General Updates

Well I've got a few things to report on, so I'll just squish 'em all into one blog entry and call it good. :)

Apache: The white Terror-ier

Some not so great news came in email format from the homefront the other day. Apache, the family Jack Russell Terrier wasn't feeling so hot. He's getting on in his years, but you wouldn't really know it by seeing him. He's still got quite the spark in him and acts like a puppy all the time. Well, it would appear this has caught up with him. He had developed some pain and the inability to jump up on furniture or even negotiate the stairs. So off to the vet, and after some lengthy tests it was quite evident that he has some pretty bad back problems. He has a compressed disc in his back which has been causing him all the pain.

The good news however, other than this, he's in crazy good health. Like stupid crazy good. :) I attribute this to the fact that since my parents retirement a couple years ago, he gets many long walks and lots of play and attention. I recall coming home at one point from Calgary and feeling him and exclaiming "he's all muscular!" And he was, he's very fit and all the tests proved that as well. Not even any arthritis, which we had all expected.

Anyways, so he's on some medication and initially this didn't do a whole lot. He was not a happy camper and was still in considerable pain. They didn't want to put him on steroids, because he is an older dog and therefore his liver isn't likely operating at 100%. But upon a second visit to the vet, they decided the liver was secondary seeing he was in so much pain.

Another email arrived with the latest status report, 20hrs after the vet visit. A new dog! - it rejoiced. He was feeling much better and able to walk around quite easily. So hopefully this added boost will help him recover a bit from his back problems. If necessary however, there is likely to be a visit to the doggy chiropractor and even possibly surgery. It's actually quite coincidental, my sister has had the exact same problem a few years ago and underwent back surgery to fix her up.

So hopefully he's gonna pull through all of this. He's on all sorts of drugs right now, but still quite "Apache-like". The next few weeks will tell.

Poker

I continue to play in feeder tourney's and today got so close to a seat I could taste it. After a couple of hours of play I was headsup for the only entry chip available. I had about 1/3 the chip stack of my opponent who had dominated the entire final table. I was fighting back quite nicely. Then the fateful hand. I'm dealt JJ and he is first to act and does his usual raise. I just go full all in and he calls without hesitation. His had is AJ offsuit. I'm pretty ecstatic as only an Ace or some lucky card combinations is gonna stop me from doubling up and taking the lead. The flop had an Ace. And my miracle Jack never came to save me. Dang! So close.

Other than that, I've been playing in other little heads up games and small 10 seater tourneys to keep my poker account growing and to also help pay for all the entry fees into all the feeder events I've been entering.

Car Stuff!

It's been a while since I've done anything with my car. And the good weather we've been having in Calgary finally meant I could go out and at least clean and wash it. That felt good. One thing that has been irking me for quite some time is the Boost gauge that I have mounted on my dash. It was originally setup using doublesided tape, but after a couple of summers in the hot hot sun, it had given way. So last summer I went and re-did the tape. But it didn't last too long. So for the entire winter I've had my Boost gauge just more or less hanging by it's wires next to my drivers side airvent.

Today I decided it was time to fix this problem. I did the same double taping but this time I'm applying pressure for a greater period of time so the glue on the tape really has some time to make a good bond. Here's my method of vice clamps, pieces of wood and even my leatherman being used to apply even pressure on the base of the gauge mount.



Hopefully this time it holds! I'll release the clamps later today or tomorrow, as the car isn't quite drivable with that all in place.

Also, I've added a very large device to the trunk of my car. My roommate Mike used to have a subwoofer/amp in his old car but had taken it out. His new car that he's getting (the new Honda Civic Si) will already have a factory sub so he asked if I wanted to put his old sub in my car. Hell yeah!

What should have taken maybe 2 hrs, took us pretty close to five freaking hours! Haha, the interior of the Subaru was ripped apart so we could run wires and the dashboard was dismantled so we could plug in wires to the back of my stereo unit. The end result after much cursing, bruising and even some electrical jolting is pretty good. The sub booms really nicely and you can't even hear it from outside aside from some small rattles from the trunk. But once you're in the car, holy, bass city!

The one problem I came across was how am I going to secure it in the trunk so it doesn't slide around. I did some research and was thinking I'd likely end up having to drill some holes and mount it with brackets and bolts. But then I came across what one guy had done with his sub in the back of his Subaru. He had taken the car jack and simply put it on top, and extended it. So I thought hmmm.. and followed suit. It works perfectly! Doesn't move at all and I didn't have the sub is easy to take out if need be. Pics below:



That's all for this update!