an early christmas gift to me from the dogs...they are just the sweetest and i don't know how they always guess just what i will love, but they do! yes, i bought it, i selected it, whatever...it's from the dogs!! often when the big craft fair occurs at the alaska native hospital in town i am working the night before and i'm all sleepy. they have some amazing art there anyway, but this sale is always wonderful. i frequently budget a few hundred and allow myself a cool gift. don't we all need to spoil ourselves from time to time. since i got no man if i don't spoil myself ain't nobody gonna do it for me. i've often found that having a male doesn't guarantee any spoiling. having dogs that are generous does though. anyway...i think that is the wine talking. this walrus is carved from ivory. i loved how the artist used the natural design of the ivory in creating it. seemed a good time to add another walrus as i'm headed off to round island next summer again. land of the walrus. 
snapped some pictures here in my little office. he's such a thing of beauty!
that same day i hit the craft fair at the UAA campus. got started on the christmas stuff. since the chinooks blew all night last night and all day today seemed a good idea to stay close to home. when the chinooks blow it warms up and rains and then the whole place becomes an ice rink. it's a horrible mess. always a bit strange in this land of cold, cold weather that if it's 20 below zero the kids go to school, but if it warms up over 35 and the chinooks blow they will cancel. it's just too icy to safely transport the kids around. we were able to walk the main street here today, but as soon as i hit the sidewalk on patterson it was all slick ice. walked back and assessed the option of walking the bog, but with the warming trend you had to posthole in 2 feet of snow. not appealing. rio had a bit of the runs...hope it freezes soon again, so we stayed home all day. got all my christmas cards done!! organized what i still need to purchase, got stuff ready for shipping! not decorated yet, but i like to get the other business of christmas done, then i can relax, decorate and watch/listen to christmas stuff. 
put a few of my new walruses buddies together for a photo shoot. okay, one little polar bear. i'll have to locate a larger bear one of these days. the kitten demonstrates the use of the new cat pad i bought for them at the craft fair at UAA. this lady makes these pads filled with catnip. my cats just love em. so i bought a new one. they again went crazy and even snuck in to the spare room where i had one tucked away to mail to a friend with a cat and dragged it off the bed. 
here is christmas card central. i simplified the process. had cards made at shutterfly with a few pictures of me and the dogs. wrote a letter and got it all printed out. i used to write in all the cards but i found i was writing pretty much the same thing in each card. besides, as a society we don't write much on a regular basis anymore. i think my writing muscles are underworked. just addressing envelopes was a bit taxing. who knew. don't think i'm sending out as many, each year a few less. i'm sure one day it will be a thing of the past. i do find there are some, like me, who still enjoy the exchange each year. it's becoming obsolete though as facebook and blogs and such allow us to keep in better touch with each other. the christmas card was a way to catch up with old friends. i have a new address book too so i think i sent off a few cards to people who probably haven't exchanged for some time. i'll prune again next year. there are always some people who work hard to keep the friendships alive and those who move on and seem to just let old friendships fade off. i remember my mother spending hours writing hundreds of cards at christmas. she was always great at that. my brother jeff is also probably way better than i am. i do have many old friends who haven't joined facebook and even some who have never bothered to get a computer in their homes let alone get a cell phone or whatever. i'm behind the next generation but ahead of some in my age bracket i guess. 
had bought rio a new coat for christmas but with the chinooks i brought it out early. wind/water resistent. seemed a good idea today. we didn't get to walk long though. tomorrow is monday walk, we'll just have to put on the cleats and hope for the best. hopefully rio's bowel issues have resolved a bit by then. can you give dogs immodium? i'll have to look online and see if i can. she's 120#. she woke me at 0400 last night to go out and for a dog who hates the cold has gone out multiple times today. sorry to talk about a dogs bowel habits...gross i know, but when you have a 120 # dog with diarrhea...it can be a bad day!!
it's very thinning!
skipped rollar derby yesterday. just driving to the gym for my swim and back was a bit risky. the roads actually looked pretty clear today, but i feared leaving rio at home or in the car. 
this basket was at the craft fair at the hospital. it was stunning! wish i had a few thousand to purchase, but i stuck with my walrus.
snapped some pictures here in my little office. he's such a thing of beauty!
that same day i hit the craft fair at the UAA campus. got started on the christmas stuff. since the chinooks blew all night last night and all day today seemed a good idea to stay close to home. when the chinooks blow it warms up and rains and then the whole place becomes an ice rink. it's a horrible mess. always a bit strange in this land of cold, cold weather that if it's 20 below zero the kids go to school, but if it warms up over 35 and the chinooks blow they will cancel. it's just too icy to safely transport the kids around. we were able to walk the main street here today, but as soon as i hit the sidewalk on patterson it was all slick ice. walked back and assessed the option of walking the bog, but with the warming trend you had to posthole in 2 feet of snow. not appealing. rio had a bit of the runs...hope it freezes soon again, so we stayed home all day. got all my christmas cards done!! organized what i still need to purchase, got stuff ready for shipping! not decorated yet, but i like to get the other business of christmas done, then i can relax, decorate and watch/listen to christmas stuff. 
put a few of my new walruses buddies together for a photo shoot. okay, one little polar bear. i'll have to locate a larger bear one of these days. the kitten demonstrates the use of the new cat pad i bought for them at the craft fair at UAA. this lady makes these pads filled with catnip. my cats just love em. so i bought a new one. they again went crazy and even snuck in to the spare room where i had one tucked away to mail to a friend with a cat and dragged it off the bed. 
here is christmas card central. i simplified the process. had cards made at shutterfly with a few pictures of me and the dogs. wrote a letter and got it all printed out. i used to write in all the cards but i found i was writing pretty much the same thing in each card. besides, as a society we don't write much on a regular basis anymore. i think my writing muscles are underworked. just addressing envelopes was a bit taxing. who knew. don't think i'm sending out as many, each year a few less. i'm sure one day it will be a thing of the past. i do find there are some, like me, who still enjoy the exchange each year. it's becoming obsolete though as facebook and blogs and such allow us to keep in better touch with each other. the christmas card was a way to catch up with old friends. i have a new address book too so i think i sent off a few cards to people who probably haven't exchanged for some time. i'll prune again next year. there are always some people who work hard to keep the friendships alive and those who move on and seem to just let old friendships fade off. i remember my mother spending hours writing hundreds of cards at christmas. she was always great at that. my brother jeff is also probably way better than i am. i do have many old friends who haven't joined facebook and even some who have never bothered to get a computer in their homes let alone get a cell phone or whatever. i'm behind the next generation but ahead of some in my age bracket i guess. 
had bought rio a new coat for christmas but with the chinooks i brought it out early. wind/water resistent. seemed a good idea today. we didn't get to walk long though. tomorrow is monday walk, we'll just have to put on the cleats and hope for the best. hopefully rio's bowel issues have resolved a bit by then. can you give dogs immodium? i'll have to look online and see if i can. she's 120#. she woke me at 0400 last night to go out and for a dog who hates the cold has gone out multiple times today. sorry to talk about a dogs bowel habits...gross i know, but when you have a 120 # dog with diarrhea...it can be a bad day!!
it's very thinning!
skipped rollar derby yesterday. just driving to the gym for my swim and back was a bit risky. the roads actually looked pretty clear today, but i feared leaving rio at home or in the car. 
this basket was at the craft fair at the hospital. it was stunning! wish i had a few thousand to purchase, but i stuck with my walrus.a few stories in the news this weekend. an active 35 year old somehow slipped under the campbell creek here in town and drowned. it's only a few feet thick. they suggested that maybe she was filling a water bottle, but that is highly unlikely. i suspect a more likely scenario was either photo op or retreival of some iten that was dropped. maybe she even took a step into the shallow creek and slipped. whatever got her in, she apparently slipped underneath the ice with no way out and drowned. in this place it doesn't take much for a simple walk to become life threatening. we all do dumb things and somehow survive, but it just takes that one time where the luck isn't with you. just like that runner who got lost for a few nights. he was within shouting range to two major hospitals and two universities and still got hypothermic disoriented and eventually lost both is feet to frostbite. another guy got incredible lucky up north. guess he went for a little drive out of nome. he got about 40 miles out and got stuck in a snowbank. usually people try and carry some survival gear in the car. this time he hadn't loaded up before heading out. all he had to eat was a few cans of frozen beer. guess he ate it bit by bit. not the best diet, but you do what you do. lucky they found him cold but alive. no frostbite, but he did lose 16 pounds over the 3 days he was out there. this land will swallow you up and you don't have to be out of range for it to happen.
feel like i didn't get much done today since i barely left the house but i guess i did when i look at the pile of stuff ready for the post office. hopefully i can hit it before hte lines get too long. that means i've got to get my arse up and out of bed tomorrow. still lots of christmas shopping to do before i'm done, but it's good to be started and to have a few things done.
Love reading this, even if the wine is talking, makes it way more interesting!! Lol
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