Comments

Hi all --

Just wanted to say that if the mood so strikes you, it is perfectly acceptable to leave comments for me.

I love comments.

They let me know if the (10 or so) people who read this blog are in fact enjoying the experience. :-)

Monday update

Another beautiful day in paradise! Yesterday was HOT. I used my vehicle's air conditioner for the first time in almost a year.

The girls and I got together on Sunday to celebrate the upcoming arrrival of my friend Susie's baby boy next month - her first kiddo. We decided to plan a brunch shower, which was genius because 1) I love brunch food and 2) we had the rest of the day to ourselves. I made all of the favors and prizes for the games, and a good time was had by all! Here are the tags I designed for the favors & prizes:


This is random, but someone yesterday mentioned that showers are traditionally not held for second babies. Is that really how it works? After thinking back, I realized that I've only ever been to first-born baby showers.

In happy news, D's parents have arrived in Anchorage, safe and sound. We spend a lovely afternoon catching up before heading off to dinner. Don't be jealous, but tonight we are planning shrimp feast for dinner.

Tubtrugs rock my world

These are Tubtrugs:




Flexible rubber tubs of awesomeness. You need these, for reals.

I had two, but D is eyeballing the blue one for the boat. Ours came from Fred Meyer (on sale!), but they're available online as well as local home/garden shops.

Idiots

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why would you even attempt to transport two moose calves in the back of a truck? And then not think about the fact that your fellow Alaskans would see the freaked out calves and call the police? Helloooooooo!

From the Anchorage Daily News: Police intercept pickup carrying moose calves

Kibble stealer

I just don't get it - why does Pepper love Drift's dog food so much? She comes a-running when he gets fed.

She hates the dog but will inch up closer and closer until she can grab a couple pieces of wayward kibble.

An inconvenient commute

I shouldn't really complain about my morning and afternoon commute, especially since the distance is no more than 5 miles one way and it's basically a straight shot down one major road. But the other morning it took me twice as long to get to work -- because of this:




Can you see the double-wide trailer or portable building? It took up two lanes of traffic and after a while I could see a long line of cars snaking behind me because of how sloooooow this guy was going. And that in itself is fine, because who wants to see that rig going 60 down a residential street?! But man, it makes for a long drive to work. And then I thought, why would you choose to move that during morning drive-time and not at 3 a.m.?

Since summer is hard-core construction season, the main artery that leads to our street is being upgraded. The end product will be fabulous, I'm sure -- nice sidewalks, no street potholes, nice & even road surface -- it's just getting to that point is so trying. Right now we get lots of ripped up concrete, dirt, orange cones and BIG construction machines. :-)

Stinky plant identified

After some Google action on the internets I discovered that the plant below is skunk cabbage, which sounds very familiar so maybe I already possessed that nugget of information in my memory warehouse...

Wikipedia says skunk cabbage comes in two varieties: Eastern and Western, although the two are nothing like each other...go figure. The name is derived from the plant's skunky odor. The cabbage produces its own heat to melt surrounding snow to survive through cold winters. AND bears eat the roots as a laxative after hibernation. Yummy.

Weekend update

Not much to report -- I stayed in town all weekend and finally finished the majority of my to-do list. Lots of cleaning, errands, recycling, and getting dirty outside. We now have flowers planted and displayed on the back deck and the front of the house!

I also perused one of Anchorage's Salvation Army thrift stores on Saturday (after dropping of a box of donations) and walked in on their biggest sale of the year - everything 50% off! I found 4 books that I've been wanting to read for a while and a new, packaged pair of black tights from Target. Apparently Target donates some of their non-moving merchandise to the Salvation Army -- so there were BRAND NEW clothing items on the racks and in bins. Most of it wasn't my style, but good for Target for doing that. I ended up spending $2.50 for my haul. Pretty good, eh?

The weekend also brought out many, many of our freakishly large Alaskan mosquitos. I am slightly allergic to mosquitos so the bite area gets swollen and on a bad day will resemble hives. One of the little buggers got me under my left eye so now it is puffy and weird looking. And itchy.

Looking for parking spot

My friend and coworker Ruth snapped a photo of this bull moose in the parking lot of the eastside Fred Meyer a couple weeks ago. Isn't it a great shot? You can see his fuzzy rack and those eyes are looking directly at the camera...

Moose end up in town all the time, but it's still such a neat experience to see them around.

Move it

I read this blogger's description of her experiences with relocating to a new home and thought, this woman has climbed into my brain and scooped out my moving day philosophy!

Tidbits of Drama

Have you ever agreed to help someone move and then after you get to their place -- ready and willing to get the party started -- come to the sad realization that half of their stuff is not in boxes or even close to being packed? SO FRUSTRATING. I always think to myself, what am I doing here? I carried two boxes and a pillow to the truck. I could be doing other things, peoples.

I'm not sure if it's Type A personality, or being anal or what, but I have to have everything organized and boxed up way before anyone arrives to help me move. Because otherwise, what is the point of having all your friends waste a weekend day if they have nothing to do?

PWS final

I love seeing the variety of boats that launch out of Whittier. With the mild weather and fairly calm seas, everyone wants a piece of action. I guess this sailboat would be considered a trimaran? I'm sure the occupants had a blast sunning themselves on that spacious deck...

Hairy little crab I discovered on the beach. Unfortunately he was no longer among the living. RIP buddy.

Black bear on the beach that D spotted. Mr. Blackie just grazed on the tall green grasses while we watched. He seemed to be okay with the sound of the boat motor, but voices carry over the water and once we started talking he walked off.

Fresh shrimp! Our haul was pretty average for the amount of time we let the pots soak. The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game is considering expanding the commercial shrimpery (is that a word or did I make that up?) Which means that personal use shrimpers (that's us) must log all shrimp hauls along with the number of pots and their location for research purposes.

Didn't get any monster shrimp this time, although this guy is a nice size. We call these "griller" shrimp.

Eagle nest high atop a tree on our home beach. Did you know it's against the law to even possess an eagle feather? Native groups can apply for a permit to use them for cultural or religious purposes, but that's it.

Another view of the eagle nest in the tree.

A yellow dog and a very white girl enjoying the 70 degree weather. Can you believe that I removed shorts, an extra tank top and flip flops from my pack before we left town because the reports all predicted rain for the weekend? I should know better than to trust the weatherman.

"I'm tired guys, let's go home."

Drift seriously went to mope by the boat Monday afternoon before we packed up to leave. He could not get in that boat fast enough!

He was worn OUT.

And here is the tired puppy. He slept the whole way home. And the rest of the Monday evening at home. And he was still lethargic all of Tuesday!

PWS video

PWS 2

Does anyone know the name of this plant? They tend to grow in groups in the marshy, muskeg areas of the islands we visit in Prince William Sound -- and without a doubt these are the brightest, most colorful plants that I've seen out there. Love that neon yellow and green.

If there is mud around, this dog will find it and launch himself in for a quick swim.

Freshwater stream and mini-waterfalls fed by melting snow from the mountaintops. Doesn't that sounds like something from a beer commercial or ad for bottled water?...

This was a surprise as we walked along a well-worn animal trail. D says it looks like a bear had a nice deer meal here in the woods. At top right are some bones that were pretty much cracked in half.

A lovely view as we walked back to the boat.

Apparently the command "fetch a stick" means "go find a huge piece of wood and gnaw on it."

This little beach was beautiful, with multiple rows of ghost tree stumps lined up on shore. At some point the sea water must have risen and washed up to slowly kill these trees.

Um, did I mention it was an unbelievable weekend in terms of weather?

Princess Cruises steams through Port Wells to let the tourists look at all the glaciers in the area. Then the boat docks in Whittier and shuffles everyone onto the train.

This is how our yellow otter spent 80% of the weekend. He was SO tired by Monday and we couldn't get him to fetch anymore.

I noticed this crab shell just off the beach near our tent site. The otters will swim up on shore and eat some of their meals in the woods. We definitely spotted more seals this weekend than sea otters. I'm more partial to the otters -- the seals look like aliens popping their heads out of the water.

Fiddle ferns behind our tent. We're trying to figure out if transplanting a few from the woods to our yard would work. They make a great lawn plant, but they're also really good eating if you pick them while still furled.

And finally the lake just beyond our campsite on the island. It was calm and peaceful back there -- when Drift wasn't jumping into the water and making waves.

PWS trip

We're waiting to go eastbound through to Whittier in this first photo. The triangle-shaped building is the tunnel entrance. Whittier is the gateway to Prince William Sound and everyone gets there the same way: the Whittier tunnel. It's only one-lane, so traffic changes direction every half hour -- and the train goes through at some point too.

In this photo you can see the size of the entrance as compared to the mountain. I can never get a photo of the other entrance (Whittier side) because we usually just make the tunnel before it closes. It's a race against time to get into the harbor, trailer the boat and then drive out of town.

After we launched the boat (which took a really long time due to all the Memorial weekend boaters) and were well into the Sound, this Coast Guard helicopter flew over. And then circled the boat. We could even see the guy standing in the open doorway of the chopper. It was a little off-putting to say the least. Then they flew away. Maybe we looked like pirates or sea bandits!

No white sand beaches here -- the shores are either BIG rocks or little rocks. It's hard on the bottom of the boat.

Trudging through the muskeg -- this stuff looks like solid ground, but with every step water seeps up around your feet. I was smart this time and wore my swanky new Baffin rubber boots.

Just a small amount of snow here and there on the muskeg. It has been so warm lately that much of it has melted off early.

A hint of an amazing view through the trees.

Bear scat! We also saw tons of deer and otter droppings near the shore.

Delinquent blogger

Sorry folks, I meant to post before leaving town for the weekend but didn't get around to it. The weather cleared up by Sunday so we skpped town for Prince William Sound -- and boy am I glad we did. It had to be at least 70-75 degrees during the day. My freckles are out in full force!

More photos to follow...