awwwww!

Today M2, one of my Anchorage-based coworkers whom I don't see very often, was in town and told me she had something for me. She led me out to her car and came up with this beautiful necklace. She said, "It just made me think of you, so I had to buy it! Then I had to give it to you! It reminded me of you... I'm not quite sure why... but like you, it has depth and dimension, and it's shiny and pretty!"



Awwwww... that's just about the nicest thing that's happened to me out of the blue in a long time. I have lots of nice things, but most of them I plan and bring to fruition myself. Not so with M2, whom I got to know while new to my job and traveling to Sitka with her. I was in a bad relationship at the time, and while I was glad to have an excuse to spend my upcoming birthday away from the dude in question, I was sad to be spending it "alone" with only a coworker I had just met. It would not be so with the warm and loving M2, who quickly became my friend and celebrated my birthday with me and our local host, eating grilled burgers while overlooking the lovely Sitka coast:


I am examining this necklace right now and see that both of the little silver geodesics are nearly true bucky-balls, with each vertex having four links to it, making it possible to be a covalently bonded carbon atom:


I am juuuuuuust enough of a stickler for detail that it would have driven me nuts had any of the vertices had only, say, three links to it! It's amazing that M2 saw this and thought of me! :)

We are expecting!

Behbehseagulls!


And behbehrobins!

Nous sommes des roses

"Vous êtes belles, mais vous êtes vides... On ne peut pas mourir pour vous."


Et les roses étaient gênées.

Palmer Shennanigans

On Monday, DL and I were invited to the UAF Matanuska Experiment Farm to look at a GEK gasifier unit that had been rescued from two years of disuse at Icy Straits Lumber, which never ended up using their exciting purchase. The GEK is an integrated unit that gasifies dry biomass products (e.g., wood chips, walnut shells) and immediately uses its own gasification products to create synchronous 3-phase power. Quite exciting! This unit is now going to live at the Farm to be used for research and education. Two of the designers came up from All Power Labs in Berkeley to restore the unit from its neglect and train us energy researchers how to use it.

DL and I decided, a day in Palmer? Let's make it a camping/hiking trip! The farm folks offered to let us camp on the farm, which had, among other amenities, showers and tame moose.

The drive south was beautiful. We could see Denali:


Our campsite wasn't bad either:


This life is not too rough:




The Chugach Mountains were beautiful with the full moon:


Here is the gasifier unit:


And a tame moose! There were three of them that let me rub their noses and ears.


They had eaten all of the willow from their enclosure, so I picked more for them, which they took as gently as a horse nuzzles an apple:


SCHNOOOOOZZZZZZ!!!


And I finally got to see the Wind for Schools turbine at Matanuska-Susitna College:

First White Mountains hike without snowshoes!

Last weekend, DL and I did a day hike in the White Mountains. The prior time we were there, we were wearing snowshoes!

Anemone narcissiflora:


Autumn just moseying along:


Teeny yellow cups catch the rain:




Cranberry flowers already blooming!

Blueberry flowers were also in abundance, but for some reason I can't photograph them clearly.

Clear view to Wickersham Dome:


The goobers:


My pretty girl:


The group sits together! I told DL to sneak over...


No group photo, but a cute photo of a Linden kissy!


'Twas muddy in low spots:


But very beautiful in the high spots:


Woolly Lousewort:


I looked that up. It's not a new name for Linden!

Autumn among the lupins:


Miss Goober looking all dignified-like:


Starbuckeroo as a WOLF!


These paws were made for walkin'!


For this weekend, I'd like to leave my fourteen loyal readers with a quote:

"The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way."

--Jean Webster

ALL THE CUTE FUZZIES

I insist that you look at the video here on this article discussing the spring goings-on at the Alaska Conservation Center. Behbeh moxen! Wobbly knobby-kneed behbeh moosage!

I read that article and of course, down the rabbit hole I went. Sarah Howard, the behbeh orphan caretaker at the wildlife rescue station, apparently has also escorted a wolverine named Kasper from New Jersey to Alaska. The very end of the article casually states, "He expects Kasper and the [already resident] female wolverine to mate. He said the wildlife center has hired a professional trainer to teach the offspring to do search and rescue for buried avalanche victims."

What the WHAT? Wolverine avalanche rescue is a thing? I think if I were buried in an avalanche and got dug out by a wolverine, my assumption would be that he had dug me out to eat me!

Turns out, this is a real thing:


Wolverine rescue! Whoda thunk?

Scenes from Chez Nous

Starbuck sez, "Dis my Greenie, and I eats it on my couch."


Last weekend, it was hot:


And the rhubarb appeared:


And Autumn dumped her under coat:


And lounged on the couch:


Sometimes there are no words:


Ssssiiiiigh. That faaaaaaaace:


And I made blueberry peach crumble:

(Me to DL: "I'm trying to encourage you to come berry picking with me." DL: "I already like berry picking with you!")