Happy Holidays....

Current temperatures in the northern US are comparable if not colder then Fairbanks, especially when you factor in the wind chill. Who would have thought.

I installed some bamboo floors and it look great, however it's not withstanding the dog traffic. There are already a plethora of scratch. I was trying to be environmentally sound but i don't recommend the stuff to anyone. Go with laminate. It's a whole lot cheaper and more resistant to dings. And the next time some one tells me "But i thought bamboo was one of the strongest material" I'm going to whack them over the head with one of my extra boards and just see how strong it is. As you can tell I'm a little bitter about the situation.

Hole in one

Ty participated in his first skijoring race of the season at the North Star golf course. Yes that's right on a golf course. It's actually really nice skiing, because the terrain is wide open with gradual slopes. The skijoring club grooms the golf course during the winters and anyone can go out and ski, skijor or just walk your dog. Story on the race is at the newsminer.

Ty has to wear booties in the winters or he'll get snowball between his paws.


Lucey deserves a lot of credit for TY's success today in the race, because she helps him train by running up front while Ty is attached to me pulling and chasing her.

Gobble gobble

Running in the winter time can be a difficult task up here in Fairbanks. There are many challenges that you have to deal with like slick surfaces, crazy drivers and the notion of your appendages falling off from frost bite. You would think the thought of losing a finger or two at -15F would keep any sane person inside next to a warm fire place. Not the case here in Fairbanks, there are races throughout the winter time even when it's -40F outside. Running club north hosted a turkey trout today with the morning temperature hoovering around -15F. Now the objective of the race was to predict your time for the 6K route. The finisher with the closest guess wins a turkey and the worst guesser get a cornish hen. I guessed 23 minutes and finished in 21:59. You can read about the race at the link newsminer.


This is an old running picture from the Murphy Dome run.

More baby pictures

I think baby toys are so radical. This is the vibration chair. It shakes, plays music and bubbles and fish moved in the water portion. The chair also rocks back and forth. Who can't resisted falling asleep in it.


I think mom is pretty happy to have a granddaughter.


It's quite the work out carrying a baby around all day.


Here is the awesome family my brother Teddy, Kaci, Shannon and Rusty.

New niece

I flew to TX to visit my new niece Kaci Charlotte Wu. I score big time on the flight down, instead of a schedule 4 hour lay over i was able to hop on the next flight out to Dallas from Seattle with only a 30 min layover.

My sister Christy is now an aunt and has 3 boys of her own. So this is like her only chance at experiencing a baby girl.

current reading: The last lecture
current listening: All the love you need album by Big head todd and the monsters

Red Raiders are BCS bounded!!!

Some of my buddies were planning on going to the Texas Tech- OSU game in Lubbock, TX (home of Buddy Holly), while i was in TX visiting my new niece. So Kevin picked me up from Dallas on Friday afternoon for the 4 1/2 hour drive.

Here is Dr. Craig M.D., Kevin aka Kilo, Darron aka D-star and Scotty getting pump for the game.

The game was sold out and on ABC national TV. Texas Tech ended up dominating with a 56-20 over the number 9 ranked OK state cowboys.

We had end zone seats. They are about to score again. Up next the OK Sooners. If they beat them # 2 Texas Tech will be playing for a big 12 and maybe national championship.

HRV

I got an energy rating for the casa and the house got a 4 star. To jump up another level I started working on some improvements. (1) Replace front door with a fiber glass one, (2) install a heat recovery ventilation system and (3) replace windows with triple pane.

Here is the HRV system I brought. It has an 93% efficiency. The house is really air tight which is good, but can result in unhealthy indoor air quality, so the HRV will replace the indoor air with fresh air from the outside without losing all the heat.

After the installation quote, I decided to install the system myself. It turn out great and passed the certification test with flying colors.