Yeah! We're off work for a week! What do we have planned? What will we do?
Well, part of it is just being off work. I have not had a vacation since around this time last year. Art had off from work between Christmas and New Year's, but I just had the holidays themselves off. So just being able to stay up late if we want and sleep late and just kind of get slow starts to the days will be a break in itself. However, in addition, we have a few other plans...
What will they be? Tune in to find out!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
House Hunting
Art and I have been spending all our free time lately on the house hunt. In our life together so far, we have bought 3 houses so far and sold 2 (praying for the third to sell!), so certain aspects of this house hunt are very familiar. We kind of have it down to a science, and don't bother worrying about a lot of the stuff we were concerned with when we got the first one. However, that was all in PA. This is in Alaska, so as in most things, its a little different.
First, a mass answer to all the emails and calls we have gotten from loved ones - no, we are not going to be getting an igloo. Also, even with all the ice technology advances they have made what with all these new "ice hotels" that are so popular nowadays, we are not getting an ice-duplex or even an ice-townhouse. We are looking in the popular non-melting building material category of housing. Smart alecks! ;)
One thing that is very different here is that everything is pretty new. This is a big switch from the east coast, where you cannot swing a cat without hitting a colonial-era house. It often seemed as though roughly 75% of the housing stock in the Lehigh Valley was constructed around the Revolutionary War era. Not so here. The oldest houses you see are from the late 60's and early 70's, and even that's rare. The big quake of 1964 destroyed most buildings older than that. There has really only been any kind of housing boom here in very recent times, so almost everything is pretty new.
Also, there are very few builders in Anchorage, so if you are in a development, if you have seen one house, you have basically seen them all. This means other than individual houses, which can be surprising in a lot of ways, there is not much variety of style. Oh, there might be a couple of different floor plans, but there isn't going to be a big variety of options to choose from. In a way, this simplifies the search. Once you have looked in a given development, you can kind of assume that any others there will be pretty much the same.
Other than that, it is probably similar to looking for a house anywhere. You have to make your trade offs in what features matter to you and what you are willing to let go of to fit in a price range. But even there, you have to factor in the fact of where you are living. Now, we like to cook on a grill and eat out doors when it is nice out. So we are looking for a place with a place where that is possible. However, how important is that given that it is winter for 6 months out of the year? We would really like a place with a view of the mountains. Enough to live in an otherwise dicey neighborhood? and so on down the line.
We think we might have found our place, and are in negotiations to see if that works out for us. If not, more tales from the dark side await. So that's something to look forward to!
First, a mass answer to all the emails and calls we have gotten from loved ones - no, we are not going to be getting an igloo. Also, even with all the ice technology advances they have made what with all these new "ice hotels" that are so popular nowadays, we are not getting an ice-duplex or even an ice-townhouse. We are looking in the popular non-melting building material category of housing. Smart alecks! ;)
One thing that is very different here is that everything is pretty new. This is a big switch from the east coast, where you cannot swing a cat without hitting a colonial-era house. It often seemed as though roughly 75% of the housing stock in the Lehigh Valley was constructed around the Revolutionary War era. Not so here. The oldest houses you see are from the late 60's and early 70's, and even that's rare. The big quake of 1964 destroyed most buildings older than that. There has really only been any kind of housing boom here in very recent times, so almost everything is pretty new.
Also, there are very few builders in Anchorage, so if you are in a development, if you have seen one house, you have basically seen them all. This means other than individual houses, which can be surprising in a lot of ways, there is not much variety of style. Oh, there might be a couple of different floor plans, but there isn't going to be a big variety of options to choose from. In a way, this simplifies the search. Once you have looked in a given development, you can kind of assume that any others there will be pretty much the same.
Other than that, it is probably similar to looking for a house anywhere. You have to make your trade offs in what features matter to you and what you are willing to let go of to fit in a price range. But even there, you have to factor in the fact of where you are living. Now, we like to cook on a grill and eat out doors when it is nice out. So we are looking for a place with a place where that is possible. However, how important is that given that it is winter for 6 months out of the year? We would really like a place with a view of the mountains. Enough to live in an otherwise dicey neighborhood? and so on down the line.
We think we might have found our place, and are in negotiations to see if that works out for us. If not, more tales from the dark side await. So that's something to look forward to!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
How Dry I Am
One thing you learn in a winter that is this cold for this long is how very much it sucks all the moisture out of you. Anchorage is drying on the skin even in the summer, and by this point in the year it is as dry as...well, as an extremely dry thing.
I happened to look at my hands about midafternoon, and they actually startled me. The last time I saw hands that scaly and horrifying they were attached to Boris Karloff and he was using them to pull himself out of a grave. Everyone at work has Family size lotion dispensers on their desks, and people wander around the office all day wringing their hands like Lady MacBeth -except trying to rub lotion in, not mourning their evil deed. At least in most cases. I halfway wonder if you can get lotion tubs put into houses so you can just lay in moisturizer and soak in it.
I happened to look at my hands about midafternoon, and they actually startled me. The last time I saw hands that scaly and horrifying they were attached to Boris Karloff and he was using them to pull himself out of a grave. Everyone at work has Family size lotion dispensers on their desks, and people wander around the office all day wringing their hands like Lady MacBeth -except trying to rub lotion in, not mourning their evil deed. At least in most cases. I halfway wonder if you can get lotion tubs put into houses so you can just lay in moisturizer and soak in it.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Aiiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!!!
Ok, I just have to vent. This is not a story about living in Alaska. This is a story about moving to Alaska and having a house for sale still on the other side of the country. Our house in Breinigsville (near Allentown for those of you playing along at home) is still for sale. It has been for sale since May, which is extremely galling. Anyway, early this afternoon, we got a call from our real estate agent in Pa, which initially made us happy because we were hoping there was an offer. But no. What she was calling about was that people had been in our house for a showing and one of them was almost overcome by gas fumes and they called the fire department. The people are OK - thank God. As you can imagine, this caused a significant amount of despair on our parts. We took turns making calls and having mini-nervous breakdowns, with the person currently having the least amount of despair manning the phone.
Here is the thing about this sort of situation happening on the other side of the country on a Sunday and three time zones away - there's not a lot you can do. Also, we were getting conflicting reports of what was happening. Art's parents were just there that morning checking on things for us, which they frequently do, and they did not notice anything wrong. Our agent was not on the scene, being away for the weekend, and was relaying things third hand, so she was not able to be that much direct help. Art talked to the fire chief who had been in the house, who said that yes, the house had been full of gas and they had shut off the pilot lights and ventilated the house and closed the valves on the propane tanks. This rang some alarm bells because we had turned off all the pilot lights in the stove when we left in May, and the furnace does not have a pilot light. Art's parents were dispatched back over to the house, where they found the house still at 54 degrees, the stove lid propped up, and no other disarray. We tried to call a propane company, but could not get anyone to help us out today. We thought about calling the office of the development our house is in, but as they have not been of the slightest use so far, are still wondering if we want to waste our breath on them any more. I called my parents, mostly just for sympathy, which they provided - Thanks Mom and Dad!
So now the plan is to have the heating system taken care of - which means throwing more money down this particular pit, but that is a treat for tomorrow. We have exhausted our options of what we can do about the situation for today. So there you go. Alaska is great, but moving sucks!
Here is the thing about this sort of situation happening on the other side of the country on a Sunday and three time zones away - there's not a lot you can do. Also, we were getting conflicting reports of what was happening. Art's parents were just there that morning checking on things for us, which they frequently do, and they did not notice anything wrong. Our agent was not on the scene, being away for the weekend, and was relaying things third hand, so she was not able to be that much direct help. Art talked to the fire chief who had been in the house, who said that yes, the house had been full of gas and they had shut off the pilot lights and ventilated the house and closed the valves on the propane tanks. This rang some alarm bells because we had turned off all the pilot lights in the stove when we left in May, and the furnace does not have a pilot light. Art's parents were dispatched back over to the house, where they found the house still at 54 degrees, the stove lid propped up, and no other disarray. We tried to call a propane company, but could not get anyone to help us out today. We thought about calling the office of the development our house is in, but as they have not been of the slightest use so far, are still wondering if we want to waste our breath on them any more. I called my parents, mostly just for sympathy, which they provided - Thanks Mom and Dad!
So now the plan is to have the heating system taken care of - which means throwing more money down this particular pit, but that is a treat for tomorrow. We have exhausted our options of what we can do about the situation for today. So there you go. Alaska is great, but moving sucks!
Friday, February 13, 2009
It's Just another day...
Well, nothing wildly exciting to write about. It continues to be cold, but not nearly as harsh as before. We are back up to about 8 hours of daylight, so that "long dark" thing - not so much. Last weekend we took a short jaunt to a couple of our favorite siteseeing spots in the area just to see how it looks in the winter. Here are a few of the things we saw...
This is from Beluga point, where we saw whales late this summer. No whales now! This lookout is on the Turnagain Arm, and is just a short drive south of Anchorage. The tide was going out when we were there, which was cool to watch. The entire body of water is choked with ice, and the part in the middle was just drifting back out to sea. There were some flat floes of ice, and some big jaggedy ice boulders, that look like the result of being tumbled back and forth with the tides for some time. If you stood and watched for a bit, you could see how fast it was flowing and how much mass of water was moving through. It was pretty good.!
Then we went back to our old favorite, Flat Top, of top of this page fame.
I have a sort of photography project in mind to take some of the same shots in the different seasons or at different times of day and frame them together. I know! But it keeps me out of trouble...as much as anything can.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
In other news...
I haven't been writing as regularly because we started shopping for a house, which is fun and exciting, but takes up a certain amount of time. The only hitch is that our old house has not sold yet, but we are sure we want to settle here, so we're going for it!
Alaska continues to throw all kinds of excitement at us; here is a sample:
The volcano (Mt. Slacker) continues to rumble, revving up the activity just long enough to get everybody excited again and then dying down.
The Iron Dog competition, which is a big snow machine ( snowmobile for those from the northest) race, is going on right now. The state's First Dude is participating, as I believe he often does. Occasionally you see a truck driving around with a sticker that says "Proud Wife of an Iron Dogger" and we joke that maybe it's Governor Sarah's truck! :)
A group of schoolkids have proposed the malamute as the Alaska State Dog. Despite some grumbly and/or humorous commentary from various columnists, no serious opposition to the measure is expected. So that's something to look forward to!
The countdown to the Iditarod continues, and I'm excited to see the start of that.
So that's the news in brief. Stay tuned!
Alaska continues to throw all kinds of excitement at us; here is a sample:
The volcano (Mt. Slacker) continues to rumble, revving up the activity just long enough to get everybody excited again and then dying down.
The Iron Dog competition, which is a big snow machine ( snowmobile for those from the northest) race, is going on right now. The state's First Dude is participating, as I believe he often does. Occasionally you see a truck driving around with a sticker that says "Proud Wife of an Iron Dogger" and we joke that maybe it's Governor Sarah's truck! :)
A group of schoolkids have proposed the malamute as the Alaska State Dog. Despite some grumbly and/or humorous commentary from various columnists, no serious opposition to the measure is expected. So that's something to look forward to!
The countdown to the Iditarod continues, and I'm excited to see the start of that.
So that's the news in brief. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Day 37 of Volcano Watch...
So the volcano hasn't blown yet. And yes, I know it hasn't really been 37 days. It just feels like it has. Reactions at the tardiness range from relief to annoyance. Also, estimates of potential danger are ranging from "horrible death with post-death zombification" to "a couple milimeters of ash - just settle down". I think most of us though, are kind of thinking "erupt or get off the pot, volcano!" Seriously - it is a slacker, Gen X kind of volcano. It shows lot of potential, but it is lazy and will probably ultimately accomplish nothing.
Since the most reliable estimates are that the worst that's going to happen is a slight inconvenience, it is nice because you don't have to feel bad for wanting there to be a natural disaster. Everyone I have talked to thinks it will be kind of interesting, as do I. It's also fun having the potential there. It's kind of neat to say "We'll see you Saturday afternoon - unless the volcano blows!" That's something you don't get to say in PA - that's for sure. Also, everyone has a timeframe that would work for them. Like," Well, I'm going to the movies with my friend tonight, so the volcano can go anytime after 10:30". Which is kind of funny. I'll have my people call the volcano's people, we'll plan!
Another interesting thing is all the stuff you don't consider if you have never been through any of this before. One lady I work with runs a dogsled as a hobby and consequently has a lot of dogs, which live in kennels in her yard. She needs to think about precautions for the dogs in case the volcano erupts - as the dogs are outside, and breathing the ash is really not a good thing. You shouldn't run computers, since the cooling fans will draw the ash in and screw up your computer. Same with cars, etc. Commercial buildings, because they need to have a ventilation system, can't be open - the fans will draw in ash, which...well, see above.
There have been a few other things going on here in AK, which I will be writing about again soon. Unless the volcano erupts!
Since the most reliable estimates are that the worst that's going to happen is a slight inconvenience, it is nice because you don't have to feel bad for wanting there to be a natural disaster. Everyone I have talked to thinks it will be kind of interesting, as do I. It's also fun having the potential there. It's kind of neat to say "We'll see you Saturday afternoon - unless the volcano blows!" That's something you don't get to say in PA - that's for sure. Also, everyone has a timeframe that would work for them. Like," Well, I'm going to the movies with my friend tonight, so the volcano can go anytime after 10:30". Which is kind of funny. I'll have my people call the volcano's people, we'll plan!
Another interesting thing is all the stuff you don't consider if you have never been through any of this before. One lady I work with runs a dogsled as a hobby and consequently has a lot of dogs, which live in kennels in her yard. She needs to think about precautions for the dogs in case the volcano erupts - as the dogs are outside, and breathing the ash is really not a good thing. You shouldn't run computers, since the cooling fans will draw the ash in and screw up your computer. Same with cars, etc. Commercial buildings, because they need to have a ventilation system, can't be open - the fans will draw in ash, which...well, see above.
There have been a few other things going on here in AK, which I will be writing about again soon. Unless the volcano erupts!
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