Bring on the goodness.

The mangoes came out while we were in Terrace and I was terrified I'd missed the cheap-mango-shaped boat.  Frozen mangoes were what got me through my no-salt-no-dairy-no-anything-delicious month, and are excellent in smoothies.

Fortunatemente, when we went to Superstore on Monday they were still on for $6 per however many you could fit in one box and still have it look reasonable (i.e. 12).  Needless to day, I bought three boxes.

And then spent a few hours with a paring knife, the sixth season of Scrubs, and a large bowl.

Edited to add, as per Jane's request:  And then I spent the long, tedious, and non-photogenic process of spreading them in a single layer on parchment-paper-lined baking sheets so that they froze in individual chunks, and then frantically trying to get them into bags before they defrosted enough to stick together anyways, and then trying to fit them in my over-full freezer downstairs.

Meativore

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm dying to get home and start feeding myself again.  Our landlords are lovely, and having food prepared for me has been ridiculous and awesome, but I am meated out.  I haven't been hungry in maybe two weeks.  Proteins loom large in every meal, and Tina usually fills our plates, so that just four hours after an enormous omelette I'm choking down a hearty bowl of stew and a cheese-and-mayonnaise-bagel, followed some five hours later by more buffalo steaks.  With potatoes.  And corn.

And the food is excellent, but it's farm-people food.  Energy-heavy food.  Real food.  I am not built for real food, I am built for 21st-century-computer-rat food.  I want popcorn for lunch.  I want cereal at odd hours.  I want to eat an entire package of After Eight Straws (jusssssst did.  They were on for $1.37 at the Liquidation World and they were spot-hitting.  My equilibrium has been restored...for now).

This is why we have variety, n'est pas?  I appreciated the hell out of having someone else cook, and now I will appreciate the hell out of choosing my own meals and portion sizes and eating times.  Vive le change!

I feel so old-timey.

Tonight for dinner we had buffalo steaks, and then mincemeat for dessert. MINCEMEAT! Made with real meat! And suet! I feel like I should go run some laundry through the mangler before doffing my petticoats and falling asleep on my hay tick.

Alaska!!!

We weren't going to go to Alaska because it's quite far and we figured we'd probably just be doing it to say we had, but then Joel's buddy Mark, who is doing his rural rotation in Kitimat, emailed to ask if we wanted to take a trip out to see the glacier, which is further but WAY more awesome, and goes through Alaska.

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We saw this sign after about 2 hours of driving.

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Y'anyways, we got to Hyder, Alaska and stopped at a knickknack store because the sign advertised a free pound of fudge with the purchase of every dulcimer.  What?  We bought no dulcimers but picked up some chocolate-mint fudge, and I hugged a dog.  Obviously.

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Despite warnings and promises that we'd see LOADS of bears, we only saw the one just out of Terrace.  We also saw one ptarmigan, one grouse, and one marmot.  Slim wildlife pickings.

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We stopped at the 'toe' of the glacier for a picnic.  The roads to get there were thin and winding, but the roads that followed were thinner and windinger still.  I have never in all my born days been so nervous in a car.

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The glacier was suitably majestic and awe-inspiring, and went on for MILES in every direction.  I don't think the photos accurately portray how scarifyingly high up we were.  Trust me, kids.  Eet was high.

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The Bear Man, who lives at the lookout point and sells homemade postcards out of the back of his truck, told us there might be bears if we kept driving a few miles, but all we found was this random bunker.

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We'd been driving for about 7 hours by the time we hit the bunker, so we turned around and headed back home.  We stopped in Hyder, Alaska again because we were told to do two things while we were there: eat at The Bus (it is a literal bus),

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The food was surprisingly non-toxic, for bus-food.

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And then get 'hyderized.'  That's 150-proof moonshine in them thar glasses.  It was potent, and burned behind the solar plexus, but I have definitely drunk worse things in my life.

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Afterwards the bartender tips the shot glasses upside down and lights the alcohol fumes on fire.  It's rad.

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The moonshine made me wobbly on my pins for maybe half an hour, but the greasy bus food helped soak it up.

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And then we drove home.

This is a teaser.

I went to Alaska today. What?

I'll post more, with photos, tomorrow or Monday. Just know that I've been Hyderized.

Ees about time!!!

I am a licensed driver! I will finally be having my sweet sixteen party now, you can all come to disco bowling and we'll have pizza and cream soda. I can fit, like, twelve people in my parents' mini van, if you double-up on seatbelts.

Ok for real, though. After twelve years of being That Girl, the one that you always have to pick up, I can drive myself to come visit you now. Except I'm in Terrace. Which was looking suspiciously like Victoria this morning between 8:30 and 9:15, cyclists around every turn. But I didn't hit any of them! And I only ran amber lights when it was too dangerous to stop, and I shoulder-checked like a shoulder-checking dervish, and I only forgot to take off the e-brake once.

And THEN, as I'm pulling out of the parking lot on my first ever solo drive I almost get nailed by a senior citizen coming in to be recertified. Circle of life, my friends. For every license given, one must be taken away.

Pups!

Life goes on, I suppose

Sad face, my friends. If I weren't typing this on my wee iGadget I'd go look up a very sad .gif to put here. My laptop is le broke. I know! And I was having such a good run of blogging! With pictures!

Fortunatemente for you (and mostly for me, since I'm in Terrace for another ten days) I have this iDoohickey. The intarwebs in my hand! So I will perhaps continue to blog? Sans photos. Which is EXTRA sad today, because I went to the lake with one of the doctor's wives (who is also the mother of one of Joel's classmates who is dating a friend of mine) and her two sausage-dogs and these dogs are UNRELENTINGLY hilarious. They run so fast and their legs are so short The lulz!

It was clouded over and doom-ish looking as we left town but I wore my swimsuit in good faith and high optimism and the sun broke through and it was positively roasty. The dogs chased squirrels and Diane gardened and I went for a bit of a kayak through some feeds that made me feel Amazonian. I wish you all could have been there.

We did not think this through ahead of time.

Auntie Lois has been teaching me to drive so I can take a road test in Terrace where, if I make a mistake, I will not automatically kill a cyclist (I am looking at you, Victoria).  There's this hilarious blind corner going up a hill where there's one of those mirrors up on a post like they have in grocery stores so they can see you stealing things, and that's how you're supposed to see around this corner and I shriek every time and Lois never does.  She has nerves of steel.

ANYway, this evening Joel had to get to the hospital but I had to learn to park so we drove him to work and then jaunted off to the Walmart so I could pull in and out of stalls, and then we trundled off home to where Lois' car was parked before realizing that we had to get the car back to the hospital so Joel could get home.

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Fortunately, this is Terrace and even though the hospital is across town and some ways out, it was only a 20 minute walk in the late June sunshine to get from there back to my house and Lois' car.

Joel and Rachel go to the moon

Everyone complains that there is nothing to do in Terrace, and I can see how that's sort of true once you've eaten at the Taco Bell, like, six times. But there are a mazillion things to do AROUND Terrace. Like visit the lava beds.

Lava everywhere!  It's like being on the moon!

 I am a moon-explorer!

Careful!  There is no gravity on the moon!

You know what else is on the moon?  Waterfalls! 

Teeny museums!

Bears!  [Bear not pictured because we were too delighted and terrified to get a decent shot.]

Good PR

Ok so.  Today is Joel's day off AND it's Seafest in Prince Rupert and everyone says you should go to Prince Rupert if only for the drive.  So we went to PR, and drove all the way there in this.

But!  We drove home in this:

It absolutely dumped rain during the parade, but it was still totally worth sitting through if only for this guy:

And it's not a festival unless you're eating something on a stick.

Also, there were free donuts.  What?

[Not pictured: second go-round of free donuts.]

Also, Joel got some delicious (allegedly) salmon

and I got a delicious crepe.

And Joel got to stand by some shiny cars

And I got to pet a horse

and Joel ended up in the dog house

but I ended up in the naughty chair

So, you know.  Fun for everyone.

Aliens watching me pee.

Our landlords are super-sweet but also olderish (is 70 still old?  Or is 70 the new 20?) so when they ask me what I'm up to for the afternoon I don't always feel like 'dickering around on the internets' is a viable response.  So I tell them I'm going to the coffee shop to 'get some work done' (where 'work' looks suspciously like googling my own name for an hour).
ANYways, so I've been sitting at the Elephant Ear every afternoon with a coffee and a book and a laptop and a glass of water and maybe a homemade granola bar that our landlady packed for me, and the washroom is kind of dingy with pipes, but then it has these light fixtures:

Pretty?  Made of aliens?  Made of pretty aliens?

In which I finally get some Vitamin D

Okanagan of the North!  You are so rainy. 
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Today was the first gloriously June-y day and Joel got off early so we went for a walk around Ferry Island, where the trees are full of faces.

Tree face!

With hand-beards!  (Hand-beards not included.)

Also, the scenery is not terrible.

And then I had bottomless chai at the Hot House, which is apparently the Thing To Do (I recommend) and had a lovely chat with my lovely aunt, and it was uncannily like quasi-chatting with my mum because they have TWIN MANNERISMS much like I imagine me and boo do.

Aside: Jeans were a bad choice.

Surprise! There is internets in the sticks.

Intratubes!  Hello.  I am in Terrace.  Which is small, but not Yarrow-small, which is what I was picturing.  So color me pleased.

Also, I ate crab.  I ate crab.  I ate crab.  I ate crab.  In my defense, if crab is really fresh and dipped in garlic butter, it mostly just tastes like garlic butter.

That's not me, that's Peter.  Peter caught, cooked, and shucked the crab.  Alls I had to do was dip it in the butter and then cram it in my mouth.

Also, I should be bored, but I went out for coffee twice today and have a date with my aunt tomorrow.  Busy doings in small towns.

Busy day, this.

Needless to say, no blogging.

Continuing my non-streak of non-posting.

I forgot to not post yesterday because I was having lunch with my in-laws and dinner with the wedding party, and fake-marrying Boo off so we all know where to stand on Saturday.

I'd blog today, but we just took Grandma out for Thai food and then ate a pack of turnovers while they were still so hot you couldn't taste them without burning your tongue, and now I need to lapse into a sugar coma.

I probably could have blogged today...

...but I didn't, and now I can't because I have a date with this gal.  And this one.  And this one.  And possibly also this one.

Compensatory hat photo!!

Try and burn me now, sunshine.