Baby, its cold outside

It was 32 degrees F this morning on my way to work. I actually fully warmed up my car and there was not just a thin layer of frost but an honest to goodness almost ice layer on everything (it's been rainy for months so it's saturating EVERYTHING. It's getting much much chillier.

On a side note, i noticed when i went outside to turn on my car in my PJs (long sleeve shirt and lounge pants) that 32 degrees didn't feel all that cold- even though i was walking on ice. Interesting.

learning a new virtue...

Today it took me about 8 minutes to load a message- a text message- I'd gotten an alert for on my phone. And that phone was connected to WiFi.

If nothing else, I will learn patience while here- i hope

Non-Posessed Washer/Dryer installed

And no, Mom, I did not have a priest come to an exorcism first.

I used the Washer/Dryer yesterday and no fire so we're doing well. But I've had to rearrange my place a bunch this last week and I've spent a lot of time cleaning up the outside walls and patches of floor that are covered in black mold. I'm really not happy about this. These are corners that were behind furniture or under furniture. I can only assume it's due to the floor sweating all winter. But how the heck to I prevent this? I'm assuming it's because of floors sweating at least. And I think that was because the temperature difference between outside and inside was sooo ridiculously different. I tried to clean up as much of the floor sweat as possible but i can't move all the furniture all the time.

If anybody has any ideas/solutions on this, i'd love to know. I'm kinda allergic to the mold and definitely notice it when i get all stuffy.

Still waiting on my new water tank, but who knows when that'll happen. sigh. The washer/dryer were definitely more important. OK, back to work.

Max Decibel...

Next Friday we are borrowing space in maintenance and we will be finishing construction (hopefully) on our Personal Listening (ipod, etc) Sound Level Meter Manikin. When he's done we will be unveiling our newest member of the audiology department: Mr. Max(imum) Decibel. Pictures will be forthcoming :-D

:)

I hear tiny voices and the pitter patter of tiny feet outside my office door. :) Love it

Sunday 'fun'

My dryer started making a thumping noise last weekend when I was doing laundry. The property manager was there today checking on some things and thought it was fine to use but he was gonna order the parts he thought were needed to fix the drum, so I did use it. BIG mistake.

I'm sitting in my room reading when the little thump turned into a series. Of rather large bumps. I got up and ran in to see if I could do anything only to have the dryer turn off suddenly. I opened the door to actual flames shooting out of the back. FLAMES! I pulled the clothes out of the dryer- mostly a comforter so just about everything came out in one clump and threw it across the room then ran to the kitchen for the fire extinguisher. Shot that yellow powdery stuff straight into the dryer drum. After I was pretty certain the flames were gone I called building manager and he practically flew over to check it out. I turned off the breaker to the dryer and building manager has deemed the dryer possessed. I'm getting a new washer/dryer (stackable combination unit) as well as new fire extinguisher and smoke detectors- just because.

Needless to say I had some adrenaline going for a while.

not an alaska thing...

I've been having a real hard time finding the motivation to clean sometimes. My apartment is so little it's both really easy to get messy and really easy to clean up so i tend to get lazy about it. Most of the mess is clothes and paperwork that I need to file or shred to be really honest (I HATE folding laundry). So I've created a little schedule- cross your fingers that I can actually stick to it. I figure even if I miss a day I can do 2 on one day. But essentially, each day of the week is devoted to a different room. There aren't as many room as days of the week so Maybe I'll actually be able to do this. We'll see.

Disappearing into the abyss

So I dropped off the face of the earth again. Sorry. Partially cause there hasn't been much going on. Partially cause I've been out of town on a few trips lately. First it was New Mexico for an Indian Health Services Audiology conference. Then a few weeks ago it was to anchorage just for fun (and I apparently needed it cause I'd been getting pretty difficult to deal with I've been told) and most recently, right now actually, to Portland for a training workshop called Dangerous Decibels. My goal is to get the program up and running in my region.

My hope is to start locally at the schools and health fairs- way more entertaining to have some of this set up than having literature out about hearing aids and hearing protection. I wanna get the ball rolling and hopefully get some involvement from maybe kids from the high school or a sympathetic elder/community leader to help get people interested and get my foot/feet/booty in the door. Ultimately the class was designed as about an hour long program for 4th-5th graders but is very easily adopted to all age groups- including adults. Feel free to google Dangerous Decibels and check out their online program.

I've been collecting the parts to make a manikin who will help test the kids iPod (or other media player) and see how loud it actually is (ease parental fears) and see how long someone can listen at that volume and be 'safe'. Ultimately it's a really cool tool that will be able to travel with me to schools/sports venues/health fairs and be a real hands on and informative tool. And mom is collecting clothes for it so he's not sitting in the back of my office all naked and stuff.

So that's the poop. If you get a hankering for more info and I'm not delivering... Get ahold of me (email, comments, grapevine) and fuss at me.

Ohhhhh.... I almost forgot. My days ARE getting shorter. And by that I mean it's dawn as I'm waking up and the sun goes down by about 11/midnight. It's still in the 50s so pretty comfortable most of the time. Unfortunately, it's also been raining so the road near my house is super muddy. Ok. Till next time...

Chilly summer

We've had a few days in the high 60s or low 70s but mostly it's been in the 50s. And even worse it's been rainy. This weekend it's also quite windy. My apt is creaking and moaning and the tall bushes are whipping around all over the place.

Last weekend I was in Anchorage just relaxing though and it was great to have my first real vacation weekend since I've been up here. I've gotten out of town before but not really a vacation. We were able to get manicures and pedicures, massages, shaan was able to get her hair done, I got a piercing and then we drove out to Kenai for a day and watched dip-net fishing- which can be brutal since some people club the fish they pull out. It was nice to just be in a car and drive again. 3/4 a tank of gas cost me less than $40- mind blowing.

Now it's the Olympics and relaxing. Hope you all enjoy the games.

Taco Bell visits Bethel after local prank... resulting commercial

This commercial is property of Taco Bell and posted through YouTube. I don't own any part of this commercial. I'm simply posting it to show some of the latest happenings in the town I currently reside.

Note: It's said that it's a 3-4 hour trip into Anchorage. This is not entirely correct. The flight from Bethel (flying is the ONLY option for travel) takes just over an hour to get there. IF flights were offered more than 2-3 times a day it could possibly be a 3-4 hour round trip for a fast-food meal.

IPHONE!

So you may or may not remember my iPhone debacle when i got up here. I had a 4 on AT&Ts network and moved up here and essentially got a really expensive and glorified ipod out of the deal. Well my android was acting up on the crap network here so i opted to go back to an iphone, and bought an unlocked 8gb 3gs from apple only to realize i was completely spoiled by both my 4 and the android and the 3gs with hardly any space and crap resolution, just pissed me of more.

BUT... I found out last night that AT&T is factory unlocking (remotely at that) iphones for qualified individuals whose phones are no longer on contract. So, I called this morning and there's an order in for my phone to be unlocked. I've been told it will be done no later than 6/29. Then I get my final instructions and can swap out my 3gs for my 4 and be a much happier girl again. :-D

Taco Bell Hoax

Taco Bell Hoax

Never saw the fliers around town... either I'm not observant or they just weren't around all that long. Subway does pretty well for itself as far as I can see, but honestly, we don't need a fast food joint up here. Diabetes is a big problem here in a land where everyone used to eat practically organically back before there really was no such thing.

Tonight's Sunset

12:30 am sunset, view from my front window in Bethel, AK  (Canon T1i &55-250mm lens)

warm with a (big) chance of bug-bites :(

it's been warm this weekend. in the 70s. and today it was muggy. not my ideal, especially since we dont' have AC here. But this week will be cooler- in the 60's. Bad part... mosquitos are out again. I've killed a bunch in my house this weekend and have the really annoying bites on my toes and ankles and ear when they got to me before i could kill em. totally sucks. i have a couple vents in my house i think they came in through unfortunately. i need to get sticky traps or something. not sure what the best way to do indoor trapping/killing though. lots of traps and such say for use in non-living spaces but i don't want to need a mosquito net in my house. but i don't like chasing them. they're super distracting and now i have black smudges on the walls above my bed cause i smooshed them there. lol... oops.

Break-up -> Flooding

Pictures from my porch on the worst evening of flooding. Not too bad this year. I was still parked in the driveway, just much closer to the road.