healthy and happy...

they finally groomed the trails. i was thinking of heading out after dinner and skiing all those sweet ruts. by the time i did all i needed to do though i was beat so i'm ready to head to bed with a book already. does chicken have tryptophan in it? i fried up some chicken. it was tasty. i also rewarded myself with a few hoho's!!
this afternoon i had my short health check at work. we get $600 off our insurance. my blood pressure was excellent. my happy cholesterol was fab....they didn't even call me fat or anything horrible like that. so i was all happy with the good news. and it all took less than 20 minutes.
walked in the bog with both pups earlier. the sun was out the skies all blue and it was a bit chilly, but not too bad. when i came out of the bog the city workers were working on the snow on our street. it was a bit tough to leave for awhile so i lay in the sun and read for a bit. it's a pretty big task getting all that snow moved.

did finally get blossom out on the trails. we did a fast walk of rovers run. i was short on time so we had to move. i think it's about 3 miles. blossom is pretty tuckered after chasing her tennis ball all day. above was on rovers run. the sun was starting to set...this was taken at about 2:45 and the one above about an hour later. it just looked cool how the sun was hitting the tops of the trees. i was hoping that a bald eagle would land on the highlighted limbs. oh well. can't hurry wildlife. no moose on rovers run/moose's run but rio did sniff up one in the bog. it was laying down a bit off trail. she can spot em.

these pictures show how much better it is for the road clean crew if people don't leave thier cars parked out on the street. you can also how easy it is to get trapped in while they do thier work. there were ice boulders all over up to 4 feet in places. they did a pretty fast clean up though, just delayed me a bit.

stayed up late watching "the motorcycle diaries". it was actually pretty good. can't say as i know all the history of che guevara as a revolutionary. i guess everyone starts somewhere and this road trip started it for him it seems. he became aware of the people and thier struggles. probably most revolutionaries no matter what side they end up on start out with some good intentions. i guess i'll have to read the history a bit more...but the movie was good. they visit lepers, which was che's initial goal...to work as a doctor with lepers. the scenery is at times spectacular. the roadtrip took place in '51-'52.

spoke to my sister linda for a few minutes. they're electricity had been off for many hours and while we chatted it went out again. i guess they got about 8 inches of very heavy, wet snow that caused havoc. the first set of packages are getting through, thiers arrived. i still have 6 boxes here waiting for me to drop them off for shipping.

the boy who stabbed his classmate/girlfriend was officially arrested and will be tried as an adult. very sad. they just had his grandmother on the news. she just looked so distraught. nobody wins in these situations. the boy looked pretty scared as well. they didn't really say how she was doing. she's probably in the peds icu.

guess i'll get to bed early. is supposed to get foggy tonight so the tree's should be all frosted again in the morning. always looks so cool.

yep it's monday and we walked again!

8 dogs, 8 humans....hard to get pictures of all those dogs. i think one time i got a picture of 7 of the dogs...then i was all trying to figure out who i was missing, finally i realized i wasn't counting the dog at the end of the leash i was holding. rio made it to the monday walk . the dogs are blurry as they are in constant motion...it's the begining of the monday walk.

i think that is the picture below...i think there are seven dogs in there with kelly. she won't be able to join us for many more monday walks as she took a day shift position at an out patient surgical center. she's excited though as it means no more nights, weekends or holidays. hopefully, she'll at least get off early sometimes and join us for walks still.

melissa in the front, her grandma, andrea, tanya and melissa's mom. she brought the family. we had 8 humans and 8 dogs. blossom is wiped out. she's only brought the toy to me one time to toss. she's laying there on the couch with her head on a pillow and her toy tucked under a paw. just like a kid.

here is melissa with her family. grandma, husband, troy, melissa and her mom.

i think everyone enjoyed the day outside. it was chilly...but not too cold for comfort. it actually felt perfect. the sun was out which is always great. rio joined us for the first time this season. not sure i'll do that again. we'll see how she feels tomorrow. i think she had a nice walk...except that blossom thinks it's fun to hump her. i accidently have trained her that if she humps rio, i get the toy out to distract her. no toy today...still attempting to re-train that one. of course, the bad stuff they learn they don't seem to unlearn very quickly. since rio was on the leash and strolling along behind me it became melissa's job to remove blossom each time this lovely event occured. poor rio!! she's so tolerant.

i think at one point we had 4 dogs on one stick. they played nicely together. we ran into someone else who had two dogs. she thought it was great, all these dogs out there. so below is indy, mandy and blossom.

after the walk...we all ended up over at the coffee house. i had made the cookies the night before so i brought those and some of the dough. they laughed but a few of them said they are like me and prefer the dough. i think when i'm a senile old lady i won't know my name, but i would be able to recite the recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

this evening i was debating a movie at the bear tooth, but they sell out so quickly and i've been wanting to hit the 5th avenue mall. i've had a few gift cards to use up. i chose a good day to go as they were having a buy one get one half off sale at the body shop...where my gift card was for. in the end i bought lots of great smells for $32. the original price was over $75 so i think i had a good night at the body shop. i also bought a few things to finish off a few packages. so those are ready to mail...now i just have to get my arse to the post office again. i have 6 packages to mail off. i did discover that the mall parking lot is a bit short. i was skimming my box top all over. looks okay. the snow is no longer on there now.

pearl harbor day. you'd like to think after such an all encompassing and horrendous world war we would have moved past the need to have war, but the guns still get built and wars still take lives. i felt sad today, not just for those who perished at pearl harbor, but for all who passed away in that war. it also made me sad that we are here again...or still...at war, losing more lives. i guess i could be cold and think that perhaps world wars are like plagues and natural disasters...simply a way for the earth to lessen it's load. will there ever be a world without war? or is it just that humans can't live at peace with other humans?

it was interesting to be out in dutch harbor with all the remnants of a battle fought there. i never read that in my history books growing up. they don't seem to bring up the war in the aleutians. i guess alaska was still a territory. that really seems like it would have been a rough place to fight a war out there. brutal weather and no gear like we have now.

i guess a poor girl got stabbed like 20 times at a local high school. luckily another boy intervened at no doubt great risk to himself and she is in surgery i guess.

guess i will head off to bed...blossom is ready, rio is always ready.

another week, another sledd patient...why me?

just a few pictures from university lake over the week. well, actually the one just below was taken from my back yard. i love when the sunset makes the snow covered mountains all pink. very pretty. i guess the correct term is alpenglow. a pretty word for a pretty site.

we hit the dog park twice during my work stretch. the first day we missed out as the heater was acting up so i was waiting for the heater people. i won't use that company again. they were okay, but the guy mentioned that the other two heater places in town are the only ones with parts for my particular heater. he cleaned and serviced it and it seems to be working just fine now. the guy repeated told me there were "no guarantees" that this would totally fix the problem. he said it like 10 times and made sure his helper (his son) wrote it on the slip. i never asked for a guarantee so it was annoying. i just looked at him and said...yes, nowadays nobody will guarantee thier work will they.

spent my week of work again at the SLEDD machine. an 11 year old with a not so good new diagnosis. at least an 11 year old is less stressful having on the machine than the last 2 kids we had...which were babies. still i'm no expert at setting up the machines and was supposed to set it up the second night. i called dialysis to assist me as it was change of shift and it would be nice to not tie up the adult icu charge nurse with this. the dialysis nurse used to work with me in picu. he initially gave me some attitude about helping and saying we were supposed to be independant and he was going to talk to our educator about it. i reminded him that he and another had been the first ones sent to training and that they had both quit picu and transferred down to dialysis...they never sent anyone else for training. surprise. anyway...he showed up to help and had difficulty with the set up so i was all sloppy nice with how much i appreciated it as these kids lines all have thier own quirks and it was so much easier with help....blah, blah, blah. sometimes in life a little manipulation goes along ways. he felt badly for giving me tude and all was well.

my third night with her i was on a clot watch. there was a big ol clot in the arterial chamber and i knew her venous access was sticky. the gods were with me and all went well overall through my 3 nights. she is doing okay...not sure how things will go long term, but for the immediate there is improvement. she seemed perfectly normal up until a week or so ago. then the parents get hit with a diagnosis of wegeners. some sort of autoimmune issue. not sure how long term is....nice family. so sad.

for me, the stretch was pretty sweet really, i just run the machine and help out as needed with patient care. we had good staff on (except one night we had to deal with the bipolarish doc.) i got about 60 christmas cards written. most of my "work" happened on the hour every hour.

they called me on night two to see if i would just take the patient on my own. in the adult icu SLEDD patients are staffed 1:1. in peds they have been staffed 2:1 as they aren't trained to run the machine. i'm the only one who could do it. i have before, on a 14 year old, but first, there was no thanks or appreciation and secondly, i have zero back up on the floor. it would take 2 nurses to break me every time i wanted to even pee. the adult icu nurses aren't comfortable with a child or the PICU and the peds nurses can't deal with the machine. as it is, i only get breaks by calling down to the adult icu and having thier charge come relieve me. they have been very supportive and helpful in this. it's been frustrating that i can't get the picu management to send a proper thank you too all the adult icu folks for helping them out. not sure why people don't understand how a simple thanks goes a long ways.

we had a situation with another patient that night as i refused to be a 1:1 and the float they sent wasn't comfortable with a new vented patient. they had a 17 year old near drowning. they switched her out for another float nurse not oriented to peds who does adult icu. i knew her and was able to help quite a bit, but she was a trooper for going someplace totally new and taking this on. i hope they give her the thanks she deserves.

i made it to the native hospital annual christmas craft sale. wish i hadn't been so sleepy. it's very short hours and only the one day. i found a few little things. brought my co-worker from acc a little basket. when i told her the sale was today she was really bummed that she was working and would miss it. i worked with deb in ketchikan and again in the adult icu here. she has also gone on a few of my annual trips ( round and kayak islands). she moved out of state, but quickly discovered that this was a mistake and moved back 9months later. i guess she sold everything when she thought she was moving for good. she loved her little basket and when my other friend kara came in this morning she brought a hand painted christmas card that deb had painted for me. very sweet. i love water colours and it's a beautiful mountain scene. i think i will have to get that card framed. we'd been talking about it the day before.

the SLEDD machine requires big jugs which we change out at various times. i always draw a little picture on my bottles. i am no artist so i was laughing that it would be embarrassing having her, the artist, see my pathetic artwork. i guess she always draws on hers now after she saw me do this in the past. she does little landscapes though . she said she loves my critter drawings. later, i was talking to the mom and mentioned the drawings. she was saying she had noticed and appreciated it....such a stressful situation and something like that put a little lightness into it she was saying. i told her about deb being an artist and that we were laughing at my skills...i told the mom my walrus drawing had really been pretty sad...she laughed and said, "oh that was a walrus, i was wondering". hehe. so yes...my drawing skills are limited. i did remember that it's christmas time and drew some decent snowmen and then a christmas tree. of course, i totally put my foot in my mouth with kara in the morning as i joked that i hoped i didn't offend anyone with a "christmas" tree. that perhaps we should think of a more politically correct name.....i came up with "festive bush". oh my god, we laughed and laughed.

well, back to baking cookies. monday walk tomorrow.

stay-cation is over....:-(

the sunsets happen earlier and earlier. not much today, but this is at about 3:30pm. below is out on the trail.

fields of lovely christmas tree's...hang a stocking, deck the halls and all that.

the above pine tree's explain why we have our christmas tree's brought up from down south. they are cute in thier own little charlie brown way. blossom and i did some loops around n. bivouac. it was pretty warm out...in the 30's.

yesterday i got a few packages ready and so 4 boxes are on thier way out of alaska. i've got 3 more ready to go. the christmas cards are all addressed. i'm on my way. still all the local stuff to do, but i'm trying to get the stuff shipped out before the lines get too long.

so i was watching this bird on the trail....it was too far up to get decent pictures of and i'm not sure what it is? anyone?

blossom runs into a few friends. jill was out on the trails skiing with her doodles. the pups are maybe 8-9 months old. cute...moving lots so no good pictures.

the sheets are dry. blossom of course, has moved onto the bed already. it's always tougher making a bed with a dog on it. hmm...how to convince her to move along without breaking her heart. right....she's spoiled!

there was awesome light in the bog this morning. rio sniffed out this moose. it's a funny thing. her nose just shoots up and she starts making a run for those moose. lucky she was on a leash. wind direction is a big factor. she's been within a few feet and kept walking past the moose.

doing the laundry. i love fresh sheets. my computer was acting up anyway so i'm running a scan on it. these dang computers can be so annoying. jenny mccarthy was on conan...she was saying how when she first came on the show she saw later that she had wet pits. they showed the picture. it is awful. pits are gross. then these expensive materials are a pain as i think when you work out in the synthetics your odors just attach themselves to the fibers. after a few wears...it's permanent odor permeability. just gross. i've had other friends have the same experiences with synthetics. they are better for outdoor activities...

on synthetics...the lycra people. weekend exercisers. up here it's the ski nazi's. they get on those trails and they can be so rude. i guess the bike riders can get that way in california. on npr they were talking about a doctor that ran over some bikers on purpose he was so frustrated with them in his mountainous neighborhood. he was convicted apparently. nobody condones what he did, but several neighbors complain that the bikers ride 3-4 thick and then flip the drivers off or worse when they want to pass them.

see how beautiful the sun is? you can see there is wind blowing up on the chugach range. so pretty. the wind is calmer today. yesterday was more chinooks. it was a pretty miserable day outside yesterday so did the bog loop and then settled in with my book. i just finished "the help". it was so good. great to just snuggle read, nap, read, nap...it was such a wonderful book. one that totally takes you in. i feel pretty spoiled when i read a book like this. last night i poured lettuce into my bowl from one of those bags. it was all limp. gross. so many other people in this world, if the lettuce is limp they would never dream of tossing it...they simply find a way to use it. the book is about maids in the south around the 1960's. the civil rights movement was starting, but these poor folks were so removed. those white women had a sweet deal. what a strange life...just planning fancy parties, chiling with your friends at the country club while your help does all the cooking/cleaning and childcare. of course, you could tell in the book too that their sweet life had alot of rules in it. so many rules in that era. many were actual laws (the jim crow) but so many social rules, strange hierarchies. for some of those women maybe they took thier lack of power out on thier help. some people are just nasty folk.

the sun was beating down on the trees at the edge of the big pond. when i walked under them i heard all this crackling. just these trees had these icicles. very odd. most of the tree's looked like the ones below. we got just a smidge of snow through the night.

sometimes the sun is just right. the bog trail...gorgeous.

i read that a police officer in washington ended up shooting the guy who entered a coffee house and killed 4 police officers. that nut was let out of his 95 year sentence. sentence commuted. politics. ridiculous. i'm happy that that won't be allowed to happen again. i really feel for the family and friends of these folks.

my dvd's arrived from amazon.com. so tonight i watched "the doctor" haven't seen that forever. june really steals the whole show. she's great. okay...really going to make that bed now and sleep....the stay-cation is over. sure would love to be a stay at home dog mom. i can see how it would have been easy to get used to having someone do all the work for you if you lived in the south back in the day. i'd like to think i'd feel way too guilty sitting around, but i am a bit of a lazy girl, what can i say!!

monday walks...and strange messages....

just 4 of us today and 4 dogs. tanya, me, andrea and amy (speedy reedy) showed up. we did the long loop and all of us felt hot despite being in snow. i should have skipped the long johns. sometimes it's hard to guess how much layering will be required on any given day....of course, if it's neg 20 you can layer up to til the cows come home and never totally feel warm. it was a fun walk as usual and i love the variety of walking partners.

just tanya and i got some hot cocoa after and then i had errands to run. the usual christmas stuff. post office, more shopping. blossom melted in the car as i ran the errands...which means just a little less moisture in the house.

getting some stuff done for the christmas holiday. i've got much of the send off stuff picked out and some packaged up. got all the cards addressed, the letter is written and printed...will be nice to get it all done a bit early then settle in and decorate, do the local stuff. i'll be working the christmas and new years holidays so no fun there.

spent the weekend at the dog park with the pups. mild weather really. tonight we have had a bit of the chinook winds. doesn't actually seem to horrible though. often if you get the chinooks the snow will all turn to a sheet of ice. hopefully that won't happen and i can get some nice walks in the next few days.

today was monday walk. 4 people, 4 dogs. i guess arika was there, but her little baby started to have a melt down and her dog was also freaking out...not too keen on the booties. she has a english bull and a french bull. i know she likes to get out.

took blossom skiing on saturday. the snow as nice and once i gave up on the harness and set her free we both had a much better time out there. she just doesn't do the pull thing and is a trail greeter. she just loves everyone.

i finished "walking with jane" and started "the help". the help is easy to get sucked into which i love in a book so i'm about to settle in for the night with it. walking with jane was interesting as it has lots of history about the pipeline and just a fun adventure tale. the guy spent the summer with his dog, jane walking the pipeline from valdez to deadhorse. rough to live in a tent for that many months and the mosquito's got a bit rough as did the weather at times.

had a strange message from sandra saturday morning. apparently she "arse dialed" me by accident. i ended up with a strange message of grunts, crunching snow, muttered words and coughs. the message lasted like 5 minutes and it took a bit for the message to get through so it took a bit before i could actually call her. she was okay...just outside shoveling snow. so she was okay and we laughed and laughed. that night i went to jennifer and family's for a wine party. the first french wine of the year is released so they had like 80 bottles at thier place. it was fun. more fun once the party thinned a bit. i'm never very good in a room full of folks i hardly know and tend to stay close to people i know til the crowd thins. then i get more social.

off to read....

black friday....really more like white friday!

pictures of the dogs frolicking in all our fresh snow!! could put it in sports mode and get clearer shots....but you get the idea!

just a few more bog shots. fresh snow! didn't get many on todays walk as it was really coming down. didn't want the camera to get to wet. the two below are from yesterday.

below is blossom pathetically looking down at me from the second story window. i had settled the dogs in with the intent of leaving them behind while i shopped black friday...but as i shoveled the heavy snow i kept looking up to see that sad face looking back at me. i know...i was played like a violin. i'm wrapped around that dog's paws and they got loaded up and taken on the road. as a reward i took them both to pet zoo and pet co. i had a coupon for pet zoo and pet co is close by. taking the two big dogs into pet stores is a handful, but we do okay.

that sad look is killing me still. poor blossom!! it's tough being so spoiled. below is another picture from yesterdays walk. today the snow didn't clump on her as much. we did the bog and i attempted to snowshoe it since it was deep. that snow was totally heavy though and it kept sticking to the bottom of the shoes. i think i carried an extra 5-10 pounds on each foot. i was hungry and exhausted after just a loop. walking would have been easier. probably tomorrow i'll head out on foot. cross country skiing may be a good option too.

the next picture is in the bog. i always love how the snow heaps onto all the limbs of the tree's. growing up in california i remeber they would sell christmas tree's and offer flocking. i thought it was strange at the time. now i can see why people who were from snowy places and lived in california may want that look now. not too many people out there. one skier which looked like the better idea in that snow. oh well. who knew?

i did get some shopping done and tonight i've been working on my christmas cards. spoke to jeff, my brother, he's all done with his cards, decorated the house...! ackk! made me feel so behind. i still need to work on the christmas letter for the year. not sure if anyone reads it, but i found i was writing the same thing over and over and over again. it is futile really, besides, my handwriting is horrible.

got to kohls after the "early bird" special. i had one thing in mind which was a gift for my brother, eric, as it's my turn for him in our family rotating gift exchange. i decided to take it to the check out and see if the price was the early bird one. i got lucky and they hadn't changed the register yet. that was like a $50 difference. i'da had to shop online or get something else. so...hope he likes it.

as i left kohls and sports authority i noticed the sunset (at 3:30). i decided to head to the turnigan arm and see if i could get a photo. i had to drive slow though as the roads were pretty crappy due to the snow. cars were in the ditch all over and apparently the seward highway is closed near seward due to an avalanche...so i didn't get quite the sunset picture i'd hoped for, but still nice i guess.

had a chance to relax this morning and read the paper. apparently austrailia has 6000 feral camels. they are in a drought and plan to round them up by helicopter and gun them down. sounds pretty brutal to me. our state does wolf control by helicopter as well from time to time. just seems like there should be a more humane way to decrease a population size. i mean why did they let the population grow to 6000 before deciding something should be done. seems crazy. i heard that in iraq they culled thousands and thousands of stray dogs. no infrastructure...i think it was upwards of 20,000 dogs. mind boggling.

in other news the catholic church is going to pay some retribution to members who were sexually abused by priests out in the villages. i guess, when these priests were discovered in the lower 48, they were shipped to small alaska villages. good plan. the abuses took place decades ago at this point.

back to the christmas cards.

happy thanksgiving...

another thanksgiving is past...today is black friday. i guess i was supposed to wake at 3 am and go shopping. just don't love shopping all that much. i may head to rei or sports authority as i could use some pants. it snowed all night the night before thanksgiving and it is snowing now. i'm off to shower and the other pictures i attempted to add failed. i'll put more pics in later...for now i need to get out there and enjoye the snow.
took the dogs to the bog yesterday and then took blossom out to n. bivouac so that i could enjoy the snow. we snowshoed....well, i snowshoed and blossom chased her frisbee. she gets coated with the snow and melts for hours afterwards. above is a self portrait. below is blossom in all her glory.

sandra and tiffany came over for a thanksgiving feast. it was a relaxing and fun dinner. lots of laughter and of course, good food was had by all. the animals entertained. my crock pot turkey tasted good as did the stuffing i made. i was all happy, though i realized later that i forgot to get out the desert i'd bought. silly me.

blossom couldn't relax as long as she knew we had guests...she kept bringing her toys to sandra and insisting on attention. sandra was very graceful in accomadating the fluffy pup. i ended up sitting on the dog bed with rio as she wanted to get on her couch and it was the only way she'd chill, which meant that my arse got soaked as blossom had dried herself from her snow day on the bed earlier.

tiffany had the duty of cutting up the turkey. she did a fine job...

sorry to rush, but there is snow out there to be played in. i added these pictures last night and went to bed while they loaded. i'll try and repost pictures later and give a more substantial report on the holiday later...maybe! otherwise the pictures will just have to speak for themselves. happy thanksgiving all...i have so much to be thankful for, family, friends, pets, alaska....life is good and i am lucky to be so blessed as i am.