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Doctors, doctors everywhere

I go see one of my many doctors today. So I’m not drinking caffeine, not eating anything with cholesterol and willing my blood sugar to remain normal.  Of couse, come tomorrow, damn the blood pressure and give me caffeine.  I guess I’m still just a little Catholic school girl who wants to sin in private but be good in public so Sister Mary gives me a glowing report.

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My day so far

I’m in the middle of a big project that seems to have no end.  And I just want to say, “AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.  I apologize if I misspelled that word. I’m never sure how many Gs to put in.

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Columns 2006, pictures

Finally, a cold Anchorage winter

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My first dog, Lovey, is somewhat of a legend in certain circles in Barrow. Not only did she live about ten years longer than predicted based on her extensive girth, but she managed to do so with uncommon grace…. and I don’t mean that in the good sense of the words.

Lovey was not particularly enamored of the cold.  She felt it was best experienced from the inside of a heated house or car.  Actually going out into it was something reserved for those moments when you absolutely could no longer keep your legs crossed for even a second. 

In

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Feeding eagles

We have an eagle at the Wild Bird Rehab Center where I volunteer on Tuesday mornings whose top beak was shot off. She’s a wonderful bird. We call her Beautiful…ok, I actually call her the Beakless Wonder but that’s just me.  Being Italian, I’m the cook on Tuesday for the birds.  I get to cut up old salmon and moose, defrost dead mice, quail and hamsters and – my favorite part – plump them up again with lactated ringer’s solution.  I also get to hand feed Beauty because without an upper beak, she can’t feed herself. 

There is no feeling

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Lousy Anchorage weather

It warmed up in Anchorage today. Everything is icy and slushy. It’s raining, sleeting, hailing and windy.  So of course Mr. T and I had to go take our walk.  Which wouldn’t have been bad had not the moose blocked our way home when we were just an eighth of a mile from the end of our walk. Had to turn around and going all the way back in the direction we came. Ended up walking six miles in this weather. Mr. T is not a happy camper.  Neither am I.  And people wonder why I long for Barrow winters.

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How can I not be homesick

How can I not be homesick when I hear that’s it was 59 below in Barrow last week.  I miss it so much.  You can’t know the meaning of the word bracing till you go out to your car in 59 below weather, sit on a frozen seat and try to convince the motor it wants to be alive.  To say nothing of the joy of driving on square tires.  Oh my.  I could just weep from missing those good times.

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Firefly and Serenity

I originally saw the movie because the name was so close to my maiden name. Now I am positively hooked. That Captain Mal brings up feelings in me that I haven’t felt since I was a hot, hormonal youth. And I don’t even feel like a dirty old lady…at least, not too much.

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It seems to me

It seems to me that it’s highly appropriate to go see Brokeback Mountain on the day of the Superbowl.  You figure it out.

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pictures

Bird poo

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I saw that special look on my parrot’s face and grabbed him off my Internet connection box right before he let loose with some poop.  Note to self: among other things I never want to have to do in life is explain to a GCI repairman that my Internet connection no longer works because of bird doo doo.

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Columns 2006

Kids in locked facilities

In an ideal world, I’d be an effortless size four while eating my weight in carbs daily.  My birds would clean their own messes and my dog would never grow old.  People would not use the name of a god they claim is loving and merciful as an excuse to torture and kill everyone who disagrees with them.  And kids would all be raised by Ozzie and Harriet in a neat little suburb where their worse problem would be the occasional pimple.

But we don’t live in that ideal world.  I am nowhere near a size four and my birds

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