And I Only Hit 1 Tree!

Downhill skiing - What a blast!

Yesterday, the Trospers went downhill snow skiing for the first time. Ok, Robert skied before about 30 years ago but it has been long enough that time doesn’t count. It was the first time for me. We had a one-hour private lesson and I am pretty sure we were the oldest ones on the bunny slope. Most everyone else (including the only other person even close to our age) had snowboards. FYI – Snowboarders appear to fall more than newbie skiers. Of course – it is also easier for them to get up as they all looked to be 16 or younger.

It was a good lesson. The kid assigned as our teacher had been skiing since he was four years old and I'm not entirely sure he was out of high school yet but he did a great job. I came really close to a tree on one run as I couldn’t get stopped. The branches provided something to hold on to while getting turned around. Robert was at the bottom of the hill and couldn’t find me for a minute – then he saw the branches moving and figured out what was going on. I did have one other fall – a rather gentle lean over and hit the ground. The problem was I couldn’t get my feet out of my bindings and I was stuck until the instructor came to my rescue. I didn’t feel so bad though as he couldn’t pop them open by hand either.

The bunny slope here by our house is too small to have a towrope. Each time, we had to take off our skis and hike back to the top to go down. (I’m thinkin’ cross country skiing isn’t for me but this is just a guess…I haven’t tried it yet!) I am all for having something tow me up the mountain and gravity pulling me GENTLY back down.

After 90 minutes of this, we were tired puppies and it was time to come home for a bite of lunch and a nap. Then it was off to buy equipment as we are going to Alyeska to ski this weekend. :) I now own skis, boots, socks (yes – there are special ski socks – who knew), poles, bindings and probably some other stuff. If you have never had ski boots on, they are challenging and tight. Really tight. My feet were going to sleep and the person helping us didn't think that was a problem. (I did though and got a bigger size.) You also have to kick your heels back once they are on your feet to make sure they are on correctly. My new boots actually take an allen rench to adjust them. (Wonder if that will be an issue in the long run?) We pick up the equipment up tomorrow just in time for another set of lessons on the Olympic ready mountain Saturday. (I hear those bunny slopes have chairs – perfect!) I really am excited about it.

Gotta get back to the game! Right now it is 3rd quarter in the Texas Bowl and unfortunately, K-State is losing to Rutgers. Come on CATS – time to fight back and win!

The Goose Was Good!

This Christmas was no different than past holidays. We ate too much – but the goose was good. Goose is dark meat and since it was smoked, it came out very reddish in color and it didn’t taste like chicken. There appeared to be a lot of grease in the goose but we warmed it on a broiler pan and most of it dripped off. Another nice thing about goose is they are small – minimal leftovers. If you get the chance, I suggest giving it a try. I would get one again!

This morning, Robert woke up to clomp clomp clomp outside. From all appearances, a moose was on our porch landing. Being the wilderness tracker I am (hahaha), he/she came up the side yard, nibbled on one of our birch trees in the back, then followed Squirt’s groomed trails around to the front birch tree. During the trek, he knocked over several large, precariously positioned snow piles - I thought I would have to shovel the path out again. (Moose are a tad bit wider than the shovel blade.) Finishing a few sprigs from the second tree, he moved around the porch to the landing, scooted down the steps and headed towards the raspberry bushes. BTW – it’s hard to miss moose tracks in 3-4 foot drifts of snow.

Needless to say when I took Squirt out for his morning perimeter check, he was on the trail the entire time. He knew where the creature entered the yard and where he left and it took several circles around the yard to assure the giant dog was gone. Later today, Squirt was barking up a storm inside. When I went to look, one of our neighbors had his 4-wheeler with his blade on the front stuck in a drift. I am pretty sure Squirt thought it was a moose and he was protecting.

Wednesday is a momentous day for the Trospers. It is our first downhill skiing lesson. We have reservations for 10am. I have never been on snow skis in my life. I assume it is a lot different than water skiing – at least I hope so as I was never any good and couldn’t stay up on the water skis. Robert has snow skied before but not enough to teach me and we don’t have the patience for that anyway. Unlike other sporting attempts, we are renting gear to start out. We have bibs, coats, etc., but the boots and skis are expensive enough we need to make sure this is something we are really interested in. Robert assures me I will like downhill better than cross-country since GRAVITY does most of the work.

Merry Christmas!

May you have safe travels and a wonderful day!

Robert, Janet and Squirt

It's snowing again! Is Squirt in the yard?

For those of you who have visited us
in the past - yes - that is our patio table and chairs which used to set by the pool in Houston. I haven't measured yet but I am interested in seeing how high it will go.

As for Squirt - this is the most we see of him these days in the yard. Even though he appears to be stuck in a pile of snow, he is actually walking through one of the paths we keep open for him. In many parts of the yard we can't see him at all. He loves the snow and running around in it. In fact, we just returned from a little jaunt and he would rather walk in about 2 inches of snow than on hard pack (naturally with his booties on). Of course, he will put his entire face in a bank if something interesting smells good. This leads to a face full of snow and a snow beard. Nevermind all of the little snowballs stuck to the bottom of his tummy when we get home. At this minute, he is sound asleep in his bed in the office - from all appearances - a happy dog!

With walking as one of my main methods of exercise, I have to admit, slogging through snow anywhere from 3-6 inches deep is work. Add the 20 pounds of gear to keep warm and it is a workout. Thank goodness we have a three story house and every time I want something it is on another floor. It is our own version of the stairmaster and I would be really out of shape without them! One of these days we will have to try the snow shoes!

Sledders are out en masse this afternoon. Of course there are lots of good hills to sled on in this part of the country. On our path around the schools, there is a huge hill which looks like a lot of fun and it always crowded. It is tempting to buy a sled and try it again. (You know - returning to our childhood!). One little terrier of some sort was getting sled riding lessons this afternoon. He would much rather have been running through the snow with Squirt.

Christmas is only 30 some hours away. We will be trying something new this year for dinner - smoked goose. I keep thinking of Scrooge everytime I see the goose. How odd is that? It is thawing in the fridge now and as far as I know all we have to do is heat it up on Monday. Luckily, if we don't like it, geese aren't very big and there won't be much left over. I'll let you know how it goes!

Happy Shortest Day of the Year

Here comes the sun! (In a few weeks.)

On a separate note -

Robert has been griping about no snow. He should be happy now - it has been snowing here for 3 days. We are averaging two shovelings a day and it is over Squirt's head. No need to worry about him running out of the yard now. All he can see is white.

BTW - it's still snowing!

The Great White Furry Hunter Has Arrived!

Yes - It finally happened.

The Great White Furry Hunter made his first appearance in Anchorage today at 5:30 am (Alaska Standard Time).

Because Squirt weighs between 11-13 pounds at any given time, he is prime Eagle bait. Eagles can easily carry off a 25-pound salmon so what is a little white fuzzy dog. Plus there is a remote possibility a bear could come along and Squirt would be considered a “Scooby Snack” and don’t get me started on the rabid foxes around Alaska. These dangerous animals required a new household rule – “Squirt must be accompanied by a human AT ALL TIMES when he is outside”. Squirt’s freedom has been limited (not that he really minds – it is actually a bigger issue for the humans involved).

Our winter weekday ritual starts with the alarm going off at approximately 5:25 AM. Since it is dark and early, no coffee has been had and with the “middle agers” aging (especially after shoveling an acre of snow by hand the night before), it takes a few minutes to get dressed and downstairs. Once at the bottom of the stairs by the front entrance, I flip on the outside front light to make sure there isn’t anything to be concerned about in the front yard, street, deck, driveway, etc. As we (Squirt and I) walk to the back door, I check out the western windows to make sure there are no large objects in the side yard. Continuing to the back door, I put on my hat, gloves, coat and snow boots (I expect this portion to be eliminated in the summer weekday ritual). All looks good - finally – ready to go outside.

By this time it probably a little after 5:30am – we will call it 5:35am. Off to the side yard we go. Squirt jumps off the deck onto his specially groomed trail and starts the morning perimeter check. After sniffing a couple of places and coloring some snow here and there he heads off to the front of the house and I hear a very deep bark. Woof – Woof – Woof WOOF!!!! (Well – as deep as Squirt can make his bark.) And he is gone in a flash. I hurry around to the front and Squirt has plowed into a snow bank and is standing - looking – ready to pounce. At first I don’t see anything as the front porch landing latticework is in the way. I think it is just the neighbor walking her Australian Shepherd. Then the moose raises its head. Ut-oh. There is Squirt – nose to nose – with the yearling we have seen around the neighborhood. OK – they are actually about 10 feet apart but close enough Squirt was danger.

There I stood on the deck thinking – "crap – what do I do now?" I tried the neighbor’s method of “Shoo! Shoo!” That didn’t work. Do I go pick him up? That puts me in danger and I don’t run so well in snow boots and deep snow. (Not that I am a gazelle without boots and snow.) Start throwing snowballs? Like I could hit the moose over the porch anyway. So, the lucky neighborhood was awakened by me sternly going off along the lines of “Squirt – NO – STOP - Come back here NOW – I MEAN IT – DON’T you dare - COME HERE” and repeat about 3 times. He was a good dog, finally turning around and the moose didn’t come after him. I was lucky to have the snow bank there (allowing Squirt the luxury of blaming the deep snow for not going any further) or he was scared and decided he had pushed things far enough with the GIANT dog. I am pretty sure the yearling hadn’t had the “Dogs are evil” lesson yet from momma as he didn’t appear to be ready to charge Squirt at any time. The ears stayed up in “normal mode” instead of lowering to “unhappy mode”.

When he finally got back to the side yard Squirt was too excited to do anything else. Then, adding to the morning events, here comes the neighbor with her shepherd. I warn her about the moose and she crosses to the other side of the street. The shepherd's barking did scare the moose off. As the yearling was running off, I started to wonder where Momma was. You don’t want to be between a Momma moose and her calf. It was definitely time to go inside.

Normally after we get back in the house, Squirt gets a biscuit and we go upstairs to wake Robert up – very calmly and quietly. Today though, once we got our winter gear off, I said, “Go tell Daddy” and off he runs – full steam up the stairs and on to the bed. By the time I get back upstairs, Squirt is on top of Robert repeating the entire chain of events dealing with his hunting adventures by barking incessantly. I’m sure that was a pleasant wake up call. :)

Guess I might have to consider a leash in the mornings now…

We noticed upon arriving home tonight the moose had made the rounds later in the day going through several yards including ours. Moose must have short memories of Great White Furry Hunters!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Snowfall has been sparse this year but today started to make up for it. There was barely a dusting when I was out at 5:30am but it came down all day long. I just finished shoveling the first 6-8 inches on the deck, stairs and yard paths (Squirt’s belly is 8” high – you do the math). It only took the half time show and the last two quarters of the Monday Night Football game to finish. However - so Robert doesn’t miss out on the fun - I left the drive and sidewalk for him to snowthrow when gets home from his corporate dinner function tonight. (I fully believe in team efforts.)

At lunch today, Squirt went running outside full steam ahead and I don’t know if he thought it was all one level or what but he jumped off of the deck and landed in a snow bank. It didn’t stop him though – just slowed him down a bit. He sometimes gets confused especially if part of the snow is frozen enough to hold his weight and part isn’t. He has been stuck more than once trying to jump onto the deck when is rump is buried a snow pile. But we are always there to rescue him!

I hope all of you are well prepared for the momentous occasion which is very close at hand. No, no, no – not Christmas - the shortest day of the year occurs Thursday. It’s time for a celebration! We will have 5 hours and 30 minutes between sun up and sundown and then the days start to get longer. By February 21st we will have 9 hours and 41 minutes of daylight per day and it only gets brighter. (Quite frankly, I’m not sure I am done with my “winter’s nap” yet.) Our longest day will be June 21st which we will have 19 hours and 22 minutes of sunlight and a pink glow the rest of the time. Some of the suggested celebrations are cross country and downhill skiing (on lighted trails of course), showshoe with the wolves, hike, sled, mountain bike, etc. etc. Unless the wolves are cooperative, someone may have a hard time walking with them. Actually, the dark hasn’t been too bad. We are used to going to work in the dark – have done it for years. Now we just go home in the dark. I was really expecting it to be worse but with Solstice on Thursday, I realized – no big deal for us.

With the upcoming holidays, traffic was much lighter today than in the past as many people have left town for warmer climates however, I am sure the malls are just as crowded. I talked to several people and holiday destinations range from Philly to Southern California to Seattle to Hawaii. Some are even going to Europe and Africa. Now that’s a good way to spend Christmas week – on safari (maybe next year)! Holiday cheer and cheesecake abound at the office. I can’t seem to go to any coffee pot witout coming back with a piece of this or a taste of that. (Come on – you have to try it!).

Wow – it’s still snowing….wonder if we will have to shovel before going to work tomorrow???

Something else to prepare for...

Every location had something natural that can cause problems. Midwest tornadoes, Gulf Coast Hurricanes, flooding most places, blizzards in the Northeast, etc., etc. Alaska is no different. We have volcanoes, earthquakes and when living on the coast, the possibility of tsunamis.

A couple of months ago, we had some friends who had just moved here from Oklahoma over to watch the World Series. Of course with all of us being relatively new to the state, we were talking about the wildlife predators – bears, eagles, wolves, etc., along with earthquakes as we had just had a 4.? the day before. One of the kids finally asked if there was anything else to be concerned about which started the volcano conversation. These aren’t something the typical midwesterner normally has to deal with.

We have several active volcanoes in Alaska. On our house-hunting trip this year we spent some time on the Homer Spit. From this location we could see Mount Augustine spitting ash and steam. The sky was clear and blue with minimal winds and the column of steam was going straight up in the air. It was picture perfect – what many imagine an active volcano should look like. While Anchorage is fairly distant from any active volcanoes and flowing lava, there is a real chance we could have problems with ash falls. Ash is one of those things you don’t go outside in. It is difficult to breath and cars don’t run for long. We aren’t supposed to run any kind of exhaust fans in an ash fall as all that does is bring the ash in the house somewhere else. I’ll bet there’s a “no electronics” usage rule too which would really put a damper on things if we couldn’t go outside.

Earthquakes are a different story. There is a very interesting site to check out called Recent Earthquakes and it is amazing how many earthquakes Alaska has each day. In fact, I have now been in 2 earthquakes registering over 4 magnitude. The first one I was in an elevator and didn’t feel a thing and the second one was Thursday night. I had just started the dishwasher and was washing up the few dishes that didn’t fit and Robert said, “We’re having an earthquake.” Me being the contentious person I am said, “No we aren’t.” He happened to be sitting in front of the desk resting his arm on the granite and the granite started to move North to South and he wasn’t. Once again, I missed it. The running water and working dishwasher were enough to mask the movement of the house. It was over in about 10 seconds. Then I had to check the earthquake site to see if he was kidding. :) Squirt doesn’t seem to notice. He has either felt enough not to be worried about it or Mom and Dad haven’t been concerned so he doesn’t need to be either.

However, this does explain why our pictures are always crooked.

On a different note – one of which I KNOW you are anxiously awaiting news – Momma and baby moose seem to have moved into the neighborhood. We have seen them three nights in a row and still don’t have the perfect moose picture!

Will She Ever Tire of Watching Moose???

If you haven’t figured out by now, I am an animal lover. One of the greatest things about living in Alaska besides the scenery, cooler weather and culture is the wild animals living in and around the Anchorage borough. Yesterday about 9pm AST, after spending a couple of hours cleaning and restoring partial order to the house along with shuffling items from the table to the counter, Robert happened to look out the office window and there was a moose munching on the shrubbery across the street. These animals are so much fun to watch. There were actually two of them – Momma and a yearling. Every time I see moose in the neighborhood, they are grazing at the one house that has spent hundreds of dollars buying plant protector cages. Somehow, the owners always know when the moose are snacking in their yard and last night was no exception. If they were in our yard, we would miss them unless cars were stopped outside blocking traffic and then it would still be questionable.

Once Robert pointed them out – I went running outside with the camera to stand on the front porch watching and waiting for the perfect moose picture. Approximately 45 seconds later, I came back inside to get my coat as it was around 14 degrees. Upon returning to the porch, I lasted long enough to see the man of the house come out and shoo them to the next yard. Sneaky moose – they waited until the lights went out and walked right back over to those tasty treats. I swear moose understand about cars also. As one or two cars were driving along the street, Momma actually moved to hide behind a large bush of some type (mainly sticks right now). It is hard to describe how well they blend into the woody areas.

Once both were back in the original yard, sure enough - here come the lights and this time snowballs were the effective means of driving them off. The snowballs were much more effective than “shoo” and they went running - wow are moose fast for as big and awkward as they appear. By now it is 9:30 and I convince Robert we should drive down the road and take Squirt to look at them if we can find them. Of course I have the camera too. We lucked out and got relatively close. I took some great night shots. Well – they would have been great had they been in focus. The shot above is the best one - too bad I didn't use the zoom lense. Squirt still hasn’t said "woof" once to any of them. Smart dog.

Another really great thing that happened Tuesday while walking back to the office building after lunch. We were just crossing the street when we heard “Roberrrrtttt”. There was our former next-door neighbor from Houston. He happened to be in town for business and we were just in the right place at the right time. It was so much fun to see him if only for a couple of minutes. Hopefully he will be making more trips north and maybe even talk his wife into coming! It really is a small world.

Btw – Squirt is doing fine. We are walking about twice a week – snow boots and everything! He is a sled dog at heart. He pulls and pulls in the snow trying to get us to walk faster. Who needs a personal trainer when we have a dog who thinks we should run in the snow!

Almost finished!

Absolutely Perfect. Not a spot anywhere. Pristine. This will be the one and only time we will be able to take a picture of the kitchen and not have a single thing on the countertop. Not even if we move again and have to take pictures for a real estate agent will the counters be this clean. It is almost sad to put anything on them.

That thought lasted through – “Is the sealer dry?”

The plumber is coming over shortly to finish setting/connecting the sinks, garbage disposal and completing the project by hooking up the dishwasher. Once that is finished, we can start cooking here again. Some people would argue a chef doesn't necessarily need a dishwasher to be able to cook. Luckily I am spoiled and don’t follow that rule.

Saturday was another day spent in the office (no work on the taxes but cleaning and tossing other items) and Sunday was completely dedicated to washing off, out, under doors, cabinets, drawers, floors, etc. For all of you now inspired to remodel your kitchen and install granite, they bring the pieces in whole to fit the top of the cabinets and then cut out the holes you need. We had three holes in the kitchen and four others elsewhere in the house. This tends to create a lot of dust. The crew tried very hard to minimize the amount of dust but a lot escaped. My mother would be so very proud. I washed the outside of the kitchen cabinets. I have not done that since I moved out of the my parents house. (She is of the opinion cabinet washing should be done yearly. I am not of the same opinion. I only wash cabinets if I spill something on them which normally automatically eliminates the upper cabinets unless there is a food fight.)

The installation crew was fantastic and did a really good job. They showed up on Friday with three people, saw the stairs and called in more troops. Our single piece of granite for the island took six men to carry up the stairs and into the house. None of the stone was dropped and no Christmas ornaments were knocked off the tree standing next to the entry door.

All of the granite cut-outs were placed on the front porch at the end of Saturday. We thought it would be really cool to use in our garden until we realized how slick unfinished granite is when wet. Most of the leftovers are stacked by the garden pathway for now. However, two of the cut outs (stove and double kitchen sink) are too heavy for Robert to lift. They may decorate the front porch for the next few months until the "non-slippery steps" season arrives.

In the middle of all the installation activities and on Friday night during the “festive attire” Christmas party, we had another bout of 70-80 mph winds and the poor reindeer on the front deck that had been bolted down with bungee cords and eyehooks were flattened. Mama and baby made it with minor injuries. Daddy reindeer was head down in the snow with feet in the air and needed some parts re-fabricated, wires fixed, 9 new bulbs (which required a $20 bulb tester to figure out which bulbs) and new eyehooks as the others broke. All is well though and the reindeer are once again guarding our house.

BTW – the party was a blast and my attire on the festive scale was perfect!

It's Here! It's Here

Ah – what’s that? The overpowering smell of silicon wafting through every room of the house along with the whine of saws running creating a marvelous layer of fine dust both inside and outside. YES – Finally – The granite is here and installation has commenced. Soon we will have space and cabinet usage again! To stay out of the way, Robert, Squirt and I have been cooped up in the office all day long. Squirt and I were glad to see the mailman deliver because then we had an excuse to leave for 10 minutes.

Being in the office has been good though. I have used my time well. I found my missing 3-hole punch, updated my checkbook (only 2 months behind), filed stacks of paper, shredded other stacks of paper and cleaned out several manuals. Bonus – I bugged Robert about things I wasn’t sure if I should keep or toss. That’s always fun as he normally isn’t really into straightening things up. I am fairly sure if I had done this prior to moving here our shipment would have been about 500 lbs lighter. I actually toyed with starting to work on income taxes but decided that was a little too ambitious. I guess I will do that tomorrow while they finish installation.

Tonight is the almost formal, “festive attire” Christmas party and yes, I bought not one but two sparkly tops, velvet pants and a black lace skirt. (No, I am not wearing all of them tonight – I didn’t have time to find shoes to go with the skirt.) Luckily, I am short enough and the skirt long enough, it can almost pass for formal dress. In fact, I am going to call it formal and be good to go just in case another holiday semi-formal festive attire occasion occurs. I can also hear some of you asking why two outfits were necessary – you never know who will be at the parties and I can’t wear the same outfit to two parties in a row!

It was warm (40 degrees) today. The ice and snow is completely cleared off of the wood deck where we shoveled – however not so much on the sidewalks and driveways. The deck will now be much nicer in the mornings – less chance of me falling. I actually worry about that now. I can just see it. I go outside at 5:30am on a workday, slip on the ice, fall on my butt, break something, and have to wait outside 15-30 minutes for Robert to wake up and wonder why we haven’t come back inside. If only Squirt could reach the handle, he could go inside and let Robert know there was a problem. Oh well. I just have to dress in layers!

Oh – by the way – the granite looks GREAT. Will post a picture once everything is back in order, set, dried, etc.

Countdown!

Only 12 more hours and the installation starts!

And yes....they scheduled the plumber ... for Monday night.

Christmas and Counter update

Warming trend today – our high was 40 degrees. I didn’t go back to look but I think that is the first time above freezing in about 6 weeks. We did have sun and once again a beautiful sunset.

We have finished Christmas decorating and Christmas card mailing. The reindeer are attached to and guarding from the deck. (Bungee cords sure come in handy – almost as good as duct tape.) Our front entrance is gaily decorated in rope lights and it looks great (Kudos to Robert – he had the idea and did all of the work). The 9 foot Christmas tree inside was a challenge. We started with the step stool and quickly established we needed the 8 foot ladder. Then we established Robert needed to do the top of the Christmas tree. Luckily, you can’t see the top very well as it is a little sparse due to the short attention span of the taller decorator. Next year we are getting the 10 foot ladder out. Unfortunately, we didn’t hang any of our antique or crystal ornaments this year as the tree is next to the entrance where the granite will be coming in. All in all, the Christmas decorations look fantastic outside and OK inside.

The counter saga continues. I really miss having a place to put stuff like dinner plates or hand towels. I am tired of setting my toaster in a drawer while it is toasting and balancing the butter on the temporary bar sink edge hoping it doesn’t flip off on to the floor. Plus our entire house is a pathway through stuff. It is really getting claustrophobic. The good news is that they start installation Friday morning and should finish Saturday. I look forward to Sunday - time to clean out all of the dust from the cabinets and drawers and then start judging the dust content on all of the stuff to be put away. Depending on the dust content verdict, we will either start the entire washing cycle again or go directly into the cabinets. (Really – the house isn’t normally that dusty...I swear! Just ask anyone who has visited our past abodes after we hired a housekeeper. Oh…that reminds me – Monday – call a housekeeper.)

Hmmm....I sure hope they schedule the plumber to come by to put the sinks back in!

Totally Unrelated Adventures :)

Nights grow longer each passing day (how’s that for an opening?). We had less than 6 hours of sunlight today. It is rather odd to look out your window at 9:30am and just start to see the sky growing lighter. We had a warm up over the weekend. Today it was 30 degrees. Some of the snow on the streets actually got sloppy.

Because of the time difference between here and the lower 48, football starts at 9:00am on Sundays and goes almost non-stop until 7:30pm. It's GREAT. Unfortunately, we rarely see Monday night football because by the time we remember it is on, it is over half over. Oh well. Speaking of football - congrats to Kansas State for going to the Texas Bowl in Houston. Oh to have been there one more year! I hope all of you Texas residents take advantage of the event and go cheer the Wildcats to victory!

Squirt is doing fine. His stitches came out on Saturday and the bruising is almost gone. Now all he has to do is grow the lost fur back. It is too cold outside to run around without a coat. The snow is actually tall enough that when he scurries through the paths shoveled for him, he can just see over the top of the walls. If/When we get more snow, all we will see is the top of his head. (Once I am home during sunny hours, I will take a picture and post it.) He occasionally tries to step off into the deep snow and then quickly turns around opting for the path. I noticed this morning fresh tracks to our yard which disappeared once in our yard. Squirt isn’t the only one who uses the paths. We also have to be careful he doesn’t fall off of the deck into a snow bank. He did a couple of times this weekend and couldn’t get back up on the deck. Even after all of the trials and tribulations, he still loves the cooler weather and running through the powdery stuff!

On to new experiences…as I have mentioned before, the garbage goes out the morning before collection so the bears don’t get into it. This time of year however, bear sightings and problems are rare as they are supposed to be hibernating. (I think there are one or two bears that don’t get the message and don’t go to sleep. Luckily, they aren’t in our neighborhood.) Who thought birds would cause the same type of problem?

When we came home last Wednesday for lunch the garbage was still out for pick up and on several of the bags were ravens. Not little black crows or black birds but huge ravens. Ravens are normally about 2 feet long with a four-foot wingspan and from all appearances they like garbage. There were these big black birds ripping open trash bags. Little bits of black plastic going everywhere from one master ripper and the other four watching - waiting for the stinky rotten morsels to come unwrapped. They are also quite brave. We actually stopped and watched them for a few minutes…too bad the camera was in the back of the 4-runner out of reach. Maybe this Wednesday we can get a picture of the sneaky scavengers (must remember to move camera).

On to other adventures…every year Alaskans and tourists participate in combat salmon fishing. This occurs when fly-fishing in a stream with 5000 other people, shoulder to shoulder and if you take a break, you lose your spot. We didn’t combat fish this weekend – we combat shopped. This weekend was the Native Alaskan Christmas bazaar. If my neighbor hadn’t mentioned it, I would have missed it. There was one tiny ad in the paper under bazaars and nothing stood out about it except they didn’t take credit cards. It was from 10 am to 3pm and happens once a year. I thought if we went early in the day (just after sunrise at 10 or so) the crowds would be smaller. Silly – me. The busiest time is from 10 to 10:30am when approximately 2000 people try to get in a conference room sized for 120 people to get the best stuff. I heard people started lining up at 9am and waited in the cold for an hour for the doors to open. While all of this GREATLY tried my patience (all of you knowing patience is one of my strong points), I have to admit, there was some really cool stuff there. The beadwork and basketwork was incredible and we bought some items we will enjoy adding to our eclectic art collection. We will enjoy them even more once the memory fades of the struggles to get them :)

Dress code: Festive Attire

I looked out my window about 3:50pm and saw a beautiful sunset. That is one nice thing about still being at work when the sun goes down - I normally turn around and catch all of the color in the sky (of course with the short days, I get the sunrise colors also). It is a pretty ending to a snowy day. Yes, it started snowing sometime last night and I was outside this morning at 5:30 shoveling a path for the pooch to get through. Our house received 5 inches before we left for work and while it tapered off downtown by lunch it was still snowing steadily at home. After getting home tonight, I finished shoveling the deck and yard for the pooch while Robert got the driveway with the snow thrower….at about 5:30. I would guess we got about 7 inches.

Squirt update – Saturday makes 11 days since he received stitches and we plan to go to the pet hospital and have them removed plus a general check over. Robert thinks the bruises are fading but I am not so sure. He (Squirt) is back to his normal antics and Robert and I must check with each other before Squirt gets a biscuit as he has been asking for one from each of us – and normally getting a total of two. Who says dogs can’t train humans.

Back to “festive attire”! Dress in the office here can range from suits and ties to jeans and polo’s – like any other office. I think a lot depends on what the weather is like. Since it snowed quite a bit overnight, I think I only saw one person not wearing jeans and boots today. (I actually wore my giant killer snow boots today and was happy I did! While not exactly stylish - very functional and warm.) After hours functions however are a different story.

We have attended a few organized events since arriving and have seen others going to events of some sort. Many dressed in very formal attire. Being new in town and with the weather increasingly colder for each event, I generally ask someone attending or coordinating the function what they expect the general population to wear. Each time I have heard business casual but you’ll see everything. And you do.

The first function we attended was a lot of fun and very enjoyable. It had warmed to 23 degrees with a north wind so I only needed a light jacket, which happened to be part of my business casual work outfit. Walking in the door, the first person we greet is in a tux. I’m thinking ut oh…way under dressed. Ten minutes later though I see someone in jeans. I would estimate there were about the equivalent number of jeans vs tuxes and everyone else fell in between.

Friday is the Christmas party and once again, “festive attire” is required and once again I ask around. This time the description was not tuxedos and ball gowns but suits and cocktail dresses or velvet pants with sparkly tops. (Guess how many of velvet pants and sparkly tops I own.) But – you will see everything.

So now I have another excuse to go shopping (my business casual clothes are tired of pulling double shifts anyway) and I am sure whatever I buy to wear will require new shoes. (I wonder if Hawaiian would work – that’s festive…probably not…) I wonder if Christmas shoppers will be out?

We're home!

Sunny here today! We had a whopping 6 hours and 14 minutes of sunlight. Sunrise occurred at 9:42 and sunset happened at 3:55. We came home in the middle of the night at 5:30pm. Temperature was a comfortable 13 degrees or so.

I haven't been writing much the last two weeks as we took a holiday south (hence the comments about travel to and from Alaska via plane). It was a very nice Thanksgiving. Both of our families got together. Wait. I should say we got together with both of our families on separate days in separate states and much fun was had by all.

Getting off of the plane in Kansas City it was a nice and warm 40 degrees. Beautiful temperature. A nice change from the minus category. Of course this was one of the early cold spells for the locals and every place we went and shuttle bus we road in had the heaters on full blast. EGAD was it hot.

We rented a family truckster (if a station wagon and a mini-van had kids, this would be it) that screamed "soccer mom" and toodled around Kansas and Oklahoma. Thanksgiving sported 76 degrees and I didn't pack enough summer clothes for this climate. However, I can't complain. Since we drove a lot over the week, I was glad it wasn't in ice and snow as it could have been.

Squirt couldn't go with us this time around and went to a doggy day care. Sending your dog to a place that allows interaction with other dogs involves a risk and unfortunately there was a spat between a Jack Russell and a bulldog. Squirt ran by at the wrong time and ended up with 2 stitches and a very bruised tummy. He was SO happy to get home after we picked him up. Of course the first thing I did was cut his hair shorter to match the shaved areas and then plunk him into a bath. The haircut didn't work. He still looks like a mutt but at least he is a clean looking mutt. Thank goodness he got a sweater for Christmas so we can still go for walks while his hair is growing out. (BTW - even after a haircut and bath he is still happy to be home so he can sleep in his king size bed.)

Squirt also helped me unpack the suitcases. He found the plastic bag with the homemade cookies from Mother along with the hotel turn down service chocolates and was fixing to take them to a hidden location. Luckily I rescued them before he got too far. It was pretty cute though. He was working very quietly and diligently to free the bag before I noticed. He got a biscuit instead. (He has had a lot of guilt biscuits since we got home...poor little nine year old puppy.)

While on the plane home, I was actually wondering how long it would take to see a moose upon return. Due to the blizzard in Seattle, we were late arriving and didn't make it to the house until about 1:30am. During this hour of the weekday morning, there isn't a lot of traffic in Anchorage and we almost hit a moose leaving the airport. Lucky the cab driver saw it in time.

It was really great to see everyone. Holidays with family are some of the best times and memories. However, home is now in Anchorage and I was ready to return by the end of the week. It felt really good getting off of the airplane and breathing in that first breath of -6 degree air. I actually missed the cooler weather. It was however very obvious we lost an hour of sunlight while we were gone. It is pretty amazing how fast people can adapt and accept changes.

The bad part is they postponed counter installation a whole week. This frees up Saturday to go shopping Saturday for "festive attire". I need some for the office Christmas party. But that's a whole other story.... :)

It's easy to get to Alaska....

Happy biggest shopping weekend of the year to everyone! We are missing those festivities as Robert and I had all of the Christmas gifts ready to go and shipped south in October. (Remember - I had weeks to shop before our household goods arrived!) BTW - Three day priority mail from Anchorage to Kansas is more like 5 day - (for 25 lb packages anyway) - but who's counting?

Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally the weekend (at my house) for the LIGHTING OF THE CHRISTMAST TREE WITH ALL OF THE ORNAMENTS. It is going to be late this year. Since the only place we could put the tree is by the front door which is where all of the new granite will be coming in, I didn't want to have the antique ceramic ornaments on the tree and a slab swing by tipping it over. We still need to put up the reindeer in the yard. I keep hearing comments about screwing them into the deck so they don't blow away. Maybe that's why I haven't made a big deal about putting them up yet. Normally we put the reindeer on a light sensor timer. When it is dusky, the reindeer come on. I am not sure we are going to go that route this year as dusky occurs about 2 pm and our lights will then be on for another 9 hours. I'm not really sure our timer counts that high?

This weekend, I believe, is also the biggest traveling weekend of the year. Statistics called for something like 34 million to be going somewhere the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Woof. That's a lot of (grumpy) people in the airports and on the roads.

There aren't many towns I have been in the Lower 48 with only two roads into it. Actually one if it is a continuous road. Most places have one or two highways and/or country roads which may or may not be paved. In Anchorage, you have a choice. Do you want to go North or go South? West takes you into the Cook Inlet mud flats (no roads) and East takes you into Chugach state park where there are trails you can hike on but I am generally not up for a several day hike as I'm not carrying that much crap on my back. At least this makes it relatively easy to decide where to go for a nice Sunday afternoon drive plus it is rather hard to get lost unless you go off-roading.

On the upside, we do have an international airport and while I have not studied the schedules, I honestly believe every flight into and out of the airport occurs at between midnight and 1 am. (OK - I know that isn't completely true. I have heard tell of others who manage to leave at a decent hour of the day like mid afternoon but that is strictly legend.) Maybe I should quantify and say every flight I have had to deal with departs or arrives at that hour. I would love to fly in on a sunny, clear day looking over the mountains and the Gulf of Alaska. It has to be a beautiful site. I normally get darkness though.

Robert tends to be the one traveling and I have drop off/pick up duty. That's fine especially since we only live 5 miles form the airport. Bless Robert's heart - for a drop off, he gets to go to the airport right at 3 1/2 hours before he boards. For a 1 am flight arrival, I can leave at 12:30 am, catch the lights correctly, swerve into short term parking and walk in to the terminal as the first passengers arrive looking like I have been there waiting and pining for him for hours. (It is a good facade to keep up.) The biggest problem with this exercise is the timing. I can barely stay up for the 10 pm news and yet I have to stay awake and drive somewhere in the middle of the night. One of these days, I am going to fall asleep, jarring awake to the phone ringing and the facade will be gone.

The other issue is the cold weather. I have to get fully dressed in artic gear to go to the airport just in case I have car trouble. If it was in the 30's I wouldn't have a problem just tossing on a light jacket and my fuzzy slippers or my tennis shoes (there's a vision!) but at 6 degrees, snow drifts and a 20 mph wind, I don't want to be walking very far without a parka and snow boots. Hopefully it will never happen but I would rather be prepared than really cold. (FYI - it is hard to drive a car in snow boots. Kind of like driving with 2 pair of shoes on at the same time. Always up for a challenge though).

It's even more fun actually taking those flights. Leaving at 1 am gets you to Seattle at 5 am - just in time to catch all of the connections to make it to a meeting somewhere that day. I don't know how people do it. We recently flew from Anchorage to Kansas City and it took no less than 15 hours, 3 flights and 2 long lay overs. It wouldn't have been that bad except I didn't want to miss the plane and didn't go to sleep Thursday night before going to the airport. I was one tired puppy by the time we arrived. Going home was a lot like coming down - 3 flights, 2 lay overs and arriving after midnight. No way was I able to go to work the next day.

Seven more days and we get countertops back. A call for celebration!

Happy Holidays!

Have a safe journey and
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Let's go eat in Girdwood

Our anniversary has rolled around. Two whole years of marital bliss! We must celebrate - how about a nice dinner and bottle of wine out on the town. Sounds like a good idea. Since we haven't been in town long but due to circumstances have tried a lot of the local restaurants, how about we try something new out of town.

We keep hearing about various restaurants in Girdwood, Alaska. Several years ago, the Anchorage area bid for the winter Olympics and in the process, they either built or improved (I haven't looked it up) the Alyeska Ski Resort. While they lost the Olympic bid, there is now a world class ski/alpine sporting venue. At the resort, there is a restaurant called Seven Glaciers. To get to the restaurant, you must park at the resort, climb on the tram and go to the top of the mountain. The views of Cook Inlet and the mountains around are described as world class and the food is supposed to be exquisite. Glaciers is a very popular place for business functions, parties, etc and I decide to make reservations. Off to the trusty internet - sweet - I can make reservations on-line. Let's see - what are their hours? Closed for two months. What's up with that? How can they close for two months and still keep customers? Hurumph...

Plan B.

Other friends recommend the Double Musky Inn . It is a Cajun restaurant and is supposed to have fantastic food with a Cajun flare. It isn't on the top of the mountain so the views won't be as spectacular but it will still be a nice drive South. Unfortunately, they don't take reservations and if you aren't there by about 5pm in the evening, you need to be prepared to wait. No worries - it is a nice relaxing evening and we are in no rush.

Friday is here and we are off to dinner. As forecasted, the sun is shining and it is a beautiful evening for a drive down Seward Highway along the Cook Inlet. We see the mountain goats in their normal spot, the tide is out and all of the mud flats are showing. As we near Girdwood, it appears they have had more snow that we did - everything is white with the appearance of being clean.

Turning off of the highway going towards Girdwood, the Double Musky is off of the main road a little way. We find the gravel road and turn on to it. The car is getting dirtier by the minute but that is fine. We are ready for a relaxing evening trying out a new restaurant. We can always clean the car in the spring. Finally, there is the sign for the restaurant drive way. Gee - not very many people here for 5:30pm. Not very much activity. Wonder what the sign on the door says. Closed until December 17th. Good grief - how can these people make a living closing like this?

Plan C.

Now where are we going to eat? By the time we get back to Anchorage, there will be a line in every restaurant. Guess we could have fast food. That's romantic. What about the Turnagain House Restaurant? It is on the way back. We have already eaten there once and the food was good plus there is a rather nice view of the mountains across the Inlet. There shouldn't be too much of a line yet. We will aim towards there.

Turning the car around we drive back along Seward highway for about 10 miles. Coming up on the restaurant, once again, not many cars in the lot for a Friday night. Guess we beat the rush. Pulling into the parking lot, we spy a little piece of paper on the door. Robert hops out, walks to the door, turns around, walks back, hops in - they are closed until February. Glad it was a nice night for a drive and I wonder what their other job is that gets them through the winter.

Plan D.

Driving back into Anchorage, we decide to try the Kincaid Grill. Upon arrive at about 6:30pm, we are set to wait for a table. Luckily, it hasn't really reached busy yet and we are seated immediately. Food was excellent as well as the service. We thoroughly enjoyed our anniversary dinner and learned an important lesson. Some places not only have the sidewalks roll up in the evenings but sometimes for several months....I am sure more lessons are to follow.

In search of Almond bark....

As I have described, one can't always find things in a smaller, northern town that would be easy to locate in large southern city. Remember the dish rack and steps. Well, I found something else which falls in the same category.

With Christmas coming on and Thanksgiving here, it is time for pot lucks, Christmas gifts, neighborhood parties, etc. etc. and we never go empty handed. One of my favorite things to make and take to such events is peanut clusters. Sitting here typing this, I can think of only one person I know who doesn't like chocolate covered peanuts. Everyone else always oooh's and aaah's and the clusters generally disappear quickly and from all appearances, are well liked.

One of the best things about the clusters are they are simple to make and from all appearances, I work for hours making them. Buy a typical 2 lb bag of almond bark, 1 - 12 ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a bottle of roasted peanuts. Melt 8 of the 12 squares of almond bark (SLOWLY), dump in the bag of chocolate chips and when the mixture is smooth, turn off heat and mix in peanuts to taste. Spoon on to wax paper and let them dry. Simple - right?

Following tradition, my floor at work is having a pot luck for Thanksgiving and I sign up for peanut clusters. Lunch is on Tuesday and here it is Saturday (before Tuesday) and I decide to go to the store for the weekly grocery run. Pulling into the first store, I fill my basket with the normal items and am ready to go down baking aisle. (This doesn't happen often because Anchorage doesn't have the biscuit mix we normally use either but they have a really good bakery so who needs biscuit mix?) You know what's coming don't you. I go down bakery aisle and there is no almond bark. I check the end caps. This is a staple - there has to be a big display somewhere. None to be found. I ask one of the clerks. The response was "What?" I said it is just like white chocolate and lost her. She focused on white chocolate and took me there (which is where the almond bark should have been.)

Not to panic. There is another chain that I can check. With a car load of groceries, I head to the next chain store. (No need to worry about anything spoiling - it is 15 degrees out.) This will be a quick trip - grab some bark - check out and back to the house. Walking down the baking aisle again....you guessed it....no almond bark.

OK - start to panic. I might really have to cook something difficult this year instead of taking the easy way out.

One other store to try - the gourmet grocery store. The one grocery store which always has the really odd things or the unusual items you can't find anywhere else. (Which in Alaska translates to really expensive for most items.) I love these types of grocery stores and never walk out of them without something new to try and then go back for at a later day. This wasn't an "in and out" run. This was an "I've never been here and need to go up and down every aisle to see what we need" run. No problem - they should have almond bark here and the groceries already in the car will be fine...no spoiling possible.

And you guessed it again. Alas - no almond bark. I'm really starting to panic now. Only one other place to try and they don't have a large grocery section. Normally only dry goods. Very minimal dairy. It's not like the Superstores here in the lower 48.

I pull in to the big Supercenter, mentally going through my list of desserts that can be easily and quickly made, doesn't have to be warm, etc. etc. wondering what I will do. I walk down the baking row and flower, sugar, spices - all of the regular stuff is there. And then - I notice a rack in the aisle. It has baking items on it. Maybe just maybe....I walk toward it and then around and WHEW! There are 18 packages of vanilla almond bark. I am pretty sure these are the only 18 packages in the city and I snag 6 of them. (I now have enough almond bark for the next year. Shouldn't be a problem.)

Once again, I am able to make peanut clusters in about 20 minutes, start to finish and everyone likes them. All are gone before I leave work on Tuesday afternoon and several people want the recipe. Of course, if they weren't transplants from the south - they have no idea what almond bark is! Don't worry - they will be tired of peanut clusters before the season is over....remember I cornered the market and am going to use all of it!

I wonder what the neighbors are doing now....

The wind has finally died down here but the temps are not rising any. Once again I think our house had about a 10 degree span of minus 4 to +4 over the last 24 hours. Sunny all day today which lasted 7 hours and 14 minutes. We left work about 4:15pm and the sun was setting. It was a pretty sunset as there is enough gravel dust in the air right now that it turned everything pink.

A lot of interesting things happen when it finally starts to turn cooler and the threat of snow is serious. Christmas lights are hung, there is a mad rush to the snow tire stores, the outfitter sales with all of the snow gear, etc. but the most popular by far is the placing of wire cages.

Back home, we used to put wire cages around little tree trunks to protect them from deer and maybe if one was really energetic, a net over a fruit tree to keep out the birds. Here, they have wire cages on steroids. One of our neighbors has a long tube type cage that goes from one end of the side yard to the other, covering a row of bushes. Others in the neighborhood have 8 foot poles (they appear to be that tall anyway) driven in the ground and wire cages around the bushy part of the trees. Ok - the trees were bushy when we got here - now they are just sticks. Regardless, it finally dawned on me these are moose cages.

I am sure "moose cage" is not the correct term for these as they are there to keep the moose out but you get the drift. I was amazed at how high these people all over town have placed their moose cages. I'm thinking - what a waste until one morning I watched a moose in action. (Moose come down from the altitudes to the city in the winter because of the buffet of well cared for plants as there is a smaller and smaller selection in the mountains.)

Up and about before the sun one day (before the first snowfall), I looked out our windows and across the street was a moose. Just walking along - nibbling here and there. Oh man - I gotta go outdoors to watch this. I took Squirt to our front porch to watch her and Squirt would look at her and then at me and just stay quiet. He must think those are really big dogs. She stopped in a couple of yards, even walked up to a porch and helped herself to a flower in a flower pot on the second story. So many cars drove right by her and never realized she was there. They are smart. When she would hear one coming she went into stealth mode and didn't twitch.

As I said, it was before sunrise and Squirt and I are out on the porch looking across the street at other houses. The moose helping herself to the flowers when a lady came running out on the porch yelling "shoo shoo". Believe it or not it worked. She shoo'd it right over to our house. It walked up to our side yard, stepped over our fence and promptly started eating our trees. The lowest branches are about 7-8 feet off of the ground and she had no problem. Of course, I was inside trying to get Robert to come out with me by this time. Not knowing she was in the front yard, we went out the back door, walked around the side of the house to the front on the deck, rounded the corner and there was a big moose butt. Robert shoo'd and then we came back inside (via the back door) and the moose went to the next house for a snack. (BTW - they aren't quiet eaters - lots of snapping of twigs and chomping.) Unfortunately we didn't get pictures.

Continuing on the moose story front....if you read a previous post, I mentioned we went hiking a couple of days after a bear had taken a moose. We recently found out a fellow co-worker's wife was out the same day and pulled the jaw off of the moose. "She did what?" She stumbled across the carcass - well - probably didn't stumble as I am pretty sure it was big - but she pulled the jaw off and took it home and started to boil it on the stove (which is where our co-worker found it). Don't worry - it wasn't for dinner. It was for art.

Can you imagine what Robert would have said if he had come home and found a jaw cooking on the stove especially if I had been out hiking and pulled it off of a bear kill? Trust me - I wouldn't have had to blog for you to hear about it.

I LOVE living here! Where else would you hear something like that??

Remodeling has started...

When searching for a new house in a new location, chances are you look at a gabillion properties and at the end of the two or three days you have found the perfect house - only it doesn't exist. Your mind has taken the best pieces of the 30 houses you have looked at and created the greatest house that ever existed. All of the required storage, huge garage, prime location, incredible views, automatic everything, low utility bills, etc. etc. Then when you go to purchase the house, reality sets in and you take the one that comes closest with the intention of making a few changes. Normally, I never get around to making those few changes.

THIS time however, we go for broke. We sign the contract on the house in August and know we have a good 6 weeks before our stuff will be here. What perfect timing to replace all of the Formica countertops with granite (except the laundry room). What optimists we turned out to be.

We go to a local granite store (I honestly didn't know these even existed) to look at granite. There it is...moss green...it will be perfect for our house. But being the prudent shoppers we are, we go to the second place to look at their selection. Granite Shop #2 has an entirely different set of stone - I mean granite, none of which is moss green. However, their supplier/fabrication shop is just down the road and we should actually go look at the slabs. Some people will completely change their color scheme based on one slab. In the mean time, Granite Shop #2 two will come out and do an estimate for us. Unfortunately, we must head back to Houston before we can get to Granite Supplier.

Flash forward to the weekend we arrive....we take time out of shopping to go visit Granite Supplier. These people are so busy right now an appointment is required but Granite Shop #2 helped us out, got us in and they have a lot of slabs. It is a beautiful sunny day and we walk up and down the selection and by the time we are done, instead of narrowing it down, we now have 12 to choose from. Granite Supplier is great to work with and gives us samples of all of the slabs we are interested in.

In case you didn't know, granite is heavy - even in small chunks. We (OK - Robert) lugs the box up the stairs and check the different stones in light, dark, sun night, etc. After narrowing it down to three stones (none of which are moss green because they don't have that one in 3cm) we ask for bids. WOW - is granite expensive. Another week goes by and back to Granite Shop #2 with our decision. Since we can't get moss green, we will go with the one that looks a lot like it.

Hold the phone....moss green comes in 3cm they just don't have it in stock??? Let's do it. Great - that decision is made - now the easy part. Scheduling. We can't schedule until they order the rock from somewhere not in Alaska and receive it. As the weeks pass, our stuff arrives, we unpack, get most everything in order (except the office) and then finally the call comes. "Your sample is in." Ut-oh. There was a communication breakdown somewhere. Oh well - we go to Granite Shop #2 and confirm moss green is the rock we want. Order away and here's a check to cover half of it.

Finally - the rock is here (note it is now two and 1/2 months after we initially picked moss green). Here comes the really fun part. Today they ripped out every counter top we have in the house except in the laundry room on the third floor. This normally wouldn't seem like a big deal except there are no sinks (ok - the laundry room sink on the third floor is working) and the dishwasher is not operational. We have dust in every drawer (I unloaded most of them so once again it looks like we just moved in) and little tiny pieces of Styrofoam from when they made the counter template to shape the rock. Robert however saved part of the counters from the tear out and has hooked up a sink on each floor. We must be careful not to move them. There still isn't anywhere to set items as all available space off of the floor is covered by stuff that came out of the cabinets under the counters they ripped out. Only 18 days until they can install it. This'll be fun!!!

On a side note....another very bright and sunny day. I didn't check but there should have been about 7 hours and 20 minutes of daylight today. We had a 10 degree temperature span at the house, -5 to +5 and they closed some entrances to downtown locations when they clocked 60 mph winds and people were having trouble opening the doors and standing up on the icier parts of the streets. It is hard to get used to having such bright sunshine and yet feel no heat from it.

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

Another bright and sunny day in Anchorage has passed us by. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Supposedly, the aurora is very active these nights and with it being so clear, we should be able to see it. Unfortunately, I am never up in the middle of the night to watch it. I am hoping as the days grow shorter, the aurora comes out earlier. :) Speaking of short days, we had 7 hours and 27 minutes of daylight today. Sunrise was at 9:01 and sunset was at 4:28. The only ugly part about today was the cool temperatures (ranging from 1 degree to 14 degrees) combined with the wind. Wind speed was 35 mph today with gusts to 63 that makes the wind chill minus something. That makes for a cold and gravel in your face walk to the car. (Gravel from the roads after the snows.) Upside is the forecast for tonight is for minus something and bitterly cold tomorrow.

Speaking of bitterly cold, I forgot one of the "Alaska must haves". This is actually a really really nice to have. It is an automatic starter for the car. We now have a remote control where we can push a button and the car starts from our offices. That way when we remember to start it, by the time we get there, it is nice and warm...ok - it is not bitterly cold. Today it was actually toasty compared to outside. This little gizmo also starts the car if the engine block gets below a specific temperature thus eliminating the need for a engine block heater. When we initially purchased it, we wondered if it was a waste of money. Today was the deciding factor - money well spent!

Anyway - has anyone guessed what it's beginning to look like? Of course - CHRISTMAS!! Now, we arrived in mid September and had a couple of weeks of beautiful weather where you didn't have to add 30 minutes of bundle up time prior to going anywhere. However, once it turned colder, wind blowing and the occasional flake showing up, Christmas lights started coming out. We have been seeing Christmas lights, turned on for the holiday season since about mid-October. Then right after Halloween - almost the next day - here comes the yard ornaments and lights in the trees. I am one of those people who want the full enjoyment of the Christmas tree and decorations. They have to be up by the Sunday after Thanksgiving or I don't get the total enjoyment for the hours of work that goes into it. But I never considered turning the lights on prior to Thanksgiving. After asking around we found out it is much harder to put lights up with snow and ice on the ground than just cold weather. Makes sense. And hey - if they're up, might as well turn them on and get the maximum enjoyment out of the work - my kind of thinking.

Of course, I don't want to have the only house in the neighborhood without some decorations up prior to Thanksgiving and quite honestly I am afraid to put up the reindeer outside as I think they might fly away or at least move to another house without our permission. What to do - what to do?? We put the tree up this weekend. Thank goodness the lights still work on it after the move. (Yes - it is one of the pre-lighted kind - gets rid of some of the work.) Not a single ornament on it yet but then that might be considered a little tacky and premature! (I'll start after tonight's blog.)

The tree we have was absolutely perfect for the house in Houston. It is around 9 or 10 feet tall and fit in the curve next to the winding staircase in a beautiful manner plus you could use the staircase to decorate it if you were daring enough to lean over the side. Here, the only place we can put it is next to the front door in a corner. It almost blocks the stairs. I honestly think it is too tall for any other room in the house. It lights up the foyer very nicely. (And we just thought we were joking about it fitting in another house. The next house we buy may have to have a tall ceiling requirement.)

I just hope they can get the remodeling done without smacking the tree around. That starts tomorrow! I'll bet tomorrow's blog will be an interesting one.....

Alaska "Must Haves"

It is beautiful this morning. We got up before sunrise (sounds impressive doesn't it but the sun isn't up before 9 am these days) and drove down to Kincaid park http://www.muni.org/parks/ParkDistrictSW.cfm looking for wildlife. We saw several moose including two bulls. Squirt is pretty impressed at the size of those "dogs". We are on a warming trend and it should get into the 20's today. A nice change from the single digits.

Now that the temperatures are staying below freezing, the snow is flying once a week or so and daylight grows shorter and shorter, there are certain things you have to have if you are going to live here. Mostly items to deal with the cold and snow.

Since moving here we have purchased and used a snow thrower and shovel. Robert is in charge of the thrower and I get the shovel. He is able to do our driveway and sidewalks (and the neighbor's sidewalks) in the amount of time it takes me to do the decking. Once the decking is done, I take time to shovel a few paths in the snow for the little boy. Remember, he is only 12 pounds of pooch and his tummy drags through the snow creating little snowballs in his fur if I don't.

Squirt has been getting really cold feet lately (I would too if I didn't wear shoes outside and it was in the single digits). Unless, of course, something abnormal has wondered through the yard and he is tracking it. Squirt is one hundred percent certain something has been under our porch. Robert isn't really surprised as we grill outside a lot and who knows what that brings to the neighborhood. I just hope whatever it is doesn't bite when Squirt sticks his nose in to say hello some morning.

Oops - I digressed!

Moving from the tropics to the artic caused a lot of new clothing purchases too. (This shouldn't be a surprise.) The local saying here is "cotton kills" - meaning if you are wearing layers of cotton and get wet, it doesn't dry out like other fabrics do. Some people could interpret that to mean "I need a whole new wardrobe." Lucky I'm not quite that bad. There are a couple of weekends in the fall where sporting goods stores and outfitters have huge sales. We found some really good deals on big winter coats, long underwear, balaclava face masks, ski gloves, ski masks (we might ski and it is too good of a deal to pass up), fuzzy slippers (had to have some since you don't wear "outdoor" shoes in the house), wool socks and snow boots. I love my snow boots. They are great for leaving on the rug by the back door and slipping on and off when Squirt has to go outside. They are good for shoveling and walking in the snow.

I actually moved here with two pair of hiking boots. One pair are good to wear to work (which I need since heels aren't necessarily the best on the ice). The others I went for two real hikes last weekend and quickly decided they had seen better days. Time to get new hiking boots for the back country. I found a pair yesterday that are exactly what I want. I can trek through mud and a little water with no problems and if I should happen to fall and break an ankle, these things are high enough and sturdy enough the bone will be well supported. Having never had boots that go this high, I should probably break them in before going too far.

Oh yes...the other big ticket item....studded tires. This was a tough decision since we have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and have always done fine in the snow before. Our tires should be good for at another 20,000 miles. Back and forth, asking co-workers and friends, spend the money or not. In the end - ever concerned about stopping on the ice - we decided to purchase tires. Wow - glad that decision is done it was tough. If only it were that simple. Now come the rest of the decisions...ones with studs all of the time or the kind where studs can be removed? Do we get a whole duplicate set of rims? If so, where are we going to put the "summer rims"? Dealers will charge $50 a tire to put in the studs each year (don't know the cost for removal) and rims are expensive - what if we are only here a couple of years? In the end, we went with full time studded tires with only one set of rims. The "summer" tires are now in the infamous crawl space.

Since a vehicle can legally run studded tires from September to May, the savvy consumer wants to change their tires over to studs the weekend before it snows. If you wait until after the first snow, the lines are horrible. Of course, the trick is knowing when the first snow will come. It took us several weeks to come to the decision to get new tires. Then it took a couple more weeks before we really got serious about purchasing. In fact, I am pretty sure we saw little tiny crystals falling from the sky and I got worried. Many of you know patience is one of my strong suits and I enjoy standing in lines (ROFL). So we took the car in then next night (happened to be a Friday) after work and totally lucked out. We got there an hour before the store closed, there wasn't a line, they had the tires we wanted, they installed them and we drove home.

Let it snow!

And it did. It was right at a week before it really snowed but we were set. (I think we are going to get more!)

Car tags and such...

We had 7 hours and 47 minutes of sunlight today. The sun is now setting before it is time to go home from work which is an odd feeling. It has also been rather cool - down to the single digits each night. I took Squirt for a walk the other night without his sled dog boots and I had to carry him home after 2 blocks as his feet were cold and he was limping. Hard to limp when all 4 feet hurt. Still have had lots of sunshine. Supposed to get snow tonight.

On with new home adventures....

When we initially arrived in Anchorage, we had to get new car insurance which required the registrations. Texas does not require car registrations be carried in the vehicle. Alaska does and titles and/or registrations to prove ownership of the car before you can get car insurance. (Alaska doesn't have a "welcome to Alaska fee" like Texas does....ever a trade off.) There was much arm waiving when Robert discovered the registrations weren't in the SUV. He just couldn't understand why they weren't. After a lot of arm waiving in return, he finally understood it was because I made a mistake and packed them.

Thank goodness for friends back home. I was able to call the Houston Car Registration people (not their official title) and a very good friend who graciously gave up her lunch hour as she went to pick up copies and fax them to me. Of course I gave her the wrong fax number the first time and they ended up at the car care center (we found out because they called and asked what they were supposed to do with them). After providing the RIGHT fax number, we were able to successfully get car insurance and I learned an important lesson. Car titles and registrations go with you and not the goods when moving.

Once our goods arrived and we had the car titles again, we decide on Saturday morning to go get our tags. Fellow co-workers had warned us about doing this on a Saturday morning. The lines would be very long. They open at 10am and we decide to drive down about 9am to see what was going on. GOOD GRIEF!!! There are all ready 20 people in line and they don't open for an hour. Bucking up and parking the car, we might as well get in line. Glad it's in the 40's and not the 20's. Look at all the teenagers here to get their license. Surely they aren't old enough to drive.

Once the doors open there is a mad rush to the "take a number machine". Nothing happens at the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles without a number or a form. Of course, all of the forms are right on the other side of the "take a number machine" and there is a bit of a traffic jam. I have an entire stack of paper. Alaska requires a passport or birth certificate, Social Security card, mail addressed to you at your Alaska address (proof you are moving here), and if the names don't match on everything, proof why they don't.

I have it all covered. Now serving #19....now serving #20....now serving #21...OK - we are next....and then the impossible.... the computers go down across the state. It had been only 30 minutes since we arrived and now who knew how long it was going to be.

Dobedobedooooo...da da da da da....dobedobedo....you get the point.

Another 3o minutes pass and the ladies continue to tell us it will be up shortly however, if anyone wants to take their driver's license test those machines are still working. (Go figure.) Taking the chance we won't miss the computers coming back on-line causing us to miss our turn, we get in the driver's license line. Next!! I go to the computer and start my test....Question #1 - how many months is your license suspended if you don't have your insurance verification in the car? I'm not really sure how that applies to me driving on the road and I miss the question. Luckily, I get the other 16 correct and can get a license. Whew!

Back to the seats....waiting for the reboot....another chorus of dobedobedooooo.....

Now serving #23. Wait a minute!!!! What happened to #22???? Quickly realizing they started the number listing at the wrong number, we were allowed to sit down and process titles, driver's licenses and voter registration. After only 3 hours...we are finished and ready for lunch. Who knew!

More stuff is here!

It was crisp (4 degrees) and clear this morning for Squirt's morning dash around the yard. There was a slight breeze which makes a difference at these temps. We are now just under 8 hours of sunlight.

Now...where was I?

Oh yes...at last the truck is here and we can start unloading. Robert's job is to point and direct in the garage and my job is to point and direct in the house and to unpack boxes as they bring them in. Squirt's job is to get in the way and he is the most accomplished at his position. There is a little boy living next door to us and you can see his face pressed against the window watching all of the activity. It is a little slow getting started as they have to cover the carpets and the hard floors but finally the first item is off loaded! Let the work begin!

Because we start with the second container, all of the garage items are the first thing off of the truck. Not exactly what I want to see, but it is probably best as we are able to put the garage in order first. Last time we moved, it took much much longer to get the garage straightened out and you definitely want to be able to put the cars in the garage (see opening comment). Finally, we see what we have been waiting for....THE KING SIZE MATTRESS. A real bed...no more sleeping on the floor. I don't care if there is a frame. We are going to sleep well tonight. BONUS -- the washer and dryer are in this container! After those items, I really didn't care what order the rest of the goods come off of the truck in.

Keep in mind we have a 3 story house. These gentlemen work very hard. Of course the bedrooms and the laundry room are on the third floor. That is where the weights, exercise machines, big furniture, mattresses, box springs, frames and all of our clothes need to be. In Houston, our master closet must have been three times what it is here. I am making this estimate by the fact we have now filled up all of the bedroom closets with clothes. (Leave a couple of boxes - I am not moving this stuff again - it is garage sale time.)

They move the washer and dryer into the laundry room and we discover something. The original builder had cabinets put in with an opening for the washer and dryer. Slick idea. The former owners put a sink and counter in next to where the dryer sits. Another slick idea. Too bad they put the counter 3/8 " over the top of their dryer. Big Sigh....fix number one for the new house. Only the dryer is on the pedestal now. The washer must sit on the floor until the hanging cabinets are moved. At least the cabinets didn't go all the way to the floor, we have our king size bed back and the air mattress is in the crawl space.

We spend Monday evening unpacking garage items, a few boxes inside and moving things around preparing for the next day. Tuesday dawns and once again, the crew pulls up about 8:30 am ready to work. Now the boxes really start to come in. EGAD where are we going to put all of them! I work on the kitchen non-stop for several hours. (I personally think 5000 of the 23000 pounds was paper.) All at once, I have an epiphany and it isn't a good one. Our house is too small. Where are we going to put all of the stuff!!!!! I am pretty upset. You would think that two people could fit just fine in a 3000 sq ft house. Leave some more boxes. I'm going to have a garage sale. (It turns out OK - thank goodness for the crawl space - BIG CRAWL SPACE.)

Of course the last things to come off of the truck are the piano, highboy and triple dresser. All of them still fully loaded - the packers neglected to empty them in Houston. We wait for the rest of the crew to get these inside and they did successfully without breaking any light fixtures going up the stairs. The moving crew leaves us to our unpacking and we walk inside - where do we start. Well - it will still be here tomorrow - let's go eat.

As you can imagine, we spend the next few days moving from room to room opening boxes, stuffing paper and shoving things into closets and bookshelves. In record time (two weeks I believe compared to 50 weeks at the last house) all boxes are opened, some have even been repacked and stored in the crawlspace. (Not by choice mind you. The dishpacks wouldn't fit through the crawl space door.) I have about 10 boxes of garage sale items - safely tucked away in the crawl space so when Spring arrives I can go back through them and save 90% of the stuff I was going to get rid of. I expect more garage sale boxes before winter is over. Squirt is exceptionally happy when his kibble box, food and water bowls, toys and beds are unpacked. Anchorage is now home to him.

Oh and the car titles are here. We can go get Alaska tags....wonder what that will be like?

It's here It's here OUR STUFF IS HERE!

Another beautiful day in paradise! Bright and sunny. Too bad it was Monday and we had to work. There was 8 hours and 3 minutes of sunlight which translates to sunrise was about 8:42 this morning and sunset was about 4:45 this afternoon. The only time I notice the shortened days is when the sun is setting and it isn't time to leave work yet. It was a little cooler this morning at 5:30 when Squirt and I were out for his morning business. I checked upon return to the kitchen and there it was....we have hit 0 degrees. Nothing another layer won't take care of.

Returning from yesterday's diversion.....pretend it is September again!

Since arriving on September 8th, we have been wondering around our big empty house with a refrigerator, air mattress, TV, camping chair (which now holds the TV), coat rack, two mud room benches, two coffee mugs, coffee pot and nothing else. On the weekends, we can't wait until Sunday arrives so we can go to the local watering hole and watch football. Now, I am football fan but I have to admit - these first couple of weekends -the best part about watching the games is the fact I'm not sitting on the floor. Keep in mind, football starts early here. There is a professional game live by 9 am and it continues until about 7:30 pm. A game for every meal and I even get to see the end of the Sunday and Monday night games because it isn't too late - a rarity in the midwest. :) Of course, if you aren't at home by 5pm on Monday night, you miss part of the game.

Then on September 15th it happens. Robert gets that phone call we have been waiting for. "Your containers will be here Sunday and we should have them in our possession by Tuesday." Fantastic! Our bed is here! Our computers are here! Our cookware is here! Happiness just like small child in a toy store at Christmas. If they get it on Tuesday, maybe they can deliver Wednesday. Oh how we optimists set ourselves up! "We can't fit you in until Monday the 25th." OK - our stuff is at least going to be in the city. We can handle a few more days on the air mattress and trying new restaurants. Another weekend of going to the Laundromat.

On a different note...it's funny how our co-workers keep asking if we are ready for winter. Do we have everything put up, covered and is the snow blower (excuse me - thrower) primed and ready to go? Of course I am thinking - what snow blower/thrower. Just remember not to run over your paper or door mat. Throwers chew those up and sometimes running them will break an important little pin. Always keep extras of those. Robert and I discuss deciding we probably need a thrower as neither one of us is really into shoveling. Just in case it snows.

Yea - another shopping mission!

We check out various reviews on the internet, compare prices, look for retailers here in the city (don't get me started on shipping again) and take Saturday to go look for one. Interestingly enough, we were a little bit early. It is late September and you can put studded snow tires starting September 15th but there isn't a store in town that has received their new and improved 2006 snow shovels or self propelled snow throwers yet. However, we did find an 8.5 horse power snow thrower to add to our collection of 10 other possessions at the house. Of course, the thrower was not at the store - pick up at the warehouse only. Not a problem. What else are we going to do?

Upon arriving at the warehouse, we get in line to pick up our snow thrower behind a couple of other people purchasing snow throwers. As the warehouse managers are bringing out the boxes there is a sudden panic in the car....will it fit in the SUV. Thank goodness it did....it would have fit better if the DVD player in the roof hadn't been there and as far as we know it still works.

The snow thrower arrives safely at its new home and is parked in its box in a corner of the garage. Shouldn't need it for a month - when it is closer to the first snow storm.

Another week passes but our STUFF is in town. All is well it will be here Monday. Until the phone rings Friday afternoon. "We're sorry - we don't think we will be able to deliver Monday. Maybe on Wednesday. Have a nice day." What a crusher. Luckily, they came through and at approximately 8:30am Monday, September 25th, a semi pulls up to our drive and three gentlemen climb out of the cab ready to unload the first half of our 23000 pounds of goods into our house. Too bad it is sprinkling. The driver unlocks the padlock, undoes the catch and swings open the doors . A big sigh of relief - this is the container with our bed in it. So long air mattress. Been nice to have you. We will see you again when we have too much company for our house.

Here come the boxes......

There's a moose on the trail!

Absolutely wonderful here today. Bright sunshine -just about 8 hours worth and cool. When I took Squirt out the first time this morning it was a brisk 3 degrees (according to the weather station we have encased in snow).

We had an incredible day today and I want to digress from the story a tad. We will go back to September tomorrow but today we are in Novermber. We got our first snow the week before Halloween and our second snow the Sunday before the holiday. I think this snow is waiting for Spring thaw.

Over the past few weekends, we have been hiking on the Glen Alps trails in Chugach State park. http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/chugach/ The trails are well groomed and Squirt loves to run down them (at least the 30 feet until his leash runs out). One of the trails we frequent takes us to Power Line Pass. (Guess how it got it's name.) Upon reaching Power Line Pass, when looking West on clear days, there is a spectacular view of Denali (in my opinion though, if you are close enough to see Denali and it is clear, there is no bad view) and across the valley there have consistently been moose. To see the moose, binoculars are normally needed.

We have discovered we need a backpack when hiking. That way we have binoculars, water, camera, GPS and whatever else we can think of. In fact, we leave it in the car a lot of the time ever prepared for wildlife viewing and hiking.

The house is still a clutter (hate to ruin the surprise but remember we digress from the timeline today and actually do have goods). A tough decision - sunny, no wind or clouds - go hike or work on the house and laundry. After approximately 2.5 seconds of internal debate, I said "Let's Go!" After all, we have all cold and dark winter to work inside. Today we had to bundle up (which adds 15 minutes to prep time for leaving). Even though the sun was out, it was still 13 or so when we left . (I think I need new hiking boots if we are going to do this a lot.)

Since we haven't been out to the trails since it snowed, we opted to leave Squirt at home today due to not knowing trail state and because the moose are coming closer to town now and they consider dogs to be wolves and may attack. After bundling up we take off and drive a couple of miles to the to park. As we turn into the lot, there's a new bear sign - "Power Line Pass moose carcass and brown bear Nov. 1. Stay on main trails" . There were other comments but I had seen enough to know not all bears were following the rules this year and hibernating yet. Best be on the look out.

We park and are off heading towards the pass. As we go along, I look for animal tracks. See lots of dog and the occasional moose print. Of course, I think I see a bear print but I also believe it is due to reading the above mentioned sign. Arriving at the pass we see about 10 moose across the valley. A couple here, five over there, one loner, etc. Denali and Foraker are looking exceptional, as always. We head down the pass and take one of the off shoot trails which leads to the bottom of the valley and to a bridge. That is our goal today. To watch the water and ice in the stream.

We get about 100ft and meet up with a young gentleman saying there is a moose almost on the trail and we can't go past. As you would expect, I say "Cool" and head around the bend. Sure enough, there is a young cow grazing about 30 feet off of the trail. She is good sized but nowhere near as big as the one we almost hit driving to Alaska. She knows we are there but we aren't moving toward her and she isn't worried. Along comes another young gentleman asking if she is aggressive and we didn't know. He never stops and walks right by here which then encourages the other younster to follow. We stay put to watch (and prepare to take evasive action).

Then it gets interesting as another man with his two dogs (not on leashes) comes down. He waits for a while and then moves farther along and the moose ears go flat with hair standing up. This isn't good. She actually turns towards him and he stops with the dogs. Luckily, he makes it by slowly without incident and we decide to try. Of course, that is when she decides to come ON the path. She didn't stay long and we took pictures and then left her alone as she moved off toward the dense brush. After all, we have invaded her house. (We were getting cold just standing there watching anyway.)

We got to the bridge and after taking a few more pictures and headed back up the really ugly incline. (Going down is a breeze - but it always is.) I have to stop for air every 10 steps or so which makes the trip back a little longer. (I do great on flat ground but toss in a couple of steep hills and I suffer!) The moose is gone and we get back to the car with no issues. Ready to go home for a bite of leftover pizza and water. Oh - and the recliner!

We are seeing more and more moose in town now. I really enjoy this aspect of living here. I think to the locals, it is like having a deer in the yard but as I would never tire of watching deer, I doubt I tire of watching these huge creatures.

Waiting...Waiting....Waiting

Today's weather was absolutely gorgeous. Sunshine, crisp, clear and still over 8 hours of sunlight. Early this morning the moon was low on the horizon and orange. Tonight it is rising over the Chugach mountains almost full, big and bright. Temps ranged for 9 this morning to 24 at the peak of the afternoon. (These temperatures cause Squirt to run for his evening walks. I do think he has some husky in him....one of these days he will run to the end of his leash when I am on ice and pull me over. We will probably come directly home after he does that or wait for the ambulance to arrive.)

Back to the gripping tale of two rookies....

As mentioned yesterday, we have arrived and yet our goods are still somewhere on a boat between here and Seattle. So - there is a lot of time to kill and you can only hike the trails, explore the city, eat at new restaurants, lay on the floor to watch TV, read or drive around looking for wildlife for so many hours and so many days in a row and then it gets OLD. Luckily, there's still shopping.

I've already described the first couple of forays into the city finding some things successfully and others not so successfully. Window shopping and ordering some things on the internet. While doing all of this shopping, I discovered (some of you may want to sit down now) I sometimes take things for granted - one of them being in general I expect people to understand Alaska is a state.

I am honestly surprised I had this exchange with more than one company. Imagine yourself ordering something over the phone or at an on-line vendor clicking away left and right, rapidly filling up your shopping cart. (Good thing I got that discount for trying something new!) Whew - that was exhausting - I need to check out.

As with many typical online or mail orders, I have to provide too much information (in my opinion) but since I want the items I provide what is needed of course including Alaska as the state and hit ORDER. Then it happens. Big red letters stating something about there being a shipping problem. Back...Back... address - correct, daytime phone number - correct, evening phone number - correct, etc. etc. Nope everything looks right. ORDER and once again here come the big red letters. I don't have a problem with shipping or I wouldn't have agreed to pay for it. Reading the fine print a little closer it says, we don't ship to territories. Hmmm. I didn't ask you to.

Or, if ordering on the phone, there can be a sudden intake of breath followed by "we don't do that". This time I had a very nice gentleman who happened to be the store manager on the phone and I explain to him I need to ship something to Alaska. Believe it or not the answer I received was "we only ship to the United States" (or at least something REALLY closet to that).

OK. There are so many absolutely wonderful responses to that statement. Many of them disparaging about schools or geography - just so many avenues to travel down- but I think I stuck with something like.... exactly how many states do you think there are? To which the his immediate response was to say "Lower 48 - we only ship to the Lower 48". I suggested he use that phrasing in case he got this type of call again. I mentioned this to a fellow co-worker and they weren't surprised. Guess it is a common occurrence. However, I am still shocked.

But back to my dish rack - I know exactly what I want. I had one in Houston and it will fit perfectly in this cabinet. In fact, two will fit even better than one. We search high and low and can't find two let alone one in town. Back to the internet and this time I was successful.

I find the exact item I need at the first store I surf to. I put two in my shopping cart and heck while I'm here is there anything else I NEED? Surprisingly no. I go to check out, once again providing all of the necessary information and Click. Cost for my two items is $9.50. Click. Shipping for my two items is $10.00. You've got to be kidding me. Oh well, at least they will ship here. ORDER.

Amazingly enough I receive them with no problem.

Can't wait for our stuff to arrive!

Foggy again this morning in the Anchorage bowl. I believe the high today was 23 but the sun did come out which makes it a perfectly clear evening. I took Squirt on a walk to get the mail BEFORE checking the temperature as I wouldn't have gone if I had known it was 13 degrees at the time. Supposed to have a nice 20 mph wind tonight also. 8 hours and 25 minutes of sunlight today. I think we have to lose about 4 more hours before the end of December.

One thing I have noticed since moving here is the moon appears so very clear and huge compared to other locations we have lived. When you can see it, the moon is just beautiful. When I am more used to the cold - I'll take a picture.

Now where was I.... Oh yes - we are home!

Our new house is totally empty. It echoes when you speak. There is a big hole where the refrigerator is supposed to reside and the laundry room looks somewhat empty. Squirt rather likes it as there is no pesky furniture to get in the way when he runs around.

We have been here an hour and we need to go shopping for a few necessities like toilet paper, soap and paper towels. Do we want an air mattress or just use the camping gear to sleep on. It's only two (?) weeks, we can tough it out. (Yes, we had camping gear as we went camping and sea kayaking the weekend before our house hunting trip - come on - who can pass that up!)

Off to the store to check out how it compares with stores in Houston. (Smaller, more expensive - seems to be a trend here.) Finding paper goods, coffee, a coffee pot and some cleaning supplies (although thinking back I am not certain why cleaning supplies were important since there was nothing to clean yet). We pass by the air mattresses.

The massive breakfast we ate in Tok has worn off and we are hungry. Since we can't cook anything - the skies the limit. (Sad to say I don't remember where we ate the first night.) Dinner is over and time to head back to our home and take Squirt for a walk around the neighborhood. Temperatures are in the upper 60s and it stays light until about 9:30pm, the scenery is wonderful. I am really glad we moved here.

Arriving back at the house, we realize there is nothing to do. No TV. No computers. No stereo. No furniture except the one uncomfortable camping chair we can fight over. Luckily we have books to read which keeps us busy for about an hour. Just after my head hits the hardwood floor I realize it's time to go to the sleeping bag.

Now, when I was about 8 years old, sleeping in a sleeping bag was about the coolest thing ever. Once you hit middle age, it's ok when you are camping on rocks, but not so much on a hardwood floor. Bright and early Saturday morning - "Let's go to the store." I just hope the store is open.

Two hours later, the air mattress is up and the bed is made. OK - now what are we going to do. Ah....Let's go shopping - we NEED more stuff. We have a mission.

Every house we looked had a mud room where you take off and store your shoes. People don't wear shoes in living areas here. (Our only guess is because of the tar driveways and the wet shoes from snow.) We need mud room benches to sit on, a coat rack, dish racks and steps. This should keep us busy for a couple of hours.

Steps? Our house has a huge (thank goodness) crawlspace and the entrance is about 3.5 feet above the floor of the garage. It is rather amusing to watch each other climb in and out.

Benches and coat racks are no problem. We even find Christmas presents on the same trip to ship to the lower 48 later. FYI - you can not find pre-fabricated steps in Anchorage. I guess that's because you don't find many mobile homes here? I don't think they hold up well in the cold? Pure speculation on that one. And the dish racks....none in town like I have to have. Guess I will order those on the internet - a pattern we learn to repeat. (Remember - for the most part everything is shipped here except seafood.)

Saturday night arrives and it was wonderful sleeping on the air mattress. OK - maybe not wonderful but it was lots better than the hardwood and sleeping bags. Money well invested. I am really glad my niece and her husband gave us those business coffee mugs or we wouldn't have coffee cups!

Sunday - once again - up dark and early. I am still not adjusted to the new time zone. Time to go for a walk. It's dark. We don't know the area. There is a greenbelt right by our house which is a little wooded. Better take the bear spray. The walk is pleasant and there are no wildlife encounters. We are back home, reading the paper on the floor and wondering what we are going to go today. Whatever it is, it will involve shopping. I can't wait for Monday to get here so I can go to work and sit in a chair.

Wednesday is a banner day. Our refrigerator arrives. We can cool our water off to 37 degrees instead of 42 degrees just putting it the back porch. We can also pick some raspberries from our bushes...nah. Water is good enough for now. Plus the internet and cable hook up guys come today. (Of course we had to buy a TV for them to come and hook it up.) Now we can fight over the camping chair and watch TV at night.

The next couple of weeks follow in the same vein. It gets old eating out all of the time - even if you take it home. I am looking forward to receiving our stuff. When will it arrive!