"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!