Dawg crazy...

Well, Junior came for a visit today. Junior belongs to Maria and Peter (Maria is a pathology resident with Mike, and she's originally from Ripon, WI). Anyway, Maria knows that Marc and I love dogs, so she brought Junior over to visit. He is a 9 lb 10 year old miniature dachshund. We took him for a walk around the neighborhood, and he seemed right at home with Marc. I suppose that we'll have to get on petfinder.org to find our own pet sooner or later! In the short term, we'll just keep petsitting - I think that we will take care of Junior over New Year's!

My High School Car

There is a special feeling in an Oldsmobile... more than the luxury ride it's the feeling of pride when you get in side...

OK, I have to admit, I troll craigslist a little too much. I found this beauty for sale in Ballard - it's only $700 - a 1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88.

My mother bought a car just like this in 1984. I drove it from 1992 - 1998 - we sold it when I got the Accord. To this day Joanne says "That was a really good car for you."

Anyway, because it was so cheap, I did think about it, but what would I do with it? It would collect dust/rust on the street.

Even though it wasn't a neat car, just a big old 80's boat, it is the feature of one of my recurring dreams - maybe once a month of so I have a dream that I am driving the Olds... now's my chance to actually do it!!!

I can admit that I did go on craigslist to look for 80's cars for my friends - I thought that I would get a blue Datsun B210 for Erin, and a green Chevy Beretta for Kelly. Maybe I could find a LeCar for Jane and an RX-7 for Katie!

Pellet Heat

Well, we have been accused by some of being "country folk," but the pellet stove insert is in, and we love it! For those of you who have never heard of a pellet stove, basically it is a small freestanding stove (or fireplace insert in this case) that burns wood pellets. The wood pellets are made from scrap sawdust, and are basically a way of using waste material from the lumbering process. For those of you who'd like to read about the technology, see an overview at Wikipedia (pellet stove). Anyway, I first got hooked on the idea when I visited Kelly and Marty's house in Nevada. They have an all electric home, so they are using a pellet stove for their primary source of heat. I vowed that when I moved from Minnesota to Seattle that I would seriously consider a stove as an option.

Anyway, Seattle is a bit quirky in that natural gas isn't as popular as the Midwest. In 1926, our home was built with a coal furnace. In the 1950s or so, many of the city homes changed to heating oil - that is our main source of heat now (another blog to come on the EnerRoyal, our funky little oil furnace). Our house has always had a masonry fireplace, although by the time that we got here, the firebox was shot (the chinking had fallen out). So it was repair the firebox or put in an insert.

To get a gas insert, we'd have to pay for hook-up. A wood insert was an option, but that meant splitting wood. So, the pellet insert was ideal for us - the warmth of a wood or gas fireplace, without having to pay for gas hook-up, and without stacking/splitting wood. We just pour the pellets in and go. It is self-igniting, and we have a remote control programmable thermostat.

I did this big pellet survey, and I found that actually the best deal for us are the Blazer pellets from the Home Cheapo. They're made in Oregon. I bought a few bags to try them out, and will have 2 tons delivered next week. That should get us through the entire year!

The greatest thing about this stove is that you can choose it's heat output - anywhere between 8,000 and 28,000 BTU per hour. So, in comparison to the furnace that can either be fully on or off (blasting out 68,000 BTU per hour) we can run the stove continuously at a low level. It heats the whole main floor, and it makes the living and dining rooms ever so toasty. Jane is just going to love it!

Drawbacks? Well, it is more work than gas - you have to clean out the fly-ash every few weeks (takes 10 minutes or less), once a year you have to clean the chimney out, and you have to haul around pellets. It is much easier than wood, however! Besides, I like to tinker, so it makes me happy.

Some people do claim that pellets are "carbon neutral," although I don't think that this is quite the case. There is some energy expended in the manufacturing process as well as transportation. It probably is better than using the oil furnace, I guess. Also, while it is very clean burning, there is a small amount of ash that makes it up the chimney, so that is a factor as well.

All in all, the pellet stove has been a great addition - I'm looking forward to winter - it will be a welcome addition!

Would love to hear your comments, so please post away! Mike (and Marc)

PS I found a cool pic of the cross-section of a stove so that you can see its innards. Click on this LINK.

Happy Halloween!!

The Pumpkin Patch and Gas Works Park

Whew - I've been told that I've been a bit behind at not posting regularly enough, so I will try to post multiple times this week to catch up.

Well, Katie and Emilie (Mike's sister and niece) came to visit, so we drove to Monroe, WA out to Baylor Farm to pick up some pumpkins. I should note that we first stopped for a picnic along the Skyhomish River. We then arrived at the farm, were greeted by a bassegle (beagle basset cross), and then got behind a tractor for a hay ride down to the pumpkin patch along the river. There we picked out 3 pumpkins totaling 100 lbs which we brought home. The next afternoon Marc, Katie, Emilie, and I carved our pumpkins. They certainly turned out well! Marc's already posted a pic (see post from 10/31/07).

That Sunday, Katie, Emilie and I took a trip on the bus (Emilie's first trip) down to Gas Works Park. It's an old refinery/SUPERFUND site at the edge of Lake Union. Emilie snapped a pic of Katie and I on the hill north of Downtown.

All in all, a great visit!

A Low-Car Diet

OK, OK, so I took the term "Low-Car Diet" from the city of Seattle - it was a promotion sponsored by the City of Seattle - http://www.seattle.gov/waytogo/onelesscar.htm. Basically, once Marc and I knew that we would be moving to this house and that we would be in a location where we could take the bus frequently, we decided that we didn't need to have two cars anymore. Thus, after 9 years and 100,000 miles of excellent service, I retired the Accord - I listed it on craigslist, and within a week, it was sold to a woman in Tacoma who was delighted to have it. Marc and I are sharing his Volkswagen now, which seems to be working just fine. We both take the bus to work everyday, and drive the car only 1-2 times per week to do errands, etc. I anticipate that we will only drive about 5000 miles this year. I subscribed to FlexCar, which is a car-sharing program. One of the neat things about the City is that they will give me $600 of FlexCar credit for selling my car. We rarely need a second car, but what is handy is that FlexCar has a Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck. We use it periodically to run errands - especially when purchasing furniture, etc. from craigslist! All in all, it has been an easy thing to do, and we enjoy being able to walk and take public transportation everywhere. Goodbye Accord - you were my second car ever - thank you for so many years of service!

October is Visitor Month

Well, October is here, and now that we have a spare bedroom, the guests are coming in droves! First to come was my dad - it was his first time to Seattle since the 1960s. We walked 10 miles on the first day - down to the University, etc. Our photos highlight some of our adventures. One is taken at the main fountain on the UW campus. The remainder are snapshots from Snoqualmie Falls, which is about 30 miles east of Seattle. We had a great time together!!! Later on in the month we had Molly and Aaron, Marc's parents Dennis and Ruth Ann, and then my sister Katie and my niece Emilie. It was great to see everyone!