It's a Celebration!

Click on this link for more photos:
The Fur Rondy Photos

Imagine my surprise when the city of Anchorage threw a celebration FOR MY BIRTHDAY!  Yah!  I was surprised too!  There was a parade, reindeer hot dogs, a pirate, miners with three foot long beards and even the Yettie who came scrambling down from the mountains to party.  Of course, they couldn't call it Gay's Birthday Party because not everyone in Anchorage would associate that title with me specifically ...dot...dot...dot... so they called it the Fur Rondy.  I think that is slang meaning "fur that roundy lady who lives there."  Oh my, I feel quite sheepish now.  I've been informed that Rondy is the Alaskan word for Rendezvous.  I don't know how they get "Gay" out of that, but we will let it slide this year.  I'm still learning the local lingo.

I did have a wonderful birthday with cards coming from everyone and even a few presents thrown in to boot!  Thanks everyone!  You are all my favorite people!  --and not just because you send me cards and presents either! 

Duane spoiled me, as usual.  He is always so thoughtful of me and my comfort and happiness.  While we were at the parade in my honor, we were about to freeze our nuggets right off even though we both wore baseball caps to keep our little heads warm.  Duane had been thinking about getting me a real fur hat all winter but I had been resisting the idea until my ear chinked right off and fell next to my frozen chin right there on the snow covered sidewalk during MY celebration.  The blue tack that I had brought for just such a reoccurring emergency was frozen solid and would no longer reattach my frozen bits.  So, he bought me a hat.  It is a most exquisite hat.  It has the softest black beaver fur you've ever felt for the hat part and the trim is a beautiful white blue fox.  I think the fox must have warmed up because I didn't see one bit of blue in the fur that they assured me was "blue" fox.  I feel quite retched about me wearing it rather than the little furry animals but I was certainly grateful for it Saturday.

Me in my fur hat!  If you pull it down far enough, the fur works for a visor too!

I wasn't the only one sporting a beautiful new fur hat.  I love walking around just to watch all the huge variety of hats that people wear--out in public no less!  I've included a few shots of them in the slide show so take a peek.

Along with my parade, this weekend marks the beginning of the famous Alaskan Iditarod Dog Sled Races.  During the week they are running small races in preparation for the big official start the first weekend of March.  I was surprised at the size of these little dogs.  I thought dog sled racers were those great big husky dogs!  These are rather scrawny dogs that HAVE to run just to get their scrawny little bodies warm!