Iditarod Day 6

Today has been a quiet day for the Iditarod. Most of the mushers have completed or are completing their 24 hour layover. Currently the teams have left Ophir and are heading toward Iditarod.

1. Aaron Burmeister - 13 dogs
2. Hugh Neff - 14 dogs
3. Lance Mackey - 16 dogs
4. Sebastian Schnuelle - 15 dogs
5. Ken Anderson - 12 dogs
6. Jeff King - 15 dogs
7. Mitch Seavey - 14 dogs
8. Paul Gebhardt - 12 dogs
9. John Baker - 15 dogs
10. Cim Smyth - 12 dogs

12. Aliy Zirkle - 15 dogs
15. Jessie Royer - 15 dogs
19. DeeDee Jonrowe - 14 dogs
29. Melissa Owens - 13 dogs

So far only 3 mushers are out of the race Bjornar Andersen, Nancy Yoskida, and Bob Hickel.

Now that the mushers have completed their 24 hour layover they only have an 8 hour layover left to use before the end of the race. More exciting times to come!

Iditarod Day 5

Today has been another busy race day. The mushers left Nikolai and made it to McGrath (54 miles). Their next check point was Takotna (18 miles). Currently, only one musher has made it from Takotna to Ophir 25 miles. The next checkpoint is Iditarod which his 90 miles from Ophir.

The current standings are

1. Martin Buser - :-) In Ophir with 14 dogs
2. Aaron Burmeister - 13 dogs
3. Hugh Neff - 14 dogs
4. Sebastian Schnuelle - 15 dogs
5. Lance Mackey - 16 dogs
6. Jeff King - 15 dogs
7. Mitch Seavey - 15 dogs
8. Paul Gebhardt - 14 dogs
9. Bjornar Andersen - 15 dogs
10. John Baker - 15 dogs

12. Aliy Zirkle - 15 dogs
15. Jessie Royer - 15 dogs
18. DeeDee Jonrowe - 16 dogs
19. Melissa Owens- 14 dogs

This is a very close race and a lot of great teams are still in the running. Good luck to all!

Iditarod Day 4

Hello again!

Since yesterday the mushers left Rainy Pass and made it to Rohn which was a 48 mile stretch. From Rohn the top 16 are have now made it to Nikolai which was a 75 mile leg. These mushers are now 347 miles away from the start in Anchorage.

Currently the top ten are
1. Sebastian Schnuelle
2. Hugh Neff
3. Paul Gebhardt
4. Aaron Burmeister
5. Ed Iten
6. Hans Gatt
7. Lance Mackey
8. Bjornar Andersen
9. Jeff King
10. Aliy Zirkle

No mushers have left the Nikolai check point yet. The next check point is McGrath which is in 54 miles. The trail from Nikolai to McGrath crosses many open lakes and swamps for the first 20 miles. When the wind is blowing, these areas can quickly drift in. Hopefully no mushers break through the ice this year.

Iditarod Day 3

My favorite time of the year is upon us!!! IDITAROD!

For those of you who have not been glued to your computer watching the race I thought I would give you some updates.

The ceremonial start of the Iditarod was last Saturday in Anchorage. Yesterday, the race restarted out in Wasilla. The teams are going to cover over 1150 miles through some very rugged and frigid terrain.

Since leaving Willow the lead teams have travelled to Yenta Station (52 miles), Swkwenta (34 miles), Finger Lake (45 miles), and Rainy Pass (30 miles).

These top 7 teams have already left the Rainy Pass checkpoint after spending about 5-10 min each there.

1. Sebastian Schnuelle
2. Paul Gebhardt
3. Rick Swenson
4. Aaron Burmeister
5. Hugh Neff
6. Melissa Owens
7. Ed Iten

Each of these teams has 16 dogs except for Melissa who has 15.

The rest of the top 10 are still in Rainy Pass. The next check point, Rohn, is in 48 miles. Good luck mushers hope the night is better than it is here in rainy and stormy KC.

For more up to date info you can check out www.iditarod.com

Currently I am cheering for Melissa. She is 19 years old and this is her second Iditarod and she is currently the only girl in the top ten, but Ally Zirkle is in 11th place.

Happy Birthday Uncle Jim!

Three posts in one day! This is a first for me. However, another very important issue was brought to my attention today via my Mom. Today is my Uncle Jim's Birthday. So I thought I would send out best wishes to him via the Internet. Unfortunately, he does not have Internet at his house, but I know that Aunt Bonnie will get this in a couple of days or so when she goes to see Eric and Alicia! I just wanted to let you know Uncle Baldy that I am thinking about you today and reminiscing about all the fun times we have had and sarcastic comments we have shared! Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

International Women's Day

So as I was logging off the computer I noticed my Yahoo had a women's symbol in the O. Being the curious procrastinator I am, I clicked on it to figure out why. Imagine my surprise when I found out today, March 8th, is International Women's Day! Who knew? Granted I am not much for watching the news right now (a little too depressing for my taste) but I don't ever remember learning about this holiday to celebrate women which has been around since 1911.

For more info you can go to the official webite: http://www.internationalwomensday.com

Happy International Women's Day to all you ladies out there! I am very grateful to be born in a country and in a time where women are afforded so many rights. Thank you to all the ladies whose struggles have made this possible for all of us!

You GO GIRLS!!!

In good times and in bad

It seems to be a trend that my posts are coming at longer intervals. I have had things to write about just not the time lately to do so. So for all those interested parties you get to hear about my "lovely" week last week.

I believe that you cannot have or enjoy good things in life without also having some bad times as well. However, I also wonder when you have bad things happen why do they seem to compound one upon the other? Is this really the case or is it when our thinking turns negative we can see all the problems around us? I would like to think this is the case. So as a test I am going to list all the bad issues dealt this week (eliminating most names for privacy issues) as well as the good issues.

Unfavorable situations

1. Friday before last Esteban and I were at work until 9:30 pm dealing with someone having a pain episode.
2. I switched our phone system at work to VOIP to save money. The phones transitioned perfectly, however our fax was completely nonoperational for over one week. This is the primary way we get referrals. So in an ironic twist of events my trying to save money has cost the company more money that I would like to imagine.
3. The mandatory government census that was due Friday got lost in the mail and had to be faxed over from our accountant and then faxed into the government.
4. Our fax came back up for about 1 glorious hour Tuesday and we faxed out all sorts of stuff to our referral sources saying our fax is back up. Only to have it go back down causing us to get another friendly round of calls.
5. Found out that despite assurances in November a VOIP system cannot support a fax. Found out that our current phone company will not allow us to keep only one line with them (6 line minimum).
6. Found out that due to tax increases on our building we owe a good amount of money to our landlord for 2007.
7. Had a patient fall in our bathroom.
8. Had a glitch in our billing system that erased all payments posted on Monday
9. Have a glitch in our documentation system that logs most users out after 20 min even if they are currently working.

Good situations

1. Steve and Jessica found out that they are having a BOY!!!!
2. Ashlee had a birthday this week. Happy Birthday to you!!!
3. Our fax came back up Friday afternoon!!!
4. We found a new company that will allow us to have only a fax line with them.
5. Friday afternoon, before going home, I remembered that we had not received our census and therefore we had not sent it in to the government. Thanks so much to a conversation with Lisa! :-) You rock Lisa!!
6. Raised money for Jerry's son's baseball team via a bowl-a-thon on Friday
7. I won one round of the bowling (on our lane) with a score of 126 after throwing nothing but gutter balls for the first 3 frames. Crazy huh?
8. I work with and am surrounded by some wonderful people!
9. I have an amazing family!!!

Looking back it was a stressful week. However, there were many good things that happened as well. Probably my main issue this week was that I let the problems get to me. In life there are both good and bad situations around us all the time. If we focus on the bad we will see those clearly however the same is true if we look toward the good. In these times of stress and difficult world issues let us all try to look for the good.