Canned Competition

Last Friday night we visited the University Mall. We were there to see the canned food competition. It is amazing what you can make out of cans of food, wire, tape and a little imagination! The top picture you will have to use your imagination for.. or maybe you can see it already. This is Cancouver. It's Team USA on the Bobsled Track....

And here in the picture above we have the Great Canned Pyramids...
Here is the AlaskCan Boot....
and here we have the Giant AlaskCan King Crab.



This is a wonderful competition that benefits the local food bank. This is the third year of this type of competition. But it was the first year we have gone to see it. The sculptures are judged by the public. To vote for your favorite sculpture ....You drop the can of food that you are donating into a barrel next to the sculpture that you like. The wonderful thing about the competition was that most all of the barrels were half to three quarters full!

I was taking A home after school one afternoon last week when I happened to look over and catch sight of part of the Alaska Range. On clear days this winter we have been treated to some fantastic views of the surrounding mountains.

This is a tiny slice of the view out my bedroom window. See the tree in the background it is covered with red berries. The moose and assortment of wild birds and our neighborhood squirrel love this tree.
While I was taking a picture I caught sight of this fellow in my view finder and decided to try to get a shot of him.

Playing Catch Up...

I took some time off from You Moose Be Kidding to regroup and recharge! I think I am now recharged as for regrouped.... One can only hope! Every year I look forward to the coming year with anticipation that this might be a year of great things. This year seems to hold so much promise. Then I turn on the T.V only to find that O'bama is calling a basketball game!! :o.... If he is calling the basketball game who is minding the shop so to speak!!!! I know, I know for someone who swore she was not political I sure am getting political..... ENOUGH!! Back to the blog.

Above is a wonderful sunset picture that I took from the parking lot at the Alaska Zoo. The pink tint to the picture is that Alpenglow I have been telling you about. When the sun is just about to set and it turns the sky a real pretty mauve pink color.

The bottom picture is of the Chugach Mountains that are behind us. The storm had just given way to blue skies and snow that was stuck to everything not to mention the cold. I was waiting for A to finish up helping the 6th graders at Trailside. She helps out on Mondays and Thursdays so that she can earn points for Orchestra.

Our 1/2 Hour Visitor

Just before Halloween the weather had turned really cold and it had rained. A was on her way home from school when she spotted this little fella running around our condo parking lot. He was cold, wet and scared. A brought him inside and we made him warm. Once we had him warm and dry he hung out with us in the living room.
He made no noise so we thought it would be okey to let him stay a while longer until he saw a dog being walked on the path behind us. It was then that we found out he could bark... Rather loudly in fact! You wouldn't think a dog that small would have such a big bark but he did!! And A and I looked at each other and knew that our visit was at and end. We live in a no pets allowed building. Being the Mom of a rebel means that some times you end up as the partner in crime. A bundled him up and took him back out side. And it is there we parted ways with our 1/2 hour visitor. We haven't seen him since.

Academic Letter

This is A receiving her Academic Letter from Principal Pondolfino. She was one of 319 students that received either a letter or a gold star or silver star pin. Before the ceremony the Service High School Concert Orchestra entertained us with wonderful music. After the ceremony we were treated to refreshments.
This is A's Academic Letter. A lot of hard work went into this letter. So many hours of homework are also wrapped up in this letter. We are so proud of you A. :)

Termination Dust

Termination Dust has got to be an Alaskan term. At least I think it is. I have never heard that term before. Not until this week that is. All the weather people were talking about it at the beginning of the week. My first thought was those pesky volcanoes!!! Believe me it has nothing to do with the volcanoes. I found out what it means. Termination dust means the first dusting of snow on the mountains that surround us or maybe it is in the mountains in general. It also means that summer has been terminated or ended and winter will soon be here. There is that wicked,wacky Alaskan sense of humor again!

See the picture with the huge diamond center sign in it? It's kinda hard to miss isn't it! Well look to the right. See the mountain with the flat top? Well that is Flat Top. That is the mountain that K and A can't wait to climb during the last weeks of summer. They climbed it about two weeks ago. Next week I will show you there pictures from two weeks ago. They brought me home a present. half a water bottle of wild Alaskan blueberries. I froze them and I am going to surprise them with blueberry pancakes tomorrow. Shhhhh.... Don't tell!!!

One Of Our family Traditions

.... This is one of our family traditions. When the snow melts my family looks to the mountains. Well toward one mountain. They wait till all the snow has melted off and for the perfect day when the weather is clear or clear enough. Then they head out. They grab their bear bells and their water bottles and head for their once a year hike up Flat Top!

This is the view of downtown Anchorage. Awesome isn't it? On really clear days you can even see Mount McKinley. I will post those at a later date.

This is Flat Top. It is part of the Chugach Mountians.

Around Town

On the way home from an outing we all noticed this rainbow. Remember how I told you that I learned the lesson of always remembering to bring my camera? I was glad I had it with me. I passed it up to A and asked her if she wouldn't mind taking a few shots for me. This was one of the many that she took.

This is the corner of C Street and Dimond. Off and on during the day we had clouds pass by that threatened to rain on us. They held off until we drove home.

The Chugach Mountains in the back ground do not have all the snow that this picture shows. See the Canadian Geese? These guys are all over Anchorage. They hang out at all the little ponds that were created by the melted snow. It is not unusual to see them by the roadside.

Besides we could have it much worse! See that second picture? The one with the snow on the ground! We could still have all that to deal with. But I for one am glad we don't. :)

Our next post will be about what has become a tradition in our family.

Soccer in Four

This is A playing in the Junior Varsity game. She is number 45/17 you will see why when you click on the picture. A had an assist on the only goal of the game. If you didn't click on the picture her shorts have her c-team number of 17 and the varsity coach gave her a jersey with a varsity shirt number 45.












The second picture as you can see was taken on an absolutely gorgeous day. You are looking at Eagle River High School in the background. The game going on in the picture is a varsity game. By the way this game had Alaska's Soccer Player of the Year playing for Chugiak high school. I can't point her out but my all knowing sports nut of a husband shared that tidbit with me...







This third picture is of the end of A's game at A.J. Dimond High school.




This fourth picture is of Nicholas Joseph Begich Middle School. Have you heard of Senator Mark Begich? (He won Ted Steven's seat) This school is named for his father. This is where most of A's games were played. Pretty spiffy for a middle school!

Always Carry Your Camera!

There is a lesson that I have learned since moving to Alaska. Maybe it is the same lesson you have learned as well. The lesson I learned here is simple. It is this... Always and I mean

Always carry your camera!

The top shot to me is amazing! How A got this shot I will never know... But for my story this is why I put the picture up. Make sure that when you have your camera with you you remember to charge your batteries. Or at least have fresh batteries handy. my batteries died and I had nowhere to charge them. She took this just after mine quit.

this is why it is important to have that camera handy at all times. If you find yourself in Homer, Alaska make sure you visit the Cosmic Kitchen.

Here I'll wait ...

go to http:// http://www.cosmickitchenalaska.com/ And while you are looking around the web site try to find this picture.

Now that you are back did you find it??? I bet you didn't. That's OK! I'll tell you where you can find it. Its on the wall opposite the sink in the woman's bathroom... You didn't see that one coming did you? And no I didn't look to see what the men's restroom had on their wall....

Did you check out the menu? This is an awesome resturaunt. The food was wonderful and the service was great. We really enjoyed this place. Just do me one favor... Don't everyone rush the woman's restroom at once to see if this really was taken in the woman's restroom.

Mountain Goats

As you head south on the Seward Highway,about 10 miles out of Anchorage, you will find that the hills have rather rocky cliffs. If you are the driver.. Sorry, you won't see them until you pull over. In the summer the goats tend to bring crowds to the highway when they can be viewed from the road.

A View of Mt. Redoubt from South Anchorage

As I was driving home yesterday I noticed Mt. Redoubt. This is just one of the many volcanoes near Anchorage. I was thankful that the wind was carrying the ash and steam away from us. It is hard to believe that it is one hundred miles away from us.

I took this picture from the athletic track that is in front of Hanshew Middle School. Wish this was the view I had during P.E. (minus the active volcano!!) I might have enjoyed it more!

Happy Easter

Well.... he or she is not the Easter bunny but we did wake up one morning last month to see this little one sitting under a tree.

We wish everyone a Happy Easter

Snowflakes

I just thought that I would pass on an observation that I made recently.

Snowflakes fall in random shapes. While that is not profound or even earth shaking news what is is that they really do fall in the 6 pointed star shape that is seen in the beginning of The Grinch!

They look beautiful. I was waiting for A's bus and I opened my cell phone to look at the time and I noticed one perfect snowflake on my black glove... Then I noticed that there were more of them. They were different sizes along with the fluff. I tried to remember the last time I had seen snow... Then I thought to my self when have I ever taken the time to really look at it.... I couldn't remember. So I watched my glove and stared with awe at the perfect snowflakes on my glove. I tried to get a picture of them. But it was not meant to be.

I've tried many times since to capture a single snowflake. This is the closest I have come. Not bad !!! One thing that you can be sure of is that next winter I will have lots of tries. and who knows...

A view of South Anchorage....

This is the view of South Anchorage from the hill side. If you click on the picture it will enlarge.

Some of the things that can be seen:

Service High School is just above center. It is surrounded by trees. Moose and bear have been spotted on campus from time to time.

above the school you will notice a white dome shaped structure. That is called The Dome. It is an indoor sport complex. It has an indoor batting cage, a running track, and indoor soccer fields. It also has a spectator area and a snack bar.

above the Dome is the Ted Stevens International Airport.

Up toward the top of the photo is the Cook Inlet. If you follow the land to the left you will see a bump of land sticking out. That is a bit of the Kenai Peninsula.

Our Buddy....

We would like to take a moment and introduce you to our friend Buddy. Buddy has an interesting story. It goes something like this:

We found out that you can not make a snowman no matter how hard you try out of freshly fallen snow. So we waited a couple of days. Then A went out and made an awesome snowman complete with a carrot nose. Being on the bottom floor has its advantages!

The next morning we discovered that the snowman's nose was gone... We kept sticking a carrot on there to make him complete. This went on for three days. On the third night we heard a sound out on the balcony and when I lifted the mini blinds we scared each other and that is how we met Buddy. He had been stealing the carrots. A started leaving carrots out on the balcony for Buddy until we found out that you could be fined $250.00 for feeding them. That put a stop to that!

That was almost 4 years ago. He still drops by from time to time. He is larger now and has antlers.(See A I know the differece between antlers and horns!!)

Iditarod '09

Getting ready to take their place at the starting line.

Lance Mackey heading down 4th Avenue after leaving the starting line.

Jeff King and his team heading down 4th Avenue after leaving the starting line.

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Underneath this banner is the starting line. Anchorage is the ceremonial start. They restart tomorrow in Willow.