Pics, ect.

It could be below negative 40, but it certainly ain't above it. The mercury, by the way, is frozen. This is at Rod and Julie's place in the hills east of town a couple of weeks before Christmas.

2:59 p.m. on Dec. 22 (the shortest day of the year by about 15 seconds) looking east-northeast from UAF. The sun had set behind me 20 minutes earlier.

An ice sculpture at the south end of UAF after sunset on Dec. 22. It's a bear, er, a nanook (the mascot).

One of Santa's reindeer in North Pole. This is the last shot before my alkaline batteries froze.

A dragon sculpture at Santaland RV Park in North Pole. They had a Christmas in Ice celebration, which is the only reason outside of gift shopping to go to North Pole.

Santa's sleigh in ice. Yup, you can sit in it. Yup, your butt freezes when you sit in it at minus 37 degrees.

My struggles with the Anchorage airport's WiFi would have been legendary, had I not given up about three seconds after taking this shot.

This is about as much Christmas decorating as I was willing to do this year. The boxes on the left are my gifts, which dwarf my tree. Had I stacked all my gifts under it, it would have touched the ceiling and then some.

This was a pose to show my parents how much I loved the new beanie they got me. It just also happens to be the best recent shot of me available.