Summer Update

Summer in Alaska

As always, summer is a busy time. You only have about 3 months to make up for the past 9 months of darkness, so you tend to pack everything you can think of into your days – leaving barely any time at all for the more mundane things, like updating one’s blog or keeping one’s house clean. So, once again, you’re getting the update all in one fell swoop.

Life is Good

When I compare my mental state now to what it was a year ago, I am well pleased to report a stupendous improvement. Things truly are looking so much better now: my personal life is improved, my roommate is gone permanently, and my financial situation is going to be improving shortly. Heck, even my house is improving! About the only thing NOT improving is my cat, Djuna – more about her further on down this posting.

Family Hikes

The family hikes haven’t been very well attended, but they’ve still been fun. We hiked one of my favorite trails last time: Winner Creek Trail, out in Girdwood. Such a beautiful place with towering cottonwood trees, tall white spruce, and even the occasional fuzzy hemlock, lush green ferns, lots of blueberry bushes, and this time we got to see a bear alongside the trail! This coming Sunday we will be hiking up in Eagle River on the Dew Mound Trail. I suspect I may be the only one going however, as the only feedback I’ve received on it so far has all be to say they will not be going. But that’s okay – I will hike it anyway. There are more hikes in the year that people will be able to go on.

Seward with Rob & the Kids

I drove down to Seward last weekend to meet up with Rob and his kids for two nights of camping out. That was so much fun, even though it rained each night. On Saturday, Rob and Trey spent the day out on a halibut fishing charter while Sierra and I spent our day in town. We went to the SeaLife Center (my favorite place to visit in Seward), walked the docks, went hiking up Mt. Marathon, and watched a huge sea otter play in the waters near where they were cleaning fish. On Sunday, all four of us went out to Exit Glacier. We hiked up to the glacier itself and then spent an hour or so skipping rocks in the river. All in all, it was a great trip.

My Best Friend

Kathryn is in town, up visiting from her home in New York. We got to spend a good 3 hours the other day catching up on all the news. It was such a nice day out that we went to Pt. Woranzof and  walked about 4-5 miles back towards Kincaid Park. Thankfully, the mosquitoes weren’t as bad as the last time I’d done that trail so we didn’t have to run from them and could just enjoy the scenery and company. I really do miss her, and am very thankful she takes time out of her vacation to come see me. I will have to return the favor one of these days and go visit her in New York!

My Craft Room

Work continues on the craft room – not nearly as quickly as I would like, but it does continue none the less. Rob and his kids were over just the other day to finish painting the walls. I really like the colors I chose! When you’re looking at color swatches that are an inch square it’s so hard to imagine what they’ll look like in your home, you know? Thankfully, they look great – and will look even better once the trim goes up.  Then I can move in the furniture and get it all set up and in use. I plan to commemorate the Grand Opening of my craft room by finally learning how to use all my Quilling supplies!

Thing and Djuna

As promised, here is an update on my girls. Djuna and I are getting used to the IV thing so that it’s actually going quite well. I am able to do the whole procedure on my own without any help from Rob – which is a good thing since he would not be able to come over each Sunday. Djuna doesn’t like it, of course, but she tolerates it and is showing signs of great improvement (her fur has turned thick and is even coming in on her belly). She will go back to the vet’s office soon for another blood/urine test to see how the kidneys are responding to all this fluid. Hopefully I can stop the IVs and just rely on the water fountain and canned foods. Disturbingly Thing was not feeling good last night, exhibiting some of the same symptoms that Djuna had. I’m fairly certain I’m just gun-shy and that she’s fine… but still, it would REALLY suck having both of them with kidney failure.

Last Day – First Day

Today is my last day at Treeline Construction. That’s both sad and exciting, all at the same time. They really are a great company, and I’ve enjoyed my time with them. I got to meet some really nice people and learn a very interesting new program on the computer. But, my new job (which starts July 5^th) will also be a good one too, I’m sure. I don’t know the people I’ll be working with but have heard good things about them from somebody I trust. I’m nervous, of course (who wouldn’t be), and really do hate new jobs… but it’s all good.