Sunday

I watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" last night.  I had forgotten how the movie ended.  It's kind of a goofy movie, but I watched it anyway.

Kasey took my iPad in the bedroom, sat on the windowsill, and used Kat's little "tree" as a desk.  She is wearing her boots because she is afraid the cat will jump out and grab her feet.

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It's that time of year when water and sewer lines freeze in Pinedale.  There were four city pickups there, and one piece of heavy equipment.  They must have gotten it thawed out.  They opened the fire hydrant for a while and had a good stream of water. 

 

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This has got to be the oldest box of toothpicks in existence!  Look at the price!  The box is pretty much beat up.  I have no idea where or when I bought them.

 

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I am washing the quilt on my bed today.  Xiao Ling would wash it, but last time she did, it faded a little bit on the sheets, and she about had a heart attack.  





Saturday

 

Someone posted this cute pic on Facebook.  I edited it and changed it from "Saturday" to "every morning".  Doesn't this make you want to take a nap?

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I just cleaned off the watercolor table, straightened things up, and cleaned the palette KC was using.  I have a clear plastic table cover (which I couldn't find when I moved in here) and will put it on and cut it to fit.  Then everything will look so neat and clean that I won't want to mess it up! 

 

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I went down to the nursing wing this morning.  I just found the book that came with the George Foreman grill and wanted to find James to give it to him.   That's the first time I've been in the nursing wing, but I wasn't even there long enough to look around.

 

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Six days left before the Rockies opening day at Coors Field!

 

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Paul and Tracy took me to the season opener a few years ago.  It was a day we'll never forget!

 

 

This is what it looked like on I70 on our way to Denver. 

 

 

Yes, they closed I70 while we were on it, along with hundreds of other people.  This was before we reached the tunnels.  On a positive note, all the trucks were parked along the highway down by Silverthorne, chaining up.  So there were no big trucks up there. 

 

We still had a fun day.  We eventually got to Denver, drove by Coors Field just to look at it, (game was cancelled) ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and went to the Tattered Cover book store.  By the time we went home, the highway was pretty much cleared.  Kudos to the Colorado Highway Department!

 

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I put the table cover on the table, went to mail a letter, and by the time I got back, Kat had it on the floor!

 

Friday

Finally got Norton Internet Security installed on my computer.  It had expired, and I long ago decided to NOT do the automatic renewal.  Got into a mess with that in the past when several computers were involved.

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Woke up this morning at 7:30 to the sound of two little girls giggling.  Rhonda was watching for Kasey to get here, and wasted no time coming in to play.  Grandma put her foot down.  Good grief, I hadn't even had one cup of coffee yet!  I told Rhonda that KC would be down to find her later.  At 10:00, we went down the hall to the therapy room (where I am riding a bike every day).  Rhonda was settled in on the couch with a blanket, watching a movie on her sister's laptop.  They played in the therapy room, then outside for quite a while, then sat down in the big room to finish the movie. 

 

 

I was following them around all this time. Grumpy Grandma decided four hours was enough playtime, and sent Rhonda to find her mom.  KC is reading a book now.

 

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The UPS man had been here while we were gone, and left two books for KC.  She is reading "Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilet".  Those books are not familiar to me.  I never read them to my kindergartners.  Kasey is enjoying it.

As a result of a class action law suit, I had a $40 credit for books with Amazon.  Didn't take me long to spend it!

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An old photo from the month of March sometime in the past.  Taken in the city park.



Thursday

Cloudy today, and it's snowing right now.  I just came in from outside - - been sitting on a bench outside, reading, and riding herd on two rambunctious little girls.

This Rhonda.  She and KC discovered each other this morning, and have been playing for over two hours.  Her mom is a nurse here.   

 

KC is videoing Rhonda.  They had so much fun that I felt a little guilty making Rhonda go find her mom and made KC come in the apartment.  They wanted to play the rest of the day. I had taken them out front to run and climb trees, and I swear they ran five miles. 

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There were at least a dozen robins outside my window this morning.  Looking a little grumpy with the snow.

 

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It looks like all the windows are in at the new apartments - also the outside insulation.  Love watching the progress.  Dave, the UPS driver, told me he has been inside, and they have made a lot of progress on the interior.

 

 

I know I've uploaded this video in the past, but I found it again to show KC.  We giggled, and watched it four times in a row.

 

 



Tuesday

Almost got caught in the vortex yesterday.  A notification popped up and told me I needed to update my flash player.  No problem, I can do that.  It was a while before I realized I was being asked to install and use Google Chrome as my default browser, use a program that detected if my computer was too slow, -- and so on.  I hope I got the installer shut down before those things were installed.  I did find a small program that was attempting to manage my device drivers, and got rid of that in a hurry. 

But there is something else that snuck in.  Once in a while I get a pop up telling me I need to update Internet Explorer, and I know for a fact I have the latest version.  I will use System Restore, and tattoo this on my forehead:

"I will never, never, never again download a "free" program of any kind."

And maybe I will ignore notifications that I need to update a program.

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I'm so glad Kasey loves to read.  She grabbed a book off the shelves yesterday and curled up on the floor with a blanket and read "Custard the Dragon".

 

 

She also likes to do dishes.  Of course washing dishes is just an excuse to play in the soapy water.

 

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I am getting sick.  KC found some "Barbie" movies on my Netflix account, and is watching one.  I'm hearing all about fashion, Barbie's clothes closet, her hairdos, and her chipped nails.  I may have to put the earphones on and listen to music or something. Maybe I can find a "Dukes of Hazard" movie for her.





Monday

First day of spring break for Kasey, and I knew she would be here early, about 7:30.  Barrie sneaks her in quietly with something to do so she won't wake me up.  She needn't have worried this morning.  The fire alarm went off in the hallway in front of my apartment at 6:30 AM.  Goofy thing.  I did go back to sleep, but woke up when Kasey got here.

The iPad was all charged up, but she decided she wanted to paint, so the table is set up for watercolors.  After she painted a while, we went outside.

 

Kasey spent some time climbing her favorite tree in front of Sublette Center. Most of the snow that is left is set up so much that she can walk on top of it without falling through.

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Finally!!  We watched three robins out my windows this morning.  Everyone else has  seen them, but these are the first I've seen.

 

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I thought I had pretty much gotten rid of things I don't need, but today I took the George Foreman grill and all the extra plates out of the cupboards, and James took them.  James is one of the housekeepers here.   The grill takes up so much storage space and counter space, and I don't use it that much.  I think I will get a small, compact waffle iron.  I liked the shiskabobs I made in it, but stir fry works just as well for me.   



Sunday

Kasey was here yesterday afternoon.  One of her teachers has an iPad and was using it at school to make videos.  So of course Kasey wanted to do that.  We didn't figure out how to make videos, but she gave it a workout taking pictures.  I think she took ten pictures of her glass of milk.

 

And a dozen or so pictures of Kat sleeping on the bed.

 

There must be a drawing program on the iPad that Kasey has been using and learned how to save the pictures.  There were about thirty of them in the picture album.

 

I spent some time this morning going through all the pictures and deleting most of them.  I'm sure glad KC enjoys the iPad.  I never use it!

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It may be spring, but it was only 3° when I got up this morning.  I forgot and left my little herb garden trapped between the glass and the drape.  They are not happy with me this morning.

Saturday

Something is happening to my sleep schedule. For some reason, I am getting sleepy earlier at night, and have gotten up at 7:30 for the last two days.  That's against all my rules!  Although, the sun is up by then.

I woke up this morning with an urge for biscuits.  I haven't made a decent biscuit for a very long time now.  I tried a new recipe this morning, and VIOLA!  I ended up with tall, fluffy biscuits that even tasted good! That recipe is a keeper.

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The painting of Fremont Lake I finished a few days ago has gone back to the shop for repairs.  After looking at it across the living room for a couple days, I decided it needed more work.  If I ruin it, so be it.  I have lots of paper.

 

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I saw a book on Amazon titled "The Past Never Ends".  Those words have been on my mind for several weeks now. What an intriguing thought!

 

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Amazon has a program called "Unbox" enabling users who have a video account to download their videos to the hard drive of their computer.  Then you can watch those movies without Wi-Fi.  I have a huge hard drive, so have chosen a few movies to download.  I'll probably never need to watch a movie without being on the internet, but who knows?

 

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  These ravens are enjoying spring.  They are really loud and boisterous. 

 

Several people are seeing robins, bluebirds, Sand Hill Cranes, geese, and blackbirds.  There aren't many birds here.

 

Friday

Well, I guess this proves it!  Does a bear sh-- in the woods?  Definitely!  I wonder if there is a roll of Charmin paper hanging on the back of that tree?

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Barrie and Kasey stopped by yesterday afternoon.  I was in the Heritage Room, and KC came and found me.  The first thing she asked was "Did you bake cookies?"

Spring break starts next week, so I am looking forward to more "Grandma time" with KC.  She'll be able to go to work with her mom some times, but she'll be with me most days.

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 I think maybe I wasted some money.  I bought a program I used to have that converts photos to pencil drawings.  This is what I got with the program.  It was cheap, thank goodness.

 

And this is what I got using the "pencil" effect in Paint Shop Pro. 

 

Maybe I'll just spend all day playing with editing images on my computer!

 

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All the years I have used a computer, I never used the Roxio CD Creator.   It's been installed on every computer I ever had, I think. My friend, Linda, from art group brought her computer the other day and made a copy of a DVD.  Simple!  Wonder why I never tried it?  So I came home and made a copy of a DVD for a friend.  Of course it won't work if the DVD is copy protected.

 





Thursday

I promised neighbor Nancy I would come to the "group" today.  Do four people constitute a "group"?  Anyway she has the promotional video the Chamber of Commerce made about the Pinedale area, and I wouldn't mind watching it again.



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Someone on Facebook posted a list of advice a father should give his son.  It was a long list, but I thought a few of them were noteworthy:
 
Always brush your teeth before you put on your tie.
 
If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
 
Buy a plunger before you need a plunger.
 
Being old is not dictated by your bedtime.

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 A photo from the past.  When Lance Mackey and Newton Marshall were here for the Stage Stop Race a few years ago, Lance's truck broke down, and they borrowed Barrie's truck to transport them and the dogs to Big Piney.  This was Kasey's reaction when she saw "her truck" in the parking lot up the Green.

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 I'm playing around with the new program, Paint Shop Pro, experimenting with a picture of Barrie in Ashton, Id.    The effect I used on this one was a method used on photographs in the late 1800's.  Plus a few more things I did to it.  I think maybe I applied a "vignette" filter.

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What a beautiful day!  43° and bright sunshine.  My apartment has been cleaned, I had a great breakfast, dishes are done, I just painted a beautiful sky on a new watercolor, and nothing hurts.

 





Wednesday

Beautiful day today!  It looks like the end of winter, but we all know what is yet to come!  We're not through with the snow yet.

 

I thought I saw a bird!!

 

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I finished this in art group this morning.  Now I will have to sit around and look at it for while to see if I want to bother to mat it.  Or if I want to turn it over and use the back to paint something else.  Time to move onto something else for a while.

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This guy was just hanging out by the front entrance yesterday.  He found a sunny spot where the ground was dry, and settled down for a nap.  Pretty contented little moose! 

 





Tuesday

Other than a brief 15 minute blizzard yesterday, we didn't get snow.  It is overcast today and looks like it might do the same.

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I wore myself out yesterday by going to the grocery store, the liquor store, and the recycling center.  It took me three trips to get everything from the truck into the apartment, using my little wheeled cart.  That's why I like to park by this side door.

 

I wish the world would quit trying to confuse me.  I bought two zucchini yesterday.  Nothing to it, right?  After I put the groceries away and looked over the ticket, I discovered I had bought two cucumbers. 

 

 

 I got them out and checked, and darn it, these ARE zucchini, but I paid for cucumbers.  I have no idea which cost more.

 

Once several years ago, I did buy cucumbers when I thought I was getting zucchini, but I would like to think I'm a little smarter now.

 

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I've been using the new program, Paint Shop Pro.  It has so much more fun stuff than Photoshop.  Here is one of the many frames included.  Cute on a drawing I did of Bogie several years ago.

 





Monday

I'm watching big beautiful snow flakes falling outside my window this morning.  There's a bit of wind blowing, so it is probably blowing a gale out of town.  I doubt if this snowstorm lasts too long.

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Today is St Patrick's Day, and also the birthday of my wonderful niece, Teri.  She's the one on the left, Tracy is in the center, and Sheri is on the right. 

 

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You would have to remember the old TV show "Fantasy Island" to appreciate the humor of this.



Sunday

 

Disgustingly healthy breakfast this morning.  Why?  Because I bought some to make bread a few months ago, and I'm tired of seeing it in the cupboard.  Well, it's not too bad, actually.  Just not up to par with sausage and eggs.

I'll make up for it later.  I have some good leftovers in the refrigerator.  Fried stuff, with salt and grease!
 

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There are two small children in the apartment across the hall from me.  Two little girls, four and one.  Their father is a traveling nurse, works here on weekends, and sometimes his wife and kids come with him.  Once in a while they get a little loud, and I can hear them.  But that doesn't bother me - they aren't crying, and who can complain about happy kids being loud?  Not me.  They also have a cute little dog.

 

I'm glad I live in a place so tolerant of kids and animals. 

 

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Barrie says she is getting better about homework.  She had to talk to Kasey's teacher because Kasey wasn't turning in much homework.  Barrie told the teacher she didn't believe in homework, but promised to do better.  One night she got disgusted, wadded up the homework paper, and threw it on the floor.  Shorty saw her throw something, pounced on it, and shredded it.  So KC's story for her teacher was that her mom threw her homework away, and then her dog ate it.

 

One night when KC stayed with me, she had a "book log".  I had to document what books she read, how long it took her, and how many pages were in the book.  Don't try to tell me teachers spend time poring over these book logs! 

 

Kasey reads while her mom is in the shower, or if it's cold and she is waiting in the pickup while Barrie finishes feeding, or while traveling, and Barrie doesn't document all that.  They are also regulars at the library.

 

   

 

 

 

Saturday

 

These things are addictive! Especially if you nuke them for about 10 seconds so they are warm.  I've never had a pretzel in a mall.  If I did, I would probably think these are terrible.

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I started reading James Michener's "Hawaii" last night.  It's exhausting to go through millions and millions of years just to form the island.  I haven't even gotten to the part where there are trees or vegetation on it.  I really like Michener's books, but they are a challenge to read!

 

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 Looking back through old folders of pictures taken during the month of March, I found this one.  Kind of a fun photo.

 

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I'm not sure this is even funny.  I told Nurse Nicky that my cat harasses the girl who cleans my apartment.  Nicky said she eats cats,( she is Chinese) and that Kat knows it, which is why she darts out from under the bed at her. 

 

I don't think my cat is that smart in the first place, and in the second place I doubt if she eats cats.  Maybe her grandmother did, though.

 



Friday

I have been singing songs like "Wandering Star", and "Hand me Down that Can of Beans" all day.  They keep going through my mind because I watched "Paint Your Wagon" last night.  I had forgotten what a fun movie that is.  God, Clint Eastwood was young!! 

The summer before I moved to Pinedale, I was in Laramie for summer school.  I rented an apartment with a woman from Riverton, who had a little girl about Tracy's age.  Susanne was from California, and her father was an actor.  He had a part in Paint your Wagon, which was being filmed in Oregon at the time.  He played the part of Clendennon.  Susanne's husband, Bill, had driven his motorcycle to Oregon and was working as an extra.

Bill drove his motorcycle from Oregon straight to Laramie to see Susanne and their daughter.  He still had his beard he had grown for the filming, and the first night he was there, bugs kept crawling out of his beard during supper.  He shaved it off the next morning!

I love the artwork they used during the beginning and ending credits. Can't tell for sure, but it looks like charcoal, pen and ink, and ink washes.

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I installed Paint Shop Pro on both computers this morning.  I used to like this program better than Photoshop, and I might go back to using it exclusively.  Photoshop is a powerful photo editing program, but I remember Paint Shop Pro was easier to use, and you could do more fun things with it.

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The big piles of snow I see out my window are starting to resemble the rock formations where Rollie and Judi hike in Nevada.

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There are still eight teams out on the trail in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  Keep going guys, you're almost there!!

Thursday

Just got the new microwave oven and have it set up.  UPS tracking showed it was delivered yesterday, but it wasn't here.  Turned out they left it at the office, and Kevin just brought it down for me.  It's smaller than the old one, and I find that my neat pasta cooker is too long for it.  Problem solved, take the rotating plate out, and the pasta cooker fits fine as long as it doesn't have to turn.

 

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I filled one of my Rapidiograph pens with ink today, and it's ready to go.  Now to figure out what my new pen and ink drawing project will be.

 

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I baked cookies to take to art group yesterday for Conley's birthday.  Turns out his birthday is not until next Wednesday. That's not like me.  I'm usually wishing people a belated birthday.

 

 

Some time ago, I posted photos of a couple of books I moved here with me - just couldn't give them up.  Here is another one, "Custard the Dragon", by Odgen Nash.  It's about Belinda, and her "Realio, Trulio, little pet dragon."  This poem was in a book of poetry I used to read to Tracy when she was little.  She remembered it, and when she saw this book, she bought it for me. 

 

Kasey read this too me one night, and giggled on every page.

 

 

 

Wednesday

Hope I don't  have withdrawal symptoms after the Iditarod!  I might have to do something drastic like watch "Spirit of the Wind", an old movie about George Attla, a native from Alaska who was a famous sprint musher. 

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Playing on XM radio right now, is "Pickup Man" by Joe Diffie.  He sings, "There's just something women like about a pickup man".  When I think about it I don't know any men in Pinedale who DON'T drive a pickup! 

 

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I have ordered the program "Paint Shop Pro" for photo editing on the computer I am trying to set up.  I have been fighting trying to install and activate Photoshop, and decided it's not worth it.  I used to use Paint Shop Pro years ago, and it was a great program.  I bet it can do almost everything Photoshop does, and costs only $42, compared to $400 - $600 for Photoshop. 

 

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I ordered a new microwave and it should be here today.  The one I have works "sometimes", but the digital settings are all screwed up.  Sometimes it will work right if I unplug it for a while.  I found one for less than $100 so just decided to replace this one.



Tuesday

What an exciting "finish" to the Iditarod.  Jeff King, who was in the lead, passed through White Mountain, he was out on glare ice with 48 mph wind, and he and his team were literally blown off the trail and were stopped.  He ended up scratching.

Aliy Zirkle passed him in the dark and didn't see him.  She got into Safety before she found out she was in the lead.  While she rested in Safety, Dallas Seavey went by, and she chased him all the way into Nome.  He finished 2 minutes ahead of her.  Dallas never saw either of the other two mushers, and when he got into Nome, he thought he was in third place!

It was fun to see all the handlers at the finish line.  They had followed the race all along on snow machines, but are not allowed to help do anything with the team.  They converged on the dogs in Nome, with food, water, and lots of petting. 

The people of Nome turned out at 4:00 AM to watch the finish.  ( I got up at 6:00 to watch the live finish.) There are still 50 mushers out on the trail on their way to Nome.

 

The burled arch on Front Street in Nome.  You can see the "red lantern" hanging on it.  That will be taken down and awarded to the last musher to finish.  Even finishing last is  a great accomplishment.

 

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These are for my friend Judi.  When her granddaughters were here last summer, they wanted to do a craft project with moose turds, but all they could find were too dry and crumbly.  I picked these up off the sidewalk outside my apartment and they are now in the freezer.  I probably should have labeled the container.  Don't want to accidently dump them into a pot of stew or something. 

Monday

The Iditarod Race is getting really exciting.  Both Aliy Zirkle and Jeff King are in White Mountain, and Jeff was ahead of her only by an hour.  All mushers are required to take an 8 hour rest in White Mountain, so they won't be leaving that checkpoint right away.  They are now 77 miles from Nome, so the race will probably finish in the middle of the night.  The people in Nome won't be getting much sleep tonight.

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The Iditarod Trail is probably most famous in modern times for the sled dog race, But there are numerous other events on the trail  A club out of Fairbanks has an invitational bike race every winter, just before the dogs run.  I believe they go from Big Lake, AK to Nome, then to Fairbanks.  And there is a snow machine race, called The Iron Dog.  In the past, the snow machines have been out of favor for tearing up the trail so badly.  They did it on purpose to make it more difficult for the ones following them.  But I haven't heard that lately. 
 
Only parts of the trail are passable in the summer because of bogs, etc.  And the mosquitoes are almost life threatening.
 

 

One of the media guys who is following and reporting on the race took this picture of two bikers on the coast.  As that race is supposed to be over, these guys must just be out having an adventure. Notice the lack of snow.  

There are quite a few things I wish I had done in my life, but this isn't one of them!

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Yesterday I made a loaf of bread and two pizza crusts in my bread machine.  Today I am going to make an attempt to make pretzels.  And it's not because I'm bored.

 

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I just spent 99¢ on the James Michener book "Hawaii" for my Kindle.  I read it many years ago, and think I would enjoy it again.

 

Just looked up how to make the cents symbol - it is Alt 0162.  FYI

 

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Someone must sit around thinking up strange things to research and study.  Here is an interesting one:  Cows can suffer from PTSD

Unlike cows that haven't ever had a run-in with wolves, ones that have can experience stress-related illnesses and have a harder time getting pregnant – meaning decreased profits for ranchers, according to a new study by Oregon State University.

Sunday

 

 

Did everyone remember to set their set their clocks forward an hour?  I actually set mine before I went to bed last night.  Sometimes I'm so organized I scare myself!  But then this morning, I made coffee without putting the filter in first.  After cleaning up the mess and starting over again, I finally got a cup of coffee 30 minutes later.

 

 

 

Kasey's snow pants were wet to the knee. Barrie was going out to feed dogs, KC was too wet to go out on the snow machine.  So she stayed with me.  She found these little figurines of a frog and a toad on my dresser, and entertained me with "Frog and Toad"  stories.

 

I'm betting Judi has read plenty "Frog and Toad" books during her teaching years.

 

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Another musher has scratched in the Iditarod, bringing the total to sixteen.  He had made it all the way to Unalakleet, over 700 miles.  He said his team was exhausted, and he decided to shut it down.

 

Mushers have carried the GPS device on their sleds for several years, but this is the first year they have included the "Help" button, or "SOS". With the terrible trail conditions they have had this year, it's been a good thing.  Six mushers have used it so far

 

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I have finally found an e-mail program I am happy with.  I downloaded and installed Windows Live mail, which may be part of Windows Outlook, which I don't have.  It is free, was easy to set up, and super easy to use.  A lot of people use Hotmail, and I do have an account with them.  But it would be a hassle to change my email address for everything.