3 Cool Things - 11/28/08

Hi everybody! I'm out and about with the rest of the crazies looking for Black Friday deals. This is only the second time EVER that I have dragged my sleepy self out of bed at 0-dark thirty and shopped on the day after Thanksgiving. And no, I'm not aimlessly shopping - I have a very short list. Then I'm coming home for more sleepy time.

And now back to your regularly scheduled cool things...

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About once a week I check out WikiHow, a site that explains how to do anything.



Topics range from making mulled beer, stopping a "friend" from putting you down, avoiding overdraft fees and save a wet cell phone.

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Stuff is expensive - you know this, peoples. Extend the life of your electronic gadgets!

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NotMartha is all-around awesome - here are some of her tiny pies in little canning jars. I must makes these posthaste. If we have sent you canned salmon in the past, reuse those jars!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so very thankful for many things -- the close relationship I have with my family, D and his wonderful family, my health, a fulfilling job, amazing friends and a happy home. Life is truly good right now and I have many blessings to count. Happy turkey day everyone!

Snowfall

The skies opened up yesterday and let loose some much-needed snow! We received just a few inches but it's the light, fluffy stuff -- not snowman-making snow, which is sticky and wet. You peoples from wintry areas know what I'm talking about here. The light stuff is SO much easier to shovel -- like cotton balls. Wheeee!


Earlier this fall, D built a swanky new shed in the backyard for storage.

I think our bikes, among other things, are locked safely inside the shed. Which is a good thing since D's previous bike was stolen from under the deck RIGHT AFTER we moved in to the house. We know that the kid across the street did it but can't prove it -- although we're super stoked to find out that a police officer has moved into the house next door to the thief. He parks his cop car outside. You cannot ask for a better neighbor than that!

Hardhats and chow

Drift will eat and eat if we let him. He's always hungry. I've heard that about the lab breed, but I imagine that most dogs are like that too? D told me that one time he came home and discovered that Drift had somehow gotten into the dog food bag and pretty much eaten himself silly. The dog's belly was so distended it looked like he was pregnant! Drift didn't eat for at least a day I think.

Sooooo needless to say, Drift is not trusted to self feed. At about 6 am and 5 pm he gets a little antsy and carries around a hard hat to let us know that HELLO HE IS HUNGRIES! One of these days I'll get around to posting a video of the whole pre-feeding event. It's pretty entertaining.

Pepper likes his food too - the only one of my cats that will eat dog chow. It's probably not great for her so she only gets a few pieces here and there. Here is her little portion and Drift's dog-sized amount. Not pictured: Drift drooling and almost trembling as he waits for the signal to eat.

NOM NOM NOM, yum yum yum.

Also not pictured: Drift finishing his meal in under 35 seconds (possibly a new record) and eyeing Pepper's hardhat. Generally he is wary of the cats, but in this case I think the pull of extra food trumped his fear of cat hissing/claws and he went for the white hardhat.

AK crafts

Fall in Alaska means it's craft show time! In the past I've done a few shows but lately the work schedule for my real job has been so busy that I don't even try to do craft fairs anymore. I do miss being able to sell crafty stuff and interact with people at the booth, but hey, my day job pays the bills.

That being said, my friend Cindy and I hit up a BIG show at the new convention center downtown, the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center (D worked construction on this building -- I used to watch him on the web cam). This place is quite large, smack in the middle of downtown -- me and pretty much all of Anchorage are relieved that it's finished since traffic was a nightmare for over a year during construction.

Back to the craft show, vendors were everywhere in the Dena'ina Center and I finally broke down and purchased an "ak starfish" hoodie in brown:

I LOVE it -- it's soft, but not bulky like regular hoodies at all. The owner of the company imprints her designs on American Apparel clothing, so they're made in the U.S. -- yay! I've been eyeing the merchandise for a couple years now and am happy to have finally made a purchase.

An evening out

D and I hit Far North Bicentennial Park yesterday for some cross-country skiing. The weather was perfect -- it wasn't snowing, and the temperature hovered in the high teens. For the most part the trails were nicely groomed. Drift was so so excited to be out and about off-leash! He'd take off running down the trail in front of us, then race back to check in. We saw a couple other people and dogs out there, but for the most part we had the area to ourselves.

You can see my bulging pockets -- I need to get a flatter water bottle! D took this photo of me with the flash...


And the one below with the nighttime setting on my camera...this photo is more indicative of how dark (or light) it was outside at 4:45 pm. I didn't have to turn on my headlamp until after about 6 pm. The area behind me is called Powerline Pass - popular with skiiers, snowmachiners and snowshoers.

A really blurry photo of part of the Anchorage skyline at nightfall: