Banned PETA ad!

So NBC banned this PETA ad from playing during the Superbowl. I personally think this ad is genius and no worse than a Victoria Secret commercial. Enjoy!

Skiing!

After a long day of diving to finish our Rescue Diver course Tasha and I headed home from work. We were greeted by a very excited Chuck who told us to get changed cause we were going skiing. We added on some more layers and we all piled in the truck and headed down to mile 12. At mile 12 there is a groomed cross country ski trail and since I have very little skiing knowledge it was a great place to start. Tasha put on a pair of skate ski's and hooked Coho up in his harness so they could skijor. Meanwhile Chuck gave me some pointers on what I should and should not do. I picked up on the level surface stuff pretty well but going downhill was a bit of a disaster. My downhill adventures always ended up in a fall and to add insult to injury Coho always came over to make sure I was ok by humping me. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it so I can't wait to ski some more.

Seldovia!

The weekend after Thanksgiving Tasha and I went on a little weekend getaway. On Saturday night once Tash got back from work we packed up the car and we headed to Homer. We were able to book the couples getaway package at Lands End which was a great deal. We got our room, dinner for two, a glass of wine, and breakfast in the morning all for $140. After driving the three hours on icy roads in the dark we finally made it to Lands End just in time to get our free meal. We booked it to the dining room where Tasha enjoyed her King crab legs and I enjoyed a lovely Halibut Iliamna. Everything was delicious! With our full tummys we decided to do some exploring. We put on our bathing suits and checked out the hot tub, sauna, and current pool. Later we retreated to our room where we discovered a multitude of beds. Alaska does a great job of taking a tiny room and having it comfortably sleep 5-6 people. After having our choice in sleeping area we decided to get some sleep before our big adventure the next day. The next morning we woke up, made ourselves breakfast at the yummy buffet and then headed out. First we stopped at the Eagle Lady's place to observe some Grey Crowned Rosy Finch then we headed to our plane. It was a little four seater and the flight over to Seldovia was a little bumpy but the views were amazing. Seldovia is a very tiny town that has a lot of chainsaw carvings. There was next to nothing open so Tasha and I decided to just go for a long walk and explore the town. Along the way we took photos of all the chainsaw carvings, watched some sea otters play in the harbor and froze our butts off. It was around 6 degrees outside, BRRR! That night we stopped by the little conveniencee store and bought the ingredients necessary to make microwave nachos. Turns out our room had a huge kitchen but no stove only a microwave. We watched far to much Nip/Tuck that night while eating our delicious nachos. The next day we only had a short time before our flight. So Tasha went on a morning hike while I stayed back and explored town a little more. At noon we flew back over to Homer. This time the flight was much calmer and beautiful. We shopped around Homer and then started the drive back to Seward. It was a great trip and a lot of fun!

Election Day!

Turns out Election Day can actually be pretty eventful here in Alaska. It all started at 7am when Tasha and I woke up early so we could go cast our vote before work. I put on my anti-Palin shirt, "Drill Palin Not Alaska" and my Obama pin and off to the polls we went. After some glares one of the older women at the polls told me I needed to zip up my jacket. Well after refusing and standing firm on my first amendment rights since Alaska does not have crazy laws about what you can and can't wear to the polls I was allowed to cast my vote. Then it was off to work. Later that evening the festivities began when we heard McCain's "throwing in the towel" speech. After another one of Obama's "I'm Awesome" speeches we popped the cork on our champagne bottles and headed to the hot tub. It was a festive evening and I for one find it refreshing to finally have an adult in the White House! There is finally a glimmer of hope for our country and I think this election spoke volumes about how Americans feel about our current situations. It is time for a change and it is time for us to make America a better place!

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can!

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.

We will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.

Halloween!

I have to say most years Halloween comes and goes and I don't make much of a fuss over it. This year however Tasha and I decided that it would be fun to all dress up as Smurfs and have a night out in Seward. Around town Tasha is known for having some pretty awesome costumes for Halloween so we had to make it good. We had quite the cast. Chuck played the evil Gargamel, Tasha took the role of Smurfette, Gwen played Papa Smurf, Natalie was Farmer Smurf and I took the role of Painter Smurf. Everyone was quite astonished at just how blue we were. Numerous people wanted photos of the elusive smurfs and the really drunk ones wanted to touch us. (awkward) We entered two different costume contests in town. At the first one we lost to Bob Ross which was ok because that is quite the unique costume. At the second one we ran into our arch-nemesis the Alaskan Smurfs. Yes, that's right in a town as tiny as Seward we did run into another group of Smurfs. It was crazy! They all played a typical Alaska stereotype such as, Commercial Fisher Smurf and Ididatrod Smurf. Our blue coloration definitely secured our Smurfiness and numerous bar goers believed there should of been a Westside Story beat down in the streets. Anyway, they ended up giving first place to all the smurfs so we split the prize money 50/50. All in all it was a fun evening and all the blue came off in the end without any staining!

Winter Is In The Air!

A couple of things have happened in the last couple of weeks so I figured it was time for an update. At the end of September our Director of Husbandry sent out a center wide e-mail saying that he was giving away his 1986 Ford Bronco for FREE. I was pretty excited to hear this news since the Marshmallow Mobile is not exactly a prime winter car. Well as luck would have it I was actually the first person to respond to the e-mail and am now the proud owner of a new Bronco. It came with summer and studded winter tires and it has four wheel drive. So I am set for the snow which is good since we are already getting it. Normally, Seward does not start to get snow until Halloween with the earliest recording being October 15th. Well this year we had our first snow about 2 weeks early. Brr!!! Luckily the first snow did not stick around long but the temps and regularly in the 30's now. In other news Chris came to visit for 10 days. It was nice to have a familiar face around even if he did enjoy the cold weather way too much! I was able to take some time off work so we were able to hang out and have fun. Chris brought one of his kites along and we attempted to fly it but as luck would have it we actually had very little wind while he was here. Before he left we went up to Anchorage a day early so I could get some errands done and while we were there we went out to dinner one night and then went to see The Dark Knight. It was a really good movie, I definitely enjoyed. Otherwise life is pretty much the same up here in the North. I suppose I am as ready as I can be for the immense amount of snow and shoveling that I will soon be doing.

Rain, Rain, Rain!

Well it is September and I guess in Alaska that means lots and lots of rain. Today marks the 18th straight day of rainy yucky weather. However, to keep myself busy and distracted I have been spending my time diving and training the birds. I mean if its going to rain this much and I am going to get wet I might as well fully submerge myself. Today marked the completion of my Advanced Open Water Certification so I am pretty excited. Since arriving in Alaska I also completed my Dry Suit Specialty Cert. and got to dive in our Harbor Seal Habitat with three of the seals. A very very cool experience. On the training front I have been doing a lot of work with one of my little kids that hatched when I was an intern here. Nemo has had a bit of an attitude and is our little savage attack puffin at times. So my goal was to break him of his biting and try and make him a little friendlier so that we could use him for educational talks. Well so far Nemo and I have been quite a team. I have yet to lose a finger so that is always a positive however, it has only been a week and a half so things could turn south at any point. Yesterday I attempted to do some puffin painting with Nemo and as you can see from the picture he is a bit of a messy painter. We normally have the puffins walk through paint and then walk across some paper well Nemo was doing great until he slipped and face planted. It was pretty funny and he was a trooper and never once got nasty. Hopefully we will see a break in the weather soon although we are already starting to get termination dust on the mountain tops. I guess summer here is officially over even though it felt like it never really started.