First Frost . . . and puppies!

First this:

Then this:

The first picture is self-explanatory: there was FROST on my car this morning.  Looks like I need to add "ice scraper" to my grocery list.

The second picture is of the view from my desk this morning.  A co-worker heard how much I like Boston Terriers, so she brought in pictures of her dog from when he was a puppy.  I kept them for the morning, lined them up on my window, and gazed at them longingly every five minutes or so.

Finally, for no reason whatsoever, here are some pics of my own little guy, Oliver:

Two Truths and a Lie: Alaska Edition

I'm a bit short on pictures this week, so I'm spicing up this post with a little icebreaker-style trivia.  For each category below, I've listed three "facts," two of which are actually facts, and one of which is also a fact, but I cannot believe it is a fact.

Friday: Nesting
1. I bought one of these.
2. I took a special trip to the grocery store . . . because the Companion's coming back for a visit!
3. I finally got my winter coats and sweaters.

Saturday: Oktoberfest
1. I ate a pickle on a stick and danced some polka.
2. I sang a rousing acapella duet rendition of an Eric Clapton song.
3. I went to a party and introduced myself to everyone as Gillian.

Sunday: Loafing
1. I recorded the last half of The Fast and the Furious on the DVR.
2. I'm still in my PJs.
3. I'm watching TLC's Sister Wives AND I CAN'T STOP.

Wolverine

I'm dying, guys.  It was a good weekend, but it might have been my last.

Friday night started out nicely with an excellently catered dinner party (sushi, skewers, wine).  But then . . . wait for it . . .  the Anchorage outdoor bar.  My first thought upon walking into the bar was "this reminds me of Houston!"  So naive.  This bar was a lot like one you'd find in Houston, except Houston would never be 44 degrees in mid-September.  Never!  I'd been drinking, so I didn't realize how cold I was until I got into bed that evening, tried to sleep, and then realized that hypothermia was setting in.  My mental functioning was slowed.  My muscles weren't working.  So I stumbled into the hall to turn up the heat, stumbled back into my room to layer on as much clothing as possible, and then stumbled into bed.  I was in for quite a shock the next morning when I woke up drenched in sweat and wearing two of everything.

On Saturday morning I went for a longish run on the coastal trail, which was great.  I'm including some pictures of the trail here, since I talk about it a lot but never managed to get pictures until a few days ago.

I spent the rest of Saturday running errands, tidying, and napping.  I was supposed to go on a pirate pub crawl that evening, but I wussed out.

Sunday (today) was hike day.  11 miles.  3500ft of elevation gain.  Ruins from a plane crash.  Fog.  Sheep.  Typical Alaskan beauty.  Me complaining a lot.  You know, the usual.  I'd kind of like a day off tomorrow to recover, but alas.  The plus side: our landlord found out where we'd hiked and was totally impressed, so maybe doing Wolverine Peak gives me some Alaskan street cred.  As the pictures below show, it was quite beautiful, and my co-hikers were a delight, as always (I wish I could say the same for myself).  I bet my kvetching kept away the bears.

Alaska is Terrifying.

As part of my job training today, I watched a presentation on outdoor safety that was entitled Alaska: If You're Not Really Careful, You're Going to Die.  OK that wasn't actually the title, but it should have been.  Why is that, you may ask?

Exhibit A: Bears.  Both black bears and grizzly bears have been known to fatally maul people, and they are everywhere.  On the trip to the lake this weekend, I saw two people openly carrying guns.  Yet, according to this article, only the .44 magnum is considered even "minimally effective" in the event of a bear attack (of the guns they test . . . rifles seem to work just fine).

Exhibit B: Moose.  Like bears, they get upset if you scare them or come between a cow and her young.  As many of you have heard me say, people in Anchorage have been stomped to death by moose.  Now, I still think this sounds mildly hilarious.  However.  It's a lot less hilarious now that I've seen moose in my front yard, and, even weirder, now that I've come across a baby moose (by herself!) in the middle of the trail when I was running this evening.

Exhibit C: Mudflats.  This one scares me the most, although death-by-mudflat seems really preventable, so it's probably the one I should worry about least.  Cook Inlet, which is the body of water right near my house, has a minimum of 37 feet of difference between high and low tide.  This is the second largest tidal difference in the United States.  When the tide is low, the mud packs, creating what appears to be a large beach that is really easy to walk on.  As the tide comes in, though, the mud becomes less packed, creating the equivalent of quick sand.  If a person were out on the mud when the tide came in, they could easily get trapped and then drown.  I'm preparing for nightmares this evening.

Exhibit D: Hypothermia.  Alaska has the highest fatality rate in the country with respect to canoeing and kayaking.  That's scary enough (see my last post for proof), but it's worse because these deaths are largely caused by hypothermia.  First, we learned that *even with a life vest* you've only got about 10-15 minutes in the water up here before you're dead.  But without a life vest, your muscles cramp up even faster and you drown.

I'm not fretting, though.  I work with people who have lots of outdoor experience, and I'm a naturally cautious person.  So I'll be trying my best not to do anything ridiculous. 

First Weekend

On Friday evening I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with one of the delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention.  I talked about legislative intent with someone who actually knows what was intended.  Because he was there.  It's his intent!  My mind is still boggled.

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon at an outdoor beer tasting event.  While most of the beers were a little heavy on the hops for my liking, there was live music and a pleasingly hipster vibe.  And I hear that everyone can grow to love hops, so maybe I'm on my way there.

Then, on Sunday, the grande finale.  Eklutna Lake.  Hiking, canoeing, and s'mores.  What's not to love?  The leaves are changing here, so even the drive up was breathtakingly colorful. 

Once at the lake, we started with an easy hike, which was lovely but uneventful.  But then I took my turn on the canoe.  Big mistake.  Apparently I'm prone to canoe-induced meltdowns.  My fellow canoers and I had paddled for maybe five minutes when someone says "hey I bet we can make it to the foot of that mountain there."  To which I respond, "I don't want to do that."  "But we CAN make it, so we should," he counters.  Then, as if on cue, our vessel is rocked by a tsunami-like tidal wave (some people have suggested that this was not a "wave," but was in fact a "ripple."  Whatever.) 

"WE HAVE TO TURN BACK RIGHT NOW."

"Katherine are you crying?"

"I'M NOT CRYING I'M LAUGHING."

"It sounds like you're crying."

"I'm just experiencing extremely diminished marginal returns right now.  I mean really what's the point of canoeing longer than five minutes anyway?  And I'll have so much surplus when I make it back alive.  That's really all I'm trying to say."

So we went back.  Am I proud of this?  Maybe a little.  Was I laughing or crying?  Not sure.  Was it a wave or a ripple.  A wave.

Safely back on dry land, I practiced my rock-skipping and learned how to throw a football.  Then, once everyone was back in one place, we built a fire and made s'mores.

There are worse ways to spend a weekend.

Working Girl

Full disclosure: I had another post up for a while, but decided it was too pretentious, so I deleted it.  First, allow me to present the non-pretentious portions of that post:


Well I'm pooped.  But work starts tomorrow, so if I'm going to update, then it's time to get 'er done.


First, I was out of town this weekend to attend the wedding of a dear friend.  The wedding was beautiful, the couple was happy, and everything went off without a hitch.  It was, in a way, a perfect bookend for the next year.  I got to dress up, dance into the wee hours of the night, and see a lot of old friends.  But it was bittersweet.  It reminded me of how much I'll miss everyone, and I had to bid farewell to the Companion the next morning.

So, alone, I traveled back up to Alaska, this time by plane.  Alaska is, of course, beautiful even when viewed from the window of a run-of-the-mill flight.

OK that's it for that last post.  Since then, I have in fact started work, and have been settling in to my day-to-day life here.

My job and my co-workers all seem great.  But let's get down to brass tacks: how's my office?  Well, since you asked . . . it's awesome!  I have what people refer to as "Mad Men" furniture, my huge window overlooks the water, and we're close to the air force base, so I often see planes landing and taking off.  The train tracks run by, and there's an active harbor, so there is plenty of interesting stuff to see.  And, since this is Alaska and all, it's beautiful.

I've been running on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, which offers nice views of the water, the mountains, and, on the way back, of the Anchorage skyline.

As great as this has all been, though, I must admit that I'm already worried about the weather.  On the days where it's in the 50's and raining I am not a happy camper.  I'm trying to decide if I should buy a special lamp, a special alarm clock, or both.  Any suggestions?

I'll try to get more pics up sometime soon, but for now I have to go figure out what, if anything, I'm making for a pot luck tomorrow.