Visiting Fairbanks!

Finally! We’ve decided to take a short and cheap kinda-expensive three day trip to Fairbanks next month. We’re taking Friday off, flying up in the morning, renting a car, seeing old friends, staying downtown. Well, that’s the first day at least. The next day we’re driving out to Chena Hot Springs for the afternoon, spending the night there, soaking in the warm natural hot springs (hence the name) and basically enjoying ourselves. Finally, we plan on seeing the World Ice Art Championships. It should be awesome.

I gotta say that throwing some accumulated Alaska Air miles at a ‘I hate work’ problem really solves a lot of problems. Everyone should try it; I recommend you do it next.

Looking for a house in Anchorage.

Know what? The housing market in Anchorage is too expensive. Just take a look at the Alaska Multiple Listing Service website and try, just try, to find a quality house for less than 400,000 dollars.

Okay. Have you clicked-thru and tried to do a search? Just no selection whatsoever of anything resembling a quality house with a yard. We went and looked at 5 houses on Sunday and they were great. No, seriously. They were great houses. But, Jesus the prices! All were over $400,000 and a couple were over $500,000. For that kind of money I could (provided I worked there) get a house in a tony Illinois North Shore community with real sidewalks, maple trees, an excellent sense of community, etc. But not here in Anchorage. Just some random (but nicely done) subdivision tract housing.

Ugh.

It’s cold outside; too cold to ski Alyeska

I was really looking forward to skiing this weekend. Until yesterday work was really sucky and I wanted to clear my head by rushing down the mountains with very little to care about in the world. Unfortunately, it is currently -7F at Alyeska, there is a 12mph wind from the North and it hasn’t snowed for more than a week. Not a recipe for fun, I think.

While, admittedly, not as cold as it is in Fairbanks right now it is too cold to go skiing and (for me at least) to have any fun doing it. But, as it is a beautiful day (not one cloud in the sky) we may just drive down to Girdwood and have lunch at Jack Sprat’s with our friend who’s in town from South Carolina.

New Job

 

I got the word yesterday that I will be switching jobs. It makes me happy. I’ve grown disinterested in my current position and because of several factors I cannot do my typical solution which is to move to another town. So, rather than move back to Fairbanks or to Juneau and work for the Department of Law there, I’ve been trying to switch from robbery/assault to the Major Offender Unit. 

Here’s the blurb from the Department of Public Safety’s website:

The Major Offenders Unit (MOU) focuses on major alcohol and drug distributors statewide. The team is comprised of one AST sergeant, four AST investigators, an AST administrative clerk, and a full-time prosecutor from the Department of Law. The unit is also supported by a member of the Alaska National Guard Counterdrug Support Program.

The MOU works independently and supports other ABADE units as well as local departments and federal agencies as needed. Nearly every investigator has been Clan Lab certified and is called upon to respond to various locations to assist in dismantling clandestine meth labs.

Being located with the Alaska Interdiction Task Force in Anchorage the Major Offenders Unit shares a close working relationship with DEA as well as IRS, ATF, ICE, and the FBI.

It should be fun but I’ve only done one drug trial and only one illegal alcohol bootlegging trial (which is actually more than almost any other prosecutor in Alaska) so I am a bit nervous because the legal aspects of drug prosecution are inherently different from violent crime prosecuton. I’ll be starting in about one week.

 

Work sucks and the view should be better.

Following the ‘theme’ I started the other day, I must repeat that work sucks. It is now Sunday and I was at work yesterday from 9am to 3:30pm. I got home and the dog looked at me as if saying, “why do you even bother to come home? I need attention and you’ve been failing to do so recently.” So, I took her out to a nearby ballfield where she ran around like a crazy child. She sniffed. She pawed. She digged (just a little, thank God). She refused to play fetch with an old tennis ball until I liberally smeared salmon jerky on the ball to give it a nice smell.

 
A summer view of Denali (not from my office)

Today, again, I am here at work. Not as busy as yesterday but the clouds have moved in and my (previously) unobstructed view over Cook Inlet is now gone. I cannot make out the majestic appearance of Denali and Foraker in the distance and that is sad because the views are what make working in this office kinda worthwhile. The photo above was taken last summer from up north near Talkeetna so it’s not technically the same view I would have from the office on a clear day but it’s close enough for government work. So, that’s it for now. Off to court to finsh off the day.

No, that’s not where I’m headed today. It’s a different courthouse.
 

Weekend work sucks

It’s my time to work this weekend at work. That totally sucks. At least we’ve got more people now so I don’t have to work as many weekends as I used to. Bad thing is that the better half is skiing in Utah this weekend and I’m stuck at work.