A New Floor and Two Cripples

Vanessa's husband Rick and his brother Bob came last weekend and did a hardwood flooring blitz. We had purchased the wood a few months ago and were eager to get it installed. Now that the work is done KJ and I are really pleased with the change in appearance but not without it's side effects. Kelly got a staf infection from her recent surgery and needed all of last week to stay home and recover. I'm still healing from my rotator cuff injury and seem to always re-strain it the moment I feel better. For me this injury is going on months now. It sucks in the busy spring season to feel so useless and have to endure the ongoing discomfort.

Super duper thanks to Rick, Van, & Bob for their incredible quality of work. Also thanks to all our friends who showed up to help on Sunday as we tore up the floors and prepped everything for Rick and Bob.

Lino! We pulled up the carpet and underlay to find a lovely layer of lino as well? Apparently at one time our whole house must have been lino.
Thank goodness the lino wasn't glued down very well. It came up pretty easy and only took a few hours to completely remove.
Molly of course found a house free of furniture to be a wonderful new playground.
Doug and I doing what we could to help. Yes, I can sort boards...
And Molly can line up screws for Bob. Yippe no more squeeks in the floor.
Doesn't it look nice!

Kelly's Surgery

For those of you who are "out of the loop" Kelly has been waiting five years for a surgery to eliminate back, neck, and shoulder pain. The surgery is performed by a plastic surgeon and reduces some weight off of her chest. Those hints should be enough to make your own educated guess.

We went to Kamloops last week for the surgery and here are some pictures of the event. Kelly is home for the next two weeks recovering and healing.

The first waiting room. Time to put on the headphones and watch a movie.

The second waiting area complete with the backless gown.
Is my ass showing?

"Ok Kelly... the surgeon is ready for you now"

Post-Op - the recovery room is good!

We've been back home since Friday and Kelly is doing great. She is very pleased with the look and feel and her pain is less than she expected (thanks pharmaceuticals). She is trying to keep moving around and help the healing process. Today she went shopping for a few new tank tops, it seems her old ones don't fit as well anymore. :)

AJ's Arcade - Nintendo's R-Type 1987

I just spent the evening clean and reprogramming another arcade machine I purchased for my home arcade.

Manufacturer: Nintendo
Year: 1987
Genre: Space

Monitor:

• Orientation: Horizontal
• Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
• CRT: Color

Number of Simultaneous Players: 1
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Alternating
Control Panel Layout: Single Player
Controls:

• Joystick: 8-way
• Buttons: 2

Sound: Amplified Mono (one channel)

This is a fun side scroller with a good degree of difficulty. I reprogrammed it for Free Play, 5 Lives, Bonus Lives, and Normal Difficulty. I serviced and repaired the joystick and two buttons that were sticky, they are working fine now. I may still order some replacement buttons as the current buttons don't all match and a few of the colors are not correct for this game. That aside it's working great and that's all that matters when it's the new game :)

Tonight Molly offered her toy room (which is more like a storage room) for me to turn into an arcade room. I might take her up on her offer if she doesn't change her mind. She likes playing these old games as much as I do so it's not like she won't be able to play in that room anymore, it's just the "toys" that are different.