Matthias & Michelle Cicotte

I thought when we had rappers tweeting about Jimmer, that would be the high point for rappers sending appreciative tweets about Mormons

2011-12-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

I was wrong:
https://twitter.com/#!/iamdiddy/status/149670615685677056

2011-10-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

Family Pictures!

We took pictures at Stork Park in Anchorage on Lincoln's birthday, October 1.

Finally, more pictures

2011-10-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

[Editor's note: Are you wondering why we haven't posted recently? It's because in Alaska there's only one high-quality internet provider, and they won't give you decent internet for less than about $100 a month, unless you get cable as well, in which case it's $150 a month. I am a cheapskate, so we have the $35 internet service which takes so long to upload pictures that , by the time I had all seven photos I wanted to post, the page started to freak out and they were lost. The Internet Gods spake thusly: "What hubris, mortal, to post seven photos with your crappy internet. WE DEMAND AN OFFERING OF $100/MONTH!!! Let this be a lesson." It would have been easier to get these pictures to you if I had carried them to you by crossing the Pacific on a raft built by Thor Heyerdahl. I got these five to load, and now I'm trying to load the last two, but the message on the "Upload Images" page says something like, "Yeah sure, I'll get right on that, pal." So I'm not getting my hopes up. In the meantime, here is a word-for-word transcript of a conversation between Lincoln and me today, illustrated by pictures I took a few weeks ago.]

Me: Hey Lincoln.

Lincoln: Hi Dad, what's up?

Me: Well, ASU has a big game coming up against Oregon next week, and we've had a lot of injuries along the offensive line, and we haven't been run-blocking real well, so they need a third-string right guard. They heard you were gigantic, so they want you to enroll at ASU and join the team.

Lincoln: WHAAAT!!! I can't play for ASU! How can I enroll in college if I can't even read?

Me: Trust me, reading is not required for NCAA athletes. Just ask Kemba Walker: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/29758/kemba-walker-recently-read-his-first-book

Lincoln: Well, this is exciting. How do I begin?

Me: We need to do some blocking drills and go over the playb-

Lincoln: WHOA, LOOK AT THE CEILING FAN!!!!!!
Me: Lincoln, I'm going to need you to focus; we only have a few days. Let's start with some stretches.

Lincoln: I'm all over it, Dad.

4th of July continued...

2011-07-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

We decided to go to the parade in downtown Anchorage for the first time. Normally for the 4th of July we've gone hiking or camping. Um, the parade left something to be desired. But it gave us a chance to snap these amazing photos, so no regrets.

Lincoln, sporting the bib Aunt Becky sent him. That kid knows how to melt any heart.

There was an older couple behind us who thought Lincoln was super cute. Don't blame them. I expect it from people, really. But I was surprised when I was at the grocery store a few days later and I heard from behind me, "Hey! I know that guy!" I continued on my way, not paying any attention to the voice until the guy ran up to the cart and said, "I remember him! I was the one standing behind him with my wife! We were just talking about him yesterday. He is soooo cute!" I was thoroughly surprised that they would remember him and then want to strike up conversation about him at the store. I know Lincoln is cute, but it's always nice when someone else says so and when you know they mean it. Especially strangers because they don't have the familial or friend obligation to say what they know you want to hear.

He's definitely a keeper. We are the luckiest parents in the world. More pictures to come.

2011-07-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

Don't be fooled...Lincoln cannot feed himself quite yet. However, one of his favorite things to do after I feed him is chew on his spoon. This is good solid entertainment for atleast 5 minutes. Enough time for me to do a load of dishes, which is working out quite well for us.

A few weeks ago, Matthias made me some sonoran hotdogs (I am spelling that wrong, I am sure). This is what they are:

bacon wrapped around a hot dog

melty cheddar cheese

slices of avocado

AMAZING!

I told Matthias that I never want to make regular hotdogs again. Ever!

We decided to give camping a try. Only instead of packing up and driving somewhere, we pitched our tent in the back yard. This was to ensure that we didn't get to the camping site only to find out that Lincoln would be keeping us up all night from being thrown off his nightly groove. Turns out it was a good decision. The little guy fell asleep all right, but woke up several times and just didn't have a great time all around. By 4:30 I was running inside with him and putting him in his crib so I could get a few winks of sleep before the day began. Oh well! We are talking bravely about going somewhere anyway and just dealing with some fatigue. We'll see if it pans out. This is him all bundled up for the night outside. And below is a picture of him trying on a warm, cozy hat to see if it fit so he could wear it if it got super cold. A typical night in Anchorage is somewhere in the low 40's.

I don't think it gets much cuter than this:

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

2011-07-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

2011-06-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

Drum roll....

Biggest burger in Alaska and possibly the whole world that you're looking at. It's called "Seward's Folly" on the Menu at a place in Talkeetna that we ate at. We couldn't resist ordering it, after seeing it on "Man vs Food" a couple of years ago. This was about 5 lbs total with 2 lbs of caribou meat (yum) as well as about 12 pieces of bacon, a zillion pieces of cheese, and a special sauce. We both agreed it was a bit difficult to eat and wouldn't order it again, but for the experience it was well worth it. And yes, Lincoln has a look of disgust in the background, if you couldn't tell. He couldn't believe his parents would order something so excessively fatty-mcfatterson. First of many times I predict we will embarrass him in public.

Besides being mortified of our special order, he spent the remaining time staring at our neighbors...

We went on a hike outside of Talkeetna that was gorgeous. It went around a large lake but there was a walkway to a smaller one as well:

Lincoln is a champion hiker. He really loves the backpack carrier. Probably a lot more than Matthias does, although Matthias never complains. He has the muscles of an iron man though.

2011-06-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

Though not "mobile" yet, Lincoln has his fair shair of tricks. He really loves to roll over from his stomach to his back. This can be difficult when we want him to stay on his stomach to work those muscles. So sometimes I put him on the boppy pillow to secure him in place...even though it doesn't really work his muscles that much since the pillow does all the work. But still, it feels like maybe his neck muscles are benefitting. Anyway, he found a trick to get out of the pillow:

He kept on going, too, since he was still half on/half off, and he had momentum, he made a couple more turns.

Some mornings before Matthias goes to work we get to do a little bit of hanging out and relaxing together. It's the best. Lincoln loves Matthias and always seems to save his biggest smiles for when he's around.

2011-06-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

My favorite hike in Alaska is on the Winner Creek Trail. We took George and Wendy on it this past Monday. Amazing!

Crossing the ravine made me more nervous this time I think because Lincoln was with us. He crossed with matthias and apparently had a great time. This was his face after crossing:

I went first so as they crossed I was biting my nails a bit.

There was a line of people waiting on both ends, so this is us trying to be patient:

So I really love this picture. He was trying to grab the camera band/necklace thing and squirmed a bunch to try and reach it.

I had to make cupcakes for our guests and I decided on a Snickerdoodle recipe. Snickerdoodle cupcake with cinnamon buttercream. Delish. Problem with it was it makes 30 cupcakes. We pretty much binged on them. Well, I'll speak for myself. I binged on them. I loved every second of it, too.

We went out to eat at the Glacier Brewhouse. They have great everything. We hardly ever get pictures with the two of us, so I made sure it happened:

And as I was loading up pictures from the visit from George and Wendy, I was SUPER sad to realize that somehow we never got a picture with the 5 of us--and not even with them and Lincoln!!!!! How did this happen? I'm way bad bummed about it. I guess we were having too much fun to remember? I hate it. I hope maybe somehow we got one on their camera that I forgot about? The only one that comes close is the picture with the 4 of them hiking ahead of me, but that's from behind. Oh well..................................

2011-05-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

This morning Lincoln was so tired but more than that he was hungry. So I laid him down in his crib and fed him a few ounces while his eyelids slowly glued shut for a nap. I pulled the bottle out after he finished and he had completely zonked out. His lips even stayed in the same place they were in as he was sucking on the bottle, his lower lip curled and a little pushed out. I had to take a picture! If you click on the picture it will give you a much better view of what I'm describing.

Isn't that adorable? As cute as that is, I don't know what is more heart-melting for me than the next picture. I've often noted how Lincoln holds his hands the same way as Matthias does when they're relaxed to his side. While we were hiking a couple of days ago, I noticed that both Matthias's and Lincoln's hands were in sync:
I love it when I can pick out things in Lincoln that came from either Matthias or me.

We hiked with Matthias's brother and wife, George and Wendy, to Thunderbird Falls. It's not the most jaw-dropping waterfall you've ever seen, but was a good warm-up hike for their first day here.

It was a beautiful hike along the way, too. It's been really fun to go and enjoy the summer weather with George and Wendy. I keep telling them this would be a great place for them to buy a summer home. Which is totally true, but definitely self-serving as well.

Lincoln's face couldn't be beat as we were walking along.

Lincoln adds so much fun to everything I normally do in the day. As I cook or clean the kitchen, sometimes I hand him whatever made up toy I can think of for him to play with. For awhile, it was an empty Cool Whip container. After it had dropped a couple of times, though, it turned into my toy and I amused myself greatly with turning it into his hat. I have about a dozen different pictures now that resemble this:

2011-05-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

I caught Lincoln in the middle of a sneeze:

And I know these are nearly all the same, but they aren't to me, okay?

And I like ALL of them for different reasons.

I can't explain how, but he seems to get cuter by the day.

2011-05-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Lincoln discovered his tongue this past Sunday and wouldn't keep it in his mouth all day...

It was so adorable! Everyone at church was laughing because he was sticking his tongue out and just holding it there. We think it might be because he had his first tooth come in this week. Matthias noticed it on Tuesday evening so maybe it had come in already on Sunday and he was just feeling it with his tongue? I'm so excited Lincoln has his first tooth! It's so much fun to see him grow.

Last weekend we had a picnic in our front yard.
I couldn't get the above picture to flip clockwise no matter how I tried. Anyway, the weather here has been AWESOME! We'v been trying to soak in every ounce of sunshine we can get.

This is Lincoln watching Matthias eat his sandwich. His mouth open wide, trying to take a bite of it himself:

Poor guy. All in due time, little fella.

Some more fun pictures from the past few weeks:

This is how he sleeps...his head cranked to the left. Every night I go in and turn it back around at least once, sometimes twice. His head is a little bit flatter on his left side than on his right because of this trend. We googled baby helmets on google images just for fun recently, which I highly recommend doing if you ever have a few extra minutes sometime. Very entertaining.

More pictures will come soon of his "photo shoot" yesterday that resulted in some of the cutest pictures of him yet. Too many to put in this post, though.

2011-04-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here's Lincoln on his first Easter ever:

The angle doesn't necessarily flatter his mid-section.

But if you like cuddly, squeezable babies, then it does. Which I do, by the way.

Lincoln loves to babble while he eats, making it spray all over. It's really cute.

Here he's telling me that he'd love to learn how to play the harmonica.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this:

Getting all bundled up to go outside is one of my favorite activities with Lincoln because he is so stinkin cute in his warm clothes. He looks so cozy, the feeling rubs off on me, too.

2011-04-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know how he does it, but he manages to get chunkier and cuter every day...

Matthias's chin was the target for Lincoln's exploration the other day. He often gives "kisses" (although I'm sure that's not what they really are to him) by opening his mouth up wide and face planting against your face, then wiggling his tongue in and out. In case you're wondering, it tickles when he finds your neck instead of your cheek.
He paused to pose for me. What a champ, right?

Another great part about having Mom around was that she was able to get some pictures of Lincoln and I together. Hardly ever does that happen. It's great that Linc will know he had a mother during his first year.

We were all fancied up for church, so we had to capitalize and get a Grandma-Lincoln picture:

It was so cute to see Mom read Lincoln books. Of course, being a preschool teacher, she's a fabulous story teller. But on top of that, Lincoln would look up at her every 10 seconds or so and stare at her as if to say, "Is it true?"

We just loved spending time with Grandma! We spent lots of times in different stores, particularly Target and Walmart, to get this and that for some projects around the house. Those always seem to get done when she's around. Our apartment was a new place by the time she left and thanks to her I'm organized with even a little room to grow in this place.

We celebrated Matthias's birthday on the 14th and then Grandma babysat Linc while we went downtown overnight and ate some fabulous food (because that's what makes birthdays so much fun, right?). We were grateful to have a few dates while she was here. Thank you, Mom!!

I loved watching Lincoln watch Mom. He would stare at her as she told him fabulous things about being an "angel baby", a handsome boy, and all things nice. He ate up that attention like his first-morning feed. This is him watching Grandma:

One of my favorite things to do lately, now that we have a piano, is play with Linc. Most often he is not sitting in my lap, but every once in awhile I let him sit with me. He hasn't figured out that pushing down with his hand creates noise, but he mostly strokes the notes like a puppy dog, probably admiring their shine.

And for some of the best shots yet...bath time. If you asked Lincoln what his favorite thing to do is, and if he could answer in words, he would say "splash water during bath time". He loves kicking the water and trying to grab water falling on top of him.

His second most favorite thing is the little massage he gets afterwards:

A prize will go to the person with the best caption for this photo:

We miss you, Grandma!

2011-04-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

My mom came to visit!

Since we took so many pictures, I'm doing them in segments. One thing, among many, that was great about her being here was that she helped Lincoln learn how to eat from a spoon so much better. He used to just stink at it but now he actually will open his mouth for it most of the time when I tap his top lip with it. For a first-time spoon feeder that is a great relief.
Lincoln learned to roll from his tummy to his back. He just leans his head over to one side and the rest of his body follows. I think he did this by accident the first time and then thought it was really cool and continued to do it. This has hindered his "tummy time", however, since whenever I put him on his stomach to get exercise, he just rolls to his back. I've tried to solve this by putting him on his stomach on the Boppy pillow, which has sides to it and comes around him to secure him in place. It kind of works, although it can make him a little too comfortable where he just lays his head down on it and stays there for awhile. I don't know how he'll ever learn how to crawl or even roll from his back to his stomach. But I'm not too anxious for him to be mobile...as long as he gets there eventually.

I love this face:

This outfit is one my mom got in Utah over Christmas break for him. It is an 18 month outfit...he is not even 7 months. What a chunk.

Are you calling me fat?

Something I really love about this age: he loves anything that makes noise and can be entertained by such things for long amounts of time. Example: tissue paper. Lincoln played with this piece for forever. I have a couple pictures where he got lost in it when it covered his face.

I had to put this one on even though it ended up a little fuzzy. It's from today (Easter) while eating rice cereal. We were trying so hard to get him to smile for the camera and this is the only one we were able to get.

We had a pretty relaxed Easter. After church we took a drive down the coast while Lincoln slept. We didn't fix a big meal (my dinner was a spinach smoothie and veggie chips) but instead just did a little of this and a little of that. I wish we could have had time with Lincoln's grandparents, aunts, uncles and maybe even cousins, but that is just how it goes I guess. The sunlight is getting to the awesome phase...it comes up around 6 a.m and goes down somewhere close to 10 p.m. I just love Alaska summers! We are looking forward to having Matthias's brother and his wife, George and Wendy, come visit in a few weeks. More pictures from my mom's visit coming soon...

This is why God invented YouTube

2011-04-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

2011-04-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

I love this kid.

2011-04-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

This is Lincoln's favorite play-thing:

It's a crinkle book and makes all the crinkly sounds a little boy could possibly want. He grabs a page with each hand and just moves his fingers open and shut for minutes and minutes of glorious fun. Favorite toy #2: Butterfly with crinkle wings. My sister, Andrea, gave this hand-me-down to him during Christmas and he really can't get enough of it. Again...his focus is all on the wings and the fabulous orchestra of crinkles he can make with them. A not-so-favorite thing...lying on his stomach. Yes, he still isn't a big fan. But we are working so hard on it, right Lincoln? He's definitely improved and can push himself up so his chest is off the floor but more often than not he rests his head or just peers up to glance at the closest toy or person. My favorite maneuver, which I have yet to get on camera because they always turn out blurry, is the "superman". This is where his legs are lifted up and his arms are stretched out to his sides with his head up looking straight ahead.

Here are the chunkiest legs you'll ever see. Matthias can't wrap his fingers around these thunder thighs. We're quite proud of our chunky boy.

After a baby shower I threw, I had some extra party favors. Lincoln got his hands on one and tried to eat it with the wrapper still on. He persevered for so long...I'm surprised he didn't make it through the cellophane bag with all that chewy-slobber action.

And the guilty look:

We are fortunate to know a few people who are finished with baby toys and

paraphernalia who have passed them generously on to us. Here is one of the ones we are most excited about due to all of the fun sound-making options. He hasn't really figured out how to properly manipulate/use all of them, but it's a great way for me to get dishes done or fix dinner. Win-win. Church can be a long 3 hours for this little guy. He isn't as successful at sleeping in his car seat anymore and my arms just don't do the trick either for more than a half-hour or so. This is him after church one Sunday completely wiped out after eating. I think he looks perfectly adorable.

And finally....St Patrick's Day! We did our traditional corned beef pizza and my pistachio chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Not to mention these delicious Irish potato candies that are made of cream cheese, coconut, and rolled in cinnamon to look like little potatoes. We Cicotte's like our decadent food.

2011-03-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Look at this cutie:

I found this top at a clothing swap I went to last week. So excited it is the perfect size for him!
We got this jumpy swing at Kid-to-Kid that he LOVES. He doesn't really bounce in it yet, but likes to hang and watch me do things.

Two funny things about this picture: (1) This bib is so funny looking on him. I took a picture with him wearing this bib several months ago and he was drowning in it. Now it's just about the perfect size when we're trying to eat things like squash and peas. (2) He is fascinated with his hand, particularly his left. He stares and stares at it like I might stare at a piece of peanut butter pie on the dessert menu.

Here are some pictures from the hospital while he had RSV. He was such a trooper. Didn't complain when they put on a pink bracelet or the ridiculous looking gowns.

We watched a movie that night and just tried to cheer him up the best we could. He wouldn't crack a smile for anything. But he wasn't showing any really scary symptoms so I was pretty sure we'd be out of there the next day.

This was my favorite part: his glowing toe. They were monitoring his oxygen levels and I guess this is the best way to do that.

2011-03-01T20:44:00.000-08:00

We are missing everyone! Thanks for the prayers offered for Lincoln while he was sick with RSV. He was a champion fighter and is mostly better. Here are some pictures with more coming soon, as these are a bit outdated. Been a bit busy...
He is getting better at being on his stomach. He can handle it for several minutes at a time now without breaking down.

This is the cute little fella smiling at Matthias, who seems to draw out the biggest smiles.

He is still loving those fingers. This is the classic "two finger" look.

Lincoln has one of the greatest glazed over looks I've ever seen. Several times a day he'll start to fix his stare on some unknown object and nothing breaks it until something inside him snaps himself out of it. Here's a great example:

2011-02-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

This is what I saw the other morning when I went to peek at Lincoln:

He's so sprawled out, I think his left hand could be touching the Aleutians, and his right foot could be touching Juneau.

I've mentioned the love he has for his hands. Well, it's for all hands apparently. He gnawed on Matthias's hand during a whole episode of Prison Break.
This kid has a big head, if you don't know that already. He's in the 90% percentile for his head circumference. I was trying to get a shirt off the other day and it got stuck mid-way. It might've been mean of me, but I couldn't help but have a quick photo shoot.

Mean or not, I don't regret it.

2011-02-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, Lincoln had his first experience with a spoon and rice cereal. He was making the funniest faces. His first bite was the best, I think because I caught him off guard. But then he began pushing the spoon out with his tongue every time I attempted to feed him more. I think he ended up eating about 2 tsps. Better luck next time. But for now, we have these entertaining photos: And for our personal favorite....

2011-02-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

So Lincoln went in for his second round of shots last Friday. He does really well as long as I stuff a bottle in his mouth a.s.a.p. after the shots. He forgets all about the trauma once that happens. Before that happens, his face is scrunched and purple and sounds are coming out of him the likes of which have never before been heard. Poor little guy. They did give him some super tough blue camo bandaids...does that make up for what they did? You'll have to ask him. The bandaids started out on his leg, but after his nap I came in to find him like this:

Later on, I found one on my sock. I wonder if they're scared to put any kind of stick on the kid bandaids? Those things were even having trouble staying on in the office as I finished feeding him.

I liked the look so much, I decided to stick it on more securely there for awhile, just because it made me smile. Mean? Look at the following pictures and decide if you wouldn't have done the same.

If Lincoln has an ounce of narcissism, it's for his hands. Those hands are hardly ever outside of his mouth. Occasionally he'll bring them out to chug down some milk or make a cool face for the camera (he aims to please), but for the most part you'll find him trying to stuff his whole fist(s) inside the confines of his mouth.

Exhibit A

He stopped to say, "What are you looking at?"
And then we have:
Exhibit B

He's not fooling around.

2011-02-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

So I found out at the doctor's that walkers are dangerous and should be thrown away. We got one for 5 bucks at a yard sale last summer. But his feet don't even reach the ground yet, so it's more like a safe chair for him to play on while I make food, etc. He was so intent on this toy. I love his look of concentration.

Poor little guy hates "tummy time". We are working on it every day. Trying everything to make it fun. Sometimes it works but not longer than a few minutes.

Love these pants:

This kid and his eyes...

2011-02-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

Lincoln was blessed on December 26, 2010. It was so perfect! He had the most adorable tuxedo made by Matthias's mom and the blessing itself was very special. We are lucky to have Lincoln and don't know how we ever lived without him.

This year Matthias got to be the narrator for the re-enactment of

Luke 2. He was fabulous!I was on a team with Kenzie for card games, who did all of the brain work behind our turns.

Lincoln likes the feeling of cloth on his face while he sleeps. Some people say this doesn't give him enough air. I tend to disagree. He has been breathing just fine.

Lincoln misses having so many people around who love to hold him. We are going to have to make another trip to Utah soon!

2011-01-31T17:15:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post a few pictures that show off this kid's amazing eyebrows. He gets them from Matthias. I love all the faces he makes with them...

And I was also thinking that I have never put a picture of him up where he is upset. It can be very deceiving...you may think that Lincoln never cries or whines. Here is proof that he does, occasionally. He is only human, he says. Sometimes he is just hungry or tired, dang it.

I loved these pictures of him on his play mat. From the looks of it, it may seem he doesn't enjoy it, is bored by it, or is maybe even a little bit afraid of it. It's actually one of his favorite things to do and he is getting really good at grabbing the toys that dangle down.

Some cute pictures of him taken right before our trip to Utah... We think he is actually teething since he is drooling everywhere and there are two white-ish spots on the bottom two spots.

We went to a Christmas party before leaving to Utah and took this one there:

I love sleeping pictures. He looks so peaceful...

Here he is with Aunt Sariah.

I love this kid. Being home with him is the funnest! He's getting much better at falling asleep in his crib, especially now that he has a mobile to entertain him with music, moving animals and a light show (I love craigslist...it was only $10!). He still fights going down at night but sleeps like an angel past 11:00 p.m. until nearly 10:00 a.m., waking up to eat 3 times to eat in-between but going right back down again. He's also "talking" a lot more, and can almost laugh.

I'm all caught up on pictures from December/January in Utah so the next ones will be more current. Miss you!

2011-01-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

Some more pictures from Christmas break...

Lincoln loves his Grandpa McMaster.

I love these little shoes! They are so adorable on him. I wish I had a similar pair for myself because of all the soft fuzz on the inside.

Contrary to what his face is saying, he really does love baths. I loved my parents' sink. It was the perfect size for Lincoln and so much easier than bending over the tub.

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping Lincoln? I especially love how he puts his lower lip out so often when he's sleeping.

Lincoln got to meet his nephews and niece, Gabe, Jake, and Mackenzie (from left to right) and his Uncle Justin.

We were laughing so hard at this...Lincoln fell asleep exactly in this position while being bounced on Matthias's lap. Good thing he's such a chunk, because it gave him quite a nice pillow.

Lincoln with his Aunt Regan.Check this cake out that Sariah and I made for Logan's birthday! Sariah and I both got this cake pan that makes a gigantic cookie-shaped cake. We put fudgey icing in-between the cookie layers...yum.

I just loved Lincoln's little Santa suit. Here he is with Grandma McMaster in front of his favorite Christmas toy: the tree! That kid could look at the Christmas tree for hours if we let him. I was grateful he can't yet grab things, or those ornaments would've been toast!

2011-01-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

We blessed Lincoln on the 26th while most of our family was in town. More pictures are coming in the mail since my mom's camera has most of them, but I thought this was a cute one, though a bit blurry:

We have the cutest boy. I love being home with him and watching his funny faces.

2011-01-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorites:
We got this adorable shirt that says, "Beware of Bears", and one morning I realized that it would go perfectly with his jacket that had bear ears on the hood....unfortunately he thinks fashion is a bit of a bore, according to this picture. But at least I get to enjoy his outfits.

He started raising up his fist in the air all of the time, although he doesn't do it very much anymore. But this was his signature move for about two weeks.

The best part of being in Utah was spending time with both sides of the family. Here Lincoln is with Grandma and Grandpa Cicotte. This was the last night they'd be in town before they flew back to DC.

We also had a movie night with my sister, Andee, and niece, Mackenzie. I guess that's a way of saying that Lincoln was caught up in the middle of a girls' night. Sorry, Linc. We watched "Step It Up 3", which has no plot whatsoever, but a lot of really great dancing, and had the traditional girl's night snacks...popcorn, chocolate, etc.

And finally....a classic picture of the barf ball that he can be sometimes. He looks so innocent, doesn't he?

2011-01-20T16:39:00.000-08:00

A few days before coming back up to Anchorage, my mom and I went to Midway to see the Ice Castles. They weren't completed all the way yet, but were still totally amazing. If you're in the Utah County area, these are really worth the trip. We pulled Lincoln around on a sled the creator of the ice castles provided for us. Unfortunately it was too cold to let Lincoln enjoy any of them, but I'm pretty sure he slept through the whole thing anyway.

2011-01-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

Since there are so many Christmas break pictures I decided to try and do a few each day this week. I love this first one so much...my mom bought this hat for him and we were trying it on at home. I just love this face:

"I look ridiculous.", he says.

Next, yesterday we went to see "snowzilla", a giant snowman that someone built in their front yard close to downtown. We'd heard about it in the news down in Utah the Christmas before last but they had taken it down before we got back because the neighbors had complained about the traffic it was creating. This is Lincoln on the way in the car. He is fascinated by these toys that fasten to the car seat handle. We call them the "Sassy's" because they have "sassy" written on the back of each one. Apparently this is a brand name. We just thought they were super sassy and wanted everyone to know it.

And Snowzilla! Look at Matthias and how small he is in comparison!
Finally, I couldn't help but post this from just an hour ago. Look at this cool boy. He is practicing for his high school days already (see right hand). He's gonna break some hearts.

A New Year's Resolution

2011-01-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

So I told my sister-in-law I would try something this year...while we're up in Anchorage, we'll post picture(s) of Lincoln every Sunday at least. Well, I was going to post more but something was wrong with the uploading thing. So here is what I could come up with for today. What a cutie, hu? He pretty much charmed everyone in his Santa Suit, which he is only wearing half of in this picture. More to come of the whole thing as well as pictures from our trip to Utah.

2010-11-26T22:50:00.000-08:00

We tried so hard to upload a video montage of Lincoln without success. Sadly, that's been what has kept the following post from happening more quickly. So, here are some much-outdated Halloween photos from last month. Matthias was Paul Bunyan, Lincoln was Babe the Blue Ox and I was the flap-jack cook (okay...all I did was put on an apron and slide a spatula in my back pocket...I refuse to put any pictures of me in the Halloween series...I looked hideously out of place. Hideous because I don't do my hair or makeup anymore. And out of place because my costume was a lame made-up costume to fit in...better luck next year trying to find a theme for 3 people).

The time I could've put into coming up with a cooler costume was spent making these super amazing zombie eyeballs. They were delicious! Peanut butter centers with white chocolate on the outside. This is definitely becoming a Halloween tradition.

Here are some other fun shots of Lincoln in the past month. The first one is the new look for Lincoln. It helps keep his pacifier in place while we eat dinner :)

The picture above is another "thriller" shot. This is my favorite...when he brings up his arms in thriller position during his naps. They come up really quick, and shake for a second, and then he brings them slowly back down, only to repeat the process again a minute or so later.

I think he should try out for a part in a remake of "Grumpy Old Men"....

Lincoln's First Photo Shoot

2010-10-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

My friend, the talented Amanda Lamb, came to take pictures of Lincoln last Saturday. She was so patient with him as he was very confused about being moved around during his naptime and needed a lot of consoling. She did a fantastic job and I would highly recommend her to anyone in Anchorage looking for a photographer. Thanks Amanda! We love these pictures and they'll be going up in frames around our house here pretty soon!

2010-10-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some more random shots of Lincoln. There is one more Lincoln post coming that is from his first "photo shoot" last weekend. These ones below are mostly of the funny things he does with his hands and arms both in and out of sleep as well as some great faces he makes. He is so entertaining.

Much of the time lately I've been putting him to sleep on the Boppy pillow so he can sleep on an incline, helping with those random and sometimes disturbing mid-sleep burps. Usually I put another smaller pillow underneath him to make the incline less steep, but this time I forgot and he found himself squished down in the hole, which made for a great picture:
If this doesn't melt your insides, I don't know what will. I probably have a couple dozen shots that are exactly like this only with different clothes on. Matthias is such a good dad and Lincoln loves to sleep on his chest.

This looks like a moving shot, but he held this position for quite some time. He looks like the Statue of Liberty:

Yes...he is holding his arms up in his sleep. How this is relaxing is beyond me.

This was something he did all on his own with his hands. He held them there for a couple of minutes while looking around.

His chunky knee:

Another classic sleep shot, below. He holds these positions like they're no effort at all. I like to think he was having a dream about saving the world here:

I just can't get enough of this little guy. He makes me so happy. I will try to be better about being more selective in my picture posting after month 1. I just didn't know how to trim it down. We miss you all and wish you could be closer in proximity so you could hold and enjoy Lincoln with us. We are getting so excited for Christmas!!

Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln

2010-10-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures to tide you over until we post the bajillion more that I want to post but don't have time for right now. We have the cutest boy in the history of the world. It's hard to keep up with all the cute pictures we have. Be patient.

Lincoln Nathanael Cicotte

2010-10-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

Lincoln was born late on Friday, 10/1/10. Michelle didn't come home until Tuesday, so we apologize for the delay in getting the word out. Rather than brag about what a great kid he is (which there'll be plenty of time for later) I'll just get to the pictures. I uploaded these in small form, but you can click to enlarge.

Lincoln was very happy to finally be held by Mom once she got out of the recovery room.

Ole!

We do a lot of sleeping right now.

Call me babe, OK?

Looking at leaves...

2010-09-30T12:21:00.001-07:00

Alaskan falls are so short but amazingly beautiful. I love the contrast between the yellows and greens.

Matthias took this last picture, which I think is the very best one.

I'm getting old...

2010-09-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here I am, about to turn 28...don't be fooled by the one candle:
We shared a delicious piece of peanut butter pie from the Moose's Tooth and it got a little mangled on the road but it still tasted divine.

Matthias took me to my favorite spot after we had dinner (which was a Hawaiian pizza from the Moose's Tooth--best Hawaiian pizza I've ever had, hands down). He looks pretty handsome in this picture, if you ask me:

It's a little spot at a viewpoint off the Seward Highway (a highway leading from Anchorage to Seward, some of it being right on the coast) called Beluga Point. It's a great place to watch the sunset and relax.
So that's what we did my birthday night. But what I had originally requested for a daytime activity had to be postponed until Thursday, the 26th, because that was the first day the State Fair was open. It was perfect, sunny weather the whole day.
Matthias really liked these trucks...it's too bad our little boy couldn't appreciate them with him. I tried to act really excited but didn't do a good job of it probably. I thought I'd make up for my lack of enthusiasm by taking a picture of him surrounded by them.
Of course one of the best parts of the AK state fair is their record-setting produce. Here's some highlights:

We were surprised to see the Anchorage Temple displayed, all made of sugar cubes:

There were a couple of shows we went to as well. Here are some pictures from the Lumberjack Show. They do a few competitive games between the lumberjacks and make a lot of corny jokes.

And the bird show....very interesting. Apparently the bird show man had a frustrating time in Alaska and vented in a later show that a few of our friends attended. He had a few problems with the birds obeying with the one we watched but it was the first one and we figured they were probably just getting warmed up. Well, the bird man continued to have problems I guess and blamed it on the horrible Alaska rain and said he was never coming back. It's too bad, really. I don't think it's Alaska's fault.

He tried to collect some money at the end of the show with these bright-colored birds. It worked pretty well for a minute or two until they all decided to fly away, ending the show abruptly with him chasing them down.

Plotting their escape:

The largest type of vulture that exists:

The best part of any fair is the food, in my opinion. We had our traditional corn dogs and cheese curds. And I had a very timely low blood sugar reaction that resulted in this delicious indulgence:

Don't worry, I didn't eat the whole cream puff. Matthias enjoyed some if it, too. Man, was it good. We also went to a class (thanks, Matthias, for undulging me) that taught you how to make Almond Joys. I'm excited to try them out at home. Overall, a very successful day at the fair. We were only sorry we didn't get to see a group called "Shey-Laurel" (I hope I'm spelling that right). We've seen them the past two years here and they are something else. A family band with some head-banging daughters who over-animate their faces and a dad who makes some of the worst jokes I've ever heard. It's quite a show and we missed it this year. One can only hope that we can report differently next time.

2010-09-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

We discovered my new favorite place in Alaska: Valdez (see this link for more info on where/what it's all about: http://www.valdezalaska.org/) It is about a 6-7 hour drive from Anchorage and one of the prettiest drives we've taken anywhere up here. On the way in and out you can stop to see a glacier (see first two pictures below) as well as amazing waterfalls (also, see waterfall pictures below). We camped for a few nights in the beginning of July and probably the highlight was the day cruise we took on a boat called the LuLu Belle. Totally recommend this particular cruise to anyone who comes to visit us or comes to visit AK in general. It was the first cruise where we saw whales in the "wild"! We also saw puffins, sea lions, sea otters, and glacial ice. Here are the pictures:

This waterfall is called Horsetail waterfall and is just off the highway before you drive into Valdez:

This is called Bridal Veil Falls...kind of interesting since there is a Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon that I grew up going to.

We saw several whales, including a mom and her baby, and followed them around for a bit. Unfortunately it was so rainy this was the best picture I could get without ruining the camera:

So here's another plug for coming to visit us in Alaska! We will take you to Valdez and all your dreams will come true.

May trip to Seattle

2010-08-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

Back in May, Matthias had a job interview in Seattle so I decided to join him and we made it a 4-day trip of fun. We also were potentially looking to move there, so we spent some time looking at housing. Here are some highlights:

From the top of the space needle:

Seattle aquarium:

1 hour cruise in the Puget Sound:

Pike Place....I didn't have to work hard to make that face. The fish really stank it up.

Seattle Mariner's game. Matthias's favorite team. We went with some friends who live there, Lane and Cambria, which was tons of fun to see them!

A different kind of ski jump

2010-08-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

These are some old pictures from April when Matthias and I went to a ski resort for an event I can't remember the name of anymore. But it was the most unique thing aside from the beard and moustache competition that I've seen up here. People were dressed up in all sorts of costumes and skiied down a big hill, trying to jump over a large pool of water. They were judged on form, heighth, crowd response, and how far they jumped. Any ideas for what Matthias could dress up like? He's in training right now for next spring. I think he should go as a Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle.

Some pictures from the past 7 months...

2010-07-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

We know. It's been awhile. I absolutely can not stand blogging anymore when we have a lot of pictures to upload. Case in point...we have 3 separate trips/events I'd like to post about. I uploaded some photos just now from 2 of those things. I can not get the ones from our trip to Valdez to separate or move down from the ones announcing our "big news"...yes, we have "big news"...see below. I click the picture, and try to drag it down, but it won't drag past the point you can see on the screen of the post. Is this making sense? IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY! I have been trying to make it work for the past 10 minutes. It's been agonizing and I'm finally giving up. I am only posting about the following and then I'll separate my posts in the future so I just have to upload relating photos and I'll be at the mercy of the order they come up on the blogging screen. This only started happening since we got our new camera. I don't know why it's doing it...anyone know or have suggestions?

ANYWAY.

Since our last post my belly has grown a billion times the size it was:

Yes...I know the sonogram picture is in the middle of the two belly shots...again, I can't get it to go below the second belly shot. It's exasperating. (Can you tell I'm at my wits end with this? It's like when you finally get enough gumption to do a project/task you've been putting off for months and then you get all the resistance in the world to try and get it done, like fate is telling you to stop trying entirely)

Okay, I'm done venting. So back to the exciting news: We are having the cutest baby boy in the world on October 10, 2010! Well, we'll see when it actually comes. It's all so exciting. We are working hard right now to get the room and things ready since we're down to the last 2 months. Matthias has been an absolute champion of a husband, taking care of me in every way.

Well, the time I have to finish this is gone...spent too much time clicking and trying to drag. But I will post the pictures from a couple of trips we took next week sometime. I actually make no promises about when they'll get posted....hopefully knowing that I will only have to post pictures from like events together and not trying to drag them and move them around will give me energy to try again in a few days. I admire those of you who do this so often. Please give me tips on how to make it easier!!

What would we do without the internet?

2010-01-15T19:19:00.001-08:00

OK, so after posting the first polar bear video (see here:

http://matthiasandmichellecicotte.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-six-months-between-friends.html) I had to show you the newest one, although it comes with a warning. You know how in movies, where the victim is a friend of the murderer, and he watches him come closer and closer without fully comprehending he's about to get iced? The victim usually says something like this: "Hey Mike, what's up? You alright? Hey Mike, what's with the knife? Quit goofing around!! Mike? MIKE!?!?!?! NOOOOO!!!!" That's how I felt watching this video. "Ha! Polar Bears in fighter jets: AWESOME!!! Hey, you might want to be careful with that volcano! Hey, what are you- NOOOOOOO!!!!!" I don't think the polar bears are our friends anymore.

Also, here is a nice chart of human emotions as expressed in MLB players' press photos:

This chart above is, as you can see, the whole range of human emotions as expressed in MLB press photos. Finally, you can read here about a Russian who performed an appendectomy on himself in Antarctica (YES, there are pictures!!!!):

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/dec15_1/b4965

The Internet is awesome.

Europe Photo Entry #16: Bath

2009-12-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. I'm just killing time while Michelle shops for some Christmas dinner ingredients.

Here are some pictures of Bath, the English city which is the site of some ancient Roman baths, located over natural hot springs. It was a nice, calm little day trip.

The Roman baths. I am such a sucker for anything having to do with Roman history.

A couple pictures of Bath Abbey:
Michelle liked this bridge a lot:

Europe Photo Entry #15: London

2009-12-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

Ha! You thought there was no way we had any more photos from Europe up our sleeve! It's been 1 1/2 years since we got back, but no, we haven't finished blogging about it.

I have no real regrets about the way we did our trip to Europe, but I have to say that seeing England last was very odd. If we had gone to England first, then I'm sure it would have seemed very foreign to me, but having visited six other countries first, it was almost like visiting New York or Philadelphia. Just not nearly so foreign an experience as, say, Hungary or Italy.

Of course, we loved it just the same.

Well, we had to put at least one picture of Big Ben up. The is the British parliament building at Westminster. Visiting the House of Commons and the House of Lords was my idea. And while no one debated about whether Oasis is the best band to come out of Britain since the Beatles (see here: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96pmajor.phtml),
the Commons were definitely more lively than the Lords.
Michelle in front of Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey doesn't tilt like that in real life. Neither do I. No cameras were allowed inside, so I can't show you the graves of any legendary Britons, although there were many. You can see a list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Burials_at_Westminster_Abbey. This place had the most knowledgeable tour guide in history. I thought T.E. Lawrence was buried here, so I asked the aged guide where his grave marker was. He told me that he's not buried in Westminster, but then he told me where he was buried (it's some little English village, although apparently there's a bust of him at St. Paul's cathedral, which we saw but didn't have time to visit). Then I asked about a couple of other people I didn't see buried there, and he told me their burial sites. Now that's a tour guide who deserves a raise.

Piccadilly Circus (I think the "circus" part refers to the shape of the plaza, but the behavior of the people there lends a double meaning to it).

After the debacle at the Frankfurt Temple, the London Temple was a nice respite from the frenetic pace of our trip.

Self-explanatory. The Tower of London. I learned a lot about English history here, more than is worth mentioning in this short space. I should mention that due to Michelle's careful planning, we made it into the exclusive "Ceremony of the Keys", which is the symbolic locking of the Tower at night. It was very neat, although the redcoats who performed the ceremony took their duties waaaaaaaaaaay less seriously than any U.S. military drill team would have (they were not actors). Their comportment was a bit of a joke, and the trumpeter sounded like he hadn't picked up an instrument since sixth grade. Let's hope that the best and brightest of the British Army are in Afghanistan. If you were to compare that ceremony to what you see at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, it's not hard to summon some chest-thumping pride in the American soldier.

What's six months between friends?

2009-12-22T14:58:00.000-08:00

Hello? Anyone there?

Soooooo....I haven't written anything on this blog since March. A couple reasons:

1) I have a full-time job. I'm starting to realize why most of my friends with full-time jobs don't blog with any regularity. Please don't interpret this as a knock on the moms out there. I wouldn't trade my job for yours. I just don't have lots of opportunities to write. (This is even more true since I was called as EQ pres. in August)

2) Ever since Michelle started her blog, there hasn't been much urgency on my part to let you know what's going on with us. She's been doing an admirable job at that. You have been checking her blog, right? She reopened it to the public, so if you stopped reading it because you were blocked and didn't want to bother asking for an invitation, it's no longer a problem. And by the way, to the creepy middle-aged guys who continually comment on it, seriously get a #*&$*& life.

That said, I enjoy posting stuff every so often, and I enjoy the interaction with you guys. The Denny's saga was probably the high point. So I've been on the fence about whether to continue this at all. I've got some old photos that I've been meaning to put up for the better part of a year. After I'm through with those, I'll put up a poll to see just how many of you are interested in seeing this blog in the future, and in what form.

Meanwhile, enjoy this delightful youtube video. If you've ever wondered, "Why aren't there more videos of polar bears from outer space destroying Anchorage with a hockey stick while the theme music from Top Gun plays in the background?", then this video is for you:

Alaskan Blog

2009-07-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

We are eventually going to post on this blog again, but I (Michelle) have been actively blogging on my picture-a-day Alaska blog so it's kind of been taking over our blog life. Matthias has had an intermission in his blogging life but we both have great plans of putting up more things on this one. So here's the link to the other blog, and I'm going to add it to the side bar for future use.

http://michellesyearinalaska.blogspot.com/

Ahhhh...Tennis

2009-06-05T23:39:00.000-07:00

When I was younger, I had one of those cheesy T-shirts that said "Tennis is Life". I remember from a young age watching the pros on TV and even having a higher heart rate on the bigger points. I was a bit obsessed with Pete Sampras in high school and carried the Tennis magazine around from class to class, pulling it out on any occasion. One of Matthias's earliest tactics to date me was to pretend like he wanted to learn how to play tennis...funny enough, I actually believed that he did but I know better now. One night he was walking by my apartment and the door was open. I was sitting on the carpet right in front of the TV watching a US Open match. He invited himself in (or maybe I did, but whatever) and I remember being a bit annoyed at the distraction he was to the focus I had had on the match before he came. (Before you think I'm a rude, selfish jerk, please note that Matthias was "the guy who lives behind us that I barely know" at this point.)

Anyway, the French Open is in it's second and final week and I shamefully have watched nearly every single point of every match that has been televised. But tragically, I missed recording the one match I would have paid money not to miss. I had previously scanned through the guide on our TV to make sure I had recorded any matches that would be shown. I didn't know to check a different channel on this particular day and therefore, thought nothing was being shown. What do I find out?

NADAL LOST TO A NO-NAMER IN THE THIRD ROUND!!!!

He lost to this guy:

I didn't even know this guy's name until a few days ago. You should know that Nadal has been the first person I've felt attached to since Sampras left the game, so you can imagine my disappointment. Nadal was supposed to make history in Paris this year by winning 5 consecutive French Open Titles. And now it's free for the taking, apparently. I guess you have to hand it to Soderling for pulling what's been speculated to be the biggest upset in tennis history. (The last time someone beat Nadal on clay during a major was in April 2005...this is a big deal, ok?)

Well, on to some random pictures. This one is of my hot husband at the top of a mountain right outside Anchorage. I miss him right now, because he's out of town for work. I'm trying to be brave. It's a bit like when I was little and my mom went to the store without me. An hour seemed like 5 years. These 4 days have been a century. I miss you, Thy.

I made a gigantic cupcake for my first client ever! I also made a bunch of smaller cupcakes to go with it. White chocolate cake with a strawberry cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream on top. Yummmm. Unfortunately, I broke down and sampled a bit. I had to make sure it wasn't poisonous.

And finally, a picture I meant to put up awhile ago. I had to show what one of the trees outside our house looked like when everything was starting to sprout. You can still see some of the fall leaves that never made it to the ground. That's because fall lasts about 2 days here. A lot of the leaves freeze on the trees and stick around all winter long.

World Beard and Moustache Competition

2009-05-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Every two years, there is a international competition that is held at a different location each time. It's been held in places like Berlin and the like. Yesterday it happened to be Anchorage, Alaska's turn. Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the parade the night before. We read that there was a band playing music for the event with "songs about beards for people with beards". Don't worry, we heard some of that music during the approx. 90 minutes of wait time from the time we were seated to the time the first round of judging began. We only stayed for the moustache part due to time, but there were also part-beard and full-beard competitions as well. There were many moustache divisions like, "natural moustache", "dahli", "hungarian wild west", and such. The competitors were all about having their picture taken so many of these were from a quick tap on their shoulder and a snap as they smiled or posed. It's pretty safe to say we weren't expecting all of the costumes.

Pretty crazy stuff. We found out that these guys have been working on their "do" for 1-2 years. So I figure that if Matthias starts on one now, he may be ready for the next one...

Slackers...

2009-05-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

We know, we know. We haven't blogged in awhile. We have great intentions to finally put up pics and video from the Iditarod along with other fun things from the past couple months. With all of this sunlight and warm weather, we are coming up with any excuse possible to not be inside. We haven't given up on blogging, so don't give up on checking. As my mom used to say, patience is a virtue.

Crazy Cool Alaska Pictures

2009-03-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

So, here is a collection of pictures from the last 3 months that highlight life in Alaska.

First, a few weeks ago, we came across a religious moose after choir practice outside our church. Don't worry mom, these were taken from the safety of our car.

Can you believe what they'll do for food? Awkward.

One afternoon we went exploring around the coast and found this park with ice blocks surrounding picnic tables. I'm not sure who actually takes advantage of them, but there is a great view of the sea ice and distant mountains on the other side of the inlet.

The following are pictures taken from the school I teach at (the trailer you see in the bottom photo is the one I teach in). The first two are icicles that blew my mind...how did they freeze sideways? The next ones are during a "cold snap" during January when it was so cold the kids couldn't even go outside to play. It was around -20 to -25 for a little over a week straight. The thing I loved about it was the way it made the trees look. The whole world was literally white from the ground to the trees to the telephone poles. It was beautiful.

We saw a moose in our front yard!! We were coming home from church, and I was talking to Matthias as I was getting out of the car and all of a sudden he said, "Watch out! There's a moose right behind you!" Sure enough, I turned around and there it was about 10 feet away. I jumped back in the car and spent about a 1/2 hour staring at it as it munched on some dead leaves in our yard. Matthias got bored (or hungry--probably both) so he went inside but I was too scared. I've been told by a reliable source that moose are more dangerous than bears. I tried about three times to get out of the car and jumped right back in because I felt so vulnerable. Finally, I was so cold I bolted up the stairs and into the house. I managed to get the camera in time to snap a few pictures from our porch.

Conclusion: Alaska provides plenty of adventure. Stay tuned for pictures of the Iditarod, world-class ice sculptures, and a real, live ice hotel.

Denny's Redeemed!

2009-03-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember the recent difficulties that Michelle and I faced at Denny's:

http://matthiasandmichellecicotte.blogspot.com/2009/02/war-on-dennys.html

We threatened to declare non-violent war on Denny's if we weren't reimbursed for the "free" Grand Slam breakfast that we were promised. Well, after standing for weeks on the precipice of war, Denny's relented. There is peace in our time:Not only did Denny's pay us back for the Grand Slam, they refunded our entire bill. Basically, Michelle got her extra hash browns for free.

So on this note, Denny's, we'll let bygones be bygones. We won't boo you, we won't brainwash our kids to hate you, and we'll stop fomenting a boycott among our friends and family. Someday we might even stop in for a Reese's peanut butter pie:

Thanks everyone for supporting the boycott. We couldn't have done this without you.

March Madness Picks: Cicotte v. Obama

2009-03-18T22:25:00.000-07:00

OK, so I was originally planning to just post my picks, but I just had to get something off my chest. President Obama is obviously a bold guy; he had the guts to challenge Hillary Clinton with less than two years in the Senate. He also had the guts to print and borrow money like Weimar Germany in his first month on the job. That's bold. (Wait, is "bold" the right word?)*

Then I looked at his NCAA picks:
5 upsets out of 32 in the first round (two of which are 8-9 matchups)
1 (ONE !!!!) upset out of 16 in the second round (a 5 over a 4 seed)
1 upset out of 8 in the round of 16 (a 3 over a 2)
1 upset in the elite eight round

That's 8 upsets TOTAL in the entire tournament. Would you like to guess what the smallest number of upsets in the sixty-three game tournament is? The answer is 12, and it only happened once. The next lowest is 14, which also happened only once. The average is 17. And he's predicting 8.

Are you kidding me? Mr. President, I've seen gutsier brackets filled out by nine-year-old girls who pick based on the mascots. Consider your man-card revoked. I can only conclude that you were scared to pick any big upsets because you thought you might offend the residents of some state or another. I'm imagining how you picked your final four:

Obama: "Well, boys, I asked you to pick at least one upset in each round to make it look like I actually thought about this, and I see you've done that. Now, I just need one upset pick for the final four. How about Duke over Pittsburgh?"

22-year-old Harvard intern: "Sir, I think that's a bad idea. Most people hate Duke."

Obama: "How do you know that?"

Intern: "Secretary Jordan from the Department of Basketball went to UNC, and he told us so."

Obama: "We have a Department of Basketball?"

Intern: "It was in the stimulus package. Besides, Jesse Jackson called to say that if you pick 'those preppy white kids from Duke', he'll denounce you as an 'Uncle Tom'."

Obama: "Fine. Syracuse over UNC?"

Intern: "A 3 seed over a 1? Are you sure you're ready to take a risk like that?"

Obama: "No, you're right, let's not chance it. How about Michigan State over Louisville?"

Intern: "That could be a good pick, considering that Michigan is sort of a swing state, but I think you should take Memphis over UConn. Connecticut is full of evil stockbrokers and insurance company execs. Not many tears will be shed for them."

Obama: "Sounds good. Now that I've got this trivial matter off my schedule, I can focus on what really matters to this country: Rehearsing for Leno."

Here are my upset picks by round (feel free to comment on them):

1st round:
Arizona over Utah
N. Iowa over Purdue
Maryland over California
Tenn over Okla. St.
Portland St. over Xavier
VCU over UCLA
W. Kentucky over Illinois
Michigan over Clemson

2nd round:
Arizona over Wake Forest
W. Kentucky over Gonzaga
ASU over Syracuse
(I also have Florida State, who will have to upset Xavier if Portland St. doesn't)

Sweet Sixteen:
Kansas over Michigan State
Washington over UConn
Missouri over Memphis
Florida State over Pitt
ASU over Oklahoma

Elite Eight:
ASU over UNC
Washington over Missouri
(I also have Duke, which will have to upset Pitt if Fla St. doesn't)

That means my final four is Louisville, Washington, Duke and ASU, with Duke beating Louisville to win it all. If you can't tell by my picks, I think the Pac-10 is better than people think, and the Big Ten is worse than people think. Also, I typically pick against small-conference teams with high seeds (i.e., Gonzaga and Xavier). I am also completely biased towards ASU and Duke. I figure it's all luck anyway, so may as well pick teams you're rooting for.

By the way, that's eighteen upsets with two pseudo-upsets, Mr. President. I may go down in flames in the first round, but at least I'm going down swinging.

*Bonus points if you recognized that as an allusion to "The Office" (from when Michael photo-shops himself into his girlfriend's family photo, with his face on the body of her ex-husband)

Europe Photo Entry #14: Paris and Versailles

2009-03-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

(Keep an eye out for several new posts over the next few days. On Thursday I'm posting my March Madness picks, plus over the weekend we'll put up pictures and video from the Iditarod, with pictures from our trip to Fairbanks after that.)

Paris was just great; we only had a night and a day to spend, which actually was juuuuuust enough to see everything we wanted to. The first night we were there, we went to see the Arc de Triomphe:

The Champs-Elysees

The next morning we went to see the Palace of Versailles, which was a top-five experience for me:

The gardens at the Palace:

The famous Hall of Mirrors (where, I learned, the actual Treaty of Versailles was signed)

Notre Dame:
Michelle took about 9,483 pictures of the Eiffel Tower, which truly must be seen to be believed. You would think that such a famous landmark would be overrated by now (as in, "Oh, I thought it was bigger"), but that just isn't the case with the Eiffel Tower. It's definitely worth seeing in person.

Only in Alaska

2009-03-12T11:35:00.001-07:00

I took this picture at the airport:

In case you want a little background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulu

Europe Photo Entry #13: Rhine River Cruise and Frankfurt

2009-02-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

Funny story before we get to the pictures. We stayed in Frankfurt for a couple of nights without really seeing the city; it was just a jumping off point for a day cruise down the Rhine river, and to see the Frankfurt temple. Our hostel was right near the train station, which meant that it was smack in the middle of the red light district. Our second night there, we finished dinner a little late, with barely enough time to do our laundry before the laundromat closed. In fact, we decided that while Michelle waited for the check (at seriously one of the best Chinese restaurants I've ever been to), I would go get our laundry.

I discovered after leaving the restaurant that the only reason I hadn't been accosted by any prostitutes up to that point was because I had Michelle with me. On my way to the hostel, they were out in force. I discovered that their preferred method of getting attention (aside from strutting) is to yell, "Sir, you dropped your credit card!" and then pretend to hold your card in the air. Clever.

Once I got to the hostel, I ran into the room, packed our bags with clothes, and went into the bathroom. The bathroom was behind two doors, one door on the room itself, and then another door a few feet away which enclosed a little hallway between the bathroom and the bedroom (we had a private room). Out of habit, I closed both doors on my way in. The bathroom door had a deadbolt that I didn't bother locking because I was alone in the room.

After I was finished, I walked through the bathroom door, and then tried to open the second door. It was locked. I took out my room key, and it didn't work. That's right. They rented us a room with a door that locks automatically upon closing, but didn't give us the key.

At this point I had several options: 1) Yell for help (but we had yet to see anyone else staying at the hostel, and they would have had to hear me behind two doors); 2) Wait for Michelle to wonder why I hadn't shown up and come back to the hostel to look for me (although she didn't have a key to the room); 3) Break through the door a la Jack Bauer.

I have a few iron-clad rules in life, and one of the most important is this: If you are left with only one option which requires you to act like Jack Bauer, that is the option you must take, without exception. Perhaps more importantly, I knew I couldn't just wait for Michelle to come find me because she would have panicked. In a bad, bad way. Whenever she doesn't hear from me, she assumes I've been hit by a car or abducted by Al Qaeda. Considering that we were in a seedy neighborhood in a foreign country, she would probably have assembled a search party which would include the German police, the U.S. Embassy, Interpol, NASA, and Superman.

With that in mind, I leaned back and kicked the door right next to the door knob, just like I had seen in all the cop shows. I didn't even budge. It's my own fault; I was too cautious. With wounded pride, I let loose with a more serious second kick. This one made some cracks around the knob. Encouraged, I busted through with my final kick.

The door swung open.

The weirdness wasn't over yet; on my way to the laundromat, accidentally ran over a middle-aged woman's toes with my carry-on bag (she was wearing closed-toed shoes). I apologized, and then a second or two later she suddenly started jumping up and down and yelling in German. When I looked to see what on earth the commotion was about, her friend said something along the lines of "You ran over her foot!" (or at least that's what I deciphered with my high school German skills). I didn' t run over her toes very hard, and given the delayed reaction, I think they were hoping they could get the dumb American to pay for their dinner or something along those lines. No dice.

The next morning, when we checked out, I felt a duty to inform the hostel owner that I had jacked up his door.

"Just so you know," I said, "Because we didn't have a key to the door outside the bathroom, I got stuck in there."

"Really?" he said. "It shouldn't lock."

"Well, it did," I said. "So I had to...get it open myself."

"How did you do that?"

"I had to...force it open."

The Indian man looked confused for a second, and then it clicked. "Oooooh." Fortunately, we were never charged for any damage, which makes this man one of the last honest businessmen in Europe.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our Rhine river cruise. The Rhine has a ton of castles on it because it was the main thoroughfare in Europe during the middle ages, and any fool with a castle could charge a toll for safe passage. I've forgotten most of the names of these castles.

By the way, Michelle has told me that I can't post these pictures unless I inform you that it was very windy that day. Which it was.

This cliff to the right of me is the legendary "Lorelei", the most dangerous point on the Rhine. An old German legend has it that a ghostly woman named Lorelei would sing and distract the sailors from their task, sort of like the Sirens. She was the subject of a poem by Heinrich Heine. And, other than a few terrible movies, that's about all I remember from my high school German class.

This is Marksburg Castle, the most significant castle on the Rhine, and the only one we went inside.

Looking down on the Rhine valley from Marksburg Castle.
The Frankfurt Temple. Yes, I'm wearing sneakers in that picture. We only packed a backpack and a carry-on apiece for this trip. I wasn't going to lug my dress shoes around.

The War on Denny's

2009-02-15T21:58:00.000-08:00

I wrote this letter in a fit of righteous anger. It's a long one, but it gets better towards the end. Michelle almost died laughing when she read it. Just know that this letter really is going into the mail on Tuesday, and I mean every word of it.

February 15, 2009

Denny's Call Center, 203 East Main Street P-8-6, Spartanburg, SC 29319

Dear Denny’s:

Anyone who knows me well knows that getting ripped off is my number one pet peeve. And you have ripped me off, Denny’s.

Over the years I have not been a frequent guest of your restaurants. Until this month I had been perhaps four times in my life. My wife, on the other hand, is an enthusiastic connoisseur of your Reese’s peanut butter cup pie. Notwithstanding the infrequency of my visits, I was excited to hear that you had promised a free Grand Slam breakfast to anyone who came the Tuesday after this year’s Super Bowl. My wife and I are frugal people who seldom eat out. We can’t afford to try new places very often because on the rare occasions that we do eat out, we hate to take chances. So this promotion was a rare opportunity to get us into your restaurant. I’m sure that’s exactly what you had in mind.

We expected the Denny’s in midtown Anchorage to be slammed, no pun intended. We were right; so many Alaskans had succumbed to the siren song of free pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon that there was a two hour wait. “No problem”, we were told, “You can have a rain check.”

Ah, a rain check! Perfect! “I’ll take two,” I said. “One for me, and one for my wife.” If we couldn’t eat for free today, we could wait until next week.

And so, patient people that we are, we returned to Denny’s the following Wednesday, determined to finally get that free meal we were promised. After sitting down in a booth, strange things began to happen. We saw an elderly gentleman sitting about 20 feet from us, who appeared not to be in his right mind. He was using foul language with the staff, and eventually had to be kicked out because of his offensive behavior. I am quite certain that he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol (not unusual for Alaska, although I’m more accustomed to seeing it on the city bus).

After our waitress took our order, we pointed to the rain check coupons. “We can use these, right?” we asked. “Oh yeah,” she said. So far, so good.

We enjoyed our food immensely, although I admit that food always tastes better when it’s free. While we were eating, though, another man began to make a scene with the wait staff. Again, the man appeared to be drunk or high.

Our waitress brought us a bill for $14.90 (that’s two $6.95 meals, and an extra $1 order of hash browns for my wife- there is no sales tax in Alaska). She specifically told us, “they’ll take those off the bill for you,” presumably referring to the charge for our two meals.

We left a generous tip (hey, we got a free meal, right?) and went to pay at the counter. Here is where the whole experience soured. I handed our rain check coupons to the restaurant manager, who immediately pointed to the fine print on one of the coupons: “One coupon per order per visit.”

“Oh, OK,” I said, “But we got these the day of the Super Bowl giveaway.”

“Yes, I know, that’s when EVERYONE got them,” the manager sneered at me, as if only a child would have thought that it mattered when I got the coupons.

“But, you see, my wife and I expected to eat together that Tuesday. If we had been able to eat that Tuesday, we would have both eaten free.”

“Yes?” the manager said, as if to say, “So what?”

“And they told us this was a rain check. And when someone tells me that it’s a rain check, I assume that means I get the same thing that I would have gotten, only later. So that means if we could have eaten together for free that day we should be able to eat together for free now.”

“I’m sorry, that’s not what the coupon says.” Oh, good, I’m glad we’ve established that for certain.

“And there’s nothing you can do about it?” I said, incredulously.

“Nope.”

“So even though we were told it was a rain check, we have to pay for one of the meals?” I said this with the maximum amount of irritation one can muster without yelling.

“Yes.”

“Listen, just look at us. We’re not a couple of high school kids trying to pull a fast one.” (I was on my lunch hour, wearing a shirt and tie.) “Are you’re telling me there’s NOTHING you can do?”

“I’m sorry, that’s what the coupon says.”

“And there are NO exceptions?”

“No.”

At this point, I considered just walking out of the store without paying. I still wish I had. Instead, in the name of civility I paid the $7.94 bill, while practically shouting through the restaurant, “I’M NEVER COMING TO DENNY’S AGAIN!”

Now, I'm a lawyer, so I understand the importance of reading the fine print. But I’ve also worked in several customer service jobs in my life. I used to be an assistant manager at a video store, so I know what it’s like to deal with angry customers (YOU try telling a mom with three small kids that she can’t rent Cinderella until they pay $35.48 in late fees). And yeah, some people were constantly trying to get out of late fees. But something that we were told constantly by upper management is that each customer is worth about $200 a year, so when push comes to shove, some leniency is required to avoid driving them away.

I find it absolutely implausible that this manager really couldn’t do anything for us. If nothing else, she could have rung it up as two different orders. And I’ve eaten out enough to know that a REAL restaurant writes things off all the time in order to keep customers happy. I assume that the manager is not a franchisee who actually cares whether her franchise makes a profit, because her attitude positively screams, “GIVE ME YOUR MONEY AND GO AWAY!!” Basically, she took what was looking like a good experience at Denny’s and turned it into a terrible one.

So here’s what I’m going to do, Denny’s: Unless I am compensated for the $6.95 value of the Grand Slam, I am declaring non-violent war on your restaurant. That’s right, Denny’s: you will become my enemy.

Of what would such a war by non-violent means consist? First of all, I can guarantee I won’t set foot in a Denny’s again. Neither will my wife.

Furthermore, anytime Denny’s comes up in conversation, I will mention what a terrible place it is, how much I hate it, what a bunch of rip-off artists you are, etc. No one who mentions Denny’s in my presence will fail to know of my deep hatred for you. I will also post this letter on my family’s blog, so that all of our friends and relatives will know what happened, and to guard their wallets whenever they enter your walls.

I will also instruct my children in the ways of Denny’s hatred. They will be taught that Denny’s is the worst restaurant in the world, that the food is bad and overpriced. When we are on family trips, we will boo Denny’s from the safety of our car. If it’s 3:00 a.m. and we’re driving in the middle of nowhere, we’ll bypass every Denny’s until we find a Steak ‘N Shake or Waffle House. Hopefully our children will carry these lessons into adulthood. You can call this brainwashing if you like, but just know that you are never getting my kids’ money either.

Perhaps you think that none of this will matter to you, Denny’s. Maybe you think that you won’t lose much if you only lose my family and me as customers. But guess what, Denny’s: whatever amount of profit you miss out on by losing our business, it has GOT to be more than $6.95. The potential future profit on Reese’s Peanut Butter Pies alone must be several times that amount.

So do the right thing, Denny’s. Reimburse us for the rip-off, and we’ll assume this was an isolated incident and all will be forgiven. Otherwise, you can be sure of three things: If we want to get ripped off by a rude restaurant staff, we’ll go to Italy; if we want to hang out with potentially violent drug addicts, we’ll go to a methadone clinic; and if we want good home cooking at an affordable price in the wee hours of the morning, you can find us at IHOP.

s/Matthias Cicotte

UPDATE: http://matthiasandmichellecicotte.blogspot.com/2009/03/dennys-redeemed.html

Rothenburg

2009-02-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

Rothenburg is one of the most well-preserved medieval towns in the world, with the original wall that surrounds it and everything. In my opinion, it's a must-see if you're ever in or around West Germany. There were the coolest looking buildings, lots of fun little shops (one of my favorites was a Christmas shop that had all sorts of Christmas decor and a huge tree in the middle), and delicious little pie crust pastries called "schneeballen" that were to die for. We got here on a Romantic Road bus tour that went from Munich to Frankfurt and stopped along the way at different points of interest. We got on the next bus the following day and finished the tour after spending a day/night/part of a day in Rothenburg. We stayed in this quaint, medieval hotel that was really more like someone's home. Here are some pictures of part of the town as the sun was about to set.

You could actually walk around nearly the whole town on the inside of the wall that's shown below. It was pretty high up, so you could get a good view of the town as you walked around.

We went to a museum that showed the different ways they would punish lawbreakers back then, one of which is shown below. I think this particular one was warn as punishment by women who were caught gossiping:

We also went on a city tour with a man dressed in costume who spoke as if it were back in the times when this town was thriving and practicing cruel and unusual punishment. It was one of my favorite parts of the time there.

Here are just some cool shots of the buildings.

This is the bell tower that back-in-the-day would warn the Rothenburg residents outside the city walls to hurry in before the gate was locked up for the night. They would do this nightly so they wouldn't be invaded. Once they closed the gate, they would refuse to open it. There was a little miniature compartment that was big enough for only one person that could be used by anyone who didn't make it back in time but if you were the second guy, you were out of luck and would have to sleep under the stars until the morning when they'd let you in.

Come Again?!

2009-01-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

I get almost all my news from the internet, which means that I usually know more about the national news than the local news. So imagine my alarm when I read this message on my work e-mail:

"To be pro-active about the volcano eruption, IT would ask that you power down your PC and printers at night before going home."

The volcano eruption?

The Oscar Grouch

2009-01-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

If you can bring yourself to read this whole thing, I’ve got an awesome idea.On Saturday Michelle and I watched The Dark Knight with the kids in my Sunday School class (they swear it’s ok with their parents). It was the third time I’ve watched it, and I distinctly thought “If this doesn’t get at least nominated for best picture, then the Oscars have no meaning.” It’s a superbly-executed allegory for the moral conflicts of the War on Terror. Heath Ledger as the Joker is the perfect portrayal of a Nietzchean Superman. Surely if any action movie can be nominated, it’s this one. There are only two minor flaws in the movie: 1) a couple of plot holes that you don’t even think about until later, and 2) Maggie Gyllenhall looks like the kind of crazy girl that I will warn my sons about, the kind that writes depressing poetry and doesn’t wash her hair for weeks at a time. It actually made me miss Katie Holmes.

Well, the nominees came out today:
1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
3. Frost/Nixon
4. Milk
5. The Reader

I looked it up, and the highest grossing movie from among these five was “Benjamin Button”. It was the #22 among all the movies released last year. Slumdog Millionaire was #62. “Milk” was #111, Frost/Nixon was #145, and The Reader was #148. This means there are two movies nominated for “Best Picture” that were apparently less desirable to audiences than “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” (#127). Three of those movies put together made less than “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” (#75). And The Dark Knight was seen by three times as many people as all five nominees combined.

This is why I don't watch the Oscars. Basically, Hollywood types are like mopey teenagers who only like bands that no one has ever heard of, but claim that they liked all the popular bands "before they got big". They should have just dubbed the movie in Cantonese and called it "Crouching Joker, Hidden Batman." Then the critics would have loved it. Do you think anyone is going to watch “The Reader” ten or twenty years from now? No one is watching it now, for crying out loud. Apparently movies are like food; if it tastes good, it must be bad for you.

I realize that the boring “critically acclaimed” movies aren’t going anywhere. So here’s my suggestion: Just like how the NCAA Basketball Tournament has East, West, South and Midwest brackets, the Best Picture Oscar should have brackets for different kinds of movies. Here are my suggested brackets:

1. The “Blockbuster” Bracket: Because at least one of the nominees ought to be a movie people care about.

2. The “Discrimination Film” Bracket: Because people still just don’t understand how hard it can be to grow up in this country as a minority/woman/disabled/left-handed/gay/Canadian/ex-con/pedophile/communist/terrorist.

3. The “Holocaust/Nazi” Bracket: Because Fascism is all you have left when you refuse to acknowledge the millions of people who were killed by the Communists.

4. The “Depressing Movies About People Who Hate Life Where the Protagonist is Just as Spiteful, Dishonest, Adulterous and Selfish as the Antagonist” Bracket: Because Hollywood loves characters with “nuance”. Note to movie directors: there’s a problem with your movie if I want both the "good guy" and the "bad guy" to die.

5. I can’t decide whether to make this the “Biopic” Bracket or the “Anything with Meryl Streep in it” Bracket, because there’s going to be one of these nominated every year.

What do you think of my plan?

Sledding at Soldier Hollow

2009-01-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Sariah just emailed me the pictures we took on her camera of our sledding trip at Soldier Hollow over the break. It's becoming sort of a tradition and I love it! There had been a snowstorm recently so we found the first few times down it was easy to find yourself stopping on the middle of the hill. But we're pretty much professional sledders so we developed a system that I believe people were jealous of. I won't reveal our secrets, but I will say we had a blast flying down in record speed.

Aaaaaaaaand We're Back.

2009-01-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

I'd like to begin by telling you a fact which I just learned: "Alaska" is actually an Eskimo word which means, "Dang it's cold here...Hey, is Ninjook dead or are his eyes just frozen shut?"

Like many of you, we haven't posted anything recently because of Christmas. Michelle and I flew down to Utah for a couple of weeks to visit family. We don't have a ton of pictures, but here are some highlights:

My buddy Nate finally ties the knot up in Boise (Not to me; his wife was somewhere around there):
Michelle and my sister Amber eating some hot steaming pineapple at Toucano's during my brother Logan's birthday dinner.Amber opens a present Christmas morning (she must have a nose for the camera)

Michelle improvised these cream cheese puffs on Christmas morning. They were delicious, but she refused to pose with them in full.

On our anniversary, we went snow-shoeing at Soldier Hollow. It wasn't part of our original plans, but when we looked up hotel rooms at the Homestead Resort, we found a room/breakfast/ski pass combo for only $58.00 on their website. We snapped it up immediately, finding out later that it was a typo and they meant to charge $258.00 for that combo. To their credit, they honored our original larcenous price.

Of course, if you scroll down on our blog, you'll see why we went snow-shoeing instead of skiing. (we're taking ski lessons next month) When we returned to Alaska, this is what our car looked like.

And now, many of you have been asking for moose pictures. We see moose all the time, but usually not when we have our camera with us. Well, this bull moose walked right in front of our apartment as we were about to go run some errands, so we got these photos. The bull moose are actually much harder to find than the cows.

These three were taken from inside the apartment:
And this one from the car:

I don't want to promise anything, but we should have a few more posts soon.

The Wilton Rose

2008-12-12T22:25:00.001-08:00

So I learned how to make a rose out of icing today. It's both harder and easier than it looks. I wish I had a picture of the first one I tried to make. It looked like a cabbage. Now they just look more like carnations. That's all I really have to say about it.

P.S. The class I'm taking requires a specific design with only a small amount of flexibility so the nasty ugly rainbow one from earlier was not of my choosing. Even worse than that, however, was last week when they felt it needful to teach us how to make clowns...ugliest and scariest clown cake I've ever seen. Worse than you could probably imagine. The good thing is that the techniques we learn are applicable to other designs. So I guess there is that.

Learning from the mistakes of others

2008-12-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

Like most married couples, Michelle and I talk about money a lot. A lot a lot, in fact. And with the financial crisis going on, I've come to a firm conclusion: If it had to happen, it couldn't have come at a better time for us.

Now, I don't mean to be insensitive to people that have lost their job. Frankly, I'm worried that things might not look a lot better in two years when I have to get another job. But I'm glad that we have been able to see all of this happen before we made some of the mistakes that people just a little further along in life than us have made.

A couple of years ago, I was having lunch with a smart friend who was getting a finance degree at BYU. We talked about people who were taking out mortgages on their home to invest in stocks or bonds (under the logic that the interest rate for the house was lower and tax-deductible). He said, "It's a terrible idea to pay off your house sooner than you have to." I asked him, "What if you lose your job later and can't make the mortgage payments?" His answer: "Yeah, that's the only drawback." Some drawback.

Note that this was a smart friend who actually studies finance at a school owned by a church that emphasizes frugality as though it were a sacrament. At the time, I didn't even think he was wrong. "Hey, maybe times have changed" I thought. Well, guess what? Staying out of debt (or at least borrowing carefully) is just as important as it ever was since time immemorial.

These are the lessons I've taken from recent events, either for my own sake or for my future kids:

1. Homes are a consumer good, not an investment.
If you are putting money in a retirement account, then 200,000 is twice as good as 100,000. That's because a retirement account is an investment (ostensibly). Homes aren't. Sure, you might get lucky and see the price go way up in a few years, but over the long haul, the value of homes typically move only at the inflation rate (you can look up the charts yourself if you don't believe me). If you didn't have to live in a home, there'd be no reason to buy one. When you buy a house, you're spending money, not investing it. So financially speaking, a $100,000 house purchase is twice as good as a $200,000 purchase. This sounds simple enough, but almost everyone forgot it, myself included. Thank goodness I didn't graduate three years ago when I might have felt the need to buy instead of rent.

2. Don't borrow to buy more education than you need.
I've been reading about lawyers making $45,000 a year with $150,000 in debt. Dodged a bullet on this one. I could have gone to a slightly higher ranked law school for about $20,000 a year more, probably $25,000 when you count urban living expenses. That's $75,000 more debt than I currently have, for a school that wouldn't have gotten me a better job than the one I have now. No thanks. (amazing to think it was a close call at the time). The correlary to this is as follows: If you have no plans to make good money someday, don't even think about taking tens of thousands in loans. Go to a state school or get a scholarship. If I had the debt I do now, but I were a Spanish teacher rather than a lawyer, I'd be sweating gallons right about now.

3. Paying off a loan is better than investing money.
Most financial advisers tell you to pay only the minimum on your subsidized student loans, because the interest rate is so low. Then you can invest what's left over. I think this is self-evidently wrong. I have a subsidized loan with a 7.5% interest rate. If I pay extra on that loan, that's a guaranteed 7.5% annual return on investment. Is there a bank or investment firm in the world that can guarantee a rate like that now? As soon as this hit me, we called our IRA and told them we would stop contributing for the time being.

4. If you don't need it, you aren't saving money by buying it at a discount.
When Michelle and I moved up here to Alaska, we considered buying an HDTV because, "we're out of school now, our TV is ancient, we'll be spending time indoors, and it's only $700 for a pretty good one...Hey, wait a second, don't these Flintstones vitamins we've been taking look suspiciously like stupid pills?" Luckily we thought better of it, and guess what? You don't need HDTV to enjoy "The Office". Does anyone really want to see Dwight Schrute's face in any greater detail?

Does anyone have thoughts on this? I think we make so many financial mistakes because everyone's afraid to talk about finances with people they trust. If so, some frank discussion is in order.

Reasons to be thankful for my wife on Thanksgiving

2008-12-04T20:17:00.001-08:00

I know this is a belated theme, but I figured it was best to wait until we had some pictures from Thanksgiving. By the way, we went to two Thanksgiving dinners. This is us at the Gardener home (I'm the inebriated-looking fellow on the left. Will I ever look normal in a photo?).

1. She is beautiful (See pictures)

2. She knows how to make an incredible pumpkin chocolate cheesecake pie (yes, you read that correctly). It won the dessert contest at the first Thanksgiving dinner we went to. 3. She is always looking to improve herself. A couple of months ago she mentioned that she sometimes wished she had gone to culinary school instead of teaching, so that she could try making cakes professionally. I sort of casually mentioned that there are all kinds of teaching resources on cooking that she could use without actually going to culinary school.

Before I knew it, she was signed up for cake baking and decorating classes at the nearby Michaels store. The cake below is the VERY FIRST CAKE that she made. It was delicious. 4. She tries very hard not to laugh at me. Sometimes. Like when I can't go more than a couple feet without falling during my first stab at cross-country skiing (or any kind of skiing). This was the day after Thanksgiving, in a city park here in Anchorage.

5. She works two part-time jobs so that we can burn through our credit cards (the right way). This one paid for a good portion of our Euro trip, but it's a thing of the past.

6. She is perfect. Most of you knew that already.

Europe Photo Entry #11: Innsbruck

2008-11-29T14:45:00.001-08:00

We took another day trip to Innsbruck, Austria, to go hiking in the Alps. This is one where, yet again, the pictures just don't do it justice. I repeatedly forced Michelle to sing "The Sound of Music." OK, so it was really me singing it. Don't tell anyone.

Michelle takes a drink next to some friendly cows in a mountain pasture. The people that own the farm have an outdoor restaurant with some mean grub and an oompa band. When the tubas started playing, all of the cows came over and stood at attention. I think it was their anthem.

Europe Photo Entry #10: Neuschwanstein

2008-11-25T18:13:00.000-08:00

Neuschwanstein ("New Swan Castle") is a castle in the Bavarian Alps right on the border of Germany and Austria. It was built by a Bavarian king known as "Mad King Ludwig". Ludwig had an obsession with swans, and his castles are decorated everywhere with swans on the inside.

Perhaps more significantly, Neuschwanstein is, according to legend, Walt Disney's inspiration for Cinderella's castle at Disneyland. As you can see from the pictures, if that's not true, it may as well be. It's a stunning sight, and sits between a valley and a mountain range that are as pretty as any place on earth. This was probably a top-five day out of our month in Europe.

The Alps on one side...And the valley on the other.This is Hohenschwangau ("High Swan Something-or-other"), Ludwig's "other" swan castle (you can never have too many), which is right next to Neuschwanstein. It was his "hunting lodge".P.S. After looking at these photos, I'm amazed at how well they turned out. This is one of those places that's just too beautiful to screw up photographically.

UPDATE: Michelle and I were watching "The Great Escape" last night and Neuschwanstein is actually in the movie! How did I not notice this before? It's during the part where two of the escapees steal a Nazi fighter plane. Weird coinicidence.

Jack is Back

2008-11-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

Apparently this is “pop culture” week on our blog.

Other than sports, there aren’t many TV shows I watch regularly. Basically just “The Office”, “24” and “The Biggest Loser” (Having lost 120 pounds myself, I’m transfixed by that show).
For those of you who watch the show, you know that “24” was horrible last season. Nothing made sense, and they forgot that the show is all about Jack Bauer killing terrorists without joy or regret, saving the world in the meantime.

Well, last night there was a two-hour movie as a prequel to the next season that starts in January. It was called “24: Redemption”. I thought that was a terrible name. While Jack may be “cursed” in the sense that he has to do all of the horrible things that no one else is able or willing to do, he doesn’t need to be “redeemed” for anything he’s done. He always does the right thing, even if the world hates him for it. Based on the name, I was worried that the show would turn Jack into this regretful shell of himself, apologizing to every middle-eastern dictator whose minions he has had the unfortunate need to kill.

I shouldn’t have worried. When Jack said to that loathsome U.N. weasel with the bad haircut, “Why don’t you go hide in the shelter with the OTHER children?”, I literally jumped out of my seat and yelped. If there has been a better put-down in any movie or TV show, I can’t think of it. If there were any justice in the world, the guy who wrote that line would win an Emmy, a Pulitzer, a Grammy (for the spoken-word album recorded by Kiefer Sutherland), a Congressional Medal of Honor and, most importantly, a Nobel Prize (it should be the Peace prize, but Literature works as well).

Oh, and Jack killed all of the African warlords, in case you were wondering.

Oh, Twilight

2008-11-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

I realize that the majority of people who read this blog are Michelle’s friends, so I’m going to be careful in how I word this. I won’t be going to see “Twilight” with Michelle this week. She’s going with a friend, a woman, and that is as it should be. I’m not 100% against seeing a romantic movie with my wife, but it’s pretty obvious to me that “Twilight” is strictly a female phenomenon. Actually, “phenomenon” is the only way to describe it; it seems that every woman I know is obsessed with the books to an unseemly extent. It’s like their version of college football.

Indeed, I hear about it so much that I can basically piece together the plot without having read any of the books:

“Twilight”- In this book we are introduced to Bella, a highly intelligent, highly attractive high school girl who, like most such girls, considers herself above all those immature high school idiot guys. Along comes Edward. [Oh, the pretentiousness of that name! He could never go by “Ed” or “Eddie”, or even, to be unconventional, “Ward”. Nope, it’s “Edward”, as if he were some rich British exchange student, son of the 12th Earl of Saxony.]

Bella and Edward live in an appropriately gloomy town on the coast of Washington. Bella finds herself strangely attracted to Edward’s pasty white complexion and brooding countenance. She’s also stunned by his rock-hard body [Um, Honey, should you be reading that?]. They begin to date, fall in love, etc., but then Bella finds out that Edward is a vampire. No problem though; he only drinks the blood of animals. Just make sure to keep him away from your sanguine little Fluffy. Vampires are immortal, so Edward is actually like 150 years old or so. Not sure why he’s still in high school; maybe he didn’t want to graduate without a girlfriend.

Apparently there are other vampires who drink the blood of humans. Not only are they dangerous for regular folks, they also want to kill vampires like Edward who don’t. I’m not sure why this is. Can’t they just make fun of Edward like the rest of us make fun of vegetarians?

Even if the story didn’t have vampires, it would still be considered a “fantasy” book for the following reason: Bella wants to make out with Edward, but he is always slowing things down. Sure, this happens all the time. Then the Easter Bunny makes a dramatic entrance as he’s being chased by a hungry Sasquatch. OK, that second part didn’t happen, but the story wouldn’t be any less plausible if it had. Like I said, it’s a fantasy book. At each of these “romantic” scenes, the women readers swoon, thinking, “There really are men out there who love a woman without wanting to proceed too quickly to making out. How romantic.” When I was single, I thought it was enough that we Mormon boys weren’t trying to, well, break the Law of Chastity. The bar has now been raised.

“New Moon”- In the 2nd book, Bella proceeds to ruin a good thing by vacillating between Edward and a new guy named Jacob. Jacob is a werewolf, by the way. Apparently dating only one Halloween monster wasn’t “dangerous” enough for her. This is a watershed moment, as women readers are divided into “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” camps. Jacob doesn’t treat Bella nearly as well as Edward does. The decision between them is nonetheless difficult for Bella because, well, she’s a girl and girls like jerks. [Every guy right now is nodding]. Hey, even Hitler had a girlfriend.

“Eclipse”- Not really sure what happens in this one, other than more consternation about whom Bella will pick. She eventually settles upon Edward, which makes her the first woman in history who, when faced with a decision between two “dangerous” guys, picks the one with less facial hair.

“Breaking Dawn”- Edward and Bella get married and Bella becomes pregnant with a vampire baby. Vampire babies are different from human babies because they are like a parasite which consumes the mother’s blood and makes her extremely ill. Oh wait, that’s just like a regular baby.

So there you have it; I’m not too worried about Michelle falling in love with Edward because I am at least as solicitous and protective of her as Edward is of Bella. I may not have his rock-hard abs, but at least Michelle hasn’t bought a “Mrs. Cullen” sign yet. [Ladies: you can purchase them from my friend Kristyn: http://lorinandkristyn.blogspot.com/2008/11/tattered-trunk-boutique.html. ] I don’t get it, and I never will. But then, Michelle’s not going to sit down for the Ohio State-Michigan game this Saturday either…

[Editor's Note: I thought Michelle would laugh at this post. She didn't. She said it was "kind of funny, I guess." Her rebuttal is forthcoming.]

Europe Photo Entry #9: Dachau

2008-11-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

The Dachau Nazi concentration camp is located just outside Munich. When we originally planned our trip, we considered going to P0land, which would have allowed us to see Auschwitz. The difference between Auschwitz and Dachau is that Auschwitz was an extermination camp specifically designed for killing. Dachau was begun as a work camp for Jews, POWs and political dissidents. It was the first large-scale concentration camp. Eventually a gas chamber was installed, but historians believe that it was never used. Nonetheless, at least 20,000 people died in Dachau due to disease and starvation, and over 200,000 were crammed into its barracks. In the end, it was good that we ended up going to Dachau instead because Michelle said she wasn't sure she could have handled Auschwitz. Arbeit Macht Frei: "Work Makes You Free"
The Exterior of the Gas Chamber
The interior of the gas chamber, labeled as a shower.
This is where the zyklon B pellets were poured in.

This shower head isn't even hooked up to a water pipe.

The Crematorium

Each row that you can see in this picture used to be a barracks. Bizarrely, many Soviet POWs stayed at the camp for years after the war ended because they didn't want to go back to Russia. The barracks were destroyed sometime in the 60s.A cell for higher profile political prisoners.

A table used for beatings.

A plaque for the American liberators.

Europe Photo Entry #8: Munich

2008-11-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

We used Munich as a jumping-off point for various cities throughout Bavaria. We did spend a day seeing the sights of the city itself. My personal highlight was eating some delicious pretzels and sausage at the famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall. We only have video of that, though.

This is Michelle in front of the magnificent Nymphenburg Palace.

This is still on the palace grounds. The sign says not to let your dog drink from the trough, but there's no problem with people is there?
Here's Michelle in Munich's English Garden. Remember in "I am the Walrus", when John Lennon sings about "sitting in an English Garden, waiting for the sun"? Well, we had to see what the big deal was.

Get the Missionaries to the Obama Home, ASAP!!

2008-11-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

In this interview transcript, I see an opening here for Mormon missionaries:

OBAMA:" …There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell."

FALSANI: "You don’t believe that?"

OBAMA: "I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That’s just not part of my religious makeup."

Obviously, he's never heard of the doctrine of baptism for the dead.

Catching Up

2008-11-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

Haven’t posted for awhile…

To catch you up on things, I should start by showing you this picture of my beautiful wife. You see, as we’ve been putting up pictures of our trip to Europe, both of us have mixed feelings because we weren’t in the best of shape at the time. Traveling/graduating/moving/staying with family/saying goodbye to family and friends/studying for the bar exam will do that to you. Also, Michelle wasn't able to do her hair while we were over there. Both of us have lost about 20 lbs since we came to Alaska, so I thought you ought to know just how good she looks now. I’m quite proud to be her husband. Speaking of the bar exam, I passed. It’s a minor miracle when you consider that in the two months before the exam, I 1) spent over a month’s worth of potential study time in Europe, 2) spent a few days back east for Logan’s wedding, 3) did not take a review class. I had a lot of doubters (i.e., “Aren’t you supposed to go on vacation AFTER the bar exam?”), and I was tempted to gloat over them. However, gloating is beneath me. Instead, I choose to gloat about being too good to gloat, which is morally superior. You see the difference, don’t you?

In other news, congrats to Nate for leaving the dating pool permanently next month, and congrats to Elder Sumpter for reentering it in a big way next week after two years of missionary toil. I wish I could be there for the un-retirement ceremony when they pull your jersey down from the rafters.

If you don’t want to hear anything more about the election, don’t bother reading the rest of this. Trust me, I understand.

First, I’m proud that our country has come a long way, in a very short time, from Jim Crow to electing a black man as president. In fact, I dare say that this is the only non-black-majority country where this would be possible at the present time. I wish it weren’t quite such a big deal, though. Everyone’s been patting America on the head as if it were some emotionally disturbed child who had managed to go an entire day without throwing a rock at his teacher’s head. My point is, I think America’s been ready for a black president for a while now. Does anyone remember the mid-90’s when something like 70% of everybody said they would vote for Colin Powell if he chose to run? So by all means, let’s be proud of country, but let’s not pretend that we came out of Apartheid last week. Obama’s victory has far more in common with Bill Clinton’s or even George Bush’s election than it does with Nelson Mandela’s (and we should be grateful for that).

Second, I would encourage anyone who’s really distraught over this election to calm down a bit. Of all the elections in my lifetime, this one had the fewest real differences between the candidates. On economic stuff, McCain and Obama are basically from the same Republicrat Party which believes that Government Can Solve All Your Problems If We Just All Work Together. I hope that someday a titanic, Reaganesque hero will raise his mighty sword to smite the Socialist hordes that would turn us into a Macrocosmic Canada. John McCain was never going to be that guy. On social issues, Obama may be pro-abortion, but when did you ever hear McCain address abortion? We do know that McCain is pro-marriage, since he’s already had two of them (bah-dum-CHING!). And when it comes to the war, I simply refuse to believe that Obama is prepared to surrender in an Iraq War that we are currently winning. Obama is a smart guy, and I don’t think he’s going to turn the Democrats into the “surrender at all costs” party for another generation.

Now that there is a liberal in the White House, liberals, and the media in particular, will begin to talk about how we have to finish the job, defeat our enemy’s, etc. They will pretend that they have always supported the mission of our troops, just as the media in 1984 said, “We have always been at war with Eastasia.” It’s infuriating, but it also might be just what the country needs.

My Vacuum...

2008-11-07T20:52:00.001-08:00

So I'm currently lacking a healthy and stable relationship with our vacuum. It doesn't pick anything up. I end up going back over it as a "human vacuum" doing what it should have done. In the past, vacuuming has been the chore I enjoy the most and I love the way the carpet looks afterwards. I need help. I need a vacuum I can rely on. One that will be there day in and day out to do what it's asked to do: suck up trash. Does anyone have a vacuum that they are passionate about? I welcome all thoughts.

Advice to New Americans

2008-10-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

One of the surprise perks of my new job is that I was given the opportunity to speak at a naturalization ceremony this past Friday. There were probably 40 people sworn in as citizens, from at least 25 different countries (some would blow your mind). You never saw a group of people so proud to be Americans. Here is the speech that I gave:

First of all, I want to say congratulations to all of you. Today is the first day of your life as citizens of the United States of America. I am humbled to speak to you today for a couple of reasons. One is my age; most of you are older and certainly wiser than I am, so I’m hesitant to stand here and give advice.

The other reason I’m humbled is that those of you who will be sworn in as citizens today have made the conscious decision to become Americans. I’m very proud to be American. However, I was born American, so I really had no say in the matter. Those women who sang here a few minutes ago used a line that I liked; they said, “America, land of my choice.” America really is the land of your choice in a very literal sense. I think one of the great tragedies of our day is that many Americans, born and raised here, have no concept of how blessed they are to be part of this country. I wonder how many of my fellow Americans who were born and raised in this country could pass the multiple-choice test that they gave to you. (Laughter). The very fact that you are here today, by your own will and choice, shows that you understand better than most what a great country this is.

In June, my wife and I visited Europe. It was my first time leaving my home country. It was a wonderful trip, and there were several events that happened while we were there that made me realize just how different America is from other countries. I only have time to discuss three of them today. The first occurrence was in Hungary. In most countries of Europe, especially at tourist sites, if you can’t speak the native language they’ll immediately speak to you in English because that is the most popular second language. In Hungary, however, people would speak to us in Hungarian, and when we didn’t understand, they would speak to us in German. One lifeguard at a pool we visited tried to speak in Hungarian, then German, and then about five other languages I didn’t recognized. He was a very multilingual lifeguard, but he didn’t speak English. Finally, I asked him “English?” He looked at me and asked, “America?” I nodded yes and he said “Maaaaamaa mia!” (Laughter). I have no idea what he meant by that exclamation, maybe he doesn’t like Americans, but when he said, “Espanol?” our problem was solved because I do speak Spanish.

The lesson I took from that experience is that an American can look like a Hungarian, a German, an Englishman, a Spaniard, a Russian, an African, an Asian, or a Latin American. Americans come from all those places. There is an American people, but there is no uniquely American race. If I were to look at each one of you individually, I would have no idea where you were from. But seeing you all here together today, I know that there is only one country that could possibly be home to every one of you.

Another experience in Germany illustrated much the same point. How many of you are soccer or “football” fans? Well, entirely by accident, we happened to visit Europe during the Euro Cup, the European Soccer Championships. It was a very big deal over there. In fact, while we were in Germany, the Germans and the Turks met in the semifinal match. It wasn’t a surprise that Germany was there, but the Turks were a big surprise. Some of you may already know this, but there are many, many Turkish immigrants in Germany. The day after Turkey won its quarterfinal game, which matched it up with Germany, we were visiting a small German village when out of nowhere there came a huge parade of hundreds of Turkish men and boys banging drums, dancing, and carrying Turkish flags. What I noticed is that you had men of every age, from small boys to very old men, walking in this parade. Many of them, based on the way they interacted, were obviously fathers, sons, grandsons, and grandparents. And the thought occurred to me that many of these men had spent the majority of their lives in Germany. Certainly many of the small boys had been born there and had never been to Turkey. Yet they still thought of themselves as Turks.

The point is that throughout the world, being part of a country means more than just living there. There must be something else that unites you.

Those Turkish immigrants had something that united them. They had the same homeland, and most of them were of the same race and religion.

If there is no singular “American” race or religion, what unites us? If I might make a brief reference to current events, think of our two major presidential candidates this year. One of them, John McCain, was not born in the United States. He was born in Panama while his father was in the Navy. The other, Barack Obama, has a father who was not even American. Yet these are the two candidates for President of the United States. Being an American is more than just where you were born, and more than just who your parents are.

I submit to you that perhaps the most important thing that unites us is this. (holding up copy of Constitution). Can anyone guess what this document is? I heard a good answer over here; it’s the Constitution of the United States. It was adopted in 1787 and amended 27 times since then. It might seem strange for me to say that we can be united by a piece of paper. But the Constitution is more than that. It prescribes our system of government, with the checks and balances necessary to ensure that no one, not the president, not Congress, not even the majority of the people, is greater than the law. It guarantees that our rights as individuals will be preserved, even if the whole world is against us. It makes us “a government of laws, and not of men.”

Abraham Lincoln said that America is a nation “conceived in liberty”. What does he mean by that? It means America was born as a free country. England is a free country, as are France and Japan and many others. But these countries were not born free but rather as the private dominions of kings and emperors. Freedom in America, however, began with this nation’s founding. There literally never has been such a thing as a “United States of America” in which freedom and self-rule did not reign. Our country is effectively co-existent with this Constitution.

Now of course, as I mentioned, the Constitution is a piece of paper. A piece of paper can only bind us together if we abide by it. Let me cite an example. We’re here in a courthouse today. Most of the time, people end up in this courthouse because something has gone wrong. Often, what has happened is that two parties signed a contract and then one of them failed to honor that contract. In other words, they treated the contract as if it were merely a piece of paper; they felt no duty to abide by it.

Today, you swore an oath to defend this Constitution. If you want to live up to that oath and be true Americans, you must abide by the Constitution and defend it against those who refuse to honor it, and those enemies of America who seek to overturn it by force. I took this same oath when I began my work here with the court. There’s another very important group of people that takes such an oath; the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.

That brings me to my third story about my trip to Europe. While we were there, we visited the Nazi work camp at Dachau, Germany, a place where hundreds of thousands of Jews, Allied prisoners and political dissidents suffered and tens of thousands died under unimaginable conditions. At the entrance to the camp, there are monuments to the American army units, the 42nd Infantry Division and the 20th Armored Division, that liberated the camp. As I stood there, I fought back tears as I thought of the American servicemen who risked their lives to bring the freedoms they enjoyed at home to strangers abroad.

Well, the members of our armed forces today are no less brave and no less honorable. They are the best of us. They risk their lives to protect us, and without them, the freedoms promised by this Constitution would be meaningless, just a worthless piece of paper. You cannot be truly American without honoring them.

Today you have been adopted into the American family. As part of that family, you receive the inheritance left to us by our Founding Fathers, and by those generations of Americans who have kept our nation free until this day. You have the duty to exercise those freedoms. So vote. Exercise your freedom of speech, your freedom of religion, and your freedom of conscience.
I would also add that if you want to be American, you should do the things that Americans do. Put the flag outside your home on patriotic holidays. When you hear the national anthem, put your hand over your heart. Go to a barbecue on the Fourth of July. Visit a monument or memorial on Memorial Day if you can. Read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Learn about the history of your adopted country.

I doubt that I really need to tell you to do these things. Most of you have been living here for quite some time, and your love for this country can be seen in your faces. I wish that everyone I know could have watched each one of you introduce yourselves and tell us how you feel about this country. My heart leapt each time I heard one of you say “God Bless America”. You’ve showed me what a blessing it is to be American, and for that I thank you.

Alaska State Fair

2008-10-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

So the Alaska state fair is a big deal around here. Everyone goes, as is shown by the absurd line. It's held in Palmer, which is about 45 minutes north of Anchorage.

(Editor's Note: I was trying to make the same face as Friar Tuck in that picture, so that's the explanation for my weird smile- Matthias)

Oh, my goodness. It cannot be told how divine the corn dogs at the fair were. By far, they were the best corn dogs I had ever tasted. Matthias liked them too, even though his face doesn't really show it.

Here was mine right before I took a gigantic bite.

One of the best parts of the fair was seeing the huge produce they're able to grow here because of all the sunlight hours. Check it out:

To the left of this head of lettuce, you can see a typical-sized head of lettuce.

And my personal favorite:
Never before have I seen a "giant puffball". What sort of dish does this particular piece of produce add to?

And if the food at the fair wasn't enough, we came home to have some of my birthday cake. I had to take a picture because it looked so fantastic. Some nice people from Matthias's work made it for me. I added the cream cheese icing to take it to a whole new level of deliciousness.

In conclusion, if you are ever planning on coming to Alaska to visit, coming during the summer when the state fair is going on is a great time to do it.

Europe Photo Entry #7: Prague

2008-10-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to write about Prague. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

Me enjoying a chocolate in front of the astronomical clock in Old Town

The Jewish Cementary, in which many victims of the Holocaust are buried. Apparently its so crowded that they have laid two extra layers of dirt in which to bury the bodies, and each time they just lift the existing gravestones a few feet up.

The Charles Bridge at night. Prague was the prettiest place I have ever been at nighttime (please ignore the weird facial expression).

Inside Prague Castle, which is really more like a fortress complex that includes the cathedral

Europe Entry #6: Vienna

2008-10-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

We didn't spend long in Vienna, just a night, so we only have a little video and no photos. The most memorable thing that happened was our mad, belated dash to catch our train to Prague the next day. We underestimeted the distance between the subway station and the station for the long-distance trains. We literally sprinted with our luggage for about a half a mile (should be an olympic event: the 800 Meter Laundry Lug), got on the train just as the doors closed, and the train started moving about three seconds after we climbed in.

Me: "Hey, now that we made it, it was kind of fun in retrospect."
Michelle: (Gasps for air)
Me: "Actually, not that fun."
Michelle: (Still gasping)
Me: "Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said that it was fun."
Michelle: (Shakes head, continues gasping).

Europe Photo Entry #5: Budapest

2008-10-08T01:18:00.000-07:00

We loved Italy, had the time of our lives in fact, but there are some things you should know about it: It is hot during the summer, it isn't terribly clean, it's crowded (during tourist season at least, and yes, I realize that we are part of the problem), expensive, and the customer service leaves something to be desired. For food-lovers like Michelle and me, it was particularly annoying that you could spend $25 per person on dinner and not even approach satisfaction; that's part of the reason we ate so much gelato. After 10 or 11 days there (I can't quite remember just how long), we were ready to move on. Move on we did; to Hungary, in a train compartment improbably known as a "sleeper car". ("Improbably" because it's hard to actually sleep when it's about 55 degrees Fahrenheit in the car, the beds are just long enough for a Chinese ballerina, and they wake you up literally five times to look at your passport at each border crossing. Those Slovenians are quite officious).

Ah, Budapest. I loved it. Maybe my opinion is skewed by what a relief it was to get out of the heat and crowds, but I really just can't think of anything about Budapest that I didn't like. It's beautiful, clean, cheap (you could buy about as much food as in the U.S. for the same amount of money), there's lots to do, and, since I didn't know that much about Hungary to begin with, pretty exotic. The people there have embraced all that is best about capitalism. The food was, and I do not exaggerate, the best we had in Europe. That may reflect our American preference for solid, hearty meals, but it's also because the restaurants all offered a mixture of German, Italian and Slavic stuff. We were well treated most of the time, which is surprising when you consider that most people thought we were German, and, you know...

To top it all off, the patron saint of Hungary, their founding father, was a 15th-century king by the name of:

That's right, King Matthias, the greatest Hungarian monarch in history. Here is "Matthias Church", which overlooks the city from the "Buda" side of the river:And here is a lovely lady in front of a breathtaking view which overlooks the "Pest" side of the river (behind her is the famous Chain Bridge):Buda at dusk, not far from where I first tasted that elusive "white whale" of delicious pastries: Hungarian Funnel Cake. If you want to know more, contact me. I won't write about it here because I could write at novel length about its other-worldly, devastating tastiness. Suffice it to say, it is nothing like any funnel cake you've had in your life:If you ever visit Budapest, you really should visit the "Statue Park" outside the city. After the fall of Communism, the new democratic government had to decide what to do with all the old Marxist-Stalinist statues around Hungary. They didn't want to keep them up, but it felt wrong to just destroy them. They eventually decided that the biggest insult to Communism would be to sell the statues to a private party who would then use them to make money by charging admission. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until we put up video to see the ginormous "Boots of Stalin" which were left behind when the Hungarians pulled down Old Joe's statue during the short-lived 1956 revolution. Here is a freedom-loving Worker, carrying the banner for international Communist unity (which in Hungary usually manifested itself in the form of Russian tanks):

P.S. It started snowing here on Sunday. That's October 5, for those of you scoring at home. This must somehow be related to that "Global Warming" I keep hearing about. To quote Homer Simpson: "Can't Al Gore do anything right?"

P.P.S. This is a little dated, but if you enjoyed my "transcript" of Obama's speech:(http://matthiasandmichellecicotte.blogspot.com/2008/08/baracks-real-convention-speech.html), you should read this eerily similar blog entry by Matt Steener, my friend Robyn's husband: http://thesteeners.blogspot.com/2008/08/obamas-stirring-speech.html

The fact that we had the same idea, and made a lot of the same jokes, should tell you something about the speech itself. I particularly liked this line: "And, if necessary, I am even willing to send mean text messages and block them from my contacts list on MSN Messenger. [Deafening applause] ."

The Moose's Tooth

2008-09-25T20:29:00.001-07:00

We discovered about a week into our move here to Alaska (and yes, this should have been posted a long time ago, but hey--I just barely blogged about our trip to Venice back in June. Don't judge.) the most delicious local place to eat in Anchorage: The Moose's Tooth. The name piqued our interest so we decided to give it a try. I had the most tasty sandwich I've EVER tasted before...not even kidding. See for yourself:

It's pizza crust for bread, baked with lots of cheese, turkey, and bacon. Add ranch, guacamole, lettuce, and tomato, and that's one fiiiine sandwich! It's the kind of place that I know we're going to miss when we leave. It's also the place we'll take you if you ever come to visit! We liked it so much we took our friends, the Skinners, as a thank you for letting us stay at their house until we found a place to rent. Mostly we just wanted an excuse to go again.

These are our friends with their two adorable boys (please note the delicious pizza on the table...it's delightful):

Venice

2008-09-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone should make their best effort to see Venice before they die. This is only my humble opinion, but seriously...as one of Matthias's friends put it, "Venice is Disneyland for adults." It's true. I'd also like to say that, just like Disneyland (and maybe you Disney fans will disagree), once you've seen Venice once, you don't really need to see it again. It's an absolute blast but we both felt completely satistfied after 2 days of canals as streets. I was so giddy the first night we were there. The first thing we did was take a "vaperetto" (their boat form of taxis) from the train station to St. Mark's Square. This is my giddy self on the ride:

Here's the Bridge of Sighs, often seen on post cards. It connects two important government buildings. Don't judge the farmer's tan.
St. Marks' Square was absolutely phenomenal at night. The lights, the music, the magnitude of St. Mark's basilica. Amaaazing. We had a blast dancing to the music and roaming between the different performances. I wish I had the time and know-how to attach a clip of video I got of Matthias's dancing. We really created a scene--him with his dancing, and me with my laughing at his hilarious moves. You maybe had to be there, but if you've ever seen how Matthias can do his goofy dance, you'll know what I mean.

Below is St. Mark's Basilica and the campanile. We were able to go to the top of the campanile (the large tower behind us) to get a fantastic view of Venice. I'd definitely recommend it.

As Venice was our last stop in Italy, we just had to document the oh-so-obnoxious "siesta" that put any kind of convenient purchase or sight-seeing to a halt for 3 and 1/2 hours. (They kept some things open but inevitably we would want groceries or to go inside a place we'd read about in our travel book and it would be closed due to siesta...)
Here are some cool shots of some of the narrow canals.

These pictures are taken of/on the Rialto Bridge, the most famous bridge in Venice and one with shops on it with really tacky souveniers. I look very small in the first picture, but look closely.

Here's an example of one such tacky souvenier that costs around $50:

Paolin's was the best place we went to in all of Italy to get gelatto. They gave giant-sized scoops and the flavors were mind-boggling. We're not ashamed to say we went there 3 times in 2 days. We might have been even 4 but I can't remember. It was just that good. Plus, we knew it would be our last chance to get authentic gelatto in a very long time. We went "hog wild", as they say. We did a TON of walking so maybe that makes up for it? One of my favorite things to do in Venice was just walk around and look at everything. I hope I don't sound too snobby when I say that one of the best parts was walking around where the tourists were not--the "backstreets" as it were.

This last picture shows how this underpass sort of tunnel opens up to the Canale della Giudecca. I've included a map so you can see what I mean. The Grand Canal winds through the inside of Venice and dumps into a larger canal along the bottom of Venice, with an island directly south of it. It's really cool because you can walk along the sidewalk that's right up against the canal and look across to the island of Giudecca way across the canal. Talk about an amazing afternoon stroll.