New gardening heights

The bar has been officially raised: our landlady's yard & garden are outstanding!! She is nice enough to let us also enjoy the deck, BBQ, etc. She even has a full picnic bench that is surrounded by a mini-grove of aspen (or birch?) trees. It's simply gorgeous here. And this is a good daylight represent100ation for anywhere from about 2 or 3a-10p. There are several hours at night where the sun is below the horizon, but it is nowhere near dark. It is still bizarre to me to walk out of the hospital at 9p and have it be complete daylight... I must admit, it makes me want to keep doing more things after I've worked all afternoon, and makes me very cheery. There is a very noticable difference (with respect to the daylight hours) being in Anchorage rather than Ketchikan (which is nearly 1000 miles south of here).

Our apartment is very cute

We are living in a basement-apartment in a town outside of Anchorage called Eagle River. The apartment is very cute, and the nicest place we've stayed in during our locums gigs. The kitchen is adequate: a 4-burner gas stove, a very small dishwasher (but what it lacks in size it makes up for in noise!), microwave, coffee maker, etc. Our landlady is the best: when we arrived, she even had milk, yogurt & fruit in the fridge, coffee & muffins, etc. waiting for us. Tom loves the gas-log stove/heater. It has a cool remote-control thermostat. Sable likes the fact that the window opens up into the back yard, and there are no screens to hamper her. So far, we have only seen one mosquito -- we'll see how it goes.
As you can see, our kitchen is continuous with the family room. There is a small stereo, DVD player, TV, etc. The "couch" is a daybed, so we are ready for visitors!

Best airplane snacks EVER!

We knew our flight would be relatively long (5 1/2 hrs, plus an extra 45 min waiting on the tarmac in Anchorage because there was some problem at the gate... but I digress), so we planned accordingly. Before we left, we went to Cost Plus, and stocked up with quite a bounty: a 1/2 bottle of cabernet, acrylic wine glasses, bbq-almond slivers, pistachio nuts, chocolate wafer cookes, smoked sausage, and cheese (unfortunately, we didn't notice it was "gouda-type cheese", but 5 outta 6 ain't bad). Somehow the ATC has decided that it's OK to bring a corkscrew on board, as long as there is no foil-cutter knife (Tom just broke that off, and we were ready to go). So when the natives were getting restless, we broke out our mini-meal, and enjoyed every bite! When the flight attendant came by before landing "to collect those last service items" we handed over all of our trash/empties. That's when we found out that bringing one's own alcohol onto a plane is illegal -- oops! I suppose since we were neither drunk nor rowdy, the flight attendant didn't make a big issue of it -- and we promised never to do it again. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

The great bathroom remodel (it's almost done)

This whole project actually started (as a conept, anyways) more than 6 months ago. It really became an adventure (mostly for Tom) during the last 6 weeks. He stripped the old, ugly wallpaper, patched & painted the walls (all I had to do was sponge & stencil), replaced the shower door, replaced base-boards, designed the crazy cabinet. I picked out colors, painted the medicine chest & cabinet, and cut & set the tile around the sink (a first for either one of us). Quite a little project -- I hope it sells the house for us!!

The sink that started it all

It takes a village to.... remodel a bathroom? The sink came from Jennifer & Henry, the towel-racks came from Anu & Vijay... and of course Henry built the cabinet....

close-up of the stencil work

This was my attempt at tying in all the colors we were trying to work around: the saltillo (orange) of the tile (floor), the bright/aqua blue accent tile of the shower, cobalt blue from the sink...

Cool lightswitch

I found this switch cover in Sedona several months ago. It was pure luck that it matches the sink perfectly. As you can see from the previous picture, I forgot to buy a matching outlet cover. Oops! I guess when we return from Alaska we'll be making a little trip to Guadalupe...

Choke catching a nap on the picnic bench

We were a little short staffed at camp this year -- which left most of the staff pretty exhausted by the end of the week. Still, I had a great time and camp, and continued to learn tremendous amounts.

For those of you who haven't heard me talk about camp before, it is sponsored by the A.D.A. (American Diabetes Association) as well as Phoenix Children's Hospital. Each year there is a camp up in the mountains in Precott, AZ (pronounced "prescuit") for about 200-250 type-I diabetic children. It's absolutely awesome. This is my 3rd year -- each year I've been a part of the Teen Adventure Program (14-16 year olds, rather than main camp, which is 7-13 year olds). We (at TAP) sleep in tents and do a little roughing-it for 8 days. There is an enormous number of very dedicated staff people: med staff (like myself), "DC's" (diabetic counselors, who have "graduated" from camp, but return each year to help with the diabetes management and teach the kids what they can about living & growing up with diabetes), and FPC staff (counselors from the Friendly Pines Camp who stay all summer, and rotate through many different camps). Medically speaking it is quite intense -- but fortunately it's a ton of fun, too. All of the staff have camp names (mine is Samurai), and often we don't even know each other's real names...

Zip Line

Getting ready to scooch off the platform, and zip through the meadow. LOTS of fun. When it was my turn, I took a little home-movie while I was flying through the meadow -- pretty neat. Staffed this year by the one and only Peas & Corn: hands down, the single best FPC (Friendly Pines Camp) staff I have ever met. Boy was I lucky to have her in one of my tents! We hope she'll come visit us in Boulder.

High ropes challenges

This year I got to try a new high ropes challenge: the Pita Pass. You climb with a partner: each person starts on a different tree, and climbs to the "balance beam" where you cross to the other side. Then you continue up, crossing at each section. When you get to the very top, you cross one more time before being lowered down by your balee (sp?) team.

Hot Rod & P.E.

We missed Hot Rod a lot this year at TAP.

Tubing on the lake

The best part of this activity is getting thrown off the tube -- at very high speeds, of course. Thanks to Chuck & Ride-on for towing us around (I think Willy's in the background).

Canoeing on Watson Lake

Jeana & Jessica

Just loungin' around

Cassie, Amanda & Mattie relaxing before lunch

Group shot!

Jeana, Matt, Willy, Alex, Sam, Chris, Alisha, P.E., Spiff, Meow, Banger & Fez. Once we actually found the correct bouldering spot, the kids did some impressive climbing.

Hiking above Watson Lake

P.E., Willy & Spiff. We were grateful for the breeze.

Rapelling at the Dells

Despite having a high-traffic day on the rocks, we had a lot of fun rapelling. If you haven't tried it before, I highly recommend it -- it's quite a rush.

Taking the plunge

Yes, I did this, too -- it's about 150-180 feet down, and lots of fun.

What a beautiful day!

We were very lucky all week -- the weather was never too warm, we usually had a breeze, and we weren't plagued by the smoke from fires that weren't too far away.

On top of the world

AJ and Brian on top of the boulder pile.

You know who this be

Wooley hangin' with E. Ray, Rose and Brad.

My teachers

Hanging out with Siggy, Choke & Major; Siggy & Choke have taught me a lot. Thanks.

Can you tell who is low here?

Partyin' down with Belch, Commando & Bloomers. Belch was only 44 (oops). Nothing a few tabs and some crackers won't fix.

All good things must come to an end

Elyse & Spiff at the dance on Friday night. Even through her big crocodile tears, Elyse is beautiful! I'm sure she'll be back next year...

A great day with the Toloczkos

We went to the butterfly pavillion today with the Toloczkos. It was pretty cool -- it's the only zoo in the world dedicated to invertabrates. They had a large exhibit of spiders, roaches, tarantulas, etc. -- you could even hold a tarantula if you wanted to. Did you know that of all the living creatures on the earth, the largest proportion are arthropods (such as spiders & cockroaches)? We vertebrates (much less mammals) are a very small portion of the world's population.
They also had a small exhibit of sea creatures such as sponges & anemones.
The largest part of the zoo was the butterfly pavillion itself -- which was closed in and climate controlled to replicate the tropics. Very humid. Of course, with all that humidity it was very lush -- and full of equatorial plants &, of course, butterflies.

There was even a turtle

This little guy was pretty fearless -- despite the throngs of children "petting" him, he never hid in his shell.

They're everywhere!

There was a large tropical area with hundreds (probably thousands) of beautiful butterflies of all different species. They also had a display of chrysalids -- the coccoons with butterflies getting ready to hatch. The coccoons would shake, rattle & roll -- and we even saw some where the butterflies were breaking free of their "nests". There were also tons of beautiful flowers.

You're sassy!

Henry & Vijay -- eat your hearts out. Are you sure you don't want to move here??

Shhh -- they'll never find me!

Who knew the most popular part of the butterfly pavillion would be the yellow pipes that were set up like honeycomb? Hours of entertainment...

Between Lyons & Estes Park

We had a day off today, so we had a leisurely lunch in Lyons (like that alliteration?) followed by a nice walk along the north fork of the St. Vrain River. We took it easy (I'm still recovering from my cold) but enjoyed the perfect weather & the nearly-level walk. We did a 4 mile round trip, with plenty of stops for Tom to drop a line in the water. Our day was topped off perfectly: dinner with some friends at a tasty Vietnamese restaurant near our apartment. Mmm.

Surprise!

Tom got to do a little fishing on the St. Vrain River. Just babies right now, but he says they'll grow up quick -- and says he'll be back later to catch them & keep them!

Butterflies everywhere!

We had a wonderful day of butterfly viewing -- all colors & sizes. Gorgeous.

Another good day of wildlife viewing

We were happy that this was a Bull Snake instead of a rattler!

Tom thought he'd hit the jackPot

Along the path on the way to Button Rock Reservoir, Tom noticed these lovely plants growing everywhere. Alas, they had none of the heavenly scent that we expected -- actually, they seemed to have no smell at all. We thought maybe it was hemp?

Anu would be so proud...

We stopped in Lyons for lunch. Walking down the main street, I couldn't help but laugh at this sign in the window. Who knew that "to bling" was a verb?

Not just for breakfast any more!!

Tom got a waffle iron for his birthday, and we had some blueberries -- and viola! A fabulous dinner. (Just don't ask about the cholesterol content.)