commute time, shortened

I recently acquired Rybi, a new-to-me bike given to me by Ryan before he left for Homer. It's blue, has new gears and a new seat, and rides smoothly. While breaks that curl around the handlebars of a road bike are not my favorite, I am getting used to them. The bike fits me quite well height-wise, so it is easier to have my hands in the curl rather than the top part of the bar than it has been on previous road bikes I've used. The nice part is that it takes a shorter amount of time to get to work or run errands now. I have yet to conquer one of the hills here, but that gives me a goal to work toward.

Other Alaska gear I have acquired since arriving here is Yak Trax Walker for more traction on ice and snow. They slip over the bottom of your shoes. I am also looking at snowshoes for winter hiking, more fleece jackets and winter boots. The hard part about winter boots is that most women's boots are either fashionable but useless or functional but ugly as sin. The search continues.

Today in the mail, I received my shipment from Vegan Essentials, which included the mouth watering Jokerz and Mahalo bars from GoMaxGo! Foods, Primal Strips Seitan Jerky (in mesquite and texas bbq flavors) and Sour Mambas. Shipping wasn't outrageous (for Alaskan standards) and I'll probably order again when this runs out.



See my eyes crazed with GoMaxGo! goodness?

I moved to my second temporary office this week. Now they are done building my office down there and once I have a computer, I'm all set to move. I have appreciated working next to Adam though and we celebrated by declaring Friday Snuggie Day. My mom brought one up for me when she visited.

I received my first paycheck today and although it was only for three days of work (because of how the pay periods go), I think I like this whole salaried staff thing.

This weekend is a three day weekend. Alaska celebrates the day it became a state on Monday, so we get the day off from work! It will be nice to have an extra day to relax, do laundry and putter around the house/town. Liz and I are going to pick out paint colors at the hardware store, shop at Salvatore Armani (aka Salvation Army), have coffee, enjoy a vegan potluck and whatever else we can come up with. Can you believe I will have been here a month on Sunday? This time has flown by.