Message board topic:

I cleaned out Piggy's cage yesterday and he got to run around in his big pen for the first time in 2 weeks.  (It was full of snow last week.)  Poor Van Gogh is always exiled to the bedroom the whole time so I don't have to worry about keeping them apart.  I don't think Van Gogh minds much though.  She's in there on the bed most of the time anyway.  She still curls up in my face when I go to bed.  She never stays there too long though before she jumps down.  Then I don't know what she does for the rest of the night.  I usually wake up with her somewhere else on the bed.

I've only got those 3 games on the Lichess computer and all on the lowest level.  I seem to have a harder time with it than you do!  There's no way I can play a game if I know I'm rushed for time, so playing a game is usually one of the last things I do every day, when I know I've got time to sit back and think about it.  About the last thing I do every day is go back and analyze past games to see where I went wrong or right.  In analysis, I'm constantly amazed at things I missed while playing.  A couple of nights ago I looked at that draw I played about 2 weeks ago.  But when I saw it was a 95 move game, even though I should have looked at it, I just couldn't.  I remembered vividly, losing that Queen and how close I was to winning when I blew it.  Actually I'm shocked I was able to draw it after what happened, because there were still 5 or 6 Pawns on each side and he had that Bishop.  I had to analyze one last night that I'd lost shortly after that draw.  Analyzing a loss is no fun either but I usually grit my teeth and do it.  John

I used to keep cat grass in the computer room for mostly ^Orion^ (a long time ago) as he loved the stuff.

Honestly I do not remember my thought process on my last game. I know most of them were while at work and done quickly since I was working. I remember swallowing hard a few times as I made some blunders because I was preoccupied with work, but managed to still pull it off in the end. I really need to jump to level 3, but I am sort of worried it will cause my first loss on the site. ;)

Van Gogh rarely gets up on the kitchen counters, though it does happen.  (She often climbs up on the table.)  Lately the counters have been kind of cluttered.  Microwave, coffee maker, dish drainer, etc.  Yesterday for the first time in months, Van Gogh tried to jump up there but it was so crowded there was no place for her to go, so she grabbed at a towel under the dish drainer and almost pued the whole thing, (with a few dishes) off!  Thankfully I was there to grab the drainer before it fell on her.  She let out a weird yeowl and ran off.

Van Gogh has only "whorfed" 3 times in all the years I've had her, but 2 of those times were in the last few days.  I was worried of course, but then I saw why.  Piggy is a little messy, sometimes knocking bits of paper litter out on the floor...and grass.  I saw Van Gogh sucking up bits of grass yesterday.  I try to keep the grass picked up, as it tends to clog the vacuum cleaner, but you never know when he's going to knock a few blades out.  Van Gogh never goes outside but I've heard it's good for them to eat a little grass now and then and even good for them to whorf once in a while, but I don't know if this is a good thing.  Anyway, I'll try to keep it clean around that cage.  Otherwise, both Piggy and Van Gogh seem fine.

Was looking over your latest game last night.  Would love to know your thought processes throughout the game.  I was looking over a game I played about 2 weeks ago, (not on Lichess).  I was on the verge of winning, then stupidly lost my Queen.  I let it sit in the way of a Bishop.  So the game ended up a draw.  95 moves to get to a draw!  Man that's so frustrating!  Especially when I was so close to winning then stupidly threw it away!  It ended up with my King against a King and Bishop.  Oh well, live and learn.  John