Kevin's Ramblings…

I decided to advertise a room for rent last week.  Wasn’t sure if I would get any responses and if I did, I wasn’t sure if I would find someone who I could live with.

My first room-mate was very odd.  I moved so that I could get away from him.  His mother was a nut (as it turned out) so I am not surprised that he was as well.  That convinced me not to have another roomie.

In my last place in St. Catharines, there was a separate apartment in the basement.  The rent of the place was high so I figured $650 coming in each month would really help – it did.

The guy that ended up renting it was, to say the least, odd.  He didn’t really believe in cleaning up, washing (himself nor his clothes) and he was just plain weird.  He’d wear headphones (thankfully) but he’d sing to himself and bop away – very strange…  Wasn’t much of a conservationist but that’s OK.  His rent was paid on time (by the Government of Ontario – he was on long term disability – yeah, sure) so that was good for me.  Anyway, I gave him notice that he had to vacate at the end of May which is quickly approaching.  I hope his place has been cleaned so that someone doesn’t have to do tons of work. As far as I am aware, the house hasn’t been re-rented as yet.

Anyway, I received a call from a prospective renter when I was registering my vehicle in Alberta so I asked him to call back.  He did and came right over to look at the place.  We did the dime tour and he said he wanted to look at the basement.  It’s not a bad basement, unfinished but not bad.  He decided to set up shop down there.  It is dark and a bit cold for my tastes, but he seems happy and is a good guy.

I am charging $500 per month in rent so that will really help me out.  I plan on banking that away so that in 2 years I will have a decent down payment for my own place.  I still have 2 bedrooms open so I may look at renting one of those – not sure on that one though – I will have to see what my current roomie thinks, one bathroom with 3 guys might be tough.

So, I think all will be OK this time around – time will tell.

Played Texas Hold’em last evening.  There were 7 of us.  We started at around 8pm as people were rather late in showing up.

I won a couple of close hands early and quickly tripled my chip stack to about 750,000.  I got lucky on a few hands, the river card was my friend for most of the evening.

It was a $10 buy in with a first re-buy (and a quarter million in new chips) at $10 and additional re-buys at $20 each.  After an hour or so, I had well over a million and a half and was the chip leader, by far.

I sat back and played a patient style while I watched others eliminate each other over the course of the evening – I bet when I had something decent while the blinds were still low.  Some of the betting wasn’t too smart, they seemed to be pretty easy going when it came to losing $40 or $50 of their “real” money.  I am not so easy going when it comes to someone taking my funds.

In around 12:30 in the morning, we were down to two.  I had, I would guess, about 10-15 times his chip stack.  He was getting killed by the blinds which, considering how long we played, were still pretty low at $25000 and $50000.  I was betting large on any hand that was good and he was folding – if he tried to trap me (or bluff) and I had nothing, I didn’t take the bait.

After a half hour of heads up play, I decided enough was enough and offered him $50 to resign.  He accepted and I walked away with $190, up $180 for the evening.  Not a bad deal for 6 hours of entertainment.

They play every 4-6 weeks so I will be going back – presuming that I am invited back of course…  Who wants to see the new guy win?  LOL

I brought the Jeep into Courtesy Chrysler yesterday at 7am.  Got the shuttle ride back home and did some stuff around the house, you know, domestic chores.

I hadn’t heard from them by 10:30 or so, so I called them.  They had only just started on my Jeep.

Ummm, why did they only start on my Jeep at 10:30 if I brought it to them at 7am?  Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of bringing it in early?  Perhaps I did that so that I would have it back early?  Oh well.

I got a call around 11:30 or so – the inspection was done but it needed one safety item – something to do with steering.  The advisor tried to explain it to me and I sort of understood but if I was to translate it here, I would get it all wrong.

Long story short, the total bill, including the safety was $479.  Dang…  Oh well, guess I am not going to Edmonton this weekend.

So, I pick up the Jeep (after a lost shuttle driver finally finds my place) and go to the vehicle registration office.  The guy behind the counter starts to fill in the paperwork and I show him the insurance certificate – it shows that the policy doesn’t come into effect until the 16th of June – awesome.  The email that I received from them shows the same thing.

I call the insurance company and they email me a new certificate.

I go back in and switch the plates over to Alberta, pay my fee and physically switch the plates.  Well, not plates as I only get one – the rear plate.  The front of the Jeep looks naked…

For some odd reason, I renew my plate sticker every April but once I do the drivers license, it renews in August.  I suppose it is nice spreading out the payments but it does mean I have to visit twice a year.

I forgot to switch my Health Card but my Ontario one is good for 3 months.  That will be a job for another day.

Anyway, I feel more Albertan now with my Wild Rose Country plate and naked Jeep front.  All I need now is a cowboy hat (and my license, health card and who the heck knows what else)…