31. July 2008 by Mike.

I went back to work yesterday, but only worked a 1/2 day today. I was so tired when I got home yesterday afternoon that I went straight to bed at 4:30pm and slept through the night until 6:00am this morning. I guess I needed the rest? I decided not to attempt that feat again today and left work at noon.

I have posted the last of the Brussels pictures and have started going through our time on the Moesel. It’s been fun re-living the good times of the vacation as I choose the pictures to put on the website.

Brussels Centrum

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28. July 2008 by Mike.

     This is my first post in 10 days. I haven’t been really busy, but have been pre-occupied with a few things. I was able to get some more vacation pictures together and uploaded. I have finished with some of the Brussels photos and have anothers day’s worth to go through. The Mosel will be next.

 Brussels B&B

The Atomium

2008 European Gallery

     Now for some catching up …. The Monday after I returned from Europe I went to KU Medical Center for a cystoscopy. I have occasionally had some blood in my urine over the past couple of years and figured it was time to get it checked out. The anticipation was worse than the actual procedure. I had some burning during urination for a couple of days, but it wasn’t too bad otherwise. The results showed a small growth inside my bladder near one of the uteters that connect the bladder to the kidney.

     I went in for surgery to remove the growth last Friday. I was scheduled for 1:00pm, but they called that morning and asked if I could come in earlier. We got there at 11:30 but ended up waiting until after 5:00pm before it happened. Needless to say I wasn’t a very cheerful patient. I told Anne around 2:45pm that if they didn’t come get me by 3:30pm we were leaving. I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the previous evening. They took me back into the prep room about 30 minutes later.

     After another hour, I finally asked the nurse, “Which fool called and told me to come in so early?” She recommended I ask the doctor that question.

     Apparently the first few surgeries that morning went so smoothly the doctor had them call other patients to come in early. Unfortunately for me, the planned one hour surgery right before me lasted three hours because the patient had a really big stone that had to be removed. When the doctor finally arrived he was very apologetic about the wait. My guess is the nurse said something to him. I didn’t say anything and told him I understood about the wait, no problem. I figured there was no reason to piss off somebody that was getting ready to cut on me!

     I remember going into the operating room, but not much after that. The surgery lasted about an hour and I came out of the general anesthetia pretty smoothly with no lingering effects. It happened so quick Anne wasn’y even there when they wanted to realease me. She spoke to the doctor after the surgery and he assured her everything was OK and that it would be a couple of hours, so she went home. Thirty mintues later they called her.

     Luckily they did not need to insert a stent like he thought they might, but I did come home with a catheter and two bags. One was a leg bag attached with elastic straps that I wore during the day. The other was much larger for nighttime that we hung beside the bed. As you’ve probably guessed, I haven’t slept very well the last few nights. Anne has been a great help and can definitely become a  nurse if she ever decided she wanted to give up teaching.

     I went back to the doctor first thing this morning. The nurse removed the catheter and bag so I feel much better now. I spoke to the doctor and he feels very encouraged that the growth was benign. Since the surgery was late Friday afternoon, they didn’t have any biopsy results yet. He said it’ll be the end of this week or the first of next before he knows anything.  I have to go back in 3 months for another cytoscopy and re-exam. I still don’t feel great, so I probably won’t be back at work tomorrow. Hopefully by Wednesday things will be getting back to normal.

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18. July 2008 by Mike.

     Anne made it home safely last evening. I picked her up at the airport around 9:30pm and she was home in her own bed by 11:00pm. It had been a long day. She only slept until 9:00am this morning. I finally got up at 11:30am. We ran some errands today- Costco, Walmart, the bank, Werner’s, etc. We had an early dinner and she’s getting ready to go to bed, if she ever gets off the phone with my mom!

      Here are some more photos of the trip from Westmalle and Antwerp. I’m working on Brussels, but there are quite a few so I’m picking the best ones. Westmalle no longer offers tours, so we didn’t spend much time there. It was kind of a nice detour for lunch.

      We were pretty active in Antwerp, and it’s a really active city. We stayed near the train station, which is also part of the diamond area, and home to a large Hasidic Jewish population. We had dinner near the river on Monday evening, then took the bus tour on Tuesday morning. Eventually we went south toward Brussels.

Westmalle

Antwerp evening

Antwerp morning

European Photo Gallery

     Anne promises a new journal soon!

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15. July 2008 by Mike.

     I finished and posted the Rotterdam photographs. We didn’t do much when we arrived Sunday evening, other than take a short walk, enjoy a nice dinner, and then we went back to the hotel and I watched the last half of “Old School” before retiring early.

Rotterdam

European Photo Gallery 

     The next morning it was very interesting as we explored the 185m (697ft) EuroMast. A 100m tower was built in 1960 with a great view of the city and harbor, including a restaurant at the top. Another 85m tower was added in 1970. It has a seating pod that rotates as is rises to the top and then lowers back down. It’s all very spectacular, as you can see from the photos. It offers a great view of the Erasmus bridge, nicknamed ‘The Swan’.

     The next photo page will be of Westmalle and Antwerp, Beligum as we leave Holland.

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13. July 2008 by Mike.

I finally have a couple of pages of photographs of our trip posted on the website. It took a while to merge the normal shots from the Sony with the telephoto pics taken with the Canon. I have tried to keep them in some semblance of chronological order. Here’s the link to the start of our

European Vacation Photos

I haven’t heard from Anne for a couple of days. I think she’s traveling around visiting different friends and relatives and may not have internet access. She will be home this Thursday evening.

I’ve had a pretty lazy weekend. I haven’t left to go anywhere since I got home from work last Thursday evening. I mowed the yard and did some caulking in the living room, so it’s getting closer to being ready for paint. Otherwise I’ve just been laying around taking it easy.

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9. July 2008 by Anne.

     After Mike left to go back home, a new adventure began. I found the train station at the Frankfurt airport, but track 13 did not exist. Luckily, the lady at the information was very nice and told me that my train left from the main station (Hauptbahnhof) and I could take the S-Bahn there. It would only be three stops.I found the machine to buy the ticket and went to the track. Shortly after they announced that the train would be late. Fortunately, I was told, any train from that track would go to the Haptbahnhof, and the next train made it on time.

     During my about 3 hour trip to Hannover, I had a very nice neighbor and the train was almost empty. Starting in Hannover, where I had to change trains, it was packed. I found an empty seat. There was a group of bikers from Cuxhaven, who had to stack all their luggage in a corner. At some point the train stopped abruptly, and the luggage fell, partially on me. It was not too bad, but the young lady across from me pretended to be hurt. The bikers played along and would have enjoyed to play doctor with her.

     We made it to Bremen just a little late. I have no idea why the train stopped for a few minutes before driving into the station. While we were out there it started to rain. On the way to Bremerhaven it got even worse. Rolf could barely see where he was going.

    Jana did not have to go to school the next day, and we planned to go shopping. The weather did not play along. It rained on and off all day. Helke and I took Jana to basketbakk practice and we went to the grocery store. It was interesting for me to see all the changes from the past 20 years. There were products I had never seen before. Off course, I had to try some of them. What still amazes me is the variety of rolls. They are all wonderful and I could eat a German breakfast all day.

     Ralf and Gerti came back from Rügen that day and all of us went to the Schaufenster, which is an area with fish restaurants. They had a lot of booths set up to sell Bremerhaven memorabilia and a lot of fish, including Matjes ( I don’t know what that is in English). After dinner Ralf, Jana and I needed an ice cream for dessert. It was called Schlakkermaschü. I thought my mom had made up that word, but it really exists. This is a mix between soft ice cream and regular icecream. the others had already ordered a bottle of white wine for all of us and we also had either a Grappa, William’s Christ Birne or Sambuca to help distribute the food evenly. Poor Jana had to make due with a fruit drink with mineral water.

     Sunday was rainy again. The three adults went to the Immigration Museum. It was very interesting. The visitors walk through the house that looks like the harbor and the ship from long ago. At the end we were able to research our own ancestors. I wish I had more information about Mike’s grandmother. I think I found her, but I was not sure. There were also phone books from all the states. I was listed in a Missouri book with my Kansas address. The rest of my family was not there.

     Karin picked me up on Monday. We visited her parents first. It was nice to see them again after over 20 years. According to them, I look just like my mother. After that we had lunch at the Blattlaus, a restaurant mainly frequented by students. 

Thanks to Karin, I did a lot of the shopping. We walked to the Bürger, a pedestrian area with lots of shops. When we were almost done, it started to rain very hard. What a shame, we had to stay and eat ice cream. It was delicious. Thanks to the waitress, we again noticed the difference between the service industry in America and Germany. She was not too interested in earning a tip. Most people give a small tip, but it is not required. This young lady did not deserve one. Karin then took me home with her to say good-bye to Kalle. We had some tea, and they introduced me to the Wii. I got to bowl against the computer. They played tennis. Then Karin took me home, just in time to get back to watch “24” on TV.

    On Tuesday I was on my own for a little while. The rest of the family had to go to work and to school.  Helke came home early and we did some more shopping. Then it started to rain again. It was a relaxing day.

    Today was Jana’s last day at school. She came home with a good report card, and now we have to decide what to do. We have two more days in Bremerhaven before we go to Köln to visit another relative.

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8. July 2008 by Mike.

When I got home this evening, we had a letter from the IRS. Would it be good news, or bad? For years we always over paid and would get a nice $2000 refund. Then we finally realized it was OUR money they were sending back to us. Now we underpay and owe every April, but we are disciplined enough that we have saved the $2000 that we owe, and have accrued the interest throughout the year.

On the outside of the envelope, in red text, was ‘ENCLOSED IS AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE IRS ON THE ECONOMIC STIMULUS ACT OF 2008. DO NOT THROW AWAY.’ Do people generally throw away letters from the IRS? I opened it and ….. bummer, no money, just notice that $1200 should be deposited in our checking account by Friday.

That’s good news, especially since some of our credit card bills from our trip are starting to come due. At least we are stimulating someone’s economy!

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