A Mammoth Weekend

TH (the husband) works a schedule which gives him 4 days off one week, and 3 off the next.  And every stupid weekend its usually the same same thing, we do nothing at all.  To be honest, there is little of interest to do in our town, that we haven't already done.  There is still to much snow on the ground to go for nature walks, and to chilly really to go on long ATV rides, and there you have it.  Sigh.  So, we sit and read, rent movies and really do nothing on his weekends.  Our nerves must have been on edge cause we got into a stupid little tiff, that left both of us shouting at each other!  In the middle of the shouting TH said, "Let's go to Anchorage to the mammoth exhibit!"  While packing we still found the time to snipe at each other, talk about your multitaskers!  Within 15 minutes we were packed and out the door and on our way.  The sniping slowly died away, followed by a period of quiet, not the uncomfortable quiet that grates on ones nerves, but a happy comfortable quiet.  We chatted about one thing and another on the way to Anchorage, a 6 hour trip. 

Snowy weather on the way.

A nice meal in Anchorage.

 The Anchorage museum, this building shines and glows on a sunny day, but on this rather gloomy day, it looks gloomy as well.

A mammoth skull.  This exhibit was developed by the Chicago Field Museum, and will be touring for the next four years.  There was interactive displays and videos, along with the fossils and life size models.  What we found interesting though was how many of the fossils in the exhibit were from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, like this one.

These mammoths were huge, giant and unbelievably ginormous.  They were 14 feet at the shoulder. The pictures are grainy due to the low light levels.

After enjoying the mammoths, we visited the Alaska Native floor.  I would have gotten a better picture, but it wasnt allowed, and the entire time we were there an employee was wandering around.

All in all?  It was a great trip.  We were gone for 2.5 days, had some great laughs, great meals, and had an all around good time.  Our next four day weekend is looming up on us, I'd better start planning yeah?

Strawberry Skies

Getting out the ingredients for the marinade for char siu for steamed buns, I'm digging around in the fridge looking for the hoisin sauce.  Rats and Cats!  None to be found.  Oh well, that is one of the perks of living in town, a grocery store only 6 minutes away.  Before when we lived in "hell town" the nearest grocery was 90 minutes one way, quite a trek when you're missing one lone ingredient.  Backing out of the car, I noticed that the sun was setting, it was sinking below the low hills, lighting up the sky with the prettiest colors.

Once in the store, I take the short cut through the produce department, when my nose was seduced with the ripe and luscious smell of ripe strawberries.  Taking a detour in dairy, I snag a carton of whipping cream, strawberry shortcake I do so love thee!  At the last moment, remembering why I was in the store, one jar of hoisin joined the party.  Looking at the odd collection of items, wondering if there was any way to marry these three items, I'm a huge fan of the tv show Chopped, and now look at ingredients in an entirely new light as to what I think could/should/would meld well together.

Still wrapped up in the world of food, I'm totally stunned into stillness by the sky.  I've never seen a sky quite like this one.

The sponge cake with strawberries and cream came out wonderfully tasty!  Usually, I'm not a fan of cake, but this cake was blow my doors off good.  After finishing a bowl of it, I transcribed this recipe into my cookbook!  Yeah, it was that good.

TH (the husband) and I went out to the Sportsman Show yesterday.  We had a lot of fun, looked at stuff, bought some raffle tickets for guns, and fishing trips, saw some friends we hadnt seen in a long time, and I found my birthday gift!  A white water raft trip, which includes class V rapids!  Oh Hellz Yeah!

While out and about yesterday, I started Operation Dress by walking through the women's department, something I hadn't done since August of last year.  I started at the easy end, jeans, and ended up at the dresses and very feminine tops.  I stood there, just looking, heart beating fast,  before turning away and quickly walking away.  This may be harder for me to accomplish than I thought.  If I already had a dress, had I kept any of my girl clothing, then maybe come wedding day I could just toss the dress on, and leave the house without looking in the mirror.  But finding a dress as well as wearing it?  Wow... so my current strategy is to attempt to pretend that I'm on stage as an understudy for a woman, as in "the role of mom of the groom, will now be played by Sam".

Alien Supper

 

Life has been rather interesting here of late.  Loads of drama, and intensively busy moments, interspersed with acres of hanging time.  Let's see where to start.......

Ok, first up third son's fiancee's (aka "wife to be") mom was flown to Anchorage from her little village, and placed straight into ICU.  Her family was told, get everyone up here quickly we really don't think she will survive this. Third son drove to Anchorage, fiancee flew, and we were left babysitting their 5 month old puppy.  I had forgotten how much work was involved with a puppy around.  Between keeping him out of things, taking stuff outta his mouth, playing with him, and all the inning and outting a puppy has to do, there was little free time, or so it seemed at the time.  Also compounding this was our sleep schedules were wildly different.  Puppy goes to bed early, around 9-10 pm, and my sleepy time is around 2-3 am.  He is ready to meet the day around 7 am!  OMG!  After only a few hours of sleep, there is no way I'm ready to play, especially at 7 am!  Yikes!  Thankfully, her mom is healing and the outlook is good for her making an almost total recovery. 

Fiancee sweetly asked me this last Sunday if I had picked out my dress for the wedding yet.  So, it looks as though I'm wearing a dress after all.  Am I happy about it?  No.  Will I do it to make her and third son's day happy and stress free?  Yes!  I've become much more comfortable in my own skin lately, and am finding the triggers that upset me and cause me to lose my edges.  I'm afraid that seeing myself in a dress, the most feminine article of clothing, will knock me off balance, and erase months of hard work.

After the puppy left, I realized just how bored I've been.  So after casting around, have decided to attend our local uni starting this fall.  Not really looking for a degree, and all of my past credits have expired.  No, what I'm looking forward to is learning for the sake of learning.  I'm a human sponge when it comes to knowledge, and am actually excited about being in a classroom again.  What classes will I take?  History, art, and possibly a language.  Which one, I havent decided.  TH (the husband) and I want to visit Europe and speaking at least one of the languages before going over would sure help.  I took German in high school, and some of it is still in there rattling around, so might take that one.  French drives me nuts to listen to, so wont be taking that.  Italian is a pretty language, so thats a possibility.  

Second son received a job offer to good to turn down, and so he left the state a few days ago for the twin cities.  His wife leaves in August to begin her PH.D in linguistics in Wisconsin.  The family had a going away dinner, and Dil (daughter in law, married to eldest son) was there.  No, I wasnt allowed to play with the baby.  It could have been worse I suppose, but the fact was we just ignored each other.  Sat on opposite ends of the table, and I pretended she wasnt there.  What I did find interesting, was that third son and fiancee were also ignored by Dil, and they ignored her as well.  Youngest son told TH a few weeks ago that, "We had the best family around, until Dil came into our lives, and she broke our family."

Spring is finally here, we have water puddles everywhere.  Rotten snow banks, and the first goose was sited a few days ago.  It cant come soon enough for me.  Am now awaiting the first buds on the trees, the smell of spring in the air, and the sight once again of the ground.  Green up cant come soon enough for me.

Oh?  You're wondering about the title and the header picture?  Umm, I thought it looked like an alien being, and it was on the cutting board.  So, alien supper! 

5 on the Fifth

Hello All!  It's that time again for photo fun.  This months theme is BLUR.  I'm not a very seasoned photographer, and was having trouble getting pictures that were blurry in an artistic way.  So, decided to twist the theme into things that blur time, blur boredom, blur pain, and something that causes my happiness to blur into sad.

 I love to read!  I read when I'm happy, sad, bored, etc.  Basically I read, therefore I am.  And yeah, I do love reading history, but read from almost every genre.

 Tech, tech, TECH!  I love my computer, love my iPad, and my DS!  I also love my iphone but couldnt figure out how to add that in the photo! lol lol  I can go onto the web to look something up, and hours later wonder how on earth I went from that start point to where I'm currently at.  I use my ipad to play games, check my email, surf the web, and oh yeah...... read, shocking, isn't it?

I love to knit.  My favorite time to knit is when I'm watching tv.  Why?  Well, to tell the truth I get bored watching tv, and knitting gives my brain just enough busyness to keep me happy.  Currently working on my first pair of socks, not as tricky as I had feared, at least so far!

 Yeah, I think this one is rather obvious how it blurs me.

Loneliness.  I spend a great portion of each day alone, and for someone whose happiest having people around me, it's tough.  But unfortunately, I'm also very shy, so meeting new people is hard.

Ok, now go and visit Stephan's blog and see all the wonderful pictures!