Moose on a Bender

Bullwinkle the moose is a little too much into the holiday spirits.

Thankful

Hi Everyone --

Hope y'all are having a great Thanksgiving day! In the spirit of the day, I thought I'd list some things I am thankful for (and these are in no particular order):
1) Real Teeth: Last year during the holiday season, I had four fake front teeth. Every time I ate something (like fudge) I had to worry about breaking them apart.
2) The Great Alaskan Shootout: We saw the UAA women's team win another Shootout, in two nail-biting matches. Our seats are on the floor right next to the benches, so we get to see everything. On the men's side, we got to watch Michigan (more coaches than players) lose to Butler (who has a really good guy with a very small head), Virginia Tech (really good guy with unbelievably skinny legs) win againts Eastern Washington (smallest Coach in the tournament). Up today is UAA vs. "Bobby Tech", and Gonzaga vs. WKU. Should be a good day :)
3) Happy Pregnancy: On a more serious note, a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy. Not only is Kira doing great (and has now graduated from kicking my kidneys to my ribs, thanks kid!), but I've only had minor gripes about the whole process.
4) Friends and Family: A cliche, sure, but the love and support I've received this year has been tremendous. I'm really thankful to be lucky enough to have such wonderful people around me, even those that are far away physically.
5) Recovery: Galileo, our TV star in residence, wants you to know he is very thankful to have his stitches taken out on Monday. He also likes his new stuffed rhino toy and his spider.
6) Repairs: We had a garbage disposal that could not grind up apple skin. Frank replaced the garbage disposal to a new, fantastically quiet and powerful, one. Way to go Frank!!!!!!
7) Future Snow: We did have really beautiful ski snow, but a chinook came in and melted most of it, which messes everything up. Alyeska got all of our snow -- 45 inches -- and is actually closed until they can figure out what to do with it. Suddenly, however, this is our first Thanksgiving weekend up here where we can't go skiing. So I'm going to just give thanks to the future snow, because it may be late, but snow is inevitable.

I'm sure there are a lot more, but those are the ones I can think of at the moment :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Frank and Lori vs. Baby Bjorn

How hard is it to adjust a Baby Bjorn? Plenty hard. We figured it out though :) Here's Frank practicing with a bag of sugar.

Muppet Monday!

Doesn't everyone need some silly happy fun on a Monday?

Kira/Galileo Update

Kira: A personal update on Kira. She now has enough amniotic fluid to bounce around in, has a gall bladder, and weighs 12oz. At this point, we speculate that she has a larger than normal nose (a "Bohannon" nose potentially) and that she has rather long toes and legs. When I was at the ultrasound, she was hiccupping, which is a good sign because that means she is using her diaphragm.

To the side is a rather creepy widget that shows you how Kira is doing and how long I have to go :). If you click on it, you can actually see what she should be working on this week.

Galileo: Galileo is doing well and is back to wagging his rear enthusiastically. He is finally off his pain medication so he is a little less groggy. The back scratches are healing, and of course he's starting to pick at them a bit. The gashes are sealing up fine, and luckily so far he has not thought of pulling the stitches out. Stitches come out in a week and a half, so if he starts pulling them out, we will have to put him in the elizabethan collar that he really, really, hates.

Popular Pachyderm

Maggie's fans are overloading the elephant webcam in California!

Bad day for Galileo

Galileo got out of the back of the car, walked about five feet, then stared into space for two minutes.

It's probably the anesthesia. He had stitches put into his arm and groin this morning, and his back is shaved. He actually looks pretty normal except for his arm and back, which look pretty icky.

It started with a few nicks during a grooming session last night, but Galileo also kept picking at the wounds, making things worse. We took him into the PET center (Pet ER) this morning, and by 1 they had fixed him up.

In "good" news, they are filming a reality TV show for the Animal Planet in the ER, so it's possible that our little Galileo will make it onto TV. Frank also won an Ipod at the Grocery store, so that is all good.

Anyways, send good vibes to Galileo for a good healing, and I'll take some pictures once he's done sleeping off the drugs.

Darwin Strikes Again

Frank's talk is today on Evolutionary computation!

Bye Maggie! UPDATE

So Maggie the Elephant is on her way to California to live in an animal sanctuary, thanks to Bob Barker. This news is a culmination of a difficult struggle in Anchorage over the welfare of the elephant living in Alaska.

We saw Maggie last weekend at her goodbye party. Our little zoo was packed by children and parents braving the cold to see Maggie for the last time in her elephant house. The zoo has, I think, done everything they could to give Maggie a warm and healthy environment, and so it's sad for everyone involved.

The journey for Maggie includes a big crate in a huge air force plane, a 16 hour transfer from Air Force bases, and a rush to get Maggie to the sanctuary before traffic hits tomorrow. I wish her well in her new life and hope that California takes care of Alaska's favorite elephant.

UPDATE:
Maggie is doing fine in her new home -- here's a webcam where you can see for yourself. She is in the near pen.