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Last Tuesday we took a day off and went canoeing in honor of my 28th birthday. We rented this canoe at Chena Lakes Recreation Area, a series of dams and small lakes. The lakes were created to prevent flooding in Fairbanks, but the area has been nicely developed into a camping and fishing area. If you are brave you can even swim there, but Alaskan lakes are pretty darn frigid. Too cold for my southwest-raised, chlorinated outdoor pool self, anyway.

R and I spent the day out in the canoe. We brought a picnic lunch, and tried to do some fishing for lake trout. We didn't catch any, but I know they were there– they ate all the bait off of the hook. 4 times. We also turned the GPS on in the canoe and paddled right up to shore to find a geocache hidden in the woods nearby.

The weather has been steadily warming since last week, and we may just get a few weeks of nice summer weather yet– just in time for the depressing downslope that is August. Get your summer in while you can, kids.

tags: lake, chena lakes, canoe, fishing, geocaching, geocache

Yesterday we took the kids swimming at the high school pool. We had just gotten everyone into the pool when the fire alarm sounded– loudly. The kids got out, and we huddled on the deck and waited for instructions. "Um, I think you'd better exit through the locker rooms and out the front door," said the lifeguards. We walked back out through the locker rooms and waited, wet and cold and with no shoes, out on the sidewalk. In front of the building. With a zillion cars driving down a busy street a few feet away. It was great. I'm not particularly self-conscious, but I could do without total strangers seeing me shivering and wet in a swimsuit, with a pair of goggles on my forehead.

They let us back in in about 5 minutes, and no one was lost or injured. Still, I think I could have done without that little bit of excitement. What's the lesson here? Keep your towel nearby? Avoid public pools? If forced to evacuate a building in a swimsuit, at least stand near the middle of the crowd?

I built this thing with my summer camp kids, and wouldn't it be the coolest thing ever to build with your kids? It's easy to do. All you need is a big sheet of plastic drop cloth, some duct tape and a fan. This bubble has a 10 x 10 ft floor, and is 6 feet tall. It used a 20 x 25 ft piece of 4 mil plastic and a standard box fan to inflate.

I think a smaller one could make a very cool playhouse. I paid $17 for the plastic, but a smaller one would be less expensive. My kids loved having this in the classroom, and were content to play cards and board games in it for hours on end. (Note: The air does get stale inside after a while. A little Febreze helped ours. Can't do anything about the stinky feet, though.)

Here's how to make one:

• Roll out the plastic and cut to size. This one took two 10 ft x 10 ft pieces for the floor and ceiling, four 6 x 10 pieces for the walls, a 3 x 4 piece for the airlock (taped inside the front wall), and an 8 x 3 piece for the tunnel (not shown, goes from fan to back wall.) Note: You could make one any size, and even though ours has 6 foot walls, it's more like 8 feet tall in the center. It fit 15 kids pretty confortably.
• Decorate plastic with permanant marker, if you want.
• Lay out the floor. Lay out the four walls, one next to each side of the floor. Tape each wall to the floor along the seam.
• Cut a circular hole at the bottom of the back wall, roughly the size of the fan you'll use.
• Cut a 4 foot slit in the front wall for the door, and tape at the top and bottom to prevent ripping.
• Tape the airlock inside the front wall. In the picture you can see how we taped it along one side and the top, and 1/3 of the other side. You have to pull it back and crawl into the bubble, replacing it each time to keep the air in.
• Fold each wall in half so that the top of the wall is now aligned with the edge of the floor. Put the ceiling directly on top of the floor, lining it up with each folded wall piece. Tape as before.
• Roll your tunnel into a tube and tape. Cut a fringe (4 in slits about 4 in apart) all along both sides of the tunnel.
• Tape one side of the tunnel all around the box fan, being sure not to block your airflow. Don't tape the other side to the wall yet.
• This part is tricky. Grab one of the top corners, where the ceiling and walls meet. Have someone else hold the bottom corner, where the walls and floor meet. Pull this corner until the two adjoining walls meet, and tape the seam. Repeat for the other 3 edges.
• Tape the other side of the tunnel (one side is already connected to the fan) to the place where you cut the hole in the back wall. Cover up all of the cracks.
• Turn your fan on to inflate.
• Have hours of fun in your magcal space bubble.

tags: habitat, bubble, playhouse, project, science project, space project, space lesson

You can make a pretty pizza like this, too.

You need:
-Jiffy or other crust mix
-pizza sauce (I know you don't make sauce from scratch, either)
-2 cloves of garlic
-8oz fresh mozarella, sliced thin
-fresh basil, chopped fine
-olive oil for brushing crust

Make crust and allow to rise according to directions. Pre bake crust at 425 for about 5 minutes. Spread crust with sauce and diced garlic, cover with sliced mozarella. Sprinkle with basil. Brush crust with olive oil. Bake at 425 for about 15 mins, or until cheese is browned.

I know it's not the most gourmet and amazing meal you've ever seen, but it came out of the oven so pretty and nice that R said, "You have to take a picture of that pizza and put it up on your webpage." Now it will live forever, on my hips and on the www.

tags: pizza, recipe, pizza recipe

This is Finnegan, aka the world's most expensive cat. I've been rereading my entries from this time last summer– that's when he broke his leg. We're not really sure how; there was just a crash and a yowl and a hiss, with no one nearby to witness. After expensive x-rays and splints (2 of each), and a month of hobbling across the floor he turned out just fine.

That is, except for his right eye. We'd given him antibiotics for it twice, but the eye kept watering and oozing icky junk. The only way for the vet to difinitively tell us what was wrong with him was an expensive eye swab and out of state laboratory test. We resisted until this May, and then finally agreed to the expensive test. (I did get to watch the vet put green gunk in his eyes and look at them under a black light, which was sort of cool.) Anyway, would you like to know the diagnosis? Allergies. The cat has allergies. When his eye flares up now we give him an ointment that he hates. I tackle him and wrap a towel around him, and R puts the ointment in his eye. Sometimes we get scratched, but we're usually pretty fast and stealthy.

This cat had better live at least 17 years, because in vet bills alone we've spent over $1,500 on him in the last year. (Shhh! Don't tell my mom!) Thank goodness we love him.

tags: cat, broken leg, allergies