Painting

So what have I been doing while looking for a job? Well I have started painting again. I copied Van Gogh's Almond Blossom's (a favorite). Here it is!

I am working on a impressionistic rainy night scene from a picture that I took in Brussels but am struggling with this painting.

Iditarod

Sheri came to visit Paul and I. She brought our cat Titana and we all (not the cat) went to the Iditarod. While at the Iditarod we discovered some "real" Alaskan men on 4th Avenue. We enjoyed reindeer sausages and the snow sculptures!

Off to Africa

Last Wednesday my friend Tanya left for Africa. I have been friends with Tanya since somewhere around the 7th grade and she has been talking about going to Africa since 1993. Well she is there. I am so excited. She is already having such the adventure. You have to check out her blog at:http://beautifuladventure.blogspot.com/

Here is the family eating with Tanya in Georgia at her fav spot in May.

Hair

Paul's Hair--Yes it is the longest that he can ever remember it being. It is really funny--there have been a lot of people that have not recognized him due to the hair. It is quite the opening discussion item.

--Paul singing his favorite road song "Roll On" as we completed our drive from SD to AK in January.

Alaska Creatures

So I had to take a picture of the dogs--I was laughing so hard. We saw them on the day we were trying to find a place to live.

Below is the truck outside our place and a moose--there is so much snow (snowed 20 out of the last 23 days) that the moose are all over town looking for some food.

Alaska--Our First Home!

We have our first home!!

We are so excited. It is really a great place. We went on the marathon let's find a place to live expedition when we arrived. 13 places in one day and what the experience. AK rents are high but what they get for places that look like rats might run out is amazing--quite the cultural eye opener. There are some bad neighboorhoods in Anchorage. One place we visited the door was locked. The neighboor saw us and when we told her that the owner had said that the door would be open she said oh and went inside her adjoining place--suddenly we heard a drill. She opened the front door by unscrewing it from the inside. We stood there in shock--she said that they had problems with vagrants. All this could have been ours for $75o a month!

But we found a condo that the owner had lived in so it is full of all kinds of ammenities--including a cat door. Titana can come back to AK! So we are moved in and really loving our new kitchen. We don't have a table yet or a guest bed but are really looking forward to having Sheri come and visit in March. We had friends over the other night for dinner and to brew a batch of ale.

The top picture is a view out our window in the living room.

Canada

On January 2nd we headed back to AK. We are traveling through Canada. We got to an icy Winipeg on the w. edge an interesting city of mural covered buildings and tree shaped street lights in one district. The towns seem to have a prevalence of A&W's, Tim Hortons, Subways and Boston Pizza's.

The next day we realized that we were in the Canadian heartland. We drove into a town of probally about 500--there were signs all over to the ice rink. The 2 pump (gas and diesel) gas station was hidden behind the elevator. Inside next to the cooler there were hockey sticks for sale. Inside the one cooler was penicilin for cattle and Pepsi.

We've seen moose and caribou and a handful of roadkill on the side of the highway being enjoyed by the ravens.

Finally we arrived at Illiad sp? Hotsprings. We walked over the snow covered boardwalk to the hot, hot, hotsprings. The water was great so hot you couldn't get near the source. A huge pool in the woods surrounded by snow--magical. It made us think of the trip we had taken to Fairbanks and visited Cheena Hotsprings a few years ago.

The morning we left the lodge near the hotsprings we were driving and there in the morning light along side the road was a herd of around 100 buffalo. They appeared to be smaller than the SD ones.

Then we just kept driving and by and by arrived in AK and are staying at Ken and Sue's!