Frosted over

Days of heavy fog and temperatures in the teens created a heavy coat of frost over ... everything.

Ice crystals extending from a sign in my parking lot.

I wasn't the only one out taking pictures.

Waiting patiently for summertime. It appears my neighbors don't have snow tires for these bikes. (Many Alaskans do sport extra-tough tires for all-weather cycling.)

An icy sign.

Swedish Fish and gingerbread

Davin and I made a gingerbread house yesterday. He was the clever one who though Swedish Fish would make good gingerbread house decor. I think it turned out pretty well.

Wedding Web site

I put up a Web site with details on our wedding including travel and lodging information, who's who in the wedding party and more. Check it out.

Cellular silence

An ADN story on today's blizzard reports: "AT&T's cell phone network had problems across Anchorage this morning, and many users still had no cellular coverage by midafternoon, though it was not known if that issue was weather related. An AT&T spokeswoman working at home Wednesday could not be reached because her cell phone did not have service."

Sledding at Kincaid

Davin takes the plunge on his new sled at Kincaid Park on Saturday. Now that we finally have enough snow to play in, we took advantage of a rare Saturday when we're all home together and bundled up for an afternoon of sledding.

We were not the only ones with the idea. The parking lot was full and the hill was littered with people and sleds in various phases of sliding, crashing and hiking up the hill. The mountain across the Cook Inlet in the distance is the Sleeping Lady.

Getting bundled up.

Negotiating just one more "last" run.

Trudging up the hill. I ran out of energy long before the boys did and hung out at the top taking pictures toward the end of the afternoon.

They don't fly Charlie Brown Christmas trees to the Last Frontier

This year I wasn't going to let Alaska's limited supply of Christmas trees best me. We set out Friday night to Minnesota Bob's Christmas tree lot to find the perfect evergreen. While it's off the corner of Minnesota Drive, the lot is actually named for the origin of the trees. You can imagine prices with that kind of travel. But we were still able to find a winner. The kittens were very interested in their new toy. I will probably spend weeks trying to work the sap out of their fur.

Getting the ornaments ready to go while Joshua and I light the tree.

Putting the new LED, environmentally- (and power bill-) friendly, lights up.

Davin puts the star on top. This reminds me of fighting with my brother over whose turn it is to put the topper on our family tree as kids.

The final product after an evening of "It's a Charlie Brown Christmas" soundtrack inspired decorating.

Here's to 26

Year 26 begins. I celebrated with friends at our favorite wine bar, Crush, in downtown Anchorage. I had a champagne flight for the occasion. It was lovely.

November also marked the beginning of my second year living in Alaska.

Turkey day

Our friends Tony and Alisa joined us for Thanksgiving. The snow came down hard for hours the night before. We spent the day watching a marathon of Christmas movie and of course eating a fantastic meal.

Prepping mashed potatoes.

The feast.

 

Alisa made candied apples for cool twist on dessert.

 

Tony on the phone with his grandma, wishing his family a happy Thanksgiving.

Davin trodding down the fresh 8 inches of snow outside the balcony.

A walk in Kincaid Park

 We took a short walk in Kincaid Park this afternoon. Kids were sledding on the barely snow-covered ground. The breeze made 22 degrees feel much cooler, but Davin still rolled in the snow as much as he could manage. Then we took a drive along the Turnagain Arm. Huge chunks of snow and ice floating on the inlet and ice frozen blue on the hillside made for a scenic drive. The photos are all from the park.

 

Davin earns his Bobcat

Davin joined Cub Scouts at his elementary school this year and was awarded his first badge Thursday. The ceremony had their dads paint a paw print on the boys' foreheads and other colors symbolizing the values of Cub Scouts. I made him stand still for a picture before he washed it off. Watching the dads paint faces was way too cute. Too bad an elementary school gymnasium has pretty much the worst lighting for photos imaginable. Afterward there was a host of Thankgiving themed games complete with turkey bowling -- yes that is rolling a frozen turkey like a bowling ball.

 

Winter has arrived

Snow arrived on Sunday night. We drove to Wasilla and the ground was bare when we left. Two short hours later, Anchorage was blanketed in snow. With highs in the 20s, winter is here to stay. This is the view from my balcony shortly after 8 a.m. Monday ... yes it's dark out much of the day now. We are losing 6-plus minutes of sunlight a day.

My first Alaskan Halloween

Carving pumpkins.

Sarah Palin and Rorschach from "Watchmen" at Bernie's Bungalow in downtown.

Alisa and Tony... or Wayne.

Unseasonalbly warm and other random notes

We had our first snowfall in Anchorage yesterday morning. It didn't even stick. I could live with this.

A bull moose crossing the Seward highway near downtown Anchorage stopped traffic yesterday evening on the way to Davin's parent-teacher conference. This kind of thing doesn't phase seasoned Alaskans, but I still think city moose sightings are noteworthy.

Davin finished his first quarter with straight-As and his teacher is very impressed with him. So am I.

Fairbanks, Chena and North Pole, Alaska

I traveled to Fairbanks with a co-worker this week to report for the Alaska Visitors' Guide. It was unseasonably warm, with highs in the 50s and no signs of snow. Fairbanks is about 6.5 hours from Anchorage by car. Don't plan on stopping between Trapper Creek and Healy -- the businesses at Denali Park Entrance are pretty much boarded up for the winter.

I had a guided tour of Fairbanks' new pride, an auto museum. This is the Ford Model-T Snow Flyer.

This is "Wander Lake" a play on Wonder Lake in Denali National Park. The hotel owner who turned this land into a wildlife preserve saved his visitors' view from tuning into a landscape of Wal-Mart and various other big box stores by buying up more than 70 acres.

Musk ox chow down at University of Alaska Fairbanks Large Animal Research Center.

Hand painted signs adorn a shop in Pioneer Park home to Fun in the Midnight Sun summer festivities. Fairbanks has 24 hours of functional daylight around the Summer solstice. It drops to only 3.5 hours of daylight on its darkest day.

Entrance to Pioneer Park.

 

Pioneer Park reminded me of an Alaskan Disneyland minus the giant mouse.

 

Chena Hot Springs Resort is just more an an hour's drive northeast of Fairbanks. The waters are believed by some to have healing powers.

North Pole, Alaska is just 11 miles outside Fairbanks. This is the Santa Claus house on St. Nicholas Drive. Here, it's Christmas all year long.

Make it Monday media chat

I went to an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce "Make it Monday" forum yesterday to hear local media pros talk about the changing landscape of media, challenges they are facing and what they predict for the future. Aside of the fact I scored tickets to the Spanish Harlem Orchestra as a door prize (ironically donated by Anchorage Press) I also picked up a few clever quotes. Matthew Felling, CBS anchor here in Anchorage, is longtime media critic, former CBS "Public Eye" blogger from D.C. and self-proclaimed "media utilitarian."

A few gems from him on Twitter:
"You need to give what you have the moment you have it."
"Brand yourself as the person in the know."
"Twitter is turning everything into the world's largest cocktail party."
"Give people a well-balenced diet: A little fun, a little protein of hard news and a little bit of ruffage of hard-to-process information."

I think that last one can apply to all kind of media.

German beer. Alaskan food and art.

FRIDAY: We kicked off out weekend with a visit to Oktoberfest at the Egan Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. Then a trip to our favorite Anchorage wine bar, Crush.

TODAY: We picked up some late-season Alaska Grown food. This is the logo for Alaskan produce and agricultural products. There are little Alaska Grown farmers markets all over town through the summer. There's one just a block from my apartment on Saturdays and another in the Carr's (Safeway) parking lot near my work on Wednesdays. The markets season will be over in about two weeks.

It's not uncommon to see people wearing sweatshirts with the Alaska grown logo on it too. Very punny.

Later I'm going to walk over to the Make it Alaska festival at the Sullivan Arena. It's a fair featuring only products, arts, etc. made in Alaska.

>$50 in postage

This is what 110 save the dates looks like right before it goes in the mail. If you know anyone that needs wedding programs, invitations or save the dates ... Or business cards, brochures or other matierals.

Showing off

September was a busy month for me at work. Here's a few links to interactive PDFs of my projects.

Alaska Pulse, a re-invention of the ADN's Healthy Living and Health and Fitness tabs.

Classified's employment team puts on a semi-annual Job Fair and I designed the promotional tab.

And the 2009 Best of Alaska voted by Anchorage Daily News readers.