Back in Alaska

When I arrived home, Paul had a surprise for me.

Homemade quiche and cinnamon raisin bread! He had been baking all week. It was nice to be home.

Omaha

While Paul enjoyed spring break with Hayden and Ryker here in Anchorage, I tagged a few days onto a work trip and met up with Mom, Sheri, Crystal, Janice, Nolan and our cat in Omaha for a few days of vacation.

We visited the zoo (the indoor rain forest is fun, the creatures of the night exhibit is scary and as always the stars of the day were the monkeys), Jocelyn Castle (not sure why anyone would need such a big place) and walked around downtown Omaha (Nolan was impressed by the green horse celebrating St. Patricks). The weather was perfect and we had a good time visiting the Christophersons (where mom surprised us with her exceptional pool skills).

My favorite part of the trip was being able to just talk with everyone. I love intellectual book talks and we had great conversations about books that we had read one night as we celebrated Crystal's BD at an Arabian restaurant.

One morning we found this incredible sculpture park downtown that honored the settlers who had passed through the region on wagon trains.

Unfortunately, it was over all too soon and I left for Alaska with Titana stowed under the seat on the airplane--she is a really good traveler.

Iditarod

Yet another Iditarod. We went downtown to watch the start with our friends James and Susan. It it fun to watch the dogs and see all of the energy that they have. There were no teams of poodles but we did see a poodle watching the race.

Skiing

Snow and more snow. Spring is not in the air here. It is beautiful though out in the woods. We went skiing just a mile or so from our house. Don't the colors against white just stand out--the ordinary moss on the tree just draws your attention in this environment.

Running of the Reindeer

Paul and I joined a crazy crowd of “runners” downtown this weekend for the Running of the Reindeer.

People dress up crazy and then dash up the street and reindeer run around amongst all the running people. The major danger is being knocked over by people not the deer. The reindeer do run really fast though. Unfortunately, we didn't get any good action shots. Trying to take photos while running and watching for the people and the reindeer is too much.

The most exciting part of the event is when one of the reindeer turned around and charged into the group of runners. This is real Alaska winter excitement!

How do you like our costumes? Political Statement and practical--Paul thought of the idea. You can’t see but we each have a shovel on our back. (Shovel Ready is in note of the Shovel Ready Projects popping up all over the nation in response to the Stimulus bill.)

Art Redo Project #2

Here is the second project completed. I found two splattered canvases at the thrift store and primed them and repainted them. My inspiration...vintage fabric prints. Perfect for the thrift store finds, don't you think?

Vintage Floral--Acrylic on Canvas
Chicken Yard--Acrylic on Canvas

Wild Life and Wild Life

Quite the week here on the Eastside of Anchorage.

I thought that when we left the Spenard area we would be in a calmer area. Not quite so, this past week on the Eastside brought about a:

Double Murder--The Killer is now in custody
Pipe Bomb Scare--The road was blocked for around 7 hours and traffic was all backed up our street
Accidental Shooting--A drunk man was playing with his semi-automatic and accidentally shot his wife who was driving him home. She survived and their infant who was in the car is fine.

I am hoping that it was just a bad week.

Our place seems so quiet in comparison to all the hubbub in the neighboorhood. There is a moose who has been hanging out in front of our place. The picture was taken from our front door. We have a little squirrel who has discovered the bird feeder and is spending a lot of time trying to get the food. He is quite the entertaining little fellow.

The Nuthatches have left for the most part and we have all kinds of Hoary Redpolls at the feeders. This is an extra red colored one.

Valentine

ADN Picture

Paul and I celebrated the day by going to the Opera.

We went and saw the Barber of Seville. One of my co-worker is in the chorus and got us a two for one ticket :-)

It was hilarious. So much fun. I did have to ask Paul to stop singing the next day though.

Trash to Treasure--Project #1

I promised pictures so here is project number one.


I saw an incredible recycled wool scarf on Etsy and decided to try to make one of my own. It appeared to be in line with my sewing capabilities--I can turn on the machine and sew a mostly straight line:)

I purchased some wool sweaters at the Salvation Army thrift store and felted them. Three of the sweaters turned out--the thicker ones did not felt for me. I would really like to try this with some cashmere sweaters.

It took a bit of cutting to cut out all of the circles but I got enough to make three scarves. Each scarf is around 100 inches long.

Views from home

Our Ride

Paul and I are now a one vehicle family. That vehicle is: “The Buick”.

While most of the population of Anchorage drives sporty (though dirty) SUV’s and every model of Subaru--we drive The Buick.

The Buick, according to the gear rack maker Yakima is “unyakible”. The Buick though has made up for its lack of sport friendliness by having an extra large back seat where we stow our skis. While other people take their skis off of the roof—we take them out of the back seat.

Of course, The Buick is not in as good of condition as when I drove up the AlCan Hwy in 2003. The shiny dual exhaust system was ripped off as we took a trip over a summertime access only mountain pass. Now it has a much more conservative single exhaust.

Last year the back of the car didn’t quite make it across the intersection before somebody took off and smacked the rear passenger side door in. The Buick then proceeded to repay the purchase price (and all of the maintenance and insurance ever paid) in an insurance settlement that totaled the car. A benefit of not many Buicks in Alaska is that the car costs too much to fix. Part of the proceeds paid for a door that Paul along with our friend and neighbor installed along with a few additional washers. It doesn’t work perfectly but it functions. I didn’t like driving around with a door of a different color and had it painted to match the specialty psychedelic green of the rest of the car.

While other vehicles sport studded tires, The Buick just drives slowly on its all season treads up the hills.

We do spend a lot of time thinking about “the perfect” car and what that would be. But for now, we put our skis in the back seat and Paul brings home pallets and firewood in the trunk.

You have to appreciate a fine car like The Buick.

COFFEE

The best part of waking up is a Paul's Latte in a cup!





Did I mention that Paul is getting to be very good at making the best ever latte?

Here is what I woke up to last weekend...uumm

Paul know the ultimate temperature and why you should use a steel cup for frothing rather than ceramic. He can tell you what temperature the milk should be at for the best frothing and why 1% works better. That is just the milk. The explanation of the coffee is much more extensive. Beans, roast, grind, orgin...

As for me--I enjoy the lattes.

Rumbling Weekend Update

North flank of Mount Redoubt and low-level vapor plume
Picture Date: January 31, 2009
Image Creator: Waythomas, Chris
Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.




Well the volcano has not blown—we keep waiting. There were no earthquakes that we could feel this past weekend but they are still reporting lots of tremors under Redoubt. Paul is very prepared and went out and got extra food and dust masks for us. I am sort of excited. I have never had a volcano day. Snow days are a thing to be treasured—so why not a volcano day? Everyone says though that it is not fun and everything just gets so dirty and scratched. We will see—the Volcano Observatory seems to think that it will blow.

We had some snow over the weekend and had the chance to go skiing. We skied over to a friend’s house for a party on Friday evening. The ice under the snow made skiing a bit more challenging but it was fun and I love seeing fresh snow on the pine trees in the moonlight. Beautiful Winter Night!

Saturday was ½ price day at the local thrift stores. I am working on some art pieces for a fundraiser called “Trash to Treasure” in May. I have $50 to buy things at the thrift store to turn into my treasures. I am working on painting some old canvases that I found and also found a few more glass containers for more terrariums. What fun out bargain hunting! Paul is working on a side table made out of golf clubs. I will post pictures of my before and after upcycled projects (Trash to Treasures) later. As least I will post pics of the projects that turn out ;-0

Moss Terrarium

I enjoy winter but admit that I miss the sight of green.

I saw one of these on Etsy and decided that I had to try to make one. Our yard has a lot of moss next to trees. So the other weekend I went out and dug around and came up with this! It has been a few weeks and it is still green and looks great as the centerpiece on my dining room table. It is a talisman of spring.

Instructions:

1. Get some small rocks and rinse them with water.
2. Find some moss and gently dig it up--make sure that you leave some moss there to regenerate.
3. Dig some earth up below the moss--this dirt has the right acid blend.
4. Place the rocks into a covered container
5. Cover the rocks with the dirt.
6. Place the moss over the top of the dirt and gently press down. Shape moss as needed to fit into container.

Now the best part--cover and just mist every two to three weeks.

Here is a picture of my Moss Terrarium. I put some snow on it to water it after potting it.

ICE

i LOVE seeing the ice sculptures! My friend Susan and I checked out the sculptures downtown a few weeks ago.