Archive for the 'Uncategorized' category
Z is for Zillah
October 26, 2007 10:14 pmZillah, our new puppy, has been quite the handful over the past week. And I don’t mean in the typical “new puppy is a handful” way either…
Last Wednesday, although we felt like we should take the time to grieve from our loss of Tilly, Anne and I decided that we should get a new puppy. I mean, we had just gone through puppy-training with Zoe, so we were already set up for puppies in the house. Plus, we love dogs.
So, Anne found her online, and she and I drove to Prosser (south of Yakima) to pick up Zillah (well, her name at the time was Jade). She was part of a rescue from a shelter, and is allegedly a black lab / aussie mix, although she looks almost exactly like Zoe (at least, what Zoe looked like a couple of weeks ago when she was a wee pup…).
Zillah quickly fit in with the family, tearing around the kitchen wrestling with Zoe, tolerating hugs and kisses from Alex and Leah, and basically looking quite cute. Her name comes from both the town that we passed through on our way to get her, as well as the ancient Hebrew name for “shadow“.
Then, on Saturday morning, after a trip to Wallingford Park to watch Alex play soccer and meet Emily, Grandma Helen, and The Cousins, Anne noticed that Zillah wasn’t acting as energetic as usual. Once we noticed that she was not eating or drinking, and that she seemed to have the runs pretty bad, Anne took her over to the animal hospital.
After a LONG wait in the VERY same room that Anne and I were in to say goodbye to Tilly (too cruel!), the doctors reported that the initial testing showed that Zillah might have parvo, but more tests were necessary. After the second round of blood tests, it was confirmed - Zillah was infected with parvovirus. She was admitted to the hospital and went directly onto an IV in isolation.
Back at home, Anne and I did some research on parvo, and became more and more worried as we realized the seriousness of the situation. Our fears were confirmed by a phone call from the animal rescue, letting us know that Zillah’s littermate also had parvo, and was pretty bad off.
Sunday was a very long day, waiting for news about Zillah. Unfortunately, when that news came, it was not positive. Zillah was not eating or drinking at all, and was having regular bouts of diarrhea and vomiting. It did not look good. Anne and I started to brace ourselves to lose our second dog in as many weeks. Plus, we had to get ready to tell the kids…
On Monday, Anne spent a bunch of time with Zillah at the hospital, giving her love and attention, and trying to get her to eat something. This seems to have worked, since Zillah ate a very little bit of the chicken and rice that Anne had brought. I visited Zillah on my way home from work, and she although she didn’t eat anything for me, she seemed a little more energetic.
Tuesday, Anne and I both went over around lunchtime to visit, and found a much improved dog. She ate some food for us, and drank some water out of her bowl. The doctor decided that as long as she was attempting to eat (and had not vomited for a while) that he would let us bring her home and try to get her to continue to eat. That night, I sat in the kitchen with her, trying all sorts of food to get her interested, until I finally had some luck getting her to eat some tuna from the can. Anne and I gave her her medicine, and went to bed (no problem for Zillah, since all she had been doing recently was sleeping).
Wednesday again showed improvement. Anne found a particular flavor of baby food that Zillah liked, and got her to eat a couple of small meals. I bought some more baby food on the way home, and found a much happier dog there (and a much happier Anne and kids).
Thursday we finally felt that she turned the corner. More eating, much more energy, and she looked like she was gaining some of her weight back. Today - she seems much the same as she did a week ago - happy and healthy.
So, in a week we have gone to death’s door and back with this little dog. Although it’s only been 7 days, it feels like it has been much longer. It’s hard to believe that all this stress and emotion was only one week. Now, it’s back to crate-training, with a couple of more gray hairs, and about $2500 less in the bank. But, it’s worth it — this is a special dog, and this whole experience has just brought us all closer together.
But, it sure was quite the adventure…
What else is new?
October 10, 2007 11:12 amLordy My — I SUCK at blogging. I mean, in the “write something every day” type of way. It would be great to be able to be on top of things, and write about what’s new on a daily (or at least weekly) basis, but hey…it’s all about time. Maybe if I didn’t have a day job (or two). 
That said, here’s what’s new. I’m working on a project at PEMCO (which is downtown, which is great) - check out their new ad campaign. I’m playing golf (on the Interbay team for the Seattle Cup, as well as just for fun). Anne is volunteering over at Thornton Creek School (nee’ AE2). Alex is playing soccer, and likes to play golf with dad. Leah is riding her bike with no training wheels, and loves playing with the dogs (Tilly, Lucas, and [sometimes] Zoe).
Good times, good times…
Paul Pena
June 13, 2007 3:50 pmFMGT turned me onto this guy, and after listening to his music and reading his biography, I realized that this is a guy that was so close to making it big, but life just didn’t have that in its plan for him. So good, and so sad. (in addition, now I know who wrote “Jet Airliner” popularized by Steve Miller…)
Paul Pena
Paul Pena (January 26, 1950 - October 1, 2005) was a multi-genre singer, pianist, and guitarist, who performed Mississippi Delta blues, jazz, flamenco, folk, rock and roll and Tuvan throat-singing. more…
Sturgeon
June 12, 2007 4:35 pmGreat trip sturgeon fishing with the boys on the Columbia. We boated quite a few, but only 3 that were keepers. I had the fishing derby locked up for a couple of hours, but John caught a big’un later in the afternoon. Reasonably well-behaved the night before - had a burger at Mary’s Worker Bar and a couple of beers - 5:30am comes mighty early these days…
Here we are with our fishies:
Here’s Kevin taking a nap (he did NOT behave himself the night before!)
To Utah and Back
April 15, 2007 9:31 pmWe’re back from Utah. What a great trip — conditions were great (springtime, but we got 6+ inches of new snow while we were there), the kids all made huge progress in lessons, and it was a lot of fun hanging with the Harnesses. Here are Kris and Anna at lunch on the mountain at Snowbird:
Our travel back to Seattle yesterday took a bit longer than expected (about 10 hours longer), due to a snafu involving Delta and the Salt Lake City airport. Long story, but suffice it to say that if the airline tells you that your flight has been delayed, it’s worthwhile to stay in touch with the gate in case they bring a new plane in and end up leaving on time, while you are waiting around in an airport restaurant killing time… We finally made it back to Seattle late last night — vacation is wonderful, but nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.
Today we took the kids to the Mariners game at Safeco where we saw the M’s win — a great end to a wonderful week. It reminds me of what life is all about — family, friends, and fun. Sounds overly simple? Maybe so - but it works.
All the pictures from our trip are in the gallery here.
Snowbird
April 10, 2007 3:29 pmHi there. Been a while since we talked. Rest assured, I’m not ignoring you, it’s just that life has gotten pretty busy. I’ll catch you all up later, but how about just the current events. Right now, we’re at Snowbird in Utah, getting some last snow days in.
Paul has been kind enough to house sit and watch Tilly and Lucas, and we escaped with the Harnesses to The Cliff. The snow has been pretty good (typical spring skiing conditions - hard in the morning, nice by midday, slushy in the afternoon), but we got a couple of inches last night with more forecasted for tomorrow. The kids have been having a blast - Alex is the “mad bomber”, and Leah had a GREAT day at her first ski lesson at Alta yesterday (after much trepidation). We’ve been spending the rest of our time in the pool (yes, outside), the hot tub, and the game room. Fun stuff. Pix are in our gallery here.
Windy in Seattle
December 26, 2006 2:49 pmNow that the great “pre-Christmas wind storm” has come and gone in Seattle, life has gotten back to normal for the most part for us. Luckily, we were only without power for about 12 hours, which is great considering that there are folks on the Eastside that are still in the dark. Our roof lost a bunch of shingles, so I climbed up there and tarped it over the morning after the storm, while I called around to roofers in vain attempts to get the roof patched up. Needless to say, we were at the bottom of the list behind folks who lost whole sections of roofs to fallen trees, etc.
Luckily, I found a local company (Lau Construction through Judy’s Book) who came out on Monday to inspect, and then had a crew out here on Tuesday to repair. They did a fantastic job, and now my roof is good as new (well, as good as it was before the storm) — just in time for the next weather system to come through the area.
A wee bit ‘o rain
November 7, 2006 10:24 pmIt’s been raining here in Seattle. No surprise there, it rains here quite a bit, but this has been record-level. Here are a couple of pictures that show just how much water we’re dealing with out here…
(Deception Falls…this is by Skykomish…the bridge crosses a creek)
(from the Seattle P-I)
This reminds me of a site I saw a while back, which (coincidentally) I just got notification has been updated. Flood Maps uses the Google Maps API overlaid with water level data to show the flood effects of a rising sea-level. Striking.
Holiday Cards
November 6, 2006 6:57 pmIt’s the time of the season to start thinking about making a family holiday card. Last year I found Vistaprint, and they did a GREAT job on our cards (for a fantastic price).
Nice things about these guys are:
- you can upload your own pictures (nothing new there, a lot of sites do that)
- you can upload your own drawings (sure, a JPEG is a JPEG, but this is a nice idea - last year we had a drawing by Alex on the back of our card)
- they have an online design tool that is powerful and easy to use
- their prices are amazing (much cheaper than Snapfish, etc. last I checked)
These guys will be getting our business again this year, and I recommend them to you. Please click here if you are interested in using this service - you will get 25% off your order, and I will get some savings off our upcoming order. It’s a win-win!
