I Bit the Bullet

After too many winblows issues with Outlook Express I migrated my web browser over to Firefox (which I had installed but didn't use favoring Internet Explorer) and my email client to Thunderbird. My email address remains the same. I was extremely pleased when all my emails and entire address book came over from OE.

I made a deep run in the Deepstack $11 Pokerstars tourney yesterday finishing 61st of 1238 and going out on an ugly Pokerstars beat. I 3-bet preflop with pocket JJ I was repopped and called as my opponents range was pretty wide and I figured him for good old AK. Sure enough he has AK, I flop a set but a turned Q gives him Broadway and I cant fill my boat. I worked for peanuts on that one. What sucked is I had more then double the average stack well into the money. Snake5970 checked in on my progress and typed "Geez, i know your well stacked but that is some pile of chips you have!" And a shout out to a local Pokerstars player Ripley1150 (something like that for the numbers) who told me in chat he or she reads my blog and was routing for me. Wish I had the stats of Beufford who is a Hudson Falls poker player (that's Snake and Silo's neck of the woods) who recently finished 2nd in that huge Sunday Million back in December for some sweet cheese and then followed it up with a solid showing in the Sunday warm-up about two weeks ago.

Waiting patiently to see if I will be rewarded with Dead tickets for the Times Union (formerly, the Knick and the Pepsi). The night before mail order began I couldn't sleep. I was the second one at the post office when it opened and the dude right behind me was doing the same thing for Hartford. We made sure we had our index cards, SASE's and correct mailing addresses with each other. I'm a little miffed at the prices of tickets in this economy and that may prevent me from doing more than a couple of shows.

A neighbor in the condo directly across from mine started leaving milk out for a feral cat. Cat's will drink milk but they cant live on milk alone and its a myth that they prefer milk, cat's are carnivores like us. Anyway, the cat took up residence without any shelter on her porch/deck. Her porch is covered by the upstairs condo deck. Another neighbor of mine (Bailey's kitty sitter, Joan; and I sit for her cat Blackie) constructed a cardboard box within a box shelter with some hay for it (I did the first solo box). Kitty has made it thru the bitter cold and took to shelter right away. The good news is I believe it may have been TNR'd (trapped, neutered, released) as a kitten. He/she is missing part of his left ear which usually is a signal to those who try to manage feral cats that the cat has already been captured and fixed . I figure the cat for about 9-10 months or so first noticing him late summer. The bad news is the neighbor leaving the milk out is in her eighties and has the early stages of Alzheimer's/dementia. After telling Joan it was okay for me to leave the first shelter she gave Joan the evil eye like what are you doing on my porch when Joan swapped out the newer better one (still not great but better then nothing). All she says when we tell her the cat won't leave because she feeds it and it needs shelter is "I leave it milk" because she has no short term memory and doesn't remember shit. My project when the weather improves is to move its shelter (hopefully a better one) and food source (Joan and I have been giving him real cat food) to the little wooded area behind my condo on a little hill out of harms way where he can do his thing. He doesn't run as far away from me as he used to but since hes never been socialized to humans he doesn't trust us. I've learned a bit doing some research on ferals, which is quite fascinating. But my message to pet owners who let their cats roam free. Spay and neuter your animals people. Be part of the solution to animal overpopulation and outdoor living cats (the shadow cats that you see everywhere) not a contributor to the problem. Practice TNR if you notice a cat taking up residence in your neighborhood who isnt someone's pet or a stray. There's lots to be learned from watching their behavior. Check out Alley Cat Allies for more info or Neighborhood Cats