And the winner is...

For anyone who reads both of my blogs, yes this is a repeat from Bebo. Scary how easy it was to plagiarize myself. Just hope no one else gets any brilliant ideas. Anyhow, here's the post:
Lance Mackey is the winner of the 35th Iditarod. Just thought I would share that with you all He is actually making dog racing history as he also won another 1,000 mile sled race earlier this year. Pretty impressive. Another curious little fact: his father won the Iditarod on his 6th try in 1978 wearing the number 13, his brother won the Iditarod in 1983 on his 6th try wearing the number 13, this was Lance's 6th try and he wore the #13. Interesting...
My high five friend, Jon Korta #24, is currently in 34th place I think. I'm still cheering him on though, just because. I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting for this data.
Oh, and Sherry asked me a few days ago if I would come up with some story starters for her. She mentioned posting them here, so I decided to open them up to anyone who needs a little kick to get them writing. I put them up at the top of the page in the section that's supposed to be facts about me. Having already written my own post about bathrooms I thought I'd start off with that one. I'll try to add more every now and then. If you feel like writing to one, be sure to put it up on your page so we can all check it out.
Also, Becky, if you read this, add me as one of your friends so I can visit your page! Every time I try it just tells me "Oooo, sorry this isn't allowed. She has to be your friend first!" At least they pretend to be polite about it.
Two more days 'til I fly away! Yipee!!!
And that's about it. Mush on!

Three more days!

Well, I must admit I'm starting to think that if I want people to comment I just have to take a REALLLY long time to put up new posts. At least that's how it appears when I check on other people's pages. (sigh) Just a shout out to anyone who reads this, I always like to get comments. So far I've managed to get at least one every time, so I try to hold out at least that long.
Anyhow, this note is mostly to let people know that I'll probably be a pretty pathetic slacker over the next couple of weeks as I will be flying southward come Thursday. I have a rather hideous 11 1/2 hour layover in Seattle, so I won't actually arrive in Oregon until Friday, but it's not exactly my first time in an airport, so I guess I can't complain too much. I use the word "so" a lot. Some habits are so hard to break. Ha ha. Don't bother counting up how many times I write "well" and "anyhow" either. It's rather horrific, but everyone has to have catch words, right?
Now, I'll try to finish this up without using any of those words again. It's definitely going to be a struggle. They're just such amazing filler/transition words.
While I have passed my initial 6 week deadline for getting in my support, they haven't kicked me off the team yet. I just got an e-mail encouraging me and all other team players to keep working hard to get the finances in, which goes to show I'm not the only one in this position. As of yet I don't know a whole lot about what the team situation is going to look like, but will fill people in as I gain more understanding myself.
On that note, let me add that I am positively ecstatic to have only two days of teaching left before I get to go on Holiday!
Wow, I actually managed not to use any of those words in the last few paragraphs. Go me! :)

Mush on you Malamutes!

Well, the Iditarod is on! It was great fun to go out and nearly freeze to death yesterday, watching the beginning of the race. Hard to believe those crazy people (and dogs) are now somewhere out in the wilds trying desperately to stay warm. I can safely say I'm not likely to join them anytime in the near future! You can see the starting line in the background here. With me are my sister Cheryl, her husband Tim, and their three daughters: Haley, Tekla, and Naomi.
These dogs running are the first ones in the race. The dogs all just looked so excited to be out there in all that insane coldness. I've decided to cheer for Musher #24 because he gave me a high five as he went by. Every now and then it's fun to get into the whole crowd mentality. Brings back those old Cheer leader days...yeah, never mind.
I finally got my newsletter sent out today so hopefully you're all feeling updated on all that's going on with me these days. I'll be sure to update again soon.

All things Alaskan

Just thought I'd share a couple Alaska things here and put up some pictures. The Iditarod starts on Sunday, so we went last night and checked out some of the ice sculptures. It was pretty cool, and when I say cool what I mean is so cold that I thought my fingers were going to fall off! I still managed to snap a few pictures while wearing massive gloves.
I also got to see the Northern Lights on Tuesday night. It wasn't a very large display, but they were definitely drifting specter-like across the northern skyline. Obviously I don't have a fancy enough camera to do them justice so no photos this time. I always tried to take skyline photos at night in Hong Kong and that never worked out very well either. (sigh) Someday I'll take that photography course, but until then, you'll just have to make due with what my lovely little digi can do. I really thought the ones of Godzilla attacking the city were cool!