The Year I Lost My Mind

What is going on?!

2009-08-09T13:58:00.001-08:00

Never say never

2009-08-08T21:13:00.003-08:00

You know that old saying "Never say NEVER".
Well, it's come back to bite me in my big ol' keester, twice!
I don't know how many times I have told people that I LOVED working in the nursing home back in Idaho as a CNA, but I'd (you guessed it) never work in one again.
Also, after I had graduated from nursing school and took my first job, we were required to switch shifts every two weeks, day shift to night and back until we finished our 12+ weeks of training. I fell in love working nights and when I was done, you guessed it, I said I'd never work day shift in a hospital.
Well, the last 9 weeks, I've been gainfully UNemployed. The first three were voluntary for the hospital I was to extend my contract with wanted to put it on hold until the census came back up, it from 36 to 18 in about one week. I agreed to wait a couple weeks, so I took time to go back to the ST Louis area and visit family and friends. When I came back, my recruiter told me that the hospital is still wanting me to come back, but they were still waiting for the census to go back up. No problem, I had been wanting to take some time off and had some money saved up.
Two weeks later my recruiter calls, and by the sounds of it, not happy, and tells me that she had just found out that they had hired a bunch nurses in the last several weeks, this was during the time that the hospital was waiting for the census to come back up and have me come back. The thing that PO'ed my recruiter is that they were hiring people during the time that the agency was verifying that they wanting me to come back....had the hospital been truthful and said that they were hiring in new staff and would most likely not need me, the agency could have started looking for another assignment for me.
The next day, my recruiter calls again and tells me that a position is open in Valdez. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, ever since the spring of '07, I've wanted to work in Valdez. The manager called the next afternoon, did the interview over the phone, was offered the position at the end of the interview. I was happier than a kid with free reign in a toy store. It was short lived. The next morning, my recruiter called with bad news. Seems that Valdez is owned by one of the hospitals in Anchorage and the HR in Anchorage does the hiring for Valdez. Some lacky in Anchorage hired someone for the position I interviewed for...the day BEFORE I interviewed, but failed to tell Valdez and managed to PO about four people (me, the Valdez manager, my recruiter and the account manager), maybe more, who knows.
The following week, another phone call from my recruiter. This time asking if I have any experience in endo(scopy). Nope, none there and something I'm not willing to try out as a traveler. The only other position they have is home health/hospice. Thinking, there is an idea! I worked on a Med/heme/onc floor a CNA and not long after graduation so I was accustomed to taking care of the dying patient and their family. So, my recruiter made the pitch to the company (they were needing 4 home health and 4 hospice RN's) to give me a try for 4 weeks (all I needed to learn was the paperwork) and if there wasn't a fit on either side, no need to finish out the 13 weeks. Two days go by, I hear nothing, then I get a phone call. My recruiter is frustrated because no one in the home health agency was willing to make a decision and wanted to wait til they could talk to the home office. Not sure what really happened for I was not told that they said no. Oh, and one other thing to note, a friend works for the agency and said that I'd be able to do it without a doubt and put in a good word for me for they needed the help really badly...they'd just lost another nurse.
The following week, another job possibility. Home infusion. Talked to another friend that works for the company, he told our recruiter that he would put in a good word for me (he was wanting to get out of his contract so he could go to a 12 hour shift job) so it seemed to be a shoe-in for me. WRONG! The infusion center wanted to hold off 1-2 weeks to see if they could hire someone perm for the position before saying I had a contract (without an interview!). All I could think was "Well, God bless America (this happens to be my g-ma's first name) & f*@k me running!". I would have banged my head on the table, but Paco was playing on the table in front of me and I couldn't hurt that little featherball.
Now, here I am, 9 weeks without a job, though, I do start one on Monday, in Seward (WOOT!), a day shift (boo!), 12 hours (yeah!...don't like 8's) in a LTC.....that is a long term care facitily a.k.a.:nursing home...UGH!
I can't bitch too much or too loud. It's (as a dear friend puts it) J.O.B., housing is provided. Will be working 4 on, 2 off, 2 on, 6 off! Nice thing about that, those 2 days off, are really days off, won't spend the first one sleeping! Another reason why I can't bitch, it's in Seward. And Seward is beautiful. I'll be there for the silver run, I can go hike out at Exit glacier, go on a glacier/wildlife cruise (been wanting to do that for 2 years now) and after I get my freeze, I'll go halibut fishing again! Not to mention that I want to get some rock fish and lingcod...hope I can go before the season closes on those.
I feel that the tide is turning and I'm about ready to ride it...just hope I can stay on top and not fall off!

New state moto for Illinois

2009-01-16T10:03:00.006-09:00

Since I was born & raised in Illinois, I find this rather humorous...

Illinois
Where our Governors make your licenses plates.

Gov.Rod R. Blagojevich is just keeping up with tradition!

The following is from Wikipedia

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Illinois"

Six Illinois governors have been charged with crimes, either during their administrations or after. The first, Lennington Small, was acquitted. Otto Kerner, Jr., Daniel Walker, and George Ryan all served time in prison. William G. Stratton was acquitted of tax evasion charges. Current governor Rod Blagojevich was charged by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald with several offenses, including mail fraud and wire fraud, and attempting to sell Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat for personal financial and influential gain.

HEAT WAVE!

2009-01-12T06:27:00.002-09:00

The bitter cold had finally made a move and has left town....it has been warming up all night long.
We started out the night at -5F, right now, it's 13F and it's supposed to start snowing sometime today. Officially, we spent close to 10 days under zero...a little over two weeks in my part of town and most of that was at -15 or lower.
As crazy as it sounds, I would rather deal with 30 inches of snow than -30F. This is due to the fact that I had mentally prepared myself for a winter in Phoenix Arizona...NOT Anchorage Alaska. When that fat, juicy bonus was plopped down in front of me, there was not enough time to prepare myself (mentally that is) for the impending deep freeze that I knew was coming.

Should'v, would'v,could'v.......

2009-01-06T06:12:00.002-09:00

I should have:
--not taken the contract with the awesome bonus and stayed in Anchorage
Or
I would have:
--been in Phoenix
AND
I could have:
--been basking in the 70F degree weather and not freezing my nads off at -20F

Could be worse, could be in Fairbanks were it's been hovering around -52F.....

30 Days of Night

2008-11-19T08:28:00.002-09:00

I guess living in Alaska has jaded me to this movie, hence, I have some problems with it. Let me set a few things straight:
#1 The sun does not set and does not come up for 30 days. During the darkest period, there is something akin to a sunset during the "day light" hours. From what I've been told, it's usually quiet pretty (hence my desire to work a winter in Barrow)
#2 If I remember correctly, Barrow has two incoming and two outgoing flights, year round...last I heard, planes can land in the dark and when it is snowing during the night. ;P
#3 The sun does not, after 30 days, decide to pop up and come roaring up into the sky, it's a gradual thing. The sunset period lengthens, then one day the sun will pep above the horizon, each day showing a little more of itself before going back below the horizon.
Things I found a little funny/odd:
--the "Eskimos" all looked like Asians, sorry just because you put an Asian in a Kuspuk doesn't make them look like an Eskimo.
--Only saw 1, maybe 2 snow machines and loads of cars....if Barrow is anything like Nome, the ratio should be the other way around
--Don't you think that the vamps would have noticed the waste piling up from 6 people holed up in an attic? Think about it, any other time of the year, the smell would lead you to them.
--while we are on the subject of the attic. I find it hard to believe that people could survive 4 weeks in an attic during the time of the year where the temps get down to -50 F...if you have ever experienced those kind of temps, you will understand...I can only imagine the caloric intake needed to maintain your body temp, forget about the extra calories to burn when you are up walking around.
--on to the vamps....I know that they are the undead, and because of this they get superhuman powers. One thing that bugs me about the vamps in the movie, they are walking around in skirts, shirts and pants, no jackets to keep warm, no gloves to keep the fingers from freezing....and that is my point. If they are dead, they are not producing body heat...which is need to keep from freezing solid. Wouldn't you think that they would be afraid of freezing solid? Which wouldn't take long at the -40F range.
I do have to say, if I put on my Alaska blinders, it was a good Vampire flick.

The picture says it all

2008-10-16T22:49:00.002-08:00

An Irish take on the U.S. elections

2008-10-16T20:33:00.001-08:00

An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States...a point to ponder despite your political affiliation:

'We, in Ireland , can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States .

On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run!

Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship !!

What in God's name are ya lads thinkin over in the colonies!

Another gem from a Yahoo Group

2008-10-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

Gift Wrapping for Bird Owners

1. Clear large space on table for wrapping present.

2. Go to cupboard and collect bag in which present is contained, and shut door.

3. Open door and remove bird from cupboard.

4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.

5. Go back and remove bird from cupboard.

6. Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors,
labels, etc. . .

7. Lay out presents and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping
strategy to be formed.

8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove bird that has been in the drawer
since last visit to collect string.

9. Remove present from bag.

10. Remove bird from bag.

11. Open box to check present, remove bird from box, replace present.

12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.

13. Try and smooth out paper, realize bird is underneath and remove bird.

14. Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.

15. Throw away first sheet as bird chased the scissors, and tore the paper.

16. Cut second sheet of paper to size - by putting bird in the bag the present came in.

17. Place present on paper.

18. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don't reach.
Realize bird is between present and paper. Remove bird.

19. Place object on paper, to hold in place while tearing transparent sticky tape.

20. Spend ten minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from bird with pair of nail scissors.

21. Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.

22. Look for roll of ribbon. Chase bird down hall in order to retrieve ribbon.

23. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two directional turn.

24. Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to bird's enthusiastic ribbon chase.

25. Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.

26. Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right size for sheet of paper.

27. Put present in box, and tie down with string.

28. Remove sting, open box and remove bird.

29. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for lockable room.

30. Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to re-lay out paper and materials.

31. Remove bird from box, unlock door, put bird outside door, close and re-lock

32. Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear bird outside door)

33. Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small area of the toilet, but do your best)

34. Discover bird has already chewed the paper. Unlock door go out and hunt through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year's paper. Remember that you haven't got any left because bird helped with this last year as well.

35. Return to lockable room, lock door, sit on toilet lid and try to make torn sheet of paper look presentable.

36. Seal box, wrap with paper and repair by very carefully sealing with sticky tape. Tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst areas.

37. Label. Sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulate yourself on completing a difficult job.

38. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to pour yourself a drink and feed bird.

39. Spend 15 minutes looking for bird before reaching obvious conclusion.

40. Unwrap present, untie box and remove bird.

41. Go to store and buy a gift bag.

Bad joke....can't say I didn't warn you!!!!

2008-10-16T12:13:00.002-08:00

Just received this from one of my Yahoo groups

Don't say I didn't warn you...

A pirate walks into a bar with a paper towel on his head. The bartender says, "What's with the paper towel?" The pirate answers, "ARRR...I've got a Bounty on me head!"

Yet we meet again....in Alaska

2008-10-06T21:47:00.002-08:00

My dear friend, Sarah, passed through Anchorage yesterday on her way to Nome. Her flight from Seattle came in too late to make the 157 to Nome, so, she got to spend the night here in Anchorage. I took her out for breakfast before seeing her off at the airport.
In the last two years, we have tried to meet up in St. Louis several times...where we were both born & raised and have failed. The closest we had come to being in ST.L at the same time was back in July'07. I called her shortly after my plane had landed, she was on her way to Memphis and was in Sikeston Missouri...about 2 hours away. Funnier yet, last October, I called her and she happened to be in the Anchorage airport (I thought she was traveling the next week) with about 3.5 hours to go before her flight left, so, we went out for dinner. We have now meet in Alaska 4 times
So, now it has become a little like a game with us. She is hoping to be able to extend her assignement in Nome, and I'm hoping to make another trip up there to see Nome at a different time of the year. If I'm lucky, I'll get an assignement in Valdez come March and Sarah can come to visit and see yet another city in Alaska (she's only been to Nome, Fairbanks and Anchorage).

The end is here!

2008-10-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

Well, the end of our very short fall that is.
The night of October 5th, it snowed. In town, enough survived to more or less frost the ground. Further up north it was a different story, it looked like there was about 2 inches of the white stuff on the ground near Eagle River. In Willow, it looked like there was about 1.5 inches on the rails at my cabin.
On my drive up to Willow, on the radio, they were saying that we are supposed to get around 2 inches tonight. Well, my dad was looking on the computer for the Anchorage area and the forecast there said that we are to get 2-6 inches over night...maybe I will get to ski tomorrow!

If I had a nickle for every time I heard....

2008-09-06T09:42:00.002-08:00

It's been a week since my parents flew in from St.Louis for a two week stay, and it's been go-go-go ever since...and I'm beat.
We started off last week with a trip to the state fair in Palmer, obviously it was the first time they had been but it was the first time for me too. I really wanted my parents to see the massive veggies that are entered each year. I had to chuckle at their comments regarding the massive size of the rutabagas and parsnips (dummy me waited too long to write and have forgotten the weights). The a lot of the cabbage weighed in around 70-80 lb. Three days before the start of the fair, there was an article in the ADN (Anchorage Daily News) regarding a man who usually enters the fair with large cabbage, his this year "exploded" and the remains weighed about 109 lbs, which would have been a record.
The next day we headed off to Hatcher's Pass, and that is when the 'Wow!', "That's gorgeous', 'The view is _______!'-fill in blank with:awesome, stunning,beautiful, etc.
Monday, we headed out to Whitter to see the glacier and the Wildlife Conservation park. It rained all day, we got soaked to the bone, but that didn't dampen their enthusiasm. Comments I heard :'Wow!', "That's gorgeous', 'The view is _______!'-fill in blank with:awesome, stunning,beautiful, etc.
Tuesday we drove to Valdez, nearly the whole drive I heard :'Wow!', "That's gorgeous', 'The view is _______!'-fill in blank with:awesome, stunning,beautiful, etc, 'Stop!!!! gotta take a picture!'
Wednesday, we attempted to troll for silver salmon...no luck :( but the comments continued:'Wow!', "That's gorgeous', 'The view is _______!'-fill in blank with:awesome, stunning,beautiful, etc.
We stayed a second night for we had decided to try our hand at snagging in the harbor and shore fishing...no luck, again (the SOB's were jumping right next to the dock for Pete's sake and I still couldn't snag one!!) When dad and I went out to scout out a place to shore fish (it was low tide), we saw some black bear out and about munching their way through the dead fish. There were even more when we returned about 3-4 hours later (2 hours from hight tide) and mom got to see more bears too(she wasn't with us on the scouting trip).
Friday we drove to Homer, stopped along the Kenai River a couple times. Their first look at the river was awesome...I tried to explain the color of the water, but like the person that tried to explain it to me, it was not enough, and they were shocked.
The comments were even more emphasized:'Wow!', "That's gorgeous', 'The view is _______!'-fill in blank with:awesome, stunning,beautiful, etc.
Today we are going to go up to my place and 'relax' a little...going to try to fish for some silvers at Willow Creek, and some rainbow trout at Montanna Creek. We may even try fishing in a couple of the many lakes that are around.
I need to prepare myself fore on Tuesday, we are driving up to Denali Park and Wednesday we are going to be doing a tour in the park...I can hear it now:'Wow!', "That's gorgeous', 'The view is _______!'-fill in blank with:awesome, stunning,beautiful, etc.

O.k., I'm felling old

2008-08-29T06:58:00.004-08:00

Lord have Mercy, I'm feeling old!
Obama is 5 years older than me, Palin is only 2 years older than me.
I'm too young to have people close to my age running for president/vice president.
Nuff said....hopefully it will be a while before they (any of the canidates for pres.) are younger than me....then I will feel ancient. Ugh.

Alaska, the Last Great Frontier

2008-08-29T03:13:00.009-08:00

Since Alaska is the Last Great Frontier, that would make Anchorage a frontier city, and I had a rude reminder of that on Saturday. Since moving to Anchorage, I have become totally accustomed to having moose roam the streets of downtown, but I was not prepared for the news of a grizzly bear roaming the very same streets the moose meander down. Yes, you read that right, grizzly bears roam the same downtown streets that moose do.
The following link is to the story that was in the Alaska Daily News regarding a grizzly bear that was hit and had to be shot due to it's injuries:
Grizzly hit by SUV
The thing that got me regarding this bear is the fact that it was hit only 1/2 mile by road (that is going down 3 blocks and over 5 blocks to get to the site where the bear was hit), or less than a 1/2 mile as the crow flies.
Needless to say, since all the bear attacks had occurred in one park on the outskirts of town (more than 5 miles away), I hadn't been too wary of walking around in the neighborhood until Saturday. Now, I'm very leary of walking just from my truck to the apartment in the dark...forget about a moose, at lease Bullwinkle doesn't look at me as meal on the run.

Oh, looks at the cute...OMG, you have a bird with you!

2008-08-17T03:19:00.002-08:00

Every time I go home, Paco comes along because it's usually cheaper for me to pay the $80 to bring him on board that to board him when I'm gone. The boarding fee is $20 a night, not to mention the nearly $200 fee for the blood tests needed to be able to board him at any of the facilities here in Anchorage.
The airline fee just kills me for if the carrier was void of an animal, there would be no fee involved, it would just be a carry on, not to mention the fact that if I can rack up frequent flier miles, why can't Paco? Hhhhmm? He's paying for space on the plane (well, I am anyway).
On the flip side though, I find it absolutely hilarious when people ask me, with out looking into the carrier, what kind of cat I have (which reminds me, I really need to teach Paco to meow on command!). I find the look on their face even funnier when they do look in the carrier and they see a blue bird...."Oh my!It's a bird and it's BLUE!". I can hear Paco, "Yeah, what a Sherlock you are, must have graduated from Kindergarten to figure that one out...Yes, I'm a bird and I'm blue, have been all my life."

"This is not the fish you are looking for...."

2008-08-17T03:14:00.002-08:00

I have to laugh, back on August 6th, I flew back to St. Louis for a family reunion. I brought back about 50 pounds of sockeye salmon and some halibut for mom & dad. I did grill 6 fillets for the reunion, it should have been about 2 or 3 more for nearly everyone was fighting over it! I couldn't believe my ears when one of my little cousins, about 7, came up and demanded "When is that fish going to be done?!". Another, but older cousin (he is about 22) told him that the hot dogs were done and he could have one of those...thus ensued the argument between a 22 year old and a 7 year old as to which was worthy for a 7 year old to eat.

You won't believe this fish story, but I've got pictures!

2008-06-05T11:21:00.003-08:00

Yesterday evening a friend and I went fishing for King salmon at the mouth of Ship Creek. We weren't there much more than 5 minutes when Barbara snagged some fishing line in the water. I didn't think much of it for nearly every time I've gone fishing, I've either found or snagged line, but it was what Barbara said next that caught my attention "There is a fish on that line!". I didn't have enough time to say anything when this huge fish jumps up out of the water and 1/2 way in between Barbara and the fish, up pops another fishing pole!
Now, when the fish jumped, that caught the attention of all the people fishing around us. With the encouragement of the forming crowd, Barb reeled in the fishing pole, then grabbed the wet pole and reeled in the king. Turned out that it was snagged in the tail, but before we could release the fish, some guys that had been trolling for kings to tag for an up coming fishing derby had come over and wanted to tag it. Since Barb couldn't keep it, she let them tag it and release it.
In the mean time, the guy that had lost his rod had come over wanting to claim his rod and fish. Turns out the the guy is not from Alaska, well, he never actually said that he was from the lower 48, it was the comment "What do you mean I can't keep it?!". Not only was he not from Alaska, he was most certainly a novice fisherman for he had placed the pole on the ground to chase a piece of plastic that had blown out of his tackle box. Now, I consider a pole with a lure in the water the equivalent of a drink at a night club, you never put it down and you most certainly do not take your hands off it!
The two guys that helped Barb get the pole and fish to the bank told her, after the guy who had lost his pole had left, that they would have made sure that she kept the fish. I do believe by law, that it would be hers since she was the first to have her hands on the pole when the fish was on the line.

Youtube funny

2008-03-27T09:25:00.002-08:00

A. Make sure you don't need to pee
B. Do not, repeat, DO NOT attempt to drink anything when listening to this!

The Alaska Zoo

2008-03-25T09:10:00.005-08:00

Lord have Mercy, am I spoiled rotten or what!
Re: Zoos, that is. The Alaska Zoo cost $10 person to get in! Those of you that have not been to the St. Louis Zoo, it's free! Granted, yes, you have to pay to ride the train, or get into special exhibits, like the insectarium or the Children's Zoo (it's free to get in there also, if you get there before 9am, if my memory serves me correct.)
I also need to mention that the zoo here may cover 1/5th the ground (and I think I'm pushing it) that the STL Zoo does. Not to mention the number of animals that are in cages and not in bar free large enclosures.
If you are looking to see African exotics, this is not the place for you. They used to have an elephant, Maggie, but they sent her to a rehab center somewhere in California for she was not doing well.....Well, DUH, the last time an elephant walked around up here had HAIR, and LOTs of it (woolly mammoth). She should have never been brought up here to begin with.
One cool thing, the native animals, like the Arctic Fox, Bald Eagles, Linx, etc. are all from an animal rehab center and the animal could not be released back into the wild due to their injuries.
I will link up my Picas photo file from yesterday...

It's Paco's hatchday!

2008-03-25T08:57:00.002-08:00

O.k., so, I'm a day late posting this one.
Some days it seems like I've had him only for a couple months, then, like today (keep threating to make him a ringneck parakeet) it feels as if it has been eons since I drove up to Chicago to get him.
Here's a picture of Paco on his new Wingdow, the postman was gracious enough to deliver it on Paco's hatch day.

Portage Lake

2008-02-27T20:43:00.003-09:00

Well, after one days rest (from Fur Rondy that is) Martina & I went out to Portage Lake for a walk about...we quickly discovered that we should have brought our snowshoes! We have both decided that we were going to go back out when we get back from Fairbanks and we are going to try to ski to the glacier, if the snow is still too deep, then we will shoe back in to it. I can't wait!

Running of the Reindeer

2008-02-27T20:24:00.003-09:00

Ok...just imagine the Running of the Bulls....substitute Alaska for Italy, reindeer for bulls and crazies for, well, a different breed of crazies.
I'll just let the pictures do the talking (I do have to admit, I thought it was hilarious)
.
.
o.k. for some reason, I can't get the photos to upload, was able to link a slide show...do have some mushing and skijoring pics, but you will know which ones are the "Running of the Reindeer" pics.

Fur Rondy

2008-02-27T18:48:00.009-09:00

This past weekend was the start of the winter festival here in Anchorage that goes by the name Fur Rendezvous or better known as "Fur Rondy".
Rondy has everything that a regular festival/carnival has, rides, games & contests, but with an Alaska twist. There was the World Championship Dog Weight Pull, Snow Sculptures, mushing races and skijoring (skier being pulled by an animal, usually a dog). This year, they added something new, Running of the Reindeer (please see separate entry for this one cuz it deserves an entry all its own). This event proves what can happen when cabin fever hits in mass.
All in all, I enjoyed myself. Tried a reindeer sausage (tasted like deer sausage to me) and had a good time taking pictures.

This little gal is just about ready to start her race down 4th Street. Keep in mind she is somewhere between 5 & 6 years old.

This is a shot of the carnival rides that were there. And, no, I didn't ride any of them....does "windchill" mean anything to you? ;P

This is during the weight pull. If memory serves me correct, this guy had only been training to pull for about a month, also, he was pretty lanky, so he was quite young to boot. His owner was trying and trying to get him to pull, and everyone had a good laugh when he just plopped his big butt down on the ground and just stared at the crowd or his owner.

This dude here, he is aptly named...he weighs 180 pounds and is named "Dozer". I wasn't able to hang around for the end of this competition....my feet were turning to ice. The previous weight class, 85-125 pounds, winner pulled right around 4,200 pounds. Another kicker for me, "Dozer" looks like a twin to the Malamute that my parents had, we thought that "Bud" weighed close to 120 pounds, looks like we were off a couple pounds....

Yep, there were people dressed in all sorts of garb. This man happened to also be an artist that was selling paintings...had I had an extra $100, one of his paintings would be on my wall right now.

I nearly choked when I read this....

2008-01-24T04:15:00.000-09:00

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…

Finally got my "Alaska moose" picture

2008-01-22T08:33:00.000-09:00

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.

The Bird Speaks!

2008-01-21T11:21:00.000-09:00

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.

Global warming? Really?

2007-12-18T01:41:00.001-09:00

O.k.
Current amount of snow in Anchorage on the ground...approximately 2-3 inches.
Current amount of snow in St. Louis on the ground...approximately 6.
Take a look at the picture my mother sent me from their first snow storm of the season.

If it was really and truly global warming, shouldn't St. Louis be something like 70 degrees right now?
They (the scientists) say that it (global warming) causes more snow and for it to be colder during the winter? Eh? That makes absolutely no sense on any scale to me, it defies logic & physics. Since when does warming=colder?
It's late, and trying to wrap the logic that the earth is getting warmer but yet we will end up with colder winters and more snow makes no sense what so ever...it's bed time for me.....YAWN.

If I only had an extra $5,000

2007-12-18T01:24:00.000-09:00

Some of my friends know that I love Craigslist.com and Freecycle.com. Primarily because I've found some great buys...like my truck, stands/cage that I got for Paco at fraction of the cost, not to mention that I got a free working washer! I keep looking over the listings on Craigslist trying to find a couch & loveseat, but so far, no luck. I've also had some fun looking at other things, like this:

It's snowing! Finally!!

2007-12-11T13:08:00.000-09:00

Well, it finally started snowing again.
Right now, it's 34 degrees, so I'm wondering how long it's going to hang around.
We started of with the huge flakes and the have shrunk considerably, meaning that it has gotten a little bit colder...but the flakes are still pretty wet.
There is a forecast for snow on the next three days. Knowing my luck, since I'm scheduled for 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off then 2 on, it will snow like the dickens the next 3 days and warm up that last night that I work and melt it all, so I'm not going to hold my breath about skiing when I get off work and have that night off.

I LOVE Craigslist & Freecycle

2007-12-08T22:52:00.000-09:00

Most everyone knows that I found my truck on Craigslist.com, got a decent price on a great used truck. Also got a great price on a "new" cage, floor stand and a table stand...paid about what it would cost for the table stand for all three items. I'm assuming that Paco loves them because he willingling & readily gets on the stands. We haven't spent the night at the house yet so I'm not sure about the cage.
Now, for Freecycle, somehow, I managed to be the first for a "newish well working" washer! I'm hoping to pick it up tomorrow morning. My biggest challenge though, will be to get in into my house by myself!
Now, if I could just find a couch!

EARTHQUAKE!!

2007-12-02T10:13:00.000-09:00

Last week, on the 28th that is, we had an earthquake, pretty good one too. Well, by my Midwest standards anyway.
When the quake hit, I had just rolled over in bed (worked the night before and again that night) when it hit, the bed shook for about 10 seconds and stopped...just long enough for me to think "oh, it's an earthquake". It ranged some where between a 5-5.2, depending on the source of the info.
USGeologicServey.gov

Slacker!

2007-12-02T09:58:00.000-09:00

Well, ok, I've been slacking big time here.
I got really discouraged about a month ago when I tried to change my layout and lost all my extras (lists, photo slide shows, etc). Live & learn, set up a dummy site, dummy. So, between teaching myself XML & work, I'm hoping, over the next week or so, to get caught up on the things I was wanting to write about...SINCE ALL the snow has all melted in the Anchorage area, I don't have much choice on activities. GGRRRR...can we say:

Winter doesn't mess around in Alaska

2007-10-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

Three days ago, I had a shock when I went out to my car...there was a dusting of snow on it! And on my drive out of town, I hit an area that looked like they got some where between 1/2-1 inch of snow!
What is even more unbelievable is that it's only been three weeks since I was in Fairbanks, basking in the 50's & 60's and admiring the beautiful fall foliage. Now, as I check the current temp in Fairbanks, it's a balmy 16 degrees above zero, here in Anchorage it's currently 33 degrees. I guess I need to break down and pull out the winter coat for on the 10 day forecast, 4 of them call for snow.

It's funny how things work out....

2007-09-30T21:14:00.000-08:00

I have to laugh to night.
You see,earlier today I'd called my good friend Sarah thinking she had already returned from Nome and was in Memphis. Well, when she answered the phone, she thought I was in St. Louis. To both of our surprises, we were both in Anchorage. Me in my apartment, her in the airport. What makes this so funny is that each time our assignments ended, we tried to meet up in St. Louis. It never happened, once we missed each other by a mere 6 hours. So, after the last 10 1/2 months of us trying to connect @ home, we've now meet up 3 times in Alaska!
After we both got over the initial shock that we were once again in the same city...in Alaska, we had decided to go out for dinner and a little shopping for her plane wasn't to leave for another 3 1/2 hours...too bad I hadn't called two hours earlier for I could have driven her up to Willow to see my new cabin, which she has been wanting to see in person.
We had done the shopping bit pretty quickly for Sarah needed a roll around backpack or suitcase for her carry-on (her over the shoulder pack was hurting her back).
With a little over two hours before she needed to be back at the airport, we stopped at The Anchorage Cattle Company for dinner. It was a good thing we had 2 hours, took 15 minutes to have some one come to the table, another 10 before we finally got a menu and it took almost 45 minutes for our meal to arrive (good thing we were only 10 minutes away from the airport!) To make matters worse, they brought out Sarah's dinner, but not mine...was another 10 minutes before I got my dinner. When it was brought out, there was no baked potato (this was at 6:30 so it's not like it was the end of the night), they were out, so I opted for the garlic mashed potatoes. Another 10 minutes go by, no taters...seemed that they were out of those too and it would take another 15 minutes before they were ready so the waitress offered a free dessert. I took that instead of the 15 minute wait for mashed potatoes.
Too bad about the place, the food was really good but the lack of supplies and lousy service just screams "we are going out of business" and/or "our management sucks big time".
All in all, we were able to catch up on things during our insanely long wait times and talked about plans as to where we wanted to work next and possible connection points for us to get together again.

Back in Anchorage

2007-09-30T11:09:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm back in Anchorage.
Not quite settled in for I have yet to close on the house in Willow, and I want to get my stuff to Willow before deciding what needs to stay here in Anchorage. Ugh.

Yesterday, I drove out to Whittier, it's about an hour away. The cool thing is that the only way you can get there by car is to go through a tunnel that was originally designed for just a train to go through. I do believe it was back in 2000 that they reworked it so that cars could go through it also, though, not at the same time. One neat thing, since it's only a one way tunnel, there is a schedule as to when the tunnel is open to get to Whittier and when you can go through to get to the rest of the state.
Here is a link for the tunnel:

http://www.dot.state.ak.us/creg/whittiertunnel/virtualdrive.htm
(sorry, don't know why the auto link isn't working)

I had lucked out both times and arrived at the tunnel just as it was being opened for the direction I was going. So, I had no time to eat the lunch that I had brought with me.
Luck was also with me, in the fact that I was going to drive to Seward, but then decided not to do it. I stopped at a pull over point on the Seward highway on my way back to Anchorage to eat my lunch...a very late lunch at that. Not long after I'd finished my sandwich, I noticed a white line off in the distance, I shrugged it off thinking that I wouldn't be as lucky to stumble upon the right place and right time to watch the bore go through. I'd noticed that the white line had gotten closer, still thinking that it was a play of the sun & clouds, I kept an eye on the line...just in case. Well, not much more than a minute later, I had come to the conclusion that it was my lucky day and I'd get to see the bore tide for the first time in person. I was amazed as to how loud it was, and how quickly it moved. You can see and hear it here in this video.

After watching the tide come through, I understand how it can be surfed, and yes, there are a BUNCH of crazies that do surf it!

Anchorage bound

2007-09-24T20:19:00.001-08:00

I'm getting really excited about this next assignment that I have. Though, I do have to admit, part of the excitement is due to my new home.
I'm excited about the new position, as for it will be a step up in skill level. It is a Long Term Acute Care Hospital. Essentially, it's a large step down unit. This hospital will not have OR suites or an ED. As it was explained to me, some patients are ones that need more time on a vent, or are too sick to go home and be alone but for one reason or another can't go to a rehab facility or are in need of some complicated dressing changes that home health is not willing to do.
It will be interesting to see how close my job comes to the descriptions.

What has me really excited is my new house, I've already got paint picked out for the rooms and I can't wait to get painting, which by the way, won't be any problems since I don't have any furniture to put in it at the moment. That is something that when I think about it, gives me mixed emotions, both excitement and dread. Excited cuz I get to shop, dread because I get to shop...I'm not looking forward to the tired feet from pounding the floors of department stores looking for the right couch, dishes or curtain nor am I looking forward to arranging deliveries on the larger items either!

Now, some people think that I'm crazy enough to drive from Willow to Anchorage every day (where do people get this idea?...I'm not that nuts, am I?). Let me shatter that belief right now! I'm not going to nor am I willing to drive 80-90 miles after a 12 hour night shift, much less turn around and do again that very evening...especially during the winter! What I'm doing is that I'm splitting time with another nurse, who works 12 hour day shifts, on a garage apartment. When I have more than one or 2 days off (or no plans to do anything in Anchorage or the Kenia) I will drive to Willow and Paco and I will spend time there.

It Sucks being on Alaskan time and be in Central time...

2007-09-24T20:11:00.000-08:00

So, here I sit, in St. Louis, it's 11:15 PM and my body thinks it's 8:15 PM. What sucks about it is that everyone has gone to bed and I'm not ready to...so, here I sit, playing on the puter.
My friend, Sarah, has posted a bunch of polls/tests/whatevers on her blog and I checked out the website and played with some there, I got a kick out of the results on the one below......Keep in mind, my profession and the fact that I LOVE blue & green.

Your Inner Color is Blue

Your Personality: Your natural warmth and intuition nurtures those around you. You are accepting and always follow your heart.

You in Love: Relationships are your top priority, and this includes love. You are most happy when you are serious with someone.

Your Career: You need to help others in your job to feel satistifed. You would be a great nurse, psychologist, or counselor.

What's Your Inner Color?

I should be packing.....

2007-09-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

But NO, I'm sitting here, procrastinating and taking silly tests on line!
I've got a couple things I want to do, but I'm not going to allow myself to do them until I get all the stuff I want sent down to Anchorage packed and ready to go....since I'm leaving for Deadhorse the morning I get off work and will be gone every day that I have left off before I have to leave for my plane in Anchorage, I got to get busy!!! I guess I need to add: play on computer to my list of things I can do AFTER I get things packed!!!!

This test I found interesting....guess I need to go and get a copy & read it!

You're Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try
anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent
some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in.
This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's
time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in
ferries.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Lovely signature from an email I receive from a Yahoo group

2007-09-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

Lord, keep Your arm around my shoulder
and Your hand over my mouth.

New Assignement!

2007-08-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I've interviewed and got the job in Anchorage!
St Elias is a Long Term Acute Care Hospital and is fairly new, they took in their first patent back in December. When my recruiter told me about it, it sounded like a nursing home to me and I was very leary of even interviewing for a position. I'd asked around and did some research on the web and it did not sound like a nursing home. I've heard nothing but good about it.
The people I interview with gave me the example of a patient that is having difficulties being weened from a ventilator. The patient is sent to St. Elias so that they can be weened off instead of being terminally extubated (MD expects pt to die from respiratory arrest because they no longer are assisted by a machine).
I'm excited about being in Anchorage, the "BIG" city...will be able to go to the Olive Garden when it opens!!!! WOOT!!!!
So, my next assignment will start on the 1st of October, I'm planning on being home for a hair over a week before heading back this way.

Closing on hold

2007-08-30T14:15:00.001-08:00

Between the subcontractors & the electric company, there is no way that the house will be ready in 2 weeks.
The sheetrockers told the contractor, "Oh, sorry, we forgot" last week and were supposed to start on Tuesday, well, I was there Tuesday and there was no sign of sheetrock much less the guys to get it up. So, everything inside is at a stand still until the walls are up and painted. With the insulation, sheetrock & painting, I'm thinking that they have close to a week on the walls alone....depending on how many guys there are that is. Oh, and they are the ones that are going to be putting in the cabinets too
The electric company has yet to show up to hook up the electricity. The contractor told me that he had a friend that put in for a hook up back in May, and it finally got hooked up last week! If that holds true, the power company won't get off their duff until November to get mine hooked up. Grrrr....
The subcontractor for the septic system wasn't able to make it out due to his machinery was broken and he was waiting on a part. Really no biggie here cuz it can be done while everything else is being completed.
So, if the power company hooks things up in a timely manner:

Contractor: 3weeks left
RealEstate agent: 3 weeks left
Me (my gut feeling):4-5 weeks

Will be interesting to see who is right!

Who knows when if the power company decides not to do anything....if I had about 5 grand extra, I'd set up an all solar house and tell the power company to go do something with themselves.

It was a beautiful day for a drive

2007-08-24T18:19:00.001-08:00

Today, Laura and I took a trip up the Dalton Highway to the Yukon River. It was a beautiful day for a car ride to the middle of nowhere, and it was fun to see the very beginnings of the fall colors creeping into the landscape.
The trip took a little longer than expected due to construction. We originally wanted to make it up to the Arctic Circle but because of the construction delays, we missed our mark by a mere 60 miles...I'm seriously thinking of renting a larger vehicle and driving back up later next week
But we had fun any way.
We stopped for lunch at the Yukon River before turning around. There we had a raven join us for lunch, and I did get some pretty good photos of him.
I was a little amazed as to the size of the Yukon, it kinda reminded me of the Mississippi at St. Louis, wide and muddy.

Both Laura & I were amazed as to the surface of the bridge....WOOD!

Decisions, decisions

2007-08-23T09:30:00.001-08:00

Well, I've been submitted for a job in Anchorage and one in Valdez.
I'd like the job in Valdez for the shear beauty of the area, not to mention the abundant wildlife AND awesome fishing!!!
I'd like the job in Anchorage (an acute long term care facility) for it sounds like a step up in skill level for me, better pay than Valdez, but I'm afraid that maybe the job may peg hole me as a nursing home nurse...and I've worked with some nurses that have just come from a nursing home and my only comment is: Scary, very scary. Not to mention that I know a couple people in Anchorage....and that my new house (that is supposed to be completed prior to 9/15....geeze, 3 weeks away!!! Still feeling paranoid about the whole thing...gotta have those keys in my hand before I feel that it's really mine) is a little more than an hours drive away.
I'm torn!
I really won't be able to make a complete decision until I interview with the facilities, I hope one of them will make the decision really easy for me, but then again......
Well, I guess I've got some time on my hands tomorrow, for Laura (my long lost twin sister) and I are going to be driving up the Elliot Highway in hopes of making it to the Arctic Circle before we have to turn around. I will be posting pictures!

Trip to Nome

2007-08-22T08:20:00.000-08:00

Finally have recovered from hitting the ground running on my return from visiting my friend, Sarah, in Nome.
I was supposed to leave Monday night, ended up missing my flight....by 5 minutes. Well, I should clarify that, the flipping line was so friggin' long that by the time I'd gotten up to the counter it was 5 minutes past check in time, next time I'm on a short trip, I'm making sure I don't have baggage to check! Ended up getting the first flight out of Fairbanks the next A.M
It was an enjoyable trip, every night we went to the beach and looked for beach glass (found quite a bit!), and didn't have any luck salmon fishing at all :(
One day we took a trip out to Salmon Lake and Pilgrim Hot Springs with some of Sarah's friends. We did a little berry picking at Salmon Lake(they were REALLY good, YUM!). We came across a herd of musk ox on the way to the springs and took a bunch of pictures of them. At the hot springs, I stuck my feet in the hot tub for the water was way too hot for me!
I left Thursday night (the last flight out of Nome), spending the night in the Anchorage airport to catch the first flight out to Fairbanks. I arrived back in Fairbanks around 8:30 or so...by the time I'd picked up Paco, got his cage back together and both of us fed (they didn't serve any snacks, and the only beverages were water, coffee and OJ-heartburn city!) it was almost 11 and I had yet to unpack my suitcase! I did open it up to to take out the stinky starfish that we had found the first night we went out beach scavenging and make sure nothing else that I had bought had been broke in transit. Assured that everything made it in one piece, I managed to get to get about 6 hours of decent sleep before going into work....it was a tough night due to the lack of sufficient sleep.

A new home :)

2007-08-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm officially on my way to becoming an Alaska resident, you have to be here a year to be a true resident and that will be November 18th for me. I put in a bid for a house in Willow Alaska and they accepted! We are supposed to close on or before Sept. 15th. I'm still having problems believing that it's mine....not changing/giving out my address until it is officially mine (keys in hand...being the typical paranoid me).
It's a log home, 2 bedroom with ~860 sq.ft. The house is in the process of being completed so I've been able to influence some decisions about things like: bathtub/shower or just a shower, gas range vs electric, etc. Right now, if anyone comes for a visit, you will need to bring your air mattress and sleeping bag!
The next time I'm down that direction, I will take pictures to post (this one the realestate agent set to me!)

Lovely trip to Anchorage

2007-07-30T08:13:00.000-08:00

Last week I spent a couple days in Anchorage, rained the entire time I was there. Felt sorry for the tourist that were missing out on the beautiful mountains that surround Anchorage.
Saw Dahl sheep along the Seward Highway, stopped by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where I got some REALLY good pictures of elk (they used to be in Alaska 1,000 year or so ago), buffalo (yep, they are here naturally, they are NOT plains buffalo but are what are called forest buffalo and caribou. After Martina had taken me to AWCC we stopped by Bird Creek to fish for silvers (salmon), they weren't biting, but the coolest part, my picture made it into the Anchorage Daily Newspaper the day before yesterday!!!! I'll have to see if I can scan it and post the picture. On the drive back to Fairbanks, I saw a really pretty shot of fireweed, the Parks Highway and a mountain, AND a little further down the road was a cow moose. I felt like I was in Yellowstone, for when I came upon about 5 cars pulled off to the side of the road, I HAD to slow down to see what they were looking at. I was so excited because the only animal I'd seen so far on the Parks Hwy was birds. Some of these folks HAD to be tourist, for I find it hard to believe that an Alaskan would stand between their car & the moose!!!!....a lot of biologist consider moose to be more dangerous than a bear.
On my trip back to Fairbanks, I'd noticed that there was more snow on the mountains than 4 weeks ago....I can't believe that there are already signs of winter showing up!!!

Happy 4th!

2007-07-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th of July!!
O.k., to night is going to be another first for me...first time I've not seen fireworks on the 4th of July. For some reason, it seems a little depressing. Though I do have to say there were fireworks several time during the winter. They have a HUGE display for the New Year here.
Take a look at some of the pictures that I've posted on Picasa...
--When I back in Alaska, the wild iris (aka in the Midwest as Siberian Iris) was in full bloom. Most places where I saw it was just a couple plants here & there, but when I got to Fairbanks, I was in awe, a fairly large area just covered in it. Everyone here that has them in their landscape went out to the outskirts of town and dug up their plants.
--On a day off last week, I drove all the way to the end of Steese Highway....well, to the end of the pavement, if I had a decent car, I'd drive to the end of the gravel road to see what is out there. I've got some pictures of fireweed (not good ones, but I'm on the look out for better plants) and some Alaskan Cotton.
Plans for the next week or two (not in stone yet because census is high right now and I might get to work more overtime):
--Botanical Gardens
--bus trip in Denali Park, hoping to find some one to go with me, if i can't, I'll be headed down there solo.
Things that I'm wanting to do before September:
--Anchorage...fishing for halibut & silver salmon
--Nome...see the tundra's flora & fauna...and see Sara, too!
--Fall trip to Denali, everyone has told me that Denali is GORGEOUS in the fall
--explore a couple more of the highways till they run into gravel roads
--hoping to be in town when the fair is in swing so I can take pictures of the ginormous veggies...can't wait to see 20-30 lb cabbage!

24 hours of visible light-ugh!

2007-06-26T12:19:00.000-08:00

Official sunrise 3:01 am, sunset 12:46 am, giving the length of day to 21 hours, 45 minutes....tomorrow will be 2 minutes 42 seconds shorter on the length of day. And we are still at 24 hour of visible sunlight!
This length of light is really weird and have come to the conclusion that it's the main reason for making Paco such a pill. Last week he bit my neck twice, hard enough to bruise but not break the skin, 2 days ago was a different story. That was the first time he's bit me & drawn blood...pretty good size gash too. I was suspecting the amount of light, I've got him next to a north facing window in this apartment. My suspicions were confirmed in a discussion on one of my Yahoo groups when someone asked why their year old Quaker was being newly aggressive...a breeder responded that it could be the amount of light the bird was getting.
I on the other hand am just plain tired from all the sunlight...and I mean tired, when I was home in ST Louis, I was sleeping 10 hours each night, very unusual for me for I usually get somewhere between 6 & 7 hours. I was so happy to see stars for the first time in months that I stood in the dark, staring up at the night sky looking at the stars for at least 10-15 minutes.
The ever present sun has given me a new out look on night & the stars...just like back in the winter when I went for weeks without seeing the sun helped give me a new outlook on the sun & sunsets....I remember the first time I saw a sunset in almost 2 months, due to work schedule and weather. Honestly when I look back on it, it was not that great of a sunset, but at the time it was beautiful.
The extreme lengths of light & dark each have their beauty. The lack of light allows the snow to collect on the trees, creating that fairy tale effect that you can see on some of my cross country skiing pictures. The extreme length of day has allowed everything to grow VERY quickly, and there are some really beautiful flowers blooming...I have a folder made for just the wildflowers that I've taken pictures of...check it out! http://picasaweb.google.com/marzsaetel/AlaskaFlowers

Still in Fairbanks!

2007-06-25T00:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, yes, I've once again, extended my contract here in Fairbanks. This contract started off with a bang....left StL on time without a hitch. It's Minneapolis that started the problems. The plane was in the hanger getting repaired...they couldn't do it on time, so they had several choices
1. Bring another plane from the hanger, that had 45 less seats. (that would have been a fun one)
2. Wait almost 2 1/2 hours for a plane from Seattle to replace the "broken" plane.
3. Cancel the flight all together....Now, that would have been REAL fun.
They chose #2, so, out the window went my plans on getting to Cantwell. Thank god Martina had already offered to let me stay at her place in Anchorage for by the time I'd gotten my luggage and my car, it was somewhere around 11:30-12 pm. I was exhausted for I'd slept about 10 hours. I made it to Fairbanks about 6pm, waited 45 minutes for security to show up for my key to my new apartment, by this time, I was hot (it was about 87), hungry and very tired...and this was made worse when I arrived at the complex and I couldn't find the building.....they had blocked off the way to my building because they had re surfaced the parking lot & no one could drive on it for 24 hours. Now, that would be so bad, but, the walk from the nearest parking lot the my building was somewhere around 1-1/2 city block....and I had to get my 3 bags + Paco's cage and some other things that I'd left in Anchorage.....needless to say, I was not a happy camper that day. It was a good thing that I'd decided to spring for 1st class seats on the plane ride, or I'd been REALLY grouchy. I've since decided that it is WELL worth the extra $$ for first class for you get as much soda/tea/water you want(served in GLASS, NOT plastic!) in addition to fruit for a snack (no peanuts or pretzels), also, the cost of a hot meal was included....didn't have to shell out $5 for just a sandwich...also got free wine with dinner!
I guess one could say that the first class ticket kinda smoothed everything out.....well, not the car, I really don't like the car I have. It's an Aveo, it sucks rocks. I get into the car, and I can't see 1/2 of the speedometer, everything between 40 & 90 is obscured by the stearing wheel! And, no, the stearing wheel is not adjustable! This Chevy piece of shit is made for someone under 5 foot 2! Oh, well, I do have to remind myself, I've got return tickets in first class! hehehe

Timing is Everything

2007-05-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

This past week has proven that timing is everything.
Last week I extended here in Fairbanks again, because I haven't been able to find another position here in Alaska...the last recruiter I was working with had wasted time by putting me in for a position I wasn't qualified for. The position was a Ped/onc position (I've wanted to do this!)that requires a PALS certification...which I don't have. I do have the adult version, ACLS, but that doesn't help me one iota.
She swears up and down the position was only listed as an oncology position that said nothing about Peds...my thing, if PALS was a requirement, 'HELLO!, You aren't reading the whole listing!!!!' To top the whole thing off, the recruiter said, "Call the people you interviewed with (isn't she supposed to be the one doing that?) back and let them know you will take the position if they are willing to take you before you get your PALS or let you work while taking the class. We (agency) can send you to the next nearest city for a PALS class". Some how, I don't think she got it when I said I wasn't willing, nor had the available time, to go to Anchorage, 350 miles away, for a two day class. By the time I'd gotten done with her on this & contacted another recruiter, it was too late to get something in Anchorage or anywhere for than matter.

Any who, this morning, I got up to check my email. There was an email from another recruiter I've been working with. Another position had opened up in Alaksa, Ketchican to be exact.
I'm ready to shoot myself!!! Ketchican is one of the places I'd love to go to!!!
Here is some pictures I've found online so you can see why I'd like to go.

Trip to Denali

2007-05-09T16:28:00.001-08:00

Geeze, I got busy and totally forgot to post about our (me , Sarah & Rick) trip to Denali State Park.
Even though we didn't get to see Mt. Denali, it was a beautiful drive. The fun part of the drive was listening to Sarah..."Oh, my gosh, it's BEAUTIFIUL!!","These mountains are absolutely gorgous!!" I have to agree, the park was something else, I wish we had the time to go all the way down to Cantwell so she could see the mountains down there!!
While in the park (the road was open to the 30 mile mark) we saw ALOT of Willow Ptarmigan (Alaksa's state bird) which were still in their winter feathers. We happened upon one small herd (6-8) of caribou, and Sarah spied another small herd in a valley that was about 1/4-1/2 mile away. By the time we reached the end of the road, it was snowing! We had driven out of it on the way back, but it caught up with us. At one point it was coming down so heavy (and mondo huge flakes) I was wondering how much more it would take to get to white out conditions.

Chena Hot Springs - again!

2007-04-29T23:11:00.000-08:00

Sarah arrived Wednesday night & on Thursday we went to the hot springs. A former co-worker of Sarah's, Rick, who is also a travel RN and is now working here in Fairbanks in the ER, joined us for the day.
The day was beautiful...about 50 degrees, and sunny...and the spring was REALLY HOT. 109+...the thermometer did not go any higher. It was so hot that we couldn't stay in much longer than 10-15 minutes, we would have to retreat to the much shallower end to cool down.
After we got tired of being in the spring, we went for lunch. We had a cute little red squirrel join us (took Sarah & I two days to figure out what kind of squirrel it is). As usual, the food was wonderful.
After lunch, we went to the gift shop and then to the Ice Museum. The tour guide was rather nice, Sarah & I got to split a free Appletinni, we had tried about 6 times to get our debit cards to go through without luck--their computer was not connecting like it should.
After we got done in the museum, we had to head back to the springs to thaw out...it's about 20 degrees in there. The really funny thing, the last time I was in there, it was WARM (then again, outside it was -20).

Trip to Tok/Fast Eddies

2007-04-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

On the 16th, took a road !trip out to Tok to go to Fast Eddie's! I did buy a couple t-shirts.
Funny haven't been to the one in Alton!
It was a really nice day, the mountains were out, and the temp was in the high 40's low 50's. On the way, we saw a cow moose and her yearling.
This Fast Eddies is quite a bit different from the one in Alton. This one in Tok, you can take kids in and you can leave with left overs. The burgers were good (I got the halibut burger) and filled us up so much that we took our dessert to go...I got the white chocolate raspberry cheese cake, it was really yummy!
On the way back, we saw two more cow/calf. One set is probably the first set that we saw going to Tok, for they were about in the same area. Even if it wasn't, I was excited because this was he first moose that I've seen outside of downtown Fairbanks!

Spring is here!!

2007-04-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

I think spring has finally arrived!
Can see plenty of grass that is TRYING to turn green, and I'm anxiously waiting for the first flowers of the season!
During the day, we have been playing with the 50's for the last 2-3 weeks, however, we are still getting down into he 20's at night.
It really didn't take much more than 4 days for all the non-piled snow to disappear and turn into massively huge lakes that would freeze over during the night....made for some interesting walking to the car in the AM.

2007 Ice Festival

2007-04-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

I know this posting is a little late, but better late than never!!
I was happy that I went to see the single block sculptures as early as I did...even though I didn't like the fact that it was -10 with a pretty good wind that day....about a week later, some vandals went through the park at night and destroyed some sculptures. One of my favorites, the Praying Mantis was one that got hit pretty good. I was so disappointed that it got clobbered for I was looking forward to seeing it lit up at night.

This particular sculpture, I was not at all impressed with during the day, but at night lit up, it is beautiful. It's pretty strange how colored light changes the feel of the ice, not to mention how the light changes as it goes through the imperfections in the ice.

This photo is of the Susan Butcher Memorial. For those of you who haven't a clue who she is, she is the second woman to win the Iditarod, and the first person to win it 3 times in a row, a record that stood for 15 years. She passed away this past fall of leukemia.
The cool thing about this sculpture is that the light colors cycled. My first attempt at taking a photo failed because it was a 30 second exposure and the lights cycled through all their colors during that point and all I got was a big blob of white!

The Knotty Shop

2007-02-09T11:37:00.000-09:00

s

Last week Martina & I went to the Knotty shop. It's a cute little place that sells a lot of touristy stuff. The drive was quite pretty for it was a beautiful sunny day...we had to wear our sun glasses!!! We had fun looking at all the stuff that was inside, then we had fun looking at the burlwood (knotty pine logs) animals out front. When I turned around go go back to the truck, I saw one of the most beautiful snow scapes I've seen in a very long time. After I uploaded the pictures and saw the snowscape, after "Oh!, How pretty!", I thought "What a bitch of a puzzle that would make!" Dad, you better watch out, I'm checking on getting it made into a puzzle fro Chrismas '07!

Change in plans

2007-01-20T22:30:00.001-09:00

Though it's not totally official yet (waiting on the new contract), no Florida for me, I'm staying in Fairbanks for another 13 weeks. I will be home for 2 weeks following the completion of my 1st assignment. I'm excited about coming home for two weeks, and excited about being here in Fairbanks a little longer. This way I'll get to see the ice carvings, and the dog sled races downtown plus several other conventions and such that I can't think of right now.
Since I've decided to stay, yesterday I went out and bought some cross country skis!!! I'm sooooo excited about it because it's been years since I've been able to ski! I'm hoping to get some more winter scapes, but this time with out any buildings or roads!!!

Chena Hot Springs run #2

2007-01-17T06:14:00.000-09:00

Well, last week, Martina and I headed out to Chena Hot Springs to do some shoeing, when we were about 30 miles out, the wind started to pick up....have you ever seen a snow devil? We saw plenty on the way there & when we arrived. It wasn't a hard decision to make when we got out of the truck that we weren't going to be doing any shoeing that day. The temp was already -20, factor in what I'm guessing was at least 20-30 mile an hour winds.....don't want to think about the wind chill factor...BBBrrr.
Since we weren't about to waste an hours drive, we pretty much spent the day in the water, well, 90 minutes the first go round, then had lunch and got back in for about another 2 or so hours. We are planning on going back in a week or so to give it another go for both Martina & I want to do some shoeing and cross country skiing out in the Chena area.

"The odds are good, but the goods are odd."

2007-01-17T05:50:00.000-09:00

I've been getting alot of slack lately for not posting lately, so, here goes!

Everyone's been wondering what I did for New Years.
Was busy running my butt off for I was working that night. Nothing really exciting happened, other than a couple patients wishing me a "Happy New Year" when I came in their room when it was after midnight.

Another big thing on people's minds: Have I got myself a man yet? The answer to that is NO. One of my co workers put it quite eloquently, "The odds are good, but the goods are odd." And I couldn't agree with that more. Most of the "normal" men are "imports" and they are already taken!!!

A Christmas Story

2006-12-26T11:42:00.000-09:00

Well, Paco & I have survived our first Christmas alone. Wasn't all that bad, after all, Christmas is just a day on the calender. One thing that I did miss was a real home made turkey dinner with the works...sorry Marie Callender, your turkey w/stuffing & gravy just didn't cut it....not to mention the lack of cranberries!
Christmas Eve, Martina & I went out looking for a place to have dinner. Was rather difficult because most places closed between 4 and 5pm (another reminder that this is a "small" town), but we did find a buffet that was open....a Chinese buffet. We had our laugh (far-a-rar-a-ra- ra-ra--------if you haven't see A Christmas Story yet, I highly recommend it. It's hilarious) So, for our Christmas dinner we had sushi, various stir fries (sweet&sour, teriyaki, etc) with great steamed rice, crab legs, mussels, baked salmon. Was all pretty good.
Another tie in to the movie....I got PJ's for Christmas, I would have died laughing had they had little rabbits on the, but they didn't, they had little sheep. :)
Needless to say, this will be a Christmas I won't forget for a while.

Mush!

2006-12-22T10:38:00.000-09:00

Back on the 20th, even though it was close to zero, I had one of the most fun times in a long time, I went mushing! It was an absolute blast. It was amazing to see the size of dogs (lots smaller than I'd expected) and how strong they are, they must be all muscle!
The fun began even before we got on the
sleds, you see, as the dogs were added one by one, the dog's excitement grew. By the time that both teams were on their appropriate lines all the dogs were barking & howling. Even more amazing was the fact that both teams (6-7 dogs each team) were temporarily tied to a large truck (somthinge like a F150, no rinky dink Nissan or Honda truck) and these seemingly little skinny dogs were about to take off with the truck in tow! I regret not taking any movies of the truck rocking forward as both teams tried to go before we were ready to go!
During the ride, Kathy (the musher) explained the directions she was giving the dogs.....if I remember right, "haw" means left & "gee" means right.
Once we were out on a meadow, our musher's let Martina & I trade places with them! They gave us a VERY quick run down as to what was what (the most important one, the break!), after that we actually got to "drive" the team.....well, not actually, it was more like hanging on for dear life when you don't know what to expect! Kathy actually called out to the dogs and directed them while I was standing on the runners. The picture you see of me, Kathy actually turned around in the sled and took it while we were moving, she even leaned out to get a picture of Martina driving her sled. At one point she asked me if I was still there, she said that in the past, she has had people fall off and not hollered at her that they had fallen off (I guess out of embarrassment). Come to think of it, I bet it made things a tad bit difficult for her being in the sled with no access to the break to get the dogs to stop....I've read that getting the team going is the easy part, the hard part is getting them to stop! Kathy even told me that there has been several times where her dogs have broke loose of the sled and had drug her several miles (she said "I was being drug on my side and cussed the whole way").
At the end of the ride, the only thing on me that was cold was my toes...I should have worn thicker socks! They had nice warm Yurt for us to warm up in. It was amazing how warm this "round tent" was, even with a 1-1.5 inch gap under the door!
If anyone is in an environment where they can go mushing, I highly recommend it!

I saw the light!!

2006-12-12T02:09:00.000-09:00

Hallelujah, I saw them!!! I saw the Aurora Borealis!
Work had called wanting me to work an extra 4 hours, even through I really wanted to go to bed early, I said yes because I want to have some extra $$ for when I go to Nome. They wanted me to stay another 8, but I'd been up since 0630 and had a very short nap from about 3 to 4:30 there was no way I'd last a full shift.
After I got off work, I decided to go to the grocery store that I knew was open 24/7. On my way home I decided to try a different street to get home. It turned out to be a residential area, and because my sense of direction is soooooo screwed up here, I ended getting myself lost. While I was in the process of trying to find my way back to the main road, I noticed something in the sky. At first I passed it off as low lying clouds that were reflecting street lamps, then it dawned on me:
#1 when Martina & I left work we looked at the sky and saw the stars
#2 the color was wrong for the street lamps that they use here in Fairbanks (the orangy colored ones, this was greenish white)
#3 I don't think that Fairbanks is big enough to have that large of an effect on even low lying clouds
And that was when it dawned on me,
It's the Northern Lights!
Somehow I managed to find my way back out (wasn't too bad, lots of people had their Christmas lights up, so I was enjoying those) got home, grabbed my big camera and the instruction book of it, the tripod that I had purchased two weeks ago and headed out to a fairly dark parking lot that I saw when I was coming home.
I get out to the parking lot, get the instruction book out, find the page that tells you how to do prolonged exposure, did the settings it told me and tried to take a picture....nothing happened. Went through the whole thing a second time, and then nothing...I don't know how many times I tried the settings and nothing happened. At some point, it did take a picture, but that was when I had the light on in the car. It was at this point that I rolled the window down and used the window to steady the camera, obviously it wasn't steady enough and I was getting to the point of chucking the camera into the Chena River (it's open at this point because to the power plant that is about 1/2 mile up stream). I decided to grab my baby Cannon and see what it could do. I could actually see the lights on the screen but not on the actual photos, but I decided to wait and see if they would show up on the computer....no such luck.
After using the little Cannon Powershot that I've got, I decided to try the Rebel again. Not too hard to cool down when you are standing in the dark when it's about -10. When I picked up the camera, it dawned on me that MAYBE I need to turn off the auto focus and viola, it was working. I was happy now, but the lights had dimmed quite a bit so I waited a couple minutes and they brightened up. I get out of the car, and realize, I have no clue how to get my camera attached to the tripod! So, now I'm fighting the tripod, on the verge of cussing, again. Then things slip into place and I finally get 3 pictures on the tripod before the lights get too dim for the settings that I some how managed to get.
I'm very happy with the pictures I got. Now I want to see the other colors that can show....like purple & red!
Lessons learned:
1.Read the instruction book!!!!
2.Make sure there is plenty of gas in the car
3.Always were long underwear!!

It's a Tropical Heat Wave!!!!!

2006-12-05T09:59:00.000-09:00

Could 21 above zero ever be considered warm?
You bet your sweet bucket it is!
Never in a million years would I think that I would ever consider 21 above warm.
Though, then again, I've never thought that I'd experience -39 either.
When I arrived in Fairbanks, just a hair over two weeks ago, when I stepped out of the airport most of the signs ranged from -28 to -40 (I've wondered if there is a competition to see who can register the lowest temp). And it stayed that cold for almost a week. We had a gradual warm up and the highs would hover around -20 to -10 for the next week. Then we finally warmed up really good on 12/4...the official temp was 21 above, though, it was my understanding that a lot of the signs in town were saying 26 to 28 above.
So, when you look at the temp difference from when I arrived and from yesterday...that is a temp difference of anywhere between 50 & 70 degrees difference!!!!! (depending on who you want to believe!)
So, in my book, that would make 21 above, warm.
I mean, heck, you all back in Missouri would be breaking out the shorts & flip flops if it had been 10 above and then it hit 60 or 70, right?

Which would you rather have....single digit temps and lower, or an inch of ice and maybe no heat?

2006-12-02T00:36:00.000-09:00

HHHMMMMM....I really don't have to think about that one! Would rather have the low temps! All that ice is more dangerous than the low temps. Not to mention that I absolutely HATE driving on ice!
We got a little snow here in Fairbanks also, but not much. Everyone here tells me that we are behind in snowfall and when I told them of what was going on in the Midwest, they said that you all were getting our snow!!! I'm sure many people would be more than happy to send it this way!!
I just read something on the net that Amerun UE (the electric company that serves most of the southern halves of Illinois & Missouri) is reporting that 520,000 customers are without electricity. Sounds like a repeat of almost 6 months ago where 1 million + were without power for a minimum of 3 days after two powerful sets of thunderstorms rolled through.

The above pictures are from:
http://iwitness.stltoday.com/mycapture/photos/Album.aspx?EventID=202597&CategoryID=23106

I found several pictures I'd love to post, but I'd have to shell out ~$8 @ to the Post Dispatch to buy them...will describe some.

1. Someone cleaning up a downed tree due to the ice....they had on the basics:coat with a hood & gloves, and then had a face mask on. All I can say is "Wuss!!!!" (the temps was somewhere around 30--again WUSS!)

2. Someone shoveling their driveway in flipflops & shorts. O.k.....can we say "Stupid?!"

Well, it's about 1:30 am, no longer snowing. I guess I should get to bed for I want to get up and take some pictures of the thick coating of frost on everything around here when the sun is coming up...that is about 10:22 am... will have about 4 1/2 hours of light......by 12/22, will be down to 3 hours and 42 minutes.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=81&month=12&year=2006&obj=sun&amp;afl=-11&day=1

Funny little conversation

2006-11-27T14:16:00.000-09:00

The day before we were to go to Chena Hot Springs, Darlyn called to let me know what time she would be to pick me up, the phone call went something like this:
"Hi Mary. I'm calling to let you know that I'll be at your place sometime around 11. Make sure you have a towel, a quarter and a bathing suite."
"Um, Darlyn, being winter and all, I didn't bring a swimsuit."
"Well, a T-shirt & shorts will do"
"hehe...It didn't even cross my mind to bring shorts either! You know...winter in Alaska! Do you think that WalMart would have shorts this time of the year?"
"Well, they might"
"I'll go later tonight and check it out...see you at 11"

I went to Walmart, and guess what, they had swimsuits there!!!! In NOVEMBER!

Chena Hot Springs

2006-11-27T01:21:00.000-09:00

If you are ever in Fairbanks, Ak., regardless of the time of the year, you really should go. It's wonderful. I'm hoping at sometime to go for the weekend and be able to get a massage and have a little fun there. The have all sorts of activities, mushing, cross country skiing, ice carving is what immediately comes to mind.