Breakup!

The ice at Nenana went out at 3:47pm on April 27^th. The jackpot is $303,272. No word on who won just yet… I’m rooting for my sister who put in a guess of 3:23pm on that day. Woo hoo!

On another note, I am convinced that Alicia May is the next Mia Hamm… Not only can she dribble a soccer ball around the play yard at the daycare, but she can kick a tub of tartar sauce off the kitchen counter with great precision!

In other cooking news... I made some delightful apricot bars last night. Mmmmm, they are scrumptious! I didn't have enough dried apricots to make the recipe (12 oz.), so I substituted a 1/2 cup of apricot jam I happened to have in the fridge. They turned out great!

Saturday Report

We had a very pleasant Saturday yesterday. The weather was perfect. Stephen and Tess rode the bike and Alicia May and I were in the van as we went yard saling in both Peters Creek and Eagle River.

We got some great deals! One big, nice neighborhood was having a Neighborhood Yard Sale in Eagle River. I think they do it every year about this time. It was like a party. They had two hotdog stands set up at a major intersection and almost every other house was having a sale.

Some of our best bargains of the day included a swingset for Alicia May, a bag of American Eagle Outfitters clothing for Tess (for $5), a Snap-on creeper, a gas bottle for our grill, some pretty pink dresses, some Clive Cussler books, a couple other good books for me, and a new dog bed for Bit (never used... $5).

We're picking up the swingset today after church. It was still set up in the previous owners' yard and Alicia May enjoyed playing on it while we visited their sale.

After the yard saling, Tess joined her former b-ball team mates at a park for some playing time. Stephen, Alicia, and I went into the Harley Davidson shop in Anchorage. Donald had taken the bus into Eagle River to work on a cooking project for French class with someone. They made Creme Brule (sp?). Then he took the bus back home and helped our neighbor with some yard work. The neighbor offered to take he and Stephen halibut fishing. Another neighbor may be taking them out on his boat to go salmon fishing...

Eklutna Stroll

After dinner yesterday evening, Stephen, Alicia, and I took a drive up to Eklutna Lake to see what it was like. It's about 13 miles from our home (10 miles of which are the access road from the main highway). I took this photo just as we were coming to the entrance to the recreation area.

We'll be staying at the state camping cabin here in early June with our out-of-town guests (Jim & Alie). The cabin is a 3 mile hike or bike ride down the lakeside trail. The lake is still covered with ice at this point. But I don't believe it's thick enough to be safely crossed.

In the winter, when ice covers the lakes and streams, these become virtual highways of travel all over Alaska. During this season of mid-Spring, the ice is too thin to safely hold a dog sled or snow machine. So people in the bush are less mobile and are just waiting for "breakup" when the ice finally goes away and they can use boats on the waterways.

Look-a-ME! Mommy, Look-a-ME!

Are we the cutest thing you've ever seen or what??? Daddy's filling our "tub tub" and we're SO excited! We love to splash around with our duckies!


Trying on the "new" helmet and going for a spin with Dad. Dad just got those chaps in the mail. He bought them from a fella in Florida off Ebay. Here in Alaska, mail order and internet sales are popular, particularly in the "bush".

Here we are with our "new" swimsuit, (also from Ebay) straight from the mail! We had to put it on immediately and wore it for dinner... Like Alicia May, it's super cute!
Sissy is nice enough to sit down to dinner with that stylin' Alicia May...

Broad Daylight

We're getting about 16 hours of daylight, plus those pre-dawn morning light and evening twilight hours. So it's pretty much light for a long long time. And it's getting longer.

Already I'm having difficulty telling myself it's time to go to bed at night. Last night, although I was very tired when I got home from work, I still made supper, baked a bundt cake for today's potluck, baked some cookies for the family to make up for whisking away the bundt cake, did the dishes, bathed the baby, and squeezed in a little TV/internet time.

It was still light outside when I forced myself to go to bed at 10:30. That's an hour past my bedtime as I have to get up at 5:30am and I'm one of those folks who NEEDS 8 hours of sleep.

I think I need to get cracking on those dark curtains for the living/dining room area or foil those windows. Just because it's light outdoors, doesn't mean I should be awake and productive. By June, we'll have more than 19 hours of daylight. That's not going to give me anywhere near 8 hours of peaceful dark sleep time....

Sockless and Fancy Free

I'm not wearing any socks today. This is the first time my feet have left the house un-socked since September, I believe.

Breathe tootsies... breathe!

I'm wearing clogs which are a mainstay of shoe choice in this region, for both men and women. Slip-on shoes are where it's at. People don't wear shoes in their homes due to extended snow and mud seasons... So every home and many offices (cubes, etc) have a pile of shoes/boots at the entry.

The fact that I haven't been able to find a matching pair of socks for months makes it all the more satisfying to not have to bother! If only I could be more like Tess and just wear blatantly mismatched socks as a fashion statement and not worry about it. It may come to that whether I like it or not next September.... No matter how many socks I buy, (and I've started buying all similar color socks...) I can never seem to keep them mated for more than one laundry cycle.

Well... I'm marking it off my "to worry about" list for the time being. No socks required. Maybe Phil Collins will write a song about that.

Family Update # 3920 :o)

Stephen got a nice raise today... Yahoo! Kind of out of the blue, but hey, we'll take it! It'll help make those Harley payments...

I gave the final class of a 3-part series on GPS today. Phew. Glad that's done... Now I can focus on developing the GIS demo and training for Juneau next week.

Donald has his basketball banquet tonight. He's also going to attempt to get his driving permit any day now as we finally replaced his lost Soc. Sec. card.

Tess had a Choir Festival last night at West High School. Her Chugiak HS Choir went last and they were the best of the show. (No bias on my part...)

Alicia May is enjoying the Spring weather. One of her new favorite past-times is swinging on the swingset at the daycare. She's just acquired a new bathing suit (via Ebay) and can't wait to try it out in Virginia at the end of next month.

Spring Cleaning

I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest... But we spent the day doing some major Spring Cleaning.

I made up a list for each family member with the exception of Alicia May. [Okay, right, I have control issues... we're aware of this.] Anyway, Tess, Donald, and I tackled our lists even before we went to church and continued them through the afternoon. Donald's was largely yard work, Tess had the downstairs and I had the upstairs. [We live in a split level, so the upstairs includes the kitchen, etc.] Stephen couldn't get to his list till he got home from his Constable training... But his is largely garage and some household and yard stuff.

Things are starting to look fresh around here. We're all tuckered. But at least now we're tuckered in a clean house!

Yard Sale Day

It's Saturday morning. Stephen's heading off to Constable Academy for the Defense Force. He'll be there all day today and tomorrow. I believe it's a 120-hour program so they are certified to carry firearms in public.

Tess has plans to try and watch the Chugiak HS boys play a soccer game at the Anchorage Football Stadium (AFS) today at 10am... if her buddy Melissa can go.

Donald is looking forward to having the house to himself so he can lounge around, eat junk food and blast music.

That leaves the Pooker and I to hit the yard sales....

Yard sale season is just ramping up, now that most of the snow is off the ground. Of course, it's still April, which means mud/slush season. So it's best to tramp through folks' yards wearing mud boots or with a willingness to have cold, wet feet.

After years of research, I've learned to discern a "good" yard sale sign from a "bad" yard sale sign. My favorite sort of yard sale sign is small to medium in size, preferrably scrawled in bold black marker on a scrap of cardboard. (The neon posterboard type is okay because they are easy to see, but some folks get carried away.) It includes specific dates and times and an address and arrow. The address is no more than 2 miles from the sign. No place on the sign is the word "HUGE"... this is a sure indication that the sale giver is overstating things... I love to see the words "Moving Sale". And here in Alaska, even better is "Moving out of AK"... These people are probably selling off EVERYTHING at rock bottom prices just so they don't have to pay to ship it to the lower 48.

The worst sort of sign is one that's been left up since last weekend and leads you on a wild goose chase to a yard sale that is no longer even happening!

Alaska Spring Travel Plan

Work is very hectic for me these days. It seems to come in waves of chaos and then everything calms down for a little bit. Just long enough for me to start feeling like I know what I'm doing, before the chaos starts up again.

I'll be going to Fairbanks from May 22-24 and then getting back to Anchorage about 9 hours before we fly out to Virginia.... I may also be popping down to Juneau on the 2nd of May just for a day. At least my plan would be to go down just for the day. But I've been told by several people that flying in and out of Juneau is not always as straightforward as you'd think. Due to the way Juneau sits between the ocean and a long row of high mountains, weather patterns swoosh in and ground all flights pretty often. For those of you who don't know, Juneau gets a LOT of rain.

Even on the rare, clear day in Juneau, departing flights must immediately bank one way or another to avoid crashing into the mountains after take off. And incoming planes fly in over the mountains and must make an immediate drop to the runway. Should be interesting. Remind me to take the motion sickness pills!

Spring Picnic

While most of you over there in the eastern US are fighting floods and nor'easters today... Alicia May and I, and possibly the dog, will be going to a park to play and stroll. I have today off as part of my alternate work week schedule. The weather's supposed to be up near 50 degrees and fairly clear. So we're going to take advantage of that.

The snow is melting rapidly from the hillsides and our yard. For a while there, I thought it might hang around well into June... But if things continue as they have been, it should all be gone by May Day. Yay!

A few pics added after our outing:

Saturday

Stephen had his first weekend drill for the Alaska Defense Force. He is a 2nd Lieutenant and was made Company Commander of "A-Company". This sounds impressive, doesn't it? We are all so proud...

Okay, the fact is, the Wasilla battalion is pretty small. The entire battalion consists of 8 guys. At this point, Stephen is the only member of A-Company. :o) But through recruiting, they'll build it up from scratch.

He's thinking he's going to really enjoy the whole Defense Force thing up here. I know he really enjoyed being involved Virginia as well. For those of you out there with prior military experience, or who would just like to be involved in that environment without making a life-risking commitment... you might want to look into this volunteer group in your own state. Prior military experience is not required. It just seems like a lot of fellows who miss being in the military use this outlet to get a little of that back. In a way, it's like scouting for adults. They learn new skills and have the opportunity to do some fun stuff. And they are serving their state as well.

While Daddy was at drill, Alicia May and I made some yummy Whoopie Pies. We are fully aware of why they are called Whoopie pies... WHOOPIE! They turned out super scrumptious!

Welcoming Spring

We interviewed a pet sitter this evening. This is a great business around here. Just about everybody has a dog or two and everybody travels. We'll end up paying her $280 for 10 days of visiting our pets. But it'll be nice to have them here at the house instead of caged up at a kennel for that long.

It's after 9:00pm and the sun is just starting to drop. The daylight hours are lengthening. I may have mentioned that I've started hanging dark curtains in the windows. Our bedroom is particularly dark, which is nice, because it's difficult to sleep when it's broad daylight outdoors. Some people actually put aluminum foil on their windows to block out the light.

Our back deck is completely clear of snow. I moved some of Alicia's toys out there and her little picnic table and tricycle. We put a gate across the deck stairs and it makes a great outdoor playspace. We had a radio set up out there playing her Toddler Tunes CD and she had a great time dancing around and playing with her toys. With the leaves still off the trees we have a view of Mt. McKinley from the deck. At least on the days when the Great One chooses to appear. Mountains are tricky here in Alaska. Some days the sun shines on them and they're plainly visible and other times they're in a hazy cloud of sorts and it's like someone erased them. Few tourists actually get to see Mt. McKinley as it is often in the clouds...

Slush

Apparently there's a "season" for studded tires. Our season has been extended by 2 weeks due to the prospect of tricky roads this month. According to the DOT, we are now required to have removed our studded tires by May 15th.

May 15th! If I wait till the last moment, that means I'll have been driving on studded tires for 7 months! Sheesh.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is not new snow or ice. It's the back up of slush and water in roadways and driveways because it can't drain away fast enough. Some drains are frozen, so the meltwater just pools and you end up with ponds and slow flowing rivers where there is normally dry land. This is a neighborhood road in Eagle River. I was following yard sale signs when I encountered this roadway pond. I figured no bargain was worth getting bogged down in that, so I did a 25-point turn and retreated.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny came! Hooray!

We did a hunt for our baskets... The older two both received tickets to see Stomp this afternoon in Anchorage.

We went to the 10:30am Easter church service and we're currently whipping up Easter dinner of ham and sweet potato casserole. Yum!

We hope you are all having as pleasant an Easter as we are.

By the way, we've added a bunch of photos to the dropshots page from yesterday's Easter activities...














Here's looking at you, Kid!

Ahhhh... I'm melting....

It's raining, it's pouring... the old man is snoring. :o) So far, I've not run into anyone singing "Rain rain go away... come again another day".

It's wet, it's getting sloppy. I've got to quit wearing my Crocs because those holes in them do little to protect my sock feet from glacial puddle/slush water.

Not too many outdoor Easter Egg hunts scheduled for this weekend. But apparently lots of things have been hiding in snowbanks all winter. What's hiding in your snowbank? This one outside Walmart is melting in the rain to reveal all sorts of treasures... a glove, a gas cap, some lumber....

Alaska is still beautiful. But at this point, it's mostly from the neck up.

Hippity hoppity… Easter’s on its way!

Alicia and I made these cute little foam bunnies to attach to her shoes. I'd take a photo of them on her little pink sandals, but after she wore them for about 5 minutes, they lost their eyes, ear inserts, and one pom pom cheek... So they're looking a little rough at this point! Oh well. Applying the glue was her favorite part, I think. The end product is just an afterthought.

How do you fill 2000 plastic eggs in 30 minutes? Lots of help! Tess and I pitched in at the church to fill eggs for tomorrow's annual Easter Egg Hunt. The church puts an ad in the local paper inviting the community to come join the fun! Apparently this is an extremely popular tradition. And it's right up my alley! The Easter Bunny will be there for free photos with the egg hunters.

Weather Report: It RAINED yesterday when I was driving home from work. Rain! I haven't seen rain for about 6 months! It helped rid the ground of some of the snow. Still a lot of snow cover, but we're getting there! I might have to start doing rain dances or something.

Let there be light... okay, now turn it off!

Well... everything's melting in these parts. It'll be a while before the remaining foot or so of snow vanishes from our yard. But the back deck is almost clear. We'll be grilling up salmon and moose steaks any day now. (Okay, not really, at least not the moose steaks...)

I'm reading a book called "Arctic Homestead" which reminds me of my fetish for Laura Ingalls Wilder books only it's written for adults, not kids. It's a true story of a family who moved to Alaska from the Lower 48 in the mid-70's to get in on the tail end of the Homestead Act and get free land. I'm enjoying it.

I made a set of thick curtains for my craft room yesterday. The day before I hung a dark drape in our bedroom (and even over the small window in the master bath). Because I work so early, I generally go to bed by 9:30pm. It's almost still daylight at that time. So I'm taking defensive measures to allow me to sleep without feeling like I should still be up and productive because it's still daytime! The craft room curtains are for the benefit of house guests who may sleep downstairs and need to cover that window. Soon it'll still be daylight at 11:00 at night and then again at 4:00am. Not a large window in which to catch 8 hours of shuteye. Thus the drapes.

Whales and Trails

Around 20,000 California Gray Whales are headed our way. We're trying to figure out a way to take a whale watching cruise out of Seward some time this month to welcome these giant mammals back to their summer feeding grounds.

We've also been looking through our "Hiking in Alaska" book which we purchased 6 years ago before our honeymoon. We're hoping to explore a few trails this summer with the kids. There are lots of good day hikes and overnight hikes. And for the most part, this activity is a good, free way to see Alaska! With the expanded daylight hours during the summer months, maybe we'll be able to go for a hike or two after work some days.

Alaska the Beautiful

Stephen spent yesterday afternoon at the Great Alaska Sportsman Show at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. The girls and I dropped him off and then went swimsuit shopping at the mall. At the Sportsman Show there were over 500 booths. Stephen said most of them were folks trying to sell you their services... fishing charters, lodges, guides, flightseeing, etc. He brought home a bunch of brochures and other trinkets he picked up. There are lots of things we'd like to do along these lines. We'll just have to come up with the time and money to do some of them!

The TV is now full of touristy Alaska shows. I enjoy watching them actually. And getting ideas about things we should do since we live right here.

But I think it's the same everywhere... if you live someplace, you spend less time seeing your own backyard than you do planning to go someplace else. We moved here from Virginia of course. And while we lived there, we never went to Busch Gardens or Williamsburg. We're flying there in May to visit those places!

I'm hoping it will be a little different here in Alaska. When people come to visit us here, it helps inspire us to get out and see things. We haven't been here quite a year yet and we are still amazed by how beautiful Alaska is. I am still fighting complacency as I drive past soaring mountains and rushing rivers. I don't want to "not see" these things because they are the backdrop of our lives every day. So far, they still take my breath away and I feel lucky to live surrounded by such beauty.

I remember when we came to Alaska for the first time back in 2001 for our honeymoon. The biggest thing I took away from that trip was just how beautiful Alaska is. If you come to Alaska, and do nothing more than look out a window of a car or tour bus for a week, you'll remember it forever. And it'll be worth the trip. Just don't forget your camera so you can share your experience with friends. Although, I've found that pictures have a hard time capturing the immensity of Alaska.

New Toy & JellyBean Joy

It's here... it's here!

Add some studded tires and he's ready to roll....







The temps have just about risen above freezing on a regular basis. And all the snow and ice is almost off our road. We haven't seen the asphalt on our road since October. But we figure in another few days, they should be back to asphalt unless it snows again...

It's also Jelly Bean season. Alicia May (along with everyone else in this family) is rather fond of jelly beans. I'm coming to the conclusion that her early color favorite is pink. She's a true girly girl. Sorry Dad. Of course, it was her choice to wear the Carhartt overalls... with the pink butterfly barrettes.

Happy Palm Sunday.