The Diet and stuff...

So my Aunt and I have been chatting the last couple of months about doing Atkins. She started watching what she was eating, but not really doing the numbers and stuff. But my cousin (her son) is getting married in Feb (mentioned that before) and she wants to shed a few pounds. So anyway, I finally jumped on the bandwagon 15 days ago. And full force. Like back when I was 25 or so, and was still biting my nails as I had all my life, so I decided to stop. And I did. And when I had made the decision to quit smoking 3 years ago (after 13 years), I picked a day and using the patch, the rest is history. So I'm hoping I can use the same will to do this too.

You are supposed to start out eating 20g net carbs a day for the first 2 weeks, then increase after that. Well, my goal is to keep it under that all the time, then if I go over on a certain day or something, I won't freak. Well, I lost 7lbs the first week, and 5 more this last week. That was exciting. I carry my little book withe the general nutritional stats for food with me everywhere I go. As well as an Atkins journal where I write down everything I've been eating. Works for me so far.

Today though, was my friend's daughter's Bday party that was happening at a Frozen Yogurt shop. For the last couple of months I've been craving frozen yogurt, so I already knew I was going to splurge and have a little today. So I did. Then that turned into eating pizza for dinner as well. My friend, being the awesome person she is, was actually looking in her fridge to find something carb friendly to make me so I didn't have to have pizza. But told her I was just going to splurge and have the pizza. Then had a root beer (not diet) with it, not even thinking. Let's just say my diet was screwed today big time. And as I was driving home a couple of hours ago, I realized I didn't feel so good. I think mentally and physically, what I did today didn't feel so hot. Back on track tomorrow, I hope. Some good friend's invited me over tomorrow night for dinner, and they are gourmet cooks. So think I just need to be mindful of what I choose to eat. It's a learning curve, but I think the results will be worth it.

Oh... and my awesome friend and her husband let me put on the Sharks game after we got back from the yogurt shop. Yay for a Sharks win :-)

Blogging, Social Networking sites, etc...

It's funny... back in the day of caring about MySpace, I used to blog all the time. Random crap that came to my head every day. Now I log onto my MySpace personal account maybe 2-3 times a month. It's really "out of site out of mind". Funny that one social networking site can just take over for another like that. I remember when I hated FB when it was new, and was so loyal to MS. LOL. Not anymore. Anyway, when that realization happened, I started this site to blog on instead of on MS. But now I just forget to do it. Not like I have anything of importance to say. But it used to be about my day, my feelings, what was going on, etc. Well, maybe I'll have to get back to that. It was a nice release back then just to get stuff out.

Hockey has finally arrived... and other stuff...

After a LONG off-season of trying to scour the internet for anything and everything Sharks, the season is finally here. And things with the team are finalized for the most part. A good handful of players are gone (including my favorite guy), and we have a bunch of new faces that I only know about by name. So this is a new season, and a new team. I'm anxious for them to get started tomorrow night and see what they can do. I purchased a couple of new Sharks items this summer, but done with the splurging for now. The shirt I found on eBay and thought it was cool, and the jersey I bought the day JR retired. Miss you already JR. Oh, and went to the Teal and White game (Thanks Sarah's co-worker!!), and that was a great way to start getting pumped for the season.






Other than that, not up to much. My cousin and his fiancee are getting married in February. So that has been the talk of the family lately. We went this last Saturday dress shopping for her, and she found the one. It is GORGEOUS!!! And she looks gorgeous in it. I happened to be poking around online looking for dresses for me to wear at the wedding, and I found one. It came in the mail a week or so ago, and I think it's a keeper. One less thing to worry about.

And it's been almost exactly 5 months since my Mom and Step-Dad left for their 5th annual summer jaunt up the coast of B.C. and Alaska. They will be getting the boat back to it's final resting place for the Winter, on Saturday. Then they will be home within the week after sometime. It'll be nice to have them back.

That's it for now... I haven't blogged in so long that I'm not sure of everything I wanted to say. But that's the download from my brain for now :-)

Very 80's

OK, so I don't know what my deal is. About 2+ months ago I had a sudden urge to buy a jean jacket. And I know you can buy random fashion denim jackets. But I wanted a traditional 80's style (new) one, and they weren't that easy to find. But I found one.

Then earlier this week I was thinking about those jelly bracelets that were all the rage. So I ended up on eBay. From one buyer I bought a set of 5 black ones. Another buyer an assortment of 24 of them, and from a third, an assortment of 50. It didn't cost that much, so I bought that many just because I had no idea of what colors I would get. Well, they arrived today and I was so excited to see them. One of the sellers even sent about 10 child size ones and a handful of jelly rings, in addition. I'm going to my friend's tomorrow and was planning on wearing some to match my outfit. And I'm going to bring the child ones, and rings, to give to her daughter.



During my search for the bracelets, I stumbled upon these 80's plastic charms and had a flashback moment. Do you guys remember those? I placed a bid on some earlier this week... it was just a nostalgic thing. I was outbid though, which is cool because I shouldn't spend the money anyway.

Anyway, just thought I would share that with all of you 80's kids out there.

Nice Dinner.

We had a really nice time tonight. And thanks to Uncle Mark and Bruce for picking up the tab. It was good seeing them, my cousin, and her bf. Interesting just to hear about my Grandfather, who is now 81, and I haven't seen since maybe my middle school days. And my other Uncles, etc. The restaurant was good too. Full of the 65+ crowd, and a live band playing music I would expect to hear in New Orleans or on a riverboat. And they had flashy boas that the people could wear, and a lot of those couples were getting up to dance. It was cute. I had the clam chowder and the Kalua pork, both I recommend highly.

We thought that next time we get together we should bring a bunch of old photos to share. And also to maybe see if we can figure who some of the mystery people in them are. So it was great to just be spontaneous and just get together like that. Next time will be fun too.

OK... so, the random...

2 things...

Firstly... Earlier this week, I was reacquainted with one of my Uncles on Facebook when he found me on there. He was the Uncle that I was closest too (on my Dad's side), although haven't been close since I was in high school. And only seen him in passing since then. And even then, it's been probably 5+ years since I have seen him. My best memories of him (which may be skewed and not completely accurate, as it's been so long) are him taking my half brother, step sister and I to get ice cream and all the toppings at the grocery store when we were younger, as a non-parent would spoil their relative. Also getting to drive with him in a parking lot, me driving, long before I could legally do so. Then some vague memories of him at my Grandfather's house when he ran his radio station there (think it was out of the house?). And then when I was a freshman in high school, I threw a party at my Dad's house with all of my friends and he DJ'd the party. Random memories, I know. But there you have it. But anyway, we chatted online tonight for a while and decided to get together for dinner tomorrow night (Thurs). He is in touch with my cousin, which is another Uncle's daughter. So she, he, my Dad and I are going to have dinner together. And she I haven't seen since she was a kid, and is now in her early 20s? Hope we have a good time.

Secondly... At my house, or should say at my Dad's house next door, he has a handful of friends that he lets crash. And most of them have cars, and a lot part behind me in the driveway. Meaning that when I need to go somewhere, half the time I need to track someone down next door to move their car so I can get out. I find it annoying, they all have their moments when I want to chew them out, but for the most part they are nice people. But guess I have had my moments over time where my buttons have been pushed to the limit and I have chewed them out for being disrespectful jerks (to put it nicely). So this is not the first time I have noticed this, but... I go next door tonight to actually ask my Dad if he wants to do dinner tomorrow night. And one of his buddies was in the living room with him and immediately jumps up and asks "Did I park to close to you, do you need to get out?". All in urgency to move his car to let me out if need be. 1. It's very nice they there is this sort of urgency and respect of me that they know what they need to do. 2. I find it humorous that the urgency seems to be sort stemmed from fear. I think deep down, they know I have a lot of control over whether they continue to get to mooch off of my Dad. So it's nice, yet funny at the same time.

Juneau

Today we got up and ready to leave the boat by 11am. My Mom, Aunt and I went down to the Mt Robert’s Tram first since the mountain was clear as a bell and not a cloud hovering over it. So we bought our tickets and headed up. We went and saw the Eagle they have in captivity up there. It’s the same one I saw last time up there. It was shot by someone with a BB gun 3 years ago, and is now blind in one eye. It can never live on it’s own again, so it is being taken care of. We were taking pictures of the view down to the cruise ship docks and town, when one young woman in her 20’s asked if we would like a pic of all 3 of us, which we did. We ended up chatting with her and her friend (pic below) a while who were both crew on one of the Princess Cruise ships below. Both work in the kid care/activity programs. And one wants to be a nurse, so that gave my Mom and her something to chat about for a few. That same woman just spent a year in Amsterdam, now the season on a ship, then Italy for a year starting in Sept, then a year in Africa for a year after that to help medical personal over there. Talk about ambition. Anyway, we saw what there was to see, did the gift shop thing, and headed back down. It was probably 2:30pm at this point and we hadn’t had lunch, so we were hungry. We ended up at the ‘Twisted Fish Company’ near the cruise ship docks. My Mom got the halibut pizza, my Aunt the smoked salmon and baby shrimp pizza, and I got the coconut salmon strips and the salmon croquettes. Everything was AMAZING! After eating we bought our round trip shuttle tickets to Mendenhall Glacier. So hopped on one a few minutes later and away we went. The sky was amazingly blue today and really warm, which is a far cry from the weather the last time I was enjoying these sites. So the glacier was as beautiful as I remember, only a lot more crowded with people. We only stayed half an hour, then headed back to town for some last min shopping. I got some salmon jerky for my Dad as a thanks for dog sitting Nala, a small gift for each of my friend’s kids (a snow globe and a wooden sea plane puzzle kit), something small for my Great Aunt (a notepad) and a few little things for me like an xmas ornament of Santa sitting on top of a sea plane. We also had to stop and take pictures with the statue of patsy Ann. She was a dog that back in the 30’s and 40’s welcomed all the cruise ships and passengers to the docks. We ended back up at ‘The Hangar on the Wharf’ for our dinner reservations. I had a cup of clam chowder and the halibut fish and chips. YUM!! We then made our way back to the boat for the last time. We packed all of our stuff up once we got back. And now I am up at 11:30pm, alone, burning the rest of all of our pics and videos to CDs to take home with us. I think I have 2 more to go, at about 45 mins, and then I can crash. So I am sitting here looking out into the darkness of the marina surrounded by mostly fishing boats. And don’t think I haven’t mentioned it yet, but man are there some hot fisherman up here. Everywhere I turn… yummy. Maybe I should move. Anyway… ;-) So I am looking out a these boats named things like ‘Teal’, ‘Heather Rayne’, ‘Sea Breeze’, ‘Tyler Too’, ‘Schy One’, ‘Troika’ and ‘Stellar’. And then this HUGE yacht that just docked today named ‘Sea Czar’, which I thought was a clever play on words. I decided I should be up by 9am so I can look for anything I forgot to pack, call for the cab, have our goodbye waffle breakfast my Step-Dad is going to make for us, then head to the airport. We fly out to Sea-Tac just before 1pm, will have a nice layover there to grab dinner, and get all the way home around 9pm. It’ll be good to get home and see my dog and stuff, but give me a week and I will wish I was on vacation again.

Tracy Arm Cove to Juneau

I woke up at 9am, of course right after my Aunt just saw and took pics of some Dall porpoises in the bow wake. Oh well. However, I did get to see a couple more whales blowing and swimming by in the distance. Just more sitting on the bow in the cold watching the water, jumping salmon, waves, cruise ships, and the many fishing boats that speckle the coast. We are still 2 hours out from Juneau, passing Taku Glacier (FAR into the distance) and listening to Phantom of the Opera. There are spots of blue sky here and there, so hopefully the weather is mild when we get into town late this afternoon/evening. My Aunt and I are going to treat my parents to dinner tonight and tomorrow night as a thank you for hosting us this week. So we arrived back to Juneau simple enough, around 2pm. We just kind of freshened up and went into town. We headed straight for the cruise ship doc to check out city/glacier tour info. But think we are jut going to take the shuttle back and forth to Mendenhall in the morning. So we just went shopping instead. When in this one large superstore of a souvenir shop (was kind of like the Hilo Hattie’s of Juneau, for those familiar with Hilo Hattie’s). They had several TVs on in the store playing various things. But one as on a news station playing Palin footage with the headlines “The Countdown” and “The Goodbye Girl”. I was fully aware that she was officially leaving office as of yesterday, but being out at sea for the last 6 days, it slipped my mind. So I thought it interesting that firstly, I was in Juneau at the time she left office (even if she was technically in Fairbanks). From talking to some people up here from cabbies to store employees to seeing some funny mockery of her on a store display (I have pics), I get the jist that she wasn’t well supported up here. Our can driver this morning even said that every house surrounding the Governor’s Mansion had Obama signed displayed. And secondly, I wasn’t aware until I got up here that this is the 50th Anniversary of Alaska’s statehood. Kind of some interesting memories for the trip. But anyway, we picked out a hole in the wall Mexican place called ‘El Sombrero’ for dinner, since the touristy saloon we wanted to eat at was a mad house. It was decent. Then stopped off at the restaurant we want to eat at tomorrow night (seafood place, on the water, overlooking the sea-plane dock) to make 7pm reservations. Then next door I bought a neat watercolor of Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm we just saw the other day. This artist does the watercolors of a place, overlaying a map of that location. I’ll have to take a picture of it to post. Outside that store was a newspaper stand, with the Juneau Empire (I think it’s called) with a pic of Palin and the headline “It’s Official”. I collect newspapers from when momentous things happen, so thought it would be cool to have the Juneau paper on the subject. And I accidentally pulled 3 newspapers out of the machine and not just one. They are thin, I didn’t notice. Ooops. We then walked back to the boat, after a quick detour to the local grocery store for some ice cream to bring back for dessert. But it’s now 11:30pm and I must crash so we can have one last full day tomorrow before I have to go home on Wed.

Outside Ford’s Terror, Dawes Glacier, Tracy Arm Cove

So, we had intended on leaving around 7am, but didn’t until almost 9am. I woke up a bit after that so wasn’t aware that the fog delayed us. But we headed off on our 3 hour ride to Dawes Glacier, in the sun. Again, just like 2 years ago. Funny we are having the same weather pattern. I joked that since we leave on Wed, and my Step-Bro and his girlfriend arrive on Saturday, that they may have the opposite weather pattern. Good weather at the beginning of the trip, and bad at the end. And they will likely have the same itinerary. We shall see. My Aunt and I thought it may be fun to meet up with them for dinner after they get back from their trip to compare notes on the 2 different vacations. But anyway… we made our way up within ½ a mile of the Glacier which is further than last time. There was a dense ice field up ahead which made our stopping point very specific. But we turned the boat off and just sat there for a while to take in the view and take the obligatory million photos. It was great the weather was so nice. And we played ball with Merlin on the bow, as a distraction to him wanted to play laser light with him. And for some reason I was his new best friend for doing that. On the way back I spotted 2 dolphins as we sat on the roof of the boat, but then they disappeared. And the only animal life we had seen up to this point was a handful of seals, a couple of eagles, a million other birds, some salmon and those dolphins. We were bummed about no whales. Well once we got back in the channel next to Sumdum (Some Dumb ;-) ) Glacier, I remembered that it was in that spot that a whale played around our boat on the last trip. And what do you know, my Step-Dad spotted a whale’s back and tail going into the water right in that area. The rest of us didn’t see it, so we put the boat in idle and went on the lookout. We ended up seeing its back and spout a few more times before we continued on our way back to the cove for the night. It was almost 5pm at that point and this is our last night anchoring out before heading back to Juneau. So my Aunt and I wanted to take the kayaks out one last time. So we put them in the water, and of course I tipped mine enough while getting in, to allow some water in. Well I got to sit in that the whole time. Lovely. But we spent an hour paddling around the bay, and my Aunt managed to get more water dumped on me in the kayak. Conspiracy I tell ya ;-) When we got back to the boat after 6pm it was time for some pork loin w/ chutney and some yams for dinner. No boxed dinners on this trip I tell you. We watched ‘The Reader’ after dinner which I thought was good. However, the timeline threw me off and after I got it straight once the movie was over, I wanted to see it again so it made more sense. One of these days. Well, I decided to type this up before crashing… and it’s now 11:35pm. So I am heading to bed, so I can be up and ready to enjoy our last 6-7 hours of cruising tomorrow.

Inside Ford’s Terror to Outside Ford’s Terror

So I woke up this morning to sunshine… amazing. And too funny because 2 years ago when I was here and my Step-Bro came with me, the same thing happened. We entered Ford’s Terror to a downpour and woke up the next day to sunshine. And I felt a little queasy when I woke up this morning, but 90% better than last night. We watched eagles fly around as we had cream of wheat for breakfast, and some chamomile tea for myself. Easy on the stomach. By mid-day the sun started to go away, but still warmer here at 63 degrees than it has been. We decided to take the dinghy down and go over to this gorgeous waterfall we saw on the way in. I just have to go get my warm clothes on. We also had to plan our itinerary for the next few days. Tonight will be our second to last night anchoring, and then 2 nights back in Juneau. Booo!!! We are on the downswing of the trip. Today we will play around in here, then pass Ford’s Terror passage between 4-5pm at high tide, then weather depending, go kayaking on the other side by the waterfalls. Then tomorrow start our day around 7am and head to Dawes Glacier. See that and then head back to Tracy Arm Cove for our last night anchoring out tomorrow. There was this sailboat in the bay when we exited Ford’s Terror and it looked like they were debating entering Ford’s Terror because of the way they were going around the bay. My Aunt and I hopped in the kayaks and were heading to this waterfall in the cove, which was past their boat. So we yelled Hello and asked if they were entering, but they said they couldn’t find the entrance and it was too late now because of the tide. So we continued along our way and headed toward the waterfall, but the tides were iffy so we turned around. Then there were some icebergs in the bay, so we paddled over to a few of them to get up close and personal and take pictures. We also saw a seal or 2 that kept popping up all over. After about an hour and 15 mins we headed back to the boat. When we got there, the couple from the sailboat had come on board and they were all visiting. They are from Switzerland and originally sailed from Europe, across the Atlantic and made their way to Hawaii, Canada and Alaska. Now they leave their boat here, and fly home every winter to work. They were telling the story about entering Alaska one time, and the humorous hassle with customs. And they said “Well I guess Canada is pretty lenient about people growing pot, and apparently they smuggle it on Swiss sailboats.” They were joking and it was pretty funny. The also told of their 19 day trip last year from New Zealand to the South Pacific. Interesting stuff. Then tonight was leftover night, and let’s just say that I won’t be eating last night’s leftovers in fear of getting sick again. After dinner we watched ‘Bedtime Stories’ which was cute. And we are anchored right next to a waterfall so I am listening to that as I type. I just went outside a few minutes ago and actually saw stars for the first time this trip, cool! Now tomorrow we leave at 7am, although I doubt I’ll be up that early.