Alaska Day!

Today is Alaska Day, which means little more to me than the fact that I didn't have to go to work today.   Now, I originally thought that Alaska Day celebrates the day that Alaska became a state, but I googled that and Alaska became a state on January 3, 1959, so that isn't it.  Apparently, according to the Internet, Alaska Day commemorates the day that Alaska was officially transferred from Russia to the U.S. Alaska Day is not to be confused with Seward's Day, which is in March, and is another holiday I get off of work.  That celebrates the day that Seward signed the treaty to buy Alaska at bargain basement prices from Russia.  Seriously, two cents an acre?! Right now an acre of land in Anchorage with a hideous split level full of wood paneling from the 1970s will run you about $600,000.  I know because I've been spending a lot of time cruising the MLS.

Anyway, you can tell Seward's Day is totally invented by the state employees who want more holidays because it's floating and is always on a Monday.  Alaska Day is more legit because it's always on October 18.  What's awesome about both is that they occur in months where there are no other holidays, which is another sign that the days were made up by state workers.

Sadly, Andy is in D.C. for a brief business trip this week, so Ripley and I were left to our own devices to celebrate the day off.  When we woke up, we were in for an interesting surprise:

Yes, it was seriously 14.2 degrees outside.
I never bothered to set the clock on the thermometer; this picture was taken around 8 a.m.
Also, yes I set the thermostat to 61 in the house.  I really hate paying the gas bill. 

Despite me letting him run around and suffer in the yard in the cold, Ripley still wanted to go do something, so we bundled up and headed to Hilltop to walk around in the snow once it was light enough (nowadays that's about 9 a.m.).

I wasn't kidding when I said bundled.  We I decided Ripley would need to wear his new jacket as long as it was under 20 outside.  He acted like I was trying to kill him when I put it on, but it didn't seem to bother him once we started walking around, since he was free to pee on everything and it doesn't restrict his movement - except one time a dog without a coat passed us on the trail and he definitely seemed embarrassed.  I'm such an overprotective mother!  Don't worry, he got me back by rolling in horse poop THREE TIMES on our hour long walk.  He was rewarded with a bath.  

After the walk, we headed home to relax.  After a couple hours on the couch, Ripley started staring at me and whining, so I knew we needed to head out for another adventure.  Since school was in session today (seriously, Alaska Day is ONLY a holiday for state workers - it's such a made up holiday!) and we couldn't go to the middle school to play ball like we usually do, we went to Flattop, our other favorite spot.   

It was much snowier up there than last weekend and Ripley had a blast.  It was REALLY cold in the shade (probably in the teens), but the scenery was good and as long as we kept moving I didn't get too cold.  I didn't make Ripley wear the jacket this time.  

Sorry the pictures were bad, I just had my phone and I had to de-glove every time I wanted to take a photo, so I kept it limited.  

Not a cloud in the sky! So pretty! 

You can tell it's cold because Ripley has little icicles on his snout.  I'm thinking maybe he needed the jacket after all...(I worry!)

The second adventure of the day definitely did the trick.  He's looked like this since about 5 today.  

We had a good day off!  Tomorrow I have to go to work and then pick up Andy laaaaaaaate late from the airport (thank god it's only 10 minutes away).  Happy Alaska Day everyone!