Kevin's Hetero MFM Poly-Fi V

10:29 p.m., Wednesday the 28th

Thanks opal.

I'll make today's entry short, and then I am turning in. I need to get up early tomorrow to start packing for our hotel stay (so people can view our house) all weekend (Thursday thru Monday). We leave here as soon as Snowbunny gets off work, around 3:30 p.m.

I lost today's bot game, not sure why but I bet part of it is the building stress from all the moving/selling uncertainty. That and, playing at Level 1300 sucks, it just sucks.
 
Hi Kevin,

Do you play the puzzles too? I got completely stuck on a bot and gave up playing it for aaaages but have just been playing puzzles. To my utter surprise, when I returned to that bot I beat it quite easily.

Best wishes for the move and everything.

Evie
 
1:43 p.m., Thursday the 29th

Hi Evie,

I've started doing the puzzles, most of them are very easy (which I like), but some are hard. I am also doing the lessons, but by now they're so far over my head, I think maybe I'm not getting all I'm supposed to from them.

I could of course select weaker bots than the 1300's, but what would be the point, I've already proven I can win on the lower levels. I know I need the practice, it's just frustrating/depressing when my opponent wins on tactics/strategy, which I'm no good at. I hate losing even one game, losing two in a row saps my confidence.

I'm not doing a bot game today, there's too much going on with the pending hotel stay. I'm actually glad I'm not doing a bot game today.

By the way, that previous game where I could have traded bishops? in hindsight, I don't think I could have traded bishops, I think it was already too late for me. Naycir did forcing moves from there on forward, she could have easily just ignored my bishop threat as I was forced to move my king every move until checkmate. [shrug] See? I suck at that type of thing. Naycir assembled a mating threat against me, and I didn't even notice.

Brother-Husband has a job now in New Mexico. In Rio Rancho (a suburb of Albuquerque). Receiving at Lowe's -- exactly the same job he has here (in Washington). He starts on I think May 17, so he barely has time to put in his two week notice here, then drive down there. Snowbunny will go with him and help drive, then she'll fly back. BH will stay at a friend's house there, temporarily.
 
4:23 p.m., Friday the 30th

We're at the, hotel? motel? They have wifi, but it isn't great. Chess.com isn't very functional here, so I am going to skip doing bot games while I'm here. Obviously I'm glad for the excuse.

BH says he doesn't want SB to make the Yelm-to-Albuquerque trip twice ... so, he will do the trip by himself (in a couple of weeks).

SB thinks she and I will remain in Yelm until the end of next month (May). She is trying to think of a way to make the move less stressful for Rainee. Possibly Rainee and I will fly there. Like SB would drop us off at the SeaTac airport, and BH would pick us up at the Albuquerque airport. Perhaps by then we'll have a house? or at least an extended stay place. SB doesn't want to rush this, she wants to make sure we get the house (townhouse? condo?) that is right for us.
 
12:48 p.m., Saturday the 1st

In my current Chess game versus SB, I made another stupid mistake. A missed opportunity. She has an advanced pawn, and I could have stopped it in its tracks while still maintaining a pawn wall blocking her king. All I had to do was move my H pawn forward one square. I was blind to that opportunity and instead started inching my king over to that side of the board. Fer dumb! I'm pretty sure I'll still win, but this makes things more complicated (and tedious) for me. There's a chance I can still have that opportunity ... *if* she doesn't advance that pawn on her next move. I'm not counting on it though ...

Rainee has been super brave since we arrived at the motel. She doesn't have a lot of places she can go here, but she is taking that in stride. In the meantime, Friendly Neighbor Guy has told us that a shitton of viewers have been checking out our house. He said that at one point, six cars were parked around the house, all there to look at the interior and the exterior. The realtor set the starting price at $299,000.00 ... it's actually hopeful that someone will bid as high as $350,000.00! and well they should, it is a sweet house. I'm going to miss that house. My attached bath in there is like the crown jewel.
 
1:08 p.m., Sunday the 2nd

Technically, we have our room rented here until tomorrow morning. But we aren't going to stay the night. I'm pretty sure BH has to work tomorrow, SB I'm not sure, but we do want to be home for when the realtor lady comes over to discuss the various bids with us. The house is still being viewed, so we can't return yet, we have to wait until about 8:00 p.m. ... so I guess there's not a rush, we might have dinner here (the city we're in is Enumclaw), things aren't set in stone. Meanwhile, Eddie has been doing his Barn Hunt trial/competition stuff. SB says he's been doing less than great at that this time around. He did have one good run yesterday, but then on the next run he was just eating straw and goofing off. On one of his Friday runs, he pooped in the ring. That's an automatic disqualification.

Poor Rainee, she wants to sit at this room's glass doors, and look out, and I can't let her. Technically, dogs are allowed here but cats are not. Stupid rule, I know. So Rainee's presence must be kept a secret. Today, after a number of tries by her, and me retrieving her, she finally resigned herself to not looking out the glass door, and now she is resting on my lap. I wish I could explain to her what's happening, and why we have to do the things we do. She just has to have faith in us, and she does. She trusts us. She is truly a precious friend to me.
 
My cats actually did well on the car ride when I moved 16 hours away. We split it into 2 days. The siamese howled, but then, I would have been shocked if he hadn't since he was a howler. I'm not sure there is a good way to move a cat :/
 
4:36 p.m., Monday the 3rd

Yeah, cats are homebodies. They are happiest when they are surrounded by their familiar things and places. When they do arrive at a destination, the first thing they want to do is thoroughly explore the place, thus establishing familiarity. Rainee isn't a very vocal cat, but when she's in a moving car, she cries almost constantly. I don't know if she would cry in a plane, when a plane is in the air the ride is mostly smooth, compared to a car which jiggles slightly on all the minute bumps in the road. I feel bad when Rainee gets scared (on the road), but by far my biggest concern is that she not freak and bolt and run away. Of all the things that could go wrong in the moving process, that is the one thing that I couldn't stand. I would be so devastated. And far worse than how I would feel, is how Rainee would feel. I'm atheist and I desperately want to pray that we don't lose our cat.

We're back home ... it's still home for at least two or three weeks ... and Rainee has been sleeping on my bed all day, she hasn't once come up for air, not even for the prospect of getting a treat. During the night last night, she only came up once for air, namely when her 2:00 a.m. feeder went off. I think she used her litter box after she ate, then it was right back on the bed again, there to stay.

We did eat takeout for dinner in Enumclaw, afterwhich BH went nuts wanting to leave for home immediately. He threw both suitcases into his car before I had a chance to pack my stuff, I had to leave my toiletries out loose in the trunk of SB's car. Not the end of the world I guess, but it was odd and chaotic. We got home at around 7:30 p.m. with a half hour to kill before we could enter the house, so we all went and got some treats at our local Dairy Queen. By now, things are mostly back to normal, but we still need to move Rainee's scratching post and cat tree back into the house.

In Chess, I played a bot game (versus Vinh), I played as white, and won. It was a nice clean game too, for me. Lots of trading equal pieces, and maintaining a good amount of control over the situation. I got lucky too, Vinh made at least one mistake that I saw, he let one of his rooks be captured by my light-squared bishop. I would say that Vinh is definitely an easier opponent than Naycir, Naycir uses a lot of complicated strategy, a lot for me anyway. If I win tomorrow's game, playing as black against Vinh, I'll then move on to another game (playing as white) against Naycir. Bleah.

In my slow game versus SB, she did not advance that h-pawn, so I got to advance my h-pawn and establish that pawn wall after all. I had to sacrifice another pawn in order to do it, but I think it was worth it. Now I'm pretty sure I will easily be able to promote one of my other pawns, and easily win from there if I don't do something stupid like draw the game with a stalemate.

This concludes my riport.
 
5:53 p.m., Thursday the 6th

I've gotten behind on my internet stuff, due to move-related stuff (e.g. an inspection on Tuesday). Because of that, I have only played one more bot game since last entry -- as black versus Vinh. I won, and never got behind on material, but nonetheless it was a nerve-racking game. I overlooked some strategic/tactical points, and got myself into some tight spots. But I managed to stay alive.

My next bot game will be as white versus Naycir ... the same as three earlier games I did. I won one of them, and lost two. So statistically, I have about a 33% chance of winning the next one. What can I say, I'll probably lose.

BH's birthday was yesterday. We had cake and alcohol. Life was good. During the inspection on Tuesday, we ate out at Puerta Vallarta. Life was good. Not sure what we'll have for dinner tonight. I haven't eaten today so far so I'm pretty hungry. This concludes my riport.
 
5:50 p.m., Sunday the 9th

I seem to be having trouble catching up on things, and I am getting up even later in the day which doesn't help.

I lost my last bot game. I am beginning to suspect that Naycir is an underrated opponent. She's labeled 1300, but should be labeled 1400 at least. That said, I'm not sure this recent loss should be blamed on Naycir's strength. I played poorly. I did some really stupid things in terms of tactics and strategy, for example lining up my rooks on one diagonal, so that Naycir's bishop could easily capture one of them. I just played poorly, and I don't know why. Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy, that I believe Naycir is going to beat me? Who knows.

Also I forgot to mention, we got, like, ten bids on our house, and the best bid was for $354,000.00 ... I don't know if we'll actually get that much. The house has to be appraised first. The bidder says that if the house appraises for less than 354, she'll still go up to $6,000.00 over whatever it does appraise at. The bidder is a cool person too, she sent us a digital letter telling a little about herself, and saying why she liked the house. She has some things in common with Friendly Neighbor Guy, like him she's single, she's military (like he was), and in case it matters, like him she's black. I know he doesn't want us to move out, but I'm hoping he'll be as happy with the new owner as we are.

Dinner's ready, so I better wrap this up.
 
7:11 p.m., Thursday the 13th

BH is now en route to New Mexico. The entire trip takes three days at about eight hours per day. Today was the first day.

I've been getting super, super tired lately. I had to get up early today (early for me) so we could be out of the house during its appraisal. I wasn't a happy camper, but I managed. Afterwards I took a nap. Tomorrow I have to get up early again, to go to my final dentist appointment before moving. In the meantime I've got ridiculously behind on Facebook, hell I'm just now getting caught up on this forum. I don't know if I'll get caught up tonight. I can only hope. I haven't done any bot games since my above entry. Fine by me. I can start doing them again after I catch up on the other stuff. I have still been trying to do one Chess puzzle and one Chess lesson per day; that doesn't take very long.

Dinner's probably about ready, so I am going to sign off.
 
5:57 p.m., Friday the 14th

2:00 a.m. rolled around last night, and I was not able to get caught up by then. Which was quite frustrating, but all I can think of to do is to try again tonight. It looks like I'm getting my forum stuff done a little earlier, so maybe that is a good sign. My dentist appointment went pretty well, and SB bought me a frozen coffee drink afterwards. For most of tomorrow, and most of Sunday, SB will be at a Barn Hunt trial/competition with Eddie. I will have to feed Rainee three times, and do Rainee's litter box one time. On the upside, Rainee and I will have the whole house to ourselves.
 
8:52 p.m., Saturday the 15th

Turns out I only have to feed Rainee two times, SB fed her (and Eddie) this morning before leaving. Last night I did catch up, which is to say, I examined as many Facebook posts (showing most recent first) as possible, after which some kind of an error message serves as the last post, and it won't go any further. Last night's error message came up quite a bit earlier than I had expected, so catching up wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. But it was nice to be able to log out an hour before midnight.

I played (as white) a bot game (versus Vinh) today ... and won, but it wasn't a clean game. In the opening, I mistakenly left my b2 pawn (and thus my a1 rook) vulnerable to an attack by black's queen. I managed to save the rook by trading queens, but I remained a point behind in material, plus with a screwed-up pawn chain, I'd say for about half of the game. I managed to slowwwly turn the game around; it wasn't easy. My next bot game, probably tomorrow, will be with me as black versus Vinh. Bleah.
 
5:18 p.m., Sunday the 16th

I won today's bot game, it wasn't easy and correspondingly, wasn't terribly fun. After this it's back to playing against Naycir, and that really sucks. Statistically, my chances of winning are about 25%. I know, why do I punish myself like this, right? only so my games against weaker opponents will be more fun. I guess. Maybe for the feeling of accomplishment? I don't get much of that though.

SB (and Eddie) got back here at about 4:00 p.m. ... SB says that Eddie did poorly on Barn Hunt. She may pull him from that sport, she's thinking about having him visit people in hospitals and stuff. For dinner we'll have Subway, we'll split a tuna footlong. Hopefully we'll also drink some whiskey ...
 
11:20 p.m., Tuesday the 18th

I'm way behind on things, and have been putting off that next bot game. The chaos from moving is gradually building, and soon I won't have any time to do any computer stuff. It'll take me weeks to get caught back up again, at least that's the future as I now foresee it.

We got the report back from the appraisal they did on our house, and it looks like we'll get the full $354,000.00 for it. That's good news, right?

Since BH is in New Mexico, SB and I had good opportunity today for a sexual encounter. That's pretty rare these days. She actually prefers not to be on the receiving end of anything, she just does manual favors for me. Her compensation is, that I work on her neck and back.

On Sunday, we did not drink any whiskey because we didn't have anything to mix it with. We walked to Rite Aid yesterday with Eddie, and SB went in and bought some cola and ginger ale. And, a small bottle of Hennessy cognac (very special). We finished off our whiskey yesterday, and drank half of the cognac today.
 
6:11 p.m., Wednesday the 19th

I still haven't done that next bot game versus Naycir, I'm persistently putting that off, but it does seem obvious I can get caught up on things today (before 2:00 a.m.).

SB and Eddie went to Argus today for a private Barn Hunt training session for Eddie. I guess the idea is to figure out if Barn Hunt is still the right sport for Eddie to be in. The session started at 5:00 p.m., and is probably done. They'll probably get home in about an hour, SB says she'll get some takeout for us on the way home, she says she'll surprise me which is fine.
 
7:14 p.m., Friday the 28th

The chaos of moving is in full swing, and has been for over a week now. SB and I are currently staying at a motel with the pets. Tomorrow I fly to Albuquerque with Rainee -- as long as we don't lose her going through security. :(

Our new home will be a condo in northeast Albuquerque. We will be able to pay just $199,000.00 for it. Combine that with what we sold our Yelm house for, and we'll be coming out $155,000.00 ahead. Minus whatever immediate projects the condo needs, we might have the flooring redone for example. The new home is actually bigger than the one we're leaving behind.

The main drawback to all this -- after the risk of losing the cat -- is that we can't move into the condo until like July. We will have to live in an extended stay place for a month. BH is already living there. SB will drive down after she drops me off at the airport.

If you're a believer: please pray for Rainee.
 
12:09 p.m., Sunday the 30th

Thank gods, Rainee made it through security just fine. She even stopped crying, once we got to the airport. Overall she handled the move very well. SB was super helpful too, she went through security with me, and took care of Rainee. On the plane, I didn't get a window seat, but I had my handheld Chess computer which was a lifesaver.

Things will quiet down for about a month, while we wait for the transaction to be completed with our new condo. I'm at the extended stay place now, with BH. It's a small place, but pretty nice. Once we get into the condo, we'll all have plenty of room.

I'm very sorry to hear about your dogs, PPG. A lost pet can never be replaced, there will always be an empty place in your heart where those dogs used to be.
 
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