dog with a bubble!! ways to entertain yourself when you run! after hearing of all the amorous behaviours going on out there in the iditarod trail i have come to the conclusion that this is a 1000 mile long dog party!! dogs get to run and run and run and have one night stands. i mean if they still have energy for sex after all that running...they are doing okay!
this race is cruising along pretty rapidly so i thought i better get some of these bibs in tonight. above is the leader last i checked, dallas seavey. mackey calls him cocky and arrogant. winning would probably not make him less so. he is a cute kid, 25 years old, 5 iditarods under his belt and a quest win. sounds like he may have a few things to be cocky about, but it isn't a good quality. that being it said, it worked for ali the boxer. he is into shaktoolik. what a cook name for a town. they are on the norton sound, winds can be killer out there. 
aliy and burmeister are on his heels. i think just 30-45 minutes seperates those first three. there are also several top mushers right behind those 3. it will be a tight finish from what we are seeing currently. i'm still hoping for aliy or even aaron burmeister. watched a video of him and he seemed emotional about what it would mean for him to win. he was actually born and raised in nome and he lives in nenana now. he was saying what it would mean to nome as well to have one of thier own come under the burled arches first. 
very sad to report that jeff king dropped out. they seem to be dropping today. there are now 9 scratched teams. jake berkowitz was dropped as he cut his hand open on a knife while cutting up fish for the dogs. fish gunk in a wound isn't good. guess there was some squirting blood that he wasn't able to completely stop. he came into the checkpoint with a tight wrap around his hand. always a bummer when that sort of thing happens. i'm sure as a musher you kick yourself,but at the same time, everyone is tired. another musher dropped as he was down to 7 dogs. that just puts too much stress on those who are left. race is too long to risk the other dogs health.
dallas seavey. his dad is still pretty close to the top and gramps is not in last place, there are 2 or 3 mushers behind him.
moon, kadzow and clarke also dropped out of the race today. the berington twins are cruising along together. currently in the 44th and 45th position. this is anna bib #33
gotta put the trash out. just remembered. got the cat litter changed. so much fun!! i'm sure the cats were happy about that. 
got up late, the time change through me off. not sure blossom was too thrown off though. we meandered up on the north bivouac trails. took gasline to powerline then went out the tank trail a bit and then headed back. blossom was having fun chasing her tennis ball. we lost one yesterday. so much snow build up on the bridge at the dog park...she dropped it and it just rolled right off the bridge and into the water below to be quickly sucked under the ice. blossom was just about to dive in after it. luckily i convinced her not to do that. that poor woman was sucked under and drowned this winter. you never think of that as a possibility, but once you get under the ice and the current takes you it's over. water is a powerful thing. 
on that note i guess this is the anniversary of the japan earthquake and tsunami. alaskans have history with both of these sorts of disasters so my heart goes out to all those in japan who were impacted and lost loved ones. 
there is a better picture of anna.
and this is my friend gail checking her musher listings.
gails husband mac and some friends of thiers, sarah and greg? 
guess i'm a professional photographer again. haha. a co-worker purchased a few of my calendars that i had set aside and forgotten about. also another aide at work asked if she could purchase a photo of mine with the walrus in it i think. i actually will probably give one to her. she still talks about a night when she was my 1:1 sitter for a confused and huge head trauma. we had to do a code strong. wrestling an over 6 foot, large male back into bed and into 4 point restraints. she got clocked in the jaw and it still clicks i guess. that was a few years back now. still can't believe they were getting a totally not oriented guy out of bed to ambulate to the toilet. not to mention the fact that he was a head injury and they kept giving him ativan and no pain meds. i think it just made him more nuts. his family was pretty upset with my plan to get security and strap him into the bed, but i think in the end i won them over and they were relieved when he started to improve with the medicine change. i stopped giving any ativan and gave him morphine instead. 
bib #32 was banked between the twins. anjannette steer. she is a rookie. her husband has run this race and they decided it was her turn. she and her husband run sheep mountain lodge. oddly, since they have a huge kennel, they don't allow any dogs at their lodge. i tried to book a room when my friend carla came up to drive the denali highway this fall. i do hear great things about the lodge though. people go out there in the winter alot as well as they have groomed ski trails. 
it's her rookie run. only 3 of the nine scratches are rookies so far. for most rookies they are not going for speed, they just want to finish the race and learn.
bib #31 kristy berington. 
the busers seem to be running with each other for the most part as well. i think it's cool when families like these just enjoy each other and do a trek like this together. 
after my walk today i cruised out to the airport road to look for owls, none seen and then over to lake hood to see if anything was happening there. don't think i saw one plane take off. odd as it's a pretty busy airport usually. not to mention was an amazingly beautiful day it was. could see denali, though it wasn't that clear for photo's.
was an article in todays paper byhefling of the associated press. it was about abuses in schools of disabled students. not much details give other than the kids at times are restrained and isolated. i've always questioned the mainstreaming of the disabled. even if they have no ability to actually be educated they are put in the classes and moved along to the next grade level. i know i'm a terrible person for feeling this must be very distracting for the other students, but i just think in some cases we've gone too far. for some school is really just respite care for parents. i'm all for respite care, but don't feel our overcrowded classrooms is an appropriate place for respite care to occur. i see some of these kids in the hospital and know that johnny can't learn anything. it's one thing if a child has capabilities to learn, then yes, do what needs to be done, but for those who don't. lets just accept thier limitations and put them someplace that focuses more on respite care. then there would be a better chance of them not being isolated and restrained. i think these kids just quickly overwhelm a class and instructors who aren't medically trained to handle them.
another article discusses banning plastic water bottle sales in universities. i remember when bottled water came on the market. we all laughed and never dreamed that anyone would be able to make a living selling people water when they had a steady stream of water in thier houses. incredibly it's a big business now. so much waste in bottles that go to landfills. i'm all for this ban. i remember at a family party years ago there was a cooler with various drinks and bottles of water. one neice was complaining because all the water bottles were gone and she was thirsty. i suggested that she just get a glass and drink it from the tap. you would have thought i had suggested she drink sewage waste. she is now a pretty liberal leaning thinker and i suspect she just filters and doesn't buy plastic bottles. i just knew the bottled water thing was a total success in marketing. i mean now there was a whole generation that was afraid to drink tap water. 
bib #30. i know i wander off subject. but i do have alot of little opinions. jaime kinzer is a rookie out of willow. moved north from idaho to work with deedee jonrowe and her kennel. she is excited to head to nome. just peeked and she is in 51st place with 3 dogs still.
she looks happy here. hope her run is going well. 
love the green!! 
guess one of our soldiers in afghanistan went nuts and killed 13-14 civilians by going door to door shooting people. he was captured, but the damage is done. can't imagine that will be good for our public relations over there. there will be no punishment short of death that will be acceptable. just a sad, sad event to have happened. so horrible when innocent people get killed in these rampages. there is just no sense to it. 
am reading the sunday paper as i write. i just teared up...finally theologians that get it. two local reverands, eldred and burke, wrote an editorial in support of prop 5. this prop simply protects all from discrimination, gays, lesbian, transgender and bisexuals. they just used the words of jesus, "love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, Love your neighbor as yourself. do this, and you will live." have always thought most organized religions have forgotten the simplicity of the message that jesus brought to the earth. it's good to see that not all pastors have forgotten. perhaps there is hope!!
loving the bright booties on these guys. it was too warm out there for the leggings, but believe me those are cute too! i may have to get some of those for blossom. she has never liked the bootie idea, but i think she wouldn't find the leggings too objectionable. hugh neff's dogs are wearing thier adorable red and white striped cat in the hat coats out there. ain't nothing cuter than a team in cat in the hat garb!!!
hearing on facebook more solar flares are coming our way. of course, looks like more clouds and snow is coming too. will watch. there is an ap for the aurora forecasts. lots of alaskan friends have it.
this is bib #29 jake berkowitz. he was doing well before his injury so very bummed for him and his team that this happened. fish guts i wounds is not good. sounds like a few stitches and antibiotics will fix it, but the iditarod folks have to be able to care for thier dog teams and with that kind of injury it's questionable. so they asked him to drop out. 
like getting the side shots. 
was laughing remembering a road trip i took in california with my friend michelle. i'd gotten directions to our friends place in atascadero. i was driving and had given her the directions. we got off on the exit and then it seemed we were driving forever. i finally mentioned that when i got the directions i was sure we got off the freeway and turned fairly quickly and asked her to double check the directions. she then told me she had been looking for frontAGE (french pronunciation) road and hadn't seen it yet. of course, it was not actually called frontAGE road it was a frontage road we were supposed to turn on. we laughed and laughed and laughed!!
mispronunciations were common in those days and we'd had a short story to relay all our favorites. don't think that one had happend yet. i remember it was yold (lloyd) lived on a yamma(llama) farm on orang-e-thorp-e (orangethorpe) and ate ca-hoon (cajun) fries. 
those slip ups may have been aided by a drink that was created in a hot tub one night. with us all too lazy to get out of the hot tub and all being veterinarians or vet techs we created one big drink from all the various drinks we had leftover in the hot tub. coke-beer-wine...who knows. anyway, we called it "the cloaca". for those of you not familiar with birds or vet medicine. all thier poop/piss/eggs whatever...comes out of one hole called, yes, the cloaca. seemed a fitting name for a drink. 
bib #28 is peter kaiser out of bethel. i have never been to bethel, but from what i've seen in the hospital they have some tough bugs out there. the kids there are more immune to the bugs, but when they mix with the innocent children of other villages, those poor kids get sick, sick, sick...poor buggers!!
he's doing well, must be those tough bethel genes. he is currently in 8th place and in unalakleet. 
onto one of my favorites...the cat in the hat musher, hugh neff!! 
there he is with his cat in the hat hat and a little cat in the hat toy hangs off his sled. he races promoting literacy. not sure what the background is for that, what made him pick that to promote. usually there is a reason. maybe he just likes the cat in the hat. hehe. 
he just won the yukon quest this year by 26 seconds so he's had an exciting year already. he's currently sitting in 22nd place behind the busers and anjanette steer. 
happy running dogs!
aliy did get to the coast first which meant she got gold nuggets for that. that will buy some dog food.
next year he needs to purchase bright red booties to go with the dogs cool red and white coats!! just my opinion! 
only 6 checkpoints to go for the top group. won't be long til we have a winner!! people will be on the trail for several days after the winner has been determined. rooms in nome are heard to be tough to come by. would be great fun to plan a trek up there for the end of the iditarod! can be pretty dang cold though and sometimes those winners roll in at 3 am.
tiffany and aaron, the providers of the trailside moose feast at the restart.
bib #26 michelle phillips. she is from tagish, yukon territory. i've been through there i believe. she used to figure skate, but took up mushing when she met her partner 14 years ago. that's what i should do meet a guy with an active kennel. could be fun!
she looks to be having a good run. she is currently in 14th place with 13 dogs still. she got an award last year from the vets for dog care. gotta like that!
lots of tongues wagging!
another monday walk coming up tomorrow. always fun! was going to hit the pool, but layed down for a half hour nap which went a wee bit longer. perhaps i should try and bake something for tomorrows walk. haven't done that for awhile. i think i'm low on flour though so may limit the possibilities.
bib #25 is paul gebhardt out of kasilof down on the kenai. he's run 15 times and finished 2nd twice. 
he is currently in 16th place and down to 11 dogs. gotta pack in the dogs these next few days and then once a winner is announced i'll do less and less dogs and add back in my usual dog walks. i haven't stopped walking. have no fear! it's been a fun week with cool moose and eagle sightings. i've still never seen a lynx or wolverine out there in the woods...one can always hope!
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