Frank as an ice eskimo

Town Square is now a skating rink!

Humpy's Bar Ice Salmon

Another Ice Sculpture

Hey! It's a lion in winter!

Ice basket

Finishing up the dragon slide

Another ice mural closeup

Ice Mural close up

This is what the ice looks like before it is carved

Dinosaur!

Isn't this a beautiful fish sculpture?

A Bear saying hello

Ice Sculpture of a Swan?

Picture of downtown Anchorage Catholic Church. Apparently it is Art Deco.

Weekend Adventure

We've had an exciting weekend!

On Friday, we went to the UAA-St. Cloud hockey game and left with not only a happy feeling that the Seawolves were on their way out of the depths of bad play, but also with to Conoco-Phillips fiber optic light stick keychains! How cool is that?

On Saturday, we woke up, and eventually made it to Russian Jack for some cross country skiing. Frank was in an adventurous mood, and led us off into the path less travelled, which led up a very steep hill (have you ever tried to climb hills in XC skis? Not so fun) and down a very steep downhill. Being safety girl, I immediately took my skis off and walked down, but Frank did successfully get down the hill with only three falls. Both of us thought this new route was a success, considering that neither of us died and we know that we have a lot to learn about XC skiing before we try that again.

Last night, we saw Vance Gilbert and Christine Lavin play at the PAC downtown. It was great!

Vance Gilbert's music is not only a talented singer and guitar player, but his songs are very touching. Even I got teary (and all of you know how very rare that is) through many of his songs. If you ever have a chance to see him, I urge you to go see him play. Here's his schedule -- I see he will be in NYC on March 4th for all of you east-coasters, Michigan from the 18th to the 20th, and, hey, Bloomington IL of all places on April 23rd! I don't see any Kentucky or Chicago yet, but keep on the lookout! I've added a link to one of his albums on the sidepanel here, but also check out his website where it looks like they are having a CD sale!

Christine Lavin, I believe, is related to us somehow. She reminds me, Mom, of you if you had become a singer-songwriter (you two are about the same age), although she gives the golden girls a run for their money in baton twirling (check out the bottom of her home page for a demonstration of this)! She wears a headset, and one of her first songs was about wind chimes. I admit, I thought, geesh, this will be a long hour if we have to hear about wind chimes all the time...but it was a really funny song! She crowned the King of Anchorage, and Frank I think Frank was relieved that she picked the guy two rows down from us to come up on stage. Although I thought that would have been great -- he would have done great singing the "Sensitive New Age Guys" song. She also has a great children's book out based on her song "Amoeba Hop" -- about how one celled organisms in a rain puddle party. Nothing like asexual reproduction by binary fission to really get the kids interested in science! She's also a knitter, and welcomes knitters to knit with her before/after the show and also knit during her performance. Sounds weird, but she was really great as well. I've added links to one of her albums and the book on the right hand side as well...

Oh, and Anne, your French Toast pudding concoction is FAMOUS through a song by Christine Lavin, although she forgot the ham part at least.

Her Calendar of Events shows that she will be in Cincinnati OH on March 7, Chicago, IL on March 13th, Cambridge, MA on March 26th. You can also hear her sometimes on the Village (channel 15 on XM satellite radio).

I really am grateful that all the way up here in AK we get the chance to hear some of the best music I've heard in a long time through Whistling Swan Productions. Please go out and see these people if you can in your own area.

So that was Saturday. This morning, I woke up at 5:25 am to a page (I'm duty manager this weekend), which was unpleasant since we went to sleep around 1:30am. At 8:00 am, Galileo wanted to go out again, so I let him out. Suprisingly, about 10 minutes after I went back to sleep, Frank decides to get up! If he'd only gotten up earlier, I would have been able to stay asleep! Then, puppy again wanted to go out around 10am (remember, now, I have been up twice already at this point), and of course he decides that I am the chosen door master again. So I have not had a lot of sleep today.

One of the coolest things about living by the mountains is that you get to watch the weather change. When we left for breakfast, the mountains were disappearing in clouds of either snow or fog. By the time we came back from the ice park (pictures coming soon), the mountains around our house were almost completely gone! We are looking forward to a good snow, because we need it. The snow on the ground at this point is pretty gross.

Anyways, it's super-bowl time, so I assume we must go watch it soon. We have tivo, so we will probably wait until 3 to really watch it so that we can get through all the blah-blah talk that one gets during an event such as this. As usual, I will probably start rooting for whomever is losing.

Agh! The Seawolves drop a game to St. Cloud

Last night's 6-3 loss to the Huskies drops UAA to 8th place in the WCHA standings!

Volcano!

A volcano 480 miles SW of Anchorage spewed hot rocks this weekend. Here in Anchorage we have our own volcano across the arm, so we keep track of these things here.

Just in case you are wondering what to do in case of a volcano...FEMA can guide you through volcano preparedness.

Dust and the Wind

Sunday started at a very early 5am. We had to be at Excalibur to pick up the buses at 5:30. But there was a lot of preparation to do before then.

As a very prepared marathoner, I had already laid out everything I needed to bring, wear, or deal with the night before. But it still was a lot of work. Some pre-race rituals:
1) I always use Wrightsocks. The double layer that they have is the only thing that keeps my toes from blistering.
2) I use a race belt, just like in triathlon. This allows me to not have to deal with pinning a number on an article of clothing (you never know when you might take these things off)
3) Tylenol. I always take this before the race starts. I figure, faster blood and less inflammation can't but lead to faster times!
4) Hats are underated, sunscreen is overrated. Always wear a hat.
5) I always hold at least one long sleeved shirt and one windbreaker.

Dad was wearing a disposable track suit, which is a good idea since he could chuck the clothing as he ran and would not have to hold onto it (signal foreshadowing music here).

The start was innocent enough, and after a awful rendition of the national anthem by the William Hung of Elvis Impersonators, we were off! It's always a strange feeling to hear your electronic timing chip ping as you run over the mat at the start of a race, because it's very clear that now you've started and are obliged to finish. The first few miles was realatively normal for me, except that I started to get hungry after mile 1. One of the most important things to remember in marathoning is that you have to be flexible in your plans, so I decided to go away from my normal 3mile drink/6 mile eat routine and start a 2mile eat/5 mile drink routine. I recovered around mile 2.5 after having my first shot of hammergel.

Up until mile 13, I was running on my 10 minute pace pratically. In fact, I hit the halfway point around 2:17, so I thought I was on target. Looking back, I was already feeling not so good (the wind was starting to take its toll), and this is a bad omen for the second half of the race.

Dad came by just after the halfway mark. He had shed his recyclable layers and now the wind was making it colder. He asked for my long sleeved big sur shirt that was around my waist (I had already put back on my windbreaker)...how lucky that we are about the same size! I gave it to him, happy to help and also happy to get one more thing out from around my waist :).

As we descended into Las Vegas, the wind just kept increasing. For most of the race after mile 13, I could not actually hear my mp3 player, nor the people around me. Although after mile 8.5 there are no real hills, the wind really made up for it. If you did not lean forward when the gusts came, your hat would go flying off.

I started thinking about Roberto Heras and how when he's out in the wind, his domestiques protect him. Where are my domestiques? Around mile 15 I found a group of taller people going just a little faster than I, and tried to make my own private peleton. However, realistically, unless you are running really fast, the economy you gain from wind breaking is quite small. Eventually I needed water so I lost my peleton buddies.

Around mile 17, I started getting really angry. We had been travelling through a construction section, and little bits of dust were hitting my legs and face, causing these little pricks of pain anytime the wind blows. This angry feeling only got worse as I ran through a waterstation that had run out of cups. How is that possible?

I was reduced to something like a run/walk scheme (remember the flexibility above). I rationalized that I might as well take some time out to enjoy the outskirts of Las Vegas. After about mile 18, you are pretty sure to finish, and I was also pretty sure that this was not going to be a PR day. I basically focused on the fact that the turn out of the wind had to be coming up around mile 20. Suddenly, after mile 20, there was a turn! I was so excited about that, and decided that I would run the entire way once I hit that turn. However, as I turned I realized that I'd forgotten how short the reprieve from the wind was -- maybe 200m, and another left turn toward the airport. Agh!

So back to run/walk until the airport. I knew that you ran alongside the airport until you had about a half mile to go, but what a long airport! Luckily, we were running east, so the wind was only a strong crosswind at that point. Suddenly, I felt great and ran the rest of the way in from the airport!

When I made the turn onto Eastern Avenue, I still could not see the finish line. But Dad found me pretty soon, tried to run a little with me (but he was really tired), and told me we'd meet up at the finish. Mom I found a little ways down the road from him, and she was shouting 1 minute left, which was really inspiring because I really, really wanted this thing to end. All of the sudden, there was a quick turn and we were done! I heard that they said my name at the end, but honestly, I was so tired I could not hear any of it.

At the end, a photographer with a Nikon D70 took my picture. I told her to take a good one, because I was never going to do this again :). Of course, I always feel like that after a marathon, and I always do another one. A marathoner once said that you need to forget your last marathon before you do another one, because your body can't know what's coming. I totally agree :).

So, in all, I finished, Dad finished, and everyone agreed it was a difficult day out there. Would I do Las Vegas again? I've hear that they are planning on modifying the course so it goes down the strip and through downtown. If they do that, AND run it North -> South, I would probably consider it again :).

But for now, I plan as I said on taking it easy for a few weeks!

Congrats to Seawolves Hockey!

Last night, won over St. Cloud State! The highlight was the first successful penalty shot in UAA history by Shea Hamilton!

Training season is ON!

Anne is training for a marathon! Us Alaskans are sending her positive vibes and subtle suggestions..."Come to Alaska, Anne...running is sooo much easier here because the coefficient for gravity is less here...miles are much shorter here...".

My personal favorite training plan is Four Months to a Four Hour Marathon, although Hal Higdon's plan is good as well.

I, for one, do not plan on running seriously for a month. This is because my body needs to forget what a marathon entails before I can train for it (the body can't see what's coming or it's all over).

I am going to cross country ski instead for a while, and some weight training.

Good luck Anne!

Red Rock Canyon Pictures

On Saturday, we went to Red Rock Canyon. We were worried that it perhaps would be covered in clouds and be a bad day to go, but we were lucky -- it WAS covered in clouds and was a GREAT time to go!

All of these pictures were taken with my new E-300 camera. I like it a lot, but I'm still learning how to use it. You can see it in some of the shots with the focus. I already threw out all the bad ones :).

Let me know what you think of them -- by popular demand, I'm going to find a way to put these and other pictures on the web where you can download/buy them if you want to support by bad habit :). Mom also has pictures of the canyon as well as pictures of the marathon course for you. This has been a busy week -- I will put a race report online as soon as I have time!

This new camera does a great job at night! This is a view from our hotel window.

Two plant buddies

Look down the canyon...

Plant and Red Rock

Many of these shots are about me learning how to use my new camera's focus. Here's one that seemed to work...

Odd to see a tree here

Rock Cut

A Lonely Tree -- how did it get up there?

This is a rock formation that just juts out of the ground

My Favorite Tree

My Favorite Tree closeup

The black and white really shows the snow, eh?

Two mountains

The Cactus look happy among the rocks

Dad looking for the creek.

Closeup of a Red Rock

Here is another lonely tree

Hi Mom!

Yellow Tree

Icebox

Red Rock "Captain"

Canyon Light

Yellow Bush close-up

Canyon Floor

Light through the clouds

Canyon Floor picture

Is it bacteria or a cactus?

Three Amigos

"Ansel Adams" tribute

Clouds and Mountains

Take Action and Diary of an Action Figure POW

The latest POW in Iraq has a Diary. It's all about Evil Bert.

On a more serious note, here's an advocacy campaign to tell the UN to take action on Darfur before it is too late. Please fill it out if you agree -- it takes five minutes at most.

Ka

Mom, Dad and I saw Ka at the MGM Grand on Friday. You can read about it on the website, but it's a story of a brother and a sister's journeys and growth.

Everyone involved in the performance had a story, so even the ushers looked and acted a little funny. My two favorite ushers are the spiky hair guy who kept saying "Helloo!" as you came in, playing peek-a-boo, and the guy with the big nose and walking stick that you could tell had a very complicated backstory. Anyways, it allows the suspension of reality to start early, which is good for such a complicated show.

Those of you Archi-people (you know who you are) would appreciate the set, which reminds me a lot of Lebbeus Woods. There were these big nasty turrets, pipes and catwalks all around the sides of the stage. These maori-inspired people would get fire buckets from the void, then carry them around using bungee cords and pulleys.

The show itself was incredible. Most of the action happened on this huge sheet of metal that could turn in almost any direction. So, it acted as a mountain, a beach, a matrix-like battle scene setup, a huge pinball game, a platform for a royal court, etc.

This was still the rehearsal shows, so there is still some tweaks to be made. If anyone from Cirque is reading this (one can always hope :) ), the biggest problem I saw was that there was no allowance for the audience to applaud. What happens in those cases is while the show was outstanding, the reaction of the audience is paralysis instead of rousing applause at the end. I think everyone was so awe-struck at the show to really show the cast that they really liked it!

Anyways, I won't give up any of the rest of it, but you really should go see it if you are in Las Vegas! I don't think anyone came out of there not thinking that it was the best Cirque show ever!

Dust and the Wind, Prologue

Below are some pictures of LV pre-marathon, from our reconnaisance of the course and subsequent gambling at the Gold Strike (the start of the LV marathon course was in Jean, NV).

Nice valley on the course route

Recon picture of the course shows lots of hills that look like these.

Dad plays an impressive slot machine at the Gold Strike

Mom works her magic on the slots at the Gold Strike Casino in Jean, NV

GI Joe?

I can't believe that the media fell for this hoax...

Wait, here's photographic evidence of Bin Laden's Capture.

LV Marathon Results...Race Report later

Just in case some of you were thinking that I am purposely hiding my results from the weekend, there it is:

"14 11:37 LAURA MOORE ANCHORAGE AK "

Dad had an excellent day, considering the wind conditions:

110 1517 4:40:58 4:38:53 10:39 RICHARD LOHRMAN NORTH AURORA IL

Here is my first picture using my NEW E-300 Camera!

When will the Seawolves get a break?

UAA's Mark Smith will be out for the season due to a torn ACL. When will UAA get a break from the long string of injuries?