The view from my office at work

From Office view

From Office view

By Any Other Name

An interesting article: http://aworkinglibrary.com/library/archives/by_any_other_name/

Travel Blog!

I've finally set up a travel blog to post my adventures in India on. You can find it at http://travel-amanda.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!

Potential Book Abort

I've been reading this book for book club over the last few days, trying hard to finish it before our book club meeting this evening, but of course I didn't make it. I have about a quarter to a third of the book left. When I got to book club, one of the first things they asked when I mention that I wasn't able to finish it yet, is whether I had reached "the surprise" towards the end. I could quickly determined that since I had no idea what they were talking about, I probably hadn't reached it yet. So they carefully skirted that part while talking about the book, which was kind, but I wasn't too concerned. I was well sucked into the book already and couldn't wait to finish it anyways, so I figured even if they did tell me it wouldn't stop me from wanting to read it. So then we decided to watch part of a documentary on the person whom the book is about, and Brenda kindly warned me that at the end of the portion we were going to watch, it would give away what happens at the end of the book. So, curious me, I decide to just watch anyways. Well, now I'm not so sure it was a good choice. The majority of the book is just a well written novel about two people and their relationships with each other and others, like lots of good novels. But it turns out the end has all the makings of a horror flick. Now I'm scared to read the end of the book because I know how horribly it ends, and I feel like I don't want to have to hear/read it again. But at the same time, I'm kind of glad I know now how it ends so at least I won't be quite as horrified upon finishing the book (assuming I can make myself finish it at all) as I would have been if that's how I had found out first.

I blew a kiss to the moon
And the moon laughed at me

2 Weeks, 2 Days, and Counting...

It's getting close! And I've got lots to do still! Time to get my butt in gear and get some stuff done instead of working all the time. I need to get a travel blog ready to go still too.

Quietude

I need to work on some of the things in this article: http://zenhabits.net/2008/09/sound-of-silence-how-to-find-some-quietude-in-your-life/

Anyways, I'm feeling happy and kinda quiet right now. I have a crockpot bubbling away with some tasty split pea soup in the kitchen. My apartment is mostly clean again, finally. And I feel relaxed.

Well... until I remember that I need to finish making my bed still before I can go to bed, but oh well, that shouldn't take too long.

I'm not really looking forward to work tomorrow, but at least I had a relaxing day without work to help me unwind. Now if I can just figure out how to keep that state of "unwoundness" and relative calmness throughout the week. That's the goal. And to start, I plan to get up early every morning this week, instead of hitting snooze a million times every morning.

Contra Camp and the Drive Back Home

Contra camp was awesome! I drove up on Friday, leaving work at about 10:30 a.m. and heading out of town by around 11:30 or so. I got into Fairbanks in time to head to dinner at Lemon Grass with Brad and then get ready for the evening's in-town contra dance at Alaskaland (aka Pioneer Park). Contra was fun as always. Then the next morning Brad and I packed up my car with our stuff and after a few last minute errands we headed down to the Lost Lake Boy Scout camp for Dance Camp North, the Fairbanks area contra camp.

Once we got to the camp, we set up our tent with a veritable nest of pads and blankets in the hopes of staying warm in sub-freezing night time temperatures and then got down to the business of dancing, going on walks/mini-hikes, dancing, napping, dancing, reading, dancing, canoeing, dancing, and hanging out with friends. Brad stayed nice and warm in our nest of blankets both nights. I was a bit cold the first night so I piled a few more blankets on top and added a few layers on myself and was nice and toasty the second night. All in all, the weekend was a whole lot of fun, even if I did wear myself out pretty well.

I decided to drive down the Richardson/Glenn Hwys on the way back today, instead of driving about an hour back to Fairbanks and then down the Parks Hwy, as it sounded like it would take about the same amount of time either way. I am happy that I finally got the chance to drive the Richardson/Glenn! It was a beautiful drive, and the pictures above hardly do it justice.

Now I'm going to go crawl into my nice soft warm bed and try not to think about going back to work tomorrow.

Hiking & Camping

4th of July 2008

Summer Fun with Tally

My Brother's Graduation

Picture update time!

So, the next few posts will be slideshows of picture albums from the summer... I finally took all the pictures off my camera and realized I hadn't done so since just after my trip to California/Las Vegas in late April. 4 months and 345 pictures later... and I'm finally compiling the picture albums that follow.

Let me know how you like this new system of viewing my pictures please! And note that you can click on either the post title or on the slideshow itself to get to the actual photo album and peruse them at your own pace and in a larger size.