First impressions: SureFlap Microchip Pet Door Connect + Hub

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So, bought a new pet door as a gift for my wife on her birthday so that she can monitor and set a curfew even when she's not at home.
So, we have 3 cats and a microchip door today. The only thing that worries us is the extra traffic on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings + that we do not let them spend the night outdoors because of bad stuff happening (lots of other cats fighting in the neighborhood and we are tired of vet-bills.

So, time for an upgrade.
Turns out I bought the XL door this time. A good thing as our male cat Tiger is a little too big for the current door and kind of dislikes the feeling of it. He still uses it but prefers the actual door. So lets hope that this one will work better.

Installation

What I used

• Screwdriver
• Jigsaw
• Bradawl
• Drill
• Knife
• Spirit-level

At first I had to remove the old SureFlap cat door by removing the plastic details covering the screws and unscrewing and pushing the door in. 

Next step was to fit the new door by taking the tunnel and pushing it towards the point on the door where I wanted it. I think the recommended distance from the floor is 15 cm (check the manual if you are unsure) so that the cats don't have to duck too much. Put a spirit-level on the tunnel and let a friend draw the line all the way around.

If you do not have a hole in the door already, take a large drill and drill a hole in all the edges.

I already had an old hole so I just started with the jigsaw.  It should be quite a tight fit as otherwise you will get extra wind that can pass around the tunnel.

Test the fit as you go by pushing the tunnel out from inside your house.

When you are happy put on the outer part and use the bradawl to mark the screw holes. Remove the tunnel and outer part again.
Use a small drill to drill through the door at those 4 places. The holes can be a bit larger then the screw diameter as you will need some leeway to put all 4 screws through the outer plastic and into the screw holes on the inner part.

For connecting the door to the hub, just follow the instructions in the app. I don't feel the need to duplicate them here as the app is good enough. One thing to note is that the hub does not have wifi, that is a downer in 2018... Like, why not? Luckily I had an extender with cable socket lying around that I was able to plug it into as the router is not even close to the door.

The App

The app was quite easy to setup even though I managed to mix up our cats and had to show them to the door an extra time and rename the already entered cats.

I the main page you can see a summary of all of your pets and devices and their status. I.e. who is in the house and who is out and if the door is locked in some way. Also nice to see the battery level here.

. In the app you can upload photos of your pets to show as profile pictures. 

Each pet get their own timeline that you can follow their activity through the door. There is also notification each time the door is activated. I.e. 'real-time' tracking of your pets.

The first night we got the 'An animal looked through the door'. I.e. someone was trying to enter, not one of ours as everyone was inside at the time.

With the old door I used to show the cats that it is unlocked in the morning, but I guess I will no as it gets recorded as 'An animal has left the house'. 

Each pet get their own statistics as well, so you can see what time of the day they are active etc.

Also showing number of entries through the door. I guess our Prime will win this as she runs in and out all the time.

Even more statistics, showing activity per weekday.

The door control page allows you to lock the door to keep pets in or out ...

... or both

The curfew mode has some limits in my opinion. I would like to set a different curfew depending of day of week. I.e. Tuesdays should lock the door at 1600 and Saturdays should open it at 1200 instead of the normal 0700-1800 open hours. We have a lot of traffic during Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings as the local recycling center is at the end of our road and we want to keep our cats indoor mitigate risk. But that does not work.

So we will lock and unlock the door manually until this feature is added.

Conclusion

Overall feeling is that this was a good buy. We won't have to stress home on Tuesdays or lock the cats inside when we leave for work in the morning, they can be outside and we just lock the door with the app in the afternoon. 

Would buy again

Update 20180718

Tiger knows how to break out of the door even if it is locked.

Disclaimer
I bought this product myself and this is my opinion on them. I am in no way affiliated with the manufacturer of this product.

Review: SONY XB950BT EXTRA BASS™ Wireless Headphones

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So bought new headphones the other day, something that I've been thinking of doing for a while but recent events put it in the fast lane as I will need a good pair soon.
What I was looking for

• Good sound
• Wireless
• Good fit even with glasses
• Around ear design

I use wired Skullcandy in-ear pods today both at work and at home, and a pair of Steelseries Siberia V2 for the trainer. I like the sound in the pods, but not the wires. The Siberias are quite good fit but wired. 

So, I am not after the spectacular sound or best noise cancelling technology. I asked my colleges at work what they think about the noise cancelling in their headphones and they pretty much said that its not there yet. So not going to put cash on that.

At first I found a pair of SENNHEISER HD 4.50 BTNC Wireless but when I tried them on they felt like large on-ear headphones and all the buttons were small and overall impression was cheap. Even though they cost more then the SONYs.

So next, should I put on an extra €100 for the noise cancelling for the SONY headphones? It did not feel that important so I decided to go with the SONY XB950BT EXTRA BASS™ Wireless Headphones.

Felt comfy, very soft on the ears and glasses. Felt like quality, had a good look and they were wireless.

SONY XB950BT EXTRA BASS™ Wireless Headphones fold nicely and can be packed with minimal space. The package also included 3.5mm cable and USB cable for battery charging.

Connecting

Android: Connecting with my Huawei Honor 8 took about 15 seconds. Just press on on the headphones and open up the Bluetooth app in the phone and tap the headphones and you are good to go.

Windows 10: Open up the Bluetooth page and click that add device button. The tricky part is to get the headphones to pair with a second device. When they are powered off, press and hold the power button for 7 seconds to get the pairing active again.

Large soft ear padding make sure that it has a nice fit

3rd day verdict

Fits good, no pain even when I wear glasses. Nice sound and haven't had to recharge them yet. Would buy again.

Disclaimer
I bought this product myself and this is my opinion on them. I am in no way affiliated with the manufacturer of this product.

Second week - tumor in my liver

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The test results show that I am not an alcoholic.
Well that is good to know!
Day by day summary of the second week after I got to know that I have a tumor in my liver. This week had high highs and low lows.

Part of a series:
Another reminder of mortality
Day 4 - Tumor in my liver
First week - tumor in my liver
Second week - tumor in my liver
Third week with liver cancer
Liver cancer, surgery
6 weeks post-op, news time
Cancer update
Liver cancer, Post-op 2
June Update 2018

July update, 2018
Chemo day 1 and 2

Saturday:
Shopping groceries for my wife's birthday dinner on Sunday. Have started to feel stuff, mostly ignoring it but it is there. Ordinary day for the most part.
42 minutes on trainer, mid tempo

Sunday:
Families visiting, lots of fun and lots of food as always! People are worried but will not show it in front of the kids.
42 minutes on trainer, treshold

Monday:
I call my hospital to tell them that yes, I do feel something so that they have that as input to the decision meeting later in the day. I am told by the nurse that the last results from blood samples are in and that they show no signs of over consumption of alcohol. So not an alcoholic!
I leave work early and sit on my trainer for an hour before the doctor calls and tells me:
Blood samples show no sign of tumor but the different x-rays show that it is cancer. They will cut it out, a doctor from Gothenburg will call Monday or Tuesday to give more info. I should be in Gothenburg on Thursday at 10 am. Not a consultation.
Discuss with wife and write down a lot of questions.
Organize house and cat sitters etc. Inform family that it will be surgery.
42 minutes on trainer, low intensity


Tuesday:
Going to work. Waiting for the call, hard to concentrate. Tell my boss at lunch. Tell my team etc. Faith in the Swedish system, it can act fast!
No call after second afternoon meeting so I decide to call hospital in Gothenburg myself. After 10 minutes of detective work to find the correct department I finally get connected to the liver surgery and their response is:
No, we can't find any booking for surgery. A booking for consultation only on Thursday at 10 am. Didn't you get the reservation by mail?
I'm like, eh no? I got a call 24 hours ago telling me that there would be surgery.
Oh, no your doctor should know that there is a process where we will book you for a full day in Gothenburg in preparation 2 weeks before a surgery when you can meet the team etc. 
At this point I am pretty upset, need to tell my boss that I have been misinformed and that I will continue to work as normal but need a day off on Thursday instead. Same information to the team. Call wife (who has take 2 days off to be with me during surgery) so that she can tell her boss that there has been a fkup as well. No one is in their best mood at this moment.
Need to decide if I should call my own doctor or not in the morning and ask her if I misunderstood things or what went wrong with the call on Monday.

Get home from work, and a letter has arrived from hospital in Gothenburg. Booked for a consultation. And a lot of paperwork to fill in.

I sure hope that it is not 10 minute consultation. As it is 2 hour drive one way. But I guess we will see on Thursday.

Faith in the Swedish system, not there at the moment.....

Wednesday
Ah, screw it. Everybody makes mistakes, not to mention during handover from one instance to another. Not going to pursue this. I want to focus on getting well, not angry. Looking forward to Sahlgrenska tomorrow. I want to get a time plan now so that I know.

45 minutes on trainer. Intervals, intensive.

Thursday
Cancer.. First time a doctor actually named it...
So, not only a consultation in Gothenburg. Turned out that it would be the preparation day. We met the surgeon, contact nurse, anesthetist, physiotherapist and run some extra tests.
Surgeon: It is cancer, we will cut out 1/4th of the liver containing the tumor and send it for analysis. Continue training and eating as normally until the operation. 4 weeks after the operation, analysis should be completed as well as you should have healed enough for decision if we need to put in chemo or antitumor medication depending on where the tumor originates. If it is from liver cells it will be antitumor medication, if it is from the bile ducts we will put in chemo. At some point you will need a liver transplantation. 3 days before the operation, you will stop with Xarelto and take fragmin syringes instead.

Anesthetist: You will receive a pill to calm your nerves the day before. When you arrive in the morning we will put in spinal anesthesia that you will get for 2-3 days. If you are nervous at any point in the process, just tell us and we will give you some more stuff to calm you. 

Physiotherapist: Once the operation is done we will get you up on your feet the day after and make you walk on the spot to prevent blood clot. The next day you will walk in the corridor and the day after we will take some stairs. There is a 24/7 gym room in the hospital unit to get you moving. If at any point you feel pain, it is better to tell us and we will give you some pain-relief so that you are able to move. Movement is important. 
We will also make you breath through a mask 3x10 times every 2 hours for the first 5 days to try to prevent pneumonia.

Contact nurse: Write down questions, and do not hesitate to call me. Make sure you call on Monday to get hold of the surgery coordinator who can organize hotel etc for the night before surgery and your wife during your stay. You will undergo a short fasting period before the operation meaning that you can eat normally until midnight the night before. During the evening you need to drink two protein drinks and in the morning before you arrive you need to drink a third protein drink. Also you need to use these special sponges when showering the night before and in the morning to make sure that bacteria is killed.

Received a go-bag containing all things that I need before surgery: Fragmin syringes, protein drinks and sponges.

If it wouldn't have been for me eating Xarelto, they would have done the surgery tomorrow, Friday. But damn, this will happen within 10 days maybe 11!
Overall impression: impressed. Damn, I have no worries. Wife is a little bit more worried now but I still feel calm.
No training today.

Friday
Back to work. Normal day, a lot of questions from coworkers in the morning but otherwise quite ordinary.
Bought new wireless headphones (SONY XB950BT EXTRA BASS™ Wireless) so that I can focus on music and watch Netflix during the hospital stay, you know ignore that I am at a hospital.
1 hour 40 minutes low intensive trainer.




Why I am writing this? Not to feel sorry for myself, but as a way to handle the situation and hopefully someone else out there in a similar situation can find this helpful as well. The human body is strong and hopefully I'll come out of this stronger as well. Plan for the worst and hope for the best!