Thursday, November 29, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
windshield wipers are important
Especially when it's raining, and dark, and really cold. So it's no fun when one breaks, worse when its the drivers side. And you know what makes it even better? When you lock your keys in the car. Then you have to call your wife to pick you up.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
waste of gas
We drove to Fred Meyers to print some digital pictures. We had them on a thumb drive. The stupid computer at the store didn't recognize the drive. Ugh, what a waste of time and gas. So we got eggnog. We are going to go see the zoo lights, should be fun, but cold.
***Okay, we're back, I think I'm starting to feel my nose. It was really really cold. It's 33degrees right now :)The lights were cool. The train (yes I rode another train) wasn't as cool as we were expecting, and stinky. But we got to see the polar bears and tigers yay!
***Okay, we're back, I think I'm starting to feel my nose. It was really really cold. It's 33degrees right now :)The lights were cool. The train (yes I rode another train) wasn't as cool as we were expecting, and stinky. But we got to see the polar bears and tigers yay!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
We are thankful for...
Kitty snuggles
That the kitties like my parents
That this will be yummy turkey in 6hours
And George's desk being clean
On a side note, I need everyones birthdays.I know some of them but not all, like the nieces and nephews etc. Please?
That the kitties like my parents
That this will be yummy turkey in 6hours
And George's desk being clean
On a side note, I need everyones birthdays.I know some of them but not all, like the nieces and nephews etc. Please?
Monday, November 19, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
choo choo nightmare
To all but Tristan since he loves trains, never take the train. Just don't do it. I went to a conference in Tukwila (south of Seattle) on Wed/Thurs. I didn't really want to fly in to Seatac, and my company didn't want to reimburse me to drive myself, so they suggested I take the train. Cool, I thought, the train is neat that should be fun. Ha.
My Mom drove me to the vancouver station, train was to arrive at 6:30, it was really cold outside. Thankfully they have a small station that you can stand in. The train was late. They had to change engines in PDX, then the bridge was up, then they had to wait for freight traffic. And you may think, oh thats not so bad, but it took an hour and a half for the train to get to vancouver. I didn't leave until 8pm. We were supposed to be in Tukwila by 9:10, I say again, Ha. Since our train was late we lost our 'place' in the train track order, so we had to wait for all other traffic at every stop, they had the right of way since they were on time. Which ment we were later and later with every stop.
There were only three of us in my car. I think each car holds about 20 people. I sat across the isle from a nice lady, we talked most of the time. But there was also another lady, aka crazy lady, in the car with us. Every time the train would slow or stop or rattle or Anything she would huff or sigh or complain out loud. We laughed silently every time. I think she got off in Tacoma. It was also cold, really cold. My feet were freezing and I had my big winter coat on the whole ride. Every time the staff person would walk through our car we would say it was cold, he turned the heat up twice but we didn't really feel any difference. The third time we asked a different person to turn up the heat and she said we had the warmest car on the whole train, ugh. There was also this 10-12yr old kid that kept walking through the cars, like 15-20 times during our ride, annoying.
Okay, so we didn't get to Tukwila until 11:30 or so. I was supposed to have a cab waiting to take my to the hotel, well, they were supposed to be there at 9:10. So the lady I had ridden up with drove my to the closest hotel, the embassy suites, so I didn't have to wait at the station. I use the term 'station' very loosely. Tukwila has a plateform with a covered shelter like a bus stop. Nothing inside, no phone, very creepy in the middle of the night. Anyway the nice lady drove me to the embassy suites, they called me a cab and I enjoyed their lobby for 10mins. I'd like to stay there sometime, when I have money. wow. Spendy place. So the cab comes and takes me three miles to my hotel, the DaysInn. Lets just say it might not have looked so bad if I hadn't just been sitting in a ritzy lobby. It was icky. I got there at 11:55, they close they lobby/check in at midnight. That would have been interesting. SO I get my keycard and go to the room. I was on the second floor all the way at the end of the hall, I passed a lot of doors, outside of which were booze bottles, garbage, and my favorite, a plunger. Can we say ick?
The whole place had the stinky cleaning product smell, like, hey lets spray some smelly air freshener and maybe no one will notice the moldy bathroom. My room was freezing cold. I cranked the heat up and it ran all night, I was still cold in the morning. I slept in all my clothes. The bed was hard and I could feel all the springs. I woke up by 7:30. I could hear all the people around and above me thumping and slamming doors, so I got up. The shower had mold around the walls and ceiling. I dress quickly and checked out by 8:30. I again had to call a cab since the conference was at a different hotel. Yeah, I know, why didn't I just stay at the hotel where the conference was? It was too expensive. The conference was interesting to me, but probably not to all of you :) It was about childrens mental health and the benefits WA state provides and how we need to change it etc. Thankfully they had breakfast and lunch served, I was so hungry having no dinner the night before and all...
So the thing was over at 4pm and my train home didn't leave until 5:45, so I sat in the nice lobby, called George and talked for a while. The about 5pm I decided I should call the cab since they take 15-20mins to get to you. I asked the front desk lady to call for me, which she started to do, then she asked where I was going, Tukwila amtrak I told her. She said Oh! and hung up the phone and went to the back room. I stood there confused for a moment until she can back with a man in hotel uniform. It was the shuttle driver. He drove me to the station instead. Nice and all but I got there by 5:10, a little early for the train, but at least I didn't pay for a cab. Now, I know this is long, but if you remember I described the Tukwila station earlier. Yeah, it was raining and really cold. So I sat in the little shelter until
5:50 when the train showed. It was a cold ride home, and more crowded. We were supposed to be in vanc by 8:30, got there at 9pm. George picked me up and I went right to bed when we got home.
Lessons: Don't take the train. If you do, wear your snowsuit. If you take the train, expect to be late, very late. Don't get off in Tukwila. And finally, don't stay at the DaysInn.
Thank you.
My Mom drove me to the vancouver station, train was to arrive at 6:30, it was really cold outside. Thankfully they have a small station that you can stand in. The train was late. They had to change engines in PDX, then the bridge was up, then they had to wait for freight traffic. And you may think, oh thats not so bad, but it took an hour and a half for the train to get to vancouver. I didn't leave until 8pm. We were supposed to be in Tukwila by 9:10, I say again, Ha. Since our train was late we lost our 'place' in the train track order, so we had to wait for all other traffic at every stop, they had the right of way since they were on time. Which ment we were later and later with every stop.
There were only three of us in my car. I think each car holds about 20 people. I sat across the isle from a nice lady, we talked most of the time. But there was also another lady, aka crazy lady, in the car with us. Every time the train would slow or stop or rattle or Anything she would huff or sigh or complain out loud. We laughed silently every time. I think she got off in Tacoma. It was also cold, really cold. My feet were freezing and I had my big winter coat on the whole ride. Every time the staff person would walk through our car we would say it was cold, he turned the heat up twice but we didn't really feel any difference. The third time we asked a different person to turn up the heat and she said we had the warmest car on the whole train, ugh. There was also this 10-12yr old kid that kept walking through the cars, like 15-20 times during our ride, annoying.
Okay, so we didn't get to Tukwila until 11:30 or so. I was supposed to have a cab waiting to take my to the hotel, well, they were supposed to be there at 9:10. So the lady I had ridden up with drove my to the closest hotel, the embassy suites, so I didn't have to wait at the station. I use the term 'station' very loosely. Tukwila has a plateform with a covered shelter like a bus stop. Nothing inside, no phone, very creepy in the middle of the night. Anyway the nice lady drove me to the embassy suites, they called me a cab and I enjoyed their lobby for 10mins. I'd like to stay there sometime, when I have money. wow. Spendy place. So the cab comes and takes me three miles to my hotel, the DaysInn. Lets just say it might not have looked so bad if I hadn't just been sitting in a ritzy lobby. It was icky. I got there at 11:55, they close they lobby/check in at midnight. That would have been interesting. SO I get my keycard and go to the room. I was on the second floor all the way at the end of the hall, I passed a lot of doors, outside of which were booze bottles, garbage, and my favorite, a plunger. Can we say ick?
The whole place had the stinky cleaning product smell, like, hey lets spray some smelly air freshener and maybe no one will notice the moldy bathroom. My room was freezing cold. I cranked the heat up and it ran all night, I was still cold in the morning. I slept in all my clothes. The bed was hard and I could feel all the springs. I woke up by 7:30. I could hear all the people around and above me thumping and slamming doors, so I got up. The shower had mold around the walls and ceiling. I dress quickly and checked out by 8:30. I again had to call a cab since the conference was at a different hotel. Yeah, I know, why didn't I just stay at the hotel where the conference was? It was too expensive. The conference was interesting to me, but probably not to all of you :) It was about childrens mental health and the benefits WA state provides and how we need to change it etc. Thankfully they had breakfast and lunch served, I was so hungry having no dinner the night before and all...
So the thing was over at 4pm and my train home didn't leave until 5:45, so I sat in the nice lobby, called George and talked for a while. The about 5pm I decided I should call the cab since they take 15-20mins to get to you. I asked the front desk lady to call for me, which she started to do, then she asked where I was going, Tukwila amtrak I told her. She said Oh! and hung up the phone and went to the back room. I stood there confused for a moment until she can back with a man in hotel uniform. It was the shuttle driver. He drove me to the station instead. Nice and all but I got there by 5:10, a little early for the train, but at least I didn't pay for a cab. Now, I know this is long, but if you remember I described the Tukwila station earlier. Yeah, it was raining and really cold. So I sat in the little shelter until
5:50 when the train showed. It was a cold ride home, and more crowded. We were supposed to be in vanc by 8:30, got there at 9pm. George picked me up and I went right to bed when we got home.
Lessons: Don't take the train. If you do, wear your snowsuit. If you take the train, expect to be late, very late. Don't get off in Tukwila. And finally, don't stay at the DaysInn.
Thank you.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
no water chili
So, we (my mom) are making some more no water chili for dinner. She made some about a month ago in an effort to use the huge harvest of tomatos. At the time she had also picked a bunch of green tomatos that would have otherwise been ruined by the weather/freeze. Well the green tomatos are now very ripe. So hence, chili again. Because they are so juicy and we use so many, we don't add any other liquid to the chili. It is so good :)
George marched in the veterans day parade this morning. The news had said we were going to have a big rain storm today with 1/2" of rain....it was sunny all day! That was very nice, George was happy he didn't get soaked. I stayed home and cleaned house, did laundry etc. The dust bunnies had morphed into dust monsters, which usually means it's really time to vacuum. So I did. And I think I'm on laundry load number five. Boring I know. If George gets home at a reasonable time (he's at a group meeting @PSU) we might go to the store and print some of our honeymoon pics so we can have an actual album.
George marched in the veterans day parade this morning. The news had said we were going to have a big rain storm today with 1/2" of rain....it was sunny all day! That was very nice, George was happy he didn't get soaked. I stayed home and cleaned house, did laundry etc. The dust bunnies had morphed into dust monsters, which usually means it's really time to vacuum. So I did. And I think I'm on laundry load number five. Boring I know. If George gets home at a reasonable time (he's at a group meeting @PSU) we might go to the store and print some of our honeymoon pics so we can have an actual album.
Friday, November 9, 2007
not so good
Well, they had to increase the medication for her coma. When they reduced it she started 'over breathing' her respirator and her blood pressure increased. She has also started 'posturing', which basically means her reflexes to physical stimulus are decreasing which is an indication of brain damage.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
small update
They started to reduce the medication for the induced coma today. They will reduce it slowly over the next few days so they don't over stress her, then we have to wait and see if she wakes up. She still has active brain waves, so she's still 'here' but she's still not breathing on her own. No ETA on how long the coma could last, could be days or months. In people that do recover there are some personality changes and long term memory loss among many other things.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Brain Aneurysm
What is a Brain Aneurysm?
"A brain aneurysm, also called a cerebral or intracranial aneurysm, is an abnormal bulging outward of one of the arteries in the brain. It is estimated that up to one in 15 people in the United States will develop a brain aneurysm during their lifetime.
Brain aneurysms are often discovered when they rupture, causing bleeding into the brain or the space closely surrounding the brain called the subarachnoid space, causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Subarachnoid hemorrhage from a ruptured brain aneurysm can lead to a hemorrhagic stroke, brain damage and death."
My Aunt is in the ICU, she had an aneurysm rupture yesterday. They did a procedure called Endovascular Coiling, where they basically fill the aneurysm space with platinum coils (wire)so it stops the blood flow. They also put in a drain to get the extra fluid off her brain. She is in a coma now, both natural and medically induced. They want to keep her in a coma until the fluid stops and they are sure the bleeding has stopped. They plan to keep her in the induced coma until next week and then see if she will wake up.
"A brain aneurysm, also called a cerebral or intracranial aneurysm, is an abnormal bulging outward of one of the arteries in the brain. It is estimated that up to one in 15 people in the United States will develop a brain aneurysm during their lifetime.
Brain aneurysms are often discovered when they rupture, causing bleeding into the brain or the space closely surrounding the brain called the subarachnoid space, causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Subarachnoid hemorrhage from a ruptured brain aneurysm can lead to a hemorrhagic stroke, brain damage and death."
My Aunt is in the ICU, she had an aneurysm rupture yesterday. They did a procedure called Endovascular Coiling, where they basically fill the aneurysm space with platinum coils (wire)so it stops the blood flow. They also put in a drain to get the extra fluid off her brain. She is in a coma now, both natural and medically induced. They want to keep her in a coma until the fluid stops and they are sure the bleeding has stopped. They plan to keep her in the induced coma until next week and then see if she will wake up.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
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