Friday, October 31, 2008

Night of the Living Dead...king crab!!

The Alaskan King Crabs have started coming in off the boats. My boss told me about a place in town that he buys them from live. It sounded like a cool thing to do once. I went by the place and told the guy to pick me out a little one. He lifts this huge mother out-that was a small one! Um, ok, I'll take that one. Little did I know that he gave me the evil zombie crab just in time for Halloween...

(if you are squeamish about the death of a large water spider, skip this)

First, he tried to escape his 2 ft. x 1.5 ft box:


Luckily, the plastic and cardboard combo was too much for it to get past:


I prepared the death chamber:


Then, after measuring the death chamber and the crab, I realized he wasn't going to be able to take one last swim. Time for Plan B:


I prepared to do battle:


Back-up in place? Check.


Plan B involved a 10 inch chef's knife and a softball bat to drive it home:


But the zombie crab survived!!!! Eeek!!

Attempt 2- the knife was driven all the way through his brain, but still the evil crab lived!!!!


The world must be spared this evil being spread. The zombie was then dissected...


...and eaten so that the world can live another day in safety and free from the fear of zombie crabs.


That's a regular big dinner plate, by the way. It was BIG! Easily two feet from leg to leg. It's body was the size of the 21 quart pot's lid!

I really underestimated how freaking creepy that thing would be. I had to take it outside and let it halfway freeze (which only took an hour in our weather- hee!) so that it would be unconscious when I killed it. Then, it took major psyching myself up to do it- and then it didn't work! That thing wouldn't die! Anyway, that'll be the first and last time I go with the live crab option. eh! Next time, I'll just have the guy at the store kill it and then take it home and cook it up right away. Large aquatic spiders are even more gross to kill than normal ones. *shudders*

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Winterizing

I'm working on getting tucked in for the winter. The studded tires are on the truck, the two windows that open in my bedroom are vacuum sealed and the steps outside my apartment that I kept slipping on last winter have those grit strips (that look like sandpaper) applied and nailed down with roofing nails. Now I just need to get the sunblocking film off the windows and my new blinds put up. They're thick enough that I think they'll block some of the cold coming in.

I've been finally moving on getting some of this done, not so much because of the snow starting to fly, but more because the temps are dropping faster. It's 22 right now and feels like 11 degrees because of the wind. We don't get wind too often in Anchorage, but when we do, it feels a lot colder. Anyway, it's feeling a bit like it did in January and it's only October, so it's spurring me on to get things ready.

We got a dusting of snow last night, but the ground keeps thawing back out about once a week, making everything mud again, but not staying thawed long enough for the ground to actually dry out. It's fairly irritating. After nearly six months of it, I'm really done with mud. Especially when one owns a white dog. Bring on the snow- at least then all he gets is wet.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Buck's Finter herding

Buck did a pretty good job herding today. He's getting the gates down pat (he's to stay in a spot I put him in until released) and that's pretty much the hardest part at this next level. Since the next trial isn't until the 4th of July, we have plenty of time to practice (heh!), but he's come a long way since the last video I had taken of him, so I thought I'd share.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Finter

It would seem that there's a new season that's been created here in Alaska the last few days- I'm calling it Finter. Buck is very confused about seasons just creating themselves and was hoping you folks could help him figure out what season it actually was. Here are some examples from our walk this afternoon to aid in your decision making process. He appreciates the help.

Buck says, 'These leaves are green and yellow but they have fallen on top of *snow*. (click to inspect larger images)


Buck ponders, 'Here the leaves are yellow and the grass is very green, but shouldn't the snow be on top of all of it?'


Utterly lost, Buck says, 'What the heck?! A GREEN tree, fully leaved *and* snow?'


See? Don't you all agree with me? Finter, baby. Buck just enjoys running around in the snow, sniffing every footprint, and then curling up all warm and snuggly inside. Snow = good, whatever the season.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

The new widget on the right

I put up a new widget on the right-hand side of my blog there. *points* The past couple years one of my favorite bloggers (who I've been reading for years) started a contest to see if her readers could scrabble together their collective pocket change and help public school kids get things they need.

The first year she said if we all raised $30,000, she'd shave her head. We did, and she did (hilarious video of that here). Last year, she wanted to see if we could do $50,000 and if we did, she'd dress up in a tomato costume (her website is named Tomato Nation) and dance in Rockefeller Center. We did, and she did (that funny video here). Actually, last year we kept right on going, all the way to $100,000. That's right, her readership (along with some rich/famous folks making some donations when we reached certain marks) raised that much for kids to get books for their libraries and uniforms for their sports teams, all kind of cool stuff.

This year she's shooting for $100,000 again even though it's a crappy economy right now. But her readership keeps growing (she's hilarious even if she is a Yankee fan) and she figured out that she's got about 10,000 people that visit her site and if they can all chip in $10, we can make it happen. And if we do, she's taking the tomato costume on the road to Washington DC and is going to dance in it in front of the White House. LOL!

I'm putting this out on my blog because maybe you have $10 that you can spare for kids who need it. You can even choose which kids or projects to give it to. Just click on that widget over on the right.

I love getting the chance to do this every October because it's so cool to see how the little bit of money I can afford to chip in can make such a big difference. Those of us that aren't rich don't typically have an outlet where we can see giving small amounts making a visible difference. When a project on DonorsChoose gets funded, the teacher that requested it writes a thank you e-mail to the people that helped. When you donate $100, you get a letters from the kids and pictures of them enjoying the gift you gave them. How cool is that?

Anyway, help if you can, follow the progress if you can't.