Bad Banjipants

Last night when we took Matt out for his birthday we left the dogs at home. Banjo was in his kennel and Rio was out in the living room. And when we returned we found a little --not so friendly--note taped to our door. Apparently Banjo was pawing at his cage and barking a lot while we were gone. And apparently our neighbor downstairs likes to go to bed really early (directly under Banjo's kennel). So she wasn't too happy about that. In Clinton Court we lived below a girl who wore steal toed marching boots, so I know how annoying it can be to have a noisy neighbor. HOpefully Banjo will be better next time if we also put Rio in her cage. Otherwise, maybe we'll try moving his kennel. Silly Banjo.

Being sick in Alaska (by Neil)

So it took Neil a whopping three days before he got sick. He probably picked up a bug on the plane when he flew up. We went to the doctor on Friday so he could get a nebulizer treatment (the Dr. was really nice, but like 105 years old). And he gave Neil some pills to boot.

It seemed that Emily caught Neil's cold on Saturday, but my Sunday both of us were feeling better, so we went out to Value Village to look for a bigger food bowl for Banjo and to check things out. Turns out the VV is way cooler and bigger in Seattle, go figure. Then we walked around a Bed, Bath and Beyond and grabbed a hot drink before we headed home to celebrate our roommate Matt's birthday.

Matt turned 29 on Sunday so we took to out to the Moose's Tooth Pizza and Pub, one of our favorites. We had a grand time eating drinking pitchers of beer, eating our chicken, bacon, cream cream, roasted garlic, red onion, and spinach pizza, and concocting a way for Matt to leave his phone number for the waitress.

Who's who?

It's getting tricky to tell which one's the dog and which one is my husband.

A slippery slope

On MLK day we were invited to my co-worker, Yvonne’s home for dinner. She was making pot stickers and her daughters and cousin came too. She lived out in the Rabbit Creek area, which is up in the hills overlooking the sound. And all the houses were really big and fancy. On our way there, we got slightly lost (apparently the turn off we were looking for didn’t have a sign labeling the street), so we ended up heading down this “no outlet” road with a giant ravine on the right hand side. Ooops, not a good idea on a day when the temperature had warmed up some to melt the snow just enough for it to turn to a humongous sheet of ice. So we drove along, until it became apparent that there was no outlet. And, when we tried to start again, it became apparent that we were driving on a sheet of ice. Neil got out of the car and started slipping around. I thought he was trying to be funny, but it really was that slippery. We had to end up calling Yvonne. She brought her whole family to come help push. Except it was too slippery for anyone to get their footing, so Neil ended up slowly backing the car down the hill until he reached a driveway to turn around in. It was quite an adventure, but in the end we had a good time at dinner. The pot stickers were tasty.

We're Alaskans

Today was Neil and Banjo's first day as Alaskans. After a very long flight (which was delayed over an hour), Neil and Banjo made it here. Of course when the lady brought out the cages from the cargo hold one cage was shaking and barking (that cage being Banjo). Boy was he excited to see people.

Banjo is loving having a younger pal around to play with. He and Rio race around in the backyard. Rio is much faster though and shows her dominance by tackling Banjo into the snow.

Banjo seems to love playing in the snow. He travels off the path to leap and bound through the snow (which could well burry him). His hair seems to keep him quite warm, although it collects tons of balls of snow all under his belly and on the backs of his legs.

Tonight we ordered Thai food and watched the season finale of the Amazing Race. (It culminated in Anchorage coincidently.) The restaurant was voted numerous years as Anchorage's best Thai restaurant--but, there are only about 3 in town. And this one wasn't too hot.

Up before the crack of dawn

Last night I went to the Anchorage Folk Festival. It was like a scaled down version of Folklife. We heard a few local bands of varying talent (including a group of senior citizens who were into "clogging". (All I can say is, at least they enjoyed themselves.) They were like tap dancers. It was pretty funny. The final band of the night was a band brought in from San Francisco--The Stairwell Sisters. They were really good! One of the band members "clogged to a few songs, and her clogging was pretty cool. It was like a more folk-d-fied version of Lord of the Dance. Any how, they were great performers, and one of the things they said was how they'd been working till the crack of dawn (meaning since 10 am).

Only a few hours till the boys get here!

Back in business

Well, after a long span of no internet, I'm finally re-wired! Our apartment is still pretty desolate ever since Meghan left, but now that I'm reconnected to the world I think I'll work on getting a few chairs and things. I am enjoying using her old bedroom--it's more than twice the size of my previous room!

I'll post some pictures soon. Today I took a few pictures of a moose eating snow in our yard. There's plenty of snow around town, and it's been really cold, so I don't think it's going to melt anytime soon. I heard today that with the wind chill it was -15F in Anchorage. Needless to say it's not too encouraging of an environment to go outside, even though playing in the snow is always a fun option.

Today I created a profile on the Barack Obama website. The new direction of campaigns is pretty cool. I tried to download free Obama ringtone, but I'm apparently I'm not that tech-savy. On the website I found a posting for an organizing event this Wednesday, so I think I'll go after work and check it out.

Only 5 more days until Neil and Banjo move up! I suppose I should try and enjoy the calm before the storm.

What gives?

I move up to Alaska---where we currently have only big patches of ice, and then it snows in Seattle. Sheesh. Here are some pictures of our son's first steps, pee, and play in the snow. I think he's going to enjoy Anchorage (if we ever get any snow).

Today the Native Heritage Center had a craft bazar. It was pretty neat. There were lot's of carved whale baleen, walrus ivory, and even a doll made of walrus bladder (apparently the stuff is really water proof--it's also used to make rain coats).

Walk up-date

So, every race has to have a loser, and apparently team SHREK took that role for this one. Although I think some walkers weren't really walking, because I've never met anyone who can walk 6.5 miles in 30 minutes. I'm still proud of us for all of our hard work. Yay walking!

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was great! It was fun seeing little Banjo (I'm pretty sure he grew during the short time that I was there.) And traveling over to Spokane on Saturday to see Jimmy and Mary's wedding. It was a really fun reception--complete with the filipino national dance---the electric slide.

Then we rushed home for the big race on Sunday. We had perfect weather for the event. And it was fun to explore the city on foot. I'd have to say I've never walked 13 miles around seattle before. And I think team SHREK won the prize for being the slowest half marathoners of the event. While we were walking through the I-90 tunnel the police and another car were right on our tail making sure the road was clear so that they could open up the road to traffic. They were packing up the water station and the sanicans as we walked past. Nonetheless we had a great time. Next year I think I'll try to run it.

RIP Yuniesky

So, I recant my previous statement about Banjo being our first child. I forgot about our dwarf hamster Yuniesky. It seems that Neil also had forgotten about him, because when I went home for Thanksgiving I discovered him dead in his cage (the hamster that is). No one knows how long he'd been dead, but he was pretty cold and stiff and smelled bad. Poor little hamster. We got Yuniesky one night while we were walking along eastlake. He was sitting out in his cage in front of a restaurant with a sign that said he was free to a good home. His owner no longer wanted him. He was a cute little guy and liked running in his ball. Hopefully we have more luck with Banjo. (By the way he is the cutest dog ever!!! and quite smart too.)

We're Parents!!

Yesterday Neil chose the newest member of our family! He's a golden doodle, and just about the cutest puppy I've ever seen (although I may be a little biased). He's currently still living with the breeder, but as of Sunday he'll get to come home, just in time for me to come home. Does anyone have any name suggestions? We're currently calling him Banjo, although Jasmine, his breeder mother previously called him Sugs.

Winter's here!

It's been snowing up a storm here! I took Rio for a walk yesterday along the trail and she had accumulated tons of snow balls in her fur. There were already a few people out skiing along the trail. It made me excited to get some skis!

Refugee Nation

This Saturday I went to a play that a coworker was recruiting people to see. It was about the Lao-American community in the US, and their stories. Apparently there are around 2,000 Hmong in Anchorage. So these three people have been working on developing this project where they travel around and talk to Lao refugees and incorporate their stories into the play. It was somewhat interesting, but I thought the stories seemed pretty typical of immigrant groups. And they painted a picture that made it seem as though no one in America knows that Laos is a country or where it is. Maybe I was too critical, because everyone in the audience really liked the show and gave it a standing ovation.

Sledding fun

Neil visited this weekend. We took a trip to Flattop to play in the snow. Even though it dips into the 20's each night Anchorage still hasn't seen much snow since the first snowfall that melted a week or so ago. We bought our first snow gear (the plastic sleds) and headed up the hill for some sledding fun.

Moose in the driveway

Note to self: When there are two moose in the driveway, stay in the car until they leave. Getting out of the car only causes the moose to charge.

These pictures aren't the greatest quality. But if you look closely you can see one of the moose that was in my front yard.

wildlife encounters

So I thought I'd share a call that was received at the health department. (Every time there is a suspected rabies contact the public can call in to this hotline that the public health nurses take turns answering.) Earlier this week they received a call from a woman who was out walking her dog in Eagle River (a suburb of Anchorage), when she was shocked by a sharp pain to the buttocks. It turned out that a mom grizzly bear was out walking with her cubs and she decided it would be fun to take a nip. (This story reminds me of grandma's encounter with the dog.) So they were calling in to see whether or not she was at risk for rabies.

Being that the only other news in Alaska is the corrupt government officials, the lady's story made it onto the front page of the newspaper. And no, she didn't need to get a rabies vaccine.

By the way, I had my first moose-in-the-city encounter the other day. I was hopping in my car to go to swimming and the next door neighbors had three moose chilling out in their yard nibbling on a tree. It was quite a shock to see. I think it was a mom and two calves.

Perhaps I was spoiled with all the nice Seattle weather

My weekend in Seattle was great! We had nice warm weather--perfect for a corn maze and it was fun to see everyone. Upon returning to Anchorage, my system was in for a little shock. It finally snowed! So, after I returned to my car I spent the next 10 minutes scraping off all of the snow and ice that had accumulated on the car (the only problem is that with the explorer I can't reach to the center of the car so about a food of the windshield always remains icy.)

Today at work I went on a little field trip, which was pretty interesting. We got to tour the PICU at Providence hospital. It was pretty neat, because all of the walls, including ceilings, were painted with murals of Alaskan scenery. Each wing had a different theme. My favorite was the underwater wing where the ceiling had the bottom of a kayak and a bunch of fish.

We also heard about a number of the patients there. This one infant was in an iron lung. (At an urban hospital they would have simply put him on a ventilator and sent him home until his lungs matured enough to breath on his own, however, because he lives in the bush, where electricity isn't predictable, he was kept in this archaic bubble.) From what I could tell his family has returned home to their village and he has been living in the contraption for the last 6 months of his life. Medicaid has run out so the hospital is keeping him there out-of-pocket. There are so many issues in rural health care that you'd never think about when serving an urban population.

Happy Alaska Day!

I don't have anything exciting to report...except that today is Alaska Day. All state workers got the day off to celebrate the state joining the union. The day seemed a little less exciting than the celebrations of statehood in Ecuador, however: no week long parties or party buses cruising the streets. I, perhaps not yet a true Alaskan, went in to work so that I could squirrel away my day off for a long, 4-day weekend. I found a cheap red eye Saturday morning so, I'm headed to Seattle through Tuesday. Yay!

Today I registered to vote in Alaska. I'm thinking that this red state needs a little more help than King county. Today I also learned on the internet that the names Emily and Hannah are top baby names in red states, while Sarah and Katherine are more popular among the democrats. You can learn a lot while you're bored at work.

Watch out Yarn Harlot!

This weekend has been pretty low key (read: boring). But I did manage to finish the hats that I was making for the Westfahl kids. They're pretty cute if I do say so myself, although a true yarn harlot may be able to note a few mistakes. If it were socially acceptable perhaps I'd make myself a larger version to wear around the office.

I registered for the 1/2 marathon walk today. Fortunately for me, with my car on the fritz I've had lot's of training walking from place to place. It should be pretty fun. So far Haru, Ruta and I are doing it. I'm thinking we should pull together some sort of costume to wear. We'll go by H.E.R. or if we're able to talk Sarah and Katie into doing, SHERK sounds pretty cool.

I drove with Meghan to drop off the recycling and it was snowing quite a bit over there. But, still no snow on the west side of town. The weather reporter was complaining that the weather gods mistook Anchorage for Seattle, because it's been pretty rainy all weekend. Why does Seattle get such a bad wrap?