8 seconds more daylight today!!

so above is what i woke to after 10 am and below is again out my front window as the sun was setting at a little after 3pm. we gained 8 seconds today. hurray!!

was a pretty day today and warm. i think in the 20's. after all my activities all weekend i was moving slow though. blossom and i did manage to get to a walk on rovers run. it's a nice loop, maybe 3+ miles. not sure. we moved slow and i threw the frisbee lots for the girl. i think blossom loves it when it's just the two of us. rio joined for the monday walk so i thought she needed a day of rest after that long trek. don't want to overdo it on her knees. poor pooch. the rovers run/moose meadow trails are multiuse so you can run into skiers, runners, walkers, bikers, horses and ski-jorers. mostly the skijor sort ski with one dog. the guy in the picture below had 3 dogs. quite brave of him. that is alot of energy pulling on you. he had them well controlled and i held blossom on the side of the trail and he cruised on by. i love to watch the skijor teams. looks like fun. i'm not skilled enough at skiing...really when i've tried it and gotten a slight feel of it...it's mostly a balance things. those dogs have loads of power. blossom has only gotten the pull idea a few times, but enough for me to see how strong that one dog can be. it's fun though...but for me it always ends up me ditching into a mound of snow. luckily snow is mostly soft.

i trimmed blossoms face and muzzle up last night after the monday walk. i figured she'd be too beat to fight me. she looks cute and i think she managed better today with her snow coverage...hard to tell by this picture. she always rubs her face in the snow to get the snow off her face. has never figured out that doesn't work. she looks pretty dang cute though.

the campbell creek is mostly iced over. the bridge near the parking area was covered wtih snow. looked all pretty. nice day.

snow is melting off the top of the bridge.

pretty good turn out for monday walk. i figured with christmas it'd smallish. tanya and sharon both called to say they'd be late. so i was a bit late. i really need to get myself moving in the mornings. anyway, tanya, maddie and maureen were there. sharon and chris were running really late and met us going the other direction. we had maddie so we all meandered a bit more than usual. she's out of school for the holiday. she was pretty tired by the time we finished up, but she did good. below i think sharon is instructing maddie on some dog training for thier pups. our totals were 6 humans/6 dogs.

rio enjoys the walks and i'm happy that i've been able to include her. these trails are also multiuse trails. less lycra than other trails like hillside and kincaid. we passed a skier and he said that rio looked a bit like a lady bug with her coat and booties. thought it was funny. her booties are getting old and a few fell off. i found one, but the other was back on the trail. we passed a biker and i asked him to keep an eye out for a big red bootie. it was at the trailhead signage when i got back to the car. folks are so nice out there. we also found a bootie so i picked it up...bootie kharma!!

a few of us headed over for hot cocoa after the walk. maddie kept plugging along knowing she'd get hot chocolate afterwards. always nice. i did manage to get over to the store and get myself a skhoop. then i went to the other store by rei and found a new hat and some socks on sale. i popped into rei but it was a mess with shoppers. the lines were too long to even consider buying anything.

tomorrow i may bake a little and then i go back to work this weekend...

tossed in a little decorated tree from sunday's walk at university lake....just needed to keep the festiveness going.

spent way too much time this evening attempting to load pictures on shutterfly. it took forever and then in the end, only about 1/3 of the pictures i attempted to load, loaded. now the task will be trying to sort out which pictures loaded and which i'll need to attempt again. i guess once they are they i can delete them...though i attempted to rotate them and that didn't happen...! i know some computer person would have all my files of photo's loaded on there in a jiffy which just makes it more infuriating. i like the idea of loading them on some web site...then others could see them, i could make a little book or calendar and they would theoretically be safely stored.

had to rush and make the bed before blossom decided to settle in. she is so cute and tired from her day in the park chasing frisbee's. once she's on the bed, she doesn't want to leave and last time i had to make it like she was an invalid patient. i made the bed in halves and rolled her.

a third oil spill in a month up north. what is up with that?? perhaps the pipeline is falling into disrepair with this many years of use.

well, i guess i'll head to bed. it's 3 am so that seems like a good idea. i've watched a few oldies but goodies this week. "while you were sleeping", "chocolat" and tonight "ferris beuhlers day off".

happy solstice!!

took the girls to the dog park earlier in the day...well, not too early. someone has placed little ornaments on tree's along the trail. they look pretty. of course, i worry that they will eventually be broken and be a hazard and mess on the trail, but for today. they just look pretty. i thought i'd attempt a self portrait.

met with work friends out at russian jack park. they have a wonderful sledding hill out there. after sledding for a few hours we all went for a little ski. they also have great ski trails out there. above is a picture from skiing. i set the camera up and snuck into the picture. not sure why they all scrunched down. kinda funny...but a cute and fun picture. all had a good time. in picture is karen, val, joy,me, sandra and manuela. it was manuela's first time out skiing. she did great and i think all had a fun time. we'll have to do this again. we ran into one moose. the trails are lit, but pictures were a bit dark of the moose. we were pretty close, but luckily he was tolerant of us and headed off into the woods eventually.

just a few sledding pictures. i'm sleepy so i didn't load more. above is me taking a run down the hill. we passed the camera around a bit. wasn't going to go down the hill with my good camera. below is joy with her friends son. thought it turned out cute. joy is just like her name and always has a huge smile and ready laugh.

so here is the sledding crew. lots of bright colours with the sleds.

the days will begin to lengthen soon...we are officially at our shortest day. my body is a bit sore from the activities of the past few days. today i walked, went sledding and then went skiing. i could use a massage.

i was going to stay up later baking some snack for monday dog walk, but my neighbors brought over some tasty bread from harvest bread...a cinnamon loaf. figure i'll take that and share it. tried to get to the store to see if i could find a skhoop that fit me. i arrived at 5:05 and it closes sundays at 5pm. seems to be the way it's going this week for me. facebook let me put a few pictures from sledding and such in tonight. that site is a pain for me to upload pictures on. it's an easy way to share pictures like the ones from today. i guess if i can get loaded up on that shutterfly site then they can pick and choose pictures they want there too.

wow...another beautiful sunset...

that picture turned out tiny. i did not take the above picture. a friend, jennifer did. so i give credit. it was just so alaskan, so i asked and she said i could use it. she was at an event at a local jr high i believe and saw this dog team tied to the sign...doubt that happens too many other places. i thought it was funny.

today was cloudy but still draped with the white stuff. sandra and i had decided to meet for a ski at about 1pm. when i dragged myself out of bed i got the pups off to the dog park. it is always fun for the dogs and i always end up staying longer as i meet up with people i know or just chat with people i just meet out there. it was a cold day. the sign said 1 degree F as i drove to the dog park and 2 degree's F as i drove home...so i guess it warmed up. hehe! above is sandra skiing along with blossom trekking along behind. she likes to keep track of us both so that means she occasionally has to run back and forth a bit.

blossom hopes that i'm getting a toy out of the back pack when really i was just getting the camera out. we got really lucky and the sunset turned out spectacular. it didn't last long, and i'm sure the camera couldn't possible do it justice. there was vivid pinks, yellows and even a greenish hue at one point. sandra said she was tearing up it was so beautiful. she was ahead and as she turned on the trail she kept calling me to hurry there to take pictures before it disappeared.

i'll just let you enjoy the sunset. what is there to say about a wonderful scene...just take it in really. below is me with blossom. may work as next years christmas photo, but this years are about all out.

just another trail picture from earlier on the ski.

sandra at the start of our ski today. the trails just looked so pretty with all the snow still coating the tree's. sandra did her best to knock snow off on my head...but was unsuccessful for the most part. she did accidently get herself...see what happens. hehe. she's a much better skier than i am. i fall over lots, but i still have fun out there.

my girl, blossom looking up pitifully hoping i'll get her a toy to play with. she ran as we skied though and she was pretty tuckered out. she never once even picked up a toy after we got home. that is my indicator.

wanted to put in a picture of the decorated tree. so pretty with all the lights and ornaments. i just love to sit there and stare at it. i didn't get all my errands ran today. too much to do outside. why do the ordinary when the extraordinary sits outside your door. my house is never spotless, but i did manage some dishes and loads of wash. the rest...it will wait.

cost co wasn't the zoo i expected. i will return tomorrow to pick up pictures. i looked at desk top computers. i still like a desk top and always planned on getting one. i still need to get rid of the old one. can't wait to get the smaller moniter and all that. will be great. well, smaller in depth, but larger in size. i liked the hp they had there. i'm sure it will cost more once i add in a photo program, word, antiviral. it's crazy. sandra decided to join me at costco and then val needed a member card to get in so she joined as well. her family has much bigger spending requirements than mine ever did...yeesh. some folks budgets for christmas are crazy. i do occasionally buy myself a big ticket item for christmas from the dogs. this year it may be the desktop computer and i'd also like to buy a shkoop skirt. they are from scandinavia and they are long down skirts that zip up the sides. just a great extra layer that you can still move in. look cute too. i'm always on a quest for ice bug boots which are also out of europe. i guess skinny raven is advertising them. they usually only have mens work boots from the line. i bought my second pair directly from a distributer out of vermont. my old pair is getting pretty trashed. the newer boot is a bit more boot than that one was. rated to neg 40 and a bit stiffer. good for some but not all my activities. i have nothing to wear out to dinner but i am totally outfitted for outdoor playtime. i'll probably hit the dog park tomorrow then costco and then sledding. it's already late as usual. so no doubt i'll be sleeping in. the sun don't come up til late anyway. those sunset pictures were between 2:30 and 3pm today. solstice fast approaches and our days will get longer. monday is solstice!! our daylight hours will hold for about a week and then the days will start lengthening. you can never tell time by the sun in this state. sunset changes at least 5 minutes a day so a good 30 minutes a week. i grew up in california and i could always guestimate the time of day by looking up at the sun. i remember a friend visiting from the lower 48 and we were at the dog park. as we discussed what to do next my friend looked up at the sun and said, "well, it looks like it's about 2". i had to let her know that it was actually 7 pm.

a marshmallow world in the city....

maddie and tanya came over so maddie could help decorate the tree. always more fun with a kid around. i think she was doing those kid/camera smiles. i think she had fun. she gets a bit bored and then plays with the cats or the kitty manger scene. my sister sent it to me a few years back. i always laugh thinking of the chinese folks making our god, jesus, as a kitty cat. they must think americans are a strange bunch of folk. can't imagine them making buddha in the likeness of a cat, but different folks i guess. maddie loves the kitty manger set. my christmas tree is decorated with almost all animal ornaments. the non-critter ones were gifts. i suggested to maddie that she could start collecting cat ornaments and one day have an all kitty decorated tree. she just loves cats!! i'll put a better picture of the decorated tree in later.

these are just scenes from my walk in the bog today with the girls. rio was quite giddy. she loves that fresh snow. it was qutie lovely out. think i got some nice pictures. will have to get some pictures done up at costco tomorrow. it's been awhile. apparently nobody does this anymore and albums will be just another thing of the past. as you get older all that seemed normal to you gets replace by newer more cool stuff. i still love a newspaper and i still love turning pages in a photo album. silly me.

the temperatures dropped down today to near 0. even blossom lifted her feet up from time to time. i should have put rio's booties on, she would have enjoyed the walk even more. blossom got to play with indy and boddhi in the yard while we decorated this evening so she is pretty wiped out. that is dog for happy!!

tried to get some pictures to show how deep the snow is. this is my back deck. the trashcan isn't really trash it's my kindling for fires. just was easiest place to keep it dry and convenient. you can sort see how deep the snow was though.

just put in my kenny g christmas cd. always so pretty and relaxing. i do enjoy christmas music and we listened to it at work these past few days. work wasn't bad at all this week. wednesday i just had one baby, who had accidently taken a relatives meds. 2 year olds are great at getting into things. she did just fine. next night i had 2 kids. i had the snowmachine accident kid from the other night that i had. she's doing good as well. sore. so far no complications though so that is great. lucky kid. the other kid had a respiratory issue, but was also found to have a social issue. not sure what happened to the kid and it's doubtful anyone will ever know. the stories in these case just don't make sense and often change. so hard to keep track of lies. still better to just tell the truth.

we get alot of abuse cases in...just part of working with kids sadly. i've never figured out how someone could go through the pregnancy/delivery process and then harm the baby they've created or protect those who do, but life doesn't always make sense i guess. truth is, being a parent can be incredibly stressful and many people just aren't up to the task. kid should be okay from this event and hopefully, he'll get put someplace more safe. facts are that most of these kids end up back in the same situation. parents who get kids taken away just get preggers and have another kid. parents rights seem to always win over the childs rights. go figure.

enough of that cheery talk though, it's christmas time and kenny g is playing.

the fog finally cleared and the snow started to fall. i have done a great deal of shoveling of snow this week. it just kept falling and falling. we got upwards of 20 inches in the anchorage area depending on where you live. the hillside and east get the bulk of it. (i live on the east). on tuesday i woke and took the girls to the bog to play in the snow. then a friend from work had called about taking a walk. i have a spare pair of snowshoes and she'd never been so we met up. i love getting out there in all that fresh powder with the snowshoes. it's so beautiful!! jana had a bit of a tough time but i think she had a great time overall. blossom was happy to be out there and dove over and over again for the frisbee. above blossom makes her trail in the snow of n. bivouac.

as usual my pictures are out of order. above and below are from the next day. i had a headache, but was able to get out later in the afternoon to basher trailhead for some spectacular views. more snow fell wednesday. we got nothing on valdez though. they get the most snow in the state from what i can gather and they collected nearly 6 feet to our 20 inches. i guess in thompson pass some 6-8 feet fell in an 8 hour period. some crazy thing. they closed the road for a bit, but they are pretty good at getting the snow plowed in those parts...probably related to the pipeline and all.

i love when all the world looks like it's marshmallow covered. crazy pretty really.

tuesday was a busy day for me. from the walk, then snowshoe i headed out to the alaska mill and feed to pick out a christmas tree. i remember years ago when i got my first tree being so indecisive...looking for that perfect tree. now i'm all...yep, that'll do just fine. i had to put it in the stand and get some water on it quickly. at the shop they do a fresh cut and pack the tree in a plastic bag. you need to get it inside as soon as possible. needle loss is a premium in our state. tree's don't last through the season really, but i still love the smell of the fresh pine through the house.

i made a tossed oreo salad and headed to a work party. have been attempting to post pictures of facebook but it craps out each time i attempt. i think my computer may need a tune up to clean out the crap.

there has been an issue apparently with the tree's shipped to alaska this year. i guess a bunch of frogs hobo'd it on up with the christmas trees. mine doesn't appear to have any frogs in it, but i imagine some people jumped like hell setting up thier trees and having a frog jump out at them. the fish and game are asking people to kill the frogs are take them to fish and game. fear is they will bring disease to our one frog species up here. right now our frogs are frozen solid under all the snow and ice. they burrow in the mud in the fall and freeze. they re-animate in the spring. crazy, eh?

below is anchorage without the fog. a nice site to see.

jana only fell a few times on our outing. i had to remove the snowshoes with this one as it was a doozey. she fell backwards and slid down a little slope. not easy to get up from that position. we were almost back to the parking lot so i had her just finish with a walk. actually much easier to snowshoe than walk with this much snow. she is smiling so i must not have killed her out there. we only went 2+ miles.

jana brought along her corgi "duffy". i think he had a wonderful time. dogs tend to step on the back of your snowshoes ...here he is looking for belly rubs from me. cute pup i think. very sweet.

i take many pictures looking up into the tree's. they are just so pretty. did get some reading done this week. just finished a new book, "dream when you're feeling blue" by elizabeth berg. she writes a nice read and i have read many of her novels. nothing too deep but always enjoyable books to escape into...not that i have anything to escape from. life is pretty sweet. it was about sisters and thier family during wwII. writing to thier men, sacrificing for the war. just a different time period.

just another neighborhood shot. a guy down the road makes these mini-cache's. i always think they look cute. in the old days much larger ones were built for food storage. off the ground from vermin and bears and outside for the cooler effect.

just a parting shot of duffy on the trails of n. bivouac.

my body is aching a bit between snowshoeing and shoveling. i should get to bed. i've got walk/ski plans for tomorrow and sled/ski plans for sunday. i love snow!!

decapitated snowman....

work has been slow. i was put on call for the adult icu for two nights. never got called in. screws up your sleep schedule though. always that worry the phone will ring at 3 am and your brain will have to function. the fog continued until today when it snowed. so the blue sky day i was hoping for passed by anchorage and lingered over us all week. yesterday i walked the bog and then around the neighborhoods nearby. have been enjoying the frost while it lasts.

above is bohdi on today's dog walk. snow was falling as we were walking so i didn't bring out the camera much. bodhi was very proud that he had acquired the tennis ball. blossom insisted i get the thing out, but barely got her mouth on it. she is very focused on which ever dog does have it and waits for her opportunity. we had 3 people and 6 dogs. tanya, andrea and i did the loop backwards. it was fun chilling at the coffee shop afterwards as well. still with the high humidity so it's easy to get chilled.

these two pictures were also from the neighborhood walk the other day. one guy at a house on apollo i think it is does these cool snow sculptures each year. this one is about 5-6 feet high. he did a dinosaur a few years back that was almost 2 stories high. i had to walk past to see what this years creation was. i think the bear and cubs are adorable.

busted out laughing when i spotted this decapitated snowman though. i love that the shovel is out there like someone just had a bad day and took it out on the snowman. who knows what really happened.

this little guy was in the bog yesterday. i actually did work last night. just had one peds icu patient, snowmachine accident. cute kid. should be fine. the kid from last week looks great. kids are amazing that way.. they can really do a turn around.

since i was on call saturday night i went to my friend sandra's "book club". really it was a book exchange/chat/drink/eat thing. of course, i was on call so i was the sober chick. i'm a pretty light drinker anyway. always have been. guess i see way too many drunks at work and the life doesn't look all that attactive.

during the day saturday i took the pups over to the dog park. the frost below is the soccer goal on the big soccer field.

later i headed to the grocery store and saw this frosted bicycle sitting out front. had to have been there all week. thought it looked pretty chill. it's amazing how many people are out riding bikes up here year round. i guess alaskans are just a bit on the nutty side. they have wide tires, studs and these cool handlebar glove things.

i attempted to get the christmas tree tonight, but the mill and feed closes at 7 and i got there at 7. who knew. i had stopped by lowes to see what they had in the fake tree section. part of me wants to just give up on the live tree's but those fake trees looked so sad to me. i see them in peoples houses and they actually look pretty good. the real trees up here can be pricey and the needles are falling off before you even get it decorated so up here i think it makes sense to skip the real tree thing and just put up a real tree wreath for the scent. as much as the practical part of me says this, i just can't bring myself to give up on my real christmas trees. so i suspect i'll try to get over there tomorrow and see what i can come up with.

i did finish the other errand i had given myself to accomplish today...i mailed 7 packages off. yippee! i went to the airport post office which stays open til midnight. i drove around a bit as it looked like some lines and i just was tired and dreading the line! i timed it though and it only took 20 minutes. i chatted with the lady ahead of me. i generally make chit chat with anyone in range. only one more package that i should get together and off, but i'm not concerned about it getting there before the big day so i can chill now...decorate the house and all that. want to get tree up tomorrow so maybe maddie can come decorate it. it's becoming tradition!

gloves found on trails and any other things dropped are usually put on branches like this so that the owner has a chance of being re-united with it. i always think these kids gloves look cute. it was coated in frost as well. parents must buy mittens and such in bulk. those kids are always losing them.

rio enjoyed the dog park the other day. i took her along on the big dog walk today. i don't want to stress her knees but she is doing really great.

she sure looks cute in her red coat! i made it myself so am beaming with pride. i'm not a seamstress so when i do make something that is actually useful i get all excited!

on the way home from sandra's the other night i stopped at these light sculptures. they are located in front of the bp exploration building. they have several little scenes of moose set up in lights. i always enjoy them. occasionally someone gets a picture of a real moose hanging near them. i wasn't that lucky on this evening.

my three hours sleep is catching up on me so i think i'll crawl in bed early and read my book. an elizabeth berg novel. she does no brainer, pleasant reads.