Trying to watch the kitties

Lost Purse

Well, at least I found my purse before Spring. It was missing for 4 days and I eventually found it as I was going to put something in the car... I had dropped it next to the car and it had gotten buried in the snow.

So the folks from the Bush know where to go

I saw this and thought... now that's politically incorrect... Using visuals to tell the folks from the bush (or just out of Fairbanks) what your are supposed to use these rooms for.

Lack of sunlight

I took this picture at NOON a week or so ago. The university is up on a hillside looking over the valley in which Fairbanks proper is located. This picture is from the museum on that hill. Still - note where the sun is.

No hearie on jobbie

And at this point that's most likely a 'not hiring jane' boohoo...

anyway some pictures to post Me with the Ice Bear carved a few nights ago outside the building I teach in.

JOb Interview Update

Gonzaga would be an awesome place to work. I won't know til before Thanksgiving - they have another person to interview. There are interesting circumstances behind the job opening... but it seems that they have two folks to replace. Not sure if that means they are hiring two folks.

They emphasize teaching highly (which works for me)... it's a pretty campus on the banks of the Spokane river. Spokane itself is cool. There are some really neat architecturey new buildings and nice old masonry/brick stuff to. No Indian restaurant apparently but since I lived most of my life not even liking Indian food - that's only so much of problem.

Anyway- don't wanna spend any more time thinking about Gonzaga since I know I will be disappointed if I don't get the job.

I'm in love... with Barack of course

just caught a bit of him on 60 minutes. I'm a moderate in love.... Pragmatism rules. I love the Daily Show's bit about 'Greatness Watch' (or something like that) with a tentative B.O. on Mt. Rushmore.

HOLY CRAP - we elected a guy whose middle name is Hussein - on top of that 'other' issue (har har har). But I guess we did manage to move that name out of the forefront. Man Barack-star could have a STROKE and still be more eloquent than Shrub.

I can't imagine what this is gonna be like - White folks might learn about Black hair. I remember that being revelatory. Wonder when the girls'll have a hair do (or Michelle) that folks decide is too 'ethnic'.

So I was gonna write about my job interview but I am watching this 60 minutes episode and - wow, I think I know what folks meant by Camelot.

halloween party

Pictures from a shindig I went to. At a dry cabin...

Improvised Cheap Holloween Costume

hee hee hee hee.... just a little make-up, my just received Obama shirt from Mark and Margit... And then I clearly have the obvious costume choice. If you can't see it - its a 'purple-black' eye with a backwards S (sarah or stevens depending on the attacker's choice) 'carved' into my cheek.

My 'arctic' look

So, I finally brought the camera (cause I was wearing particularly appropriate combination of attire).

Sure, make the fat lady walk outside in flip flops

So... after doing laps inside my academic building (around the office hallway)... I decided to finally go into the 'Patty' center -- where the pool and larger locker rooms are -- to figure out how you can go in, take off your boots and winter gear, stow them in a locker and then traverse over to the indoor track and machines (there's an indoor ice rink between the Patty center and the Student Rec Center with the indoor track etc).

Well - upon being stopped and asked what I needed by what appeared to be a student worker.. I explain my dilemma of coming in with all the winter gear and trying to figure out how to get shed, lockered, and into the SRC.

Seems not too bad; go downstairs in the Patty Center, rent a locker, change into gear -except for indoor only sneakers so perhaps wear [as suggested] FLIP FLOPS and go to the SRC via the Ice Rink.

But when I ask if it will be obvious to find the way to the ice rink from downstairs, I find out there apparently ISN'T one.. According to this nimrod - I am supposed to go BACK outside once shedded and in flip flops to enter the ice rink from outdoors. After all it's only down a flight of stairs or so and around the corner.

Uh, WTF? hello - it hasn't really been getting above 20 degrees - the whole point of the indoor track is to excercise INDOORS - not pretend to be a flippin Polar Bear.

Speaking of which - saw my first Polar Bear... - stuffed - mascot in the Patty Center since the sports teams here are the Nanooks (native term for polar bear).

Yes We Carve

Apologies in advance to the non-Obama supporters among my readers...

But I thought this was Heeeelarious... especially the Boooooobama!

http://yeswecarve.com/index.php

My Mukluks have arrived

And I have them on my feet after... about an hour or more of struggle. THe moosehide will stretch to my feet and it has rather... the real problem has been trying to figure out if there is a left and right boot or if they are identical.

Literally put them on each foot and switched em around and walked around (keep in mind these are boots and it takes some effort to pull a boot on and off). Pulling out the felt liners to try and see if THEY gave a hint to right and left boot. I've decided that you just have to choose and go with it (they have a 'steger mukluks' label sewed on either the inside or the outside depending on which way you wear them).

They're big moosehide moccasins with like a rubberized sole. I can see how they are not slippery and apparently they are even better traction in the cold. Oh - the muks came with a card to explain how to tie them.

OH - and I wore my yaktrax today too... on the way from the parking lot to the building. They are AWESOME on the snow and ice. It's like having sneakers for ice and snow that grip like sneakers on cement.

My Yaktrax

I wanted to walk from the laundromat to the pizzeria today.. a short walk - but a few steps away from the car, I verified that doc martens and ice do not mix. ...ended up driving the car LITERALLY to the end of a small strip mall to make it to the pizzeria intact.

So - tonight I bought the Yaktrax. They aren't the strap-on ice-cleats that are also available but rather rubber webbing with coils of steel... 'tire chains' in a way for your shoes.

http://www.yaktrax.com/ProductsWalker.aspx

Driving around I watched other cars slip around and felt my traction control engaging here and there (interesting hoping that your car stops before you DO slide into the intersection)... but yet - unlike in places where you would take that as a sign to go home and just do those errands on a day where the roads were clear... I adopted (what I imagine is familiar here) the fatalism that it won't be any better til late spring... after all I think it MIGHT even have gotten above freezing here today and it didn't make much of a dent on those areas where traffic hadn't cleared the roads (which is all parking lots and the winding Yak Road that turns and goes up hill to Yak Estates).

So you might as well stay out and write postcards at Obama headquarters (beer and postcards part deux). Another lovely aspect of the GRAVEL approach to dealing with snow and ice (besides the 1-2 windshield repair/replacement minimum) is grocery carts. Pushing the cart over parking lots seems almost like pushing a shopping cart over cobblestones or gravel.

Cat Retirement Home

Look what google suggested to me... (what's frightening is it looks like my place - I even have the same DVD for cats).

http://www.palm-meow.com/Imagegallery10.html

Frankenboots

I AM continually thankful to Kami for giving me her Sorell Dominator boots... but I actually wore the FRANKENBOOTs today. The picture here doesn't do them justice - I think you need the requisite foot near them for comparison, but this isn't my photo.

These are the boots so lovingly described by Garrison Keillor at this link (which is Keillor-style funny)...

http://outside.away.com/outside/magazine/1295/12f_gari.html

The boots I HAD been wearing (after reattaching the front of the soles with "Shoe Goo") started separating from the heel. And despite reaching the quite balmy teens today... when I decided to wear the Sorell's - it was 4 degrees out. By the time I actually got to the office I felt a fool for such overdressed feet. But had some fun trudging around like Frankenstein's monster.

The students I was meeting with reassured me that up here NO ONE laughs at what you wear to keep warm despite the fact that it was CLEARLY not cold enough for these shoes.

Still waiting on my Mukluks to arrive - but saw another person wearing that style today so apparently I did pick the appropriate Fairbanks model.

Don't Eat Me

I've been meaning to post this little tidbit since Thursday. I was yawning rather wide-mouthed while waiting for the elevator. Suddenly the door opened and the tall, mountaineer-looking (rather common look here) man says... "Don't Eat Me"...

I guess I COULD be mistaken from a black bear.

In other news.... I have an Interview... so all efforts at job application are now vindicated. One interview per year at least makes the effort worthwhile. Well - maybe not worthwhile - but psychologically reassuring.

Getting Myself Winterized

Some of you saw this as an email....

Check out my new winter gear... These were NOT discretionary purchases as I
have been repeatedly laughed at for saying that it is 'cold' now (what's a
little 0-20 degrees, when you have -40 or so to look forward to).

Slippers

http://www.amazon.com/Chinchilla-Soft-Slipper/dp/B001HU34R8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1224039791&sr=8-4

Coat

http://www.catherines.com/pagebuilder/catherines_product_page?item=1828482&pagesize=4

Boots / well mukluks...

http://shop.mukluks.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AR-R&title=Arctic%20with%20Ribbon%20Mukluks

And ya'll DON'T need pictures of the thermal undies I found online and
ordered.

My lovely Volvo XC now has a block heater, a battery blanket, and an oil pan
warmer... I skipped the transmission warmer and auto-start - though there are some side-bets afoot about how long it will take me to break down and have an autostart installed.

OK, So we're all on the same page

I finally decided it WOULD save me time to just blog about my Alaska Adventure. In a bit I will find out how you actually send this link to people.

I thought today was funny - as I came to school in my pajamas (well my pajama pants as a 'base layer' beneath my pants as the pants are synthetic dress pants). I might get my actual first pairs of thermal undies soon. So that was goofy enough - but on the way to my office I remembered... that I could sort of get a 'free lunch' by going to the student center for the salmon taste-testing.

Apparently someone is doing research (academic etc. IRB approval and everything) that will go back to the industry. The intent is to research making canned pink salmon richer in Omega 3s. So far the ones that I think are the control group taste much better as the method apparently to enrich the fish is to can it in Salmon oil (food grade salmon oil... which made me a little disturbed to wonder what non-food-grade salmon oil would be).

SO... if you haven't gathered it so far. This will be my 'blog' of my experiences up here in Fairbanks. I might post some older messages I had on various emails for the benefits of folks who didn't hear those stories.