Northern Noise

So this morning we're hanging out and reading.  Jed's moved from Harry Potter to one of the graphic novels I'm supposed to read for my summer class.  I've been reading the news online, drinking some coffee, the breeze is blowing outside... summer vacation in Fairbanks is awesome, isn't it?  We filled and rehung the bird feeds this spring, and have been getting lots of avian visitors.  We've got a pair of woodpeckers nesting in the woods below the house, lots of robins and chickadees.  I wish I knew more about birds because there are a few I don't recognize.  Della used to get excited about them, now she lays on the deck watching them, occasionally lifting her head to make an obligatory snap in their direction, like she thinks she's supposed to be a fierce hunter.  Ha. I wonder about how folks who aren't teachers do it.  How do they get up and go to work each day, how do they take their kids to daycare all year long?  These lazy mornings just hangin

I'm not sure whether Jed thinks he's a dog, or the dogs think they're boys. Either way I've had to fuss at all 3 of them today about rowdy behavior in the house.  So then they move it outside for awhile, but end up back in the living room rolling around growling and playing.  All three are also giving me backtalk.  I knew 8 year olds and huskys talked, but labs??  Jed is covered in dog fur, as Dimas is shedding big time.  Della is exhausted, but can't stand not to play.  She just walked into the shut patio glass door.  I think I'll get the vacuum out.  All 3 of them hate that machine.  he he he

So I made my first trip to Las Vegas, Nevada.  Did ya'll know that Las Vegas means "the meadows" in Spanish??  Interesting, because I always picture meadows as being kind of green, and the only green I saw in Las Vegas was leaving people's hands and going into slot machine and over priced stores. Still, it was a good trip.  For one thing, I got to spend a week in a hotel with my husband and no children.  In all of our years of teaching and working together, this is the first time we've traveled together for work, other than the time I went as the assistant wrestling coach to chaperone his female wrestlers. We stayed at Caesar's Palace, which was filled with statues and fountains.  In fact, I realized that in Las Vegas one can see the Eiffel Tower, an Egyptian pyramid, the Arc de Triomphe, a Venetian canal (complete with Gondolas), an exploding volcano, and Elvis.  Why travel anyplace else when you can get it all in one spot?  I did get to hold a pair of Ch