An Amerson update

Long time no disclose info!

The Amersons are doing well. There are two new buildings (one 13 stories, one 9 stories) opening up at Harborview (one in less than a week), so Ethan is BUSY at work figuring out who needs keys to what and who is moving where in the new building, then who is taking over the old places in the old building. Basically, he is working a lot. He is in the middle of a 12-day stretch with no days off, so I am being extra nice to him.

My unit is moving into the new building, so lots of excitement for me, too. I am helping with the transition over there, and it is getting so close! Our official move date is the 30th of July (for my floor). We have to get our patients and staff moved over in a few-hour period, because another floor is moving into our old floor right away. Lots of coordination.

In other news...lets see. I spent Saturday doing some work around the house. And by that I mean I mowed the lawn. And trimmed my rose bushes, and decided to stain my fence. It has been weathering for almost 2 years, and was due for some stain and sealant. The staining goes fast, except for the lattice on the top. What a pain in the butt! All those little nooks and crannies to cover evenly. I swear I gave myself carpal tunnel syndrome! I also gave myself a pretty terrible sunburn. I started outside in the morning, and it wasn't too warm. I realized that it was getting hotter, so I ran inside and slathered some sunscreen on. On my face only. Problem is, I was in a tank top and shorts, so I now have a blazing sunscreen on my left arm, shoulders, neck and back, as well as behind my knees. What a sensitive area to burn! I am unable to fully straighten my right knee, because the skin is tight and it pulls. Thank god for aloe vera gel with lidocaine! I am using it to lubricate the area and keep it soft so the skin doesn't lose all its elasticity. This is probably the worst burn I have had in the last 5 years or so. Oh well. At least it is almost past the painful part. Now I get the itchy, peely part where I wear a sign saying it is not dandruff--it is sunburn peels!

We recently got back from a short trip to Victoria with some friends, as you can see from my previous posts. We had a great time! Only 3 nights all together but a true getaway. We rented a condo on the 11th floor of a building a block or so behind the Empress hotel, and could easily walk anywhere. We went on a zipline tour that was awesome, toure the Royal British Museum and did an Imax show, and toured the Parliament building. All lots of fun. We also did the old time picture place, which was sorta cool and sorta maddening. The owner guy totally ignored Ethan, then when I came out of the dressing room and was presented as his wife, totally ignored ME too. Like I seriously would ask him a question, and he would not answer me. He spent COUNTLESS minutes directing Jill and Eric exactly how to hold their heads, the position of their hands and other body parts, but I would ask if I needed to move something or if I was ok, and he would totally ignore me. Really blatant. Whatever. The picture turned out alright, although I wish I had put the feather head piece on the other way.

Nothing big planned in the near future for us. Just surviving work (mostly Ethan). I am going to fly to Portland this weekend (I had a $150 plane voucher that expires at the end of this month, so I basically am flying for free...much cheaper than driving!) to see Mom. I hear that there is a big special street market that Saturday, so we will probably go browse there. Mom is heading off to Penang in another few weeks, and I wanted to make sure to see her and cheer her on before she left. I really wish I could go with her this year, but the financial effects of Australia took awhile to recover from, and I just can't do it every year. I especially liked having some time by myself in Australia to take pictures and hike. It is really boring to hang out with me when I am in a picture taking mood, because I will spend literally hours taking pictures and looking at things, which no one else may especially want to watch me do. Not that I didn't love hanging out with Mom, too, but it was a unique experience to be in a foreign city wandering around alone. I really enjoy being alone sometimes.

I suppose we ARE going to Hawaii in September. Still need to book a hotel on Oahu, but the prices are seriously dropping, so I will hold on a bit before I do that. With the cost of fuel and rising airline prices, less people are able to get to Hawaii, and the few hotels I previously found that were under $100 a night in Honolulu have now expanded so there are now dozens available under $75. Should be no problems. Car rental prices have also dropped--I looked months and months ago, and it was about $275 for a compact car rental for a week. I just booked a few days ago for $120 for the entire week. Not too shabby!
We are going to book soon for the Old Lahaina Luau, which is a must-do close to our resort, and also for the Zipline in the rainforest close to Kaanapali. Kinda spendy, but it is about 5 hours of zipping and a beautiful lunch on a cliff overlooking....well, everything.
We are bringing all our own snorkelling gear to Hawaii with us. You can snorkel right off the beach of our resort in Maui, so we plan to do that daily. I hear there are tons of turtles right there! We may not book a snorkelling tour at all.

We, well *I* am considering possibly going to Vegas over Thanksgiving. I have another airline voucher (only $75, but every penny counts!), and there are always great hotel deals that time of year. Could be a nice little trip before Ethan has his big knee surgery. Not sure if he will be non weightbearing after this one, but certainly the surgery itself will be much more extensive. He has a Baker's cyst in his knee, an ACL tear, a torn meniscus, and possibly loss of cartilidge. If they need to do a microfracture treatment (they basically drill lots of teeny holes in the bone in the area where cartilidge is missing, to encourage the bone to form a scar or callous, which is preferable to just bone rubbing against bone) like they did on his left knee, he will be non weightbearing for at least 6 weeks again. At least this time, he knows how to use crutches and what to expect. Maybe he won't fall down the stairs this time.

Because of Ethan's knee, we drive to work every day now. He needs to be able to go up and down 5 flights of stairs and about 50 yards of steep incline to get from the bus stop to our house, and walk down 7 blocks (and over 3) to the bus stop downtown. He walks okay, but has a hard time going downhill at all, and steps are a challenge. Until then...we drive. We have a temporary disabled parking permit that lets us park all day near the hospital. I work an hour later on Tuesdays, so here I sit, blogging away until my work starts. But, it is about that time so I must go. Tuesdays I am a floor nurse again, and this week is my 12 hour floor day, so I have a long haul ahead of me. The light at the end of the tunnel is that I am off tomorrow, although I have tentatively decided to do more fence staining, and remove mildew from some of the fence areas that need that done prior to staining. Woo and hoo. But, it must be done eventually.....