Okay – it wasn’t really a vacation – but I did take a bit over a week off work. June 30 is the end of our fiscal year and we cannot carry over more than 160 hours of annual leave. I was right on the cusp of that so needed to take some time off.

Didn’t go anywhere – but did have some much needed down time. I did have to go to work four hours last Wednesday for my CPR training – missed it in January when I had that pesky little heart attack. Other than that – no work for me.

Came home with BIG plans to clean my house and the like – haha! Didn’t happen. Well, I actually got this room straightened a bit – enough that I can at least walk into the room and find my way back out – without having to tie a rope around my waist for safety’s sake.

Hubby and I spent some time with Master TAT a week ago – and TAT and I had that lovely time with Miss Jackie, but other than that I actually kept pretty close to home – taking it easy. It was a much needed break (and, don’t tell anyone, but it is going to be a bit hard to go back to work tomorrow).

Hubby and I decided that I couldn’t let the whole time slip away without at least getting out of town. We thought about running up to Anchorage, but he had some business appointments – so, we thought, how about Seward? It’s closer – so that even if we weren’t able to get a room for Saturday night (and we were not!!! Durned tourists! okay, just kidding) – well, it’s close enough for a day trip that wouldn’t wipe us out completely.

The plan was for us to sleep until we woke up this morning – get breakfast – get coffee – and get on the road. We headed for Seward just about noon. It was a drizzly sort of day, but we did find some sun spots here and there – and we had a lovely time together.

We saw some flora:
that’s an Arctic Rose – stopped alongside Kenai Lake and found a couple of huge bushes – can you see the rain drops? Well, maybe not in this smaller picture, but I hope to get some prints made of the larger shot. By the way – I know of at least one reader who likes to borrow other folks’ pictures. I don’t really mind, but please don’t forget to give credit where credit is due – okay? And it would be nice to ask first. But then, you all knew that.

We saw some fauna – first a shrew hightailed it across in front of our car – it made it safely into the underbrush. We saw a moose on the way home – and we saw a LOT of roadkill – looks like it is a big year for rabbits. (they are cyclical – I can’t remember if they have high years one in seven or one in two – I think it’s one in seven)

We visited the SeaLife Center and saw lots of animals there – harbor seals, and the like.

But on the way back from Lowell Point we saw:

see those two dots????

Here . . .

Sea otters just playing and rolling and eating while a fisherman sat quietly nearby watching them – and while we watched them. So cool!

On looking closer we noticed he did not even have his line in the water – he was so captivated by the otters – and I think he didn’t want to chance getting them tangled up in his line. You see the rushing water next to him? He is sitting on rocks below a spillway I guess you’d call it. Across the road where I am standing is a waterfall – it comes under the road and rushes into Resurrection Bay. His truck was parked nearby – and he walked down onto the rocks where he is sitting.

We also saw some kayakers –

We ate a late lunch/early dinner, walked along the harbor for a bit and then headed home. I took several more pictures in Seward and a couple of shots on the way home – I’ll show you at least the ones from the trip home next time.

I need to get off to bed soon – swimming early tomorrow and then off to work . . .

Posted: June 22nd, 2008 under Alaska, Family, Moose Nuggets, Moosin Around.
Comments: none

Look into the mirror and tell me what you see . . . that is what Shelly is asking. Okay, she is ACTUALLY asking for one of those horror stories we all have in our closets – the one where we got all ready to go out and thought we were at our very, VERY, best-est (is, too a word!) and somewhere along the line, sometime much, much later (mayhaps even after we had gotten home) we discovered that . . .

. . . our hem was torn and hanging, or
. . . our slip was torn, hanging, AND showing, or
. . . we had GREEN stuck in our teeth (no WONDER he didn’t care to kiss us good night), or
. . . we had a “ladder” in our hose – or our seams weren’t straight, or

well, you get the idea. Each of us has something like that in our history – maybe it even happened TODAY!

What’ve you got? What’ve you got to lose? Head on over to Shelly’s and get the skinny on the contest, write it up and email her with a link.

Then, tell all of your friends about it!

Oh, yeah, there are PRIZES, too!!!! How much fun is that?

Posted: June 21st, 2008 under Moose Nuggets, Moosin Around, inspiration.
Comments: 2

Yep, I still know how to type – yup, I’m still here – yup, it’s a busy, busy, moosie life.

However, I am on a sort of mini vacation over the next week – only have to go in one morning to take part in our annual CPR training. I missed my time – due to that little extra trip to the hospital back in January for my own personal CPR stuff. So, I have to do this one, whether it falls in the middle of my week off or not.

’sokay, really. I am not planning to leave the area or anything for this “vacation”. I am simply taking time off now so I won’t lose the built up hours at the end of June. We can only accumulate 160 – and if we have over at the end of the fiscal year they are gone forever (like a certain granddaughter’s little black boots)

Sad thing is, at the beginning of the new fiscal year I will be dismally close to that magical 160 hours again – so, this moosie is going to take some much needed time off over the coming year. Won’t be going much of anywhere, but will definitely find SOMETHING to do . . .

. . . like the last two days of this week; I was joined at the pool by one of the grandboys Thursday morning. He had asked his mama if he could join us – because afterwards he knew I was having breakfast with a friend of mine from CA. He and Miss Jackie had bonded about three years ago on a trip to Seward. I drove her over from Kenai so she could do some research on a book she was writing. TAT and Miss Jackie sat in the back seat of my car – singing and talking together like they had known each other FOREVER – while I got to be the chauffeur. No, I didn’t mind. I enjoyed listening to them.

Miss Jackie was back in Kenai this week to promote her new book about the Jesse Lee Home in Seward and Master TAT had gotten to go hear her speak Wednesday and even had his picture taken with her for a local publication. Now he wanted to join us for breakfast. Of COURSE he was allowed to come along.

We talked and sang and laughed and talked some more. We took pictures and had a wonderful time together before she had to move on with the rest of her day.

TAT and I came home to wake Paw-Paw up and to have a fun day with him – it had been prearranged for TAT to spend the night with us.

Among other things done Thursday, we went to Sport Lake to let the young man try his had at fishing. He caught two pan-sized fish – likely Kokanee Salmon (landlocked, stocked salmon) which he insisted on keeping and taking to his mama to clean and cook up for him.

Friday was a busy day, too. TAT and I started the day with laps at the pool again. Then he and Paw-Paw and I went out for breakfast. Once back home it was chore time – with male bonding over machinery and carwashing at the top of the list.

Thanks, TAT – we had a great time with you.

That’s the first fish he caught. I got lots of pics of the boy having fun, but don’t have permission to show them. Rest assured, Ladybug, I will have copies for you all.

Posted: June 14th, 2008 under Alaska, Family, Moosin Around.
Comments: 1

to make the cashier look at you just a wee bit funny!

Drove over to Soldotna Tuesday to buy a new bathing suit – it is amazing how quickly the chlorine wears out suits, btw!

What with the price of gas and such, it was only a GREAT deal (50% off) that would have me making an extra trip to the next town (24 miles is 24 miles after all – round trip, that is). And, it was only that great deal – in the week prior to payday – that would have me robbing the Hawaii fund to purchase the suit.

I’ve mentioned before that I save my change, roll it and take it to the bank to put it into a special HAWAII FUND for the trip I am planning to make the year I turn 60 (and it is closing in quickly, I might add!) About 6 months after I began saving change I started adding folding money also – saving ones and sometimes fives.

So, I grabbed all the folding money before heading off to Soldotna.

Can you imagine – oh, please do – the look on the cashier’s face when I handed her the suit, watched her ring it up, then handed her a (nicely folded) wad of ones?!!? It was priceless!

She acted like she could hardly bring herself to TOUCH the bills, let alone count them out – even though I counted them right in front of her and had stacked them neatly into piles of ten – she watched me handle them, but could barely contain the snarl of her lips as she picked them up to count them herself.

I just know – and Ladybug even laughed with me this morning as I modeled the new suit and told the tale – that the poor cashier was thinking – “OMG! She’s pretty old to be stripping!”

LOL – honey-chile, that’s not the ONLY way to get one dollar bills! (I’ll let Ladybug tell you what SHE thought the cashier might have been thinking.)

Priceless, I tell you, priceless! I love living in a small town.

Posted: May 15th, 2008 under Alaska, Moosin Around.
Comments: 6

shrinking woman!

look closely at these two pictures . . . count, if you will, the lines above the heads of the two women in the pictures. You would THINK that Ms. Thang would be smiling because . . .

she is (at least) one inch taller than her gramma!!!!!

sigh!

pictures taken at the Ohio Historical Society Museum in Columbus, Ohio. This is the museum which houses the mummy behind which said gramma received her first kiss (awwwwwwwww) when she was only 15 . . . from the hubbymoose, btw . . . who was also 15 at the time.

Again with the awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

but will you just LOOK at how short the moosie is getting! Sheesh! I used to be 5′ 41/2″ – somewhere along the line I lost an inch and she found it! Too bad all that height is going to my girth. lol

We had a great time – this despite the red devil eyes on Ms. Thang and her look of abject misery at (once again) being photographed by her doddering (short) gramma.

hubby moose and I reinacted “the kiss” for her – at her request – so she could get a shot. Unfortunately (or maybe not) that picture is on HER camera.

and, about the angle of my head. Hubby mentioned that I might have been tilting it backwards and so it just seemed that I was an inch shorter. Awww, isn’t he sweet? Even if I had been tilting my head one way or another – the girl is STILL taller than I am. (much to my dismay) but thanks for trying, hubby.

Posted: April 2nd, 2008 under Family, Moose Nuggets, Moosin Around.
Comments: 3