AKPetMom

Why do People do This?

2011-04-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

Another Blogger had a topic which was Atheism vs. Anti Theologism and what the difference is. There is a large difference. I can put it into perspective by sharing the story of having a quiet Sunday interrupted by some folks that wanted to insinuate themselves into our quiet Sunday to share their spiritual beliefs. For some reason these people seemed to feel empowered by their god of choice to interrupt our quiet Sunday to drop off some paperwork, that were we to actually read and critique in their presence, would not have been favorable to them. Why do they feel justified to share the beliefs which should be private with others. I would never presume to visit any other person's home and share my view of the world with them. So here is the tale:

We were just visited by some Baptist Fundamentalist missionaries here in the Valley, which led us discussing in depth my lack of theology. I've been told to "go to Hell" by those that don't wish to hear of my anti-theological beliefs. I always have to ask "which Hell"? When one does not choose to be a practitioner of organized religion or a believer in any "God" one is often seen as someone who is uncaring or not involved in the betterment of humanity. Such is not the case. Being a caring individual does not have to be an extension of practicing religion, in fact, if one is philanthropic in one's own right, then often times the true benefit reaches the people in need without a middle man reaping some benefit prior to the needy folks receiving their much needed assistance.

Man evolved all over this planet. Associated genesis tales were spread through their communities either in written form or verbal tales. Death has always been a concern since we evolved to have large enough brains to understand cessation of life. Afterlife tales and rituals were propagated to explain the unexplainable. Once we evolved to become smart enough to question our existence and our surroundings we needed to create explanations. Why do many subscribe to the religions of the Middle Eastern and Northern Hemisphere genesis tales, Judaism and Christianity being two that are very popular. The Aborigines in Australia were a society as many as 40,000 years before the first organized societies came into place in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia. Why do we now not subscribe to the genesis tales of those that have been organized humans for much longer than the Middle East and subsequent European societies? Why does no one take into account the Asians that most likely came across the land bridge into Alaska? They must have had some tales worth sharing and some God worth worshipping.

People will often ask if science is "my God" but no. Our modern science has but scratched the surface of what it means to be human, on a planet a favorable distance from an average sun, in a small system of planets in a medium sized galaxy of billions of stars, with planetary systems of their own that we do not have the technology to visit.

There are so many mysteries but I'm never willing to just write them off to "God" regardless of which one is referred to. Life is too fascinating to just leave it at that. There must be exploration and introspection. "God" is just too easy, and lazy.

Sarah Palin Says

2011-01-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin is a woman who has raised a few children who are poster children for bad behavior, she will be quick to admonish anyone else that does not subscribe to her "Grizzly Mom" style of child-rearing.

Sarah Palin admonishes those that have achieved advanced degrees in our halls of education; she on the other hand will glorify her own attempt at achieving such a degree in our halls of education.

Sarah Palin will spout divisive and inflammatory rhetoric, while admonishing anyone else that does the same.

Sarah Palin will tell the world that she is a talented and practiced hunter of big game, while asking her Dad if that gun will "kick", then ask her father to reload the weapon for her in between her use of said weapon.

Sarah Palin will call for transparency in Government while requiring at minimum, stalling tactics, or actual redaction of the information contained in her emails requested while she was an elected public official.

Sarah Palin would get upon a national stage and proclaim that Alaska was currently undertaking the largest Energy Project in the history of our country, when no such gas pipeline will ever come to fruition.

Sarah Palin will say she took on the Old Boy Network in Oil Production and raised their taxes so that Alaska could reap the benefits. The current Governor is now lowering those taxes so that oil production can continue.

Sarah Palin will say that God opens doors for her, and she hopes to always be cognizant of those "open doors" so she can "plow right through them". God must have a sense of humor, or He has a penchant for Toast.

I'm Runnin' (I was a little bored on this rainy day)

2010-07-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Not certain whether it's poetry or rap! At any rate, I hope that you will find it amusing. Did I tell you I was bored on this rainy day? Iambic pentameter (probably not) meets PDiddy?

Sarah Palin, I'm Runnin':

I'm runnin', I'm runnin'

The post which I'm elected for will end up being nevermore

I'll quit it by half time, because it's so mine

I'll be remembered for ever more for being Governor for a tenth of a score.

But I'm runnin', I'm runnin'

Just to get elected but then I'll be rejectin'

The job; elected to by an angry mob

Of teabaggers and tongue waggers

Takin' what's mine is my new pastime,

And it's past time, for a new civil war, and I'm its' biggest boor!

I'm Palin, and failin' is my MO; showin' what I don't know

It's made me rich, and yes I'm still a witch (thanks Reverend Muthee, for NOTHIN')

Queen of Walmart; a bumpit with no brain

Sucking dollars from the stupid and insane

Guess I do owe a shout out to Mr. John McCain

One man's lack of vetting sure did end up abetting

A career of griftin' and stealin'

Darn it, you know his head must be reelin'!

Suck it Couric and O'Reilly too

Only Hannity and Beck are part of my crew

(and VanSusteren, but hey, that's a hard rhyme…just give me some time...)

Got Murdoch in my pocket and Roger Ailes too,

Got Malek and Rove and Krystol wooed.

Just hopin' that Steele knows his place in this world

'Cause only for whites does the great flag unfurl.

I'm Palin and I'm runnin'

Levi's spoils are won, even without the shotgun!

Trig and Tripp and new baby make three

more street cred for Focus on the Family (love ya Dobson ;-)

If that doesn't "sill the dill", I don't know what will

Get used to it folks, y'alls now in the yokes of

Palin 2012, hope my detractors don't delve....

(too deeply, that could be bad…also too I hope that the Mayan calendar is not right and I get to be President for more than just a month and a half.)

XOXO (don't mean it)

SP (but not really)

Teabag Nation. Listen Up.

2010-02-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

Informed folks are never gonna get it. The baggers, the honest to god blue collar baggers that have no notion of what it truly takes to run a country are always going to side with the person who displays the characteristics that play so prominently in their own lives.

In the life of a certain segment of Americans, education plays a small role, church going and tithing play a large role. Wanting to be represented in Washington by someone that seems to have the same lifestyle as they do plays a HUGE role. These people are sick and tired of having people smarter and more accomplished than they are representing their interests in the political arena.

Palin is merely pandering to a segment that fits her mentality and the persona she has created.

There is a growing cultural divide in this country. The disenfranchised right don't see a single thing wrong with writing the answers on your hand. They want to be represented by people "just like them" but fail to realize that "people just like them" are not qualified to head up one of the most powerful nations in the world.

This small portion of America that wishes to have a person in charge that is like them and writes their grocery list on the palm of their hand is a segment of our population that better step up their game or learn to speak Chinese, because it will make it so much easier to work in the Chinese factories when we truly lose America, forever.

The politically active far right dream of empowering America through their protests and signage and vocalizations, however, they are not making our country stronger. Their main agenda seems to be making fun of and holding down a President that wants nothing more than to strengthen their position in this country and make this Nation strong again rather than sell out to China and India. (Ya know, those countries that have college graduates working in factories and phone rooms because they can't get a better job with their Master's degrees from America.)

Baggers, educate your children and have them create a bigger, stronger America, or focus or having them learn Chinese. Those are your choices. If you choose option B, learning Chinese, hopefully your kids will have medical insurance over there in China in the factories that they will be working in.

9/11/2001 in Anchorage Alaska

2009-09-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

While driving to work we heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and there were ongoing news reports via NPR regarding what had taken place in NYC. Our take on it was "wow, they are really big buildings and probably nothing will come of this; freak accident and hopefully everything will be okay (except for those that were initially impacted by the rogue plane)

I dropped my partner off at his workplace in downtown Anchorage and then headed to my office in South Anchorage. As I was driving I was listening to NPR, as we had been our our way to work. News became more grim as I was listening and it became rather intense.

As I was driving to my office I noticed military jets flying low around downtown/west Anchorage and then local radio hosts broke into the NPR feed to let us know that a Korean Air plane was possibly hijacked and that downtown Anchorage was being evacuated.

I turned my car around and called my partner and picked him up at his office downtown. We proceeded home to Wasilla listening to NPR while on the road and we spent the rest of the day on the internet or watching horrific accounts of not one Trade Center impact but two and two buildings falling and then we learned of flight 93 grounding in Pennsylvania.

It was a surreal day. The thing that brought it all home for me was when I was picking my partner up downtown in Anchorage and military jets were literally screaming through the air around the inlet and the downtown buildings. I kept thinking to myself "who would target downtown Anchorage, of all places, for a terrorist attack", but after hearing what had happened elsewhere, I also began to think "why not"?

Luckily the KAL hijack was a mere miscommunication between tower and pilot, but the surreal feeling of that day is still something that I can recreate in my head whenever 9/11 is mentioned.

It was a strange day in Anchorage and every September 11 I remember the feelings of fear and disbelief that ran though my head on that day.

We Don't need no Education

2009-09-08T00:07:00.002-07:00

I just realized this was a title of a post I'd done many months ago...I guess that post also had to do with a certain political party not recognizing the value of education. Now here is another post, about a certain political party not recognizing the value of education.

Well, here it is in a nutshell. To those people that are so afraid of our President giving their children advice on why it might be a great idea to remain in school and excel educationally as far as their intelligence will allow, well, keep your kids home. I don't care because even if you deprive your children of a chance to become inspired and perhaps excel beyond your educational level, that's a family issue, within your family.

Me, I'm happy, because so many parents will allow their children to become inspired by our President's speech and they will go on to make advances in medicine, technology, and a whole lot of other fields that will benefit me.

To the parents that keep their children home and ignorant of the importance of education. That's okay too, because the US military-industrial-war-machine always welcomes C students and dropouts as "fresh meat" in their latest war, heck they even recruit them heavily at the local Army/Navy/Marine office here in my town. Wal-Mart also needs your underachieving children; it welcomes them with open arms and pays them $7.15 per hour with NO BENEFITS. Same with any fast food joint.

Here's my heartfelt "thank you" to the parents that keep their kids from hearing Obama's inspirational speech tomorrow.

I'm very happy to know that there will always be dupes to fight unjust wars for me, sell me cheap crap at Wal-Mart and hand me my favorite "guilty" fast food snack through the drive thru window of my local burger joint. These servants will always be here for me because their parents denied the importance of education.

Actually, really, thank you, thank you and thank you again to the parents that are fearful of Obama's pro-education message, because I don't know what life would be like without having your little underachievers in MY life.

Please, keep your kids home, perhaps watching Faux News with you...yes, please do, because if you let these kids get educated, well, it may very well create a disturbance in MY way of life and that is just too horrible to comprehend.

On Ted Kennedy and The Kennedy Legacy

2009-08-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

I realized today watching the eulogy for Ted Kennedy presented by President Barack Obama, that we wouldn't have an Obama, a chance for change, a new face in politics and an opportunity to overturn the status quo in this great country, if not for Ted Kennedy.

He was born a child of privilege and certainly faced his demons in his life as did many in his family. Yet, something in this wealthy and entitled family made them think as much of those that have little as those that have much.

That is the legacy he left us. He truly believed in country and had hope that all of us might actually be able to live our lives as Americans based on an idea of equality, regardless of his genetic gift of being born into wealth and fame.

He surpassed the gifts of wealth and genetic "fame" by always thinking of those that were not born into such circumstances.

If only all people could be so kind and so considerate, we might all become "one nation united" for a central cause.

Now is certainly the time to reflect upon the gifts that this man bestowed upon our country; the gift of ignoring race, of ignoring the American "caste" system and treating all human beings in this country and in this world as human beings worthy of being listened to and human beings whose causes are worth fighting for. The world that Ted Kennedy envisioned is one where we all might one day be, to use a sailing euphemism, all be sailing on an "even keel".

There aren't too many people born into a life of privilege that use their voice and power to try to make the world better for the "little guy" that didn't have their advantages. I must applaud Ted and the Kennedys for sticking up for those that were not born under that same golden cloud. I also must applaud them for overcoming much grief yet still continuing their agenda of "liberty for all".

I can't say enough yet I hope I've made my point. This family has had more extraordinary members than any other in our last 6 decades. They could have decided to just be rich and hedonistic and live their lives for themselves, yet many in the Kennedy family have decided to use their voice, their wealth and their power to help those that were not born into such a situation and it makes my heart happy that there are people that are willing to do this.

I can't honestly say that I would be so altruistic had I been born with wealth and power, but I have to admire those that will go the distance for the disenfranchised. Someone in the Kennedy family at some point planted a seed that grew and that seed gave us many, many great politicians and community activists within the Kennedy family. This family gave us people who actually cared about other people and the environment and used the wealth that could have afforded them endless days lounging about in the world's greatest vacation destinations. Instead of hanging out in Ibiza or other destinations of the rich, they spent most of their time fighting for the little guy, and using their loud and powerful voices and influence to help those that weren't born under such great circumstances and this is wonderful.

We can all learn a lesson from how the Kennedy's lived their lives. Detractors will also find unsavory episodes within the lives of the Kennedy's. I still can't help but believe that all of the good that they've done WAY outweighs the personal demons that they have faced down.

So much screwin' up in such a short time!

2009-08-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

The earth has been around for 4.5 billion years. Humans, Homo sapiens, for only 2 million years. Organized somewhat "modern" humans for only 10,000-20,000 years, depending on what criteria are used for defining what "modern" means.

In those 10,000-20,000 years we've created cultures and cities and multitudes of gods and religions. We've also fought each other and undermined each other in at attempt to push one agenda over another. We've fought wars over the gods and religions and political agendas that we've created.

We've created countries and within those countries we've created cliques. Some examples of these cliques are religions and political parties. We humans that share so many similarities love to fracture ourselves into cliques or groups. These groups are then destined to war against each other. It's one of our tragic flaws as a species. We first united as a species tribally and we continue to operate tribally, the tribes continue to battle each other but our weapons have "advanced" from spears and rocks to rhetoric and words.

As we've evolved our brains have grown larger. I am hard pressed to find any significant proof that our larger brains have served us in any beneficial manner. All too often we've used these big brains to to fracture our human society rather than create a cohesive environment that would make us all stronger as a species.

A species. Humankind. A miracle of nature that will perhaps never enjoy the 160 million year reign on Earth that even the small minded dinosaurs enjoyed if we don't work together for a common cause.

The dinosaurs didn't have religion or politics yet they ruled this Earth for 160 million years basically operating on instinct and a brain stem. The big ones ate the little ones. We can do better than this.

Yet us humans, this happy accident of evolution, we will most likely not have such a long and prosperous future because we've created a scenario in which our life is just too complicated.

It's in our nature though, human nature, to make things too complicated. We are too superstitious and too war mongering. We are too distrustful of each other.

Until we can "fix" some of the basic flaws in the human makeup we are destined to fail. We'll fail at politics, we'll fail at maintaining a healthy planet whose conditions allow us to flourish, we'll fail at preserving our species in a healthy manner because we as humans are programmed to disagree based on concepts that we ourselves have created. Concepts of inequality and the idea that one religion, skin color, nationality or political affiliation is better than another.

Any human on the face of this Earth shares more than 99% of our DNA makeup with any other human. We are a happy accident of nature that, because of no catastrophic climate or asteroid/comet events in recent history, have been given a window of opportunity to survive here on good old planet Earth.

There are few guarantees in the future, except for the fact that our sun will turn into a red giant and engulf the Earth in another 5 billion years. The other guarantees are that something big from space will hit us again at some point and mother Earth herself will cycle through ice ages and climate changing volcanic episodes. The continents will once again join together and pull apart.

If we don't start becoming a cohesive unit regardless of religion or politics or race, then we won't be around to witness the next global challenge that mother Earth or even our solar system will send our way.

This is not just true for the USA but for the world as a whole.

I want to put the healthcare debate and this great fractioning of America into perspective and this is the best way that I know to illustrate how absolutely ridiculous our behavior is.

We are one species, Homo sapiens, united by DNA, yet fractured by our ideas, courtesy of our big brains. If we can't agree to take care of each other in this time of relative calm here on Earth, how will we ever make it though a global catastrophe?

Please don't judge all Alaskans Based on the behavior of one.

2009-08-13T16:08:00.001-07:00

Please don't judge all Alaskans by the standards recently set forth by a certain ex-Gov lady.

Please don't paint all Alaskans with the same conservative paint brush.

We are a diverse community of human beings; a small community of humans occupying a very vast stretch of global real estate.

Alaskans deal with problems that run the gamut from urban decay and homelessness to rural subsistence cultures still attempting to live from the land and enjoy modern conveniences as well.

There are Sierra Club members that live next door to avid hunters and snowmachiners. There are people living in upscale neighborhoods that share their woods with homeless camps. There are Libertarians living down the street from Republicans and Democrats and Alaskan Independence Party members.

We 600,000+ Alaskans all share this 600,000+ square mile patch of land and for the most part we agree to disagree but all take pride in the fact that we are "Alaskans".

One would be hard pressed to find a city of 600,000 people that has the same diversity as our Alaskan population.

Alaskans are Yupik, Inuit, Inupiat, Inupiaq, Aleutiiq, Aleut, Ahtna, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Gwich'in, Athabascan, Eyak, White, Black, Latino, Phillipino, Pacific Islander, and more European cultures than one could imagine.

I apologize if I left anyone out of the list above, or messed up the spelling of your cultural identity, but what I'm trying to say is all of us here have one thing in common and that is we are Alaskans, and there is a certain amount of pride associated with that.

This is a melting pot of humanity and we all have something to offer.

And that's it folks, I will not address the crazy lady by name any longer because she has done more damage to the reputation of this fair state than, well, than anyone else ever in it's history.

I just wanted to make sure that people know that we are a vast and varied state full of a myriad of different cultures and races and we all seem to make it work because we take pride in being Alaskan and helping each other.

It doesn't always work and we have the same problems as any other state but we don't deserve to be judged based on the actions and words of one person who was given a national platform on which to share her views and spew hatred.

We're not all like that, in fact the majority aren't, so please don't judge us based on the Palin yardstick. Also, don't be afraid to travel here. It's beautiful and we are friendly and we love to share our state with visitors.

We are NOT all crazy.

Palin has broken herself AND flip flopped AGAIN!

2009-08-13T14:50:00.001-07:00

Palin has broken her image and turned herself into a joke; a political joke.

The higher calling that she resigned her Governorship for, well, has turned into a lower calling; she is now spending her days pandering to the lowest common denominator of the GOP. The portion of the GOP that do not have the power or the numbers to ever "progress" her political career. Regardless of her family issues: Todd sleeping on the couch, another wild teenage girl to control and the constant Trig maternity speculation, Palin is doing herself in politically with every word that comes from either her mouth or her keyboard.

I think we can all rest assured that she is done politically. Now we can all sit back and just look forward to the latest "pearls of wisdom" that drop from her Facebook. (what, no Tweets, Sarah, oh why, oh why?) I no longer worry about Sarah Palin being a political force in our country, however I do worry about her "base" and how passionate and well-armed they are. She will incite bloodshed at some point with her ill-informed rants.

I wrote this last night and did not post it. Now today it comes out the Palin has issued another Facebook statement, so obviously not written by her. We know it was not written by her because it actually states text from the Healthcare bill, which means that she actually would have to have read it, and really, how many hours does she have in a day to actually read anything other than blog entries that she must show to her lawyer, and tabloids that question the solidity of her marriage?

So now, she has someone on the payroll doin' the readin' and the fact findin' and the writin' on the Facebook, but oh, there is something that her readin', fact findin, and writin' team was not told before this latest Facebook entry regarding healthcare....wait, wait, wait...

Yep, Sarah Palin was FOR the same thing that she is now against. She basically had a Death Panel Day here in Alaska. That is, she declared a "Healthcare Decisions Day" in Alaska back in April 2008. A day dedicated to encouraging people to make known their wishes for end of life care before they were unable to speak for themselves.

Go see it here, at The Immoral Minority, courtesy of Think Progress.

Yep, she's a flip flopper again. Just like the bridge to, wait, where was that bridge to again, oh yea, nowhere, the bridge to nowhere....Sarah Palin is her own bridge to nowhere, she just doesn't realize it yet.

In her heart of hearts I hope she knows that the God she says guides her in all of her decisions would not agree with some of her recent behavior. I cannot believe that she would be found worthy of the kingdom of Heaven when her life was presented to her God for judgement regarding her place in the afterlife.

When Heaven's "Death Panel" reviews the actions of Palin, I can only feel that it will be "thumbs down", rather than "thumbs up".

Too much talking the talk Palin and not nearly enough walking the walk.

Good to be done and rid of you. I just really thought it would take much longer than 17 days after your resignation from your elected position of Governor of Alaska for you to become a complete political joke and now, well, nothing more than tabloid fodder, oh and a BIG FLIP FLOPPER, AGAIN!

Like Minded People Meet on The Trail

2009-08-09T23:03:00.001-07:00

I've met many people via my participation on national and Alaskan blogs, but well, I had met them all in cyberworld, and really hadn't met very many in real life (I'd met a few in the "real world" before we all began blogging, but that is a story for another blog entry.)

At any rate, I had the pleasure of meeting "The Rubber Room Hotel" on The Mudflats (see my favorite blog list for link) last night and learned that she was here in the valley and wanted to meet and do a dog walk at Hatcher Pass with my brother and his wife and some of our furry friends.

We met up at the Willow Creek trail over Hatcher Pass and enjoyed a few hours of fantastic conversation and fun hiking, all while watching our furry friends frolic in the high mountains. (Note: Higher areas of our mountains are becoming "colorful" and somewhat fall-like at a rapidly increasing rate...the "f" word, Fall, that is, is not very far away.)

But, the "F" word is not that bad, really. The "F" word means that our favorite trails will very soon become much less crowded. It means that our highways will be less burdened by traffic. It also means that it's only 2.5 months until the snow falls. The same snow that will hang around until April, but hey, that means that skis and snowshoes will be part of our lives soon, and really, that's a good thing.

So, here are some photos from The Rubber Room Hotel and AKPetMom and friends on the Willow Creek trail.

Boots on the Tundra Flickr Link

Stupidity, Personified

2009-08-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

Palin graced the world with a Facebook entry today....Oh she of much wisdom, NOT!

Sarah Palin's Facebook Statement on Heathcare Reform

Do ya think this Facebook from Palin from "out of the blue" is really meant to deflect attention from the bribery charges just filed against her?

If not, then perhaps she has been silent for nearly two weeks post resignation because it's taken her that long to pen this little gem.

That's my guess, cause ya know, it's a whole lot more that just a 140 character Twitter! It's a whole Facebook post and a big one at that!! (We understand, it's hard to move from the Twitter world into the world of Facebook and actually harder to move from the world of Facebook to an actual blog or website....but why Facebook? Why no Palin website where she can share at length her very astute insight into how this country should be run????)

If this Facebook entry took her two weeks to write how long will it take her and her to pen her memoirs???

She uses another Ronald Reagan quote in her Facebook rant. (recently she loves quoting Reagan; she must have picked up the Ronald Reagan "book of quotes" at some point in the last few months, as she quotes him more and more often these days).

However, I'm amazed that she keeps using Reagan quotes because as we all know she could have been down there at the Reagan Library very near where her quote giver and apparent hero lived, on this very weekend, if she could have shown some class and not really freaked out the classy women that run the little shindig that is the event hosted by the Simi Valley Republican Women at the Reagan Library. Instead, Sarah Palin has chosen to Facebook hatred.

I can just see those "ladies that lunch" with their pinkies extended and their noses turned up as if they'd smelled something "a little off" when they heard that Palin might rear her head in their neck of the woods.

I know, it was reported that she was actually "invited" to the Simi Valley Republican Women event at the Reagan Library this coming weekend, but the whole thing went off the rails a few weeks ago...

What I think happened was one of the ladies had a few too many Bloody Marys with breakfast and ended up inviting Palin. Obviously that didn't go over well with Nancy Reagan and the rest of the Simi Repub women. SP will never ever be part of that segment of the Repubs, no matter how hard she tries.

Sarah's place is with the "base". The not as well-educated and not as well-connected segment of the Republican Party. The more blue collar and evangelical, crazy talking-in-tongues segment of the Republican party. Ah yes, they love her there. They think she is smart and speaks well and would make a gosh darn great President. Ahhh, yes, feel the love emanating from that segment. Heck, they even send her $5 to $10 bucks at a time, from their minimum wage paychecks! That's love if I've ever seen it. I hardly see the Simi Valley Republican Women being quite as impressed with Sarah Palin.

Sarah's supporters don't "do lunch", they do McDonalds. These people don't give a rats ass about a big fancy shindig at the Reagan Library, they watch Glenn Beck and eat a frozen burrito, then go off to crash a healthcare event and make a big fat stink about something they know nothing about. Yup, 'cause their heroes told them to and that's all these people need to know.

Personal Note to Sarah Palin, also too (sic). When the US decides to start killing old or sick people, I'm sure they'll call you to be in charge of that program because, well, because a whole bunch of old and sick and infirm and disabled Alaskans died UNDER YOUR WATCH!

Anchorage Daily News Article on the Medicaid Crisis in Alaska

Yes Sarah Palin should be in charge of the new "death panel" that she speaks of in her Facebook entry. Sarah Palin should be in charge of triage for our new healthcare system! She has proven that she knows healthcare and can take care of her constituents.....NOT!

Sarah Palin, you have the deaths of over 200 Alaskans over your head because you were "too busy" to address the issues concerning coverage for the elderly and disabled through Medicaid. The system wasn't working and you were paying no attention. Put that on your much touted list of "successes" during your abbreviated term. Your much hated Feds had to step in and try to fix the problem that YOU IGNORED yet you proclaim to be so in love with old people and disabled people in your latest public statement.

In your Facebook you proclaim to love "the disabled" and "the elderly" equally. If I was your grandson Trig I'd head for the hills immediately after witnessing how well your love of "the elderly" and "the disabled" worked out for the over 200 elderly and disabled Alaskans that lost their lives during your tenure as Governor of Alaska! If I was elderly or disabled I'd not want you in charge of my healthcare, that's for certain.

It seems that Palin's job now, her higher calling, is to run around the country and Facebook hatred and stir up the base into a frenzy so that no real work can get done healing this country.

Great reason to quit the job of Governor of Alaska. A job in which Palin could have actually made a difference. But hey, that job is hard and that job takes time and smarts that Palin does not have. Instead she has chosen to join the fringe and try to make Obama's job harder than it should be.

Obama will prevail, and it will do nothing more than piss off Palin and the GOP base even more, but they have to realize it's OUR TIME NOW....They had 8 years. They can stomp and whine and cry and lay on the floor beating their little hands and feet and scream until they are red in the face but the will fail, epically.

The Twitter Quitter

2009-08-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Alas, the Twitter Quitter, has also too, quit Twitter, for what 10 days now, leaving her Twitter Followers, well, much a-Twitter as to why the Twitter Quitter has not Twitted to her peeps.

Once a quitter always a quitter. That's what my Daddy used to tell me.

Rant of the Day

2009-07-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

In response to blind followers of the religious right, and to people who applaud at ridiculous things just because they feel like they have to, or they are surrounded by people who just might look at them askance if they do not applaud. Screw those people.

As far as the “polite applause” goes, I don’t do that, ever, no matter the circumstance.

I also, when pledging allegiance, do not recite the line “One Nation under god” because I don’t believe that we should be a Nation under any god and firmly believe that the combination of church and state (under the guise of separation of church and state) is one of this nation’s fundamental flaws.

A country practicing separation of church and state does not have “in god we trust” on it’s currency.

No wonder so many feel that it is appropriate to run on platforms of religion and incite their followers with religious rhetoric, which in turn breeds hatred for things not accepted by their particular religion.

Until we remove god from all aspects of anything associated with our government, we will never be free from the zealots that threaten our freedoms.

In order to be a truly free country and one that can hold the title of democracy, we must remove any god from the equation.

Ok, that’s my rant for the day, back to flu bed.

Here's how I REALLY feel about Palin

2009-07-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

,I have to sum up my feelings before I go back to my flu bed.

Sarah Palin is unintelligent and incapable.

I was very disappointed when she was elected Mayor of my town.

I was even more disappointed when she was elected Governor of my State.

I was even MORE disappointed when McCain picked her as running mate for the highest office of my Country.

Right now, I'm still disappointed because even though she has resigned she has left behind a cadre of appointees, committee members and other loyalists that will prevent Parnell from governing on his own terms.

In 2010 Alaska needs to finally make the right decision and elect a completely Palin-free candidate as Governor. We need to put someone in the office that respects it and can do the job and can clean all of the dark corners of the administration and insure that the office of Governor is finally a "Palin-Free-Zone".

I haven't thrown my hat into the ring for any candidate yet, but will be paying close attention and "you betcha" if there is one that is worthy, then this time, for certain, I will work hard for that person and spend lots of time campaigning for them because I stood by blindly thinking that THERE WAS NO WAY IN HELL that Sarah Palin would achieve the title of Governor of Alaska in 2006, and boy, was I wrong.

I personally will not let it happen again, if there is anything that I can do to prevent it!

Wasilla Governor's Picnic

2009-07-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hi all, figured I'd better get a new post out here as someone from Mudflats said they wanted to leave me a comment, and I could never forgive myself if I missed out on some social interaction with any of the Mudpuppies!

I took some photos at the Governor's Wasilla Picnic yesterday and they are posted on my flickr account here:

My Flickr Account

I also did some video, albeit with my tiny little Canon Powershot A570IS, but I thought it did a respectable job for a little "digi" point and shoot. Way to go little Canon.

Best of all Mudflats was nice enough to post Sarah's speech video on her website and even use my version to transcript. Thanks AKM, and I'm glad I could help out. You do so much for us it's nice to do something for you!!

At any rate, here is the link to my YouTube account that has all of the videos on it from the Wasilla Picnic. Except for the Sarah's speech, the other three from the picnic are just of me wandering around mumbling and talking to myself and making other picnic attendees stare at me in either mirth or consternation, depending on what I was mumbling at the time and if it was favorable to the Governor or not.

My YouTube Account

Thanks for visiting my photos and videos; I expect we'll be seeing similar things from the "boots on the ground" in Anchorage this afternoon, and Fairbanks tomorrow. I can't wait!

Morels! In my yard!

2009-06-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

For the second year in a row I've accidentally stumbled across morel mushrooms growing in my yard. This year there are 7; last year there were 2. There are probably more that I haven't run across yet and I'll keep looking.

Where I grew up in Virginia morels grew under tulip poplar trees. My father goes hunting and finds quarts of them, many 4-5 inches tall. I'm happy to just have a few and the one in the second photo I broke while clearing brush because I didn't know it was there. It was only 1.5 inches tall. Luckily it has 4 "siblings" that I will closely guard until they get larger. There are three others I've cordoned off in the front woods and will let them get to a bigger size as well until they are harvested.

Don't know if anyone else reading loves morels but I think they are the best thing known to man! Sliced in half and coated with egg wash and corn meal and flour, then fried in butter til crisp: YUM!

Anyway, Mom and Dad will certainly get a kick out of my finding morels in the yard. If you don't have them where you live, I suggest purchasing some at your local grocery store when they are in season and enjoying the best mushroom known to man.

Here in AK, the morels can be found in areas where there has been fire activity, or near old buried wood remains, as in my yard. Near Tok there was a large fire maybe 15 years ago and the morels are very abundant in these burn areas. The Tok area is so productive for morels that people come up from Anchorage and even from Seattle to stake their claims and harvest these delights. These folks end up selling the fruits of the labor to gourmet restaurants in Alaska and Washington state. They fetch up to 19 dollars a pound if large and in good condition. Must be why I've heard rumors of people guarding their hunting areas with firearms!

Cool Garden Stuff

2009-05-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Some eye candy from the gardens. Please enjoy!

Strawberry bloom

Arctic Poppy

Columbine (rock garden variety 6 inch tall plant. Bloom 1")

Aquilegia flabellata? (not sure if this is right and if you can help me verify please chime in :-)

Closeup Beautiful Jacob's Ladder

4 inch tall rock garden Iris (sorry can't remember actual name)

Pasque Flower

Pulsatilla vulgaris

Fragrant Crab Apple (genus/species unknown)

at Palmer City Hall across from 1st Nat'l Bank on Cobb St.

If you live near, go see it and smell it; it's a wonderful tree and the only one of it's kind in all of Palmer and Wasilla. Smells like spiced apples and has so many blooms that you can't see the tree for the blooms! Full branch view of the tree below this photo.

Net Leaf Willow (ground hugging alpine plant, leaves 3/4 inch long)

Salix reticulata

Trollius europeanus

Shooting Star

Meadow Rue bloom (unopened)

Thalictrum aquilegifolium

Euphorbia epithymoides

"Cushion Spurge"

Alaska the Beautiful

2009-05-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, multiple posters from many progressive blogs have pissed me off today. Alaska is not defined by Sarah Palin, as a matter of fact, many of us think that she is not worthy of our attention.

Please remember everyone that Alaska is a beautiful wonderful place that should be visited by all. I wish that every commenter on every Alaskan blog or others that mention our fair state would come here and see the magnificence that is here to behold. I'm serious; when I moved up here in 1990 I went places that made me cry because they were so unbelievably beautiful. I still get tears in my eyes when I head to certain places in this state. IT'S AWESOME AND WORDS CAN'T PROPERLY EXPLAIN IT'S APPEAL....

That's why we have to focus less on Palin and who's baby was birthed by whom and how someone so stupid could govern this lovely state. We just have to be here and be, and be present and revel in the beauty that is unmatched by any other place.

It's Cat Time!

2009-05-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've neglected to post for a while but I'm back to work, and work it is; physical "digging in the dirt" and "hauling heavy things around" type work. Not only at my job but in my own yard as well! Busy time of year here in Alaska and the nice weather has certainly put the pressure on to be productive and get everything looking lovely.

So finally pulled the latest photos

off the camera and here are the cutest of the kitty photos.

Jimbo has adopted one of my terra cotta planters as his "nappy spot". Hmmm, wonder if he'll still be trying to nap there once I put plants in the pot? I sure hope not, but I have a feeling that he's still going to have his naps in this pot, plants or not.

Here's Hemingway, in another one of my planters. He jumps on the trash can and then onto this cedar planter that I have bolted onto the side of the shed. He too will have to curtail his activity in this planter once I plant things in here. Although, I seriously doubt that a few little green things will stop him from sitting here. After all, he has a great vantage point for hunting mice!

BELOW: Funny Hemingway, caught in mid-yawn.

So that's it for now, I hope to post at least once weekly but we'll see how energetic I remain this summer! It's been so beautiful here this spring. We've more than made up for the soggy summer of 2008 by having twice as many sunny days within a two week period than we had from June-August of last year! So, don't hate me for not blogging!

For the Love of Dogs-part 2!!!

2009-04-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Great story from Colorado regarding a Valley dog that was caught in traps and lost parts of his front and back left legs.....

Get tissues, you'll need them.

DOGS: They teach us so much about overcoming adversity, hell, they teach us so many things regarding our own humanity. Living life 10 minutes at a time; that's what dogs do and perhaps that is what humans should do. (someone at some point named our companions DOG. Is there more to it that DOG spelled backwards spells GOD?)

Click below for the entire heartbreaking, but then heartwarming story.

Andre's story

For the Love of Dogs!

2009-04-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

There are a few geriatric dogs in our family now. My brother has Oskar, who as you can see isn't as strong in his rear end as he used to be. He has some sort of spinal degradation and just can't get around without dragging his back legs and falling down. Other than that he is good; his mind is strong and his will to go out for daily walks is even stronger.

At our house we have Mo. He's a 14 year old 120-lb Newfie mix. (He's the dog on my lap in my Profile photo). Mo's body is still pretty good, but his mind is a little compromised. Plus he has a wicked cough because the "flaps" in his throat are decaying thanks to the effect that the passage of time has had on his tissues. Mo's cough was "cured" by a moderate dosage of steroids, but the same steroids have given him urinary tract infections because they so heavily degrade his immune system. No more steroids for Mo; he has to take Robitussin for the cough now and daily doses of Dannon immune boosting yogurt drinks to bring his immune system back into balance. But he's still a joy and his cough won't kill him and well, getting old can sometimes be a BITCH!

When I look at the old dogs that are still kicking around my family and my brother's family I am reminded of the ones that did not have the honor of aging but were taken out early in life by various illnesses that we (and they) could not control. I'm reminded of those whom I had to make the ultimate decision for; those are the saddest. My happiest memories of losing a furry loved one are of my 12.5 year old Basset Hound, Rosebud, who passed in her sleep a mere 2 hours after I'd let her out for her morning constitutional. If there is a good way to go, she chose it. (she always did have style!)

Anyway, the photos above are of Oskar, the 13-year old Anatolian Shepherd and his new "legs". My brother tried to build a device to assist Oskar but ended up spending a hefty sum on someone else's engineering prowess to provide Oskar with a means to get around.

Oskar has bagged many peaks in his lifetime; some that he probably should not have ventured onto at all. Now Oskar gets to enjoy the "lowlands" with his trusty new legs, and he seems to really like it.

A Spring Ski Day at Alyeska Resort!

2009-04-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

View from the restaurant at the top of the mountain (looking towards Crow Pass)

Ah, Spring skiing; it's a wonderful thing! Skiing is just soooo much more fun in the bright daylight and warmth of Spring as opposed to the flat, low light and hideous cold of winter! (I'm such a wimp!)

Here are a few more photos from the mountain:

(they were taken from my camera phone so they are not the best quality)

On the Spirit Quad lift to the top

View of the town of Girdwood, Bird Ridge and the Turnagain Arm

There are more photos from this trip to Alyeska located on my Flickr account.

My Flickr

Easter

2009-04-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

It's Easter. Now it's snowing. Thought we'd get through this Easter without snow, but no, it's 6pm and it's snowing.

Brief history of my Easters in Alaska. Been here since 1990, first Easter in AK was 1991. Easter usually means snow up to your butt and more snow coming down on Easter.

Spring seems to have sprung a bit early this year but still, the snow is falling on Easter Sunday.

It's still Spring; it's light at 5:00am and light until 11:00pm, but still it is snowing on Easter, April 12.

Snow in the woods is only up to my knees so not so bad; walked with the dogs in fields of last year's grass and no snow, except in patches.

Friends in other places have photos of daffodils and forsythia on their blogs. We'll be there soon, but for now, it's snowing, and snowing hard on Easter.

They're all going to Pop!

2009-04-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

There was a good bit on Jon Stewart last night about the right having their knickers in a twist because they think that our country is going to hell in a handbasket. The right keeps talking about the "tyranny of the left". Jon Stewart reminded them that it's not tyranny, it's called losing. Get used to it. You're not on top any longer. The other side is not being "tyrannical" and picking on you. We on the left put up with being on the bottom for a long, terrible time. A time in which we watched lesser minds run our country into the ground.

Now it's someone else's turn to be on the losing team.

Here's what I see as being their biggest worry, aside from the left picking on them: I don't think that many of them are going to survive their anger!

Watching some of the overweight pundits and far right supporters get all red-faced and angry makes me realize that they are not going to survive even Obama's first 4 years. We're going to lose most of the far right to strokes and heart attacks before the first year of Obama's first term is even up! After 4 years of this only the few conservatives that don't live on just bacon and sodas will remain. If there is a second term for Obama, well, let's just hope that these people drop some weight and improve their diets because their hearts are not going to be able to take it.

If this trend continues, saner minds may just prevail after all, for the long haul, not just for the next 8 years.

Strange week for Alaska's Governor (A quiet week, if you ask her)

2009-04-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

Stims, Dems and WAR, Oh my!

Sarah Palin is still holding out on not accepting 100% of the Stimulus funds offered to Alaska. Everyone knows by now that the portion of the Stim that she was most opposed to would go towards education. I still don't know how we are going to accomplish the "shovel ready" projects that she is accepting stimulus funds for unless we have an educated work force to man the "shovels". Forest, trees? She can't see either the forest OR the trees.

Dems, pesky bee in her bonnet! She found herself a brand new shiny Dem to fill Kim Elton's vacated Juneau Senate seat, the one he left to go work for Obama. Her choice to fill the seat was Tim Grussendorf. She found him all on her very own and offered him up to the Alaska Democratic Senate members for approval. "Looky here guys, I have Democratic friends too, so there ya go." Problem was, Tim Grussendorf, her choice to fill the vacant Senate seat had only been a Dem for a few weeks. He, like totally, accidentally became a Republican a few years ago when voting absentee or in a Republican primary, or something like that, and chose not to correct his party affiliation until two weeks ago, when he was offered a position that had certain requirements attached to it, specifically that he be a DEMOCRAT! Our Governor is now pissed off and wants the entire process to be changed so that she can have her "magical Democrat friend" get the job he deserves. (please excuse my 15 year old gossip girl commentary above; couldn't help myself)

Because she didn't get her way she's also questioning the process that led to Grussendorf not getting approved. Namely, the same process that allowed her to fill a vacancy in the Alaska House with her Republican friend and churchy bud, Wes Keller. I guess if the process gets the desired result it should not be questioned. If the results are less than satisfactory, certainly the process should be questioned. It was questioned before; the Governor made us aware of this in a press release yesterday. I guess if the process doesn't work, then perhaps it was less than fair at all points at which it was employed and all Senators or Representatives that were appointed by this process should all just step down and we'll do a "do-over".......

Speaking of "do-overs", our Governor thinks it would be a good idea for our US Senator Mark Begich to step down and agree to a "do-over" of this fall's election since Ted Stevens had his ethics trial tossed out of Federal Court. She and the other "koolaid" drinking crazies believe that Begich only won the election because Ted was on trial. They neglect to mention that the courts did not find Stevens innocent of any wrong doing, they basically decided to drop the matter because of a technicality. This dismissal in no way says that Ted is innocent of all charges, merely that the performance of the legal system was not up to it's usual standards. Perhaps Sarah doesn't want Ted to have his seat back in the Senate, perhaps she would like to run.

Guess she perhaps saw God opening another door and put a doorstop in it for future reference. God opens so many doors for this woman that smart people should be buying stock in doorstops! This would be certainly a recession proof investment if God keeps being a gentleman and opening doors for Mrs. Palin! Provided that she can keep the "witches" from showing back up. A monthly appointment with the African "witchdoctor" Thomas Muthee could be considered. Maybe she should change her hair; a lot of witches could hide in that "updo". Better yet, perhaps she can even get the state to pay for it. Can you expense "witch removal"? Just get rid of them, we don't want no witches in our Governor, no way, no how! (There was a great piece from Bruce Wilson on HuffPo a few days ago regarding the Gov's religious leanings. Great read, go get it!)

WAR, Wayne Anthony Ross. Governor Palin's new pick for Attorney General of the State of Alaska. Loves the NRA, hates queers, drives a big ass Hummer with vanity plates, wears camo, thinks big game hunters should get more rights than the Native Alaskans that use game for sustenance, not just as heads on walls....get the picture yet? The Legislature still has to approve him but he's already hard at work down in Juneau, presumably writing press releases for the Governor as she talked about some legal stuff in her last press release. She's never been one to talk about legal stuff before, like when Katie Couric asked her to name some important Supreme Court cases that had relevance to her or to our state. Sarah had nothing. No court cases she could quote, no newspapers or even magazines that she could say that she reads. Good that Palin has a mouthpiece that actually knows something and can help her PR team put some "legally" things in her press releases, bad that his credentials are so far to the right. If the powers that be don't approve WAR's appointment, I guess Sarah and WAR will just have to go shoot something so that they can get over it. That means more homecooked meals for the mainstream media; more mooseburgers, moose hot dogs, and moose chili for Matt Lauer, Jon Ziegler and Greta Van Susteren and her hubby John Coale. Did she feed Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric too? I can't remember, perhaps she didn't and that was why they were so hard on her! A little moose meat goes a long way towards forging friendly relationships with the media.

I think there is a big pissing contest going on: Sarah Palin vs. the Legislature. The last card in her hand is the stimulus money. Today is the deadline for accepting it. She is probably not going to accept it unless she can have the assurance from a majority of the Legislature that they will accept WAR for Attorney General.

If Sarah can have WAR, then the State of Alaska can have 100% of it's share in the wealth of the national stimulus plan. No WAR, no dollars. (Hands on hips frowny face, from Sarah Palin, that is. Progressive Alaska blog has a great photo of her that they use frequently that shows her looking frowny and unhappy, sullen, not sultry....all of you 50-60 somethings that think she is hot can just go watch "Nailin' Palin. Those Russians are really randy!)

THEN, Mt. Redoubt has the audacity to blow at least every 36 hours since 3/22, threatening to destroy or flood a Chevron tank farm at it's base. It only has over 1/2 the amount of oil that the Exxon Valdez spilled. Any comments? Nope, not in her "quiet week".

SO TOO ALSO, (not my words, you know who is famous for that string of words), a big "frufrah" has ended up going down regarding the Republican House/Senate fundraising dinner in June and whether or not our Governor would speak at this function. She says that she never confirmed, function organizers said she did and called her a "disaster". They picked Newt Gingrich to speak instead. The organizers called him "a leader" and a "great speaker". They didn't bother to call Sarah Palin to tell her they'd hired Newt. She had to find out just like the rest of us, by reading the Huffington Post! Just kidding, it was on Fox News first. They're eating their own over there....

THIS WEEK'S POPULAR CULTURE ROUNDUP FOR GOVERNOR PALIN: (It's not all just politics, ya know)

The icing on the Governor's weekly cake is that Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin's "baby daddy" has filmed an episode of Tyra Banks, to air on Monday 4/6. His sister and mother are there with him. There is a preview on the Tyra website. He talks about what is involved when teens get pregnant. Should be enlightening. I always wondered how teens managed to produce offspring. Levi is going to tell us, stay tuned! Sounds like it might have happened right under the Governor's nose, right under the roof of the Palin home! Guess she thought that kids wearing "purity rings" could just sleep together as good friends, ya know "besties" as they call each other now. Guess God was there to open some doors for Bristol and Levi too. You just never know where He will be or what doors He will open. Teens, beware......

Oh, another not to miss moment in the Governor's week, the first Dude, Todd Palin, will have an article in the May issue of Esquire magazine. A very odd video promo came out this week as a teaser. Google it, you'll find it. You'll also wonder if it was an "April Fool's" joke. It wasn't.

The Dud also did an article for Men's Journal. Google also, wow, he's such a Dude!

The last bit of irony in all of this is that the Governor said that it's been a quiet week for her. Hmmm, makes you wonder what a CRAZY week is like for her.....

I'm not linking any info to specific sites right now, you can either trust me, google stuff, or check out the blogroll on my website. Those folks have done all of the hard work; I'm just doing a funny post about it all.

Peace out everyone and have a great weekend.

A Palate Cleanser

2009-03-31T17:31:00.001-07:00

After too much political musings one must have a palate cleanser. Here is a photo of Sam, Brian and Annie on the loveseat. An after dinner mint to cleanse the palate of all distasteful political hate-mongering. Dogs are good and remind one of what's truly important in life!

Banned from teamsarah.org

2009-03-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

I dared speak my mind on the blog that is teamsarah.org and gosh by golly, I am now banned! Banished; forever sent forth into a realm where I am unable to communicate reason to those neo-con crazy fundies that do not share my vision of the world and how I see it. It's really not that we don't agree, it's that they will not allow anyone to express an opinion that doesn't agree with their own. Fine, wallow in your own ignorance and by the way, keep taking out second mortgages on your double wides to help pay Sarah Palin's legal bills. You go, run with that. Perhaps you'll start to donate some money to Scientology too, since Sarah Palin is romancing another religion besides your own. Wow, we'll soon have a minority of far right fundamentalist christian scientologist supporters. Who will you pick on then? Oh, Mormons, that's right, you can always gang up on them.

Actually, I commented to another poster on this website regarding "reproductive freedom". This poster was a male and he presumed to dictate that he and other males of his ilk and the illustrious champion of the rights of the unborn (Sarah Palin, that is) should have the power of "choice" regarding a person's reproductive imperative.

I was nice, I even mentioned that I had read recently that conservative folks were being somewhat more open to listening to other points of view, especially in light of all of the 1st Amendment questioning that is going on lately regarding a person's ability to speak freely.

The teamsarah website is exercising their right to censor me and my opinions, but I must proclaim that their behavior is getting them no points, both with the right or the left.

Go ahead, enjoy your little garden of truth, as you see it. Only speak to likeminded people and only allow posts that do not contradict your beliefs. See where that gets ya.

Oh, I know where that gets ya, it gets ya sequestered in your own little bubble; a bubble that is growing smaller and smaller and smaller, until there is no more oxygen left for any of you to breath in your tiny little bubble of minority conservatism. What will you do when the bubble runs out of air? Will you all suffocate in your hate, or will someone break the bubble and set you free?

The Electromagnetic Spectrum as Applied to Politics

2009-03-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

Some political issues, both in Alaska and in the country have me up in arms, not knowing what to think or what to do. I've been spending time reading about our local progressive (read left-leaning) blogger, Alaska Muckraker, being outed by one of our local politicians (Mike Doogan). Apparently she (Muckraker) did not want to have her identity known because she feared retribution from those that did not share her views. I must say after another local blogger, Celtic Diva, filed an ethics complaint against our Governor and she shared some of the comments that came to her via email from the far right, I can understand why Muckraker was concerned. The comments to Diva were hateful, off topic, and less than gracious to say the least. It's a sad world when people have to live in fear of speaking their mind.

I have spent a bit of time perusing both left leaning and right leaning blogs and websites and I have to say that sometimes the far left gets my goat as often as the far right does. I spent some time on Team Sarah today just to check out what was going on at the far right. They were up to the same antics that they berate the "godless far lefties" for engaging in. "Pots calling kettles black" on both sides of the fence. Sick of it all around and on both sides.

I don't agree with the tactics of the whale warrior people that sail the high seas and act like pirates towards the whaling boats. I don't agree with whaling but the tactics employed by this group that protests the practice are unsavory, in my opinion. I don't agree with the anti-abortionists that bomb clinics and take photos and jars of dead babies to our Alaska State Fair. I think it's over the top. Both of those groups are on the far blue and red ends of the political spectrum and they feel that the ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS. IT DOES NOT. The whalers keep whaling and women keep having abortions. No amount of anti-whaling pirate behavior or dead babies in jars changes anyone's actions. Change happens through the moderate behavior of the majority of people acting together to make a difference.

That's where the graphic above comes into play, for me at least. This is a graphic representing the electromagnetic spectrum. It represents how we can "visualize energy", both energy we can see (the visual spectrum that our human eyes can perceive) and other forms of energy both to the far left and the far right of what our human eyes can discern. As you will notice, the amount of energy visible to the human eye as "light" is a very small part of the spectrum. There is much that we cannot perceive on both the left and the right of what our eyes can see. We can see these energy streams by using special instruments but we as humans only have perception of one small segment of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Blue is on the left, and red is on the right. Our eyes can only "see" a small bit somewhat to the left of the center of the spectrum, in the Green/Yellow part. This is what we visually know as humans and I've decided that this is what I will politically know as a human. I'm growing weary of both the blue and the red and I think that this country will only succeed if we rest somewhere in the green/yellow area of our political spectrum.

I don't mean to use "green" as in be a greenie. I don't recycle everything and I don't drive a hybrid. I do use fluorescent bulbs because they cut my electric bill by 2/3. I also don't prescribe to the "yellow", as in I'm not afraid to let either the blue side or the red side know when I find their ideas unpalatable; I'm not afraid to stand up to either side. I am always willing to listen to a good argument from both sides and if either end of the spectrum, red or blue, can present a good enough argument, including proof to back it up, then I might just have to agree with them.

Crayon calls this green/yellow color Electric Lime. I think that an Electric Lime country might just be the best option for all of us.

We finally got ASHED!

2009-03-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ash on the car this morningAsh falling in the yard last night.

Not very much, just a dusting, but still strange. By strange, I mean that something instinctive kicks in when one sees an giant black cloud heading towards your home; first turning the sun the shade of orange usually seen during forest fires, then obscuring the sun completely. Something in the cerebral cortex says "run", or "do something now", when there is nothing to do but wait and see.

I was just out this morning watering the ducks and the strangest thing about the ash is the lingering odor. It's a mix of the mineral smell of the pulverized rock with a whiff of sulfur and ozone thrown in. The smell triggers some deep seated instinctual "fight or flight" response from my cerebral cortex. The morning seems somehow "off" and the gray light of the cloudy day is ominous. A little part of my mind is is telling me that "vigilance is required, so don't let your guard down". Interesting feelings generated by just a little ashfall, but I'm sure that through the ages our brains have given us these "red flags" that trigger this fight or flight response whether it be because severe weather, fires or even volcanic eruptions.

The really cool part of it is that parts of a mountain 120 air miles from us are now in our yard. The power of Mother Nature is never less than spectacular!

Something set me off today so I have to talk about it....

2009-03-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

I was reading about Scientology today and many christian people were commenting about how "stupid" the Scientology creation story is. For those of you who don't know about Scientology here it is in a nutshell:

They believe that an evil overlord named Xenu shipped a bunch of people from his home planet to Earth when overcrowding there became a problem. We humans are the descendants of these aliens.

It's a creation myth, there are too many to count. They all have merit, only because most were created wayyyyy back in a time where we didn't have a scientific method of explaining where the hell we came from and why we seem to be more "intelligent" than the other creatures that are here with us. ("seem to be" is the operative phrase here; we really haven't been able to quantify the intelligence of most species because we don't really know how to test them on a "human level".)

I've always believed that if people can buy into the bible myth, then they can buy into any creation myth that is presented to them. The same lack of logic, inability to embrace proven scientific standards, and lack of personal curiosity must be employed to accept any myth relating to how we humans came to be, except the one that states that we EVOLVED, over more years than we as the evolved species can even comprehend. Evolution is occurring right now under our very noses and is even speeding up because we are in a cycle of climate change. (Who knows if that is our fault or not, perhaps it is partly due to human influence, but the earth is very dynamic, so I don't think we can take all of the credit)

We are in the 21st century and science is giving us real answers regarding our existence. It's time to put away the fairy tales and accept that we are a happy accident of "evolution" and that perhaps we do not have a universal purpose and that we're lucky to get a chance to have our go around on this big blue marble. The creation myths that we call religion have caused too much blood shed and dissent among the human residents of this planet and it's time for it to stop! We have a purpose here, on this earth, for however long we get to be here and our purpose now should be to embrace harmony and acceptance and work together to cure what ails us as a species and what ails our home planet.

Faith is great, don't get me wrong. I have friends that are very strong people in the face of adversity and they always give ALL of the credit to God. I think they are selling themselves short, but if God helps them to be stronger, so be it. I just wish that everyone wouldn't believe EVERYTHING that they read.

Debating posting this, but what the heck, I'll just hit send. (I'm not going to censor myself just because everyone doesn't agree!)

OOPS, I did it again (and again and again and again!)

2009-03-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

The long awaited Mt. Redoubt eruption finally began last night (Sunday) at 10:40pm and continued throughout the night and into early morning, with 4 significant eruptions having been observed. Well, not really observed in the visual sense as there was darkness during the night and then heavy cloud cover during the day, but still, observed by all of the sensitive instruments in place on and around and above the volcano. No webcam photos recently, however, as the webcam on the Northwest slope of the volcano is registering as "inactive" at this point. Hmmm, wonder why?

I was first made aware of this eruptive activity at 11:05pm last night, by my ever alert husband who saw the first news item appear on the internet. We discussed what to do in the event of massive ashfall, but decided to wait and see what the Alaska Volcano Observatory and National Weather Service had to say regarding possible ashfall in our area. We'd had pretty woop-ass winds throughout the day, coming from the east, so I thought that any ash would be blown away from our area. (I know about those winds as I hiked with the dogs in those winds early in the day...) Even knowing that the wind was in our favor, I still couldn't help sitting in bed and looking out into the darkness and wondering what we might wake up to. But alas, we have dodged this bullet, if only by a few miles as people 30 miles west in Willow were reporting ashfall in their town.

The upper level winds have blown the ash cloud to the Northwest of the volcano and towards points 30 miles west of us (Willow) and then beyond towards Cantwell (150 miles Northwest of Wasilla). Sorry for you folks, but happy for me! All in all it seems like the eruption was so violent that most of the ash was carried very high into the atmosphere and won't be making it's way down anytime soon. At last report the winds were shifting to carry the ash over Anchorage, but the majority of the ash was suspended from 40,000 to 60,000 feet and isn't expected to fall over any landmass in the near future.

So, let's all look forward to colorful sunrises and sunsets in Southcentral Alaska for the next few days. The Alaska Volcano Observatory does remind us, however, that the last eruptive phase of Mt. Redoubt lasted for over 4 months, so we probably have not seen the last of it by far.

Time for a volcano party...Flaming Volcano drinks for everyone (you know, the really sweet drinks in the big volcano bowl with the flaming sterno in the middle and the really long straws?)

Alaska Volcano Observatory-Redoubt Information

We don't need no education

2009-03-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Click this link for the full story

Way to go Sarah Palin! Standing up to those silly Dems and their crazy stimulus package.

Sorry Sarah Palin, but we do need some education, especially here in Alaska.

Sarah says, "we don't need you up here, we're just fine without your stimulus money, especially the $160 million for education. Wow, we might need a lot of things up here, but extra money to educate Alaskans, hell no, we're smarter than, oh wait, we're not smarter than any of the lower 49 states? Even some schools in the most downtrodden areas of Appalachia have better test results and lower dropout rates than Alaska?....sorry my bad, guess I didn't do my research. I'm a populist, ya know, and that means that I'm really just a middle aged cheerleader that doesn't have to know what I'm talking about. I'm just here to get you all riled up and excited about, well, something that seems important at the time......"

Oh, well, just ignore the fact that Alaskan children have some of the lowest scores on standardized tests in the nation and our dropout rate is at 38%.

Also ignore the fact that our governor can't put together a coherent sentence to save her life and her daughter sounded just like the single-mother-high school-dropout that she is when she was premiering her newest child to the nation w/Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. Not to mention the fact that Bristol's "baby daddy" Levi Johnston could hardly be described as "eloquent" in his last interview w/ABC news. There are three shining examples of products of the Alaska school system, and they're part of the Governor's family!!!

I guess Sarah Palin is holding the entire state of Alaska to the same level of achievement as her family.

Well, I give up. What's good enough for the Palin's should be good enough for the rest of us. I hearby give up the good grammer and speelliing and all of the other things that I thot that edumacation were meant to make good for us and will just be hapy to be on the level that the Palins say is a good thing because them say so.

In all seriousness, we might be building a gas pipeline up here within the next decade. If we turn down money to educate our children, where is the labor force going to come from that assists in the creation and implementation of this project? Will we have to resort to importing Texans and Oklahomans again, as we did to build the oil pipeline? We need this money to go towards standard and vo-tech educational facilities and her turning it down in order to strengthen what she perceives as her "national position" does nothing more than injure the state of Alaska.

Sarah needs to make a choice, because she can no longer play both sides of the fence. She needs to choose to be our Governor 100% and make choices that benefit Alaskans, or she needs to step down and focus on her national aspirations.

I hope that our Legislature comes together, both Dems and Reps and decides that we do need at least the education portion of the stimulus, and our state becomes more of a shining example of educational achievement instead of what it is now. We can shine despite our Governor's best efforts to keep us down.

I thought only I called it that!

2009-03-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Montreal Gazette had a great article, linked below, about how people with dogs exercise more frequently because we are motivated by "dog guilt". I know that those of you with dogs have felt it many times before and probably label the feeling with your own personal definitions. I happen to call my feeling "dog guilt", as apparently do many others, at least some of our "neighbors to the North" (although a lot of Canada is actually to the South of Alaska, so I don't think the "neighbors to the North" description applies 100% when one resides in the 49th State of the USA. Canada is more like 50% neighbors to the North and 50% neighbors to the South, if one lives in Alaska...)

Anyway, enough of the geography lesson. Suffice it to say that I'd be much more of a couch potato if it weren't for my dogs, and I bless their little hearts for getting me out of the house and onto the trail each time it happens. On the drive to the park I'm always thinking to myself "gee, they might just enjoy a ride in the car and I can just stop at the grocery store and do some shopping and then go home, without hitting the park at all." Then I see the anticipatory look on their little furry faces and sense the excitement that they feel at the prospect of a romp in the park and I always steer my car to one of our usual haunts and give them a run. At the end of the walk I always feel more relaxed, refreshed and, well, you know, all those good feelings that come from exercising. Plus, the dogs are tired and less apt to come home and destroy furniture or sit staring at me like I've let them down by not getting them out.

After a dog walk I can then come home and hit the couch and feel no guilt, that is until I spy the dirty carpet or the dusty furniture or the crates of laundry waiting for my attention, then I feel the guilt that is associated with neglecting housework. Is that called "Martha Guilt"? I think that's what I will call it from now on.

Here's the link to the article that precipitated this rambling:

Montreal Gazette: Dog Guilt

YouTube Test

2009-03-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

Awesome Spring Walk

2009-03-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a video that I put together of photos taken on our walk today. Today's participants were Brian, the 8 month old PitBull and Sam, the 9-year old 3 legged St. Bernard Mastiff. It was a gorgeous day with temps around 35 degrees.

As you can see in the photos Brian idolizes Sam and likes to jump on him and lick his face at every opportunity. Sam is old and grouchy and would just as soon not have Brian along on his hikes!

At any rate, snowmachiners have been on the lakes lately and have left nice packed down trails that are easy to travel on without skis or snowshoes, so it's been easy walking. This is one of our favorites spots to walk in winter and to kayak in summer. Won't be too long now until the lakes thaw and the kayaks can come back out. There are plenty of trails in this park that we hike in the summer and not too many people seem to know about them so we have them to ourselves both in summer and winter. I'm sure that won't last for long but for now we enjoy this area immensely.

Enjoy the video. By the way, the music is from Vivaldi-4 Seasons Suite and is titled "Spring".

Katie Couric Won an Award....

2009-03-10T17:51:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Sarah Palin being an IDIOT! I love it. A 5th grader with some of the facts would have been able to make Sarah Palin look stupid....it doesn't take much.

But Katie's in-depth interview with Alaska's brain dead governor garnered her a prestigious Conkrite Award.

Katie Couric has interviewed and spoke with many celebrated and intelligent national and world leaders but her "gotcha" interview with Sarah Palin was the one to get her the Conkrite Award? Hitting myself on the head right now for not ever thinking to find Sarah Palin and ask her some simple questions and go on record with an interview....I mean REALLY, anyone reading this blog right now could have asked her some questions that she was not able to answer.

I mean, I do love the fact that she showed that Sarah Palin was not fit to be the Mayor of Wasilla, let alone the Governor of Alaska and need I say the Vice President of the United States...I just wish I'd thought of it first.

'Nuff said.

Meow!

2009-03-03T18:36:00.001-08:00

Haven't had anything interesting to say for a few days...just ran across this photo of Hemingway, our mouse-eating polydactyl cat and thought that it was deserving of a post of it's own. So here is Hemi.

Meow!

Bird Hotline!

2009-02-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

I was out of food at the bird feeders yesterday; not completely out as there were 3 cakes of suet but no seeds in the feeders. A few hardy souls were scrounging around the leftovers on the ground hoping to find an uneaten seed. There were also a few birds on the suet feeders but not nearly the numbers that we have in the yard when the "bottomless" sunflower seed feeders are full. I had every intention of going out yesterday afternoon for bird food but instead hung out with the dogs on the couch watching the full season 5 of Top Chef, in order to catch up in anticipation of last night's finale. I worried that the birds were starving and would have a hard night last night since they didn't get their daily ration of sunflower seeds. I really did worry about them and my husband had to reassure me multiple times that without my assistance they would still make it through :-)

Today I went out early on an sunflower seed run. Fred Meyer was out, Pet Zoo was out. I had to drive 10 miles to Animal Food Warehouse to purchase a 40lb bag, which they just had shipped in this morning. (Looks like lots of Valley people are feeding the birds and that is great!) Also the Animal Food Warehouse has lots of inexpensive yummy rawhide chips and rubber chew toys for the dogs, so everyone got something. (well, not the cats, but they are happy with just their food and water and the hammocks in the windows...cats are easy!)

Within 10 minutes of the filling of the feeders the population of birds in the yard went from 5 to over 100. What sort of "hotline" do these little guys have to get the word out so fast that the feeders are once again full?

I should apply for a grant to study the communication between these birds. They do it all without "WiFi" or cellphones or text messages. What is their method of such speedy communication? Could we apply it to our computer networks or other areas of our human lives? Something to think about....

This is Entropy

2009-02-24T18:25:00.000-08:00

He is an 8-year old Anatolian Shepherd that belongs to our friends Dave and Sandie. He is big. He is at the near the top end of the standard size for his breed. He's not fat, he is just a big boy, 150 lbs!

Entropy's dad is a scientist; his first of many degrees. Entropy's name is related to physics and the second law of thermodynamics, the one that deals with "disorder, chaos, and lack of predictability". Entropy the dog is anything but chaotic. He is big, calm and sweet.

The reason this post is here is because my brother and his wife have a dog named Oskar. He is an Anatolian Shepherd too, but he is more on the low end of the weight and size scale for the breed. He also, in his younger years, would have deserved the name "Entropy" more than Dave and Sandie's dog. This is not a reflection of my love for Oskar; he was just a handful when he was younger and I am dealing with that with some of my younger pups. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that they will perhaps grow up and mellow.

After spending an evening with our friends Dave and Sandie, they are also hoping that their human children will one day grow up and "mellow". At least one of them, who Dave claims has turned his once red hair to grey!

Leave it to me to only get photos of the dog. Their 3 children are also beautiful, as is our friend Gail's child who was there also.

I just couldn't get over how big this dog was! He has his own myspace page. That's how big he is.

Pillow Fight!

2009-02-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

I wasn't around for this "pillow fight" but I have photographic evidence that it did indeed happen! Long story short, I went away for a few hours to help Sally fence in her deck. I placed Annie in the kennel and put away anything that Brian might get into; trash can, remote controls, blankets, etc. Well, apparently I forgot to put the pillow away (yes, pillow, singular, as in we only had one left anyway as the others had already been eviscerated...)

The above photos are of the scene that greeted me when I returned home. Not that anyone admitted guilt, but Brian is the likely culprit as Annie was locked up and the other 3 no longer have an interest in destroying property, only dog toys.

Rather than acting contrite, or ashamed Brian greeted me heartily while romping through the inches of feathers and down that covered the living room floor and furniture. He was pretty darned proud of himself.

Cleaning commenced with the majority of the stuffing being swept into the trash can. I attempted to vacuum the remainder, but the vacuum exhaust just blew the feathers around and made even more of a mess. Curious cats entered the scene and proceeded to chase the flying feathers around! After a bit more sweeping and a little more vacuuming (the vacuum plugged up twice with down stuck in the bottom hose...) the majority was removed. There are still feathers and down floating around various corners and under furniture and I suspect we will be seeing them around for a few weeks.

The last photo is me taking a well deserved rest and Brian trying to make up :-)

Brian just received his very own kennel yesterday so hopefully no more messy surprises for a while.

All About Brian

2009-02-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

Didn't really have a post for today so Tuesday, February 17, 2009 is officially "Brian Day" on the blog.

Brian was roaming the house last night and Benton decided to do a little training and told him to sit. Well, he decided to do his "sit" on the steps and there he stayed, just being his little photogenic self for a good long while. Well, a good long while in dog moments, at least long enough to get some photos of his cute mug. Yeti the cat was trying to move in on his photo-op as she is a complete camera hog!

Valentines Hike at Eklutna Lake

2009-02-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here is a short video of our hike yesterday on Eklutna Lake. Temps were in the 30's with a light wind and it was absolutely beautiful! Enjoy!

Garden Video

2009-02-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

I just created this short video last week as a test project for the larger garden video that I am preparing. It's a short series of photos from the Visitor Center Garden in Palmer, Alaska, where I am assistant to the gardener in the summer months. I hope you enjoy this short trip through the garden and will post a larger version once it is ready.

Looking back at the vast library of photos that my boss and I have taken of the gardens makes me....

1. Long for summer

2. Makes my back and knees ache remembering how much work goes into creating this each year :-)

Enjoy.

Great Backyard Bird Count

2009-02-10T13:01:00.001-08:00

The Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend, Friday February 13-Monday February 16. Everyone with feeders or just resident bird populations, should go to the link and take part. Sounds like fun!

Hanging with Eagles (and Ravens)

2009-02-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

This is a short movie of photos taken during one of our walks last week. The park abuts the landfill on its west side and as the landfill creeps closer to the western trails, the population of Eagles and Ravens on the trail increases. The birds are drawn to our human "leftovers" and seem to be well fed and thus complacent, allowing people to get very close to take photos. Even people with rambunctious dogs!

There are plenty of other trails in the park that are well away from the landfill, but some of my favorite walks are on these trails nearest the dump. Hardly anyone uses these areas and it's not unusual not to see another soul during a walk. The only sounds, aside from the landfill earth movers, is that of chattering Ravens and the high-pitched "weee" of the Eagles. There is an open valley to the right of our favorite trail and you can watch the Ravens and Eagles taunting each other and hear their calls echoing through the valley. A nice way to spend a few hours.

Sorry for the small size of the photos, this was really just a test video. I hope to get better Eagle close ups in the coming week.

Birds Abound

2009-02-05T12:24:00.001-08:00

Female Pine Grosbeak

For the last week our yard has been overrun by flocks of birds; Common Redpolls, Bohemian Waxwings, and Pine Grosbeaks. I believe this is because I changed from a mixed bird food back to strictly black oil sunflower seed; that seems to be the crowd favorite around here.

It seems that these birds have a pretty efficient communications "grapevine". Within 24 hours of filling the feeders the resident Chickadees and Nuthatches were joined first by a few, then very quickly, by massive flocks of Redpolls, Waxwings and Grosbeaks. The squirrels were also out in force.

The cats have been having a fabulous time stationing themselves at various windows watching the show.

The Redpolls are fun to watch as they move like one big organism, flying in and taking off in one large orchestrated group. The slightest noise will spook them and send them flying off, only to return a few seconds later. They also get into tiffs at the feeder with the resident Chickadees and Nuthatches. We've been having little scuffles all week, but so far no casualties. No window casualties either, which is surprising as the Redpolls often hit the windows. They will hit people too. Benton and I have almost been hit multiple times walking around the corner to our cars. The birds travel rapidly up and down the driveway between the front yard and back yard bird feeders. You better remember to look both ways before entering that line of avian traffic!

Other sightings at the feeder this week. Two Northern Flickers were hanging around eating the suet cake. This was very exciting as they were the first that I had ever seen. Beautiful birds! They were joined by a Gray Jay, which is also a rare visitor to our yard.

On Sarah Palin and Shoes

2009-02-02T17:08:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin wearing Boots that we can't wear in the winter in Alaska without hurting ourselves

I've finally found a common ground with Sarah Palin. SHOES!! This woman loves herself some shoes! Hell, someone even paid over $2000 for her used red patent leather buckle pumps on EBay! Well, the person who spent that money probably has his or her own reasons for purchasing a $90 pair of shoes for $2000. That person probably has a disorder that is much more psychologically complex than just a love of shoes. I hope that there is a party going on somewhere where lecherous foot fetishists are getting together to drink cheap champagne from Sarah Palin's Naughty Monkey pumps. They are open-toed pumps so I would recommend duct taping the toes shut so that the champagne stays put. Duct tape is an old Alaskan remedy for all sorts of problems and if you just paid $2000 for Sarah Palin's old shoes, well, you should know that. She is "duct tape" personified....

Anway, back to the link of her in those damn boots!

Damn her eyes, I mean, Damn her feet! Damn her for traveling to warmer ice free climes for no better reason than to wear those awesome boots without risking life or limb. Well, she was going there to "pal around with the Elite Washington types" that she really didn't like a few months ago, but now we know the TRUTH. She goes to warmer places so she can wear cool shoes without breaking a leg!

All is now forgiven Sarah Palin. I forgive you for forsaking our state in your recent 3 month quest for national stardom. I forgive you for being uniformed and making a mockery of all Alaskans during your battle with the "gotcha liberal media". I now understand why you don't want to be in Alaska. You want to wear AWESOME shoes and boots without risking your bones!

But Wait (looking thoughtful and putting my index finger to my cheek)

Sarah Palin did film that video on icy the icy streets of Juneau last spring in some really cute spike heeled boots. Mere mortals would have ended up with perhaps one, but probably two seriously sprained ankles running around like she did on those icy streets in stilettos. There's more. She had 4 inch heels on in the Turkey Slaughter video, in the snow and ice and chilly wind. Very brave shoe choices indeed. Sarah Palin, I applaud your shoe heroics here on the icy streets of Alaska.

I thought that Sarah Palin wanted to go to DC because she could exercise more "shoe freedom" there. Now I'm not sure why she wants to go. I'm going to have to do some more research. Could it be that life and politics is really about more than just shoes?

An historical note:

The model name of Sarah Palin's open toed Naughty Monkey pumps (that sold on EBay for $2000+) is called "Double Dare" (god lets all hope that she doesn't see fit to go there...McCain dared her once, and she actually accepted!).

Other styles that she could fit in her shoe closet are called "Colorful Talk" (that works well for her, she can toss them up with her "word salads"), "Animal Thunder" (what she wears when she sends people out to shoot wolves from helicopters), "Cut Like a Blade" (trust your ears on that one) and there's even a "Romance in Paris" shoe (which she wears when speaking to French President Sarkozy, or at least someone who sounds french who really might be Sarkozy...or NOT)

Ahh, it's the shoes that matter and the Naughty Monkey brand seems to have a style to fit every Palin occasion!

Now if they could only develop the "Bush Doctrine Sling Back" and the "What do you Read Open Toed Pump" Sarah might have shoe for every occasion.

Waiting for Redoubt and remembering Mt. Spurr

2009-01-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

For three days the Anchorage Daily News has been reporting that one of our local volcanoes, Mt. Redoubt, is getting restless. Here's the latest info, both from ADN and The Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Daily News Article: 1/28/2008

Alaska Volcano Observatory Mt. Redoubt Information

If she blows it won't be my first experience with volcanic activity. Mt. Spurr, the closest volcano to Anchorage, erupted three times in summer 1992.

Alaska Volcano Observatory Report on Mt. Spurr, 1992 eruptions

It's been nearly 17 years since Mt. Spurr last erupted. During the first eruption, June 27, my parents were visiting. We were eating a meal in Talkeetna when the news was announced. How exciting! My parents might not have seen many moose on that particular trip, but they would get to be part of a volcanic eruption! How often do you get to return home from vacation and share that tale? However, the ash cloud went far to the west and bypassed most populated areas and we didn't actually witness any of it. The second eruption is a different story.

I was at a gathering on August 18 when the second eruption was announced with a warning that an ash cloud was headed directly towards Anchorage. A few of us jumped in the car and headed towards an area that overlooks Cook Inlet and Mt. Spurr. We watched as the ash cloud advanced towards us. It was very ominous to behold the large dark cloud slowly swallowing the sky and turning day to night. A few minutes after we returned to the party, ash began falling like sandy snow.

The folks back at the party had been watching the news and learned that we needed to protect our car engines from ash damage, prior to driving home. This is done by placing pantyhose over the car's air intake. A group of us sprang into action. Our hostess donated a large bag of her pantyhose to the cause and we proceeded to "ash proof" our cars. It was black as night with sandy ash raining down on our heads, making a sound like sleet as it landed. One of the men put some stockings on his head. This proved to be a fantastic bit of foresight on his part as the gritty particles are almost impossible to wash from your hair and I had "gritty scalp" for at least a week.

The drive home that evening had a "post apocalyptic" feel to it. Curiosity seekers were out walking with dust masks or scarves over their faces. People were still on the road, checking out the scene; we even passed one guy riding his motorcycle in the ash cloud! It was so strange for it to be pitch black so early on a summer evening, as we still have daylight until nearly 11pm in late August. It was a very surreal scene that just felt "wrong" somehow.

When we awoke the next morning, the ash fall had stopped and skies were again clear. There was 1/8 inch of ash covering everything. The gardens had to be hosed clean and sidewalks swept. Street sweepers worked around the clock but the ash persisted for weeks, stirred up by traffic on the roads. Finally the dependable fall rains came and cleaned things up and by October the ash was forgotten under winter snows.

The next summer things were greener than usual due to the fertilizing nutrients in the ash. I guess even Mother Nature's clouds of wrath have a silver lining.

On watching the sun come back and expose a winter's worth of hidden grime.

2009-01-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

It's always fun this time of year watching the sun climb higher and higher in the sky each day. By this time of the year we are a little more than one month past winter solstice and have been gaining an increasing amount of light each day. The daily gains start small, but then gain momentum as we pull away from the winter solstice. By the third week in January one can actually see that the sun is shining higher in the sky and that sunrise and sunset are occurring earlier and later each day.

At my house the sun was high enough in the sky this morning to actually shine through a window that has not seen sun since early November. Note to self: clean that window, right away!

On that note, there is a downside to the sun returning to long forgotten corners of your house. Corners that haven't been illuminated by strong natural light in nearly 3 months now don't seem as clean as one thought they were! As the sun begins to brighten other dark corners of our dwellings in the coming weeks and months "spring" cleaning will become a necessity as the sun shines it's brutal light into what appeared to be clean areas back in December. In my home, while the carpet might have appeared to be clean and not in need of a thorough steaming in December, it certainly is beginning to appear more and more questionable in the higher light.

Good thing the holiday season is in the darkest part of the year as one can entertain company without said company noticing just how cruddy your house really is! Once the full-strength sun of summer rolls around, most entertaining happens outdoors (thank goodness), thus reducing the chances of someone actually seeing how your house looks in the full light of an Alaska summer day.

Unless you have outdoor "facilities" or your summer guests choose to relieve themselves outdoors, one still must keep a "corridor of cleanliness" leading to the closest indoor restroom. The other option, steamclean your home, one dirty bit at a time as the ever climbing sun reveals these "problem areas" to you each day. The inherent problem with spring-cleaning is really in the two words themselves: spring and cleaning. Who in Alaska really wants to spend even a single spring day cleaning house? As soon as Mr. Sun begins coming back to town the urge is not to nest but to leave our dusty dwelling and spend more time outdoors. Who cares if it's cold, it's sunny and your body wants to get out there and soak it up!

Regardless of the sun's cruel, daily exposure of winter's lapsed daily cleaning, I still welcome it back with open arms!

For those of you that like to follow the sun, here is a nice website. It can bring hope to those that suffer from the winter blues. It’s nice to be able to watch the little line creep up towards the summer solstice line. Yeah, there’s the flip side too; watching the little line creep towards the winter solstice line, but after a long and well lived summer, it can be a relief to head into the quieter times of winter. I’ll have more on that in September.

Gaisma: Sun info for Wasilla Alaska

Note: you can look up many other locations worldwide from the Gaisma website. Have fun tracking the sun!

2009-01-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

So, Monday January 12, 2009. I have been perusing all of my favorite Alaska political blogs and in between sneaking peaks at who wore what, who said what and who won what awards at last night's Golden Globes. Warmth has again graced this little corner of the world and temps are at 10 degrees ABOVE and supposedly rising. Forecasters are calling for RAIN on Wednesday...hmmm, didn't really need for it to get that warm and ruin all of the fabulous ski trails that have been set at various parks in the area, but hey, I guess we take it as it comes. The dogs are definitely enjoying this warmer climate as are the ducks. My two male ducks were trying to swim in their bucket at -20 and one of them at some point became stuck to the side of the water bucket and lost a good sized patch of feathers. I put a board over all but a small portion of the bucket so that they would be able to drink but not swim. Swimming is not a recommended recreationally activity at -20 degrees, but I see the wild ducks doing it all of the time in various open water areas in the Valley. At any rate, for now this blog will be for family and friends and I'll post favorite links in case any of them would like to visit these recommended sites.

I'm testing posting the urls now so I'll have to update later....

below is a test done by my husband Benton, computer geek extraordinaire, figuring out how to embed urls and other things into my blog. I'm leaving it for future reference for myself as it has some coding in it I may need to be reminded of one day.

POLITICAL: Benton totally knows how to do links

2009-01-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

First post from my new blog. Just testing to make certain that all is in order. Warming up here in Wasilla. From -15 this morning at 8am to 2 above at 3:20pm.