I'm over a month behind, so I'm trying to catch up. Here is Days 104 through 110, mid April, the beginning of our beautiful Spring weather and the melting of the snow here in Anchorage.

( pictures past the click )

I had to work Saturday (as always), and since Monday is my normal day off, I get today off for Memorial Day weekend. It has been a nice weekend. A fun hike, good relaxation, a roommate's birthday, I made a moderately successful ice cream cake, and a lovely chance to just chill.

So I messed up, I posted these on flickr but not here. We'll do pictures first and random updates of information later.

The photos were all taken when we still had a ton of snow. The last week or so Spring has finally really arrived, beautiful weather, and melting/melted snow. I've got photos of it. I'm going to try to update and get all caught up this week. So watch back lots of time for photos.
( Year of Photos Days 81 through 90 )

It's funny to see these snow photos since I've managed to entirely convince myself this is spring time. Of course just a few days ago was a year anniversary of the blizzard that dumped 18 inches of snow on us. Work is good as always. Busy. We just wrapped spring storytime session and are finishing up summer planning. Should be a great summer.

I know I haven't posted any photos or anything in almost a month. You should follow facebook, I'm there and read that daily now. I've traveled a lot (Hawaii for fun and Kodiak for the Alaska Library Association Conference), but more about those later.

Yes, right now we have a volcano erupting. Mt. Redoubt (pronounced RE-doubt) has erupted six times as of this writing (I believe). None of the ash fall has hit Anchorage yet. However with current wind conditions if it erupts before about 4pm tomorrow (Anchorage time, Wednesday) than we will have probably ash fall in Anchorage. What does that mean? Ash is very hard to breathe, bad on roofs (very heavy) and bad on vehicles. It's especially bad on anything with an air system, a filter, or electronics. At work we have to bag each computer (after turning off and unplugging them) in plastic each night, and since we have a lot of public computers, that is a lot of computers in general. We'd been doing this for weeks since the threat was first announced and they only called it off about a week before Mt. Redoubt actually blew. A watched volcano must be like a watched pot, won't go off when we're ready for it. Since we had weeks of warning, I (we) have spare air filters for car and house, and dust masks for me personally. I'm also now covering my television and laptop at night and when I'm gone during the day to protect them. I will let you know if any thing exciting happens. While we don't know officially know that the library closes in event of an ash fall (and we'd get a couple hours warning), I do know that we'd have to turn off all electronics and shut off the buildings ventilation system. So with no air circulating and no electronics, I'm thinking it would make sense for the library to be shut down. Just hoping. I'd like to take a "volcano day".

And now here are some photos, including one from Running of the Reindeer.
( Year of Photos - Days 55 to 61 )

I'll try to get Hawaii photos posted next, probably just one for the day. Later on I'll share more photos from the rest of Hawaii, more from the Running of the Reindeer, so on and so forth.

Sometimes I plan what I'm going to take a picture of, and sometimes it's all chance and happenstance. Click the link to see what I found this week.

( year of photos continues )

I think the medication is working (cross your fingers) as I'm starting to get better. I typed this up quickly, so there are probably many mistakes, I'll edit later.

I got an extra day off this week due to President's Day. Of course since President's Day is on Monday which is my normal day off, I got today (Tuesday) off. It was so nice, I really don't want to go back tomorrow. So pretty photos, and less than pretty photos, and totally mediocre photos posted for your amusement.

( Year of Photos Days 36 to 48 )

Sleep now if I'm going to make it back to work. I spent most of today trying to do my taxes. I made considerable progress.

Our volcano has yet to explode and shower us in Anchorage in Ash. So no cool ash photos! Here's what I do have:
( year of photos days 27 through 35, click for fun )

And now I must go to work (today is my late day).

Last week was one my one year anniversary of arriving in Alaska. Actually it was January 27th. And I've been working on this entry for that long. So I have lists for you, things I love about Anchorage/Alaska, things I'm learning to love, and things I miss and things I don't miss. I'll probably add more and more to these lists as they occur to me. I'll try to post the photos (which my mother waits for every Monday since it is my day off) either after this or tomorrow.

Things I Miss about Kansas City and The Lower 48 in General

• Thunderstorms
• Rain
• Barbeque
• Yoplait Light Flavor Strawberry-Orange-Sunrise
• Proximity to Family
• My Church
• My Friends
• Going to Royals games
• Boulevard Wheat
• A Whole List of Stores/Decent Shopping
• Sonic
• Fazoli's
• Olive Garden
• More than one library system in easy driving distance
• Decent fresh produce
• Squirrels
• fireflys in the summer
• Live theatre
• Junior League
• The ability to vacation in other states by jumping in the car for an hour or two

Things I Don't Miss About Kansas City

• Traffic
• Driving 45 minutes each way to work
• Hot humid summers
• Stress

Things I Love About Anchorage and Alaska in General

• Cross country skiing right outside my door
• A great community feeling
• Sushi (which they had in KC but I never ate)
• Fresh seafood
• A vast majority of outdoorsy people (who inspire me)
• Mountains everywhere I look
• The ocean and port (and whale watching!)
• Moose (and other wildlife)
• My church
• The friends I've made
• My awesome library and coworkers
• The huge military presence
• The amazing city park and trail system
• Pure wilderness is less than 20 minutes away, and you feel like you're a million miles from civilization
• A huge and diverse international population
• Learning about the native culture
• The culture/community of this state in general
  (so a lot of what I love about Alaska is turning out to be hard to put in words!)

Things I Am Learning To Love About Anchorage/Alaska

• The Cold (Embrace, buy awesome layers, don't hide from it)
• The huge military presence
• Quadrupling the amounts of lotions and moisturizers I use to deal with the cold
• Constant tourists
• Huge time difference from the rest of the country
• People always commenting on my accent

More to come as it occurs to me!

Life's been really busy, especially work. But lots of fun and it keeps me out of trouble. When I asked what you wanted to see photos of, you said the stereotypical Anchorage. The stereotype is probably dogsleds and snow and ice. Well I've got snow and ice photos, and that's true. But I'm also just trying to show you some of what I see everyday. Here are some photos I took for my year of photos (plus one bonus photo).

( Year of Photos day 17 through 26 )

January 3rd was the 50th anniversary of Alaskan Statehood, celebrated with many fantastic activities including the largest fireworks display in the history of the state. We made it despite the -25 weather. (Okay, we watched from a heated vehicle.) It was quite pretty and fun. Then after we had found an open starbucks, we sought out Snowzilla. (Snowzilla photos to follow later.) People asked about "stereotypcial Anchorage" which has a lot to do with snow, igloos (which we don't have) and dogsledding (only certain times a year, though we do have miles and miles of dogsledding tracks throughout town).

( Pictures for January 3rd and 4th )

Today continued bitterly cold. It was -23 when I left for work and -22 when I drove home. I snapped this photo on the way home. All of the trees are covered in frost. It's beautiful as every branch is outlined and encapsulated in it's own layer of frost, forming a white tree. Especially beautiful when outlined against a sunset. This is not a perfect photo, my apologies. It was -21 and I was in a hurry, I was on my way home from work (at 6pm and it's totally dark, it's totally dark at 5pm). I said I would do a year of photos, not a year of high quality photos. I should have gotten a day time photo during lunch when I should have gone out to start my car. (Apparently when it's this cold, it's best to go start your car and let it idle for a while in the middle of the day). Perhaps I will soon.

( photo day two of year of photos )

If you have photo requests, of something in Anchorage, or within my power to get, please ask. Nothing too silly or too minor. Edited to add, I meant nothing is too silly or minor. I'm sure I'll get very silly and minor in my photos before the year is out.

I am aware that I live in Alaska and a certain amount of snow is normal. However a major snowstorm on April 25th (five days before May) is not normal. I woke up Friday morning and it was snowing. And it kept snowing all day long. My coworkers were starting to complain and that was when I realized that even the Alaskans were not used to such late spring snows. And it just kept snowing. We all sat there and watched it accumulate in awe. By the time we closed at 6 and got out to our cars, there was over a foot on the ground. It took me nearly 20 minutes to clear my car. Of course a part of that time was spent in a snowball fight with my coworkers (which I did not start). It was perfect snowball snow, very wet. I'd never seen so much snow at one time in my life. I'd never walked around in knee high snow. By the time I made it home I was soaked. Fortunately it wasn't cold, hovering right around freezing, so it wasn't terribly unpleasant. However many Alaskans were caught off guard and were not prepared.

All told, the official tallies show us getting between 15.5 inches and 17 inches of snow. Between 3 and 6 (when I get off work) it fell the fastest at a rate of 2 inches an hour and more.

And of course I took pictures. Primarily in the parking lot as we cleared our cars.
( click for pictures )

And thus was our Alaskan April Snow. We're almost into May now and we've warmed up into the low forties and much of the snow is melted.

Two weekends ago, I joined the church here in Anchorage. I'd been visiting for a few weeks. Initially I wasn't sure, but the more I went, the more I liked the church. The people are wonderfully friendly. I'm starting to meet more people my age who would be good to hang out with. (with whom it would be nice to spend time - if I want to avoid ending in a preposition.) Joining the church was super simple, just tell them, fill out a card, and they make an announcement during worship service. That Sunday was the monthly welcome/farewell potluck dinner. It is a huge military town, and so there are people who leave on a regular basis hence the farewell part. The potluck was a great deal of fun. Anchorage has a very large international community. In some ways it was a very traditional potluck, with many dishes you would find in any church potluck in the Midwest and the South. However, there was also hand rolled (and absolutely delicious) sushi, another Japanese dish, and other fun international delicacies. Of course since my denomination is primarily prevalent in the South, there was regular ice tea and an equal sized container labelled "Sweet Tea". A fantastic combination of down home and international, and the people are the same wonderful menagerie. I am really enjoying it.

And of course it is also very Alaskan. I was given a "welcome to Alaska" basket by the women of the church this week. It featured many homemade items (Alaskans are very crafty people, partially in defense against the long winters). There was homemade jam, a quilted hot pad, and a jar of what seems to be preserved salmon (undoubtedly caught by one of the church's men and preserved by his wife). There were also a number of maps and info about Alaska. The church has been so welcoming and wonderful. I'm going to play cards with some people tonight. At church after lunch last week, I was recruited to teach 1st grade Bible Class (formerly known in my world at least as Sunday School) over the summer.

Now I must go to work. It seems to be snowing. Well in a way. It's snow/rain, melting as it comes into contact with the ground. We had had just beautiful weather for the last, upper forties, I had been wearing just a light jacket. April snow. How fun. It's still above freezing, and we need the moisture.

On Tuesday, the voters approved the library's bond. This means we have money to repair our leaky roof, and money to leverage the grants and donations we could only have with matching funds. When I road up on the elevator yesterday morning with the director, she was practically walking on air. There are other donations and partnerships in the works that will be fantastic. It's going to be great at the library. The voters also approved ALL of the bonds, the school bonds, the road bonds, police, fire, all of it. Last year the library bond and a lot of others failed. This is a huge thing. People in Alaska don't pay sales taxes or state income taxes, all we pay our property taxes. So all of this is in property taxes and boy do people complain about it. Some of the comments and blogs on the newspaper's site were incredible. You get paid to live in the state, it won't hurt to pay a teensy bit back for quality of life issues.

Anyway, moving on. In some ways, a library is a library. There are children and storytimes and creepy patrons. In the last week and a half I've had WAY more than my share of creepy patrons. The teenage boy (that I suspect had aspbergers) who followed me around grinning and rubbing his crotch. A couple of creepy, leer-ers. And then the cake topper. The one guy who told me that he liked the way my sweater "accented [my] breasts". That one will leave you feeling creepy, and gross, and dirty all day long. My perfectly normal, not tight, not low cut sweater. Bleck. It's part of the territory with public service that some people will believe that means they are free to say whatever to you. It shouldn't shock me anymore. But that last guy was the one who was the most direct thing ever said to me. Just gross.

Mostly though my library is fantastic. One thing that I'm learning about Alaska that I really love is how international of a community Anchorage is. After storytime, when the kids line up for their stamps (hand) and to say thank you, a good portion of the children will say "danke" or thank you in Russian or an Asian language. And we have lots of English and Irish accents around. It's fun to be surrounded by so many representatives of different cultures. I'm also learning bits and pieces about Alaskan culture I'll share with you as I can.

It was light until almost 9:30 last night. Incredible. And as of yesterday, the Royals were 2 and 0! Our undefeated streak continues! (As a Royals fan, I will take my streak wherever I can get it.)

It's election season, and it's already in the mud and I'm sick of it. I'd vote tomorrow if it would end the national election.

However, and here is the big deal. Local elections can be life and death to your community. I don't have any facebook friends in Anchorage thus far, so this is more of a general warning. Tomorrow there is a local election here in Anchorage. There are multiple bond issues on the slate, including one that would benefit the library. We need the money. We have a leaky roof. In addition, we have a lot of money in grants and private donations that can only be leveraged if we can match the funds. In a sense, the taxpayers would be getting double their money's worth. It is a good deal all around. And it all hinges on the people showing up and voting for it. I've done what I could. I was in the commercial for the bond, and I've promoted it to everyone I could, within the limits placed on me by the ethics rules of the city.

The other things on the slate? Assembly members, other local officials, etc. And additional funding for fire department (they need equipment and ambulances), police, roads, and schools. Should something bad happen to me, I would like there to be an ambulance to get me, properly equipped police, and decent roads that would not interfere with their progress.

Generally I'm a conserative Republican/libertarian. I believe in small government, and there is a small list of things to which I want my tax dollars to go. Schools, libraries, roads, police, and fire departments are all on that list. And it's all in a local election. Get out and vote in your area in every election. Don't wait until the big one in November. Yes, the president is important, but some of those life and death issues are decided in small elections that often have less than 10% of the popluation turn out to vote.

PS - this is a crosspost from a facebook note

I've been behind on posting, so I give you the Alaska vocab, slang, jargon, and lingo I've learned since my arrival.

a big dump - n. a large amount of snow, usually in one sitting, has nothing to do with the bathroom like I thought at first
Example I've heard: We're hoping for one more big dump to extend the ski season.

the Lower 48 - Proper noun, capitalized. This is the 48 contiguous states (ie everything but Alaska and Hawaii)
Example I've heard: Elizabeth just moved here from the Lower 48.

the Outside - Proper noun, capitalized. Anywhere not Alaska. This is used by longer term Alaskans. This is very indicative of their attitude up here. The rest of the country/world seems not to care about Alaskans. Watch CNN headline news, we're not on the ticker, neither is our time zone. We almost never make the news. There are some amazing stories I've heard from post-9/11 days. As a result Alaskans have a very frontier-independent attitude and everywhere else is the Outside.
Example I've heard: I'm trying to get Outside this summer to go shopping.

the Interior - Proper noun, capitalized. The inside part of the state of Alaska. Large parts of it are hard to get too and very much less settled than the parts along the shore. Fairbanks is technically in the Interior, but is one of the larger cities and is considered to be sort of the gateway to the smaller less accessible communities.
Example: We're going hunting in the Interior.

the Bush - Proper noun, capitalized. All the wilderness areas of Alaska. Many of these communities can only be reached by plane, seaplane, or boat (in the summer). Sometimes by roads. They usually make it in only a few times a year to a bigger city (ie Anchorage or Juneau). Thus Bush ordering is available. Most people in these communities depend upon planes for supplies. (Which caused some serious problems in the days immediately after 9/11 when all planes were grounded.) Schools are small or non-existent (the state runs a satellite program for kids). Some really rugged types live out on their own in cabins, no real communities, and mainly hunt and fish for their existence. Alaska is one of the only states that allows sustenance hunting and fishing for their residents on special lands and most public lands. (I'm allowed to harvest a ton of meat/fish as a resident, even as a non-rural resident.) Rural residents eat on average a pound of wild meat a week (or day, can't remember, looked up the stats last week and forgot them, it's one of the two). And that was a long and rambling definition.
Example: signs posted all over in stores Bush shipping available

break-up aka Spring Break-Up aka Spring Thaw - n. Usually just called break-up, it is in the Spring when everything melts. In Kansas City where I am from, we would get snow/ice have it a week maybe two, and then it would warm and stuff would melt. This does not happen here. The snow/ice stays around for months until it finally melts. They grade the snow in the parking lots and many of the roads so there is up to 6 or 7 inches (literally) of packed snow/ice on all surfaces. It melts, or at least the top layer does, but it freezes either because it dropped temp at night or because the layer below caused it to refreeze. Then you have a layer of very slippery ice on top of everything instead of snow/cut up stuff with good traction. My car does okay in it. I do not. It is so dangerous to walk. My apartment parking lot was a disaster zone. I was taking baby steps across a store parking lot and laughing with another woman as we tried desperately not to wipe out, no traction, nothing to grab, very treacherous. They sell these things that slip over your shoes and have grippers (they look like arctic explorer gear) for you. I heard a rumor the city is giving them to employees, but nothing has panned out. After the melt and form really bad ice (seriously like walking on fresh zamboni'd ice rinks), then you get the swamp, mush. I have rubber boots (very awesome rubber boots I got for Christmas) that I have been wearing every day and carrying my shoes in my bag so I don't get mush all over my shoes/socks/jeans and be wet all day. Actually we're getting close to being done with break-up. For now at least.
No example really

There are more and I will get to them in a future update. Hello from the slightly less frozen North!

Susan has been asking to see pictures of my apartment, so here you go. It came furnished. And the only thing I've added is a little bookshelf from Bed Bath and Beyond. I like the location and the apartment well enough. One of the things I dislike is the heat situation. I couldn't get my heat to go any lower and I was just broiling hot. Even on days when it was below zero outside, it was warm here. I'd crack open windows. When it was nearing 40 as it has been all week (yes it has been warmer for the last couple of weeks here than in KC), it has been unbearably hot. I had the window all the way open (screen) and the sliding door as far open as I dared without worrying about the cat getting out (and jumping onto the next balcony). The maintenance man came and showed me how to use the emergency shut off to shut off all the heat or turn it way down. Perfect. And they turned down the broilers to make less heat. But it is a building with a heated garage and heat just keeps rising.

Anyway, here are pictures. I've tried to personalize what I could but I still don't have a lot of my stuff here. I also have two huge walk-in closets that I didn't take pictures of.
( click here for pictures )

And that should more than alleviate any questions anyone has about what my apartment looks like. And my anyone I mainly mean Susan and my father (mom already saw it).

Of course my amazing view can be found in photos in this previous entry.

I went to the Iditarod yesterday. They do a leg through Anchorage that is ceremonial, doesn't count for the musher's time and then a re-start up north of the city the next day. Instead of going downtown for the start where the crowd is huge, five or eight people thick and you're behind a fence far from the doggies, I slept in, walked to the end of my parking lot and watched the part of the race that went right by. That's right part of the Iditarod goes within 50 feet of my front door! How cool is that? It was a great place to watch, the dogs went so close I could have reached out and touched them. And it was cool to see how they handled coming down the hill.

It was cold so I didn't watch all the teams. They start at 10am. The teams start at 2 minute intervals. There were a record 96 teams! I watched the first dozen or so teams. They were still coming by when I went to work at 12:30, it goes to nearly 2pm.

Of course I took some pictures. Though after a while I stopped taking pictures because quite frankly the dog teams are started looking alike. You don't need 100 pictures of dogs and teams.

Go here to see lots of fun pictures

Photos on my flickr account in general

Below the cut is my favorite picture from the race and a video I took. I actually tried to take a couple of videos, the quality isn't great, but there you go.

( pictures and video )

And my attempt at video:
Go here I can't figure out how to embed it

This weekend was a blast. On Sunday I went to Fur Rondy (short for Fur Rendezvous) it is an annual winter festival here in Anchorage. I went to a number of events, and it was a fantastic time. I took lots of pictures, and loaded them on a flicr account so they're easier for you all to see.

Fur Rondy 2008 pictures

First I went down to the World Championship Sled Dog Races. These are shorter races than the Iditarod (that I will go to next week) and so the dogs are shorter hair and smaller than the husky types. Lots of German pointer types in the mix. They do a 25 mile loop around the city on this snow/ice lane that they build in the middle of the street; it takes them 90 minutes to 115 minutes. Actually they go by my house (and kept me up most of the night building the silly thing with their trucks with the beep-beep back up alarms that started at 11pm and were still going at 8:30am when I went to work - I got maybe 3 hours of sleep that night), but I decided to go to the start and see all the activities around there. They are sled dog races and not dog sled races because the dogs are racing not the sleds. (So sled is modifying the dog, not the other way around.) They do three races, over three days, and this was day three. They'd started with teams as many as 18 dogs and most were down because the track was in such good condition they were going too fast to be controlled. Also interesting to me, there is no "whoa" command, they just use a brake. And additionally, they only use verbal commands, no whips. It was so cool to watch and those dogs were super excited.

While the dogs were out on the city track, there was a skijor demonstration. In skijor you tie a rope around your waist (fancy special rope) and onto a harness on your dog. And your dog "pulls" you as you cross country ski. It looked like so much fun. Any size dog can do it, so long as the dog keeps the road taunt. Most of the ones who do it to race do so with larger dogs. No more than two dogs though or you're mushing.

Then I walked around and saw the port, and the carnival and other fun things. Later I watched the dog teams come back to the finish line. Two came in at the same time, which is interesting to see them head to head. Next I wondered around some more and ate a reindeer hot dog (presumably one too slow for the run). It's a big street festival with street vendors. The Miss Alaska and Fur Rendezvous princesses wondered by. As well as the Keystone cops who will put you in Fur Rondy jail if you're not wearing your (collectible) Fur Rondy pin.

Next there was the best event of all - the Running of the Reindeer! Carrie's dad especially asked if I did this. In the past few years I gather that participation and profibility of Fur Rondy has lagged. So they were looking for a new event to raise turn out. And since Spain has Running with the Bulls - why not do it Alaska style? A morning D.J. came up with the idea (natch) and 1000 people (500 men and 500 women) signed up to run with the reindeer. First they paraded the reindeer for the crowd to see. Than they did a version of skijor where the reindeer pulled the skiiers (who mainly fell and got tangled in their ropes). Not only had they never done this before, they didn't know of anyone who had done it. No one knew how the reindeer would react. Would they run? Stand still? Be more interested in the crowd on the side than the runners? Freak out and attack people? The D.J. did a good job of entertaining the crowd. The women went first since no one knew if the reindeer would attack. There were 500 women and about 12 reindeer. And man did those reindeer run! They really went for it. It was really funny, just fabulous. When the men ran with the reindeer, I saw one guy fall and (it looked to me) be directly in the path of the reindeer who maneuvered around him. No one seemed hurt (other than a few falls) and the reindeer seemed to go out of their way to not hurt people. People were in incredible costumes, a few of the guys were running basically naked. All sorts of fun costumes. Huge crowd. Great event. I hope they do it next year. I might even consider running (it's like six blocks). I was sort of back and my camera was almost dead, so I didn't get many pictures. Here's a video though from the news.

Running of the Reindeer