Nice Evening in Juneau

We had a cloudy day and a lovely sunny late afternoon and evening yesterday. We drove out to the airport and walked on on the dike trail that goes along the wetlands. The birds are starting to move through on their way south so we thought we'd check it out and see if there was anything interesting. We saw some shorebirds - I think they were western sandpipers but aren't sure. Still not too good at shorebird identification and we didn't take the book with us.

I encourage you to click on this image to get a better view.

Treadwell Ditch and Mount Bradley

About a 10-minute walk down 5th street in Douglas through a normal-looking neighbor provided a new hiking opportunity for us. You have to look between two houses for the trail head sign; there seems to be quite a bit public access across private land down here. I'm thinking its because we're surrounded by national forest land. In a matter of minutes you'll find yourself away from urban noises and surrounded by numerous shades of green. We decided to check out a portion of the Mt Bradley (map - click on Mt Bradley) trail and see where it connected to the Treadwell Ditch. The ditch used to bring water to the mine area from across Douglas Island. I think it goes for about 16 miles and most of it you can hike. We'll have to save that for a long summer day.

As with other trails, this was well maintained with a gravel pathway and some built in stairs. There was very little boardwalk which was fine with me since it had been rainy pretty heavy for the last couple days. Some of those boards get pretty slick.


I think this is Paris Creek and this creek didn't have a bridge across it but we found a narrow spot that wasn't too hard to get across. The upper creek was much bigger and was flowing pretty good with brownish-runoff water. This one did have a nice bridge that looked pretty new.


Most of the Treadwell Ditch is covered over with logs and moss but this portion was open. You do have to be careful where you are stepping as the logs that have been here for 100 years are rotting out some. We followed the ditch for quite a ways before turning around when we hit another creek that we couldn't easily ford. We also realized that the trail had really gotten narrow and wasn't heavily traveled and was probably a game trail.

Knitted Lace

I really enjoy knitting lace. I love working with thin thread and the small needles. I like having the pattern appear in just a few rows even though I still have to pay attention and count to keep track of where I'm at. I don't normally need to mark my place on paper but I do have to pay attention. Its not something like baby booties which I can almost make with my eyes closed. I have several patterns that I regularly make and add to pillow cases, towels, and other items. Usually I know how long of a piece I need and knit it to fit. I'm not sure I have the nerve to just knit a ball of lace and then have to cut it to fit – I wouldn't mind someone else doing that part but I don't think I would enjoy it much. I'd hate to see the lace unravel before my eyes.

The lace I'm currently making is with cotton crochet thread. I think its no. 2 but I can't find the label and I'm using needles that are size no. 1. I use my double pointed needles because they are the shortest ones I have.

Here's a pattern for Irish Lace

Cast on 10 sts, k one row
Row 1: K2, yo, k 2 tog, yo twice, k 2 tog, k4.
Row 2: K6, p1, k1, p1, k2
Row 3: K2, yo, k 2 tog, k7
Row 4: K8, yo, k 2 tog, k1
Row 5: K2, yo, k 2 tog, k1, yo twice, k 2 tog, yo twice, k 2 tog, k2.
Row 6: K4, p1, k2, p1, k2, yo, k 2 tog, k1
Row 7: K2, yo, k 2 tog, k9
Row 8: Bind off 3 sts, k6, yo, k 2 tog, k1.

Repeat rows 1-8 until desired length and then bind off.


I really need to learn how to knit back and forth on the same needle without have to switch hands. This would save some time – my nephew-in-law Jim showed me how awhile back but I didn't practice and now I've forgotten how. I'll have to see if I can find some instructions on the web or just plan a visit to Seattle to get some help.

Since we're on the subject of food…

Here's one of my favorite desert recipes that my mom used to make quite often. The recipe I have is in my Grandmother's handwriting so its one of those old-fashion deserts that doesn't call for exotic ingredients and is pretty hearty. This makes four (american-sized) servings.



Chocolate Upside-Down Cake
Sift together (ok - how many of you have a sifter?)
1 cup flour (could use other multi-grain flour but would need to make adjustment to quantity)
3/4 cup sugar
2 T cocoa
1/2 t salt (I left out)
2 t Baking Powder
- - - - - -
1 t vanilla (preferable the good mexican vanilla that your friends brings back from their vacations!)
1/2 cup milk (I used 1/4 c low-fat vanilla flavored soy and 1/4 low-fat milk - next time I might use all soy milk)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I left these out but my mom would sometimes use walnuts)
(you could add different spices to change the taste. I think some fresh mint or cinnamon might be pretty good. It might also be interesting if you added a small handful of miniature marshmellows.)

Melt 2 T shortening (I used canola oil) in pan you are going to bake it in. Add dry ingredients and then add wet ingredients and mix it all up. Sprinkle over the batter the following:

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T cocoa

and then pour 1 cup boiling water (this makes the chocolate syrup in the bottom of the pan) over all and put in 325 ° oven for 45 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.

This desert has the tendency to puff up and then fall as it cools. I suggest using a pan a little larger than you think you might need – one with high sides. Once my mom found the right baking pan that forever became known as the chocolate upside-down cake pan. Whenever you saw it out on the counter you knew what would be for desert after dinner!

I also had a recipe for a carmel upside-down cake which I thought I would really like because I would normally choose carmel over chocolate but it just doesn't taste as good. I looked for the recipe but I think I already pulled it from my bulging recipe box because it wasn't something that I'd make again.

100 good things to eat

Need an energy boost? Trouble sleeping? Do you need to hold what you're reading just a little bit farther out from your face? Here's some suggestions for incorporating specific food items into your daily eating to aid in productivity, digestion, filling up without weight gain, and other health related issues. top-100-foods-to-improve-your-productivity


As I scan through this list there isn't really anything on it that I don't like and most of the items are already in the pantry or frig. I was especially glad to see the suggestions for the heart-healthy group - what better way to start with day but with dark chocolate covered bananas, kiwi, and grapes!

But do realize that there may be mistakes, errors, or misnomoers on this list. If you notice the second entry:

• Raisins: If you need a boost of energy, steer clear of the carbs and grab a pack of raisins. These high-energy fruits are low in fat and calories and rich in antioxidants which help restore your body’s most important cells.

Everyone knows that raisins have quite a few carbs in them (100-115 per cup) so you just need to eat in moderation.

I also thought this table was interesting on http://www.womenfitness.net/carbs.htm which has a Table of Glycaemic Index of Foods. Skimming through the high column I did notice quite a few gluten-free products.

This is making me hungry...

We arrived and out comes the SUN!

Sitka – what a beautiful place–when the sun is shining! We had a very nice visit with Tim's folks and you couldn't have asked for better weather. One afternoon Tim and I walked from the house on Mt Edgecumbe down through town, past Cresent Harbor to Totem Park. It was a nice little walk and we enjoyed seeing the sites along the way.

The requisite totem pole picture:


The awesome view of downtown Sitka and Mt Edgecumbe from Totem Park


And voted "best view" from a fast-food restaurant – no one minds waiting in the drive-through line here!


Crazy Salmon doing head butts into the metal gate – "com'on guys…all together now…on three, 1…2…3…thump"



St Peters by-the-Sea



Soon before heading to the ferry terminal, we took a short drive to Blue Lake out the end of the road towards where the saw mill was. Tim's Mom said the chocolate factory opened up in the building but we didn't have time to stop. The lake is about 5 miles in on a nice dirt road - we didn't venture down the hill to the lake - we'll have to save that for another trip. I think we might bring our bikes next time and try this trail out. There's also a hiking trail that goes from here over to Thimbleberry Lake - a relatively new trail was completed some time this winter.

PBR in ANC

The PBR came back to Anchorage for the 2nd Annual Last Frontier Challenge this last weekend. It was definitely a different event from last year - no big opening production with fireworks and drama, no entertainment between go-rounds, quite a few Alaska bull riders, and very few of the big-time names. There was very little advertising done and no write-ups in the paper. Roxi said she heard advertising on the country radio station. The stands were not full so not sure who dropped the ball on that one.

Rune had fun getting signatures on a t-shirt his papa bought for him - he got 15 signatures and a lot of nice comments from the cowboys. Heidi volunteered to take him down to the arena to meet them - so everyone was happy!


Our Cheering section!

Ty, Ryan, Jeff, Tam, Tim
Melody, Robyn, Dennis, Rune, Roxi

I'm pretty sure that the bulls won this event - there weren't even enough qualifying cowboys to fill out the 12 slot short go-round. There were also an awful lot of re-rides meaning the bull didn't perform well enough to give the rider a fair ride. This usually means the bull falls or lays down. Several of them just stopped when they heard the buzzer - maybe a little too well trained. They say its dangerous for the rider to get off when the bull is just standing there because you're never quite sure if the bulls are just going to let you get off peacefully or if they'll turn on you. There were a couple of guys who caught their spurs in the rope and actually pulled off their boots. Guess that's why your mama always said to put on clean socks. Thankfully no one got hurt.

Heading to Sitka

During the summer months, the Alaska Marine Highway changes its schedule so that the M/V Fairfeather runs three times a week to Sitka. With the Labor day holiday giving us that extra day we were able to take advantage of the schedule so we decided to take off for the weekend. During the summer the Fairweather makes alternating trips between Haines and Skagway and Sitka. I think in the winter they only go to Sitka one day a week and the rest of the routes are to Haines and Skagway. The highspeed cataraman cuts hours off the schedule making it a quick 4-5 hour run instead of 8-9 hours. That's a big difference when you don't have a lot of time off.

We enjoyed a relatively nice trip over - a few clouds here and there and some rainfall. It was pretty warm through so we did enjoy time out on the deck. Going through the Sitka Narrows was beautiful - lots of small rocky islands some covered with Sitka spruce and Hemlock.


Probably the highlight of the trip was when they called for volunteers to help with a Man-Overboard drill. Boy is that water cold! They actually threw a dummy (no really) overboard and lowered a lifeboat for body recovery. I don't think they expected to actually pick up a person alive because it took about 45 minutes to slow down, turn the boat around, lower the lifeboat, and find the drowning person. It would be very unlikely that the person overboard would have a life jacket. Its nice to know that they do the drill. This exercise added about an hour to our trip but was something that doesn't happen everyday!

Looks like there might be more online photo editing opportunities coming soon as announced at Photoshop World in SF recently: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9773731-7.html. It looks like Adobe is getting ready to launch a free photoshop express-like web version soon. This will be helpful but I hope that they offer the ability to change resolution – one of the features that is most often missing in current web 2.0 photo editing webware.

Other sources on this topic:
Photoshop Express:
http://blog.adglobe.net/2007/09/08/photoshop-express-online-adobe-photoshop-services/

Initial screenshot compared to Fauxto:
http://blogoscoped.com/forum/107876.html

Premiere Express:
http://www.riapedia.com/tags/premiere_express
written using flex (the software Sage was talking about at our last demonstration meeting)

What's in the shadows

My sister got me started on this when she sent the first puppet movie over the weekend and I started looking to see what else is out there! Here's some shadow-hand puppets ready to entertain you:

Images set to "Its a Wonderful World"
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1024900HsF84ePr

Here's an extensive shadow puppet piece which looks like it involved multiple people: http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=6635&aid=19

And more advertising:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Amazing-Shadow-Hand-Puppets

This one is from an Austin Power movie and like his movies, may not be quite tasteful for all audiences:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v407929GqmEaAEP?searchId=8606925309821423657&rank=1

And if you want to learn how to create shadow images here are some nice illustrations:
http://haha.nu/creative/how-to-make-shadows-on-the-wall

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Harvest Fair

If you've been here recently you have to admit that there are a lot of beautiful flowers in people's gardens. Some of the landscaping is really breathtaking. You do see a few vegetable gardens around too but rarely do you see a greenhouse. There is a community garden area and they were celebrating their fall harvest this last weekend. Our friend J has a sister, Pat, who lives down here and invited us to check out the festivities.

I was really looking forward to the farmer's market part and was hoping for some vine ripened tomatoes. We didn't get to the fair until near the end of the day so there wasn't much left - a zucchini and some herbs…that's about it. We did look at some displays and they had a little veggie competition going and were about to announce the winners. We saw few carrots, broccoli, and some unripe kiwi (which if there wasn't a sign up I would have thought they were small (1 1/2 inch green peppers)) but mostly there were herbs.

I guess that makes sense – this is kind of a herby place. Anyway we didn't get any veggies but it looked like everyone was having fun. They had some games for kids including the potato throw shown below. The little boy (maybe 3) keep moving around and I didn't get a good picture of him throwing the "potato" at the board. As you can see - he needs a little practice!



In closing, I think one of the highlights for this event actually took place a few days before it happened. After a radio interview on the public radio station the host played the Vegetable Song! No really - we heard it on the radio!!! If you're not familiar with this masterpiece then here's the some of the words:

It was late one nite by the pale moonlight
all the vegetables gave a spree;
they put out a sign that said the dancing's at nine
and all the admission was free,
there was peas and greens and cabbage and beans
it was the biggest crowd you ever did see;
and when ol' man cucumber struck up that number
you should have heard those vegetables screams
Oh little turnip top was doin' the backwards flop

… continued …

and if you want to hear the tune you'll have to contact me and I'll sign it for you!

Digital Scrapbooking

My niece has been scrapbooking online and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing some of her posts because she's doing some very nice stuff. Here's one of her son in the T-Bird.

And here's a picture of his Grandmother and his two Great-Aunts with the same T-bird.

Peterson Creek to Peterson Lake along the Peterson Trail with the Peterson's

Just kidding - we weren't with the Petersons but we met them along the trail! Peterson Lake (map - look for Peterson Lake) was our final destination where there's a forest service cabin that you can rent out. We had thought about coming here with the Holmbergs when they were in town but the dates just didn't work out. We saw a few birds: Winter Wrens, Northern Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, and heard the ravens.

There wasn't much elevation gain which was nice and the trail ran through the woods sort of along the creek - at least you could hear the creek rushing. At about 1 mile in we found a spot where you could look down and see the Peterson Falls. We thought this might be a good fishing spot if you could get down the cliff – might have to follow the creek from the road instead of taking the trail. We've heard that there are various salmon, trout, and dolly's in the creek and up at the lake. I would image that the 1 mi falls would stop any salmon from going up farther. At about the 2 mi mark the trail opened up into a series of meadows. This was nice because most of the trail was made up of boardwalk and in the trees the boards were very slippery. In the meadow since it was more open the boards were drying and felt much safer.

This was one of the straight stretches – you can see Tim way up there – reminded me of the highway between Delta and Donley Dome – very straight run! We found some moss berries and 2 lowbush cranberries which weren't ripe yet. Didn't see alot of other berries though.

At about the 3 mi mark we came across another smaller falls and stopped for a little break. At this point the creek was much closer and there were several spots that would have made for a nice picnic stop with big boulders to sit on.


And at about 4 mi you get to the lake – it was much bigger than I expected. Plenty of room for a float plane if you were so inclined. The cabin was on the opposite side and about another 1/2 mi of boardwalk took you around the lake to the small cabin. There was also a dock and a row boat you could use. We had our lunch sitting on the dock because there was another group at the cabin. This picture is from the dock looking back to the headwaters of Peterson Creek.

The way back was mostly downhill and this is were the slippery boardwalk began to be a challenge - we both slipped numerous times and I actually fell three times – the last one the most painful and being 20 yards from the car. Good thing I have some soft pillows.

Darker Nights

Its starting to get darker earlier in the evenings and we're starting to see the moon rise. We had a partly cloudy morning with clearing in the evening and it turned into a very nice evening. Here's one of the last Sunday ships heading off to the south with the moon rising over Admiralty Island.

Berry Good Weekend

I've been talking with some of you about the berry picking opportunities down here and we finally had an opportunity to explore a little deeper and also do some quality control.

On our last walk at Auke Rec Beach (map - look for Auke Rec) we walked the entire beach from Pt. Louisa (fishing spot) to the end by Indian Cove. I noticed these huge plants that had raspberry-like leaves and some bright red seedy fruit. There was a nice long row of them along the beach edge. Upon further inspection I thought they were some type of raspberry except the fruit wasn't shaped quite right – they were more round than conical. They looked like little caps. They were sweet with little seeds - seeds much smaller than raspberries.



I didn't even bother to look them up when we got home–I had already decided to return the next day and pick some. What a pleasure to pick berries at the beach listening to the surf come in. This was a new experience for me. I did realize that the bushes and grasses where pretty tall and I was the only one at the rec area which is a little unusual - we almost always see someone else there. After I saw the bear scat I started singing or whistling depending on what popped into my mind. Tim had just told me a story about Vern and Jerry singing show tunes while waiting on a street corner in Ketchikan so show tunes became the theme for this pick.

It was misting out so my berries got washed as I picked them. I forgot my berry bucket but I was so optimistic I had brought a back-up container with locking lid and only managed to drop this container once. I picked the berries up off the ground and ate most of them.



So if you haven't already guessed – these are Thimbleberries. The leaves are about as big as my hand, there are very few thorns or stickers, and the berries are about the size of a quarter or maybe a little smaller. I made some freezer jam. For some reason I picked up a different kind of pectin than I normally use - this was Ball brand instead of Surejell. I decided I don't like the ball brand - it made little gelatin boogers in my jam - I tried to get them out but I was afraid I was stirring the jam too much. I had expected to give some of this batch of jam to some friends but I guess I'll just have to keep it all - can't give boogers to anyone I know down here! In Fairbanks, well that might be a different story!

On Saturday we met with the Juneau Audubon for a Bird and Berry Hike up at Eagle Crest - the city owned Ski area (map - look for Eagle Crest). I have to admit - I bet Tim and I were the only ones there who had binoculars! It was mostly a berry picking walk. The two guides had a very nice display of what the local berries and their leaves looked like so that was nice to see. There's really only one berry around that's poisonous and that's baneberry. Two other berries look like it: Dogwood and Elderberry but unless you're making wine out of the elderberries, you probably won't pick either one of these others anyway so no worries!

Tim scouted out a nice patch of blubs and made some friends while he was at it!


We picked for a couple of hours while looking for various varieties of berries. Found some salmonberry, raspberry, several different kinds of currents, huckleberry and at least two varieties of blueberries. We didn't find enough of anything but the blubs to keep separate. Ended up with about 8 cups of blueberries after walking and talking.



I must say that I've been giving the blueberries a bad rap until this weekend. I thought I was seeing a lot of blueberries along the trails on our different hikes and I wasn't impressed. The berries tasted tart and had lots of little seeds inside - almost mealy tasting if you know what that means. As it turns out these aren't blueberries – these are huckleberries. And its really hard to tell them apart unless they are growing next to each other.


We were really careful while picking berries because we've heard so many stories about the berries being wormy. If they felt at all soft we dropped them. When we got them home I started sorting through them, then I got a couple of big pots and soaked them for hours, and then sorted through them again, and still found a few worms. So what's a little extra protein in your coffee cake. I won't be eating any raw (blueberries, that is) unless I soak them in tequila!

Spawn and Die

I've been reminded of how incredible the life of a salmon is. As fry they survive in small creeks feeding off of their parents flesh until they are big enough to swim out to sea and swim around for a couple of years and then they make their way back to the place they were born (if its still there) over rocks, through culverts, and swim up creeks that were more suited to their fry-sized bodies than 3+ pounds. Then they flip around and wag their tail and then they die.

Preservation of salmon spawning streams is very important down here and very well protected. And its amazing where you find them.

We had a great short hike along the Switzer Creek Trail (map - look for Switzer Creek) which runs through the woods by a middle school and behind a neighborhood. What a great place to have a tree house and run around all day when you're not in school. The creek was so tiny in spots that it was just so surprising to hear splashing of a big chum trying to make its way…to its destiny.


This is what I call McDole Creek because its beside Mr. McDole's house. For those of you who have been here that's the one with the incredible yard filled with interesting shrubs and flowers. Its probably the best kept garden in Juneau.


At high tide the fish can easily swim up to the large pool right before the culvert but as the tide recedes there's a very small creek with lots of obstacles. I find myself always stopping to watch what's going on and to see who has actually made it to the big pool of death.

This is Lawson Creek which you pass over to get to downtown Douglas. I was riding my bike the other afternoon and stopped and took this shot from above.


And this isn't even one of the main streams - some of the other creeks, like Kowee Creek, just on the other side of the Douglas Bridge, is really filled up with the deadones. And stinky…oh my…there are dead salmon bodies everywhere stacked up like cordwood in some places…where are all the bears who should be cleaning this up!

Everyone has a boat!

Juneau Webcams

Here's a good link to some of the webcams that people have set up around town. One of particular interest may be from the cruise ship dock. I'll have to investigate further to see if any of these sites are open to the public and we might have to go and get ourselves on the internet - if we do we'll give you a call so you can see us!

Morning visitor

We were sitting in the kitchen this morning having some breakfast before we headed off for a hike to Spaulding Meadows, when Tim saw a whale spout in the channel off our deck - we quickly abandoned our seats and Tim grabbed his camera with the telephoto lens. Its very hard to anticipate when the whales will come up for air so you really have to be patient.



I only caught a couple of brief glimpses as the whale moved along its way. My guess is that by the time it decided to come up for one more big breath of air below moving towards the bottom, it was closer to where the cruise ships dock. This is when you would see its tail.

Mendehall Glacier from the West side

Terry and Oso invited us for a Sunday hike to go along the West Glacier Trail (map - look for West Glacier Trail. This trail has an elevation gain of 1340 and gave some great views of nugget falls and the Mendenhall Lake , and a different perspective of the glacier. We have had a string of about 5 days of bright blue cloudless skies and 70+ weather so we brought plenty of water with us. Like other trails around here, the trail was well maintained, especially for the first several miles. Wide and well-packed. There were a couple of places where you could access the lake and shoreline and given a lawn chair, cold gin and tonic, sunglasses and a good book - this would have been the spot. What were we doing with packs and hiking boots. What is the matter with us!

We were walking through filtered trees so it wasn't too hot - and we we climbed we crossed several small creeks, waterfalls, and other water resources. Here the water was running over and through the rocky trail.


Here's a view from above the front edge of the glacier as its melting away and nugget falls through the alder trees.


And the glacier - nugget falls (which many of you have hiked to from the visitor's center) and mendenhall lake. Its really quite large - I had no idea when we see it from the visitor's center just how big it really is. There's small islands and peninsulas all over the lake.

Windfall Cabin at the Windfall Lake

This is the Herbert Glacier as seen from the Boy Scout trail at Eagle Beach. This glacier feeds the Herbert River which flows into the Eagle River. Along with the Mendenhall and Eagle Glaciers, this is one more glacier that you can hike to.


We've been making our way through the 90 short hikes around Juneau. One of the places that we really wanted to explore what Windfall Lake (map - look for Windfall Lake Spot) and the trail to a NFS cabin you can rent out. We'd seen pictures on the web and thought it sounded like a great place to walk into; maybe do some fishing, canoeing, and relaxing in the cabin for an overnight or two.

We thought we'd start with a day hike to see what the trail was like before getting our backpacks all loaded up. The first mile or so was very well maintained - a wide, well packed trail with some boardwalk. Our first thought was, forget the walking and get out the bikes! The trail crosses the Herbert river a couple of times and there are well established bridges that take you over the rushing water. The river is a smaller version of the Nenana River inside the park at the canyon - glacial fed with a few riffles in it.

Once we got past the bridges the trail became narrower and more board walk was added then the boardwalk disappeared and there were more tree roots and steps. It became clear that although riding your bike might be fun, it would not be that much fun if it was loaded down with your overnight gear. If you didn't unload to get over some rough spots your packs would fall off!

Then when we came to the balance beam we decided we had made the right choice to travel by foot.


We found that the trail was a little shorter than we expected and it was a nice surprise to see we were getting close as we began making our way up the hill to the crest of the hill. We have found that a lot of trails around here are very well maintained and there's a lot of boardwalks, bridges, and stairs built along many of them. Its much different from the Interior where most of the trails are multi-use and the motor vehicles end up by doing damage to them.


Here's the cabin at the crest of the hill. It had a breathtaking view.


The view from the deck. The canoe looked pretty beat up but there wasn't any water in the bottom so it must not leak too much. There was only one life jacket at the cabin or I might have talked Tim into taking it for a spin around the lake.


And the front of the cabin from the dock. Since no one was here we had our lunch on the deck at the picnic table.


We weren't alone though - there was some beautiful orange fungus amongus.

My bad…

I just looked back at the last few posts here and boy am I behind! There has been lots going on and there's many things I wanted to talk about but I haven't posted anything substantial (some might think I've never posted anything substantial) in quite a while. I'll try this weekend to catch up.

First off - I've added a way for you to subscribe by email so that when I post something you'll get an email notification. If you look in the sidebar on the right side of the web page, right after the profile information, you'll see a Subscribe to Email Notification box - just enter your email address. I've had a few people try this out and it seems like it works pretty well. The service is free. It only updates itself a couple of times a day so its not instantaneous notification. It might also take a day or two to get itself established. My testers say that it does not seem to generate additional spam or solicitations. Just remember that some firewalls or email spam filters might stop these notifications. If you sign up and aren't getting any emails - let me know. It could be that I haven't posted anything, it hasn't been long enough to update, or your email provider is blocking the emails. Note also that you won't get the pictures I post so you'll probably want to check the actual blog to see those – I know how you all just wait with anticipation to see the beautiful images I post (and to see what poses I can talk Tim into taking!).

Friday night Concerts

We attended the last friday night concert of the season and once again found ourselves sitting outside at Marine Park (instead of at the alternative indoor location). There were several good acts and it was nice to see so many people out and about. These are free concerts sponsored by Holland America and given by the Juneau Humanities Association. This concert was a mix of vocal music and improv acting. The middle act was a lady that Tim's acquainted with who has a radio show. Apparently she has quite a local following and had a very nice voice plus gave a great show. Her last song with a mambo piece and a couple of local dance instructors did a little dance for us.


Those people with the raincoats and caps on must be from out of town - there wasn't a cloud in the sky!