Work from Home Day...

Conditions have been icy for the past week or so. Mid last week, temperatures climbed up to near freezing (I should probably say "melting" instead of "freezing" when we talk about the opposite approach!), and the little snow we had gotten melted into a slick of shiny ice. Monday morning, things got worse as actual rain fell, coating everything with ice. I, like many others, decided to work from home that day, and cancelled my class.

Today, most of the roads have gotten gravelled, and conditions have improved quite a bit, although I still drive very slowly! The Minor News reports that this storm, bad as it was, was not as bad as our Icepocalypse! "Between .1 and .4 inches of rain fell in different parts of the Fairbanks area between 12:01 a.m. Monday and Monday afternoon, said meteorologist Ben Bartos with the National Weather Service... By comparison, Fairbanks received half an inch of freezing rain on Nov. 22, 2010, the rainiest day of that year’s memorable three-day Thanksgiving week ice storm. In all, Fairbanks received almost an inch of rain in the 2010 storm, which hardened to a glaze that covered the roads for the rest of the winter."

Hoomph. It sure seemed worse, to me!

Anyway, so I worked from home. In case you were wondering, this is how the dogs spend a weekday daytime at home. (I think the Frito Factory let them off for the day, as well. The Frito Factory bus could not drive safely.)

Look! Boneless huskies!


Pointed a camera up the schnozz...


Oh look! They trade places!


I am in awes.


Of all of these paws.


Paw-hance!


Roo selfie!


Cricket selfie!

Housey photos

She's got legs, she knows how to use them... Also, do you think she is quite comfy enough? DL says, "It looks like we've ruined another sled dog."


Roo is smiling!

Notes from Here and There

1) My neighborhood Facebook group is the Best Facebook group.


2) Last week, we figured the trails might be frozen solid enough to talk on them, so we gave it a shot.

The shallow puddles were frozen solid:




And had hoar frost:




Sunny on the plateau:






A hug!






Our Old Friend had survived another summer:


ACK! Liquid water!!




I stepped into a puddle. :( (Good thing I had spare socks and mittens!)

Yaaaay! It's about dadgum time!

Winter has come! Winter has come! Happy dance!


Unlike Autumn and Linden, who were prone to Dances of Joy at the first snow, Starbuck and Cricket are much more blasé. They did a perfunctory lap around the cabin, then came back inside. Cricket requested a belly rub:


Here is a photo of her posing rather nicely:


And a little goofily, watching us eat breakfast Sunday morning, weighing her odds of getting a handout:


Couchal photos!


Trading places!


Here is a photo of Roo's sofffty schnozz:


Chinese Easter was over six months ago, but we still have one chocolate bunny left. He is milk chocolate, which I don't really care for, so I am going to make him into brownies. I figure mixing him 1:1 with unsweetened chocolate will do the trick:


The bunny is gonna get it!


I've had this brownie recipe in my file for several years now and have not tried it yet. I got it from a book that describes how a successful chef moves to Paris after the death of his long-term companion. As he copes with his grief, he wanders around Paris trying to learn about the cooking scene. He brings batches of these brownies to visits, and they apparently do the trick!

After I measured out the chocolate pieces, the B's called and informed me that they had a friend visiting with a puppy, so of course I had to go see the puppy. They had just made brownies themselves, so packed me home with some. So I put my chocolate pieces, with bunny, into a baggie for another day. Now DL's been hovering around the baggie: "When are you going to make those door-opening brownies?" "door-opening"! What a lovely descriptor. We should all aspire to have a few door-opening gifts in our back pockets.

Welcome? Sorta winter?

Last night, a "winter weather advisory" appeared in the forecast, so DL an I swapped to my winter tires by headlamp. It half-rained, half-snowed all night, coating everything with wet snow, water, and slush. In the morning, it was still raining, so I decided to cancel my 9 a.m. meeting and wait to walk the ladies until it was light enough to walk without a headlamp, which is pretty useless when it's raining. The bright beam of light merely reflects off the falling water droplets, rather than illuminating the path ahead.

Several inches of wet slush coated the roads when we took off, so I did my run in Bean Boots. Not bad. I didn't feel as nimble as in my light running shoes, but my feet stayed dry, and my traction was okay.

On my way into town, I stopped at Gold Hill to check the air pressure on my winter tires, since they'd sat unused all summer. The place where you park near the air compressor was a giant, slushy puddle several inches deep. Again, thank goodness for the LL Beans!

Now, the snow is gone, and it continues to rain. The forecast calls for this all week. How annoying. :(

Here are some photos from the past week or so.

The sweeties and their toys, all on their bed:


Overhead view:


Look at these crazy grapes I found at the store:


Each one is like a finger!


Inside, they look normal:


It turns out, they are Moon Drops, a proprietary breed that was created by selective breeding. Apparently, this "grapery" does this frequently, creating all kinds of crazy grapes, which they then patent. To the answer "to bee, or not to bee" they obviously chose "not to bee", opting instead for hand pollination.

Here is a Portrait of each Lady, looking uncharacteristically dignified.

Starbuck-A-Roo:


Cricket-Pants:


Next up, we have DL cuddling a lady under each arm. Lucky guy!


Moose-lasagne!


Rhubarb nectarine cobbler!

Happy Moon Day!

Happy Moon Day!



The mooncakes we get in Fairbanks are very beautifully packaged. I feel guilty about the packaging waste. Maybe I'll just need to start my own Chinese bakery. :)