My civic duty

With the Dividend comes certain responsibilities and yesterday they caught up with me. The state says it's time to call me up for jury duty.

Confession time: I'm (almost) 32 and have never actually gone in for jury duty! I was excused once for attending college in another state. When I was called up after graduating and returning to Anchorage, they never got to my group number.

I'm counting my lucky stars that it's only petit jury duty, and not a grand jury session. One of my girlfriends was on call ALL SUMMER for grand jury duty. No vacations, no nothing.

If anything, it will be an interesting experience -- although my week to call in begins August 2nd and I'm considering a month postponement. If I get picked for a jury in August it'll really screw with my plans for a trip to see my family in Tennessee.

Green thumb

Yay, Friday!

A good friend of mine here at work is out of the office until next week and has entrusted me with the care of this pretty little Hawaiian volcano plant:

I know...totally looks fake, right? It just needs to be kept alive until next Thursday and then I'm in the clear! My instructions are to keep a half-inch of water at the bottom at all times. And that is not dirt the roots are clinging to -- it's a chunk of lava rock, which sucks up the moisture and nourishes the roots.

If you're so inclined, you can pick up your own volcano plant at Home Depot.

Solstice almost here!

Right now we are getting over 19 hours of daylight (19 hours, 20 minutes to be exact) and I'm not going to lie, it's pretty awesome. Summer solstice is June 21st and communities all over Alaska will celebrate the longest day of the year. after that we will start losing daylight again and begin the slow march to a cold and dark winter.

I recall one year when a few of us decided to climb Flattop for Solstice...lo and behold, the rest of Anchorage thought it would be a great night for a climb too. It was so crowded we had to park a mile or so from the trailhead lot. On the way up I saw a man climbing with a CAT perched on his SHOULDERS. I love cats and all, but I would never take one hiking. That is some serious crazy cat person behavior.

Most people think Flattop is an easy in-city, day hike -- it's only about 3 miles round trip from the parking lot and for the most part a trail exists for hikers. The part that scares me is towards the end when you have to scramble up a scree field (loose, jagged rocks on the side of a mountain). Actually, going up is not so bad -- it's coming down the scree on your backside and trying to not freak out when you lose a foothold.

Here are some photos I "borrowed" from this guy's site (http://www.photos.dougdaubert.com/vacations/Alaska-2008_compare.html) which give a good idea of the mountain:

X marks the spot

Not sure how I found this blog, but am DYING to know the location of their secret "white sand beach" in Prince William Sound. Of course, I would keep it secret too...

http://aksmith-crew.blogspot.com/2009/06/hawaii-in-alaska.html

And those kids are super cute!

Cool tools

I saw this on the Urban Outfitters website and immediately thought of D:

It's a pizza cutter! Very ingenious.

A morning visitor

Just prior to walking out the door this morning, one of the cats perked up and rushed to the window. Pepper started making a clicking/chattering noise that cats like to do when they see prey. I looked out and saw a tiny little grey and black bird sitting on the front porch railing.

Then another little bird landed and the cutest thing happened: the first bird grabbed a leaf off my potted porch tree and then GAVE IT TO THE OTHER BIRD! It was adorable. He just hopped over and they passed the leaf from beak to beak. I'm just hoping they don't do that every day or else my poor tree is done for.

More birthday wishes

Another Monday here already -- sadly, my weekend just flew by. The health fair went smoothly but all of us involved are pretty sick of fairs by now. I'm SO over getting up at 5 a.m. and losing a Saturday to work. Most of Sunday was spent on the couch as I felt a little under the weather. Today it's more nausea with a bit of dizziness thrown in. Yuck. Since there are no pressing projects on my desk today, I may scoot out early and head home to lay down.

D is down on the peninsula fishing up a storm with his parents. And today is his birthday. Happy birthday honey! I bought his big present on Friday -- and I really, really hope he enjoys it. I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle lugging that thing into the house -- obviously I should have waited for some help but my impatient nature got the best of me. D should be home by Tuesday or Wednesday (or later if work lets him fish a little longer) with lots of fish. Woot!