Elise Sereni Patkotak

First we have so much sun that my yard threatened to dry up and blow away like the midwest in the 30’s.  Now we have so much rain that the nice young man who helps with my flowers came by to inform me that an inordinate amount of them had drowned in their pots from too much water.  And we won’t even get into the issue of the raspberries that are sooooooo close to being ripe but can’t quite go that last step without the sun.

Whether you like Don Young or not, and whether Don represents you or not, you have simply got to admire the love and commitment Don and his wife Lu had for each other and the clearly happy and loving relationship they shared for 46 years. I can’t ever imagine Don Young standing up and admitting to having an affair with Lu standing silently by his side, suffering what seems to be the fate of way too many political wives. I can’t imagine this because I can’t imagine Don Young ever doing that to Lu. And because if he even thought

Governor Parnell has been in office for over a week and he still hasn’t made the cover of People… what the hell is going on here????

I leave the TV on to a golden oldies music channel all day for the birds. Since these are tunes I actually recognize, I will periodically stop to sing and dance to the tune with my birds.  Unfortunately, I am so non-rhythmic (is that a word?) and tone deaf that my parrots eventually stop their rhythmic bouncing to the tune to stare at me in total disbelief that I could sound so bad and dance so out of step with the rhythm that I confuse their innate sense of music. Or maybe they are just stunned to think that someone

Border’s Books on Old Seward and Dimond from 1 to 4 today. Come by and say hi.

Ok, OK, stop sending me nasty e-mails. I’m sorry I ever whined about how hot it was and how I wanted some rain so I wouldn’t have to water my lawn. How the hell was I supposed to know that God would take me so seriously. She never has before.

The wildbird rehab center I volunteer with here in Anchorage is in rough financial waters because of the economic downturn.  We have taken in innumerable orphaned baby birds during this nesting season and seen them through to safe release. We will soon be releasing a loon and, when he’s just a little older and more ready to fend for himself, a sandhill crane that came to us small enough to fit in a basket but then shot up quicker than an NBA player doing a layup. (Wow, did I just use a sports metaphor? Did I use it right? Did

Two days ago, I was up at the crack of dawn because a bird outside my window would not stop screaming. I thought it was a magpie but it was a Stellar Jay, which was odd because they aren’t normally that noisy. Yesterday morning, the damn bird was at it again and I was ready to shoot it.

Then, all day I kept hearing the flue in my chimney banging. I figured it was the wind. But this evening, when I still heard the noise and there was no wind, I thought I should check further.

I carefully opened the