To All The Single Ladies!

OMFG!! I am JUST NOW catching up with the season finale of More To Love and I cannot believe he ditched the bigboobied blond chick!!!

Note to Kenny: Don't EVER tell me "you're a beautiful, curvy woman." I'll junkpunch you.

Now, some thoughts:

1/ Bachelor Guy: Your season finale pants are just fitting WEIRD. They are like skinny pants or something. I think it must be all that dining and dining this room full of beautiful curvy women.

2/ As we watch this, my boyfriend sits on the couch and chants "Fattie, Fattie, Fattie" in a falsetto. And he's not exactly dating a string bean, but yet we both still find it kinda funny for some reason. Oh, he does the same thing during Biggest Loser, too, while we are both snacking.

3/ Is it just me, or does Tali have giant Man Hands? Did you see the clip of her in the limo on the ride to hear The Verdict, wringing those huge things?? Jeez.

4/ I'm not sure that "all the big girls out there" are comforted by Tali's proclamation that she is proof that they, too, can find love.

I'm so surprised by the outcome, I completely missed the shot of the ring. I need to rewind.

One Bite at a Time

The Beauty of Sitka, Alaska:

So I'm skipping right past the glaciers and whales and going right to how we ate and drank our way through Alaska. The rest of the boring stuff will come later ~ hahah ~.

In Juneau, we ate coconut shrimp, crab cakes and the best Halibut I've ever had - fresh-caught that morning - while drinking our first of many Alaskan Amber Ales. We were at a restaurant called The Hanger on Merchant's Wharf, where the seaplanes fly in-n-out:

The first of Alaskan Amber. It's not purchasable (??) here in the lower states. Drat.

The next day, in Skagway, we dined on glorious Alaskan RED King Crab - sweetest meat of all!

Oysters on the half shell with hotsauce and cocktail sauce...

Topped off with Alaskan Amber!

And Kenny was going to drink a pan of gold:


After Skagway, we landed in Icy Strait Point, where it was the coldest day we'd experienced, and it was a little drizzlie. There wasn't much excitement to be had here.

We looked for bears, but then decided that may not be the wisest decision on our own....

...so we headed to the little restaurant and warmed our cockles with hot buttered rum and hot cocoa by the fireplace.

Kenny's directive was to "make love to the hot buttered rum" for the photo. Perhaps my technique below is the reason I'm a twice-divorcee?

Kenny innocently sips his cocoa.

The day we cruised past Hubbard Glacier, the Drink of the Day was pretty and blue, so of course I had to have one! It was a pina colada layered with blue curacao. Yum!

And for our last day in Alaska, we landed in Sitka, which is my favorite port of call. This was the morning:

We took a Sea Otter and Wildlife excursion and saw this! Many Humpback Whales - bonus! Sea Otters, too, of course - and Bald Eagles by the dozens, and jellyfish, but alas, no bears in the wild.

Then, of course, we ate. Alaskan King Crab for me, and appetizers of halibut bites. Kenny had had enough seafood and opted for a burger.

Kenny did, however, have to sample The Best Clam Chowder Ever. Who could resist this on the menu?

And then we had beer.

The End.

So Long, Sitka!

Today was the last of our days in Alaska...boo! We visited Sitka, where we enjoyed fantastic weather and wildlife spottings. I have to elaborate on the weather a bit, as everyone had been predicting cold, rainy, snowy times for s. Other than one day in Icy Strait, we have been treated to sunshine and mild temperatures. Today's prediction was for 90% chance of rain, and we beat the odds and had a perfect day - no jacket required.

For our last day we choose a Fortress of the Bear and Sea Otter excursion. We were concerned it may be lame, but it turned out to be one of the best excursions we've had. The Fortress of the Bear is actually a start-up sanctuary, where they are housing motherless cubs until they are old enough to either be released to the wild or turned over to a zoo. They only had 2 cubs out for viewing today, and oh, how cute they were! They were big enough to still eat you, but not full sizers - I think they will stay until they are 2. They have just picked up three other new cubs, but they are being treated for diseases and worms and whatnot, and will be released into their new sanctuary in two weeks or so. They'll be in a separate house since they don't want them to get roughhoused by the older ones. So that was fun.

Then we went to the sea otter excursion part, which was a real treat. We saw so much stuff! More whales, which were unexpected, including both Humpback and Gray, which is very rare in these parts. We saw more bald eagles than we could count, sea otters and seals and all sorts of stuff.

After our trip we ate locally again, dining on incredible halibut and fresh Alaskan King Crabs once again. My dining expectations have all been met on this trip, so much fresh seafood!! We left a huge tip (we always do when traveling), and the waiters were so excited they shook our hands and wished us well, and then talked football with Kenny.

We got back to the ship in the nick of time, literally. We thought our last tender back to the boat was 3 or 3:30, and it was actually 2:30, so while we thought we were early, we just made it at 2:30! After our early morning (tour was at 7:30 a.m.), fresh air and full bellies, we promptly headed to our stateroom and took a 2 1/2 hr. nap. We just got out of the show, where we were entertained by a great impressionist who sang and whatnot, it was a good time. Now, listening to live music in the cybercafe, not a bad day in the life of me at all.

Tomorrow, at sea day. I have a date with a book, will make my way to the gym so I can justify dragging my workout clothes all the way to Alaska and generally just enjoy rolling around on vacation.

Next stop, Victoria, British Columbia. I may be touring that little city by myself, Kenny wants to stay on board and watch football. Hey, it's his vacation too, and if he doesn't want to have high tea and visit gardens, that's his vacation choice. But we'll see what shakes out.

Now, off to explore around. It's 8:30 p.m. ship time, still time for much more fun things to do!

Yo-Ho! From Alaska

So here I am, sitting on the ship somewhere between Skagway and Icy Strait Point, which is where we arrive tomorrow - and I thought of you ;)

The trip so far is fantastic! We've visited Ketchikan, Juneau and today was Skagway. Things I love so far about Alaska:

1/ Lumberjacks!! I've requested Kenny grow a beard through the duration of the trip and I'm going to put him into a flannel shirt and live out my fantasy. So far he's complaining about the scratchiness of it, but he's doing it for the greater good (which is me).

2/ Whales!! We went on a whale-watching excursion and saw A LOT! It was amazing. We also saw Harbour Seals, Sea Lions and Bald Eagles. Fantastic time in Juneau. We also visited Mendallhall Glacier where I hoped to spot a bear, but no such luck. My quest for a bear-sighting goes on.

3/ King Crab! Man alive, have we enjoyed some of the best seafood on shore. Tonight we dined on raw oysters (ahem. some of you may know the folklore on what that leads to -which will help out on the whole lumberjack thing) and Red Alaskan King Crab. I'd say the best thing I've ever put in my mouth.

4/ Bald Eagles. Totally cool. We took this scary-ass tram up to the top of a mountain in Juneau and after I got over my height-fright I was able to enjoy the scenery and take a close up look at a bald eagle in captivity. While I at first felt bad for the bird, it's actually a good thing - she was shot in the beak, eye and wing by some dumbdick and they've actually saved her. We also saw a live giant bald eagle nest in Ketchikan, sitting high in a tree - it was cool. A big ol' mama bird was perched up watching over her babies in it.

5/ Train rides! We took the train through Skagway today, it was the original pass that was dug out during the Klondike gold rush days. That train HUGS the side of the mountain, it could be intimidating, but the views are totally worth it. We also went on a touristy panning for gold thing in conjunction with the train trip, and while it was hokey, it was also fun and I got to see a Malamute dog up close. And got a couple gold flakes.

There's much, much more, but these have been some fun parts so far. We still have a lot of stops to make. Some other fun things that happened include Kenny winning $4000 in the casino a couple of nights ago - that never hurts and made the start of the trip super fun.

I have decided not to do any kayaking or ziplining. I've discovered I"m not a fan of heights (the tram ride confirmed that for me) so I'll take a pass on ziplining over a rainforest or whatever. I'm fine on the ground. And Kenny's afraid his heart will give out after 2 hours of kayaking my ass around, so I'm giving him a pass since he legitimately does have a heart problem - I don't want to kill the man, especially now since he's growing his lumberjack beard and all :)

Our weather has been IDEAL - guess it had been raining for the past 3 weeks, but we've hit sunny days at every stop. Couldn't have ordered up better weather.

Hope everyone is doing great back at home. Read about Patrick Swayze. RIP, Patrick Swayze. I'm going to go and dirty dance in the nightclub in his honor. Or something.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

In the Blink of an Eye

Time Waits For No Man. I think that was the quote that was on the back of the watch in my favorite t.v. movie, The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. Remember that?? Well, time really doesn't stand still - unless you're in a really awkward situation. But even then, it eventually passes. So 11 months have zipped by, and now Alaska looms just a few short hours from now.

I'm proud - and relieved - to say that I've been pre-packing and getting ready throughout this week. Laundry wasn't piled up til tonight - oh, no, sirree! I got on it! I'm partially packed, have to go and finish up the last of it as soon as I'm done with this VIP (Very Important Post). Last night we got all the electronic gizmos rounded up, charged, and packed delicately away, along with the passports, paperwork, etc. Some clothes are in suitcases, just got to shore it all up. One last little load in the washer, giving it the switcharoo here soon. Cats have had a talking to, explaining our departure.

I put Twinkle in charge, as the man of the house. That's his role. Now, he's feeling under the weather, we've had two trying mornings (yesterday and today) where he's been whisked to the vet's office, but we're feeling confident that he's going to be okay. But just in case he's still not back to 100%, I put Toby in the 2nd place position as the Sundance Kid to Twink's Butch Cassidy. So between the two of them, they should be able to keep the house in order.

As far as Twinkle's "condition", well, who the fuck even knows. He was having some sort of breathing issue, making some weirdass noise, and it needed to be checked out. I expected the absolute worst, but for once luck and good cat health was on our side and all systems checked out normal. And of course, just like having your car at the mechanic, once he was there to be checked out he made no weird noises whatsoever. In fact, both yesterday and today, two different vets asked us if maybe the noise we heard was purring. Really??? I've had the fucking cat for seven years. You don't think I can tell the difference between a purr and the sound of breathing weirdness? But this question does make me believe that somewhere along the way, some dumbdick brought their cat in for making a strange noise and it was actually purring. So who knows.

The vet took x-rays yesterday, deemed all systems normal, then this morning he threw up when he tried to eat breakfast. So back we went. He got some big, kick-everything's-ass antibiotic shot which will be good for a two-week dose and he should be back to his rompin'-stompin' self within 24 hours. He's eating, which is good, and the cat noises have calmed down, so we're going to go on vacation with no worries.

Flight takes off at 6:30 a.m. - woe, woe, woe. Whoa. That's early. So on that note, I'm going to get offa here and take care of the rest of my bidniz. I may get a chance to post an update or two - if not, my special peeps (Rob) will get an email - sorry for the neglect this week, have been too busy to email!

Homegrown

Maybe the corn should have been planted in the backyard....Although it does make it easier to give directions: Uh, yeah, take a right, go down about a half a mile, it's the blue one with the corn in the front yard.

Or I'll Shit On Your Head

Apparently the dabbling ducks, diving ducks and geese have had enough and aren't going to take the disrespect any longer.


They all feel much better now since they are all getting their props.

The interesting note here is (the word interesting being used in the loosest sense of the term) that since seeing this traffic sign, I actually got to use it at a work meeting. We were discussing subject matter for an Easter card and a card planner wanted to use a duck, and I said, "We already have a duck." She retorted, "That's a goose," and my response of course was, "Well, they're all waterfowl." They planned something else.