Wandering Wonderings

• Is it difficult to tell when pepperjack cheese is starting to mold? It's already white with blue and greenish flecks, so the only thing you can look for is the fuzz I guess.
• I'd like to give a shout-out to Weeds who apparently has been in Hungary on vacation checking my blog. It's nice to know I warrant a vacation blog check. I don't even check my own blog when I'm on vacation (most of the time anyway).
  
• It always surprises me which posts people choose to comment on. Some of my best work that I think will get lots of comments gets none, and sometimes posts that I think are totally lame get tons of comments. I really don't know my audience very well, do I?
  
• Is the iPod really on its way out? I read an article yesterday saying iPod sales went down last quarter for the first time in history. I'm totally bummed! I haven't even joined that fad yet and it's already over. I'll just have to get an iPod Touch or something to stay hip. Maybe sales are down because of the economy. Ever think of that? Huh?
  
• Speaking of being hip, I find it ironic that my 60+ year old aunt and uncle have a Crackberry and a GPS, and all I have is my bare bones cell phone, an Atlas, and printouts from Google Maps. They probably have an iPod too.....
• Now that I mention my aunt and uncle, I realize I totally forgot to mention their visit. I'll have to do that on my next post.
• Shout out to Ananias: It's blueberry season. I'm just finishing a five pound box here at my house. :-) Are the june berries or goose berries or whatever they are "on the bush" yet there in your big sky country?
  
• Tomorrow is Thursday. Woo-hoo! Lots of work to do! So, I gots! to! go! to! bed! Latron. Also, I believe Thursday is "sweep the floor day". I'm just saying....I gotta jet before this gets more ridiculous.
• I'm dying of curiosity to find out who in Newton checks my blog. I have a suspicion who it might be but can't figure out the connection of how they stumbled on it to begin with.
  

Alaskar Trip

Short Summary

People I traveled with: 27 relative and friends. Lots of aunts and uncles, first cousins and their spouses, and some other friends who thought it would be fun to go on the trip with us (go figure).
Person I shared a stateroom with: My sister Megan. She left BIL-Dan at home to work.
Cruise ship: Holland America Line MS Statendam
Port of embarkation: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Ports of call: Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway: Alaska
Other points of interest: Glacier Bay National Park & College Fjord
Port of disembarkation: Seward, Alaska

My most favorite/memorable things about our Alaskan cruise trip are below. They are not necessarily listed in order of importance.

1. The awesome breakfast buffet. It rivaled and maybe even surpassed the college dining center. Now that's an accomplishment.
2. Afternoon taco bar. Not as good as "late night" in college, but not bad either.
3. Lots of adventures (kayaking, rock climbing, ziplining, etc.)
4. Spectacular scenery.
5. It was the perfect situation to wear my blue Smartwool sweater.
6. Hanging out with family and friends and getting to know some of them better.
7. Whale watching. Wow.
8. Lots of other wildlife too. Since you know of my fixation with that kind of thing, you understand how fun that was.
9. Delicious suppers every night. Mmm...Salmon.
10. You get to go to lots of different places and your hotel moves with you.

Long Summary

I had way too many pictures of great scenery to try to pick just one from each day that gave the "essence" of the day. Taking pictures of people is my second priority behind scenery, so I had way less of those each day. I decided to post one "people" picture for each day since there were fewer to pick from. To see all the awesome scenery and a few other people pictures, you'll have to go here. I know there ended up being a lot of pictures of me, but hey, it was my camera and my memories. Leave a fair chunk of time since there are just over 300 pictures to check out. For those not sleeping yet, you can carry on with reading all the dry details below that supplement all those pictures.

Saturday. We flew into Vancouver late Friday night, and after the continental breakfast (can’t beat Holiday Inn Express cinnamon rolls) Megan and I hung out at the hotel for awhile. I learned from “What Not To Wear” that if you have large hips you shouldn’t wear a jacket or shirt that ends at your hips. It should end right at your waist. That’s a wise bit of info for you there. We also had some good sushi at a local restaurant, and it was dirt cheap. We're talking less than $5 for two good sized sushi roll things. Then Megs and I went to Stanley Park with Dad and walked around for several hours. We ate downtown, went up to the observation tower thing, and watched the sun set from up there. The taxi drivers, just like in New York, often wear a turban.

Mermaid Mel

Sunday. After meeting at a conference room in the hotel, it was time to head for the docks. We stood in line to go through the metal detectors, stood in line to get our ship ID, and then Megan and I had to wait for the nurse to come and check me out because I had answered honestly on the health form that I had a cough (was recovering from a cold). Once the nurse took my temperature and decided I wasn’t going to infect the whole ship, we embarked, stopped by our stateroom, and headed for the Lido deck for our first meal at the trough. We took a tour of the ship and then suited up for the life boat drill. One thing I didn’t get during the life boat drill was that the sick and elderly were supposed to get in first and sit in the middle. Why? That would totally slow down the loading process, and why make the most effort to save people most likely to die? No offense meant, I'm just saying...it wouldn't be real efficient. Megan and I signed up to take a pilates class on the days we were at sea. What I didn’t realize is that there would be an entertainment show every night. That was always entertaining, hence the word entertainment. Since our ship was the Statendam, they have a lot of fun with that. When you do activities like Bingo on the ship you win “dam dollars” that you can use to purchase “dam prizes” like a "dam T-shirt" at the “dam gift shop”. You get the picture. Oh yeah, and they are very obsessed with telling you to wash your hands or use the alcohol hand sanitizer stuff.

Safety First, Sister

Monday. We were at sea. At breakfast we saw some kind of small sharks swimming alongside the ship. The swells that day were 4 to 7 feet, which caused a few to slap their patches on, eat their ginger, or spend some time lying down. Other stuff: galley tour, walking around the ship, taco bar, pilates, nap, cooking show, formal dinner. Megan and I had the policy that we weren’t going to take the elevator if we could help it. Let me tell you, going from the 5^th floor to the 11^th floor on the stairs leaves you winded! It was our warm-up exercise in the morning before we could eat. That night was the captain’s toast, which ended with “The best ships are the dam ships, and may they always be!”. Another classic from the captain that day was “As always the ocean is in motion.” I would say the stateroom was a cross between a hotel room and an airplane. The room part looked like a hotel, but the bathroom was kind of small and the toilet flushed like an airplane toilet.

Mel and Megs

Tuesday. Ketchikan, our first port of call. It was pouring rain when I stepped off the boat dreary and early to go kayaking. After a while the “liquid sunshine” tapered off a bit, but it was still threatening all day. The kayak people were all prepared and had "full dress” rain gear so that I didn’t get too wet. While kayaking we saw some harbor seals, starfish, and bald eagles. I made it back to the ship in time to shop for about 15 minutes, and then we were off to the next port. The entertainment that night was a ventriloquist, which was a total riot.

Kickin' it in a Kayak

Wednesday. The capital of Alaska: Juneau. Several of us in the group took a tour bus to some other docks, where we got on a smaller boat that took us out to go whale watching. It was a beautiful clear morning, so we saw lots of mountains (some with glaciers in them). We also saw sea lions, harbor seals, bald eagles, and the best part of course was the humpback whales. Here I will be a total geek and tell you all about humpback whales. They weigh 45 tons, can be 50 feet long, hold 15,000 gallons of water in their mouth, feed more than 20 hours a day while in Alaska in the summer, and have a throat the size of a grapefruit. Obviously not the type of whale that swallowed Jonah. Anyway, we were some of the lucky people who got to see the “Aurora Borealis of whale watching”. It’s called bubble net feeding where 10 to 15 whales do cooperative eating. For more details see Wikipedia. We also got to see a whale breach in front of our boat twice within a couple minutes. The whale watching may have been my favorite part of the whole trip. After whale watching we ate at our floating hotel, and then Dad and I went ziplining. That was really fun. I would recommend it to anybody who likes adventure and isn’t afraid of heights. We got up to speeds over 30 mph while on the ziplines. Also, did you know that southeast Alaska is home to part of the world’s 2^nd largest rain forest in the world? It’s a temperate rainforest that runs from northern CA all the way up the coast almost to south central Alaska. The Tongass National Forest is part of the rainforest and is the largest national forest in the U.S.

Houston, prepare for launch in 5....4.....3....

Thursday. Welcome to Skagway – home of a hospital without a doctor. I got up early to go up the mountain pass to Fraser, Canada on the White Pass Train. It’s a narrow gauge rail that took two years to build under perilous conditions without modern equipment. Over that period of time, 35,000 people helped construct it. Of those 35,000 only 35 people died, and of those 35 only 2 died in track building accidents. I guess the others got sick or died of old age or something. Once the train stopped in Fraser, I took a tour down the mountain on a bicycle. It wasn’t that extreme because it was on a paved road and there was a pace setter person we weren’t supposed to pass. Not impressed. I would have been what dad called an “eager beaver” on the bicycle ride down. After lunch, I took an excursion to go rock climbing. The first time I climbed outdoors and not in a rock climbing gym! I got to do two climbs and also rappel down the 80 foot rock face. The cost of living in Skagway is actually pretty high. Lots of the guides in town for the summer rent a house that 15 or more people share, and it wasn’t a very big house to start with. I was also told that the popular beverage there was Sitka Spruce Tip beer, and it’s useful to help prevent scurvy because of its high vitamin C content. I didn’t use them, but at the rock climbing place if you needed to relieve yourself they told you to use the “facilitrees”.

Rapacious Rock Rappelling

Friday. We were at sea in Glacier Bay. I thought this would be a relaxing day, but we spent a surprising amount of time running around the ship trying to get the best view of all the glaciers we were seeing. And we did our pilates of course. The glacier we saw calve the most was the Margerie Glacier, and it moves at a rate of seven feet per day on average. There was more than 200 feet of the glacier visible above the water and the park rangers said at least 100 feet of glacier was below the water. That glacier starts more than 21 miles up and into the mountains. The John Hopkins Glacier moves at fifteen feet per day and is one of the few glaciers still growing in Glacier Bay. Also interesting is that fifty years ago the whole bay was choked with ice, and then the glaciers started to recede. They were not necessarily attributing it to global warming though. The sound of glaciers calving is like a cross between thunder and a gun shot. And, one of the activities on the ship one day was basket weaving. I didn’t actually go to the class, but I was surprised they had the class since it wasn’t even a liberal arts college. Friday night was also when they had the late night dessert extravaganza. Lots of fancy desserts and chocolate at 11:00 PM is a great way to settle your stomach.

Relatives waiting for the glacier to have a baby cow or whale or moose.

Saturday. A large portion of the day was spent at sea, and we had the roughest water that day with 7 to 12 foot swells. In the late afternoon and evening we sailed around College Fjord, which is mostly what it sounds like. A body of water surrounded by land on three sides with glaciers in it that are named after ivy league colleges. It happened to be really clear that evening, and we got some great pictures. Also, in many of the pictures you can notice the water has a greenish blue tint to it, and that’s due to the glacial silt in the water. The silt is so fine that it would take the silt many days to settle to the bottom of a glass. Let’s see what else we did: 5K walk around the boat (on deck for the cure), taco bar, pilates, magician/comedian, nap, reading a book. Let me just mention again how much I loved the breakfast buffet every morning. Fresh squeezed orange juice, waffles and French toast with mixed berry topping and chocolate chips and whipped cream, omelettes, crispy bacon, mangoes……Mmmmmmmmmmmm. We also went to the late night buffet at 11:00 PM several of the nights. I found it fascinating to learn about the lives of the people who live and work on the ship and it seems like it might be fun to do that. Like for maybe two weeks. After that I'm afraid I would start to feel like a broken record.

Five sisters and a brother.

Sunday. Sadly, our journey was coming to an end. We disembarked for the final time at Seward. We then took the “Magic Bus” from Seward through Anchorage up to Wasilla. We found out later the Magic Bus is known as a party bus. I guess Eva didn’t know that when she booked it. On the way we stopped at a conservation center to see a bunch of cool wildlife they had there. We got in a pre-convention GM at Wasilla, and then Megan and I rode with Megan’s friend Chandra to Anchorage. We ate supper at a fancy place and I had some fresh Alaskan wild caught salmon, which is the best way to eat salmon I’m told. Then I went to the hotel where I stayed for the night with my cousin and her husband. We flew out early Monday morning from Anchorage to head back home. Some other interesting facts about Alaska include that around Anchorage its five main trees that grow there are the Sitka spruce, cottonwood, willow, aspen, and birch. Moose like to eat willow branches. Alaska does not have any snakes (in the wild anyway). Fossil fuels account for more than 80% of Alaska’s economy. Three fourths of Alaska’s population lives in the Anchorage area, which is why Anchorage thinks it should be the capital instead of Juneau.

This was the closest thing I could find to a human in my picture collection that day.

All in all, it was a great trip! I would recommend an Alaskan cruise to anybody who has not gone on one. Would I do it again? Maybe. Why not try something different though if I've already done this?

Cruisin'

You'll be glad to know that my Alaska Cruise summary is under construction and may be appearing tomorrow. To tide you over, I figured I'd post this "Top 10 Funny Things A Cruise Director Has Heard". I can't claim to be the originator of this. I just stole it from something we heard on the cruise.

Top Ten Funny Questions Heard By A Cruise Director

1. What religion are those people with the patch behind their ear?
2. Does the ship generate its own electricity?
   
3. Does the crew sleep on board?
4. Is the water in the toilets salt water or fresh water?
5. When I go to the photo gallery, how will I know which pictures are mine?
6. Where's the elevator that goes from the front to the back of the ship?
7. Do they really change the day-of-the-week carpet in the elevator every day?
8. Do I have to leave the ship to go on a shore excursion?
9. When we get there, which side of the ship will the whales be on?
10. What do they do with the ice carvings when they're done using them?

Here are a couple other quotes from the cruise trip that struck my funny bone:

• "You know what we say about a Caribbean cruise for two...'Woo-hoo!' " That might be too much of an inside joke for anyone but Megan and I to think is funny though.
• "You young single people who are on this cruise. I guess you didn't know when you booked that Statendam is Dutch for 'slim pickings' ". This was a reference to the fact that Holland America is sort of known to be the "older people" cruise line.
  
• "You're not artsy-fartsy unless you own a potter's wheel." From someone who said she was definitely not artsy-fartsy despite the fact that she majored in music/opera in college. She cleared me up on my misconception thank goodness.
  

Soap Bar

Have you ever thought about the typical bar of soap? Why do companies feel they need to stamp a design into the top or bottom or print the brand name on their soap? So you feel more confident that it wasn't made on the black market? They think stating the name on the package wasn't enough? So that if you have guests over who happen to use the soap that they know what brand it is, and because they liked it so much they'll buy that kind next time? Although that only works for the first half or third of the bar. It probably costs extra to stamp the design in there or else to have a more complicated mold to make the design.

Speaking of molds, why do all the en vogue bars of soap come in all these complicated shapes? You know how if you buy Lizzie's homemade soap from upstate that it comes in a rectangular block? But, all the standard popular brands all come nicely shaped with rounded edges and a nice curvature to the bar. I think it might be for easier gripping and lathering, but that's only an unfounded suspicion. However, it is a big waste of space to have all that curvature. Maybe that's the point. The same sized box, but fewer ounces of soap total because of the roundedness.

Gotta go folks - it's way past my bedtime, but I just had to get this thought out!

666-222 Tag

I've been tagged by Sara......like 3 months ago, but I guess it still counts.

1. Choose the fourth folder where you store pictures on your computer.

2. Choose the fourth picture.

3. Explain that picture.

4. Tag 4 other people.


1. & 2.) My Pictures -> 4th Folder -> 4th Picture. I had some sub folders inside the first folder and I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to browse through every available 4th folder until I got to the end, but I decided not to. I took the instructions literally to reduce the ambiguity.
3.) I organize my digital pics by year with 2000 being first, so this one goes back all the way to 2003. It's my sisters and I at Hunter convention. Muggles (Piles) was in college, I was less than a year out of college working at my current place of employment, and Ananias was still living in the cowboy state doing her PT thing Ananias style (had not offered to become a woika yet).

4.) Instead of tagging four people, I decided to post this "bonus" picture from the same 2003 folder. Ananias sent this to me that year so I could see some of her friends who were hanging out at J&E's. This was back when I really had no clue who Gin and Mow were and how crazy interesting they are. Now that I know those two much better, it's fun to see what they looked like way back then. Sorry Gin and Mow for posting these unauthorized pictures. I won't post a link to Gin's blog so she can stay anonymous. ;-) Unless things have changed, Mow doesn't have a blog, so don't bother to look for that one.

Getting There

My house doesn't *ting* like Linda D's, but it is at *spic* status I would say. I don't know if it will ever add the *span* part as long as I'm doing my own cleaning. At best it might get to be *spic-and-sp*.

This link tells what my house was like before I started the cleaning a week ago. You know it's bad when you wear shoes because you don't like how the grit on the hardwood floor feels on your bare feet.

Later peeps.

P.S. Sorry Ananias, you'll have to wait for the Alaska picture update until Monday or Tuesday.

Insight

I went to an art fair today for a little bit, and I discovered that I really like photos that are printed on canvas. That is totally cool how it looks like a painting, but then all the colors and lines are so crisp. I also like the look where the canvas is wrapped around the edges without a frame too. Just FYI in case you have several hundred bucks just lying around and want to buy a nice 30" x 36" print for me on my birthday. Or you could get me a card. Whatever you feel is appropriate.

What I did buy at the art fair was a cutting board with nice geometrical patterns in it made with different types of wood, just like a real engineer likes. The same guy who makes those also makes wooden kayaks. You can even take a class in town that lasts a week, and in that week you make a wooden kayak that you get to take home with you. Those kayaks looked really sweet. I'm tempted to sign up right now for the class.

You Can't Spell Geek Without a Double E: Part II

Did you hear about the two antennas who got married?
-The wedding was only so-so, but the reception was great.

P.S. For those brave enough to wonder aloud (and for those who weren't), my new glasses are my new "rec specs". I will still be wearing my old glasses on the usual day. My fashion sense isn't that bad yet.

Book Review (Warning: Strong Religious Content)

As mentioned in a previous post, I listened to a book on CD last month. It was "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren the preacher guy, not my third cousin. That is not my usual choice of book, but it was what was easily available in the Melanaway library by an odd twist of events. Interestingly enough, as I was listening to the last CD of the series while driving to the airport a couple weeks ago, I happened to be driving to the same city where the book on CD was recorded.

Some thoughts on the book and some quotes/thoughts from the book:

• "We only grow by taking risks."
• "The best expression of life is love, and the best expression of love is time."
• "If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate. You just need to change your focus."
  
• Someone who is difficult to deal with is an EGR, which means Extra Grace Required. :-)
• Many of the thoughts in the first half of the book, which covered love and fellowship, were fairly on target I thought.
  
• The second half of the book seemed like it lacked a focus on the Holy Spirit. First he would talk a lot about what you could do naturally, and then at the end of a chapter or two he would say "Oh yeah, and to do this you need the Spirit / you need to pray."
• I believe he only mentioned needing a revelation once at the very beginning of the book, which didn't seem like enough times to me for how important that topic is.
• At the beginning of the book he also mentioned how 40 days is a significant time period. Rick did have several examples (40 years in the wilderness, 40 days that Jesus fasted, etc.). But, maybe that was just a good excuse because the book had 40 chapters? Not sure....
• Busy-ness sounds the same as the word business on an audio book. Interesting.
  
• It mentioned keeping a spiritual journal where you record the things God has done for you and the things you've learned from God. Kind of like your own book of Proverbs. I can kind of see how this could be a good thing, and it reminded me of Psalm 116:1. On the other hand, what about the Lord writing his law upon our hearts and not on tables of stone (II Corinthians 3:3)? My jury is still out on that one.
• He does mention "ministry" and is accurate in saying that we all need to evangelize and show our testimony, but he did not mention the way Jesus sent out his apostles.
  

So: lots of good thoughts, but God still requires a life to back it up, and even if they're good thoughts and he does good deeds, it's not a substitute for reading the Bible or for obedience to God. Since I don't know the author of the book, I have no idea where he stands on all that stuff in his life, and luckily I don't have to. I can leave that in God's hands.

Yah, It's a Holiday

Well, not a whole lot went on here over the holiday. I was lazy the whole four day weekend that I had, which I was OK with. Sometimes weekends like this remind me how lame my social life can be and how I need to take more ownership of instigating social events.

I did see some wildlife yesterday. Mr. groundhog made an appearance on my deck and I saw the usual squirrels and such. Plus, I happened to step out my front door to check the weather, and these guys came running across my yard. They even wandered around my neighbor's yard for me so I could get this picture. I don't know what happened to their mother, but I learned that fawns bleat sort of like a lamb or goat kid, only these guys weren't as loud as baby goats are. Maybe it was their independence day too.


Since it's the middle of summer, here's a video tip: Put your swimming suit on before you go to the beach/lake/ocean.