Okay, this is me! I like this picture, the only part I don't like is that piece of hair hanging in the middle of my forehead! I need to photoshop that out!

So, today I thought I would just add a few pictures of things, people, and pets that I like. Also maybe some places I have enjoyed.

Today was a long day! The researchers came back from sea today, I now have a baby Steller's Jay to take care of, and I know it's gonna be a long, long weekend. Hopefully, the weather will be good this weekend and I can take the dogs out to run and get this house cleaned! I think I say that every weekend. Who knows, maybe this will be the weekend that it really happens! We'll see! Enjoy the pictures for now!

This is a picture of me when I was about 8 or 9. This is at White Lake in Montello, Wisconsin. I learned to swim there, before I learned to walk, and I LOVED that swimming suit! This lake, in this town, one of my favorite places!

Courtney and I at The Grand Canyon, June 2008. What a cool place to go! There is so much to learn there. I picked this photo, not because I loved the GC, but because it was such a fun trip, just Courtney and I getting to drive around and listen to music.

So, this is what I do for a living. I match photos of humpback whale flukes to a catalog of hundreds of whale fluke that my boss has taken over the last 30 years. This is Southeast Alaska whale number 1718. It is also one of my favorite whales. It has been photographed in both Sitka Sound and up near Kodiak Island.

This is my baby! His name is Tex and he is a border collie shepard mix. He is about 5 years old and I got him from a rescue in Seattle when he was about a year and a half old. He gets to come to work with me every day. Let's just say he is a little spoiled. He has to be everywhere that I am and about the only time he leaves me is when he gets the chance to go down to the river and play with his favorite toy...rocks!

This is a picture taken by some folks that live in Sitka. This is a partial albino bald eagle. We have been seeing this bird since it was a 2nd year bird. It takes bald eagles 5 years to get their white head and white tail. So in this picture, taken summer 2008, he is 5. He has about 5 white primary wing feathers, white spots on his shoulder and a trail of white feathers down his belly. He also had white talons. He has been photographed in Haines, Alaska during the Bald Eagle Festival in November, but seems to spend his summers in Sitka. They have named him White Wing.

I'm going to call that good for today. I will add more in the following weeks!

Jen

This one will be short...since I am a little perturbed at dogs today. There must be something in the air since no one seems to want to listen today! Very frustrating!

I am thinking that I need to download some more music. I love music. I just don't know what we would do without it. I have a whole list of songs, I just don't seem to take the time to do it. I have discovered this game on Yahoo games...and I just can't seem to stop playing it! It's worse than the TV!

Not sure I mentioned in the last posting that I am getting rid of my cable. I am pretty excited about it. I am going to keep it until the Olympics are through, and then it's gone! I can't wait to see what I can get done. I won't have that damn box to distract me. Well, it's lunch time, and I am starving. I promise to get some photos up tonight.

New to me

A good friend of mine just sent me her blog. It looked very cool and I thought I would give it a try. Not sure how long this will last...and I will try to keep things light instead of filling it with complaints and stuff that bugs me!
To start, here is a little more information about me. I live in Sitka, Alaska where I have been since the summer of 1995. I came up here from Wisconsin/Illinois for a summer job, and just got stuck. I love it here, although it's not always easy living on an island in southeastern Alaska. It is expensive to live here, and very far away from friends and family. Sometimes that is good, sometimes it's not. I am recently divorced and just bought a trailer that I live in with my 2 cats and 1 crazy border collie. They keep me very busy! OH, also there are 10 baby California quail living in my spare bedroom. I decided I wanted to hatch some eggs, so I did. Now I have 10 baby quail that are starting to get to big for their small cage!
I have 2 amazing jobs, that I love. The "day" job is at the University of Alaska Southeast as a research assistant for a humpback whale biologist. It is such a fun job. I do a lot of computer work, but there are times when I get to go out in the field and collect data about the whales. I have seen some incredible things on the water and I really love being around the whales. The "night" job is as a wildlife rehabilitator at the Alaska Raptor Center. I fix injured birds, mostly bald eagles, and get them back to the wild where they belong. We have a really great facility and get birds from all over southeastern Alaska and sometimes from the interior of Alaska. I will try to post some pictures of whales and birds soon.
I also am a crazy birdwatcher. I travel to see birds. I mean, isn't that the only reason you would go some place? I have only been to one place outside of the US, but that place was AMAZING. Costa Rica. Everyone who enjoys nature should go there...really. You won't be disappointed. A few other places that I really enjoyed were Nome, Alaska, Southeast Arizona, Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon (one word, CONDORS), and Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon. Oh, and then there is Hawaii! Can't believe that I forgot Hawaii. I write more about all this later, and post some pictures.

For now, have a great day!

Jen