Nathan Kriege

I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to AV equipment. I don't spend a lot of time in front of the TV, and the idea of investing in a smart TV is distasteful. I don't have cable, though, so when I do watch something I'm streaming from one of a half dozen services. Chromecast was the perfect answer for me. For only $30, I can stream from Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, Hulu, etc to my old school TV. I'm even more in love with my Chromecast Audio, which I use to stream Spotify to speakers in a few different rooms of the house. My kids and I use this constantly. Sadly, though, they discontinued the product, so I can't recommend it anymore.

I upgraded from the mac magic keyboard to a DAS about a year ago. It was well worth the investment. The crisp feel of the keys is so much nicer than the mushy mac, and I experience much less hand fatigue and wrist pain. I have the DAS 4 Professional. I went with the brown "tactile" switches rather than the blue "clicky" switches so that I wouldn't drive my family crazy, but even without the clicks it still has a very nice, precise response.

For years, I resisted the urge to buy an e-reader. One by one, I saw my friends and family embrace them, but I was attached to the tactile experience of old fashioned books. When I started doing a lot of traveling for work, I reluctantly ordered a Kindle just to reduce the weight of my carry on. I've never looked back. The convenience of carrying my entire library in my pocket is enough to keep me hooked. But the fact that I can buy a book (or check one out from the library!) and instantly start reading has completely changed the way I select books.

I'm not a car guy at all, but I do care about my carbon footprint. We got by as a one car family for years, relying heavily on bicycles and public transportation, and using car2go or uber to fill in the gaps. When that became impractical, we decided to go electric for our second car. After a ton of research, we narrowed in on the 2015 Nissan Leaf. We didn't want to pay for a new car, and the 2015 battery upgrade made this a good option for our lifestyle. I was able to find a good selection of Leafs for sale online, so I geeked out and built a massive spreadsheet. I found that carvana had by far the best selection. We kept an eye on inventory for a couple of months and then grabbed one with low milage for a good price. This has turned out to be a great fit for us. It wouldn't work as our only car, but it compliments our old mazda perfectly. We still use the mazda for long road trips, which we take frequently, but the leaf handles most of our day-to-day driving. The battery claims to have an 80-mile range, but we can't really go beyond 60. That's usually plenty for us, though. For fun, I've been keeping track of our milage since we bought the leaf. 60% of our total miles have been electric. On months without road trips, we're typically over 80%.

I never thought I would get excited about a ladder until I came across this one. It's 12.5 feet high when fully extended, but collapses down to just three feet. This makes it very easy to store and transport. It easily fits into the trunk of our car, I can carry it around without crashing into things, and I don't have to get nervous bringing it into the house.

Leaf cleanup without the stink of gas. We get about 30 minutes which is plenty for our medium sized yard. Ryobi makes a whole slew of cordless tools that use this same battery, so if you already have another One+ tool you can save some money by buying without the battery and charger.

These lightweight solar powered lanterns are super versatile. We got them years ago from a Kickstarter campaign to take backpacking. They weigh almost nothing, collapse to a very small size in your pack, recharge quickly, and have proven to be surprisingly durable. We never intended to use them around the house, but when we recently lost power for four days we were grateful to have them.

I go here for regular skin cancer screening. Staff is great.

Very nice team in a relaxed, comfortable environment.

I was very happy with the treatment I got here for an IT band injury that had sidelined me from volleyball. They provide sports therapy, chiropractic care, and massage. More importantly, they took the time to listen and gave me an exercise routine that has kept the problem from returning. This was a refreshing change after being sent away by my GP with a suggestion to load up on ibuprofen.

Friendly, helpful, and professional. They installed a charging station for our electric car. They had lots of advice for us and helped us to fill out the paperwork for a big rebate from Austin Energy.

When our house was broken into and our keys were stolen, David came out on a Sunday to rekey our locks even though it was his wedding anniversary. Not sure how his wife felt about that, but we sure appreciated it. He offered to install a cylinder guard at no extra charge to improve the security of one of our locks.

Our deck collapsed into a pile of rubble, so we needed to do a complete rebuild. I'm very happy that we selected Sam for the job. He helped us through the whole design process, guided us to the best wood for our needs, and did a great job on the project.

Based on @OmarShahine's recommendation, I used Four Seasons to do some roof and siding repair on our rental house in Seattle. They did quality work and communicated well.

We had a great experience with them. They did a very thorough job on two separate projects for us and finished ahead of schedule. Professional, reliable, and communicative. They aren't cheap, but I trust that the work was done right.

I bring my poor, abused bike here for regular tune ups. They're very knowledgable and always take the time to talk to me. I'm riding a 21 year old rockhopper, and they've kept it running.

Great facility for indoor beach volleyball. The leagues here are a blessing during the long, wet Seattle offseason when Golden Gardens is a bit too cold for my taste. Everyone who works here is super friendly and nice, and they have opportunities for play at many different levels. They also run a series of leagues and tournaments at Alki during the summer.

Honest, friendly, and trustworthy. Juke's kids go to school with mine, and he's a great guy. I appreciate that we always get a thorough explanation of the work they are doing, and they never push unnecessary repairs or try to upsell.

I've worked with David for many years now, across several firms, for both personal and business taxes. He's very knowledgeable and reliable, and he always provides solid advice.

We moved to Austin on short notice without much time to find a place to live. We had never been here before, so Megan spent hours driving us all over town and introducing us to the city until we finally found a great house in a neighborhood that we loved. Now that we've lived here for a few years, we feel very fortunate to have ended up in the perfect location for us.