Headbanging under the Alaskan Sun (it's back!)

I get an extra 6 minutes of sunlight each day.

It doesn't seem like much, when you think of it that way. Just a few minutes extra each day. But, to put it into perspective, it feels like merely a few weeks ago that I thought the joy of driving to work at 9:30 while the sun was rising was rendering me delirious with effervescent bubbles of hope. A few weeks before that, I thought the absence of day (in fact, it was the absence of any direct sunlight whatsoever) was going to make me crazy, or at the very least, a biscuit-baking-hermit-with-atrocious-hair-roots. But, now, it's perfect. Daybreak when you get up. Sunset a couple of hours after you leave the office. Snow on the ground (enough, at least, to keep Puck from running out of the yard lest he get over his head in the adventure of it, but less than you folks Back East). Iditarod talk of stats and strategies all over town - best overheard, of course, while eating salmon hero sandwiches at my favorite lunch bar. The lakes are still frozen, so there's ice-skating just down the street and every house has ice skates dangling off the porch.

Of course, be prepared. In a mere few weeks more, it will always and only be daylight.

No doubt I'll have comments.

As for my big news, J. was in town last weekend. He was Kodiak highschool's coach for their mocktrial team. Apparently Kodiak Island just discovered Metallica, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, etc. For awhile, I got the honour of being one of the Anchorage chauffers for the Kodiak mocktrial team. Once they taught me how to use the cd player, my sassy little soccor-mom subaru (cherry red just to keep it hinting at youth and a moonroof to keep it cooool) was quickly transformed into a moveable Revival of 80's Heavy Metal, complete with a gaggle of teenagers headbanging in the back.

At least in this rendition of the 80's, I was only uncool because I was old. Not because my hair genetically refuses to be big.

I sent Josh back with a cooler full of frozen meals and a big loaf of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough. Apparently he ate the cookie dough first. Then he dove into the pappardelle al ragu. Last night he mentioned that he embellished the leftover pappardelle with a couple of the Pinot braised meatballs stuffed with Maytag Blue Cheese.

The meatballs were based off a recipe in Helen Brown's West Coast Cookbook. (recipe to be posted) She called them Oregon Meatballs, and envisioned them braised in Oregon pinot noir and stuffed with Oregon's Blue Cheese. Using Alaskan ingredients, however, they were braised in Australian shiraz and stuffed with Iowa blue cheese.


As for big news, Alaska-wise, Olive had a big adventure at the airport: http://www.adn.com/iditarod/news/story/6254053p-6131366c.html