A tale of a frozen family

Em is all about birthday parties.  She LOVES her some birthday party… so imagine her utter delight when February rolled around and she acknowledged that all 3 dogs have February birthdays!  She thought she had hit the motherload!

Now… I try to be a cool mom.  I try to indulge her with silly things like a party for the puppies… but I refuse to do it THREE times in the course of a month.  Soooooooo… we compromised and had one combined puppy party. 

The first lesson of the day was to steer clear of a big dog with a party hat on his head.  When they’ve got a party hat on their head, they tend to shake their head, and if your face is near that… well…. you get nailed with the hat :(  Just look at that big ol scratch and that pathetic little face

Here is another shot of Franklin, this birthday boy is turning one… and loving his party attire.

And Adolph, who is turning 6.  He’s a PRO at this whole party thing. 

Good ol Adolph… he’s such a pushover!

If you notice, there is no sign of Capstun (who is turning 2).  He took one look at party hats and said “LATER” and retreated to his kennel.  We didn’t see him again until after Emma went to bed.  What a party pooper!

At any rate….. we brought in the balloons for the celebration.  Franklin evidently does not LIKE balloons.   I do not fluently speak dog, but I’m pretty certain this translates to W.T.F.!!!!!

(nice hat you goober)

Okay!  Group photo!  Everybody say BIRTHDAY!!!!

Ahhhhh thanks for such a great party Dad.  Lemme slobber on your face summore….

So, all in all, everybody had a great time (well, I don’t know if the DOGS had a great time, but we did) and Emma was just tickled.  She summarized her feelings before going to bed.

Rock on sista….. rock on!

It’s Thursday again…. and in following along with the “Thankful Thursday” challenge that I read about at http://anotherchanceranch.typepad.com/another_chance_ranch/2008/01/the-beginning-o.html   (I really want to learn how to do hyper links here!)  here’s mine for the week.

I am thankful for my improving health.  I am thankful for my reducing level of pain.  I am thanksful that my family is healthy.  I am thankful that my bulldog didn’t die from eating a sponge!

What are you thankful for?

I’m moving back into the saddle pretty well.  Hubby is also on board with improving the ol eating habit thing too, since he stepped on the scale and got a cold dose of reality.  I now know where that “Reality bites” comes from!

My goal is to cut out all artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup.   It’s tough going for this serious diet pepsi junkie.  I have recently discovered Stevia.  It has none of the risks of artificial sweeteners, it does not effect blood sugars, and it’s non caloric.  We got some today and are going to try it out.    You can read about it here:  http://www.stevia.net/

Aside from that… the trip to the scale SUCKED :(  All that crappy eating finally got up with me on the scale and lets just say, I’m depressed.  But… you gotta hit rock bottom before you can climb back up.. . right? 

So… with that, I’m going to go feel sorry for myself now and eat some low fat worms

Here’s another weekly dose of useless Alaska knowledge

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline moves up to 88,000 barrels of oil per hour on its 800 mile journey to Valdez

The fishing and seafood industry is the state’s largest private industry employer

Dog mushing is the official state sport. The Alaska Legislature adopted it in 1972

 And for today’s lesson, lets discuss Prudhoe Bay.  I figure since my area of responsibility at work is all of Prudhoe Bay, this would be an easy one to cover.

Despite the harsh climate, drilling activity and the oil industry have led to increasing development and settlement of the Prudhoe Bay area.

There’s a joke in Prudhoe Bay that “there’s a woman behind every tree.”  Of course, it’s so far north that there are no trees at all.  There are, however, a few female workers which I’d estimate constitute less than 5% of the workforce there.  Most are found in engineering (waving my hand), administrative, or housekeeping occupations.

Here’s a picture of the one and only forest in Prudhoe Bay!

Virtually none of the 3,000 workers on the North Slope actually live there, except for a few Eskimos from the surrounding villages.  Employee transportation to and from Anchorage is provided at no cost by the oil companies, who operate a pair of Boeing 737s for that purpose.  They make between 3 and 5 flights a day, 6 days a week.  For safety, the aircraft have flight attendants, and they also offer snack and beverage service, just like a regular airline (although alcohol is served only on the flight home, never on the way up.)

Shift work is usually 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for the duration of your hitch.  The most common shift is 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.  But there are some that do a one & one, some do a three & three, and then there are some poor souls that do 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off *gasp*.  More power to them!   2 weeks at a time up there was LONG enough for me!

For those lucky enough to have some free time, there is some recreation available, the quality of which depends on your employer.  Some contractors are housed off field and live merely in glorified atco units (a small trailer) For those that work directly for the oil companies, they can work out in a gym (with swimming pool), see a movie in a small theater, or play piano.  Contractors usually just have a TV room and possibly a smaller gym with some workout equipment.  In the summer, you can go running or hiking outside, and even fishing for char or Arctic grayling in one of the local rivers. Alcohol is not permitted in Prudhoe Bay, partly for safety reasons, and partly out of deference to the native Eskimos, most of whose villages are dry.

Sleeping arrangements come in two different settings.  There are dormitory-style, with two or more to a room, and a common restroom/shower area for each sex down the hall. (Facilities for females are usually smaller, as there are simply fewer of them.)  Or if you are lucky (like me) you get your own private room.   The bathroom is shared with the next door neighbor (who were always men in my case) but all in all, I had some pretty nice digs!  

Here is an example of what a camp looks like.  This isn’t the camp I stayed in. (this is much much smaller)  I guess it never occurred to me to take a picture of it.  I was always too depressed when I was on the outside (coming on shift) to care what it looked like, and going off shift, I was too excited to be leaving to take a picture! 

My offices were in the same building that my camp was in, so when I came to work I literally didn’t have to step outside once the entire 2 weeks I was there.  Comes in handy when it’s 80 below!

Being that far north, you also experience extreme daylight (or lack there of).  Here’s some more tidbits.

Longest Day:
63 days, 23 hours, 40 min.
Official sunrise: 12:09 AM - on 20th of May
Official sunset:11:18 PM - on 22nd of July

yes… you read that right… 63 DAYS folks!

Shortest Day:
1 hour, 3 min.
Official sunrise: 11:42AM - 24th of November
Official sunset: 12:27PM - 24th of November

and on the flip side:

Longest Night:
54 days, 22 hours, 51 min..
Official sunset: 12:27PM - 24th of November
Official sunrise: 11:18AM - 18th of January

Yep.. again.. that is 54 DAYS! with no daylight.
 

Shortest Night:
26 min.
Official sunset: 11:43PM - 19th of May
Official sunrise: 12:09AM - 20th of May

And of course, we can’t forget the weather…. the coldest day recorded was 28th of January,1989 - Temp of minus 54 degrees F and Wind speed of 31 knots (36 mph) - Gave a chill factor of minus 135 degrees F.

What we were talking about… oh yeah.. the camps!  They always had the best steaks…. speaking of steaks.

The food services are what makes life on the Slope truly bearable.  In most camps, restaurant-quality meals are served 4 times daily (to accommodate 24-hour operations) and it is all you can eat.  The cooks are so amazing, and accommodating.  When I was early on in my pregnancy with Emma, and my morning sickness was WICKED, the morning cook would have what I ate every morning (oatmeal and watermelon) boxed up for me and ready to go, so I could just run through the buffet line and grab it from him.  The smell of all those eggs and bacon in the buffet was BRUTAL for a couple of months.  Friday is normally steak & shrimp day, and for special holidays, lobster tails are served.  In addition, the oil companies provide what are called “spike rooms”–these are large snack bars (almost like small convenience stores really) that include: sandwiches, soup, chips, hot dogs, nachos, fruit/veggies, small frozen pizzas, donuts/cookies, ice cream, and beverages among other things, available 24 hours a day.  And incredibly, it’s all free–you can take whatever you like, as long as you’re not obnoxious about it and abuse the privilege.  The spike rooms are open to all workers and business visitors to Prudhoe Bay.  Why do the oil companies do this?  Well, part of the reason is to make a bleak, remote place seem a little more like home; another reason is that doing hard physical labor in subzero temperatures for 100+ hours per week burns an astronomical amount of calories.  Still another reason is that field units are encouraged to keep stocked with food at all times in case a winter storm of unforeseen severity strands them for days, miles from the nearest camp (it’s happened.)

Wow… so I’ve written a small novel, and we still haven’t gotten off the topic of camps yet.   I guess we’ll do a continuation of Prudhoe Bay next week and venture outside the doors of the camp and out and into the oil fields!  So for now…

to be continued.

Shopping for a new doctor that is.  I’m not talking about my wonderful surgeon, who if I HAD a uterus, I would gladly bear a dozen of his children out of mere gratitude for everything he’s done for me, when no one else could even figure it out.  I’m talking about a general physician.

I’m not sure when this new trend completely took over, but it seems like now….. if you have a runny nose, they write you a stack of prescriptions an inch deep and send you out the door.  They don’t care that the stack of prescriptions costs you 2 thousand dollars, or that those prescriptions make you 10 times worse than what you went seeking help for.  *sigh*

I had my final straw with my GP before I met my fabulous surgeon.  Since she didn’t know what was wrong with me, she decided to write me a stack of prescriptions a half and inch thick for a diagnosis that a specialist had already said was not the problem.   I tried to think that maybe she was thinking outside the box and maybe the specialist had missed something, so I took the prescriptions and within 3 days was 10 times worse.  That’s when I decided it was enough.  This was the 10th or so time that she’d done something similar in the last 2 years.    I look back at the rapid decline in my health since October and I’ve decided it’s time to take a step outside the box and look for somebody who can do the same.

I’m going back to my “crunchy” roots (my hubby loves to call me crunchy… because of my tree hugging tendencies… you know.. breastfeeding until college, cloth diapers, no vaccines, etc.)  so…. since my naturopath is all the way in the city (and is not covered by insurance) I started to quest for a doc that would fit the bill, out here in the burbs.  I talked to about 4 or 5 different offices, each one referring me to another feeling they might be a great fit for my crazy hippy self ;)   and I think I’ve hit pay dirt.   I think I’ve found one that thinks like I do.  She’s a propionate for natural health care, is an acupuncture advocate (and specialist) believes in eastern medicine as well as western medicine in moderation, and is also an MD, so my insurance will cover her!

I scheduled my “meet and greet” appointment later in the month.  I’m hoping that we’ll be a good match!

And since I was talking about cloth diapers earlier… lets take a quick stroll down memory lane.  Man I miss those cute cloth booties!

Isn’t that the cutest little bootie EVAH????

So anyway… peace out… I’m off to eat some granola and hug a tree!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a few days.   We’ve had a lot going on around here, and I’ve not had much time to get here and say howdy! 

Our company co-sponsored a wine tasting event last night.  It was called “a night in Venice” and it was FABULOUS!  It was an amazing 5 course meal (with yummies like prosciutto wrapped prawns, seafood stuffed crepes… I gained 20 pounds last night I’m certain!) with 5 amazing wines… it was just an amazing night overall.  

Here’s a few snapshots of the evening!

This is the limo driver, learning the very valuable lesson that one should not wash the limousine at below zero temperatures, RIGHT before you pick up your clients.  It tends to freeze the doors shut! LOL  We were able to get one door open, and that is all that matters

And the face only a mother could love……

Now, for all of you wondering “what on earth are they doing, taking a kid to a wine tasting?????”  don’t fret.  It just so happens that Em’s best friends parents were invited along with us, so the sitter was waiting to watch both girls at their house.   We are nuts… but we aren’t CRAZY!

These are our awesome neighbors Rod and Dawn… we lurve them lots!

And here’s Ron and Rita (the parents of Em’s best friend Grace :))

Hi honey!  look at him waaaaayyyyy down there!

And here they are… with the vino induced happiness flowing!

And the drive home…. Did I mention Emma really likes limos?  And the pathetic thing, the kid has ridden in them I think a total of 6 times now.  I didn’t take my first limo ride until I was in my 20s.  Kids these days!

The other thing I noticed last night.  We you buy a new bad boy camera… nobody wants to touch it to take pictures for you.  Which means I have ZERO pictures of me last night… and I looked purty!  I even had on makeup.   Oh well… I will survive.  No permanent damage done!