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Today Nina and I went up to the university and I got a Polar Card..it's an ID you can put money on and you can ride the bus free with it! Sweeet haha. We also had made an appointment to talk to the Introduction to Field Methods in Glaciology professor (Joseph Kennedy). We went to the wrong building at first haha but after asking someone we found it (the Geophysical Institute). I loveee that building..we went to the 4th floor and I was just like *is dead* It was the GLACIOLOGY floor with pics of glaciers and stuff..SQUEE. (Can I live there?? Please?? Haha) We found Joseph in the GLACIOLOGY OFFICE..best office ever!!! He was really nice. We talked in a meeting room where the slide machine was called Hubbard Glacier..LOVE it haha. He said there would be math but I wouldn't have to go past calculus..I could major in geology or geophysics and still work with glaciers. I could even work on projects with the glaciologists and get my PhD. WANT. Joseph said in the class we'd walk on the glacier and measure how deep it is and map the front of it and stuff. OMG AWESOME..I'm gonna LOVE this class haha. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be a glaciologist and work at the Geophysical Institute..I'm honored to do it at UAF too. It's like one of the best places to study glaciers..you can go in the field so easily. I'M SO EXCITED OMG!!!! *major squee*

It's SUPER nice out..66 and sunny and it's supposed to stay that way. It's days like this that make you forget it can be -40. The Alaska Range looked awesome <3

( Day 11: A picture of your favorite band or artist )

Would you rather have a butt full of worms or a mouthful of ticks? Ewww

Today's trivia: Nectarines are simply peaches with a smooth skin. They can spontaneously arise from a peach tree

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: "Going Under"-Evanescence

FAIRBANKS — A flight service company in Denali Park wants to land tourists on glaciers in the eastern Alaska Range near Mount Deborah starting this summer.

Dan McGregor, owner of Denali Air, is asking the Bureau of Land Management for a permit to land on glaciers near 12,339-foot Mount Deborah, including portions of the Yanert and Gillam glaciers. McGregor is proposing to start his flights in early May and offer them through early October.

“It’s nothing real big scale by any means,” McGregor said.

McGregor is proposing up to three flights a day with an average of three passengers per trip. It would be about an hour round-trip flight and clients would get to spend about 20 minutes on the glaciers, he said.

“If we can fly 40 to 60 days and we have a fair amount of people interested we’d probably get a few hundred people in there,” McGregor said.

The trips would offer an alternative for tourists visiting Denali National Park and Preserve, he said. Currently, there are no flight services offering glacier landings north of the Alaska Range. Glacier landings are flown out of Talkeetna and flight services must have a park concession permit. McGregor flies out of a private air strip at 229.5 Mile Parks Highway

OMGOMG I hope he gets the permit!! I would LOVE to land on Yanert Glacier and stand in the shadow of Mt. Deborah! Since I'm always looking at it from far away I want some close up pics. I've already flown around McKinley twice (though I'd love to land on Ruth Glacier) but Talkeetna is so far away..Denali is only around 1 1/2-2 hours away. Aaaah..that makes me SO excited and happy!!

( Day 40 - An embarrassing picture from your childhood )

I've noticed the mountaineering books I read connect to each other somehow..one mentions a famous ascent or mountaineer and then I look at my bookshelf and find I have a book by the mountaineer or the ascent (lmao..I love how Brown Girl in the Ring came on when typing this. It was stuck in Joe Simpson's head when he was crawling back to camp after he broke his knee. I TOLD YOU IT'S ALL CONNECTED. Haha). I've been wanting to read books Reinhold Messner wrote (he was the first person to climb Everest without bottled oxygen) but they was too expensive to use on the gift card from Amazon and hadn't got around to buying them yet..well today I was getting books to price at work and what do I find? A book by Reinhold Messner. I was so ecstatic haha. Becky was like "I wondered how long it would take you to find that." :P My job is SERIOUSLY awesome haha

( Day 187- A picture of you with your hands crossed )

Would you rather walk around all day with a dead mouse in your butt or a dead frog in your mouth? The mouse..haha wtf?

Today's trivia: Most people share their birthdays with at least 9 million other people

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Last of the Wilds"-Nightwish

Last night mom and I thought we heard a moose call outside and went to look. She shone the flashlight in the yard but didn't see anything so she tried doing the moose call we learned at BOW. Well soon after we heard footsteps and THE MOOSE WAS IN THE GARDEN PLOT STARING AT US. It was HUGE haha. Then her two calves came over and they were talking to each other!! That is SERIOUSLY awesome haha. Mom was so proud of herself hehe. After I went to bed I heard them again in the distance. Sooo awesome..

( Day 120- A picture of you and the ugliest curtains you have in your house )

Home! Yesterday for the first half of the day we were really lazy haha (we wanted the weather to get nicer too). After mom took a nap we drove out to the river to go fishing. We got our gear on and mom began to cut the tie wrap thing on the fishing pole she bought..I was looking at Sheridan Glacier in the distance and all of a sudden I hear "aghhh!" I looked at mom and saw there was a big gash in her finger. The knife slipped and she cut two of her fingers. The deep one was dripping blood like crazy. I got the first aid kit and bandaged it up as best as possible, then mom drove to the hospital. The nurse put her hand in a disinfectant thing and then the doctor came in and put 4 stitches in her finger! I watched with fascination (too many episodes of ER? Haha) while mom couldn't watch at all. We certainly weren't going fishing after that (fail!) so we went shopping around town and had dinner, then walked around the harbor and looked at the boats and their names. Funn haha. Then we just went back to the hotel

This morning we had to get up at 6 something (blerggg) cause we had to board the ferry at 7:30. I looked out the window and was like "omg blue sky??!" It was pretty sunny..it was SO gorgeous. I totally fell in love with Cordova..it was pretty, it had a huge personality, a gorgeous view of the ocean and everyone was SO nice. I really didn't want to leave..I haven't felt that strongly about a place in a long time. I was so sad to leave. The ferry back to Valdez was AMAZING..mostly sunny the whole way back. WOW. The clouds last time hid some sweet snow capped mountains. It was amazing feeling the sun for the first time in days..it's like automatic happiness. We saw a whale too! Valdez looked like..totally different haha. There were 6742319 boats out fishing haha. On the drive back I still found glaciers I hadn't seen before haha. We had lunch at a lake overlooking the Wrangell Mountains. In the Alaska Range I was looking behind me and suddenly spotted this huge moraine with possibly ice under it..I was like "where did that come from?! I've never seen that before!" Amazing I'm always seeing new things even though I've driven there many times. The fall colors were coming out a lot in the mountains..sooo pretty and colorful. I was actually really sad to be back in Fairbanks..I miss the mountains SO much. Even if it's isolated and rainy..I want to live in Cordova or somewhere down there. The city is just..eh. I need the mountains and glaciers. Alaska is just..amazing. <3 I shall post the rest of the pics hopefully tomorrow. I came home to a police officer asking me if I saw someone climbing on the building. Apparently someone on the 4th floor had climbed up the building or something. Ooook then :P

( Day 58- A professional picture of you )

Today we ate breakfast then went to a bookstore/touristy place. The bookstore was AWESOME. There was a nice selection..I bought so many haha. I think I'm literally addicted. :P Then we went to the visitor center type place and asked about flightseeing tours and stuff. The guy said there was a couple and gave me their numbers. I called one and they were like "nooo the weather's horrible the wind is supposed to be blowing and we don't have any spots available." Kayy then. We drove to the other one and they were like "sure we'll get a pilot out here the weather's getting better by the second!" HAHA..niceee. It actually was getting better. While waiting for the pilot we talked to the guy's wife. She said the Northwestern from Deadliest Catch was in Cordova yesterday and they flew Sig and Edgar out! JEALOUS!! I lovee Sig and Edgar! The pilot arrived in his floatplane and we got in and took off..my first time in a floatplane! Coool haha. We told him we were interested in the glaciers and that's where he took us. OMG there were SOO many glaciers!! It was seriously epic. Many in the valleys and even more small hanging glaciers. WOW. *swoons* And every single one was different..amazing. The weather even was nice..we're harbingers of nice weather I swear. ;) We flew over Sheridan Glacier, which someone said we could walk on..ummm it ended in a lake. Yeahh..maybe you used to be able to though. And..HE FLEW US OVER CHILDS AND MILES GLACIERS!!! Take that washed out bridge! He flew us low over the face..it was sooooo awesome (if only they had calved for us :P). It seemed the biggest glacier we saw was Miles. Of course as we were flying over it my camera said my card was full (it only holds 172 pics?! Whaaat). :P I deleted some that weren't that great so I could take more. We also saw some goats and moose! Totally an epic flight. My pics are INCREDIBLE..the detail and everything is just amazing. I can't wait to show them. When we went inside the house to pay there was a kitty! I pet him and picked him up and he was just content and purring. The lady said she was surprised cause he's not normally friendly. Awww he knew I was a kitty lover hehe. After that we drove to Sheridan Glacier and hiked up to the face. You definitely wouldn't want to try and walk on it..it's all melty and unstable. It was cool though. I liked hearing the rocks fall off the glacier into the water. Plus the weather was sunny and was beautiful on the mountains and glacier. After than we went back to town. EPIC beyond words day. :D I put my pics on the computer so I can take more. Hopefully I'll get all updated so I can post them tomorrow :P

( Day 57- A picture of you and your favorite color )

I'm baaack from BOW! Before I talk about it..WE FOUND SNOWY!! Or rather Snowy found us. Before lunch mom was looking at her texts and Ryan had sent "we found Snowy" and mom called him. Well yesterday they got another cat cause they said if they did Snowy would come back (that's how we got Cheetah..Snowy ran away and dad felt bad and got Cheetah and he came back). This morning dad went to feed the other cats and saw Snowy on the porch! That's just AMAZING. Either someone dropped him off or he just..found his way home somehow. Woww. So weird too that as soon as we get another cat he comes back haha (the other cat is named "Mr. Kitty" but I imagine they're gonna change it haha). Mom was practically crying when she told me. Aw yay :D (now we'll have FIVE cats at mom's house when Abby comes over..oh jeez haha)

On Friday we drove to Lost Lake Boy Scout Camp where the workshop was held. It's not a far drive at all..maybe an hour away. Jennifer from the winter camp was going too and we picked her up and took her along. It was pretty smoky from the fire. We got registered and set up in our cabins (though other people slept in tents or RVs). It was more rustic than the winter workshop (well it IS a Boy Scout camp :P). I saw there was an upstairs loft in my cabin and totally slept there haha..so cool. Windy from the winter camp also came! Yay reunion hehe. I liked that most people were from Fairbanks (in winter most are from the Anchorage area). It made it seem closer and I actually knew what places they were talking about :P

We had lunch and there were introductions and then went to my first class (mom took it too) which was What's in the Woods? for me. It was AWESOME!! We identified trees, plants, berries, tracks..the instructor was SO knowledgeable and avid about it..I wish he was always with me. :P The weather was cold and rainy but it was ok anyway. I learned that if you eat willow leaves it acts as a painkiller..I tried one cause my arm was really hurting (stupid weather :P). Well IT WORKED! Soo cool!! Mom tried it too since her back was hurting and it helped her also! Woww. I love being able to identify plants so the class was great. We saw some moose tracks too! Nature FTW

( adventures )

Pics tomorrow!

Last night mom went on a walk and when she came back she said she saw something glowy in the sky..Ryan and mom went down to the end of the street to see (I hadn't gone cause I didn't want to go if it wasn't that great and I was finishing my popcorn..important haha). After awhile mom called and said we needed to come down cause the Northern Lights were doing awesome things so we did. The lights were bright green and moving some. I was glad to see them since I hadn't seen them in months haha. I saw a shooting star too! We eventually went home and after I went to bed mom came back down and said she saw something glowy again. Mom and Ryan went out again and I watched from the window but they weren't doing anything exciting so I went back to bed. I laid there a few minutes and for some reason decided to look out the window again (and mom and Ryan weren't back yet). This time they were BRIGHT BRIGHT green where you can just tell they're gonna be awesome. I rushed to the backyard and was STUNNED. There was this big green and purple/pink band pulsing and dancing like CRAZY. I didn't even know they could move that fast! It was incredible!! My jaw was dropped into the snow (maybe that's why my face was cold. :P Haha). I heard mom in the distance going "whoaa!" and yelled to see where she was and she yelled back that she was at the top of the hill. I woke dad up and we went to join mom and Ryan. The view up there is pretty good! The lights didn't get that good after I got up there though. Eventually we went home cause we were freezing haha. We could see more from the house too. I went to bed again and then Ryan comes in my room and was like "did you see that?!" Apparently they were even better than the pulsing I saw before. Though by this time I just really wanted to go to bed and not be cold anymore (mm electric blanket)..I had enough excitement haha. That was definitely in the best top 5 I've seen..amazing :D

( Day 15- Bored Face )

Yesterday I flew to Seattle. When we took off we flew right over Fairbanks and I was like "YAY!" cause I've been wanting to do that for awhile haha. It got cloudy near the Alaska Range with some little holes I could see mountains in. Eventually the clouds got thin enough I could see the ground and I was like "EEEE" cause I saw a bunch of glaciers! :D Yay haha

We landed in Seattle and I walked to where Heather said she'd meet me..I was SO nervous and scared haha. I'm always like that when meeting Internet friends. :P She found me and we took the light rail to the bus stop. Luckily my anxiety wore off rather quickly..she's nice, easygoing and pretty comfortable to be around hehe. She's been on my friends list since 2004 so it's about time we met haha. The weather in Seattle was SO nice..sunny and warm! Heather said it had been raining the past two days and days like that were rare. Wowww haha..I must be good luck. ;) We got to her apartment to drop my stuff off and took the bus to the Space Needle. We got lunch and then went to the top of it. There was good views of Mt. Rainier, Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, the Cascade Range and the city

Then we walked to the venue (and got lost on the way :P). We were reaaaally early (like 2 1/2 hours early) and just sat on the ground and waited. Anders Johansson (their drummer) was out talking to someone in Swedish! I smiled at him but he was just like "whatever." He didn't seem very friendly. Then later Joacim Cans walked by and smiled and said hi to me! *dies* Haha. Oscar also walked by and said hi..he gave us guitar picks too! Sweeeet haha. Eventually we lined up for the meet and greet and got to go inside and talk to them and get a show poster signed. :D I loved Joacim's accent haha. All of them signed the poster and I got pics with Joacim, Oscar and then the whole band. Yeah I finally have pics with metal musicians! :D Then they left and we took a spot at the front and waited for the show to start

( let the hammer fall )

The past few days it's been cloudy and bleh but yesterday when I got off work it was sunny! At home I checked the aurora forecast and it said active. At 11 something mom and I checked to see if the Northern Lights were out. She was worried the full moon would prevent us from seeing them (the moon is REALLY bright here). She thought she saw a whisp of them..she was like "I guess we can go on a drive." We went to the bathroom and got coats and stepped outside..as we were walking to the car mom was like "look!!" and above us were the Nothern Lights!! They were green and purple-pink and they were dancing! Haha how lucky was that?? We went out into the valley and the lights were streaked green across the sky. We waited and then they turned pinkish and started dancing again. I guess they really get doing when they start turning colors haha. Then we went home and went to my bedroom window and we could see them..they started getting active again and we raced to the backyard and they were REALLY dancing then!! How did I get so lucky on my first viewing?? You can watch all the videos you want but it still wouldn't compare to actually seeing them. They're supposed to be active tonight too!

( these aren't my pics but these are sort of what they looked like )

Today's stupidest quote: Found: 5mile/ustick Albertson strip mall parking lot. Call 376-0627 to identify (lost-and-found ad in the Idaho Statesman)

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Black Dragon"-Luca Turilli

I PASSED THE MATH TAKS OMG!!! I almost cried when I was told!! Eee!! *dies over and over*

I have to analyze a poem called Composed Upon Westminster Bridge...I hope it's not hard..

Two years ago Amanda married me to the song Guardiani...huzzah shiny anniversary! It's also Gerard Butler's birthday..

Today's Latin: haec olim meminisse iuvabit (time heals all things)

"Oh your deepest emotions are a sign of our life and our love. No robot can stop us, take my hand"--"Until We Rise Again," Edguy

Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: "A New Hope and End Credits"-Star Wars 3 soundtrack