The above is a brown bear at the Wildlife Conservation Center. I thought the off focus would look neat, and I am happy with the results.

I see this sign around a lot of parks, and every time it makes me giggle ^_^

There are two essential ingredients to a successful marathon. Good shoes and socks ? Nope, screw them. I ran 17 miles with an injured foot. I think that proves you can run in anything.

The essential ingredients to a successful marathon is Vaseline and Gu. Vaseline helps to keep your nipples happy, and each pack of Gu is 100 calories of pure sugar. You wouldn’t believe the energy you get with each pack ^_^

Here is a fine example of something not to do…I am a professional so it is OK. Here is a cute picture of a baby moose, and a picture of an angry mommy moose. Notice the ears being back and the hair standing up on her back ?

After the shot was taken I promptly rode out of there. I was almost killed, but wanted to take this shot for you. Enjoy ^_^

Derek tried to tell me that it is impossible to swallow cinnamon, I decided to prove him wrong ! Unfortunately I failed, I blame the laughing more than the cinnamon.

The cinnamon clouds are my favorite ^_^

This was taken last April on the beach of Kenai, Alaska. Mount Redoubt is roughly 80 miles south of Anchorage, and it had some eruptions during this time. At this time there were still huge slabs of ice, since spring hadn’t melted everything yet.

I thought it would be cool to grab a shot of Redoubt with the ice still visible. You can also see the ash plume coming from the volcano. I couldn’t frame redoubt in ice, but I did the best I could. I am happy with how it turned out ^_^

Skywatch Friday

Not sure what I did to piss off this squirrel, but she sure told me off. Even when I was out of sight I could hear it yelling. Typical female ;)

I went to watch a HS baseball game today, and I encountered this family. The folks near-by thought I snapped. Was just giddy because they are so cute ;) They were still pretty wobbly as they walked up the hill, I’d say they were a few days old. Now ladies, look at those two before complaining about childbirth. She gave birth to both of those a few days ago w/o drugs. Bunch of pansies ^_^

I do regret not having a better angle. I blame the fence, and the psycho mom, for not getting closer :(

Spur of the moment last week, I decided I wanted to go out hiking. Original plan was to go up Flat Top again, but it was too crowded for my taste. I settled on one of the mountains in the nearby valley. It was a bugger to get up, but the view was nice.

I believe I am the only one who can complain about mosquitos. That shot was not macro’ed, they are freaking huge!

The sunset photo was taken on my way down the mountain around midnight. The bugs are annoying, but I sure love these summers ^_^

Ruby Tuesday

By popular demand, and by popular I mean two requests, here is my hot cocoa mix recipe.

6 cups of dry milk powder
3 1/3 cups of confectioners sugar (I imagine powdered sugar should work fine)
2/3 cup cocoa
2/3 cup non-dairy creamer (I used hazelnut flavored creamer which worked pretty nicely)
2 tsp of cinnamon

Be sure to use a big big bowl when mixing. Enjoy !

Most of my friends were out of town Memorial Day weekend, so I decided to head up to Flattop Mountain for a quick hike. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Yeah. Everyone that didn’t leave town to fish was on that mountain with me. There were more cars around the bend down the road. Beautiful day for a hike. Would rather have gone fishing though ;)

The view roughly looked like the above, minus the lines, and the snow lined up better in real life ;) I have another to make up from the back view. Mostly mountains in that one though, nothing special ;)

A view of Anchorage can be seen in the top left of the photo, the inlet in the background, and more mountains on the left. Sure is tough living here ;)

I know, Jess, I know. I am lame. More photos are to come. Currently feeding a movie addiction lately. I will get some more up this week, I swear ^_^

The ending had to be fake though. I understood everything coming out of “Ozzy’s” mouth ^_^

I feel I need to spread the word when I figure stuff out. It does no good if I keep it to myself. The lesson for this week is consuming dairy before a run is a big noes noes. I am not sure if it was the cinnamon sugar milk I had at dinner, or the chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, but two miles into my run, my stomach sure didn’t feel good. I think I made a milk shake in my tummy.

The only time I experienced something like this was consuming about six to seven bean burritos (the awesome ones that is like a crack wrap) before going skating with Larry. For those that don’t remember, it involved a tree at the school since I couldn’t make it home in time ;)

Yeah, I am pretty sure I would rather experience the burrito experience than the milkshake tummy ;)

Saw three more moosen on my run tonight. Felt better this night since the sun was actually out. I sure love sunset being 10:30 ^_^

Title says it all.

Q: What is swine flu?

A: Pigs spread their own strains of influenza and every so often people catch one, usually after contact with the animals.

Q: So is it safe to eat pork?

A: Yes. Swine influenza viruses don’t spread through food.

Makes me wonder what kind of contact they had with the pigs if it wasn’t eating them…

The day sure didn’t start off the way I first expected. Friday afternoon around noon, we had application problems. Dennis and I were working with everyone troubleshooting the system, as well as restoring corrupted files. I was finally sent home around 12:30 this morning. Sort of ruined my Friday plans, but that is life.

I signed up for the Heart Run the other day. Sort of last minute deal, I didn’t know it was going on until a friend at work suggested I give it a go. Figured since I am training, I might as well do something with other people ^_^

After I finally woke up and got down there, it occurred to me I didn’t know where the starting line was or where I could park. So I parked at worked and walked over to the school to find the Arts building, which was near the starting line. It didn’t occur to me that parking over a mile away won’t be too much fun after the run is over ;) I eventually found it, and proceeded to get my chest thing, and a cool shirt.

I found my friend, Nancy, before the race started. With all of those people I would have thought I would know more people. I was wrong. I did find a couple of peeps from work after crossing the finish line. Amazing who you would find at the water cooler.

The run began at 09:30, and it was pretty entertaining overall. For the first couple of miles, I couldn’t ditch this girl for the life of me. She was probably 10 at the very latest, and originally gave me a dirty look when I passed her. She then passed me, got about twenty feet ahead and began walking. I passed her, and the game would start again. On the downhill trek after passing APU, I ran harder and left her in the dust. My weekend is complete now that I beat a little girl in a race ^_^

They actually got the results up faster than I thought they would. I completed the run in 33:17.

Over all, I had a lot of fun today. I think the highlight of the day was the little conversation before the race, when I was picking up my stuff:

Check-in-Lady: May I have your last name please ?
Me: Sure, Steve.
Check-in-Lady: No. I need your last name.
Me: I know. It is listed under Steve.
*Looks at me with a puzzled face, and proceeds to check the roster*
Check-in-Lady: The Steve ?
Me: The one and only.
Check-in-Lady: Ok everyone, we have The Steve running with us today…

Ok. Now that the snow is pretty much melted, I decided it is time to get away from the treadmill and hit the street. I have come to realize that running outside is a little different than a treadmill. For one I have real entertainment, two it is harder ;) Since this is my first marathon, I decided to do something different to make it fun. I am going to run it barefoot. This brings me into another reason break-up is fun. Puddles. Not only do I enjoy driving through them, very fast of course, to make a big splash, but running through them is fun too. I feel like I am six years old ^_^

After work I drove to Wasilla to pick up these cool shoes (pics to follow). They are pretty cool. They are basically a foot glove. I got them to protect my feet from broken glass and sharp rocks , they don’t do much else besides look cool ! You heard it hear folks, I will be running this race with my stylish new foot-gloves. I am hardcore, and that is how I roll !

For those that are going to follow in my awesome footsteps, be sure to focus on calf raises because the calfs get worked a hell lot more than with shoes :-)

I want this hat so bad. Bears love seal head kids ^_^