Frank made it back from Bulgaria last night, safe and "relatively" sound (as sound as one can be after flying for 30 hours and being fed seven times). He brought back pictures to share of Bulgaria as well, I'll try to get them up on the web soon!
I had another handyman experience today!
In quintessential Anchorage fashion, I came home from running eight miles at the gym to find our fence had fallen apart in a first snow miracle. One of the boards was sitting on the ground, and the gate was in an impossible position.
The gate, which swings inward towards the backyard, was now in front of the fence, meaning instead it was -5 degrees forward from where it should be. I didn't take pictures, so here's a quick illustration of what I'm talking about.
This is what it looked like before it was broken:
Note the lines indicating the swinging motion that the fence can usually handle. Now, here's the after picture:
Now, there are many things that prevent this gate from getting in this position other than the hinges. First of all, this fence is impossible to actually move, because it's hung all wrong. In order for me to close the gate, I have to actually raise the gate with all my body weight and push forward. There is also a little metal thingy that holds the gate to the fence. Somehow, the gate pushed through all this, and also split the board that holds the metal thingy.
In addition, there was another board lying on the ground (I won't draw a picture of that). Its' nails were crooked upward at a funny angle that I find unlikely to have held the board to the fence.
Now, I know what you all Outside are thinking, and I don't think it was moose :). In order for the moose to do this, I believe they would have needed to be inside my fence and pushed outward. Last I checked, no moose in my yard.
A similar thing goes for "hoodlums". We did have an egg in our lawn the other day, and I assume since we don't have chickens, teenagers of one sort or another were involved. Kids might have done this, but I don't get why they would be hanging out on our fence, pulling down boards. If so, those are some seriously bored children who should be channelled into playing hockey.
So I chalked it up to a first snow miracle, got out my working outfit and shuffled out into the cold to fix my fence. Somehow I got the board back on, but it's really crooked. I'm hoping that snow will cover that up until spring. For the fence, I had to take off the metal thingy, push the gate back in place, and put back the metal thing. I left the split board there for the time being -- after seeing what a horrible job I did on the one board, I think I need some help before fixing the other one.
All in all, considering that it was below freezing and I had just run 8 miles, not such a bad job!
First of all, from what I understand, the White Sox won the World Series last night!
But seriously, shouldn't we be talking about winter sports now? It's hockey season, you know!
If you're a regular reader, you know that I had some pretty ugly words to say about the UAA hockey game on Saturday. Apparently, some of them read my blog (ha), because they won 2-1 on Sunday! They actually scored on their own power plays! This week, they play at Wisconsin and will be on GCI Cable and on the internet as well!
Apparently when some people think of frosty air, they think of shooting things. It's riflery season in the schools up here. Where I come from, guns meant gangs and therefore riflery was not really an appropriate after school activity.
Other than that, we are all just waiting for the snow to start. Our skis are all waxed and ready, waiting for the trail!
For those of you who don't know, NorthtoAK has a special correspondent in Bulgaria this week! Frank is doing fine, and has successfully mastered international travel as well as the Bulgarian transportation system. The word: He's jetlagged in a hotel in Sophia. He didn't have much to say because he was very tired. I'll let you know if I hear anything else.
Monday started like any other day. As I went downstairs to start work, I sent Galileo into the cold dark outside for his morning break. Even in the dark it was evident that it was not summer by the frost on the deck and the crunchy sound of the grass that puppy trampled.
Ah, but Monday was not really like any other day for me! It was my birthday, and I turned 29. 
Anne also turned XXIX this week!
On Thursday, I found myself at the Anchorage DMV on Benson to finally get my Alaska driver's license. I realize I've been in Alaska for more than a year now, but since I procrastinate, I waited until four days before my license expired to change it over.
Well, that's not completely true. Believe it or not, I get anxious over tests -- even silly written tests in the DMV office. It's not really the taking of the test that worries me, honestly. I worry about not passing a test. For those of you who know me, it must sound very strange, because I've probably failed less than 20 tests in my life, and at least 5 of those came from graduate-level differential equations courses. I guess after going through so many years of school, I just don't especially relish the idea of facing tests anymore, especially those that I can potentially fail. So, I waited until the last possible second to take a basic test at the DMV.
I stood in line, clutching a rule book in hand, waiting in the written test line with my application for a new license. Although I was reading the book, I had already read it online a few hours before. At the end of the written test line was the world's slowest data entry operator, so I had a good amount of time to re-review the book.
While I was waiting, three people failed the test. In a row! This even made me more nervous, and I quickly flipped through the pages, looking for any trickery. Eventually I made it to the front of the line, and was assigned a little computer terminal for my test.
The fact was, the test itself was not so hard. It consisted of 25 questions, and you had to get 21 of them correct to pass. The only question I missed was "How close can you follow an ambulance?" (answer: 500 ft).
What a relief! I was happy to get my license, and was happy to see that my picture looks less like an axe-murderer's wife this time. I look happy, like someone who is relieved to have passed a written test :)
What I learned is that I had let anxiety transform a silly multiple choice test into the driving GREs. This year, I'm going to work on not letting test paralysis, or any other anxiety stop me from doing what I want or need to do.
So guess what? UAA lost to Fairbanks yesterday 2-1. In fact, the Seawolves have only had one goal in the last two games they have played. Agh!
As someone who likes to solve problems, I have put in some time thinking about what the problem is.
Let's start with what is good. They did do pretty well in keeping up with the Nanooks, and they certainly did not let Fairbanks get an exorbitant number of shots on goal like they did against Vermont. They actually had some passes that weren't awful, although this was still inconsistent. Furthermore, I actually saw then running some sort of an offense during a power play, which was certainly an improvement.
In between the improvements, though, was a huge chasm of ugliness.
The first problem, of course, is that no matter what people say, the best offense is really to have an offense. UAA just doesn't seem to do that -- they just kind of push the puck into the boards and hang around behind the goal waiting for something to happen. Sometimes they would pass it around in a big half-circle, but rarely got it to the guy in the middle who could actually score -- granted, the guy in the middle was usually just standing there in the middle of a bunch of opponents so he wasn't helping as much as he could have. They should do more plays like in the Vermont game, where every once in a while one of the guys on the outside of the half circle would "charge" the center. They should also work on creating an offense that is somewhat effective.
The other horrible thing is, the Seawolves have to figure out how to take advantage on a power play. If I was on the other team, I would just commit penalties in order to get the Seawolves on power plays, since that's the one time you know they won't score!
The third thing that the Seawolves need are anger management classes. They spend a lot of time concentrating on hitting the other team as hard as possible, and there were many times where they forgot the puck. Now granted, when we play thuggishly, we tend to drag teams down to our level, but we also got into some huge penalties and fights because of it. I mean, it was one of those games where there were LOTS of fights -- to me, it's embarrassing.
The coolest thing last night, though was that the NYE remote-controlled blimp that flies in between periods has a new friend! Another guy had a remote-controlled airplane that was doing all these fanstastic acrobatics -- loops, stalls, spins. We were all fascinated -- I could watch it all day.
Sigh. Anyways, they play today at 5...we're going to Tivo the game and see if it comes out any better tonight ;)
Well, it's been a long day. Work kept me up until midnight then called me every two hours for the rest of the night. So I'm not very optimized for writing much today.
1) I finally got my AK driver's license. You might ask why it's taken me a year. Good question. I will explain that hopefully after some sleep.
2)Anne talks about important things. I am all for discussions about important things too, which is probably why we've been friends for so long :)
Anne and I also share something else...Monday we both enter our last year of 20-something. I met Anne in the basement of a dorm at UK while doing laundry so that I could move out of the building. Anne wanted to watch X-Men on the basement TV. Somehow, I got her to help me and a band guy with a hatchback to move me to Boyd Hall on the other side of campus. We've been friends ever since!
3) This "Bridge to Nowhere" backlash is bumming me out. I was angry and wrote a note about it, and no you don't have to agree with my opinion, in fact if you disagree it will make me happy because I am cranky:
I read your blog everyday, but as an Alaskan I see the highway arguments against the "Bridges to Nowhere" you present as severely one-sided, and I feel it's unfair to single us out like that. The fact is, both of these bridges are vital to the growth of their communities.
I think what you're missing is an understanding of what these communities are like. Anchorage is surrounded almost by water on two sides, and federal land on the other. Almost all of the land in between has been filled in, and there's no room to grow. The other side of the Knik Arm is available land, but right now you have to drive many hours to get to Anchorage (there is no ferry and Knik is considered unnavigable). With a bridge "to nowhere" we connect this open land to our city, allowing us to grow. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me, it's no different than the bridges built in NYC or San Francisco to connect land.
In the case of Ketchikan -- have you ever been there? This is the place where many streets are sets of steps going up a mountain. The main street to the other side of the mountain where most people live sits precariously on top of other people's houses. This is another place where there seriously is no room to expand, and to expand they really do need to build this bridge to the only available land for expansion.
I also know people are giving the general argument that Alaska gets so much money for highway transportation. I invite those people to come up here and see why. The fact is, we're still a fairly new state, and don't have the transportation system that other states do. We not only need to keep building road to connect towns (how many towns in Tennessee have no road access?), but also to maintain the ones that span such a large area and are vital to our way of life.
I imagine that people called the national road across the country "a road to nowhere" when it was built -- but someone knew that transportation was the key to expansion and growth. I also bet that some of that money was federal as well.
I wish I was more eloquent, but here's the point: I know that you are looking to cut pork, but these two projects don't really constitute pork. To penalize Alaska for trying to expand with this Highway Reauthorization bill is wrong.
4) This is my favorite new page today. It shows the backbone networks of the internet and how they are doing. I'm easily entertained.
5)This blog is #2 on Google for "Wolfgang puck rich expresso latte, exploding" and I've gotten 17 hits so far for "Thanksgiving Pictures". Ha.
OK that's it...more later after a nap...
Ha, any show that makes fun of Aaron Brown, the most pompous, platitudinous, and personality-deprived person on TV, is a good one! I might just have to add the Colbert Report to my Tivo list!
Mom also informed me that the White Sox will be in the World Series last year. Apparently some other teams are vying to be beaten by the White Sox in the World Series, so we don't know the other team yet.
Many of you might not realize that it is time for hockey. Another season of Seawolves Hockey is upon us. After last year's accident prone season, UAA is looking to have a good season.
The Nye Classic started off with a win for the Vermont Catamounts (yes that's their real mascot name) over Michigan Tech. We got there just to see the end of the game, so I don't have much to say about it.
Then it was time for the RPI Engineers to play the beloved Seawolves. It was Friday night, but I believe the show started with Spirit the Seawolf being pulled on a sled behind Martin Buser (Iditarod legend). The big spectacle of the night though was...the UNIFORMS! UAA wore instead of their Nye Classic Yellow jerseys, grey and green jerseys! The socks even matched.
UAA appears to have started their season about where they left it last year...in a strange mixture of great defense, ineffective offense, and a great talent for power play killing. I'm no hockey expert, but when the opposition has only four people on the rink, and you have five, you would expect an advantage. In the case of the Seawolves, power plays appear to work the opposite way -- they let two goals into the net on their own power plays! This is a problem that needs to be solved. Somehow, though, RPI was even worse, and let UAA get six goals, mostly by defensive players, through, so the final game score was 6-3. Because Vermont beat Michigan Tech, this meant that Saturday's game of Vermont vs. UAA would determine who won the classic, which is cool.
In other stadium news, we got the joy of sitting behind "Mr. Oakley". Mr. Oakley wore Oakley glasses and apparently had too much to drink which caused him to act silly. He would stand after goals holding up a Satan sign facing us -- I think he was looking for someone, but they were apparently ignoring him. The problem was, he wasn't sitting back down when play started. He also really got into the stadium rock music, and would stand up at play stoppage and dance badly for everyone. Not good. Just for the record, Mr. Oakley was completely sane and normal at the Saturday game, and seems like a generally pleasant person in most cases.
On the other hand, a very nice young man handed me a free tournament t-shirt that he caught from the guys who were throwing them out on the ice from the back of very large pickup trucks. So now I have a relatively cool Nye Classic T-Shirt!
Let's fast forward to Saturday night. The game spectacles started out with a disco ball-induced swirl of little dots, reminiscent of roller skating rinks, accompanied by "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. Given my record with roller skates, I made sure to keep seated. I thought the song choice was a bit odd, especially since they decided to play the entire song! I mean, even the Bulls knew better than to play just a few riffs of the "Rock and Roll Part 2" (i.e. the "Hey!" song). To emphasize the dreamlike qualities of "never never land" , I guess, they applied dry ice to the rink. Spirit the Seawolf, the skating mascot, entered the rink waving the US Flag. After one swizzle around the rink, we are treated to the UAA fight song while Spirit waves the flag around. About the same time, all the free noisemakers in the entire place (thank goodness they were made to be relatively breakable) were clapped to create an impressive ruckus.
We were all ready for a good game between the Catamounts and Seawolves. The college kids started their favorite cheer -- "See what? SEA-WOLVES!" for us. This cheer does not make sense to me since the players are not invisible, but to the kids, this was very funny and cool to shout.
Now that I think about it, they could be making a funny poke at the "invisible" offense of UAA during the game. At the end of the first period, UAA only had like 5 shots on goal. Once again, I'm not a hockey expert, but when the other team has more than twice the amount of shots to score than you do, things are looking awfully bad for your team. The final score was 2-0 and it was a relatively frustrating game.
I'm really hoping that UAA does do better next week against UAF. They certainly have flashes of brilliance that, if chained together into an entire game, would be really awesome. The UAA/UAF matchup is kind of like the Cross-town shootout, except that the other town is Fairbanks, which is quite far away. Last year it was really rowdy, and we were the only mythical sea creature supporters in a sea of blue. Apparently all the people around us that know something about hockey feel that UAF will be really hard to beat.
On Saturday night, Frank and I went to see the Be Good Tanyas, our first concert in the Whistling Swan series of concerts in Anchorage. You know, I really was in the mood for a good concert, from the start. We wound up being in the front row as subscribers, which was great, and the PAC is just a beautiful place to see a concert.
So I really wanted the Be Good Tanyas to really be good.
The first set was done by the Derry Aires, a local group of women with incredible voices doing four-part harmony. Most of the songs were humorous in one way or another, although there were some good Irish-American influenced tunes thrown in as well. At first, I thought it would be a bit tiring, but the songs and the voices really made the set enjoyable. If you get a chance to see these ladies in Anchorage, definitely make an effort to go see them! For those of you not in Anchorage, here is a link to their CD:
I was ready for the main act. The Be Good Tanyas came on with vintage outfits on. Great, I thought, this band was going to be good!
The musical style of the Be Good Tanyas is kind of like Over the Rhine with a bit of a southern influence and more guitar. The style of the singing is ethereal, and the melodies were beautiful in moments. Unfortunately, by the middle of the first song I was underwhelmed. I don't know if it was the fact that we were so close (distortion), sound was off, or what, but I swear I could not understand a word of the songs, which makes it hard to really enjoy the music. It was like listening to a good album underwater, or listening to good singers who just had dental surgery or something. I'm sure that many other people either could understand the lyrics that I couldn't, or they already knew the words. At least the person right behind me was digging it as he kicked the back of my chair during the entire set.
Anyways, it was all I could do to sit through the entire set and encore (I have this thing about not leaving during a performance). Perhaps if I'd listened to the CD (I'm wondering if on the CD they enunciate better) and boned up on the lyrics a bit, the performance would have been better, because clearly the Be Good Tanyas have a lot of potential to live up to their name.
Mt. Spurr, which is one of those mountains that you see west of Anchorage, produced a bit of steam on Oct. 9. Don't worry though...they're saying that it's not new emissions, although the volcano keeps having little earthquakes.
Just in case, one can review the FEMA fact sheet on volcanoes....
If you have time, please consider reading the Storyblogging carnival XXIX this week. There is some great work out there! Oh, and they were nice enough to publish one of my pieces as well...
Every few days, I try to surf along and find new blogs to read that I normally wouldn't. All Robot Radio is one I probably will continue to check up on. This blog hosts podcasts of "radio for robots, by robots", including talk shows, robot news, and music. It's kind of creepy, but it's quite funny and interesting.
There's been a few people that have checked over here after I made some comments on Daniel Drezner's post about being denied tenure at UofC, so I thought I'd clarify a bit more.
For the record, I've never talked about the situation on my blog, mainly because I believe that the move to Alaska really was the start of a more positive chapter in our lives. The other reason I don't talk about it here, is that although it affected me, as a non-member of academia it's hard for me to really discuss from experience. On the other hand, it makes me madder than heck when I hear of someone being blindsided by their tenure committee, which is where my comments came from.
I will say this: There is life after being denied tenure. This is proven over and over again by countless experiences of many academics. I believe getting out of the school as fast as you can is a good thing, and being straightforward about your situation to potential new employers also is to your benefit.
In our case, UAA is a much better fit for us than "the other university" was.
Please, send good vibes to Daniel Drezner!
The Carnival of Runners is up at The Running Guy. It's great to see a collection of blog posts on running pulled together -- please take some time to visit some of these running blogs!
Dave at Bird TLC tagged me for a meme! So here we go:
10 years ago...I was just entering my second year at the University of Kentucky (That year UK won the national championship...Go CATS!). I had just about had it with physics, and was thinking about changing my major to math. I had no car, and was getting my first job in the IT industry as a computer assistant in the Education Department. My dorm room had a leaky bathroom that turned my bedroom into a mold haven, cracking all the floor tiles and sending black mold up the walls. Not wanting to shake any boats, I put up with it until mid-October.
5 years ago...I had just gotten married to Frank on a wonderful day in July, and had gotten back from our "sound-bytes tour of Europe" honeymoon. I was working a "real job" in the top consumer products company in the world near Cincinnati OH. I believe in 2000 I had my serious car wreck in December on a very icy road, totalling my Celica.
1 year ago, well I just answered that in a post below! I was in full survival mode at that point, getting used to living up here in AK. I was also training for the Las Vegas Marathon, similar to this year.
Yesterday..I put studded tires on my car. We went to lunch at Red Robin, got our groceries at New Sagaya. I recovered from my long run on Saturday, and we made a great turkey mole for dinner. Galileo and I practised "roll over" and fetching individual objects while Frank graded papers.
Five songs I know all the words to... "We didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel (I had a joke of a teacher who thought that memorization of this song was a substitute for teaching), "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice (Geesh, I wish I didn't but it's still there), "Particle Man" by TMBG (another one that perhaps won't be helpful ever), "Least Complicated" by Indigo Girls, "Driving Sideways" by Aimee Mann.
Five Snacks.. This is a toughie! I eat sugar free jolly ranchers a lot. Popsicles, String cheese...but that's about it. If I could get away with it, I would also add potato chips/french onion dip and chips/salsa as well.
Five things I would do with 100 Mil dollars...I would 1) remodel our kitchen 2) travel everywhere! 3) Find a responsible money guy to deal with it for me and Frank 4)Help friends and family wherever possible 5) Use it to help out deserving charitable organizations and causes that I believe in.
Five places I would run away to....From Anchorage? Arizona, Mongolia, Brazil, Banff, Finland, Sweden (that's 6).
Five favorite TV shows An easy one! Survivor, Apprentice(s), The Amazing Race, Good Eats, Alaska Magazine Television.
Five Greatest Joys...My husband Frank, Family (including puppy), a job well done, sunrise/sunsets, exercising outdoors.
Five Favorite Toys This blog :), Tivo, MP3 players, Skis, my fantastic new microwave.
Five people I'm tagging... Let's see...Anne, Mom , Emperor Bob, Amy, and Ken.
As an experiment, I looked at what was going on last week of last year. I write about the early snow event we had last year here and here. Clearly, no snow yet this year, although the snow has now made it a bit closer to us on the Chugach range.
So yesterday, as a preventative measure, I got my studded tires put on. This of course insures that we will not get snow until November ;)
I keep reminding myself that I'm running a marathon in December by running these really long runs on a treadmill like a gerbil on a running wheel. It's not that I don't like running outside, but that I haven't found an appropriate loop to train on. As self-appointed "Safety Girl", on my long runs, I prefer to run in loops, because if I chicken out or break my leg, I always can run/hobble back home pretty quickly.
Yesterday, I decided enough was enough, and that running outside had to be better. So I just picked a set of roads and ran on it. What a difference! Mostly the run consisted of sidewalk trails, but at one point I was running on a low-traffic road which was only partially lumpy. For me, it was a great trail -- lots of rolling hills, very few heavy inclines, and views of the mountains. Before I knew it, I had run 14-ish miles (confirmed today via the car odometer). The fact that I felt so good on the run makes me feel better about my training.
What I want to talk about though, is recovery. Clearly science tells us that recovering is severely overrated, and that "no pain, no gain" is the type of mentality that keeps a person injured. The real motto should be "as little pain as possible", at least to me. So I take recovery very seriously after a long run.
This is my current routine:
1) I take 2 Super AO caps and two ibuprofen with a big glass of Crystal Light. I swear by Super AO -- I'm not sure what it exactly does, but it allows me to walk around through the rest of the day and not be sore the next day, which is an incredible result. If you run (heck you don't even have to run seriously to benefit), you should really think about E-Caps supplement products.
2) Take a hot jacuzzi bath -- Ideally, one should have an ice bath after running, but I am not so amenable to cold water. I've found that this combination works the best for me -- I use bath salts and jets on medium. Using the jets, I massage my feet until I can't stand it anymore. The result of this is that the next day, I can walk like a normal person, without feeling like the balls of my food are going to fall apart.
3) Use Jointflex Ironman over all significant areas of complaint after a run...namely feet, ankles, knees for me. This feels good, and I believe it does help you walk easier the next day.
Using this method, I was able to comfortably hop around last night like usual, and today I am only marginally incapacitated by stiff legs (it used to be that my legs would be totally sore after a 10+ run), so I think it works pretty well.
Some other cool things for running:
--Sole Custom Footbeds
--Ipod Shuffle
--Injinji Socks have individual toes so that you don't get blisters. Dad used these last year in the LV marathon and just loves them.
--Under Armour Shorts
--Brooks Addiction 6
--Hammer Gel
Anyways, that's the running report for this week :). Next week, Frank and I start XC training, which should be fun, and there will be another trail run on Tuesday!
OK, I *promise* this is the last of the Denali Pictures!
As we were driving back, getting artsy shots of the park, we found yet again another group of cars stopped along the road. This stoppage, though, was accompanied by rangers in the middle. Apparently, mama bear and three cubs decided to cross the road right in front of us. As Frank shot out of the car to catch a glimpse, I got this picture of a paw print (apparently this is a normal route for bears):
Frank was fast enough to see the last cub scurry across the road...at like 20 feet!
We also got the chance to see a moose:
Of course for us, we see moose a lot in Anchorage, and have been a lot closer to them, so it wasn't super exciting for us.
So, we were back on the road from there...
...and eventually we got back to the hotel.
By the way, here's a shot of the Denali Princess from our hotel (The Moore's stayed there a few years ago):
In the morning, we got up and headed out. You might think that that's the end of the story, but the fact is that the drive back to Anchorage was incredibly beautiful, eventhough we chickened out of going on the Denali Highway to Glenallen (here's some who did). But the landscape was incredible nonetheless, and we had a lot of fun passing an infinite amount of school buses going back towards Mat-Su.
We made it back to Anchorage in record time. Whew! That's the end of the Denali Pictures!
