The Toolbox

My code for Personal Chess Trainer was in my inbox when I got home from work yesterday! I gleefully fired up PCT, registered it, reinstalled it (everyone with PCT knows what I mean, from my reading :P), fired it up again and...fiddled with the options.

Unfortunately (for my chess, at least) my daily evening looks like this:

5pm through 6pm is for helping my daughter with homework and starting to cook
6pm through 7pm is for eating, dishes and cleaning
7pm through 9-10pm is for whatever the hell my wife says its for!
9-10pm through whenever I pass out is for chess and stuff

On days when my wife goes to around 9pm, I get a G30 in, some Novice Nook or puzzles and Google up 'chess babes in lingerie'. Last night when she was up till almost 11...By the time I got PCT going, I was wobbling in my chair taking 3 second naps between puzzles trying to complete a 45 puzzle series of Mate in Ones twice, since PCT makes you solve each problem two times. I kept thinking that I had to be getting close to the turn and coming down the repeats soon, but it felt like it never happened.

As my eyes fluttered, I started making moves on automatic and the only miss I had was moving the wrong rook the first time through. By 11:15, 90 puzzles down, I was toasted and fell into bed.

I have to break it to the wife that no later than 10pm, every night, I'm gonna go play with myself for at least an hour and she's neither invited nor allowed to interrupt. There's no way I can make progress if I'm not awake enough to understand what I'm doing.

A new sidebar block:

The Toolbox
PCT
FICS
Novice Nook

I hope to add Chernev's Logical Chess to that at Xmas. The Toolbox will basically be my current reading/study list. I need to get some annotated master games on there, as well. Any recommendations for Morphy and other early players?