Chugach Foothills, Anchorage, AK

Chugach Foothills, Anchorage, Alaska
Originally uploaded by djwudi

My childhood friend Michael Hanscom posted a cool little "memory map" that he made via Google Maps and Flickr. Mike has added little Flickr-notes to the picture, and I added a little comment below that...feel free to have a look at my childhood neighborhood.

The southern edge of the photo shows the forest I peered at from my bedroom window on winter mornings...moose would strut in and out of it regularly. During the summer I would wander around back there with tons of mosquito repellent on, whipping the heads off dandelions with fireweed stalks.

I don't know why I'm blogging this today...it may have to do with the anniversary of my mom's passing coming up. This Monday it will have been nineteen years since she died. I tend to think of my increasingly distant childhood around this time of year...I have felt less gloom these past few years. Making a little ofrenda to Mom for 2006's Day of the Dead helped...I never did get a picture of that thing posted here. I have a couple shots sitting on a drive at home. I'll make a note to get one of 'em up for you, dear audience. I'm going to try for a bigger ofrenda this year with some friends at a Day of the Dead bbq that we're planning...I may even make some alcapurrias for it. Stay tuned, true believers...

Audioblogging at the end of the honeymoon

At the end of this post is my first Audioblogger recording, from the shore at the Cape Disappointment National Park. I wanted to see if I could get my beat-up Nokia 6010's mic to pick up the surf for you, my beloved audience. Let me know if it sounds like much of anything...

Kirsten and I had a wonderful honeymoon in Seaview, WA this past week. We stayed at a little cottage and spent the week sunbathing, recovering from sunburns, keeping the mobile phones off most of the time, relaxing, etc. This Monday we'll both get back to the daily grind of our respective non-profits.

We will soon post more wedding pictures on my Flickr page, with a corresponding link from our wedding Web site. On the wedding tip, I must thank everyone who offered me cool suggestions! I tend to worry too much about how things might turn out, and planning the wedding reception's background music was an example of this. The music seemed to go over well, when it wasn't totally drowned out by conversation, which was most of the time. ;)