Too Much Excitement for Small Town Alaska

Today, it was very hazy outside, I assume from smoke. I stepped outside and was shocked at how warm it felt. It was over 60F, and it felt...muggy. It was an odd weather pattern for Homer. It stayed warm like that all day. When I checked the temperature at 7:30pm, it was almost 70, despite the cloudy skies.

---

In other news, I am appalled today, at what has occurred in the past 24 hours. The shooting at the Dark Knight Rises showing is horrible. I feel so bad for the families of the victims and wounded. A thought that continued to cross my mind today was also..compassion for the shooter. I expect that is an uncommon reaction to this situation, but what on earth happened to the guy to convince him that what he did was a good idea? =/

And then, in Alaska this week, last week, we had a local man shot to death in his house, and I assume there are no suspects. On July 10, we had a float plane crash into Beluga Lake killing a woman on board. Then, this past Sunday, a lady drove erratically down the highway, and ended up in a shootout with a trooper, and the highway was closed for several hours. Today, a man kidnapped and carjacked an 18 year old in Anchorage, made the kid drive down the highway, and the kid ended up escaping and driving back to Anchorage, leaving the kidnapper there. The highway was on lockdown for a few hours and the kidnapper is still at large at this point in time.

What the heck is going on down here on my peaceful Peninsula?!

---

Many evenings in the past several weeks have been spent watching Mases stream on Twitch. It is fun to watch him stream random old games and interact with the chat, including participants we enjoyed getting to know during our marathon. It's been a fun way to relax after a long day.

We went to the beach two nights ago with the youth group. It was lots of fun, and the weather was lovely down there! I love going to the beach when it is actually warm!

The week previous, I played volleyball for the first time in years, and from my first hit, it was a baaad idea. I hit the ball many times in over an hour and by the end, my arms were very red and they hurt quite badly. By the next morning, the blood rushing down my arms when they were below my heart was quite painful, they were still red and covered in small purple dots..apparently a common occurrence when playing volleyball after your arms are not used to it. Over a week later, the pain is pretty much completely gone, but I bruised pretty good in a few places. It looked bad :P

This past Tuesday was lovely. It was really warm (for here!) and the sun was shining! We ended up going to finally see Brave. It was a matinee showing and we arrived later than we planned, but there was only one family inside the theater with us at first....so we grabbed an open couch (yay!) and settled in. We enjoyed it, laughing throughout and crying at the end. I thought it was a bit much for young viewers. I was impressed that Disney actually had TWO parents for Merida, though the men were stereotypically silly. I'm glad we saw it :)

Welp, that's what's been on my mind lately :)

BUSY

I just want to pop in and say that I may be scarce for a while. Life is back to the busy busy busy routine. This week, I have been outside for several hours a day and the weather has been glorious. I've gone shooting nearly every night as well and my "to edit" backlog is quite large now. But the main thing is that we have been continuing with our outside house repairs for the past week. We need to get it done and summer is already on its way out at this point. C has been working on it just about every day and I've been doing quite a bit as well. I can't justify coming inside to edit photos when he is slaving away out there :) I hope to do a long post explaining what has taken us 2 summers to do when it is all finished!!

Photos to Share for the Middle of July

You know it is finally summertime when the Poot's Peak Panda starts to lose its snowy face. It is completely gone now.

How many people have this amazing view going down their street? :)

This is Reggie-star, the newest worker at work :) A paper star!

This is 71F at 7:36 pm :) Glorious!

Saw a hairstyle on Pinterest and made my own version. <3

Lastly, these are the pajamas my parents got me for my birthday (St. Patrick's Day) and I finally got around to taking a photo of them :)

Thoughts from my Weekend in Retail

Ahh life. Today is officially what my boss calls "the halfway point" of the summer season at work. May 1 to July 15 to September 30. Seems much farther along than that, but it feels good to be half done!

Working with the public tends to make a lot of workers cynical and jaded, as well as easily annoyed. I, unfortunately, count myself into this group. But every once in a while, you encounter customers that really make your day great. Yesterday morning, I had two separate, older tourist couples in the same few minute time period that I really enjoyed talking to. They asked intelligent questions and also had a lot of interesting things to say. When one of them came back an hour later, we continued our discussion. Those are the times that I love working retail!

And then you get the weird questions/comments. Here are some from this weekend.

"Is there a deli nearby to get a cup of soup?" Mmmmm...no. The man was genuinely disappointed at the thought of traveling a ways to get to the grocery store, and at the lack of restaurants open nearby. Welcome to small town living :)

Fireweed, our lovely pink weed, can be made into jelly and honey, and both are very good. Apparently there is a plant in the Lower 48 also called fireweed that is named because it burns the skin or something. Completely different plant. But I have had many customers shy away from the fireweed products because they expect that it will be hot and it could not be further from the truth. Fireweed is a very sweet, light tasting flavor. I had someone today decide against trying fireweed because they thought it would be "hot".

There is a caribou head mounted onto the wall in the store and I had a man this morning call out to his friend, "Have you seen this moos?" I suppose it could be an easily made mistake...

"Are the pretzels salt free?" No...isn't that what makes pretzels taste good? And if you are going to eat chocolate, something that isn't super healthy for you, why bother with lower salt content?

On a similar note, if you see chocolate covered bacon, why on earth would you assume it is low fat bacon?

My favorite from yesterday: A customer was asking about food caches, and was curious if they were houses for bald eagles. Funny thought right there!

I noticed a man sitting on one our many "husband" benches around the store, but paid no attention. Several minutes later, I walked by and realized his baseball cap was over his eyes and he was taking a nap :) No one bothered him, and he woke up a while later, and I overheard him telling his family that it was refreshing :)

A saying seen today: "Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how it remains so popular?"

I get asked countless questions every day, but there are couple that people continue to ask me and I am almost dumbfounded sometimes by them.

I tell people where the restroom is many, many times a day. Most of the time, it is a generic, "Where is your restroom?" but every once in a while, usually kids but not always, I get, "Do you know where the bathroom is?" To which I sarcastically want to reply with, "No, I just work here."

Along similar lines....I have gotten asked more times that I can count, the genius question of: "Do you work here?" No...I just like to wear this uniform and stand behind this counter for entertainment!!

In other news, apparently this is the coldest July on record so far, at least for Anchorage. Upon reflection, it HAS been a cold summer so far, and pretty dreary. This morning, the clouds were quite oppressive and it looked like a winter morning outside since it was so dark. It poured rain all day and eventually lightened up a bit, but it was depressing for a while!

Spit Bike Ride

Last night, I went for a bike ride on the Spit with a friend. I actually have only ever done it once before, and that was only one way. I was a bit intimidated by the thought of a probably 8 or 9 mile bike ride, but I figured with my new bike, it would be a breeze. It was!

We went to Finn's Pizza, a lovely place on the last boardwalk, and got a split margherita/pear pizza. It was wonderful, as always!

We finished our meal and then headed back. It was a lovely evening and I stopped a few times to take some photos. I wished that I had brought my DSLR along...next time :)

It was a lovely ride and I can't wait to do it again!

Back from Chicago

We got home from our much needed trip on Tuesday evening and I immediately hit the ground running with photo editing to get it all done. I had hundreds of photos to edit despite having edited hundreds of other while away. Turns out it is so much easier to edit on a desktop computer instead of a netbook ;)

It was so nice to sleep in our own bed when we got home. We got very little sleep while we were gone and since then, (not sure about C) I know that I have gotten lots of restful sleep, probably trying to catch up, but it's felt super nice. The weeds in the lawn were taking over, so we took care of that last night finally. Our Alaskan summer has officially started...it's been wonderful weather since we arrived home. It was 70F when I got home from work at 7:30 tonight :) Rode my bike to work and it was a lovely, warm ride for the first time this year. I stopped on the way home to take my first lupine photos of the season as well.

I keep gushing to people in person about this, so I have to say it for the record. I am so glad we went on this trip. I needed a vacation so badly, and I didn't realize how good it would be for me to get out of work and this town. A few hours after we arrived, I realized how carefree I felt and the huge weight from work was gone. It was excellent! In fact, the trip was so relaxing (for me at least) that I didn't want to come home. It was a strange feeling to not be looking forward to coming home, but I was content where I was. Once we got to the airport to head home, though, I was ready to be on my way.

The other thing I want to say is that I had a blast. It was tons of fun seeing our internet friends and we fit right into the camaraderie immediately. The marathon event was tons of fun, from the antics of the other people there to the fun chat we had to interact with. After the 5 day marathon was finished, we did all kinds of fun things as a group. It was my most favorite trip, just because nearly every moment was entertaining and fun, and it will be hard to top it, next time :)

I was concerned that I was to be the only girl there. I thought I would be going stir crazy with no girl to chat with all the time, but I was fine. I am usually quiet in groups of more than 3 people, for the most part, but with 9 of us there, I was more vocal than I usually am, so that was nice too.

I will be doing some trip recaps here in the hopefully very near future. The current goal is to get the photos finished and then I can focus on blogging. I've been itching to blog as much as I've been itching to edit the images, but the photos won out because they require less thought :)

It's June Already!

I'm having a hard time believing it is June already! For one thing, our weather has been less than stellar so far this summer. It was nice and warm in April and then May left a lot to be desired. We've had lots of gloomy days since then. On Tuesday, I had my first day off in weeks that was actually beautiful and warm all day. A couple weeks back, it wasn't sunny, but the temperature was nice. This week was warm and sunny with blue skies all day. I watched the Venus transit from my yard with a lawn chair and enjoyed every minute :)

Tuesday morning, I went out on the Spit to explore the shops that were not open a couple of weeks ago. There are some wonderful items that I would love to purchase out there (that I don't need :P) but I went with a mission in mind of getting a sweatshirt and I found one that I adore. I'll post a photo of it soon.

C had a cold over Memorial weekend and I was praying that I wouldn't receive the gift, but I did. *sigh* So I battled it for a week, and I am finally feeling better, but by Tuesday evening, I felt terrible. It put a kink into some socializing plans [:(] but I'm glad that I postponed them, especially because it poured rain on Wednesday!

I had a productive weekend though, getting ready for our upcoming trip and cleaning the house like crazy, which is so satisfying :) More details on the trip to come...

Ashley's Ice Cream!

Ashley invited me to share some of her homemade ice cream a few weeks back! Strawberry ice cream is amazing, especially homemade and on a beautiful afternoon! Thanks again, friend :)

11:30 Rainbow

This is a rather poor photo, but I took this at 11:30pm. The sun was pretty much gone from the sky, but many people around town so this. I wish I had been at the beach, but it disappeared quite soon after I shot this.

---

The last two days were absolutely amazing weather wise. The past few summers have been less than great most of the time, but in the past 2 days, I have been remembering the summers of my childhood. I had begun to think I was crazy, but I got to experience them all over again. The past two days have been gloriously warm. The rest of the country is under extreme heat it seems, but it is just right here. I spent several hours reading outside, just soaking in the sunshine that I never get enough of.

I also attempted to do some work outside in it and had to stop after about 20 minutes because it was "too hot" ;) But really, these have been the days that keep me dealing with the cold of winter!

Budding

I just love new growth!

---

Yesterday at work...

- Saw the fattest bumblebee I have ever seen. It was over an inch long, and we had to kill it. Unfortunately, it was stubborn and took many, many whacks of the shoe to die. :(

- We had twin moose calves wander through (yep, I got some pics!) and a customer saw me out taking pics, and then shortly after I was back inside. "Are you on moose patrol?" Apparently...yes!

Sea Otter and a Boat

It is probably a bad thing, but much of the wildlife here is a bit desensitized to humans. The black dot in the water is a sea otter. The boat went right next to it and it did not dive under.

I just found it interesting! I want to be in the boat, shooting the otter!

---

I have been taking daily trips in different parts of my new yard lately to see how the plants are doing (the weeds!). I have been taking my camera and macro lens around for many of these jaunts so I can capture what I see. Last night, I wandered to the property line and was quite happy with what I found - ferns, watermelon berry plants, raspberry bushes, and several other plants I did not expect to find! Unexpected blessings :)

---

Today is the first Memorial Day off I have had since I started working. So weird, but it is nice to have a 3 day weekend with C! We don't get too many of those together. We don't have any plans as of yet, but definitely to enjoy this weather! Did you do anything special for the holiday weekend?

Mom Caught a Fish!

I was on the beach the other day, watching people fishing. I have seen people fishing there for years, but have never seen anyone catch anything. In the span of 10 minutes, I watched 3 fish being caught! This one was caught by the mom in this family.

The dog was not sure what to think of it! He kept running away, then barking at it.

:)

Mandatory photos :)

Sending him back off to sea!

It was fun to watch the little boy and the dog excitedly running around. It was even more fun when I saw this family the next day at my work! I don't know them, but it was fun to see them.

---

I was out working in our front yard 2 nights ago when a neighbor across the street came outside in his underwear and proceeded to wander around his vehicles and such. I was a bit amused and horrified and wandered elsewhere for a few minutes! The reports from someone who knows him is that he is rather...eccentric. Guess so!

---

The green has finally popped! I love seeing all the color after so many months of white and brown. I wandered through a friend's garage sale yesterday morning and she gave me a Columbine start....we'll see if I can get it to grow! I love Columbines and would love to take more photos of them. Eventually I would love to cultivate flowers and a vegetable garden, but it won't be this summer.

I like the idea of a rock garden as well. I think I have more ideas than I have time and money, though! How many of you are avid gardeners, or don't have a green thumb at all?

Sea Sponge and Seaweed

I found a sea sponge on the beach at the sunset a few nights ago. I wanted to capture it, so I changed my perspective a little and took some long exposure shots of it.

Seaweed makes for an interesting subject with long exposures as well.

It is so ghostly looking, or something.

I enjoy how abstract this one looks!

---

I have had a couple of busy days!

On Thursday, I met up with Ashley to welcome her to town, and I believe I speak for the both of us when we hit it off :) It was fun getting to know her for a couple hours in the sunshine!

After our un-coffee date, I took a drive onto the Spit for one last hurrah before the tourists come out in force. I spent some time walking the beach with the goal of shooting some eagles. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day, and the wind was calm. I stood on the beach sand for a second and just soaked in the warmth from it, finally!! It was wonderful to stay on the beach, in flip flops no less, and not get cold. Summer is on its way!

I came home from there, and sat in my yard in my lawn chair and read a book for a while. I came inside and immediately realized that my face was sunburnt! Slightly regretting not keeping an eye on it, but oh well! I don't usually tan, so I will likely go back to pasty white.

---

Yesterday evening,  we went to a friend's house and watched the new Narnia movie: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I have to admit, I'm glad I didn't pay money to watch it in the theater =/ The deviations and added things from the book kinda messed up the story, as well as the message. Some of it was awesome to see though.

I'm not sure I will be adding it to my collection either. It would have to be a really good deal for me to do so.

August

August has been busy so far.

C had to work this past Tuesday again, so I went on a photoshoot with a friend. The lighting was glorious, with just a hint of sunshine for us. It was wonderful, except the mosquitoes ate me alive!

I came home and later that afternoon went to see Toy Story 3 with Mom. It was so good! And so fun to see it with Mom.

---

When I was at work on Monday, someone came to the door with a lovely orange cat, saying it was lost. She took it up into the woods, and mentioned it had a collar with a phone number on it. We forgot about him, until later when I hear him yowling. I went to the door to see what was happening and he saw me. Quite excited to see a human, the kitty bounded towards me and tried to come into the building with me. My boss let me carry him up to the woods again. He was a really nice kitty that wasn't afraid of me at all, which was sweet :) He hung around a bit more, and then I went home.

The bunny is still hopping around our yard!

---

I've been keeping an eye to the skies in the evening to catch a glimpse of the northern lights, but it has been too cloudy. Tonight has potential, if only a bit, though!

Well, I just wanted to say hello.

Day 14

Day 14 of the sugar fast. I haven't given in yet, but I sure am craving sugar! It feels like I am eternally hungry, since I am wanting something sweet. I'm dreaming of brownies and chocolate in the end of August!

---

Two posts ago, I whined about not getting to shoot the sunset. I was able to shortly after that! The sunset looked promising, but I never got that far, because a rainbow appeared. The sunset fizzled out before it became amazing, so I was able to focus (ha) my attention on the rainbow and its reflection on a lake.

---

I was able to buy plane tickets for our trips in the coming months. Very excited to be getting out of town. Not excited to be leaving during fall time, but that is a price I pay, I suppose.

I need to purchase a laptop before too long so I can complete my school work while I am away from home. I have been looking at several, and while I don't need anything special, I do want a bit of processing speed so I can potentially edit photos on the road. Main reason for this purchase would be for school, but the other would be for a photo dump. Now that I shoot RAW, my photo file sizes are incredible, and I fill up memory cards like crazy.

---

I am continually saving up money for camera stuff, and I am running into the chicken and the egg problem. My camera is slowly dying. Canon Rebel's don't last long, and I have run it hard in the past year and a half that I have had it. It's most definitely still usable and in working condition, but I am afraid it will not be much longer. I have set my sights on a much more expensive camera, but it will take me years to save up for it. In addition to this problem, the full frame camera will not work with my wide angle lens. Buying better lenses is a great investment, so I have been saving up for those first and foremost. Maybe the solution is to buy a step up in the camera department after this one bites the dust instead of going straight for the pro level one. Not sure.

---

In other news, summer is sort of winding down. The fireweed is in full bloom, less tourists are coming through and the days are getting shorter. I start school in a month.
Many people have been complaining about how rainy and miserable this summer is. I admit that it has been quite rainy, but I really have not noticed it much. I work inside all week, so I don't get much chance to enjoy it, and I don't let the weather faze me when I am out shooting, so I suppose I have been a bit oblivious to it. I do wish it would be warm a bit more, since summer is almost gone.

---

C and I have a weird work week. Our weekend occurs on Tuesday and Wednesday, and not Saturday and Sunday. It makes it obnoxious to go to church and Saturday events, but we get time off during the week when weekday businesses are open. It also makes lunch dates less stressful as there are less people milling around.

Yesterday, C had to work  and he has to do so on next Tuesday as well. It's all overtime pay, which will be nice, but we'd rather he have the day off instead!

Going into the day, I was a bit confused as to what I was supposed to be doing. Working full time makes me forget that I get to stay at home all winter long. I did the dishes, then went to lunch with a friend, and did the grocery shopping. Then I came home. I ended up finishing up a book I had been reading at work all week on my lunch breaks. Then went out to shoot some flower photos in the yard. Next week I will probably watch a movie.

It's just not the same without him at home!

---

Photo by the other photographer at the wedding we shot of our friends' last month. I am really happy with this image!

We went on a hike last weekend and I was taking waterfall shots. Unfortunately, a slow shutter speed does not work well for self portraits!

---

I love summertime, because that means that my summer is free for reading novels, instead of textbooks! Here are some I have completed so far:

• Crazy Love by Francis Chan: I had heard piles about this book, and finally picked it up. I ended up skimming through it again after I was finished with it, because it was so thought provoking. Great book for shaking up the mundane Christian life.
• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater: The newest teenage obsession. An interesting read. The second book just came out, but I have not picked it up yet (saving my money, as stated earlier!)
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: I found this book at the thrift store after having it on my wish list. I have not seen the movie yet. It was an interesting story, but I was depressed after finishing it. I might rent the movie next Tuesday to watch by myself.
• The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker: Ted is my favorite author, hands down, but his recent "supernatural thrillers" are not my cup of tea. This will probably be the last one I read for a while. Seems like he has been beating the same drum for several books now, and I am not interested in the creepiness of it.
• Never Let You Go by Erin Healy: Debut novel from an author who collaborated on two of Ted Dekker's books, that I enjoyed. This was also a "supernatural thriller" like Ted's, but it was not as dark. Good message at the end. I definitely could see Ted's influence in her writing.
  
• The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood b Rebecca Wells: I really don't know anything about this book, but I have seen many copies of it at the thrift store and decided I could spend 50 cents on it. I started it this morning, and so far I am ambivalent on continuing.
  
• In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore: I heard the praises sung on this nonfiction book, so it is on my to read list next.

---

This is probably the longest post I have written in a long while!

Swimsuits, Ugh

A pet peeve of mine: finding a swimsuit.

It is impossible to find a modest swimsuit in junior's size.

The last swimsuit I bought, I was in early high school, and it was a small women's suit. I need a new one! I have a tankini, so I do have something, and I do have a couple bikinis, but I want something that I am not uncomfortable wearing.

Basically, all that is available for teenagers are bikinis, monokinis (with those hideous cutouts on the sides) or halter top one pieces. I just want a swimsuit like this in a junior's size with a cute design! And hopefully under $100!!

Apparently it's too much to ask, because I have not found anything like this, and when I have, it is completely out of my price range for the amount of time I will be wearing it. Any ideas?