Cake frosting

While a good article carved in black and white letters is certainly delicious, these types of notes are the frosting on the cake! The link to the story he's referring to is two blog posts down.

Lt. Col. Balcavage.

Thanks so much. I’ll be sure to pass on your comment to Amy Schenck.

Sincerely,

Mary M. Rall
Editor, Alaska Star
(907) 694-2727 office
www.alaskastar.com

-----------------------------------------------------
From: The Balcavage Family
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:09:54 -0900
To:

Thaks for your article - I thought it was very accurate and brings a lot of credit to my brother and the others who have worked to care for this boy. Kitba just departed the States last week and should be in Jordan now on the way to her home in Iraq.

LTC Balcavage

www.rondyphotos.com

Joshua's spent the last three days producing tons of beautiful photographs of mushers, dogs and everything else Fur Rondy related.

I've spent the last three days fumbling with a camera, learning how to capture a dog team flying past and occasionally getting quite a good shot... with soft Alaska sunlight falling across a correctly framed, high-action scene.

To check out what we've been doing go to www.rondyphotos.com.

If you feel so inclined you could even buy a photo puzzle, a photo tote bag or just a 5X7 print ; )

Recent Publication: Iraqi Youth

Here's a link to my most recent article. It's about a soldier who coordinated to bring a four-year-old Iraqi boy to the U.S. for surgery.

http://www.alaskastar.com/stories/022108/mil_20080221024.shtml

Slushy skiing!

It's 40 degrees, raining... and a little demoralizing in Anchorage right now.

It all started last Thurs. night... conveniently the night of Town League (the just-for-fun ski race series in Alyeska that some of my friends and I are competing in). On this particular night, I learned...

It may be that at "32 degrees water turns to magic"... but at 33 degrees water is definitely still just water.

Below Megan, Lisa and I are sitting in the car trying to convince ourselves to go out into the whipping rain for a night of skiing.

Luckily, on top of the mountain there was lots of fresh, albeit heavy, snow and we ended up having a great time... and also moving up in race rankings since so few people showed up... I'm now third overall in the women's telemark division =)

Over at Channel 2

I spend at least 36 hours per week here... so thought I'd give you all a glimps of life in the Channel 2 news station. There's some pretty cool stuff here... everything from the basement studio to the various rooms decked out in computers, screens, switch boards and the tons of other technology it takes to put on a broadcast. One thing's for sure, working in a news room is rarely boring.

Me "boothing" lasts night's 10 p.m. broadcast. When I booth it's my job to keep the show on time (to the second) and be the voice in the anchors' ears... give them time cues, let them know if anything changes, etc.
Logo on the news room wall
Shot of the newsroom... my desk is the one with the moose calendar on the right.
PCR (program control room)... this is where I booth from... there's a couple rooms that look like this... full of gadgets, gismos and the like.
The studio.... I run the prompter in the back corner of the studio (where this photo was taken from) for the weekday 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. shows.

Tracy Sinclaire recording a weather update

This time last year...

I'm apparently in a very reminiscent mood right now...
The last couple of days I've done a lot of "archive" reading in my blog.
So cool to think this time last year I was on a seven day backpacking trip through the Patagonian mountains...
And the year before I was graduating from intensive Spanish study in Guatemala and about ready to embark on my volunteer work.
What a rich and beautiful life!

It's TIME for The Prophet

And an astonomer said, Master, what of Time?
And he answered:
You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch it flowing.

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but to-day's dream.
And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that his power to love is
boundless?
And yet does not feel that very love, though boundless,encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to to other love deeds?

But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,
And let to-day embrace the past with rememberance and the future with longing.
And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?

-From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Taking it to the Max... on Max's Run

Today was another blow your socks right off your feet day... or a blow your boots right off your socks day... or a blow your skis right off your boots day... or a blow the snow right off your skis day... yeah, that's it! All sorts of snow definitely blew off our skis today!

Oh and did I mention the views! Maybe the new name of this blog outta be "Another spectacular day." There seems to have been a lot of those lately. And we're only in the beginning of February... the month of snow and sunshine! MY CHEEKS ACTUALLY GOT ROSEY TODAY! It's the first time I've skinned up in the sun all season. Haleluja to longer days, cold temperatures and light snow to boot!

Two weeks since the last snow fall and still plenty of fresh tracks to be had

Ben sunbathing on the peak

Look at those rosey cheeks

Weather inversion baby! It was warm up on top... a good 10 degrees!

I really like this photo! We skied right through the colds and into the cold temps below

Ben making some sweet turns in sweet snow!

Ben, watch out for the wall of clouds!

Sweet dreams and other things

This is what happens when you spend the evening (or should I say early morning) sending article queries to magazines, cover letters to travel guides and reading page after page in the forum at telemarktips.com... you enter a happy place where life feels at your finger tips, the world is a playground and anything is possible. The discouragement, the frustration, the petty annoyances of life melt like butter in a microwave or ice cream on my tongue... and it's just me and my computer and my writing and my happiness.

The signature of one of the guys on telemarktips.com is "at 32 degrees water turns to magic." I like it! It's true!

Last week I went out to Arctic Valley to go skiing with Jess, a girl I met on "The Alaska Ski Bunnies" google group. Even if I hadn't made a single turn the whole day, I'd of still had an incredible day... the views were that spectacular! It's was one of those "I can't believe I'm alive moments." As we drove up Arctic Valley Road we passed through a thick layer of clouds and then popped out onto the other side where the stars above were fading into the morning alpenglow. Below a sea of white clouds stretched as far as the eye could see.... beyond where Anchorage would be, beyond Cook Inlet, beyond... to where Denali and Foraker towered... snowy white masses against blue skies.

The moon set and we began laying in a skin track.

Later that day I went to work. The beautiful thing about living in Anchorage and working a 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. job is that I can literally go skiing before work... literally climb above the clouds and make turns back down... then earn some money in the afternoon.

While I'm on this telemark train... it's also worth sharing that I raced my very first ski race last Thurs. at Alyeska. A few friends and I formed a team for town league. We're the City Slickers. Basically this means we go telemarking every Thurs. night, run through the race course a few times on our way down and drink a beer or two in the bar afterwards while they announce results and give away door prizes. Good fun!!!!

Not telemark related, but snow related... the snow removal trucks came through our neighborhood last week. It's quite an operation. Having traveled the last couple of winters, I'd forgotten all about the snow piling, blowing and dumping that takes place. The photos tell it all....

Today when I was running I actually formed icicles on the peach fuzz on my cheeks! It was a crazy sight (I saw my reflection in my house window before stepping back inside and it just looked so cool... literally and figuratively). I've formed icicles on my eye lashing, braids and nose hairs before... but I think this is a first for cheek peach fuzz. Wowsers!

So with that, good night and good luck (as Mr. Murrow would say) from this frigid northern wonder land! Hopefully, I'll dream either about skiing or traveling tonight... that would be sweet dreams indeed.