Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Whether you're going out or staying home to watch The Rocky Horror Picture show, I hope you have a great night. Just remember ... no matter how great you think your costume is, it's not as great as this kid's:




P.S. I hope everyone's ready for a great game tomorrow in Jacksonville.

I'll always remember going to the Florida/Georgia football game thinking how cute Georgia girls looked in their dresses (yes, they wear dresses to football games) ... until they completely ruin it by barking at you.

Go Gators!

Photos: Good Life Reggae on the radio

Good Life Reggae (aka. Andrew Duran & Cameron Marshall) can now be heard live every Sunday on KEUL Girdwood radio. The station doesn't stream online yet, but the guys are looking into setting up a podcast so everyone outside of the Girdwood area can listen.

As the Good Life Reggae fan club manager, I tagged along last week to see how it all works. Here are some pictures of Good Life Reggae on air:

Getting to the heart of "real America" in Wasilla

Since Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate, Andrew and I have been asked by friends and family to describe Palin's hometown of Wasilla, AK.

The video below paints a great picture of day-to-day life in Wasilla and what it means to be from a "real American" town. The reporter also makes a visit to city hall to ask the current mayor something we've all been wondering - what exactly does the mayor of Wasilla do?

Watch and learn ...

Top recession-less U.S. cities, sorry Florida

Recession-less? Yep, I made that one up.

Some cities in the U.S. will be safer than others in a recession, according to a recent BusinessWeek article. Specifically those cities with a strong presence in health care, education, law, energy and the government will feel the impact of a downturn less.  

Coming in at number 13 on the list, drumroll please ...

Anchorage, Alaska

Because of its size, “a strong economy that feeds off the state's rich oil and natural gas supplies, U.S. military presence, and tourism,” we look pretty safe up here in the arctic tundra.

The only tough part is convincing people to make their way up to this crazy place. Once you get past the wild animals, crazy politicians and the fact that snow starts falling during the first week of October, it’s not so tough.

Joining Anchorage as one of the top cities to ride out a recession were:

#3 District of Columbia
#6 Boston, MA
#7 Pittsburgh, PA (Woo hoo!)
#10 New Orleans, LA
#12 Lubbock, TX
#16 Lincoln, NE

Lubbock made it to the list and not a single city in Florida made it? Should I really be so surprised?

So, no matter how bad it gets, just know you can always come hang out with Andrew and I up here in the Last Frontier.

Need a good laugh? Watch Biden crack up over SNL skit

It is said that impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, Joe Biden must be pretty flattered by the SNL cast in their latest VP debate skit. So flattered, he can't stop laughing.

From the Washington Post:

Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday, Biden laughed, and laughed, and laughed -- and laughed some more -- when host Diane Sawyer played a clip of last weekend's gut-busting vice presidential debate skit. Biden was laughing so hard after watching the clip of actor Jason Sudeikis lampooning Biden's admitted soft spot for GOP presidential nominee John McCain that he was rendered something he rarely, if ever, is: speechless.

First snow and Good Life Reggae

Well, fall was nice ... for the few weeks it was here.

We got our first snow of the season yesterday, ten days earlier than average, and we're due to get another 2 to 6 inches over the next two days. Since the summer was so wonderfully yucky, we had to finish out the year with another batch of yuck.

So, here we go again ... winter is here whether we're ready or not. Here's what it looked like out our back window yesterday:


Even though the winter is here, we're doing our best to stay warm with the help of a little reggae music. This past Saturday, Andrew and Cameron (aka. Good Life Reggae) held the first Reggae Sound Clash at Bernie's Bungalow Lounge downtown.

Everyone from the Caribbean in Alaska showed up. Well, ok, not everyone, but I bet we had the largest concentration of islanders in one room in Anchorage that night. Here are a few pictures:

Reggae Sound Clash

In completely unrelated news ... we're keeping the lost cat. Found out she's a girl, not microchipped and has no parents to be found. So, it's snowing and we're happy to know she's safe inside. Hopefully, our runaway found a new warm couch to hang out on, too.

Developing story: Lost cat

Last night I get a call from someone thinking she's found my cat Irie (got my number from one of the "lost cat" posters I put up). Andrew and I drop what we're doing, drive down two streets to investigate.

Well, we found a lost cat, but not our lost cat. This guy is much smaller, a black/gray tiger, cute and very friendly. It's starting to get pretty cold at night, in the low 30s. We had the travel box in the car, so of course we box him up and take him home.

So, we've had this little guy in our garage since yesterday afternoon (don't worry, it's heated). He's definitely an indoor cat, familiar with the door and how to get in. But, he has front claws and I don't know what his relationship with furniture is like.

In a failed experiment, Andrew tried introducing our little Willie to the new cat. Lets just say it wasn't love at first sight.

My job today after work - bring him to a shelter to see if he's microchipped. If it were my cat, I hope someone would do the same.

If he's not microchipped and doesn't have a mom, I won't be leaving him at the shelter to be destroyed. He'll be coming back home to our warm garage until I find the little guy a home. (Hopefully, not my home. Too much work making friends with our cat and what if we find our other cat? Then we'd be at three. No way.)