Check this out:

This map shows where everyone who has ever looked at my blog has been from:

The US makes sense. So does Canada, and I know a couple people in Brazil. But check this out:

Who's looking at my blog from Slovenia, or Belize? Why are there as many people from Germany and Denmark who have seen this blog as there are from Canada? What about China? Russia? Malaysia?

Anyway, I think this is pretty cool, but where are the Kyrgyzstanis and Burundians?

Another shoe picture!!!

I'm gonna be honest with you - these recent pictures have been generating a lot of "clicks." Now, we've done some focus groups, and it turns out that it wasn't the snow that got people to come to my blog, it was the shoe/boot. So my bosses suggested I milk this thing a little longer, since we're struggling with our revenues here at the blog. Our editorial staff is down to bare bones, I don't think we'll be able to hire any paid interns this summer and frankly, I'm not sure how much longer the blog can keep things up the way they're going.

So here you are: thats a shoe and my office carpet (selected, I believe, to match the color scheme of Windows 3.1). You people better click your fingers off.

Also, feel free to start a flame war down in the comments section.

Bike Trip (finally!)

Remember long, long ago when I went on a bike trip in Oregon with my dad, as he finished his ride across the country, but I didn't have any pictures because I smashed my camera on day 1? Well I recently recovered the pictures I had taken that morning, at least, so here they are:

There's my pa, pedaling his way out of Redmond, OR.

Some of the Three Sisters (probably), outside of Sisters, OR.

Me and the old man posing for a picture on just about

the perfect morning for a bike ride.

More of the Cascades, from outside Sisters.

The Three Sisters, again.

Three-Fingered Jack mountain, with what I think are 1,500 year-old

lava flows in the foreground.

Hmmm... this looks more like Three-Fingered Jack to me than the

last one. Maybe there are two mountains with the same name.

My dad, biking past some of the lava flows near the top of the climb.

A pretty barren slot of road near the summit.

Nothing but lava on both sides.

McKenzie Pass: just a bit over a mile high, and almost 4,000

feet above our campsite for the evening!

The biker boys at the pass.

Still at the pass, with the Three Sisters (or at least two of them) in the background.

It was right after this that I tried to use a triangular monument as a tripod for my camera and had the pleasure of watching it bounce 173 times as it fell the 4 feet to the ground. That was the end of the road for my camera, so unfortunately I missed a bunch more great photo opportunities over the next couple of days. But mostly I was just so glad to be there for the trip. I felt totally welcomed by the group and had a great time on the road in camp. And of course it was the best to get to spend a couple days biking with my dad!

It's gone!

Turns out the lack of snow doesn't make a very exciting picture. But the snow in our backyard is gone!!!

Even closer...

Maybe this won't be there anymore by the time I get home. Fingers crossed...

Almost there....

Alright, people, this is what's standing between us and spring:

To be honest, the fenceline along the south side of our yard still has a 3-foot wide strip of snow all along it where it's always shady. but that's not maintaining a swamp in the middle of the yard as it slowly melts away. When I look out the window, I look at this snow and try my best to send mental heat rays its way.

Dog Story II: A not-cute thing Bella Did

So you remember that cute, tuckered-out, dog from Sunday night? Well here's how that story ends:

Exhausted from her long weekend of play, Bella is out cold by 5 PM. She's so tired that she doesn't want to go for a walk, and when we put her out to go to the bathroom, so barely has the energy to stagger a few steps from the door to pee. Aside from a few quick breaks to roll over, stretch, scarf down some dinner and freak out at the sound of a fork on a plate, she sleeps straight through the evening. When we go to bed she doesn't even come into the bedroom, staying out in the living room until around 11 PM or so.

But then, around 11 she does get up. Maybe because in her haste to resume napping earlier she neglected to finish her doggie business, or maybe just because she has been in a deep sleep for 6 hours, she starts to wander around the house. "Click, click, click, click, {walking across carpet}, click, click...."

Shortly thereafter she makes it to the bedroom, where she alternates sitting on each side of the bed, licking whatever elbows, knees and backs poke out from the sheets and occasionally emitting little half-whines. Several times Beth or I tell her to go to bed, and send her to her corner where she dutifully lies down for up to 26 seconds before resuming her vigil at our side. Eventually I decide to let her outside, which is usually the solution when she won't sleep, but instead of running straight for her "poop corner" in the backyard, she just lies down and looks around as if thinking "what a lovely evening."

I can't leave her out all night and I don't want to let her take her sweet ass time coming in since I have to wake up at 6:15, so after a couple minutes I throw on some winter boots and march out in boots and boxers to try to lead her to the corner. She follows along, and even goes right for the corner when told, where she eats a moth. She wags her tail and looks at me proudly as if to say "look at that! You never even told me to do that trick before and I did it the first time!"

After a few more minutes, I lead her inside, but its now clear that the problem with Bella is that she has no interest in sleeping. The next three hours pass in a mix of clicking toenails, licked elbows, muffled whines and half-whispered half-shouted commands to go to bed. I don't remember exactly what happened in the end. Maybe Beth let Bella outside again with better results, maybe I landed that kick I aimed at Bella's noggin and knocked her out cold and maybe she just finally got tired again. But it was sometime after 2:00 when she finally settled down and let us get some sleep.

So thanks for that, Bella. I hope you enjoyed spending all day napping in your crate on Monday. Because I definitely didn't spend the day in an 8-hour training session daydreaming of ways of getting petty revenge.

Dog Story I: A cute thing Bella did

Yesterday (or really all weekend) we tuckered Bella out. It has been beautiful in Anchorage for the past several days, with crystal clear skies, high temperatures in the low 50s and daylight from the time you wake up until a few minutes after you go to bed, and we made sure to enjoy it. Beth and I did some gardening (tulips are coming up!), cleaned up the backyard (that means poop), trimmed trees, put up the hammock, cleared leaves that had been insulating and protecting plants, went hiking, hung out in the sun and just generally had a lot of fun. Bella got to join in for all of this, and by the time she got back inside at around 5 yesterday evening she was pooped. How can you tell Bella's pooped? When she's just napping she'll spread out, but the more tired she is the more her back feet tuck up under her. Yesterday evening she had her back paws in front of her front paws. It's pretty cute, but it's not the cute thing that this post is about, so I can't get sidetracked here. Anyway, while Beth and I were on the couch, Bella curled up to take a nap near our feet and soon she was out cold. Dead to the world.

When Beth reached out to get one last bite of couscous from her plate, the noise startled Bella.

When Bella got startled, she kicked out her previously-tucked back legs.

When Bella kicked out her back legs, she kicked the open door to her crate.

When the crate door suddenly clanged, it really startled Bella.

In her terror Bella tried to leap directly into my lap on the couch.

Normally the couch is totally forbidden, but when a dog goes from lying down peacefully and deeply asleep to terrified and meek and attempting to get into your lap for protection, it seems to be something that escapes scolding. Anyway, she got her wits about her mid-jump and backed off. Then, out of a combination of relief that she wasn't in danger and fear of being in trouble she head-butted Beth's fork and sent couscous flying. Then she was even more afraid that she'd get in trouble. Instead, she just had to lie still for a few seconds while we picked up most of the couscous bits (what do you call those things, anyway? are they grains like rice?*). Then she got to come in and finish the cleanup before going back to sleep.

* granules, apparently. Somehow I find that disappointing.

Tailgate Alaska (Thompson Pass)

Two weekends ago I got sent to Thompson Pass, outside of Valdez, AK, for work. This is about 140 miles from home as the crow flies, but over 300 miles as the car drives, which takes a looooooong time in an RV towing a trailer with a couple of snowmachines. The red star on the map below shows where Thompson Pass is. Thompson Pass is one of the snowiest places in Alaska, if not the world, having recorded almost 1,000" of snow in a single season at the elevation of the pass itself (~2,800') and 62" of snow in a single day, while the surrounding peaks at elevations of 5,000-8,000' receive even greater snowfalls. I was sent there to inspect the site of Tailgate Alaska, which was issued a land use permit by the State of Alaska, and to check in with several other permit holders while I was in the area. I actually got lucky to draw this duty, since the DNR employee who actually issued these permits is currently pregnant and couldn't make the trip herself. Tailgate Alaska is basically the spectator/lodging/commercial component of the World Extreme Ski Championships and the King of the Hill snowboard competition. Even though the competitions themselves were on hiatus during our visit due to low visibility, it was still pretty cool to be there. I got to go on one snowboard tour which was fun despite the low visibility and sun-baked snow, and I also got to play around a bit on a snowmachine (getting myself some "brap! brap!" in the local jargon). Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip:

Thompson Pass, near Valdez, AK, is in the High Chugach, where most of the surrounding peaks are at least 6,000 feet high (and up to 13,000 feet), as opposed to the western part of the range where peaks are generally <6,000 feet and no more than 8,000.

Main street of Tailgate Alaska was a sloppy muddy mess after about noon each day. But thats what rubber boots are for, right?

At Tailgate, there were a number of places like this where you could get yourself a cup of coffee or a snack.

Therre were also places like this, that looked a bit more permanent.

Here I am, staying out of the mud and heading down to inspect the permit at the beer garden.

Beer garden closed. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taking a break from some of our inspection-related travel.

Snowmachine helmets weigh like 50 pounds. My neck is still tired.

Here is me getting ready to go for a quick tour in the afternoon and looking stupid.

At the top of the tour, the light was flat and it was impossible to see any texture to the terrain. Here I am hoping for the best before starting my descent into a ravine that promised better visibility and a chance for soft snow.

little sister, bigger surgery

My little sister went under the knife today to either fix or remove a torn meniscus (depending on what the doc finds in there). I'm guessing she should actually be out of surgery by now, but she could probably still use it if people sent some love her way. Have a quick recovery, sis!

(Note: I realize that in the clever graphic I created, the phrase "please stand by" might seem a bit ironic and cruel in this situation. No pun was intended, and given that my only alternative image showed a puppy unplugging an electrical cord (i.e.: pulling the plug), I thought a monkey eating film was the way to go.)

BIG TOE, little surgery

I got part of my big toenail removed yesterday due to it repeatedly becoming ingrown. Don't worry, I don't actually have any gross pictures to share. Just one of my toe in a bandage. The blood spots are from the anesthetic injections.

I was really stressed out yesterday because the idea of removing the right side of my toenail just creeped me out and because I kept waiting for pain to set in. Well, it turned out that it never got too painful at all (about as unpleasant as a strong itch) and when I got a look at it while changing the bandage the wound turned out to be pretty minimal. So in the end I feel a little sheepish for limping around all yesterday, although I guess its nice that the limp wasn't justified.

Bella and the drink

About a week ago, Bella went into the drink. We were out walking in the woods by home when I decided to cross the creek which had been frozen solid a few days earlier to get to a spot where I could let her roam off-leash. It turned out the creek was completely melted, but only about 6 feet wide. I kicked the snow to find a sturdy take-off spot and jumped across and as I landed I heard a big "Spa-loooosh!"

I turned around to see Bella in the water, which was about 2 feet deep. She tried to scramble out on the side I was on, but the bank was about 2 feet high and she couldn't make it. She tried the other side and couldn't make it out there either. So she came back to my side and clung to the bank, staring up at me as if to say "you're going to solve this, right?" It was all pretty pathetic, and definitely satisfied my love of seeing animals do uncoordinated things.

At first, I couldn't get a good angle to lift her out, so she had to wait for a couple minutes while I kicked away at the snow and ice to get as low as I could. Eventually I had to just haul on her collar and drag her up the bank. She thanked me by moving 3 inches away from me before shaking ice-cold muddy creek water on me. Amazingly, she never looked cold when she was in the water or out. And once rescued she was excited to out on a walk! I kind of wish I'd gotten a picture of her in the creek, but I think its good that I didn't delay getting her out. Still she looks kind of pathetic in these pictures, taken about a minute after getting back onto dry land.