Village Trip and Prom Gowns

This morning I went to an orientation for my upcoming trip out to Grayling and Holy Cross. Both villages are on the lower Yukon River in the western interior of Alaska. I depart on Friday and return Sunday, weather permitting. My flights will take me through Aniak, AK. I'll be sure to take some good photos.

I've been told it's best to wear all of my snow gear on the flights for two reasons. One: small planes are usually pretty cold inside. Two: there are generally no buildings at village airstrips and my "shuttle" from the airstrip to the village itself will most likely be via snowmachine or ATV.

After my orientation, I spent the afternoon with Tess at a bridal shop trying on prom gowns. I think she tried on about 3000 dresses. Many of them were really lovely. Unfortunately, the loveliness of a gown is directly proportionate to the shock of its price tag. In the end, our favorite one had a price of $489! Ouch. We're weighing our options. The prom is still 2 months away.

Volcano

According to local authorities, our friendly neighborhood volcano is getting ready to erupt. It's called Mount Redoubt. So keep your eyes on the news...

We spent Alicia's birthday evening stocking up on "stay indoors for several days while volcanic ash coats everything around you" supplies. This includes spare air filters for the vehicles, food, water, giant trash bags to cover appliances/computers, etc.
The last time Mt. Redoubt erupted was in 1989. At that time, it was just like every 12-year-old boy wishes they could get their 6th grade Science Fair volcano to blow... Giant plume of lava and ash, 8 miles high. So it will likely be a similar event.

Should be fun!

It's my party... Well, you know the rest...

The house was swarming with royal short people today. It was the long-awaited Royal Ball in honor of Princess Alicia's 4th Birthday. The affair was a combination of regal pomp and sugar-induced circumstance.

As with any party in which multiple females congregate, there was an ample dose of joy, envy, glitter, and tears. But in the end, the candles were extinguished, the gifts were unwrapped, balloons were distributed, cake was consumed, and everyone went home happy and completely wired on sugar.

What more can you ask for?

In other news, I have now joined Facebook. So I'll probably post a few extra photos on there. Look me up if you're a member. And if you're not, sign up, and then look me up. We can be "Friends". Really.

Busy Busy Busy...

Tess's basketball season is back on track after several "ice days" during which all schools were closed. She's having a pretty good season so far.

During the kids' six day weekend last week, Alicia's school was also closed, so she stayed home with Tess for a couple days. Daddy stayed home one of those days.

This week has been very busy on both the work and home fronts. At home, we're in full Party Prep Mode. Alicia's 4th birthday party is this Sunday afternoon. We're doing a Princess Theme party. We've administered a Royal Decree inviting all the wee princes and princesses in the land to attend the Royal Ball.

I've spent much of my "spare time" this week whipping up sparkly sceptors, princely tunics, princess skirts, and posterboard crowns. Tomorrow, I'll make the castle cake and try to wrap her gifts (which were surplus from Christmas!).

Slip Sliding Away....

It's been an adventure in ice these past 3 days. The schools have been closed since Wednesday. City busses have quit running. Some folks have had quite a hard time making it out of their neighborhoods.

The Chinook wind is blowing warm air up to Alaska from the tropics. This has pushed our temperatures into the upper 40's, which is wreaking havoc on the winter balance of snow cover and chill. It's been raining on and off for two days!

So now, southcentral Alaska is one giant ice rink. The road leaving our neighborhood resembles a giant luge run. Studs or no studs, it's extraordinarily difficult to get down the hill much less back up it again...

Stephen got stuck coming home last night. I retrieved him with the van and we drove to Walmart to purchase some chains for his tires. With those, he was able to make it up to the driveway.

There is a "back way" to get to our street which is slightly less steep. But it's still tricky.

Our cat is currently at the bottom of the hill where he stayed overnight at the vet's so they could run some tests on him this morning. I'm not sure I can get down the hill to pick him up. And if I can, I don't know if I can make it back home with him. It might just be "bring your kitty to work" day! I do need to go into the office this afternoon. It's one of my staff's last day before he gets deployed to Iraq with the National Guard.

Avalanche!

Our temperatures have risen 60 degrees in the past week. The extreme cold snap has finally broken. Today we are in the upper 30's.

The conditions are just right for avalanches in Littlejohn Pass. Yes, that would be the region between our driveway and our front door. If you look a few posts back, you'll notice the photo of Littlejohn Pass. During cold times, snow which has previously accumulated, settles in. Once the temperatures warm to above freezing, the avalanches begin. This morning I opened the front door to find a rather large mound of snow for Little Bit to scale before she could go about her morning business.

The problem is in the removal. No one wants to be the person standing at the base of an avalanche zone making loud, scraping, snow shovel noises. So, we'll draw straws... Rigging it of course so whoever has annoyed us the most in recent days gets the job.

.... kidding...

Living it up!

Today, Alicia and I were determined to soak in a little sunlight. I told her when the sun came up, we'd hit the sled hill in Eagle River. She spent the morning checking out the window to see if the sun was up yet.

We left the house just before 10am when the first rays of dawn were streaming over the mountains to the east. On the way to Eagle River, we pulled over so I could take a photo of the winter moonset, which was lovely. It wasn't till later when I was downloading the photos to the computer that I noticed Denali, Hunter and Foraker were also in the moon setting photos.

We got to the sledding hill just after 10am. There wasn't another soul in sight. I thought perhaps it was too early for folks to be up and about on a Saturday morning.

We took about 4 slides down the hill and headed back into the warmth of the van, which I'd left running with the heater on. Alicia loves to sled. But even she had to concede that her ears were frozen after the 4 runs.

We went to the grocery store for an hour. Afterwards we returned to the sled hill to see if any other kids might be there yet. Nope. No one... I'm thinking the -12 degrees probably was to blame for our lack of playmates. Regardless, we took another 3 slides and headed for home.

On the way, we stopped by an antique shop which also carries consignment prom gowns. Tess has a cotillion dance tonight and we'd been trying to find either a red or ice blue dress. She met us at the shop and tried on a bunch of dresses. One in particular caught her eye. Not necessarily as a cotillion option, but certainly interesting. What do you think? (I Photoshopped out her sock feet, replacing them with someone else's black sandaled feet!)

Alicia also wanted to get into the modeling act. She's wearing the "cape" to strike a pose...

Alappa: Inupiaq for "It's cold!"

We continue to freeze here in Alaska. The temperatures remain well below zero. They've had to cancel the Cross-Country Ski Championships because they don't race if it's below -4 degrees on any part of the course. I think they got to do one round a couple days ago when the temps crept up to about 1 degree above zero. It's amazing what a difference a few degrees can make to your comfort level. You'd think that negative anything would just feel downright cold. But after several days of -20 or lower, a -1 degree days feels almost like a heat wave... honestly.

I snapped a few photos of the speed skating oval they built outside my current office. My old office was in downtown Anchorage in a 19-story building, surrounded by lots of other buildings. My new workplace has a lot of open space nearby as it sits next to a city park. The city generally smoothes the ice on the oval with a Zamboni, but I took these photos on January 2nd, and they must have taken the holidays off... As you can see, there aren't many folks out skating that day either. It was about -13, if I recall correctly.

I went out there on my lunch hour to take the pics. The sky was so blue and the mountains of Chugach State Park in the background looked so lovely. You can see the sun is not very high in the sky, even though it's midday. This time of year, it just creeps up over the horizon and then drops back down without ever rising to directly overhead.

I got news the other day that I'm on my way to a couple of Native villages the weekend of Feb. 6-8. I've volunteered to help out a program sponsored by the Alaska Business Development Center which sends college accounting students into rural Alaska to help villagers with their tax returns. Groups of students are escorted by a supervisor (who needs only minimal tax knowledge) to handle logistics, emergencies, etc... That's the role I'll be playing. My weekend will be spent in both Holy Cross and Grayling. Both are Athabascan villages on the banks of the lower Yukon River in western Alaska. We'll fly from Anchorage to Bethel on a big plane and then hop into a ski plane for the flight to Holy Cross. Another little plane will take us to Grayling the following day. Grayling is one of the checkpoints of the Iditarod on odd number years (such as this one!). So about a month after I'm there, the mushers will pass through on their way to Nome.

Alicia's been awful cranky lately. She'll fly off into a tantrum at the slightest provocation. Her behavior is the same at school and at home.

I figured out that because it's been so cold lately, the daycare hasn't brought the kids outside to play for the past 2 weeks. That means she's been without any direct sunlight since Christmas!

I've started sitting her in front of my S.A.D. lamp (seasonal affective disorder) for about 15 minutes per day. Hopefully, it will settle her down a little.

Chilly New Year

Happy New Year...

Things are pretty chilly still here in Alaska. Although we did warm up to about 6 below zero today, so that's something.

Stephen and I spent the larger part of the past two days trying to retrieve Tess's car from where it broke down in Eagle River. She lost her alternator belt so her battery was not charging. It's tricky business trying to tow or work on a car when the temperature is -22 degrees. Her windows kept icing up, both inside and out. In the end, Stephen had to stick his head out the window as I towed him with the truck, so he could see where he was headed. His face was almost frostbitten when we made it to the house, although I'd kept the speed down to about 20 miles/hour at most...

We can't really complain. It's been at least 40 below zero in Fairbanks for 5 out of the past 6 days, and shows no signs of warming up. So much for the January thaw.

Tess hosted a JV basketball team party/sleepover at the house last night. There are 10 girls on the team, but a couple couldn't make it. Those that did, had a good time playing Apples to Apples and Rock Band, hanging in the hot tub, and munching all night. Note to all parents: Teach your kids how to use a plunger. 'Nough said...

Tomorrow the kids go back to school. Let the wailing commence.

Oh, by the way. Alaska turned 50 (as a state, that is) yesterday, January 3rd. They had a bunch of events scheduled around the state. Luckily, most of them involved ice and fur, because it's just darn cold. We, of course, didn't get to attend any of them as we were busy dealing with the consequences of our Alaska winter... car trouble. And, to be fair, we weren't the only ones. Several people we know directly had car troubles in recent days due to cold temps. I fully expect my van not to start in the morning because it's parked outside in the driveway with no block heater plugged in. Tess's broken down car is using my nice, warm, spot in the garage.

Life goes on...