I spent New Years Eve alone, despite having several invitations to ring in the new year with friends. Steve had to work, and I decided I'd rather spend a quiet evening at home - where I could indulge in some champagne and not have to drive anywhere.

My plan was to watch the ball come down in Times Square (in real time), enjoying the festivities of the east coast, and then stay up until midnight to welcome in the new year in Alaska. Midnight arrived in Philadelphia at 8pm Alaska time and I considered calling my brother and SIL, but wasn't sure if they were celebrating at home or at a party. So instead I called my kids, even though it was only 11pm at their house in Wisconsin. We chatted for quite a while. They were also enjoying a quiet evening at home, playing Monopoly.

I watched a little television, played online games and sipped champagne. By the time 11pm Alaska time rolled around, I realized I had finished an entire bottle of champagne by myself (over the course of 4 hours). No wonder I was feeling drowsy! I called Steve at work, wished him an early Happy New Year and lay down on the sofa under a nice warm afghan watching a movie. I remember looking at the clock at 11:45pm. When I opened my eyes it was 2:41am. Looks like I missed the arrival of a new year again! I suspect I'm not alone in missing the transition from 2007 to 2008.

Over the past week, I haven't done much at all. I've been in what I call "total slug mode". Steve was on night shift for the first couple of days, and that shift just wipes him out. Even on his off days, he does a lot of sleeping to try to get his system back on normal hours. He's usually too tired to want to go out and do anything unless it's absolutely necessary. We end up cozying up in the house, watching movies, and pretty much doing nothing.

We did decide to go to the theater and see the movie "I am Legend" with Will Smith. I don't mind scary movies, as long as there isn't a lot of gore. But I'm not a big fan of being startled either, and this movie had me jumping out of my seat and peeking through my fingers. I think we should have chosen the new National Treasure movie instead. All in all, it wasn't a bad movie, but wasn't what I expected. It's a good thing I don't have a bad heart.

We had several days of snow, but we're still nowhere near the average snowfall for this time of year. I think we've only had 20" of snow so far this winter, and the norm is 47" or more. This is not good. Snow is an excellent insulating blanket for septic systems, and without it, I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of people with frozen septic pipes again this year. I hope we're not one of them. It's only a 15-30 minute job to thaw them, but it's not cheap.

The little bit of snow we have gotten has decided to coat our satellite dish. This is causing many of our channels not to come through. We don't have a 28' ladder to get onto the roof to dust off the snow, and even if we did, I wouldn't want Steve to go up there anyway; not with the snow and ice up there! We placed a call to our Dish Network rep and hopefully he can get someone to come out and clear the dish for us. If not, I might just invest in a sling shot and shoot ping pong balls at it. *grin*

I don't know if I mentioned it, but we bought a treadmill. It's a space saver, which is what we need since we don't have too much extra space in our house. Right now it's in the dining room with a view of the TV. That's the only way I'll get on it and stay on it! I've been doing pretty well, and try to walk everyday at 3.5mph for at least 45 minutes. On some days I do this in the morning and in the evening. I feel a lot better mentally, and I find I have more energy too. Definitely a plus in the winter.

Last night, I put my camera on the tripod and took it out front looking for the lights, or the stars, or something to photograph. I've been going through withdrawal lately, when it comes to finding things to photograph. Normally, at this time of year, I'd be attending the dog races on the weekends, but they're still not occurring due to lack of snow and ungroomed trails. With Steve's job, and the fact that his 'weekends' aren't always on the weekends, I find myself spending more days indoors, rather than out exploring - especially when it's really cold. While my car is adequate for traipsing around in town, I'm not comfortable going off the beaten path in it. That's what we use Steve's truck for.

So, lacking anything of interest to photograph in front of my house, I pointed my camera in one direction and then another, and opened the shutter for a 30-second exposure. To the naked eye, the sky had a little bit of brightness to it and was tinged a pale orange - most likely the lights from Fort Wainwright, illuminating the cloud cover and spreading out above us rather than disappearing off into a black sky. But a camera, with it's shutter opened for half a minute, takes in all the available light and adds to it as the seconds pass. These are the results:

Yesterday, I got out of the house with my friend Celeste, to run some errands. We stopped to have lunch too, which was nice. I enjoy spending time with Celeste and I was so glad she called.

Today, when I glanced outside I saw that the trees were painted orange at the tips with the rising sun. After doing a few chores around the house, I grabbed my camera bag, loaded Sedona into the car, and drove down to Chena Lakes Rec Area for some photos. I didn't care what I shot, but I just had to shoot something!

I pulled into a parking lot near the lake and Sedona and I took off walking on the path that goes around the lake. I kept my eyes open for any signs of wolves. I haven't read anything in the paper lately, so perhaps the wolves have moved to better hunting grounds. Nevertheless I stayed on alert, and watched Sedona for any changes in her behavior. We didn't walk far. My hands started to get cold, and the sun was moving down to the horizon quickly. I also had to get home by 3:30, as I had dance class tonight - our first class since before Christmas.

Road into Chena Lakes Rec Area	Trail - Chena Lakes	Chena Lakes Rec Area - Ice Fishing Shack
Sunset Chena Lakes Rec Area	Sunset Chena Lakes Rec Area

Tomorrow, I'm having lunch with my friend Karen. I'm taking my camera with me (of course). I think I'm going to drive around downtown and just take photos of the city. We'll see what I come up with.

I'll try not to keep you waiting as long for my next update....