September 2005 Archives

With much help from my father, we now have a working garage door opener for one of our garage doors.  I'm very happy because now I don't have to worry about the cars sitting out all night.  Jakki is pleased because parking her bike is a much easier proposition.  Earlier this week she did the roundtrip to school in eleven minutes; speed demon that she is.

My next tricks on the homefront are:

• Hooking up the security light in the backyard
• Fixing a hole in the heating duct
• Changing out the kitchen faucet
• Hanging Jakki's light fixture over the dining table

This past weekend we also compared and contrasted Lowe's versus Home Depot.  While Lowe's seems to have more staff and a better selection in some arenas, their main failing is not having a U-scan type checkout system.  I can get out of Home Depot a lot quicker, even with more people in the store.  So to all the loyal Lowe's upper management readers I have: get a stinkin' self checkout system!

Introducing a new blog feature: Links Of Questionable Virtue (LOQV). Since I put so many links to neat stuff of the moment in posts, I decided to set up a comprehensive link management system. That's basically CubeMonkey™-speak for: "I found some neato toy on the net, and came up with an excuse to use it." So I've installed a MovableType plugin called MT Blogroll and I am using it to manage my links and store them in categories. The most recent five links will show up in the right sidebar, and you can view the entire database by clicking the LOQV link. Since you won't get an email when these are updated, check back often to find new ones, or get caught up by viewing the archive.

From the Homefront Desk, things at the new house are shaping up just peachy, however we have killed two dangerous hobo spiders. I'm thinking about getting the place spayed. This Sunday we hope to put up our garage door opener and keep up with the Jones'. Also, we have tentatively sold the pool table that came with the house, so we will hopefully be getting gas heat and hot water very soon. The kitties are adapting, pictures will come once we have emptied all the boxes upstairs.

Jakki is back in school this week and she has been riding her bike everyday (we are much closer to SCC now). Hopefully the weather will hold out a bit longer so I can get my surigcal drain out and go on a few bike rides. I have an appointment with a new surgeon next week, so hopefully it will get yanked then. So that's your Friday update!

Today I upgraded the ol' blog to MT 3.2 and installed StyleCatcher, a theme management system. Now I can quickly change the look and feel of the blog as often as my heart desires. You may notice that some bits are gone, as I upgraded the templates as well, but I will be putting them back in as soon as I can. This time I was smart and backed up EVERYTHING first. So click on stuff, geek out and enjoy.

Yay! Today I got out of the hospital again, with a drain and a prescription for antibiotics. They let me go about lunch time, so Jakki and I grabbed a burrito and a nap. Since then we have been unpacking. I've got my cable modem set up and most of my back-end infrastructure (yeah, it's pretty geeky when you have so many components, you can call your net connection "infrastructure"). Jakki was a big help in pulling the cable down to the basement for the servers and firewalls. No problems with the new Comcast uplink, but I have heard some good, some bad reviews. We shall see...

In other news, my folks are coming up this weekend to help out with more house related stuff like downspouts and toilet float valves. So it should be a toolbelt-wearin' good time to be had by all. Tonight I hope to get Kelvo unpacked so we can watch TV again, and Jakki is working in the kitchen as we speak. TTFN, but boy am I glad I didn't get stuck in DMC this weekend...

Well, it's Wednesday and I'm still in the hospital. They put another surgical drain in yesterday, and it brought me pretty low. Today was better, but they still have me on a clear liquid diet. Yuck! Nothing more than broths, tea, and sorbet. What I wouldn't give for some real chow. So after torturing myself with Food Network all day, I invite everyone who reads this blog to post your favorite recipe or links to recipes. Nothing with alchohol, since I can't have it-- but believe me, anything sounds good after 4 days of clear liquids only. Have at it!

Well, this weekend marks the one year anniversary of going to the hospital in Little Rock with acute pancreatitis. And wouldn't you know it, I'm back in the hospital again. Shortly after filling up the last load in the moving truck, a fever hit, and we went to the Deaconess Emergency Room (yep, the place where I work). After a CT and some blood work, they said I should be admitted because I was having a pancreatitis attack, and my white blood cell count was high. So I'm looking at the prospect of having yet another drain put in to empty a pseudocyst. Plus possibly a trip to Virginia Mason in Seattle for some surgery to clear this up once and for all.

Right now, I'm feeling fine-- no pain, no fever and they are letting me eat until midnight, when I have to fast for my drain placement tomorrow. Mom is here and I found a WAP to get internet access. Jakki, my sister and dad are coming up soon. It's kind of interesting being in the hospital again, but feeling pretty good. I'm able to walk around as much as I want (as long as I bring my tree of IV antibiotics with me) and I'm able to notice more of the world around me. Last night was a rough night's sleep, with lots of beeping and a phlebotomist jabbing me in the arm at 4:00am.

Mom also wanted me to mention the music they play here. I can hear it over in my office, so I guess it never struck me as interesting. One of the things this hospital does, and it might be because we have more babies born here than any other facility in Spokane, is play a tinkly little tune on the PA system when a baby is born. Mom just thinks it's so sweet. Maybe we can take a walk down the nursery and check out the buns, fresh from the oven.

So that's all for now-- more tomorrow after the anethesia wears off and I can see the keyboard again. Wish me luck!