New boat- boat

Seth and I bought a little ocean skiff last weekend and took it out yesterday to Whittier on the sunniest day of the year so far. We might have goofed around in the harbor replacing engine parts until we felt safe than headed back to Blackstone bay, deep bay lined with glaciers. We headed past an old boat wreck to the glaciers until the ice bergs got too big than headed to a beach to listen to avalanches high above us and watch the birds on the low tide line. On the way back we watched three humpbacks breach and finally I saw one flap it's tail. A good day had by all, now if this sunburn would calm down.
Hope your weekend was enjoyable.

Spring?

With school wrapping up, races starting and the leafs budding things around W. Harvard are busy! We are having the house painted so this weekend all the windows are covered, not very pleasant. I burned all my starts in the sun so the garden will be a little thin this summer and the triathlon snuck up on me, today! On Friday Seth and I bought a boat, the perfect boat in Seth's eyes so now we are set! Seth has been working on the engine changing oil, setting up an emergency radio ect.

Below is the boat and a picture of my race set-up, gold bike stand, maybe it's beauty will make up for my lack of training time-wise.

Hope your weekend is warm and relaxing.

I'm on a health kick

What's that you say? You love sandwiches, but plain bread is too boring for your refined taste? You'll love KFC's new Double Down! It's bacon and cheese sandwiched between two pieces of fried chicken, ah there is a heaven on earth, it's conveniently located on A and Norther Lights.

The art of cooking with peeps

HAPPY PEEP CONSUMPTION!

http://juliarothman.com
An artist you have seen around, I like everything she makes, wouldn't you like to have this wallpaper to greet you from a long day?

Iditarod

Just the day we left for Spring Break the big Iditarod started in downtown. My personal fav Sebastian Snuelle has not yet arrived, good times.

Spring Break in Washington

A good time was had by all in Washington, all two of us, that makes it unanimous, nice to see a little sunshine. Tales of "The storm of the century" were heard, apparently it really snowed in the Upper One while we were enjoying sun, rock climbing with no hats on and watching the grass green. Gail and Melissa's new house was a real treat as was Gail's cooking, whew, have to come home to fat camp. Staying with M & G and their cats made me realize how lazy Spycat is.

The picture below is of a newt I first spotted on the trail near the Columbia river, very large and slow, and I thought pretty far from any water.

Other pictures are of climbing at Vantage, the feathers and Frenchmen's Coulee, those three might all be the same spot, or different spots for different names, or all different spots and all the wrong names, ah well.

Back home it is sunny non-stop, light till 8:oopm and world class skate skiing. Seth and Caroline surprised me with new skiis and poles, makes a world of difference. Maybe Arctic to Indian this weekend, the ski that really marks the coming of Spring for me, only worth it to make the annual trek through a mountain pass with full sun and lots of good food in this opinion.

Cat has made a beautiful full recovery from her "incident" a little surgery after an epic sounding battle with Stan the neighbor cat, she is quickly using up her vet quota around here. Nick took excellent care of the birds and cat while we were gone, I had no doubt.

Jan, Feb, Maaaarch

The Olympics.

Fantastic skiing.


Wedding of the year which happened to involve my best friend.

Nasty cat fight, resulting in unpleasant baths and surgery.


Now there is trip to Ellensburg, ahhhhh.

Did I mention that this time of year never flies by, 2010 welcome!!!!!

SUNLIGHT in California found

Seth and Bonnie enjoyed their winter break in California and was the sunlight welcome. We spent our first few days in the financial district of San Fran very downtown than to Laguna Beach through beautiful green Salinas Valley, than home via Highway 1 taking a few days to do it.

Seeing a big city was fun, staying on the 29th floor was something, the view was hard to pull yourself away from, though the city with zero dirt (we found kids playing flower pots and felt very, very bad for them.) We hit up the King Tut exhibit and than MOMO - so fun! We saw more famous than I thought possible in one city!!!

Met up with Seth's Uncle Eric and his family to take the boat to Alcatraz, cool place, I refused to go into the solitary confinement rooms.

Laguna Beach was incredible, like a tiny gem suspiciously close to L.A. Seth and Chip surfed and paddle boarded, I soaked up vitamin D and will store it until February.

Highway one was cool, elephant seal colony was great, we stayed to watch one particular family, a male had just rolled over a baby and 2 hours later the mom was looking to take someone else's baby as her own making for lots of fighting.

The amazing pictures of the coast are all from Big Sur, wow, that place was incredible.

Now back to Alaska, we are gaining 3 minutes of light a day.

Rusted Root concert tonight.

Hope your break was lovely and restful.

Skiing, skiing, skiing

This last weekend the hoar frost made for excellent skiing. An entire week of thick fog made us all itchy for sunlight so we headed to the mountains above the fog, where we found sun and good skiing. I snagged a few photos of my new car without looking obsessed, of course now I am outed, not obsessed, just excited how it fits our needs so well. Just need to mount the rocket box for longer trips with more people, 4 people and 2 dogs fit alright, not lovely but safely. Now I count down the days until school ends and we spend another weekend skiing, this weekend resort though. Seth headed out Sunday and found more snow and sun too.

oh Christmas branch, oh Christmas branch

The perfect Christmas tree became obvious to me when I came home yesterday, it was hanging above the driveway. It took us a few minutes to clip it down, set it in a bucket and ta da, decorate, automatic Christmas.

Hatcher's Pass and Thanksgiving

We spent this weekend eating at Grandma's, looking for the perfect car than spent the night with favorite people up in Hatcher's Pass. We skied a few beautiful runs in great snow, a little bushy but great than snuggled up in tiny cabin and froze the next day at avalanche class. The pictures might lead you to think it is around 6/7 at night, ah no, probably around 3:30, getting close to solstice around here, no small thing, and I believe solstice means Scott's birthday ah?

Thanksgiving

Haven't posted in a while because it just didn't feel like we were ever up to anything postable. I took some pictures, is it interesting, ah probably not. Am I putting them up anyhow, ah... yes.

We baked 5 pies in all, took 1 to Beans and than come home with just as much pie as we left with, our people are not sweets people I don't think.

I have been infusing vodka with every known fruit and some look like they are really working, the current one looks like one failure.

The shelves in the arctic entry are built but need to be stained, sanded and clear coated, lots to still do but Seth cranked them out in two days thanks to Pat's help.

Earlier today it looked like there might be pictures of a new car but it had already been sold when we got there, fuw!

How was your Thanksgiving? Restful or stressful?

THE MURAL

Well it is done, and the holds aren't on yet but the kids can soon climb all over my work of art. Do I mind? No way, it is a BEAUTIFUL Friday fall day and I am in my bathrobe at 10 am because we are headed to Homer for the art teacher conference and life is GOOODD! Did I mention Seth and I went to breakfast at Snow City, we've reinstitute coffee Friday, ah loved stuffed french toast.

While studying really, really hard.......

While feeling pretty snug about my all Alaskan grown dinner tonight I stumbled upon a cool article in The Daily Beast. The last few mornings I read the laptop news and Seth still struggles through the Daily Snooze. We tried to one up each other, did ADN mention Pago Pago? He can topple me with local news though. Tonight while trying to read real news a good article was found, stories of women who inspired famous songs, you listen to the song and read about short marriages, transsexuals, and Kennedy children who inspired the Beatles, Bowie, Clapton, the Kinks even newer bands, it's not about the crisis in Sumatra but after a long day it slides down just right with odd meatloaf and over cooked brussel sprouts.

I will never think of Sweet Caroline the same, really? He wrote the song about an 11 year old girl in a magazine, just listen to it again than shutter.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-29/the-muses-behind-the-music/#gallery=772;page=8;item=

Should've checked it out earlier

Well tonight Seth and I found time to check out Alaska Dispatch and it was well worth it. Aunt Bonnie told me about it several times so now I am hooked, all the old writers from Anchorage Daily Drivel but with color pictures! Seth Kanters latest story about Caribou hunting is eye opening. For for those of you (who you are I never am quite sure) who haven't heard of him, Seth lives above Kotezebu with only a 12 volt battery, their house is insulated with tundra moss. I think we sent you his first book, "Ordinary Wolfs" Melissa and Gail.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/features/outdoors/2067-hunting-caribou

Cozy and smug

I know that fire places are not that interesting but once you start to look for the right one realize there are a lot out there. Instead of tiling which we have been thinking of forever, Seth drew up the specs for a metal surround. Three weeks later we carried it in and ta da, done. It should be screwed on eventually but gosh boy, it looks just fine.

With the first snow sticking to the mountains and frosts setting in the fire place will really start to come in handy. The power bill is now 1/2 what is used to be, the remodel was worth it and now we burn the old wood from the living room to heat the house, huh, I am feeling very smug. Even smugger still that Seth loves his job, I am still loving mine and Mom is coming to visit in a week.

Above is a not flattering picture of the metal fireplace surround and Emily and Brandon bonding.
Hello to Emily, our reader in France! oh my. It is Fire Island bakery your mom likes Emily, I do too. Dad thinks it's too spendy but with the location, natural and when you can local ingredients, hard to beet. I love their peanut butter cookie sandwich with peanut butter ganache, I don't even like peanut butter, ah!! Seth just got home from work, he reports Fire Island sandwiches are $10.00 sandwiches, at Cafe Amsterdam they are 12.00 and not organic.

Swine Flue or H1N1 as I like to call it has hit Anchorage Schools. At least 5 to 6 students out in each class, up to 11 at my other school. No less than 3 teachers out each day, and soon it is going to be me. Feeling terrible and teaching 28 3rd graders how to paint is like a special kind of hellish headache you can't shake, luckily when your head feels like it is in a bubble you can hardly hear the kids.

view from the window

One might feel that this picture would explain why you would want to lay on our couch after a long day of work.

beautiful sunny day

Friday was sunny, met with friends at a great birthday party.
Saturday morning when the alarm didn't go off on time at 6 am, not so pleasant. Dropped Seth and Pat at the airport, had a cup of coffee at a favorite coffee shop while waiting for my next meeting and wondered why it was all men in there at 7 am?

Kincaid Elementary fun run was beautiful and sunny, watching the small children either cry or laugh all the way around the course was great times. Hit up the farmers market than mowed the lawn and cleaned-up vegetable beds, it was sunny enough to take off the jacket, where are we living anyways? So nice. Met the fam for dinner and than all the women to Lion King, so cool! Amazing costumes, they just kept coming on with new ones!

Early Sunday morning to the blood bank to be brooded over, what to do with small veins, just stick her harder seemed to be the answer.

Now to make jam and meet Ash and Caroline at Pho Lena, ah looking back on this dribble it was a great weekend, it is always a great weekend when you have loving friends and family.

I am thinking of Halloween costumes for Melissa now as well. You know how there is often a spike of hair standing on top of Seth's head? Even in the swimming pool? I suggested he be Pervert Herman, at first maybe he was offended than started to practice his laugh and walk.