Recent Volcano Picture

This shot was taken today.



Picture Date: March 31, 2009
Image Creator: McGimsey, Game;
Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Ugh.

Who has two thumbs and hates volcanoes?




THIS GIRL!

After a very quiet couple of days and a nearly a full day of normal airport operations...

From the Alaska Volcano Obvservatory website..."There was a small explosion at Redout at 16:07 AKDT (4:07pm). There was a pilot report that put the ash cloud to 25,000 ft.

At this time, continuous low level emissions of steam, volcanic gases, and ash continue at Redoubt Volcano. Seismicity consists of volcanic tremor and occasional discrete earthquakes.

Satellite images from this morning show a broad layer of volcanic haze extending east of the volcano over the Kenai Peninsula, the Anchorage Bowl, and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley."

Flights are being methodically cancelled now.

I'm a Simple Woman

I was reading a friend's blog today and found this. I was intrigued because I love lists.


FOR TODAY Monday March 30, 2009
Outside my window...I see snow. Several more inches fell last night, washing the last of the ash out of the sky and burying my trash cans.
I am thinking...about volcanoes and how much I hate them right now. Really stressing out about our big trip commencing this Friday. Will it actually happen?
I am thankful for...COFFEE! I'm clinging to it like it's my life force today.
From the kitchen...making orange chicken and rice for dinner tonight.
I am wearing...new black yoga pants and my red Frostbite Footrace running shirt.
I am creating...I haven't been doing very much creating lately. Sadly I've been too busy planning our Mexico trip and filing our taxes. Oh and tracking volcanoes.
I am going...NOWHERE! At least not today. A relaxing (?) day at home.
I am reading...several magazines and a book called City of Bones.
I am hoping...that the volcano goes back to sleep.
I am hearing...Dora the Explorer on DVD.
Around the house...two kids are watching Dora and one is downstairs up to who knows what. I should probably check on him...
One of my favorite things...is jewlery. Suddenly I love it. I'm not talking diamonds and jewels though, just cute colorful necklaces and earrings. Mexico colors...mmm...Mexico.
A few plans for the rest of the week: Shopping at the new Kohls tomorrow with a friend and packing packing packing because we ARE going to Mexico on Friday.
Here is picture thought I am sharing...This is what that third child was doing when I mentioned checking on him a minute ago. Dora was turned off and all recruits were called in to help.



Join the FUN!

More Volcanoage.

Okay, so current volcano status is that there is a lot of "activity" like earthquakes and ash spewing to 20,000ish feet. These are not considered eruptions though. It has cancelled all but one flight to Seattle today. The Anchorage airport flight status web page and the Alaska Airlines twitter feed are on constantly now and I read them every 20 seconds as I closely monitor the situation. Alaska Airlines just mentioned that they are considering reopening some of the cancelled flights that leave later.

If this stupid volcano can just chill for about 5 more days then we SHOULD get out of here no problem on Friday.

Since I'm OBSESSED with this volcano right now, this is likely the only type of blogging you will see from me for a couple of days.

Another Eruption.

We had another eruption tonight at 7:23pm - 45,000 feet. That's four today. Darrin taped up the house this evening. We are getting out of here very easily in the morning. All doors and windows are taped and sealed. I ended up with a scratchy throat and burning eyes from my little jaunt out into the ash fall earlier.

Volcanoes and Earth Day.

Three eruptions so far today. At LAST, Anchorage is getting some ash fall. Maybe we should have prepared a little.

1:20am 50,000 feet high
1:40pm 25,000 feet high
3:29pm 35,000 feet high

I'm going to do something bad and go drive in it so I can rent a movie and snub Earth Hour. Not that I have a problem with Earth Hour. But I can't track a volcano if the power is out.

I Hate Volcanoes.

Of all the possible natural disasters that can occur, a volcano has always been pretty low on my list of concerns. Now it's threatening my trip to Mexico and it is now at the top of my list. Right above tsunamis.



Here is a shot of our volcano, Mount Redoubt, showing off AGAIN.

Third Day

Teamwork

"Hey Joshy, while mommy is upstairs making lunch, lets see if we can bring out every single toy in Jake's room and make a pile in the play room."

"Hey Jordy, since mom hasn't notice what we did yet, lets get out every toy in MY room too!"

That's how I believe the conversation went down. Add a few lisps and a bit of stuttering and I'll bet it's pretty accurate. It took them about ten minutes to do this. It took over an hour to clean up because that's just not as much fun.

Star Wars

He just can't get enough.

Another...

This one was SO hard. I had to design it myself and we were required to create our own paper, recolor other paper, create shapes and fill them with paper, blend photos...blah blah. Took forever. But I think I'm happy with it.

More Layouts

More Digi Happiness

Guess what! I know you missed these, HA! I'm in another digi class and you are now forced to view my awesomness. Here is my first assignment of many, many more

Naughty Boy

Joshy doesn't stay in bed anymore. If I'm not diligent about keeping an eye on him, he wanders off. This particular evening he had been very quiet and I assumed he had fallen asleep without the usual escape attempts. But when I went to check on him. His bed was empty, his room was empty and he didn't respond when I called for him. That's because he had wandered into the play room, turned on the TV (to the plain blue screen) and snuggled up in the couch pillows. That's where I found him, snoring.

The Coffee Experiment

This is a little blurb that I posted in my livejournal and decided to also post in bloggedy land. Sorry if you read both and don't like reruns. Let's proceed...

Over the years I have finally come to accept my heritage and have developed a healthy addiction to coffee. I come from a long line of very thorough coffee drinkers. My brother started drinking straight black coffee in high school. My genetic tendency toward coffee developed later in life, at a cute little coffee station in the midst of a bustling Microsoft cafeteria. My first official coffee drink - other than fairly repulsive straight black coffee - was an almond latte. Hello lover.

And that's where it all started. Over the years my preferences have changed a tad. My drink of choice is now the Starbucks venti White Chocolate Mocha and while I haven't found a coffee drink that I would kick out of bed, my usual is OH.SO.GOOD.

However...

In honor of our failing economy, I have responsibly opted to stop drinking Starbucks coffee every day. Keep your hat on sixfiftytwo (my bff), it's purely a money saving tactic and has nothing to do with the love I will always feel for that green circle or the love I feel for you, it's lovely and gracious distributor.

Since I don't own a coffee pot - and have decided not to buy one until the experiment is complete - I decided to try the Folger's coffee singles. There were some in my cupboard from when my mom last visited two and a half years ago(MOM!). Fortunately I checked the expiration date before I tried it. Otherwise I expect the experiment would have been over before it had begun.

I purchased a fresh box and boiled some water in a sauce pan (because I don't own a kettle. Well, I did but I ruined it when I let it boil itself dry and fuse to my stove burner). I steeped the tea bag...er, coffee bag in my mug of hot water and gathered the other necessary ingredients. A generous three heaping spoonfuls of hot chocolate mix and some coconut creamer were added to the mix and the result was....

Good enough.

Money saving tactic #1 is now in full effect. In fact, since I recently ran out of Folgers I've decided to go even cheaper and bought the generic store brand coffee. Still good enough.

I'm still not sure if I will purchase a coffee pot, as I only drink one cup of coffee each morning (two on a rough one). At this point it just doesn't seem more economical.

The rub is, I may be single handedly responsible for the coming downfall of Starbucks. My heart just broke a little.

Life With Little People

I spent the morning catching up on my favorite blogs and was thus inspired to bust out my camera and capture something blog-worthy of my own. I had recently borrowed a friend's amazing camera lens for a photo shoot I did and since I hadn't returned it yet, I had some serious photo ops planned for the kids.

But in the normal manner of life with children, things did not and are still not going as planned. I just spent two hours searching the house for the important little memory card that goes in my camera and is utterly essential for picture taking. The last time I saw it, it was hanging temptingly out of it's little slot on the front of my computer.

I spent some time sitting on the floor of my office, trying to see from the point of view of a two year old. I was amazed at all the tempting little spaces to put that memory card in. It wasn't in any of them. I can't find it anywhere and THAT is where we stand currently.

No photos until I buy a new one.