New toy

Living in Alaska affords so many unique opportunities, including outdoor pursuits, but eventually you start to hear the siren call for more "toys." It's starts with the small stuff -- ski or snowboard gear, outdoor clothing -- then jumps to the big boy toys -- boats, atv's, snowmachines, rv's. Well, we're living the Alaskan dream here with D's brand new snowmachine...it's gorgeous and fast!

This past Friday D loaded up the truck and we drove a couple hours up to Willow for some lake and trail riding. What a rush! I'm very, very tempted to get my own sled now...


Saw a couple dog sled teams during the day -- trail etiquette dictates that snowmachines pull over so the teams can pass. I thought maybe the dogs would get spooked by the loud engines but they didn't seem to notice.


Lots of other riders out -- this photo is from the little parking lot near Crystal Lake.

Rolly Creek Trail

Even out in the wilderness we couldn't get away from advertising! This flyer was nailed into a tree...

Yummy hot chocolate during one of our breaks.

D spotted these two moose off the trail. We watched them for a while and I considered posting the video here that I took, but it was so boring -- they just stood looking around for about 3 minutes before walking into the trees.

The little speck in the middle of the trees is a plane we saw throughout the day. It landed right next to us as we sped across a lake - that was exciting.

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:

Can you keep a secret?

Okay, this is on the down-low peoples -- but a production company came to my medical place of employment recently and filmed one of our physicians for a show to be featured as part of the next "Alaska Week" on the Discovery Channel! The ER doc talked about hypothermia and the risks of falling into frigid Alaskan waters.
The producer told me that "Alaska Week" will be sometime in March or April of 2009, so be sure to mark your calendars and watch all the cool shows. Another program that this company is producing includes a bunch of crazy "hot video" clips that people have sent in about animal attacks, glaciers falling, rescues, and other Alaska drama.


For the most part I enjoyed "Alaska Week" 2008 -- there were some good shows, a few were duds. I expected a bit more from MythBusters but it was entertaining nonetheless. Deadliest Catch is always exciting. Those dudes are crazy. I know D is tougt and would be able to hold his own on a crabber or fishing boat (the paycheck would be sweet!), but I would worry about him day and night.

3 cool things - 11/20/08

My friend Em turned me onto this site, but if you are doing ANY traveling be sure to hit up Trip Advisor first! There are member submitted reviews for hotels, restaurants, activities and everything travel-related. It's amazing and has really saved me from making a big reservation mistake in more than one instance.

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Some neat product labels to download for your baked goods, canned food, crafts and ahem, home brew.

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Mochi Ice Cream!!! -- haven't tried this yet, bit is so on my list, peoples. And it looks pretty simple (famous last words). If you try it, please email me and let me know how the mochi goodness turned out!

Pet star

Don't mind me, I'm just the "handler"...


Drift and I both got paid today as part of the tv spot he appeared in -- although you can see who the important party is in this relationship.

No autographs please

Did you know that our dog is a star? Today Drift will be starring in his second tv commercial for a local telecommunications company. I wish I could say he won the honor by beating out hundreds of other dogs during a screen test and agility trial -- but in reality one of my good friends is the production manager for a company that films tv spots, documentaries, etcetera, etcetera. Drift got the part by being a light colored, well-mannered dog. Still, not too shabby, right?





The first spot was filmed earlier this summer and ran all the time - we actually got tired of seeing it. Once, Drift caught a glimpse and actually barked at himself on tv. He likes to sit and watch the tube with us -- very often he'll get all worked up over the animals onscreen. He hates horses and can tell the difference between them and say, an elk or moose. It's pretty amusing.

This new tv spot should start running a few weeks I think --I'll try to get my friend to burn me a copy of both commercials and then they will get posted here. Peoples, now you can say that you know a tv star!

'Lil cabin in the woods

My jaw is on the floor -- these people did an amazing job fixing up this decrepit Alaskan cabin. Well, they call it a cabin but it seems more like a little house on the water. I've seen some REAL Alaskan cabins!



I'm JEALOUS! Imagine waking up to that scenery every morning. I'll bet it's super quiet and peaceful in their neck of the woods. Here is the link to the slideshow.

Silhouette art

Neat, neat, neat: http://silhouettemasterpiecetheatre.com/

And funny...

Frosty day

A nice day today -- although a a bit chilly, around 17 degrees. The trees have all turned white -- called hoar frost. It's gorgeous.

M.I.A.

Oh my, I've been derelict in my posting duties. That's what a nice vacation and the subsequent busy time at work will do to a blogger. Apologies all around, peoples.

A lot of websites have gotten their hands on the Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) sales ads and I've been perusing them for good deals. I'm currently in the market for an elliptical workout machine and once again my love of in-depth research is making it hard to narrow the choices down to just one lucky winner. So the search continues. I will probably get a NordicTrack elliptical that will be on sale at Sears on Black Friday, with an extended warranty. I don't need to be lugging a big heavy machine back to store if it breaks down. Those suckers can come to my house and fix it for me!

Last year we got up crazy early to visit Home Depot on Black Friday. It wasn't busy by any means but the under cabinet mounted microwaves we wanted were pretty much flying off the showroom floor. We got one for the house and one for the condo (which I sold last year). That was a really great deal, but I haven't seen anything too amazing this year.