An Alaskan Day

This morning Neil and I had our usual Saturday activities:  wake up at 6:30 so that Neil can go play basketball (I'm stuck going with him, because we only have one car and I have swimming at 8), go to swimming, go get breakfast afterwards.  Today we went to middleway cafe, which has some of our favorite breakfast in town (huevos rancheros=mmmmmm).  During breakfast I was feeling ambitious, because I had just signed up for the swim meet at the end of February.  So I decided that I wanted to sign up for the Ski for Women, a fun ski event for women that always occurs on the day of the superbowl.  (Apparently that is the top day for domestic violence calls.  I guess too much testosterone).  So we walked over to REI to see about signing up.  But, in my haste, I didn't realize that yesterday was the last day to sign up.  Darn!  

Instead we went skiing on our own during the afternoon.  At first we started on this intermediate trail system, but we're not intermediates.  (we were at Kincaid, the place we went during the summer when everyone came to visit---you may recall someone peeing in the middle of the path).  So we went over to the novice side and hopped on a trail over there.  Because the Ski for Women is coming up tomorrow the course was already marked.  So, we followed the course.  It was pretty fun.  During the race everyone dresses up in costumes, which we didn't do.  But I think that my ski hankering was satisfied.

Afterwards we did a little grocery shopping to get stuff for the superbowl tomorrow and for dinner tonight.  Mac n' cheese with beets.  Afterwards we watched our Netflix, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  I seriously did not get it.  Did she really have a son?

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the part that made it all a very Alaskan Day.  Today I applied for my permanent fund dividend (PFD).  I've paid my dues and now I'm ready for the payoff of living in the last frontier.

Code Orange!

Redoubt eruption in the early 90's.

I decided to write a blog from work, because our internet at home doesn't work (again) and there's nothing else to do. Mt Redoubt has been threatening to erupt for the last week or so. If it did and the winds were blowing the right direction apparently Anchorage could be covered in quite a nasty fog of ash. This triggored the IT department to worry so we're now supposed to cover our computers with plastic bags while we're not using them. Neil is picking some air masks up for us. They're giving them out 2 per person.

Neil in his new mask.

I was worried that Banjo would get black lung (since we're only alloted 2 masks) but, aparently they do make little chambers to go around the kennels to protect the dog's airspace. That's the most rediculous thing I've heard of all day.

Making blogs at work is fun!

Viva la prune

It's been a while since we wrote a blog, so I thought we'd better update it, although there aren't really any updates.  We haven't done anything too exciting this weekend.  Ever since we had that really warm streak, all the trails have been a sheet of ice covered with a light dusting of snow--not really ideal for skiing or snow shoeing.  We've been to the dog park the last few days, which Banjo has appreciated.   Yesterday we went out to Village Inn beforehand.  Neil and I both had the skillet meals, which included a lot of breakfast meats.  I didn't really want mine, so I brought them out to the car for Banjo.  What could make a dood happier than bacon, ham, sausage, and a trip around the dog park?  Perhaps a moose.  While we were walking around the park there was a mama and baby moose out munching on some trees.  We were afraid how Banjo might act, so we put him on his leash, but he didn't seem to too phased.  We walked by without any incident.  

Today for our day off we're just planning on running errands.  We may also try to walk Banjo out to the lagoon to see if it's re-frozen over again.  I'm also going to try to go to a yoga class by our house.  I fear I'm getting old, because I seem to be developing all these kinks from sitting at my desk too long at work.

The baby is now ten weeks in marination.  I've been reading a website that provides a food-sized equivalent for each week.  This week it's a prune.  A bunch of commentators didn't like it being called a prune.  But it reminded me of  when I was in Ecuador and got really excited about purchasing a bag of the most big and juicy raisins, which later turned out to be prunes.

A great day and anniversary rolled into one

This is how Alaskans watched the Inauguration festivities on TV Tuesday morning.
Emily likes to stay warm while she watches President Barack.
Nothing says America like eating at McDonald's on MLK day
The dood stylin' his booties at the dog park.
This is what a week of 40 degree weather will do to the snow.


Emily and I woke up at a the crack of 7am so we could watch the inauguration hoopla. What a great site it was to watch President Barack take the oath of office and then to hear his spectacular speech. And even greater to watch W hop on the helicopter and get the f@$% out of town (only about 8 years too late if you ask me). It was nice knowing that Emily and I did our part to put the current president in office.

Today is an anniversary for me as well. January 20th, 2008 was when Banjo and I arrived in Alaska for good to be with Emily. We got in around 2:30am, and right when we got home we took a litle walk around the neighborhood in the snow and darkness.

Skating on thin ice

After the cold chilling weather, Anchorage has had a heat wave of sorts.  Last week we gained about 60 degrees in termperature.  The 40 degree weather didn't help the snow though.  Schools were canceled for the last three days, because of the icy roads.  People were warned not to go out if you had to, and Palin decreed that on Wednesday we could take leave if we had to, because of the hazardous conditions (although this was 2 hours into the work day).  

So, now with such warm weather it's a little more inviting to go outside and play.  Today Neil and I took our spiffy new skates out for a spin.  At first we tried to go to Weschester Lagoon by our house, but when we got there there were signs up that the ice was thin, and there were a few puddles on the ice.  Since we weren't really in the mood for falling through the ice, we went over to Cuddy park, which is across the street from my work.  Cuddy park has a pond to skate on, but also has a speed skating rink.  So, did a few laps on the rink.  It was pretty fun.  At first we were a little nervous, because the other people out looked a little more skilled--doing loops and skating backwards.  But once we got out we had fun.  I think I'm going to try to take my skates to work and go during lunch sometime.

Puzzle time

We got some nice puzzles for Christmas. We already finished the 550 piece one last weekend. It was a little unsatisfying b/c we couldn't complete the entire puzzle, due to the fact that The 'Dood ate one of the pieces. Oh well, that's life.

Now we're working on a 1000 piece puzzle of Seattle that we got from Emily's Grandma. It's been fun so far and a little challengeing. We're hoping we'll be able to finish it by Monday. Emily is by far the more skilled 'puzzler' than I. Good thing I'm better than her at everything else (said sarcastically)!

Who's the hardest worker???

Emily is, that's who! On Saturday night Emily and I went to annual party for her Master's Swim. While Emily and I don't really socialize much with the old people who attend, there is lots of great Moose's Tooth pizza to eat. During the night the coaches give awards out to different swimmers, such as for most improved or hardest working. And guess who won the award for hardest working? Good ol' Emily, that's who! She shaved off 7 seconds from her AT (whatever that means), which is pretty remarkable from what I hear. For her do-diligence Emily received nifty certificate and hand paddles. We placed the her certificate on the fridge so it could be with Banjo's doggy diplomas.Here is Emily's great certificate on our fridge!
This a picture of what Banjo likes to do a lot - sleep next to our couch.

Freeze!

On Saturday afternoon Emily I walked with Banjo to the parkstrip, which is about a 25 minute walk. There was this festival-type thing going on called "Freeze" where people make artwork/sculptures/anything out of snow and ice. We met up with a few of Emily's co-workers once we got there. It was pretty cool. One thing had a bunch of lights over some ice, which was suppose to represent fishing. There were a lot of ice heads on metal sticks. There was a catapult that would launch ice at a tarp. And there was an ampetheature made out of snow that had a fire in the middle. And you had to walk in this little maze on the outside to get in. It was fun, but cold (as you might imagine from the name). Good thing Emily and used our hand and foot warmers (bought in bulk from Costco of course) to stay warm!!!
This in on our way up to the park strip. Yeah, there's a lot of snow on the ground.
Neil and Banjo in front of the ice-fishing exhibit.
Ooohhhhh......ice-heads on pikes!
This is the tarp that the catapult flung blocks of ice at.
This is what I look like after 30 minutes outside. Can anyone say snotcicle?

Hoopin' it up - Alaska style

So how do you play basketball when it's -14 degrees out?  Go inside, that's how.  I played basketball on Saturday morning at 7am, probably the first time in over a year.  Our friend Jared is starting a min-basketball league with his church, and since he knew I wanted to play, he invited me to be on his team.  Our first game was on Saturday (we won 47-36).  We had 6 players and the other team had 5.  Emily kept score for us, since she has her swimming at 8am on Saturday and we only have one car.  It was pretty fun to be out on the court again after such a long time.  I must say though that I was DYING after about 3 minutes of playing.  Pretty sad.  But I did OK.  Emily was impressed with my skills, Sarah Palin style (i.e. I exceeded her very low expectations).  I was way impressed with Jared though.  He had two authoritative dunks.  I think that's the first time I've ever played ball with a guy who threw down in a game.  I'll be back on the court next Saturday bright and early at 7am again.  And I'm looking forward to it (although I doubt Emily is).

Brrrr...

All I can type, because my hands are so cold is that it's so cold out that our house cannot get above 60 degrees.  We've had the heat turned up to 70 but it won't budge above 60.  It's 80 degrees warmer in seattle compared to anchorage this morning on our way to work.  I see hawaii in my future....

The American Hair Academy and sushi!

Today seemed a little warmer than normal (ie.  your face didn't sting when you went outside).  THis afternoon we went out and ran a few errands at costco and sport authority (to get Neil's poker chips) and then to the AHA for Neil to get a haircut.  The place was worthy of its own movie.  Neil's haircut took over half an hour, but I didn't mind waiting because i could just stair at everyone the whole time.  It was so funny.  First, there was the Rosie, who when Lady Marmolad came on the radio she announced to the entire salon that the song made her want to dance dirty.  She then proceeded to dance dirty with the chair that they client was sitting in.  Perhaps she was on to something, because she got a $5 tip.  (Not bad for an $11 haircut.)  Then there was the transvestite student.  She was entertaining to watch.  And the woman who would cut about a quarter of an inch each time she cut the girls hair.  FInally the instructor (who had no neck, because of his hunchback) came over and re-did the entire cut.

Neil's hair cut turned out pretty good.  He got a fauhawk.  The guy also did a good job on his beard.  In the pictures it has a healthy handful of gel in it, but I think it will look okay too without the helmet-like appearance.

For dinner tonight we made sushi and has some salmon that Jared caught this summer.  It was really tasty.  We made sushi rolls with cucumber, egg, and cucumber and egg.  We were practicing for his superbowl when we're going to make sushi--in tradition with JCC.

This is what -12 looks like

Ever since we got back from Seattle it's been in the negatives here.  It's weird because your nostrils freeze over and your eyelashes get icicles on them.  The other day we went to the dog park.  We managed to stay pretty warm because we wore many layers and we brought hand and footwarmers.  We also had these hats that cover your face.  THe only problem with them is that they aren't made for four-eyes.  We got a layer of ice over our glasses that wouldn't go away.  So we had to walk around without glasses.  Neil lost Banjo's new ball when he threw it into a big snow berm.  We dug around for a long time, but we couldn't find it.  Maybe it will have to be a summer toy.

Yesterday Alaska celebrated its first 50 years of statehood.  They had activities downtown, including the largest fireworks celebration ever.  It would have been fun to go to, but it just seemed too cold.  We could see the very tops of the fireworks from our house.  

Banjo's Dreds

One of the things we have to watch out for regarding Banjo's grooming is the forming of dredlocks in his coat.  We really should brush him everyday, but usually don't.  It seemed like during our trip he has formed a lot of new dreds.  We decided to cut some of them off tonight.  As you can see, they left a little bit of a chunk out of his head.  Good thing hair grows back!

It's COLD with a Capital C

So we arrived back last Monday in the middle of unusually cold weather for this time of year.  Let's just say when we (and by we I mean Emily) were driving home from our New Year's Eve party we drove past the time and temp reader board at the State Troopers Headquarters (which is right next to my lab).  It said it was -23 degrees F.  Last night on the local news Anchorage as a whole was -15, and our area was -21.  Today we're suppose to have a HIGH of -8.  By the end of next week we're suppose to be back in the double-digits - a balmy 10 degrees is predicted for Friday.  So I don't want to hear any whining from anyone in Seattle.  Or Jimmy.

Emily is at swimming and I am doing laundry and feeding the dogs.  Emily's co-workers Rachel is coming over today and we are going to make soup.  

Oh, and at that New Year's Eve party, there was a little competition.  There were four teams of 4 people (Emily made it onto the same team, with Jared to boot - Team 4).  There were 4 20 minute rounds, and at each round you played a different board game against a rep from the other three teams.  There was Clue, Sorry, Sequence, Connect 4 and darts (they were the same station).  Of course at the end of the night, Team 4 was Numero Uno.  For our great victory we were rewarded with free passes to see a movie.  Pretty sweet way to start of 2009!

Back with the dood!

We made it back to Anchorage this evening, and boy is it brisk.  The security guy at Seatac told us to take the cold weather with us, and I think we must have listened, because when we landed it was around zero.  

When we arrived home there was a big furry dood waiting for us in his kennel.  After a stay in his doggy cottage, and then a weekend with Jared and Kari, Banjo is finally at home again with us.  I think he was pretty excited to see us.  And we were glad to see him again.  He seems like he must have grown, or at least his hair did.  He's a giant!

I'm official

No, these aren't shoe-boxes. These hold the DNA of the convicted offenders of Alaska!
Here is the memo from our DNA technical manager deeming me properly trained.
Who is this goofy guy?
A CODIS analysts' best friend - the M48 Robotic Extraction machine.
I'm about to cut open these envelopes to access the buccal swabs.

As of last Thursday, I am an officially trained DNA analyst, able to process real-live convicted offender samples and upload them into CODIS. And since my beautiful wife was out of town, I celebrated by running said samples for 8 hours on Saturday, 7 hours on Sunday, and 8 hours on Monday (which are all my usual days off). I took these pictures of the lab while I was there all by myself on Sunday. I got to look at some of my data today, and it looks pretty good. It's nice to see the fruit of my hard work.

My lab had our holiday party/lunch-in today. It was a pot-luck (I made some lemon bars) and everyone made really good food. It was nice because Emily got to come too and she met a few of my co-workers.

The birth of Jacob

Happy birthday they one they call John! Not only is it Jacob Wayne's birthday, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime birthday at that - Happy 21! I'll have to take the not-so young Jacob out on the town once I get back for the holidays. Here are some photo's of Jacob when we were all down in Homer this summer.

Emily has safely returned home. She laughed at all of you Seattlites who complained about the 'cold' weather that you guys are experiencing. There was a low of -10 when I went into work on Saturday. So you can all stop your whining. Now.

Only 4 more days before we turn around and head back south for Christmas. I'm still really busy at work running all of our CODIS samples, but tomorrow my work is having a little Christmas party. Emily will come too so she can meet all of the crazy lab people that I work with.

Holy fucking shit - a Christmas miracle!

Yes, the language is excessive. But the tale is incredible...

So I wake up this morning at 6am to the sounds of Banjo barfing next to the bed. Next thing I know, he is racing around the bedroom, over and over our bed. Then I hear this 'plop' and the end of the bed, and some shakes. I get up to see Banjo on his side, legs flailing violenty with is his mouth wide open. I think he's choking, so I stick my hand in to remove the obstruction. I think I feel something, but I can't seem to get it out. Banjo is still flailing in obvious pain. I start to freak out, so I run down the hallway and burst into Matt's room. I tell him that Banjo is choking, and that he should call the 24 hour pet ER for me. But the time I get back to Banjo, he his mouth is closed, his breathing is a little labored, and he's still on this side. It seems like the is slowly working whatever is choking him down his throat. He is still struggling, but I think he's doing OK.
But then all of a sudden the stops moving. He's completely still, on his side. I shake try to shake him to see if he'll move. No luck. I stare in disbelief. Then I try and shake him again. Still, absolutely no movement. His feet are kind of stuck out to the side of him in a weird position that I've never seen before. An unnatural position.
Then the thought comes to me, "Holy shit, Banjo is dead." I start yelling and moaning, and I toss our bed across the room. I start thinking about how I'm going to miss him, about how Emily's going to take it, and about what the heck you do with a dead dog. Then as I get up from the ground (because I was wollowing on my knees), it seems like Banjo's head moved a bit. I wait a little longer, and suddenly the 'dood jumps up, good as new. I can hardly believe it. Just moments earlier I thought I had lost poor Banjo, and now he seems fine. I can't tell you how happy I felt right then!
After I look at Banjo to see if he's OK, I call up the pet ER to tell them what happened. Then I take a shower and take Banjo to have a vet look at him. The vet said his heart rate was perfect, he had a strong pulse, and his color was good. She also said that he could have had a seizure, or that he could have fainted from the vomiting. I still had a suspition that he had choked on something (b/c I really did feel something rigtht when I woke up. But it was 6am, my mind was racing and my heart was pounding - not neccesarily in the best of conditions to observe my suroundings) so Banjo gets an x-ray. Nothing there, just a lot of stool. So I put Banjo in the back of the car and take him to work, where I check on him every few hours.
This is probably the most frightening experience of my entire life. I don't know what I would have done if I would have lost Banjo. Maybe we should change his name to Lazirous.

The day Haru was born

Happy birthday to the greatest sister-in-law ever, Hannah!  This is a picture when she was up here for my birthday.  Pretty sweet fish there!  I hear Emily will be down in Seattle to celebrate Hannah's birthday.  Should be good times.

So I was this close to being deemed properly trained so I could run real-live convicted offender samples.  But, there was a little hiccup towards the end of the day, so I had make one more note on my training sheet.  But I should be all signed off on by tomorrow, so I can start running samples and adding convicted offenders to the database.  Since we have lots to do (and no wife), I might put in about 20 extra hours over the weekend.  Watch out bad guys, I'm comin' to get ya!

201st Blog spectacular!

Apparently that last set of pictures we put up was our 200th blog post.  Not too bad for 18 months.  Emily is down in Hotlanta this week, so it's my and the 'Dood.  I dropped her off at the airport early Sunday morning, and then I slid about 100 yards trying to stop for a red light driving home.  In fact, it's so icy out our garbage can slid across the street last night b/c we had a huge windstorm.  I fishtail almost every time I turn off of Arctic (a main street) onto our street, and I couldn't get up our driveway tonight after work with the 4x4 on and with the studded tires.  This picture was taken around Thanksgiving.

I went to court again today.  This time I got to watch our firearms expert, Bob Shem, testify.  He's been in the business for 28 years and is a pretty smooth at giving testimony.  One funny part was when the prosecutor wanted to admit his CV as evidence, but the defense protested b/c it was heresay.  So the prosecutor then took his sweet time to go over virtually every single line of Bob's CV - which is probably over 7 pages long.  His education, his previous job experience, professional organizations, positions held is said organizations, peer reviewed papers he's published, patents he had, so on and so on.  It took well over 40 minutes.  Usually it takes maybe 5.  I think the prosecutor wanted to give the defense a giant F-U for not letting the CV be admitted as evidence.  Tomorrow we will go back to watch Abi, our DNA tech manager, give testimony, since the court didn't have time to get to her today.

Oh yeah, so maybe you want to know about the case.  There was this shoot-out at a football game a few years ago.  53 shots were fired from a minimum of 5 guns.  One bystander got shot in the head, but he lived, and apparently totally turned his life around and started to do triathalons and such.  There were a lot of people in the gallery, and two TV cameras.  And one of the anchors of the 6PM news of the local ABC affiliate sat next to us.  She had on some crazy boots.