Costco + Tempura = Yum!

On our last visit to Costco, Emily and I saw a bag of tempura batter mix. This item intrigued us, so we decided to buy it. On Saturday night we decided to try it out. We borrowed our roommate's giant wok, poured in 2 inches of oil, and cut up an onion, sweet potato, some broccoli, some asparagus, and some fish, and created a deep-fried feast. As far as tempura goes, it wasn't that great. But for a deep-frying food batter, it was fantastic. Definitely worth experimenting with.

Hannah on Millionaire???

Since I'm unemployed, I get to watch 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' on syndication at 4pm everyday. So I had it on in the background on Friday, and the contestant looked like a dead ringer for Hannah. I knew she was in NYC for the week, so I thought that there was a chance that it could be her. It ended up being a lady from Oklahoma, and she said that her Mom really wanted to marry her off. Check out the pics yourself and see if she looks like Hannah.

A reason to wake up

Today was a great day, because at long last, I had my first job interview in Alaska! It was with the Department of Public Safety, at the Alaska State Crime Lab. The position is a forensic scientist, working with the DNA unit. My interview was at 9am, but I was up before 7. I took a shower and put on my suit and tie (minus the jacket), and was all ready to go by 7:15. Too bad Emily and I weren't leaving for more than an hour. I was pretty nervous, so I didn't eat any breakfast, and I watched an episode of LOST to try and calm me down. It didn't work too well.

We finally left, and I dropped Emily off at her work and then drove to the interview. I was parked by 8:35, but didn't want to seem too eager so I stayed in my car until 8:45. I met with two very nice ladies, Jill and Michelle, and they conducted the interview.

It was one of the oddest interviews I've ever had. They gave me a piece of laminated paper that had 9 questions on it. They told me to look it over, get some ideas, and then tell them when I was ready to start. Most of the questions weren't really about qualifications or skills, but were situational. Here are some examples:

-If a co-worker was listening to a talk-radio station in the lab that you found offensive, how would you respond?
-You always walk into a room and find two co-workers talking badly about a third co-worker. What would you do?

Kind of weird if you ask me. The interview barely lasted 45 minutes, but I think it went really well. There are 3 positions open, so hopefully I'll get a call back in a few weeks!

Dirty Little Banjo

Now that the temperature has been warming up a little, there's a lot more water on the streets and the walking trails. And there is a lot of dirty floating around, too. All of these things don't mix too well with a young golden-doodle puppy. Hence, we have to give him lots of baths. He looks rather pathetic when his fur is all wet, as you can see.

Snow-shoeing with 5

On Saturday, Emily and I took a road trip to Girdwood with Banjo, Jared and Kari (Jared and Kari are pretty much the only friends that I've made outside the home). We went down to go snow-shoeing. We actually went on the same trail and Emily and I hiked on our anniversary back in September. It was cool to hike the same place twice in two different seasons.

The snow-shoes weren't completely necessary, but fun to walk in. I think Emily liked them because she could walked pretty much the whole time off the trail. And she could scale the giant snow hills that we encountered along the way. Banjo enjoyed jumping around in the snow as well, and we kept most of the giant snowballs off of his fur.

More snow-shoeing pics

Here are a few more pictures from our weekend trip.

The Solution for Banjo's (Snow) Balls

Check out these pictures of Banjo.

Emily wants to reiterate the idea that I'm a big dork. Go figure.

The stupidist government ever

Yesterday I got a social security report in the mail that listed a summary of my earnings. For a number of the years it listed "0" for my annual income even though I had worked. At the bottom of the report it said to call the social security office immediately if there was a discrepancy. So, today I gave them a call. After 10 minutes of talking to a voice recognition computer person who couldn't seem to get that I was saying Lorimer, not Lorinure, I got through to someone. I told him the problem and he says, oh you will need to go to the social security office and tell them. I got mad and asked him why it said to call him, and he just laughed. Then I asked where I could find the location of the nearest social security office. He told me he could help me with that, so I gave him my zip code. But, apparently my zip code wasn't specific enough so I gave him my state. Then he listed a number of cities: Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks. I responded Anchorage, and paused for the location. HIs response: "Okay Anchorage. That is where you go." My response, "I'm sure glad I wasted the last 15 minutes of my life talking to you morons. Now I know exactly what to do."

I'm beginning to see a theme with government workers. We have a new employee in our unit, but there wasn't an office space in the suite for her so her task for the last 3 days was to determine how to move people around in the offices to make things work. The simple solution would have been to swap offices between 2 people, but instead she concocted a plan that involved 5 people moving office, with one of them dividing his confidential files between 3 places. I sure am glad my taxes go to such competent workers. And don't forget the Claves of the world (competent for a few hours, then off to go play).

Run, run, run

We had a fairly pedestrian weekend. The highlight of the day on Saturday was going out to refill Emily's Vitamin D pills. And making hamburgers (I sure love hamburgers). Sunday we took Banjo for a walk at a dog park, but kept the leash on. We had some Quizno's for lunch, and then I had the draft for my Imaginary Baseball Team (go Artic Banjo's!). Emily worked on a knitting a bear for yet another pregnant co-worker. Except I think this co-worker already gave birth.

We did have one Alaskan first - we went running! Not only that, but we took Not-so-Little Banjo with us. We had a good run to the lagoon and back.

Today I was pretty stoked because I received my bonus check from Amgen for 2007. It's pretty nice when you're unemployed, but you can still contribute to the family income. Maybe now we can spring for that HD cable!

Pet ER

We had some excitement yesterday---with Rio, not Banjo. We left Rio at home while we took Banjo for his walk afterwork. And she got us back by breaking into my bottle of Vitamin D. We get home and I find the lid all chewed up and the bottle on the floor. Fortunately she chewed it up so much that she wasn't able to get too many of the pills out, because it was squeazed shut. But the vet thought that it was still enough for concern. (Apparently Vitamin D is used in rat poison....and why am I taking this?) So she wanted us to make her vomit asap, but since we didn't have anything in the house to do that beside a finger, we had to rush her off to the vet emergency. They gave her a shot to empty her stomach and then they force fed her this black gooey charcoal substance to try and bind to any of the remaining vitamin that might have been left in her intestines. The problem with vitamin d is that it help your body to absorb calcium---which is why it is a good thing in small doses. However, in large doses, you have rat poison. So to follow up, Rio has to have blood work done for the next few days to ensure that her calcium levels are normal. (Today she was fine.)

To add insult to injury that same day Matt's man-purse was stolen from his car. It had his phone and ipod, and a bunch of other stuff. And then today Matt went out to the parking lot afterwork to go home, and his truck was stolen! Hopefully his bad luck won't rub off on us.

Weekend Activities

On Saturday Emily and I drove about an hour south of Anchorage to go snow shoeing. We stumbled upon this place when we got lost looking for Portage Lake when Calvin and Ruth were here. It was a little nasty out - snow and rain - and we took Banjo with us. When we pulled over and started our trek, we realized that the only people who were there were doing backcountry skiing. So we walked where the ski trail was. Even though we had our snow shoes on the trail, our feet would still go down up to our knees sometimes. And off the trail, it would go up to our waists. It was a fun little walk, and Banjo had a blast, even though he accumulated about a thousand little snowball all on his fur.

Saturday night we went to see and hear The Sounds of the 60's. It was put on by the chorus that Margaret from my work is in (we felt pressured into going), but it was pretty good. Margaret promised a "big surprise" in the show, but we're still not quite sure what that was. The evening was completed with some interpretive dance to jesus christ super star. On our way out of the theater we crossed paths with all of the folks getting out of the body building championship, which was held in the same building. It was a much different crowd from all of the middle aged folks dressed in tie dye.

Sunday was a pretty mundane day. We spent most of the morning organizing the storage areas and throwing out all of the crap Meghan left. Then we went down to the Dimond mall to get Neil a belt for his interview, and to look for some clothes for me (this grey dirty melting snow is slowly sucking my soul--that's a quote from one of Neil's friend's who moved to Anchorage for a few years), but I was sick of all of the sweaters and needed a little pick me up. On our way to Dimond we stopped at Costco, which is right across the street to get a frapaccino. We also ended up getting our own membership, because we decided we wanted to get the credit card. For signing up we also got to spin the wheel for a prize. We won a free combo pizza (to be redeemed at a later date). We've been really into watching the "Newly Weds" on tv. It's a reality show about newly weds (go figure). There's a barby/ken couple on it that I really want to get voted off, but instead all of the cool couples keep getting voted off. I'm still holding out for the "amazing race."

Matt has a girl friend now. She is from the midwest and works at REI with him. He's not sure how long it's going to last though, because she actually likes our president and is a big proponent of the war.

Apparently there is a server error on Google that won't let us post up the pictures. We'll put them up later.

Iditarod Movies

This video is of the dogs mushing right by us.

Iditarod 2008 - Willow, AK

Whoo-hoo! Here's Neil at the start of the 1049 mile race.



Here come the dogs right out the shoot!



Here is Emily on hill. Check out everyone behind her.



Look at all of the beautiful dogs. They're so close!

Today Emily and I journeyed 75 miles north today for the REAL start of the 2008 Iditarod race from Willow to Nome. The race is 1049 miles. There was a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage yesterday, but we didn't go. The drive up was beautiful. It took awhile for us to realize that something was odd - there was no snow anywhere! It was a stark contrast to driving around Anchorage for the last month. But once we arrived in Willow, there was plenty of snow everywhere. We parked for $9 at a school, but it went to the PTA fund so we felt good. We both grabbed a quick Reindeer Dog before heading to the start line. It was the worst dog I've ever eaten in my entire life. The skin was so tough, I was halfway through the dog before I could actually put my teeth all the way through it.

There were a lot of people lined up on both sides of the course. It spanned all the way across a frozen lake, and then up a little hill. Emily and I made our ways from the start and towards the hill during the race. We stayed for about 47 mushers' starts (those are the people who are riding the sleds), but there were probably over 55 mushers overall. The whole thing seemed like a true Alaskan experience. There were people zooming all over the place with their snow machines. Lot's of people were "tailgating" with fires on the snow and meatballs on sticks. It was a great day and a fun drive.

It's Official

I am now officially a resident of the State of Alaska! I went to the DMV today right when it opened at 10. I took the driving test on a new-fangled touch screen computer (I took my first written test the old fashioned way - with paper and a pencil). Since I looked over the Alaska Driver's Manual on-line in the morning, I new about their point system for driving offenses, and was got 16 out of 16 questions right (compared to someone who had to take the test twice - but we won't mention her by name).

That other picture is what I look like with the gifts that Stuart gave me at my farewell party. I don't know which picture I look scarier in - my driver's license or my new mask.

More Rondy weekend pics

Here are some more pictures from the weekend. We all had a great time. We have an extra room for anyone else who wants to come and visit!

Fun at Fur Rondy

The Fur Rondy parade was like a small town parade, but a little bigger.  One of the highlights for Neil was the Star Wars characters.  Other main attractions included a high school marching band, which was one of the first times they had one in the parade.  The owner of the B&B told us that marching bands are not too common because of the cost of the instruments and the difficulty of practicing marching in the cold.  Another new attraction was the Fur Rondy princesses, which they haven't had for a while.  It used to be that the person who sold the most tickets became the princess.

There were also snow sculptures, dog sled races, ice bowling,and running of the reindeer, which was like running of the bulls. Fortunately no one got gored by reindeer antlers.

On Sunday we drove to Portage Lake and Glacier.  It's about 45 miles south of Anchorage.  We missed the turn  and went through Turnagain Pass, which was at the treeline. Everything was pure white.  At the lake, we took a little walk, which was quite pleasant in the sun, eventhough it was only in the 20's.  Of course I had on my thermals, Cowichian sweater that Ruth made about 30 years ago & my coat & funny hat.  Banjo was wearing his snow booties.

For dinner we went to the Beartooth Pizza house where you could have pizza in a private booth while you watched the movie.  We saw The Great Debaters (not Hillary & Barak).

They just took Banjo to the vet because he has guiardia, which causes stomach problems.  You don't want to know how we knew he had this problem.

I'm working a summer trip to do a little clamming & fishing.  When we do, I'll make another post.

Calvin

Fur Rondy

Test

This me with Melvin's stylin' hat. I stand out in a crowd.

Swimming Baby President's Weekend

On Thursday Neil and I went to the "broadway" showing of Hairspray. It was really good! I loved it, and I think Neil did too. The dancing was great and it seemed like everyone in the show was having a really great time. It made me want to get the sound track.

Last night we went to my swim club's holiday party. They ordered a bunch of moose's tooth pizzas and salads. It was pretty fun. I'd never seen half of them with clothes on before, so it was nice to talk with them. They had silly awards and stuff. Neil said he had fun hanging out with all of the middle aged women.

Today was Sophie's baby shower. I made auntie ellen's mint brownies, which were a hit of course. And everyone loved the little sweater I'd knit for the baby. One lady said that I'd make her grandmother proud.

Anchorage Jail

So, the other morning at work I get this automated call from the Anchorage jail. An inmate would like to speak with me and I have the option of accepting the free call or declining. I was perplexed by the whole thing so I just hung up. Then a few minutes later I got another call. It was the same thing. Pretty strange. I'm hoping it was the wrong number.

Tonight Neil and I went skiing! We got some classic skis at the big REI sale on Monday and took them out for their first trip. We got off to somewhat of a rocky start, when I couldn't figure out how my bindings worked. I thought they were automatic ones that I just had to step into, but it turned out there was a little lever I had to lift up first. Luckily REI is only a few blocks away from our house, so we went up there to ask the guy who they worked. Skiing was great fun. The trail is well lit so even though it was pitch black out we were able to go. We both got really hot. Neil says we're having a heat wave, because it's the first time in the last few weeks that it's been above 20 degrees.

I keep trying to post some pictures, but for some reason the site is having problems uploading the photos. We got our hats from Uncle Melvin last week and they're pretty cool. Neil looks like a dirty hippy though.

A turd sandwich

This is Neil. Apparently I need to identify myself when I write a blog. So Emily and I took Banjo on a big walk today to the frozen lagoon that's a skating rink. Banjo liked to bound in the snow that covered the lake. After we got back, we let Banjo and Rio (the other dog that lives here) out in our backyard to run around. When I let them back in, Rio had what looked like a stick in her mouth. Then Banjo wrestled it away from her, and took it to his dogbed. I thought the stick looked a little funny, and after further inspection by Emily, it turned out to be a turd sandwich. Yes, Rio took a chunk of frozen dog poo and brought it back inside our house. Needless to say, Emily shooed Banjo outside quickly so he could take it back there.

After the drama, Emily and I went to the Bear Tooth Theature and Pud to watch Enchanted. I was surprised that it was a pretty enjoyable movie. Emily and I got burritos for dinner and shared a giant piece of ice cream pie. Yummie!

I'm a failure

So for weeks I've been looking forward to the big caucus. Today instead of caucusing I sat in traffic for over an hour and a half. Margaret and I left right after work to drive to the caucus site (there was only one for the entire Anchorage area), but the traffic was just gridlock. So we didn't even make it to the middle school where it was located. By 6:30 we were still a few miles away and the doors closed at 6pm. The only plus side is that Margaret was going to vote for Hillary, so in the end we probably canceled each other out, because i think we're in the same precinct.

It's been extremely cold here these past few days. Last night I took Banjo for a walk, and I managed to stay pretty warm in Katie's giant sleeping bag coat and Neil's face mask, but the steam from my breath caused my glasses to steam up and then freeze. My eye lashes also froze together. Now that's pretty cold. Banjo was a trooper though. Even when we had back track 4 blocks to find his missing booty he kept on trucking.

Arctic Investigations

These past few days at work I've been helping out with a study for the Arctic Investigations Program. We hang out in this pediatrician's office and recruit kids to enroll in the study. It's fairly painless. Their parent completes a short questionnaire and then they get a q-tip shoved up their nose to check to see if they have a pnuemo germ up there. Then in return they get $25. The enrollment is somewhat boring--although it's fun to be out of the office and talking to people. But they've guaranteed me that if I help out with recruitment here in town I can go out to the villages with them while they do the study there. Here in Anchorage we only accept kids 3 months to <5 years old. But in the villages the whole family can enroll. Apparently it gets pretty crazy, which is why they like for you to practice in the slower paced environment first.

Skate skiing

This morning at swimming I got to test out my new goggles. They aren't prescription, but they are close enough to my glasses that I'm able to see the tiles on the bottom of the pool, and the clock. I felt ever so enlightened. After swimming I went over to REI to rent some skate skis. Brad offered to teach Jared and Kari how to use them, so I tagged along for a free lesson. It was pretty fun. Although I'll need a few more tries before I don't feel completely uncoordinated and awkward blazing down the trail. I have the skis until tomorrow at 6, so I think I'll take them out for another round tomorrow with banjo. Tomorrow is the Ski for Women--a 5K ski race for women (apparently it's to get them out of the house during the super bowl (which happens to be the day with the greatest incidence of domestic violence. Too much testosterone I suppose.)

Banjo now has his own snow gear. We got him some red boots that have a rubber bottom on them so that his paws are protected from the cold (It's been pretty cold here these past few days. I think it was -1 when we took him out for a test.) It's pretty funny watching him in the shoes. For some reason he thinks that if he picks his legs up really high with each step it will be more comfortable. Rio does the same thing when she wears her boots. Actually, Matt has given up on putting them on her and instead sprays PAM on the bottoms of her feet. We tried it with Banjo, but he just sat there licking them and wouldn't walk anymore. Banjo eventually got used to the boots, although they're a tad too big.

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).