Here we are at the end of another year..wow. I'll never get over how fast time goes by lol. So glad I was able to do some amazing things, like going to England. I think we're going to watch the fireworks at the university tonight, especially since it got so warm, in the 20s! That should be fun lol

One of my favorite things about the end of the year: here are all the books I read this year!

January
A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get to: On the Arctic Frontier: Ernest Leffingwell's Polar Explorations and Legacy by Janet R. Collins (Jan. 1-5) (4/5)

A book with a LGBTQ+ protagonist: On the Ice: An Intimate Portrait of Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica by Gretchen Legler (Jan. 6-8) (4/5)

A book that involves a bookstore or library: The True Tails of Baker and Taylor: The Library Cats Who Left Their Pawprints on a Small Town...and the World by Jan Louch (Jan. 9-12) (5/5)

A book about death or grief: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman (Jan. 14-17) (5/5)

True crime: Trial by Ice: The True Story of Murder and Survival on the 1871 Polaris Expedition by Richard Parry (Jan. 18-23) (4/5)

A book with a weather element in the title: What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South's Tornado Alley by Kim Cross (Jan. 24-28) (5/5)

( books books books )

In all, I read SEVENTY FOUR books, smashing my previous record of 66!! So awesome lol. I'm going to do the 2019 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge too! I wasn't sure if I wanted to do another one, but the "plant on the cover/title" topic sold me haha. Hopefully it will be as fun as this year's!

December 29 → talk about things you are excited for next year. I'd like to go to one of my cousin's volleyball games (never thought I'd want to do something like that LOL), and just have fun in general!

December 30 → a list of what you got for your winter holiday. Gift cards, PJs, money, Birdie the Penguin, a scrimshawed ship, socks that say "cats cats cats!!!" on them, a pin for my backpack, a magazine, a blanket, chocolate, bracelets, a calendar..hopefully I'm not missing anything lol

December 31 → best moment of the month. Work's Christmas party for one..hopefully tonight will be too! Can someone make another one of these?? They're so fun lol

See you next year (*gasp*), hopefully 2019 will be great! :D

With Scott: The Silver Lining by Griffith Taylor (Oct. 1-11)
Blackout by Ragnar Jonasson (Oct. 12-15)
The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell (Oct. 16-21)
All My Patients are Under the Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor by Louis J. Camuti (Oct. 22-24)
The Wreck of the Medusa by Jonathan Miles (Oct. 25-30)
Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Grenfell (Oct. 31)

That was definitely the fastest October ever..wow

( pokemon update )

November 1 - What are you most looking forward to this month? Going to Florida for Thanksgiving!

Today's trivia: NERF stands for "non-expanding recreational foam"

A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling (July 29-Aug. 5). My suspicions of who the murderer was turned out to be true! I felt smart haha

A book set in the decade you were born (80s): The Terrors of Ice and Darkness by Christoph Ransmayr (Aug. 6-9)

Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges. I did all three! Why not haha
2017: A book with a cat on the cover: Out of Harm's Way: The Extraordinary True Story of One Woman's Lifelong Devotion to Animal Rescue by Terri Crisp (Aug. 10-16)

2016: A book with a blue cover: One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead by Clare Dudman (Aug. 16-23)

2015: A book set in a different country: Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler (Aug. 24-30)

( passages from terra incognita! )

( all the challenge topics )

Ryan has now moved out and he's living with his boyfriend, Jo. Yesterday he came over to our parents' house to get some stuff and Jo was with him, so I finally got to meet him! He's very nice, and Abby was happy to have a new person petting her LOL

September 1 - Thing you are most looking forward to this month? Don't know, I don't have anything planned..

A book with your favorite color in the title: Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horowitz (May 26-June 2). I liked when he found the statue of Cook in Anchorage, because I've seen it too!

A book tied to your ancestry: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick (June 3-10). YESSSS. I was glad to hear William Brewster was a nice and caring leader. I've also found out if you're related to one Mayflower family, it's likely you're related to some of the others, since they married each other and stuff..by marriage, I'm also related to John Alden, Myles Standish, William Mullins, Isaac Allerton (he married Fear Brewster, so he's mom's 1st cousin 8 times removed!), William Bradford (the governor of Plymouth!) and STEPHEN HOPKINS! YAY, I'm related to him after all!! He's "mother's 4th cousin 5 times removed's father-in-law's great-great-grandfather." Cool! :D (I also found that Sarah Palin is "mother's 9th cousin's great-great-granddaughter." OMG haha)

A book with an ugly cover: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson (June 10-12). It has a couple different covers, but neither of them are very nice looking lol

A book involving a heist: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett (June 13-16)

A book with song lyrics in the title: Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passarello (June 17-18). Ugh, this book was so dumb. It felt like the essays in it were written by an obnoxious 10 year old :/

A book about a problem facing society today: Newtown: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak (June 18-20)

A book by two authors: Arctic Drift by Clive and Dirk Cussler (June 21-25). Ooh I see why Clive Cussler is so popular! It helped that the Franklin Expedition was part of the story too :P

A childhood classic you’ve never read: Frightful's Mountain by Jean Craighead George (June 26-27). I read the first two books when I was a kid (My Side of the Mountain and On the Far Side of the Mountain) and I started this one, but lost it! I was very happy to see a copy at work and finally be able to read it lol

( all the challenge topics )

Where did June go?!? Time goes by way too quickly these days..

June 30 - Best moment of the month? My birthday, those epic thunderstorms early in the month, etc

July 1 - what are you most looking forward to this month? Mom's been talking about going to Juneau at the end of the month or in August, depending on when dad gets back from Payson. I was only there for a few hours on the ferry through the Inside Passage, so it would be nice to spend more time there. I think the annual Vintage Alaskana Sale is this month too (hopefully not while in Juneau..I'm always sad when I miss it lol)

A novel based on a real person: Had We Lived: After Captain Scott by Richard Jopling (March 26-April 1). Yay, a novel about Cherry! <3

A book with characters who are twins: Changelings by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (April 2-6)

A book set at sea: The Karluk's Last Voyage: An Epic of Death and Survival in the Arctic by Robert A. Bartlett (April 6-10)

A book about or involving a sport: Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer by Lynne Cox (April 11-18). I can't believe she went swimming at places like Glacier Bay and Antarctica..that's the LAST thing I want to do when I go to places like that lol..brr!!

A book made into a movie you’ve already seen: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (April 18-22)

A book recommended by someone else taking the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (April 22-28). Good thing there's a group on Goodreads dedicated to the challenge..it made this topic much easier lol. I'd been wanting to read this one, and was excited when I saw that someone recommended it..I didn't like the ending, but the rest was pretty good

( all the challenge topics )

In the Heart of the Sea was CRAZY. Why? Here's a list lol
Most of the people on the ship were greenhorns (newbies)..awesome, let's go whale hunting! Haha

Their ship almost sunk in a crazy storm, damaging a couple of important whaleboats

One guy went ashore at the island they were at and decided to start a fire for a prank or to be funny or something..but there was a drought, and he ended up burning down THE ENTIRE ISLAND!!! These sentences are burned into my brain: "When they weighed anchor the next morning, Charles remained an inferno. That night, after a day of sailing west along the equator, they could still see it burning against the horizon." Wow. Hundreds of animals died, and it's believed the fire led to the extinction of the Floreana Island tortoise. That's..wow. That guy must have felt so guilty D:

A huge whale rams and sinks their boat, and the men drift around the ocean for a couple months..their boats were attacked TWICE more, once by a shark and once by an orca. They refused to sail the "short" way to islands that they thought were inhabited by cannibals. The island they did land at was a coral atoll, where the only fresh water was a spring that was under water most of the time, and they quickly ate the island's animals. They also found skeletons of previous people that were shipwrecked there. Still they refused to sail to the islands that would have helped them...which led them to become cannibals themselves after their food ran out (ironic situation was ironic). They actually killed one guy (the one who drew the short stick) so they'd have something to eat. Wow. A ship eventually found the survivors gnawing on the bones of their shipmates. That's one crazy story!!

The Tanana River officially went out at 1:18 today! My last guess was yesterday..it had been so warm I thought it would have gone out sooner! It's been cooler the last few days though..yesterday and today I woke up to snow!! Go home weather, you're drunk. :P The tripod tipped over yesterday, but didn't stop the clock. There was a lady live streaming the tripod on Facebook last night and today..she was like "you guys know you're watching me watch ice melt?" LOL. She was filming when a bunch of ice snagged on the rope connected to the tripod, which was enough to stop the clock. She was totally freaking out haha..she was like "I GOT IT ON VIDEO!!! I WAS THERE!!" haha. I hope she does it next year, it was fun to watch lol

( april 28-may 1 )

Today's trivia: JFK donated his $150,000 presidential salary to charity

A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Jan. 28-Feb. 6). I LOVED this book, I can see why it was a winner!

A book by a local author: Two Old Women by Velma Wallis (Feb. 6). I saw her in the bookstore soon after reading it and told her it was a good book, and she seemed appreciative, and maybe a little embarrassed lol. She's so nice :D

A book set in a country that fascinates you: First on the Antarctic Continent: Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898 1900 (Feb. 7-10)

Nordic noir: Midnight Sun by Joe Nesbo (Feb. 11-12)

A book about mental health: Cowboy & Wills by Monica Holloway (Feb. 13-18)

( all the challenge topics )

The trains seem to be running and the Scott Polar Research Institute is open, so we're going to brave the blizzard once again lol. I hope we don't get stuck :P

( 365 day meme catch up )