Lueders Haus Blog » Random

Spring

john — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:02:22 +0000

Been away from the blog for a while. It is only just starting to get warm out here in Seattle but we haven’t hit 75 yet. We got a busy summer ahead starting tomorrow when the house painters show up!

Monty

john — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:57:42 +0000

We lost a good friend this weekend. Our cat, Monty, had been successfully battling kidney failure and a hyperthyroidism for two or so years now. But an infection in the last few weeks was finally too much for him. I picked Monty up from a shelter on Mercer Island eight years ago. Shortly after I had moved to Seattle. Monty was my first cat. I had wanted a dog but figured a cat was the more responsible choice at my point of life back then. He was about two years old then and really loved a good round of feather on the stick. He was never a shy cat and greeted us at the door most days. It is a bit strange to be without a cat now. We will never be able to replace a cat like Monty but we hope to get some kittens in the near-ish future.

Light Rail

john — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:56:51 +0000

Braved the opening day crowds on Saturday and rode Seattle’s new light rail to Tukwila. Grabbed some late lunch at the Somali restaurant near the station and then waited in line to catch a train going back to downtown. The trains and stations are definitely nice. Not much on the route for me right now. It will be a great option for getting to the airport later this year and the Northgate and Overlake lines are only ten years away!

Snow Storm

john — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:47:05 +0000

It has been cold and snowy all week. The biggest snow fall was last night. We must have got nearly six inches. We actually had to shovel the sidewalk for the first time. Looks like it is not going to melt anytime soon either. I haven’t been to work since Wednesday. We had to cancel our dinner reservations on Thursday for Sherry’s birthday but we made it to the office Christmas party downtown at the Arctic Club (well named for the cold night) on Friday. Luckily we don’t need to travel anywhere, so it has been pretty low key.

We did have a bit of excitement last night when the cold water supply line to our kitchen faucet froze up. We managed to get a plumber to come out fairly quickly and no burst pipe. We learned a few things, like Seattle is completely sold out of pipe warmers (you need to buy those before it gets cold) and how to access the crawl space under the kitchen (not sure I can fit down the hole yet).

Christmas Tree

john — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:40:25 +0000

Braved the icy Seattle roads to pick up a Christmas tree today. This is the first year either of us have been in Seattle for Christmas so Sherry demanded we decorate. We did not get to putting up the lights outside yet.

We got a few inches of snow last night in our backyard. Lots more in the mountains. Hopefully we will be cross country skiing next weekend.

All the King’s Men

john — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:12:46 +0000

Went to see All the King’s Men at the Intiman on Thursday night. It was a great compliment to Tuesday night’s election. Hopefully Obama’s career will have a happier ending. Our theater going is generally directed more at the lower budget operations, like Seattle Shakespeare, so it was fun to see a full on production. We are definitely going to catch some of Intiman’s next season.

Henry IV

john — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:23:31 +0000

Caught a another solid production from the Seattle Shakespeare Company at the Seattle Center. They condensed both parts into on longish play. The unexpected length of the play blew our plans of a nice post-play dinner out of the water. Also getting stuck in the new Seattle Center parking garage did not help matters. (Warning to those thinking of parking in the new garage near the Gates Foundation building: they have some bugs to work out.) We ended up ordering off the late night menu at the 5-spot. Not a bad deal, five dollar plates and one dollar PBRs.

Faucet

john — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:58:55 +0000

I tried my luck at plumbing again this weekend. Every time I try a plumbing project I swear to never do it again and just call a plumbing from the beginning before I waste a weekend on it. This time it turned out no different. I attempted to replace the crappy faucet in our bathroom today but it appears to be bolted on to that sink permanently. It would have taken me less time to remove the entire sink then my failed attempt at just removing the faucet. So now I’ve given up and will be calling a plumber later this week. We will be brushing our teeth in the kitchen until then.

Towards the end I asked the Internet gods for help without much luck but I did find this funny blog post about a more successful attempt at faucet replacement. Also Peerless has a site devoted to uninstalling a faucet.

Cat Tree

john — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:16:40 +0000

After much debate we finally purchased a cat tree for Monty last weekend. It is quite possibly the ugliest piece of furniture I will ever buy but it should facilitate Monty’s love of looking out the window without him sitting on our furniture. It took him a while to show interest in it but once he realized it was not a carpeted cat trap he started napping in it. Now he can enjoy the mid-day sun perched on top of it with a view of the front yard, living room and kitchen.

Appendicitis

john — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:24:28 +0000

We had quite the adventure on Monday. It started as suspected food poisoning on Thursday night. I stayed home Friday and was able to do my normal stuff with only minor discomfort on the weekend. I figured it was out of the way until Sunday night after dinner brought it back.

Still feeling sick on Monday morning we headed to a 10:15am doctor appointment on Queen Anne. Before going over I had started to suspect the appendix, it had become a sharp pain in the lower right side of my abdomen. The doctor confirmed my suspicions and sent us directly to Swedish Ballard for a CT scan.

After filling out a few forms I was downing some CT scanner fluid and crystal light at 11:30am. At 12:30pm I was in the CT tub listening to a recorded man’s voice telling to me to breath deep and hold my breath.

After a short detour back to Maple Leaf we headed back to over to the surgeon’s office in Swedish Ballard. He poked around and explained an appendectomy to me. (He did it via a laparoscope.) Around 2:30pm I was filling out more forms in the “Pre-Surgery Patient Registration” office.

Around 3:00pm I was putting on scrubs and we walked to surgery nurses station where they took my temp and asked me lots of questions, twice. (I was asked if I smoked by at least four people.) For there we moved to the another waiting area with beds and warm blankets. We waited there for the anesthesiologist, who started an I.V. and wheeled me into the O.R around 4:00pm. They were playing Lenny Kravits and the surgical nurse was from somewhere in Illinois I have never heard of. That’s about all I remember.

My next memory was of the recovery room, minus an organ. I remember the nurses and not feeling much pain. They wheeled me up to my room where Sherry met me. I ordered some chicken broth and red jello and watched T.V. I stayed the night and tried to get some sleep. Sherry when home.

Next morning I had a bowl of Cheerios and a banana. The doctor came by poked around some more and signed me out. We were out the door around 10:30am. I’ve been at home watching T.V. mostly ever since.

Read this WebMD link for a really scary article on Appendicitis.