Feeling the earth move under one's feet...

I felt it this time. There were two distinct pulses this time. Pretty weird!

Update: Apparently, 48 people in the area felt it.

Skiing Fools

I love to cross-country ski! For the last few days, we had done our regular route through Russian Jack Springs park. Today though, armed with a new map, we were brave and tried Beach Lake Trails in Chugiak, which at the moment is the only tracked ski trails in the area for Classic.

Since the sun went down at 4:30pm or so, it was dark by the time we started. There is nothing like skiing on a new trail at night to get you confused. We were doing fine until we accidentally found ourselves on "Executioner". The trails I am more likely to ski are called things like "creampuff" and "pancake", so this made me a bit worried. Somewhere around executioner we got turned around, and probably skiied 10k or so to get back to our car. It was great!

I am also excited about learning to skate ski. This of course required new equipment, and although I have not tried them out, our stuff looks very fast. Frank's new skis even say "Ultrasonic" and his boots are a beautiful silver color.

Of course, first is the marathon next Sunday! Agh!

Thanksgiving Day in Anchorage

Happy Thanksgiving from NorthtoAK! Today we woke up to more snow to go with the snow from yesterday and the day before. The streets continue to be covered in white snow and many of the side roads are not plowed.





Last night, I remarked that the roads were not so bad, and that how my definition of "not so bad" is much broader after a year in Alaska. In the midwest, if the roads look like they do up here, people would be banned from being on the road.

So, Frank had fun using the snowblower in the driveway this morning(notice the tennis shoes):


Sadly, the driveway has about two-three inches more snow on it, so it will need to be plowed again, likely tomorrow.

We then got a chance to speak to our families, and Mandy taught me this cool thing that I have missed called text messaging. The only problem with text messaging is that every time my cell phone goes off with a text message, I get all jumpy since it's the same tone that pages me for work! But I think txt is gr8! I am going to learn lots of lingo like "LOL" and "ROTFL".

At noon, we went to Thanksgiving Dinner at Mick's at the Inlet, which is a great restaurant in the Inlet Tower downtown.




Mick's is a really cozy place to eat, with upscale food but a nice laid-back atmosphere. The music is really great as well. Sometimes, people mistake non-overbearing music for boring, which is a mistake. Mick's had a nice balance of music, from jazz, oldies, and even world music, to actually enhance the ambiance. We also had a very nice Pinot Gris from Maryhill Winery, which tasted very green and fruity. The food was great too! The highlight of my lunch was twofold -- I got to eat pomagranate seeds, which I had never eaten before, and also had chilean sea bass for Thanksgiving! The chilean sea bass was flakey but very tasty with a spice mixture on top and a chili oil sauce. Frank had the porterhouse steak, which was also good as well. Galileo, of course, got the scraps of steak, for which he was very happy.

After lunch, we scrambled to the grocery store to get supplies for the next few days, since the stores were all closing around 4pm. After a brief nap, Galileo and I went on a walk around the block, which was more difficult than usual since we had to break trail. The sky was hot pink in the southwest as the sun went down as we walked along (4pm!).


There's a bit of snow on the trees...


How do these branches stay up with all that snow?

We also got to ski for the first time all year! One of the coolest things about Anchorage is the lighted ski trails in winter. We went to Russian Jack, and it was beautiful -- everything sparkles in the lights, and the trees are just incredibly magestic. You'd never know you were right in town!

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Yahoo! Search Results for ginger kids red hair freckles

Ha! I am number 3!

Running in AK: Viva Las Vegas! Marathon Update

12 days to go! Running in AK: Viva Las Vegas! Marathon Update.

Ask the Cats!

What to do about prewar intelligence? TBIFOC: Let's ask the cats!

Moon Picture

 
Better late than never...this is a shot from my driveway looking east. The moon has been huge lately!

Of course, we haven't seen it so much this week. It's been raining off and on for the last two days (a virtual "heat wave"). This was a total bummer because we all were looking forward to good skiing, and our snow melted!

Things are looking up this morning though. We had some sort of an ice/snow/sleet/wind (I would guess around 40 mph) last night, and it's continued today. Wunderground says we will get about 5 inches of wet snow, but it's always hard to tell.

I have heard complaints that there is not enough hockey blogging lately. This is because there's not much to say. UAA keeps finding more frustrating ways to lose. Last night, they *almost* won -- even scoring first for once -- but gave up a goal in the third and then another in overtime to Minnesota-Duluth. It's so frustrating, because last night was the best the Seawolves have played in weeks!

Anyways, up this weekend is a 15 mile run, yoga, and the Italian Lady from Algiers (it's an opera by Rossini). 

Think of it as the midday moon...

ADN points out something that I have been noticing in the sky. The moon is out a lot of the time, like the sun in the summer here. I've got a few pictures from the weekend and will try to post today.

Whoops!

A Subaru crashed into Barnes and Noble: "The crash unleashed literary upheaval -- the sort of disorganization that would surely horrify any type-A minded librarian: Books on Mexico and Venice intermixed with volumes on Vietnam and George Washington. Alaska Mileposts mingled with tomes about Spartans and ancient Rome. Thick texts on the FBI were shuffled among massive atlases. "

Ginger Kids!

Did you watch it? It was all about Ginger Kids, which are kids with red hair, pale skin, and freckles. Oh, and Ginger Kids have no souls and suffer from "Gingervitis".

Here's the summary if you missed it.

As a "Ginger" myself, I couldn't help thinking...do people really think of redheads in this way?

Anyways a really funny episode. South Park still has its' charm!

Speaking of comedy central, the Colbert Report is really funny and, sometimes, even makes a good point....

"Baku is the most beautiful city in the world!"

This was the regular cry of Georgi, a fictional character in my Russian reader during my semester in Moscow. I remember him saying that they have some really nice gardens. Now Georgi and other Azerbaijanis need support to establish a democracy in their country.

The Underpants Gnome Theory of Investing

I was reminded of one of my favorite South Park episodes ever, called " Gnomes (Underpants Gnomes)" today, while reading Boing Boing.

I've found that the gnomes' three-phase business plan:
(1) Steal Underpants
(2) ....
(3) Profit!
..is used quite a bit by companies. Here's a financial article on the Underpants Gnome Theory of Financial Investing which is basically this...make sure that the companies you invest in actually have a phase 2 strategy for turning an idea into profit!

If you are interested in investing, I also have to recommend my favorite show to run to...Mad Money. Jim Cramer cracks me up, keeps me interested in financials, AND makes me run faster!

Who knew?

There are military applications for Silly String!

Moore Blogging

Frank's research has been blogged by IlliGAL! He's also giving a seminar today for the Complex Systems group at UAA on his research.

Кандидат (The Candidate)

Golly, looks like we have exported another reality show! The Russian Apprentice show Кандидат (Kandidat) is down to the final two! It's down to Tatiana and Elena. I'm rooting for Tatiana because she works for PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is a very long name.

Search Results Fun

While looking at my list of referring pages for this blog, I found that I am #2 on the French version of Google for "art of killing counter"! Who knew that writing about UAA hockey could bring such things!

Also, those of you looking for Thanksgiving pictures, including those that are searching for an "Anchorage Turducken", are probably looking in the wrong place.

I'm happy to see that I've helped at least a few people researching running topics as well as volcano preparedness.

Bulgarian Update!

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!

Making a Mess with Lori, part 2

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!

Sports Report

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!

Bulgaria Update

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.