October in Anchorage

Hello from October in Alaska. Hooray for St.Louis Cardinals.  What a World Series. The BEST in many many years.

  I went to send David a package at the post office and I couldn't resist taking a picture of the beautiful planter outside the post office. This planter has cabbage plants that measured 35 inches in diameter.  Spectacular. Again because of the cooler days and lots of sunlight produces huge foliage. 

This is out my kitchen window the other night  Our sunsets are very colorful because of such clear nights.  We are down to 12 hours of sunlight and the amazing thing to  me still is that darkness comes in the morning and sunlight stays in the evening much longer.  Our sun sets now about 7 pm.

I had to stop on the side of the road to take a picture of our snow as it rolls down the side of the mountain.  The upper elevations (Talkeetna,Hatchers Pass) all have snow.  The weather person is predicting sometime in the next 3 days we will have snow on the ground.  I made reservations for our lodging in Nome last week and the folks there have had 6 inches of snow for weeks on the ground.  The people on the East Coast are getting worse weather than AK.

 In case many of you are wondering what ingredients it take to make a Duck Fart here they are.
1/3 Baileys, 1/3 Kahlua and 1/3 Crown.  Down the hatch and it taste just like chocolate milk!

Now this is a sight I haven't seen before in Alaska.  Canadian Geese.  I think they took the wrong turn from Memphis and ended up here. I haven't seen these guys since playing golf at Memphis National.  I bet you all miss them. I will send them back South.

One of our favorite hangouts is the Birchwood Saloon. It is such a small local hangout.  Beers are cheap and the games are free. We play FREE darts ,hoolahoops, pool, Foosball, ping pong.  All free and then there is the karaoke machine which my friends can't seem to leave along. I took my picture with the ghost rider of the bar!

Beth's birthday party.  We had a wonderful time celebrating her big day.  We played about 5 different Minute To Win It games throughout the evening.  I use these games in my class room when the students need a fun activity to work on teamwork. This is the Bucket Pull.  You stand on a paint can and try to pull your opponent off their can.  A lot of strategy.  Cheryl, on the left, was the Queen of the Bucket Pull.

This is the Build a Tower of Dice.  With a tongue depressor in your mouth, stack 6 dice on top of each other and hold them for 10 seconds before they fall.  Not easy but there is definitely a strategy.  I love listening to the kids in my class help each other with strategies.

This is Build a Pyramid with plastic cups.  Pull the rubber band with 5 strings (one per player) and take the cup from one end of the table to the opposite end. At the end build a pyramid of 3, 2, 1 cups.  Not easy. 

Steady as you go.

This is Niki, Beth and I holding Niki's roommate, Abraham.  He is being deployed Nov 27.  We are going to miss him. I think he will miss us holding him up.  He is quite the prankster and is always pulling funny jokes on us.

Roommates in Eagle River.

Went to view the Bore Tide with friends.  As you will recall from a few years ago, Anchorage has the second largest bore tide in the world. The first is in Japan.  This evening the difference between low tide and high tide as 36 feet and a few inches.  Very powerful.

Here is short video of the bore tide.

We had 6 inches of snow last night.  This is the log cabin across the street from my house.  Can you see the pumpkins with the snow fall?

 This is Baldy Mountain at the end of my street. You can see the snow falling as I took the picture this morning.

 Yep, my Halloween costume. I am suppose to look like an elephant.  Actually is it my knee cold pack to help with my knee.  It is an electric pump that circulates cold water around my knee to keep the swelling down.  I took it off and my room mate took a picture of me.  A good looking elephant don't you think?

Well. It is hard to believe that October 2011 is over.  November is just a few hours away.  That means yummy Thanksgiving dinner is just around the corner.  I am staying in Anchorage for Thanksgiving this year. I leave the following week for Memphis to spend a lot of time at home.  If you have no place to go for Thanksgiving, please come and join us.  We are having a progressive Thanksgiving dinner.  Since my friends live within 1 block of our house we are sharing the cooking and clean up of Thanksgiving.  Appetizers at one home, turkey dinner at our house, and dessert at another house.  We hope to do a bit of x country skiing after eating a delicious dinner.

I hope all is well with you and your family.  My family is doing well.  David had a great weekend golfing with the boys, Tyler and Cara moved to Nashville, and Jensina had a wonderful trip to Hawaii.

Have a wonderful day.

Life is Good.

Hugs

Sheryl the Nanuq of the North