Its a beautiful day today

I'm currently chilling on he southern side of an all glass building on campus. The south facing windows are allowing me to keep comfy warm.

High today is 30 F low of 0 F. And the city is celebrating the warmth. And the artic winter games that are in town. I got to see the snow boarding competition. There were some really crazy moves! The city is packed. Traffic is terrible.

I am wearing yoga pants and my new five-finger toe shoes, and comfortably using the campus wifi to relax after work in the museum. The back of which is pictured there. Also visible from my perch.

 

I was setting up for a program I am running tomorrow for children and adults alike. This event is called "Birds of Prey." It's fun to run these activities and interact with people, answer some questions and hunt with them for new answers. 

I pulled out all of our raptor stuffed birds. I have an entire table to great horned owls. I have two complete stuffed specimens, three wings, three feet with talons, a head and two tails. Its really cool. We have about 15 different species represented. The best part about all of this - its all hands on. All of the birds and bird parts can be handled and touched by the children - and adults- to really explore and discover.
We also have a bunch of owl pellets for dissection - for those who need an activity. We also have a really nice microscope - the table top to computer screen kind for the viewing of the specimens. I pulled out a bunch of vole, mice, and shrew skeletons so they can compare their owl pellet bones to the skeletons. I'm hoping they can get excited about which bone is which and is where, and how it is on humans too. Last time I did this at the museum with kids I had just taken my comparative anatomy of vertebrates exam on the skeleton. It was really cool to share that knowledge I had just gained.

Wife Points

I would like to make mention a great blog post I read about wife points. I don't remember exactly what it was called or who it was by. It was about a wife who was feeling like she wasn't accomplishing any throughout the day (she was a stay at home mom). So she started giving herself "wife points." I took this concept and started to give myself "wife points" when I did accomplished something home-making-y.
An example of this is Saturday night. I decided to get on the day-light savings shin-dig by resetting my alarm clock and other clocks. Wife points! I remembered that in spring I loose an hour of sleep. So I set the clocks back and went to bed. I awoke as I expected to my alarm saying the correct time. All was perfect. Wife points! Until I looked at Gordon's phone that updates the time automatically. I was off by two hours. Making the time we were waking up, already after church had started. Gordon was teaching gospel principles (Sunday school after sacrament or mass). We very quickly showered to get out the door. Only we were out of shampoo. I hollered to Gordon to grab some ( I was already in the shower when I noticed) and instead of waiting for it I started washing my face.
- Now I must have a side note here: I am easily distracted, and so I have routines for important things so I cannot forget them. Other wise I miss things really bad, and here is a great example. - I always wash my hair first, then my face and last body. Always. When I don't I end up with what I did on Sunday. -
As I'm waiting for Gordon to grab the shampoo (it turns out the general direction of "it's in the box" isn't specific enough) I wash my face. And then proceed to wash my body. Around this time Gordon returns with the shampoo. I then put shampoo in my hair. And somehow wash my body again. It isn't until we are breathlessly arriving just in time for the class that I ran my fingers through my half blow dried/sorta brushed hair that I realize I still have shampoo in it.
For those who are keeping track I am two hours behind with my body washed twice and shampoo still in my hair. so much for wife points.

I did regain some wife points by making a really great scalloped potato dish.

Gordon did a really great job teaching his lesson on charity. He focused not only giving it, but allowing ourselves to receive it. He got the class involved. Which is impressing with a group of ~25 people and more than half shared insightful comments.

Also I forgot to plug my phone in all weekend, so it died this morning. Luckily a classmate had a phone charger on him (well he uses it for his tablet) And I only forgot about it twice; once while plugged into an outlet in the hall and the second time the outlet in my lab where I had it recharging. I only had to run down a couple flights of stairs to catch the charger donater before he left (technically he had already left the building).
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not be so blonde.

Currently I'm procrastinating doing a final editing on three papers due tonight by midnight.

I took a video on the walk to work on Friday. I'll try to upload that. Also I took some videos of campus riding around on the shuttle. I'll probably post those later.

What a Week!

Late last week I got a test back for my calculus based statistics class. I had failed it. I'd been holding out on dropping the class hoping against all odds that although I've missed to many lectures and so many hours of studying due to my home burning down that I could still pull this class off. I'd been putting all of my efforts into my other classes which I am proud to say I've been getting A's and B's in those classes. I just couldn't do both in my limited time. So now I am so sorrowful to say I am officially failing a class. And with no way to pass (I did the math, to pass the class I would need 110% on all other tests). I am currently emailing with my adviser - who honestly is not that great of an adviser - to withdraw from the class so a big ol' F doesn't mark my transcript. It is a very sad thing for me.

On a funnier note, I walked into the wrong class today. I tried to play it off. I don't think many people noticed. It was a big lecture hall with the doors in the back of he classroom. I just walked in one door, an kept walking out the other like I had meant to do that. Oops!

Gordon and I have both been sick. We think either a stomach bug or food poisoning. Maybe salmonella from some raw cookie dough we ate. We don't know. We didn't particularly want to pay a doctor to examine our stools. That took us out for a bit. Gordon got well in no time flat. I was up puking my guts out for quite longer. Luckily its past now, and after a few good meals, I should feel back to my self again.

I will admit that between the stresses of everything and being sick I've lost a good 15 pounds since Christmas. That may also be due to the holiday food splurging.

Gordon has also lost a lot of weight. He wont step on a scale for me though. That's the main reason why we're going back to the gym. Gordon doesn't like how little muscle mass he has left. He wants those bulging muscles back. And to be honest I want them back on him too.
Gordon is regrowing out his beard. Its currently at that really prickly state where he's more of a hedgehog. The hairs aren't quite long enough for gravity to start taking effect. We are noticing that the beard appears more red as it's growing in this time.

It snowed again today here in Fairbanks. Its been very nice here. Its been getting up into the 30s in the sunshine. There is a lot more sun here. The sun is up when I get up at 7, and is only going down now at 6:45pm.

Did I ever tell you guys about the moose? It wasn't very exciting, one lives in the neighborhood. We saw it while we were driving. We decided not to risk getting to close, so we didn't. We reversed and changed our plans.

Sorry about not having any pictures again. My camera on my phone is really bad, and therefore don't have anything handy for capturing these moments. Maybe my next big purchase will be for a little camera that I can carry in my purse.

My best wishes to all of you!

Lovely Day!

I finished with my lab early today, and not I m happily perched in a third story lounge over looking campus.
And I feel a little bit omniscient. If I look down I can watch the dramas of life unfold. One girl chatting on her phone, and a guy running after he bus. And he misses it. He does that little woe-is-me shrug, and walks back to where ever he once was. One guy struts by all macho. That girl is still chatting on he phone. A couple cars drive by. One going the wrong way down a one way street.
The black of the roads is starting to show through the snow. Its been great weather this week. Clear. About 10 to 20 degrees (perfect for no ice, but I can go check he mail without a coat), The sun is rising earlier and earlier. And setting later and later. Currently it is 5:30 and the sun is still half an hour away before it dips behind the mountains.
Oh the mountains can be seen today! Standing in a solid ridge against the horizon. They are father away here than they were where I was living in Utah. Fairbanks in surrounded by foothills mostly, but the mountains, on a clear day, can be seen to the south standing like the Iron Mountings from Lord Of the Rings. The south has less hills than the north. After Fairbanks the terrain looks flat with only a couple  bumps before the mountings jut out like teeth.
I have such  lovely view right here. I have towering Blue Spruce trees standing like Giants on their march to war, Standing in heir almost untouched field of white, Behind them, down the hill there is forest, most still green but with some brown and reds from the non-ever green. I can see the break in the forest (which is also Fairbanks) where the river runs through it. After the river the forest starts up again, and I lose it to just a mass of brown before I can see the mountains. The sun is setting beautiful oranges and golds, and father to the south I see some pinks which look magnificent against the blue gray of mountains.
I wish I had a camera to share all of this with you. I tried to take a picture with my el cheapo phone, but it cannot show the beauty.

Currently it is 25 F, with a low of -8 tonight. The sun rises around 8 in the morning and sets around 6 in the evening.

HE SHAVED!

I must announce to the world that my husband is a changed man. He is now shaven. I look before and after pics. He looks so handsome! Of course it will not be long until the bristling beard is back, not that I mind it much, but he does look much more dashing without it. He says he was having issues with beard getting too long and getting into his mouth. In truth it could have been solved by a beard trimmer, but we haven't bought a new one yet.

And After

So Hot It's Burning! (before the fire)

I wrote out some things I wanted to have written for my next blog post. Oh how quickly life changes course! This was what I wrote quickly - brainstorming - the day before the fire.

"I have bread rising, hubby is doing laundry.

I made some pizza crusts - in the freezer - for a quick meal, some cinnamon rolls, some muffins. I really wanna try some sourdough popovers, I'll try those this next weekend.

We ate reindeer sausage pizza yesterday and last week we we’re invited over to a friend’s home where we ate moose meatloaf. I am sure expanding my palette up here with local game. Both meats were very delicious.

We are mostly settled into our apartment now, we have the kitchen functional all the cloths put away, we only have a few nick-knacks that need a place. Like where to put the sewing kit. Does it go in the bathroom or in the closet with the clothes? Or with the office supplies?

Pictures!"

I had been meaning to take pictures of our apartment with being all settled in. We had found some white Christmas lights and strung them up. It wasn't much but it was home. I had been meaning to take pictures of our place when the sun was up - hard to do on weekdays where it was only up for the hours I was in school.

Strange huh? The moment I was getting comfortable the world turns upside down. Luckily in the world of biology that simply means when my environment changes, I must change as well. That's called adaptation. (Although it's defined for a population not for an individual.)

I also must admit the recent titles of my blog have been foreshadowing this, with too warm and freaky warm. Now its so hot its burning!

"Fairbanks couple loses apartment to fire 1 week after move-in"

"FAIRBANKS — Two weeks ago, Gordon Spencer and his wife moved to Fairbanks. One week ago, they moved into a new apartment on Geraghty Street. Two days ago, their apartment burned to the ground.

Spencer awoke abruptly Wednesday morning to the sound of a loud bang.

“We were asleep, and then it was just like a big bang, is really the best way I can put it,” Spencer said. “It didn’t sound too much like an explosion, but we got up and what was weird was the building was moving, and there was like this subliminal white noise you could hear in your ears.

Spencer said at first he thought the noise had been a storage container they had been keeping on a shelf that had fallen before, but after a moment, they began to develop a clearer picture of the situation.

“As the noise kept going, I was like, ‘No, something is wrong.’ Then I heard people screaming ‘Fire’ and running,” he said.

Spencer opened the door to a thick black column of smoke.

“That’s what really got me going. ‘Yeah, this place isn’t going to last,’” he said. “When we got outside, the center portion of the building was just lit up.”

After calling the fire department on his wife’s cellphone, Spencer called their church leader and moved to sit in a neighbor’s car to keep his bare feet off the snow while they waited for crews to arrive. He said he was amazed they picked up, considering the time of day.

Spencer and his wife attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — which he said has been amazingly supportive in the aftermath of the fire.

“I think the most important thing during this is to remember that even though you lose everything physical, the fact that you’re alive, you can rebuild what you once had,” he said. “You can continue to move forward.”

Spencer is studying para-medicine at University of Alaska Fairbanks, and his wife is studying [wildlife] biology and conservation."

This was published in the local paper (newsminer) on January 31st. Here is the link to it: http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/fairbanks-couple-loses-apartment-to-fire-week-after-move-in/article_8873bfae-8a4e-11e3-8342-001a4bcf6878.html

For those who have been following the story on Facebook, this is old news. I hadn't gotten around to posting anything about it yet mainly because my laptop was turned to a crisp and everything else I owned, which made posting, taking pictures, and overall spare time hard to get. 

I did take some pictures of the adventure.

The first picture shows how at first the fire was mainly in the middle of the building, on our side facing the road, it came out the windows licking the roof. The snow on the roof was melting extremely fast, great chunks were falling down off the sides. The fire continued to spread from the middle window to the left and right windows. (We were trying to stay peppy by joking with others in our building who's rooms were going to go first, theirs was to the left, ours was to the right. Ours lasted longer ) For the most part it spread left and collapsed that side of the building first, which is the second picture. You can see part of the buildings facade on the unfortunate truck parked in front of the building.

The smoke was really dark and smelled awful. We all smelled like it for days afterwards.

This first video shows where the building stood, and how it stood even with the far right of the biulding having collaped already (you can see the fire at ground level). The second video was taken from the same location. You can see how much of the building is left at that point, which wasn't even the end of it all yet.

By the time the fire had stopped, the entire building was rubble with the exception of the stairs on either side of the building, that were knocked down once the firemen went through all the rubble and found two dead bodies and as much evidence as possible as how the fire started. The cause is still under investigation. I've heard everything from arson, to meth lab, to electrical fire, to someone shooting their water heater. I don't know what it was. I do know how grateful we were able to get out so quickly. 

We were sleeping, like normal people do at 3:45 in the morning when we hear and explosion and a ton of white noise and the building is trembling. My first thoughts are: earthquake, it should be over soon, roll over and it will go away. Only I rolled over and they didn't go away. My smarter husband got up and grabbed a pair of gym shorts and a pull-over sweater that were laying on the back of a chair and urged me awake. By this time I could hear the sirens, and realized I heard more than a bookshelf falling over. I could also hear people yelling, "FIRE!" I was scrambling to find my glasses. By the time I found them Gordon had opened the door to the hall. Black smoke immediately started billowing in a foot thick from the top of the door. I am so grateful I was sleeping in Yoga Pants, I through on my boots (I knew we were going outside, and that I needed to call 911) So as I balanced myself against the table in my rush to slip on my boots I grabbed my phone. At the last moment I realized I needed a top of some sort for modesty, I grabbed the sweat shirt I had worn the day before and had draped in over the back of a chair. I quickly followed Gordon out the door. We lived only two doors from the stairs, which was advantageous. We could hold our breath the entire time as we ran out. We never had to inhale that smoke. Gordon was ahead, the moment he hit the ground he took my phone and called 911. Where he reported the fire and location, name, and whatnot. I was busy making sure the people who were out looked alright. After the phone call Gordon realized his bare feet were sticking uncomfortably to the icy ground. He quickly made a friend with a floor mate (the ones we were bantering with later about who's apartment would last longer) who also had a car and let Gordon sit in it. I wandered about a bit, looking at the fire from the many angles. I wandered around to the back of the building and heard some people yelling for help. I quickly got to them. They were on a shed that connected to our building. The fire had started directly across the hall from them, they were unable to get to the stairs. They were safe enough until the firemen arrived. As soon as the firemen arrived I told them about the people trapped on the shed, they pulled out one of their ladders and helped them down. I helped them around the front and put them in the fireman's cars so they could get some oxygen and warmth. After that there wasn't much to do but miss my cookie dough left behind and banter sitting in a car with my new friends. While I was doing this, Gordon was talking to his father and got the number of our bishop. We called him and picked us up around 6:30 am. We got some coats, and socks, and Gordon a pair of shoes, and I got a notebook and some pencils and after they generously feed us breakfast, we went to school. We continued on with our day. I found once word got out in my classes that I was in the fire, I became rather popular. Everyone wanted to know how it happened, how it started, and everyone had been told by reliable persons a different story of events. 

The most recent news report that has come out has been this: http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/woman-who-died-in-geraghty-street-fire-identified-investigation-continues/article_2ad25fc2-8d0a-11e3-8a0c-0017a43b2370.html

That's our exciting Alaska Adventure so far.