Happy Year of the Rooster, and Booger is Back in Business!

In order to have a proper Chinese New Year, you need to start with a napa cabbage!


And chop it all up!


Then invite friends over to wrap jiao-zhes:


A Boneless Husky can supervise:


You also need salmon!


And a roast chicken, to represent the phoenix:


You also need noodles for longevity, and nian-gao, but I forgot to photograph those... I've decided that the best way to do Chinese New Year is to make jiao-zhe filling and roast the chicken, and solicit everything else! Miss Manners says that a host should not expect anything from guests, but for some reason whenever you invite people for dinner, they almost always asked, "What can I bring?" I guess it's similar to Miss Manners' rule about wedding gifts, which is that they are not mandatory, but seriously, who the heck goes to a wedding and doesn't bring a gift?!?

Fuzzies bug DL!


And snuggle!


Nia collects love!


For the evening I had five! Five fuzzy things in my cabin! Ah, ah, ah! Vahnderful!

A week ago, Linden's leg had finally healed, so we took her back on the trail! She was so happy! So this weekend, we wrapped up her nekkid leg with a giant dog bootie and let her do our whole loop walk with us--5.5 miles--not bad for a 17.5-year-old lady!

The sun was coming out after a grey spell, and the sky was pretty blue:


Roo was all ears!


The sun is up earlier nowadays (the first hint of light is around 8; it rises for real around 9):




Booger does the Booger Boogie!


Roo ponders:


Booger catches snowflakes!


Mysterious hole in the ground! Muchly visited by dogs! I wonder who lives in there?


Roo does her thing in the snow. She looooooves snow!







This is most definitely a vole hole. Look at how tiny he must be!


The ol' tree!


Booger enjoying her walk!


And DL!


Next week, Miss Booger may be strong enough that I can ski, and she can keep up! Let us see!

Happy Year of the Rooster to all nine of my loyal readers!

Starbuck has Love to Give

Snapped this photo as I was putting on my coat to leave the Denali Center today.



Starbuckaroo is all smiles! She loves visiting her friends!

Some interesting news

"In a first, Alaska divorce courts will now treat pets more like children"

and

Fairbanks Borough Assembly approves fines for unjustified killing of loose pets

Me when I read/hear/watch "heartwarming" manufactured emotions

Me when I read/hear/watch "heartwarming" manufactured emotions in books/movies/music/greeting cards/social media:

Fuzzy ladies, in character

Booger. Cute.


Roo. Rooful.


And here is a gratuitous Booger-snuggles-wolfie photo:


And in other news, my office seems quite dusty today:


And my coworkers insist on chopping onions? I just can't figure it out!

Wow! Quick warm-up!

Up to -5F/-20C this morning! Last night, we watched the outdoor thermometer climb from -45F/-43C to -20F/-29C in a span of 45 minutes!

Of course, the ground, trees, and snow cover take longer to warm up, so this morning I had the interesting quandary of what to wear when the air temperature is -5F/-20C, while the temperature of the ground is -40!

Brrrrr!

Rather chilly this morning!


The ladies were still up for a short walk. I wore wool underwear, compressed polypropylene long underwear, and ski pants. On top I wore a wool baselayer, an wool sweater, and my trusty turd coat:


I can't believe the ladies didn't do the three-paw dance and request a quick turn-around. It was me who aborted our walk!

This is what -40 looks like at 1 p.m.:


There is this thing called "ice fog", which occurs because at temperatures below -40, air cannot hold any moisture at all. At higher than -40, even though it may be still below the freezing point of water, ice crystals require a nucleation particle in order to freeze out of the air. Otherwise, it hangs in the air as gaseous phase. But at below -40, no nucleation particle is required... the moisture just freezes out of the air and hangs there as ice fog. It also tends to sink to low areas, getting trapped in the valley of the city of Fairbanks proper. Since we live in the hills outside of town, we don't get it in our 'hood, and it's highly desirable to be living as such! Realtors highlight in their ads for properties in the hills, "Get out of town and out of the ice fog!" :)

Morning ski photos

This is around 10:30, still dawn. The sky was overcast.

We were the first on our section of the trail:


Starbuck looking WOLFIE!




We went down to a small beaver pond, which used to be along our old trail access from our old rental cabin. Autumn and Linden and I used to eagerly await its freezing!

Snuggles

This is how I left the ladies this morning:


Booger and her frien':


Rrrrrroooo!


Starbuck snuggles with the wolfie, too:


And here are a few last photos of our Schweetie, Autumn:


So sweet!


Awwwww. How I will miss that sweet, gentle, thoughtful lady: