I don't know what happened, but I don't think we're in Alaska anymore!  Okay, maybe I exaggerate.  Just because it has been in the 80s every day for a week now and neither our apartment nor the mission office are air conditioned.  Those wonderful, large south-facing windows that we loved so much in the winter-time are currently out of favor.  We have fans blowing in from the cooler side and out from the hotter side all day long while we're gone but it doesn't seem to help much.  We still spend the evening in a nice toasty apartment after spending the day in a nice toasty office.  I know that Ralph and Dixie are laughing at us right now.  They thought it was nice when the temperature got down to 85 degrees!

Last night we decided to beat the heat and go out to dinner and a movie.  Where better to experience high-output air conditioning than in a movie theater, right?  Not when the theater is full of families and it is one of those stadium seating ones.  We ended up sitting fairly high up and it was pretty warm by the end of the movie.  Can't win for losing.  The movie was good though.

We haven't been out and about much for a while due to the heat.  Too hot to walk, too hot to do much birding and not enough time to go sightseeing.  Actually, we're kind of saving the sightseeing for when Kristi gets here.  Two more days, WooHoo!

On Sunday evening we had the elders who live below us over for dinner.  As we frequently do, we took their photos and emailed them to their families to let them know that their sons are alive and well.  As we were doing so, one of the elders suggested that they take our picture, as well.  Having been recently chastised by one of our daughters. who shall remain nameless (#2, reddish hair, lives in Utah, most of the time) for not including more pictures of ourselves on the blog, we agreed.  Here you go, Candi --

One of the elders was intrigued by the pictures on the wall behind us (and them, in their photo).  They are each titled "Wild Alaska," showing an eagle, an Orca and a Humpback whale, and are made with cutout veneer.  Sister Taylor found them at Value Village for $8 apiece.  We later found the exact same set in one of the tourist shops for $45 apiece.  It's always fun to find a bargain!

We actually did do a little birding one evening.  We went to a place called Westchester Lagoon, which is right downtown.  We saw a new type of duck and a new Sandpiper.  We couldn't figure out for sure what the Sandpiper was so we sent photos to our birding family and asked for their input.  Here are a few of the pictures we took.

Beautiful place to have right in town, right?

Yes, we have lots of Magpies in Alaska!

And lots of Mallards!

This is a Gadwall duck.

A couple of shots (long distance) of the Sandpiper-type bird.  Anybody know what it is?

 

You know, we have lived too many years in our own home.  This apartment life is really roughing it. In addition to things like hauling the groceries up stairs all the time, we have had a couple of other interesting things to deal with.  When the elders downstairs turn their bathroom fan on we feel like we are on a helipad.  It's really noisy and the floor vibrates.  If they happen to forget to turn it off before they leave the apartment it drives us nuts.  We asked our landlady about it a while back.  Today we found out from the elders that maintenance was in yesterday and fixed it.  The problem was that there was a bees nest in the venting for their fan!  The maintenance guys cleaned it all out and now it is much quieter with no vibration.  

On Saturday we experienced one of the more frustrating things with sharing an apartment building laundry facility.  Whoever used one of the dryers before us apparently dried an ink pen, which we didn't notice until after we dried a load containing all of our white underwear.  Yep, green-black spots all over everything.  It looks like we're going to have to replace most of our underwear.  Fortunately, all my white shirts and some of our other whites were in the other dryer.  Yes, having your own home is where it's at, even with the headaches that go along with home ownership.

We probably won't post anything until the middle of next week after Kristi returns home.  Maybe we'll have lots of cool sightseeing photos!  See you then.