Belly Pictures

Hello belly!
There he is!
I now have a new looking belly button.  

The growth of my stomach has really taken off over these last few weeks.  These pictures were taken last week when we had the ultrasound taken.  Sometimes while I'm just sitting around my stomach all of a sudden feels like I ate a really big meal and I feel my skin stretching.  It's all rather strange.  

Easter for non Jews

Following the Passover festivities, our easter celebration was pretty low key.  We contemplated going to church near our house, but never really got around to it.  Instead I made a batch of cinnamon rolls and we sat around and brainstormed baby names.  We also had a bone hunt for our first born son (sorry Yuniesky, I've written you off).  It was kind of funny.  I hid a bunch of dog biscuits around the living room, but it took Banjo a really long time to figure out the game, but towards the end he was searching everywhere for the cookies.

In the afternoon we went to the dog park, and then came home and cooked up an easter dinner.  Kari and Jared came over and we had ham, scalloped potatoes, fresh baked rolls, deviled eggs, green salad and ambrosia.  For dessert I made pineapple icebox dessert.  It was pretty tasty.  Afterwards we did a little more Hawaii planning and then played a game of Cranium.

Passover Seder

Last night Neil and I went to our friend Rachel's Passover for non-Jews.  It was great fun.  At Passover it is important to always do the same ritually in exactly the same order.  Some of the things that we do is to bless the Manishevitz wine (or Marrionberry Sparkling Cider in Emily's case) before you drink it.  

Then you say other prayers before you eat other items off the Seder plate.  We ate parsley dipped in salt water to remember the tears that were shed during 40 years of slavery.  All of the foods are steeped in symbolism.  We also had horseradish sauce as a bitter herd that we had on Matza bread, but I forgot what that symbolized.  We then made a sandwich with the horseradish and this super-sweet dish that had apples, walnuts, honey, and sugar.

After we said our prayers and ate from the Seder plate, we then had our dinner.  We had Matza kugel, Matza rolls, hard boiled eggs, gefelta fish (fish balls - kind of nasty) and some other things.  There is piece of matza cracker that is hidden in the house, and before we can have dessert someone has to find it, and they get a prize.  Dessert was Matza crackers covered in chocolate and other goodies.  It was real tasty too.

Dinner was a lot of fun.  At one point we all started talking about how we all dislike Alaska, and that the key to enjoying Alaska is getting out of the state every now and then.  It was funny because besides one guy who had grown up in Alaska, Emily and I had lived in Alaska longer than the other 5 people.  Who knew we'd be such experienced Alaskans at some point?

Surgery - Part II

I had my surgery yesterday afternoon. It was actually pretty easy. It took less time than waiting for my perscriptions to be filled at Coscto. They injected my mouth, left side of my tongue, and gums with local aneastetic. Then they waited until I was all nice and numb, and the surgeon dove on in and started slicing open my gums until he got to the bone. There he saw my two infected screws, as wel as two free-floating bone chips. And I had a large hole in my jaw, which isn't good. He had a little trouble getting the scews out, since Dr. Lee (my surgeon in Seattle) put them in threw my cheek. So he couldn't use the specail custom screwdriver that was sent up here. But he was still able to remove the screws. They were pretty sizable too - well over an inch. The bone fragments kind of looked a little smaller than fingernail trimmings. It was weird because during the surgery I could feel the surgeon screwing out the scews from my bone. Kind of trippy.


I picked up my perscriptions at Coscto (Hello, Vicadin!) and went home. I iced my cheeks all day while I watched the first season of The Wire (I had heard nothing but good things about this show, and I must say I was not disappointed). I then picked up Emily from work, and she made me some nice potato soup for dinner.

I should be back to normal by the time we leave for Hawaii in a week (aloha!). I just need to keep my wound clean and finish all of my antibiotics, and hopefully this stupid infection will finally go away.Banjo and me watching the first disc of The Wire.
Icing is a neccesity. 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.
The 'Dood in his Classic Banjo sleeping position.

It's.....

....a boy!

The Peanut had it's 20 week ultrasound today.  The lady took lots of measurements like length of limbs, heartbeat (145 bpm), head, etc.  We even saw the 4 chambers of the fetal heart, which is different than our heart b/c the baby doesn't use his lungs yet.  After the lady put all of the Peanut's info in, she figured he was 6 inches long head-to-butt and weighed 13 oz.  The due date moved a day early, to August 20th.  

Now we need to start seriously thinking about names.  My friend Anthony suggested the following if we're having a boy - Oliver Klause Hoff.  Just say it a little fast and you'll get it.  Emily also always liked that named Jack, but I guess that's out of the question now.  What funny names can you guys come up with?

We're trying to upload the pictures, but are having a little trouble.  Emily and I are going out to eat at Orzo to celebrate tonight  It's suppose  to be a nice Italian restaurant in town.

A rude awakening for all

This morning around 6 am, Banjo had another episode.  This time I was home too so I experienced a Banjo seizure (in full effect I might add).  Banjo got up and was having this weird thing with his stomach that made a lot of noise.  I had Neil take him into the bathroom so that if he threw up at least it would be easier to clean up than if it were on the carpet.  Then he quickly raced onto the bed squatted over me and started peeing.  A few seconds later he was growling and seizing.  The seizure lasted about 2 minutes, and then he was "dead"  for another few minutes, but then his tail started wagging and pretty soon he was back to life.  Afterwards our bed, and myself were soaked in dog urine and anal juices.  It was pretty scary and quite smelly.  Everyone got a bath this morning.  We are wondering if we've maybe nailed down what causes the seizures.  Yesterday Neil fed Banjo quite a few grapes, which apparently are really bad for dogs.  So we're hoping that if we eliminate those he'll be a happy go lucky non-epileptic dood again.

King Arthur the Wimpiest

Banjo running up and down the hill between me and Neil.
And the name of the trail is _______________
Banjo loves rolling around in the snow. Silly dood.
Neil and I had to trade hats since it was so bright out and I don't have sunglasses.
Neil stylin' in my hat.

This afternoon we went up to flat top to walk down powerline pass. It was a gorgeous sunny day our. Most people were up there skiing, but we just had Banjo out for a stroll. We came across this mom and her 10 year old son and the kid started freaking out, because he saw Banjo up the path from him. Then when we called Banjo he ran towards us, and the kid quickly jumped off way off the path and his mom had to start waving her ski polls at Banjo to keep him away from Arthur. After Banjo came to us (without ever going near Arthur) Arthur turned around and yelled at us, "Keep your animal on a leash!" I'm hoping that he had some sort of tramatic dog attack experience when he was younger, because he was the biggest whimp I've ever seen. Neil couldn't stop talking about him for the next 15 minutes he was so flabergasted.

Two of our favorite things

It's been a while since we've made any posts.  Here are a few pictures of two of our favorite things:  food and Banjo!

We had this Costco bag of lemons.  Rather than make lemonaide, we made lemon marange pie!  It was super-delicious!  I would expect nothing less from my favorite cookbook.

On Friday night we finished off our last pack of halibut from Homer.  We made fish 'n chips.  They were really tasty, although they were a little soggy.  This is a picture of Neil's newest creation: Jalapeno bottle caps.  He dips the slices of jalapenos in tempura batter and fried them up.  After 2 peppers he had a bit of a problem (if you know what I mean...)

When we got back from camping we assembled our tent inside so that it could dry out.  The next day I was looking around the ho

use to see where Banjo had wondered off to.  Apparently he wasn't yet done with his camping fun.  He was sitting in the tent.

I literally have a screw lose...literally!!!

I've had a nagging infection on the left side of my low jaw ever since my surgery in June.  I've been on antibiotics twice since then, once from Dr. Lee in Seattle, and the other from my orthodontist up here in Anchorage, and each time my infection came back.  I finally saw an oral surgeon in Anchorage on Wednesday.  They took another X-ray, and the surgeon thought that I had infected hardware, i.e. (presumably) caused by a lose screw.  

They wanted to schedule me for surgery right away.  I told them I was going to Hawaii on April 16th, but the surgery couldn't wait.  So I'm going under the knife on April 8th, which is one day before I was suppose to get my braces off.  Hopefully I can get them off before hand, if not, I'll have to wait until May.  Oh, and we find out the sex of the Peanut on April 7th.  Now that's a busy week.

On a different note, welcome to the blog Stu!  That makes 7 followers!  In another year maybe we'll move into double-digits!

Three letters - PFD

Emily and I became true Alaskans today.  We went downtown to submit our signature forms and passport to the Permanent Fund Dividend Office.  If all goes well we should receive a nice check in mail from Good Ol' Sarah Palin come November.  Hooray for welfare states!

In other news, that silly volcano Mt. Redoubt finally blew.  5 times no less.  But we have been unaffected thus far.  Apparently the ash has drifted mostly north of Anchorage, around the Wasilla-Palmer area.  So we don't have much to worry about.  It was actually a pretty nice and sunny day today.

Speaking of sunny days, we'll have loads of them coming up.  We're off to Hawaii (Honolulu) from April 16th - 26th.  Kari and Jared will also be in Honolulu that time, so we'll probably do some stuff with them.  We might also fly to Maui or the Big Island so we can hit up one of the National Parks.

Snow Camping off Archangel Road

Emily, Banjo and I went snow camping with Jared, Kari and Rachel this weekend. We went to a place just off of Archangel Road, which is a snow-covered road on the way up to Hatcher Pass. We left right after work on Friday, finally getting out of Anchorage around 5pm. We arrived at the trailhead a little before 7 and packed our gear onto the 3 sleds that Jared borrowed.

Since Emily and I brought our XC ski's we skied on the road into our campsite. We headed down the road for about an hour (maybe going a little over a mile) and found a nice little spot just off the main road. I was pulling a sled behind me and skiing, which proved pretty difficult at time, especially when I was trying to go up hills. To be fair, I did have a good deal of weight on my sled, like our 15-foot Christmas tree chopped up, my backpack, our tent, etc. So I was always the straggler.

Emily and I had some yummy campfire-pizzas that we made in our pudge iron. But the fire was pretty lame because it kept sinkiing down in the deep snow pack. It got pretty cold during the night, probably down around zero. Emily was nice and warm b/c she had two extra blankets on her. I was a litle colder and didn't get much sleep. But we had a great time the next day.
Neil, Jared, Kari and Rachel hiking into our campsite.
Neil doing his best sled-dog impersonation. The sled was heavy and hard to pull uphill. Especially since the sled would pull me back down the hill sometimes.

Snow camping - Saturday

We woke up on Saturday to a crystal-clear morning. It was still cold - Jared said it was 9 right when he woke up - but we managed to eat some oatmeal (and a a few cookies and hot chocolate) for breakfast.

Then we decided to go out and play in the snow. It was really cool to see tons of nice snow with no tracks. We found a pretty cool hill that we spent a lot of time at. Kari and Jared brought their snowboards, so they would go down the hill on their boards and hike back up. Emily skied around and I went down the hill on the sled.

The day was amazing - really clear and sunny. It even got hot at one point. After a while we broke camp to go back home. My sled weighed less than half as much as it did on the way in. I still had some troubles because it kept wanting to tip over on it's left side. But we made it to our cars in about half the time.
A view of the mountains from our camp.

The morning sun over the valley.
It was a nice clear day.
Here is our tent. It's not a 4-season tent, but it did the trick. We pack snow on three-sides of the tent to trap in air to help keep it warm.
Lots of fresh snow. The track ones the left were made by Emily. The ones on the right by Rachel.
Jared getting ready to start another run.
Banjo chillin' out after some long runs.Emily on one of her long skis.I think you can see Banjo and Jared on in the valley.Emily and the mountains.
Our nice little snow hill.
Jared, Banjo and Emily enjoying the snow.
There were tons of spectacular views.
Sometimes you need a rest when there is so much playing.
The happy couple enjoying the great outdoors.

A few pictures

Here are a few pictures of the boys in the kennel. Amazingly Neil fits into Banjo's kennel. I locked the doors, but he was able to open them with his big toe.




The other day at swimming this lady said to me, "Don't take this the wrong way....but, are you pregnant? I thought you were either pregnant or bloated." Seemed a little rude to me, but I guess my belly's starting to pop out some.

Peanut Visit

How does Emily pass the time while waiting for our Peanut appointment?  Knit of course!
That's the hospital parking lot.  It was pretty nasty and snowing in the morning.
This was Emily's reaction when she learned Old Navy had no maternity clothes.
Emily and Banjo playing with his new favorite toy - his Chuck'it.
Another super meal prepared by Emily!

Today we had another visit at the doctor's office today with Terry, our nurse practitioner.  The Peanut is doing great - had a heartbeat of 150 today.  Emily had some questions which Terry answered.

Since we were out and about we decided to go to Target, mainly so Emily could look for some more maternity clothes.  She also bought me a pair of boxers with beagle's on them, in honor of Saddie, whose health is failing. 

We then went to Costco to pick up a few items, as well as have a tasty lunch.  Emily had a polish dog, I had pizza.  Yum yum.  

Next was Old Navy, where more maternity clothes shopping was on the agenda.  Except there was one problem - no maternity clothes.  That made Emily sad.

Emily really wanted her hair cut so we had a stopped off at the 5th Ave Mall.  I hung out at Gamestop and the GCI (our internet/cable provider) store while Emily got her new doo.  I learned that we can get a few extra channels, all in HD, and a DVR for only 10 extra bucks a month.  I think I'm going to sign us up for it.

Since the Bam-Man had been cooped up in his kennel all day, we decided to take him to the dog park.  It was pretty sunny out, and would have been warm if it wasn't for the wind.  We used Banjo's Chuck'it.  He loves playing chasing after the ball, although he's not the best at tracking it.

After the park Emily went to yoga while I worked on my application to the Washington State Patrol.  Then Emily made a super tasty dinner of Lemon Breaded Chicken, green beans, baked potato, and a bitchin' salad with homemade strawberry vinaigrette.  Score!

Now Emily is knitting a sweater for little Baby Boy Anders.

Weekend fun

This weekend was the official start of the "last great race"--the iditarod.  This year we decided to watch the ceremonial first start (which occurs a day before the real start in down town Anchorage).  After swimming we had some breakfast and then meandered downtown at a leisurely pace.  It was perhaps a little to leisurely, because when we got there they were announcing the last sled to head out.  I personally wasn't that disappointed.  THe scene was pretty much the same as last year for fur rondy.  We ran over to try and see the last sled off (which involved me slipping on a fallen sign and spilling the free hot cocoa all over my coat).  Neil was able to see the sled, but no dogs.  I couldn't see a thing over the crowd.  Oh well.

In celebration of fur rondy or the iditarod, or maybe both, we went to see a show on Saturday night with some friends from swimming.  It was called the Raven's Radio Hour.  It was originally performed at the Alaska Native Cultural Center, and was a combination of skits, signing, dancing and some commedy.  It was really good!  One of the main characters had an understudy, which I think actually made it funnier, because instead of the elder lady being played by a female, it was the male director.  He was really funny.  I think there was quite a bit of improv too.  The show featured Native cultural classics such as a song about Pilot Bread (this hard, apparently indistructable cracker like food eaten out in the bush) and an actual oosik bone (those things are long!).

Poop in the pool

So I was hanging out at home, watching last night's episode of LOST on the internet (when I tuned in at the appropriate time last night ABC was showing last weeks episode.  When I turned back a half hour later, they were half way through the NEW episode.  What gives Alaska?) when I saw Emily and the Explorer roll up the driveway.  What was weird was that Emily usually gets home at 8 on swim nights, and tonight it was only 7.  I initially thought that maybe she wasn't feeling well (she didn't really want to go).  When I asked her why she was home early, you can guess her response: "Someone pooped in the pool."  But they didn't notice until about a half hour into the swim.  Her coach called it "bloody fecal matter."  I think that is more descriptive phrase and paints a more vibrant picture.

Fur Rondy Fun

Fur Rondy to Anchorage is what Seafair is to Seattle - just with a lot more snow, some sled dogs and a few reindeer. Calvin and Ruth came up to visit us during Fur Rondy last year when we hit up events like the parade, ice sculpture competition and sled dog racing. This year we didn't fee like braving the crowds, but there was one thing I wanted to check out - snowshoe softball. Since it was going on close to our house, we decided to walk there with Banjo.

But we got a little detoured on our way. After only two blocks we ran into a moose! And not any moose, but a bull moose at that, sans rack. We decided to turn around and go another way, but this bull decided to follow us. He pretty much followed us all the way home until he spotted some trees he wanted to eat in our neighbors yard. We had forgotten to bring the camera with us, so we went back inside to get it, and Emily took these pictures as we tried for the second time to make our way to the snow-covered softball diamond.

The snowshoe softball was fun to watch. One guy actually made a really sweet diving catch in left field. I wondered why all of the batters were swinging at the first pitch they saw until I finally saw one take a pitch and the ump yelled out "2 and 2". I guess they start everyone off at 1 and 2 to make the game go a little faster. Everyone really does run a whole lot slower with snowshoes on, and the bright neon pink softball pretty much dies in the outfield so it doesn't roll around a whole lot. And what softball game would be complete without a giant case of domestic beer - Coor's Light was the choice today. We only stayed to watch a few innings because it was a bit nippy out with the wind, even though it was a beautiful day.

The batters need to be aggressive when they start 1-2 off the bat.
Softball in the snow - you gotta love it.
The defense take their positions in the snow-covered field.
Emily and Banjo hanging out by the bleachers.
Me and Banjo on the way to the diamond.
The moose that chased us home!

Fur Rondy to Anchorage is what Seafair is to Seattle - just with a lot more snow, some sled dogs and a few reindeer. Calvin and Ruth came up to visit us during Fur Rondy last year when we hit up events like the parade, ice sculpture competition and whatnot. This year we didn't fee like braving the crowds, but there was one thing I wanted to check out - snowshoe softball. Since it was going on close to our house, we decided to walk there with Banjo.

But we got a little detoured on our way. After only two blocks we ran into a moose! And not any moose, but a bull moose at that, sans rack. We decided to turn around and go another way, but this bull decided to follow us. He pretty much followed us all the way home until he spotted some trees he wanted to eat in our neighbors yard. We had forgotten to bring the camera with us, so we went back inside to get it, and Emily took these pictures as we tried for the second time to make our way to the snow-covered softball diamond.

The snowshoe softball was fun to watch. One guy actually made a really sweet diving catch in left field. I wondered why all of the batters were swinging at the first pitch they saw until I finally saw one take a pitch and the ump yelled out "2 and 2". I guess they start everyone off at 1 and 2 to make the game go a little faster. Everyone really does run a whole lot slower with snowshoes on, and the bright neon pink softball pretty much dies in the outfield so it doesn't roll around a whole lot. And what softball game would be complete without a giant case of domestic beer - Coor's Light was the choice today. We only stayed to watch a few innings because it was a bit nippy out with the wind, even though it was a beautiful day.

How do you spell 'party'? D-N-A!

Sometimes moose just pop in your yard when you live in Alaska.
Munchin' on a little tree.

Since Emily had her swim meet on Saturday, she didn't have to wake up early to take me to basketball.  Our team won - we beat the only winless team, and coincidentally, the team that bitches the most to the refs about the calls.  I missed all of my shots in the first half, but scored a few in the second.

So how do you know you live in Alaska?  When you're driving home while it's snowing on a Saturday morning in late February and you spot a big ol' moose across the street from your house on your way home.  After it was done munching on trees across the street, it came over to our yard.  I snapped there pictures from our deck.

As Emily said earlier, after her swim meet we went out to Eagle River (about 15 minutes north of Anchorage) to my boss' house for a DNA party.  It was pretty fun.  Michelle's (my boss) two kids were there, who are 2 and 4, and Stacey's (one of my CODIS partners) 3-year old Sterling was there, as was Sara's (new casework analyst) young niece.  The kids all ran around and had a fun time.  Us adults drank some adult beverage (I brought fixings for Long Island Ice Tea's - I had my little 'bar' set up in the corner) and ate some great food.  Everyone made lots of good food - deep fried halibut, homemade salsa and salmon spreads, black bean soup, salads, salmon, and home-made chocolate desserts.  After dinner we played some Apples to Apples (to Emily's chagrin).  It was a real fun time.