So much to tell...

Lots of layers

Sleepy dogs

Half awake dogs

Eye candy (doesn't he look like Dr. McDreamy?)

Miles and miles of frozen ocean

Good friends

There is so much more to all of that but I'm too tired and need to get my nights and days back in order. That means I should head to bed soon. The Iditarod and the community of Nome, Alaska are to be commended for a wonderful winter get-away!

HNT...Ivory bears

Kamey and I had to make a stop at the native arts fair today. I found these cute little polar bears. Hand carved and painted ivory. They are so adorable. Happy HNT!

Mush, Mush

I lost a bootie! The dogs wear booties to help prevent cutting their pads on icy trail. This one lost one somewhere along the way. These dogs are named Gas and Diesel...adorable, uh?

This is a pair of second place finisher Sebastian Schunelle's dogs right after they crossed the burled finish.

Sebastian Schunelle won the Yukon Quest 2 weeks ago and came in second in the Iditarod. He's a crazy mountain man from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory but a loveable musher.

How can you not just be in love with these dogs?

Rolling out after all the media shots. Time for a nap!

These are Sebastian's dogs but race winner, Lance Mackey, had to get a few more seconds of fame in.

Can you see if from here?

Lance Mackey crossed the finish line about one hour before I landed at noon. Everyone else is hours behind him. The next musher should cross the finish line around 7:30 tonight. I have my Iditarod Security badge and will be at the lines to welcome him in! So in the meantime, I'm vegging a bit. I checked in at Headquarters and bugged enough people to find out what I needed to know and now I'm back at Kamey's house hanging with her dog, Kaya. Kaya and I are going to take a nap.

So in the meantime...take a look at this picture from the street in front of Kamey's house. That's the Bering Sea. Can you see Russia from here???

Leaving on a jet plane...

I fly out of Fairbanks in 1 hour and 40 minutes! Destination tonight is Anchorage...

Tomorrow morning I fly out of Anchorage at 11;15 and land in NOME at 12:15! Hopefully just in time to see the winner cross the finish line! YEAH!

Frozen in time...

It was time to play a bit this weekend. The stress of the last two weeks was starting to crack me around the edges. So, I called up a friend, told her I was using her for her kids, and asked them to join me at the Ice Park on Friday night. It was a bit chilly but the kids were troopers and made me smile. It also allowed me to giggle and play like a little kid too. They thought I was "cool", I was just letting off a lot of pent up steam.

The Ice Park is one of the world's largest ice sculpting events with artists coming from all sorts of places. They can do single blocks and multiblocks. It's amazing what they do. They invite kids for a day of lessons, they have kid and grown-up areas in the park, and the best feature of the whole part is the 6 made from ice slides! I was ready to let loose.

The adults can have fun in the kid park too! Here are the kids in an ice basket. Once you get them all tucked in you start spinning them. They giggle and their mom and I got dizzy!



These are all single block pieces...












Jacob decided to take Kyla and I for a little Ski-Dooing!

But he took his mom and Kyla for a airplane ride without his hands on the wheel!

You aren't Alaskan unless you have a Carhartt coat!

This eagle was one of my favorites. The stars and stripes in his wings are pretty amazing. All ice, all one piece.

As I mentioned, it was a bit cold out. As the night went on o ur breath started playing tricks with our pictures. These orchestra players seem to have some spirits dancing with them.

I think Kyla is lost with the creatures from the deep in the fog from my breath!

This is one of those things an adult should NOT try in the Ice Park. It's a big "swimming" pool shaped like a seal with his belly as the "pool". It's really easy to pull kids out of a bowl of ice. Not so easy for an adult to get out of a bowl of ice. There would have been pictures of that but Holly was the other adult fishing me out and she had both cameras. Jacob is in there with us but we aren't sure what he was doing!

Wheeee!!!!

Can't forget to carve Sarah in ice!

Double helix! how do they do that?!?!

We'll think Spring no matter what time of the year!

Not sure what it was but we liked it.

Not a bad way to celebrate 50 years of Statehood!

It was a wonderful night much needed for my heart and mind. Holly and the kids were just the trick. We played hard, warmed up with hot cocoa and cider, and came home with frosted ice lashes and hair but it was well worth it. To Holly, Jacob, and Kyla...thank you for the company!

It's totaled...

Comments?

Help...can't get comments to work. Even Os can't! And he got grumpy trying!

Messing around...

Okay...please bare with me! i'm bored and got the idea to mess around with my blog template. I'm currently tried to get all the things back that it got rid of when I "updated". I need my virtual pets back, I need haloscan to work, I need my weather box, etc. Patience please!

HNT...More?

There has been a lot to contemplate this week. Today would have been a good day to stay home with a bottomless cup of hot cocoa and a good book while watching the snow fall. I have close to 8 inches at my house, by morning it is expected to reach 12 or more. To say the least my drive home in my Ford Fusion rental instead of my big high above the ground Mariner was scary. I broke out in a cold sweat. I cursed at the idiot in front of me without his lights on. I screamed at the truck that went flying by me in the snow filled passing lane who multiplied the effect of the white out with his spray. Seriously people!



The little Ford Fusion is all wheel drive. It also has traction control. All good things in storms like this. However, it has one major downfall. The car sits very low to the ground. Much lower than my Logan. I have had a "mystery plower" plowing my driveway several times this winter but they hadn't come today. So this is the path I hand shoveled. Good ole elbow grease shoveled. Thank God the snow is not "heavy" snow. It's a long driveway. At least it blew off some of the steam that has been simmering all week.


The jury is still out on totaling versus repairing Logan. The insurance fiasco has been completely fixed in terms of my coverage. The guy at the body shop is amazing. He has his estimate nearly complete. At 4:15 pm Pacific Time the insurance was working on the regional sale value of my vehicle. Tomorrow I should hear "something". For now, I'll watch the snow fall and pray my way back to work in my little rental tomorrow morning.

Happy HNT!

Saturday's snowfall

Look closely at the above picture. There is a faint line about 2 to 3 inches up from the bottom of the snow pile. That is what was on the step rail as of Friday night. The rest is what was on the rail by the time I got home from sorting out all the "I just rolled my car" stuff. Yeah...record snow fall in Fairbanks. Single most snow in one snowfall since 8 years ago. Nice uh!

But on the bright side of things....we are nearly to the Spring Solstice and will soon have more minutes of daylight then darkness. This picture was taken at about 5:15 pm on Saturday evening. Pretty bright out still! This weekend's Daylight Savings time switch will push that a bit farther yet. Yeah! Those are the great blue skies of Alaska. It's nice to see them for a change.

Occupying Time

When I need to escape, I read. I'll read about anything and I share the list with you as the year goes on. I'm trying something new. There are a lot of "reader" blogs out there and my friend Kelly has been a great source of info for these. She recently posted about several book give away contests and since I'm in the middle of a mental conundrum I am going to enter a few and wanted to pass on the info to all of you as well. Check the links out, you might find a new book to occupy yourself with...

#1 Bookin' with Bingo with some March Madness
I read the review and it sounds like the book "Matrimony" might be one I should read right now. Maybe I'll find an answer to that inevitable question..."why?" And a chance to win two other books with it...what a bonus.

-a copy of MATRIMONY by Joshua Henkin
--an advanced copy of M. J. Rose's THE MEMORIST
--a copy of SCAVENGER by David Morrell
--all wrapped up and sent in a Multi-Use Book Tote
I will pick a second place winner who will also receive a copy of MATRIMONY

To be one of the winners this week, here are the simple rules:
1.For ONE entry leave a comment about MATRIMONY after reading my review
2.For a SECOND entry become a follower of my blog, or tell if you already follow
3.For a THIRD entry leave a link about my giveaway in your blog
You MUST leave your email address in one of your comments so I can let you know when you win.
Sorry, entries only from USA and Canada, and no P. O. Boxes PLEASE
This Giveaway starts on Monday, March 2 and ends Sunday, March 8 at 6 PM
#2 A Novel Menagerie
Two of this give aways books have been on my to read list for a while...The Glass Castle and Snow Flower and Secret Fan. However, when I looked at the reviews Losing Kei looks like one of those books to read to get my "I am woman, hear me roar!" mojo back. See what you think by checking out her reviews.

What do you need to do to win this GRAND PRIZE valued at $100? Here are the rules:

• For One Entry: Leave A Comment Below. Which book are you most excited about in this list of four?

• For Two Entries: Visit my reviews of these books by clicking on the picture of the book cover. In your entry comment, tell me which review you liked reading the most.

• For Three Entries: Mention my giveaway on your blog. Use my A Novel Menagerie Graphic (below) and Tracy’s contest graphic (above). Link back to this post.

• For An Extra Entry: Subscribe to this blog and/or subscribe to my Twitter.

• For An Extra Entry: Tell me WHICH TWO sports my twins play.

• For An Extra Entry: Tell me the real name of “Princess Paddywaddle.”

• For An Extra Entry: Tell me what I’ll be doing on the evenings of March 2nd and 9th. (It’s NOT an Easter Pageant)

• For An Extra Entry: Name the blogger (and her blogsite) whose bookclub I’m in.

• For An Extra Entry: Tell me which fictional character I’d be if I had to choose one.

• For An Extra Entry: Tell me the name of one of my two best friends from high school.

• Contest open to U.S. residents only. (Sorry, the shipping is too expensive for such a heavy box international).

• Contest entries must be received by 8:00pm PST Sunday, March 8th, 2009.

• 
  

And you folks think I read a lot...these woman are truly connoisseurs of pages...

EDIT: Book Club Girl has another one out there....go check her out to get the new Jodi Picoult book. I know my best friend Heather will be anxious to read it!

Bogged down

When you feel like you are stuck in the mud, bogged down, and the world is on your shoulders you need a good pair of galoshes to tromp your way through!

I'm bogged down, feel horrible mentally and physically, and don't really know which direction to go at this point. There are lots of details but it's all related to my truck and the accident. None of which is going well at this point.

But on Saturday night when my friend took me out to distract me and get me out of the house I did finally find a pair of galoshes suitable for the operating room! We do lots of arthroscopic procedures. To do lots of arthroscopic procedures you need lots of fluid to run through the equipment and the joint. A lot of that fluid ends up on the floor. The paper booties over regular OR shoes only hold so much water before they start leaking. I think these galoshes are up to the task.

And aren't they just damn cute!

Before the weekend went south...

This weekend was going very well prior to my accident. I wanted to make sure I posted the good things about this weekend. Friday night two groups of friends invited me to dinner at Silver Gulch Brewery. Saturday morning I would be off call. I came with one group and the other group ended up sitting right next to us. It was just one big happy party that night. Good food, great beer, wonderful friends!

This is "Momma" Julia...she has been keeping me calm and collected since yesterday afternoon. Doesn't she look very capable of that? That's a couple of the docs I work with in the back ground. The older one is the one that hired me.

At this point, I can't even remember what made Desiree laugh this hard but it was awesome to see her so happy.

J.W. makes eating look like the most important task in the world.

Doc Meyer's wife took my advice to try one of Delirium's brews. She's a little bitty woman of Panamanian decent. That is one really big bottle of beer with a really high alcohol content. I think Doc Meyer and I helped her finish it.

Steve and Larry were brave beer drinkers. They dared to drink the Sneaky Monkey...14% alcohol, Silver Gulch special brew. It's sneaky alright.

The two tables had to mingle. Especially with dear Darla ready with her camera!

Every great evening must come to an end but when it ends with treats like this you can't complain! Half a pan of bread pudding and peanut butter chocolate brownies with ice cream. I had the cheesecake covered with blueberry sauce made from this summer's local berries. Delicious!