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Blazing sunsets and the days are long enough to go and come back without running out of daylight. There's fresh snow on the ground– just enough to cover up the muddy, icy piles and make everything look fresh. Soon the kids will bring in pussy willow sprigs and we'll know that spring is coming. The 2 foot high snowpack across our playground will melt and refreeze, and we'll slip and fall. Then it will really start to melt, and the ground will be a sodden, muddy mess. I'll be hunting for my galoshes– we call them breakup boots here.

I can't remember ever paying this much attention to the seasons and the weather before I moved here. It just was. It was warm and sunny most all of the time, and most warnings of inclement weather never panned out. Here you hunt for signs of the seasons, and rejoice in them. The kids are already wearing shorts, the crazy ones anyway. I'm in love with the thought of flip flops and denim skirts. Waiting until May for it makes it hard to take warm weather for granted.

More snow in the forecast makes all of these thoughts of spring irrelevant for the time being, anyway.

This week I have the cutest group of 4th through 6th graders. They are one of the nicest classes I've had since I started working full time at this school. I've been bribing them with candy and those wee little chenille chicks that come out at Easter. (Like these, only smaller and less creepy looking.) You wouldn't believe the hoops that kids will jump through to get a baby chick. I put math puzzles on their desks in the morning and everyone is miraculously quiet and working– on the off chance that they might be one of the first 5 and get a little chicken. I wonder if this strategy would work on adults. Probably, who isn't a sucker for tiny, cute things?

I've been studying hard(ish) all week for my 2nd midterm. I'm taking Alaska geography by independent study because I need the credits for my licensure. It's actually a ton of work– way more than just going to class and listening to someone talk. I was doing all right until I got to the lesson on geomorphic processes. If you don't know what that is, well, I read the chapter twice and I don't, either. I'll take my exam tomorrow at the center for independent learning. If it's anything like the last one, which as about 12 pages long and full of essay and short answer questions, then I need to keep studying tonight.

We've been on spring break this week, and as such, have effectively thrown a week of free time out the window. Just kidding. My little brother was supposed to fly troop transport up from San Francisco and stay with us for the week, but there weren't enough flights for him to get here and back during his time off. Who'd have thought that not many people want to go to Fairbanks, AK in mid March? So he went to Hawaii instead. Rough life he's leading.

The cat is liking having us both home. Whenever he hears us talking in the morning he jumps into bed and starts licking our hands and faces. Which is kind of cute, but in case you weren't aware of it, cat tongues are rough and kind of painful. After his morning displays of affection he runs to claw at the screens and stare out the windows. For hours. It is going to be hard to keep him inside once the out of doors ceases to be a giant ice nightmare.

It's been really warm here, much warmer than is seasonally normal for March. The snow and ice has melted off of all of the roads, and huge chunks of snow calve off the roof at regular intervals. The snow next to the house is frozen and hard, and sturdy enough to climb up. The rest of the yard is crumbly, granulated sugar, with a thin layer of ice at the top. It is impossible to walk through. We had fun climbing up the hard ice piles and then falling off into the powder underneath. I got stuck over and over again, because there was nothing solid enough for me to put my hands on and push myself up. I had to sort of flip my feet underneath me and stand up without using my arms. It was fun, though.

We also took R's niece to the ice park. It wasn't as spectacular as last year. There is a park for kids, with playhouses and animals and slides made of ice, and a separate section of the judged sculptures. There are single block sculptures, about 6 feet tall by four feet wide, and multi block sculptures, which cover an area as big as 20 by 20 feet. I took some pictures (next page), but look at the ice alaska website if you're interested. They're very cool. (Pun not intended.) I'm glad we went, because the ice was already starting to melt.

The only other noteworthy news is that I had my first (and hopefully only) root canal on Tuesday. It wasn't too horrible. If you listen to the stories people tell you, having a root canal is only slightly better than passing a kidney stone or having a limb amputated. It does hurt some, but it's not too awful. Lucky for me, I get to go back in 3 weeks for them to finish the root canal, and then I get to get it crowned. Hurrah.

Following are pictures of the ice park and snow.

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March the 1st ought to signal something magnificent. Sunshine and rainbows and long, dizzying shadows, perhaps. Instead, it snowed a couple of inches this morning, and it's cloudy and sort of dreary and whitewashed outside. The snow is really beautiful, especially when the sky is blue and the light shines through the trees. Today it looks drab, and winter feels long. Because it is long.

I've been happily researching things to do in Fairbanks in the winter because my brother is supposedly coming up here in a couple of weeks. He can fly for free into the air force base east of us, and then we can experience all of the wonderful things to do in Fairbanks in March. You know, other than drink. I jest– the ice park will be open with all of the beautiful ice sculptures, there's plenty of skiing and skating and sledding and tubing, there are hot springs, and there is a 150 ice tower someone made with by connecting pieces of tubing and leaving the water running continuously. (I'm serious about this, and you can see the website here. Two previous pages chronicle its growth this winter.) And, yes, we can go to the brewery and drink. So there are at least a few things to do here.

I'm feeling a little dragged down by the winter, so I ordered some clothes. I still need to find a new pair of sunglasses– this time of year the sun is just high enough to be in your eyes all of the time. I have today off because of parent-teacher conferences. Tomorrow I'll be doing kindergarten. Hooray for kinder.