Hello!
I finally subscribed to the local newspaper, Anchorage Daily News, for weekend delivery. It's a very small paper compared to the Sacramento Bee. But I won't hold that against it.
It was very interesting that the first day I receive the paper the project I am working on is on the front page. TransCanada and ExxonMobil have requested bids for buyers/transporters of natural gas. There were several bidders which is very good news for the project. I think I've posted this before, but if you are interested in the project, the website is www.thealaskapipelineproject.com. Alaska residents are very interested in the project, because of the money it will potentially bring in.
Speaking of money, that brings me to the next topic. The other interesting article in today's paper (also front page) was about the PFD. I've heard this acronym several times and thankfully the paper explained: Permanent Fund Dividend. This is the yearly dividend that Alaska residents receive from the investments in oil the state made... basically from the Other Pipeline. This year it will be between $1,250 and $1,320. Nice! Of course, I have to apply to receive this dividend and I can't do that until I have lived here for a year... so maybe next year depending on the application deadline.
In other news, I have sold out and allowed advertisements on the sidebar and underneath my blog. I'm not entirely sure how this process works, but do not feel obligated to click on the ads unless you are truly interested.
That's all of the interesting things I have to say. Work has picked up and I'm in the office 60+ hours a week now. Makes for a nice paycheck and for a lousy allowance of free time to explore the area. :-P I'll try to keep everyone entertained anyway.
Take care!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
General Differences
Hello,
I know I haven't posted in a while. Since the routine of work started, I haven't had anything big to post about. I still don't have any big events to write about, but here are some of the differences I've noticed between Anchorage and the rest of the lower 48.
1) No recycling. It makes my cringe to throw away paper and plastics. I'm so used to CA where every house has a recycle bin along with the regular trash bins. You can pay to have a company come get your paper stuff to recycle. I had to look in the phone book to see about cans and such. There are a handful, but not like the places all over in Cali. Then again there's no CRV on cans or bottles here either.
2) No taxes. It still throws me a bit when I look at a receipt and the tax line is either missing or has "0.00" there.
3) Apparently Alaska has no lotto either. A co-worker mentioned that there is an independent company (or something) that tries every so often. But they had to cancel the last drawing because not enough people bought tickets.
4) Only one highway... and that even has traffic lights downtown thru mid-town. Phooey. I miss using 5th gear in my car. I haven't driven 65 mph in over a month.
5) The Roller Skating Rink. A co-worker took pity on me and my homesick self and invited me to go rollerskating with her and her family for her daughter's 14th birthday. It was a blast and I have the blisters to prove it. Here are the differences... First the rink was in desperate need of a wax job. It was smooth enough to skate on, but not nearly as well kept as I'm used to. Second, at max there were 30 people on the rink at any given time. I know because I would do random head counts. So there was plenty of room to fall down without getting run over if need be (and no, I didn't fall down). Third, it was pretty cheap. Only $5 admission for the night (3 hours) and $2 for skate rental. Fourth and last, there was no Hokey-Pokey, nor was there the Chicken Dance. I was highly disappointed.
6) Things are more expensive here. I laugh at fast food ads on TV. A $5 foot-long at Subway is $6 here. A pizza at Pizza Hut advertised at $10 (or so) is $13.99 here. Makes up for the whole no taxes thing I suppose.
7) There are lots of earthquakes. I think there's about one a week or so. The radio news this morning reported that there was an earthquake at the far end of the Aleutian Islands this last weekend and the aftershocks were still happening. I haven't felt any earthquakes, and I'm okay with that.
That's all I have to report. The weather has been in the low 60s and overcast of raining for a week now. Every so often the sun will visit for a day and the temp will get into the low 70s. That's when everyone breaks out the shorts and flip-flops. :-)
Take care!
I know I haven't posted in a while. Since the routine of work started, I haven't had anything big to post about. I still don't have any big events to write about, but here are some of the differences I've noticed between Anchorage and the rest of the lower 48.
1) No recycling. It makes my cringe to throw away paper and plastics. I'm so used to CA where every house has a recycle bin along with the regular trash bins. You can pay to have a company come get your paper stuff to recycle. I had to look in the phone book to see about cans and such. There are a handful, but not like the places all over in Cali. Then again there's no CRV on cans or bottles here either.
2) No taxes. It still throws me a bit when I look at a receipt and the tax line is either missing or has "0.00" there.
3) Apparently Alaska has no lotto either. A co-worker mentioned that there is an independent company (or something) that tries every so often. But they had to cancel the last drawing because not enough people bought tickets.
4) Only one highway... and that even has traffic lights downtown thru mid-town. Phooey. I miss using 5th gear in my car. I haven't driven 65 mph in over a month.
5) The Roller Skating Rink. A co-worker took pity on me and my homesick self and invited me to go rollerskating with her and her family for her daughter's 14th birthday. It was a blast and I have the blisters to prove it. Here are the differences... First the rink was in desperate need of a wax job. It was smooth enough to skate on, but not nearly as well kept as I'm used to. Second, at max there were 30 people on the rink at any given time. I know because I would do random head counts. So there was plenty of room to fall down without getting run over if need be (and no, I didn't fall down). Third, it was pretty cheap. Only $5 admission for the night (3 hours) and $2 for skate rental. Fourth and last, there was no Hokey-Pokey, nor was there the Chicken Dance. I was highly disappointed.
6) Things are more expensive here. I laugh at fast food ads on TV. A $5 foot-long at Subway is $6 here. A pizza at Pizza Hut advertised at $10 (or so) is $13.99 here. Makes up for the whole no taxes thing I suppose.
7) There are lots of earthquakes. I think there's about one a week or so. The radio news this morning reported that there was an earthquake at the far end of the Aleutian Islands this last weekend and the aftershocks were still happening. I haven't felt any earthquakes, and I'm okay with that.
That's all I have to report. The weather has been in the low 60s and overcast of raining for a week now. Every so often the sun will visit for a day and the temp will get into the low 70s. That's when everyone breaks out the shorts and flip-flops. :-)
Take care!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Forest Faire - photos
Forest Faire - 07/02/10
The pictures are available for viewing at: http://community.webshots.com/album/578100260poRpso?vhost=community
Forest Faire in Girdwood - 07/02/10
Hello!
Since I've been slow at work (and that's going to change very rapidly this next week) and this is a holiday weekend, a co-worker of mine and I took off work a bit early on Friday to drive to Girdwood. Once a year for the 4th of July the Forest Faire takes place. It's a huge craft fair outdoors at a park in Girdwood.
General information: Girdwood is a town (if you can really call it that) about 30 miles south of Anchorage on A1. There is a gas station/convenience store at one end and a ski resort at the other end. I wish I had gotten pics of some of the houses. They were beautiful!! The benches on the front porch of most of the houses are ski lift chairs. Pretty cool!
The people watching at the Forest Faire was a lot of fun. Apparently, it is the hippie gathering in Alaska. There were a couple artists there that I wanted to buy pictures from but didn't have the money for it. Check out their websites: www.whalebonewatercolors.com and www.katiesevignyart.org. Other vendors sold hats, jewelry, custom clothes, soap, honey, and tie-dye underwear. Yes, there was a booth SPECIFICALLY for tie-dye underwear. And I mean panties, not long johns.
The busiest booth was for face painting and hair art. The line there was forever long and there were three hair artists working. If my hair was longer, I would have seriously considered having something done. You'll just have to look at the pictures.
The food court there was different than what I'm used to. I had a reindeer hot dog for lunch. It was good. It tasted like a hot dog. There was a seafood corn dog booth... I was too afraid to ask what is in a seafood corndog. There was a Thai booth, a curry booth, a killer shrimp booth, and a kettle corn and funnel cake booth.
My boss creates blown glass, so we visited her. She just bought a new torch to heat/melt the glass with and we watched her make a couple small items. Very cool... but I'd never attempt it because I'd set myself on fire.
To remind me that there is wildlife all around in Alaska, we saw a Bald Eagle on the drive down and a Moose on the drive back.
4th of July: They do have fireworks here for the 4th. I have been told by more than one person that it's not really worth it. The fireworks are at 11:59pm and it's just not dark enough here to be a good show. I've also been told that the fireworks I positively cannot miss are on New Year's Eve. By then, I'm hoping to have someone(s) to hang out with and watch fireworks with. So for now, I'm being lazy and skipping the fireworks show.
Take care and I'll update you as more stuff happens!
Since I've been slow at work (and that's going to change very rapidly this next week) and this is a holiday weekend, a co-worker of mine and I took off work a bit early on Friday to drive to Girdwood. Once a year for the 4th of July the Forest Faire takes place. It's a huge craft fair outdoors at a park in Girdwood.
General information: Girdwood is a town (if you can really call it that) about 30 miles south of Anchorage on A1. There is a gas station/convenience store at one end and a ski resort at the other end. I wish I had gotten pics of some of the houses. They were beautiful!! The benches on the front porch of most of the houses are ski lift chairs. Pretty cool!
The people watching at the Forest Faire was a lot of fun. Apparently, it is the hippie gathering in Alaska. There were a couple artists there that I wanted to buy pictures from but didn't have the money for it. Check out their websites: www.whalebonewatercolors.com and www.katiesevignyart.org. Other vendors sold hats, jewelry, custom clothes, soap, honey, and tie-dye underwear. Yes, there was a booth SPECIFICALLY for tie-dye underwear. And I mean panties, not long johns.
The busiest booth was for face painting and hair art. The line there was forever long and there were three hair artists working. If my hair was longer, I would have seriously considered having something done. You'll just have to look at the pictures.
The food court there was different than what I'm used to. I had a reindeer hot dog for lunch. It was good. It tasted like a hot dog. There was a seafood corn dog booth... I was too afraid to ask what is in a seafood corndog. There was a Thai booth, a curry booth, a killer shrimp booth, and a kettle corn and funnel cake booth.
My boss creates blown glass, so we visited her. She just bought a new torch to heat/melt the glass with and we watched her make a couple small items. Very cool... but I'd never attempt it because I'd set myself on fire.
To remind me that there is wildlife all around in Alaska, we saw a Bald Eagle on the drive down and a Moose on the drive back.
4th of July: They do have fireworks here for the 4th. I have been told by more than one person that it's not really worth it. The fireworks are at 11:59pm and it's just not dark enough here to be a good show. I've also been told that the fireworks I positively cannot miss are on New Year's Eve. By then, I'm hoping to have someone(s) to hang out with and watch fireworks with. So for now, I'm being lazy and skipping the fireworks show.
Take care and I'll update you as more stuff happens!
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