IT'S COMING!!!

This morning the temperatures dropped, it was only 31 degrees! Frost covered my windshield! We have Terminating Dust (terminating dust= first snow fall in the on the mountains) this means we have only three weeks until the snow will reach the valleys--and when it gets here, it sticks until next year! Luckily I will be leaving here and heading to Utah where it is somewhat warm, then we're headed to Puerto Rico before coming back to full on winter in Alaska! Until then I guess I need to find my ice scraper for my windows!

Craigslist Band at Humpy's

I went with Jed tonight to meet up with the seasonal employees from his company. They were all going bar hopping dress like tacky tourists. We met the group at one of the local bars Humpy's just for dinner--it has the best food! So we got our food, had fun talking with some of his co-workers and then we were kind of left there while everyone else went on to the next bar....But that is okay because had we left, we would have never seen THIS band (picture above). We were laughing so hard watching and listening to this band. The picture is just from a cellphone and it could never capture the 'magic' of this band! So let me share with you some of our favorite things about them.

• They were all very talented but didn't seem to have any organization, they were just jamming. I'm not sure they played "songs".
• Two of the singers were wearing socks with their sandals.
  
• One of the saxophone players had a beer gut, elastic pants, jimmy hendrix T-shirt tucked into the elastic pants, sunglasses, (he had the black sock on with the Tevas) and seemed to do a little shimmy every time he started playing (like a fish jumping out of water shimmy)
• The other saxophone player was wearing black Dickies as his suit.
  
• The trumpet player--looked kind of bored/insecure he kept his head down most of the time, with one hand in his pocket and when he did play he looked like he was crying! However, I realized that we had the exact same hair style. You can kind of see in the picture...He just needs a little gel and he's got my do!
  
• The drummer was pretty cute, had a lot of potential but probably smoked too much pot to care about it.
• There was an irish looking red-headed, big bushy bearded, bass guitarist who wore a red Hawaiian shirt.
  
• Three of the players were probably pushing sixty while the other three were in their twenties.
• We figure that they either met on Craigslist or through their dealer...because they all looked like the smoked a little too much weed! (maybe if they smoked a little less and practiced a little more we would have stuck around to listen to them!)
  

AH, just another adventure in Anchorage! It really reminded me of a website that Annette sent me called people of walmart! Real people caught on cellphone cameras in real Wal-Marts across the nation! Check it out it is pretty funny! http://peopleofwalmart.com/

Finally to the top of Flat Top

I went with my friend/co-worker Robin to hike Flat Top! We tried a few month ago but didn't make it all the way to the top. You may remember from my blog before.

http://sarahhayward.blogspot.com/2009/07/hiking-flat-top.html
This time we really cruised to the top! It was a beautiful day, we couldn't have asked for a better day. It was much warmer than when we tried two months ago. It was so clear that we could see the entire city and we had a perfect view of Mount McKinley! It was beautiful with all the fall colors! Robin is really fun, she didn't know that I was a Christian--because she knew I was Mormon. It was been really great to be able to clarify some misconceptions about our church and to find some common believes. She is really impressed with my standards and that fact that our church is big on the Law of Chasity. So it was very fun to go on this hike and talk about religion and my believes--if nothing else but to clarify rumors!

Earth and the Creation

and dedicated his life to preserve the records approximately sixteen hundred years ago. Anyways I love a scripture in the Book of Mormon when King Benjamin is addressing his people and the scripture states:

LABOR DAY

Today was pretty uneventful but I did drive out along the Turnagain Arm...in town it was a beautiful day sunny warm, like 60 degrees, so I thought I would go on a little picnic. I took my scriptures and a sandwich but when I got out there it was much colder and windy! I stayed in my car and read for a while!
I can't wait until Jed is back in Anchorage! Just two more weeks! Things are moving along with the wedding planning. In just four weeks we will be back in Utah and getting married in five! YAY! But that doesn't seem like enough time to do all the things we need to do. But hopefully we will get twice as much done when Jed is living in Anchorage and working days again!

The Alaska State Fair

Is there anything that can compare to a state fair? Where else can you see a 500lb pumpkin, a 1000 lb hog having her piglets in front of a giant crowd, deep fried pickles, and mullets!?! Well all the things that we love about the state fair in Utah is quadrupled here in Alaska! Alaskan's really come out and support the fair! It is a huge deal here!

For about a month everyone has been telling me about the State Fair food. So Jed and I had to take advantage of the all the good, deep fried, crazy foods...and we DID! Starting with:

Deep Fried Pickles
One of my co-workers was working at a stand and she gave us these...it wasn't something I would've have bought on my own but it was really good, well interesting...worthy of the State Fair!

Big bread soup bowl...Cheddar broccoli...ymmm!
Fresh Made potato chips with Parmesan and Garlic

Doughnuts! Just like the craft fair! But not quiet the same, first off there wasn't the cute little family making them, and I wasn't able to watch them be made while I was waiting in the long line. Still really good though, It made me think of you all!
Hand dipped Ice cream and a $4.00 Soda There was so much food! I was warned that you need to spend more than one day at the fair just to eat all the food...in fact it is best if you can camp there and eat break, lunch, and dinner!

The animals were slightly disappointing. We walked around the animal barn and I realized that I have a load of useless knowledge about market animals, particularly lambs...and what will I ever do with all that knowledge except walk around the fair and share it with Jed. Maybe I can convince Jed to buy me herd of sheep someday! ;)

The big sight was the giant vegetables. Because of the long days and all the sunlight the vegetables grow to abnormal sizes.

This cabbage broke the world record by two pounds it is a 125.9 lb!

The Alaska State Fair was something else...the best were the people! But that is far too difficult to describe!

Alaska State Fair 2009

Millions of Peaches!

Becky sent me a whole bunch of peaches! More than I know what to do with! So Yesterday was my peach day! I cut a bunch up and froze them, and then I thought I could make jam! It feels like a ton of work to make jam...at least it was for me because I was so worried I would mess it up. My mom and sister Nicky helped me understand the directions. It is a process and by the time I washed, pealed and mashed all the peaches it took about two hours...and all I got from it was....

These three beautiful pints of jam.

I was expecting at least five, maybe six, but that was it! I will just have to ration the jam. Actually even after freezing, jamming, giving away...making a peach coffee cake and a peach cobbler---I STILL have some left. I would give more away but they are really rip and soft....and lots of fruit flies are around (you know those little tiny ones that just hang around). So if I have time I will make a few more jars of jam, maybe I can do it faster with Jed around. But I have had so much fun with the peaches! I felt like Betty Crocker!