Saebo-the $140,000 Boxer

Craig and I have offically joined the grown-up world and bought a home for a nice hefty down deposit.

I'm still slightly in shock that this beautiful home, in the most beautiful location in the world, is now ours. I'm not quite sure what we did to deserve it but neverless, its perfect!

The house was finished in 2006 so its still bright and shiny, the inside still needs alot of work, like flooring, painting etc...but thats the fun part-we get to make it exactly how we want it. We have a huge loft bedroom, and a bedroom and bathroom downstairs. My favourite room in the house is currently the laundry room-I have never owned my own washer and dryer before so this is very exciting for me. I just can't control myself in that room, its constantly smelling of dryer sheets.

We have no septic (Craig aka Mr Practical will be putting that in when he eventually gets some days off work) so its a slight novelty visiting the outhouse each morning (We are already looking forward to its ceremonial burning)

We have almost an acre of property so Saebo can run around like a free soul, we call him our 140K dog as he was the instigator in finding a home after the landlords at the flat said no no to our dog. (Actually, they told us to just take him back where we got him from..Seriously??)

We have a huge deck, that could house a hot tub one day...

If I could have designed a home myself it would be just like this..really open and big windows.

We are currently in the back bedroom,which I've painted already (there is this funky yellow colour other the damn whole house), but we plan to turn the loft room into our bedroom. Right now the staircase is more like a ladder and not-so-fun to climb up and down.

I've painted the bathroom and bought some new mirrors along with $400 worth of complete randomness of nesting equipment.

I also purchased a toilet and was in complete disbelief that there is such a market for the things, do you know you can spend 500 bucks on one thing? Gees... maybe thats why they are called a throne.

Craig and an Albatross

Every day Craig sends me a text message as soon as he gets back into cell phone range from fishing, but one day last week he called me as soon as he did and was very excited.

He saw a Black-footed Albatross and I am so happy that he was as excited as I would have been to see this bird. He couldn't wait to tell me and show me the pics and videos so I could tell him which exact species he saw.

Its quite amazing when your person makes the sincere effort to be interested in your passions, but its even better when they want to share it with you.

I have never seen a black-footed Albatross before darn it.

I left half my arse on Mount Marathon

Ok, I'm going back in time here but would like to give myself a pat on the back for completing my 4th Mount Marathon Race. This was my excuse for coming back and seducing Craig, but seeming that only took a couple of weeks I moved on to training for the race.

For the benefit of you people who have no knowledge of the race, it started back in 1905-ish with 2 drunken Sewardites betting over beers if they could get to the top of Mt Marathon (3,022ft, over 3 miles roundtrip) and back in under an hour. Well the dude lost the bet (surprisingly!) but the race stayed and has been going ever since. It takes place on Independence Day each year and our little town of Seward is the place to be, 75,000 people flock to it and cheer you on.

For the race I risk falling rocks, snow slides, waterfalls and a darn slippery slope with 400 other women each year. The average slope of the trail is 45 degrees and I hate mostly every second of it. I want to vomit and curse the world and each time I vow not to do it again. But with time the pain fades and the next year I gear up for it all over again.

It's a brutal race and I normally come away with some kind of injury each time, last year both my big toenails came off (one that day the other just after I'd had a pedicure) the previous year only 1 lost.

2008 was a new experience for me and I have learnt why I don't wear shorts normally; coming down the snow shoot at the top I took off a nice layer of my left butt cheek and have been having trouble sitting since. I never knew a butt-raspberry could cause such misery to life.

Well regardless this year I did my best time yet in 1:19:05 placing me in 69th. I was pretty stoked and vow to better next year. Hopefully my then husband can be there to cheer me on next time :)

So here we are..

It starts with a ring and a promise to blow out all individual candles and light one together. (Seriously?)