Lotsa new snow!

The archives of this blog indicate to me that a late-season, last-hurrah snow dump is not unusual for the first week of April. The only thing unusual about this one is the quantity!

Last night I shoveled my driveway again, taking a break about 3/4 of the way through to consume a giant mug of tea, a ham, cheese, and tomato sandwich, a spinach and cheese omelet, and most of a pint of ice cream. Shoveling is exhausting!

Also, here is food porn from dinner the previous night: stir-fried everyveggie and bison:




Yay for another week or two of skiing!

Teaching a class is very analogous to taking a class

1) You have to meet at a regular time and place each week.

2) You have to lug around a giant textbook and develop expertise with its content.

3) You stress out over homework problems. (Student: How do I do these? Professor: How do I choose only 10% of all of these problems and ensure that it prepares these students for engineering careers?)

4) You stress out over exams. (Student: I need to cram all this material in! Professor: How the heck do I come up with appropriate exam questions in an appropriate quantity?)

5) Student: Stay up late the night before the exam studying. Professor: Stay up late the night before the exam writing and double-checking the exam.

6) Student: How do I appropriately write a term paper? Professor: How do I appropriately grade a term paper?

7) Student: Yaaaay! Almost done with the course! Professor: Yaaaay! Almost done with the course!

In other news: hybrid polar/grizzly bears! I had heard of these guys before and wondered which was crossing the Brooks Range and gettin' some... Polar bears going south or grizzly bears going north? I decided it was the former, adapting behavior due to climate change. HOWEVER! In at least one case, it looks like I was wrong! The article describes a grizzly bear hunting seals from pack ice! Nature, she is amazing.

Wowee!

Snow is falling, and more is on the way!

And winter is being extended!

Happy Chinese Easter!

Yesterday was a hallowed tradition chez moi--Chinese Easter! I bought a half-price ham on Monday, after full-priced rest-of-the-world Easter, and yesterday, I put it in the oven, along with some potatoes with olive oil and onions, put out a plate of cheese and crackers, and invited guests to round out the meal with veggies and sides. For I think the first time in grad student party history, we had a lot of healthy and nutritious veggies, including a wilted kale and sweet potato salad, a crisp lettuce salad, roasted veggies, and a winter squash cobbler for dessert! Winter squash courtesy of the farmer who had grown it!

We also had... *drumroll, please*... Fifteen humans and three dogs in my wee tiny cabin!

I forgot to take photos, but here is what I had for breakfast this morning:


Mmmm roast veggies, squash cobbler, and cheese!

It's been cold lately, for April:


But I still felt like ski season was winding down, since snow hadn't fallen in a while and all that remained had compressed to slippery ice. However! This morning I woke up to fresh snow!


Yay! Probably another week of skiing now!

Bbbbb

Behbehreindeer!

!!

!!!!!



The UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences reports, "Student photographer JR Ancheta visited the farm today and got a great shot of our first calf of the season!"

Edited to add: And now the geese are back too!

Why I love my little neighborhood

Okay, first of all, you silly geese, yesterday was April Fool's Day, and I'm not becoming a foster nor adoptive parent. I'm going to take in foster kids who need a temporary home, and if any come that are particularly cute, I'll ask if I can keep it. might have clued you in. :)

Anyway!

I never tire of being charmed by my tiny neighborhood. The other night, the following occurred. A guy in his late 70s wandered off from his home. He apparently had dementia, and his family was worried about him. The Alaska State Troopers called everyone in the neighborhood to look out for him. He was found a few hours later, and the State Troopers called us all back to tell us not to worry any more, he was fine. The next day, this story ran in the Minor News: Man wanders off, is found safe. Oh, Minor News! My heart is almost swollen to burst!

That same night, I got a voice mail from a neighbor. "Nova [one of their dogs] got into a fight and got torn up pretty badly. We cleaned and stitched up the cuts, and she'll be fine, but she looks pretty bad, so if you see her, don't be alarmed and don't worry! She'll be just fine!"

Well.

Awwww. I can't believe people stitch up their dogs and then think to themselves, "What if Arvay sees her and gets frightened?" Just awwwwww, y'all.

Big changes afoot...

Well, since I will officially be a Dr. this May, I figured it's time to start looking for my next project. And since all of my major projects in life so far have been career-related, and I'm now 35 (which is "middle-aged", according to the U.S. Census designations), I've decided that it's time to do a little soul-searching about the meaning of life, of mine in particular (since it's the only one I can control). Since I've had several long-term, but failed relationships, and I'm now approaching over the hill, I think it's time for me to consider that I may be single for a while. As I approach 40, this means I'm seriously slamming the door on ever having children.

But then I thought... not so fast! My neighbors, with whom I am close, have done foster care and adopted their two youngest daughters, who are both lovely young ladies now. So I thought, why not me? I have the love and the financial resources. With a job that is stable and comes with benefits, I think I'd make a great mom! So I thought I'd start with fostering. I've put myself on the foster parent list for particularly troubled youth, and will start training over the next several months. I'm going to take in foster kids who need a temporary home, and if any come that are particularly cute, I'll ask if I can keep it.

Onward to the grandest adventure yet!