September = Beginning of Winter

Going for a brisk walk along Powerline Trail.  Snow is already starting to top the mountains once again.
The autumn colors are starting to turn.
Emily poses for a picture.
We hiked up part of this guy in the summer.  Now it looks too ominous.
Banjo started running around like a crazed dog on this boggy part just off the trail.  I think he liked it because it squished under his feet.  He even had a few digs for fun, too.

It was actually a nice day out today.  Emily and I went to IHOP for a late Sunday breakfast.  I had the biscuits and gravy, she had Swedish Pancakes.  We then headed to Flat Top for a little walk along Powerline Trail with Banjo.  We had our rain-pants and jackets on, preparing for the worse.  We really didn't need them - it just sprinkled for a little while.  We were up there with my family last week (although we didn't walk along the trail), but the leaves are a lot more yellow, orange and red than they were a few weeks ago, and there is a lot more snow on the tops of the mountains.  Winter is fast approaching!

As we were walking back to our car, this family was riding towards us on mountain bikes.  Banjo was off his leash ahead of us, just to the side of the trail.  Well, when we saw this family coming, Emily and I knew in our head that this would spell trouble.  And sure enough, as the dad was riding by Banjo he said "woof, woof" and Banjo lept out infront of him, causing the man to fall and crash (and almost causing a pile-up with the lady behind him).  Emily asked him if he was OK, and his reply was "Yeah, I'm just great!" in a super-sarcastic tone with a mean scowl. We put Bannie back on his leash, and the man and his family rode off.  Perhaps he should have gone a little slower when riding past a dog, especially when you have a dog running along with you.  But Banjo didn't seem to mind the crash.  He didn't even make a whimper.  He's one tough dood!

Cleaning Fun

Right before we went to the dogpark on Friday night, Emily cut Banjo's toenails.  Apparently she got a little too close on one of them, and it bled a little.  We thought we had it under control until we see Banjo running around with a red paw.  When we get home we put some more of the blood stopper on it, but then we see red marks all over the carpet and the kitchen floor.  That's when we knew it was time to get the Rug Doctor to clean our carpet.  So that's what we did Saturday afternoon.  

One of Emily's swimming friends was having a BBQ Saturday night to celebrate the "end" of summer (that we never really ever had).  Of course it rained all day so we hung out inside.  But there was some really good food (BBQ ribs, salmon, cheese, and Emily's potato salad).  We had a pretty good time.  And we learned about how bright blue, hollow, rubber dildos are family heirlooms.

Two of our passions

Two of our passions are food and protesting McCain/Palin.  Tonight while we were out we drove by this guy walking along the highway.  For dinner we made tomato beef with grandma's delicious tomatoes!!  There's nothing better than fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Fall is here

Despite never having a summer, fall has arrived.  Three days ago the termination dust started to sneak its way down the mountains.  Tomorrow we're going to an end of the summer bbq.  And if I'm feeling really social a "I recently got divorced and am now starting my life over as a better me with a new name" party of my co-worker--although I don't really want to.

Tonight we went to the dog park and all of the leaves were turning orange.  Today at the dog park we saw our friend Laurie at the dog park with her two new labradoodle puppies.  (Banjo is much cuter).  The puppies were named chewbacca and ewok.  Chewbacca kept humping Banjo, so Banjo gave him a bad pin to the ground.  The dog laid on the ground yelping.

Highlights from the Hoff's visit

After the anti-Palin rally on Saturday we went  up to flat top so the Hoff's could see a view of the city.  It was pretty cold and windy up there, so we didn't hike too far, but we were able to see the changing autumn colors in the mountains.  

After flat top we dropped Scott and Diane off at the hotel and took Banjo to the dog park.  David enjoyed watching the dogs socialize.  Then we dropped by Neil's work so he could see where the crime lab is.  

Anti-Palin Rally

My parents and brother were in town for my Dad's birthday, and one of the things they really wanted to do was to go to the anti-Palin rally held infront of the library on Saturday afternoon.  Emily heard about it via an email, but it was also mentioned in the paper.  We thought maybe 10 or 100 people might show up.  When we showed up there were at least 500 people.  The news reported that 1,000 people attended.  There were a few pro-Palin fools, but for the most part it was a bunch of fired up Obama-ites.  We saw a few of our fellow Obama volunteers, and  Emily saw a bunch of people she knew from swimming and work.   It was great!  Cars would honk as they drove by.

After the rally we went to a sports bar for lunch so that Scott could watch football.  The waitress--who had recently  moved from New York was really excited to see our Obama stickers.  She said that she'd thought that she and her husband were the only people supporting Obama in the whole state.  

Berry Pickin'

If there's anything more Alaskan than Sarah Palin--it's picking blueberries.  This Saturday we went blueberry picking around the back side of Flat top (the mountain that we often hike just outside of town).  We picked around 2 1/2 cups until it got too rainy and cold.  Our hands started to go numb.  But, we got enough to make a delicous blueberry and peach crisp, which we ate when Kari and Jared came over for dinner.  It was fun--despite the fact that it took 2 hours to cook my stupid chicken.  Who would have known?

Today we went out and helped with the Obama campaign by registering people to vote--after reading a number of news articles about Palin, and then promptly making another donation to Obama's campaign.  That woman scares me.  Since when did it become "god's will" to build an oil and gas pipeline?  Her pastor said that anyone who voted for John Kerry is "going to hell" in a sermon that she and her family attended, but apparently Jeremiah Wright is the one we should fear.

News on the Alaskan Obama campaign is that dear Barack has given up on us Palin freaks and is planning to quickly relocate all the staff who were stationed here.  We're still keeping the 6 offices that are around the state, but only volunteers and the staff members who were from the state are going to stay on.  I think we had hope of winning here before Palin came into the lime light, but now there doesn't seem to be much hope.  

 

RSL - Day 3

Here is our great sleeping arrangement.  Those boards were very hard, and that tiny foam mattress did little to cushion our sleep.  
More pictures of the scenery.  It was so nice out on the lake.
More canoeing fun!
Trees, trees and more trees.

RSL - Day 2

The water was so clear, calm and smooth it was just like a mirror.  I like this picture that Emily took of the sky.
Here is the hobo dinner I as talking about earlier.  It sure was filling.
Here I am with Banjo at our dock.  Banjo was always a little apprehensive about getting into the canoe for our trips.
Two cute guys!
More reflections off of the water.

Red Shirt Lake - Day 1

I know Emily has written about what we've done, so I'll toss in a few pictures.  We had a little dock in-front of our cabin, and the beach was sandy which made it easy to get in and out of the canoe.  We made Hobo dinners the first night (which we really made the night before).  We even brought a little frozen hamburger meat with us that thawed by dinner time so Emily could put it into our meals.  They were pretty tasty.  Mine more than Emily's b/c I used more seasoning.  We had fun canoeing, and we even got Banjo to swim a little.  And we even managed to stay connected to the real-world.  We bought a paper in town so we could start our fires, and thought maybe we could even read a few stories.  To say that Alaska was stoked that Palin was picked as the VP is an understatement.  I would be in a state beyond shock if Barack can win up here now.

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend we went out to Red Shirt Lake.  We'd rented a public use cabin in Nancy Lake State Recreation area.  We hiked out to the lake, which was about a 3 mile hike, and then we hopped into a canoe and canoed out to our cabin.  Banjo did surprisingly really well in the canoe.  Going our the first time we gave him a bone filled with peanut butter to keep him occupied.  He later dropped it into the lake.  

The cabin was pretty rustic.  It had "beds", which were just plywood frames and a very thin foam pad.  During the day we canoed around the lake and wondered around our cabin collecting firewood.  There really weren't a whole lot of places we could go to, because there weren't any trails or anything.  We had fun cooking on the fire though.  

At one point a porcupine wondered into our camp and Banjo pounced after it and chased it.  We kept yelling at him  and couldn't get him to come back.  Fortunately the porcupine ran up a tree without quilling the dog.  

I'll post some pictures soon.  We had such good weather.  It was great!

River Rafting Bonanza

Last Wednesday we went river rafting with a group of people from my work.  It was organized through the outdoor program at elemndorf air force base.  We rafted down Eagle River a ways and then the trip ended on Fort Richardson, where a bus was supposed to pick us up and drop us back off with our stuff at the elmendorf.  But, when we got there there was no bus in sight.  Apparently they were doing some sort of maneuver so all of the gates to the base were closed off.  We waited and waited.  And finally after getting tired of standing there wet and cold, someone called the base operator on a phone that was on the side of the road.  She told her that we were cold and if someone didn't come and get us we would run the risk of getting hypothermia.  Another twenty minutes or so two police cars, an ambulence, a fire truck and the batalian truck all came.  Apparently the switch board lady told them that there was a little kid wondering around with hypothermia.  So they called a cease fire (it turned out they were using live amunition just two kilometers away).  It ended up being a good thing that this little misunderstanding occured, because it allowed them to open up the gate for us and we were able to leave.  It turned out being a long day.  We left right after work to go rafting, and didn't get home until after 11pm.

That's not fair produce...

behold the harvest of our garden.  These peas seemed to be the only thing that grew in our garden.  It wasn't ever sunny, and it seemed impossible to keep the weeds away (it's hard when the garden patch is in the middle of a weed lot).  The one benefit of the weather this year was that we didn't really ever have to water.  Big dinner tomorrow!

Alaska State Fair

Today instead of canvassing, we decided to go to the state fair with keri and jarred.  Many Alaskans hyped it up quite a bit, but I thought it seemed rather small.  Highlights of the fair were: 1.  seeing the reknowned giant cabage (apparently there are larger ones, but the farmers aren't going to pick them until the last day so that they have longer to grow); 2.  fair food (I had an All Alaskan quesadilla, which had salmon and reindeer sausage and guacamole; and Neil and I shared a chocolate mint cookie and milk and then a blueberry funnel cake) 3.  Target is opening in AK on Oct 13 and they've been doing publicity at major events such as fur rondy and the fair.  I got a gigantic target sucker for free 4.  The most exciting part of the fair was seeing Ted Saddler!  He's this goofy looking old man who owns the Mattress Ranch.  There are three in Alaska and we just saw one in Washington.  The commercials are quite hoaky.  Ted does this weird dance, and always wears a sponge bob tie.

Happy August 21st Birthday to Me

We have been negligent lately on our blogging duties.  But I have been yearning for a new bike, and Emily said she would get me one for my birthday.  She had been looking at Craig's list for a good one, and she found a Cannondale.  We emailed the guy a few times, and we went over to check it out tonight after dinner.  I gave it a ride for a little bit, and everything seemed in good order, so we got it!  We had Bannie with us, so we went to the dog park afterwards and Emily walked around while I rode and Banjo chased me.  It was pretty cool.  Emily and I are going to go on a little bike ride this weekend, maybe over to trace a route to my work.  I'll post a picture of the bike later.

Isn't Alaska great?

So in addition to the permanent dividend fund, which is 2,100 per person this year, all Alaskan residents also get a 1,200 bonus check this year for energy costs (even though you can spend it on whatever you want).  We won't be getting any of this even though by the time the checks come out I'll have lived here for over a year.  So, basically I have to suffer through the corruption and the crappy summer weather without any incentive.  It's been interesting with all of the election commercials.  I've never heard conservative used as a positive attribute of a candidate.  The republican's newest conspiracy theory is that Vic Vickers, who is running as a republican against Ted Stevens, is actually a ploy by the democrats to tarnish Steven's good name.  Ever since the indictment came out against Stevens, he's been ahead in the polls.  This place is scary.

Canvassing

We just got back from canvassing the neighborhood.  FIrst I went out with Margaret who lives one block over from us.  We did 65 doors, which took us about 3.5 hours.  Then I recruited Neil (he's been really sick these few days) and we did another 45 or so.  Most of these people were quite excited about Obama, but the funniest was this guy who invited us into his living room and he and this lady wanted to have a discussion about Obama.  At first when he answered the door I thought that he would have been a tried and true Republican, but they ended up being pretty cool.  The place reeked of cigarette smoke and they were both sitting in their lazy boys.  It really reminded me of something out of a documentary or something.  

Now it's off to Thai food to reward our hard work.  

House Party

Last night we had our Obama house party.  It was pretty successful.  We probably had about 20 people show up, although none of the people I invited came.  I made Ellen's mint brownies, and had some veggies, pot stickers and a few other snacks.  Then after everyone hung out for a while we watched an Obama speech, and then people discussed why they had come or why they were supporting Obama.  There were a few characters, and even a Republican for Obama.

Today we're having a big canvas event.  The goal is to visit 25,000 houses across the state.  Our field organizer said that if we can accomplish this goal it is quite likely that Obama may visit Alaska!  The last pole had Obama 5% points ahead of McCain in Alaska.  Hopefully all of our hard work will pay off.

Obamafied!

On Saturday Neil and I went to camp Obama--a 6 hour training to become volunteer coordinators for our house district.  Tonight we had our first weekly meeting to discuss what our plan of attack is.  Having never volunteered for a campaign before, this whole thing seems very exciting.  True to my apparent calling in life I'm the district data manager, which I don't really know what all is in involved, but I think it deals with all of the data generated from making phone calls, canvasing, etc.  Go BO!

Chi-Town

As promised here are a few pictures from my walk around the city.  It was pretty hot and muggy there (in the 90s), but it was a nice change from the rain and mid-50s that we've been having all summer.  Apparently Segways are in.  Along lake Michigan they had a little pedestrian street that reminded me a lot of Alki.  If I would have walked a ways further I think I would have stumbled upon Oprah's studio.  It was fun to be in a city again.

27 hours later

27 hours after I left the conference venue in Chicago I finally arrived home.  Due to some bad winds at O'Hare (aka O'Hell) my flight to San Francisco was delayed by over 2 hours.  We spend about an hour of that time sitting on the tarmac waiting in a long line of planes to get the okay for lift off.  All I can say about the woman sitting next to me (or should I say on me) was that imagine two picnic caliber watermelons.  We couldn't put down the arm rest between us, because her watermelon sized chest blocked it.  

Of course once I got into San Francisco I missed my connecting flight to Anchorage.  The United Airway (UNITED SUCKS) guy literally laughed at me when I asked whether he couldn't find a sooner flight than 4 pm the following day (20 hours after I was supposed to have left).  "Is there some reason you want to get back to Anchorage?  Wouldn't you rather sleep in in San Francisco?"  But I prevailed and got a flight out the next morning at 6 am to Seattle with a connecting flight to Anchorage.  

I'll post some of my pictures from the windy city later.