Chief Sammy!!

Sammy is sooooo cute in his little chief outfit.  He loves to help out in the kitchen.  Too bad for him that Renee and I don't really cook, bake or otherwise prepare food.  We just really heat up stuff at our house.  I like grilling, but that is not too specialized or hard to do.  Sammy really wants to be a Chief in Iceland when he grows up.  With that cute face I think he can be anything he wants to be!!  Good luck Sammy, I will definitely be eating in your restaurant . . . in a few years:) 

Sunny Day for Skiing

The boys and I went skiing/snowboarding this past Sunday.  The weather was just terrific and the snow conditions decent.  We met up with Gracie P. in the morning and skied with her for a while.  She had some other friends show up so she hung out with them in the afternoon.   

We were going to stick around until about 2:00, but as we were getting ready to call "last run" our friend Dustin showed up with his two boys.  We decided to ski with them for a while and ended up staying until close.  The day was just too nice!!

Sammy trying to learn to ski backwards.

This of course ends in disaster!!  

The boys in a big "pretzel"!

Hilltop was super crowded on Sunday.  It took Dustin almost an hour and a half to get rental gear for his kids.  I am glad we have all our own gear and season passes.  I saw another friend getting a ski pass for her daughter.  She asked me why it was so crowded, was there a competition going on??  No, I said . . . just a bunch of people with cabin fever taking advantage of a blue bird day!

Great way to spend a few hours on a Sunday!

We got hungry since we stuck around for Dustin and his crew.  We had a nice lunch outside and got to watch the ski jumping competition going on next door.  Now both Zach and Sam want to get into ski jumping.  We'll have to see what all is involved.  Might be cool.  Not for me though, I like keeping my board on the ground!

AT&T Fireworks!

We were lucky enough this year to get the invite to the AT&T Fur Rondy fireworks extravaganza!  Renee's work has an AT&T business account so we are on the list.  

AT&T has a nice spread for the family and has entertainment for the kids.

Sammy totally loved the balloon clown.

Danny Person from my KTVA days!

I forgot that Zach wore his German Lederhosen.  He got a German flag painted on his face.

Glowy things.  Sam broke one of these in the hotel, and another one in the car.

Dang kids . . . they sure are cute.  Guess I will keep them.

Fur Rondy out my Window!

I guess when you live in Alaska, one can expect the unusual.  Today we had the 2014 Fur Rondy world class Sprint Dog Mushing Championship Races right outside my office window. 

I really enjoyed watching the city put together the track.  Almost all of the snow for the downtown portion of the course had to be imported from somewhere else in town.  When I got to work at 7:00, crews had all of the snow for the course in big mounds or a continuous berm in the center of the Cordova Street.  By 8:oo, two huge Cat graders were working back and fourth roughing in the track.  The precision of these big machines was amazing.  They first build the "bed" of the track, then they set about making the berms.  At 9:00, the snowcat from Hilltop made a couple of passes to smooth and groom the track and by 10:00 it was ready for the dogs.  The crews repeated this process every morning for the next three days of the event.  Right after the races had finished for the day, the graders would come by, one on either side of the street, and push all of the snow together in a mound back in the center of the road.  This way cars could still use the roads after hours.  You just couldn't turn.  What took three hours to build, took about 30 seconds to destroy!

These dogs are different from the Iditarod dogs competing the following week.  These guys are built for speed and short (relatively) distances. 

The sleds and the strategies of the mushers are different too. Run the dogs hard from the get go.  Two hours of sprinting, and then thru the finish line and then home for a well deserved rest. 

Anyway, very fun to see such a unique sport right outside of work.  That's what living in Alaska is all about!!

Blue & Gold

OMG . . . this event is PAINFULL!!!  WAY too much talking and awards and trying to squeeze money out of the parents.  Kids sit in school all day and then have to come to Scouts to sit some more and listen to people talk.  I think I will avoid this event next year at all cost!!

That being said . . . the food was good!  

The kids were as good as could be expected considering they had to sit for and hour and listen to talking.

Beth did a wonderful job setting up the room and preparing the smores "campfire" dessert.  It was good (I had two) and the kids enjoyed putting them together.

But . . . they really need to figure out a way to condense some of the awards/fundraising/adult talking!!  Break it up with an activity or something.  Have the kids do and activity and then just talk to the parents.  Wait . . . that's not fair either . . . I sit all day too and have to be good too.  No! . . . take out the talking all together.  

Sammy as you can see could entertain himself anywhere!!  It was a long day for him as well.  He was a good sport.  

. . . finally it's winter again!!

Winter finally decided to show itself again.  About time!!  Just some shots of my commute to work in the morning.  

This shot is on Rabbit Creek Road, just down from the house right as we get the the curve.  The neighbor girl had a mis-hap here about a month ago with her car.  She is a young driver and mis-judged the road conditions and slid into the ditch to the right of the picture.  She was fine, but the car suffered some damage.  $3500 worth of damage to be precise, which unfortunately is what the car was worth.  She ended up fixing it, but I felt bad, because her "good deal" turned into a rather expensive car.  Her Dad came over and told me the story.  He had just gotten the estimate and wasn't looking forward to the "discussion of tears" as he called it.

This shot is on the Seward Highway right before Dimond Blvd.  The two shots look drastically different lighting wise . . .  but they were taken only 10 minutes apart.  We are gaining up to 5 minutes of daylight every day now.  Once the sun decides to wake up, it gets light quick!!

Anyway, glad winter is back!  Snowboarding should be good again!!

Go to the Gym

The ski conditions at Hilltop were less than ideal, so the kids wanted to go to the Alaska Rock Gym to burn off some energy.  You would think with a rock wall in the house that we wouldn't need to go to the Gym, but they like the variety of routes and the extra height of the walls at the gym.

Kids did great.  Really helps to climb all the time.  They looked pretty cool in their Black Diamond harnesses and helmets from Mema & Papa.  

We stayed about three hours.  The kids climbed most of the routes.  By the end their arms were spent, so we went to the bouldering area were . . . they climbed some more!!  Both boys liked climbing onto and over the bordering wall and into the area for kids.  I don't know why that was so exciting for them, but they kept wanting to go up and over . . . again and again.  I think we'd still be there if I didn't finally cut them off.

Verdict - Rock Gym - Good way to burn off energy, kids can climb the walls, only $7 bucks per kid with gear and $10 with rentals.  Don't show kids bouldering wall on way out!!

Groupon for Lunch

Nice lunch at Ling & Louie's with the family.  Renee and I would be stuck in a culinary rut if it weren't for Groupon.  

My review of Ling & Louie's - Fun atmosphere, fast service, did not get angry looks from wait staff or hostess when children were loud.  Childs menu had crayons, and menu items were acceptable to discerning younger diners.  As for the adult food, I (being from the mid-west and always impressed with White Castle) went for the slider platter as did Renee.

The food came to our table in a reasonable amount of time (kids were still coloring their menu).  The presentation was great, the kids meal looked like something out of a magazine!!  Renee and I's slider dish was huge.  I liked the square plates.  The meal came with three good sized sliders (more like medium sized burgers) and a huge stack of seasoned fries on the side (see funnel shaped contraption below).  They were great, less like hamburgers and more like filet mignon slices under a bun.  I could only eat two out of the three sliders and both Renee and I boxed up our leftovers for another time.  Couldn't polish off the fries either, portions were very generous.

As with all meals with kids, our time is limited.  We had an enjoyable time and left before anyone melted down or needed a nap.  I would recommend Ling & Louies . . . get the slider special, you won't be disappointed.  Bring a friend, leave the kids and enjoy a long lunch of good food, friendly staff and "quiet" atmosphere . . . as long as we're not sitting next to you:)

Everything is Awesome!!!

We went to see the Lego movie with my Co-worker Rebecca and her son Gabriel a week ago.  Everything you have heard about the movie is true.  It was great!  

I still can't figure out if the movie was stop motion or if it was computer animated, whatever it was, it was seamless in its portrayal of of the Lego hero and his adventure to be "the Special".  I also loved (without giving away the movie), how the plot revolved around the notion of "is it better to follow the directions, or is it better to build your own creations" with the Lego bricks?

The kids had a good time, and I did too.  It was a rainy day (in February?) so it was the perfect afternoon activity.  We filled up on popcorn (like always) and pretty much had it down by the previews.  

This was Gabriel's second time to the movies . . . ever!!  He did great and enjoyed the flick.  I had to separate Sam and him a few minutes into the film.  Sam just likes to talk and talk, and if there is someone to listen . . . even better!!  I didn't think the rest of the theater would appreciate his commentary so he sat by me.  The movie was engaging enough that he got drawn in pretty quickly.  Anyway, I give the film a 8.5 out of 10.  Go see it, it will make you laugh, it will make you cry . . . it was better than Cats!!

Alaska Forum 2014

The Alaska Forum on the Environment is a large Environmental Conference held every year at the Dena'ina Center in Anchorage the first week of February.  The conference has over 80 different break out sessions covering a number of topics.  There are tracts for Mining, Climate Change, Contaminated Sites, Emergency Response, Energy, Environmental Education, Environmental Regulation, Marine Debris, Rural & Tribal Issues . . . the list goes on.  I am the tract manager for the Solid Waste and Recycling break out sessions, and I help out with the Film Festival, which focuses on environmental films, primarily from Alaska.  The Forum Planning Committee starts meeting in August to plan for the event.  In all there were almost 1200 people that attended the Alaska Forum on the Environment this year.  Its a lot of work to put on a conference of this size, but it is also very rewarding.    

Back in early September, Kurt, the AK Forum organizer, asked for ideas for the keynote speakers.  I had read a book several years earlier, "From the Bottom Up", about a guy who cleans up the Mississippi River. I had recently read that this "Guy", Chad, had really built up his organization, cleaning up rivers, and was now nominated for the CNN Hero award.  Hmmm . . . this guy might be an interesting speaker!!

Well, long story short, we were able to negotiate to get Chad Pregracke to speak at our conference.  Chad's orgainization Living Lands and Waters  http://www.livinglandsandwaters.org , is really awesome and fit well with the conferences overall theme of environmental stewardship.  In September we were able to work out the details of Chad coming up to speak.  Just a few weeks later in early November, it was announced that Chad won the CNN Hero of the year award!  What a neat honor for him, and what a great stroke of luck for the Alaska Forum as i'm sure his speaking engagements increased after the announcement, as well as his price!  Both he and his wife Tammy were really excited to visit Alaska.  Timing was with us. 

Chad is an impressive speaker.  His talk was both funny and motivational.  He has a great story and his mission fits perfectly with our environmental conference.  He spoke for about an hour and after he was finished got a standing ovation.  The crowd was really pumped up to get out there and do some work for the environment!  I had several people come up after the keynote tell me that Chad was the best speaker they had ever heard. Definitly a feather in my cap for bringing him up. 

Chad was impressed on his end as well.  He had attended the morning keynote and admitted later that he was a little worried about speaking in Alaska.  The audience is quite different from the corporate world that he typically speaks to.  A large percentage of the attendees at the Alaska Forum are Alaskan native.  He wasn't sure how they would react to his talk, and some of his jokes.  Plus he had no idea how large the conference would be.  He was thinking maybe a hundred or so, but was surprised when the room was packed with well over 700 people!  A funny sidenote.  As Chad was evaluating the crowd for the morning keynote, he noticed one lady with her back turned to the speaker and paying attention at all.  Occasionally she would look up and roll her eyes at what the speaker was saying.  Chad decided to make a game out of the situation and made it his mission to make that woman pay attention during his keynote address.  He even tried to find out her name so he could mention her in the keynote if he saw that she wasn’t paying attention.  Well, he gave his presentation, and the talk was interesting, funny and the woman did pay attention.  Chad said later that he saw her laughing and actively engaged, so as a result he didn’t have to embarrass her during his talk.  What was funny about this encounter, was that later that night at a party I hosted for some of the people associated with solid waste, Chad saw the woman.  As it turns out, it was my co-worker Sandi, basically my equivalent at ADEC in the South East.  Sandi is very fun and has a quirky sense of humor, but can easily become disengaged if she is not interested in the message.  It’s a small world! Moral is, always pay attention, or at least put on a good show.  You never know what is working in the background, and you may find yourself in an embarrassing situation later on and not know why.

Kurt, with the Alaska Forum hired a sketch artist to "document" all of the keynotes and many of the breakout sessions.  The result was very interesting.  Kind of a story board of the talks.

After lunch Tammy presented at one of the breakout sessions on the Living Lands and Waters mission.  More of a nuts and bolts on how the organization works.  It was pretty well attended and was very interesting.

Finally, last session of the day Chad participated in a panel discussion on Alaska river clean-up efforts.  He got a lot of information on how things work up here, and some of the challenges that are ahead of some of these groups.

As I said earlier, we hosted a party for the Solid Waste Program, some EPA folks from Washington D.C., Kurt with the Alaska Forum, some university people, and Chad and Tammy.  There was a ton of food, plenty of beverages and lively conversation.  It is really nice to see people in more of a social setting and to be able to talk on more of a personal level.  Kind of like the old adage that more work gets done on the golf course that in the boardroom! 

Everyone had a great time meeting outside of the conference.  We had more food and beverages than we knew what to do with.

These get togethers are nice for the Solid Waste staff (Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks).  We only get together two maybe three times a year as a group.

The EPA folks from D.C. had a nice time getting to know some of our staff outside of the work environment.  It was nice that Charles and Betsy made time to hang out with us.

Chad and Tammy really liked the house, and thought the rock wall was awesome.  No one climbed this time, but it wasn’t that kind of a party.  Chad was really interested in Alaska and was curious about the ocean and some of the recreational activities.  I was able to get them booked on a Charter for that Thursday in Prince William Sound.  At one point in the conversation he asked me what kind of boats they take out in the Sound.  I replied with, “why let me show you our boat that we use in the Sound.  Chad is a boat guy, so he really liked seeing our boat.  Both he and Tammy marveled at how it fit in the garage.  I had to explain the whole process of making the door bigger, taking off trim pieces when backing in, and letting the air out of the tyres to make the boat fit.  They both thought that was pretty cool. 

People stayed until around 9:30, it was a “school night” after all.  Chad and Tammy were the last to leave, and it was nice having a little one on one with them.  They really appreciated being invited and liked seeing how Alaskans lived. 

The next day, Tuesday, didn’t really have any solid waste tracts, so it was a bit of an easier day.  Kind of a calm before the storm, as Wed, Thurs and Friday were booked solid with solid waste breakout sessions.  Chad let me know that Tuesday night, he was going over to the University to give his presentation in the Student Center.  I tagged along to support the talk, and to be honest, I wanted to see it again anyway.  The venue at UAA was much smaller, maybe only 25 students in attendance.  The ones who were there were all very engaged and interested in the Living Lands and Waters mission.  Chad had a few books to sell, and it was nice at the end he just gave everyone a book at no cost. 

Afterwards both Chad and Tammy wanted to meet for a beer somewhere, so I took them over to the Taproot bar & Grill.  It is a quaint establishment in Spenard, with live music and a quirky atmosphere.  Again, it was nice to spend some one on one with them, and hear more about their clean-up program and how they got to where they are today.  Chad actually went to school at ISU in Normal.  I event knew the house where he lived as a student, (it was a party house).  We had been to many of the same places, and had similar backgrounds growing up as kids.  It is fun talking with fellow mid-westerners, it is a small world!

Next day it was my turn to talk.  I had a presentation called Seasonal Planning - "Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail", where I talk about the benefits of planing ahead for rural landfills.  I was still pretty jazzed up from watching Chad speak . . . and I had like three cups of coffee, so I really put in an "A" for effort.  It was part landfill talk and part stand-up comedy routine.  The room was pretty full, and I had them all rolling in the isles.  Rural landfill are not to be made fun of, but it helps to get the information across if the talks are kept light.  My boss's boss was in attendance, and he said that the three girls in the row behind him didn't stop laughing the entire time.  He enjoyed the talk and said it was funny and informative.  It is going to be hard to top that performance at the next environmental conference.

My talk on Tuesday was definitely the highlight for me.  I was also helping out with the Film festival (we had popcorn and technical difficulties), and it was well attended.  Last year we only had film festival on Friday.  Friday is a bad day to have it because everyone has pretty much either gone home, or is attending one of the all day trainings.  I rallied to move the film festival to earlier in the week.  I was able to get two time spots on Wed, and three on Thursday . . . in addition to a half day on Friday. The film festival was a hit, well attended and lots of interest in the films.  Sometimes people just want to pop in for a film or two, or might not see anything else on the agenda that interests them.  Either way, I am going to make sure I secure several spots for the film festival throughout the week.

I had another break-out session called "Stump the Chump" on Thursday.  There people in the audience could ask me, or my co-presenter Ted, anything they wanted about solid waste . . . well, technically they could ask us anything they wanted, but we generally try to keep the questions related to rural landfills.  The session went great, and I had two EPA folks from DC come up and tell me they were impressed with how we were able to answer pretty much everything the audience threw at us, and were able to Google outside resources for things we needed more clarification on.

Friday, Ted and I presented for the all day Rural Alaskan Landfill Administrator (RALA) training.  By the end of the class, I was pretty spent, and ready to stop thinking about saving the environment for a while.  Time for a beer!

Kurt (AK Forum head guy), hosts a "mandatory" Planning Committee meeting right after the last training on that Friday of the Forum.  Usually Renee and I will go for an hour or so, because we have the kids at home waiting with a sitter.  This year however, Kurt offered to have a sitter at the hotel where this "meeting" was taking place, AND to sweeten the deal, he offered to give us a room for the evening at the Marriott.  SWEET!!

Renee and I had a great time.  We met downtown at 6pm, parked the cars (she picked up the kids and drove separately, that way I didn't have to leave downtown), and got settled in the room.  At 6:30 we dropped the kids off at the sitter on the 19th floor (Karen K', daughter and friend), and headed up to the party.  There was an open bar (no driving home!), and tons of food.  Renee and I had a good time mingling with the crowd.  We talked with Khulan and Nomin from Mongolia.  They informed me that Mongolian Beef is not something that you would actually find in Mongolia.  Both girls are taking classes at the University of Anchorage Alaska and presented at the Forum.  We had a good time finding out all about Mongolia and some of the similarities to Alaska.  The county sound beautiful, with high mountains and huge deserts.  It is about the size of Alaska.  I am ready to take a vacation there soon!  Both Khulan and Nomin were into running, and by the end of the night talked Renee and I (with the kids) into participating in the upcoming Anchorage Color Run in June!  Check out the link if you have never heard of a color run http://www.thecolorrun.com/anchorage/2014-06-28/  I had never heard of the run, but it looks like a lot of fun!!  We got signed up, and now all we have to do is get in shape.

Santina and her husband Matt are really fun, and hilarious to talk to.  Matt has a very witty sense of humor. They live just up the street from us, and we've been over to their house a couple of times.  Santina works for the EPA in the Indian General Assistance Program (IGAP).  

The crowd got lively after a few rounds at the bar.  Matt and I joined the crowd during the Alaska Forum's rendition of the "Hustle".  Here I am preforming some of my advanced dance moves (I really don't have any).

Renee and I didn't stay out too late, despite having a room downtown.  If I stay out too late, I waste the entire next day.  My weekends are too valuable, so we party like "old people".  Nothing too exciting.  The kids had a good time at the sitter, and I was able to get two of the really nice balloon arraignments from the conference.  I had gotten one of the balloon arraignments last year and it lasted clear into June.  I don't know what they put in those balloons, but they have longevity!!

Next morning we (the kids) started out the day in the pool.  Any chance they get, they take advantage of being in the water.  

The conference was a long, busy week, but fulfilling in the end.  I look forward to next years conference and all the hard work it entails.  We always get positive feedback from the event, and often times see the same people coming back for more year after year.  Thanks again to Kurt for coordinating this great event.  We'll see you in August, when we will again start the planning process for the 2015 Alaska Forum on the Environment!!