Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Why Mr. X married Me

A long time ago, someone asked Mr. X why he was interested in me, what it was that made his heart go pit-pat? or some such nonsense. His response: She has a good peanut butter cookie recipe.


Here's the truth though. I don't have a good peanut butter cookie recipe. I just use any old one in the cookbook and add chocolate chips. Since Mr. X's eyes have been opened to the truth, I've been spending my days trying to create something new and amazing lest he find someone else with a tasty recipe - not really.


So, recently, Mr. X changed his diet. One of the major things that changed was that he wanted yogurt. Lots and lots of yogurt. Yogurt at every meal and in between too. Not just cheap-o yogurt either, those $5.35 two-cup cartons of greek yogurt.


Ah-hem. For some reason he's now referring to me as the "dairy maid". And it might have something to do with all the yogurt sitting in the fridge.


It could be worse, right? He could have said, "She's the most [beautiful] [genius] [kindhearted] woman who graced the planet." And then I'd be obligated to always be striving for supermodel status. Or that MENSA certificate, or whatever it was that he admired. At least I get to eat what I make.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Picture perfect day

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon Mr. X and I decided to take a drive. We headed out the road to the Shrine of St. Therese. Not confident that the paths would be clear of snow, but wanting to do a little walking, we followed the path down toward the water.


The Chilkat Mountains across the water were beautifully white and we had blue skies with wispy clouds. Before we could get very far, however, a plump orange cat met us. Mr. X is a sucker so he gave the cat a good scratch. Of course, then the cat "heeled" as was made our way toward the causeway. From here we could see two labs playing on the beach and a dozen sea lions floating by on the calm seas. By now Mr. X is holding the cat (lest the animal have to walk through a puddle) and having me scratch the feline's neck. Seeing that we intended to walk past the dogs, the cat asked to be put down.


We continued our walk to the old stone church where we gazed out over the water.


Amazing how satifying a little sun, snow, exercise can be. Oh, yeah. I think Mr. X would add, and an out-going, furry friend.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Small town living

Did I tell you this story?

When John was here visiting, and we hiked to the Dan Mollar cabin, we read the cabin log. Like we always do. One of the entries was written by a guy who mentioned how his dogs, Nutmeg and Laserbeam, did on the trail. Impressed with such great dog names, we discussed them at length.

Two days later, leaving John in bed and Mr. X in his meetings, I took off on my own to walk to Nugget Falls. Enjoying the solitude, I was surprised to discover a russet colored golden retriever walking right behind me. Turning around, the dog barked and the owner called out, "Her name's Nutmeg!" He then addressed the elderly, ice blue-eyed, black lab/husky mix by his side, "Come on, Laserbeam, let's go."

Just what are the odds?

Friday, February 3, 2012

Weather Outlook: Avalanches



images from Juneau Urban Avalanche Advisory site: http://www.juneau.org/avalanche/


After the 49 inches of snow we got in January, avalanches were inevitable. The temperatures have warmed up to 40 degrees and it's been raining and blowing (80 mph gusts today).

Wednesday, as we were waiting at a stop light, Mr. X and I watched a avalanche come down the Behrends Street avalanche chute. I was pretty shocked and quite concerned. The dust cloud looked enormous. This chute is particularly worrysome because there are 40 - 50 houses and the high school in its path. Mr. X told me it was the second one he'd seen there that day. Thankfully the avalanche wasn't big enough to reach any of the homes, school or road.

When we got out to the valley, Thunder Mountain was grumbling and rumbling but it was just dark enough I couldn't see any movement on the hillside.

Thursday morning, we heard a report that the Thane road (south of town) was closed due to an avalance at midnight. It took DOT a little over 12 hours to get the road reopened and reports were that the slide was 250 ft wide and 16 - 20 feet deep. This is a well known avalanche zone; DOT shoots a Howitzer across the channel to cause intentional slides in order to prevent slides like the one that happened Wednesday.

Thursday afternoon I heard reports of a slide on Mt. Juneau onto the Flume trail. Emergency officials are warning everyone to stay off of high risk trails - Juneau, Sheep, Jumbo, etc. - for the next 48 hours.


Tom Mattice - our avalanche forecaster - says that temperatures are headed lower tonight which should stabilize the snow pack, but some of the zones have not relased their snow yet so caution is advised today. He notes that, "We went through a large natural avalanche cycle from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday Afternoon with most all avalanche paths in the urban enviroment sliding."