Tooling Around

I had a friend and her mom come over the other day and help me make this 2-tiered cake for the soon to be 3 year old in their lives as well as her grandpa who also was having a birthday.

The top tier was for Phoebe with the Littlest Pet Shop monkey. The bottom tier was for Papa with its toolbelt full of fondant tools. We spent about 6 hours just doing the fondant decor.

I'd already baked the cakes and frosted them. The top tier was a lovely pink strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream. The bottom tier was a fabulous, rich chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream filling and frosting. They were both divine, if I do say so myself. :o)

Daddy's Day and New Digs

Father's Day was pleasant. "The Kids" gave Stephen some gifts including a JetBoil and a new knife from Dancing Man Ulus & Knives out of Homer.

After church, we went into Anchorage and had lunch at the Middle Way Cafe before Tess had to hustle off to work at the rodeo. Stephen browsed around REI while Alicia napped in the van and I listened to my book on CD.

We grilled out filet mignons for dinner. They were scrumptious.

We had spent most of Saturday working on the conversion of our family room into a guest lodging. This included renting a carpet cleaning machine and moving lots of bulky furnishings up and down flights of stairs.

We have our first guests / guinea pigs staying with us for the next 3 weeks. They are aware of their guinea pig status and seem very pleasant. They've brought their 5 year old daughter with them, which is very pleasing to Alicia May.

To those of you who have stayed with us in the past, we apologize for not having this nice of a set up when you were here! So come back and we'll make it up to you. :o)

To see more photos of the "Bear's Den" guest room, go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87163&id=523908158&l=6a35508688.

Summer Solstice

All the sun worshippers are probably fleeing to Alaska this weekend. We are getting our closest glimpse of the Sun for the year.

Summer solstice is tomorrow. Here in the Anchorage area, the sun is rising at 4:20am and setting at 11:42pm. We are maxing out our daily allotment of sunlight at 19 hours and 22 minutes. The photo was taken two nights ago at around 10:30pm. You can see the sun dipping down behind the trees...

People all over the state will be partying hard all night tonight. Softball games at midnight in Fairbanks... Lots of round the clock salmon fishing...

In our house, the celebration will include round the clock carpet cleaning as we have a 24 hour rental of a carpet machine. :o) Unfortunately, much of that task might be a solo job as Stephen threw his back out yesterday and is currently moaning and trying not to move in his recliner.

Farewell Friend

Well, our furry friend has made his way to Kitty Heaven. It has been a sad day for us.

We have had Elmo for over 10 years. In that time, he has moved with us from SC to NY to VA to AK. He has been a good friend over the years.

Once a 20-lb jumbo kitty nicknamed Fat Bub, he has steadily been losing weight over the past 6+ months. We gave him medication for hyperthyroidism, but that was damaging his kidneys. We took him off of it about a month ago (maybe 6 weeks) and just let nature run its course.

He's had a good life. And it was time to let it come to an end. His quality of life had deteriorated rapidly in the past week. He was barely consuming anything and had shrunk to around 7-8 lbs I'd guess.

We will miss him. But it would've been selfish to prolong his suffering any longer.

Good-bye, Fat Bub.

Summertime Fun

I awoke this morning to the sounds of birdsong and the rushing waters of Little Peters Creek. I'd opened the windows wide last night because it was so warm when I went to bed at 10:30. It was still broad daylight and 70 degrees.

When I awoke at 5:30am, it was once again broad daylight, but the temps had fallen to 48 degrees.

We're at a little over 19 hours of daylight right now and still climbing for another week until the summer solstice. Our max is around 20 hours in the Anchorage area.

In other news, my company hosted their annual summer picnic the other night. They had a jumping castle for the little ones as well as numerous balls and play things at the park.

They also had a sumo wrestling setup. Tess called me out and I rose to the challenge.

The biggest part of that challenge was actually donning the suit! It was a warm summer evening and that suit was almost claustrophobic.

Nonetheless, I took her down! Okay, I won 2 out of 3 points, and only by luck. BUT, I am still the champion!

To see a few other photos, head to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84450&id=523908158&l=5cb00682b6.

Homer Trip Report

We had a wonderful trip to Homer this weekend. The weather was perfect. Our lodging was peaceful. It was a perfect, relaxing getaway.

Homer is about a 4 hour drive south of Anchorage to the "end of the road". It's a quaint, laid back, beach town and unique in Alaska.

We did as much as we felt like doing and didn't feel guilty at all if we didn't feel like doing anything... Sometimes we just sat on the porch of our little cabin or on the back stoop of the bakery in town and just whiled away the time doing absolutely nothing. Those are, by far, the best moments of any vacation.

Alicia loved the beach. It's way too cold for swimming, but just fine for digging in the sand, chasing seagulls, and searching for shells.

We had some delicious, fresh, seafood. We visited a couple of nice museums and even went to a few good yard sales on Saturday.

We will make a greater effort to find time to return to Homer soon.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the trip which I uploaded to my Facebook account. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83811&id=523908158&l=9120b24c86

Southbound Lane

We're headed south to Homer for the weekend. I have a meeting tomorrow down there and Alicia will travel with me. Stephen will join us on the Harley later in the evening.

We've reserved the Wildflower Cabin at Seaside Farms. This is an actual farm overlooking the ocean which was homesteaded back in the 40's, I believe. It's owned now by Mossy Pilcher who is descended from the original homesteaders as well as the aunt of Jewel (the singer).

Homer is basically Alaska's only "beach town". It is a mecca for travelers and fisherman from all over the world. We have yet to make it down there. It lies at the end of the road on the Kenai Peninsula.