As the weather gets a little colder, finally, the list of Things to Do grows longer. What perfect timing, then, for our great friend Arthur to show up!!!
I have decided to hashtag Arthur’s visit with the moniker “worst vacation ever.” I decided this right off the bat so that Arthur’s expectations would be severely lowered, and they would be excited about all of the plans I concocted for their visit!
Here is a list of what we have done so far:
- Tried to climb a mountain but it was too windy. We were almost blown away. WOOOOOOO!
- Tried to go to a brewery but it was closed for the season. Nice one.
- Shoved Arthur in a large play pen with crazy puppies. Left to go do errands. “Good luck!”
- Arthur survived and seemed okay. Excellent.
- ATE PIZZA AND ZUCCHINI. That does not qualify for worst vacation ever, that’s just plain awesome. Thanks Shawn Goggins.
- Got up early to drive Shawn to work.
- Tried to go to a local awesome bagel shop. The bagel shop was closed. Nice one.
- Waited impatiently at a coffee shop for my paycheck to go through so I could promptly go hemorrhage money on dog things.
- Finally got the check and headed to Home Depot where we:
- Pulled 65 2×4’s, 3 sheets of plywood, and a bunch of random other stuff and then:
- Loaded 65 2×4’s, 3 sheets of plywood, and a bunch of other random stuff into my Subaru. Thank you Arthur for figuring out how to finagle my car so that I could do this. I NEVER NEED A TRUCK NOW THIS IS AMAZING.
- Drove 23 miles with this configuration, which was fine except for the ratchet straps making an unholy whistling sound the whole way which may have decimated mine and Arthur’s hearing. Nice one.
- Made Arthur sit through me teaching someone how to use technology for an hour. There was coffee though!
- Shoved Arthur in the pen with puppies AGAIN. Ha.
- Began building the puppy platform in an attempt to be like Ryno Sled Dog Kennel. Getting closer. Ways to go.
- Made Arthur and Shawn sit through Iron Will, the best mushing movie ever, with me, while I cried at… almost every scene. Run longer. Sleep less.
- Force Arthur to cuddle on the couch with a various cycle of dogs.
- Dragged Arthur on an early morning dog run, complete with me griping that we needed to “GET OUT THE DOOR!!!” Arthur seemed to forgive grumpy musher Will.
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- Arthur brought us this beautiful gift!
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- It’s real
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- When you put your visitor friends to work
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- … And they seem happy about it!!
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- OMG I can’t believe it fit
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- We received compliments #Subaru
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- Trying to be like Ryno
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- Ophelia led the whole way today!
Things that are still on the docket for the #worstvacationever:
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Other dog cuddles (with Bonnie!) Finishing the puppy platform.
- Building a gate for the large playpen so that we can re-claim the puppy pen gate in order to
- Build the second puppy pen.
- Wash down the first puppy pen and replace straw, etc.
- Cook a bunch of moose (yum!)(but for the dogs, not for us).
- Trim dog nails.
- Build a dog food box (there’s got to be a better word for this… Like a gigantic box for 500 lbs of dog food).
- Pick up 500 lbs of dog food.
- Load 500 lbs of dog food into dog food box. Thing.
- Put up yard lights.
- Organize and clean disaster / porch.
Things I have so far not made Arthur do and have not decided whether to make them do or not:
- Scoop all the poop.
- Bring the poop to the dump.
Mostly I figure at the very least, these last two are my job.
Joking aside, it’s all my job– and I wouldn’t trade it. Arthur is invited to help with any and all but I won’t send them out into the wild of the Big List without me there too. That’s kind of against my nature. But– I wouldn’t have already accomplished what we’ve gotten done this week without Arthur. Arthur and I tend to like to tackle big projects together, fail at doing them the way they are supposed to be done, and succeed at doing them despite that. We often joke about starting a moving company. I think the lumber adventure is a good episode of that. Classic us, we figured out how to move some heavy stuff in a way that is probably not recommended, but worked anyway.
It’s really great to have our friend here. And not just because I have this plan of enlisting them in kennel work. Most of all, it’s good to have a person here who knows Shawn and I, gets us, and has stuck with us through thick and thin. It’s kind of strange for me to introduce both Shawn and Arthur to this world that previously was only a memory to me, while I lived in Minneapolis this past year. Now I have friends and partners in crime who get both sides of the coin that is me. The city side (culture, art, being able to very freely be myself, and of course, Jimmy Johns) and the Alaska side (dogs, trees, mountains, this life that I love). I am lucky to have these people in my life. I’ve never really had that.
Thanks for visiting, Arthur. Now on to continue my #worstvacationever campaign… [simple_sf pid=758]
