Kenai, Crash n' Chicken

Last weekend, Frank, Galileo and I spent our time along the Kenai river with our neighbors (Hi :)). They have a great place right along the river, so you can watch the eagles be chased by the seagulls and also the moose wade through the shallower parts of the river.

We also went fishing! To fish on the Kenai river for King Salmon is a treat, even if you don't catch anything. It's so peaceful, beautiful and the river moves so fast!

I see that the Kings are definitely out now, with even Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage starting to run. Who knows, maybe we will get out there and try our rookie luck ;)

In other news, this has been the week of fires due to the lack of rain and the super-high winds. Tuesday, we had a downtown fire and a fire in the valley that took out a high school. Hopefully we get a reprieve from the forces of nature soon!

On the fitness front, Frank and I continue our pursuit of mountain biking, despite the wind and the bears. As usual, we take different approaches to learning a new sport. I use the "chicken" theory, which to means go slower and walk before I fall off the bike on big hills. Frank's "crash" approach is to keep going on the bike, and taking the fall sometimes when you have to. They are different approaches, each with their unique pros and cons. One thing is for sure, Mountain biking sure is fun!

Barrow

Last weekend, Frank and I drove up through interior Alaska to Fairbanks and then on to Barrow for a "Day at the Top of the World".

The trip up to Fairbanks was suprisingly uneventful. Whenever we drive out of Anchorage, my suburban roots begin to show as I get nervous about experiencing a tire blow-out or run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, having to live on pretzels and gum for mutliple days while fending off bears.

Luckily, I had heard of The Milepost, which is a book that chronicles every nook and cranny of the Alaskan Highway system. This is an absolutely essential book for every Alaskan Traveller! This made me feel less agoraphobic in the wilderness.

So saying that, I can now attest to everyone that, yes, the travel and tourism board is not lying, there are enough adequate gas stations along both the Richardson and Glenn Highways. The roads between here and Fairbanks are more than adequate. In fact, if it wasn't for the lack of exits and guardrails, I would say the road system was actually better than I75 in most cases (certainly the gas prices were better :)).

We stayed at the River's Edge resort, which consists of small one-room cabins along the Chena River. It's really a fantastic place in Fairbanks, further away from the tourism traps of the other hotels.

The next morning, we were off on our way to Barrow.

Barrow Alaska is the northernmost town on the North American Mainland. Point Barrow, which is essentially a spit that juts into the Arctic ocean, is the northernmost point in the US. That being said, it is cold but not as cold as you might think -- the average low in January is only -19 degrees. The day we were there, it was about 30 degrees.

I would like to say that there is a lot to see in Barrow, and maybe it does for a town of only 4,000 people. But once you've seen the museum, the Wiley Post/Will Rogers memorial, eaten lunch at Pepe's Mexican, and checked out the prices at the local supermarket (suprisingly not that much different than Anchorage, although dairy products were super-high), you've pretty much seen the town.

All that was left, really, was to see the polar bears. Driving out to Point Barrow, I remember feeling really claustrophobic. Since the sky and ground are both white, there is just this unnerving loss of direction. I could so easily get lost in that whiteness and be eaten by a polar bear! Speaking of polar bears, we did see some in the distance by the bone yard (you see remnants of that in the pictures) -- luckily for our safety and unluckily for picture-taking, the polar bears were driven off by some jerk behind us driving like an idiot.

So, will we be packing up and moving to Barrow? Probably not. But I'm glad we went and saw what it was like. The fact that people have lived and thrived on such a seemingly inhospitable place since 500 CE is an incredible testament to the human race.

It's the edge of the world as we know it...

 

Barrow is cold. Here's a picture of Frank at the Point Barrow, the northernmost point in the US.

More later!

"It's Time to call 911", Part 2 :Update

Through a series of strange circumstances, Frank, Galileo and I found ourselves at Jodphur trailhead for a hike this afternoon. As we were walking along the cliff edge, we heard a big boom sound. The smoke soon followed.

Luckily, we were in the only place in Kincaid park where you could get cell phone reception, and were able to call 911. The fire trucks were there pretty quickly (they had to crawl up the sand dunes) and saved the day!

UPDATED: Story on ADN with more cool pictures

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"Making a mess with Lori and Frank" Redux

During the spring, every alaskan gets a little twinkle in their eye. Despite the fact that many of us were never interested in gardening, up here, I swear there is something in the air that makes you want to nurture green stuff up out of the ground.

We are no different. In our first Spring, we put together a massive tiered garden in our backyard. Because the ground up here gets a bit shaky and wood in general warps, we had some repairs to do this year.

Task #1 was mulching the gardens and beds to (hopefully) assure that only things we want to grow actually grow.

The second task was a little harder. It involved fixing the herb garden fencing which was a little cockamamie. This task first involved cutting treated wood with a dull hand saw and levelling boards. Suprisingly, no people (or dogs) were hurt in that exercise.

Which brings me to the last part of the exercise. Frank had to nail metal braces to keep all the boards together. It proved to be difficult, and provided a colorful vocabulary lesson to the neighborhood kids.

Oh, and Frank took a hammer to his knee hard enough to cause an inch gash on the side of his knee. The gash has finally stopped bleeding and luckily it looks like the knee is operational, albeit stiff and sore.

This effectively ends the gardening extravaganza for at least a few days.

Spring has (somewhat) sprung...

Here in Anchorage, it takes quite a while for us to get into spring, but once we do, watch out! Things grow incredibly fast here once they get started.

In our case, we've started working on the garden, in anticipation that soon we'll be able to put plants in the ground. Inside, we have tomatoes and peppers, as you can see :).

Outside, things are going great as well, here are two pictures of the infamous rhubarb and the ever-present "pansies", our first flower of the season:


One of the things we are talking about is what to do with our deck which is currently a 4x4 square about 2.5 feet off the ground, making it difficult to negotiate. My idea I thought was whimsical and pretty darn cool -- make a little beach!

Hear me out...pavers, decks, etc are difficult up here since the earth moves a lot. You might be OK for a year or so, but you know that eventually it has to be redone. Sand can just be replaced/reraked, and, unlike gravel, is soft and reminiscent of hawaii. A coconut umbrella, little fru-fru drinks, and some tiki torches would complete it. Before the first snowfall, we could take a big tarp and put it over the sand to keep the snow from being dirty.

What do you think?

It's Time to Call 911!

In Fairbanks, a 4 year old called 911 when his mom collapsed. He knew how to do this because one of his favorite books was "It's time to Call 911: What to Do in an Emergency". It's an incredible story --make sure to listen to the audio recording of the call.

Friday hodgepodge

Today's post is a grab bag of smaller posts, all that have been sitting in my post box for a while. It's Friday, and I"m ready to play a few games of pangya and get ready for the weekend.

Even Boston Marathoners get the blues...
Do you know what the worst thing about running a marathon is for me? Not running 26 miles :). I hate post-marathon let-down. Before the marathon, anything is possible! Afterwards, my mind is inconvenienced by reality and the body of course is also a bit shaky.

Which brings me to the bike ride :). Not wanting to subject our road bikes to the gravel and ick of spring ANC muck, we went on a mountain bike ride. I almost died -- I think my legs were telling me that perhaps I should take it easy for a few more days.

Despite my breakdown, we had to go out, because..Frank has a new awesome mountain bike! It's a Giant Trance -- the most important thing is that it has suspension on the front and back for an incredibly cushy ride. He is going to have so much fun riding on all of our favorite ski trails in the summer!

Planet Earth
In Boston, I got hooked on Planet Earth. Except when a fragile creature was on the losing side of the game of life, it provided to me the stressless entertainment I needed to be calm on the night before the marathon. I introduced Frank to it yesterday; needless to say, we are hooked on the incredible videography. The series is out on DVD, and you should all buy it :)

In Garden News...
...it's not time to plant things outside yet here in AK. The weather is warm, but it's still not warm enough to really keep plants outside all night. On the other hand, we bought pepper plants and tomato plants that we are starting inside -- we're hoping that we can get a jump start on these so that they actually produce fruit by the end of the season. I'm hopeful, because the tomato is already producing buds like it's at least "thinking" about growing fruit.

Anyways, I am going to try to update the blog more often :) Maybe we'll go looking for ptarmigans this weekend!

How does it feel to run in a Nor'easter?

As I said below a LOT can happen in almost five hours. It's been really hard to process all that happened and put it into a coherent story.

Marathon Day started at 5:30 am with ritualized race day prep. I always do the same things in the same order, just to make sure I don't forget anything. Monday, this ritual also included putting three layers on to keep warm during the anticipated wet,cold, and windy conditions.

Dad met me downstairs around 6:00 to walk to the hotel where the buses were waiting for the team. It was an ominous sign that it was already windy, rainy, and cold that morning and it did not look like it was going to warm up. I was extremely nervous, so it was really great that Dad was there to keep me calm.

After some waiting, we got on the bus and drove the 26 miles to Hopkington (which takes an hour or so). Once there, we were lucky enough to be able to wait on the bus (most other people had to wait outside or in the high school gym). On the bus, the talk of the morning was all about clothing and temperature, and the air was filled with the confidence that can only come BEFORE you run your marathon.

It was infectious! I contemplated a four-hour finish in epic conditions as I watched the rain while assembling my shoe solution (sock within taped grocery bag, grocery bag within shoe). Before I knew it, the first wave had started (those are the fast people) and it was time to put up my hood and start moseying down to the corralls.

Boston is the biggest marathon I have ever been in, and it was truly amazing at how many people were running. Like cows, we herded ourselves towards the start line, following the sound of a bullhorn.

People were incredibly friendly. Hopkington, where the race starts, was so geared up for bad weather that homes along the start corralls actually had opened up for people to take shelter from the rain. The entire town was out cheering us on as we got ready to race.

The gun started, but it was about 10 minutes before I actually got over the start line -- even then, we hadn't started running yet. Once people cleared out enough so that we could run, everyone around me took off downhill.

The first few miles of the marathon were downhill, wet, and warm. At around mile 3, I got started sweating, so I had to toss my REI vest.

Soon, but I guess not soon enough, we got out of Hopkington and into the next town. Suprisingly, everyone at that town also was cheering for us. Little did I know, this would be how the entire race course would be!

Somewhere around mile 6, despite all the cheering, my bad second quarter began, and I started to feel cold, queasy and out of juice. I was using a training-tested nutritional scheme, but it just did not seem to be working in this weather. I ducked into a bar for a restroom (everyone cheered me on as I left). About that time, I also decided to switch back to my tried and true gel (luckily, I had brought four gels along with me). Combining fuel I could stomach and a few more downhills, I started to feel better, and around mile 10 or so I finally got back to "normal".

Around mile 12, I started to hear this high pitched roar, and it took me a while to figure out that it was Wellesley college. The ladies of this college take it upon themselves every year to create the loudest, most inspirational mile of the course. This was the first time during the race that I got teary as I slapped the hands of all the kids. The fact that they were still out there, considering that we were now many hours into the race, was inspirational.

We climbed out of the Wellesly sound tunnel, and made our way closer to Boston. Along this way, I started really trying to realize that I was here, actually running the Boston Marathon, and that by golly I was going to have a great time! I continued the high-fives, especially to little kids, and also started sampling various confections that people were handing out on the side road. During the race, I also got interested in the baseball game (anything other than the marathon became interesting at this point), and eventually the Red Sox won. I also got a chance to encourage a few people who had fallen behind that I knew as well.

This made a lot of miles 13-20 a blur to me of hands, cheering, cookies and gatorade. I was having a blast, and to me, I was really going pretty fast. Mile 20 starts the infamous heartbreak hill, which is pretty substantial, but not as horribly long or difficult as people say it is, especially since the Boston College kids come out at the top to cheer you on while drinking beer -- imagine, they were lining the street five deep and overflowing the metal barricades.

I kept looking for the haunted mile -- the mile where there were supposed to be very few fans and a cemetery on one side, but I never found it. Miles 22 through 24 for me were really more high fives, cheering, gatorade and jolly ranchers. At one point, I got to play someone's gong on the side of the road; at another, I jumped up and down with my hands in the air along with a group of spectators. I was pretty loopy, and luckily, it was just like a very big (and long) party.

Suddenly, we went down an underpass for a street, and I knew we were really close to the finish! Around this time, another runner in a yellow rainsuit "befriended" me and decided to motivate me by cheering me on and slapping me on the back in a firm but friendly manner. This is not a good thing to do to someone at mile 25 of a marathon but honestly, I didn't have enough energy left to get upset. The throngs at the side of the road got louder -- I noticed there was a big left-hand turn coming up in front of us and..it was Boyleston Street! "That's where the marathon finishes!" I shouted to my yellow friend. And I took off for that left hand turn with all I had left.

Around that bend, you could see the Boston Marathon finish line -- the most famous finish line in all of running. I got teary for the second time on the course, and had to stop sniffling because it makes me hyperventilate.

As usual, I "sprinted" the last 250m or so and as I crossed the finish line (4:49:37), I celebrated by screaming something inaudible and flinging my fists in the air. This awkward act at the end of a marathon produced a massive shock wave of pain throughout my entire back, rendering me incapable of moving my arms for a few minutes until (very very luckily) the pain subsided.

It's amazing how good it feels to stop running sometimes.

Immediately I focused on following the crowd through the post-marathon chute. I got a heat blanket and luckily since my arms were still immobile, they put a little happy sticker in the middle to keep it on my shoulders. The next thing was to get the chip off my leg, and after a bit of discussion with my leg, I was finally able to get my foot up high enough that the lady could get the chip off my foot and tie my shoe back up. We discussed the complete success of my grocery bag shoe solution, which kept my feet dry and blister-free. Then the shoe lady put the unicorn finisher's medal on me -- you can't imagine how excited I was to see that little guy!

After all of that, it was so very great to have Dad at the finish line. Of course it's always great to have someone at the finish line after a race, but especially great to have your Dad there. He'd just finished the Glass City Marathon the day before, and had flown all the way to Boston just for this moment!

So, to summarize, the weather in Boston was not great, but it wasn't as bad as everyone said it was going to be. The Boston Marathon is hands down the best marathon I have ever been in because of the spectator support. It might take until I'm 80, but I'm definitely going to try to run it again -- maybe qualify next time :)

Boston Marathon

When you run a marathon in 4:49, there is a whole lot to say. I'll try and come up with a more complete recap but some basics:
1) Weather was rainy and warm at the start, windy and cooler in the middle, and downright cold at the end.
2) The fans in Boston are the best anywhere! My hand is sore from high-fives.
3) I am unsure if any running event ever will beat making a left onto Boyleston street and seeing the most famous FINISH banner in the world in front of me.
4) I might never run a marathon without grocery bags on my feet again -- this is the first marathon I've ever finished blister-free.

More soon!

Boston Marathon Joke

What's Sad?
--Testing whether grocery bags taped to your feet are an effective dry-shoe solution
What's sadder than sad?
--Standing in the shower with rain gear on to determine just how waterproof your waterproof jacket is.

Happy Marathon Monday!
Lori

There is no bad weather, just different types of good weather

Yikes! Imagine getting this in your mail a few days before a marathon...

As the Boston Athletic Association continues to make preparations for Monday's Boston Marathon, we are monitoring the upcoming weather conditions forecast for this area. Based on the National Weather Service's most recent report and in cooperation with the Executive Office of Public Safety (Commonwealth of Massachusetts) and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, together with the eight cities and towns along the 26.2-mile marathon route, we are planning for likely heavy rain and windy conditions on race day. However, all race day plans remain the same. The Boston Athletic Association advises participants in Monday's race to plan accordingly for their run, bringing with them gear and apparel to suit the conditions. The B.A.A. will continue to update its web site as necessary.


Lovely! At least, I figure, the worse the weather, the better I'll be prepared at least!

Learn to read with Morgan Freeman

Before Morgan Freeman became super awesome, he was "Easy Reader" on Electric Company. You Tube is great, isn't it?

I really feel that he gets into his character there -- I totally believe that he loves to read.
Of course there's this one too:

a GIANT Morgan Freeman is pretty scary too!

Happy Good Friday!

Running to the beat of my own...nothing

I was reading the Runner's World -Boston edition last night and came across a note saying that headphones are not allowed for safety reasons.

They are kidding, right?

The last time I ran without headphones was a triathlon, because they don't work well in the water. But that was 3 miles, a half hour. Four hours is a whole different story.

I mean, kudos to the gazelles who need to concentrate on their form so that they can finish in two hours. I'm sure the no headphone rule does not phase them. Us "sturdy folk" will be out there twice as long, and geesh, having one more distraction available to use is a big deal.

Yes, I'm bitter. I'll get over it but that does not mean I like it.

Oahu

OK, OK, Hawaii Pictures are

Oahu Vacation

Up...

Ski Championships!

Yesterday, Frank, Tara and I went to the US National Alpine Ski Championships here in Alyeska Ski resort. I FORGOT MY CAMERA. ARGH!

Where is NorthtoAK?

Well, I'm back from vacation. I know I have not updated the blog in a while, but there are a two reasons:
1) I'm trying to get all the pictures and data from Hawaii up on the blog, which takes quite a bit of time. Ok that only explains the last two weeks :).
2) Springtime in AK. Although we likely have more sun than you do in the lower 48, we still have snow on the ground. It is on track to be the fourth coldest March on record. We traditionally have snow-free spots by the first week in April, and unless there is a serious disruption on the Earth's access, that ain't gonna happen. So many Anchoragians (like me and Frank) are a tad unhappy. This distress also is causing havoc in the MatSu Valley, where they are so cranky people are suing for ownership of office cats.

I'm hoping to get back on track soon, get those Hawaii pictures up as well as give an update on Boston Marathon training as well as the US Ski Championships at Alyeska this week (Yippee!).

P.S. And who won the Iditarod this year? Not Martin Buser, but he did come in 4th and led for a while. Lance Mackey became the first person ever to win both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod in the same year. It's a huge dramatic story that is definitely worth reading about.

Having a Halibut time with the Iditarod

While you in the midwest are enjoying your so-called spring weather, here in Anchorage we are still knee deep in the white stuff.

However, there are signs of "not winter" like ADN's coverage of the opening of halibut season: "Today at noon thousands of baited hooks will descend hundreds of feet into the dark depths of Alaska's frigid waters and shortly thereafter untold numbers of halibut will make the mistake of a lifetime.

And we will eat them for it."

We also have the Iditarod! Are you watching? If not, you won't know that some of the big favorites have suprisingly scratched, and my favorite Martin Buser is in the LEAD!

 

Anyways, look for a Monday/Sunday finish to the race, it will be a very fast sprint to the finish I think!

Nature's Electric Slide

Good news first :) Last night, right as we were going to bed, I remembered that there was supposed to be really good aurora activity that night. So, Galileo and I decided to check out the north windows. Sure enough, a bright green streak was lighting up the sky to the north of us! It looked something like this. An aurora kind of waves at you, gets a bit brighter in one place, then another, and can go from being "band-y" to upright in a matter of seconds.

As an ex-physics major, I thought I'd read up on it for you. So far, it has to do with ions travelling together, forming a plasma that hitches a ride on a solar wind. Or something like that.

All I really know is...to see this massive set of particles dance in our atmosphere is incredible; to see it out of your own home's windows is priceless.

The Aurora predictor at UAF says that tonight will be another good night for the northern lights.

Accepting the things one cannot change...

Wrestling with my hair today, I found something new about myself.

I thought at first it was a trick of the light, but I found a very very light hair on the side of my head. To test, I pulled it out and matched it up to different things in the house that were white. It was not quite as white as the sink, but certainly when you put it up against a navy shirt, it was definitely light and not very red at all.

There are really two different conclusions I could make -- 1) that I am turning blonde or have always had a very blonde hair on the side of my head or 2) that hair was decidedly white. I've had 30 years of inspecting my head (granted, I'm not much of a detail person), so I'm assuming that it was, perhaps, a grey-ish hair.

Yikes. "Grey hair is for old people" was my first thought (Sorry, old people :)). Then I thought, "Well...and for Taylor Hicks (my age) and even my sister (who is not an old person either)". Even if it was a grey hair, it's not like everyone else in the whole world for generations hasn't gone through this too, right?

I've been reading a lot about mental attitudes preparing for the marathon. One of the biggest things to remember when running a big race is separating those factors you have influence on (your training, your nutrition) and those you can't (the weather).

So, I chose to put this grey hair stuff into the mental bucket of "things I cannot change", acknowledged it, and tried to leave it at that...

..which lasted for five minutes. Apparently, I require something I can control to worry about to replace the grey hair worry-- this is probably why I have many hobbies. No, I'm not saying that it's a healthy reaction, but I'm being honest here.

So, the second thing I did was take a real good look in the mirror, and thought about what I do control, and what I can do something about next.

The fact is, for a newly old person, I am doing great. Hey, I'm functionally sound -- no broken bones, no permanent injuries to really complain about. In fact, with the marathoning and skiing, I am actually in better shape and fitness than I was at 17.

So, I'm going to focus my energy on two things. They are physical and a bit vain, but of course, so is worrying about grey hair:
1) I'm going to beat my Marathon PR, which is 4:18:44 (Columbus, age 26), at Boston in April.
2) I'm going to lose those last five pounds where it will facilitate that Marathon PR and not hurt it. If my calculations are correct, this requires a reduction of 3% body fat (not muscle), which is realistic, keeps me in a healthy BMI, and shouldn't interfere with goal #1.

Wish me luck :) I'll also work on getting used to the grey hair and her friends.

"Spencer Day"

Since the ski conditions have been especially awesome in Anchorage, Frank and I decided that Sunday would be our "Ski Spencer" day.

Spencer is probably the most famous trail in Anchorage, known for its' sharp, twisty downhills and insanely dramatic uphills. Personally, I think it is cursed. I've only been on it once last year, and "almost died" (I planted my face down in the snow five times). When Frank and I tried last year, he pulled his groin during the first 100 meters of downhill.

So we got our courage up today to ski Spencer again -- and we also coaxed Tara to go too. As Frank got his skis together, I carefully packed extra sport jelly beans and overdressed, just in case there was an emergency (I already wear a "safety orange" jacket for such times).

As we set out, it was looking like a great day. The ski wax was a little too warm for the day, which was actually good this time, since we wanted to go a little slower than usual. Spencer starts with a severe but small dip into the unknown before you start the gradual uphill battle to the top of the mountain. At the beginning, we were all in a good mood, but gradually, the mountain really wears even the most positive person down. By the time we got to the top, even I was swearing like a sailor!

Of course, what goes up, must come down. So once the hour of going uphill was finished, we started our harrowing descent. It reminds me of going down a bobsled run on skis, especially since there are names like "Luge" and "Labrynth". The Labrynth takes you right up to the gate to Hilltop ski area (that's right, we slog up the back of a mountain that smart people use a ski lift for). In fact, if you don't make the turn, like I didn't last year, you can easily run into the wood fence. There's a few more turns like that, but eventually you find yourself back on the Gasline as a "Spencer Survivor".

So Frank, Tara and I did Spencer and it was awesome. I didn't enjoy the downhills, but Frank certainly did ;). And, do you know what? It really was not as scary as I remember it.

We Ski

While the rest of the high school world is heavy into basketball season, Alaska is finishing up their high school XC ski season. That's right--kids here are truly growing up dreaming about being crowned skimeister. It's great!

The Cook-Inlet conference championships are at Kincaid this weekend.

In other news, I ran a 10 miler today that felt GREAT! This is very encouraging, since the last few long runs I have run in order to get ready for the Boston Marathon have stunk. For recovery, I came up with a new Korean-Mexican concoction I am calling "Huevos-Bap", whch is a mixture of Huevos Rancheros and Be Bim Bap. From the Huevos, I diced up tortillas and fried them. I added onto that a fried egg (which is what the two meals have in common). In addition, like the Korean dish, I added massive shredded vegetables and, since I didn't have any good marinated beef, chicken sausage with a deglaze of cooking tequila. It was suprisingly good for a post-workout meal. The best part was...it only took 15 minutes to make, which is always a good thing for a post workout meal. Try it!

Seawolf Hockey Update

Before I start, here is a little Anchorage weather report. Yesterday it literally snowed all day -- in fact, I still see a few flakes coming down. Sometimes, the snowflakes were big and flaky, sometimes they were wet and tiny. Overall, I think the weatherman was wrong (although Frank argues he was "Big O" right -- it's a computer science theory joke, ha) when he said we were only going to get an accumulation of only one inch.

Anyways, our infamous mythical sea creature hockey players had their second-to-last home game yesterday against the MSU-Mankato Mavericks. Their colors are purple and black, and yes, their mascot is a angry purple cow. Apparently, a Maverick is a cow that likes to stay apart from the herd -- a "Lone wolf" cow if you will. I would assume that in Mankato there are probably many people you would consider mavericks in their own right, so it's a fitting name.

Of course, we are mythical sea creatures. What does that say about Anchorage, eh? I say "eh" because five out of our six starters are from Canada (the other guy is from California I think).

I haven't talked a lot about UAA hockey this year, and the reason truly is that they have really been terrible. Last year, they showed signs of offensive life, this year they seem to get confused and either dump the puck behind the goalie or just skip the middleman and pass it to the other team.

To top it off, our starting goalie, our "Rex Grossman" if you will, was especially bad. At one point, he would make an amazing save, and we all would cheer for the good goalie. The next time the puck made it his way, he literally skated out of the crease to get a puck and did not make it back in time to actually stop said puck from making into the darn goal. Geesh.

Last night was no exception to the bad year. By the end of the first period, we were down three goals. They pulled Rex the goalie and put in the new freshman kid, who seemed to do a great job(blocked 27 out of 28 shots!). But they did not pull the rest of the players, who kept dumping the puck, passing it to the other team, and, like usual, getting their fair share of penalties.

Sigh. I wish there was more to say about the Seawolves this year, but there just isn't.

What Frank and Lori have been up to...

Since Christmas, the Alaskan Moore clan has been very busy!

Last weekend, we were in Homer (see the pictures below) with our good friends, Tara and Loren. We had a great time, saw some wildlife, saw a really cruddy super bowl, then came back refreshed for a new week.

For excercise this week, we have been doing a lot of XC skiing, both classic and skate. Anchorage has had incredible snow luck, so the skiing is super-good. In addition, I ran 18 miles (!) yesterday in training for the Boston Marathon. This makes me tired and cranky for the rest of the weekend (poor Frank!).

I also am writing this entry on our brand new photo computer, which is really awesome. It's HP (of course), and has been a super breeze to put together. What has been a little more difficult is getting the switch set up (that's a device that will let me flip from my work computer to my home computer). I had to go through three different switches before settling on the Belkin Flip. Argh! Anyways, this computer should be all set for my photo business soon.

Hope you all are having a good week!

Homer Trip

February Homer Trip

"Only in Alaska News"

Today I thought I'd share some news stories that would only happen in Alaska:
1) Juneau residents lose power due to a deer head-dragging eagle crashing into the transmission lines.
2) Here is a story discussing whether young kids should be riding snowmachines. Yikes!
3) We have a Coffee-stand bandit in town. He pulls his sleeve down over his hand -- it's unclear whether he has a gun or not.
4) Craig Medred pleads with the Anchorage Moose population to learn to look both ways before crossing the street.

Heat Wave!

For the last two days it has been unusually warm in Anchorage. Right now, it's a balmy 35 degrees outside.

To put this warmth in perspective, we really have not seen a temperature this warm since mid-October.

During our ski outing yesterday, I was burning up so much that I wound up shedding layers, gloves and hats until I was in only a long underwear shirt and light ski pants! It felt great.

It looks like we are getting more snow tonight and maybe even "ski killing" rain on Sunday (ick). Luckily, it looks like it should cool down mid-week for more skiing fun!

News Flash -- Anchorage is Snowy

To add to all the crazy weather this year in the lower 48, Anchorage is having a snowy crisis of its' own. Yes the snow is really high, but I don't really see it as too much of a difficulty. We've got the absolute best snowplow system in the country and with studded tires, it really hasn't been too slippy.

The Moore member with the biggest problem is puppy, who has to climb through the snow to do his business. It's funny to see him out there because the snow is taller than he is. His favorite thing to do in the backyard is to pat down the snow and sit down on the willow trees.

Hello Moto!

I had to get a new cell phone today and I chose the Pebl in a lovely orange color (to match my hair you know).

Being not of the cell phone generation, I ask for simple things from my cell phone -- I want a phone that is small enough to fit into a ski jacket yet substantial enough that I won't drop it. My top two requirements are reception and clarity. If I cannot hear, it's a total waste of a phone.

So far I am really impressed with the Pebl. Let's start out with design. As I heard someone comment, it's like a smooth (orange) river rock. It feels like a rock -- substantial for its' size. The phone is round so it does not have any corners I can snag or pieces that I can break off. There is a little button I can press on the outside to make it silent, although I am suspicious about turning off my phone accidentally.

Now the keys -- many reviewers don't like the keys, which are flat and kinda weird. I still can't figure out how to press the little "select button" on the middle of the selection circle without a pen. Luckily, I am not doing fancy gr8 ltrs with my texting so I can handle the funky keys.

What is truly fantastic about the phone is its' reception and clarity. I bought it particulary because of this feature, and it did not dissapoint. I sound like I'm on a regular phone, and can actually hear the other person on the line. This is ten times better than my old Nokia.

So, if you are on the lookout for a new phone but maybe are not interested in all the cell phone magic that the kiddies want, give the pebl a spin!

Worst Slogans Ever

Happy list for your Thursday!

Inch of Snow = Chaos!

London got an inch of snow, causing chaos in the city. While I know not everyone is used to two feet of snow on the ground, it still strikes me as funny.

Pictures of Vacation (finally)

Florida Vacation

When it's cold like this, it's good to have amusing commercials like this one. 

Cold becomes her

Alaska is a bit colder than the Caribbean. Today it was a balmy -2 degrees as a high. Since I hear some of you have not had much of a winter, I thought I'd share with you a bit of ours from our backyard:

Cold!

Boston-bound

First of all, sorry for not posting the pictures of our vacation up yet -- I'm still working through the gazillion photos :)

Another thing has come up to take my attention...

As a sponsor of the Boston Marathon, my employer receives a set of promotional slots for the race, and run a lottery for the spots.

Well, Monday morning I found out that I'd been one of the lucky 40 chosen to run the Boston marathon! Considering I'm a slowpoke, this is probably my only chance ever to run the race, so I'm very excited!

Back to the cold country for us...

 

Greetings from Puerto Rico! San Juan is a beautiful but confusing place -- we have been here four times and I still get turned around. Today is three kings day (kids here get presents from Santa Claus AND the Three wise men, lucky kids!). Everything is closed, but we went out to old San Juan anyways and walked around in the sun with the other tourists.

It's been a long week! We've been to Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and here. Tomorrow we begin our epic 13 hour flight sequence from San Juan, Atlanta, Salt Lake, Anchorage, arriving early Monday morning. Yuck.

Anyways, many more stories and such to share coming soon! 

Rockin' around the Christmas Wii

Christmas Day in Daytona Beach

Pigeon!

Last night, my parents and Dad got in at 3am! We are sleepy and watching the Bears game. Before the game we walked up to the Daytona Pier and I got some bird target practice: 

Lighthouses have cool lenses

Ok, one more picture. Here is a view of the big lens at the lighthouse. The coolest thing about lighthouses are the lenses!
 

Alaskans in Heat

Florida is great! Frank appears to be handling the 60-degree change in temperature quite well :)

Today we went to St. Augustine after avoiding the timeshare vultures. St. Augustine has great Gelato and Lighthouses, like this one that Frank is standing on. There is no snow here, and there are dolphins.

More pictures to come! 

"It's like listening to cats fall off a roof..."

Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage is wonderful in many ways. The South Terminal is spacious, inspiring, and full of trendy little restaurants and shops which keep you entertained.

On the other hand, except for the free wireless internet access, the North terminal is truly hands down the core of airport music hell. It's dirty, beige and full of dead animals. To make it worse, they are selecting the absolute worst music that the season has to offer. Some examples: The "Magic Bus" version of the first Noel, the "Some nice lady and the tone-deaf choir" sing "Silver Bells", "Stevie Wonder underwater singing some song that sounds like "I'm your lady" by Celine Dion", "Little Drummer Boy" by Ray Charles channeling our dog Galileo, and, my favorite, "It's a marshmallow world outside your window". GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Even the stuffed caribou head is looking for earplugs. Every once in a while, we get a reprieve with the TSA announcements or the intercom system which keeps breaking up.

On the Frank and Lori vacation train, we are starting to feel a bit slappy. It's midnight, and we are having trouble holding it together, and are starting to talk back:
"The fire is slowly dying"...well, so are we!
"Noel, noel, noel, noel"...no-more! no-more! no-more!

Across from us is a guy who is suprised by his coughing. My guess is that "Ah-CHU?" will be seated right behind us for the zillion hour flight to Salt Lake City.

I am wide awake but slightly batty due to the multiple coffee beverages I have had today (6? 7?). Bad idea? Perhaps. Certainly my grammar tonight is suffering.

Anyhoo, here is a neat fact that I found in Make Magazine:
In 2003, 9 billion human hours were spent playing solitaire. 7 million (6.8 hours of solitaire) were all it took to build the Empire State Building. 20 million hours were needed to build the Panama canal.

Interesting, huh? Hope you all are having a great Thursday -- whoops-- Friday!

Teeth! Permanent ones!

Ta Da! Here are the new teeth...

Today it is snowing! A LOT! Isn't it just like Anchorage to create awesome skiing conditions right before we leave for vacation :). 

Hmm, maybe we shouldn't tell you what we are doing...

Christmas at the AK Moore's

"You don't write about what you are doing anymore"

...I got that feedback the other day on my blog.

It's probably right -- I have been so busy thinking about all sorts of other things that I have not been writing much about what is happening to the "Alaska Moore's".

The fact is, right now we are busy preparing for Christmas vacation. OK, revise -- Frank is preparing for Christmas vacation while I catch up o n christmas cardsand make a general mess.

Some of the things I have been working on include:
1) Cleaning my office I have been avoiding this for years. However, when the cable people were flipping us over to digital phone lines the other day, the bins that hold all my leftover crud fell over on the cable guy's head. Inspection showed that the entire Ikea bin contraption was being held together by wishes and dreams, so I decided it would be a good idea to take all the junk out and reconfigure it. I came up with two big trash bags of junk to throw out, and stuffed the rest of the stuff, in a nice way, back into the bins.
2) Teeth! I spend a lot of time going to the dentist, dealing with my teeth, breaking my fake teeth, eating soft food, avoiding fudge, learning not to lisp, etc. Luckily, this whole ordeal should be over on Tuesday (TWO MORE DAYS!).
3) Skiing! We ski, a lot! We are exploring new ski trails, like double bubble, which is kind of like doing a roller coaster on foot, except that you can fall off a cliff at any moment. I spend most of my time envisioning myself as the "Agony of Defeat" guy.
4) Wii! We Wii a lot, maybe too much. The problem is, Frank and I have no mad video gaming skills, so I require either a lot of time to do what I want, or, as a proper project manager, outsourcing of the difficult pieces to those with hand-eye coordination. The only game I appear to have a knack for is Trauma Center, where I am learning to be a great doctor, except when I accidentally kill patients. The nice thing about the game is you can try again if the patient dies the first time -- apparently this is not quite true in real life.

Anyways, that is our weekend, hope you all are having a great Advent!

Anyways, that is what we are doing lately :)

The dangers of eating Fudge with Temporary Teeth

Take a look at this:
 

"That's why you shouldn't eat fudge with your fake teeth", Frank informed me after the debacle. I found three of the teeth embedded in the fudge, but the fourth totally shattered into itty-bitty bits (that was some hard fudge!).

FIVE DAYS TO GO UNTIL I GET SOME REAL TEETH! 

Big Day!

Today I finally made enough money in Shutterstock to actually receive a payout!

Considering those that have a shutterstock subscription have millions of photos to choose from, the fact that some of mine got chosen is pretty darn awesome. It has been a long learning curve for me to figure out how to take pictures that someone would want, keyword them so that they are easy to find, and also to learn what pictures are good technically.

Anyways, you can see "the winning collection" at the bottom of the page. Thanks!

Needless to say, do not try this at home...

Sign this boy up for Cirque du Soleil!

In other seemingly impossible news, I actually made a Candy cane cake for dinner yesterday. It was my first tube cake as well as my first attempt at angel food cake ever!

Some tips I learned:
1) Egg whites from the carton are not good for angel food cake. You have to actually separate the egg whites yourself if you'd like good angel food cake.
2) Whipped cream topping...melts. When you make the cake, either wait to put the frosting on or put the cake into the fridge.
3) Don't turn the cake into a regular plate and then put the whipped topping on it. If you put the whipped cream topping on, then it settles down into the plate and you get soggy angel food cake.
4) My Kitchen Aid stand mixer is a LIFE SAVER.

Regardless of that, the cake tasted quite good! I totally recommend trying it just to say you have done it (angel food cake is a good thing to know how to do).

Here's the pictures:

Candy Cane Cake

All, hold on to your Wiimotes!

Apparently, some people cannot handle their wiimotes and are accidentally throwing them into their screens.

The Moore family has had a great time with our Wii, and so far there has been no issue with incidental video game damage, other than some sore shoulders from the Boxing game and a wee bit of "weak-game skills" frustration.

Let's just say that if you have a problem holding onto your TV remote, maybe a Wii is not for you :)

Happy Weekend!

Lori

35 appointments in the last hour on the job

Apparently, our ex-governor went on an appointment spree in the last hour of his administration, appointing cronies and family members before leaving the country. How Conveenient!

We're Number One...

...in first month revenue for a Golden Corral. This follows our astounding revenue-gobbling Chili's last year. It seems that Anchorage folks like to eat out, and are grateful for box restaurants.

Soon Anchorage will look like every other place in the US if we don't watch out!

How do you say Merry Christmas in Wookie?

I am so glad that if I watched this holiday special, I was too young to remember it. Good Lord.

Really? Another Rocky Film?

Gosh, do we really need another Rocky film? During Christmas?

If you want to see something scary, check out the faith-based resources encouraging pastors to use the movie as a basis for their sermons. Ick!

Why White Christmas?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the horror and/or awkwardness of Billy Idol singing "White Christmas". Somehow it comes off very very creepy to me.

Seriously, why are people so determined to get to the Christmas so darn soon? Is the music really so good that we need to hear it for more than a week on end? Do we really need to be constantly reminded as consumers to do our "patriotic" holiday shopping?

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, I started to hear christmas tunes on the radio here in Anchorage. That's insane. And yes, call me a Grinch, but I see no need for a 24x7 holiday radio station. Bah, Humbug!!

Maybe what we need is to write some catchy Advent songs. Instead of "I'm dreaming of a white christmas", maybe "I'm anticipating an uneventful but satisfactory advent"?

"Toes are optional, Wiis are forever"

I COULD NOT HANDLE BEING WII-LESS ANYMORE!!!!!!!

This morning you could find me standing at the only Best Buy in Alaska. It was three below, so I was in full winter survival regalia, including my down "Russia Coat" and three shirts underneath.

Once I got in line, the first thing that happened was that my temporary teeth fell out. That was a problem -- luckily a dental hygenist was in line in front of me and helped me come up with a fix. But I knew that once my teeth fell out, I was going to get lucky on the Wii, because life tends to work like that for me :)

After about a half an hour, the "Ticket Master" came up to let us know we were definitely getting Wiis. However, we needed to wait in line for another 30 minutes in order to get a little piece of paper we could trade in for a Wii.

Was it worth it? Yeah, you know, it is a really fantastic piece of gaming equiptment. The absolute best part of it was seeing Frank pick up a remote and quickly being able to figure out how to play the games. The whole thing is really intuitive.

Anyways, I'm still looking out for one for you, Mom :)

Fake Teeth Tip for Today

When you get your new fake teeth glued on, the dentist will say something to the effect of "be careful of what you eat". This usually means not chomping on apples or jolly ranchers and popping off the tenuous glue that holds the new cap to your teeth together.

Another thing that I now know to avoid is turmeric. Apparently, it's just as difficult to get out of your fake teeth as it is to get out of your countertop. So now I not only have fake teeth, but fake teeth the color of canary feathers. Ick!

Wii are not amused...

...that it's so darn hard to find a Wii. Wii are very impatient, and now, because I can't find one, Wii are brainlocked and fixated into finding one. It's like an itch I can't scratch. Argh!

One good thing that is happening tomorrow though is that I'm being slightly upgraded tomorrow. My dentist is installing my 4 temporary front teeth in the afternoon.

There will be things I will miss -- like toothpick tricks and being able to sing "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth", whistle and all. On the other hand, I look forward to biting into hot pizza as well as not screwing up my my s's when I'm tired. On the other hand, when they were taking my pictures for the artists (yes there are people who sculpt teeth), I realized that I had no idea how to smile showing my teeth and not look like Dick Cheney.

So I think as far as upgrades go, it will be an improvement -- I mean, who wants to look like a gap-toothed Dick Cheney? If I could only get that Nintendo Wii though...

Seawolves Win! Seawolves Win!

Seawolves win! Against North Dakota! That is really amazing.

Tommy Tsunami!

Apparently loading airplanes really is Rocket Science.

In AK news, it's COLD AND DARK IN THIS PLACE! We are having very cold temperatures for this time of year. Today we are in a "mini heat wave", and it might just get up to 15 degrees (today the wind chill is -35 with wind gusts to 45 mph) for the few hours before the sun goes down again.

In related news, I woke up this morning to a tsunami warning. It was cancelled, but still a very exciting few hours. Wondering what to do in case of a tsunami? How about learning about tsunami preparedness along with Tommy Tsunami?

Alaskan to play for UK

Go Cats! Following Duke's recruiting success in Alaska (remember Carlos Boozer and Trajan Langdon?), UK signs Ramon Harris, last year's Alaska 4a player of the year.

Lance says Marathoning...

...is real hard. Of course, he ran a sub 3-hour marathon (barely). Think of how much harder it is to run another two hours after that?

What my problem is...

I should really stop taking self help tests, because each time I take one I learn about some other problem I have :). The Baron-Cohen test for Autism-Spectrum Quotient is online.

Alaska: Where Men are Men and the Moose are Restless...

ADN photographers snapped a three-way Moose Bull throwdown down the street.

Indiana Jones Denied Tenure and....(suprise) Snow report

Here's a link to McSweeneys which is one of my favorite sites for quick and interesting literature. One of their stories looks at what Indiana Jones' tenure situation would really be like.

The rest of the report for today is about snow of course. It is incredibly beautiful outside -- our ground is covered in the whitest white, and the trees are covered in snow and hoarefrost. Alpenglow returned this week too -- which turns the sky all sorts of fantastic colors. I'll try to get a picture out soon.

1+6+2+2....

=SKI SEASON!!!!!!!!

Sunday, most of Anchorage got almost 6 inches of snow, causing lots of accidents. Strangely, here we got about two inches of snow, and a lot of freezing rain.

On the way to Yoga on the west side of town I felt very adventurous and "hearty". No, Anchorage does not stop moving when it snows six inches unexpectedly! As "Safety Girl", I had my entire snow ensemble on (hat, gloves, ski jacket, snow boots) just in case my car found the ditch. I drove very slowly, attempting to divine the tracks of other motorists by subtle variations in the snow white cover on the road, since the plows apparently had not gotten to these roads yet. As I wiped off the two inches that fell while I was in Yoga, it came to me how far I'd come since my winter accident in Ohio -- I was still nervous about driving, but, there I was, driving along in what the midwest would call treacherous conditions.

The other part of snow season in Anchorage that is important is the obsession with keeping the snow off the driveway. You can't let it go even one day! Last year, we started to be lazy, which made our driveway an ice rink. Because someone had to get at the snow Sunday before the freezing rain (we'll not have an ice rink again!), I hopped out to shovel the driveway. Scooting along, throwing snow as far as I could, I got to thinking how much I like snow shoveling. It's probably what other allergy-free people like about mowing the lawn. I like it because it's repetitive hard work, allows me to engage face to face with the snow, and I'm pretty good at it (good back + good "knee-bending" technique). I got the entire three-car driveway done in thirty minutes!

Either way, things look good for XC skiing tonight!

Snow!

Galileo hopped into his first dark and snowy morning today. Looks like we have just about a half inch here. If the sun ever decides to come up, I'll get a picture up :)

Update:
Anchorage drivers were apparently suprised by the snow. One more reason it's good to telecommute!

From FallWinter Pictures

"If I were them, I would hide the fact that I was from Fairbanks too"

UAF sheds their Fairbanks moniker and attempts to become THE University of Alaska, like THE Ohio State University or THE University of Michigan by renaming their sports teams. Considering University of Alaska Anchorage has twice the number of students and is located in the state's biggest city, it's a pretty sad marketing scheme.

I have nothing against Fairbanks or the University of Alaska (...Fairbanks), and certainly city and university extension rivalries are old stories. But I do think the changing of team names to promote your university while ignoring the community you are in is pretty dumb. Fairbanks should be proud to have a university, and wouldn't it be more positive to promote yourself instead of continuing a pointless town feud?

Aurora Forecasting

It's Aurora time again! Are you thinking about staying up late to see it?

UAF has revamped its' aurora site so that you can get pretty accurate daily forecasts, even for the midwest.

10 Dumbest on the Hill

Thought this was an interesting article on our congressmen.

And Ted Stevens didn't even make it onto the list with his "series of tubes" internet speech!

And Mom says listen to AK, a local show about life in Alaska. It was pulled off the air due to lack of funds, but luckily it's back on the air (due to Ted Stevens, by the way).

Earthquake!

So this morning, I had just sat down to my inbox to prepare for a meeting when the house started to shake for about 15 seconds. Although I know we've had more extensive earthquakes, I was really suprised at how much shaking there was this time and how long it took to quit. I had enough time to find a doorway and watch the stuff on the wall shake around.

Frank slept right through it :)

Beautiful Things

I just passed by this website on an origami artist that's just incredible!

First Frost, First Win

While other towns in the North are dealing with unexpected snow, we woke up with our first real frost of the season here:There's something quite magical about frost on a sunny day, and in particular the pastel hues it brings out in nature.

Last night was also our first Seawolf Hockey game of the season versus the Merrimack Warriors. Our favorite mythical sea creatures that play hockey had a pretty awful season last year, dropping 15 straight games to end it, so we are all hopeful that they can only improve this season.

It all started with the general spectacle of the Sullivan Arena, which is my favorite part of going to a hockey game in the first place. While Frank was getting our cappucino and breve (our usual hockey-watching drinks), I snuck by and got myself a clapper--a plastic hand contraption that you wave in the air to make a very obnoxious sound.

It got much use during the pre-game spectacle where we learned that the Ford GT does not work very well on ice and that Spirit the Seawolf can be lowered down from the ceiling for dramatic effect. Then came the traditional American flag waving and the UAA flag waving for a while.

As for the team itself, a great omen was that exhibition uniforms look very snazzy this year with the accent color being a lovely army green color. This is certainly ten times better than the awful silver of last year (yuck). They looked very impressive doing their warmups, which is always important.

Then after the hoo-hah, we finally got to the game. We first had to get the obligatory "blocking in the back" penalty on UAA out of the way, which Kevin Clark helped us out on 11 seconds into the game. Talk about an enthusiasm killer!

At the point that Kevin Clark got thrown out, Jason the ugly fan was in full ugly swing, raging against the machine and the refs. We sat close to Jason the ugly fan (wears a hockey mask and yells nasty things at the players who can't see them), Sock Puppet Joe (taunts the other team's penalty box with sock puppets) and Elvis (mid-age guy who likes to drink, dance and always is looking to see if the camera is on him or not).

So, UAA starts the game with a 5 min penalty that they had to kill, which is nice because traditionally we are a bit better with less people on the ice. We wound up killing that penalty and getting two (!) goals in the first period.

The Seawolves were on fire, which was great to see. Merrimack made a weak attempt at getting back into it with a goal in period 2, but we answered with three additional goals (!) in the second period, despite getting pretty much all the penalties for the first and second period.

By the time we left, the score was 6-2 Seawolves, which was a great start to the season.

Tonight though, the Seawolves will need all the help they can get in order to beat Nebraska-Omaha for the Classic championship! 

October comes in like a lion, and out like a...?

Today, it is very windy. How windy was it? Well, the latest readings I saw had gusts up to 76mph on Upper Hillside. If that was continuous we would be in a hurricane!

To make it more confusing, it is up to 67(!) degrees outside. Yikes! My allergies are completely freaked out.

Seward is in much worse shape with six inches of rain a state of emergency.

CSKA beats LA Clippers

When I lived in Moscow, I got the chance to see CSKA (sometimes called Red Army) play twice, in hockey and basketball. I remember how excited they were to have a member from the University of Alabama ("He's like Michael Jordan!" our director gushed).

Well, CSKA has come a long way! CSKA actually beat the LA Clippers in Moscow this year. It appears that the NBA has a run for its' money in the race to be the premier league of basketball in the world now.

Cook Salmon in a Dishwasher

Hey, here's one way to do the dishes.

Random Saturday

--This guy totally has tenure.
--Cool Tips shows you how to recognize a stroke quickly. Need more good tips? Try Men's Health
--Videos! How about Let's Paint, Exercise, and Eat Pie!.

No snow yet, but we are working on it...

Termination Dust and the return of the Doctor

This morning, many people in the Anchorage bowl woke up to realize that winter was not far away. The first frost of the year for most of the Anchorage bowl happened overnight, coming rapidly on the heels of termination dust along the Chugach.

When do you think snow will really fall? I'm suspecting around October 15th with permanent snow down on the ground by October 24th, but that might just be wishful ski junkie thinking :) Here's some more pictures:

Kincaid Park Lekisch Loop

Sep 29, 2006 - 22 Photos

In other news, Doctor Who is back on the Sci-Fi Channel on Friday nights! If you are not watching, you are missing out. I'm still not sold on the new Doctor, but after watching the first two episodes, I'm starting to warm up to him a bit.

Video Thursday

For your Video Thursday, John Stewart interviews Musharraf.

Did you ever know that you're my Hero...

Did anyone watch or record Heroes? It was actually pretty good. If you're a fan of "The 4400" or "Lost" I think you just might find it to be pretty cool. If you missed it, I believe the pilot's being reaired tonight and also available on iTunes.

The lady with the mystic smile and other happenings

Apparently, they've figured out the story behind the Mona Lisa!

In Alaska election news, we had an exciting day. An election came down to a coin toss.

Don Young, our US Representative, held his own on an extremely lively Talk of Alaska this morning. Now I like to see politicians work under pressure, and I'm sure the guy is not all perfect, but seriously, folks, if one is going to attack a representative's record, let's put together a constructive fact-based argument! There was just too many people calling with skewed facts that they hadn't done the research to back up their claims, and I really hate that.

The Great Moose Experiment

Picasa has created web albums, so I thought I would try it out with our Powerline photos from Wednesday. If you try it, drop me a line and let me know if you liked the new web album or not:

Powerline

Sep 20, 2006 - 46 Photos

 

Video Thursday!

Suprisingly, I've been asked for "More Videos!" on my blog, so here's the first installment of Video Thursday.

Finland proves that, despite the awesome music of my favorite band in the world, Finnish pop music has had some very low points.

Of course, the Danish cannot be outdone!

And here's funny reality TV excerpt from Norway.

What would video thursday be without David Hasselhoff? Who could forget this one? And the infamous Hooked on a Feeling?

Weird Al's Latest is also pretty funny!

Happy Thursday!

Pop Music Milestones

PopWatch via Throwing Things reminds us that Nirvana's Nevermind is 15 years old and Paul Simon's Graceland is 20. Wow, I can't believe it's been that long!

The case for celebrating the Nirvana album is simple. While Pearl Jam introduced a lot of people to grunge, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" flipped the entire music world on its' head. Kids my age responded to it because it was so...angst! And of course, even the bubbly teens of us still had quite a bit of angsty-ness in us to share with the world. It literally changed our lives. In one week, it seemed, we angsty teens in Chicagoland went from curling our front bangs into nearly impossible hairspray sculptures to wearing deep dark eyeliner, pale lipstick and flannel shirts. I can think of a band, at least in my lifetime, that has had such an effect.

As for Paul Simon, gosh, I still own that Graceland album. It came out when I was in third grade, or at least that's when I remember first getting a cassette at Dad's company picnic. I remember thinking I was so adult and sophisticated as I performed my little ventriloquism act to "You can call me Al" during my third grade gifted class field trip to Detroit. And yes, looking back my act went over exactly as you'd think and it was even funnier in real life then you imagine.

Even now I can remember the entire album by heart, including the non-english lyrics.

So two pretty awesome albums to celebrate today, happy Wednesday!

Har! Tuesday Happenings

Arrgh! Don't forget that it's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

In Anchorage, it's getting to feel fall-ish. There's a tiny bit of termination dust that is sticking on the otherwise red-hued Chugach range that surrounds Anchorage, and the birch trees are turning a beautiful yellow color.

Mother Nature's also putting on a special fall show for us. We've also got another set of volcanic action in the form of a steam plumes on the edge of Katmai National Park -- if I'm not mistaken, we went pretty close to this on our Kodiak trip a few weekends ago.

Fall also brings football, and unfortunately the Steelers lost yesterday to the Jaguars and Ben's fellow MAC alumni, Byron Leftwich. Despite the loss, the game was great except for the lack of scoring and the idiotic garbage coming out of the announcer's mouths ("Jacksonville is a "unknown team from an unknown city""--only to geographically-challenged and underprepared sports announcers). Geesh!

Flattop '06 or..."Let's go the stupid way!"

Although there are thousands of stunning trails in the Chugach mountains, the North to AK clan always manages to find ourselves on the trail to Flattop, the most popular trail in the Anchorage bowl.

There are as many reasons I suppose to avoid Flattop as there are to hike it. One of the major cons of the trail is the huge amount of people that hike it, especially on a weekend.

The nicely laid steps that spoil erosion also probably upset die-hard hikers who would like their scenery unspoiled by man. The spray-painted dots that helpfully point out the "trail" through the rock climb to the top takes some of the danger out of the mad scramble. On the other hand, here's a hike that's hard because it's steep, easily followed, and is so darn accessible it's impossible to pass up on a beautiful autumn day.
Many families will take beautiful autumn days like this and go pick blueberries, which is one of the reasons the parking lot was so full. Although I saw some really great-looking blueberries, it seemed to me that the ones I tried yesterday were pretty watery.
So, while lots of people spent their time hunched down harvesting, looked at the scenery.

We spent a lot of time up at the top, playing around. Galileo was looking for vermin and also had a huge romp with a sled dog all over the mountaintop. After a half hour or so, the clouds rolled in. If you've never actually had a cloud roll over you, it's quite an experience:


About that time, we decided to go back down the mountain. This is where the dangerous/interesting part of the day started.

It all started with a innocent "Hey, let's go down the OTHER way this time". Remembering seeing people come down the "other" way last time, I mentioned that the other trail was a sheer rock face full of scree and gravel. The disappointment was beginning to show in my wonderful husband's face. Safety girl was again spoiling the adventure. "Don't worry", he said, "we had gone down this way before, it was easy".

We hadn't. Look at below and guess how many things are wrong with this picture:There are a few problems with the unmaintained old flattop trail, beginning with the fact that there is no trail. That gap of gravel between the scree and grass is just slightly less loose gravel. This is why people built the lovely trail with the nice stairs that everyone in their right mind was taking down to the parking lot. While Frank and Galileo skeedaddled ahead on the trail, I tenderly held my camera while scooting down a scree chute on my rear thinking about how I needed to keep my lens pointed upward in case I plummeted down the mountain so I didn't break the camera. Frank was shouting word of encouragement like "You look cute!", I was shouting very unpleasant things back that I will not mention.

Despite our collective brush with death, there were three good things about taking that trail:
1) The colors were more vibrant on that side of the mountain:

2) I got this picture of Frank finding out the trail was not so easy:

3) We went by the "I love Alaska" tree, coming as a Christmas card near you in a few months:

So looking back after making it to civilization with all arms, legs, shins, and cameras accounted for, in classic "Cash Peters" style...would I go the stupid way again? Absolutely not! Am I glad Frank coaxed me into doing it? Well...I'm glad we made it down...once :)

Galileo loves the Meerkats

Galileo is very particular about the TV shows he watches. He sometimes will watch birding or hunting, but we've found the only show that Galileo consistently watches on TV is Meerkat Manor.

Today he sat through two consecutive hours of the meerkats. Although I am sure that the continuing saga of Flower and the Whiskers clan (and that pesky Carlos) entertains him, he seems more obsessed with little rodents of all sizes. Yesterday, when we went to Flattop the dog was seriously on a hunt for the little guys as you can see from the picture above. 

"I never lend books to coal miners"

Last month, I wrote here about one of my favorite movies, Office Space. It's a great movie, but it's still not my favorite movie of all time.

Oh, and despite what you think of me, it's not "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" or even "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" ;).

In fact, the movie is not even a comedy. It did poorly in the box office in 1984, and is the infamous movie that was made in a trade for Bill Murray to make "Ghostbusters".

This fantastic movie is called The Razor's Edge. Based on the Somerset Maugham novel of the same name, the story follows Larry Darrell (Bill Murray), a rich kid from Lake Forest Illinois, who wants more than a stockbroker's life after coming back from WWI. To tell you more, as much as I'd like to, about the movie really gives too much away.

The first time I watched the movie, I was in Asian Philosophy, one of these "silly general ed" classes that University of Kentucky forced science majors to take. I think that class, including this movie, had as much to do with who I am today than probably all the physics classes I took put together (sorry Mom and Dad!). For example, it's easy to sit in a classroom and feel good about what happens in a perfect world to inanimate objects skidding down inclines, but that class forced me to really think about why us humans find ourselves stumbling through life like we do. That's the type of thing that you don't really get to ponder in optics.

One of the interesting things about getting -- let's just say, wiser -- is that you can review a great movie while remembering your first reactions years ago. The gap between those two moviegoers can be as fantastically small as it is broad.

Anyways, if you have a chance, please go ahead and watch it -- I promise it will be worth the two hours of your time.

Anchorage is #19!

Check it out...apparently Anchorage made the top 25 list of "smartest cities", which was measured by the percentage of bachelor's degrees amone residents 25 and older.

Lego Miserables!

Happy Monday!