I've Decided to Blog Again

I've decided to blog once again. I kind of like it as a log of my life.

I started this blog when I was in Alaska. I still miss AK a bit, and I have a feeling I'll end up there again at some point. For now, I'm still working full-time in Wisconsin and taking graduate classes. I take the GRE soon. Gotta finish school before I can plot other things :P I want to teach myself html (found a book at Goodwill). Whenever I have time to learn, my website will be way more awesome.

This summer has been really busy. Actually, so is this fall/winter. Anyway, reflections on this summer first.

I went to the Boundary Waters with my brother. I love traveling with my siblings. We don't mind not showering and doing things cheaply, and there's that whole deal of what happens on this trip you still have to see this person for the rest of your life. David emailed me Wednesday asking if I wanted to kayak to the Boundary Waters, so I took off that Friday. I want to go back at some point for a longer trip. He lives in Minneapolis, so I met him there. We rented a canoe through the U of M and drove to Ely. We had a good dinner and picked up some supplies in Ely, but the place we planned to camp was full. We just slept in the car in the parking lot. It wasn't bad, and saved us a few bucks by not paying for a campsite. The next morning we paddled through a few lake and wide river. We got a bit lost at one point, but we camped on an island. The best part about the island was that we got to watch a turtle lay eggs. I got a video of her laying an egg. The next day we paddled to some awesome lakes--they were more remote since we were getting farther in, and definitely scenic and absent of people. We had to paddle out this day too--met up with a bit of wind on the way out. Got a late dinner at Town Hall in Minneapolis...I didn't get back to Madison until 4am and had to work the next day. I definitely paid the price at work on Monday, but worth it to fit in a Boundary Waters trek.

I went with both David and Kathryn to Colorado. We truly traversed the whole state. We drove to Denver and Boulder first, went to Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, and through Monument Valley in Utah. In Denver, we made sure to visit Casa Bonita (South Park reference). In Boulder, we toured the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory and hung out on Pearl Street (basically State St. with a mountain backdrop). In Mesa Verde we climbed Longs Peak..well almost. It was storming before we could reach the very top. I was kind of glad because we were reaching the scary drop-off point of the hike. Rained and hailed on us during the hike too! Definitely awesome views and met tons of marmots of along the way. Mesa Verde was cool--beautiful park and some history too. Monument Valley was beautiful and surreal. I've never seen red sand or western landscapes like that before. Above are pics.

Prairie Strip

I work near the Madison airport--I can walk there in 10 minutes or less. Along that walk, there is a strip of restored prairie. I really enjoy making this walk on my lunch break, and I brought my camera this week:

Yellow coneflowers blowing in the wind.

Close-up of a purple coneflower.

For these next couple images, I played with the color settings on my camera:

CSA

Justin and I are joining a CSA! I am super excited about this. We decided on Vermont Valley Community Farm. It has a lot of pickup locations which is convenient because we will probably be moving in late-July and since my job is a temp one I could have a different work location.

I had learned about CSA's in my environmental studies classes. The basic concept is to treat the farm as a business. CSA members purchase annual shares in the farm in exchange for a box of vegetables each week. Most often these farms are local and organic. Local farmers now have a business instead of just land, so it can prevent them from selling off land when they need money to retire (thus discouraging sprawl). CSA's keep dollars in the community. They encourage organic and sustainable farming as well as healthy eating. Many insurance agencies even offer rebates if their members belong to a CSA. For more info on the awesomeness of CSAs, go to this website: MACSAC

Right Brain, Left Brain

I took a few online tests to see if I am right brain or left brain dominant. Left brained tend to be more logical and analytical while right brained are more creative. Most lefts showed that I was lightly more left brained that right. The split wasn't a huge disparity though. Here are the results for one of the tests:

Thank you for taking the Creativity Test. The results show your brain dominance as being:

Left Brain	Right Brain
54%	46%

Your left brain/right brain percentage was calculated by combining the individual scores of each half's sub-categories. They are as follows:

Your Left Brain Percentages

60%	Verbal (Your most dominant characteristic)
44%	Sequential
34%	Logical
32%	Linear
25%	Symbolic
7%	Reality-based (Your least dominant characteristic)

Your Right Brain Percentages

34%	Intuitive (Your most dominant characteristic)
32%	Nonverbal
32%	Fantasy-oriented
28%	Random
28%	Concrete
24%	Holistic (Your least dominant characteristic)

Website: Right Brain Left Brain Test

Quick Update

I fly back to Wisconsin tomorrow! I plan to go back and add entries from San Francisco on here. I've been super busy--I think every evening I've done something here!

Also, I think I will keep my blog up after I return to Wisconsin. Stay tuned for the Epilogue to my Kodiak Travels and further adventures!

Not in Alaska anymore!!!

I have officially left Alaska. Monday night we went out for pizza and a movie, and Tuesday (my last night in Anchorage) I made dinner for everyone. I went for a short hike at Kincaid Park since I had a lot of packing to do. I shipped another box home. My backpack was still pretty full though! Anyway, I made potato chickpea curry, roasted asparagus, mustard greens, and blackberry cobbler. I also had beer and salmon hor'deourves on hand. I love going all out for hosting dinners. I think I definitely want to do more of it when I get home. I have missed having my own kitchen in Kodiak. So far at home I have hosted a taco dinner for my guats, a Polish dinner followed by a bowling outing, and a Europe party. For Tim and his friends I think I will make some of the same dishes as in Anchorage, but make poached salmon instead of curry. I think it would be fun to make a salmon dinner for people back home as well.

Late Tuesday night I flew out of Anchorage. I had a connecting flight in Seattle and arrived in San Francisco at mid-day. Tim had work for a few hours, so I stowed my bag and walked around downtown a bit. I stopped at the Visitor Center and this cool mall thing. I was still wearing hiking boots, layers of fleece, and a winter coat. I felt a bit out of place and thought wow people are actually dressed in nice coats that aren't ski coats and people actually wear heels here.

I retrieved my bag and took the BART (subway) to meet up with Tim. He lives in Oakland right near Berkeley. I like the old architectural details of his apartment. There is molding in the living room and the kitchen has a baseboard.

That night we went into the Mission neighborhood to a bar called Amnesia. I made a point to remember the bar name after I found out it was Amnesia, hehe. I actually was able to head out without gloves or a hat. I only wore a light rainjacket and wore shoes that weren't boots, athletic shoes, or some sort of hiking shoes for the first time in awhile, lol. I really liked the bar. It reminded me a bit of Maduro in Madison. They had an awesome beer selection. The first beer I got was Duchess du Bourgogne. It's got caramel flavors and is delicious. I had it the first time at Maduro right before I left Wisconsin. The second beer I got was a Dogfish Head Palo Santo. I had been reading a New Yorker magazine on the plane, and they had a long article on Dogfish Head Brewery in it, so I think I was influenced by reading the article to order Dogfish Head. The bar also had live music. Two jazz bands played. I reveled in watching all of the activity on the city streets at night.

Today is Thanksgiving. This morning Tim and I went for a walk in Berkeley. It's a really nice neighborhood. It was fun to check out all of the houses and their gardens. Looks like there are some cool coffee shops and a big park too.

We are heading over to Tim's friend's sister's house for dinner. We made cornbread and a sweet potato dish to bring over. Happy Thanksgiving!


Oh, and I have pics to put up. May try to do it later in the day.

Last Days of Work!!

I leave Kodiak 3 days! I fly out next Tuesday to Anchorage and spend a week there, then spend a week in San Francisco, and then finally return to Wisconsin.

Friday was my last day working with most people since Saturdays there is limited staffing. A potluck lunch was held in my honor. We also took some photos. Someone had donated this bear mask, so we used in as a prop in several photos.

From left: Lisa, me, Cassie, Margo, Tina. That's a lot of brown uniforms!

Last night I did some laundry in anticipation of packing. I'm going to ship home my giant rolly suitcase so I just have my backpacking pack to carry while I travel. It's not that much more expensive to ship home since I'd have to pay lots of fees for a second checked item. I also watched High School Musical 2 last night. Tina and I are going to see HSM3 tonight. She wanted to catch a movie with before I leave, and HSM3 is what was playing (there's only one screen at the Kodiak theater). I had seen the first HSM, but the not the second. I actually liked it. Usually I'm not huge on the Disney Channel stuff, but the songs are catchy and the kids have some sweet dance moves. Tina had not see any of the HSMs, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of it.