Why is it Liberals have such short memories?

In the current economic state it seems a bit disingenuous for all the Democrats to be pointing fingers at GW and blaming him for what is going on. Wasn't the concept of using Fannie and Freddie to give low-income (not qualified) people mortgages? Barney Frank isn't he a Democrat? Wasn't Clinton a pioneer in signing legislation that helped all of this happen?

It seems the Dems forget in 2003 President Bush tried to get congress to pass legislation to reel in Freddie and Fannie. Why is it all the democrats forget that they blocked this legislation? Oh, let's not leave out the many Republicans that also blocked this legislation.

The current situation is why we should have term limits in congress. These idiots would not be so worried about doing the right thing if they knew their time was short. How about 10 years and you are gone for representatives and 2 terms for Senators. Why do we need career politicians that are there to enrich their own bank accounts. How is it even possible that someone can be in charge of a Federal agency and make close to $100 million dollars for themselves?

Why is their no outrage in the streets over these politicians increasing their own net worth some much while in office? They go there with nothing and leave with their bank accounts swelling, net worth's soar.

The saying I didn't become a politician to get rich is a joke. They do it for the money and the power, screw the people.

Gregoire, what a joke.

Gregoire is just realizing that she has spent us further into debt. I wonder why the republicans knew about this months and months ago and she didn't? What is even funnier is that she is blaming this past weekend's Wall Street problems on why we are going to have a budget shortfall. It wouldn't have anything to do with them increasing spending as much as they did. She took office with a $2.5 billion deficit and she grew it to $3.25 billion. Well, done Christine, oh, sorry, Chris.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008189261_govbudget19m.html

State of the Economy

What is it with all these huge Wall Street companies going under? I am kind of getting sick of my Government bailing out all of these companies with my tax money. Perhaps I would have a different view of things if I had tons of money invested with them, but I don't, so maybe it is a blessing to be one of the not-rich in our society.

Would it be so bad for the weak to go under or be consumed by the strong? Isn't that how a healthy economy works? Let's have a good blood-letting and let them all go down the tubes. The sun will rise tomorrow and life will go on. Maybe it would be better to let those companies that cannot survive to die. People that can't pay their mortgages, lose their homes.

God help us if Barack Obama wins the election, instead of us being near the bottom of this economic hole, we'll be on our way to even deeper into the pits of hell.

Yea! a little help on the way

Well, the Seahawks swallowed their pride yesterday and signed Koren Robinson, again, to a one year contract. If he is in half-way decent shape, Matt, should be throwing him the pigskin this weekend. Not too mention he could be returning punts/kickoffs maybe. At any rate he should be able to shake the rust off and get up to speed very quickly given his knowledge of our system and terminology.

The Hawks also signed Keary Colbert in a trade with Denver. He has been a productive receiver in this league in the past, certainly better than McMullen. He should be a nice addition given how lousy a reciever Courtney Taylor appears to be.

Another Seahawks blunder

Well, another Sunday, another disappointment. I guess the referees didn't get the memo that the Seahawks are one of the most disciplined teams in the NFL and seldom if ever get penalties judging by the way they were bailing out San Francisco today. They also missed the seminar on what pass interference is as well.

Courtney Taylor once again forces us to ask the question of why exactly he is on the team. As far as I am aware there is no league requirement that you have a receiver that is good for a few dropped passes every week. And McMullen, where to start. This guy had several drops, ran too short of routes to pick up first downs, fumbled a ball on the 10yd line, oh, and was a key player in an 86 yd interception return for a touchdown due to his inability to catch a ball that hits his hands. Carlson was the only guy that was just catching footballs. Bumpus did a fine job in the return game as well. We must scratch our heads every time Taylor is on the field doing nothing and dropping balls sent his way, why is Jordan Kent on the practice squad?

The secondary once again gave up too many big plays to win a game. Hey, Mr. Jennings, you might want to play better defense or you might find yourself sitting at home with Plackemeier watching the games on Sunday. It probably didn't help us today that our defensive calls seemed to be off base at times allowing O'Sullivan to run wild at times, or their running backs, AGAIN. It was also nice to see them get some deep balls in with nobody covering the deep middle. I had thought we fixed this problem last year, but I guess it is back, AGAIN.

We were running the ball very well today, thank goodness. Can anyone explain why we ran 3 passing plays after they scored in the 3rd quarter there? Then we have to punt and give it right back to them. The next possession we go back to running with a few passes here and there and we move down the field and score.

The Seahawks should have easily crushed the 49ers today, and yet they lose, because they can not get a 3rd stop when they need one. Who cares that you dominated for 90% of the game when you allow the big 3rd conversions in the 4th quarter, and worse yet, overtime. What an incredibly stupid time to decide to blitz on 3rd and 7 when they were doing nothing. Good job, you give up a huge gain and the game was all but over.

Recievers get an F
Tide Ends A
O-line B
D-Line B+
Secondary D
Special Teams C
Coaching C

The Rams are up next for a battle for the division cellar.

JC_Saves, what does it mean?

JC_Saves is the screen name that I use when I play poker on Poker Stars. I like to spread the word in anyway that I can. It is very interesting the comments, mostly very positive, that I get. When I started this blog long ago I was going to use it mainly just for talking about poker. That is why I put JC_Saves in the title of the blog. Although, I certainly intend to talk about poker, I am going to try and talk about my life, family and other matters that interest me.

Oh, and just for everyone's benefit, asking for God's help while playing cards is one of the sillier things you could do. During the WSOP main event last year at the final table there were two people that continually called out for God's help. It was one of the most pathetic things that I have witnessed. There was a woman who basically was asking over and over for God to intervene so her boyfriend could win a hand. She kept repeating some very obscure bible(I am assuming) reference. After a while I found myself disliking this person and really rooting for them to lose and be gone so I wouldn't have to hear her any longer, and thankfully, that prayer was answered.

The eventual winner of the main event, who was also asking for God's help, was a social worker who was planning on spending his prize money to help the needy people of his community, so maybe God did smile upon his fate that day, who knows. I do know this, God does not care about helping you win a hand of poker, a game of baseball, football or any other sporting event. To ask for his intervention in such matters is foolish. I would much rather ask for wisdom, patience and good health, which will serve me far better in life, and the team I am rooting for.

Repair 2008

Repair 2008 118, originally uploaded by monkzila.

This is after I tore down and put back together the engine. The red lines are new silicone vacuum lines. I replace all the vacuum lines which were old anyway with these new ones. Notice the new chrome air intake pipes. It really does look sharp up close and personal.

While I had it apart I took the time to remove some uncessary water lines and assorted other systems that Nissan subsequently did away with in later years due to there unimportance and lack of real use

Hello

Hello everyone,
I am going to try and start posting things again, although, we will have to see how up-to-date I can keep it.

I have been very busy working on projects around the house and with work. Although, work in the summertime in my business fluctuates a fair amount, I was still pretty busy. In early August we had a bit of an overheating issue with the 300Zx and blew the head gasket. I have been tearing down the engine and doing a little comsetic work on the engine. I took the opportunity to clean and pain many of the parts, and I also replaced all the fuel injectors as the last time we had the emissions done on it it failed and the guy that worked on it told us that the injectors were not firing the way that they should. This was very disappointing because I had them supposedly cleaned and rebuilt when I put the new engine in.

My mechanic, or my mechanic's son as it happens to be is not very good. Unless absolutely necessary I doubt I will have anyone work on this engine/car again due to the shoddy work and added expense. The shop wanted $1800 to replace the head gasket. I added headers, new fuel injectors($500), new intake, new gaskets, new radiator, new thermostat, new ignition module, new vacuum lines, chrome bolt package, numerous cans of engine spray paint, assorted tools, 3 new guages and guage pod to hold them(which looks really nice, by the way), and a new hands-free amplified speaker for the interior. Even after adding all these things I am still well under, by a significant amount, from the $1800 my shop wanted to do the job. It always saves to do it yourself.

We have also been spending a fair amount of time seeing the grandkids. They really like coming over to the house and running around the backyard playing with the dogs. Kids and dogs is a natural as the sun rising from the east. Even though Shalisa is only about 18 months she is very adventurous and loves the dogs. She especially loves to play with their water bowl outside, often deciding to stand in it with her sandles on. The other day she watched the dogs getting a drink and walked over and leaned down and put her face down to the water to try and get a drink for herself, priceless. It is a shame you can never get the camera in time. Mischief is very cute with the little ones and seemingly never knocks them down, even though she is much bigger than all three children.


Shalisa sticking her tongue out at the dog, mimicking the Mischief.


Neveah being cute.


De`Andre having a good time in the backyard on a hot day.


Our three girls relaxing.

I have been lazy

Back in April I decided to end my subscription to PokerXFactor, and shortly after that I started playing Everquest again for fun. I used to play with my son when it first came out and it was very interesting how the game has changed. I is what I spend my leisure time doing. I still play poker online but the fire in my heart has dimmed a bit. I did last week play in a $20 tourney with 1045 people in it and ended up finishing 33rd, which was really nice. I thought I played exceptionally well, especially given the fact that was my first tourney in 3 months. I have played some SNGs and have monied about %80 of those that I have played. I still love the game and anticipate playing more in the future.

I have not had a chance to do many of the projects that I had wanted to undertake due to a back injury in May that I have just recently revovered from. I had wanted to paint the house and lay some concrete but they will have to wait perhaps until next year, although summer is just getting going so I may do some of that yet.

I did get a new car (at least to me) in May. I acquired a 2002 Mercedes C230 Kompressor. I have really enjoyed the zippiness of this compared to my 300E. The 300 is still in great shape, although it needs some work, which will be done as soon as I sell my Isuzu to pay for the repairs.

We jus booked a cruise for this winter so that will be something fun to look forward to. Although leaving my house to my 18yr old daughter will have it's potential drawbacks. lol

Update

Not a lot has been going on lately. My work has really picked up so that has kept me busy. I have played hardly any poker at all the last week and a half and that has been okay with me. I still love to play, but it is nice to do some other things as well.

I have canceled my PokerXfactor account as I don't think it is worth the $25 a month at this point. You can only hear someone say the same thing so many times in so many videos. Down the road I may try out one of the other sites to get some fresh new perspectives, which is always valuable.

The weather is starting to get nicer and it will be time to do some work on the yard and fences, and maybe even on the truck to get it ready to be painted.

Recalibration

Recently I started reading Harrington on Hold'em Vol. 3, the workbook, and I must say that this is a very nice read. This is the type of book that you can sit down and read any time any where when you have 10 minutes you can do a hand. The ideas and concepts in this book really are worth the read. We all try, or at least we should be trying to put our opponents on hands while we are playing. Some of us do this better than others, and this is what makes them very succesful. People that are very good post flop players can put people on hands and then you play accordingly.

It would be silly to try and make a move on someone if the range of hands we put them on is such that there is little to no chance they will fold. We must therefore act accordingly. At times I think I have done a very poor job at this. I think it is the last frontier, or hurdle to cross to becoming an even better poker player.

I have also been reading Super System 1 by Doyle Brunson and friends. I am reading the NL chapter, though I actually bought it for Razz and Lowball, and even Stud for that matter. I use to be of the opinion that I didn't really care what was in this NL section by Doyle. I am very sorry that I had this opinion for so long. I wish that this was the first book that I read. I would be even further along in my journey.

I have been playing a lot more MTTs than SNGs lately and I think my SNG game has suffered because of it. I also recently tried Sharkscope out, which is a program that tells you everyone's STATS at the table so you can see who the loser players are. I thought when I first got this program that it was a great tool, but now I am of the mind that it is very counter productive and I have stopped using it. I find that when I know who the really bad players are I let it influence my decisions too much when I am involved in hands with them. After all a donkey can wake up with a hand some of the time and that is why you see a lot of donkeys with lots of chips because people keep paying them off with sub par hands. I will not be using it anymore, except for enterainment value not while I am playing.

I have decided while I am on the big skid that I am on, mainly due to all the MTTs I have been playing. Although I have had success there, and in the SNG arena I have decided that I am going to drop down to the minimum level of play and just concentrate on being patient and getting back to my game. I am going to use the time to concentrate on reading people and making the correct play regardless of the result. I had some really nice success yesterday and learned a few things about reading hands and people, and the best part about it all is that if I bubbled, though, frustrating, it really was not that big of a deal because the affect on my bankroll was inconsequential.

I think a lot can be learned by going back and learning to deal with really bad players and how to play hands with them. This will translate greatly in large field tournaments due to all the bad players that satellite into them. In the past whenever I felt like the stars were aligned against me, like the last few days, I would stop playing and go to the play money games and then just crush people and have fun. I am doing the same thing except I am still playing for money and the other people are as well, and hopefully most of them are playing some sort of game and not just throwing it away with disregard.

There are so many things to learn about playing poker and sometimes we get caught up into the wanting to advance to the next level of game that we don't learn everything we should have at the lower levels. While I am dreaming of the day I can play the 50 rebuy and 100 rebuy and all the other high buy-in tourneys, I will grind my way there absorbing everything along the way. I know that it will come to me if I lay the foundation properly. I am confident that I have what it takes to become a top notch player. The trick is nurturing that confidence and protecting it and giving it all the tools it needs to stay that way even in the face of adversity. There is no secret we can learn that will automatically make us great. No system to be found. Just the hard work to learn and incorporate the things that will make you succesful, where it is second nature and you just know this is the play to be made and now is the time to do it.

update

Well, I have been dealing with a downswing the last 10 days or so, which is frustrating. I have seen a lot of cold decks and for some unexplainable reasons cannot seem to win a coin flip, not even when I am ahead, which is 90% of the time. It has been very odd because I feel that I have played incredibly well and that just adds to the frustration. It is part of the game obviously so I try not to think about it too much and just keep plugging along.

I have been playing more MTTs lately and have been playing really well, going pretty deep in a number of them. I think my play has evolved into something that will be more successful long term. Although, I misplayed AKss yesterday very badly by over-thinking the situation. I intend to go over a couple HHs today and set up some guidelines that will be my poker philosophy. I am going to help myself by eliminating some of those tough decisions that we face. Obviously, each hand is a world of its own, but by using M calculations and number of BBs left I think I can simplify the game a little. I made a really bad laydown because my stack was at an awkward size and I gave my opponent too much credit, when I should have been happy, I was confused. It won't happen again, period, when it comes to that situation.


Aggression is the key and the more times you can be brutally aggressive the more times you will be successful. I had a perfect hand a couple days ago where I played 86ss and hit top pair and a flush draw. I was ck/raised on the flop a significant amount and just called, when I should have shoved this person. I played this hand and hit the almost perfect on the flop. I had two 8s, three 6s, and 9 hearts that could give me the winning hand. That is 14 outs on the flop. I should take charge right then and either double up, early, or go home, which is fine because I was playing many other tournaments. 14 outs on the flop using the rule of 4/2 we multiplay 4 by 14 and get 56% chance of hitting our hand. With that kind of percentage I should have shoved to the reraise and let the cards fall.

This is a situation that I misplayed badly and ended up crippling myself because of it. it won't happen again. When playing speculative hands you have to be willing to go for broke if you hit your draw hard. So many people out there will be betting flops with nothing, ESPECIALLY after raising preflop that you have to be willing to put the maximum pressure on them.

I have had great success picking up more pots lately by playing more hands and picking up pots that nobody wants. These are chips that in the past I would not have had in my stack and I would have been in trouble sooner because of this.

I still feel that 2007 is going to be huge for me and I am very confident that I will win something this year, which will be nice, but I am looking for a lot of final tables. If I could just find a way to have my hands hold, lol. Poker is fickle and there is nothing anyone can do about the donkeys that call raises with K2ss and hit the flop perfect when we have top pair and get it all in, oops.

Remember, don't get mad at the donkeys that make assinine calls when they should fold. If they hit, just remember that you played it well and move one. It is hard, but necessary.

A new year

Well, this year has gotten off to a great start with some spectacular football games. Boise State, I must apologize. After rooting for you and watching until that fateful interception I watched something on the DVR and gave up on you. Oh, it does happen from time to time that the miracle happens, and I have seen my share, which is why I usually will not turn away, but I was so disappointed in the effort late in the game and so I turned away. What an amazing finish. If you have not seen it, I hear you can download a 20min clip on Itunes of the game. Truly amazing.

I have been busy reading the many many poker books that my wife, bless her heart, got for me for Christmas. All top notch and interesting books, my wish list is empty at this point.

I think that this year is going to be a very very good one for me. I am going to strive to eliminate negativity of any kind around me so that my poker playing can be without distraction. It is my goal this year to money some big tourneys, and if it is God's will I hope to win a seat to play in the WSOP main event this year.

I hope you all have a great 2007.

Governor Gregoire is anti-Christian

Well it is official for all of you that needed another reason to hate the lame governor of Washington. She lights a menorah, but refuses to have Nativity scene at the Capitol. I hope all Christians in the state of Washington remember this when her term is up.

New ideas

Well, I have come a upon a few realizations over the last few days concerning how to play in MTTs. Last night I decided to put my new found theories into practice. I played 3 tourneys and monied two fo them and final tabled one of them. Two were real nice tests, the third one was a short-handed event so it was not as good due to some donkey at my table.

I picked up some things by analyzing some hand histories on PXF and coming to some conclusions. I ordinarily would share these thoughts in the forum, but that forum has been pretty rude in the past so I am not going to be posting there. Recently I askeds a couple questions directed at the 'pro' players because I want to elevate my game and I wanted to know their thought process, but instead I get one loser player ripping my questions apart and before long it has lost any value.

Forums are a great place where people that are very insignificant in real life to be big men in Cyber life. It really is amazing how many people think that the world revolves around them in these forums. They think of themselves as the cyber police. And by all means, don't disagree with them. I have one guy on PXF that is a cyber stalker that will follow my every post and pick it apart to the point of obsession. It is okay though, because I get enough emails and IMs to tell me that I am not alone in thinking this guy is a whack job. I find it kind of funny because he is such a bad player and yet he tells everyone how badly they play.

I will read the posts and look at hand histories and watch videos, but posting doesn't bring anything positive so it is out.

I am poised to make a real run in 2007 and beyond.

Merry Christmass and a Happy New Year.

Update

Well, not a lot has been happening recently. Thanksgiving was really nice and we had a feast as usual. I have been playing really well and had some nice finishes in some MTTs, which is always nice. I tend to play SNGs (sit-n-gos) more as I can consistenly make money playing those so it is always nice to do well in the Multi-Table Tournaments(MTT).

We are getting ready for the Christmas season as most are. We had some really nasty snowy weather this week which was very unusual. It made Monday Night Football great to watch though, and of course the Seahawks came through like I knew they would. Could the announcers be any more in love with Brett Favre? They kept talking like Hasselbeck was playing so poorly, which just was not even close to accurate. Kornheiser what a baffoon. Bench Matt? moron. I had zero doubt at halftime that we would win that game. The packers really had not done anything on their own and the Hawks just moved up and down the field at will. It was just a matter of time before Brett threw a few to the Hawks and as usual, he was good for it. There are some QBs that you just know are going to toss a few up for grabs and he is one for sure. He should have hung it up a couple years ago. Now he is just an interception throwing machine.

I have tried to really vary my game this week and have just punished some people, which has been a lot of fun. I am really on top of it. I have made a few lifestyle changes as well. I no longer waste my time posting on PokerXfactor forums. It really is a waste as there are so my "geniuses" there. It is a waste of one's time trying to share information or spark discussion only to have these people that for the most part are not very bright rip you apart. There was one guy there that was so jealous for some reason that I never fully understood, but it was like he stalked me ripping apart sentence by sentence any post I made. It really was very amusing. I liked to play with him for a little bit, but it is hard to have a war of wits when the other guy is unarmed.

As Gigabet said, it is very counter-productive posting, because it will lead to negativity and as poker players we should strive to be positive and let that energy flow around us. It works and I have been very happy to not post or share info with the people that are negative. As always there are many people that send me private messages or emails asking for help, and I am only too happy to help anyone that asks me.

Good luck at the tables, and if you are at my table be very very careful.

Well, off to the tables.

hello

Well, it is getting to the holiday season again. This year has gone incredibly fast for me and the time flys by before you know it. I am have been playing as much poker as I can and have really learned a lot of things in the past few weeks. I have had some incredible highs and some annoying lows for sure.

I think the lows are the biggest learning process that a person can go through. It is against our nature as humans to accept defeat. We think that if we do everything right then everything has to work out well for us, but that is not the way of poker. You can play your hand perfectly and your opponent can still win. Both parties could play flawlessly and usually there is a loser. These are the moments that try our metal as poker players. The good players put it behind them and don't let it bother them. In the past I might have let it bother me, but I have learned to deal with it more and more.

Don't get me wrong, I get frustrated at not catching time after time when I have live cards, but I get over it very quickly and move on to the next game. The more times you make the correct play regardless of the outcome the better player you become. In the end it is about getting your money in good, or making the correct tactical and strategical decisions.

I feel that my game is on the edge of the next level of play. I still have the occasional screw up, but the funny thing is I tend to sense that I am about to make a bad play, and sometimes I just can't help making it. You know the type of hand, AK, and the sort when someone makes some crazy bet.

Crazy bets I have come to the conclusion more often than not mean a set or two pair and the person is so afraid, of what they don't know, but they are afraid of losing or they think I have a huge hand I want all my chips in there. I have seen people pushing 20 plus big blinds with very big hands preflop for no apparent reason other than they are afraid of being drawn out on so they would rather win the pathetic antes and blinds than more.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and see you at the tables as I will be playing a lot this week with my depleted work schedule.

up and down, but mostly up

Well today was a funny day. I have been playing and running pretty good all week as I have played a lot of poker, but today I could not win a race to save my life. I could have my opponent totally dominated AK vs. K3 and a 3 would hit and I would lose. It really was unreal. I haven't hit a set in about 2000 hands of poker as well, which is mind numbing. I had live cards all day today and I would miss constantly, or I would be up against someone and they would hit a set on the flop and I would be drawing dead.

I have been doing an experiment with taking $5 to a .10/.25 NL cash game and trying to double and then I take the 10 and move to .25/.50 and then if I double I move to .50/1.00 NL table and today I got to the .50/1 table with 23$ and when it was folded to the CO who raised it to $3 I figured I would push my pair of 88s from the BB and then the SB smooth called so I figured what a perfect time for a squeeze play. I reraised to 23$ and the CO folded and SB thought for a long time and then called, ugh. AK. I was ahead for about 2 seconds when the flop of xAA hit and turn K which I figured I was totally screwed and then the river came and the cards got flipped up an yes he had the nut full house. It was fun while it lasted.

I went to the store to get some materials for a home project and while I was eating lunch my alarm went off reminding me of the 12:00 Pot Limit Omaha tourney which I wanted to play in. I ran to the office and fired up the computer and entered it. It was only an $8.80 tourney. I wish it was 20, or better 50. I was down early to about 600 chips when I doubled back to 1200 and then I got a little stack and built it up nicely when I was outdrawn and left with 700 chips at the 50/100 level which is tough in Omaha.

I went on a little run and eventually got a pretty decent stack when I hit a straight on the turn. I had checked the flop and my opponent a total luck sack by the way, checked behind. I bet 11k on the turn when I hit my Q high straight. He reraised me and I went all in. Luckily I hit a flush on the river to become the chip leader which I head for a very long time. I entered the final table I think at 3rd in chips and eventually that is where I finished after playing very smart and watching the 2nd big stack implode to finish 4th. Pretty funny because about 15 minutes earlier he announced how he and the chip leader would finish 1, 2.

So when you can't win a race with 2 cards in NL maybe you need to switch to Omaha where you get 4 cards, much easier to hit something with the extra two cards. lol.

Movie Review - The Marine

This was one of the worst movies I have seen in some time. First off, it was out of focus and despite telling the guy in charge of the theatre, Lakewood AMC, they did nothing to fix the problem. Add to that two drunk idiots that sat down in front and the two talking children a row behind us and you have a recipe for disappointment.

This movie was incredibly pathetic. The Director of this thing should never be allowed to direct another movie. The special effects guy went out of his way to blow up as many things as he could with over the top explosions. It was like some little kid that was given the green light to go crazy.

The direction in this movie was non-existent. I mean how realistic is it that a guy gets hit in the stomach with a 10lb sledgehammer and is not phased by it at all. This movie was laughable because it was so bad. The acting and writing were on par with a really bad B movie.

Life happens

Well, I have not been this busy in quite some time. Usually when I have free time from work I can spend it pretty much as I please, playing poker or other things of interest, but for the past two weeks or so I have been working away on my house and on my 300zx.

First the house, we have wanted to replace the windows in the three bedrooms for a long time and we finally took the plunge and did it. While in the course of replacing the windows we found out that there was some rotten siding and even some framing that had gone bad underneath.

I am no carpenter, but I do pride myself on being able to solve any problem that I am faced with. I guess those years of Naval training and living and working on a submarine have paid off. I have to solve problems on a boat, you just can't rely on someone else or drive down to the repair shop and have someone bail you out.

I reframed the window and while I was at it replaced all the siding on the back side of my house. It had been in bad shape from when I bought the house. Knowing what I know today I would have passed on buying this house probably, but that is how it goes I suppose. To make matters worse, Lowes window department did a very poor job for me. I questioned them and requestioned them about replacing my windows. I gave them precise measurements and yet they did not as me critical questions that a lay person would not know to ask.

Well, the job is almost done, all the outside work is basically done, just a touch up brush here and there and it is all complete. I have to finish all the new trim pieces for the inside, but when I do finish it off it will look even better than ever. What is the saying, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

I am pretty much down putting in a whole new car stereo system in the 300z as well. I replaced the speakers and the head unit and added an amp. The first speakers I got were not as nice as I had hoped so I returned them to Circuit City and got some Kicker 6 1/2 speakers, which sound wonderful. I made the mistate of going for bigger peak rating than RMS, which I corrected and now it sounds incredible. I have to re-run one speaker wire as it is getting some interference I think from the power cable that I ran for the amp. All and all it was a pretty nice job and well worth the effort to do.