doggles to the rescue....

so today got sunny and i am not clear where my sunglasses are...so i happened to have the doggles in the car from the volcano watch. (which has calmed down by the way). i took a few snaps in the car before blossom and i headed off in kincaid for our walk. it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day. blue skies on this side of town anyway.

loving all the fall colours still and kincaid seemed to be in full bloom. i was planning on raking leaves in my yard today,but obviously didn't get to that. they are really coming down though. there has been frost on everything in the mornings and the weather forcaster today said she thinks anchorage will get measurable snowfall by the 10th of october. eek!! i still have to rake a bit and change over tires and clean up more in the garden. i enjoy the walks though as i have zero responsibility to clean up any plants out there....i can just take in the colours.

blossom looks adorable in her doggles...i just wish she didn't mind wearing them, but i have a less than 30 second window to just get a photo of her. hehe. dogs in doggles are the best!! they kept fogging up on me when i was wearing them and i was watching for other dog walkers out there. hmm..where are the sunglasses at.

it's been a rough week in the world. a few big quakes, a tsunami and flooding in manilla. i know my mom would be saying the end of the world is coming. when you study history though i find it hard to not see that horrible events such as these and worse have occured repeatedly throughout history and so far it hasn't been the end of the world. my heart does go out to all the people who have perished in these events and to those around them who are in pain as i quietly enjoy my stroll through the woods. it's a strange and disconnected world sometimes. i can be smiling and enjoying my life at the same moment that others are struggling and dying.

the dogs both joined me for a half walk in the bog...rio was a little limpy last night and i was in a bit of a rush anyway. i met a friend for lunch. our first place that we planned to meet at was closed due to changing over to new management. i tried to call her before she got the wee ones out of the car seats and all, but then i saw her standing by her car. we ended up at red robyn. my friend has her hands full with the 3 year old. we ate, we talked, but it was hard to really have a conversation due to frequent interruptions and such. i felt badly for her. that parenting thing is quite taxing.

well another day, not much done...what can i say. i'm lazy sometimes. off to bed...

extra picture...

so now i know how to delete a photo if i accidently put a double in...i took a photo of the program cover to put in here since we can't take pictures at the theater. of course, i accidently deleted it. oops...that is usually how i learn about computers. still less frustrating than the old word processors were. typewriters are now extinct, but they were much better than word processors in my mind. what other modern inventions will become extinct in my lifetime...just a few years after they seemed all the rage.

the lion king...and of course...walking...

just returned from "the lion king". it was playing in anchorage at the atwood concert hall. the theater was beautiful and the production was amazing. the costumes and puppetry were awe inspiring. in the opening act when all the animals come down the aisle through the audience i know i held my breath and when i watched the elephant come down i was near tears. i could have watched that opening scene over and over again.

i'm listening to the soundtrack from the original broadway show. the only bummer about it is that the woman who played rafiki in tonights production was so much the superior of the one on the cd. i had chills each time she sang. she is originally from africa so i'm sure that gave her the added punch.

it was amazing how they utilized the entire stage and theater at various times. i even enjoyed watching the guys on the drums that were placed above the audience. i'm not one who goes to the theater much, but this one was wonderful and i'm very happy that i went. perhaps i'll have to plan on more theater in the future.

could it be a sign i'm maturing...haha. the show was also charming and funny and just plain a fun festival for all the senses. one i'm sure i'll enjoy over and over through the cd.

i went with a few co-workers from work, katie and karen. we went to dinner first at humpies. it's a local favorite near the theater. worked out well. i ordered the clam appetizer. i rarely eat clams and it just sounded so good. they were quite tasty. i just wish i could have eaten them all. i also got a little side cesars salad. the atmosphere isn't awesome there, but the food is. it was funny, these two guys kept looking at us and i figured they were checking me out...it turns out that they were just hoping to snag our table once we left. so maybe i'm not turning as many heads as i used to....it did make me laugh though. i don't think i look half bad for a 45 year old chick, but i guess it was a bit much to think those 20 somethings were checking me out. but wait...i did get a flower from the 15 year old next door yesterday. giggle.

it is odd i guess that i grew up in los angeles and rarely went to things such as this there. i think in such a large city with so many options, other stuff just won out. when i lived in ketchikan i tended to go to anything that even resembled the possibility of culture. anchorage is a larger community and we do have many more choices than i did in ketchikan though no doubt far fewer than los angeles.

some of those actors must be sore after the end of a night. several of the animals were bent over. the giraffes were on stilts on all fours. they looked super cool though. the hyena's were also bend over much of the time. they were hysterical as were pumbaa and timon...and of course zazu. well, the computer just changed my print type so it must be time for me to stop writing. haha.

okay...so it's still attempting to load the few pictures i put in...walks today were pleasant, but uneventful. rio, blossom and i walked the bog and then after a short nap i took blossom to campbell airstrip and did a loop. no wild animals aside from birds, which this time of year is okay with me. the bears are trying to fill up so getting irritable and the moose are getting ready for rut so also irritable. who needs that...right? hakuna matada!!!

the monday walks begin

last years walks were pretty fun and successful. so i posted signs for this year. i figured i might be walking alone today. i walk anyway, so it really doesn't matter to me. just an option for people who aren't too keen about walking alone and it gets me socializing when people do show up. not that i'm really anti-social or anything, but i do tend to be a bit of a hermit. i'm quite different than my days in the past. i used to spend several days a week out at the local clubs dancing and socializing. i still get out in my own way. i know loads of people at the dog park and various trails around town. i'm the girl who starts up a conversation with people in line or waiting for my car or whatever.
anyway...lucky for me lena showed up. she's a person at work who i always enjoy. she's just good people so it was nice to get out with her for a walk and get to know her a bit. above is blossom in yet another puddle. we got some rain, snow in the mountains. though i must say some of the snow has melted back so the ground isn't frozen up there. my tires are by the back gate so one step closer to the tire change over. everyone seems more ready for winter this year than last year...i think it's because we had such a lovely summer and fall has also been wonderful. blossom enjoyed being the solo dog and is pretty sleepy now. i tried to get a picture of blossom in all the leaves as she blends in quite a bit...she's not the most cooperative subject sometimes so here she is getting pets from lena. blossom has some bizzare look on her face. did she do that for the camera on purpose. haha.

got up early and walked both dogs in the bog. these leaves were floating in the little creek there. leaves are everywhere. i have yet to rake. my leaves are a bit behind,but are starting to drop now. they are big trees so it will be a mess out there by next week or so. got rio settled with her peanut butter and off i went with blossom. when i got home rio had counter surfed and found some old rice crispy treats. brat! so she got in some trouble. later i got ready to hit the pool and was laughing as once i had the peanut butter ready...i'm her peanut butter connection apparently.

i did get to the pool...was pretty happy as i got in nearly 50 laps and most of those i was breathing correctly and didn't use the kickboard. i need a new swimming suit soon i think. shopping on line...i love getting mail. that pool is hopping all the time.

below are some geese that are crossing the road...they are grouping up to get ready to fly south. the geese are the sign of coming winter and their return is the sign of springs return. i always love how cocky geese are. they leave here for months and yet they return like they own the place.

just the edge of bicentennial park on tudor road. i'm at this intersection all the time so i took the picture from my car as i turned right on tudor road. in the winter you can see dog teams out here at times. frequently, i see moose.

saw a sweet movie the other day. "pheobe in wonderland" . a girl who doesn't fit in at all finds she can feel normal playing alice in the school play. in the end she has tourettes syndrome but life can be difficult when something has taken over the family and a child you love. i thought it was a charming tale. it had dakota fannings little sister in it. she did a great job i thought.

so a great day overall i'd say. yesterday i did the dog park thing and stuff around the house. on an odd note. the neighbor kid came by this afternoon and gave me a single red rose. so does the 15 year old kid have a thing for me or did his mom get flowers from an unwanted suiter and just had him bring it over. i could ponder this for hours,but i'll just enjoy my flower and move on. i guess some cookie dough eating wouldn't hurt either. nite...

more ketchikan and more of the usual...

when i lived in ketchikan i was forever watching the ocean in front of me and snapping off photo's. i loved the above one as it was this dreary, rainy day, but the sun came out and was highlighting this one white boat. there was always boat traffic and plane traffic. i used to love the foggy days when all the boats would blow the fog horns. just something mystical about that sound as it rumbled through the clouds.

a few bald eagles fight for salmon scraps. below is a nudibranch. guess there is a purple sea star there with it. ketchikan was some awesome tidepooling. used to love getting off work and combing the beaches and looking in all the puddles. the table in my living room is sunken in and it has many shells from my days in ketchikan. there are also shells from california and many other remote alaskan beaches as well.

above is one of the docks in ketchikan, below just a few orca's passing through.

my friend sandra joined me for a walk on wednesday. i think she actually gets a kick out of blossom. it was kinda rainy and lazy...good sleeping days for me. today i did manage to get the dogs out to the dog park. it was rainy this morning, but cleared as i walked the dog park and this afternoon it was beautiful. got a few things done in the yard...gotta get ready for the winter. tried to change the lightbulbs in the kitchen but there still isn't anything but flickering light. seems like it should be easy...change the light bulb, right...what did i miss? not sure.

got my flu shot last night and i always seem a bit punky after i get that for a day or so.

is it red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in morning, sailors warning? i can't remember. ketchikan was a wonderful place with amazing sunsets/sunrises. also there were many rainbows. just a beautiful place. i worked the past 3 nights so seemed a good day to toss in more southeast alaska pictures.

they put me on peds for 2 nights. the first night i went to get a movie for a kid and when i opened the cupboard of movies, a clock slid off the wall. apparently, as it fell it hit the code button. at first i just heard the clock crashing onto the floor, then i heard the overhead code page and people running at me. oops!! of course, that flew through the hospital...it was betsy. how embarrassing and funny too though.

overall, work was totally kick back. worked with an anorexic. 12 years old and only like 68 pounds...then when i worked overtime in acc i was given an 18 year old who weighed over 400 pounds.

weight is a strange thing. those kids with anorexia can get totally manipulative. the worst i saw was a 17 year old weighing in at just over 50 pounds. her heart rate was in the 20's when she slept. i would guess she is possibly dead now though. the 18 year old had medical stuff that one would normally associate with someone in thier 60's. it's so sad that weight issues can start in the mind and destroy the body.

below are some orcas that i took pictures of out in front of my house in ketchikan. i used to love all the wildlife at my front door. we used to call north or south to let each other know there were whales coming. such a small town i remember noticing when alaska air added an extra flight. you just get used to the rhythm of the town.

this is my home now though...anchorage. for now anyway. i may move to kodiak one day or back to southeast alaska. we'll see. i do enjoy the smaller town in alaska, but i also enjoy the perks of city life...and those moose. i love my moose. perhaps, next summer i should make the trip to southeast alaska for the group. it's been way too long since i headed that way.

below is rio today at university lake dog park. you can see how much snow has fallen on the mountains in the background....you can also see how busy the beavers have been. the bench shouldn't be under water. they tend to dam up the creek going out of the lake and it backs up.

so this week was pretty uneventful. cool by me. i was lucky and though i worked overtime last night i was able to leave before the 12 hour shift was over. i was home by 2 am and got to sleep. sleep is great. well.....off to toss a movie in and crash for the night.

a blustery day in the far north...

tossed in another swan picture from ketchikan. i just find swans to be beautiful and graceful birds. i'm no birder, but i still enjoy birds. eagles, swans, herons, chickadee's, puffins. the variety is pretty amazing.

the wind was gusting and the rain coming down off and on this morning when i walked the dogs in the bog. later i met up with my friend gail and we did a loop in kincaid park from the jodphur trailhead. i was a little worried on such a blustery day like today that the moose would be problematic, but it had cleared some over on that side of town and we never saw any moose anyway. blossom had fun playing with the tennis ball. gails dog, duke, is a crazy lab. sweet and a bit older now so he couldn't quite keep up with blossom on the ball chasing. above is blossom in a tiny puddle of water. she will lay down in any amount of water. turned out to be a lovely walk.

took this picture earlier to show the snow headed our way. our termination dust is a bit thicker this morning. we'll see if it sticks. may not. friends up north driving on the road in denali national park had great views on their drive in, but apparently woke to several inches of snowfall. at the end of the season there is a lottery for the road. usually you can only take the road in by bus, but on this weekend they allow the lottery winners to take the drive. i think they let in maybe 300 cars per day. it's over 4 days and you get selected for one of those days. in the past the lottery entrance was free. i used to put in myself and send off one for the dogs and cats as well. now it's $10/entry.

later on in the day, when i came outside to head to the gym...the sun had come out on these tree's below. thought it looked kinda pretty with the dark clouds and snow covered mountains behind. strange how the sun was just highlighting those trees.

the gym was okay. i was working on my breathing. i used the board as suggested by a co-worker to practice putting my head under and turning to the side to take breathes. i still bite, but i did a few laps with a more correct breathing pattern. it still sucks up my nose and i get all freaked out. it's a process. gotta start somewhere.

here is my vanity plate. drove to the gym with it on...worried that someone would misread it and think i'm in love with the dogs...they are just pets. i do love them, but i know they are dogs. i'm cool with dogluv, guess i'll get used to having them on the car and not thinking about what other roadies are reading into it soon enough. i like the new 50th anniversary plates though. not sure how long they'll offer those. alaska became the 49th state 50 years ago.

i'd heard the vanity plates were only $30/year so when i went to do the registration i thought i'd check it out. blosom wasn't available so i tried a few idea's...dogluv was so what the hell i figured. i could never remember the license number that came with the car.

just put in season one of "northern exposure". i like the show despite the obvious error's and the fact that it's filmed someplace other than alaska. the town is made up and is too big looking for the size the show makes this town to be. the tree's are way too pretty for alaska...most of our pine trees are scrawny suckers.

chatted with my sister and saw my brother jeff left a message...they are talking about coming out here for thanksgiving. sounds great, but i'm not sure they will really want to be here in our coldest, darkest days. hard to sight see with just 6-7 hours of light. i'll call him...i got to see if i can get it off anyway. i do get one of the big holidays off so that may be a good possibility. would be fun to have a thanksgiving with family in alaska. that's never happened before...i'd have to clean, that's for sure. haha!!

just another week in ak...

like tossing in pictures from southeast alaska from time to time so above is a swan at ward cove lake that kept me snapping pictures for some time. got some wonderful shots of this friendly bird. this was one of my favorites. below is one of many totem poles. i believe this one is in saxman.

have wanted to post pictures of the baby quilts i made for my great-neices/nephews coming into the world this year. the one below is for a baby boy, joshua who was just born a few weeks ago. sadly, i had the wrong address and it didn't make it there in time. i'm happy to report it did make it's way back to alaska and hopefully i can get it back in the mail here soon. it was a basic farm print, but i thought i was cute.

the one below is for my neice shannon. i loved the flowers. i'm a fan of daisy's and sun flowers. they are just happy flowers. she has a baby girl waiting to make her way into this crazy world. shannon and her husband live in texas.....i'm hoping to convince them to move to alaska. (i've had no luck convincing anyone in my family to move here and only a few have visited. oh well, i can keep trying)

the next two are for my neice, kelly. she lives in california and has twins coming...one of each. the first quilt has these adorable pigs and the second is very alaskan salmon theme. each quilt takes me an average of 2 hours to make. i'm no perfectionish, but i think it's fun to send out something handmade. lucky for me, babies aren't critics.

so back to me, alaska and my crabby hat! i bought it in dutch...cute, eh?

was trying to combine the fall leaves with a picture of my dutch harbor crab hat and my huge nose....apparently, my nose isn't quite as large as i thought. i have a fear of getting my great grandma harriets nose. it's super sized. i'll have to try and post her picture on here so i can take some sort of nose survey.

the past 3 days i was out at the dog park in between shifts. the fall colours are really spectacular there and all over anchorage this week. there was a big bull moose there on friday, but my pictures didn't come out. i was trying to deal with the two dogs and prevent annoying the bull. this guy was really huge and the last thing i wanted was a male moose coming at me. i guess he has charged a few at the park this past week. there was a female moose of interest,which makes him even less tolerant of others...better to skip the pictures, even though it's hard for me to put the camera down sometimes. rio is going sans brace and just taking the shorter walks. i think she's adjusting and i will too eventually. it's for the best. she doesn't seem too achy right now.

did get to meet up with tanya and her dog, indy, for a trip around n. bivouac. the colours were wonderful there as well and we made plans to start back the monday walks for the winter. i worked for a bit today and made little flyers to put out. guess we'll put some out at the prov acc, the reg acc and i'll put some in peds as well. avoided it last year as there is a certain nurse who annoys and will certainly come...but i am my mothers daughter and it just isn't like me to exclude anyone. so i'll put up the sign and take what comes. it was a fun thing last year. we got out in all temperatures and every week we had different people show up. anything that gets people outside in winter is good i think.

blossom enjoyed the university lake romps and swims. weather is changing and the temperature is dropping. there was termination dust on the mountain tops as i drove home from work this morning. that is the first snow that falls and settles on the mountains around us...a sure sign of winters fast arrival. luckily, i put my patio furniture up and started doing the tasks that get one prepared for another season change.

we've had a little rain, but loads of blue skies over the weekend. today was rain though so i slept much of the day before hitting the bog. my new license plates arrived, but i'll have to wait til tomorrow to put them on. i also need to pull out my studded tires and get ready to do the change over. there is also garden clean up projects to do and i'll put plastic up on some of the windows.

rio also enjoyed the fine weather and waded a bit. she is so spoiled at the park....she knows so many people and has inbedded those with treats in her memory bank. it cracks me up to watch her light up when she hears a familiar voice in the distance. for a blind dog she is totally confident and takes off towards her friends.

work was busy. i followed one of our new grad interns. she is on her own i guess and pretty frassled. that meant i had to pick up the pieces a bit. personally, i think new grads should do some time on one of the main floors to get organizational skills and basic nursing skills down before attempted the icu. when you have a critical patient it's no time to be freaking out over never having given an enema or hung blood or some such thing. the patient load was actually pretty basic icu though steady. i was definitely kept busy for the first 2 nights. the third night i was blessed with an on call night and was surprised when i woke at 8 am having slept much of the night. i'm a sound sleeper though and often worry that i'll sleep through those 3 am calls. last night i worked in peds and it was pretty breezey night.

my co-worker is too sweet to her 35 year old son and i fear i may be too blunt with her. it's those stories that really make me happy i have no kids. she works her buns off, he lives off her for the most part and just can't get his crap together. she enables him and i told her so. staff meeting this am kept me there late. they are starting bedside report. not that it will be all bad, but it's certainly not a panacea for all report giving. there are many social issues that one really can't just talk about in front of families...like last night, my one patients brother passed of the same thing a few years back that she still suffers with...that info needs to be passed but one certainly can't say that in the room in front of family every 12 hours. another kid we admitted the father was overly aggravated at his daughters crying and pretty nasty to staff. so i pointed out some of the silliness of doing the order check at the desk, then discussing social issues outside the room and then finally going in the room to do the report. i also have learned a great deal from those shift reports and i ask questions that are sometimes not the most comfortable things to ask, and i wouldn't want to ask them in front of family. things such as why is there nothing going through the cordis line, or why was the blood sugar only checked 2 times today when this patient is on an insulin drip and why when both of thos e sugar levels were out of the accepted range was nothing done about it...? i think you get the picture.

i was able to watch my net flix movie saturday night while i was on call. being paid $4/hr to watch a movie and sleep is really not so bad. i got paid $1/hr to watch 5 kids when i was a young teenager. anyway, watched a movie called, "the girl from paris". i liked it over all though it ended rather abruptly. last week i also was able to finally watch the movie "doubt". again good, but a bit disappointing in the end.

forgot to mention that there was a kid on the floor whose first name i could never even imagine attempting to say...it was 41 letters long. have no idea what the meaning of it is or anything...it just seems so nuts. people are just idiots sometimes. that poor kid.

woke this afternoon after having a funny and bizarre dream...i had a grudge match of tennis scheduled with my old boss and friend, sully from my days working at the vet. i was at some country club and i was dressed in a flowing green gown with huge platform shoes as i swept into the stadium. of course, as i arrived to the crowds i realized i'd forgotten my tennis racket and i called to the crowd for a borrowed one. one was given to me and we began to play. he was obviously kicking my butt, but the crowd seemed to really adore me!! strange dream,but i got a kick out of it. perhaps that is my moment in the sun...and it happended in a dream.

walks always the highlight of any alaskans days...

for the afternoon, i noticed the sun was coming out despite the forecasts of rain. in ketchikan when they forecasted rain...it just rained. here you just never know what the weather will really do. so i headed up to arctic valley to chase some vista's. that also meant walking directly up hill. not sure who made all the trails in the area but they were obviously young and fit. there are no switchbacks. of course, when i was younger and more fit i remember my early hikes on switchbacks thinking how silly they were. i mean..it seemed more obvious that you would shave off the time on the trail by just going straight up. now my joints tell me that the switchback was created for the more mature hiker. i didn't do the entire hike, mostly cause i am a very cautious hiker. it was after 5pm when i started and as i was up on the ridge the weather began to come in again. wind and rain were coming so i headed back down. was there long enough to enjoy the views and to wear blossom out a bit.

blossom has figured out that i am slow and she just takes a break and waits for me to make my way up the long hill.

thought the valley looked pretty amazing, despite my breathing hard. being bad on hill climbing has been really great for my photography skills. i stop often. below, same valley, different section of hill...stopping to "take pictures"...yeah right.

this morning when i came out for my walk with both dogs i noticed the change in the mushrooms i posted yesterday. below is the same long puffy shrooms from yesterday now tall and flat on top. very strange....! sometime through the night the bottoms came up. who knew this happened. i'd need time lapsed photo to figure out if this happened suddenly or if it slowly crept up through the night.

took the dogs for a nice longish walk from my place on up to cheney lake. there are lots of great parks near here. the fall colours always look great against a lake. blossom has fun getting in the water as well. so above is cheney lake. we looped around the lake then headed back home, passing by a creek which the dogs enjoy wading in as well.

thought the leaves above on this tree looked pretty, below is another picture of the lake. lots of fishermen out today enjoying the weather and lake. i guess it had icky fish so they killed off the bad fish and the fishing for trout has improved. my trail friend who lives near there says cheney lake used to be a big pit and they turned it into this beautiful lake.

blossom drops into "sphinx"...and waits for her tennis ball to be thrown. sorry, i know rio is rarely pictured, but rio doesn't like to be away from me. anytime i set her up for a picture she just walks toward me as i try to walk back to get a shot. it's pretty funny actually.

as i ate lunch i watched some show on international brides. always interesting. it sometimes goes very badly for the brides. it also can go well. i'm sure it takes a certain personality to thrive in this sort of relationship. i'm sure they have goals and this is just a way for them to attempt to obtain those goals. i couldn't pick up and move to a foreign land and marry a man i hardly know. i also couldn't have sex with someone i have zero attraction to just to improve my life...but then my life isn't thiers and i haven't had the life they've had. i don't judge these women. in a way they are creating thier own power.

one woman they showed was later murdered by the man who married her. she was only 18 and he was really a gross, fat dude. turns out he had a previous record for spouse abuse. one man was speaking of his bride who was in her early 40's and fairly fit. he said that most american women of that age are 50# overweight. funny that he was also over 50# overweight. these men feel they have control over the female they bring over and marry. often though, i think these woman are smarter than that and they are using these men and working them. i'd see them look completely uninterested as they look away and then turn towards the men with brilliant smiles and give these men the attention they obviously crave. they find thier own way to manipulate the situation for thier advantage. they are just better actresses than i could be. if it works for them and gives them the choices they would not have in thier country than it really empowers them in a way. there are no free rides though and there is a risk. they are in many ways simply endentured servants. some happy marriages are born of these international matches. much of happiness is dependant on attitude and expectations. there is also some amount of luck. for the 18year old, it was her bad luck that the man she chose to trust was one not worthy of it. that bad luck happens to plenty of american females who thought thier partners worthy of trust and ended up abused or dead.

great day to be outside....

thought i'd put in the parting shot from my little roadie. i saw the swans about the same time another guy in his car saw them and we both made a quick pull off to try and get a better look. the quick pull off is a frequent event on alaskan roads. on the rarely traveled denali highway one can pull over whenever and whereever really it seems. the parks highway can be a bit busier and is a major connector...anyway...the swans are a beautiful sight whenever they show up.

this is one of the 4 moose i sighted on my walk yesterday in kincaid. this is actually not a sight one wants to see when standing 15-20 feet from a moose that you thought was alone...a baby popping out of the woods on the other side of you and crossing over. lucky for me the mom moose was pretty mellow. when i chatted with rudy today he surmised that it may be like humans...those who have had many kids are more mellow than those first time parents. being chased by annoyed moose is something i always try to avoid. they really get big when they are running at you...that much i can tell you from experience.

below is a few shrooms that are growing in my front yard. i saw them on some web page and i believe they are edible. i'm not a mushroom eater so i won't test that theory...but they look cute. hopefully, i'll trade in some novels i have at the used book store and find me a book so that i can put names to the shrooms i run into. must be hundreds of sorts.

there are some terrific gardeners a few blocks away apparently. my morning bog walk occasionally turns into a neighborhood walk as well and i saw these flowers. thought they were quite lovely. must be some sort of daisyish flower. it's good to always carry the camera...you never know what will be of interest on a walk.

i'm still thinking of my trip north and missing the big mountain and all the other mountains in the area that i can now see from my home here. my brother, joel, was shocked that this mountain is readily visible even though it's an almost 5 hour drive north of here. to him that would be like being able to see something in dallas from houston. below is denali mountain as seen from the tank trail in anchorage today.

so i guess i figured that jay leno would do something new and different, but everytime i flip over to his show...it's exactly the same. a bit disappointing. i mean i still haven't figured out why he left if he didn't want to retire and still wanted to do the exact same show. letterman's mono was cracking me up tonight. sometimes a nice lazy day at home is fabulous. i watched a mini "bones" marathon. love that show. i also cooked up a crock of beef stew. i have no particular recipe and really just improvise each time...i think it's getting better though. did some crosswords, chatted with my brother joel, it's his birthday. also chatted with rudy for a bit earlier.

great weather out there today so was outside for much of the day. first walked rio and blossom...well walk...really with rio it's a stroll. she has one speed lately and is quite focused on the sniffing part of the walk. who can say no to such a sweet face. must have been some good sniffs out there in the bog. later blossom and i went up to the tank trail and then off to the back woods. no bears, no moose today.