I know. I am a terrible person.

Ignoring all of you for weeks.

No reason, really, other than just so not having the energy to go online and read and comment and write.

And I have had things to write about...

Lets see...Finally the snow is MELTING!!! The last snowfall was Easter Sunday night, and it vanished within two days! YAY!

Although at the time, it was disheartening to walk out Monday morning to this:

Did you notice that my Suburban is standing in the driveway? I used to have a warm heated garage stall for it, but that was before this...

That's Mark's old Jeep in the top photo and his our new Honda Civic behind it, and Mark driving the new Civic home for the first time, and a shot of our car (and some snow mixed with ash. Because we did get that one time of ash falling on us, our teeny brush with Mount Redoubt.).

Completely juvenile moment...the newsreader on BBCAmerica news just called Captain Phillips (the guy who was held by the Somali pirates) the world's most famous seaman.

Say it out loud to yourself. See? Juvenile. I told you.

Also...We went to Spamalot last night. It was awesome. It was full of Monty Python humor (I fart in your general direction.) and John O'Hurley played King Arthur. Great sets, great songs, great actors, the whole thing was fun from beginning to end. I have a couple photos of Thor and Tess waiting for it to begin in my phone, now I just have to figure out how to get them into the computer. I may never manage that feat, as it would most likely involve me actually reading the damn book that came with my new phone...

Oh, yeah, more awesomeness...


This is the new Civic's radio. See what it says? That's right, it says IPOD! One of the awesomest things about having a vehicle built this century is that it comes with a built in IPod connection. A BUILT IN IPOD CONNECTION. My Suburban is so old even the cassette thingies -- the ones you plug into your IPod and then you can play it through your car stereo -- those thingies don't work in it.

But now, I plug my IPod directly into the USB hub in the armrest. So very cool.

Unfortunately for me, I drag the dogs with me a lot, because they LOVE going for a ride. They are psychodogs if you say go or ride or put on socks. (I must put on socks alot before I go places, because they get crazed when I do. Of course I put on socks alot just before I go somewhere, because I don't much wear socks or shoes at home. Hereditary hot feet.)

I gotta go get Tess. So there you go. I posted something!

No volcano yet. Other stuff instead.

You know how I pointed out Abe always looks confused or befuddled or maybe just a bit nervous?

Perhaps it's due to his big brother Mojo.

Because while Abe looks confused or nervous in lots of photos, Moj just looks demented. Look at him. Would you want to wake up from a nice nap in a sunny spot, stretch a little, glance up and see that staring at you? You might wander around looking a little apprehensive too.

(And just so you know, I am just kidding. Mojo and Abe get along great. Moj is occasionally cranky, but then Abe has been known to drop toys on Mojo's head when Mojo is sound asleep, so I think they are even.)

The Daily Alaska

Want to come sit on my front porch with me?

Yeah. Me neither. My butt gets cold just looking at these photos.

Moose, late at night. The Daily Alaska photo.

Sunday night, as I was turning off lights and getting ready to go up to bed, I glanced out the kitchen window. There was a male moose rubbing his antlers on the tree outside our backyard fence.

Woo! A moose, right outside my back door!

Unfortunately, it was too dark to get a good photo. I got a couple as he walked away, but no good ones. This is the least blurry one...

Yesterday, there was a bald eagle in the tree outside the bank in Eagle River.

I haven't seen that many bald eagles yet. I love watching eagles and other raptors. One of my favorite things about Tucson was watching the raptors circling above the desert.

The Daily Alaska Photo...
This next shot was also taken from the bank parking lot. That is the thing that still startles me the most about living in Anchorage -- there are mountains all over the place, they are covered in snow, and they are endlessly gorgeous. I am looking forward to hiking around on some of them next summer (with bear bells on, of course!)

It was mostly sunny yesterday, and warm! 20 whole degrees! Which means you don't notice that it's cold out the very first second you step outside. You can be outside for at least half a minute before it starts to feel cold! It clouded up over the late afternoon, and we got a dusting of snow. The clouds started in the mountains, as you can see above. Tomorrow they are forecasting possible rain, since it's supposed to be 35 degrees. I find it hard to believe it could rain, since last week it was 25 below.

And finally, a bonus shot.

Mark took our tree down this weekend. The sad leftovers...

There is still a pile of ornaments to be wrapped up and packed away. Actually I think taking the tree down is the only thing we have done toward putting Christmas away for another year. Guess that's my big job for this week.

(I know I have only done the first few months of 2008 in review. I will get back to it, probably tomorrow. )

Daily Alaska Photo. Plus Abe.

Abe. Perpetually looks confused.

I always wonder about how animals survive and thrive when it is really really cold. These birds were snacking on some bread crusts somebody threw down in a parking lot. Probably cheap disgusting white bread full of preservatives and fats and chemicals that are clogging their little bird arteries and giving them cancer and rickets.

Mojo killing Eggnog Carton. Abe feeling Left Out.

It was a mouse...

Yesterday I was reading Veronica's post about not the spider that was in her cleavage ...

Apparently earlier there was a spider in her cleavage at some point. She lives in Tasmania. I guess things like that happen there.

So I was writing a comment about how I saw a fox run across the street, and how I would rather have a fox outside than a spider the size of my hand in my bedroom. (Tasmania has big ass spiders.)

Tess started yelling for me, because she saw something run across her room and into her closet. I went up there and poked around a little, but not too much, because I really didn't want to find anything. Finding a mouse is for when Mark is there to deal with it.

I went back downstairs, and a couple minutes later Tess yelled again. She again saw something black run across the room and behind the door. I didn't see anything then. Tess by this point is sitting on her bed with her feet up because there is something on the floor.

Later, I was going out to the garage, and I saw a mouse -- well, a black blur -- shoot away from the door to the mud room and under Mark's tool chest.

(Our garage has room for both vehicles -- I know anyone who saw my garage in Tucson is stunned -- but there is stuff in boxes all the way around. That mouse could disappear forever as long as he stuck to the walls.)

Damn it. We had mice in The Netherlands, and it was an enormous pain trying to get rid of them. So I was thinking I would have to go get traps and set them out and then deal with the traps and sigh. I hate mice.

Later, after supper, Tess saw the mouse again, downstairs in the kitchen. We have a sideboard with the coffee pot and the espresso machine and all the mugs and cups in the kitchen, and two fruit boxes from Costco, for the recycling. The bottom one is full of glass and cans, the top one has paper and cardboard. The mouse was under the sideboard and then disappeared into the recycling box.

Thor at this point was squatting down a couple feet from the sideboard. Unfortunately the mouse didn't break his way, because he would have jumped a mile, I bet.

Eventually the kids got bored, since the mouse was in hiding.

A couple minutes later I heard this enormous noise of rattling glass and metal, and heard a couple tea bottles hit the floor. The noise repeated...

It was Mark, kicking the bottom recycling box into the wall. Twice. Because the mouse was behind the box. Then he -- and boy did this gross Tess out -- reached down AND PICKED THE MOUSE UP BY THE TAIL.

He thought it was dead, but the little feet were moving rather feebly. I dove for the back door and Mark swung and let the mouse fly over the back fence.

He felt kinda bad about that, knocking the mouse senseless and then tossing it into the cold. I, on the other hand, treated him as a hero.

Okay, well, I said "My hero." I didn't bake him a cake or sleep with him or anything. I didn't buy him a card.

He went to bed a couple minutes before me. When I climbed in next to him, he said "I slayed a mouse."

I laughed and reminded him that mice are nasty vermin. And that he is my hero.

Moose!

Here are the photos as promised. Tess and I took these photos from the Suburban, because we didn't want to get too close on foot.

Sun!

Yesterday afternoon we had sunshine.

We haven't had sunshine for a couple weeks. There have been occasional cloud breaks, the odd half hour of sunshine, but mostly gloomy.

Gloom and rain.

So yesterday when we had sunshine, we went off to explore Earthquake Park. Earthquake Park is on the Knik Arm, which eventually leads out to the Pacific.

Mostly there are mudflats, which means you can't go out to the edge of the water. The mudflats, and downtown Anchorage.

But if you go to the farthest parking lot, you can walk down to a rocky beach.

We threw rocks in the water, picked up a few interesting rocks for Tess's endless rock collections, and enjoyed the sun on our faces (and in our eyes).

We watched this little guy swimming around in a teeny puddle. (It's only maybe half an inch long. And it's kind of leaping that rock. If you click on the photo, you can see a bigger version and get a better look at that thing.)

One little drawback, sort of. This beach is directly in line with the end of the runway. So every five minutes or so, a plane would come over the bluff. Not exactly peaceful.

But rather interesting to see the planes so closely we could watch the wheels retract and the doors close.

On the way home, within a mile of our house, we saw five moose. (I think they were out enjoying the sun too.) As we crossed Ship Creek, which is maybe a quarter mile from our house, we saw this mom and calf walking down the creek. So of course we pulled over and ran back to check them out and take some photos.

Today we were back to rather gray and gloom, with a few sprinkles.

Worst summer weather ever.

Yay!

Abe's so much better -- he is calmer, he's not limping and stiff, he's back to trying to bite Mojo's jowls off, as in the photo above.

After four surgeries, Abe has a much better and healthier knee.

Unfortunately for Abe he has a funky weird knee anatomy -- the vet had to finally overcorrect the tendon or ligament (I am not sure what it was. When the doctor started explaining all the bone cutting and moving and pinning and scraping and gouging and scooping stuff, I kinda stopped listening, because, ugh.)...the vet finally had to overcorrect the tendon or ligament, actually make it a zigzaggy shape to get the kneecap to stay in place. In normal dogs, it's straight. The vet had never had to do this surgery even twice before, much less four times. He was really annoyed. It was kinda cute how pissed he was at Abe's uncooperative knee. Plus he only charged me for the first surgery -- the rest I only had to pay for the supplies used and the prescriptions.

Oh, yeah, that was the problem -- pit bulls are prone to congential knee deformities. And since Tucson has more fighting pit bull breeders than anywhere else in the US, lots of the mutts in Tucson are part pit. And since both our dogs are Tucson rescues, they both are part pit.

(And please don't bother to tell me pits are dangerous. Bad pit bull owners have dangerous dogs. The breed itself is not inherently bad or dangerous. Pits are actually very very friendly to humans. Mojo, who is part pit and part mastiff, adores people. Really really adores people. Embarrassing really how much he slobbers over people. Any people, too. He is not discriminating when it comes to people. Two legs = wonderful, is Moj's philosophy.)

Whoops -- just caught a story on the news...apparently they can be dangerous to truck engines. A Vacaville, CA, man found a pit bull stuck in his truck engine. While he was waiting for help to arrive, the dog was chewing through wiring and eventually chewed himself free, doing a thousand dollars worth of damage. I wonder if insurance covers that -- or is that an act of God? A God with a kinda mean sense of humor, maybe...

So Abe is very much better, his thigh muscle, which had visibly atrophied during his trials and tribulations, is back to normal. He is off all meds except for the glucosamine and chondrotin he will be on forever to help with the inevitable arthritis that accompanies this kind of joint damage.

We are very happy to have our cheerful if rather annoying at times Abe back.

Walking Abe in the Desert...

Abe, for not being a moron, is really a moron.

Seriously. He's a smart dog, but not one with common sense. Except for snakes -- he has a healthy respect for snakes. We are all shocked.

Zach and I took Abe with us when we went out into the desert behind our neighborhood to take photos of the prickly pear flowers. He spent the entire half hour pulling at the leash, so hard he was struggling to breath. I swear he is going to do some serious damage to his throat one of these days.

And he kicked a cholla...I guess he wasn't paying attention:

Never kick a cholla

Very unfortunately I completely forgot about putting a little pliers or something in my pocket when I walk the dogs in the desert. So I got stabbed about 20 times trying to pull them off Abe's front paw.

Then Zach used two rocks to pinch the chunks o' cholla and got them off.

Mojo tangled with a prickly pear twice -- that was enough for him to figure out it's best to keep far away. I don't think Abe will ever learn. I guess it's a good thing cacti are not indigenous to Alaska.

And Now For Something Completely Random...

Mojo is Al Gore...

Bleh. (Warning: Contains Dog Sick.)

Zach's friend and his friend's girlfriend stopped by to get Zach...they are on their way to get their tuxedos, since prom is this weekend.

I went out to see if Zach needed any money (because I don't like him to drive around with no cash. It's a mom thing, I guess). Mojo sneaked out the door with me and then proceeded to

THROW UP ON HER SHOE.

That's right -- Mojo just threw up on the shoe of a teenage girl who has never been to our house before. Way to be welcoming, Moj.

She was very cool about it, though. Apparently she has pets and thus understands their tendencies toward this sort of thing.

I am really happy she wasn't wearing sandals...

The Dogs.

The dogs go bananas every time I pick up keys, because they love riding in the Suburban. We were picking Tess up from school. Abe is on full alert, watching the people and on the lookout for Tess. Mojo, on the other hand, is relaxed and is in fact so lazy he is resting his head on the window...he rests his huge head on stuff a lot. Windowsills, the stretcher bars on my dining room chairs, my leg.

Fricking Abe with his Fricking bum knee and his damned surgeries.

That's right. Surgeries. Three of them. The last one was last Thursday. Because he's a hyper skidzoid maniac jumper dog. And no matter how many times you say "Abe, I know you just want to run around the yard and lick your big ugly wound and chew off the bandage and leap in the Suburban and stand with your front legs on the window -- making me very nervous that you are going to accidentally out the window, land on your head and be run over by one of the hundreds of Hummers in our neighborhood -- and then leap back out of it, launch yourself at Mojo and try unsuccessfully to wrestle him to the ground, and leap into the air and spin around when I pick up car keys, touch my purse, put on shoes, breathe too deeply so that I am fully and completely aware that yes, you do in fact want to go for a ride..."

He just doesn't understand. He pretty much understands "puppy treat", "hungry", "uh uh" (well, I am just delusional there. That's my version of the Dog Whisperer's "zzzzt" sound, and Abe reacts to it the way the Pope responds to Playboy -- not at all. I know I am going to hell. Thank you for your concern.) and "Abe".

So he doesn't understand why he is locked in the cage for hours on end, even though I am home. He doesn't understand why we are always holding on to the leash he is always wearing.

He really doesn't understand being walked in his own back yard. We have had Moj for two years and Abe for one, and they have NEVER pooped while we are walking them. NEVER. We walk Mojo a lot. And he has NEVER pooped on a walk. He hustles out to the backyard sometimes right after to poop, but not while on a walk. And I guess he taught it to Abe, because he does the same thing.

So it freaks the hell outta Abe when I am walking him around the backyard so he can poop. He finally did, today, Tuesday. His surgery was last Thursday. So that's a long time for a dog to not poop. Mostly when I am walking him around the backyard he just looks at me, all "WTF? I can poop for myself," and then makes a beeline for the back door, because I am weirding him out in the backyard.

On the other hand, Mojo has finally started to respond to the Valley Fever medications and has a very low titer. It dropped from 1 to 16 down to 1 to 4. Which is almost low enough to start reducing his medications. Woot!

But both dogs -- Abe because of his frickin' knee, and Moj because of his bum hip -- have to have glucosamine and chondrotin every single day of their lives. They will not be tricked. Wrap it in sausage, stuff it in cheese, cover it with peanut butter, roll it in braunsweiger, they will eat the food and spit out the pill. Every time. The only way I can get them to just eat the damn things is to pour bacon grease on them. Unfortunately bacon, though very very tasty, is very very bad for you, so we rarely have it.

I have become that which I mocked...the deluded sops who spend thousands of dollars on vet bills. The softhearted softheaded fools who keep dogs that require daily medicines. Even worse, I have spent a couple hundred dollars on vet bills for the guinea pigs. Good thing they are slavishly devoted to me, and not generally considered "meat".

weekly winners

Tess Art

Through a glass Weirdly

My favorite chunk of mountain around Tucson -- that notch, there to the left.

The Sun Also Sets

The Top Hat (my lovely daughter) smacking some skulls. It's a school play, not phone camera fights in the park stuff.

East End

West End
The graffiti on this train said "Im Rick James Bitch". Perhaps someone needs both a couple apostrophe and a shot of self-esteem. Or a comma.

He's not sneezing. He's just a dork.
(We walked the dogs. It was more of an adventure than we were expecting. Lots of great photos of the action here and here.)

I got out of the shower. I noticed this drop of water (I didn't taste it or anything, so I am just assuming it's water. There are three kids and two dogs in the house, but this leaf is five and a half feet off the floor...Let's just call it water.). I messed around with the flash and the nature macro and macro settings on my camera...(isn't that kinda greedy, having both macro and nature macro settings, when some cameras don't even have one?).

Don't mess with Mesquite. Trees, that is.
They can be quite painful. I know this because Abe the WonderDog dragged me under a low-hanging one just before he stepped on a snake and got attacked by a pit bull. Abe and I sometimes have rather adventurous walks. (I know. I used this line earlier this week, but I like it.)

Weekly Winners is the fevered brainchild of Lotus. Lots more weekly winners, and quite likely shots of her adorable son's bottom, here!

Proof my dogs are insane gits.

It's not that I don't think my guys aren't adorable, it's just that I would like to occasionally take a picture of them where they don't look demented.