Willow has arrived

Greetings all. Here is our new puppy. You have no idea what it took to get her. When I have recovered more I will post the story.

2Cellos make my heart sing

If you don't know these guys, pay attention. They are gonna be big!

Clap your hands!

Something really wild but oddly addictive.

The sun is back in the frozen state and my brain is slowly thawing out. I have started a new job, well, 7 months ago, and I am finally settling in. Time has been my enemy lately and I am struggling to keep head and heart together in one blissful unit. Ah well, we all have the challenge of learning to be happy.

The moose are fed up with the deep snow and are moving into the urban areas, i.e., downtown, and you cross paths with them more often than the neighborhood dogs. Some of them are so tame you can put your Ken doll on one and let it go for a ride! (Long story, search the Alaska Outdoor Forum for that one.)

As I slowly come back to life with the return of warmth and light, I will try to be more available and funny. Right now, no fantastic words of wisdom or pithy comments on the state of the world. Just hanging on, like so many people in the world right now. Hanging on and counting my blessings. And trying not to focus on what I don't have, but focus on those things already in my life.

Take care all. Talk to you soon.

To camp is to live

So, how have you been? Me? Oh, I don't know. Things are crazy as always. The dog insists on defending our home, even when there is no one out there. The kids continue to act like the irrational, completely whimsical creatures they are, and my husband is trying to make sense of all of us women-folk and our strange and mysterious ways.

I am trying to figure out how to go camping with no camper, no boat, and no ability to sleep on the ground anymore with my old bones. Also, how do you find a tent site on a whim? In the old days, you just went somewhere and set up a tent. Now you have to use campgrounds and make advance reservations.

I am depressed about the whole ordeal. The worst thing is not having the boat anymore. Losing that was like losing a member of the family.

Ah, well. If my kids can sleep on the ground, so can I. I just need to find a place we can go that is legal, enjoyable, and we can drop in at the last minute. And no, I don't mean the Fred Meyer parking lot.

Big Brother

Facebook is the new Big Brother. Watching. Violating your privacy. Making money. Yep, the new Big Brother is watching you. I think it should be called FaceBro.

Know your Labs

Looking for trouble

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
- Ernest Benn

Fruit bats orphaned by the floods in Australia. Can I have one?

Superglue is not my friend. It is imbued with fiendish properties best left to horror novels.

For example:

Last night we decorated our Christmas Tree. One of my daughter's favorite ornaments was broken and she asked me to fix it. Well, technically she didn't. But I wanted to fix it because a miniature plastic Barbie in a ballgown just doesn't look quite right with one hand broken off at the wrist. She looks like the latest victim from the movie "Saw IV" and who wants to think of that on a Christmas tree.

So, I attempted to glue her poor little appendage back on and instead I cemented a permanent relationship between two of my fingers and her gracious little plastic hand.

"Oh, look! I'm shaking hands with Barbie", I joked until I realized I would not be able to get the hand out from between my fingers without losing a significant amount of flesh way past the surface tissue.

So here I am. Plastic Barbie hand glued to fingers. Fingers glued to each other. It was one of my brilliant signature moves.

I called in reinforcements and my husband obligingly, and eventually, found the bottle of acetone and Barbie and I parted ways after much amusement to my family and my own personal humiliation.

I had started to gather my shredded dignity about me when the owner of aforementioned Barbie ornament inspected my fingers for damage and stated, "Well at least you didn't glue your nose shut, like last year!"

Superglue is not my friend.

The bear facts, part I

I fed a bear when I was a kid. Really. A wild, Alaskan Black bear. At the time this did not seem unusual to me. Given the ensuing decades and a small amount of reflection I realize things could have ended very badly for me back then. But they didn't.

I did scare my Uncle Dick half to death though. When I have properly framed this episode in my life, I will update my blog. But for now, picture me at about 8 years old with a fish in one hand and a bear two feet away, on a lovely summer afternoon along the river.

I love this gal Allie at Hyperbole and a half....

You Like?

Like my new look?

The juices are flowing...

Well, the turkey is done two hours early and we don't know what to do. We haven't put the side dishes in the oven yet, the table is still covered in God-Knows-What projects and alluvial deposits, and the kids refuse to go outside even though it is finally snowing!

My husband-the-chef is muttering something about "Goddamn brine", whatever THAT means and berating himself for his imprecise calculations on brine versus shorter cooking times.

This is why I will go to great lengths and multiple pizzas to stay out of the kitchen. I leave it to my loving husband to conduct kitchen chemistry (ooh, you like that alliteration?) and keep us all fed and healthy.

I offered to help with Thanksgiving dinner and he smirked, saying "I bet you don't even know where the cranberry sauce is." I fired back an irritated, smug retort and found out that, no, the canned cranberry sauce is NOT in the back pantry. In fact, he wouldn't tell me where it was. I am not sure why. Something about the kitchen, home accidents, and the children are too young to go without a mother. It was a confusing conversation.

So, here I sit, at the computer. While the muttering in the kitchen continues. There seems to be a whirl of activity as the troops of sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, and other side dishes are regrouped and the battle plan modified.

They say no plan survives after five minutes of contact with the enemy. Enemy thy name is turkey! But we shall prevail. I say skip the meat and head right for desert. The turkey is better on the second day anyway. Vive la pumpkin pie!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. Both of you.

OK. So I am bad. Very, very bad. I haven't called. I don't write. I'm bad. I do think of you often, if that helps. But I am still bad.

But here is something good. I don't want you to leave my blog and never come back, but this gal's work is just TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE!!! I really like her site ALOT. Go to her site to get THAT joke.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html