April Fools

When I grew up our closest neighbors were the Matthews family.  They had three kids around the age of my brother Tom and I and we practically lived at the Matthews’ house, at least when their kids weren’t at our house.  We had many outdoor adventures together, riding bikes, building forts, crawling through culverts, catching trout with our bare hands and protecting Comstock Road from perceived bad guys.  We had many fun times together.

CREAM PUFF HEAVEN

Mrs. Matthews always made the best cream puffs.  They were absolutely legendary, at least in our neighborhood which was pretty much our whole world.  She was a sweet and gentle lady, a beloved first grade teacher and a second mother to my brother and I so we had absolutely no reason to question her motives when she drove up our driveway one evening on April 1^st as we were eating dinner to deliver some cream puffs to Tom & me.  Imagine our anticipation at this unexpected surprise! She waited patiently while we diligently finished up whatever selection of vegetables remained on our plates so we could get to the delectable cream puffs of our culinary memories. 

This time however, something was horribly wrong.  They had bitter chocolate on top where once had been a rich, sweet frosting.  Unsweetened oatmeal in the center where yellow creaminess once existed.  The disappointment was palatable and we weren’t sure what to do until we saw our parents and Mrs. Matthews laughing uncontrollably at our crestfallen faces.  Cream puffs were sacred ground, the holy grail of desserts.  This was so NOT funny!   It is, to date, the April Fool’s joke of our lives. 

The joke was also extended to some other neighbors, the Berry boys.  As they were driving to the Matthews’ house to collect their treats, their mother reminded them that the polite thing to do, when eating someones baking , is to appreciate it whether or not you liked it.  They did their best and halfway through forcing the offensive cream puffs down Mrs. Matthews ended their misery by announcing “APRIL FOOLS!”

Mrs. Matthews is now in her 80s and as sweet as ever.  Most people have a hard time believing she was ever even capable of being such a prankster.  Every time we go back home we assure her we are just biding our time to get our “sweet” revenge!

RIP NEWT

BABY NEWT

I was really sad to hear that Berlin's little polar bear died recently.  I used to enjoy footage of him as a baby and he was that zoo's star attraction.  Apparently he was playing in a pond in front of dozens of onlookers and just died suddenly.  I remember when Binky died in the Anchorage zoo and that was sad too. 

The Recovery

Piper is recovering nicely from his surgery.  He limped around for the first couple days but now he is completely back to normal, getting into mischief with his partner in crime, Timmy.  The good news is after several tests, (blood work, ultra sound & Xray) they determined the tumor had not spread to any internal organs and he should be as good as new.  If he was precious to me before, now he REALLY is....$1300 later we will be watching him closely! I was also glad the spot was were it was, therefore he (and us!) was spared the agony of wearing a cone.   Thanks for all the good wishes!

We are Ice Rich

The kitchen is now complete.  All new appliances have been installed.  The fridge was quite an ordeal – anything with a handle had to come off so there were four separate pieces.  It was pretty much an all day project but it went smoothly.  Now we have our choices of crushed ice or cubed ice.  Chris went through a period this winter where he made ice blocks outside.  I heard endless comments about his “ice farming” techniques.  Those blocks now reside in our freezer (their purpose unclear) but with new fridge and it’s endless supply of the frozen stuff we are “ice rich” according to my husband.  He does go off on these tangents sometimes. He is also enthralled with the filtered water.  Many times a day I hear comments about his filtered water consumption.  He’s pretty much thrilled with the new fridge on every level, he wondered aloud yesterday why no one had come to see it.  So I figure it my spousely duty to show one and all our new kitchen.

As a side note, we got the results from Piper’s biopsy last week and he has a mast cell tumor.  Surgery tomorrow.  Please pray for my kitty, I love him to pieces.

Moose

A lady in Anchorage got kicked by this moose when she tried to pet him.  Can you imagine??? The other people in the picture don't seem too concerned by him either.  Crazy people.

Moose in Anchorage

What Does This Picture Represent to YOU?

Peaceful
Beautiful
Resplendent
Calm
Thankful
God infused
Holy
Lovely

This is a photo taken by Heather Lende presumably of her bedroom in her house in Haines.  I wonder if I'd ever leave if this is what I woke up to every morning......

There is a Bump on My Boy...

My beautiful boy Piper and Little Timmers

A couple weeks ago Chris pointed out a hard bump on the back of my cat, Piper.  He has thick fur and it took some burrowing to find it, which he does not enjoy, so I’m not sure if the bump hurts when touched or he just prefers not to be messed with.   If he were a human, I’d think it was a mole.  Chris thinks it has gotten larger but  I can’t tell.  Today I called the vet and he has an appointment on Thursday where he’ll check it out and take a biopsy of it.  The whole thing terrifies me.  NOTHING can go wrong with my little Meazer boy.  I love him so much it hurts.  Seriously, how is it possible to love 15 pounds of fluff and fur so much?  The whole thing is stressing me out, just  thinking about this doctor appointment he will have to endure.  It takes him a long time to come out when people are over, even if it’s Carole and Ralph who he has known all his life.  To have some random stranger handle him and hold him in place and then, God forbid, have to cut on him is almost more than I can bear.  

Be Gone Old Man

WINTER AT SUNSET

We are going on a week now of severe winter conditions.  It has been sunny but brutally cold.  And windy.  By windy I mean the Takus are blowing 60-90 mph gusts.  They keep extending the high wind warning, first it was supposed to be over Monday, then Wednesday and now Thursday.  It’s even severely windy in the valley which doesn’t happen all that often.  I can sit in the living room and see nothing but white out swirls from both the front and back windows.  Nothing but little tornadoes of snow blowing around.  The snow is now hardened ice and when it hits your face in a million little pieces at a high velocity it feels more like glass. A view of the Chilkats from Egan Drive looks like a photo out of focus, there is so much swirling snow on top it looks blurry.  Sometimes the anticipation is worse than the reality of going out in it, you look from inside and even if you are toasty warm it invokes shivers down your spine.  Poor Oscar was for his morning poo the other day and got caught up in such swirl, I wondered if we’d see him again or if the wind would just carry him away.  Visions of Dorothy prevailed. He was not impressed.   So I’m officially waving good bye.......Old man winter go away, come again some other day (somewhere other than Juneau!)