Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving and also the first time I've ever spent it alone in Tucson.  This year has been difficult with COVID, and my dad is especially paranoid, rightfully so being 70-years-old.  I told him it's fine if we don't celebrate Thanksgiving on November 26th.  It's just a day and if we really want to, we can celebrate it later after things are a little safer.  It's certainly been a little weird hanging around today and not being with my parents and my sister's family, but it is what it is.  I ate leftovers for lunch and am gonna make spaghetti for dinner, it's just another day.

It feels like we just can't shake off this pandemic, but I'm still trying to stay as active as possible.  Fortunately, I can work remotely for IBM and they are still taking care of me.  I've been working on my Twitch stream and content more than ever lately.  And I've picked up a Monday pool league in addition to Tuesday nights, while also bowling on Thursdays.  I still hit the gym as often as possible, but with all the activities going on, it's more like 3 times a week.

Anyway, stay safe out there and see ya next month.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving!

Benzi's 2nd Birthday!

Today is Benzi's 2nd birthday!  He is the oldest of my three pets and it's crazy to think that there was a chance I might have lost him when he was just 7 months old.  Anyway, he is doing great and is loving life with Ember (my other cat) and Lucy (my dog).  Today for his birthday, I will make sure he gets a nice Royal Canin feast. :)

Life has been slowly getting back to normal.  We are 7 weeks into the bowling season and my team is currently in 1st place by a nice margin.  I'm currently sitting at a 201 average, which doesn't really seem sustainable although I have bowled 4 straights weeks with a 600+ series.  I feel like the new competition and bowling with better players has given me extra motivation to do well.  I find myself focusing more each throw.  We'll see if I can keep it up!  I haven't finished a season over 190+ in over 5 years.

Pool league has also started back up!  My team did not do well in the playoffs (myself included), but it's nice to be back.  I'm also going to pick up a league on Monday nights in a couple weeks for the winter session and hopefully playing twice a week will crispen my skills and accuracy, which has been lacking ever since Covid.

And the final update is that I ordered the iPhone 12 Pro today!  I went for the Pro to get the extra FPS (60 with the Pro instead of 30 with the base) for video recordings, which could help for any potential IRL streams I might do on my Twitch.  I then went for the 256GB storage just to be safe.  I'm super excited to get a new phone seeing how I still have an iPhone 6 that is 6 years old! :O

Hope everyone is doing well!  Take care and stay safe out there!

Bowling is Back!

 Bowling league is back!  Well, sort of...

For the past 15 or so years, I have been bowling in the IBM league.  When the league first started, there was a lot of IBMer participation and we had maybe 12 full 4-person teams filling out the league.  Over the years, participation would gradually fall to the point where last year we only had 6 teams and two of them weren't even teams containing any IBM employees or retirees. :(

It is now 2020 and I am sad to say that the IBM league was only able to gather 4 interested teams, which is under the minimum required to have a league.  So unfortunately there is no IBM Bowling League this season and honestly there might not be for a while.

However, there's a house league that bowls on Thursday nights and a few of the IBMers still interested in bowling decided to join that league instead, which contains over 20 teams.  I was on the fence about joining since basically all of my former teammates from the past decade no longer bowl with me.  I got invited by a former IBM team to join their squad and eventually I decided to give it a try.  Honestly, with stay-at-home life, it would be nice to just get out of the house and I do still very much love bowling even though it is a dying sport.

And so with that, bowling is back!  We are now in our 3rd week already and the new team is good and we're also doing well, off to a 22-2 start!  I'm currently sitting around a 180 average, which is where I want to be.  It'll be interesting to see how the season goes and if it doesn't get shut down to Covid.  One must wear a mask at all times unless they are eating, drinking, or up on the lanes to bowl.  Here's seeing if I can carry my championship level success to a new league!

Introducing Lucy!

Last year, I adopted two kittens named Benzi and Ember.  For a while, I had been thinking about adopting a dog as well.  I had researched several breeds and suggestions from people about how and what kind of dog to get, but of course, everyone has different opinions.

 

Taking care of cats is easy since they require very little maintenance: they use a litter box, you don't need to walk them every day, they are self-grooming.  Taking care of a dog is a large responsiblity and very time-consuming and since I live by myself, I didn't know if I'd have enough time for one.  Ironically, because of Covid and stay-at-home life, I've been home pretty much 24/7, so I figured now was the time to adopt a dog if it were ever going to happen.

In the middle of August, I decided to start looking online at what dogs were available at the local shelters.  I'm not too picky on look honestly, it's more about personality.  I looked online at Pima Animal Care Center's website one day and found a small dog that I thought looked cute, so I wanted to go check it out.

I scheduled an appointment with the shelter and when I got there, they told me that dog was no longer available.  I decided to look and see what dogs they had anyway, since not all of them are listed on the website.  First, I looked at all the big dogs, picking out 3 that I was interested in.  Then I ventured through the small dogs and puppies.  I didn't want a puppy though, because I feel like that would be a lot of work training and for a first-time dog owner, maybe something over a year old would be best.  Most of the small dogs had been claimed, but there was one that I noticed because she didn't say anything and I like quiet dogs. :)

They gave me the rundown of the dogs I showed interest in, but all the big dogs were "special needs" dogs requiring additional attention and training, which was not good for a first-time dog owner.  The small dog they had very little information on since she just arrived as a stray the day earlier.  I decided to meet her and she was very calm and quiet, which is what I was looking for.  And so I put a reservation down on her and planned to pick her up a couple days later!

Her name at the shelter was Faith and when I brought her home, I couldn't decide what to name her right away.  I let her go nameless for a while before I eventually picked out the name Lucy.  I don't know, she just looked like a Lucy to me.

The first night, I was very nervous.  I have two cats, I kept stressing about how they would get along.  I had never owned a dog, I had no idea what I was doing.  I took 3 days off work and wrapped it around the weekend to get a full 5 days off taking care and supervising the new dog.  I also had to take her out on a walk, train her to use the bathroom outside, etc.  Make sure she liked her new food.  Just a lot of new territory for me and after the first two days I started questioning myself, "what have I done?"

After the first couple days separated off in her own room, I slowly started to introduce her to other parts of the house.  I'd keep the cats in her room and basically do an exchange, allowing them to get used to the smells before letting them see each other.  Of course, the biggest strategy to getting pets to get along is FOOD!  Food unites everyone, so I made sure that dinner time was a family thing, getting all pets to eat at the same time was very important.

It's now been 2+ weeks since Lucy has been here and everyone is more comfortable with having her around.  She still occasionally pees in the house, but we're working on that.  And she'll probably need obedience training down the road.  Regardless, I've been taking it one day at a time, learning about her and the cats' reactions to them, and I think we can be one big pet family in a few months or years or whatever it takes. :D

I never thought I'd get a small wire-hair terrier for a dog, but like I said, it's not so much about looks for me but their personality and obedience.  I wanted a couch potato dog, and I got lucky because she fits that role quite well.  And so my pet family is complete!  I won't be adopting anymore pets, I think 2 cats and 1 dog is purrfect for me.  Welcome to the family Lucy!