Gone Fishin'

Keith's dad loves fishing. He tries to go about every other weekend during fishing season up here. He takes his big boat and drives down to Whittier to take her out on the Prince William Sound and fish. And this weekend, we went with him.

Friday afternoon right when we got off of work, Keith and I headed out to meet up with the boat. We drove about an hour south out of Anchorage along the coast line until we got to the tunnel. We had to wait there for about 15 minutes and then we drove through to Whittier.

In Whittier we met up with the boat (that's about all that there is to do in Whittier) and got going. Friday night we threw out shrimp pots, and found a good place to camp for the night. And also convinced a stubborn 3 year old that the toilet on the boat was not scary. And then we crammed in to the boat to sleep.

After sleeping, we got to fishing, and I got seasick. Luckily all the sick went into the ocean, but that set the tone of the day for my stomach. Then we fished. I caught my first ever fish pretty early in the morning, but it was a useless tom cod. He was big, though, and I was proud that I caught him! After that I mostly let other people fish, cause I still felt icky.

We fished and ate and fished for a few more hours, and never got anything worth keeping except one red snapper- did you know that fishes have tongues? I didn't, but this snapper sure had a tongue on him. I kind of helped clean him, too. But mostly I just held the ziploc bag open to put the fillets in after Chuck cut them off. That part of the trip was nice... we found a very still cove to put the boat in for a bit.

Also, we saw really cool porpoises. They swam with our boat for a few minutes. They were so pretty! And fast. And then they swam away from us.

The last thing we had to do was get our shrimp pots. So we drove back and found the buoys and pulled up the pots. Pot 1: some shrimp. Pot 2: lots of shrimp. Pot 3: lots of shrimp. Pot 4: a small octopus, and 3 shrimp. Keith accidentally dropped that one back into the ocean. So now we're down to 4 pots. Pot that just got promoted to 4: some shrimp. Want to know the secret to catching shrimps? Cat food. Apparently they love it. They are little scavenging bottom feeders, after all. Then I held more ziploc bags open so we could throw shrimp into them after their heads were ripped off. I'm not much one for ripping the heads off of things, especially not while they're still alive. Did you know, by the way, that shrimp swim backwards? I learned that as the head ripping was happening.

Anyway, after we finished fishing, we took the boat back into Whittier, grabbed dinner at the best little fish fry place, and drove back through the tunnel and home.

Ready for my take on fishing? Here it is:

Pros:

1. You get to eat yummy things after if you catch them
2. You get to go to pretty places in Alaska, on a boat
3. Sometimes you see porpoises and other such wildlife
4. You can say you've caught a fish

Cons:

1. Seasickness
2. You probably have to touch dead and dying fish
3. Sometimes you won't really catch anything
4. Seasickness

I think I will not become a fisherwoman. Maybe I'll fish every year or two, but I'm not going to be creating a new hobby all of a sudden. But tonight we're going to eat our shrimps, so that'll be delicious!

89 Days

I have a lot of planning to do. A lot. And only 89 days to do it all in- yikes!

Keith proposed to me on Thursday. Since we met at work, he wanted to let everyone there be involved in that. Here's what happened: I was sent home early because of the weather (we're a nursery- weather is directly related to how much we have to do) so I'd been home for a while. Then my boss called and asked me to come back in for half an hour or so to help one of our important clients to look at some plants. So I drove back to the nursery, all annoyed about having such a ridiculous job to do, and got there just after the client was supposed to have arrived. So I went inside, and the girl at the front desk told me that they were out back by our pond.

As I buttoned on my work shirt, I rushed out the door, and just about ran into Keith. He'd set the whole thing up, and had plants arranged around the door so it looked nice, and was wearing his nice suit. I just started kissing him right away, because I was so excited! Then he told me how much he loves me, and handed me a bouquet of beautiful pink roses. He got down on his knee, and asked me to marry him, and I said Yes!

We're engaged! Hooray! I'm way excited. And a bit overwhelmed.

Which brings me back to the title of this post: 89 days. That's how long I have to plan until the big day. And I have no idea where to start. Yikes!

Anyway, if anyone has advice for smoother wedding planning or cute ideas, let me know!

Blogger

I'm the worst ever blogger.

Is it because my life is boring? Maybe.

Solstice Carnival

So, I'm a few days late in blogging about this, but it was just such a fun, spontaneous thing that I wanted to share.

Monday was June 21st, which is the summer solstice. That made it the longest day of this year, and up here in Alaska, that means the sun is up all night. I mean, not really up, but it sets and then it's dusky and then the sun is rising again. So solstice is a big deal.

On Monday after work, Keith was driving over to my house, when he passed by a carnival. Immediately, he called me to tell me about it. He was so excited. He gets so cute and little-boy-ish about things like that. It's incredibly endearing. Anyway, we decided we'd go to the carnival.

Ok, you know those rides that they pack up and move around and how they're kinda jerky and not all that awesome? Well... yeah. I guess we're not as young as we used to be, cause Keith and I were getting pretty dizzy by the second ride or so. But we pushed through it, and had a blast. Best solstice carnival I've ever been to.

We rode the Ferris Wheel first, cause it's the most romantic... and I learned

first hand that Keith's not kidding when he says he's scared of heights!

I think my favorite part about the evening was just how much fun Keith and I had laughing together. It's kind of been a weird couple months, dating like a real couple as we live in the same city (finally!) I've loved it, but we get so comfortable with just being together, that we've started being a little bit boring. Mostly, I love just coming home after work, and having Keith come over and make dinner with me, and then channel surfing, or running errands, or playing games, and talking about everything in life. But it was really refreshing to just get out and go on a little adventure, break the routine up a little, and just laugh together.

I'll let the happily-in-love-for-many-years couples in my life be the experts on the subject, but if I were to throw in my two cents, I'd say that a little spontaneity is good for a relationship. I hope that Keith and I keep doing fun, sweet, spontaneous things for each other for many, many more years to come.

Date Night

Such a fun date night with my sweetie boy. We made super good dinner. Pork chops and mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli... mmm! I've figured out the secret to really good pan-cooked pork chops in about 10 minutes. Keith said it was the first pork chop he'd ever really liked. Then we watched Chopped. We watch a lot of Food Network. Next, we were off to the brand-new movie theater here, where we bought tickets and then had a few hours to kill. So we walked around, and Keith showed me the work he'd done (the company we work for has the landscaping contract for the shopping plaza there) this week, and found ice cream. Um, raspberries mixed into black cherry ice cream in a chocolate-dipped waffle bowl= delicious! Then we saw the Karate Kid. That was fun. I am so glad that I'm not that kid's mother. Also, that I don't live in China. Anyway, now I'm home and don't have any roommates here, and I am a little bored... and it's making me really wish that I were married to Keith. I don't like him dropping me off, and then going home to Kevin and Greg. I just wish he lived here with me, forever and ever and ever.

Alaska Sunshine

It has been an absolutely astounding week here in Anchorage. The rare kind of week where there is more sun than cloud. We broke into the 60's, even. And I am getting some sun!

Anyway, I just wanted to express joy over the sun... but it's not that fun to blog about the weather.

Home Sweet Home

I have a bed!

Oh, it is blissful!

I am so excited to sleep over springs and a mattress, and elevated off of the ground tonight.

It will be lovely.