Thursday, January 24, 2008

I nearly choked when I read this....

O.k...I have to admit, on occasion, I do read the Rant/Rave section on Craigslist.com. Usually it's all rants, but on a rare occasion, a gem pops out:
The first post, a seemingly innocent question:

is there walmart in alaska?
Reply to: pers-549742304@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-23, 11:01PM AKST


do you have Best Buy, Target or computers up there?Just wondering?Is it really that cold up there?


Now, here's the response that nearly killed me (bad timing on swallowing a drink of water and reading the post).

RE: is there walmart in alaska
Reply to: pers-549749832@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-23, 11:17PM AKST


Wal-Mart? What is that? I have seen pictures of stores and buildings, but we only have ice houses called igloos. Also, please tell us about these fancy automobile thingies. I hear they go faster than the dog teams we use to commute with.
Do you have to clean up poop from cars too?
Which end do you feed?
Hold on, my polar bear can’t find his squeaky toy…

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Finally got my "Alaska moose" picture


When I got off work on 1/20, I was very tired...hadn't been able to sleep well the previous two days.
Anyway, as I was getting ready to pull out of the parking lot, there she was, munching away at the landscaping across the street.
It's taken me 14 months to get a picture of a moose in the city....I've seen LOTS of them out away from civilization, but this was my first, well, second that I've seen in town. My first was in Fairbanks, about 4 days after I had been there....dummy me left the camera out of my bag. Lesson since learned, I've had a camera with me ever since.

Monday, January 21, 2008

The Bird Speaks!


Well, not much more than 60 minutes ago, Paco uttered his very first words in front of me. He said his name!
I totally feel blessed!
Oh, you say, what's the big deal?
Well, Paco is going on two years old this March and had yet to say one word when I was in his direct line of site...he actually spoke when he was about 4 months old. He said his name...I was in my bedroom trying to sleep and he was in his cage in the living room. Since then, he as said a whole host of things like "I love you", "come here", "step up", "what's your damage!", "Paco's a good boy" & "damit to hell", all while I have been safely hidden in another room.
But today, for some reason, was different. We were bantering back and forth...some weird little noise that sounds like a growl...I decided to change it up and say his name. Well, he started to say it! I tried to get him to say it again, but he had a look on his face like "aw, shit, she knows I can talk!!!".
I can't wait for him to say something in front of me again to be able to give him some positive reinforcement in hopes that will encourage him to talk even more. Though, I know better than to hold my breath for I will more than likely end up turning more blue than him before he utters another word in my presence.