Once in a Wolf Moon

We were picking up stuff for dinner at Carr's (Alaska-speak for Safeway ... really use your Safeway card there) when I spotted this mini-boat show on the ice-coated parking lot. A boat show in Anchorage ... in January. Makes perfect sense. If only my point-and-shoot could have done a more honorable job with the full moon. I thought the moon was unusually large and bright. Turns out I was right. January 29 the moon made its nearest approach to the earth of the year, coming within 221,577 miles of the earth. It's called a wolf moon in Native American tradition and is considered to be 30 percent larger and 15 percent brighter on this day according to National Geographic online.

Thanks Mom & Dad

My parents sent me this lovely little coat rack/shelf for Christmas -- sans the finish. Joshua and I stained it while watching a movie on a recent Sunday afternoon, and this is the finished product. It even securely holds all our coats despite the fact that we have no idea where the studs are in our apartment wall. I promised my mom I'd post a picture of our handy work. What do you think?

There's something happening with technology

I waited in line Saturday afternoon holding my precious laptop bag while the Geek Squad helped the people in front of me. I shifted foot to foot. Davin spun circles on a nearby stool.

When we got the the front, the woman behind the counter fired up my computer and asked me questions about the problem. Windows look-alike pop ups were telling me "Your computer is infected. Do you want to download anti-virus software now?" They weren't my Windows-style windows ... they were suspicious, with sharp corners instead of rounded ones; blue instead of silver header bars told me the thing giving me warning signs was probably the problem itself.

"You can't even add or delete programs in the system controls," the woman observed. I told her I knew that. Was it fixable?

Mat-Su, glazed in ice

Davin captures a frost-covered image from the car window, from the Glenn Highway between Wasilla and Anchorage.

A wintery walk to the bookstore

No, it's not sunset. The sun just hovers on the horizon all day during the winter ... if it decided to make an appearance from behind the clouds. This is A Street heading south from my apartment. Joshua and I took a walk to the bookstore for some fresh air.

Chester Creek was covered with ice so thick that it didn't melt until late spring last winter. Temperatures have been much more moderate this year.

Joshua loves it when I make him stop for photos.

Christmas morning

Davin tries to choose his next gift from the pile under the tree to open Christmas morning. We had fun filming our Christmas morning with our new video camera. Thank you to our friends and family for all the cards, letters, pictures and presents that made us feel closer to home during the holidays.