Update

Hi All:
It's been a while since I've put up a post. Wanted to wait until I had some things to post about...

Topics below include: (please feel free to scroll down to whatever topic interests you):

• MY CURRENT RESIDENCE
• CARE PACKAGES
• SKI'S
• FRIENDS
• FAMILY NEWS
• PICTURES BELOW
• LOOKING AHEAD

MY CURRENT RESIDENCE:
My current studio apartment - in the McKinley Tower (mckinleytower.com) - is a DUMP, unfortunately. 


I actually HAVE some pictures, but am not going to post them until I move into a nicer place next month--they're that bad!


I went through my very first episode of home-sickness (EVER) last week right after Valentine's Day. Of course the first time I ever get home sick is when I'm someplace I actually have no access to home...


CARE PACKAGES:
Beautiful roses from the rents, and a great care package from my favorite auntie helped to cheer me up - Amy sent sunscreen, chocolates, pictures of sunny beach vacation spots, a Starbuck's card, a book, and a VHS video "Alaska the Wild." I was a bit confused by the sunscreen, upon opening the package. The note explained everything "What else is there to do in Alaska but eat, read, pretend you are someplace sunny, eat, and sleep? Annie felt so bad for you she even threw in her Starbuck's card!" My response to Amy: "You're lucky they have Starbuck's here!! I was confused by the sunscreen at first; when I saw the sunny beach pics I figured you were sending me on a much-needed vacation to Hawaii. I opened the card to look for plane tickets and read the included explanation. I got so frustrated I ate all the chocolate and now I have a stomach ache!" ;)


SKI'S!
REI had a weekend sale, and I finally bucked up and went there after work last Saturday to look at cross-country ski's. Having always gotten new ski's for Christmas in high school (and always having had  Dad on-hand to wax them), I'm a little bit of a baby when it comes to buying my own! I went with a pair of Fischer fish scales (the cheapest pair I could find but they look decent) with Madshus boots and NNN bindings. In truth - I don't even remember what other types of bindings there are, but I seem to remember NNN being surpassed as the "most up-to-date" in around 1997... 


$500-some dollars later, I am ready to hop in some tracks. Now I just need the motivation to actually get out and bear the cold (I thought the ski's themselves would do this, but it turns out I can be a lot wimpier than I thought)!!


FRIENDS!!
Got put in touch with an AK native - a fellow cross-country skier who is actually from Fairbanks but now lives in Anchorage - through a friend I studied in Australia with (who is also from Fairbanks, AK). 


Very excited to have a real friend in Anchorage! We had pizza and beer at Moose Tooth Lodge - an Anchorage cornerstone known for their great pizza and beer selection. Was like walking into a very crowded ski lodge - wood log interior, large fire place, friendly people, loud laughing environment, about 30 local brews on tap (!) and about 50 different kinds of pizza's. I had a Darque Delirium 2010 (which was VERY dark for my taste, but good), and a hard cider. For pizza we went with half "Summer Solstice" - chicken, sun dried tomatoes, whole garlic cloves (!!! I LOVED!!!), and some other good veggies and cheese - and half "Chipotle Ranch Steak" - quite spicy and very Delicious! 


Met a fellow Minnesotan - who later moved to Capitol Hill (not far from where I lived in Queen Anne, Seattle WA), and then up here to Anchorage - on one of my first days here, at the hotel bar. THIS local is a server/bartender and just took a new management position at Grapeleaf - a place I've heard to have a decent wine list recently. Got invited to a wine tasting event with him this Sunday. We "go live" on EPIC at the hospital at 24:00 this Friday, 2/25/11, so I anticipate a very busy weekend; an evening wine tasting should be a great way to simmer down!


FAMILY NEWS:
A very large CONGRATULATIONS to my very own mother who recently put in her 2 week's notice at the Department of Ramsey County Corrections. To those of you who voted for Pawlenty: BOO FOR YOU - it turns out he is quite the "a**-hole" (and my mom almost NEVER uses words like that!!). However, we all feel (at her suggestion) that this change will really be for the best, and all of my criminal friends downtown are VERY happy and excited to run rampant in the Ramsey County area for the next few years. 


Katie and I received an e-mail yesterday indicating that she would now be making U.S. rounds and visiting each of us for the next several months to help us get our lives in line. I think Mom thought this would be a good sarcastic joke, but Katie and I both responded with our excitement at the news. I IMMEDIATELY hopped onto petfinder.com (as I would now have someone to take a puppy out to the bathroom during my 8-hour shift), and Katie could CERTAINLY use a hand, as she recently fractured her wrist skateboarding several days ago. (Yes, surprise surprise: Katie did something completely wild and out-there...and ended up in the ER. Despite the painful ending, I say "Good for you, Katie!" and now you can bond with Bonnie at family dinner (who also suffered a severe wrist fracture last summer). 


PICTURES BELOW:

• Mostly mountain shots (I will never get tired of them!!)
• $25 for a jar of Almond Butter here - looks like I will be settling for peanut butter for the foreseen future!
• Ulu Knife - a native thing here ;)

LOOKING AHEAD:

Nick Peterson incidentally works for EPIC (the computerized charting system that Providence Hospital is switching to this Friday), and will subsequently be up here in Anchorage this Friday through next week to help accommodate the big switch. Pretty excited to have another friend up here in the tundra - I think that's a grand total of 6 friends in Anchorage now (though one is a scribe who felt bad for me when he heard my excitement about having one friend)...

MTK

Love, B