Oh...the things that I have learned...

Well, it is Friday night, 9:35 to be exact, and what am I doing...BLOGGING of course! I was excited to sit down and write a new post, considering four people have already asked me to update it (my family members are those people). So...tonight will work! I just finished cleaning up the kitchen after making pesto pasta- basically angel hair pasta tossed with olive oil, shrimp, cherry tomatoes, and lots of garlic and pesto. It was super easy to make and delicious! Andrew didn't really care for the texture of the whole wheat pasta, but eh, he will get used to it, because that's I'll I'm making (unless I have a weak moment)!

Since living in a home of my own I have learned many things. One, do not try and carry huge pieces of furniture and boxes over seventy pounds without Andrews help; hence the scratches and nicked paint on the walls, whoops. Also, I will never again convince Andrew to let me buy a five pound bag of clementines; because, of course, they never get eaten in time and they sit in the kitchen or the refrig and rot (I am the only one that will eat clementines).
Most importantly, who knew that garlic bulbs could bloom and get fungi all over them after one week?! Well...I now know never ever to decoratively store them in an airtight container. I thought I was being really creative and kitchen cutesy by buying a 3 pound mesh bag of garlic cloves to display in my glass airtight container...well, bad, and eventually disgusting idea! As I was mincing my garlic clove, I noticed that the jar had moisture all over it, and that the bulbs had bloomed long, stick-lick appendages-ew. Needless to say, now I know why the original packaging of the garlic was a mesh bag...it needs to breathe. Another couple of bucks spent at Sam's Club down the drain...but I am learning!

Last night, Andrew slept outside in a tent for a training exercise. It was a pretty cold night too, around -38! He said it was not too bad though. They put a little stove in the tent and their sleeping bags (which are cleverly called fart sacks by the guys) are weather-rated to -50 degrees; so unless you are in 0 or colder weather, you'd probably overheat your organs.

I spent the evening cleaning the house, rearranging some rooms, and eating a PB&J sandwich. It is not very fun to cook for one person, I think. I love making meals for the two of us. Both my parents and Andrew's parents are great cooks and I think it has influenced us (more so me so far!) to get in the kitchen and try new meals. Needless to say, Andrew and I sometimes have different ideas of recipes and foods. For example, I said to him, I'll make hot dogs and baked beans (it was a long day and I was looking for an easy dish). Andrew loves hot dogs and beans (I don't care for hot dogs) so I thought he would be thrilled by my idea. He said sounds delicious. So, I got the can of beans and the beef franks, and just as I was about to pour the dogs into a bubbling casserole dish of hot beans and bacon, Andrew yelped STOP, haha literally! Heck no...who puts their hot dogs actually IN the beans?! Well, my family always used to do this and I loved it that way. He had never heard of such a thing; therefore, Andy ended up eating his FOUR franks in buns and his beans neatly piled on his plate. I opted for leftovers and beans. Scenarios like that play out almost everyday but it is fun to get to know the likes and dislikes of one another. Moving on...

Tomorrow morning we are going into downtown Fairbanks by the Chena River to watch the start of an annual dog race, the Yukon Quest. It is a 1,000 mile dog sled race that begins in Fairbanks and ends in Whitehorse, a town in the Yukon Territory. We have yet to see dog mushers or a race so I am anxious to see what it is about. It has been in the paper and on the news for the past few weeks. The start of a race is a pretty big deal. A dog sled has one human (the musher) and fourteen dogs pulling the load, from what I've read. I'll have to post some pictures of the experience. I think spectators are suppose to stand on the frozen river to watch the event because they keep talking about spectators watching for steam rising from certain spots on the river (meaning that the ice has broke). Um, yea, I am not sure if we will skate onto that ice because I'm new to this sort of thing and my luck, I would plunge into the -20 water. Ice fishing, yes please, but being fished for out of the ice, no thank you.

Also, Andrew has read my blog and has pointed out my misspellings, grammatical errors, and incorrect usage of maxims. For example, the saying is.... "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again" and not like I said, "if you don't succeed, try, try again." Close enough, right?! Also, "I've been hit by the baking bug," well, no not really, it should read something more like, "I've been bitten by the baking bug?" I've never heard that one but I'll take his word for it. Thank you sweetie for telling me all about those and I'll make sure you proofread more often :-)

I wish we were in PA for the weekend because I miss the snow storms! We haven't had REAL (aka more than flurries) snow since we have lived here! In fact, this is the lowest snowfall year since 1904 here! Also, Aubree saw a moose on our road and unfortunately I was out running errands! We must repel them because we have YET to see one but they are all around our woods. We'll keep our fingers crossed for 12 inches of snow and a moose sighting.
I may have to send Andrew outside to track the moose pies ;-)

Enjoy the weekend everyone!