Fairy living

I've heard of Fairy Doors before, but have never seen one in person. Apartment Therapy has a post about them today:

Now, what is really super sweet is one of the comments at the end of that post, describing how this person's parents built a fairy door for their grandkid and even add little fairy-sized accessories to the space, to the delight of said grandkid.

This one is from Urban Fairies.com:

Eruptions

This volcano is really inconsiderate -- messing everything up for people, forcing flight cancellations, making me be on-call this weekend in case my medical place of employment needs to issue a press release...

My boss is supposed to be in Hawaii today but the flight left WITHOUT her and her family! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Sounds like it was one of last flights to get out of Anchorage before Alaska Airlines shut down all routes. Whoever was in the gate area got to board and poof, they were out of there. And I thought D and I had bad luck when it came to traveling!

The National Weather Service is still reporting that Anchorage will receive trace amounts of ash (which is almost nothing). The snow is coming down fluffy and heavy, and I wonder if that affects the ash at all?

Weather issues

According to Alaskology, Alaska is stomping the competition is regards to daylight amounts. We have more than 12 hours per day now! And will still be gaining about 5-6 minutes per day until the Summer Solstice in June.

Mt. Redbout has been steadily erupting over the last few days. It's predicted that Anchorage will see a light dusting, but nothing too crazy. Flights are being delayed or cancelled, depending on where the ash clouds are being pushed by winds. It occurred to me that we've been dealing with this volcano issue for over two months now -- here's hoping it ends soon.

Tales from Tennessee

My parents called yesterday and in the background I could hear the buzzing of a chainsaw. Apparently the epic battle between my mom and the evil pinecones has finally come to an end. Winner? MY MOM OF COURSE! Mom: 1 / Pinecones: 0

I've been hearing about these pinecones for years now -- they drop from the trees towering over my parents' lovely log home. Wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that the roof is metal and every pinecone hit is reminiscent of a bomb drop. So some of the trees had to go.

Then they tell me that one of the trees is not being cut all the way because my dad is building my mom a TREE HOUSE! How awesome is that?

I LOVE being regaled with my parents' stories about living next to the Smoky Mountains. It is pure entertainment, peoples. Like the time my dad tried to take out the groundhog that took up residence in the yard and his arrow just thunked off the little bugger's head. And the time my mom saw a huge kitty that ended up being a coyote. AND the time a black bear crawled up on the front porch and hung out for a while. Actually, I should have them guest-post some articles here on this blog so the stories can come out in their own words.

What do you think, parents?

Walk Hard

Last night D took a break from the bathroom reno and we hunkered down on the couch to watch "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," starring John C. Reilly (who I think is hilarious). The first part of the movie and some scenes afterwards are pretty funny, but overall the film is not that great.

However there were some scenes that we just couldn't stop laughing at, especially in the very beginning:

Preacher: [referring to Dewey's Take my Hand song] You think we don't know what you're talking about when you say "take my hand"?
Dewey Cox: What do you mean? It's about holding hands.
Pa Cox: You watch your mouth.
Preacher: You know who's got hands? The devil, and he uses them for holding.

Dewey Cox: Maybe you don't believe in me at all.
Edith: I do believe in you... I just know you're gonna fail.

Edith: What about my dreams?
Dewey Cox: Edith I told you I can't build your candy house! It will fall apart, the sun will melt the candy, it won't work!

I can relate to that whole candy house thing...

Welcome to the world

Congrats to D's brother and sister-in-law -- their new baby girl arrived last night!

She is beyond adorable in the photo I saw. In person she is probably making heads explode because of the cuteness factor.

Shower makeover

Master bathroom renovations continue. D is working very hard while I get some cleanup duty and generally stay out of his way. We have lived with this cramped little depressing bathroom for almost exactly 2 years so I'm ecstatic to see the finished product!

The bathroom before -- don't get me started on the condition of things in this space. The tile was pretty awful and there was CARPET on the floor. Happily D will also be installing beautiful large tiles on the floor along with a heated mat to warm our frigid toes in winter.

Here's a sneak peek at the new shower tile:

My request for a bench seat in the shower was approved! Seriously, it is almost impossible to shave my legs in a regular shower stall. I need that bench big time. Fancy schmancy pull-out shower head to be installed soon.

The wall behind the old stall and next to the toilet was hiding dead space, so D tore out the drywall and expanded the new shower. It'll be such a luxury to have all that extra space:

More photos to follow!

Volcano

Just to quiet everyone's fears, we're all fine here in Anchorage and southcentral Alaska. Mt. Redoubt has been erupting all morning but so far the ash has fallen mostly on the Susitna Valley, up north from us. Sounds like the ash fall is fairly light. So, no worries!

Whittier '08

Before I met D, I had never once stepped foot in Whittier, Alaska. In my defense though, NOBODY went to Whittier when I was growing up. It was (and still is) a tiny town and you could only get there by hopping on the train. Everyone lives in a big apartment building, which doesn't see any direct sun for quite a bit in the wintertime.

With the construction of the tunnel, more and more boaters, kayakers and tourists could drive through to the gloriousness that is Prince William Sound! Now I spend more time in PWS than I ever could have imagined.

These photos are from our first trip of the summer season last year -- around mid-May 2008.

A nice drive down the Seward Highway -- Turnagain Arm is the body of water between the highway and mountains.

In one of many of Culross Island's little beaches.

Occasionally an interloper finds its way into the traps. We deal with squid, crabs and sea urchins after the whole haul has come up. Can't leave them too long -- otherwise the squid will suck out the meat from the shrimp.

Spot shrimp missing his long, razor-like nose poker.

Shrimp all cleaned out and traps ready for another long soaking.

Lots of snow still around in May.

We were lucky to see a float plane take off one day.

Airborne (way off in the distance)!

Drift prefers to ride up front -- he rarely sits inside with us, except when it's really rough and bumpy. Even then he'll sit outside at the very back of boat near the engine.

Sometimes, when we're very, very lucky, a clear day and flat seas happen on the same day. And a sea otter comes out to play.

The forests are quiet and awe-inspiring at the same time. I always get the feeling that we are the first people to walk around in the area.

We'll end on a shrimpy note!

Pets in small confined spaces

I'm not sure why, but lately Drift has been sleeping in our not-yet-remodeled-and-missing-a-door coat closet. It's funny to see his big blocky head nestled on D's rubber boots and yellow butt jammed in next to my summer sandles.


Little Dude loves the new dining set -- the perfect vantage point from which to swipe an unsuspecting dog in the shins...mwaaahahahaha!

Blogkeeping

Hi all - made a couple small changes to the blog...

There is a new masthead photo up top (it's from a photo op on the drive back from BOW/Chickaloon). After over 31 years of living in my home state, I still get blown away by the beauty of this place.

And a search box has been added to column at right. I do like this new template but it didn't come with a search function, and it has taken me this long to find one I like. Just a note -- it won't search labels (the words at the bottom of each post that I use for tagging purposes), just the body of each post. If you want to search my tags, just click on the Categories column at right.

Thanks for reading!

Food Thursday

Thought I'd share some of the fruits of my BOW labor -- first up, pickled salmon! We are curious to taste this stuff. D is midwestern man so he has grown up with pickled fish, but it's pretty new to me.

At BOW we boiled a pickling brew and scooped it into the jars filled with chunks of salmon that we fileted and cut up. The jar needs to be refridgerated for another couple weeks before we can experience the goodness.

Also from BOW, my gravalox (or lox for short) sample. This filet has a salt, sugar, peppercorn, herb, etc., mixture rubbed into the fish which is drawing the moisture out. In a few days it'll be quite firm and we'll be able to cut it into thin slices and eat with yummy cream cheese and bagels or crackers.

Somehow the crisper in the fridge became filled to the brim with red and green apples. Must be apple gnomes playing tricks on us. Yesterday I got so tired of seeing those damn apples sitting there (silently judging me for not doing anything with them, I'm sure) that I found a recipe for Apple Crumble and got rid of all but one.

D and I agree that it was pretty good, but now I understand why people say to use more green apples than red in an apple pie or bake -- the tartness of the green variety gives the dish a little kick. The brown dots are Ghiradelli baking chocolate -- I have TONS left over from the coconut macaroon experiment.

And does it get any better than a nice lambic? A sweet and tart Belgian fruit beer, of which my favorite is framboise (raspberry). Lindemans also makes a kriek (sweet cherry), plus green apple and peach. I usually buy two bottles at a time -- they go fast in our house!

Designing woman

I am not sure how this happened, but somehow I have become the go-to graphic designer at my workplace. Which is interesting because I have zip-zero-zilch design training in my background. I'm a PR person for pete's sake! I write stuff. And talk to the media. And organize events.

But you take one work-sponsored, 3-day InDesign class and suddenly the office inbox is full of poster and brochure requests. I enjoy upping the creativity factor, but it seems like most of my time is spent doing these piddly little fliers that honestly I have no interest in. But my boss is great and we're going to work on figuring out a better system for all of these requests so I'm not inundated. She also did say that our employer would pay for additional classes if I want to get some real graphic design training -- which rocks, because I'd love to get some additional experience under my belt. Looks great on the resume'!

St. Patties

Forgot to say Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm so embarrassed, especially I am some small percentage of Irish from my dad's side.

I neglected to wear green today and one of the admin assistants here at work actually pinched me. HARD. Who does that anymore? But she did give me a little green clover sticker so I held back from kicking her in the shins.

Back from BOW

What a fantastic weekend! The girls and I have returned from BOW (all in one piece, fingers and toes intact!) The weather was gorgeous -- lots of perfectly blue sky, no precipitation -- but very cold. There were no thermometers around and I think most people didn't want to know how chilly it was since most of us had outdoor activities. Why bother when you have to be outside anyway?

Here is the view from our cabin -- the FARTHEST one from the main lodge!

The lodge was visible from our cabin's back steps -- mid-left in the photo.

Our heated bunkhouses -- I'm used to camping in tents so anything with a roof and four walls is luxurious. Those beds were a tad bit uncomfortable though. I had a top bunk and practically had to launch myself up there!

My first session was snowmachining and was able to take it with two of my girlfriends. So much fun! Makita Sea & Ski let us use brand-new Polaris 500-series machines for our class and each person had their own. There were about 8 or 9 girls in the class.

We stopped for a hot chocolate break and talked about safety/digging out from being "parked" (snowmachine speak for "stuck")/maintenance/etc.

Two of my friends on their machines (the snowshoe class in the background joined us for hot chocolate.) I was really happy with this class because the instructors took us through all kinds of trail conditions -- woods, narrow trails, open flat stretches, frozen lake surfaces, fresh powder -- I got my machine up to 50 mph!

Since this was my second time at BOW I wasn't able to attend all my first (or even second, third or fourth) choices in some cases. I took both canning and smoking fish -- my favorite part of those two classes? Getting to practice fileting fish and removing the skin! I did pretty great once I got ahold of a sharp knife. This looks like my first try -- my other filets looked better.

These fish were also difficult to cut because they had been frozen and then thawed for a bit when we started into them. Mushy meat -- but perfect for canning and smoking. We were also taught how to pickle fish and make gravalox -- I brought my pickled salmon and lox home to share with D.

My fourth and final class was pulk sled building (wanted ice fishing or dog mushing but they were totally full). This session ended up being one of my favorites -- we had regular Paris sleds and then attached welded aluminum frames and hardware to the plastic base. There are tons of other ways to build these sleds, including PVC pipe, but the instructors have never had a frame break yet. The best part is that when the plastic sled gets beat up beyond salvage, I can just remove the hardware, buy a new sled, drill some new holes and assemble the rig to the new sled. Good as new!

Follow the leader -- testing out our sleds with weight in the back to simulate a real excursion. Since the instructor didn't have a chance to call and let me know to bring weight for my sled, she let me use her big heavy DeWalt drill box and tool set (which we used to make the sleds.) I remember thinking that D would be so proud to see me hauling around construction tools in the back of my sled! Our aluminum frames also featured telescoping poles -- I can adjust the length to accomodate different length x-c skis or trail conditions.

Like snowmachining, our instructors took us through different trail conditions we'd experience in the backcountry, including fresh powder, snowmachine tracks, frozen lake, wooded trails, etc. Our instructors were awesome -- they are both Fish & Game employees who lead a lot of backcountry ski trips. We skied for about 2 and a 1/2 hours -- pulling a dead weight up hills is quite the workout!

After returning we got unharnessed and I snapped a photo of the sled dogs waiting for their turn to run.

I know this is hard to see, but this lady is skijoring on the lake -- sking while being pulled by a dog.

We were so busy all weekend that I didn't have a chance to snap many photos! The other girls took some too, so I'll post some of their good ones. We stopped on the way back home to Anchorage to enjoy the amazing view: