Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Fishy gifts

A few times a year I give little handmade gifts to my coworkers. This holiday season everyone is getting fish-shaped soap that I made, along with some cute tags that I designed to go along with the general fish theme. I think you can click on the photos to see them larger...




More cold weather

Still clear, still cold and still amazingly gorgeous outside. This photo is from our bedroom window yesterday around 3:15 pm. I was sick and got to see the sunset from home.


On my way to work:


5 degrees today...better than below zero:


Monday, December 15, 2008

Clear and cold

We had lovely clear weather this past weekend, with beautiful blue skies and vivid pink sunrises. But clear skies mean lower temperatures and the hoar frost made a comeback, big time! I'm not sure I have ever seen it this thick before...




Pet Photography

Cool Pet's Eye View Digital Camera, which attaches to a collar and takes photos of your pet's activities throughout the day. It would be interesting to see what the pets do while home alone -- but I suspect that Drift's photos would just be of the door to the pantry where we keep his food or the carpet, because he sleeps all day. The cats are probably all over the place.

So the camera reminded me of this cool guy who made his OWN camera - before it was all trendy for pets to be photojournalists - and attached it to Mr. Lee, his roaming cat.


Friday, December 12, 2008

Winter ruminations

My sister is still in town, so I get dropped off at work and then she does random Risha things all day -- shopping, visiting with friends, eating at my favorite restuarants without me and probably bank-robbing and red light-running too for good measure.

She mentioned today on the morning commute how dark it is here and with the heavy cloud cover, we never really see the sun all day! It's just gloomy. I know that I already blogged about how craptastic it is here right now, but having someone else confirm it for me is...just sad.

On a lighter note, D and I are going to the movies tonight...we never go anymore since my friend Netflix delivers a film every couple of days, but one of the bigger theaters in town just dropped the price of EVERY movie to $3!

We suspect that they are trying to compete with the highly succesful but always crowded Bear Tooth Theater. Bear Tooth has only one screen but you can get local beer on tap and eat yummy food while watching the movie. It's the sister facility to the Moose's Tooth, best pizza in AK!

3 Cool Things - 12/12/08

In the spirit of winter, I present...headgear!

(what, you were expecting something else?)



Beard cap -- For the man (or slightly weird woman) who feels the need to express their affinity for beards and mustaches in cold weather.




Head band - not sure why I like this so much, but it looks oh-so classy compared to the other winter headbands out there.






Pumpkin hat -- Can't forget about the kiddos - here's a hat for your favorite little munchkin:


Thursday, December 11, 2008

Stats don't lie

I like 90% of all chocolates - and peoples, I am fairly sure that I could eat 100% of this chocolate pie chart.



D is afraid that all my teeth are going to fall out because I am quite fond of candy. Damn these craggy Korean teeth...they are cavity magnets.

But this chocolate pie chart represents math, and math is good for you, therefore the chocolate pie chart is good for you! See, it's all in how you present the issue -- if A=B and B=C, then A=C! I am a genius...

Books'o'million

Books are one of those things that I tend to collect, along with purses and organizational helpers (baskets, etc.) But books take up so much room and we are trying to de-clutter the homefront. In a perfect world we would have a huge room dedicated to our ever-growing library, like so:


And then I could have one of those rolling ladders to peruse my fabulous library...sigh.

On the flip side, reviews have been really good for this handy little device, the Kindle. The convenience of reading books on that hand-held doodad is quite attractive -- however it is just slightly out of my budget right now. And I read that it may not work as well in Alaska for some reason. Actually, most things don't work in Alaska for mysterious reasons, like satellite positions and sun rays and butterfly wing-flappings and crazy things like that.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

DIY - Pendant lamp

Ooooh, this is a neat do-it-yourself project -- String Pendant Lamp

Just think of all the fabulous color combos that are possible - or stick with a monochromatic scheme!

Hello? That's Dr. Kitty to you

I read about this Hello Kitty-themed hospital on Apartment Therapy and thought, "I bet it's somewhere in Asia, probably Korea." And I was half right - the hospital is located in Taiwan. Asians are in freaking love with Hello Kitty -- I remember having tons of that stuff when I was a kid. What can I say, I'm half Korean. Here's the Reuters article.



"Director Tsai Tsung-chi said he hopes the white, mouthless cat that is one of the world's most recognizable characters will ease the pain and fear associated with childbirth and being admitted into hospital."

Well, I hope he's right -- but I would much rather have some lovely pain meds or an epidural, thanks very much. Hello Kitty is awesome and everything but last time I checked she wasn't healing people Jesus-style.

Puppy love

Drift loves his Auntie Risha...



Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Home cooking

I really hope this is safe, because I've been roasting marshmallows in the wood stove for the last couple weeks...




Do you like my stick? It's actually a telescoping and rotating fork -- I have two now because everyone would always "borrow" mine around the campfire and then I'd never get to use it. So now I have two -- one for me and one for the moochers. It works out well. Seriously, it's like the tool of the future peoples.

FYI, I started that fire myself and it was so perfect! If there was a woodstove fire-building course, I would totally rock that bad boy. But don't tell D -- otherwise he'll make me build all the fires from now on.