Life is very very hectic, but in a good way. I moved into my condo which added extra things for me to squeeze into my spare time, like unpacking boxes and painting. I've gotten to the point where I have unpacked everything that I really need, and there are a lot of boxes lying around of stuff that I'll get to eventually. I'd like to get to them sooner rather than later though because it would be nice to have a housewarming party. I've put my office in the tree room and started painting the other spare bedroom. I've decided that I like the tree and it can stimulate my intellectual being as I sit beneath it and work =) Someday I may paint over it but I can't bring myself to do it just yet.
I have my first rowing regatta tomorrow. I'm stroke seat in the novice women's eight, which means I sit in front of everyone else and set the stroke rate. It's a lot of fun. I think I've found my new sport. I know I keep saying this but hopefully I can post some pictures soon. I guess that mean I have to get someone else to take pictures of my rowing, eh?

I have officially started my career as a graduate student. Yesterday was my first class, exercise biochemistry. I am only taking two classes and the prof for my other class, exercise endocrinology, is out of town until next week. I think the biochem class is going to be fun. It is primarily a lab. Yesterday we reviewed basic pipetting and weighing techniques. Very basic, I know, but important. Our homework for the week is to make chocolate chip cookies. We all got the same recipe, but the prof wants to demonstrate that even if you follow the same instructions the results can be very different. It will be interesting to see everyone elses results next Monday.
I'm teaching as well while I am here. My first class is on Thursday, and I'm starting to feel a little jittery. I'm teaching two anatomy labs and one fitness assessment lab. The fitness assessment should be fun. Anatomy on the other hand is going to take a little review throughout the semester!

I had to buy a bike bell yesterday. I used to think bike bells were really dorky but I've now decided that they are kind of fun, not to mention handy. From where I am staying right now it is a 10 minute bike ride to the university on a well travelled path. I was getting frustrated by having to call out to pedestrians when I needed to pass them and not having them hear me, so I stopped at a bike shop along the route and invested my five dollars. A worthy investment as I was told that if they catch you without a "noise maker" (the guy at the bike shop informed me that this could be anything from an official bike bell to jingle bells to towing empty beer cans) the city can fine you $50! So now I make my commute with my happy little bell and find it somewhat cheery to ring it at people.
Keep your fingers crossed for me as I have my first try out for the novice rowing team this evening. Tryouts run for 4 days and they announce the team at the end of next week.

Hi, Remember me? I am still here, really. I am now in Edmonton, getting ready for school to start next week. My dad and I drove down here a week and a half ago, and I have been running around ever since like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get my life organized. Things are finally starting to slow down a bit, and I now have one place to stay until I move into my condo on the 18th. I did have a nice break over the weekend and went to stay with my aunt and her family in Calgary. We drove up to Banff for an afternoon which was great. I'm looking forward to going back there to do some skiing later in the year. I'll post some pictures when I get my computer set up and find the cord for my camera. For the next few days I'm busy studying so that I don't sound like a complete idiot teaching anatomy labs, as well as trying out as a novice for the rowing team. Hopefully I will be able to post more regularly from now on...

Ride for Life Pictures

Me at the first rest stop on saturday

Pam along Turnagain Arm

The view along Turnagain Arm

Finally in Seward on Sunday

Spencer Glacier on the train ride home

I had a fantastic weekend, making my way from Anchorage to Seward on my road bike in the Ride for Life. Saturday started out sunny and warm, and Pam and I took off from Anchorage with 140 other riders around 8am. Unfortunately our small disaster of the weekend happened only 12 miles out of Anchorage. While enjoying the scenery (and not looking at the pavement) along the Seward Highway, Pam hit a large rock and blew her front tire. We quickly changed her tube and kept riding, not realizing that she had punctured her tire as well. Luckily the tube got her all the way to Ingram Creek, 50 miles into the ride. Our friend Robin from REI was there manning the rest stop and when we mentioned the flat to him he suggested that we check the pressure in the tire. Well, when pumped up to 100psi the tube exploded and we then noticed the hole in the tire. We did learn from the experience: One, don't hit large rocks with your road bike, and two: if you fold up a dollar bill and put it inbetween the tube and the tire it keeps the tube from poking out through the hole in the tire and exploding! Luckily the dollar bill patch got Pam all the way to Seward and we had no more flat tire incidents.
We camped Saturday night at Summit Lake Lodge, 75 miles from Anchorage. We had a great feast, including a whole roast pig and live music. After dinner there was a short program focusing on cancer. There were several cancer survivors doing the ride, as well as a few riders who were still undergoing treatment. At one point they had all the people who have known someone with cancer stand up; I don't think there was one person there that remained sitting. As a group of 145 people we raised a total of $40,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
The weather Sunday was not as nice as Saturday, and we were a little worried that it would rain the whole 45 miles to Seward. We did have about 30 minutes of rain at the beginning but it stopped and was plesant the rest of the way. There was only one rest stop along the way but we were very glad to see that Robin and his fiance Kristin were boiling up water for hot cocoa. Since we were not in much of a hurry to get to Seward, Pam and I spent about half an hour there. We got to Seward around lunchtime and had a few hours to enjoy ourselves. The ride ended at the Alaska Sealife Center so after we cleaned up and changed our clothes we spent some time there looking at the animals and learning about some of the research they are doing. Later in the afternoon we met my friend Seth for some lunch and then boarded the train for the ride back to Anchorage. Neither Pam nor I had ever taken the train from Seward and it was a great trip. The route that the train takes deviates from the road and goes past 6 large glaciers. We were lucky to see a big black bear from the train, as well as a few moose. It was a very relaxing, if somewhat slow, way to get home. Unfortunately it is now back to the real world, at least until next weekend. Check back later this week, and I'll try to post some pictures from the ride!

I went to log in to my account today and I couldn't even remember what my login name was. I guess that means it's been awhile. I wonder if anyone is still checking to see if I'm alive. This has been one of the busier summers that I can remember, and I'm having trouble with the fact that it is already mid-July. What happened to June? Life just keeps plugging away. I'm getting busier and busier as more of my friends come home for the summer, and I keep adding new activities to my life. The latest has been rock climbing, which I manage to squeeze in among the two jobs and numerous activities I'm already doing with friends. Sarah is coming home on Thursday which will be great incentive to actually sit down and knit. Its so hard to motivate to sit inside for an afternoon when it is beautiful outside, as it has been most of the summer here. I have managed to almost finish my second pair of socks for the summer. My next project is going to be working on my Dale sweater for myself. I need to frog the body (wahhhh!!!) but my goal is to do that and get it done before I leave so that I can use my moms sewing machine to secure where I have to cut it.
Part of the reason my june and july seem to have gone so fast was my big wedding trip at the end of June. I guess I am of the age now where all my friends are starting to get married. I was a guest at my friend Liz's wedding in Oakland, and then the next weekend maid of honor at Katie's wedding in Seattle. Maid of Honor duty is hard work! But we pulled it off and had a lot of fun. Here we are on our way to the wedding (No limos for us, we walked!)

I hope everyone else occasionally has days like this and its not just me. It started out innocently and beautifully enough. It was already 60 degrees when I got up at 7 this morning, and for those of you who don't know Alaska that means its going to be a beautifully hot and sunny day. I had a busy three hours at my morning office job, for once I was actually pretty busy. The trouble started when I went home to get ready for my midday coaching job. Since the weather has been nice here lately I have actually been getting a little sunburnt, and figured that I should probably use some sunscreen today. Just a word of advice to those who wear contacts: Put those contacts in before you put the sunscren on, it burns just a little when you get it in your eyes!! So I was out the door to run wearing my glasses, which is never that much fun. Don't worry, it gets better. I get to the parking lot and as I get out of the car I take my car key off of my key chain to carry with me and leave the rest of the keys in the car. Oh, and I lock the door. But as soon as I close the door I realize that I have the key to my car in my hand, but I was actually driving my mom's car. Crap! Luckily I was coaching a bunch of wonderful motherly women who were more than willing to help me once the workout was over. Another word of advice that I didn't know before: If you bought your car at the dealer within at least the last 5 years they will have your key code on file and can cut you a new key for a quarter of the price it would cost to call a locksmith, who I found out are usually too busy to come rescue you anyways. You have to have someone that will drive you to the dealer to pick up said key, and luckily I did. So now that I have all of that fixed I have taken on the duty of watching a friend's shop/art gallery for the afternoon while they are entertaining visiting family. Luckily it's a sort of quiet place so I'm actually getting some quality knitting/reading time here (and I'm getting paid, it doesn't get much better than that). I'm kind of hoping that I'll get out of my evening coaching session so that I can go do a bike ride with Pam. Which reminds me.....
Pam and I have signed up to do the Ride for Life, July 23 and 24. Have I mentioned this before? Its a 120 mile bike ride from Anchorage, AK to Seward, AK along one of the most beautiful roads in the world (see the pics on the website), and it's for a great cause: The Lance Armstrong Foundation. Here's the deal: I paid my money to enter the race, but I also need a minimum of $200 of pledges/donations before they will let me actually do it. All of the donations goes directly to the foundation, none of it goes through the ride organizers. So, if you are interested let me know, and I'll give you more info.

Gaaaaah!

I just read Shannon's post that mentions people being stalked through their blogs! Is this true?? Do I need to censor myself more??


I did it!

Hooray! I put an offer on a condo, and things seem to be moving forward. This past weekend was probably the most hectic, crazy, stressful weekend I've had in a while, but the outcome was good. After 3 full days of looking with the real estate agent I was able to settle on something. The condo is 2 stories, with a full unfinished basement, and it has 3 bedrooms. Its about 5 miles from the University, further than the one block that I was used to in Salt Lake, but its in a nice neighborhood with some running trails nearby. We got a good price on the place. Unlike Anchorage where you have to offer at least $5000 above the list price, we were able to settle a few thousand below it. I'll most likely have to get a roommate to help me cover some of the costs but there will be plenty of room for two of us.
Here are some pictures...



And did I mention that the building that I will be working in at the University is called the Butterdome? Here's why:

Its much more yellow in real life, maybe to keep us happy in the winter?

Home buying

I'm going to Edmonton on Thursday with the hopes of finding and buying a condo in 4 days. For some reason this scares me....It sort of makes the fact that I am moving to Edmonton permanent, not to mention the fact that I will be looking at condos, making the biggest financial decision of my life and signing all the papers on my own! The original plan was to have one of my parents come with me but that isn't going to happen because of work. I am taking big breaths and telling myself that I am a big girl and can do this on my own.

I did get my study permit in the mail today from the consulate. They decided they would let me into the country, as I assumed that they would. Thank goodness Canada seems a little easier to deal with than Norway (with the exception of certain border people who think I'm abandoning my furniture there, honestly...if I'd wanted to do that I could have left it in Salt Lake).

In other news, I had a really nice weekend. I bought new shoes and pedals for my road bike, and then had to go try them out on Sunday. I did a 30 mile ride with my mom and Pam, part of our training for the Fireweed 400 The weather was the nicest that it has been since I've been home, with the exception of some random five minute thunderstorms, so we did a lot of work in the yard. I even got mildly sunburnt. something that rarely happens here. Too bad I had to go back to work today, when its still nice so nice out!

Mud + Mountain Bike = Lots of Fun

I came home today from a mountain bike ride with my friend Carl and I had two choices, I could take my clothes off outside or I could take them off in the bathtub. Thats how dirty I was. I wanted to take a picture of my mud encrusted legs but that just didn't give it justice. We had a fabulous ride around the Hillside trails that included lots of mud (obviously) and wet roots that I managed to survive. And thank goodness, we only ran into one moose.
I have another job now, which in addition to my biking ventures is either going to whip me into really good shape or make me exhausted. I'm going to be coaching a masters (over 30 years old) cross country skiing group for their summer training. There are two groups that meet, which means I get to work out twice a day, not including any fun workouts that I want to go do with my friends. Actually it's perfect because I was looking for a group to join for the summer, and now instead of having to pay a group to work out with them, they are paying me! Needless to say I'm a little tired today and I think I'm going to head to bed.....

Reason #1 that I love being home...

Ok this might turn into more than one reason. This morning I went on a great hike with Kathy up the backside of Flattop. I figured even if the doctor says to go easy on my knee with running I still need to train for Mt. Marathon (eep!) and even though it was sort of a grey day we had lots of fun! Long hikes in the mountains are a great place to solve all the problems of the world. I'm going to miss having the mountains so accessable next year.
I had a little bit of a bummer afternoon. I called a bunch of the other places that I had applied for jobs and several of them told me that they were done hiring people. Darn! But I'm still holding out hope for a few of them. I decided that I needed an uplift so where did I go but the yarn shop....I needed to get some yarn to reinforce the strap on my cool felted bag that Charis got me in Norway. After the yarn store I headed to the grocery store. Since my parents are so busy this summer I have become the default grocery shopper/dinner cooker. But never fear, the grocery store was the best part of the day! First I ran into Darcy,a friend from high school who wants to go hiking, and then I ran into Andy, who I didn't think I was going to get to see at all this summer. You would think that I wouldn't be so excited to see an ex-boyfriend but he's a really nice guy that I wouldn't mind hanging out with again (in a friendly sort of way). I left the store in a much better mood, feeling like life is good. Hooray for being home and seeing friends at the grocery store!


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I'm employed

Well after a week of plastering the town with my resume I have found myself a job. The hospital that I was hoping to work at hired someone permanent, so its not that; however, my dad is on the board of a local non-profit group and knew that they needed an administrator, and they decided that it was okay to hire me for the summer. It's only 15 hours a week, I set my hours, and the pay is great. I think I'll still try to get another part time job, since I can, and I will need the money in the fall. Unfortunately I don't think any work will be coming from the knitting stores that I had spoken to in the spring, but hopefully someone is sitting out there with my resume thinking that I would be perfect.....

Graduated, Drove, and now I'm Home, anybody got a job for me?

Ok, I'm giving this a whirl....my very own blog complete with pictures and everything. I'm still figuring out how the "everything" part works, so forgive me if the first few posts are a little sketchy.

The past few weeks have been busy, busy, busy. I can't believe that just two weeks ago I was in Salt Lake City, graduating. And just to prove that I did it......

Can you see that it's me??

After graduation we (read entire family) furiously packed my apartment (and I must say thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who have moved a million times and are packing pros, we never could have done it without them), and my mom and I embarked on a 3000 mile journey through Edmonton and up to Anchorage.

Edmonton is great, I'm glad we took the time to visit. The building that I will be spending most of my time in is huge, and it's bright yellow. I guess it's supposed to keep me happy in the winter. But I got the feeling that the people that I am going to be working with and the work that I will be doing will keep me happy anyways.

After 2 days in Edmonton my mom and I packed into my car again and headed off for the second half of the drive, which was by far the most beautiful but also the more tiring part of the trip.

Our trusty steed and my wonderful co-pilot:


The scenery was beautiful, and I'm not going to do it justice by putting in any pictures here, you'll just have to do the drive yourself. But we did see lots of fun wild life. I think the final list came to bison, moose, caribou, deer, black bears, elk, dall sheep, stone sheep, a wolf, a fox, and a few showshoe hares.



I've been home for a week now and my most exciting thing that I have been doing is looking for a job. I've never had to really apply for a job like this before, and its really pretty of frustrating. I've turned in a bunch of applications, for both fun jobs and jobs that are actually in my field, and now I get to sit around and wait for them to call. But don't worry, I'm not just twiddling my thumbs.

It's not blocked yet, but I can't wait to wear it! Yeah for Alaskan summers that are cool enough to wear scarves!!!

So what do you think? Will I survive as a blogger.....stay tuned!