So, I noticed that I hadn't blog in a month today. There has been a lot going on with me lately, good and bad. Work has kept me busy and exhausted, while personal problems have left me vegging out on the couch, drowning my sorrows with frozen yogurt and coconut milk ice cream.
I hope to be fixing some things in my life that I feel are not supporting and nurturing my growth, ultimately making my life happier and more fulfilling. There are going to be a lot of changes, hardships, tough times, and new opportunities coming in the next month, possibly leaving less time than I have even had lately for blogging.
So for now, I plan to take a slight temporary hiatus from blogging, picking it back up when I have adventures and loveliness to share with you. Please send me all of your amazing, positive energies, because, well, I need all that I can get. I apologize, dear readers, for neglecting you the past month. I promise if you stick with me, it WILL be worth it.
Until then, peace, love, and happiness to you all.
Chronicles of a Girl in Alaska
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
7/30/11
3/15/11
My New Love
I haven't been online much lately, because I got a new doggie!! She came up on my boss's email (she is on a bunch of different email lists) for needing a new home and my boss said she would be the perfect dog.
Her name is Vera; she is an Eurasier American Eskimo mix. She has been through a lot in her few years, but she has an amazing potential to be the best dog. It took her a little while to warm up to the both of us, especially Bill being so big and hunkering. She listens to us, knows tricks, plays well with our neighbor dogs, and can even be off leash in our backyard and not run away.
Today is day four and will be her ultimate test. I am going to work for about 6 hours and daddy won't be coming home a lunch to make sure she isn't getting into anything. Sunday we left her alone for a test run for a couple hours and she jumped up on our counter (how? I have no idea) and ate a 1/4 stick of butter. Luckily, that was all she ate considering some of the most toxic items were up there, too: grapes, potatoes, garlic, onions, and two chocolate chip cookies.
Yesterday she did better, only biting a little hole in the bread bag. We don't really want to have to put her in a kennel all day and would much rather let her roam the house while we are gone. That is what all the pets I have ever had did, though kennel training can be very beneficial.
Bill is going out of town today, again on Friday, and then all next week. Hopefully she will miss him and not be timid again around him when he gets home. She loves him though and I told him the more he did with her, the more she would love him. He has been taking her out for play dates, car rides, and play wrestling with her.
In the summer I am hoping to do some agility with her considering the amount of energy she has and how athletic she is (hello- 3 foot high counter top). More to update soon; time to go love on my girl before I get ready for work....
Her name is Vera; she is an Eurasier American Eskimo mix. She has been through a lot in her few years, but she has an amazing potential to be the best dog. It took her a little while to warm up to the both of us, especially Bill being so big and hunkering. She listens to us, knows tricks, plays well with our neighbor dogs, and can even be off leash in our backyard and not run away.
Today is day four and will be her ultimate test. I am going to work for about 6 hours and daddy won't be coming home a lunch to make sure she isn't getting into anything. Sunday we left her alone for a test run for a couple hours and she jumped up on our counter (how? I have no idea) and ate a 1/4 stick of butter. Luckily, that was all she ate considering some of the most toxic items were up there, too: grapes, potatoes, garlic, onions, and two chocolate chip cookies.
Yesterday she did better, only biting a little hole in the bread bag. We don't really want to have to put her in a kennel all day and would much rather let her roam the house while we are gone. That is what all the pets I have ever had did, though kennel training can be very beneficial.
Bill is going out of town today, again on Friday, and then all next week. Hopefully she will miss him and not be timid again around him when he gets home. She loves him though and I told him the more he did with her, the more she would love him. He has been taking her out for play dates, car rides, and play wrestling with her.
In the summer I am hoping to do some agility with her considering the amount of energy she has and how athletic she is (hello- 3 foot high counter top). More to update soon; time to go love on my girl before I get ready for work....
3/10/11
Iditarod Update
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| Taken from iditarodblogs.com. |
Found out this morning that my musher has scratched. Zoya Denure scratched from the race late last night due to one of her dogs collapsing. You can read the article here in detail. I am sad to see her discontinuing, but I think she has a heart of gold. The fact that, even though she could continue the race and just leave the dog at the checkpoint, her concern and willingness to give up all the hard work her and the dogs have done to prepare for the race to watch over her sick dog is what mushing is all about.
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| Taken from iditarodblogs.com |
Zoya is my favorite musher because she and her husband run a kennel for retired/given-up/rehomed dogs. I loved the fact that her teams consisted of shelter dogs and rescues. Yay for rescued puppies!! It says in the article that she is thinking about just running the shorter, couple hundred miles races instead of the Iditarod. I am on her side either way, but I would love to see her come back in a few years and place in the top ten or something.
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| Taken from flickr- GipsyGold |
In other news, it seems that the Bordetella, aka canine cough, epidemic has reached the sled dog teams. Multiple mushers have scratched due to their dogs showing symptoms. It could be catastrophic if it spread down the trail, resulting in hundreds of dogs being infected. Bordetella has been rampant here for the last month, moving slowly up from Anchorage. Bordetella is a highly contagious sickness that is comparable to the human flu. Dogs get vaccinated for it just like we take flu shots, though his strand that is infecting the dogs is a new, stronger strand that the vaccine doesn't even touch.
As of last night, Trent Herbst is in first, but he has not taken his 24 hour layover (nor Kelley Griffin- my boss' good friend who is running with our mushing gear) unlike most of the other mushers in the top ten. It has been said that they are being very aware of their dogs health with this rumor of Bordetella and the conditions of the trail up ahead. They are taking their long layovers early, focusing on feeding, massaging, and loving on their dogs to keep spirits, and health, high.
So lets all keep the dogs and the mushers in our thoughts and send them all positive, healing energy to get them back home safe.
More on the Iditarod and other Kellyness to come later.
Oh, oh; I almost forgot. Have a new vid on Hoop City. Check it out if you are interested. Nothing fancy, just some fun.
3/3/11
New, New, New
I have been getting comfortable in my new job as a server and yesterday I had some of my own tables while training!! I think I did a pretty awesome job considering that it was only my third day. Friday will be the first "non-training" day and I will actually be able to make tips. I do, however, work this Saturday so I won't be attending Rondy, but at least I have off on Sunday and get to go out to the Iditorod start (yay!!). I am definitely going to take some pics and I plan on writing on a somewhat tough and confusing subject: dog mushing. If you do not live in an area where dog mushing/dog kennels are predominant, then a lot can be misunderstood. So I want to bring about some clarification.
Sunday's hoop jam was a pretty good success in my opinion. My neighbors came out and hooped for a while and some friends attended, too. I got my neighbors really excited about hooping and I think they are now more willing to recruit their friends to jams, classes, and workshops now that they have a taste of how truly awesome hoopdance is. I plan to extend the invitation to the public for the hoop jam at the end of this month, in hopes to gain some interest in classes. I am very excited. Check out my photo album on Hoop City for the pics I took.
On another note, I have been working ridiculously hard on my website. I think I have found a layout and design that I am happy with. I am going to start doing posts and announcements so that people can become more involved on the site versus it just being static pages. I plan to add a little more oomph to it, but I am satisfied with what has become of it as of now. If you are a website designer or even html/code friendly and would like to give me any tips or tricks, I would sincerely appreciate it. I am not at all computer illiterate, but when it comes to coding, I am pretty lost. Thank god for google.
I wanted to share some pics and things from the Iron Dog that I went to a few weekends ago. I got so busy, but it is an amazing thing. It is a snowmachine race that starts out in Big Lake, paves the way for the Iditorod to Nome, then over to end in Fairbanks. All in all, the races covers over 2000 miles. And what is the craziest part? It takes about a week, the riders are required to takes a minimum of 50hours in breaks (spaced through out the race at specific check points), and their average speed in 90 mph. Yes, it is pretty insane. You can check out the website for the Iron Dog to get a better view of the extent of the race, see the map (go 5o "for race fans" and click on map and checkpoints), and even check out the racers. Bill wants to do the trail team (which is a group of riders that just takes the trail to Nome and isn't in the competing group) next year. If I had more experience on snowmachines, I would, but it is pretty hardcore going out there this time of year.
So here are some pics I took that I never got a chance to post.
And here is a random pic of me on the snowmachine when we were out at the cabin last weekend. It was cold and blustery, so I am all geared up to the point I feel like Ralphie's brother in A Christmas Story haha.
And as a side note, the boots I am wearing are waaaaay too big. I know they look like clown boots, but they are good for -60 degrees and when it is freezing and your riding on a snowmachine, you DON'T want your feet to be cold, so I borrowed Bill's bunny boots. Interesting thing about bunny boots: they are a huge accessory up here in AK for the winter months, especially for things like dog mushing, snowmachining, and any outdoor work during the winter. They were originally made for US soldiers to use when dropping out of air planes. For more info check out the wiki page for bunny boots. There, a short history lesson of AK :).
Sunday's hoop jam was a pretty good success in my opinion. My neighbors came out and hooped for a while and some friends attended, too. I got my neighbors really excited about hooping and I think they are now more willing to recruit their friends to jams, classes, and workshops now that they have a taste of how truly awesome hoopdance is. I plan to extend the invitation to the public for the hoop jam at the end of this month, in hopes to gain some interest in classes. I am very excited. Check out my photo album on Hoop City for the pics I took.
On another note, I have been working ridiculously hard on my website. I think I have found a layout and design that I am happy with. I am going to start doing posts and announcements so that people can become more involved on the site versus it just being static pages. I plan to add a little more oomph to it, but I am satisfied with what has become of it as of now. If you are a website designer or even html/code friendly and would like to give me any tips or tricks, I would sincerely appreciate it. I am not at all computer illiterate, but when it comes to coding, I am pretty lost. Thank god for google.
I wanted to share some pics and things from the Iron Dog that I went to a few weekends ago. I got so busy, but it is an amazing thing. It is a snowmachine race that starts out in Big Lake, paves the way for the Iditorod to Nome, then over to end in Fairbanks. All in all, the races covers over 2000 miles. And what is the craziest part? It takes about a week, the riders are required to takes a minimum of 50hours in breaks (spaced through out the race at specific check points), and their average speed in 90 mph. Yes, it is pretty insane. You can check out the website for the Iron Dog to get a better view of the extent of the race, see the map (go 5o "for race fans" and click on map and checkpoints), and even check out the racers. Bill wants to do the trail team (which is a group of riders that just takes the trail to Nome and isn't in the competing group) next year. If I had more experience on snowmachines, I would, but it is pretty hardcore going out there this time of year.
So here are some pics I took that I never got a chance to post.
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Bill and I  |
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| Snowcycle |
And here is a random pic of me on the snowmachine when we were out at the cabin last weekend. It was cold and blustery, so I am all geared up to the point I feel like Ralphie's brother in A Christmas Story haha.
And as a side note, the boots I am wearing are waaaaay too big. I know they look like clown boots, but they are good for -60 degrees and when it is freezing and your riding on a snowmachine, you DON'T want your feet to be cold, so I borrowed Bill's bunny boots. Interesting thing about bunny boots: they are a huge accessory up here in AK for the winter months, especially for things like dog mushing, snowmachining, and any outdoor work during the winter. They were originally made for US soldiers to use when dropping out of air planes. For more info check out the wiki page for bunny boots. There, a short history lesson of AK :).
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