room. Then a guy who also pulled aside for the truck got into line before me. I was next. The ordering line moved fast.

After I paid, I waited a while to get my food. The worker asked me to park in numero dos. She clarified that meant parking spot number two. Somebody came out immediately asked if I ordered hotcakes.  I told her no. She asked if I was sure? WTF? Of course I was sure.

Later this worker came back out. I told her not only did I not get hotcakes, but I substituted English muffins for the biscuit in a Big Breakfast. I checked and verified my order was correct. At home, I added a slice of cheese to the English muffins and sausage. Then I heated it all up in the microwave. Delicious.