The Comings and goings of a Northern Kiwi

Dancing Medals

2011-12-11T10:49:00.001+13:00

Over the last 6 weeks i have put in some serious time and effort to say nothing of money in practicing my dancing. just so I can spend 10 minutes in front of a dance judge

I was way more nervous than I thought i was going to be. i was dancing with my instructor rather than the person that i usually dance with ..( she is short and he is tall )
anyway I am here to tell you that i passed quite happily, bronze level. (the beginning ) and the judge left some nice comments. it s like a school report card .. comments and a grade. this was 6 dances; waltz, foxtrot and international tango. for the ballroom, then Samba, Rumba and Cha Cha.
Yes I plan to do more , Silver level will be next about 6 months away. More work, more time and more money.

Sunsets

2011-12-07T21:30:00.000+13:00

Sunsets are differnet in NZ, not quite sure if i can say why, but they are , they dont last as long, thre was barely a 5 minute spread over these photos , and it was gone.
the tree is a large one in my neightbours yead ,by the road
8 37 to 8 42.
Its warm out why does it get dark?

Work Conversation

2011-11-25T23:11:00.000+13:00

I guess I have been at work now long enough for people to start asking about live in Alaska, so I got bragging rights on the temps this week, ( thank guys for the cold weather ). and people are asking about the cultural differences between her and the states. apart from the language...
what to say..
American eat out way more frequently than they ought to, is this just a money thing.. ? no I think even those in NZ than can afford to don't . once a week maybe.
American are germ a phobic, a few germs wont hurt you.. it is OK to go to work with a cold, take the tissues and drugs and go to work....
Kiwis get 4 weeks vacation/ holiday a year. so I am taking 2 weeks off at Christmas.due to all the public holidays I only use 4 days of leave.
liability law s in the states control what people do way more than Americans even realize. Every day in the train here 10 % of the people stand up before the train comes to a stop, this would never happen in the states some one would tell you not to, cause you might fall over and hurt yourself and maybe sue the train company. here we have ACC . so our ability to sue is very limited. ( stand up in the train at your own risk...)
what do I miss about the Alaska .. ?
The northern lights, why is it this year that the light are supposed to be rally good, . thank goodness for web cams.

new haircut

2011-11-09T17:31:00.000+13:00

New haircut , it only been 4 months since I got a cut, that is pretty good for me. This haircut is one i actually like ... yeah... !!!
yes there is a little blow wave, but thats ok, and i even managed to get a decent photo. this came from' Glo 'just up the road... 110 Mana espalade. I will be going back ....

Around my Place

2011-10-13T22:37:00.000+13:00

standing in ankle deep water, its very tidal.

the table and chairs I bought in Fairbanks back in september

new place

2011-10-12T21:50:00.000+13:00

well I moved in ,I've been here a month, got my first power bill today, and it was about as expected. I haven't had to turn the heater on in a few days. i have bought a whole bunch of stuff. a new TV. a modem, a barb be-Que
. I have been drooling of a chest of drawers , a tall boy. just made of pine, $269.00 the expensive ones made of other wood start at $800. so pine works for me. the drawers open sooo smoothly.
isn't it interesting as to what make s you excited, drawers that open. i have a set of drawers on a long term borrow, but I don't think i have ever had a new set of drawers.

Putting together a BBQ isn't as simple as you think, putting the wheels on is a pain, but I got there in the end , then i read the instructions ( I am a girl) and it said funny about putting spices and red wine in the bottom. now i think that sounds like a plan. so on Saturday, I am having a house warming.
but for now I get to show you some photos of the lagoon that is over the back.
i will try and post more often, someone could remind me.

New place

2011-09-09T20:52:00.001+12:00

Got to go look at new place and picked up the key. that needs work , it needs bit of a clean and only 2 elements work on top , the oven it's self works, so thats ok. I need to make scones on Sunday. The next door neighbor is james 35 with a 7 year old every other week.
I found a Turkish kerbab cafe for tea. Lots of healthy salads for sides a bit pricy but oh well, I have always liked kebabs .
Tomorrow is moving day, I have yet to sort out Internet so photos maybe a bit slow in coming , facebook is a better place for that .

a place to live

2011-08-25T22:02:00.000+12:00

So Wednesday was OK I went to look at the house on Mana Esplanade, a nice little sunny place 2 bedroom , a little damp in the bathroom, and there could be more kitchen cupboard space space, but clean. i though it was worth an application , it looked OK good location, 3 doors doors down a alleyway that went to the estuary and across the road access to the beach, a very busy road that is. peak hour traffic a bitch to say the least .
the rental agency was a nice lady and she must have liked me. when I said I was interested in it she got to me to fill out an application, which she approved on the spot.... Not even a reference in sight....
so I have a place to live , yes I get to pay her lots of money 3 weeks rent for bond , and moving day is Sept 10
i get to get my stuff out of storage , my sheepskins for my car seat
and my couches and my blanket. i know know why but i just want to curl up on my cream couch with MY blanket and watch TV and have my stuff.

2 weeks-- Sept 10 is moving day.
( yes I will get photos when I move in )

Culture Shock Dancing Style

2011-08-22T21:48:00.000+12:00

In Alaska we dance what ever style takes our fancy it was a small community, so the Latin crowd and the ballroom crowd got to hang out, most of us know both, salsa bachatta, merange perhaps.
now Wellington is fine for ballroom but trying to find salsa in this own is like pulling teeth, the salsa club closed sometime earlier this year, there is a small salsa crowd that hang out in town on a Sunday night. and bachatta whats that?
its not important cause it not an official dance with medals and grading etc
Am i doomed to never dance a Bachata till I go back to Fairbanks...... that would just hurt.
I went to a dance from supreme dance school, and danced with a few people i discovered that they are taught routines here, which of course i don't know them, these men don't know how to lead. i am supposed to know the routines , all stuff designed for medals etc. am i going to have to go back and learn beginning dance classes just to lean these dam routines. i had said to myself that i would do competition if the opportunity ever arose.
hell you cant avoid it here.
Tango classes on Wednesday are fun, Argentine tango from a man whose from Argentina, fancy that. just learning to tango like they do, no Medals just dancing....
here ends my tale for today. ( I'll be in a better mood tomorrow)

House hunting

2011-08-19T21:46:00.000+12:00

Houses to look at this weekend , just to rent for right now looking around Plimmerton/ Paramata way one tomorrow and and one on Sunday then another one Wednesday.
rent is really expensive here, i am looking at 2 bedroom ones and rent is by the week. $250 on the cheep end and 270 then the one on Sunday is 295. and that is just rent then there. with electric heating in winter, is the power bill.
that is not counting the cost of commuting to work which will be 50 a week.
Can I live with this budget ?.
The same place in town with no commuting costs would be 350 per week. so if im not in a hurry to move this is why.

Snow In Wellington

2011-08-15T21:48:00.000+12:00

Yup it snowed today.. I am so done with snow,
it sat on the ground a little bit, this morning there was no wind then this afternoon it was blowing, after they started cancelling schools and closed the Rimutaka hill. in town it may in the ground but was gone by the time i went home at 4 pm. Rimutakas is the hills that separate wellington from the Wairarapa 30 ks of roads
according to the news there were records falling today it was cold 4 degrees was the high, 40 f
People at work were just looking out the window and thinking it was funny. apart from Me.
The South island is getting slammed with there usual winter storms ( move your sheep to shelter, or risk loosing lambs) August is lambing season. any way this weather is supposed to last 3 days
I am done with snow!
light well there's 1/ 2 hour more light around this month but it is increasing soooo slowly. we have lambs and daffodills but no warmer weather.

2011-07-28T13:17:00.000+12:00

A lady at work justshowed me how to post stuff her from my phone. So this means I can do more stuff. I won't make any promises about the spelling . Sometimes the auto spell spent like stuff. Place names mostly.
Today after Monday is a beautiful sunny day and no wind.

New Job details

2011-07-15T20:41:00.000+12:00

first week at work

batisism by fire a long week but got to pay direct depost of 400,000 today. looks like lots of data entry, the software has and 10 years of errors and people who didn't know how to do stuff. somewhere along the line. The people at work are fun to work with, way more sexual innuendo that what would ever happen is the USA, cultural difference major. ( not directed at me )

Dancing has been good this week

got to go to Practise on Monday and figure out some quick step and samba routines, with Sean, who is looking to find some one to try new vogue dancing with. Planing on going to a class next weeks to see if i like it . ( look it up on u tube)

Sean is 6 4 and way good frame but limited number of moves that is comfortable with .

did a rock & roll class on Tuesday and more Practice on Thursday

We have just had 6 days of wind and heavy rain, Today was better today we had a Frost it was 32 f i had to scrape the ice of the car to go to work, (oh my god. )

Job

2011-07-04T17:52:00.000+12:00

Yes i have a job, i start work next Monday, it s only 30 hours a week but paying a bit more than what i had in Fairbanks.
I know I haven't been writing in a while but since I don't have to go job hunting i have spent 10 days in wellington house / cat sitting for friends of my cousins who was in Australia. the cat was very old and needed to take her pills every day. so spent a bit of time running around wellington finding my way around, going dancing and doing some knitting. yes I am knitting project again, for the first time in 7 or 8 years. i have thins really nice cool colour, its a nice teal colour and i am doing a cable cardigan for me. its so much easier to be motivated to knit when you are doing it for your self. ( yes i have photos on my phone but they are on my phone and not the computer.) i got to go shopping for some more work clothes.
the weather is crappy can now we are past the shortest day not that anyone celebrated it , the temp has dropped just a couple of degrees followed by some good winds howling form the south. and damp wellington is damp. it rains a whole bunch. the only thing i can say about the weather is roll on November.
there will be more news on my job when i start work and actually know more about it ..

New Haircut

2011-06-15T14:10:00.000+12:00

Got a new haircut today, all for the job hunting stuff and looking tidy, it s lat shorter than i thought, but i need to be tidy, maybe I'll like it better tomorrow. if i had white hair i'd look like my mother.
now I have had 2 haircut inside 3 months this is probably a lifetime record. its usually 8 or 9 months or longer between my haircuts... oh well it will grow. and $2.00 cheaper than my last one.
the job hunting progresses frustratingly.. just got turned down on job where i was the top candidate but then they changed the criteria and hired someone they knew.

So its either time for some chocolate or some new clothes.. office clothes of course... now chocolate would be cheaper... but....

New Car

2011-06-08T19:30:00.004+12:00

At long last last Thursday my car arrived, it had left Auckland on Monday as promised, but someone forgot to tell me it would be 2 or 3 days for delivery. so a frustrating 3 days later on Thursday the car arrived. its a cool looking car. http://www.toyota-allion.com Toyota Allion

yup from Japan 2002. My face book page has some other photos , if you are that way inclined

Absolutely spotless interior. still working on figuring out the radio. i can seem to program the channels to the stations that i want.. minor details. someone will come along that will help. spotless engine, pressure washed of course. i can't remember seeing that cleaner engine.

the auto winder for the windows doesn't work for the other windows , on the drivers side. but works on the other windows. ( does that make sense)

What else have I done. went for a drive last weekend to the Wairapa, that's over the hills from upper Hutt.. find a map... they have Martinbrough the home of good wine. and lots of rolling new Zealand farm land. you might get lots of pictures like that.

Otherwise its job hunting, I am now listed with 6 different agencies, cause that's where the interesting jobs are coming from, not many companies list jobs by themselves. Finding my way around downtown.

the job hunting

2011-06-01T19:41:00.004+12:00

I have spent the last week solidly job hunting , i have managed to apply for 2 jobs every day, working backwards from 3 different web sites. I have signed up with 5 different recruitment agencies.

everything ( well in accounting fields) seems to come through the agencies On Monday i applied for 4 . last Friday I called work and income ( the local unemployment offices to see if i was eligible, it looks like i am as long as i am seriously looking for work. email proof etc. there is a 2 week stand down period from the time i first called .. last Friday. it would have been only one week, but i earned too much last year. So on Tuesday I will have to go in a fill out the from with all the info. ( did I really bring home all the the right paperwork ? )

I went into town Wellington ( a 50 km 35 miles commute.. 55 minute train) yesterday to meet with an agency who said that he would be surprised that I didn't find work in 2 or 3 weeks . well that was nice but he didn't have anything to offer me. (they did high end management accounting.. ) the train trip into town is really quite pretty.

This photo is from down town around the wharf the other photos are on the phone still.

please bear with me as i get better with the i phone skills

Cars

2011-05-24T15:08:00.002+12:00

Friday afternoon I went to test drive nice blue Allion listed at 12900 2002 .. yes cars are expensive here. since it was a nice car. i thought i would make an offer , but the sales man didnt like my offers of 8 or 9 ,000 and even 10 . so i walked away...

last week in Auckland there was the same car for 10 990 so i committed on friday to a car , put my credit card on the line and am currently awaiting paperwork that i need to sign. car will be shipped down monday... their expense.

its silver 1800 cc its has a snow control, so when i drive the desert road it will be interesting. so see how that works, considering its Japanese the dash is all in English. some cars i drove weren't..

i will get photos when the car arrives. My thought is how often will I loose the car in a car park with all the silver cars here( its about the resale value)

more another day

Wellington

2011-05-20T16:48:00.002+12:00

OK OK I am sorry not posting in a week.

Had a great time hanging out with Catherine, Dad was in town so spent some time looking at t cars in Albany, drove a Allion and an Opa. both Toyota's. different cars have different names in different countries, so i don't know what to compare them to. the Allion is like a corrolla and the Opa is a pretend station wagon- a very short rear end. But i wasn't going to buy the first car i test drove... its against my religious principles..or something

Dad drove me down to Mum's ( new Zealand spelling now) on Sunday.. we cris-crossed the north island. stopping in with my primary school principal that i haven't seen in 30 years . then passes by the school as well. the weather deteriorated and rained heavily. stopped for fish and chips ... wrapped in newspaper( cultural thing number 2 .. has to be wrapped in news paper) then I got to drive from Turangi to Whanganui. ... in a manual car on the wrong side of the road in pouring rain and in the dark. yes it was a slow trip. got to see Mother .!!!!

in Whanganui caught up with some of mums friends got in some much needed exercise.. found the local swimming pool that doesn't have 1/2 as much chlorine as the AK pools.( my hair was soft a couple of hours later not fried).

got my storage stuff to be shipped to wellington i found a handy storage unit for 105 a month.

stuff came down on Thursday so mum drove me down to Wellington to supervise its unloading. they weren't the most gentle with other peoples stuff. so that was probably just as well. so It is all safely in storage, and i didn't have to lift any of it.

Slept at Jenny's place last night and got to unpack. Here I stay for an unspecified length of time till i get a job.

this morning I thought i would see if there were any jobs on Seek. since I hadn't looked at mothers. she has dial up and no wireless. there were 3 i applied for. I was about to step out the door to go car hunting some more. there was a call from a agency who had listed one of the jobs wanting to know if I could come into town to meet her on Monday. ummmm let me see now i can do that. then when i was about to step out the door again there was another call from one of the other jobs i had applied for this morning... lets just say i have a busy day on Monday with employment agencies

Today was a productive day.!

Catherines View

2011-05-12T17:48:00.000+12:00

photos in new zealand, this was leaning out the window this morning , i thought this view was stuning there was fog and we woke up to a beautiful day

and this was me in the kobe gardens in Seattle sunday morning

Closing

2011-05-05T18:40:00.002+12:00

i get to close on the house tomorrow at 12 pm check in hand by the end of the day.

then there is the last power bill and the water bill.

the contractors are so close to being down, light fixtures are done, i need a fridge and a stove, a toilet or 2 and carpet.

and a PLANE TO CATCH FRIDAY

New Computer

2011-05-03T19:28:00.004+12:00

i have bought myself a new computer .. well a second hand one . a friend of mine had 4 computers and was selling 2. so i bought the one i had been playing with while i was staying at his place in march . so now i have a laptop and i have spent the evening changing settings and figuring out how to go online and stuff, this is my first laptop so some of it is. these little wee mouse things i have4 days to think about a wireless mouse

one of my old roommates i have no idea who left and power strip that was all in Japanese, so i looked it up online and discovered that it works in nz and Argentina. well i am not moving to Argentina for japan.

AND the computer has a little adapter that does the 240 - 110 thing so this computer will work just fine in NZ. all i need to figure out is the going online wireless stuff. i am pretty sure that i am not the first person to take a computer so i am thinking it should be reasonable simple .

4 days to go.

i still havent found out when we are closing on the house.

Good news

2011-04-28T17:09:00.002+12:00

Sorry i have been ignoring you all. just waiting to hear news my self. life is coming together slowly but surely.

Yes I leave work on Friday , I have been training the new girl this week and that is going well.

today i met with the real estate agent and went over the last few things, they will schedule closing. probably for next week.

The house is going well, all the painting is done. not exactly the colours i would have chosen but what do i care. (Pale blue in my bedroom) .They were laying floor and there is a new plywood floor on top of my old stuff, laid by a professional this time and the was another guy laying vinyl in the basement. and they were starting to put the kitchen cabinet back in. and all the paperwork looks like it is coming together as well . wonders will never cease.

Yesterday I listed my car for sale , as i didn't know how long it would take . i had a military gent come look at it tonight and he wants it tomorrow, and i have emails from 2 others if he doesn't.

15 % less than I wanted..but ... cash talks..

s this evening I need to plot and plan my week without a car, how many friends do i have? can i go dancing this weekend careless. I dived out this evening to a book store to make sure i have something to do next week when don't have much to do.

the only uncertainty is that I ordered a pair of(dance ) shoes online and it s coming slow mail. tracking has it still in Seattle shipping ground.

more soon.

Tickets

2011-04-17T07:49:00.003+12:00

Booked my tickets. May 6 to leave Fairbanks, a weekend in Seattle for shopping and to see a friend. the Seattle Auckland arriving in nz may 11. 5 :30 am like always.

the house comes along quite nicely but the contractors want an extra day or 2 . so not sure if we can close before I leave. Maybe maybe not.

i am busy giving away stuff that i don't need, and what is left over will go the the salvation army.

have i got everything done??

i need to wash the car so I can get a photo and get it sold. but washing the car right now is a waste of time. the roads are a pain of LARGE water "Lakes" Puddles is not the word to use. its supposed to be 40 today.

my weekend is busy with catching up the people I won't see again. Job hunting in nz will Monday ...

shall I make lists???

Prices

2011-04-08T14:52:00.003+12:00

One of the fun things , well sort of- when going outside, is to walk around the suppermarket and try not to say OMG too much..

pears 59 c a lb here they are 1.99 if you re lucky

mangos 59 c each so i bought 4 here they re 1. 50 each

instant oatmeal 2.30 for what i pay 4 .20 for ouch.

hair color 3.50 .. i can barely buy that for less than $9.00

OMG

and we wont even talk about stores with perfume counters with people.

I am going to kinda complain about how commercial the lower 48 is. parking for anything is $10.00 the coke a cola museum in atlanta was ok. just very commercial they had lots of samples from a around the world but no lemon and paeroa. so you know what i want when i get home.

We can always find free parking in Fairbanks.

so after driving back from Atlanta on Sunday, monday was a lazy day. and me and my good book sat in the sun.... it was 80 degrees and windy... so i will say this really quietly.... yes i got sunburnt. opps .

My friend I went to see, John, was way cool he got to hang out with me while i was going shopping and doing the girl thing. I hope I didn't bore him too much.

It was a great vacation , and am mostly rested, except there was lots of stuff on my desk when I got to work. I got to donate blood today and my blood pressure was 112/ 72

Train

2011-04-07T18:25:00.002+12:00

So we were in Augusta Ga and driving back to Charleston on Sunday when we got stopped by this train.......

a Double Decker train, now i am not sure that i have ever seen a double Decker train, the whole dam thing was containers 2 stories high.( so maybe I live in a small town or something.)

anyway this train was moving really slowly, it was really long and I am guessing ( duh ) it was really heavy. we didn't get to see the front of it to see how many engines were on it but John had a camera. (ther were 45 carridges after i started counting. )

this is the only photo that i have from a weeks in Charleston.

you want me to take photos of my shopping?.... well might find some photos from the dancing a the lindy in Atlanta. but i am thinking that might take some work

Useless infomation about Janet. ... when there is a train going by it is compuslary to count the number of carridges. its just one of those strange things that i do.. maybe it kept me entertained when i was a kid..

vacation

2011-03-31T13:23:00.002+13:00

Charlston, after spending Monday at work, then going home to shower and take a nap , I caught 4 planes and spent 16 hours getting to Charleston. .. for some shopping and relaxation.
of course it is raining here but its warm 65 ish.
today I got to go shopping , new perfume french of course, ( Americans don't know how to make perfume like Channel.) some new clothes that might even make do for job interveiws in NZ. and a great new book
John has been fun , he was even great to hang out with while i went shopping for girl stuff.
there is lots of dancing in our future so maybe i will get to take some photos,
nothing like some R& r to de-stress. its been raiing so i dont have any issues with geting sun burnt
More in a day or 2

lights

2011-03-12T17:17:00.000+13:00

The lights were sooo good last night they made the paper. I was out at 9 30 ish and thought i would try with my camera. and i got these. 60 seconds is a long tine to hold a camera still at -20 so you better appreciate this, the bottom 2 were only 30 seconds. but these are the first photos of lights i have ever got with a camera .

photos of the Fire

2011-03-08T18:21:00.004+13:00

Fire

2011-03-07T18:11:00.002+13:00

Yes i know i dropped of the face of the earth for 10 days sorry..
Tuesday 22 i was working on the last item for the home inspection. i was thawing the ground with weed burner when a spark got in the wall from some dried grass. heaven forbid i be one to panic , but i do on occasions. i called 911 before the smoke detectors went off.
4 minutes or an eternity later they show up. they made hols in the roof and the wall, it was -20 and put it out fairly fast, and i was back in a smoke ruined house 2 hours later.

The good news is a was really lucky my stuff shipped out the day before. and my buyers still want to buy the house and yes i have insurance. my deductible is 1000 . the only stuff in the house was 3 suitcases of cloths computer and stuff in the kitchen. my boiler was fried and there was standing water in the basement. electricity went out somewhere. but the fire man have a great big diesel machine that put out 100,000 BTU's and kept the house at 95 over night to avoid the frozen house thing.

got the boiler and electricity up and running the next day. and got contractors in. to start the clean/ mitigation its quicker to pull of sheet rock than to try and clean , they have spent 8 days taking out stuff, all the carpet and vinyl that i put in last year.( sob ) all that hard work. but i guess the new job will be done by professionals.
i spent 3 nights at the Regency Hotel courtesy of the American red cross . they are wonderful people. when you need them. then i went to a friends for the weekend to sort out clothes and finish getting the all washed.

the recipe for removing smoke from clothes is to use TSP ( tri sodium phosphate) along with regular laundry soap and vanilla in the rinse. Yup surprised me too. but it works. ask the American red cross.
I took 2 days off work for all this but I made it to work all this week. i even managed to finish cleaning out the garage and gave away the last of my electrical stuff. i think the cleaning people will be done Tuesday or maybe Wednesday.
life is slowly getting better but it is somewhat trying to say the least.
there are photos around somewhere but i am computer challenged when i am not at work

the Packers

2011-02-22T15:40:00.003+13:00

the weather today was crap, I shoveled last night about 5 inches , and went to bed I woke up this morning with blowing snow and another 8 inches blocking the driveway. today is a public holiday so i had a leisure hour to shovel again, i was just sitting down thinking they were snowed in. it was a bitch out there. windy as all hell . they showed up. sorted out everything. and packed all my stuff in 2 hours flat. that included loading the truck. 1 create 1 couch 4 chairs and 2 boxes. paying by 100 lb. it looks like roughly 1400. lbs so cheaper than i thought. YEAH! Yes everything is well packed.

I get to go in tomorrow and finish paperwork and insurance.

I will upload some photos to show you the crappy weather it was to day

sold my computer desk, so now its only the small electrics to get ride of. nobody wanted my boot warmer. so that Ok.. i will use it a bit longer.

food- now- dinner...,.

do i have a plate?

Garage sale

2011-02-20T09:10:00.002+13:00

Garage sale 310 Dunbar Ave

I am now 1 hour and a bit into a garage sale, i have never had one before, din't know if my signs were going to work. wow people drive by and want to be nosy. that works for me, from 9 45 i have a $100

people are garage sale staved this time of year. my old non digital tv $20.

this morning I was stapling, balloons to the signs and caught my finger. ouch. looking for band aids but they are packed somewhere... a tissue worked.

who wants my computer desk?

The Foam

2011-02-18T16:45:00.003+13:00

I sold the bed and the dresser today, and another spare bed that I 've had from an ex room mate. so this means I am making progress. talked the guy who bought the bed and dresser into buying my weed eater, and a friend inquired about my car. My house is a mess and i need to sell the computer desk

but I am not complaining really.

tonight I get to sleep on the foam single mattress on the floor. i need to pack!

but chatting with friends is important too.

Making decisions shouldn't be this difficult. taking the cushions off the dining room chairs, they are old I can buy them cheaper, why did I put them in a box? . they are old. nope I can give them away.

Packing...

2011-02-12T21:41:00.002+13:00

where is the packing tape , wheres the black sharpie??? what the hell is in this box?

the fun of packing. I got quite a bit done this evening, the only cloths hanging in the closet are 20 coat hangers and they are all going on the plane not the container. the old bathroom is clear. and the important paperwork box is down to something 3 inches wide. i thought i was good at not keeping stuff, but when it comes to paperwork , i just work in accounting and you keep everything. I picked up medical records this week. they go on the plane. I have a whole bunch of stuff i get to take into work on Monday and shred.

Some friends are going to pick up some stuff tomorrow.

I don't mind packing for some reason. its unpacking that I hate.

some of my tools are packed , I hope I am not packing those too soon....

Electricians

2011-02-11T18:45:00.004+13:00

Its been a busy week now. The home inspections came in on Saturday, Yes there is electrical work to do. AK Electricial came over Tuesday morning to move the breaker box from behind the boiler. I checked on them at lunch time and everything was good.

but by the time i got home at 5 ish they had knocked 2 of the pipes form the boiler which turned into a fountain of water. ummmm . They turned everything off and called a plumber , who bill out at $125.00 an hour. 2 nice copper manifolds later all is well. but hen guess who gets to pay the bill. Yes the manifolds were old , but I didn't bump them and they weren't on my home inspections to be replaced just soldered. I am not the most happy at the cash i have to out lay here. that wasn't my fault.

the Electricians spent 2 days-( 16 hours of billable time) finishing correcting the open grounds and reverse wiring in my system and grounding it. (a 6 foot pole into frozen ground) it was slow and fiddly. I haven't got the invoice yet. that will be the fun time for tomorrow.

today was the appraisal,( or valuation) the bill for that is just part of my closing costs. so that is not so bad.

somewhere this weekend I get to take some copper to the recycle place to sell it. i have nearly 5 lbs.

the weekend will be just packing and selling stuff.

Life carries on in a good direction.

Selling stuff

2011-02-08T17:42:00.003+13:00

well I week has gone by, Contract. Home inspection was last Wednesday. Got the results on Saturday, not to bad considering the age of my house. yes there is electrical work to do. yes it is way more than what I can do, so today I hunt for electricians that do residential work. after 6 or 7 phone calls, I found someone. they were going to consult there schedule. and were supposed to call me back this evening. ( they haven't so I wont mention their name just yet.)

the appraisal will be this Friday. so everything is just booking along in an awful hurry.

The buyer was trying to be smart and renegotiate the price, but my agent and i decided to stand firm. Not sure what this electrical stuff is going to cost. Everyone needs to Cross their fingers for a good appraisal, and hopefully my bathroom with pay off.

then I need to fix the leak in the boiler, but my friend who looks after my furnace will do that in a jiffy.

oh and packing... yeah.... how much stuff do I want , I am hoping the packers can make it on the 21 , but the lady I talk to is on vacation till the 14 ...

I think I have sold my bbq set and the sewing machine. someone wants the bed downstairs. The moving sale needs to be the 19th

that leaves me 3 days to clean and do dump runs before closing and finish packing on the 28th .

Keys and money on the the first...

dancing ummmmm

swimming ummmmm.... we shall see.

more flowers

2011-02-03T21:15:00.000+13:00

I looked at my blog and iInoticed something missing. another post about my flowers. these guys grw fast and they have cool colours this was the little one. the other one didnt quite have anough sunshine and didnt last long. the buld at safeway said this was white... well sort of. but its really pretty anyway. ther is more light now so i shouldnt have any problems. the sun was back in the house the other day.

Contract

2011-02-01T18:51:00.003+13:00

I am now under contract to sell my house. life is wonderful. I had a offer late Saturday Afternnoon and spent most of today with counter offers, agreement was reached.

so now I get to plot and plan my way to move home . New Zealand. it will be nearly winter to winter , but that is ok. tonight I set down and make lists. can I do it in 10 weeks ?moving and job hunting.

watch this space....

and if you don't think i am excited think again.

Talk back radio

2011-01-31T11:09:00.002+13:00

sometimes I get homesick and i turn on the radio to NZ talk back radio to see whats going on. the other day the subject was unemployment and getting jobs.then they had the adds

the one that caught my attention was the one for the Vasectomy clinic. and there was this mans voice declaring most enthusiastically

"and the best part about it the is homework you have to do afterwards 24 times"

what can I say, would the USA have a vasectomy clinic ?

that surly would not happen in United states.

Here lie the cultural differences.

Shoes

2011-01-21T20:50:00.002+13:00

last Friday we got our end of year bonus, and i have always said that bonuses should be spent on something special, not groceries etc. Most of the time I have managed this.

For the last couple of months i have been looking at some more dance shoes( there is no such things as too many dance shoes). Friday after work I went shopping on line, so with a bonus burning a hole in my pocket. I got these from dance4 less.com i thought they would arrive on Friday since we had a public holiday but yesterday Wednesday there they were. I took them to dance class just to try them out, comfortable dance shoes. I am sure they will get worn on Friday when I go dance as well.

Yes there is a smile on my face. New dance shoes will do that for you.

Christmas decorations

2011-01-07T18:47:00.003+13:00

I took down the tree yesterday, and looked at the Christmas decorations. yes i want to take them home. no they are not worth very much so if they break well soo...

glass balls that is ..

so I packed them,.. did I wrap them well enough? only time will tell. I put them back in the boxes they came in , and no I probably didn't pack them well enough but I am going to try,.. just for shits and giggles.

and no comments from the cheep seats either.

I will have to declare them at customs, for they are one of the listed items. so that means unpacking them somewhere. Apparently according to NZ customs, spiders like to live in Christmas decorations, assuming that you store them in the garage and it's a warm one. So no they are not sitting in the garage.

No I'm not bringing the tree. I thought about it until I read the customs list. I cant be bothered unpacking that..

Flowers in Winter

2011-01-03T21:27:00.000+13:00

In the first week of december I went shoping,- Safeway, and they had these cute looking bulb things. They were supposed to be for gifts but .. so Igot 2 planted and followed directions. Now there is not alot of daylight in Fairbanks this time of year, but one can poke and hope. ( thats poke them in the soil and hope they grow) I put these in the window, where the sun pretends to shine of about 15 minutes a day.

And yesterday I got this. I was very impressed. This moring it was even better looking. and just now this evening the red one os looking even better.

the second one will be white, you will get to see more in a week ish. I will go out tomorrow and see if i can get the name of these things, ( sorry Mother) in the mean time they are just flowers.

New years day

2011-01-02T15:13:00.001+13:00

good morning , how was your sunset today
Photos taken at 3 pm new years day.

Purple!

2010-12-29T20:13:00.001+13:00

The purple mat won !!!! My Agent Ray, came over today to take some photos of the new room in my house. and this is the new photo that will appear on my listing sometime before midnight announcing that my house is for sale again.
my agent rocks, colour is a good thing!!!

( does anyone want a white bath mat??)

Christmas

2010-12-27T18:38:00.004+13:00

Yup this is a Christmas post- went out to one friend place for diner and a movie, yesterday.

went out to another friends today for presents and a light dinner. ( and to play with my fav kids )

under the trees for me was some royal Doulton. YES! ....more of my favorite dinner set, old country roses. a cake slicer and a six pack muffin tray that goes in the oven, with thanks for being a great baby sitter.

so there is a big smile on my face today.

My world- today

2010-12-22T18:36:00.007+13:00

Some of you may know that last night north America had a Luna eclipse. I too went out to take photos, at - 20 no less. played around with my camera some and even got some reasonable shots.

then today at lunch time i went out with the camera and photographed some of the stuff around, it was a nice day outside. and the light can be quite interesting. this time of year, the shortest day of the year. 2 hours 41 minutes from sunrise to sunset today. This is what my world looks like- today anyway

Solstice- Fairbanks

2010-12-19T14:12:00.005+13:00

Solstice, the shortest day approaches, which means soon the sun starts returning rather than going away. ( this was taken at 1:15 pm)

today the 18th its clear mostly , I don't now if I would call it sunny but warmer than yesterday. yes these are some of the roads that we drive on, Most of town is like this or worse. that's ice solid sheet ice.

For 3 days before thanksgiving we had freezing rain, then the temp dropped and it all froze.

then it dropped a whole bunch and we had -30 and -40 this week.

so today it was a nice day and its warm, believe it or not.

Bathroom is done

2010-12-08T17:31:00.001+13:00

my bed is round the right way again. it now take me 4 stps to get to the bathroom rather than 10 is was before. Its all clean and done. Bill will be back on thursday, probably to give me a invoice, yes its a duel flush toilet , cause i think people should lerarn to save water. and if sonmeone dioesnt want it they can change it out themselves
I am not sure if there is much else to say. the bathroom is done. that was day 6. just over their estimate of 100 hours of work( my count 104) Now I have to clean the house some more to get it back on the market.
the guys did a nice job vacuming every night and the garage might do with a sweep, they were reasonably clean.

Toilet?

2010-12-07T16:59:00.000+13:00

No toilet yet, no taps , but nothing tomorrow wont fix. The floor is grouted and look really cool there are taps on the shower. ( i wonder if i could have a shower yet?)
dam there is that purple rug again.

Purple

2010-12-06T21:00:00.004+13:00

I went out today and finished my Christmas shopping ( yes i want the bragging rights.) so thought I'd spend some money on myself. I got some nice cream bath towels and a bath mat for my new bathroom.

Some of you may know that I kinda like bright colours.-

there was this purple bathmat just looking at me. then it spoke to me. it said " if you don't buy me you'll regret it" Now I am not sure if that was a threat or not but since I have never had a bath mat speak to me , I wasn't going to take the risk.

The mat just wanted to hang out with my blue one.

Saturday's Bathroom progress

2010-11-28T18:19:00.004+13:00

I left to do my usual running around I got back to this. This tile looks pretty cool no grout yet,and green paint on the outside.

Dam that shower looks nice, no taps yet.

I am looking forward to moving into this bathroom.

and who cares what anybody else thinks!

Bathroom day 3

2010-11-27T16:55:00.004+13:00

day 3. yes I got out of bed at 8:15 on a day when I didnt have to. the guys did pretty good today the walls are primed, water is attached. and shower fixings are in. they will be back for day 4 tomorrow Saturday and they are talking about Sunday as well, time to be determined. "They" have names Bill and Tim helped me eat the last of the pumpkin pie today.

Day 2

2010-11-25T20:07:00.003+13:00

day 2 of the bathroom,

Yesterday was the day of the crappy weather, there wasn't anything moving in this town. No buses, no taxis, no schools, no university, drive at your own risk. One of the co workers called at 7 am and said don't come into work. My contractors were thinking the same way, since they lived in the hills. Its been raining for 2 days, and we have nearly 1 inch of freezing rain on the snow. the snow showed signs of melting at 3 ish and so everyone went to the stores tho get their thanks giving shopping done. yesterday, a total loss.

Today its still raining but the roads are now slush , which mean s you can drive. contractors showed up and i went to work. i have plumbing everywhere downstairs, and the vanity and lights are sitting in the garage. it looks like lights sockets are in but not connected. paint colors are finalized and inside walls have green sheet rock ( moisture resistant)

Tomorrow's thanksgiving so it's public holiday. I spent the evening baking.-- making progress.

currently its stopped raining but its still 33 it was supposed to drop and freeze this afternoon.

Bathroom day 1

2010-11-23T16:22:00.002+13:00

It's just amazing how much work you can get done when you pay someone else to do it. I got off early today for crappy weather then had to go back to home depot to choose some lights and a mirror. My last decision is the paint to go on the walls. I have narrowed it to 3 colors. (pale green by the way.)

Bathroom

2010-11-19T19:55:00.001+13:00

This is the corner of my bedroom, watch this space. My house has taken sooooo long to sell I got frustrated( in a major way ) 2100 square feet, ( 200 square m ) 3 bedroom 1 bathroom and 2 car garage. all it needs is 2 bathrooms.
So watch this space.
Construction starts monday.
Now I am poor again.

so there wont be any vacation this winter.

egg Nog.

2010-11-15T18:03:00.003+13:00

its close to that time of year again. and yesterday when i went shopping there it was stating me in the face was some Eggnog. I like Eggnog , but when you buy it it like pumpkin pie , it never has enough spice for my taste. now my spice rack is looking rather slim, cause I cant take it home. so i have been using up stuff, i have Cinnamon but not nutmeg or cloves ( usually this would be replace instantly) i think last week i bought some pumpkin pie spice.

so the short story is .. is that if you want more flavor in your eggnog try some pumpkin pie spice, it works really well for my taste buds.

say I with the second cup of eggnog nearly 1/ 2 way gone.

today I went bizarring with Amy. there are several good Christmas Bizarres on this time of year and the Carlson center one, is this weekend. I got what I needed in the way of Christmas stuff . then we looked around at everything else. there was this lady selling fruit cake and I the homesick kiwi was not going to say no. Yes they are expensive, but I haven't had fruit cake probably since last time I was home. ( OK. maybe I had some in the UK.) the question is how long can I make this fruit cake last . its 2 lbs. It wont make Christmas I know it.

Dancing,

2010-11-07T20:51:00.003+13:00

Yes I still go dancing, dancing is still an amazing amount of fun, we had a social dance tonight and a quick step lesson before hand. Quick step is almost kinda complicated , but its kinda like a fox trot. Got to have good frame. ( as it any dance )

we had lots of people tonight so there was lots of dancing to be had. new instructors, who are great dancers.

anyway I danced so much tonight that I had sore feet , so then I changed my shoes. (don't ask me how many pairs of dance shoes I have in the car) so I danced some more and then I got sore feet again. no it wasn't the shoes it was tooooo much dancing. Sore feet equals lots of dancing.

I am a happy person with sore feet.

one day I ought to get some pictures of me dancing.

my Political Opinion

2010-10-27T20:02:00.006+13:00

I answered the phone yesterday, it was political survey. " are you planing on voting on November 2?" no, I am not eligible. Guess what, it was a machine, but my only options was yes , No or repeat. There was not an option asking if i was eligible to vote. anyway just for shit and giggles I completed the survey. so for the first time in USA i expressed my opinion, not that its going to count.

If anyone should care to know the stats and info for Fairbanks will be off by 1.

cause i am not eligible to vote. so i wonder how many other people are in the same boat, for the survey did not disqualify me. so for my thought- don't have any respect for surveys. the should have asked a pre-qualifying question.

the people who designed this survey need to be shot, isn't it kind of important that a survey is of qualified people.

the phone number was ( 202) 643-1954

Vacation thoughts

2010-10-19T19:22:00.003+13:00

So since my house is not selling so fast, I thought that i could maybe take a week off and get out of town .. maybe the first week of January. First I thought i could swing a week in Hawaii, since i have never been there I roughly ran a budget ummm. maybe not. Then I thought i could go to Seattle and see a friend but it rains there a whole lot.

Then yesterday British airways says London is on sale. ( 350 each way from Seattle) drool... ( its only 20 hours flying ) um.. 8 days, nope, 10 days.

Can I really afford it? probably not, but DAM I am thinking about it.

Its about the same price as Hawaii, and twice as long flying. sigh

oh yeah it rains in London, but isn't it a way more interesting place !

Freeze up

2010-10-15T16:25:00.002+13:00

Freeze up is defined in my books as the first day that the temperature doesn't reach 32. ( or that i notice it doesn't) clear sunny lovely day and 27 today

freeze up has occurred. the snow is sitting on the grass , but not on the roads. the last few days have been cloudy and crappy.

the is nothing wrong with curling up on the couch after work and doing absolutely nothing.

daylight fades really fast.....

9 weeks and 5 days to the shortest day.

No my house hasn't sold yet.

and no i don't really want to talk about it.

Snow in Fairbanks

2010-10-07T08:18:00.001+13:00

today is Oct 6 and its snowing. first one for the year.
dam it .. I am talking about the weather again
no I am not going to photograph it.!

Breathing...

2010-10-06T16:43:00.003+13:00

last weekend was the parade of homes, so I talked my agent ( or his assistant) into an open house. Chelsea had 5 lots of people come by in 2 hours. Sounds kinda exciting to me. one was a nosy neighbour, but, I'd go look if my neighbourhood had a open house too. 2 were people who actually sounded if they were interested. and asked for house packets. - all the boring stuff about my house.

So I was thinking that I could live in messy house for a week.( or a month) and i didn't pay attention to much this morning and went to work, - i didn't even make the bed.

About midday the phone rings and its my agent saying someone wants to look at my house at 5 pm. I 'd all ready taken time off this morning to go see the chiropractor. so I took more time off to go make the bed. and clean again. maybe it was one of the people who looked on Sunday and wants to come back again.. I am thinking of getting excited, but that wont get me anywhere.

my life goes on .. breath in, breath out... my house will sell eventually... patience is a virtue. breath in , breath out....

( do i really have to clean my house again)

Cool, Cool, .. cold

2010-09-26T20:11:00.003+13:00

My car was a little sluggish at starting this evening. so I filled up with gas put some heet in the tank.. (yes its that s time of year). and then when i got home , i parked in the garage for the first time since April ish.. So it is in my opinion its cold. I was cold. I know, I know I wasn't dressed as well as I could have been. lovely clear days n windy the last few. today was barely 40 when Tuesday was 65. Current temp is 31 but we have 10 miles an hour of wind, this is windy for us, so it really feels like 21. The leaves are nearly gone from the trees as well.

we have had 3 or 4 frosts so the growing season is definitely done. 130 days this year, i think we almost broke the record. Usually the frost free days we run 110 if we are lucky ( can we blame this on global warming) September has been wonderful for weather, but Sept is nearly done.

I have an open house next week , so this week will be lots of cleaning. its amazing how much more messy I can make my house when I actually spend more time in it.

Fall Colours

2010-09-17T17:05:00.000+12:00

the blaze of colour is out this week. and the weather is just amazing, so on sunday i went for a drive arround to see with my camera in hand. all the trees know its time to turn. the undergrowth turns red , but the trees dont.

Yup this pipeline carries oil. the amazing weather is 70 during the day( we are almost breaking records) and 40 at night everyday since saturday.
this will not last.

The last of the Greenhouse

2010-09-17T16:33:00.001+12:00

I took these Sept 6 about a wake ago before the first frost, which was way late this year,.. there was ice on my car this morning and today is the 16th... way late. I have seen the first frost on the 1 of September so we got an extra 15 % time on our growing season this year. this cucumber i picked and already eaten.

The tomatoes have been a bit slower this year , i think i have a different variety, so it was slower. I wasn't so good this year and shaking the branches and pruning so I didn't get as much fruit as last year,... but the size was much better. they are all now sitting on the table hoping to ripen. which means they are a bit sluggish.

Then we have the second round of the celery. this is second growth of the ones I cut. the last of the basil. but you should see how much I gave away and behind that the parsley.

i puled most of the tomatoes yesterday. but the weather has been so nice all week. it's just hard to think that it will get cold.( sigh) but it will and it will be fast and dramatic is my guess.

Fall / Autumn

2010-09-05T10:53:00.002+12:00

Fall / Autumn, is defined for me by the temp. And my feet - I got cold feet last night so i had to put some socks on. this morning I looked a the thermostat and it said 65 so i put a sweater on... but 65 in the house is a little cool for me.

this afternoon i made some scones, but i used oil and not butter then i put in cinnamon and ginger ( cause i couldn't find my nutmeg- have i used it all? ) and then i cut up an apple and put that in as well. then i used yogurt instead of milk.( cause the milk was ... thick and smelly). i am sure these are still scones but dam they got changed some. they are currently in the oven.

the greenhouse needs attention i had to turn the heat lamp on for the last few nights there's been good dew on the car every morning. no frosts yet. i have lots of good sized tomatoes this year they are still trying to turn yellow , hence the heat lamp. the cucumber and about done. the basil and celery are still in good shape. shall i dry it or just give it away. and i need to go do something with the last of the beans and peas. the broccoli is producing OK second and 3 cuts from the from each plant.

so its Official fall is here ( for my opinion).

I am going to turn the heat on.

Denali Park

2010-08-18T18:04:00.004+12:00

for the weekend of my birthday i headed to Denali park. since i have never been down on the train before a friend decided that we ought to be in the dome car ( the expensive one) a great place for photographs i must say , while i got his white water rafting. ( how can you never have been rafting).

anyway on the train it was brought and sunny and i did get some pretty cool photos.

then we went for a walk around one of the nearer lakes called horseshoe lake. we saw some evidence of some beaver and some squirrel. dam cheeky things. My personal opinion is that " the only good squirrel is a dead one. preferably one that died of lead poisoning" i think this one in the park was used to too many humans and thought they might be good for getting food maybe.

my camera has a 12 x zoom that i am at long last getting the hang of using at high zoom, and think myself very cleaver to have got this of the beaver. we walked really quietly to get in position , and he just carried on like we weren't even there. it was about 5 pm ish and its august so maybe he was just in a hurry and he thinks fall is in the air. - beside the fact it was at least 80 in the park Sunday. got to stay at a cool hotel called the grand denali lodge. that's the one high on the hill. great service great view. more photos of the weekend can be found here. ( click on the photo below)

Denali

Rafting was ok for a grade 3/ 4 river but you know me it wasn't really enough. My friend tony had never been rating before and now he really likes it. so i have passed my addiction on to someone else.

a great weekend.

The tales of a Waitress

2010-08-06T19:06:00.005+12:00

last Monday I was waiting on these people in the restaurant, 2 parents, 2 kids ( boys) 8 and 10 maybe and grandma. I served grandma her her soup, and said "here's your soup." after i left the 2 boys started giggling, and developed a serious dose of giggles that went on for quite some time. 10 ish minutes later when i was bringing everyones dinner, the boys and parents were leaving the restaurant, I was thinking this was just a bathroom trip. But grandma explained to me that they had had such a fit of the giggles about my accent they hadn't stopped giggling.

they managed to make it back OK, but were somewhat mollified when grandma told that she had told on them. i thought it was just funny. And kinda interesting that the parents made the boys leave over a fit of giggles.

Other news of the week is that it had been 80 every day of the week since then, and humid as well. Today it rained and was only 70. I am almost ready for cooler weather. and yes it gets dark today. its actually dark at 12 30 for the first time in 3 months. do we remember what a dark sky looks like?

Welcome to the jungle

2010-07-17T18:11:00.000+12:00

The garden grows apace, this is cucumber number 4 I think, I took the first 3 camping last weekend. I tried celery this year and it has done way better than I thought it would. these photos were all taken last weekend, so there is actually a weeks growth on top of this.
The basil beside it is just amazing, tomorrow I start giving it away. so i need a recipe for pesto something, and the tomatoes are trying to climb out the roof. But currently there are only a couple of tomatoes, not as many flowers as i had last year, but that is ok. Maybe I will have bigger fruit.

My peppers that i tried again I had to pull (again ) as the aphids just came and got them. It was later than last year i managed to keep the aphids away for 2 weeks extra and actually got 2 peppers , but when i went to cut into it i discovered they were the hot variety, that i don't like, so I was less sad at having to pull them out.

Work this week has been crazy.-waiting tables just as busy as hell , an unusual week to make lots of money, 3/4 of it is in the bank. but I have had to have 3 cups of coffee this week to see me through the day job.
somehow i managed to find time to water the greenhouse and pull the peppers this week.
Now to find time to mow the lawn when its dry.

fielding lake camping

2010-07-06T15:16:00.001+12:00

I thought I better get out a bit this year since I don't usually.
So Amy, Matt and friends went camping out to Fielding lake. ( head to Delta turn right drive 70 miles. Mile -post 200.5 on the Richardson.) This is the headwaters of the Delta river, its supposed to be good fishing. they have public use cabins there and for a small charge you can reserve them. 4 of July weekend was popular. so the campground was full. I took my tent and new sleeping bag to give them a test drive. its up in the mountains so it cooler than Fairbanks. but the views were spectacular.
Friday was a nice sunny day but Saturday and Sunday it rained 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening with low hanging cloud the rest of the time.

There goes my theory that 4 of of July its supposed to be 90, it was 55 maybe. but it was still way cool, we had some night visitors come passing by mother moose and calf crossed the river, and her yearling that she had just kicked out was 10 minutes behind her.
the public use cabin sleeps six, but could be cramped if it was raining. Matt being resourceful put up the tarps and we had a comfortable area to sit in with the fire going all weekend. We all sat around and had a pleasant time doing nothing, eating, and talking. it a 3 hour drive each way ish. I think the guys went out briefly to try the fishing.

Sunsets &

2010-06-10T18:28:00.003+12:00

The other night I was driving home from work at 11 pm- ish in the middle of a rainstorm and sunset. I cant remember why I had my camera in the car but as luck would have it but I just had to stop and take these. we have had a bunch of interesting weather lately, with clouds and rain and smoke. but these 2 just caught my eye. Our sunsets just cover the whole sky, not just part of it. So I say sunsets rock in Fairbanks.

Then these is the flowers that i have outside my door, $20.00 will get you as basket from Fred's about 3 weeks ago anyway. so i actually managed to water them every night and with some of the rain we had they are just doing nicely. i have almost decided that they were worth buying, rather than buying seeds and planting my own and not having flowers till later. or forgetting to water them. I wouldn't have bought them if i didn't have my house for sale. and they look better in real than they do photographed.

Tip Income

2010-06-05T20:46:00.003+12:00

Instant gratification.

Sometimes you look in the purse and see you don't have any money, but you cant be bothered to go to the bank, but you need groceries. Well that's why I wait tables. because tomorrow i will have money in the purse and I can get groceries.

Instant gratification. going to the bank is something that those who don't wait tables do.

I surely don't this time of year.

tip income .. such a great thing

you work you earn money ... cash in hand.

So the groceries can wait until tomorrow.

The Garden

2010-05-31T19:41:00.003+12:00

I cheated this year- Risse greenhouse was planting the garden at work, and since I was helping I noticed they had the largest bean plants that were nice and healthy. So rather than trying stuff from seed, that i should have started 2 weeks ago. i went out to Risse Greenhouse on Saturday and just spent money.- sometimes money is handy for that -- it saves you time.

Today I borrowed the neighbors Rotor-tiller and spent an hour doing that, watered, then I went to wait tables. when I came home I planted the seedlings that i had got, lettuce, broccoli, peas and beans all done. I even got to run the weed eater around to clean the edge next to the fence, it will be a sunshine issue, and it looks better.

The green house is off to good start, the cucumbers have sorted out their roots and look like they are about to take off. I found some dwarf basil this year out at Risse. so it wont grew as high as it did last year. With any luck i am just growing this for someone else.

now all i did to do is weed... any volunteers?

the Greenhouse

2010-05-24T09:53:00.000+12:00

may 23, Guess what I did today?
I got to make mud puddles in the greenhouse, I did have some seedlings started, but then i decided that I was going to cheat, so I went to Freds and bought some plants, 3 Tomatoes, 3 Cucumber, 6 celery, 2 peppers, Rosemary and Parsley. and got them all in today. Imight be a week early. but the growing season is short, and it is a greenhouse. I got some ash from a friend to sprinkel arund as i was planting. I will try to keep you informed about how this all goes.
How much of this I will get to eat remains to be seen. maybe I am just feeding someone else. Whatever it takes to sell my house.
in the mean time I am going to sit in the sun.

Sunrise

2010-05-24T09:31:00.001+12:00

The sun woke me up the other morning, at 3 45 so i got up to close the curtins a bit better and found this out the window, so grabbed my camera. I say, if you want stuning sunsets/ sunrise come to alaska. No i didn't stay up, dont be silly

The inside

2010-05-16T18:37:00.003+12:00

For those of you who have never been to my house. i just about finished my cleaning to have everything spotless for Monday, my kitchen is really nice I have these nice shiny cupboards, (and lots of them) some orange oil helped with the shininess. the door on the front right goes to the garage.

The bathroom has a sauna on the left that you cant see. I have always liked the the shower panels. The walls are actually way more blue than they look. and i have a double sink.

Then in the bedroom I have my drawers, they are never this clean and there is a echo. i moved the computer desk out to the spare room, so there is way more space. the colour is sweet pea green. and i painted it cause I like it several years ago.

Monday is List day. wish me luck.

Four Wheeling

2010-05-10T17:55:00.004+12:00

I went four wheeling again today, don't think I have been out for a year, but it is such fun. four wheeling trough puddles. big puddles- i am still just a kid.

Green up was earlier last week the 3 rd i think. ballaine Hill shows the green tinge with the university buildings in the background and the Alaska range. but the trees up close don't show so much color. Give it a week and summer will be hear. ( along with the tourists)

So I get to start my second job next Sunday- 16th so the frequency of my posting is going to be slower. unless something interesting happens in life. Oh to have cash in hand again!

The Basement

2010-05-08T16:54:00.003+12:00

the basement is DONE, I finished gluing the last of the vinyl here about 2 hours ago. the floor is really cool. The wall got varnished, and i painted for Formica counter tops. life is good, now its down to cleaning, and a few small outside jobs and it will all be done.

Break up

2010-05-01T17:46:00.002+12:00

Well this spring has been a bit of a non event, it hasn't even been worth wile photographing the river , the whole in the river got wider it melted , there wasn't even any ice that floated down teh river.

The only exiting thing was today it rained, which means my grass will turn green a little sooner than usual. actually its been drizzling for 24 hours or more, just a nice gentle growing rain. but i hear its snowing up at Pogo mine.

Its nearly green , I am thinking tomorrow might be the day when everything bursts into leaf over night. other people tell me the pollen levels are really high. I have a perfectly functioning nose so pollen doesn't bother me.

a Poster

2010-04-22T18:16:00.002+12:00

I was starting some packing tonight and i found an old poster, it made me laugh.

15 Reasons why a dog is better than a man

Dogs do not have problems expressing affection in public.

Dogs miss you when you are gone

Dogs feel guilt when they've have done something wrong.

Dogs don't brag about whom they've slept with

Dogs don't criticize your friends.

Dogs admit when they are jealous.

Dogs don't feel threatened by your intelligence.

Dogs understand what "No" means.

You can house train a dog

Middle aged dogs don't feel the need to abandon you for a younger owner.

Dogs don't mind if you do all the driving. dogs don't step on the imaginary break.

Dogs admit when they are lost.

Dogs don't feel threatened if you earn more tan they do.

Dogs mean it when they kiss you

and then there is the picture of a really hunky looking guy, and cute dog.

( just my thought for the day)

New Kitchen Floor

2010-04-15T16:20:00.003+12:00

You know the old kitchen floor was just looking a little old, so for the last 3 days and evenings ( well Sunday 6 hours Monday/ Tuesday evening 3 hours each). I slaved away doing the peel and stick. . I must admit I am very happy with all this. it looks like wood. way easier to put down then laminate. and it s just stunning, well for my opinion. I finished the last few pieces last night at 10 30

So here it is. please admire my new floor. including the photo of the some of the old one just to show you how crappy and 80 's looking it was.

with about 12 hours of work into it , i think its not too bad.

this evening i am resting some. Getting ready for the next project and and putting the kitchen back to something cleaner. next project is the vinyl for the basement which is at last , back in my house after a long story with home depot. lets see if I can cut a strait line again.

Rotten Ice

2010-04-06T17:19:00.001+12:00

underneath the Wendel street bridge we have lots of old ice again, its been warm lately and the river is starting to melt. this is what rotten ice looks like, don't walk on it. Warm for us is 45 degrees for the last 10 days strait. its back down to 20 overnight.

there is open water here , just a little bit. its moving. All these were taken on , Sunday about 8 pm april 4

Down by the first Ave bridge there are a few poles from the start of the Yukon quest back in February. I saw someone go skiing on the river 2 days ago, but not something that i would do , even if i could ski.

We didn't get much snow this winter , so it has nearly all gone from my front south facing yard.

Walking along the river on 1st ave is interesting, the city has put up some signs about some of the Fairbanks history. I think this is readable. and I think quite interesting. Strait across the street from the Key bank building.

there will be more coming as the river changes over the next couple of weeks.

Spring

2010-04-01T20:10:00.003+13:00

Spring, ( yes spring does come to Alaska)

it's warm and dripping, if anyone wants to see the melting of the river this year, you need to let me know promptly cause its going to go fast this year. We didn't have much snow, thanks to the east cost.

I am done with my inside painting for now, until the weather warms up and I can do some outside.

now its back to fixing all the little things i never got to over the winter , that still need fixing.

my dishwasher is working well, except for where i didn't put enough tape on the pipe under the sink. a small project for this weekend.

Paper jams

2010-03-20T16:42:00.000+13:00

My boss today gave me a copy of the funnies . I guess she understands how frustrating paper jams can be.
its just as well we have 2 printers.

The Stairs

2010-03-16T20:03:00.000+13:00

last week I had started sanding the stairs again. well i may have even started them about Christmas, but i finished them last week. I never seem to know how much sanding is good enough, does it need to be perfect ? whats OK and whats not- is the constant question. So lets define this, I finished sanding the stairs to my satisfaction, and then got some paint.
This is called burnt almond, i decided on flat so now one will slip.

Without primmer i thought i would try the new paint out that doesn't need primer from Behr. so here we have no primmer on really old sanded wood.
Now thinking about this i thought I would paint every second stair so i could get back upstairs, but while i was painting I figured out that this stuff has a really fast drying time. it was touch dry in about 10 minutes, no exaggeration, which was way cool. The following night I did the second coat, and just painted every step, but the time i was done their was only one stop that i couldn't stand on and came back up stairs.
so steps are done, the vinyl arrived on Thursday, or the other 1/2 of it.

Dishwashers

2010-03-14T13:32:00.003+13:00

this was the week of the dish washer.

On Sunday it decided to not drain, OK, so the logical thing is there is just some junk blocking somewhere. Nope it wasn't that. i emptied it thought to try again, no such luck the blades weren't turning to swish the water, but it did fill up again. so I came to the conclusion that the pump had gone out. Now this dish washer was kinda old when i moved in here, so now its 5 years older than that.

It took forever during the week to got hold of anyone at Maytag to find out just how old it was . a time zone thing on to the east coast. My dish washer was 12 years old. Ummm not going to fix the pump , I will just get a new one. so did some fast shopping online, went cruising around Home depot, Lowes and Sears, to see what was in stock, My roommates didn't care how long it took me to get a dishwasher , but I do. I am way more attached to the dishwasher than I thought.

Lowes won, they had a dish washer in my price range, that was 10 % off and in stock, and they delivered and took the old one away.

This morning it arrived, My roommate Faith said she knew what she was doing, so i just handed her the tools as she needed them and hopefully learnt as she went along. yes she knew what she was doing. the dish washer is all installed in about 1 1/2 hours, and it is running its first cycle.

so the one new appliance for the house has been taken care of. Its black and all shiny and new.

for now its back to the other house projects.

Magnolia Plantation

2010-03-05T16:15:00.003+13:00

one of the other things that i got to do, was to visit Magnolia plantation, this is a rice plantation almost in the city limits of Charleston. here they have a very fine house, a basement full of a gift shop and 500 acres of what was rice fields. Slaves built it from the swamps, low- laying areas of the Ashley river. today it would take someone with a engineering degree to build it all and get the water flowing as it 's supposed to.

The house was well restored and in good shape. there were daffodils out in the garden, and yes i photographed them.

In the holding ponds here they had some visitors, so these ponds are not for swimming in. i am not sure if the little turtle in front stayed to long. but i think he was rather game to stay there.

it was a beautiful day so when i was done looking around I sat in the sun and read my book for an hour, 68 degrees.
the magnolia trees were all covered in lot of Spanish moss. which made for striking looking trees for the middle of winter. One of the things that I noticed was that it was very dry, the people that i went to see and the neighbourhoods that i drove through, all the lawns were brown, apparently the grass dies when it gets too cold. i tried not to laugh when i heard that.

I spent an evening dancing on the Saturday, i found the Ballroom dance club of Charleston , they were having a west coast swing class where there were twice as many woman as men. so i just sat and watched. I will never complain again as to when we have on 2 extra woman. for the dance i just did my usual social thing and got up and danced. it was a dam wonderful day.

the USS Yorktown

2010-02-27T20:43:00.000+13:00

so i caught up with Kerrie on the Sunday i picked her up after 4 days stuck in NY, ( in a snow storm) Hung out and went shopping on Monday and Drove to Charleston Tuesday.
Wednesday i went to the the Yorktown, Navel history is kinda fun. i thought i would look at the US stuff. ( since i am not in England)
USS Yorktown is a 1943 aircraft carrier.
the tours were self guided signed tours so you could see which parts you wanted, for my opinion they could do with spending some money on better signage around. The first place I want to was the engine room,wonderful to look and all the nobs and dials and very large engines, but not a lot of info. what size were the engines, how many gal of oil did they burn? dammed if I know. there was no signs.

Alongside there was a submarine the USS Clamagore from 1945. I didn't realize how small they were. this one had 80 crew, and quarters were tight. the movies you see don't show just how small they were.
the shop was pretty good , I always think that I am not going to spend money but I bought a photo of my self with the Yorktown in the background. ( which i hope to scan and upload ) as well as a little tall ship. they didn't have the HMS Victory so i got the HMS Bounty instead. (One day I will own a big HMS Victory)

Biltmore Estates

2010-02-26T19:50:00.001+13:00

Biltmore estates Ashville NC
don't get caught taking photos

what an amazing house.

Charlotte

2010-02-18T11:17:00.003+13:00

I know I have been on vacation for a week, and not a word, sorry about that, the lady whose House I was staying at, her computer was so slow. Anyway now I am in Charleston I can write a book.

Last Friday i drove from Charlotte to Asheville to go see the Biltmore estate. ( Van Der -Bilt fortune) a very large estate with built in 1895 with lots of rooms to impress the guests. the usual story is that you are not allowed to take photos, but that has never stoped me. there is an amazing collection of really old books and prints from that time period. and hanging on the walls are several tapestries dating for the 1540 s ( that could be better looked after). a large winery on the estate as well.the wine tasting was kinda fun. but I am not into shipping wine back to AK though. photos will be coming i am not sure when.

for some reason the weather gods didn't like me and while I was there it started to snow. Ashville is almost in the mountains, there was snow on the beautiful long drive down to the gate , i thought that once I was down lower the snow would stop. no such luck, some cars were driving at 30 miles an hour with the hazards lights on on the freeway. the 140 miles back to Charlotte was about 40 miles an hour so it took me 4 hours. it was wet slushy snow. with several cars in the ditch etc. ( that probably could have gotten out if they knew how) the drive up was only 2 hours 20 . on nice dry roads.

Thursday i went out to north Charlotte to look at a plantation from 1800. it still had some slave quarters, probably cleaned up a lot. They would have been cold to live in.

there has been some shopping of course, and on Sunday got to go pick up Kerrie and hang out with my nephews who run around really fast. Please remember that i am the child free auntie.

i definitely don't like big freeways, with large trucks and fast cars, i have managed better than I did on my last sojourn south to the lower 48. 80 mph and i am getting past. GPS systems are worth their weight in gold, i can still manage the odd wrong turn.

Monday this week I found a dance studio that had some classes in swing that actually taught me a new east coast move. I guess i don't know everything I thought I did in east coast.

yesterday Kerrie and kids came down to Charleston , I dropped her off at her friends and found my hotel which is down town, more on Charleston another time.

Charlotte

2010-02-12T15:16:00.003+13:00

vacation

arrived safely in Charlotte on Monday, Kerrie has been delayed till Sunday. ( Stuck in new York from a snow storm )

today I got to drive up the historic Platta plantation. a cotton grower from 1820 who owned 33 slaves. history i have never looked at before. rather interesting, next to it the was Raptor Center with lots of eagles and hawks that have been injured etc.

then I had catfish for lunch . cause i have never had it before, with salt and pepper and corn on the cob

i don't like driving on big fat freeways too many cars that i am not used to, small streets are fine.

GPS units are way cool and once you figure them out work well.

Tomorrow i drive to Asheville to see the Biltmore estate.

No i haven't taken any photos yet ( sorry )

More shoping

2010-02-06T17:43:00.001+13:00

I went shoping again online earlier this week, there was this email that just forced me to so shoping . this chip and dip plate was on sale for $60, and then i saw some other stuff. so i just had to add to the collection and buy some more ....
Old country Roses.
yes i kept all the boxes .
Tomorrow we go out to watch the start of the Yukon Quest dog race so i might even get some more stuff up here before I go on Vacation again.

Car accident

2010-01-17T21:39:00.002+13:00

a picture paints a thousand words.

so what can i say. i had a car accident this week. on Tuesday. a gent ran a red light. i hit my head on the visor and got a big bump. which turned into this first photo here on Wednesday below, with only one black eye

then i slept the wrong way and then i 2 black eyes , taken on friday.

the car totaled, tho i managed to drive it home about 4 blocks.

dealing with the the related problems has been my week.

More work on the house.

2010-01-02T22:57:00.000+13:00

Oh you want to see what i have been up to on the house.
sure, i spent forever painting the closet here, getting the shelf was a bitch i have carpet down. Matt helped me get it from Home depot Christmas Eve. I have the light in , thanks to another Friend
Also got this vinyl cut and laid. ( that s alot of work those rolls are heavy) and going round that pole was a bitch my myself. I even got it all under the washing machine. its not glued yet.

I have decided today that the drawers clash with the vinyl so i have got them painted today with primer; a pain staking fiddly job. tomorrow they get the antique white treatment.

and to go round my wonderful windows from the summer I have some maple trim. Well pine that is stained to look like maple. Here is one stained and one not. a coat of varnish and they just need to be cut to get put up. i also have the Sheetrock holes nearly fixed with new sheet rock and 3 coats of mud.
and a whole lot of dust in my hair....
next I get to work on the steps they need to painted, but first the sanding, and sanding, and more dust in my hair. I bought a little wee sander today.
Tools are everything.

christmas Day

2010-01-02T22:36:00.000+13:00

christmas day i went up to Krista 's new house. she now up this road. som way cool trees and a lvely sunny day well sort of for this time of year.

This was taken today on my street and 1 pm . just to show you how high the sun rises

Christmas Eve

2010-01-02T22:20:00.000+13:00

Christmas eve I had Matt and Amy and kids come over, it was a way cool evening, Roast lamb and christmas presents, with charlotte runing arround like normal. here Charlotte is standing just like Amy does. ( 2 1/2 going on 20) we did some coloring and had fun.

Visitors guide.

2009-12-09T20:38:00.002+13:00

the new Fairbanks visitors for 2010 published just hours ago

http://ow.ly/K509

Take a look. I think its amazing.

thanksgiving my house

2009-12-02T20:49:00.000+13:00

here we are again with my fine china getting used. I recently bought the serving dish in the middle i made some real fine corn bread. i might have to do it again.

Got everything organized and had the usual too much food. Yes there is still some turkey in the fridge. my orange and Avocado Salad was a hit again. And Amy's Sweet potatoes are still just wonderful.

Charlotte whose 2 1/2 wanted pumpkin pie, there was more pie all over that place . it was so funny. but I am not sure what Mom thought.

Charlotte always has a wonderful time at my place and doesn't want to go home. It was a good day and lots to be thankful for, my friends as always.

Ginger

2009-11-07T19:11:00.004+13:00

if i really dont get to eat it all i can just candy itI have always liked ginger, crystallized ginger to me is comfort food. it goes really well with a glass of milk and chocolate. preferably all in your mouth at the same time.

The other week I went out with friends to an Asian restaurant, where the decoration on the plate was shaved ginger. so i ate it, and most of the ginger on friends plate as well.

then last weekend i was in the store and i saw ginger root - fresh stuff. Now I have mostly preserved stuff, anyway thought i would give it a try. Didn't know what much to do with ginger root. but that is what google is for. I didn't know how long it was going to keep.

it keeps 3 weeks in the fridge. so now i have to eat lots of ginger. dammed if i am going to waste it. I had a couple of shavings in a salad- its goood. Then I read about grated ginger, so I put some in a lemon and honey drink. spicy. Hell ginger is a spice.

tonight i cooked several slices in a stew. it was just fine but I could have put more in.

and now i sit here with another lemon and honey drink ( good for the immune system so i don't get sick- is my excuse) with some more ginger in it - of course.

if i really don't get to eat it all I can just candy it.

November 2nd

2009-11-03T19:49:00.005+13:00

November 2nd.

The almanac in the paper today says that the sun rises at 8 45 am and sets at 5 30 ish, that means it nearly dark when I get home and its still trying to get light on the way to work. I know its close to the same amount of light we had last week. but we droped daylight savings with week. and winter is here.

there is 7 weeks till the shortest day and daylight is still dropping at 7 minutes a day, so we have 14 weeks to the the light back to where it is now. the temp dropped this week rather suddenly. it was about 5 this morning and some places talking with - signs.

BUT. I got a whole bunch done today regardless of the dark. did a dump run after work. plugged in the Christmas lights to make sure they are working.( i might have to go buy some more. they are not as green as they used to be , they are looking white.) had dinner and got my homework assignment done all before 7 30. so at 8 I went to dance class.

learning to dance is soooo much fun. American tango 2. You have to go out and do stuff regardless of the weather, otherwise it becomes a bitch real fast. Winter comes whether we like it or not.