White-out soon??

You know, a few things get me really excited about life. Some of them are (in no particular order) biking, great sunrise/sunsets, alaska, windy days, and snow. And the forecast was just bumped up to 100% chance of snow tomorrow night. That makes this little lady very very excited. I hope to have some good snow pictures later this weekend. :-)

My Dream Bike

http://www.surlybikes.com/pugsley.html

So I have been eyeing up this bike for awhile now. It's a Surly Pugsley, made for serious snow riding. It can hold up to 4" tires, which is EXTREMELY burly.. a typical mountain bike has tires that are about 2.1". I got 2.4"s last year for my mountain bike and I've noticed a huge difference in awesomeness in those. Unfortunately the price tag on the Pugsley is about as proportionally big as the tires, but maybe once I get settled in I can start saving for this beast. As one of my friends today said, "hey, it's still much cheaper than a car!" Unfortunately I don't know how I feel about biking in -40 degree temps.. my face has been already turning red from the wind in 25 degree temps! It's all relative, right?

O Christmas Tree

Traditionally upon returning to State College after Thanksgiving break, I like to blast Christmas music and set up my Christmas tree. And this is exactly what I did last night.
And to those wondering why there's a bike helmet on the top, it's a shout-out for my buddy LeeAnn up in Maine, who has a lobster hat on the top of her tree. It's the only thing I could find lying around to match her creative lobster tree topper.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

What a life!!

Siiiiiiiiiimbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

Today Patty and Reed took "us kids" to the zoo. Aunt Julie was excited to see the aquarium and the bears.

Rosalie and Aunt Julie check out the animals at the tropical rain forest.

Reed and Gretchen run to catch up with everyone else.

Everyone's bundled up in the snow flurries for the coldest day we've had in awhile.

"I shall call him squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my squishy!"

The Actual Thanksgiving Day

Happiness sprinkles my sister's car on Tgiving night.

Patty had turkey dinner at her house tonight, which was delicious as turkey dinner number 3! (Great part is, I have one more to crash tomorrow!) The kids kept us well entertained. We played some guitar hero afterwards to work off that food, as well as watched the Muppet Christmas Carol!!

My siblings + sig. others +kids minus 1 sib and sig. other, my parents and Reeds parents graced the dinner table. As usual there was bread tossing across the table from one end to another and all kinds of madness going on. Ohhh I will miss the big dinners!

Being Thankful

High today: 55 (in the wee hours of this morning)
Low so far today: 37 (right now)

Finally, break is upon us! Before traveling to all directions and going back to our families, there was a bit of pre-Thanksgiving celebration all around. One of the girls in the Cycling Club (and her roommate) hosted a turkey dinner last night at her house. Everything was delicious! I was very impressed that a college student could cook a turkey so well.

Kelly, Jess, and Felix all trying to stay awake after the deliciousness.

Clay making faces as usual.

To top it all off, my boss invited all of us at the climate office over to his house tonight for the 4th annual PK Thanksgiving dinner. As always, everything was amazingly delicious, especially the sweet potato dish! And the company was fantastic.

It was fun getting the crew together - ages ranged from 14 months to.. well I guess 50-something. :-) The little one kept us entertained most of the night.

Diva Conquered!!

High today: 59
Low so far today: 48

So a few weeks ago, the local outdoor gear shop had a "Diva & Conquer" event sponsored by Mountain Hardwear. I just so happened to "stumble in" that day, and did my usual 2 minute stroll around the store drooling over down jackets and gloves and wool hats and fun winter gear that I can't afford. They had a raffle for who knows what but it was at the gear shop so it had to be cool. I dropped my name in the bucket, strategically placing it, pushing it slightly below the top, because you know those raffle-drawers.. they never pick from the top! Then I left. An hour later a call beeped in while I was on the phone, and the girl on the other line says "you put your name into the raffle tonight?", "yes I did" (excitedly realizing I won something.. anything would have been freaking awesome), and she says "you just won $xxx to our store for Mountain Hardwear gear!" Ummmm... WHAT!??????! I ended up being the winner of the grand prize of the raffle, which was incredible because God knows I needed that for what is about to come. I excitedly told the girl I was moving to Alaska in January and I needed a down jacket. (at this point I didn't have the official word but was fairly confident of the news) I ordered the jacket I wanted - they only had black at the store so they ordered me this hot red one. And now it's mine. :-) Looks kinda funny but I will be happy I got it a size bigger I think. Plus, room to grow!
One of the guys at the store asked me if I was going to climb Denali and I gave him a funny look and said "I don't plan on it but I HAVE thought about it". As I'm reading "Into Thin Air" I don't think I can handle thoughts of climbing large mountains. Plus I'd have a lot to learn in the meantime! But mark my word, I am going ice climbing in April.. UAF is planning a beginner's ice climbing trip and I plan on being there. Hecccccccck yes!

The end of undergrad is near

High today: 45
Low this morning: 27

Tonight I had my last choir concert (what? you sing in a choir??) of my college career. I spent three years with this particular choir, and it was fun to be able to be in it for one last throw-down. I got recognized for graduating and received some pretty roses!
It's good to be wrapping things up.

Snow Flurries!

Yesterday the snowflakes flew pretty much all day. Normally I hit my snooze button at least 2 times in the morning, but the radio came on and the DJ said "those snowflakes are coming down this morning!" and well.. I popped out of bed happily to see it myself!Never comes out too well in pictures when there's nothing on the ground yet...

Unfortunately the snow changed to rain later in the day, but winter is coming! I hope we get a nice big storm sometime in December.

The Lighted Path

It's official, I will be going to UAF for grad school beginning this January!!!

Alaska, here I come!!!!!!!!!!!
And I already have visitors in May, how awesome is that???? (although they planned that out weeks before I found out I was officially in)

And today is the first day of flurries in state college - although I didn't personally witness them.

I don't need any more words for this entry...

A Weekend Visitor

High today: 50
Low this morning: 37

This weekend was full of fresh air and walking around aimlessly. My sister Maria and her boyfriend Bill came to visit. It was nice since I haven't spent any quality time with my sister since.. well, probably last Christmas break. We started off the weekend by going on a hayride out in the middle of nowhere.
We had a pretty wimpy little fire, but it was VERY warm compared to the weather!! It was a chilly night. We also set marshmallows on fire.. errr I mean roasted them.

There was some great bluegrass entertainment

The rest of the weekend was spent wandering around town.. eating.. drinking.. you know.. the fine things in life. I ran a 5k this morning.. only the 2nd time I went running since the Midnight Sun Run in Fairbanks! haha. I really should start running again because everytime I go I feel great afterwards. Maybe I will do that.. I'm just so attached to my bikes!! Anyway, the 5k was a BLAST, there were soooo many people there and so many people cheering on the side of the streets giving high fives. Here are some pictures from the 5k

They had a kids race before the 5k.. they were sooo cute!

College of EMS crew at the 5k

"That's hella tight."

High today: 59
Low this morning: 25

Ohhhh yeah! I've been watching this system coming for about 2 weeks.. had my eye on it in the long range models. The first snow forecast of the season!! Granted, we probably won't get accumulation but it's still a happy sight. That 540 line is dipping down to Texas...

By next Friday I will know for sure about Fairbanks.. maybe it will be earlier this coming week.. that would be even better. :-)