2 second Win

Well, the Junior Iditarod finished up yesterday morning at 8:49 am and in the closest winner ever, the winner won by only 2 seconds. Why you may ask am I reporting on a race that few have probably heard of? Because the winner is 17 year old Jessica Klejka of Bethel. She is a senior at Bethel Regional High School. She beat out Lance Mackey's (2007 Iditarod winner and Yukon Quest winner for 2007, 2008) stepson Cain. Well I would type more but I have a Skeeter in my lap and a Chubbs trying to join us.

My Weekend Fun

Once again, we had our group Stampin get together. We were working with a few different colors of green and purple. Here's a sampling of the cards I made.

So what do you all think? One's a Father's Day card, one is a Mother's Day card, one is a Thinking of You for my Grandma and the other 2 have no specific purpose yet.

On a side note, I think I screwed up our printer. Actually it isn't even our printer. It's an old HP Laserjet 5 that I borrowed from a lady I work with. I was printing things the other day and it was working fine, then it just stopped. I don't know if something got stuck in it or what. I've looked and looked and can't seem to find anything in it.

Well, that's it for now. I get to help judge the School District Science Fair tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm looking forward to that. I have so much fun when I get to interact with the kids. I definitely don't get to do enough of that during the school year. I've been going crazy just sitting in my office the past couple of weeks. Good thing there are things like this to get me out.

This Weekends Adventures

Well, I have big plans for this weekend. First of all, I found out that there is a Digi Scrap Treasure Hunt going on. 42 different designers will have free stuff throughtout their blogs and stores. They only problem is that you have to search for them, download them and then unzip them to find the next clue. That's going to eat up alot of my download MB, but the 25th is the end of the month so I need to use it up.

Tomorrow will be sent hopefully search the world wide web for these goodies. I also have a friend here who is wanting to get rid of some of her stamps that she doesn't use for cheap and is giving me first dibs. I will probably do that tomorrow also.

Sunday I will have the opportunity to stamp again. We have our next group get together and I'm excited to see what's in store. I've become addicted to stamping and have ordered a few things off ebay and am planning on putting in a little order through Stampin Up.

Eric is supposed to be leaving for the Yukon River tomorrow to do Moose counts. They were suppose to go out earlier this week but weather has kept him grounded. Tomorrow is suppose to clear up and they shoud be able to fly.

Well, I will sign off for now and I'll write more later.

My Fun Weekend

Okay, I know the new weekend is almost here, but I just finally got some time to post a few pictures about the fun I had last weekend. I've joined a stamping/crafty group that meets once a month to do various activities. Each time we will do some type of activities and we will also do some cards. This past weekend we worked on treat bags, wrapped candy bars and cards. I think the cards are suppose to have a general theme, but I just plain janed mine so I could use them for anything. I think I might be addicted to crafting in general. I love scrapbooking, really am starting to get into stamping and of course I can never forget my crochet. So here are some of the goodies. We are getting together again on the 24 to do some more. I can't wait. In the meantime (this weekend) I'm getting together with Letty to do some scrapbooking at my house. I think I might be addicted to crafts. Is that possible? Well, without further ado, here are the pictures. Enjoy~

Yesterday's Science Lesson

My friend Letty is in the process of trying to get her brother a cat for his new apartment. She mentioned he wanted a Russian Blue, so naturally I had to go to the Cat Fanciers web site and look up what they looked like. While search the site I decided to take a look at all of the other breeds to see if I could find anything as cute as Maine Coons. Of course, I couldn't find any, but I came across an interesting breed. The Somali breed has the looks of a fox, but is definitely a cat.

Well, there is your science lesson for yesterday.

Today's Science Lesson

When we got home from work tonight, Eric told me we needed to get a Raccoon Dog. I said "WHAT"? A raccoon dog. These are dogs, but they look like raccoons. So naturally I had to look it up on the internet. Here is what they look like.

So, what do you all think? Should we get one? Actually they are wild animals and don't make very good pets. If you want to read more about them, check of Wikipedia. Don't they look like something out of a Disney movie? They look so fake, but so cute.

Well, there is everyone's science lesson of the day.

Hometown Boys

We happened to be flipping through channels on Saturday afternoon when we stopped on Channel 38. We stopped on the channel because we saw a familiar face and heard a familiar name. What was that name you might ask? The name was Brock - Brock Lesnar. Former WWE wrestler. You see, channel 38 is SPIKE TV, home of the (UFC) Ultimate Fighting Championship. Brock had a pay per view match on Saturday night. It cost $44.95 for the fight. Eric and I thought about getting it, but decided against it when we found out the cost. Good thing. Brock was done in 90 seconds. He lost by submission to his opponent.

Now, why you may be asking, why did I entitle this post Hometown Boys. Well, Brock Lesnar grew up around my home town. He went to school in Webster and was a pretty good wrestler throughout high school. I knew him by association through a friend (thanks Kristi ;) It's always cool to see someone you know/knew achieve this kind of success. (raise your glass) Here's to the little people.

A

What's brown, has sharp claws & a member of the mustelid family?

Come on, give it a guess.

What? You still don't know.

I'll give you a hint. It's the mascot of one of the Michigan Universities.

Still don't know? It's a wolverine! Yes, a wolverine. We didn't think Eric would be able to trap any around his trapping area because they usually don't come down this far. He got him in a 220 conibear bucket trap. Eric was just talking with one of his buddies on Saturday morning about how he wouldn't trap any wolverines this year because he needed to go further upriver and he didn't want to do that with our snowmachine. Guess he needs to just talk about it a little more. Look what happened.

In other Eric news, he is currently sitting in line waiting for the Musk Ox tags to go on sale tomorrow morning. They only give out 5 permits for cows in Bethel and with a town of 6000 people 5 permits don't go too far. No bull permits are given out in Bethel. To get one of those you have to go out usually to 1 of 2 villages and spend the night or 2 or 3.

I been working on scrapbooking photos of the afghans I've done. I'm having fun and didn't realize that I've made so many blankets. I'll try to get some pictures of the pages I've done so far and post a few of them. They aren't completely done yet. I need to do a little journaling about each of the blankets.

Well, I'll talk with you all later~

America's Hottest Governor

Yep. That's what is being said about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Governor Palin is on the cover of the Alaska magazine (picture courtesy of the Anchorage Daily News).

But, it's not just the Alaska Magazine. In this month's issue of Vogue Magazine, there is also an article featuring Governor Palin. Of course, we don't have the current issue of Vogue on stock right now in our stores, so I haven't even seen the article yet. Someone will have to let me know what it says. I tried finding it online on Vogues site, but these fashion magazines don't let you get too far into them.

Go Alaska! It's about time we are know for something other than oil.

It's official!

At 8:09 pm last night, Mitch Seavey crossed the finish line and became the 2008 Kuskokwim 300 Winner. If you been reading my posts, you'll know that Mitch is the musher that we helped out. We had those dogs in the back of our truck! Picture courtesy of the K300 website (www.k300.org).

I guess the last leg of the trip (15 miles) was horrendous. Mitch did a short interview after he came in and said that sometimes his dogs were in water deep enough for them to swim. The race officials had to go out and remark the trail. Apparently it didn't work. Mitch said he saw a marker or 2 floating by him.

Well, I need to get a few more things done yet tonight, so I will talk to you all later~

And the Winner Is:

Well, the winner hasn't crossed the finish line yet, but the last update showed Mitch Seavey (the guy we helped) in the lead by about an hour. He shoud be crossing the finish line anytime within the next 1/2-1 hour. I'll post again when the official word comes in!

If the House is Rockin'

You must live in Bethel. We get one good day of warm temperatures (39 was today's high) and the wind picks up like a son of a gun. Currently we have south winds 25 to 40 mph, closer to the 40 mph, with gusts to 60 mph. Since our house is up of the ground, we get rockin' when the wind blows. Earlier tonight, I was sitting in the bedroom folding laundry and I looked into the closet and saw the clothes swaying. Too bad we can't capture the wind/rockin/swaying with pictures. Although its dark and I probably wouldn't be able to get a good one anyways.

Well, Eric and I are going to watch Rush Hour 3, so I'll chat with you all later.

K300 update - Mitch Seavey (the musher we helped) is currently up to 5th place, while the 18/19 year old Rohn Buser is in first. Plus he still has all 14 of his dogs! Not too many mushers at this point in the race have all of their dogs still. Dogs are always left at checkpoints to fly back to Bethel.

The Race is On and here comes.....

pride in the backstretch

Okay - the K300 Dog Mushing race officially started last night at 6:30 pm. We had the opportunity (actually we were roped into) helping out with one of the mushers and his dogs. We had at least $60,000 of dogs in the back of the truck. Crazy isn't it? We were helping out Mitch Seavey who is a past Iditarod winner. One of Eric's coworkers wives volunteered them to "host" a musher. Basically what you do is put up the musher, their dog handler and dogs for a day or two before the race and then help them out getting all of their things to the river for the race. It was pretty cool helping out because we got to see the behind the scenes of the race. We have some big names here again this year. Jeff King - last years race winner and the winningest musher, Martin Buser (former K300 and Iditarod winner) and his son Rohn Buser. We have 2 - 17 year old year old girls running the race. One of them is from Bethel, the other is from Nome.

I wish I had some pictures to post, but alas since we helped out right after work, we didn't have an opportunity to get the camera. I'll have to get some pictures from Andrea (coworkers wife) and post some later. She got a few pictures of the $60,000 truck load!

Well, I'm off to try to do something productive today. I should be able to considering our cable is on the fritz and they haven't been able to come and fix it yet. It's been on the fritz since Tuesday evening when we got some pretty good winds.

On a side note before I sign off, we are officially up to 39 degrees outside. Nothing like going from -35 below a few days ago to 39 above. That's a 74 degree change!

Heat Wave

Whoa! We're having a heat wave. It's currently 31 above! We went from at least 15 below yesterday morning to 31 degrees today. That's a change of over 45 degrees in a 24-36 hour period. We actually had a blizzard warning until about noon today. The way the wind is blowing now I think they should have kept it.

It's a good thing we have the warm-up. The K300 starts Friday night and it probably would have been too cold for the dogs if it didn't. Hopefully it doesn't go above freezing though because that would make much for the dogs and sleds. Not fun!

We will get to see a nice fireworks display on the night of the race. We only get to see fireworks twice a year - during the K300 and New Years Eve. Otherwise it's too light during the summer.

Yes We Can!

At 11:21 am, we reached zero degrees. It's a heat wave I tell yah! Before you know it, we will be breaking out the shorts. Okay, maybe not quite yet, but you never know!

Can We Do It?

- Reach zero that is -

We are currently at -2 with blowing snow. We are actually suppose to be under a blizzard warning for tonight and tomorrow. I'm so excited at the possibility of getting out of the negatives.

Classes start today at the college, so we are "bustling" with student activity. I quoted bustling because bustling for us is about a half dozen students wondering the building for classes! It's definitely a change of pace from the Universities I'm used to working at, but I like it. I'm in the process of trying to figure out my summer camps. I don't want to be struggling like I did last year. That was not fun! Well, back to work~

Burrrrrrrrr!

Woke up this morning to temperatures reading -26, factor in the windchill and you are looking at -47. We are suppose to be warming up sometime, but it won't be soon enough.

Eric has been trying to fly to do moose counts, but this weather is hard on the planes. They flew yesterday and it was tough going. They are trying to get out today but it is too cold. They're hoping the weather will warm up alittle.

We've been invited over to one of Eric's bosses tonight to play pinochle. That should be interesting. Eric and I have seen many a game played, but have never played outselves. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Well, I am going to scrapbook or crochet, or something!~

Going, going, gone

The temperature that is. Can it possibly get any colder? We seem to have dug ourself in a hole and can't get out. We have not been above zero in I don't know how long. Todays high was -19, factor in the windchill and you are looking at -40!!!! And to make matters worse, our block heater isn't working in the truck. Since it's been so cold the cord/plug got pretty stiff and ended up breaking a wire in it. We think we may have shorted it out, but won't find out until Monday. Auto shops are ridiculuosly (sorry for the spelling error) hard to get in to in the winter. We have an appointment for Jan. 23! All of this means I am running outside to start the truck up every couple of hours to make sure it still starts since I have the truck during the day.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of my faithful readers. It has been an uneventful day. We have been spending time though on processing a couple of Caribou. Yes, Eric got 2 Caribou the other day. Here's a few pictures.

Well, I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have no idea where the time went. It doesn't seem like I have 2 weeks off. I don't know what I did. I have been working on a blanket and some scrapbooking. I'll probably do more of both this afternoon. I'll catch you all on the flip side~

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my blog readers. Eric and I spent an uneventful day at home with the cats and our guest, Sadie the dog. We opened up a few presents that my mom sent us and right now I am waiting for our Christmas supper to get done. Eric and I will be getting an Elliptical machine as our Christmas presents to each other. We've both put a little weight on since we've moved up here:)

Well, I need to go check on the ham, so I'll blog for you all later~