trip to Thailand still on!

Well, after a ton of stress the last few days, dealing with airlines, travel insurance companies, sailboat company, internet research for new flights, etc., etc. We have our tickets straightened out and scheduled to fly into Chiang Mai on Dec 2 instead of Bangkok, which is still closed down due to a large protest. We will then try to make our way south to Phuket, to meet Joe and Della (Luke's parents) and get on our sailboat on the 8th. Anyways, we leave Fairbanks on Nov 30 at 10pm, connecting to China Airlines in Anchorage and then after a 10 hour flight over the Pacific we land in Taipei, Taiwan the morning of Dec 2, transferring to Chiang Mai for a day of rest.....

Finally Winter Photos

Young Moose right outside our new window checking me out

Well, it really has been winter here for about 2 months now. October was one of the coldest on record. Right now it is -3 F and we have a fire in the woodstove. It is hard getting up in the morning and it seems lately we crawl out of bed later and later. The light wakes us up around 8:45am and it is near pitch dark again at 4pm.

We have been busy replacing all our windows in the house over the last few months. Now we are ready for winter! Oh--but we first have to take a vacation to the tropics for our winter dose of vitamin D! We are heading to SE Asia in a week, first flying to Bangkok and meeting Luke's folks there to sail for a week out of Phuket and then just tool around for another several weeks. Hopefully we'll have a lot of beach time, snorkel time, and get to see some monkeys and elephants like last time. We'll be back Jan. 18 in time for Luke to start a new job. I am taking a leave of absence from the U, and return to the same job. You should be able to follow the blog while we're there.

In the meantime, we've been eating alot of ptarmigan (a bird similar to grouse, except red meat) lately due to record numbers this year. Luke was going out 2-3 times a week to hunt them and we were having daily meals of tasty ptarmigan breast. Usually we eat them pan-fried, and sometimes on the grill. We recently tried jalepeno stuffed with cream cheese & grilled ptarmigan, and then wrapped in bacon. Yummmmmmm, what a hit! I alse found an awesome cranberry creamcheese frosting recipe -- not for ptarmigan -- but for chocolate cake.

See the white birds flying away from the hunters?

Bring home dinner for a few days

Ptarmigan chili rellenos!

dessert