People Pets

Apparently People Magazine has a pets division...

and Kyle and Tracy's dog, Taro is featured there in their cutest pets of the week section.

Taro was on the cover when I opened it (with a football in his mouth), but is photo #10 in the slideshow.

Inflation and the Health Department

Coming home from work today (I know, lame to work on Sunday), I saw a lemonade stand right at our street corner. I, of course, pulled over. An excited child told me that I was their last customer because it was their last cup. Okay.

I'm waiting for my shockingly pink lemonade to be poured when, apparently, the child noticed something floating in my glass... Being an innovative child, she sticks her finger in the glass, digs out the offending object, and wipes her finger on the table. Crisis abated--for her!

I asked how much the lemonade cost (probably should have asked first, but I thought, "how much could a cup of lemonade be?"). The one girl (not the finger girl) said 50 cents, which is what I'd expected. The little boy shouts out "no, $1," then contradicts himself with 50 cents. Meanwhile, finger-girl caught wind of this opportunity to make some money... she shouts out "2 dollars, it's 2 dollars". Anyway, after some finagling we agreed on 50 cents (I know about inflation, but have never heard of 30 second inflation) and I gave them a dollar.

As I accepted my glass I noticed NO LESS than 6 fingerprints on the glass--none of which were mine. I was just thinking that perhaps child run lemonade stands should be under health department control, when I looked back (truly 2 houses down from us) to see the finger-girl drinking out of the pitcher before handing it off to the (previously) reasonable girl to do the same!!! YUCK! Needless to say, I threw out the lemonade... but I did consider returning the cup, so they could serve just 1 more customer ;)

Good Dog

Hayden has been going to obedience school and getting better despite her puppy-ness. (She is definitely NOT a year and a half.) She is sweet and eager to please, which helps a lot with training.

Of course, this has made me think of more dogs. Don't worry we are ABSOLUTELY NOT getting another dog any time in soon (as in maybe not for 5 more years). But, I think some awesome dog names would be... Ubu (yep, sit, Ubu, sit... good dog), Up, and Adam... that's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are some other awesome dog names that would add silliness to every day.

A.S.U. Eeks Out

I know the score doesn't indicate "eeking," but A.S.U.'s 41-20 win over N.A.U. was actually an eek. In the 3rd quarter the score was 27-20... with all due respect to my sister's Alma Mater, A.S.U. should beat N.A.U. Otherwise, their athletic program is spending a lot of money on not a lot. Come on A.S.U. ... step it up!

Michigan also won today; so, it was a good football day for us. And, to celebrate, here are our fight songs and Alma Mater songs.

A.S.U.--

ASU Alma Mater
Where the brave saguaros
Raise Their Arms On High
Praying Strength For Brave Tomorrows
From The Western Sky
Where Eternal Mountains
Kneel At Sunset's Gate
Here We Hail Thee, Alma Mater
Arizona State

ASU Fight Song
Fight, Devils Down The Field
Fight With Your Might and Don't Ever Yield
Long May Our Colors Outshine All Others
Echo From The Buttes, Give 'Em Hell Devils!
Cheer, Cheer For A-S-U
Fight For The Old Maroon
For it's Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here
And It's Onward to Victory!

And Michigan-- (whose fight song is so long, they apparently don't use their alma mater--can't find the words for it at any rate)

University of Michigan
"The Victors"
Now for a cheer they are here, triumphant!
Here they come with banners flying,
In stalwart step they're nighing,
>With shouts of vict'ry crying,
We hurrah, hurrah, we greet you now, Hail!

Far we their praises sing
For the glory and fame they've brought us
Loud let the bells them ring
For here they come with banners flying
Far we their praises tell
For the glory and fame they've brought us
Loud let the bells them ring
For here they come with banners flying
Here they come, Hurrah!

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan
The leaders and best!
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
>Hail! Hail! to Michigan,
The champions of the West!
We cheer them again
We cheer and cheer again
For Michigan, we cheer for Michigan
We cheer with might and main
We cheer, cheer, cheer
With might and main we cheer!

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan,The champions of the West!

(No one told them they're not the west anymore!!)

And, in case you needed these songs on video...

Here's Michigan's for good measure...





I love A.S.U.'s Alma Mater song, but it's not very good for those of us (not this person obviously) who aren't very talented singers ;)


AND



Around all these Ivy-Leaguers I'm making sure to show off my State pride!

Clerk Picture

John and I went to a potluck last night for all of the Alaska Court of Appeals clerks and the Supreme Court clerks. It was fun to put names to faces and meet John's Justice.

From the potluck standpoint, we were both amused by the abundance of grain salads-- bulgar wheat and basil, cucumber and couscous, etc. The dessert selection was awesome though. We brought my family's party potatoes (someone suggested we add confetti to make them more partyish), which is: 8 - 12 potatoes, cut up and boil til soft; an 8oz pkg cream cheese; 1 c sour cream; 1 cube butter whipped together with salt/pepper/garlic powder and put in 9 x 13 baking dish, then cooked until warm and a bit crispy on the edges... DELICIOUS!! Plus, amazingly, the potatoes were more popular than the grain salads ;)

For this occasion (and the orientation earlier in the day), they had brought Alaska's only living state Constitutional Delegate. Justice Fabe said that would be like the US Supreme Court getting to meet Thomas Jefferson... someone else asked why you'd need to meet Jefferson when Scalia knows what Jefferson was thinking-- he he-- AH, lawyer jokes.

Here are some pictures of all the clerks and the justices. It's a picture of a picture, so not great. The one at the top is the full group. The partial is just a zoomed in version. The one with the arrows are Justice Christen (who John works for) and her clerks-- YELLOW-Justice Christen, BLUE-John, ORANGE-Steve, PINK-Rebecca.

I wish!

Dad just sent me a picture from his seat on Air China's 747 first class... he got bumped up on his relatively short flight from Hong Kong to Teipei. Pretty cool!

Greatest

First I remember the 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's (of which I remembered surprisingly few), then the 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's (of which I remembered all of them), then there were the 100 Worst Songs of All Time (and I grimaced recalling most of them).

Now there is VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time!! It's awesome! If you get a chance to catch it, do :)

Crazy Busy

One of the disadvantages of new teachers not starting prior to returning teachers is that new teachers have a TON of training to go to. Then, when you add other formative meetings, it gets nuts... a preview of my weeks to come...

9/13- all day collaboration
9/15- field trip to Campbell Creek
9/16- half day positive discipline meeting
9/21- half day math training
9/23- half day sub for me to test my students
9/24- more of the 23rd
9/28- reading training
9/29- more of the 28th
10/4- half day math training
10/8- reading training
10/14- field trip to the Alaska Native Heritage Center (and Kyle's Birthday!!)

Lots of excitement, but craziness at school-- PLUS,

9/17-9/19- John and I are going out of town with Mary and Kevin to their cabin in Hope
9/23-9/29- Dad and Margo are here :)

Should be a very full September!

Spenard Road House

We went to the Spenard Roadhouse for dinner tonight. It was quite tasty.

John and I split the fish and chips (which were okay) and the bacon jam burger (which was delicious) with super tater tots (I don't even like tater tots, but these were crispy with bacon, cheese, sour cream, and chives--delicioso!!).

Very yummy!!

Hooray for BOOKS!!

Our books arrived today! I can't believe how quickly they were delivered :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you Mom and Kerry, Jim and Deb!!!

Airyan, our administrative assistant, brought the books in while the kids were at art class. I waited to open the box until the kids had come back and I had them working on a journal entry. Then, I casually started unboxing them-- and I hear all these whispers-- "psst, books"; "oh my gosh, Diary of a Whimpy Kid, awesome"; "Do you think they're for us?" I just kept unwrapping them and reminding the students to get back to work ;)

In a bit, I called the students over and explained about how much strangers cared about them and how the strangers knew that the kids loved books and reading and that the strangers got them books. The kids were jumping up and down on the floor. I let kids who were doing a great job reach into the box and pull out a book, then I'd preview the books with the kids. They were utterly giddy about the books.

They are thrilled! Thank you.

5.5 Minutes a Day

Every day we lose a little more light... the daylight shortens by about 5.5 minutes a day. This isn't a huge deal right now-- since it's 8:45 right now and it's still light outside.

However, it is hard knowing that it will just keep getting shorter and shorter until December 21st. John must routinely be reminded that it's still lighter here than elsewhere, because he's really bummed about the loss of daylight.

I was trying to find the exact time change (they announce it every day on NPR), but couldn't (although I didn't look too hard). Instead I came across a really disgruntled anti-Day Light Savings advocate and his/her site-- http://www.endalaskadaylightsaving.com/

Here are the top reasons he/she gives for the elimination of DLS time... I hope you think this is as funny as I do ;)

THE 1 REASON WE WILL KEEP USING USING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA

1. A single Alaskan Legislator, Donald Olson, for reasons he will not explain and is not required to explain, demands we use DST

21 REASONS WE CAN NOW QUIT USING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA

1. Alaskan's live in " The land of the Midnight Sun".

2. Instant time change disturbs sleep patterns which creates a state sponsored "jet lag" twice each year.

3. There is no longer a clear and compelling need to impact over 683,000 Alaskans twice each year with this law.

4. With creation of the single Alaskan Time Zone in 1983 most of Alaska went on permanent DST.

5. The 1983 time zone change advanced clocks permanently in two of the three Alaskan time zones affected. Now when we advance clocks each year, we create" double" and even "triple" DST in most of Alaska which causes a two hour difference between "sun time" and "clock time" in the rail belt region including Fairbanks and Anchorage and three hours in Western Alaska communities and villages.

6. The 1983 time zone change permanently advanced the rail belt region one hour and northwestern Alaska two hours closer to markets in the lower 48.

7. What savings of daylight? For every hour you gain in evening daylight, you lose an hour of morning light.

8. We gain daylight rapidly in springtime Alaska without DST. According to the (Naval Observatory), rounding to the nearest half hour, both Anchorage and Fairbanks have gained one hour of natural daylight within 8 days of the onset of DST.

9. Advances in communication technology now allow business and personal contact 24/7 to anywhere in the nation or world.

10. Alaska will be in a different time zone with or without DST.

11. Alaska now does business with the Pacific Far East where DST is not used.

12. No Alaskan Utility claims a savings of energy by use of DST. Saving Energy is why the Federal Government allows DST in those states that choose to use DST.

13. DST doesn't save energy on a hot summer day either. (Scientific American March 2009) A portion of Indiana recently went on DST. That portion experienced 1% increase in residential electrical use due to air conditioning increase use when time of sunset delayed.

14. (New England Journal of Medicine 2008) Sweden, a northern latitude populace, experienced 5% increase in myocardial infarction (heart attack) rate in days following onset of DST. This is attributed to disturbance in sleep patterns.

15. Anchorage School District supports ending DST because of impact on students (Committee Minutes 4:06:15 PM Mar 16, 2009 before House Labor and Commerce Committee).

16. Daylight Saving Time is not practiced in every State or Canadian Province. Hawaii and Arizona don't use DST. Saskatchewan has adopted Central Standard Time for year round use.

17. Changing every time keeping device in homes and businesses, including indoor mechanical heating/cooling/security systems, is expensive and time consuming. Link to story about the cost of this. Chrysler scraps clock changing

18. The Legislature cannot control the ocean tides for fishermen, nor the weather that will impact outdoor activity.

19. DST doesn't affect the many devices now using photoelectric sensors that respond to ambient light, not the time of day.

20. Thousands of Alaskans signed a petition asking to vote on this issue and polling data from Dittman Research and Hellenthal & Associates shows majority of Alaskans would support ending DST use in Alaska.

21. Since 1999 this idea of ending DST, when allowed to heard by a legislative committee, has had seven legislative hearings. After being thoroughly vetted, the Alaska House of Representatives passed House Bill 19 in 2009 to end the use of DST in Alaska

Antibiotic-ing It Up

Colds are supposed to get better NOT worse... so, when mine started getting worse on Thursday, I was thinking that was a bad sign. Going to the fair probably didn't help (though I doubt it made it worse). Anyway, I went to the doctor today and got some antibiotics, as yes indeedy, I now have a sinus infection. Hope to be much better soon!!!

1100 pound Pumpkin

John and I went to the Alaska State Fair today.

It was super, duper busy. It was a holiday (obviously), the last day of the fair, and the first sunny day all weekend. It took us about 45 minutes extra to get to the fair, because of all the extra traffic.

We ate yummy fair food and wandered about... gawked at the price of the rides ($4+ per ride) and the lame prizes at the games. We looked at the flower exhibits... all the incredible varietals of dahlias and also a truly purple rose (not lavender). We skipped the arts and crafts, but browsed all the weird worse-than-as-seen-on-TV stuff. We visited all the livestock--ginormous pigs and hogs (I don't know what the difference is), sheep, goats, rabbits, cattle, and chickens. We saw the end of the horse show (just the victory gallop) and some odd trick horse demonstration. BUT, above all, the piece de resistance was the GIANT produce... the 90+ pound cabbage (it was about the size of a side chair) and the 900 and 1100 pound pumpkins, which were gigantic. Those were so cool!

Unfortunately, I'm STILL sick :( BOO!! I think now I have an actual infection. So, I'll try to get into the doctor's office tomorrow. Not fun. I'm sure the fair didn't help, but hope it didn't hurt too much either. I had to take a nap when we got home.

Happy Labor Day! Hope everyone had a safe and fun weekend.
In response to my skeptical brother, here's the article about the pumpkin AND the picture! And.. the cabbage video AND, I found a picture of the winning cabbage too ;)

Get Low

Both of my parents had recommended "Get Low"-- the new film with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Bill Murray. Doesn't it sound like some kind of hip-hop term? So, then I hear it's about a guy who has a funeral party while he's alive. And I think that means it's going to be like the "Bucket List" or something... a comedy. HA! I kept waiting for it to get funny. Hmmm... long wait. This was a good film, but it wasn't AT ALL a comedy. Everyone liked it, but, you know, it wasn't funny.

Trickles Trump Talkeetna

Last night, John and I drove up to Talkeetna.

Mina and Dodd had been up in Denali--They took the train up there from Anchorage--and took the Park Connection bus to Talkeetna. They had the day to explore Talkeetna, which didn't take a day to explore ;0

We met up there around 9:15pm. We had dinner at Latitude 62 Cafe, which sounds glamorous, but looked more like an Alaskan version of a country western bar. John and I had soup.

We all turned in for the night at Denali Fireside Cabins and Suites. The picture shows our cabin... it was very nice, though the beds weren't at all comfortable.

We had breakfast at the historic Talkeetna Roadhouse. It was family style dining, which means you sit at any table with available chairs. The first people at our table were very nice, but then the next people (because you're all at different stages of ordering and eating) were super yuppies and irritating in that setting. The food was tasty and it was definitely different. (As a side story, I'd originally booked us into their cabins... BEFORE I realized that there weren't bathrooms in the cabins... one had an outhouse and the other you had to go outside to get to the bathroom. Um... no.)

Anyway, then we headed back to Anchorage. We'd originally wanted to go to the State Fair, but it was raining.

We had a barbecue and bonfire with John's old coworkers in Palmer at 3pm. So we headed back there and had a lovely time, besides getting very wet and then heading home.

A nice time all together. Tomorrow is John's parent's last day here in Alaska, so hopefully it will stop raining.