Of Moose and Miriam

This is my collection of thoughts, stories, and photos about my life with my fiance, Travis, and my dog, Roxi. We currently living in a yurt in Fairbanks, Alaska but we move to Washington in a few months. We are getting married in March of 2014 and will be coordinating and planning our wedding from a grand total of five diffferent states.

[miriam0312]

Well it hasn't taken long for me to decide that the tumblr website and app are far too buggy and irritating to use. So you can find me on googles blogger now. The link should be attached to this. But it should make life easier as you can follow me by email if you want (straight from my page) and I'll be able to post to facebook. This blog is supposed to, but will not for some unknown reason. >:( But anyway, sorry for the hassle, I won't do this often!

[miriam0312]

Well I'm ditching tumblr because the app and website have just been to buggy and hard to navigate and customize. I will try to only make this kind of switch this one time. I just can't deal with the hassle and bugs with this site so far. Everything is reposted on the google blogging site. You should be able to follow me my email and I should be able to share things to facebook, so it should be easier!

[miriam0312]

Me: Is there a fraternity around here called Alpha Kappa?

Travis: No....why?

Me: Because there seem to be a lot of people with AK stickers driving around up here.

Travis: You're kidding right?

[miriam0312]

300 days until our wedding!!!

Which is a tiny bit little less than ten months.  I feel like I should have a lot more planned. Plus once you throw in Texas for two months, it isn't relatively a long time. But Travis plans on sending me to the slope for the month or so before so I can't freak out. So far we've made some pretty decent strides in planning.  I found a dress and veils and picked out colors (lavender and navy blue). My dress has a solid amount of ruffles and poof and "bling." Travis booked our venue and we have a general idea about catering and bar menu. We will be at the Perry Hotel in Petoskey, if you want to google it. My father is going to do the ceremony so I know that will get planned because I know where to find him. My mom is making me flowers and decorations.  My aunt Kay is going to be helping with those on her visit current visit to Colorado, I'm sure.  The flowers so far are really pretty.  They are made out of different patterned navy and lavender fabric. It was the first project I've ever had any involvement in that turned out like the picture I had in my head before we started.  Really the next big project is a guest list next for save the dates! Travis was going to finish our wedding website so it's up to date to direct everyone to and include with save the dates.  We even already have most of a registry made online because who doesn't like shopping without spending anything?  Major things still on the to do list....attire for everyone else besides me, cake, DJ, and I think that's it???  I'm sure it isn't just that.  I think we also need to compile more traditions and rituals to include in the ceremony (or even reception).  Anyone have any ideas on those?  

[miriam0312]

Hide your marshmallows, hide your pork chops, they're stealing everyone's food up in here

This week I have a couple new funny dog stories. I learned that my dog will risk her life for food. Travis and I regularly cart Roxi up to our loft. On the evening of this specific incident, we had taken our dinner upstairs to enjoy. The meal was pork chops and we let Roxi have a few chunks that were leftover on the bone. When we finished, Travis carried her down the ladder and came back up to carry plates. Out of the corner of my eye I see movement. My dog was halfway up the ladder. A ladder that has about seven steps with about a foot and a half gaps between them. A ladder with slats only six inches wide that slants about 65 degrees. I experienced a horrifying parental type moment of dilemma. Do I try and save her and possibly scare her and cause her to fall off the ladder? Or do I just watch the situation unfold and do nothing as she continues her death defying climb up the treacherous ladder? In the end, I had no time to decide what to do before she was up the ladder and in the loft, heading straight for the pork chops. Our second ridiculous dog encounter of the week involves a husky named Willow. She is one of the neighborhood hooligans. She is skittish around people, she won’t ever let you touch her, but she comes around to play with Roxi. We were out having a fire in the fire pit, complete with s’mores when Willow showed up. She and Roxi chased each other around and Travis tried enticing her with bits of graham cracker and games of fetch, all in an effort to befriend her and be allowed to pet her. Willow, sensing weakness, started a sad little bit of pawing at the mud to make puddles to drink out of. Travis went inside to get water for Willow and that’s when she went in for the kill. All I heard was a slight rustle. Then Willow was tearing off down the driveway with our nearly new bag of marshmallows in her mouth. We were played that day.

[miriam0312]

“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”

Sherlock Holmes

[miriam0312]

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”

Albert Einstein

[miriam0312]

Walking the walk, talking the talk

Mt. McKinley is called Denali. This one actually makes a lot of sense. Why rename the highest peak in the US after a president from one of the “I” states (I can’t remember if it is Indiana or Illinois or Iowa) when it already has a name its been called by native people for ages? (Travis says it’s Ohio. I was a little off but it does start with a vowel and includes an “I.”)

Fred Meyers is King Soopers.

The lower 48 means the part of the country not separated by ocean and Canada.

PFD doesn’t mean process flow diagram. It means permanent fund dividend. It’s money you get for living in Alaska. But only after a couple years.

Break up is when all the ice and snow breaks up and goes away. There is a contest to see when a tripod falls into the river in Fairbanks. Its second place in the record books as far as I can tell. A few more days and it will beat the longest record.

When it is only 25 degrees out and someone mentions what a nice day it is, they aren’t kidding, they are being serious.

Qiviut is yarn made from a musk ox. It is amazing but also 80 dollars for a tiny little skein. Or like 200 for a hat. I’m way too cheap for that.

An arctic entry is like a mudroom with the added purpose of not letting excessively cold air in your house.

Snowmobiles are snowmachines.

Bunny boots are the warmest boots in existence.

Mukluks are the native version of boot moccasins.

The inversion everyone talks about is a real weather phenomena. Its so still that the air settles. This means you don’t want to go down into town when it’s cold because it’s full of car exhaust and nasty unhealthy air.

If you see a baby moose it should not look cute, you should be terrified. Mama moose is like mama bear.

You can go exploring in places that would have off limits or danger signs in the rest of the states. But it’s probably fun and you are probably in some danger but it makes for a good story.

The mosquitoes mean business and they are twice the size of normal bugs. When they hit your windshield they leave blood splatter patterns.

The people are very unique. Very unique.

[miriam0312]

Beating yurt fever

Even though the winters are dark and cold here, we did go outside when we could to get rid of that cabin (or more correctly, yurt) fever feeling. We took a couple of cheap sleds (just thick sheets of rectangular plastic really) and Roxi down to the sledding hill at the bottom of our big hill. It was a pretty solid ten minute walk to hike all the way to the top for thirty seconds flying down the hill, but it was a lot of fun. We experimented with sledding holding onto Roxi but it wasn’t her favorite. Usually one of us would go first Roxi would run in between and someone would follow behind. I wasn’t the most coordinated at staying on the sled or always facing the correct way while moving. Travis has some pretty funny video of me sliding/falling down the hill. I was also entertained by the times Travis caught up to Roxi and had to toss her into snowbanks to avoid running her over. We went to the ice sculpture competition that we had been to the previous year on our home finding visit. Sadly, it was much better last year. There weren’t nearly as many sculptures. Last year there were a lot more and a ton of ice slides. Plus the wind kicked up so it was brutally cold. We didn’t stay outside for longer than ten minutes at a time. Taking the shotgun out was an activity we waited for positive temperature weather to attempt. But we didn’t wait for the snow to melt. We tried to find a secluded clearing off the road but ditched that plan after wading in waist high snow. Instead we found a frozen over lake a little ways down the road to the north slope. The Dalton I believe. That’s where I found my “At your own risk” road sign. I’m not the best shot and it always takes a little extra effort for me because my shotgun is made for someone right handed but I have to shoot left handed as my right eye is pretty unhelpful. But I can shoot better than I can throw targets. I’m awful at that to the point of embarrassment. Luckily the snow covering the ice meant we could collect a lot of unbroken badly thrown targets. I am used to Colorado lakes that I would never walk on in winter. So I was kind of terrified to do that for the first time. We didn’t get to try snow machining, snow shoeing, or dog sledding so those are all on the to do list for next winter.  Now that it's warming up, we will be headed out for camping and fishing before the mosquitoes become unbearable.

[miriam0312]

No place like home

It was warm enough to light a fire in the firepit last night.  And a coal promptly burned a hole through my pants. This is why Travis worries about mixing Miriam and fire.  Other than that minor hiccup (and when I fell out of my chair) we had a really good night.  Sven came running over as soon as he realized we were outside.  We fed him a couple messy roasted marshmallows and Roxi helped clean him up afterwards.  Our little neighborhood impromptu get togethers are a great time. We also had to laugh at the fact the neighbors are also considering Australia as an eventual move after Washington.  We really do appear to be stalking them and following them around the globe.  

We also tossed around a few more ideas for where we might end up after Washington.  Ecuador is a possibility if Kinross gets their mine going there.  Travis sold me on the idea with a few key points. We would be in the Andes mountains near the start of the Amazon river.  There would be civilization close by but not too close, and the weather would be about 50 to 60 degrees all the time. I could totally find some Alpacas in that part of the globe.  Plus there used to be head shrinking tribes in that area, so likely haunted areas around.  I'd have to do some research on if I could find bigfoot or the chupacabra around there though.  Peru would also be a similar option.  However, it's more dry with more volcanoes.  But on the flipside, the vineyards would be better and the alpacas easier to find.  All that is pure brainstorming at the moment though.  

[miriam0312]

Your car started at -40 without a heater?! In town do they have plug in heaters for cars (like they do in Minnesota) or do they just pray a lot?

It did but it wasn't pretty or at all good for the car.  We do have heaters, they just didn't have electricity at the cabin we stayed at.  And we didn't expect it to get that cold that weekend.  

[miriam0312]

Camping at forty below

[miriam0312]

Just call me Hank.

[miriam0312]

Welcome to Deadhorse.

[miriam0312]

Where in the world is Miriam Gonzalez?

Because that seems to be the name of the game lately. I can barely keep track of the time zone I’m in, let alone where everyone else is. I’ve been to Colorado, Wyoming, and all over Alaska in the past couple weeks. Then I’ll visit Washington and Michigan later this year, probably a couple trips to each place. Oh and Houston in a few weeks. The logistics are nuts. I didn’t even know I was going to Wyoming until I was almost there and Colorado tried keep me with a blizzard. Currently, my wedding dress and in progress-flowers are in Colorado, they need to get to Michigan eventually. As do the wedding boots my dads importing from Nicaragua. We’ll be moving to Washington in December while I’m still commuting to Alaska but probably a home finding visit will be tossed in first. My first visit to Michigan needs to follow the Houston trip pretty rapidly so I can see where I’m getting married and meet my new family. Next March, we have our Michigan wedding. And we also have a honeymoon that will involve fleeing civilization get as far away as possible. Puerto Rico is the current plan for that trip. We’ll even get to fit in some nerdy time at bioluminescent beaches. Oh and other Travis and Megan (basically me and my Travis’ counterparts but think of other Travis as a male version of me and Megan as the female version of my Travis as a simplification. Which happens to get really confusing with all the Travi involved. Travi being the plural form of Travis.) get married around the time we do and they’ll warrant another Houston trip. By the end of all that, and who knows what else, we’ll be looking at Travis’ rotation in Washington ending and (hopefully) a semi permanent move. Which could be anywhere from Australia to Alaska. Or who knows, somewhere random like Siberia is probably a better guess. And all that planning doesn’t take into account the crazy weather and ridiculousness that seems to follow me everywhere and change it all up at a moment’s notice. I’ve already lost track of my miles but I’ve done over 10000 on Alaska airlines alone this year.

[miriam0312]

Things I’m looking forward to once I leave the slope….

2. Travis. Because he cleans the house before I get home, has my favorite foods and activities waiting, and also has beer with me.

3. Roxi. She’s more behaved than ever before and gets thoroughly overexcited to see me.

4. Springtime! Or at least weather above 30 degrees. The snow storms here are sideways. I was already being shown giant snowdrifts that take you by surprise because they pile up from old snow and wind. And I can’t even imagine how the visibility drops in winter.

5. More effective blackout shades. I forgot a sleeping mask and the shades just don’t cut it.

6. Sven. He is the our adorable two year old yurt buddy who likes to visit because we have hard hats and a dog. And sometimes I feed him chocolate chips and we watch movies. Word on the street is that hooligan is on our porch trying to win Travis over with Tonka trucks right now. One-upping the hot wheel Camaro I brought to Travis the last time I came home. Apparently they are best friends now. I’ll have to win them both over again!

I’m in list mode today. I spent a portion of my day doing an inventory of sorts of a lab. It was my first real idea of exactly what I’ll be working in. Basically, it’s a rectangular box about half the size of the average bedroom. Maybe stretched a little longer and slightly less wide. And I’m talking conventional bedrooms not a yurt pie slice bedroom. They are moved back and forth from the warehouse to rig sites. This one had been out on a rig and was back needing to be restocked before being sent out to a new rig. So I wrote up a list of all the equipment and chemical testing reagents that were already inside and that might be needed. The guys who have been showing me around and teaching said it was a good way to get an idea of what I’ll have to work with. And I’m getting the general idea of what tests I’ll run everyday. The other exciting news, I have a roommate. I saw her in the dark without my glasses on right as I was headed to bed and again this morning, again half asleep and mostly blind. So I’m thinking I might meet her this evening, but we shall see.

[miriam0312]

Notice the size difference between my boot and my foot. Though I think I’m adjusted to that now. Also, those are my boot booties for when I go inside the living area.