He's Here!

There's a new member of the group here in Fairbanks. Mette and Max gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on New Year's Eve. After waiting as long as he could to make his grand entrance, he's a cutie and definitely a keeper!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to everyone near and far!! I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.

Special thanks to Mette and Max for cutting down my little Christmas tree. Maybe putting 400 lights on a black spruce wasn't the best idea to keep the limbs from sagging, but it works for me. I love my little tree!



PS I'm still working on getting out Christmas cards. Don't hold your breath, but hopefully they're coming. I believe that they will be New Year cards rather than Christmas cards.

Flat Stanley

When I returned from my Thanksgiving vacation, I found Flat Stanley in my mailbox. Flat Stanley was sent to me by my cousin Carly for a little vacation of his own. (Carly is pictured here between Sarah and Ali.)


Flat Stanley was here for one of the coldest times of the year. It was even -43 degrees Fahrenheit one day. We still managed to get out a little bit though. We went dog mushing, visited some reindeer, and saw a polar bear ice sculpture.




All are proof that it's not always dark in the winter and that you can still get out and about when you feel like your nose might fall off from the cold. Thanks for sending him, Carly! He is now on his way to our cousin Abby in Minnesota.

It's Cold!

It's 30 degrees below zero today. This is definitely going to be my coldest Christmas ever!

Here's an article from today's newspaper:

Winter chill puts a frosty bite into Fairbanks’ warmer-than-normal weather
By Tim Mowry
Staff Writer
Published December 18, 2007

Old Ridge Rondy

This past weekend brought another ski race in our friendly series. This one was called the Old Ridge Rendezvous and took place just up the road in Ester, Alaska. 29 people showed up for this one.


There were ski jorers...


...mushers...


...and skiiers. I, per usual, took a long time to go the seven miles around the course and as a result became covered in frost by the end of the race. Believe it or not, I wasn't cold although temperatures did hover around -9 degrees for the duration of the race. Winter is certainly here!

Black Friday

As we all know, the day after Thanksgiving is a day for many Americans to get up before the crack of dawn and try to get to stores earlier than the early bird to get the best deals. Somehow, I don't think of that as a whole lot of fun. Instead, I joined some of the women on my mother's side of the family for a day in French Lick; where, although we did do some shopping, we didn't have to get up early to do it, and there weren't any crowds to fight either.


When we got hungry, we went to the French Lick Winery for some lunch and wine tasting before hitting a couple more stores.


Making a day of it, we visiting the newly remodeled/restored West Baden hotel, which contains mineral hot springs and a host of other activities. We were there on the day of their tree lighting ceremony, but it wasn't in our plan to stay until it got dark, so we took in the grandeur before the tree was lit. It was beautiful all the same.



After West Baden, we went to the French Lick Resort Casino also newly remodeled and only about a mile down the road. After everyone lost money in the casino, we walked around the hotel to see the new modifications and, unscheduled, ran into Santa Claus. What a great day! Maybe we can do that again next year.

Now I know that several of you may be asking. What?! Where?! If I'm not mistaken, Al Capone hung out in French Lick in the 20s before Larry Bird brought fame to the small town in the late 1900s. So what do you mean..what...where? French Lick, that's what and where.

Thanksgiving

I hadn’t spent Thanksgiving with my family for six years, so I figured I was due. I took some vacation time and decided to have some R and R with the fam. Boy am I glad I did! It was a wonderful trip, although it was definitely busy. With three Thanksgiving celebrations to attend in one day, it was a good thing I rented a car.

Thanksgiving started out at Heather and Ryan’s house, where Donna was hosting my step family.


It was quite a spread, but unfortunately, I soon had to race off to eat again with my mother’s family at my aunt Lori’s house. I arrived there just in time to get in the back of the food line. Right off the bat, while I was still eating, it was time to crown the Cornucopia Queen/King. This is a tradition started by my cousin Laura who thought that we needed a tradition. Each year, someone is crowned with a decorated, wicker cornucopia, and then the next year they get to crown their successor. Thanks for picking me, David!! What an honor!


After all of that, I still had one more family to visit, my dad’s side of the family. We all met up at Susie and Ken’s house, where the theme was babies. There were three approximately one month old little ones to keep everyone entertained. Mark and Jamie brought their twins, Davin and Hayley (hope I spelled those two right), and Kenny and Chris brought their new little one, Kate, whose hair had a way of standing straight up. It was great!


Nothing can beat spending the holidays with family, especially when you get to see them after being away for a while. I definitely treasure the time I spent with them over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Nichols Oil Slick Run

Well, it’s winter, and that means that once again, it’s time to begin our series of fun races. Maybe you remember them from last year. Any non-motorized form of transport is allowed. If you have dogs helping to pull you along the trail, you get a time penalty, but for every drink (alcoholic) you have on the trail, you get a bonus. Our first race was along the oil pipeline and was an out and back seven miles long. I am super slow on cross-country skis and was just trying to finish before it got too dark to see the trail, which thankfully I did.


The funny thing is that this all started out as a few people having a good time, but apparently word has spread about how fun it is because we had 33 people show up for the pipeline race! 33! It was hard to find a place to park.


After the race there is always a pot luck, prizes for the winners, and good times for all. For more pictures from our race series, you can check out our web site www.racehardplayhard.com.

A Baby Shower for Mette

Geez, I haven't updated this thing in a long time. Sorry about that. It's not that nothing has happened; it's just that I've been so darn busy. Anyway, on November 10th, I hosted a baby shower for Mette, who had the fabulous idea of having a dinner party, setting up a burrito bar, and letting everyone have at it.


After eating and socializing, the present opening began. Talk about a lot of packages! There were twenty people at the shower, and several gifts were sent from out of town. It was a presentpalooza, and of course, everything was super-cute.

We played the string game to see who could most accurately guess Mette's circumference...


...and the night was topped off with chocolate fondue. The party ended with many happy but tired guests and tons of new items for the little guy.

The Girls Get Together in Delta

Shiway was in Delta Junction visiting with Ellie while they're husbands were moose hunting, so it seemed like as good a reason as ever to visit. Julie, Mette, and I headed down to Delta Junciton to visit and check on the growth of little Wyatt, which is always a pleasure!


Mette is about ready to pop one out herself, so she took some time out with Ellie's 'Parents' magazine.


It's always fun to hang out with the girls on a cold, snowy day.

Halloween!

For Halloween this year, I was Britney Spears. I kind of felt bad because I wouldn't want anyone dressing up like me for Halloween if I was down on my luck, but come on, it's funny! Here's me posing as her mug shot. Yes, that's supposed to look like I had a shaved head.



A lot of my friends had great costumes this year. If you'd like to see more, click here.

Mom's Visit: Days 5, 6, 7, and then there was Day 8

Our time in Anchorage was filled with shopping, shopping, and more shopping along with a couple of movies and taking my car into the shop to get some warranty work done on it. It seems that antifreeze was leaking onto my timing belt, which made the timing belt rather iffy to drive around on, so we took it easy on the car and tried to stay more sedentary while we were in Anchorage. Nevertheless, we managed to make our way ALL around the city.

Mom's flight left on Tuesday, but my car wasn't done until Wednesday, when I drove back to Fairbanks. There was beautiful weather my entire drive back. I took so many pictures of Denali that my camera battery died two thirds of the way on my trip! Here are a few of my favorites:

Mom's Visit: Days 3 and 4

On day 3 we woke up in the cabin to a crisp clear morning. After cleaning up and repacking everything into the car, we were on our way back to Fairbanks, dutifully watching for moose along the way. It didn't take long before Mom yelled, "Moose!" Sure enough, a momma and baby were grazing in the forest along the road. After several visits to Alaska, Mom was finally able to cross 'seeing a moose' off of her list. Somehow on her previous trips she had been more of a moose repellant than attractant. Of course, I have no pictures of the moose, but if I get some later I'll add them to this entry.

On the way back to town, we stopped again to feed the sled dogs. Somehow the time was passing rather quickly, but we rounded out the day by carving Jack-O-Lanterns! Fun fun fun!



Day 4 was Saturday. Mom's flight was leaving from Anchorage on Tuesday moning, and after looking at the weather forecast, which predited a snow storm, it seemed that Saturday would be the best day to head to Anchorage, so we packed up and drove six hours south.

Mom's Visit: Day 2

Day 2 actually brought sunny skies and plenty of activity. After getting up early to get the snow tires put on the car, we packed up everything we would need for an overnight trip in a cabin without electricity and without running water. In the Chena River State Recreation Area, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources has some cabins available for rent, and that was where we were to spent Thursday night, at the North Fork Cabin. The internet said that it slept eight people, so there was sure to be enough room.

On the way to the cabin, we had to stop and feed Carrie and Duff's sled dogs, but I didn't get any pictures of that. Mom has plenty in her camera though because she was taking pictures while I did all of the work! I think there were 13 dogs in all, although I'm unsure of that number.

Anyway, on to the cabin, where we arrived in the late afternoon.


It was plenty big, and there was tons of fire wood to keep us warm. Mom unpacked the car while I split a log or two and started a small fire in the wood stove to begin the warming up process. It wasn't a big production yet though because we were on our way to tour the ice hotel at Chena Hot Springs, which was only about ten miles away. We had to be sure and make it in time for the last tour of the day. The ice hotel is kept at 19 degrees Fahrenheit, which wreaks havoc on camera batteries, but I did manage to get one picture before my battery putzed out.



No, that toilet doesn't really work, it is simply a piece of art, but it's comical all the same. After being out in the cold, it was nice to return to the cabin and try to warm up by the wood stove although I kept the door to the stove open a little too long, which made it a little smoky inside.



We rounded out the evening with a couple of games of Yahtzee next to the lantern.

Mom's Visit: Day 1

My mother was brave enough to visit Alaska when the sun isn't out 24 hours a day, which meant that she would have an opportunity to see the Northern Lights as well as some snow. There wasn't too much white stuff around for her arrival, so it didn't provide any challenges, but rather the snow added a little character to her visit.

After getting in late, I woke Mom up saying that the skies were clear out and that we should head down to Denali to see the tallest mountain in North America. It's only about a 90 mile drive, so we put together a lunch and headed south.

Unfortunately, the further south we went, the cloudier the skies became, and the snow started to fall. By then, we were too far into our trip to turn around, so we continued. None the less, it was pretty, so we stopped to take many pictures in the snow. One of the Alaska railroad tressle...


...one of the Nenana River Canyon, which was freezing before our very eyes...


and many more before stopping in the Park to buy postcards of the mountain we weren't able to see because it was enshrouded in clouds. The Park Ranger who helped us suggested headed just a few more miles south to see if the weather was any different on the other side of the range. Smart lady!



Continuing south to Cantwell afforded us the opportunity to view sunny skies and see the top of Denali (even if it was obscured just slightly by a few wisps of clouds) as well as the rest of the Alaska Range while we stopped on the roadside to eat our lunch. We experienced many kinds of weather on that first day and ended it by having Mette over for dinner to tell her about our day's adventure.

PS No, that last picture is not Denali but is a picture of the Alaska Range and the view from our lunch spot.

Maybe My Last Trip

Well, I have taken what was quite possibly my last trip to Nanwalek and Anchor Point. Our field sites are slated to be removed in November, and that isn't a trip that I am a part of. I celebrate with a picture of the plane coming to pick me up one last time from Nanwalek.


Now, what you see leaning on the 'airport' (The airport is the blue building, which is actually just a shelter to keep you and your belongings dry while you wait.) is a sasquatch. Some people reported seeing him roaming around nearby...

Christmas?!

I just got back from the store, and their Christmas displays are already up. They're even selling all of their Christmas merchandise already! What month is it? Has the entire country gone as crazy as Alaska?

La Jolla, California

I had a meeting this past week at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. It was nice to enjoy the sun one last time this year, and there was plenty of it! This was my first visit to Southern California, but it was just as quintessential as one would expect, with sunny skies every day and palm trees lining the streets. It seemed it was almost a requirement to own a surfboard, although there were a lot of stingrays in the water. The best part was that the walk between my hotel and our meeting place was all along the beach, so it was actually a treat not to have a rental car! Now I'm back in Fairbanks, and although there are still some leaves on the trees, I had to get out the ice scraper this morning because the car windows were all frosted in. Sigh. The fall colors are absolutely beautiful, but in the back of my mind, I'm wondering how much a ticket would be back to La Jolla...

Fish Weir

Yet again, I went to Anchor Point to tend to our fickle field site. I wasn't super excited to go because I was headed to a meeting in San Diego just a couple of days later, but I guess that's just how it goes. As I was crossing the Anchor River, I noticed the fish weir and thought it might make for an interesting blog picture, so here it is:


For those of you who don't know what a fish weir is, it basically forces all of the water coming up the river to flow through a particular channel or channels. In these channels are fish counters so that, in this case, you know how many salmon are swimming upstream.

Labor Day

I spent Labor Day picking cranberries up on Wickersham Dome, where it was a beautiful day with above average temperatures. Sure beats sitting in an office without any windows!


Do you know what this next picture is?


That's the beginning of fall. The leaves here are quickly turning yellow, and there is chill in the air. Goodbye, Summer 2007. You were the prettiest one yet!