monday walks and random talks....

a bit rainy for this weeks monday walk. i'm sure a few kept away because of that, but my friends kelly, tanya and sandra showed up without hesitation. we are on snow watch. it's coming fast down the mountains around me and will soon be a part of my world for the next 5-6 months. once winter hits in alaska it never goes away. the ground isn't frozen yet, but soon. the temps are supposed to be in the 20's-30's this next week.

i really thought it would snow here at my place today...it's blossoms 4th birthday and she loves snow so i was hoping. no snow did allow me to do another poop clean up in the yard and fill another 2 big bags with leaves.

after the monday walk we all headed to the coffee shop near the trailheads....it's becoming the thing now. walk and then hot cocoa. this week i brought a loaf of my pumpkin bread. they all really liked it. the stuff is really great. i ate 2 slices this morning with my eggs and o.j. .
rio made it to her bog walk today and yesterday. can't hurry her along on her walks. she is definitely a stroller. it's been good for her to just do the one walk and then stay at home. it's still a bit hard for me to leave her but i think we are both adjusting.
i borrowed some pictures from joy from sundays pumpkin thing. i wanted to show you how cool thier pumpkin project turned out. i'm always amazed at how imaginative people can be.


above is me...i was waiting to see if they needed me to carve anymore out of the pumpkin before washing my hands and due to my years of medicine i was automatically keeping my hands "sterile". if you are dealing with a sterile field you keep your hands like this in between tasks to maintain sterility. as they laughed at me and went to the take the picture i looked up heavenly....so it looks more like i'm praying.
i suspect my family would be shocked. i think they assume i'm a total reprobate since i left the fold. i actually do pray and have my own spirituality. there are many ways to believe and many ways to act on those beliefs. i don't, however, pray over pumpkin very often. hehe.

above is the finished set up. scooby do to the rescue. below is the pumpkin helicopter which i think came out cute. i guess someone at work had scrubs with scooby in a helicopter...they made her strip and took copies of the pictures on the material and used that as inspiration. i think it all turned out rather cool.

i have been dealing with the guilt of late...have had laziness and haven't been to the gym for a few weeks. i want to go to the gym, i love the gym, i love to work out..it's just getting there. why is it so hard to make that drive to the gym. it's all great once you get there....it's just that drive over. my bag sits by the front door begging to be taken...i kick myself for each day i don't go and the waste of money and the waste of valuable time i could be using. grr....

turned the tv off, but first i found myself watching this program about random people who use this one hairdresser in new york and how thier lives have been impacted by the recession and how thier lives have impacted the hairdresser. it was rather depressing. i think alaska has been a bit safe from the fall out that has come to other parts of the states...also as a nurse, i've been less impacted as well. it's so sad to glimpse the reality so many others are trying to deal with. was sad how many people in thier 40's to 50's had lost jobs and how so many companies don't want to hire these "older" workers. one out of work guy mentioned the plane that landed in the hudson and that the pilot was in his 50's and probably wouldn't be hired by that same company if he was a random pilot looking for a job and yet it was his age, maturity and experience that probably saved the lives of everyone on that plane. he certainly didn't miss his destination airport because he was so busy on his laptop. is this what we have to look forward to as far as work ethics is concerned...the next generation will be too busy texting thier friends to actually do thier work. i see it all the time already at the nurses station. the younger ones are busy with all thier technology that the job isn't thier greatest priority.

oh well...guess i'll drop off for the night. maybe watch whatever i ordered from net flix last.

i'm officially an addict....

just slipped in another picture from maria's facebook of sandra and i on the tustemena heading out to dutch harbor. thought it was kinda cute!!
yes...i'm an addict. i just polished off 3 slices from my freshly made pumpkin bread. i also just noticed that my right arm is all bruised up as is my hand from scraping those pumpkins today. i think it was the small one as it was tough to gut it from the small hole in the bottom of the pumpkin...what one does for art and pumpkin guts. i think the bruising is absolute proof of my addiction. it looks like i've been beaten. eek!!

sharon called bright and early( 10 am for me) to see if i wanted to meet up for a dog walk. after some discussion we decided to meet in eagle river near where joy lives and where the pumpkin carving festivities were occuring later in the afternoon. the river you see is actually eagle river. i guess they had camera's up in this campground this summer and saw that it is quite a popular place for bears in the summer. we saw no signs today so i suspect the bears are moving on. it does have that lovely blue glacier fed colour. the silt just makes for the most beautiful blues you'll ever see. it can gum up your water filter a bit though. you can kinda see the colouring in the below picture of blossom. she never misses a chance to get in the water.

the dogs had a tennis ball. not sure what happened to it. sharon is looking with the dogs at the place the tennis ball was last seen. no amber alerts went out...we gave yet another tennis ball to the river. there must be thousands of tennis balls in the oceans and lakes. we suspect that cooper, the malamute, accidently buried it in the river bed...whatever...it's a goner!!

and as you can see from the picture below cooper was almost a goner. silly dog went rushing this moose that we ran into on the trail. i took a few pictures as i walked past the situation and then began running with sharon and screaming happily and loudly like complete idiots in order to encourage cooper that we were more interesting than the moose. it worked. there were a few tense moments with the moose turning on cooper abruptly and tossing a few forward kicks his way. sharon now knows how cooper will react when he runs across a moose. it wasn't surprising, but a little disturbing to say the least. lucky for me, blossom doesn't seem to have such fantasies when i comes to moose and she came to my side and was easily walked past the thing. if she sees them from the house or car and hears them in the easement behind the house...she barks like mad. one gets much braver when there is no chance of a moose being able to actually respond to your brave out bursts.

so luckily for us all, cooper survived his brush with a traumatic brain injury and we carried on with our walk without incident.

some girls from peds got together to work on the big providence pumpkin contest. much more involved obviously than a simple carving. i went to help out...really, i just wanted the pumpkin guts to make my bread. it was fun. the theme seems to revolve around scooby doo? they are making the hospital and making the pumpkin into a rescue helicopter with scooby saving the day. above are some figurines they were working on for the grounds around the hospital or the heli pad. below is as far as it got before i left...they may still be there working on it. i was cutting and helping them fit the revolving helicopter blades on...it was quite a task. will be interesting to see the final project. i do recall being quite impressed at last years...the other departments came up with cool scenes as well. some people are so imaginative.

below is amy...really we just call her speedy reedy as she is quite the lightning bolt at work. she runs around and gets the work of three people done in a flash and has that big smile on all the time. she is just great to be around and like me had no real skills, but helped out where she could by painting the hospital and cutting out the windows and such.

amy also prepped the pumpkin seeds. they look a bit too cooked for me, but i'm for guts and not so much the seeds. they look pretty though.

i'm watching "the constant gardner". it's a really good movie. too sad to watch very often, but it got mentioned at work the other day and i hadn't watched it for a bit.so often i think how i'd love to visit the wildlife of africa. it does seem such an unruly and wild place though. some places are safer to visit in other ways...but still it looms out there and calls me. perhaps, one day. i'm sure the africa a tourist would visit would be protected from the horror that is visited in the scenes of "the constant gardner". so many great movies out there...i've got to add a bunch more to my netflix list.

melissa and sharon worked for a few hours getting those helicopter blades to fit on the pumpkin. we carved 2 pumpkins...one a tester, one was the real deal. they still had two more pumpkins there for the carving just in case. poor blossom was out in the car though and rio was at home watching tlc. joy, the girls who hosted the pumpkin event, has a fenced yard and a lab, but the lab is unaltered and pretty spastic. sharons dog is still puppiesh and spastic as well. i think blossom was tired from the walk and wasn't too happy with the chase and growl scene. poor girl. i didn't want to leave her out there in misery so she was stuck in the car. it's pretty comfy for a pup. a big soft bed and it was only in the 40's today. blossom loves the cold weather. they think snow is coming. so far we are way behind schedule. not that i'm complaining. we will get plenty of snow no doubt. the geese are still chilling in town. they are all collected together for thier journey south, but continue to feed in town. i saw several hundred of them in mid town the other day.

guess i should head to bed soon. blossom lucked out. the pumpkin carving took longer than expected so my plans to take blossom to the dog wash in eagle river got passed over. blossom loves the water, but not when it comes in conjunction with soap. of course, monday walk is tomorrow and she would have been just as dirty as she is now...so a bath in this house seems like such a waste of funds. good night...

blah, blah, blah..work and walks and whatever...

so this is a pretty old picture from ketchikan days...my friend janet's daughter haley, is probably almost a teen now. i loved this picture though. she was just a cute kid and looked so alaskan!! these pictures are all from days in ketchikan. below is huey ,duke and a dog i was pet sitting on the boardwalk. it's funny that dogs get thier chums just like we do. the boardwalks get slippery at times in the winter.
today i was with the pups and thier dog buddies at the dog park. they seem to always have a great time there. there were loads of people and dogs there today. weekend crowds. lots of folks i know as well. of course, one was that annoying co-worker. she is just so loud. i ran into her and she glomed on. some days, when you are tired, it's just harder to be nice than others. i mean she means well and can be a nice person...but why does she have to be so annoying. she calls you honey and baby and darling...it's just weird. i'm not a good enough writer to give one the sense of her annoying personality. the dogs do love her because of her loud squealy voice and exaggerated expressions. i'm not her dogs auntie and she is not my dogs auntie....anyway...other than that, a great day at the park. went to the dog park yesterday too. it was a friday so a bit less activity. the weather has been cool and crisp...winter is coming. there is more snow again on the mountain tops and the ground is starting to freeze up.

no totems in the anchroage area. the native art varies with different parts of the state. in southeast there are totems and these beautiful meeting houses. they are great crafters of wood in southeast.

i love skies and southeast had some beautiful days. just a peaceful picture in my mind..flat calm waters. would be great to drop a kayak in that water and glide.

spent the week battling knots and headaches. very annoying. would have been great to escape on a kayak in calm seas. work was okay these last two nights and i was able to manage with heat and excedrin. we had a 6 hour class session on wednesday which i was about to puke in. the doc upstairs put lido in the most offending knot. it did take the edge off, but the knot didn't go away. they have finally calmed down at this point. often it's a matter of drinking plenty of water, eating right and getting rest. shocking...stuff i should be doing anyway. kept busy, but not insane at work. another sick kid. probably h1n1 and pnumonia. he was brought into me in peds...got him shifted to picu though. he was pretty ill. i continue to have pleasant patients and families so i can't complain. nursing isn't easy some days, but i do like that i can make a little difference in people's lives. make a horrible situation for them a bit less stressful.

finally watched the movie,"the secret life of bees". i had read the book, but hadn't seen the flick. i quite enjoyed it. dakota fanning is quite the actress. lots of the hollywood sort are just character actors. they look good, but mostly, they just play a role that is probably not much different than thier real selves i suspect. it was said that they get dogs and kids to act so it's not really that difficult. that doesn't mean though that aren't truely gifted actors/actresses. it seems too that the truely good actors are the ones with less ego. they seem to do thier art and then attempt to mesh back in to thier own lives. an example that always come to mind is johnny depp or sally field or...al pacino...dustin hoffman i'd guess. my brain is a bit blank.

life with dogs can be less than joyful. the boy is coming back over again and letting the dogs out. so whatever stopped him seems to be passing over a bit. despite this blossom did get into the most disgusting bog water. she drinks from the grossest water holes i guess she is bound to get a bout of diarrhea from time to time. when i came home yesterday morning the odor hit me. i found piles of loose poop upstairs in the spare rooms. of course there were only 2 squares of paper towels left over and no spare rolls under the sink. such a pleasant task after a 12 hour shift. of course, i don't truely know which dog is responsible. blossom acted totally innocent and happy to see me, but i noticed some poop remnants on her tail fur. rio seemed totally worried. one wonders if in a previous home she got the crap beat out of her for accidents in the house. she didn't come greet me and instead sat on the stair landing looking terrified. despite the disgustingness of my morning task...i couldn't help but pity poor rio in her terrified state. they always say don't punish dogs after the fact as they don't remember. obviously, rio knew there was poop in the house and that this was an offense that could get a dog in trouble. i think these 4 legged critters are much smarter than we give credit for.

walks, work and hockey magic...

today was a wonderful day. not alot of sleep, but yesterday i slept all day so i was good to go by 11:30 am after just 3 hours sleep. the monday dog walk was a success today. we had 8 humans and 6 dogs. i think everyone had a good time. tanya came late so she walked the opposite way and met up with us. she has a new puppy, an alaskan malamute. who doesn't love a puppy. he's pretty big already...so cute...only 11 weeks old. so fun to see them out there. julie came and so did gail, lena, tiffany, melissa and sandra from the peds world. just a pretty day and pleasant walk for all. we went to the coffee shop nearby after to just chat...looks like that will be commonplace.

above is julie with the new puppy. not sure what the name is gonna land on. tanya seemed undecided. below is julie, sandra and tanya admiring the puppy!! the rest of the crew got a bit ahead of us as we admired the pup.

tonight i met up with val and tiffany for some anchorage aces hockey. the aces won. after the 2nd period a big brawl broke out. they all mixed it up, loads of penalties were handed out and in the end gloves, hats and sticks were scattered about the ice. i love hockey, the game the brawls and i love to watch those incredibly flexible goal tenders do thier stretches before periods. hehe!!

below is the big brawl. we had alot of fun at the game. i've never had a bad time at a hockey game. such a great game!!

have been watching the now classic "fields of dreams". i love baseball too. baseball is better live though. i really need to get to the minor league games here this summer. should be fun. football i could care less about and basketball is cool, but it's not something i really have kept into...maybe i just got worn out from all the basketball overload of my childhood.

as always i got my share of walks in. the dog park was hit a few times. i generally go there when i am in a zone between shifts. i know lots of people there which is nice...even nicer i think as none of them are related to work. not that i don't totally appreciate my work friends, just sometimes it's nice to have a different place where the conversation is never work and pretty much just weather and dogs. rio got a bit bent once. she even sorta snapped. there are people with treats and she knows them and then gets super focused on the treat....another dog came along and rio didn't want to risk the competition. she ended up in doggy time out...at an off-leash park, that means she goes on leash. this was made more difficult by the fact that the zoned out owner had forgotten to put her collar on. weather has been nice. no snow and it's all brown in preparation. above is dog park.

after a bog walk last week, i headed with the pups to potter marsh to see if the swans were still there. there were several. i guess the greyish ones are the young birds. they are prepping for the long flight. i just always find them to be such beautiful birds. i read in the paper today that there was also a great heron there this past week or so, but i never saw that bird. it's not a usual bird for this area i guess. i used to see them occasionally in ketchikan...they are awesome birds as well. just cool looking. a bit pre-historic.

there is a road that runs along behind the marsh. there were several people out there with these cross country ski rollar blade things. i had no idea that this road was some known training ground. crazy. people in the anchorage area love thier cross country/skake skiing. the town is set up for skiing. apparently, those who came before me loved the outdoors and so the trail system is amazing. many miles of trails have lighting so you can ski in the dark days of winter. pretty cool.

i still have loads to do still on my continual "to do" list. the tires are in the car, but i haven't gotten down to get them changed over...the packages need to be mailed, toilets to be purchased...i think i've decided to just make my desire to drive to deadhorse the big trip for next year. now i'll just start with some planning...it'll be slated for mid to late august. i'd like to go to glacier bay kayaking but it looks pretty pricey. dutch was pricey this year so it's probably better to find a less expensive adventure. north....north to alaska i guess. hopefully, i have several more years to plan more trips. next summer i also am planning another road trip with kelly out to mc carthy and kennicot mines. i've not made it out there yet either. i wouldn't mind catching the ferry to cordova when it's a different time of year. i've only been there in early spring and didn't have much chance to check out cordova.

work was pretty good again this week. i can't complain. my first night was kinda funny as work apparently forgot to put me on the schedule or accidently took me off...i wouldn't have minded an unplanned day off, but nobody told me. so the peds and adult units fought for me and i ended up in peds. i guess it was busy. i was put in the annex...an area that they occasionally open up for peds when it's nuts. i ended up with 5 patients over there. the next two nights i was back to the adult icu for 2 nights of sledd/oscillator work. both machines are very noisy and the oscillator ventilator is like a metronome in some ways...it just makes you start dancing. the guy was pretty sick and continues so. we had another guy on the oscillator. h1n1. he passed away last night. young. scarey. happy i didn't have the young guy. i did get a pretty good headache from the noise of the machinery. i still have a knot. it's got a big bruise from all my attempts to break it up. ouch!!

my last night i was put back in peds icu. haven't been there for a long time. i was almost fired by the one mom within minutes of meeting her. she is at a high level of anxiety, has some medical training and is a bit uptight to say the least. they had reason...their kid had coded a few times i guess up in fairbanks...her breathing did look like crap the second i walked in the room. retracting everywhere. the mom wanted to know what the pathophysiology was and why she was having such difficulty...blah, blah, blah. i wanted to say..."her lungs are crap and she's breathing through a straw". instead i told her she needed to chill as all this stress and anxiety wasn't good for the kid who was already dyspneic. i also mentioned that thier other child running around in a hospital filled with h1n1 and other contagious bugs was probably not a good idea. lucky for me the respiratory therapist calmed her down and told her i was actually a very good nurse (i think he said one of the best in the unit which was very sweet). by the morning i had worked hard, made calls, kept on top of it and she looked a bit better and the parents adored me. :-) at one point her chest was sucking in so much that it looked like she was giving herself the chest compressions. my co-worker laughed when i used this description to convince the doc that steroids may be helpful. so work went well...another week...no harm done.

our school systems....

just a few pictures from the past few days...! above is in the bog at sunset. mushrooms in the yard.

here is my pumpkin bread.

why are kids not successful in school in america? i think social has surpassed education in this country. we need to get back to school being taken seriously. i think it would be helpful if we made school a job for these kids...uniforms and more of a structure. i know we are big on individualism in our nation but i think you can do both. you see kids in other nations who seem to see the value in education and give it the respect it deserves. i watch shows of impoverished nations and the kids that get the gift of going to school, are excited about every day of education they get, they dress in thier finest and you can see the pride in thier eyes.

i know i didn't have this zest for education that these kids have and i have fallen short considering the opportunities that we have in this country.i remember school was mostly goofing off and some education...we need to get back to basics. i think the opportunity for individualism should be offered in the form of art, theater,sports and music..

not that i going around hating myself for my lack of success as it were. we are a nation of underachievers. i still could take action...as someone said many years ago during a finals week.."you have til you die to graduate". i guess til you die or get dementia would be more accurate.

i would have preferred to be a veterinarian over being a nurse, but i can't complain really. so far nursing has allowed me to live a good life. am i passionate...not really, not like i was when i worked with animals. i feel good knowing that i really help people in small ways every time i work. in my mind it's more important to deal with the life you are given rather than mourn the life you wanted.

it was a lazy rainy day today. got some reading done, walked the dogs around the bog, but mostly i chilled, did stuff around the house...i got the packages ready for mailing and the tires are loaded in the car for the semi-annual changeover. i've got some package coming from fed ex...i suspect they stopped by when i was in the bog. i hate waiting for stuff/people. it's so annoying. i wish they would have at least left a card saying they'd been by again. it sort of held me up. more likely i used it as an excuse along with the rain to hole up. i did get out for a good walk with sandra yesterday. we went to rovers run which is finally open again. they closed it for the summer because we had so many attacks there the year before. we saw no signs of bears on our walk..no scat and no tracks. i did see a coyote i think. it took off. the trail was muddy...surprise but fun to walk the forbidden trail.

i attempted to make more bread, which came out well and also some cheesecake which didn't turn out so well..oh well. i gave my neighbors each a loaf. always good to stay in with the neighbors. no way i could eat all that bread anyway.

just made homemade turkey noodle soup, blossom is more interested in the squeaky tennis ball than in the soup...that is dedication.

"the art of driving in the rain"....

tossed in a few pictures from round island. still my favorite trip...just so remote and cool. above are cormorants. below puffins, horned.

and of course, walrus. they're in the news frequently. thier numbers are down on round island and recently due to lack of ice floes up north walruses and thier young have congregated on beaches. up to 200 calves and yearlings were trampled when the walrus were frightened by an unknown source and ran over the young. walrus are difficult to study and get accurate counts on as their territory is vast.

i love when i book just takes you over and you want to read and read and read...the only sad thing is that the book always ends. "the art of driving in the rain" by garth stein is one of those books. i was taken hostage by the writing and story and was unable to put it down til i'd read every page. my friend, kelly, had been taken in by the book before me and handed to me the other day after we'd walked together. even though i'm reading another book already i picked it up.

the book is written from the vantage point of the dog, enzo. his person is a race car driver...or trying to be. the drivers life takes some rough turns and enzo is always there to aid as he can despite his lack of thumbs and a tongue that is too long to allow speech. the book brings you to tears, anger and laughter. kelly laughed as the dog discusses the various tv shows that are left on for him when the owner is away. i do that with rio and my friends laugh and ask me what show i left on for her.

anyway...few books really take you in like this one did me and so i cherish those books and recommend it highly to all who want to fall into a novel.

today was a beautiful day. i didn't take any pictures..i do tend to take more when i am alone. i did walk the two dogs in the bog this morning and then met up with another girl from work for the monday walk. she is a rather difficult personality for all. i felt i needed to invite all though, so it was a bit of a torturous day. this person is a bit pushy and is always attempting to instill herself into your life by creating plans. i managed to get away without agreeing to any of the plans. i think i just walked fast so didn't seek out photography ops. her heart is good so i try to keep that in mind,but there are just some people that once you open the door, you can never close it and it's best to keep the chain on it to prevent it from flying open. how is that for metaphor.

later, as the weather was so lovely, i did some yard work. empty out the flower containers, rake more leaves, pick up the dog poop, throw the toy for blossom. the chores of life...

fresh pumpkin bread...

since my moose picture from yesterdays walk came out blurry...i'll post a few ketchikan pics. above is from tidepooling. loads of starfish. below is off south point higgins beach. there was always lots of sea lions swimming out there in the spring. the population of sea lions is safe in southeast alaska, along the aleutians the population is struggling.

just a beach shot above and below is from yesterdays hike...now that hte winds have come and the leaves have all fallen to the earth the nests are easy to spot. this is some sort of wasp nest i'd guess. i think it looks cool though.

just had a slice of my homemade pumpkin bread. the batter was good so i was hopeful the bread would be good. i added extra flour. so it may be a bit dry. oh well. i found the recipe online. i just wasn't excited about the soup idea. i also found a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake that looks good and some pumpkin scones. i think i'd add nutmeg and cinnamon to that.

half moom pumpkin bread

mix together...3 cups sugar, 3 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt,2 tbsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg.

then make a well and add in 4 eggs, 1 cup veggie oil, 2 cups cooked pumpkin, 2/3 cup water, 1 1/2 cups chopped walnut (though i skipped this). i used a electric beater to get the lumps out.

preheat oven to 350 f. coat pans with butter. pour into pans (can make 3) about 1/2-2/3 full. bake 60-90 min. check with toothpick...comes out dry it's done.

have no idea if anyone wants the recipe, but if i can make it and it actually tastes good then it's a winner. i don't do any recipes with more than like 10 ingredients. chatted with my sister today and told her mom is rolling over in her grave. i cooked a turkey breast and will save the carcass for homemade turkey noodle soup. she says she doesn't save the carcass anymore and just uses store bought broth and cream of chicken soup. eek!! hehe. i remember being at a friends for a big holiday dinner. i was helping them clean up and saved the carcass at the last minute. this couple was one of those chef type couples, makes their own wine. they looked at me like i had two heads when i stopped them from trashing the carcass. it was quite funny. i made them some soup. i think they liked it. i cooked a turkey breast in the crock so i could make the homemade gravy and soon soup!!

my walk was a bust today. i took the dogs to the dog park, but i suddenly got super hungry...i mean hungry to the point of feeling dizzy. i had to book it. we only made one loop.

watched that movie, "smile". it was decent. there were good parts. the ending was a bit bust and the begining parts were so-so. oh well. i was up late reading and will get back to that as i am loving that book.

news...obama gets nobel peace prize. i like obama,but it does seem terribly pre-mature. i'd hate to be given an award for what i may do. plus i suspect there were several others who were suggested who actually had done some amazing things. kinda makes you question the whole process...is it merit or political? seems like everything is political.

the caribou were in the news as some of their numbers are down. it's funny to hear natives speak of protecting them as they are protecting thier own in point hope who killed over 60 animals and left their carcasses to rot. i'm still ticked about that. now the oil companies have given money to protect the natives who, in my mind, abused thier subsistence rights.

off to read...

pumpkin carving...

you never know where trolls will turn up. everyone has fun carving the pumpkins...well jennifer did the mom thing and dealt with the bits and clean up. don't feel too badly for her...she had a nice glass of wine or two. she seemed quite happy.

claires witch turned out cool. there is a design on the other side so i think that distorts a bit. she did a fine job cleaning out that pumpkin too...you can almost see through it.okay...so i guess i don't know how to delete picture..i only can accidently delete it. dang....

love pumpkins all lit up. thought they turned out cool. i love the kits as people like me with no talent in pumpkin carving can make a cool looking pumpkin. mine is the bat, valerie did the spider and the self designed pumpkin on the left is by claires friend. i'm still impressed that people can free hand it. would hate to take that away from kids, but it was fun to watch little claire try an easy pattern and then with confidence make the difficult witch. it turned out great.

yes...i'm a bit goofy at times. i think i ended up with a bit of pumpkin guts in my hair. we also discovered that jennifers dog, bert, loves pumpkin. she put some in the food he'd never finished earlier...he got hungry with the pumpkin in there.

sandra and claire struggle with the pumpkin clean out duty. the goal was to save the pumpkin bits for pumpkin soup. you gotta save the seeds for baking, then toss the stringy bits and then scrape and scrape for good pumpkin. i think some of the pumpkins look pretty thin...you can see the light coming through the sides above. jennifer and sandra have both already made thier soup. i needed to wash a few pots before attempting it so i just ate something else tonight. i may look at other pumpkin soup recipes and see if something sounds better. her recipe has onions and curry and i'm not sure i'm ready for those ingredients in the soup.

i brought a halloween troll that i'd seen in the halloween section when i picked up the pumpkin decorating kits. the dude makes scarey noises when you squeeze his belly and his eyes light up. here is my friend in the good soup pumpkin bowl. hehehe...

claire, val and sandra get busy in with the pumpkins. it was a fun night. i am working over halloween so fun to get a little halloween stuff in. we stayed after decorating and watched one of the original peter sellers pink panther movies. always funny...more funny listening to sandra laugh her butt off at the peter sellers strip scene. he's such an idiot as the inspector you can only laugh.

work was sweet this week. i worked in peds and had nice patients and nice families overall. it was easy work and i couldn't complain at all. i decided to not jinx myself with an overtime shift and ruin the fabulous week of work.

sandra is out of work suddenly. even nurses are feeling it. i guess her company went bankrupt. she is from canada and here on a work visa so even though she has found a job at a spine center she now must take the papers across the border to re-apply for a work visa at the new company. she walked with me a few times this week. on wednesday she, tiffany, kelly and i did a loop at campbell airstrip. turned out to be a pleasant day despite rain earlier. today we got lucky again. sandra and i did spencer loop. i don't think she liked it...well, i know she didn't. it's pretty hilly. i actually love spencer loop. it's maybe 5 miles. we saw one moose and got lucky with the weather again. the wind has been blowing off and on. there are no longer leaves on the trees. hopefully, i'll be able to rake,but it's pretty wet out there. would rather rake drier leaves.

i met up with kelly again this week too. so it's been a good week o walking. kelly met me at campbell after i woke friday. blossom always insists on me getting out her chuck it and then mandee ends up with the ball. so it's saturday night and i'm chilling at home. up late last night with the carving and movie. fun though.

i watched, "two weeks" the other day. it was pretty good. about family and the last two weeks of thier mothers life and the waiting and all that. always interesting to see thier take. mostly, i think they got this one right. not a show stopper..we'll see how tonights net flix goes. it's called "smile". i guess it's about a privledged girl who visits china and meets a little girl with a facial deformity. we'll see. it sounds good. kelly loaned me a book so i started into that. should be good. i was already enjoying the first few chapters...the book is called, "the act of pacing in the rain". written from a dogs perspective. she said it was great.