Just For the Halibut

At $15 per pound we got about $1,300 worth of halibut.  The experience, priceless.  We had a lot of fun.  We were quite worried about getting sea sick & took dramamine before we left.  The dramamine made us pretty sleepy.  Whenever we were motoring to the next location, we were all asleep.  The water was like glass & the weather was pretty decent.  We got our limit of two each.  We released a number of smaller ones.  Smaller being I would guess less than 15 pounds.  The biggest one was about 28 pounds, although I thought my last one was going to be huge.  The fish took the line out of the reel & was moving me around the boat.  My arms were getting tired & I was about ready to ask for help.  When the fish came up, it was about the same size as the others, but apparently it was good entertainment.  As you can see from Emily struggling to lift the fish, they were pretty heavy, although they were no where near the record of over 300 pounds.  Although, Jacob who lifts weights didn't seem to have any problem.  Tomorrow is our last day.  We are planning on going on a hike in the city.  We may do it again next year.  Guest contributor:  Calvin.

Born On the 4th of July

Being in Homer did not stop Neil from celebrating his birthday in the traditional way.  If you thought the Friday Harbor parade was small time, you haven't seen Homer's.  One of the highlights was the belly dancers and the people walking their dogs.  At one time I thought 28 was pretty old.  Now I'm twice as old as Neil.  We went clam digging at Ninilchik.  Nilnilchik is a Russian word, but I forget what it means.  There were several Russian villages in the area.  As you can see we got a lot of clams.  The last time Neil went in Washington, he didn't get any.  He made up for it this time.  We had clams for dinner & clam jook for breakfast.  We froze the rest and are bringing them home.  There were blue lupines everywhere.  Tonight we are staying in the lupine room in a B&B called fireweed.

There's No Place Like Home(r)

No, we really didn't come to Alaska just for the halibut.  Ruth & Grandma came up last Tuesday.  Emily took off work & showed them some of the sights, including Flatop Mt. where they saw a moose & the museums.  The rest of us came up on July 3.  The first picture is Portage Lake.  Last winter we took a picture at the same location.  Hannah thought the trailer hitch balls were interesting.  We saw those in Soldatna, where we had lunch.  Our place in Homer, Jenny Lane Cottage was perfect.  It was located on a cliff above Kachemak bay, as you can see from the picture of Jacob climbing up.  One evening while we were walking on the beach about a mile from the cottage, Jacob & Neil decided to climb back up the cliff.  The rest of us got back & we were wondering where they were.  It was starting to get a little dark around 11:30 & some of us were getting a little worried & went out looking for them.  Turns out they couldn't find the rope & walked about a mile past our place.  (To be continued)

A mousy treat

I am absolutely disgusted. This evening we took Banjo for a walk. When we arrived back home Banjo was munching on something, which I thought was wood. But, when I reached in to take it out I noticed it had a tail. It was a dead crunchy mouse. I scrubbed my hands with soap and water and then used a lysol wipe just to be safe. Gross!

Bird Ridge

Today we hiked up to Bird Ridge, which is just south of town. It was more like a workout than a hike. The first two miles you gain 3,400 feet in elevation. We had to keep stopping, because Neil's legs were too week. Banjo was a good hiker though. At the top there was still a few berms of snow. He went crazy and was running up and down as though he hadn't been hiking for the past 2 hours. We felt quite week, because there were a number of 70 year olds who either passed us or were on their way down. They didn't even appear as though they were hiking up the face of a mounting. It was a pretty beautiful hike though. We could look out over over Cook Inlet, and there seemed to be three bald eagles that liked to swarm over us (perhaps waiting for us to keel over so that they'd have a free meal.)

On our way home we stopped off for some Mexican food. It was pretty tasty. And we picked up some lamb puppy food for Banjo (apparently you're supposed to rotate the protein source of your dog's food every bag of food.) I also got Banjo the world's largest rawhide bone as a treat for being such a good hiker. The tag next to the bin said $6, but apparently that was for a different bone. His bone was $17. Banjo's such a spoiled puppy.

Pro Choice BBQ

Yesterday we went to a Planned Parenthood fundraiser barbecue. One of my friends from swimming is the public relations person for planned parenthood of Alaska and they're trying to start this thing where anyone can host a fundraiser barbecue. It was pretty fun. We played a little bocce ball, and met some interesting people---and all for a good cause. The state representative for our neighborhood, and this really weird nerdy guy who is running state senate. He was pretty good at bocce ball tough. I think it would be fun to do a similar thing to raise money for Obama.

Happy Solstice Birthday!

Clave always celebrates his birthday on the longest day of the year. This year we celebrated it in Alaskan style by going camping. Of course, there was no need for flashlights.

We went about 45 minutes outside of town to Lake Eklutna in the Chugach State park. Jared had gone earlier to stake us out a spot. And it was good he did so, because the camp ground was full by the time we got there. We camped next to Tracy, an old free spirit. She has a tradition of drinking and eating special brownies each year to bring in the solstice. She was pretty freindly though and regaled stories about grabbing other women's boobs at bars, and an internet friend that she made who was in a wheel chair, and would sling her bag of pee at people when she got rowdy.

Neil and I made potatoes and chilli for dinner, and I had the obligatory s'more and some peach pie that I made with the little pocket cookers over the fire. It was a lot of fun. We hung out around the fire until around 1 in the morning, and it was still quite light when we went to bed. (The first picture was taken at midnight without a flash--which is why it's a bit blurry)

THis was also Banjo's first camping trip, so he celebrated by eating all of the sticks and bark he could find (which was a lot). Then at night when we went to bed with Banjo in the tent he decided to barf all over my sleeping mat and the bottom of the tent. It was quite gross. I used Neil's shirt to clean it up, but one wasn't enough. So, I used his undershirt too. Then in the morning Banjo found the shirts and carried them over to Kari and Jared's tent as a little present.

The lake was really beautiful. We think we want to go back and go kayaking and/or biking.

Happy birthday Clave!

Haru's last day slingin' coffee

Saturday was Hannah's last day as a Starbuck's barista. Of course Emily and I had to go document the momentous event, much to Haru's shagrin. We both got carmel machiatos, hung around, and occasionally annoyed Hannah. It was great fun.

Nert Hoff

Today was Banjo's graduation day of Advanced Puppy Training. We played games with the other dogs (Banjo again was the sit-stay champ - well, co-champ). At the end we received a certificate with the handler's name on it. In this case, that name was Nert Hoff. When I first heard it, I thought Emily had played some mean trick on me while I was in Seattle. But I guess they just couldn't make out my name for some reason. The lady was real nice and offered to make me a new certificate with my REAL name, which she did. So now we have two certificates for Banjo on our fridge, one with each name. NERT!!!!

Back from Denver

The conference in Denver this past week was a lot of fun. The part of Denver that I was in was really nice and pedestrian oriented, and we had great weather (perhaps a little too nice, because I got a bad sun burn). I flew in on Saturday so that I had the whole day to explore. Nicole, the fellow from North Carolina and I walked around town and went to the "People's Fair", which was similar to the Freemont Fair. They also had this really neat street art festival, where they closed down three blocks of street. People had designated plots about 6 by 6 feet where they could do chalk drawings. They were all really good! I wish that I had some of the pictures that Nicole took to post. People had 2 days to finish their works of art and then on Sunday night the street washer came in and cleaned them all off. Some were copies of famous artwork and others were originals. Supposedly anyone who wanted could pay to have a space, but surprisingly everything was really good. They also had a kids area where kids could draw pictures.

The conference itself was pretty interesting. My favorite talks were about an investigation of a measles outbreak on board an international flight, and another study about formeldihide exposure among morgue workers. While I was in Denver I also got to see John from Whitman who I hadn't seen for several years. He was pretty much his same old self.

On Thursday before I flew out I had a chance to do some more exploring, so I went to the art museum. Some of the statues reminded me of ones in the Seattle art museum sculpture park.

Poor little sickie

And I'm not talking about myself. When my lovely wife called me last night from Denver she sounded quite pathetic. She was serverly sick, had terrible shivers, and had a horrible sore throat. She said that if she was back home, she would take the day off of work because she is so sick - and she NEVER takes a day off of work b/c she's sick. I hope she feels better today, and will go back to her room to rest if she needs it.

As for me, the swelling is going down, albeit very slowly (much slower that I would like), but at least it's going down now. I have an appointment with my surgon tomorrw, so it will be nice to see what she says (and to learn if I can start eating scamble-egg type foods now). But the highlight of the day tomorrow will be when Emily finally comes home around 10:30PM or so. Does anyone know when Calvin and Ruth are coming home tomorrow, and who is going to pick them up?

I have received two very nice get well cards from Jeanne, as well as an invitation to go to Boom Noodle sometime. Thank you very much for the cards and kind thoughts Jeanne.

One last thing - Sarah, could you ask your mom is she could make the Chicken in Wine sauce for me on Sunday? I assume that we're gathering at the Locke's Sunday night, and it sure would be nice to eat something that's not soup, applesauce, or Ensure!

Weekend Activities

This weekend I spent mostly recouperating and resting. On Saturday I was able to eat some Cream of Wheat, which was very tasty with the brown sugar. I also had some butternut squash soup, which was also very delious and creamy. I ran a few errands with my folks which got me out of the house, and we walked around the Village for a little while, too. I felt pretty good walking around. I try not to make eye contact with anyone b/c I don't want to freak them out. The only weird thing about walking is that it's kind of a strain to keep my head up b/c my swelling even reaches down to my throat a little. So it's like my body is always trying to pull my head down b/c everything is so taught.

On Sunday I went to see Priceless at the Crest with my parents. The lady from Amilee, Audry Toutau (sp?) is in it. It's a pretty cute movie - she's a gold-digger on the French Riviera, always on the lookout for her next sugar-daddy. I was also able to have a new food first - refried beans. I added a little Cholula to them to give it a little more kick. I am getting better at using a spoon to feed myself with (I use a spoon for my Creme of Wheat and applesauce, too), although I did have a big spill on my sweatshirt.

Tomorrow I'm going get the oil changed in my car and stop off and see Hannah at work (so I can pick up some DVD's to watch). The fun never stops here!

Friday & weight loss

Yesterday was more of the same...but I did get to eat some tomato soup (which was very tasty). You can see how I "eat" all of my food now - with the aid of a syringe. I suck everything up and pop it into my mouth. I think today I might be able to eat some Cream of Wheat and maybe some butternut squash soup. The simple joys of recovering.
My face is still getting a little swollen. Hopefully it will start to get better this weekend.
So this morning I weighed myself before I took my shower. I was 196 pounds the morning of my surgery (with shoes, jeans and clothing). Today when I weighed myself I was 187 pounds. I hardly believed it. Figure my clothing and all was about 4 pounds, I've still lost 5 pounds in 3 days.

Returning from the Hospital

So I returned home from the hospital Thursday afternoon. A little after Dr. Lee came by to check on me, my Mom came by and picked me up. A nice guy with a wheelchair came and picked me up and dropped me off outside where my Mom was waiting with the car. We ended up getting home a little before noon.

I actually had some stuff to "eat" on Thursday. I hit up about 3 vanilla Ensures (which are quite tasty and rich, by the way), a bottle of Gatorade and some beef broth. I actually did't get too hungry, but this morning I am a little. I've aslo been taking my meds - I wash my mouth for 30 seconds 4 times a day with this mouthwash stuff, take some anitbiotics 4 times a day, and I have some "Liquid Hillbilly Heroin" - liquified oxycotin that tastes like cough syrup. I didn't take that until last night around 11 before I went to bed.

During the day I didn't do much but play my Nintendo DS, watch the evening news and a little NBA finals. Then I went to my friends Anthony's and hung out with my friends. We watched Willow. During the movie I started to get a little sleepy (nodding off a few times) and I had a real good and restful nights sleep last night.

I did get to talk to Emily last night before I went to bed. All is well with her, and she's getting ready to fly down to Colorado for a conference tonight. It will be nice when she is here with me on Thursday. I just hope poor Banjo does OK without his folks for about 10 days. (oh, and Emily gave him part of a haircut last night - she has promised pictures later).

The swelling has actually gotten a lot worse today than the past few. The inside of my mouth is so swollen, my inside cheeks push against my rubber bands in my mouth. So I only have a tiny compartment to squeeze in my "food". I also am always wearing my ice pack around my head to help reduce the swelling. And it's hand b/c I can put a tissue under my big lip so it catches my constant drooling.

The rubber bands are off (well, mostly).

My surgon, Dr. Lee, just stopped by to see how I was doing. I still have a ton of swelling, which is why it actually feels like I have an underbite for the first time in my life. But once the swelling goes away, and she does some tricks with the rubber bands, my lower jaw will be pulled back again.

Dr. Lee just took off most of my really tight rubber bands, and just put two on real loosly. I can actually move my jaw up and down a little bit now.

I am waiting for my Mom to pick me up. She should be here around 9:30AM, and then I think we can take off and go home! I need to stop by Haru's and pick up some Battlestar Galactica DVD's from her roomy.

Speical props for Sarah and Katie coming by to visit me last night. They stayed for a few hours, and talked about school to Obama to shared surgery experiences. It was very nice of them to take time out of their day and stop by and cheer me up!

Here I am after I've changed into my swee hospital-issued PJ's.


This is me waiting in my bed right before surgery.


Here I am after it's over - what a swollen face (no, this pic isn't farqd).


Just me and my blood-suction tube. Ruth should really be here doing this for me ;-)

What a day

Here I am recovering in my room.
So I woke up at 4:45AM Seattle time (3:45 Anchorage time). We made it down to the surgery check in by 5:30. I went to my waiting/recovery room, and I was in surgery a little after 7:30AM (they weighed me, and I'm 89.2 Kg, or 196 lbs.). Once I woke up the left side of my jaw HURT. And it keep hurting. They gave me some drugs, but they took a little while to kick in. And not to mention my face felt like it was going to explode b/c it was so swollen. Once I got into my room and the pain meds kicked in I was fine. The only thing is that I have to suction the blood out of my mouth about once a mintue or so. And I have a nice syringe to wash out the blood as well (and I can take a sip every now and then). They shoved a tube down my throat, so my throat is real sore.

My folks are here now. My Mom was with me most of the day, and my Mom and Dad came back around 6. I have spent all day playing my new video game, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (good thing Emily isn't here or she'd kill me. Also good she's not here b/c I look so damn pathetic). My lower lip is super swollen and numb as well. I'll try and get some pics on soon.

I am in room Room 204, 2-SouthWest. Just in case any potential visitor need some directions...

T-Minus 7 hours and 35

I am back safely in Seattle, eagerly awaiting my surgery tomorrow morning. I check into Swedish at 5:30AM (that's 4:30AM Emily's time). The surgen will go over some things with me again, and we should get the show on the road around 7:30. It should take about 2 hours, and then about an hour in recovery. Then I'll be sent back to my room, probably by 11am. They want me to spend the night on Wednesday, so if anyone is just itching to go hang out at Swedish, swing on by and say hi.

For my last meal I had some Nasai Teriyaki (chicken). It tasted even better than I imagined it would. I love it when that happens.

Before Pictures

Here are some pictures from before the surgery.

DQ update

I just got a letter in the mail from the dairy queen in town. They are sorry that I had a bad experience, and hope that a $10 gift card will encourage me to give them another try. Also, they are going to talk to the employee who gave us poor service. I think my next letter will be to Safeway to complain how they never charge people for the correct produce. The other day I was charged $5 for a yellow onion that the employee rung up as shallots. I'm a squeaky wheel.

The countdown begins

Neil's surgery is fast approaching, so he's been choosing his favorite dinners that require chewing, since come Wednesday he will be doing a lot of drinking. Jacob bought him a case of ensure and another of gatoraide. Last night we made halibut and chips. It was pretty good, and because fried potatoes and fish weren't enough we made some onion rings too. Tonight we're planning on walking a few blocks from our house to this burger place. It's supposedly pretty good. I think it's called Arctic Roadrunner burgers or something like that.

Tomorrow Neil flies down to seattle in the afternoon (so he won't be there to go out to lunch beforehand). At 7 am on Wednesday he'll have his surgery. It will take about 3 hours. He'll spend the night at Swedish if anyone wants to visit him. I wonder what he'll look like when it's all over. I guess they move the jaw a few milimeters forward, and then the surgeon will shave off part of his chin so that he won't look like Jay Leno. I'm not sure if she'll leave the butt or not. I'll post a before picture later when he gets home from work (today is the first day since Neil moved up here that he's had to work and not me.)

Friday night hikes

We've decided to make a habit of going on a different hike each Friday afterwork. This was our first week and Jared chose the hike. We decided that he wouldn't be choosing again any time soon. It was a really steep hike that pretty much went straight up the mountain. It was pretty fun though, and Banjo enjoyed it. You should have seen him racing down the mountain. I thought his hind legs were going to flip over in front of him. He was going so fast.

These long days make it pretty difficult to sleep (and on top of it there last night there was a Mexican polka party that right behind our house. Today the sun rose at 4:35am and will not set again until 11:21 pm. We're considering getting some new drapes. RIght now we have white ones that let all the light in. The other night I couldn't sleep, so I decided to sleep on the floor with Banjo. He didn't appreciate it and preferred to go back into his kennel. I'm looking forward for the solstice though!

Shit hits the fan at DQ

Today after puppy class we went out for a treat since it was Neil's first day at work (blog forthcoming). After a 30 minute wait and raised blood pressure, the following message was submitted to the Dairy Queen headquarters. I know that Blizzards are a tasty treat, but next time you're in the mood for one think twice. It's the principle ;-).

Here is the message that we wrote. We'll see if it gets any results. (It is no exaggeration. If anything we were going easy on them, because I could only write so much in the tiny two inch square comment box. )

"We visit this location several times a month, and although there is usually a rather large line, until today we have been satisfied with the service and food. Following today’s experience we will not be visiting the Tudor DQ ever again – unless my concerns are addressed. While waiting for over twenty five minutes for our order (a small dipped cone and a medium blizzard) we had plenty of time to observe the inability of the staff to fulfill their jobs. A young employee named Rebecca was working at the counter to call out the ice cream orders. For the duration of the twenty five minutes that we waited she never once smiled. Other waiting customers discussed how unhappy she looked to be at work, which was putting in nicely. Numerous orders were incorrect. The orders that were made correctly were presented in a sloppy fashion with ice cream dripping all over the side of the cups. One customer had a strawberry cheesecake blizzard that was completely overflowing and smeared all over the sides. When she asked for a larger cup to put the overflowing blizzard into Rebecca placed the messy smaller cup inside the larger cup, not resolving the problem. It still spilled all over the customer’s hands and floor.

When it became apparent that our order was skipped over. (She was calling out #s 15 and up) I told her that our number (#12) hadn’t been called yet. Rebecca asked for the receipt, then asked the other staff members who were behind the counter making the desserts about it. When they said that they didn’t know her response was, “That one was called a long time ago.” I informed her that in fact it wasn’t (I was standing directly in front of the counter the entire time, and the number was never called, nor did anything that matched our order ever get placed on the counter.) Rebecca’s response was, “well that was a long time ago and they aren’t going to remake it.” She then proceeded to turn around a walk away to help another customer. Another customer who had been waiting, and said that she could vouch that our number was never called, asked for the manager. We then showed our receipt to him. The manager was able to make our order, although not before making it incorrectly on the first try. I can understand needing to wait when a store is busy, however, it is completely unacceptable to be told that they refuse to make my order that I had paid for and had been waiting 25 minutes for.

I expect a written apology, detailing how you are going to address these problems of awful customer service and extremely long wait times. Only after receiving such indication will I consider returning to your establishment. You can also expect that I will report your poor service to my friends and family. This is absolutely unacceptable."

First Day Fighting Crime

Today was my first day as a forensic scientist for the state of Alaska. There are three of us newbies - myself, Stacie, and Veronica. Stacie and I started today, Veronica is coming next week. My office is actually in the actual lab I'm going to be working in b/c the lab is so crunched for space. Which is kind of lame, b/c that means I can never eat at my desk.

Our supervisor, Michelle, gave us a tour of all of the different parts of the lab. The evidence room, the ballistics lab (there is a firing range, but we didn't see that), the DNA lab, the biologics lab (where they get the DNA off of clothing, etc.), latents, etc. I saw a car in a garage with a piece of paper on it that said "Evidence - do not touch". They were testing it for tire marks.

After the tour, Stacie and I filled out a mound of paperwork (it took about an hour and a half). Then we went out to lunch at this nice little cafe, and Michelle was nice enough to pick up the tab. We then went back to the lab and read all sorts of boring Quality Assurance and safety manuals and CRF's (that's Code of Federal Regulations).

I'll only have to do do this for a week before I fly back to Seattle next Tuesday afternoon for my impending surgery.

The Amazing Race - Anchorage Casting Call

Emily and I love watching The Amazing Race together, a show about teams racing around the world for $1,000,000. The first weekend I moved up here in the middle of January they had the season finale of their latest race, and wouldn't you know it they were in Anchorage, AK and the finish line was in Girdwood.

Anyways, CBS is accepting applications for the next race. So Emily printed off two applications and we filled them out last night. Then today at 1:30 we headed down to Bailey's Furniture Warehouse where the local casting call was. It ran from 2-7, but by the time we got there there were already about 20 teams lined up ahead of us. A friend of Emily's co-worker was there 3 spots ahead of us, which we thought was pretty funny.

So at 2 they let us go in the furniture place. They had one camera ready and were working on setting up a second one. So we waited in a line and watched as people film their two-minutes of fame for the camera. Basically they just roll the film and let the two people talk. Emily was getting a little nervous b/c everyone could see your take. There were two police officers, a father and a daughter, and so on.

Then when they got the second camera up and running, they split the line up. So were were actually the 3rd team to tape on the second camera. And Emily was put at ease a little bit when we saw that this taping was done in a private room so no one could see what we did.

Of course we went into the room to do our taping with no real plan thought out. We just kind of talked, a little about us, a little about the past teams that we've liked, a little about how competitive we are with each other, etc. We're not expecting a call from CBS anytime soon, but it was quite an experience trying out for a reality/game show.

Emily's 27th Birthday Spectacular Spectacular!

Emily and I celebrated her 27th birthday yesterday. I made pulled-pork sandwiches in the crock pot, complete with homemade BBQ sauce. They were very tasty and made a bunch of left-overs as well. I also made some cole slaw to go along with the sandwiches. And for dessert, I made Creme Brule (sp???) - I need to give Ruth shout-out for giving me the idea and the recipe. Since Tuesdays are pretty busy for Emily with swimming and Banjo's class, I actually ate our wonderful meal by myself and Emily ate it in the car as I drove to Banjo's Puppy Class.

After Puppy Class I put the finishing touches on the Creme Brule (broiling the sugary topping) and Emily opened up presents. Of course, she only had presents from myself and my parents to open up because - ahhemmm- some people failed to send her anything (when she got home from work she quickly ran down to our mailbox to see what great Birthday Treats people had sent her - when she came back empty handed she looked so sad and forlorn). Emily did listen to the birthday wishes people left on her phone. She did get a nice mix-CD of cheesy music made by me, a golf disc, a croquet set, and a set of The 12 Days of Christmas dessert plates. Good stuff!

Flat Top

Living in Anchorage we are surrounded by mountains and places to hike. The quintessential-Anchorage hike has to be Flat Top, in the Chugach Mountains that border the town to the east. Emily, Banjo and I had gone to the area a bunch of times before (we walked along Power Line Trail with Carrie and Jared in the snow, tried to cross-country ski once, and went sledding back in October), but we had never done the actual climb to the top of Flat Top. Apparently on the Summer Solstice people are constantly hiking to the top all day long, sometimes with some "adult beverage" in-tow, for a super-gigantic all-night party. Anyways, since it's getting really nice and warm out, we decided that it was time to conquer the mountain.

So we set off with Banjo and our lunch. Even though it's really warm now (mid-50's to 60's) and there isn't any snow around town, I was surprised how much snow was left on Flat Top. It made for some treacherous footwork at times (I bit it once coming down the mountain). Also, when there is so much snow on the trail, it makes it a little difficult to walk on the side of the mountain b/c you might slip right on down it. There were a few parts that were a little sketchy where you felt like one wrong step could send you slipping down a hundred feet, but we made it OK. After a while we arrived at a little bench where we had our lunch. It also happened to be a spot right before the last big hike to the top. Since this part was very steep and still covered in snow we decided not to hike it (I had also read not to attempt this part of the climb, at this time of year, without an ice ax). So we relaxed, took in the view, and ate up.

On the way down Banjo started running up and down the mountain during the sketchy portions of the hike. Emily and I were worried for a little bit when his leave was stuck on a tree, b/c we thought we would have to scale down a little bit to free him. But smarty-pants Banjo freed himself and ran right back up to us. I was a little surprised to see how many dogs that day were hiking, too.

Saturday Breakfast

As everyone knows Emily and I love cooking. Here's a little concoction Emily created after swim practice on Saturday morning. It's a fried tortilla with beans, eggs, cheese, salsa and other goodies. She calls it "A breakfast feast in Mexico City". Sounds like a mouthful, but it sure was tasty!,

It's bloggin' time

We've been derelict in our blogging duties lately, so here are a bunch at once. Last Friday we went fishing for hooligans with Emily's co-workers, their friends and significant others. The spot was about 45 minutes south of Anchorage, a little past Girdwood for those familiar with the area. Basically we just pulled over just off the highway and walked about 200 feet to the shores of the Twentymile River. We had these gigantic nets on even more gigantic poles, and people would just scoop the river looking to catch there buggers (hooligans are only about 5 inches long or so). Emily and I didn't partake in the fishing b/c a fishing license for one day for us (non-residents) would cost as much as a fishing license for the entire year for residences. It's a good thing too, b/c no one caught anything. We had some food to munch on and some beer to drink and it was a beautiful night, so fun was had by all. But it was rather cold and little windy (I had to alternate which had I held my beer in so it wouldn't get too numb).
Oh, this guy Walter got a little stuck. He waded into the river a little with his hip-waiters, but the bank is SUPER muddy, and well, he got stuck. And like quick-sand the harder you struggle the worse it gets. It took 4 guys and about 10 minutes to finally free him.