Cue music: Snow, snow, snow, snow

My Facebook and Twitter networks are abuzz with reports of the weather in the Pacific Northwest this week. Friends from Seattle to Portland to Boise are reporting the stuff snowballs are made of causing early release at work, school cancellations and delayed flights. We've had snow for months and dealing with it becomes second nature here. So all the commotion made me want to take my camera for a run around the neighborhood to share what our accumulation looks like this time of year.

Drive safe out there, friends. Oh, and it's minus-10 degrees here today!

 Sometimes I take these stately evergreens for granted. I'll try to be better about that.

Snow berms block sidewalks, houses and impede the width of the road by feet. It actually changes the look of the streets. We almost missed out street turn multiple times after coming back from vacation to more snow. Sad, I know.

We are lucky to have a snow service included in rent, so this little walkway along the house is courtesy those fine folks. My front yard is flush with the walkway, so this best illustrates the snow level here.

 Davin plays in the vacant lot next door.

Snowy days

Davin played in the snow until it was dark yesterday. After a failed attempt to make a snowman on my part — snow wouldn't pack — I gave up and took pictures.

And it begins

Just when we were all thinking Anchorage kids might be lucky enough to have a snow-free Trick-or-Treat this Halloween — this happened. Anchorage got it's first measurable snowfall last night. Goodbye green. Hello white for the next six months.

The cats didn't know what to make of this strange cold stuff.

 The pumpkins looked a little distraught too.

City moose everywhere

We read that the Aurora Borealis (aka Northern Lights) was especially active last night — even reports that it could be seen in the southern United States. Did anyone see it? We decided to drive up to Flat Top and see if we could see them. It was too cloudy, but we did see these moose on edge of Hillside Road. We've been spotting them all over town the past couple days, including a monster sized male a block from Davin's school this morning.

Nearly three years in Alaska and I've yet to see the Aurora. The city is too bright to see them, so we have to look outside of town. It's on my Alaska bucket list.

Friday Fun: City moose

OK, not my best iPhone photographic work ever, but if you look carefully you can see a mama moose and her baby basking in the shade between two apartment buidlings not far from our home. We spotted them on the way to open swim at the pool with Davin recently. Moose show up all over the city during the summer, but Alaskans know to be careful not to disturb a mama moose. They are very protective.

A bike ride to the market

We hopped on our bikes and rode the four miles each way downtown to the Anchorage Market and Festival this weekend. We took the Tony Knowles Coastal trail most of the way, which winds along Cook Inlet. The view was beautiful and the exercise was pretty nice too.

 Bridge over Northern Lights Boulevard.

 Mudflats off the coastal trail.

 Tony Knowles Trail.

 Handmade ulus at the market.

 Westchester Lagoon.

Summer evenings look like this

 We played in the front yard the other night and I took a few pictures.

Barbecuing weather, another sign of spring

We busted out the barbecue on Saturday for the first time this spring. A a couple friends came over to help us drink wine and enjoy the first barbecue of spring at our house. Davin even cracked open the sidewalk chalk from his Easter basket.

I can't believe it's May already. It hit me the other night when I looked at the clock and was shocked to see it was 10 p.m. already and still broad daylight out. Thank goodness for the blackout shades in the bedrooms at the new place. I love this time of year!

Friday Fun: Good neighbors

My sweet neighbor lady dropped by with yummy cupcakes to share during my lunch break yesterday. I love finally having nice neighbors after years of weirdos in the apartments I've lived in.

Excited to fire up the grill this weekend and have dinner on the deck. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Friday Fun: What's happening on Anchorage's street corners?

Sadly, people standing on the street corner with cardboard signs is no surprising sight in Anchorage. However, these guys did catch my attention over the past couple days. Forgive the iPhone photo quality.

1. Josh had his facebook friends participate in a caption contest for the left photo captured at the corner of Dimond Blvd. and Old Seward. I later found our from a co-worker that this locally-known personality is a regular at this corner AND a regualar caller to one of the radio stations. So the deejay's decided to get him the cell phone he's chatting on to encourage his calls.
2. This is just blocks from my house, at the corner of Minnesota and Spenard, and I almost missed it in my 5 o'clock drive haze. But alas, I looked to the left while waiting for my green and saw this glorious site. I wonder what his story is... Lost bet? You can't see it in the photo, but he's also holding a guitar in his left hand.

I didn't expect to wake up to this today

I was hoping for green, not white. It hadn't snowed in weeks, so I was surprised to find my car and driveway looking like this, this morning. I was already running behind and was not pleased to have to de-snow everything. Then I got stuck behind the guy that drives 10 mph and straddles lanes every time it snows on half my drive to work.

I hope you're St. Patrick's Day got off to a better start than mine. Enjoy the celebration of everything Irish. I hope Obama is having the ultimate celebration at his St. Patrick's Day reception hosting the Irish president today, as I heard he would be on NPR while strolling along the snowy streets.

Cheers and good luck!

Meeting the Anchorage assembly candidates

We were invited to an event at supporting the Democratic assembly candidates in Anchorage at Sen. Mark Begich's home last night. Assemblywoman Harriet Drummond's campaign falls in Josh's advertising sales region and our home neighborhood as well. Both are West Anchorage. It was fun to see such a group of blues gathered in a red state last night. We were honored to be invited.

A celebration in a new place

We had some friends over Saturday to celebrate finally getting settled in our new duplex. And to thank the folks that helped us lug the heavy stuff across town. Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate.

The kids had a dance party.