Just another day in the salt mines

Being that I’m fresh out of dental school with alot of textbook knowledge but lacking in experience, I encounter many new/exciting patients and procedures everyday.  Although dental school is a loooooong 4 years and a ton of studying and drilling, there is no way anyone could possibly be 100% prepared for the “real world.”  Well, today I had my first such experience where I really did not know what to do.  Yeah – I can do fillings and such but when it comes to endodontics (root canals) I do not have much experience.  The last patient of the day, scheduled for a simple filling – well, turns out the decay went all the way to the pulp – I see blood!  I just pulped this patient’s tooth!  Ok – calm down – just inform the patient, ask a couple other doctors what they would do, proceed with the 1st steps of root canal procedure.  Everyone’s like – “this will be simple, you’ll have it done in a few minutes.”  Well, as it turned out, it took alot longer than I thought.  The canals weren’t “text book” canals – this kind of stuff you don’t learn in dental school.  A couple hours later and a narcotic prescription (for the patient),  we all parted.  In the long run, I’m sure the patient and tooth will be just fine but it was definitely an experience for me and probably one of those days that I will look back on and laugh (not now, though).   

Ice cream is also awesome!

I always have a hard time enjoying Sunday evenings because I know I have the entire week ahead a me – 5 days of battling tooth decay – yeah!  I did not even leave the house today, only stuck my hand out the door to grab the newspaper.  And that was enough for me – too freakin cold! 

The weekend was quite uneventful.  I started to feel better but Eric must have caught my germs because he started feeling sick yesterday.  It’s probably best that we decided to lay low and just be lazy.  I got motivated yesterday to do some cooking so we had enchiladas for dinner last night.  Then we decided to get down the ice cream machine that has been collecting dust since our wedding – I made caramel ice cream (my favorite is salty caramel!) – but we didn’t realize that part of the ice cream machine needs to be in the freezer for 24 hours.  Looking back, it was only a  minor delay after having the thing for over a year without ever using it.  But we were quite disappointed last night when we found out we would have to wait 24 hours to enjoy the ice cream.  And then this morning I decided to bake chocolate biscotti and for dinner a new halibut recipe (followed by the ice cream!)  Lots of eating but little activity.  I used my good judgement and decided to wait to make the bread pudding for another day.  Good thing we have mandatory work out time tomorrow.  We’re hoping to get out next weekend and learn how to cross country ski – we’ll see how that goes:)

Bread pudding is awesome.

Finally, a weekend with nothing to do.  It seems like we have been constantly doing something since Christmas.  The festivities ended this past Monday when the Buckeyes lost to LSU  followed by an uneventful 3 day work week (off Monday for the game and a sick day).  We took the tree down and stuffed it back in the box – where we are going to put the box? - not sure yet but the garage will work for now.  The snow has continued to fall this week, the most we have had at once thus far this winter.   Enough snow to keep Eric’s truck from leaving our little community of Bootlegger’s Cove – it refuses to make it up either hill to get out of here so we are that much more thankful for the Touareg and it’s mighty all wheel drive.  We have hit the slopes the past couple weekends but have decided to take a break – the combination of forecasted -15 temp and me trying to overcome some sort of cold/sinus sickness (yeah – even went to the ER!) calls for some serious couch time(if only our couch wasn’t in the garage)!  I might make some bread pudding too – our new favorite dessert - yum! 

  

Today I put peanut butter on my waffles

Eric told me I will never go back to plain waffles with syrup.  I have been watching him eat his waffles with peanut butter for some time but I have always looked the other way.  I don’t know what got into me this morning but I just did it.  It’s good.  Plus, I think I will benefit from the additional protein since I do not eat meat.

This past week was my first real week of work since I have graduated from dental school.  It’s crazy to think that everything I’ve worked for has finally developed into something.  It was fun to actually practice what I’ve learned and the paycheck is not bad either.  I have alot more to learn but I know I’m surrounded by alot of smart and experienced people so I’m excited about that.

Tommorrow is our first wedding anniversary!  (Thanks Mom and Dad for the flowers!)  I cannot believe how fast this first year has gone by.  We’ve kept it pretty interesting and busy with all the graduating from various things and moving across the country so we have not had very much down time.  We are celebrating with a trip to Girdwood for the weekend.  We are going to RELAX, eat and attempt to ski.  It will be fun.

It’s starting to feel like Christmas!

We have been enjoying our Christmas tree for about a week but have yet to decorate with any ornaments.  I ordered a bunch online last week and we have been patiently waiting for them to be delivered.  When we awoke this morning, a large box was sitting on our porch.  What delivery company drops off packages in the middle of the night? We definately did not have time to check them out before we headed to work (we’re usually cutting it close as it is) so we had to wait until later after work to do the decorating.

So this evening, after a weeknight dinner at a local restaurant, we again put on the Christmas tunes and strategically placed our ornaments.  We (mostly me) decided against any garland or additional Christmas tree decorating techniques.  We thought it best to keep it simple this year.  It’s our first Christmas tree so we have time to perfect our technique.  During the past few days, Eric has mentioned stringing popcorn to place on the tree branches.  It’s not something I’m thrilled about but I’m willing to compromise.  So far he has declined so I’m thinking we will not do that – I’m thinking he does not want to waste the microwave popcorn. 

 We had concerns about our cat, Rudy, thinking that the ornaments were toys to play with.  Surprisingly, he has ignored the ornaments although he occasionaly scratches the trunk.  Who can blame him though? – it looks like a tree!  

Even the dogs have beards.

When most people think about life in Alaska they immediately think winter, cold and of course, snow.  However, the winter thus far has been quite mild, well, actually really mild.  I felt almost embarassed when I talked to my sister back in Ohio this past weekend and she was talking about how bad the roads were due to the winter weather. 

The uncharacteristic Alaskan weather prompted Eric and I to head up to Talkeetna on Saturday morning.  We felt it would do us some good if we had a reason to wake up before the sun – at this point, we only have 3-4 good hours of sunlight and it is really easy to sleep the day away on the weekend.  We wanted to get out of the house and find some snow.

The small town of Talkeetna (pop < 900) is located at the base of Mount McKinley.  Most people recognize this mighty mountain by this name but technically is named Denali, which means “the high one” in the Athabaskan language, and which is also the name currently recognized by the State of Alaska (in 1896 the mountain was named Mount McKinley, after the former Governor of Ohio and future U.S. President William McKinley).  This town is extremely busy in the summer with tourists, hikers, climbers, you know, the typical people that flock to Alaska in the summer.  We thought it would be cool to check it out during the winter when not many other people would be there.  It’s only about a 2 hour drive so why not – heck, we live in Alaska.

Well, the drive was fun.  As we got closer, we definately found the snow.  We had breakfast at a quaint establishment on Main Street that is known as the base for international climbers making making their way to climb Denali.  They offer accomodations similar to a hostel and overnight guests were eating in their PJ’s reading books and playing the piano.  It was definately a refreshing get away from the bustling city life of downtown Anchorage

From there, we walked around town visiting the shops that were still open and even checked out the Little Susitna River.  Overall, it was a good day.  We did notice that the men seem to all have beards though.  It may just be part of mountain life.  As we got back into the car, ready for the ride back to Anchorage we even saw a dog that had a beard too!

But just to ease the concerns of my Ohio family – it started snowing this morning and has not stopped.  A snow like this back in Ohio would cancel school and the scrolling warning across the bottom of the T.V. would shut down all activities throughout the city.  But in Alaska we just go about our lives.  We just leave for work 30 minutes earlier and continue to press on.

Our 2nd Christmas tree!

Since Christmas is only 3 weeks away, Eric and I decided it was time to do some holiday decorating.  The only problem is that we do not own any Christmas decorations besides the random assortment of “Our First Christmas”, “Christmas 2006″,  and bride and groom ornaments that we received as wedding gifts this time last year.  Technically speaking, this is our second married Christmas.  But getting married 9 days before Christmas does not allow for any decorating. 

 So today we perused the Sunday newspaper ads for Christmas tree sales.  We have debated for a couple weeks as to whether we should go with a live tree vs. artificial.  I have vivid memories of my family attempting to set up the live tree in our family room, pine needles everywhere, my mom constantly fretting over proper hydration, and of course, my dad using string tied to nails in the ceiling to secure the tree to prevent the thing from falling over.  I can’t recall how many years this continued (not many) but do know the feeling of relief experienced by everyone when we converted back to the artificial tree.

Consequently, when I retold my past experiences to Eric, it was an obvious decision.  We both are totally for low maintenance.  So today we drove around Anchorage to do some price comparison shopping.  Since our ceilings are 10 feet tall we thought we could definately manage a 9 foot tree.  What we failed to consider is that the taller the tree usually the wider the tree (unless you go with the slim version that doesn’t look even remotely natural).  Here it would be pertinent for me to mention that our dwelling is only 12 feet wide. 

Long story short, we ended buying a 9 foot tree but failed to realize that it has a 6 foot diameter – hahahaha.  We set it up, turned on the lights, admired it from the sidewalk (from the viewpoint of neighbors – I learned this from my mom) as it sparkled through the window, opened a bottle of champagne, listened to Christmas music, took Rudy’s Christmas photo in front of the tree, laughed really really hard, — and came to the conclusion that we will return it tommorrow for the smaller version and purchase our 2nd Christmas tree.

Now all we need are ornaments…

I live in Alaska!

Even though we have officially been here for a number of months I continue to find myself saying “I live in Alaska!” or some version of that saying.  I am amazed when I look to a map of the world and locate the state of Alaska only to remind myself of how far away from everything we have moved. 

I grew up in Ohio, completed all my education in Ohio (8 yrs of college!), and almost my entire family lives in Ohio.  Same goes for Eric, my husband, who has had a more difficult time adjusting than myself, only because he seriously bleeds scarlet and grey and also likes to sleep until noon on the weekends.  What??? Living in the Alaska Time Zone sets us back 4 hours from kickoff which requires planning.  Going to bed early on Friday nights in order to get a seat at The Peanut Farm at 7:30am – yeah, Alaskan life is hard.

Why am I writing the first ever entry of my first ever blog on a Saturday morning?  This is because The Ohio State University Buckeyes do not play today.  They are currently ranked #3 and we can only sit and wait for an upset.  These games are tonight so there really is no reason for getting out of bed – at least, according to my husband.

I have enjoyed living in Anchorage so far.  The actual moving part was painful but we are almost finally settled.  We have met alot of really nice people.  Our cat, Rudy Jenkins, has had some problems adjusting though.  He did very well on the plane ride from Ohio but has had to adjust his routine now that he cannot go outside (due to the wildlife and temperature).  He was misbehaving to the point of having to see a veternarian only to get diagnosed with giardia and a UTI.  He is doing much better now and we are all getting along.