It's our snowman!! I left it with the Director's office, and Judy Triplehorn (our most bodacious librarian :) ) took it for Mather.  And get this: It won an honorable mention for the Christmas decoration(s) contest.  Grrrr. :) I'd be upset--if it wasn't so very funny.  :) :)

      This one taken at the local supermarket (Fred Meyers).  It took me something like four and a half YEARS--for me to notice that the cow's tails swing.  :) It's really cool.  It reminds me of a group on animated penguins, over a frozen food section in a Wegmans in Canandaigua: "It's cold up here---we like it that way!!" :) :)

      These next two are at least a little bit interesting.  I grow a LOT of plants in my office.  More than one persone came by, and said, "We're going to be watching the shape of these plants you're growing very carefully, John"---or something to that effect.  After a while, this began to genuinely annoy me.  So, I went to the local Safeway, and bought the most marijuana-looking plant that I could find:

      And then we surrounded this with the most suggestive items we could find: A "Reefer Madness" poster, a lava lamp. . . .  And there were even plans for: Tobacco bongs, rolling papers---you name it.

      The trouble was . . . NOBODY NOTICED!! (or cared) I found this most depressing. . . .  :( :P

      Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour through Alaskan life and scenery.  Except for 2 & 1/2 months of perpetual daylight (It's like something out of Dante's "Inferno." One gets so tired that going to bathroom--at times, even rolling over--becomes a very nearly Aegean task---and yet, one CAN'T SLEEP. . . .  :P :P :( :( ), mosquitoes, and . . . er, tourists--this place is an absolute paradise.  Party on, dudes and dudettes.