1. If you could retroactively erase one TV show from the history of entertainment, which one would you choose? Arrested Development..ugh, SO annoying :/
2. Are you more like your mother or your father? Hmm..maybe mom, but I'm probably a mix of both
3. If you could take a year-long vacation, what would you do? Go to Antarctica, Iceland, etc
4. Can you think of a reason not to answer this question? It's not about cats :P
5. What's the nicest thing you've ever done for someone? Been there when they've needed it most (she literally became more confident and changed right before my eyes! It was cool to see lol), given food to a homeless person on the street in Puerto Rico, taken mom to dinner, etc

A couple days ago I thought "hmm, I haven't looked for "new" pictures of Cherry in awhile!," so I did, and found this!

This picture is in a copy of Worst Journey someone is selling (for thousands of dollars, of course). I hate that it's so small here, but in the bigger version I could tell he was wearing his glasses (super rare! He almost always took them off for pictures) and smiling! He looks peaceful and content, which makes me happy lol..he had a hard life after Antarctica. I definitely need to meet his uncle someday lol

After Abby died I saw on Facebook something called Cuddle Clones, where a company makes stuffed animals (and things like PJs) that look like a pet you've had. I thought it might be weird and creepy, but decided to do it anyway (other peoples' designs looked a lot like their pet!). I got mine this week and...it is 100% completely creepy. O_o It has some of Abby's features, but its face with giant eyes is SO creepy and just not that well made. How disappointing! I had to put it on the windowsill facing away from me because it weirds me out too much. They definitely could have done a better job :(

( april 10-11 )

1. Has the death of a famous person (not connected to you personally) ever made you cry? I don't think so..I definitely still miss Heath Ledger though, he was such a great actor!
2. Have you ever sent money as relief aid after a disaster? Maybe, I can't remember for sure though (I think I've donated to someone's GoFundMe type thing though)
3. How will the recent declaration affirming alcoholic beverages as cancer-causing affect your consumption? EVERYTHING causes cancer now lol. I rarely drink though, maybe two or three times a year, so it probably won't change
4. What is the most bizarre (or difficult to understand) movie you’ve seen? Vanilla Sky, Mulholland Drive, The Passion of Darkly Noon, etc..I remember not understanding The Matrix when I first saw it, but I watched it again when I was older and it made more sense
5. How willing and able are you to separate art from artist when a musician, actor, writer, or other creator is discovered to have behaved very badly? Depends..somehow I can do it with J.K. Rowling, but Harry Potter was part of my childhood and is embedded in my soul or something, so I doubt I could ever truly dislike it though. Instant dislike for Bill Cosby and The Cosby Show after what he did though..he just looks so creepy in pictures/videos now. O_o I cringe when I read books from the 1800s/early 1900s and they say things like "coolies," but I have to remind myself what era they're from..

They still haven't called me about my CT scan..I hate how slow Fairbanks' health care is :/

( jan 16-17 )

1. Who do you know would be more likely to stress over small stuff? Dad
2. Who do you know would be more likely to win at Hide and Seek? *shrugs* A kid like Elias?
3 Who do you know would be more likely to live the longest? Martha..she's 91 but has the energy of a 20-year-old. I swear she gets younger every time I see her lol
4. Who do you know would be more likely to own up to their own mistakes? Denise, for one
5. Who do you know would be more likely to name their pet something gloriously ridiculous? Dad..he's always given our cats weird nicknames (like "Abbadewey" or "Dewey" for Abby haha)

On Wednesday I was all excited to finally go back to my apartment...only to discover the bottom of my toilet was leaking (by stepping in a puddle in my socks *shudders*). I couldn't get ahold of maintenance that night, so I had to go back to my parents' house and call them back in the morning. They resealed the bottom of the toilet, but the floor was crunchy and discolored, so it might need to be replaced. :/ Did I anger someone?? This craziness needs to stop LOL

( sept. 28-30 )

Yesterday we didn't do anything too exciting, except for shopping and going to dinner. Today we planned to go to Mexico..everyone was comparing their terrible passport pictures, and when I went to show mine..my passport wasn't in my bag!! I must have taken it out at home for whatever reason and forgot to put it back in..I felt so dumb I hadn't checked before I left home! Everyone didn't want to go without me, but I told them to anyway (and get me a shirt), I didn't want my mistake to stop everyone else from going! (They only wanted to go for a couple hours anyway.) I hung out at the B&B and when they got back, mom said I wouldn't have liked it..everyone was in your face selling stuff (especially if you looked interested) and even followed mom begging her to buy stuff. Yikes, no thanks, that sounds so stressful! She got me a shirt, but had to keep haggling to get a reasonable price. I'm glad I didn't miss much lol (Jo had to stay overnight in Mexico because the border closes at 2, and the dentist would have been able to work on him longer without worrying about having to cross the border in time)

After that mom and I finally found a geocache (hard when you're busy and the only cachers in the group lol) and went to the Yuma Territorial Prison museum. It was interesting, though weird to think about who was in all those cells years ago (it opened on July 1, 1876, and shut down on September 15, 1909). The women imprisoned there were QUITE interesting lol, like the one who "stabbed her unfaithful lover, then cut open his chest, pulled out his heart, and threw the bloody mass at his face." OMG lol. There was the "Dark Cell," where prisoners were placed in a cage in solitary confinement, with no bathroom facilities or anything..it still smelled weird in there!! When Ryan turned his phone's flashlight on, we saw a few bats flying around and hanging from the ceiling! I thought it was cool they used to have a library with 2,000 books! The prison is supposed to be haunted too, but I didn't see any ghosts. :P After that we went to Barnes and Noble for a bit (why not :P)..amazingly, they had a copy of The Worst Journey in the World!! I already have that edition, but I was still very pleased (I've never seen a copy of it at the Fairbanks Barnes and Noble). I wrote a short note saying how much the book changed my life and stuff at put it in the book, maybe it'll inspire someone to read it! Then we went back to the B&B, had dinner, and played more Betrayal haha

We were originally going to stay another night at the B&B tomorrow, but our flight back to Alaska leaves at 7 something, and we'd have to get up at 3 something to make the flight. NONE of us wanted to do that, so we're going to drive back to Phoenix tomorrow after Jo gets done at the dentist. We'll still have to get up early, but we'll get a couple more hours' sleep at least. :P I'll miss the awesome four-poster bed lol, I must have one!! :P

( a few pics )

13. Is there someone you pretend to like but you really don't like? Hmm..I suppose so..

14. Have you ever raked leaves, and then played in them? I've raked leaves, but I'm not sure if I've played in them..maybe as a kid lol

Another Cherry Item for my collection that I somehow came across on the internet LOL:

Coolest postcard ever. :D I got butterflies (still!) when I saw it in the mailbox haha. Awesomee <3

I missed the River Regatta today because I thought it was next weekend or the one after that! :( Aw man, that's always fun to watch. I told mom next year we better put it on the calendar :P

Ryan and Joe are engaged!!! I don't know if they're going to have a wedding or anything yet, but that is so cool! Joe has definitely been good for Ryan lol

( Day 193-194 )

1. What’s something you unintentionally threw away? Silverware, which I of course dug out again lol
2. What disgusting memory of garbage do you have? Someone once donated books in a trash bag, and there was a half eaten piece of pizza among the books..REALLY people?!? Ew lol
3. How are you about deleting emails? Pretty anal LOL..if I'm finished with it it's going away :P
4. What do you treasure that someone else considers trash? Someone might think things like concert tickets and tickets from places like Switzerland are trash, but they're special to me! My bus ticket to Wheathampstead is hanging up in my office at work LOL
5. What’s the litter like in your neighborhood? It seems there's usually some kind of litter around..one time I even found bedsheets O_o

I'm always worried when I get a smoothie in the winter that I'll fall and drop it, and today it finally happened ("my tennis shoes will be fine," I said, "it will be ok," I said). It happened so fast I had no time to think about saving the smoothie or anything lol..it broke and got all over my hair and clothes. Even though I lost the smoothie, it was still pretty funny lol. My hip might be sore tomorrow. :P I told Denise and she actually got me a new one when she went to get her lunch!! She is so awesome :D

( March 30 - What physical trait do you look for in others? )

1. Under what conditions are you most likely to cause injury to yourself? Tripping or scraping my arm on something and stuff like that lol
2. What named mountain is nearest where you are right now? Hmm..Ester Dome? The Dictionary of Alaska Place Names calls it a mountain anyway :P
3. When did you last eat something with coconut in it? *shrugs*
4. Who’s getting on your nerves? No one right now
5. Somewhere, somebody is asking him- or herself whatever happened to you. Who is it? Maybe someone I used to be friends with..

I showed pics of Cherry to one of my coworkers and now she has a crush on him too LOL. She thinks he's a great writer too (which he definitely is!). I lent her The Worst Journey in the World and she was SO excited to start reading it haha. It's so cool to see someone else genuinely interested in Cherry and the expedition too :D

They discontinued my favorite flavor of SoBe. :( :( I can't believe they would discontinue Fruit Punch (it seems like it would be the most popular!) and keep ones like Orange Carrot (ew!). I have one more Fruit Punch left..I hope I can find another flavor I like lol

( pic for may 18 and 19 )

June 18th, Boston's Restaurant and Sports Bar located on the Old Steese Highway will close its doors. Opening in its place around Labor Day will be a new Alaska themed family restaurant and Sports bar.

The "Banks Alehouse" will feature a non-smoking environment along with a new and expanded menu, 40 beer brands including locally and Alaskan made brews, and local sea food and game meat products. The new facility will have a complete outdoor Alaska appearance inside to enhance the rustic look

Ugh, why do my favorite restaurants up here always close?? Especially the ones everyone can agree upon? I'll definitely have to go there again before they close. The new place sounds interesting though..I'll have to try it out

( 28. be deaf and have no legs or be blind with no arms )

Today's trivia: WD-40 stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That's how many tries it took Norm Larsen, a chemist, to concoct a formula that would prevent corrosion by displacing water

Whoa..kinda scary, but it still looks super awesome! Nature will always amaze me..

I wish shirts nowadays weren't so low cut..or weird looking..or made so small only people size 0 can fit in them. It makes shopping so depressing anymore. :( Yesterday I even tried getting tanktops to go under the shirts but they were low cut too so it didn't really make any difference..ugh

( 11. A .gif from a reality show )

Would you rather be taken too seriously all the time or be thought of only as a partier? Be taken too seriously

Today's trivia: The farthest distance between two exits on any Interstate highway is the 49 miles from Yeehaw Junction/Exit 193 to Kissimmee St. Cloud/Exit 242 on the northbound lanes of Florida's Turnpike

Hii I am in Anchorage! On Sunday we left for Talkeetna. We wanted to get there at dinnertime since mom's friend Laurie wouldn't be available till then. It was quite warm (20 and 30s) so the road was really slushy..the car got SO dirty. We need to find a car wash haha..it feels gross touching it. :P While driving Laurie called and said she was stuck in Anchorage and would be back the next morning, but we could make ourselves at home at her house. Mom wasn't very happy with her. We got to her house, dropped stuff off, walked by the river downtown (too cloudy to see McKinley. The sunny weather hadn't caught up to us yet ;)) and had dinner. I met the mayor there! He happens to be a cat named Stubbs, who drinks water with catnip out of a wine glass (really..he is the legal mayor of Talkeetna..the residents voted him in and everything haha). The bartender must have thought I was insane squeeing over him. :P After dinner we went back to Laurie's house and watched Eight Below. It was good, except for the glaring inaccuracies (I don't know a lot about sled dogs/mushing, but I do know they NEVER take their dogs inside..it would kill their winter coat. If it was -30 in Antarctica, you would so not be wearing jeans, an unzipped coat and just a baseball cap on your head. And in the winter scenes, it was bright daylight. Umm no, there's not much light there at all in the winter, and it definitely wouldn't be bright. Oh well :P). Then we went to bed

Yesterday (Monday) we slept in, had breakfast and just waited for Laurie to come. She eventually did..but she was all grumpy and was complaining about how she needed to clean the house cause she had more company coming. Mom was like "well..we can leave later if you want" (we were gonna stay another night) and Laurie was like "yeah I'd feel better." Oook..she seems like a really flaky person. :/ Mom said she was about done with her too. She's always rubbed me the wrong way. Oh well. The weather was amazing outside..sunny and warm. McKinley was out in its epicness haha. Laurie and mom went skiing and I had lunch and browsed the shops downtown. Talkeetna is super quiet..like I was in the middle of downtown in the afternoon and it was silent! Wow haha. I saw Stubbs in the General Store..he was drinking water out of a fishbowl haha (the fish didn't seem to care..they swam right up to him :P). I got the best pic with him hehe. Mom called when they were done skiing and we went back to the house, packed and left. We were headed to Windy's (from BOW) house this time. She had been wanting us to come visit her, so she was happy to see us (she lives in Wasilla, maybe an hour to an hour and a half drive from Talkeetna). Windy is much more pleasant than Laurie. Her house is full of crafty things, knickknacks, scrapbooks, etc..fun to look at! We had a nice evening visit and went to bed

( today )