An Alaskan Thanksgiving Weekend

I was going to say that I would start with the best part, but it's hard to decide what the best part was!  The "finally" snow that came down on Saturday, beginning early in the morning and lasting through most of the day?  Snow that was so fine it still only resulted in about 2 1/2 inches after all of that time?  Enough though so that yesterday, Sunday, we were able to take the skis out in the barely, minimally sufficient snow and ski for a little more than an hour -- and it was even really good!  No pictures though, you'll have to take our word for it!

Funny thing, when we got home, sans house keys, intending to come in through our garage, the power was off in the entire neighborhood and many blocks beyond, for an as yet unknown reason, and we were locked out of our house for about 3 1/2 hours.  Many errands and 3 trips back to the house to check later, it magically came back on.  So we got our flu shots, books for traveling later this week, and a new monitor and other supplies from Best Buy in the meantime.  Time to get an extra key to hide for emergencies!

Thursday morning we ran a 5k race, which was my first time in WELL over a decade.  I've run a 9 minute mile in a marathon (26.2 miles), and here I ran about an 11 minute mile for 3.1 miles -- time to get in better shape again.  And I was grateful to be running, since it's been ten years after a car accident that left my neck in chronic pain for several years and not wanting to be pounding the pavement again.  It seems to have improved enough just this year to take some of that!

Although the time was embarrassing, I was 7th in my age group out of 24 women, so I guess getting older has some advantages!  Maybe that will even inspire me to move up!  Brian and Lance, our former landlord ran with me, and we're pictured here with Lance and Mary's NEW tenant, who also ran.  Then it was back to Lance and Mary's for pumpkin pie - it turns out to be a good trick to eat the pie BEFORE Thanksgiving dinner - when I actually have room for it!

Dinner was great - as usual.  Creamed fennel was a new dish this year, and I made new recipes for brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar and sweet potatoes with thyme and garlic - love the food at Thanksgiving!

Friday night we went to the movies to see The Theory of Everything about Stephen Hawking - excellent!  And Saturday, after 4 years of trying to get into Van's class for Caesar Salad at The Marx Brothers Cafe, I finally made it - Brian, Lance, Mary & I went at noon, ended at 3, with 5 different wines, 4 different Caesar Salads, and tastings for balsamics, olive oils, cheeses, and anchovies - it was excellent, and we were glad that we went.

And now, it's back to work but only for 3 days, as very early Thursday morning (more like late Wed. night!) we leave for Mexico and a year-end course with Landmark Wisdom Division.