March Madness

I recently discovered it was April.  And it made me realize I have no idea what happened to March.  So I looked back at my calendar and in my photos to see what it was all about.  Here is a sampling of what I found.....

The leader, for many years, of the organization who pays me money, retired.  I feel lucky to have known her as much as I have and honored that she ever remembered my name when I happened to be in the elevator, in a meeting, or in a village with her.  It was an honor to even be invited to attend her retirement dinner.  Where we got to hear many stories of her career from many different viewpoints.
Well done Marie.

We finally made it to WA for our 'winter' trip home.  And right before we left we found out the house (duplex) we live in and that our friends who live next door own, was for sale.  I hold nothing against them.  We just weren't really planning to buy a house for at least another year.  So we went to the bank and we got a number and we went shopping.  And we put an offer in on the lowest priced place we could find. 

While we were down visiting the family our offer was accepted.  We had a lovely time with his family, including seeing his niece and going for a walk in the wetlands.  She's very pregnant so it wasn't a long or strenuous walk.  

While there we celebrated 6 months of blissful (not boring) marriage with another installment of the Manhattan project.  At a dive bar that used to be his local.  Near his uncle's house.  Unless I messed up the family tree again.  We also saw my mom and sister, though somehow I don't have any pictures.  And I finally met my mom's new (old, new again, it's complicated) boyfriend.  He's very nice.  

And then, the climax of the trip.....finally, after too many trips where this got pushed off the list, we got to visit 2bar.  Galt was there to great us.  So was some yummy liquid.  Oh, and so was Nate, eventually.  We didn't get to see the amazing Marissa or any of the rest of their clan, but at least I have now seen the distillery.  And I have a big bottle of bourbon.  

Then it was home to the bleak-no-snow-winter again.  View from my downtown office window.  Normally this is a snowshoe golf event they host.  Never observed the annual event before.  It includes a sub-event of spear throwing and shooting.  In the park.  Downtown.  I love Alaska!

My friend with the cute (huge) baby that I keep making presents for brought me eggs.  Because he has chickens.  And they lay eggs.  Always better than store bought.  Mmmmm.....  I thought about having chickens when I lived in PDX.  

Guess what else was in March??  SKI TRAIN!!!  It was cold.  And there was very little snow.  Ten minutes of skiing and Tatonka had sliced both ankles.  We bandaged him up and he hung out in the train until the snow softened up so he could work a moc problem.  

He loves to work.  We hung out as long as possible outside while the drunks were all rounded up and counted.  Which makes us a prime target for media interactions.  

Luckily we were soon apprehended by the volunteer organizer and had to be shuttled back onto the train for the journey back to Anchorage.  Since I kenneled him for the journey it was the first year I was able to get a shirt.  It also helps that I finally remembered to bring cash.  

The ride back usually allows for this view - a reminder of all that lies to the north.  It looks so close, and it is by Alaska standards, but it's still a ways away.  

And then I ran into this picture on my camera and I remembered what happened to the rest of the month....I got a new road bike.  My first big decision was new road shoes and clips.  Then saddle, and tweaking the fit.  Despite the patches of ice and copious amounts of gravel still present on the trails, we have been out.  A lot.  And then had to buy a new wheel for his bike because he slipped on the ice in the tunnel.  Walking through the tunnel that is.  

And the house....was supposed to close yesterday.  Latest word is tomorrow or Monday.  Then it's 60 days of renovation before we move in.  It's on the far side of 'fixer upper'.  More like a 'tear it back to the studs' and redo the HVAC and wiring and insulation.  Saying it's a project just scratches the surface.  I'll take pics.  

Sunset Hurry

Always in a hurry, but never too much to slow down for this scene.  I was home briefly between work and dog group board meeting last night.  Rather than change clothes I spent my few minutes with my partners in crime, watching the sky change colors....and eating ice cream for dinner.  Just the humans, not the furry partners.  Though I'm sure they would have preferred it differently.  Most evenings the highlight is walking together on the trails by the house.  Lately this has been with studded muck boots on our feet.  Whenever I have something else going on and I don't get to partake in this ritual I miss it.  Like I forgot to put on underwear before I left the house or something.  Or like I wore my work clothes to a dog meeting.  A little off.  It reminds me why we have rituals - putting the keys and phone in the same place every night - so when life gets crazy there is an element of default that takes over.

Innocence Deception

Rain.  We have it.  It took me until 3:30 Saturday afternoon to convince myself to go out in the rain and take the dogs for a much needed walk.  And it took them almost two hours of off-leash time to remotely resemble well behaved dogs on leash.  They look so sweet and innocent on the trail here.  Miserable does not quite describe the conditions here.

Not depicted: the extremely amusing time we had with friends at a local dive bar.  There was a band playing that the man had to see.  Because he is building custom drums for the drummer.  They were playing in the basement.  Did I mention it was a dive?  Uh huh.  Oh, also....it was country night.  Hence the amusement.  The dancing....I can't even begin to describe it.  We were definitely the out of place people.  No fights commenced, but that's most likely due to the start time of 10pm and us all being old enough to know better and heading home after the first set.

Scene Near Home by Simply Looking UP

One great thing about having dogs is that you have to take them outside.  In all weather.  And if they are big dogs the more time spent outside the better.  Sometimes it amazes me what they don't see.  Right above their heads on the trail.  Good thing they aren't small enough to even contemplate picking up.  

Soon I will have to set my alarm earlier and actually get out of bed earlier to see the sunrise.  Which is normally very exciting.  This morning however, I was acutely aware that last night I had an episode of Midnight Taxes with my wonderful man.  Very entertaining.  And necessary if we want to make an offer on a lovely house we looked at yesterday, complete with red shag carpet on the ceiling of one of the bedrooms.  Nope, not kidding.  

Weekend on Snow

Tatonka and I finally got to go help with some research.  Last year I helped prep the sites for a student doing research on avy dogs, this year we got to participate.  Yay, Science!  This poor student has been trying to set up a time to conduct her research since November and we just have not had any snow.  We got enough at Hatchers Pass to finally go play.  So last week amidst the chaos of work social events (annual conference in town) and meetings for the dogs group we scented up articles to be buried (for other dogs).  Conditions were not great for scenting and all the dogs performed accordingly.  Great.  But we also all got to play with the local mountain rescue group in scenario work they were doing to prep for their upcoming recert.  I tried out a setup for the go pro camera on a harness on Tatonka's back while he worked - mixed results.  Sunday we got out on the skinny skis and showed the man the local trails.   It was his first day off since Christmas.  He had to stop himself more than once from almost working.  All worth it though - he's almost booked through the end of summer and they sold their first drums yesterday.

Full February Weeks

So far, February has been ridiculous.  I blame the moon.  And the lack of snow.  

I got to move cubicles.  at both offices.  So my view changed.  I like both new spaces, so much that I finally plugged in my palm tree again.  I get a little obsessed with sunrise and sunset this time of year.  Probably because I get to see them both from the office for a while.  

No only have we had awesome clear skies for viewing the aurora and some extremely rare celestial events, we got a very  bright full moon.  I stared at it a lot.  And misplaced my headlamp.  So did Chad.  Except I found mine since then and he is still staggering around behind me on the trail when we walk the dogs at night.  Which is generally the only time I get to see him right now.  He started his own business at the end of the year.  We haven't had time to print him business cards.  Because he's never home.  And then he started a second business with the neighbor.  So when he is home, he's in the garage.  Building drums.

Except for one night last week.  Because my social event girlfriend is back from her amazing grand canyon trip (which I am so jealous of I can barely stand to think about).  She asked if we wanted to go for a moonlight ski.  Ha!  Do I?  Um, yeah.  .....and here is where I explain why there are no actual skiing pictures, just the city skyline from afar.  It might have been Chad's third time on cross country skis.  Ever.  There wasn't a lot of talking going on.  It's kind of all down hill and we were in the shadows at first and the other guy who was skiing with us (who grew up right next to the trails we were on) made a silly statement about not turning on your headlight....  No one got injured.  Permanently....

And look at the amazing surface frost!  Most of the crystals were over an inch long.  Ri-diculous.  There have been several days of inversions, so while we suffer sub zero temps in the bowl it's balmy up in the hills.  

 Sometimes when I'm feeling wimpy I go to a certain yoga class that kicks my butt and empties my brain.  And when I'm changing back into real human clothes afterwards so I can go ice skate under the full moon I get a reminder that I am a goal oriented person and I don't feel very oriented lately.  But the messages are so conflicting and motivating that I get in a hurry to go be productive and I put my shirt on backwards.  Thus, erasing the zen of the previous hour.

And then, ice skating.  Finally.  The moon had not yet risen when i got there.  I did a couple laps and then it popped up between the trees.  I actually stopped and stared at it.   My toes were freezing by the time my friends arrived.  We just kept skating and warming up by the barrel fires.

Weekends have been all about getting outside and playing in beautiful Alaska with the dogs.  And cleaning.  Because it doesn't get done during the week.  I'm too busy staring at the moon.

Last week before the moonlight skiing we took friends who were out of town up on a generous offer.  We took their fat tire bikes out for some exercise.  Otherwise they just sit around and get fatter.  They live across the road from a great local trail network.  I don't think we were five minutes down the trail before Chad declared that we were getting these next year.  To be fair, I think it took us both five minutes to figure out how to shift since the poogies were already on the handlebars when we arrived.  I knew this would happen.  The desire for new toys, not the shifting.

First Month Rundown

Ah the new year, a time to dream big and unrealistic.  Unless you have a special cat.  Frog keeps me well rooted in reality.  He rang in the new year at the 24 hour vet, thankfully close to home so I could visit and administer eye drops 3x/day.  I rang in the new year at the neighbors house, playing cards (spades I think.  or maybe hearts.  I can never keep them apart) and helping them with their whiskey advent calender. Summary: GRATEFUL. 

Still very little snow.  Occasionally very cold.  Life revolves around weather here, especially if you have dogs.  Which means we go trail running, with lots of layers.  Summary: COLD.

The dogs do not seem to notice the lack of snow.  Until it snows.  Then Tonka is outside as obviously elated at the snow that has magically arrived as I am.  We all run around in circles and chase our tails.  Until then they run around and sniff stuff and are generally unsure what fat tire bikes are.  Summary: MOVEMENT IS FREE

A gaggle of the SAR community that came together by our home to help us search the woods behind all the neighborhood to see if any other bait stations were present.  It was inspiring and supportive and overwhelming.  And I just live next door.  Summary: SILVER LINING

First ski of the season.  Let me clarify - first backcountry ski of the season.  I went out on my classics three times and the resort skis are still collecting dust.  This is only Tonkas second avalanche problem of the season.  He filled in for Little Su to demo for a Level 2 class.  The snow is only a couple feet deep and we are up in the mountains - Hatchers Pass.  Which made him look like a rockstar.  He took about 45 seconds to do what it took them 45 minutes to do.  A typical ratio.  Summary: LIFE IS STILL GOOD