Enjoying home

I slept in this morning and when I woke up, I headed off to Aquasize. I love going to Aquasize when I'm in town. I scoffed the first time I went because there was no sweating and although we were moving the whole time it didn't seem like much work. My calves screamed the next day, so I knew some part was working! Also, I'm just about the youngest in the pool, but everyone is very colleagial, including the instructor. Everyone helps each other by handing out the weights, saying "it's your left leg, dearie" and so on. The senior discount might help- $1 for them and $5.50 for me. The Mary Siah pool is nice and warm, too. Anyway, the pool was closed so I was up for the day.

The new Safeway store is very nice, but I'm having to relearn the route. I used to be able to go shopping fairly quickly, but now I can't find anything. I know there must be some shelf organizing logic, but why are some sauces in condiments, some in "Asian" food and some in "gourmet"? Why is rice so far from pasta when they fill the same nutritional niche. When my daughter was about 10, she organized all the food in the boat in alphabetical order. At least that made sense.

My husband just made an apple pie for dinner for tomorrow night. It looks really great. He doesn't bake very often, but when he does its really great.

In Fairbanks today, it's about -36 degrees. My car's clutch comes back up really slowly when its colder than -20. I have a 1993 Geo Prizm with 162,000 miles on it. I love that stinky little car. It hasn't needed any work on it of any consequence. I bought it from the Chevy dealer thinking that I was buying American just to discover that it was made in Mexico, mostly.

I think there should be some more truth in advertising. I want to know when my money leaves the country. I think people complaining about jobs being outsourced need to be willing to look for info and sometimes pay more. I think it needs to be easier to find out though. I mentioned trying to shop locally, but in Alaska this time of year, it's difficult to buy food that is grown locally. There are still Alaskan potatoes around from last summer and I'm not sure the status of Matanuska Maid dairy and the meat and fish from around the state. More on this later. I'll do some research at the local store and get back to you.

I'm packing again for leaving on Monday, back to the Kuskokwim delta area. The 5 most important things to put in my pack (besides food and warm clothes) are: my headlamp, my boot grippers, an alarm clock, my vitamins and Lipitor and money. I carry $5 bills in my pocket, like a cheap hooker, to pay off the snowmachine owners for rides from the airstrip. It really makes me more attractive in towns where gas is $6-7/gallon.

Thanks for the comments. Remember, comments are the opinion of the commentors, not me. Keep those coming. Want specific pictures? Make requests on comments.