Greetings everyone, it’s been a while hasn’t it?

Carmen and I just got back from spending two weeks in Alaska, land of dial up internet, pretty pretty nature, and flesh eating mosquitoes. We had a lot of fun up there spending time with my family, seeing my little, though taller, sister graduate from high school and going on a small road trip from Fairbanks to Anchorage on a “mission from god” to find my mom a new reclining chair.

While we were in Alaska we did the following:

• Visited somewhere that still had snow on Mother’s Day
• Drank a lot of very expensive wine, more than we I should have but it was fun and I wasn’t sick so all is well
• Dug a hole to China attempting to statisfy my sister and retrieve the time capsule we buried there over 10 years ago. Alas, I couldn’t find it even though I knew exactly where it was within 2-3 feet!
• Forced my sister go walking in “nature” twice
• Introduced my mom to geocaching
• Got lost geocaching and left my sister stranded in the woods on a bench with nothing but a cellphone. It wasn’t that traumatic for her though she just sat there and waited which is good because if she had come looking for us she would have been lost too!
• Saw exactly 1 moose, 2 reindeer, and some funny looking cows
• Spent a lot of time with friends and family
• Shopped and Dined with a friend from college who lives in VA now but comes to AK in the summertime
• Spent more time than is healthy in malls
• Saw the mountains but not Denali

We probably did lots of other things that I’m forgetting but you don’t need a play-by-play do you?

While in Alaska we both realized how nice it is to be somewhere rural and “in nature” where people own houses on land for reasonable prices far from their neighbors and everyone is so laid back that jeans and carharts are the norm anywhere you go. We also realized that Alaska, especially Fairbanks, does not have an active recycling program, meaning everything goes to landfills! EEK! It’s funny, I started recycling to humor carmen and have learned to appreciate it over time but now after being in Alaska and thinking about how much non-biodegradable material is going into landfills, especially in a place so beautiful as Alaska it totally freaked me out! So much, in fact, that I spent part of today writing the local Alaska government officials about it to see if they’re doing anything to promote recycling. We’ll see what happens or if anyone responds to me. I sent 2 Mayors emails along with the Governor and Lt. Governor and 2 Senators. I attempted to write the congressmen but he only holds audience with Alaskan citizens *way to not get my vote if I ever chose to move there, not that I would vote for you anyway because you’re a Republican!* It would be cool though, if someone emailed me back and said they’re actively looking into ways to start a recycling program, it’s a lot to ask and is totally wishful thinking but I think something’s gotta change.

Ok, so we’re back now and hopefully we’ll start posting more often in the coming weeks. Carmen is busy with work so it might just be me for a while but we’ll see what happens.

Now, I leave you with this pretty picture taken just prior to abandoning my sister in the woods in order to be grown-up idiots looking for tupperware, also known as geocachers.