From the Silicon to the Tanana Valley

Brrr, baby, brrrr!

2012-01-27T11:35:00.002-09:00

No records yet, but January has been cold in Fairbanks

Oh, c'mon, Minor News! No records at all? You've just stopped trying? How about informing us that this is the January with the most days below -12.5 in a leap year, not counting years with new moons? Or that this is the January with the longest stretch of days below -15 when we have a President in the White House with an odd number of letters in his surname? Hmmmmm? C'mon, you can usually come up with something!

Lowering the Bar for Vanity

2012-01-26T15:43:00.004-09:00

When I bought my first Carhartt pants, I was well aware that I was teetering on the edge of a slippery slope, but I wore them around town. When I bought an insulated Carhartt jacket to do yard work, I swore that I would never wear it into town, just around the neighborhood. When that didn't last, I made a new rule--I could wear the Carhartt jacket into town, but only if I didn't wear it with the Carhartt pants and walk around looking like a giant turd. Then--sigh--it got too darned cold, and I let that rule slide. My new rule is, when I wear the Carhartt jacket with the Carhartt pants, I must make an honest effort to look decent in every other possible way. Generally, this means pretty earrings, tinted lip balm, and combing my hair. The end result?

Well, I'm warm.

Miscellany

2012-01-25T12:22:00.005-09:00

First of all, wowee to the awesome aurora this solar storm is causing. Unfortunately, it's been cloudy chez moi.

Secondly, here is some morbid humor for your day. Check out this ad posted for three adorable Pomeranian pups for sale:

Not much respect for little dogs around here!

Here we have Miss Millie B. Doofus, Supreme Ruler of the People's Independent Republic of Bunnistan, lounging in one of Linden's favorite positions:

And the dowgs:

Also, also: My local friend H, who did her bachelor's degree in Portland, OR, informed me that when she was living there, the first time she went camping, it did not occur to her to bring a flashlight or head lamp. And she was properly astonished when night fell. Wow. Fairbanks is a different place indeed!

Good Eats

2012-01-24T12:01:00.007-09:00

I'm lucky to have grown up in San Francisco, because the combination of Asian, Mexican, and Italian cultures has given me such wonderful things to eat! Here are my latest food exhibitionism photos. These seem to be trendy nowadays, no? I see food photos pop up on my Facebook feed quite frequently.

Finishing up my pot of frijoles de la olla and Spanish rice the day before my Chinese New Year party. Gotta finish the pot to make room for the new leftovers that I know are coming!

Also need to finish: the beets I had roasted several nights ago. You can eat whatever bizarre combinations you like when you live alone!

The next morning, I had finished the rice, but still had a small bowl of beans, which had to, you must realize, vanish by that night. No problem--I made some tortillas...

(I make them Tex-mex style, with baking powder, because I like the charred bubbles.)...

Then smooshed the beans:

... added tomatoes and cheese, et voila! Brunch is served! And I seem to be spilling into another language, but whatever. Melting pot! Yay!

The day after the Chinese New Year party, I found this bee-yoo-tee-ful spinach in my fridge...

So put it into plain chicken broth, and had it with quesadillas and a leftover chicken leg from my New Year roast chicken.

(I love how Linden's hind end is lined up with her pepper shaker on the table in the above photo.)

I've become accustomed over the last few days to having a roast chicken sitting my in fridge. I've been scavenging off it for almost every meal. This might become a habit... Roast a chicken once a week, have enough bones for stock every two weeks. It all sounds nice!

Chinese New Year

2012-01-22T15:03:00.008-09:00

Happy Year of the Dragon, y'all! It starts tomorrow. I hosted a Chinese New Year shindig last night, and made it easier on myself than last year by:

1) Doing the prep work for the jiao-zhe filling the day before. That way the veggies had plenty of time to soak up the salt and expunge their water. Who wants to be wringing out veggies at the last minute? Not me! Doing it the day before minimizes chaos.

2) Soliciting more help. I asked for N/2 people to show up early and wrap dumplings. All N of them did so! I also only made filling and roasted the chicken. I solicited help with the rest of the menu. My noodle-maker, upon hearing that noodles=longevity in superstition-ese, decided to up the ante by making each person one 3-foot long noodle! I'd never had a personal noodle before! The person who volunteered to make the nian-gao had never had a proper one before (my lousy one from last year definitely does not count!), so I was very impressed when hers turned out much better!

3) Switching it to the nearest weekend night rather than doing it on New Year's Day. Then we can stay up late, sleep in, etc. Of course, I don't want to spend New Year's dinner alone, so I'll be trudging across the street to my neighbors with leftover chicken and the rest of the uncooked jiao-zhes, which we can cook then!

Photos!

My cabin, evidently, fits a friendly crowd of 12 humans, 4 dogs, and 1 very patient rabbit!

Charcoal came from across the street. He was holding Linden's paw, whispering sweet nothings to her, when I rudely interrupted with the flash:

Sam's papa brought the trout:

My personal noodle!

Portrait with Charcoal fail:

The jiao-zhes came out in batches:

Another beautiful chicken! Damn, I'm good! This one was stuffed and infused with herbs from BT's garden.

Some dogs that I won't name have no discipline and jump on the couch!
.
Mine, who have much superior manners, wait until I leave the house, and then jump off it when they hear my car pull up in the driveway!

Five! Five fuzzy things in my cabin! Ah, ah, ah! Wahndurful!

What passes for news in Fairbanks

2012-01-19T12:02:00.003-09:00

An Olive Garden is opening in Anchorage.

Thanks to TwoYaks for this earth-shattering link! It did make the front page of the Minor News, but it was lower down, so I might otherwise have missed this momentous announcement.

OMG OMG OMG!!

2012-01-18T15:44:00.002-09:00

Special double post today in honor of...
...
...
...
da, da-da, daaaaaaaah!

A tolerable weather forecast!

Oh I sure hope it comes to pass! Then we can go skiing!

How to stay warm

2012-01-18T10:11:00.004-09:00

There's an adage hereabouts: "There's no such thing as 'too cold'; there's only 'insufficient clothing'."

I've come to realize that there are four main lines of warm clothing tactics in Fairbanks.

1) The REI/outdoorsy thing. The high-tech stuff. This is what I started with when I first moved to Fairbanks, with an insulated jacket, ski pants, and warm boots from Sierra Trading Post, which definitely has the outdoorsy/sporty vibe.

Pros: Lightweight, packable, breathable, and water-resistant or waterproof. Industry trend turnover rate is so high that you can almost always buy last year's top quality model for half price. Although possibly in a bizarre color that didn't sell. That's why I currently am sporting bright pink.

Cons: Delicate fabrics that snag easily, not generally easy to wash (often require special care). The jackets tend to be short, to allow skiing and snowboarding movement, when I'd really prefer a longer jacket for walking around in freezing temps.

2) The Native thing. Furs, skins. Mostly obsolete, except in small doses (parka hood trims, gloves, mittens, boots, hats).

Pros: Super warm.

Cons: Super heavy. Super expensive and/or laborious.

3) The Carhartt thing. Preferred by folks who do blue-collar work outdoors. Kind of perfect for Interior Alaska because we have so little wind and moisture that the lack of wind-proofing and moisture-proofing is not a problem.

Pros: Cut for sloooower movement than the REI stuff, so the sleeves are longer, the waistbands are higher, the jackets are longer. So it's consequently better for deep cold, when all exposed skin must be covered. Very durable. Machine-washable and dryable with ordinary laundry soap. Stains are invisible. You can use your pants as a napkin. The more beaten-up and worn the clothes get, the more comfortable and warm they are.

Cons: When I wear my 'Alaskan tuxedo', I feel like a brown Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. However, I get major Alaska street cred.

4) The Macy's/Nordstrom thing. Not that we have either of those stores, but you get the idea. Back in the heady days of the oil boom, Fairbanks did indeed have a Nordstrom, so the wealthy wives of the oilmen could look nice. Today, there are still folks in town whose vanity trumps comfort. Pretty, business-dress-worthy things. Long, dress-length coats. Leather shoes that don't have lug soles. Nice hats instead of knit toques.

Pros: They look nice. I'm not gonna argue there. I'm content with my lot in the looks department, but I'm surly not winning any beauty pageants in my clothes!

Cons: You'd get a less friendly reception in my rural neighborhood. You'd also fall down a lot due to lack of traction on your shoes. :)

Holy Brrrr!

2012-01-17T10:02:00.003-09:00

Both my old home and my current home are in deep brrrrrrrr!

I have to say that my -40 quality of life has improved much of late. Firstly, I'm burning nothing but nice, hot birch. Secondly, I've really gotten clothing down pat, and I've found that I can still run a few miles at -40. And finally, my dogs have grown really thick fur around their paw pads, so they, too, can run a few miles at -40. I really cannot fathom what it'd be like to be completely homebound. That would suck.

We Cuddle

2012-01-16T12:34:00.001-09:00

Ayup, another cold snap. I never thought I'd wake up, see the thermometer at -40, and say, "Hey! We didn't go below -40! That's not so bad! Let's go for a walk!"

Last night, it came up to -35F, and I thought, Yaaaaay! We can go for a run!

Also, we cuddle:

We are allowed to think of spring?

2012-01-13T11:42:00.002-09:00

Apparently, the chickadees are.

Meanwhile, unusually harsh weather continues in the Southerly regions. Check out this article about how some birds are having trouble flying as their wings are getting coated with ice! So sad.

Your dinner tells a lot about you...

2012-01-12T10:27:00.004-09:00

So here we have my latest single girl meal:

Truly multicultural meal:
Soup comprised of chicken broth with spinach, tomatoes, and a squirt of sesame oil
Reindeer sausage with insanely fancy-pancy French mustard, hand carried from its farm by BT
Brie with bread
Ravenswood zin blend (my house wine)

Reading material for the short attention span:
Physics Today
Bat World's quarterly publication
Kate Vaiden, a recommendation from BT.

In response to the concerned...

2012-01-11T09:29:00.004-09:00

... about yesterday's post.

Here is a map of Alaska:

I live in Iowa, and the storm is in Arkansas.

(Thanks goes to Flying Fish for the idea of using this graphic to reassure Outside folks.)

As for us in peaceful and sheltered ol' Fairbanks, all we'll get is cold. But that, my friends, is not news.

Weather Drama 'Round the State

2012-01-10T10:18:00.006-09:00

Record snow in Cordova has led to a shovel shortage, and the National Guard has come in to help residents shovel. Meanwhile, a Russian tanker is inching toward Nome to bring much-needed fuel.

"City spokesman Allen Marquette said if any state should have stockpiles of shovels, it should be Alaska. But the city has contacted stores in Anchorage, Fairbanks and other cities and has not been able to find a stash, so it's working with a manufacturer to bring shovels north from another state, he said..."

It sounds amusing, but it's serious business. Roofs are caving in. Stay safe, our Southerly neighbors!

In the meantime, I'll be freezing my okole off again!

"The cold front that moves into the Interior Thursday night will be even colder than the one that persisted for the past two weeks, based on models Freeman was looking at Monday."

Um. Brrrr?

The sun is getting higher...

2012-01-09T15:34:00.001-09:00

Aneemules

2012-01-08T17:54:00.003-09:00

Per request, a photo of Miss Millie B. Doofus, Supreme Ruler of the People's Independent Republic of Bunnistan:

The dowgs. Sammypants and her parents joined us for supper last night:

Four! Four fuzzies in my cabin! Ah, ah, ah!

My flamingos. We've gotten quite a bit of soft, light, fluffy snow lately! And such little wind! Only in Fairbanks do flamingos look like this!

Dressing in layers, as discussed. This is what I wear for a run when it is -30F/-34C:

Tips for living in a 16x20 foot cabin

2012-01-05T15:56:00.008-09:00

Firstly, kitchens tend to clutter easily, and I have a low tolerance for kitchen clutter, so I don't have any fancy kitchen gadgets, not even a blender or a mixer. I use wooden spoons and good, top of the line hand tools (whisks, knives, a mortar and pestle, etc). Not because I think it's amusing or quaint, but because it's very spatially efficient.

Secondly, I have a low tolerance for possessions whose only purpose is aesthetic. The adorable and otherwise useless Miss Millie is an exception! My decorations are limited to a 14x6 inch shelf above the wood stove, and flat things that hang on the wall.

Finally, I am positively ruthless when it comes to editing my personal possessions. I can do this due to two factors. First, I am quite picky about what I purchase. With e-commerce as prevalent and accessible as it is today, and with most online vendors offering free or very reasonable shipping costs, there is no reason to keep anything that is less than perfect. I'm talking that otherwise nice, warm coat whose collar doesn't quite keep the chill off your neck, or that backpack whose strap adjustor digs into your clavicle, or those beautiful shoes that squish your little toe. Do not accept such things! Send them back! The second factor is that I get rid of older things on a regular basis. This is something I either learned or inherited from my mother. I am not at all sentimental about inanimate objects. Have I used it in the past several years? No? Then out it goes. I also abhor waste, so when I find the perfect new home for my outgoing goods, that just makes my day. Here are my favorite places to rehome things, in rough order of the amount of satisfaction they give me:

1) A friend who just happens to need the exact item in question. Need is the operative word there. No fair using friends as trash dumps! It has to be a perfect fit!

2) Any of the local shelters for abuse victims or the homeless.

3) Value Village, the local thrift store. My warm fuzzy with them is slightly dampened by not knowing exactly which "local nonprofits" benefit from them.

4) Finally, the last resort is the "recycle platform" at the transfer site.

5) There are also several consignment stores, but until last year, they have all been located downtown, where I seldom go, and making a special trip downtown is just too painful for me to contemplate. Recently, one opened near me, but I've had $20 worth of credit there since the week they've opened, and have yet to find anything in there that I actually want, so... why not go for the warm fuzzy and give stuff away?

In other news, we came up to a balmy -15F/-26C yesterday. That made front page news.

Hangin' out

2012-01-05T12:02:00.002-09:00

Linden looks very ladylike. Autumn, as usual, looks like she is cringing. I don't beat her up, I swear!

Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!

2012-01-04T10:52:00.002-09:00

No, I no longer blow bubbles out of doors, but although I no longer feel a sense of novelty, I also no longer feel a sense of pain. Cold weather is just... part of life. :) My minimum running temperature has also dropped from -30F to -40F. This morning I ran 3 miles, wearing hiking socks with my running sneakers, wool shorts under wool pants under running pants under ski pants, a running bra under a synthetic shirt under a wool shirt under another synthetic shirt under a wool vest under a windbreaker, and a neck gaitor, a hat, and two pairs of gloves. The girls wore... nothing but their reflective vests. :)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T10:14:00.001-09:00

Brrrrrr!

Movie

2011-12-28T12:48:00.009-09:00

Last night, I watched the excellent 50/50 at the Blue Loon. It's about a young guy who is suddenly diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer, and how he copes and how his interpersonal relationships evolve. It was really well-done, with enough comedy to lighten what could easily have been a maudlin, treacly, depressing movie. It had a likeable cast and *spoiler ahead. Only highlight the white space below if you don't mind the spoiler*

a happy ending. The guy survives.

Nevertheless, I did not need to see that. It hit just a bit too close to home for me, and I didn't need to relive the time I spent taking care of my ex, Dan, when he had cancer. It also made me wonder about something else.

In movies and literature that address cancer, significant others, family, and friends divide into two types. The first type turn out to be True Love/Good Family/True Friends who will Stand By the cancer patient. The second type turn out to be the Untrue Loves/Bad Family/Fair Weather Friends who are uncomfortable with our hero and distance themselves. They aren't necessarily presented as bad people; just people who lack the strength to be True.

Even in stories that don't contain cancer explicitly, there are references to idealized, still-in-love-after-umpteen-years couples who Knew Their Love Was True when decades prior, one nursed the other through cancer, when he/she Could Have Run Away. These are common tropes.

There is absolutely nothing in literature or movies, that I have seen, that addresses how a caretaker might happily, willingly take care of a loved one, and then after the cancer has gone into remission, the relationship might fall apart all the same.

When Dan was in California when he was diagnosed, and I took a leave of absence from University to move down there to take care of him, it did not cross my mind at the time that NotGoing was an option. Imagine my surprise to arrive in California and hear friends and acquaintances bang on about about how I was some kind of hero, or martyr, to stay with him through that. Only then did it cross my mind that I might have remained in Fairbanks instead. But I didn't see it as a choice, and anyway, I was thankful for the chance for loving service.

Year later, when Dan's cancer was years in remission, and news got out that our relationship had ended, I heard/read such heart-wrung comments, about how "we had been through so much together" and blahblah, and they could not believe how the relationship could fall apart "after all that" and yakkity-yak. Because they were shocked that the movie trope could possibly be false.

Taking care of someone through cancer is not a proof of True Love that will stand the test of time, because love and affection don't mean a danged thing about long-term compatibility. It's only proof of current love. And it doesn't make you a hero. It just makes you a decent sort of person who steps up properly to responsibilities that come with a relationship.

I think there is a gaping hole in fiction. Watch out over the next few years for my novel. But you've already gotten the spoilers for this one. The Cancer Patient will survive. The ending will come to a satisfying conclusion, but the erstwhile True Love will end.

Christmas treats

2011-12-26T16:42:00.003-09:00

The girls got pig ears, and I made a yule log, which was rather impressive, if I say so myself.

Charcoal declined his pig ear. He said he was already full from eating your soul.

Hmmmm...

2011-12-23T11:26:00.003-09:00

We seem to have lost a minute of daylight since the Solstice, but the butt-ass cold forecast has disappeared.

The weather reports! Such fun! Such illogic! Yay!

I guess I ain't that Alaskan after all...

2011-12-21T16:47:00.005-09:00

... considering how few of my friends appreciated this gem of mine:

Come to think of it, more than a few of my Californian friends didn't grok it, either.

I can't believe that I sat and stared at the pattern and laughed until my pants got nervous, then IM'ed around asking craftier friends whether it was difficult to cross stitch, and might I learn how from the internet, and then spent four consecutive nights stitching the damned thing, to the tune of 8 hours, and then finally, at the end of my efforts, proudly hung it on the wall, to receive a multitude of blank looks and/or generic compliments on how lovely it is and what a fine job I did with the needlework.

Hrrmph! I guess I'll have to give up what could have been a burgeoning career in ironic cross-stitching. Fo shizzle.

Happy Solstice!

2011-12-21T11:07:00.004-09:00

From here on out, the days will be getting longer!

Does anyone else find it strange to call the solstice the "First day of Winter"? If you ask me, the shortest day of the year ought to be the middle of winter, and likewise for the summer solstice in summer, n'est-ce pas? It makes no sense to me to wake up on the longest day of the year, know that the days will only grow shorter from there, and call it the beginning of summer.

In other news, all I want for Christmas this year is to freeze my okole off. Oh look! What luck!

Puppy cuteness

2011-12-19T11:33:00.000-09:00

Rest in Peace

2011-12-16T15:07:00.009-09:00

We lost a professor emeritus last night, Dr. Dave Sentman. He was a very warm, funny man with a gentle, kindly face and demeanor that put me in mind of a beloved pediatrician. He loved to talk about anything and everything--the history of tulips in Holland, the beauty of Bach's violin concertos, the algorithms behind CT scanning and reconstruction, how much fun it is to climb all over the gold dredges in our environs, his life in his rural home, etc.

When I had first moved to Fairbanks, he warned me of the frightening noises a snowpack makes when it slides off a hot roof. He also told me a funny story about how he had once woken up in his home in mid-winter, and checked the clock and saw that it read a bit past 6. Thinking that a perfectly reasonable time to get up and go to work, he did so, only to arrive and find the building nearly empty. He made a pot of coffee, worked for a few hours, and wondered where everyone was, until it dawned on him that it had been a bit past 6 p.m. when he had first gotten up. "These are things that only happen to academics!" he said.

He went off on so many tangents in the middle of his lectures that I was always amazed that at the end of the semester, he was always right on schedule with the syllabus. He must have planned his digressions very carefully!

He had just retired last spring. What a shame. On the other hand, he did truly enjoy teaching, and we students were fortunate to have him.

Here is my favorite picture from his plasma physics lectures:

Weird like me: one of the dangers of being in academia

2011-12-16T11:28:00.003-09:00

One thing I've come to realize is that the more you specialize in whatever it is you are doing, the more you limit your human exposure to people who are increasingly just like you. It's great because you can talk to them about whatever comes up in your mind, and not have to waste time filling them in with the background information first. Also, when you confess to having done something that makes you feel weird, you often find that they have done the exact same thing! And you can talk to them freely about whatever geeky thing is on your mind and feel zero embarrassment.

For example, the place where we dry cabin dwellers buy water for some reason only accepts quarters and nickels; no dimes, nor pennies. So I always keep a stash of quarters and nickels in my car. After a while, the nickels always run out, and I have to get a roll from the bank, but the quarters never run out! I always end up with plenty of quarters in my change as I go about my quotidian life. I scratched my head over that one and opened the conversation at my friend C's house, and we all sat around and crunched the odds of getting quarters versus nickels, and that you could get more than one quarter per transaction, but never more than one nickel, etc, until I was reasonably satisfied. And see, this is why it's so good to have like-minded peers. You can talk about what you like to think about.

But it's also very dangerous because it removes the normal societal correction factors that would stop a quick descent into crazy-town. After all, it's not particularly healthy to think about such things too much. We have, after all, normal lives and the rest of society to deal with. Very few people are meant to be true hermits, no matter what they might think of themselves. So I try to maintain my friendships and relationships with folks who are non-academics.

It was easier when I was working in industry, where my daily interactions forced me to socialize with, for example, the administrative assistants, the purchasers, the business development folks, the managers, the human factors folks, etc. Heck, even engineers in a different field of engineering add to social diversity. But here, my 'boss' (adviser) is a nerdy academic just like me, and my 'colleagues' (other grad student friends, who are all in the same field as me) are all nerdy academics, just like me. Almost everyone I see on a daily basis is just like me!

That's part of the reason I make a deliberate effort to get to know my neighbors, and other people I see on a daily basis. They add to my social diversity and give me gentle pokes when I start to go all whacko. :) As BT's brother once said to her (and she subsequently reported to me), "you can't just launch into a problem that's interesting to you just because you find it interesting... you just got back from Hawaii. Welcome f*ing back. Hi! I missed you too! Nice to see you!"

It's also the main reason that after I graduate, I want to return back to industry and work with other people again, and not take another academic position.

Entering the highway from da 'hood

2011-12-15T16:38:00.001-09:00

Salmon Chowder in da Hizzy

2011-12-13T10:30:00.004-09:00

A classic Alaskan meal: Salmon Chowder and Pilot Bread:

Over the weekend, I made jam and this:

I had never cross-stitched a thing in my life, but when I saw the fine offerings of Steotch, I had to order this pattern and make it. I just had to, you see.

Notes to Self

2011-12-12T12:48:00.002-09:00

For future reference:

If in the span of thirty hours, you run six miles, skijor five, and shovel the driveway, expect to be sore.

If you wear too much clothes for an unexpected warm snap, expect to be warm.

If you then peel off your clothes and stand around your house with no fire going, expect to get a chill.

So, if you find yourself with bodily aches, sweaty, and chilly, it might not necessarily be that you are getting a flu. Do not panic.

Moose tracks around my house

2011-12-10T16:32:00.001-09:00

Meese

2011-12-08T10:52:00.001-09:00

My friendly neighborhood moose had twins last year. They were having breakfast on the side of the road this morning, so I pulled over, rolled down my window, and snapped these.

Mamamoose:

Behbehmoose #1:

Behbehmoose #2:

Sled Dog to Human to Autumn-and-Linden-speak

2011-12-06T10:02:00.008-09:00

A handy translation guide:

Sled Dog Command: Gee
What it means to humans: Go right
What it means to Autumn and Linden: Go right and accelerate

Sled Dog Command: Haw
What it means to humans: Go left
What it means to Autumn and Linden: Go left and accelerate

Sled Dog Command: On by
What it means to humans: Pass by and ignore that person/dog/moose/trail intersection
What it means to Autumn and Linden: Pass by and ignore that person/dog/moose/trail intersection, and accelerate

Sled Dog Command: Whoa
What it means to humans: Slow down or stop
What it means to Autumn and Linden: Pretend you are deaf

Sled Dog Command: Come
What it means to humans: Come here
What it means to Autumn and Linden: Look up at me. Then carry on with whatever you were doing.

Sled Dog Command: Stay
What it means to humans: Stay there until told otherwise
What it means to Autumn and Linden: Hesitate for a quarter of a second before following me.

In other news, this morning I stumbled downstairs to the tea pot and found this on my kitchen counter:

It's an interesting consequence of having a significant other who makes Native art. You learn to take these sorts of things in stride. I posted this photo on Facebook, and folks asked me what it was. Now that's pushing my Going Native just a little too far! At this point in my Alaskan edjumacation, I consider myself doing well if I know what species of animal I am eating for dinner!

Miscellany

2011-12-06T09:55:00.008-09:00

F. made this lovely drawing of the girls in like twenty minutes. Talented girl, what?

The girls hangin' out:

Linden looking very cute:

Autumn chillin':

Imagine how startling it was for me to step out to put something on the porch and find this mamamoose right off the porch! Her calf was right behind her, and as I jumped three feet into the air and screamed, they looked up from their willow repast, blinked, and went right back to eating.

A friend of mine just got back from China. Yaaaay!

I'm really glad that temperatures are dropping again! Mid-winter warmth is not only dangerous (as it makes the roads slippery), but it really unnerves me! Where I grew up, we called it 'earthquake weather', and in Southern California, the Santa Ana winds are an ill portent.

Raymond Chandler described them in "Red Wind" as "those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen..."

Joan Didion wrote of them:

There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension. What it means is that tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sand storms out along Route 66, drying the hills and the nerves to flash point... I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the air...

and

I recall being told, when I first moved to Los Angeles and was living on an isolated beach, that the Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew. I could see why. The Pacific turned ominously glossy during a Santa Ana period, and one woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but by the eerie absence of surf. The heat was surreal. The sky had a yellow cast, the kind of light sometimes called "earthquake weather." My only neighbor would not come out of her house for days, and there were no lights at night, and her husband roamed the place with a machete. One day he would tell me that he had heard a trespasser, the next a rattlesnake.

So I'm very happy that it's cold again! Brrrrr! Yay!

Another warm snap

2011-12-04T20:13:00.002-09:00

Aayyyyy! It may be an repeat of last year! Temperatures came above freezing last night, and precipitation is in the forecast! School has been cancelled for tomorrow. Ayyy!

Dashing through the snow...

2011-12-03T15:59:00.006-09:00

It was warm today, and the snow was slick and I didn't put on kick wax, so I did what I call "sack of potatoes" skijoring, wherein I stand there like a sack of potatoes and let the girls do all of the work. In conditions that slick, I really cannot contribute at all.

Whooosh!

I managed to get a video capture for y'all:

And then, we cuddle:

Cuddle and wuddle:

Cuddle wuddle wuddle:

Cuddle pile!

It looks like we are out of our cold snap, which made November the sixth coldest on record.

Proof of a Benevolent Research God

2011-12-02T09:12:00.005-09:00

So... I need to run 4 different tests 6 times each, so I mark the snow sample holders how I want them, and put them into the cooler to chill before sample preparation, and look how they fit into the cooler:

Isn't that just awesome???

I think I need to go lie down.

Edited to add: Yay for Carl Hoffman, the father of Fairbanks Bluegrass!

Also, also:

NOAA sez:

...STRONG WEST COAST STORM TO BRING A VARIETY OF WINTER WEATHER TO THE INTERIOR...

A LOW PRESSURE CENTER LOCATED ABOUT 800 MILES SOUTH OF SHEMYA IN THE WESTERN ALEUTIANS IS EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY RAPIDLY INTO A STRONG WINTER STORM AS IT TRACKS NORTHEASTWARD TOWARDS THE ALASKA WEST COAST. THE STORM CENTER IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE IN THE SOUTHERN BERING SEA LATE FRIDAY NIGHT AND MOVE TO JUST EAST OF ST LAWRENCE ISLAND BY SATURDAY EVENING.

STRONG SOUTHERLY CHINOOK WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP IN ALASKA RANGE PASSES EARLY SATURDAY AND CONTINUE INTO SUNDAY. WINDS GUSTING TO 75 MPH ARE EXPECTED IN THESE AREAS.

FARTHER TO THE WEST...SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF 6 INCHES OR MORE WILL BE POSSIBLE SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY IN THE CENTRAL INTERIOR...UPPER KOYUKUK VALLEY...AND SOUTH FACING
SLOPES OF THE CENTRAL BROOKS RANGE....

Yay! Yay for warmer temps and snow!

Yay!

2011-12-01T11:52:00.002-09:00

Now here is a weather forecast I like to see:

Snow every day, and temperatures hovering around 0F! This is my and my dogs' happy zone. :) Of course, weather predictions around here tend to be quite unreliable, but at least we can be happy in our delusions when they look good. :)

This is also the first time I can recall coming out of an extreme cold snap gently, instead of busting into a Chinook directly afterwards. There are no temperatures above freezing, and no-one is threatening any. Yay!

You know you live in a small town when...

2011-11-29T12:12:00.004-09:00

... you dial a wrong number, and someone you know answers.

... people spot you from a distance and recognize you by your jacket.

... you can't go anywhere without being spotted and having it be mentioned later.

... everyone in town is within two degrees of separation, not six.

Oh ALSO... we are above 0F this morning for the first time in nearly a month!

A-nee-mules

2011-11-28T10:11:00.002-09:00

Sammypants at Thanksgiving:

My friends' kitten, Leo:

My girls waiting patiently while I fix my pole strap, which broke while skijoring. Aren't they so sweetly patient?

Miss Millie B. Doofus, Supreme Ruler of the People's Republic of Bunnistan:

Best. Thanksgiving. Evar. Sixteen pies!

a blue true dream of sky...

2011-11-25T14:49:00.000-09:00

And the weather gods exhale...

2011-11-23T07:41:00.003-09:00

Warming temps break Interior Alaska cold snap

The temperature at Fairbanks International Airport climbed above 20 degrees below zero for the first time in seven days on Tuesday as a record-setting, early season cold snap slowly began to loosen its grip on the Interior...

It marked the first time in six days that Fairbanks did not set a new low temperature record at the airport and it was the first day since Nov. 15 that Fairbanks’ low temperature wasn’t at least 35 below...

The average temperature for the week of Nov. 15 through the 21 was 30.1 degrees below zero, making it the coldest week during the month of November since 1930, according to the National Weather Service...

Unh-huh. Whatevs.

Alaskan Pseudo-Hermits

2011-11-22T08:03:00.005-09:00

My rural area has quite a few guys who live alone and talk like this:

I like living out here by myself, on my own land, and I'm all alone in my solitude, and no-one comes to bug me, and--Here, sit down--I just like to be by myself. Here, have a beer. I just get so tired of people, I really like my solitude. Are you done with that beer? Here, have another. Yeah, I don't need anyone else. Just me, myself, and I. I'm practically a hermit. Where are you going? Sit back down. Have another beer...

:)

Temperatures are slowly rising. It was -30F/-34C this morning, and I went for a run instead of a walk for the first time in almost a week. It felt good.

Misc Photos

2011-11-21T08:05:00.004-09:00

And this is why I worked from home last week. I neeeeeeeded to stay within 3 feet of the wood stove:

Brrr, baby, brrrrrr!

Autumn sez, "Nice slippers, mama. I'll borrow one for an elbow rest."

Three! Three fuzzies in my cabin! Ah, ah, ah!

This nose-cicle grew on my scarf over my nose after a morning's skijor:

Miss Millie B. Doofus, Supreme Ruler of the People's Independent Republic of Bunnistan, is very cute:

Brrrr! And... the reality of aging huskies

2011-11-19T17:33:00.002-09:00

We've been buckled down under a cold snap... the coldest temp I'd ever seen at my current home: -45F! But anyway, I had another post up my sleeve regarding Autumn's time on them lam, so here it is...

Autumn and Linden, the World's Most Perfect Dogs, have only two flaws. One is that they have horrible leash manners, and the other is that from time to time they run off. They are traffic smart and direction smart, and in our rural area, there are relatively few hazards, and most people like dogs and would not harm a loose one that's just passing by. Nevertheless, I worry when they run off, and wring my hands for the half hour to several hours it takes for them to get bored with their adventure and come on home. This generally happens about three times a year. Considering that they escort me everywhere, it's a relatively low rate, and each time, it's still a surprise. I'll be working in the yard, or whatever, and suddenly--FOOM!--they are bolting across our land and onto the trail.

Last Wednesday evening, they did it when they went out to escort me to put something on the porch for recycling. I, horrified, hollered after them. Linden came back; Autumn did not. Again, I didn't think anything of it; just figured I'd have to wait it out per usual.

She wasn't back by the end of the night. I went out at one point, and saw her in the yard. What a relief! I called her, and she looked at me and--get this--dashed away like a feral dog. WTF? I would have sworn she didn't recognize me.

The next morning, she still hadn't returned. V was over, and we had spent the night on the couch, so we could listen for her paws hitting the porch, as the girls' do when they come home. Nothing.

By this time I was beside myself, and decided to take Linden for our regular run, hopping that Autumn would see us and join us. Again, nothing. Later that day, neighbors began calling, as they spotted her here and there. Snow fell lightly that whole day, so it was easy to track where she had gone and when... I finally deduced that she wasn't leaving the immediate area; she just wasn't coming home! V's sister, F, who lives across the street, spotted her as she got off the school bus that afternoon. V's sister is a regular dog whisperer, and she is probably Autumn's second favorite person, behind me. Autumn also behaved as if she didn't know her, and she was frightened of her. She ran off! I spotted her again that night, but again, she ran off.

My dogs have a family history of seizures. Their mom, their grandma, and one of their sisters got them when they got old. When they came back from their seizures, they didn't recognize their people or their surroundings for maybe an hour. As best I can figure, Autumn must have seen or done something that triggered a seizure, and didn't recognize F or V or me.

Finally, her dinnertime came around, and it was my great hope. By this time, it was Thursday evening, she had been on the lam for close to 24 hours, and I didn't know if she'd ever be mine again, or she'd turn into some feral dog. Knowing how food-motivated she is, I put her dinner on the porch, figuring that when she jumped up for it, I'd hear her and open the door, and she'd come in. No such luck. She crept onto the porch in silence--I didn't know she was there until I heard her crunching her kibble. When I opened the door, she again ran away!

I figured at this point that chasing her was no good, so I called around to ask where I could borrow a live trap. For future reference, the local animal shelter loans them out. But the next day was a holiday, then a weekend followed, and I was quite anxious to catch Autumn before Monday, four days later! I also called everyone else who knew and loved her--her former family, Dan, who now lives in Wyoming, M, C--to see if they had any input. While I was on the phone with Dan, I heard a familiar thud on the porch. Then a familiar scratching at the door with a paw. I opened the door, and there was Autumn, having walked right past what was left of her supper and acting like the previous 26 hours hadn't happened.

I'm utterly baffled, but I was so happy I started crying. Dan, overhearing this, must think I am insane and must be very happy indeed to be rid of me! :)

Anyway, the conclusion of all of this is that the girls are now 12, and since they are super-athletic huskies, I do know that their minds will go before their bodies do. I cannot emotionally afford another incident like this, so the girls will not be allowed off-leash outside any more. I won't even ski with them loose. From now on, it's skijoring all the way. I'm sad that I will never again witness this sort of joyous abandon from them, but them's the breaks.

Autumn is acting completely like her old self again, but even if she loses her mind and can't look after me the way she used to, it's okay. It's sad, but it's okay. She's taken care of me for four years, through multiple homes and relationships, happiness and heartbreak. I can take care of her for what time she has left, however that time may be.

Aieeee!

2011-11-14T11:31:00.005-09:00

Brrrrrr!

Also: North Pole family rescues rats. Pretty sweet, eh?

Okay, I'm really beat. On Friday night, I did a second run to enjoy the full moon. Saturday and Sunday morning, the girls and I skijored about 5 miles. Saturday night, another run. Sunday afternoon, a mushing loop--V's dogs' first time out this year. I'm beat! However, the dogs are *very* happy. :)

Also, also: my run this morning, my shirt came untucked, and my belly went numb. Aaaaaaiiyouch!

Here are photos of the beasties...

Miss Millie B. Doofus, Supreme Ruler of the People's Independent Republic of Bunnistan, sez: "Gimme that apple!"

The girls: "Who's at the door?"

Conversation with the kama'aina

2011-11-13T10:31:00.001-09:00

(Or whatever Alaskans call their equivalent of kama'aina)

Last week's Saturday ski, the first of the season, was a little rough. My legs were not in skiing shape, and I was uncoordinated and overheating. My arms ached, my thighs ached. I understood then why people roller ski in the summers. To recover my battered self esteem, I decided later to shovel the driveway and walkways. V, who was reading on the couch, assessed the situation and decided that it was unacceptable. He came outside and intercepted me along the path to the shed.

"I can do that."

Yes, I'm sure you can. So can I. (insert big cheesy grin here)

"I'll do it for you."

You think I'm going to let myself go soft just because you're here?

"Yes."

...
...
...
...
...

(a few minutes later, during which both of our big, competitively cheesy grins start to make our cheeks ache, and our lips are dehydrating and cracking from being frozen into place, and spittle is literally freezing on our exposed teeth...)

"Do you have another shovel?"

No.

"I'll rock-paper-scissors you for it."

Fine.

I won. :)

He went back inside and lasted maybe ten minutes. Then he came back out and started making kindling. No argument there. I detest making kindling!

Today we give thanks

2011-11-11T10:44:00.002-09:00

In the past few weeks, I three times seriously feared or came close to losing someone I loved--V, M, and Autumn. All three of them are still with me in body and mind, and today I give thanks and once again feel like the luckiest person on earth.

It's funny that this peculiar form of pessimism (always worrying...) leads to such great joy and thankfulness. It's is really quite amazing. People of more supposedly optimistic temperament don't furrow their eyebrows and wring their hands imagining their friends in car crashes, or their dogs dead in ditches, but they also don't know the exquisite joy of imagining their friends in car crashes, and then seeing them alive!

Today I feel so thankful to be alive and whole and loved, and no-one without my neuroses will ever know how that feels, at least not to that extent!

Miscellany

2011-11-09T10:29:00.004-09:00

1) Last night there was a luahoano, a rainbow around the moon. My camera does not love such things, but I still got a few cool photos of the waxing gibbous moon from my yard:

2) There is a crazy "perfect storm" lashing against the Bering sea right now. NOAA is calling it "ONE OF THE MOST SEVERE BERING SEA STORMS ON RECORD" (caps theirs). Here is a report about the effects in Nome. Please keep a thought in your hearts for our friends in Nome, Kotzebue, and other communities in that area.

3) I haven't taken photos of the girls napping in a while, so here you go:

4) We cuddle:

5) Last night, the moon was so bright (bright enough to read a book in the front yard if I had so chosen) that I figured an evening run was in order. However, after I had bundled all up and put on all of our reflective stuff, I stepped outside and realized that under the trees, it was still dark enough to require a headlamp. Bummer! Hopefully, by the next full moon, the Tanana will have frozen up, and we can do a moonlit run or ski there, where it is open enough to utilize the moonlight!

Finally skiing! Yay!

2011-11-07T11:53:00.003-09:00

Look! I am back on my skis!

Yay!

Here is the sunrise Saturday as we headed out onto the trail from behind the cabin:

The girls were running around acting like loons:

I love it when we are the first to make tracks on new-fallen snow!

Me and my goober:

Top o' the Minor News Today

2011-11-04T11:40:00.005-08:00

Lone goose remains at Creamer’s Field, appears healthy. The article includes a slide show with five portraits of the goose.

I think Minor News reporting has reached a new level of minor. And that's why I love it and read it daily!

The Sun...

2011-11-03T12:26:00.003-08:00

Photo by Mariska Wright, a local artist

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."

Look what happens
with a love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.

--Hafiz, from The Gift

How I Run

2011-11-02T08:49:00.002-08:00

I have been a runner for my entire adult life. I have been a slow, bumbling runner, but what I have lacked in grace and speed, I have made up for in enthusiasm and consistency. I have completed the Honolulu Marathon, the Rock n Roll Marathon in San Diego, and--my favorite--the stupendously beautiful, tree-lined Avenue of the Giants. Each time, I placed at the bottom 5th percentile for my age group. That's the slowest 5%, mind you. :)

I have never been serious about running. My training fuels are not Power Bars nor gels nor GUs, but rather peanut butter on Pilot Bread, bananas, yogurt, and grilled cheese sandwiches. I do not keep track of my pacing at all, especially due to running with dogs. When they want to stop and sniff something, or scope out just the perfect spot to take a crap, I stop and grant them that. (I figure a lifetime of running for a sled team earns a creature the right to indulging distractions in retirement.) When they want to sprint for a bit, I speed right up and grant them that. Huskies are such wonderful embodiments of joyful running that I am not about to mess with their formula and make it conform to mine!

I'm not sure exactly why I run. In my family, weight control has never been an issue. I'm never going to be an Olympian. All I know is, running makes me feel happy and strong and cheerfully sane. I'm not vain, but I do enjoy knowing that my stamina is both a practical skill and a survival skill. If I am late for a meeting across campus, I can run to it without breaking a sweat, with my heart barely registering a tiny up-shift. That makes me feel capable and powerful. It is, after all, our ancestral form of locomotion, predating cars, bikes, and even the taming of the horse or dog. For me, running is a joyful act, and to run is nothing less than to claim our heritage, not as the physically weakest animal species, that survives by brain power at the cost of all physical abilities, but as hunters who have and still do run down game animals to exhaustion. Who, in chasing herds of wild animals, managed to populate every remotely habitable region of the planet, from valleys to mountains. On foot. Carrying babies.

Anyway, I am just finishing up an inspirational book called Born to Run. The author, a formerly bumbling, awkward runner like myself, was not getting satisfactory answers from the sports medicine community about why he had a persistent pain in his foot. He researched the history and frequency of running injuries in modern America, contrasted us against an isolated tribe in Mexico who run multiple-marathon distances on a regular basis, both for transportation and the sheer joy of it, and reached some interesting conclusions. This is neither a running nor a sports blog, so I won't go into the details, but the idea is that our heritage and our literal connection (contact) with the earth have been severed by overzealous (though perhaps well-intentioned) running shoe manufacturers who keep adding more and more cushioning and shock-absorption features to running shoes, at the tremendous cost of the natural bio-feedback mechanisms that would force us into a healthy, natural, sustainable gait. Overly cushioned running shoes, he argues, encourage and allow a runner to run with poor form, thus the rise in running-related injuries correlating with the rise in fanciness of running shoes.

I had used to run in cheap, minimally-padded shoes, and always ran with a mid-foot strike. However, when I joined the AIDS marathon team (whom I must point out that I adore, poor influence in running gait notwithstanding), almost all of my teammates ran with a heel-strike, and wore fancy, expensive shoes sanctioned by Runner's World magazine. Having never been a "real runner" before, I imitated them, to my loss. About a third of the way through the training program, my knees began to ache. However, by the end of the six-month program, the pain had subsided, so I conveniently forgot about it and carried on. I now believe that the pain was an early warning sign from my body, which I stupidly ignored in favor of my observations of what I perceived to be the experts. I was young (24) and able to overcome and readjust to the poor gait. But being young also means that you are naive and lack the confidence to trust your own body and instincts before what anybody else says or does.

This book has made me think about this. And a light bulb went off in my head.

Now I am readjusting my gait to the way I ran when I was a teenager, and I feel as strong as I did then, too. I am also reaffirming why I run in the first place. It's easy to explain to people that I do it just to exercise my dogs (you get a lot of brownie points for being such a devoted dog owner that way!), but then I conveniently neglect to point out that I ran before I had dogs, too. The truth is, I run for the joy of it, and it's fantastic to have joyful dogs who are just like me! And now I feel doubly empowered, reclaiming the gait that nature gave me!

Maybe we were indeed all born to run! I highly recommend the book.

Warning: Please do not take my little non-professional post as medical advice. This article sums up the pros and cons of the different shoe styles rather nicely. In it, the author says:

As Asics's [international research coordinator] Bartold puts it, "Elite runners can get away with a whole lot less shoe. But for someone who gets out of the office chair after 10 years and decides he wants to get fit, I think to go to a less-structured shoe has got disaster written all over it."

Note: Sorry about the time warpage on this post. My hand barfed and I clicked something I hadn't meant to, etc, etc...

Pretty decent aurora last night

2011-11-01T12:07:00.004-08:00

After we sent our two--count 'em, two--groups of trick or treaters on their way, we were treated to an awesome aurora. Peeing out of doors gives you so many more opportunities to enjoy the night sky! Bonus aurora for those with tiny bladders, such as myself!

Saw some friends over the weekend who had just gotten back from a trip to Colorado. They had brought back another cheese stash for me! Yay! And this is how you know that your friends know you pretty well--when two friends who don't know each other each give you a cheese-and-chocolate stash for your birthday!

Also, also! I must report that this morning I woke up to -14F/-25C. Ayee!

Edited to add: OMG a behbehelephant!

Miscellany

2011-10-31T12:47:00.004-08:00

So here we have some shots from around the 'hood.

Hoar frost:

I mentioned "depth hoar" during my talk at a conference, and afterwards, one of the attendees approached me and busted out,
"Did you say WHORE???"

The sky is looking like winter:

The road at the top of the ridge:

There were rose hips, already dehydrated and still on the plants:

How convenient! I filled my pockets.

The "Experimental Forest" of pines, white spruce, and other out-of-place trees:

This is my neighbors' lead dog, Zeus:

Zeus, an un-deballed boy, was very taken with my girls, but he was very gentle and gentlemanly about it. He sat next to them and gave them gentle sniffs and licks and kisses. Then he put his paw around one or the other... My girls didn't protest, even as he air-humped them, but they were certainly not amused, and when they accompanied me upstairs when I went up to look for a book, they refused to come back down until I had to pee and demanded my regular escorts. In the meantime, Zeus, ever the gentleman, waited downstairs and attempted to woo the ladies.

"Helloooooo, ladies!"

Until he sighed and gave up:

The girls teased him from the top of the stairwell:

:)

Motivation is a Problem

2011-10-28T17:24:00.003-08:00

The problem with having really enjoyable field work is that at some point, you have tons of data that will require tons of desk time for analysis.

At this point, I have 380 sets of test data, none of which I have properly analyzed.

Ouch. I'm looking at some serious desk time. Very painful.

I remind myself of a great grad student quote: "Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself."

The Price to Pay

2011-10-27T10:29:00.002-08:00

Nearly every fantastic backpacking trip, and even some day hikes, come with a price--I return looking like a human piñata.

Still... totally worth it, every time!

Hutlinana Creek Photos

2011-10-25T11:05:00.006-08:00

Over the weekend, we attempted to hike to Hutlinana Hot Springs. However, we lost the trail, bushwhacked along the creek, ran out of daylight, etc, etc. We ended up camping where we were, which was only halfway up the creek to the hot spring, and returning the next day. It was rough, slow going, but still quite lovely. On the way back, we intersected the official trail, and it looked to be in good shape, but we were so close to the trail head that we just finished our bushwhack back. The official trail is supposed to be only 6 miles long, but bushwhacking along the twisty-turny creek didn't get us very far! Oh well.

The view of Hutlinana Creek from the highway bridge:

Ice was just starting to form, and it was thick enough to traverse in some few places. Seeing as how the hot spring feeds into this creek, I'm sure it freezes late!

A very impressive beaver dam. This is a bad shot though. :(

Because we weren't on the official trail, we crossed the creek several times to stay on the easier side for bushwhacking. V had had the foresight to wear rubber boots, and carried the girls and me back and forth. What a gentleman. :) The girls were horrified and only allowed that to happen once. Then they said, "Funk that noise!" and waded/swam back and forth themselves. They detest being carried.

Another view of the creek:

Our camp site:

The beavers along that creek are crazy ambitious:

We passed fully cut down trees that were twice that diameter, too!

We were surprised at how big the trees got around here. I guess the hot spring system beats back the permafrost?

Hutlinana Creek is very picturesque. I'm almost glad we bushwhacked along it rather than taking the official trail, which was about a quarter of a mile away.

Aaaand... we're back at the highway!

From another lifetime ago

2011-10-24T11:33:00.005-08:00

I seem to have misplaced my card reader, so I can't show you photos of our failed backpacking trip to Hutlinana Hot Springs. We had a grand time, although we lost the trail, bush-whacked a lot, I got over a dozen bruises, we never found the hot spring, etc, etc. But I will share photos as soon as I can!

In the meantime, I thought I'd amuse you with this. An old former colleague of mine from Sili Valley days sent me an email today to say hello. I (I am ashamed to admit) drew a blank on how to respond. I remembered him, but not precisely what he did or what he was like. I searched my email history for former emails from him, and came across this gem:

To: Arvay
From: Redacted
Subject: Hello,Glad to share the group photo with you

Dear All,

How are you?

This is [redacted] of [company name] and I send this email via my private email account. [He goes by three different names--his legal Chinese name, his professional name, which is pronounceable to Americans, and his personal Americanized name.]

Glad to enjoy mountain climbing last weekend with you on Feb.10.07. and had a wonderful weekend.
Enclosed is the group photo we captured at the mounting entrance. Please enjoy it.

Cheers!
Thank you all and looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Thanks and best regards!
[Professional Name]

And that is me, second from the right, in my khaki pants in Sili Valley days, on a trip to China to audit the manufacturing line.

Raven

2011-10-21T10:09:00.004-08:00

And here is your feel-good story for today: Obama awards Presidential Citizens Medal to Fort Yukon man

[Clarence] Alexander served as Fort Yukon Chief for a dozen years, but the award is specific to his work related to the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council which he co-founded in 1997, and his efforts leading to the closure of open-burning dumps and the removal or recycling of millions of pounds of waste...

Also, also: Here be giant veggies:

A giant kohlrabi, a giant rutabaga, and a giant turnip, grown by Tim Meyers of Meyers Farm, in Bethel. I cannot imagine growing anything in Bethel. To be fair, I've never been there, but out on the coast there, the weather is crazy harsh. Ayy! Major props to Mr. Meyers, who won an award at the 5th Annual Alaska Marketplace Competition, which is a competition sponsored by the Alaska Federation of Natives to provide seed money to and encourage growth of small businesses throughout rural Alaska.

Last Quarter

2011-10-20T10:23:00.001-08:00

Shocking the local boy

2011-10-19T13:44:00.005-08:00

So last night the boy was showing me some Inupiaq leg strengthening exercise. "Can you do this? It's pretty hard."

I told him, Yes, I absolutely could do that. I could also do it while making circles with my hips.

"Wha?"

As it turns out, a background in Tahitian dancing is not that common around these parts.

Yes, actually, I can make a circle with my hips. I can also make figure eights with my hips, in two different planes. I can also write my name with my hips, and make six circles within a circle, with my hips. I can make circles with my hips while standing, kneeling, and squatting, while walking backwards and forwards, and balance a book on my head while doing all of these things.

Then I proceeded to waste half of my morning looking up beautiful music and dancing. Here are some you might be able to enjoy. I'm not sure how it would sound to you if you didn't grow up with it. The vids are kind of pointless (they are mostly for the audio content), so I'll only give links.

Love this song. Was taught a dance to it by a beautiful and sensual dancer from the Cook Islands, named Poko. I wonder what she is doing nowadays.

Also love this song. Still sing it sometimes when berry picking solo, to make anti-bear noises.

A song about being "a child of the sun". I think I am going to name my cabin Fare o Te Matana--house of the sun--as a call to the sky.

Here is an edgier one, with a modern techno edge. Electronic music is big in the South Pacific. Unexpected, huh?

Finally, here is some fantastic dancing:

This is labelled Rapa Nui, but I think it's from the Cook Islands:

Yeah, I can do that, but I'm not that good. :)

Regular silicon2tanana reportage will resume tomorrow. :)

Pie! Pie! Pi!

2011-10-18T10:37:00.004-08:00

Granny Smith apples finally went on sale, so yay! Pie for me!

Yay!

2011-10-17T10:22:00.009-08:00

Snnnnnoooowww!

Just this past weekend was the first the girls and I were able to walk almost the entire trail system, since it's pretty well frozen. There had hardly been snow yet then, though.

Friday evening:

Here is the trail behind our house, that leads to the public trail system:

My second summer at this cabin, I improved the trail by removing all of the tree stumps and low overhanging branches that had been driving me nuts the prior winter. It's much better now!

Even the worst spots are frozen solid now:

Saturday we took another long walk. It occurred to me that I had never even been on some of these trails when it wasn't snowy.

The above photo was taken in the same location as these.

Any icy spot that had been broken and needed to freeze again:

This tree is a landmark at the intersection of two trails:

The aspen forest still looks like fall:

Some of the trails are spongy peat. Who knew?

The flooded section of Rosie Creek, upstream from a beaver dam. Linden was of the opinion that it was passable. Autumn and I disagreed and turned around.

Yikes! Please don't go away, snow!

Aaaaaand, last night I had another jiao-zhe party:

Alaskan Winter beers are back, y'all!

Thank you

2011-10-15T10:02:00.004-08:00

Today I haven't anything topical to report, so I'd just like to use today's allotment of your attention to thank you for your support and kind comments on my post discussing how I moved on after leaving an abusive spouse. I have not had to delete any comments, and I only received one indication via email that I had made anyone uncomfortable, but even this discomfort was tempered with a general message of encouragement.

The main question I got from this emailer was, why would you choose to reveal so much about your personal life?

My immediate internal reaction was, had I not been revealing a great deal about my personal life already? I've explicitly mentioned a breakup, hinted at a new relationship, speculated on the afterlife of my pet rabbit, and shown you my underwear. Twice.

I am *very* touched that I have attracted a handful of loyal readers whom I do not know in the meat world, and, moreover, that most of you/them are women. Clearly you aren't stalkers with a sexual interest; you just think I'm cool and interesting. That being the case, I thought it would be encouraging to show that cool, interesting people who have kickass lives also have shit happen to them. The thing is, being cool and interesting and kickass is precisely what helps people to recover from said shit.

One of my favorite writers, Heather Lende, wrote a light, touching, and unabashedly sentimental memoir about recovering from literally being run over by a truck. In it, she describes how the doctors were amazed at how well she healed and regained almost full mobility, despite the much more likely outcome of death or permanent paralysis. The doctors attributed her astonishing recovery to her having been in excellent overall health before the accident. Her healing is also aided by her increasing activity level as soon as it is safe to do so, and eventually returning to running, hiking, biking, and hunting.

So, too, do we strengthen ourselves against and recover from emotional blows by maintaining an active life that engages us with the full breadth of the world. Maybe my way doesn't work for everyone, but I find that I don't need to soothe all of my pains away and for all of my scars to heal. Trees deal with their scars just fine, by growing a protective layer over them and then effectively shrugging and moving on, continuing to grow as strong, healthy trees. I find that I do best after a crisis if I accept some pain and just get up and get on with life, and let time do the rest.

Finally, I must say that while it was good to get that post down and those thoughts off my chest, it didn't feel so personal to me. Maybe because the years have, indeed, soothed over the wounds, and I wouldn't even have thought of it at all if it hadn't been for my approaching birthday and my annual exercise. Of my recent posts, I sincerely think I've bared the most of my soul in this one. I share what I consider to be an unusually intimate bond with my dogs, and it felt a little... private, I guess, to show the one of me spooning Autumn. But no-one seemed to notice (or comment on) that peek at vulnerability.

I've been blogging now for four years, and although I am still rarely short of material, the going theme of, "I'm a California girl adjusting to Alaska and learning all of these cool new things!" doesn't work any more as I've become integrated into the Alaskan life and no longer have an eye for what is and isn't novelty. So the focus of this blog may well drift a bit, and I thank you all for staying with it.

I already live a life surrounded by unearned blessings, and this blog has definitely added to it.

First snow that stuck!

2011-10-14T11:02:00.004-08:00

A few flakes sprinkled down yesterday afternoon, but I knew better than to get excited, knowing that it was unlikely to stick. However, when I got home, my yard looked like this:

Cool, eh?

So last night I went through the gamut of Winter Things:
* Put on my winter tires.
* Got the extension cord and ran it under the cabin so I can start plugging in my car when necessary.
* Switched to the heavier running pants that are also looser and fit two additional pairs of pants underneath.
* Dug out eleventy more pairs of wool socks.
* Lifted the water line off the floor and set it on the kitchen counter so it won't freeze.
* Waxed my skis. :)
* Put out my isothermal snow collection device.

Yay!

In other reportage, yesterday at lunch, I was a little taken aback to realize that my waiting tupperware was full of... stir-fried bear:

Now, why would I eat bear for dinner without batting an eye, and be taken aback by eating bear at work? Could it be a cabin vs. modern office thing? Anyway, I got over it in maybe two seconds. That bear had been eating from a blueberry patch for weeks. It was good!

Black bear hairs look like... something you really prefer not to have in your food, so if you didn't know better, you'd be forgiven for being alarmed and for perhaps questioning the sanitation and clothing (or lack thereof) preferences of the chef.

Sunset nowadays is a little before 7, so at 7, the sky looks like this:

Aaaand... that's all I got, for today. :)

Pluses and Minuses of Living in Fairbanks

2011-10-13T08:35:00.001-08:00

Per reader request. What's most different about Fairbanks as opposed to the San Francisco Bay Area is due to two distinct factors--the climate, and the small-town atmosphere. A third factor does not apply to all of Fairbanks, but to the living situation and the lifestyle that I have chosen, and that is the rural cabin life. So I'll address them separately.

Climate:

Pluses:

* long, snowy winters

* lots of skiing

* warm, dry summers

* aurora viewing

* very little wind

* generally clear, beautiful skies with visually stunning atmospheric effects

Minuses:

* It is frequently butt-ass cold.

* long winter nights

* high cost of heating

* more time/money in car maintenance, switching tires back and forth, et cet.

* mosquitoes (is that a weather? I think it's a weather since they are all over the place, like air)

Small-town atmosphere:

Pluses:

* If your car ever breaks down or you ever need help, most strangers offer to help.

* If you need anything at all, you can find out by asking around.

* Men are both more chivalrous but also less chauvinistic toward women. Men do not hoot at me on the street, I've only been hit on in very respectful ways, and no-one bats an eye when I tell them I am a mechanical engineer. Seriously, I have gotten more "really... you are an engineer?"-type comments in the Silicon Valley than I have here, even among crusty old-time sourdoughs. Paradoxically, men are very willing to help women with "manly" chores. I wouldn't have to split wood or haul water or shovel my driveway if I didn't want to. My neighbors have all offered to lend me hydraulic wood splitters, shovel my driveway for me, etc, etc. I do these things anyway because I want to know that I can take care of myself, but I totally don't have to.

Minuses:

* No big city amenities. No ethnic restaurants (except for, surprisingly, really excellent Thai food on a par with San Francisco's). No world-class symphony, opera, theatre, etc. Although we have our local versions of all of these things.

Both plus and minus, and deserves its own category because it's pretty remarkable:

* Everyone knows everyone. It means you have an additional layer of safety, but it also means everyone is all up in everyone else's business. Fairbanks is unusually gossipy for a community of its size. At a population of about 100000 for the borough, it's not that small of a town, but the old-fashioned social network is unusually strong. You know the premise that everyone on earth is within six degrees of freedom from one another? Well, everyone in the Interior of Alaska is within two, and everyone in the state is within three. I have to say, on the whole I feel more appreciative of this than annoyed with it.

Even funnier is that most people have just one winter coat that they wear for five months, and everyone associates you with your coat and can recognize you from a distance. "I saw you skiing southward on the Tanana the other day when I was driving by! Did you have a good ski? Be careful of the thin spot under that one cliff." Awesome.

Rural Life:

Pluses:

* Long, awesome hiking, backpacking, skiing, and trail running opportunities, and they are free, easily accessible, and require not more than an hour's planning. In California, you need a permit to camp overnight most places, and the numbers are generally limited and you need to book it at least several months in advance.

* Dogs are allowed almost everywhere, and while there is theoretically a statewide leash law, most folks don't mind well-behaved dogs running free. Mine run free. And I run free with them. We run like the wind, and it's awesome.

Minuses:

* No shower. I seriously couldn't care less if I never had a toilet for the rest of my life. But I really miss having a shower at home. But this is not even general to rural Alaskan life, as most of my neighbors have septic tanks and thus showers. I just don't have one myself.

* Being at the mercy of nature's elements. A friend of mine from California had planned to visit me last summer, and we were going to make a road trip up the Taylor Highway to Eagle, and then East into Dawson. I told him that the Taylor Highway was unreliable, and that we'd better have a backup plan in case we were foiled by weather. He gave me a virtual (via email) blank look. When, in California, is your road trip ever derailed by weather? Almost never, right? Put on your rain slicker, put on your snow chains, you're good. Here, the dirt highways can plumb wash out, and they often do, especially on the Taylor. Indeed, that trip became unfeasible. But the point is, there are things that you do. Not. Do. Going in spite of the weather, road conditions, etc, absolutely do not make you a Tough Alaskan and gain you respect. They make you an idiot and gain you mockery. People who do these things die, and other locals sneer at them. Folks in this small town are happy to host a spaghetti feed or a benefit auction to help the family of the kid with cancer, or the family whose house burned down. But the idiot who died due to his own idiocy gets no sympathy.

If you've planned a ski trip and the temperature plummets, you must swallow your disappointment and not go. If you've planned a canoe trip and the river overflows its banks, you don't get to go. End of story. Nature bats last, is not your Mother, and does not love you.

Okay; those are my lists. :) See, I rant because I love!

My Playground is Open!

2011-10-12T10:27:00.002-08:00

12F/-11C at the cabin this morning. 1F/-17C at the bottom of the hill.Rosie Creek is frozen and passable, and the girls and I had an awesome, leash-free trail run.Yay! My playground is open!

Patches of light

2011-10-11T13:57:00.001-08:00

Tolovana Hot Springs Report

2011-10-10T09:57:00.012-08:00

Over the weekend, a group of friends, dogs, and I hiked out to Tolovana Hot Springs. We had a wonderful time, with temperatures just cold enough to freeze the otherwise-muddy spots of the trail to make them passable, and also to make soaking in the hot springs very appealing! The cabin was very nice and comfortable, and since we all live in dry cabins at home, camping cabins are literally just like home, only with our best friends as roommates! :)

The hike is kind of a haul. From the trail head, you drop immediately into a valley, then climb a dome, then drop down the other side. On the bottom of the far side of the dome are the hot springs, cabins, and a natural cold spring for fresh drinking water. Even though it was over 10 miles each way, we packed heavy, wanting luxurious food for our stay. I was very proud of myself for lugging two cans of beans, and homemade salsa, but then arrived to discover that I was WAY outdone by C, who had lugged about 10 pounds of root vegetables and a full box of wine! P had brought two glass bottles of wine as well!

And... we're off!

The low spots were where it was muddy.

It was already mostly frozen, and I could see how earlier in summer, conditions could have been much worse!

We could see Minto Flats as we climbed higher:

That was some incredibly open country, and we could see miles in every direction:

There had evidently been several recent burns:

Arrival at the cabin:

This cabin was *very* easy to heat and maintain its temperature with its potbelly wood stove. As I've mentioned in the past, I sleep warm and overheat easily, and the first night, I woke up miserable. When I stepped outside to pee, the cold air was refreshing (it was about mid 20s F). I thought, huh. My bag is rated to 20F. Huh. So I went back inside, hauled my bag and sleeping pad out, and spent the remainder of the night on the porch. Much better! The girls cuddled with me on either side and were happier, too!

However, the second night, a strong wind came through the valley and whipped turbulent, cold air about all night, so sleeping on the porch (with no tent) was out of the question. I wheedled my friends into letting the fire go out early so Autumn and Linden and I wouldn't die of heat stroke. As it turns out, toward morning, it did get a little chilly, and I ended up relighting the fire myself! None of them complained of cold, so at least no guilt there!

Whew! Were we pooped!

The next morning after breakfast, I headed out with C and P to see if we could find some grouse for supper:

We had no luck, but a beautiful walk.

While we waited futilely for grouse, we cuddled:

Luke and me:

Luke is quite cuddly, although I prefer fuzzy dogs!

There were so many beautiful, huge, ripe cranberries, and they are indeed sweeter after the first frost, as it is said:

J, who is a compulsive berry picker, picked more than enough for cranberry sauce with our pancakes and oatmeal both mornings for breakfast!

The many overripe berries stained all of the dogs' paws, and made them look like they had walked through a slaughter site:

A series of recent burns made for some weird-looking country:

When we got back from our failed hunt, I made a water run. The spring setup was very rustic. It consisted of a bucket with a hole in the bottom, set below the water line. So you carry your water jug there, scoop water from the bucket using a little tin nailed to a stick, and pour it through a funnel into your jug.

How very Alaskan!

During our search for grouse, this sign had intrigued me, so I went back after lunch with just my girlie dogs to check it out:

From the creek, it's 3 miles back to the hot spring and cabins!

The creek itself was disappointingly not-pretty. It was stagnant and growing algae on top:

The boy dowgs watch S. make a water run:

Symmetric cuddling!

My friend P's dogs are the ugliest I've ever seen! And they drool!

But they are sweet, laser eye notwithstanding.

All five dowgs begging!

Begging from the vegetarian, at that! Geeze!

At some point since our hike in, the pass had grown frost!

Yikes! It was chilly!

The frost looked like artificial Christmas tree flocking:

Finally back! The valley floor had been warm, and we were all sweating when we arrived back at the cars.

No trip up the Elliott Highway is complete without a stop at the Hilltop Truck Stop for pie:

I had lemon cream. Mmmmm!

I brake for pie!

As usual, I was clumsy and paid for my weekend of fun with a pound of flesh:

Slipped on a frozen puddle. Hooked my foot under a root and went flying across the trail. Fell over a tree stump. Et cetera.

Oh well. Bumps are bruises are a small price to pay for a joyful life!

Oh, sorry I didn't take any photos at the hot springs themselves! I had to be circumspect, because we were nekkid.

Annual Stock-Taking; Warning: Sensitive Content

2011-10-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, every year around my birthday, I do a life-trajectory check by thinking of two Arvays--the one of eight years prior, and the one of eight years into the future. Am I doing right by them? Would they be pleased with what I am doing with myself?

This year, I feel quite confident that Future Arvay is pleased with me. Whatever the outcome of my current activities, they say that happiness is priceless, and I am having a damned fine time of things. Future Arvay will have many wonderful memories of my current life.

This year, Past Arvay pulls more at my heartstrings. She's having the most difficult year of her life, as she extricates herself from an abusive marriage. I have several things to say to her. Yes, I have several things to say to you, little 26-year-old Arvay, so listen up! Do you hear me? I see you curled up crying under the bathroom sink. Get up. Pick up your head, straighten your shoulders, quit feeling sorry for yourself, and hear what your future self has to say!

1) This, too, shall pass. I know, I know! Everyone says that so much that it sounds like a cliche. But it is a true one, so say it again and again until it doesn't ring hollow. This, too, shall pass, and you will come out of it with your head high.

2) That piece of trash is not worth any of your thoughts at all. Life, the Universe, and their mysterious ways, will take care of him. That is not your job. Move along, move along, nothing to see there. Nothing to waste your time or thoughts on.

3) Your nightmares. They will end. You will triumph in them, too. You will really kick ass. And this will be a reflection of the goings-on in your real, conscious life. Seemingly miraculously, a day will also come when you are no longer afraid of the dark. The day will come when the only fears you have are purely rational. Speaking of which...

4) You wouldn't believe all that you have coming up! For starters, you will finish your Master's Degree. So keep setting that alarm clock for 6 a.m. to make those crack-of-dawn classes! Don't let that piece of trash defer you from your path.

5) You are much stronger than you realize. Hello, you've just run three marathons! Guess what else you can do! You can split enough wood to last a Fairbanks winter, in a week! ('Fairbanks winter', you ask? We'll talk about that later...) You can also do anything you set your mind to, within reason. That's part of the beauty of having trained as a mechanical engineer. We are told that anything you can conceive of, you can build. So... did the garbage disposal break, and you have no idea how to replace it? Is the car making some scary noise, and you have no idea what it is? Would you like to get your PhD someday, but the individual steps are too overwhelming? Guess what? It can be done! It can all be done! Look up directions, read the manual, read the University web site, make yourself a to-do list, check them off one by one, and know that it can be done. Other people do it; why can't you?

Here's the thing, child: You aren't going to let your confidence and inner strength and thus your entire fate be shaken by a worthless sack of crap who's never mentally grown past childhood. You are so far above him, that he's just a speck, waaaaay down below, as you glance down from the mountain you are climbing. He's down there as you accidentally loosen rocks that tumble down on him. Whoops. Did you do that? Psh. Oh darn. You can do whatever you need to survive and thrive. And you will.

6) Let's talk love. Love will come and love will go. Love is always good, so don't be afraid. You will come to realize the truth of another cliche--it's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. So love freely, but--and this is also important--walk away when it's over. Only some love lasts forever. Have I found "that special someone" yet for you, child? That I cannot say. But you already have lasting love from corners that won't surprise you--your mother, your sister, BT, The Enforcer, KH, MP, RT, just to name a few... I'm not gonna lie--you have other tough times ahead. But you will get by with their help.

7) There are several wonders in store for you. Most mysterious and surprising will be... that you are an aunt! Now, just to keep you up off that bathroom floor and looking ahead instead of at your feet, I will reserve the gender, date, and name as surprises. But you'll be meeting a very interesting little person some day!

8) Finally, dear child, there is one thing I must fault you for. I have one regret that I will likely think about for the rest of our lives. You really should call the police or the women's shelter to put a record on that sack of crap. Although what he did would be really difficult to prosecute, at least a complaint would be on his record, and you might help protect someone else. If you try to do anything about it years into the future, your credibility will be called into question, as between a husband a wife, any report becomes a he-said-she-said situation. But at your present time, you really should do something about this. Knowing that he might do the same thing to someone else, possibly someone more vulnerable than you, when you might have given a warning, is something you'll have to live with forever.

9) I see you are standing up now. Wash your face, dry your tears, buck up, and move on! The best is yet to come!

Note to my blog readers: That chapter in my life is closed. The door is shut, 2x4s are nailed over it. If you have any ideas about what I should have done differently in the past, and want to tell me about it today, your comment will be deleted without consideration.

Clam or Cod?

2011-10-06T10:41:00.004-08:00

In the Alaskan Interior, the appropriate answer is cod. I don't do chowdah, though. This is my cod soup:

It's got all-Alaska-grown onions, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and celery. Those are my own potatoes! The base is PBR. I'm telling you, using beer as a soup base means you absolutely cannot go wrong!

The solo meal

2011-10-05T12:05:00.006-08:00

It upsets me when people say they can't or won't cook for themselves, so when their significant other is traveling, or when they don't have a significant other, they eat either takeout or lousy sandwiches, or, even sadder, nothing.

This is my default single girl meal:

1) Boil vermicelli. While it is cooking:
2) Dice some green onions and/or cilantro. Put them in a large bowl with a dash each of sesame oil, white pepper, and rooster sauce.
3) When noodles are done, add them to the bowl. Then use the same pot to heat some bouillon. Add any veggie(s) you like to the boiled bouillon.
4) Fry two eggs while the above is occurring.
5) Assemble.

God is in the details. I also have:
1) Good reading.
2) A glass of wine.

'Tis the Feast Day of St. Francis

2011-10-04T09:42:00.002-08:00

Hug your pets!

Minor News headlines

2011-10-03T10:12:00.006-08:00

Top o' the news this mornin':

The blessing of the pets took place last weekend, and I plumb forgot that it took place the weekend before St. Francis' Feast Day, and not on the day itself. :( Cute article, though, what?

Apparently, I was not alone in my power outage this morning. Far from it. "The problem affected virtually the entire GVEA coverage area from Delta to Cantwell. Only a small core area in downtown Fairbanks maintained power during the outage." I've always taken pride in knowing I'd be just fine in a power outage. I can cook proper meals on the wood stove, and I have plenty of battery-powered light sources. But it's still quite annoying, and it takes a longer time to boil a tea kettle of water on the wood stove than on the cook stove.

The White Mountains Today

2011-10-01T16:37:00.006-08:00

The White Mountains were just bee-yoo-ti-ful today... There was just the barest dusting on the ground, the slop and the creek were freezing up nicely, and there was frost growing on the low ground cover. It wasn't even windy on top of the dome. It was just so perfect.

Our first glimpse of Wickershame Dome:

The slop is freezing!

Although the creek isn't quite passable yet:

Linden and me goofing off:

I really cannot recall a more beautiful day, even with my recent backpacking trips down South, where the majority of tourists go. They just don't know what they are missing. Ssshhhh! Don't tell. :)

Snow is coming down!

2011-09-30T11:50:00.001-08:00

It probably won't stick, but yay!

Whatever's-Wilting-in-my-Fridge Stir Fry

2011-09-30T08:58:00.001-08:00

With chopped fried eggs for protein, all fried in bear fat for added flavor, served over brown rice. And I am finally done tackling my last cabbage!

And here are the dowgs chillin' in the yard:

Red Skwerl

2011-09-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

Skwerls do not hibernate so, just like their cartoon reputation, they must gather and store food all summer to last them through winter.

Mississippi Revisited

2011-09-28T09:56:00.001-08:00

A weird thing happened to my camera when we were in Mississippi... the data card wasn't fully inserted, and the photos wrote directly to the camera somehow. Anyway, I only just the other night found the data cable to pull them off, so here are a few shots I'd like to share.

Photos from the cypress swamp:

A photo from the wildlife conservation center:

A crappie! LOL! Yup. Toilet humor. That's why you love me. :)

And, of course, I have more gluttony photos:

Mmmmmm brisket and greens.... and bacon.... mmmmmm... :P

This cafe was awesome!

Western Virginia beats Starkville, Mississippi for both climate and natural beauty, but Mississippi wins the prizes for food, hospitality, and the overall warmth of its people. I might just have to vacation there after I no longer travel there for work.

Puddn'! I swear! If I didn't already have two home states to juggle, I might just have to claim Mississippi!

Jiao-zhe party!

2011-09-27T10:01:00.003-08:00

The great thing about jiao-zhe parties is that you can put your guests to work!

Hmmm... okay, wait, are they the guests, or am I the guest, if I do the prep work and the teaching but it takes place in their home?

Yay!

Of course, I had to photograph the dowgs:

This is Charcoal, their house dog:

He's a big, huge, 110-pound galoot who sits in his mama's lap until she can't feel her legs. They have a working team of huskies in the yard, and poor Charcoal gets made fun of for being so big and goofy and awkward in comparison. But he is certainly loved. :)

Charcoal's paws are almost the size of Linden's head. Even though my girls are retired, they are still considered "real dogs" and occupy a higher social rung than poor Charcoal.

Photographs of black animals crack me up:

Do you remember this one I had taken of my friend Carl's cat, Dog?

It reminds me of this other one I took of a backlit owl:

The resemblance is uncanny, is it not?

OOoooOOOOoooOOOoo

2011-09-26T09:20:00.001-08:00

Ah boogah boogah! Ol' Man Winter is coming! We had a hard frost last night, and the Minor News aftercast reported on Sunday's first frost.

First Frost!

2011-09-25T12:16:00.004-08:00

Last night, the clouds cleared the way for night to draw the heat from the earth, and this morning, we had our first frost:

I went to walk the same route as yesterday, and found the puddles covered with panes of ice.

Flowers sent back from Lake Minchumina, the hometown of my sweetie, where he is currently cleaning and fixing up the family property and, oh yeah, getting more moose and fish!

Fall is still falling

2011-09-24T14:50:00.005-08:00

When I looked out the plane window as we landed yesterday evening, I was delighted to find that I had not missed all of Fall! However, the evening was nippy, and you can definitely tell that colder weather is coming. Here are photos from a longish walk this morning. We haven't dropped below freezing yet, but a lot of the mud has disappeared, because at the end of summer, the thaw layer has penetrated deeply enough to allow the ground to absorb liquid water. I walked maybe 6 miles of trail and only stopped to wring out my socks twice. Anyway, wool socks are still warm when squishy.

This is what my yard looked like this morning:

Walkin' down the street:

This is the same view as in here, only that photo was taken two weeks earlier, last year.

I guess if you're the lone birch in a spruce forest, you go nekkid quickly:

The power line trail, with the aspens in the distance hanging on to their leaves:

Crunch!

The girls still find things to munch on, even as the weeds go into dormancy:

The road home:

The willows give more color than the aspens and birch do nowadays.

When I got home last night, a neighbor had just gotten back from his hunting trip, and the family was feasting on the best parts of the moose--the backstrap and the tongue--and invited me over as they knew I had just gotten back and my fridge was empty. So the girls and I headed over and stuffed ourselves silly. My neighbors are the best!

Happy Equinox!

2011-09-23T09:45:00.005-08:00

From tomorrow onward, you Lower 48ers will beat us for daylight hours. :)

I am finally on my way home from a long, full week at the 50th Anniversary ISTVS Conference. I must say, I had an absolute blast. It's so great to hang out and talk with other people who are in the exact same research field, and be able to jump into any conversation and join without having to describe all of the background of what you are talking about first.

Another super cool observation I made was that, of about 140 or so attendees, there was a goodly number of women (about 15-20, which is an impressive ratio for engineering), the conference head was a woman, and the incoming President of the ISTVS is a woman! The other women in my age group (grad students, post docs, and recent graduates) were all similar to me, not just professionally, but in the way we viewed our roles in society. Woman engineers of my generation are the beneficiaries of the generation before us, who had to fight very hard for equal rights in the workforce. While my sisters and I would never accept any discrimination either, we have the privilege to take for granted the easier trail our forebears have blazed.

One minor, but delightful consequence is that we don't have to overcompensate to hide any sign of femininity, and we can have long hair and wear dresses and look feminine. Gone are the days when equal treatment with men meant dressing like a man, thank goodness! Moreover, as I've posted before, while we are all feminists in the truest sense, none of us fit the stereotype of man-hating feminists. We are mostly married or otherwise in stable relationships, and will have or not have children as we like, not due to Societal Pressures.

Aaaaanyway, since this was a 50th anniversary conference, it turned into a big shindig with local tours, wine tasting, etc, and I had a ton of fun. I got on really well with the other participants. But all that being said, that way of life is Not Quite My Thing, and I am anxious to get home to my cabin and take long walks in the woods and sit on my porch and sleep in my minimally cushioned mattress with Autumn and Linden on either side of me and know I can call on my neighbors in a pinch. While it's nice to know that wherever I go, people seem to like me, the society of recent acquaintances is never as satisfying and nurturing as the society of longer-term friends and family!

Oh also I need to include in my Virginia Report: Western Virginia is very beautiful, I mean, really stunning, with densely wooded green mountains with trees of every sort. I was sorry to find that I was a bit early for fall and I didn't get to enjoy two falls, as I had hoped, but it was still gorgeous.

Conference photos

2011-09-22T06:06:00.001-08:00

I totally just won an award at an awards banquet for being the only conference attendee to do my research via dog team! Here are a few photos.

Here I am with my adviser:

Here I am with the PR lady who'd been snapping with her camera almost non-stop. I finally got her to get to the other side of a camera!

Here my adviser and I are goofing off with another conference technical committee member. I won't name names since we are being so silly and I'm not sure if they want to be publicly searchable via these photos:

A Very Large Game of Chess

2011-09-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

The PFD Amount has been announced...

2011-09-20T18:16:00.002-08:00

The PFD amount has been announced at to be $1174. Better than a kick in the pants, I say.

Waiting impatiently...

2011-09-19T13:05:00.003-08:00

Now that the cusp of fall's beauty has passed, I am anxious to be into cooler weather and drop below freezing. Why? Because the trails will freeze and become accessible again! Once snow comes, it'll be even better, so I can ski, but for now, I'd be happy just to be able to take long walks in the woods again.

The brief time of year when the ground has frozen, but snow hasn't yet come in large quantities, is a fleeting time window during which some trails are at their best. The summer is just plain awful, if not completely impassible, due to mud, and later into winter, they are steep enough to intimidate all but the strongest skiers. Overnight trips to certain places become out of the question, as I am not a good enough skier to trust myself with a full overnight pack. I will only ski with a full overnight pack on pretty flat terrain.

I already overnight trips planned to two different hot springs with two different groups of friends! Yay! C'mon, ground! Freeze up for me!

On Ol' Murph

2011-09-17T19:01:00.001-08:00

In which I have my arse handed to me in a steamed bun eating contest

2011-09-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

Let the lady protest first: This thing was for speed, not quantity. Otherwise, I would have kicked all of those haole butts. As it is, I didn't even make the top three... Nevertheless, thank you Sipping Streams for an excellent meal!

I'm ready!

M came with me. M and I could out-eat all of those people for quantity, but neither of us eats quickly. What's the pride in that? Harumph!

And here I go...

Yay!

And that's the best I could do, in ten minutes!

The chameleon I've become

2011-09-16T09:58:00.004-08:00

I've spent some time gathering together professional-looking clothes for an upcoming conference. I tried on some dresses and suits and checked out my appearance in the corner windows, which become mirrors against the dark night outside. This conference is quite hoity-toity and includes a formal banquet, so I also got to business with makeup and examined myself in the mirror.

I was pleased with the results, but I must say, this exercise always surprises me. Apparently, I can transform into a different person with a change of clothes and a ten-minute makeup job, and not merely appear to fill a role but actually to become that person. As I approach 34, I am still youthful, but I'm no longer the mere girl I once was, and I fill out both clothes and personalities much better than I ever did before. I attend fancy shindigs in the Lower 48 with no-one suspecting I live in a 16x20 foot dry cabin heated with wood. I attend my neighborhood association meetings here in Ester and no-one suspects that I am still included on many lists of Silicon Valley movers and shakers. I feel blessed that I can do this, but it's also a bit unsettling as I realize how easy it is to change to fit a mold of others' expectations. And I wonder, if I can and do change so easily, then who am I?

The best answer I have come up with is, I am all of these things. I am each of them at different times, and to be one is not to deny the others. To take away any part of this is to take away part of who I am. So yes, I am a *very* happy log cabin dweller with a weakness for fancy parties. I wear pearls and Carhartts (though not at the same time, usually!). I split wood, I haul water, I garden, and I can walk just fine in four-inch stiletto heels (though not on my own dirt road!).

Oh, here is my latest photo dump...

I pulled up my potatoes last night. Lovely, aren't they? I had forgotten what kinds of potatoes I had planted. The upside of having a bad short-term memory is that life is full of little surprises, such as beautiful jewel-toned potatoes!

Slept in a bit this morning as I waited for the rain to subside, which is usually does in the early mornings. Still had a drizzly run, but the sky cleared up as I got home. I snapped this in the front yard, looking up at a birch sapling:

Scenes from the Hood

2011-09-14T09:56:00.007-08:00

I snapped these on my way to the farm for my last pickup of the season:

And here is said pickup:

Here is a flower from my neighbor's garden:

I had been curious about the fate of that poor, sun-starved corn, so she saved me one, informing me to just cook and eat the whole thing:

I was well into my teens before I learned that baby corn was actually, you know, baby corn. For some reason, I had thought it was an entirely different creature, perhaps the stamen of Cala lily or something. Like you know how baby carrots are actually ground down bits of adult carrots? Something like that. It turns out that baby corn is actually baby corn. So there you have it. Call me edjumucated.

I left with gifts:

That is pickled zucchini, kippered salmon in olive oil, and nasturtium jelly. The nasturtium jelly is very beautiful, no? It reminds me of a sunset.

My neighbor is very proud of her nasturtiums, of which she harvested all of the last yesterday evening:

When I got home, I made my own jam, using a quart of blueberries and my wee, tiny harvest of aqpiks:

And here are some snapshots of our Fall mornings, with the waning gibbous moon setting as the sun rises and the fog burns off:

Beautiful, no?

Snapshots from my commute

2011-09-13T10:46:00.002-08:00

Yup, yup, yup. Fall has arrived.

A sigh of acquiescence

2011-09-12T10:10:00.006-08:00

I harvested my never-to-ripen green tomatoes yesterday and made chow-chow:

I deliberately undercooked it because I like it with more texture. Yay for crunchy bits. :)

Happy Moon Day, everyone!

Mucky days

2011-09-11T16:32:00.003-08:00

There's been so much rain that even the beauty of fall has been slightly diminished.

Oh well. Here's to the ground freezing soon! Then the girls and I will be able to take long walks on the trails! Then snow will come, and we'll be able to ski! And if I forget to drop off my trash at the transfer site, my car won't smell! And I'll be able to buy all the ice cream I want and take my time getting home! And I'll be able to make giant pots of stew on the wood stove! And the girls will get fuzzy and cuddly and their fur will stay on them and I can stop vacuuming all the time! Yay!

Kesugi Ridge Report, Part III

2011-09-09T09:41:00.004-08:00

Parts I and II here and here, respectively.

A little Charlie Brown tree where we camped the second night:

It was the only tree on this bare ridge, poor sad thing. All it needed was a little love!

Arctic ponds:

Formed only from snow and rain, with no inflows nor outflows, they have concentrated salts and are not healthy to drink!

Snow had dusted the peaks in the night;

And that is what they mean by termination dust! Summer has terminated!

Very creative cairn, likely placed by a rock climber!

The end of the ridge hike, before our descent:

Down there is Byers Lake.

The group contemplates:

The descent is through greener country:

We slipped and slid and inched our way down the steep, muddy trail, along which I took exactly one photo:

which I liked because only the willow gave any sense of scale. It could almost have been a photo of a towering waterfall in a tropical region.

No other photos as I could barely take a break from my fight against gravity. When we finally reached the bottom, my shoulders were aching and my quads were trembling. The dogs were still bouncing around just fine.

A fellow hiker had lots of extra food in her car. Yay food!

Finis! We collapse in the parking lot at the Byers Lake Campground and eat 1000 calories a piece in the span of 20 minutes.

After sitting there for five minutes, the dogs got back up and bounced around playing some more. :)

Poor Kant!

Kant got lugged the whole 28 miles, and got soaked as my pack cover wasn't put on well, and I didn't even read him! That was a brand-new book when we left!

After three days of hiking in rain, wind, and mud, with the former two lashing and buffeting our tents both nights, we returned home and found that Fairbanks had had a gorgeous, sunny, warm weekend, which we had missed. Oh well. I had fun!

Kesugi Ridge Report, part II

2011-09-08T09:26:00.001-08:00

Part I here.

At one trail intersection, there was a map. Check it out:

Bitch Creek! HAHAHAHAHAHAA!!

Another creek crossing:

We bumped into another group of through hikers who had a silly lab who played in all of the creeks, standing in the current and snapping at it like a bear catching salmon:

The trail was exceedingly well marked; not only was the trail obviously worn, but cairns were obvious and frequent:

The girls were very happy:

Some of the cairns were a little unconventional. :)

There was not a moment when views were not breathtaking:

We passed some wind-sculpted rocks:

And then a trail led down...:

... to a whole wall of them:

We took a break for lunch on the leeward side of that rock wall, and the girls cuddled:

Pond in the valley below:

The valley floor was damp and warm, like a temperate rain forest:

As we climbed the opposite side of the valley, the lunch spot receded into the distance:

Climb, climb, climb:

Finally, we reached the opposite ridge to the picturesque Skinny Lake:

Autumn blends in very beautifully among her namesake colors!

Skinny Lake on closer approach:

And here is a photo from my commute this morning. Fall is coming to da hood:

Veggies for the week

2011-09-07T10:08:00.002-08:00

Here is my stash for the week:

Ayyy! Another celery! More rutabaga!

Here is Miss Millie B. Doofus, Supreme Ruler of the People's Independent Republic of Bunnistan, in a new napping permutaion:

And the dawgs: