Uncategorized

Sleeping in

Sleeping in is impossible in an Alaskan summer when you have birds and a dog.  The sun is always there and they feel that life should be active for so long as it is. So about 6 AM, the birds start calling out. By 7, my dog who in the winter I have to physically remove from his bed at 10 AM and insist he has to go pee, is pacing the floor by my bed wondering if I died and so won’t be getting up to let him out.  My floor is fake wood. He has toenails.  The tap,

Continue reading →
Uncategorized

An Anchorage summer

It’s rainy and cold.  I’ve actually had to turn the heat on at least once a day because the downstairs birds have their little parkas on which I take as a hint that they’re cold.  This is the coldest summer I’ve encountered since I moved here. Much more of what I was looking for than those wimp warm summers of the past few years.  Of course, when my sister and her friends arrive, they might have a different attitude about that.

Meanwhile, will the person who put all the halibut in my freezer while I was out please identify themselves. 

Continue reading →
Columns 2006

My personal war on poverty

I like to think of myself as a normally upbeat person.  Every time I say this to anyone who knows me, I am greeted by hysterical laughter followed by the words, “Oh, I’m sorry. You were serious, weren’t you?”

I say there is ample reason in this life to occasionally be less than upbeat about the ways of the world.  I’m not referring to the war in Iraq, the war on terror, the war on drugs or the war on family values.  I’m referring to a war much closer to my heart – my daily war on poverty in my

Continue reading →
Uncategorized

The bad news and good news

The bad news is that Mr. T is really quite senile.  The good news is that because of the senility he never did realize I was gone for a week. He just thought he’d had a very long nap.

Continue reading →
Uncategorized

Latte Heaven

No one, absolutely no one, can make lattes like we get here in Alaska at every roadside stand in town.  Even the worse beat the best that Starbucks can do.  Starbucks is the McDonald’s fast food of coffee compared to the gourmet delights we drive up to every day. After a week spent in Southern California looking for even one latte that is anywhere as good as my sugar free White Chocolate Wedding Cake from Cafe Loco, I find myself longing for tomorrow to come so I can return there and finally get a really good cup of coffee.

Continue reading →
Uncategorized

As always

After a week away from my home and animals, I forget how slow Mr. T moves when I want him to move fast and I forget how loud Amazon parrots especially are this time of the year in Alaska and I mostly remember how much I love and miss them and how ready I am to go home to see them again.  That should last until the first screaming match between Captain and Abdul.

Continue reading →