Ramblings and Bramblings

The Great Procrastinator returns with apologies to my few readers... I really have been meaning to write. I've even conjured up topics... well... half topics floating around in my brain like dust motes in the attic. Thus, in leiu of writing nothing, I clean out the attic of all things semi-topical.

• On returning home from work this afternoon, Omegamom informed me that she had a snow day today. I find this amusing because we live in Alaska, and we just don't do snow days here. However, Omegamom telecommutes to Arizona, where they do do snow days. Three feet of snow has dumped on Flagstaff, while Prescott has been pushing a foot. We rarely have snows like that here in Urban Blight, Alaska. Our snow tends to fall in small batches that linger for a while... Okay, they linger for 7 or 8 months here in the low country, year-round up in the mountains.
• My marvelous Mum-in-Law posted an Arizona snow blog today... I find her pics of cars fighting their way up hills to be rather funny. Should Urban Blight get a foot or so of snow overnight, you wouldn't find us Urban Blighters trying in vain to drive through the stuff. We would face the storm like the stalwart Alaskans that we are. We'd stay home.
• Speaking of the homefront, I've been giving some thought lately to the oddnesses of shopping locally, Alaska-style. We pay about a buck a gallon more for local milk, and we do this largely on principal. Our milk comes from a herd of holsteins living about four miles down the road. The cheaper, non-local milk comes from California. I think there's something obscene about buying milk from California. It's shipped here on ocean freighters, for gawdsake. Still, the locals flock to buy it instead of supporting our neighbors who grow the good stuff. You gotta remember-- these are the same people that elected Sarah Palin to the governorship. They ain't all that bright.
• I wonder what they have to do to milk to ship it by boat from California to Alaska? The thought of it sends shivers up my spine.
• I've been wanting to increase my stock of kitchenwares lately, and accomplishing it within my 'shop-local' mantra has proven interesting. I've got two items on my list - big deep mixing bowls with handles and a spare set of stainless measuring spoons. Bread baking drives my need for mixing bowls... I run out of bowls before I can get to kneading up a second batch. The spare spoons are a pure convenience item... my primary set seems to always be in the dishwasher, and my secondary set has been relegated to the Pet Medicine Cabinet downstairs. I've checked everywhere from the gourmet shop to the hardware store for the mixing bowls... all for naught. (I finally broke down and asked the folks at the cooking store if they could order me some.) Until today, the spoons were also a bust. I had spotted exactly what I want online... Culinary Institute of America 18/10 Stainless Steel 6-piece Measuring Spoon Set, $19.99 plus shipping on Amazon. But Amazon ain't local, folks. So when I asked the proprieter of the local gadgetry if she could get me the spoons, she looked at me oddly, then walked about ten feet away and pulled them from a display rack. Price--twenty bucks, no shipping. So even in Alaska, shopping locally is the only way to go. (Granted, the local shop get's them from somewhere else, but at least we're able to trade a few dollars amongst friends.)
• For those of you who smirked while reading the last bullet, yes, we have a Pet Medicine Cabinet. 1 dog + 2 cats + 3 turtles + 6 chickens = 1 Pet Medicine Cabinet. Now wipe that look off your faces. You're just jealous because you didn't think of it yourself.