From Mudpuppy ghostdancer:

The ladies at my Dad’s apartment complex are working on a puzzle, Brian just had to pose in the fake winter wonderland. I hope to make a Christmas card after they finish, Brian included of course.

From Mudpup Lori in Los Angeles:

As you know, Bryan has been traveling far and wide. After returning from The Netroots Nation and Pittsburgh Mudstock, he is enjoying a moment of Zen, in my den.

This post has been submitted by Mudpuppy - Eyes Wide Open in Pgh, PA - Enjoy!

I have been intrigued with Alaska ever since I discovered the mudflats blog. This spring when our son graduated from Cornell University, we decided to celebrate by scheduling a family cruise to Alaska. My wife and I booked a cruise on Carnival cruise lines with our three children, my mother, my son’s girlfriend and my oldest daughter’s boyfriend.

This was a Northbound cruise. It began in Vancouver, British Columbia. The ports of call included Ketchikan, Skagway, Sitka and Juneau. The ship ultimately docked in Whittier. From the ship we saw a humpback whales, orcas and other sea mammals.

In Juneau we were met at the dock by INJUNEAU and BEARWOMAN, each of whom had read about our planned trip in a post and had offered to show us their town. It was a wonderful visit. We toured a fishery, a brewery, a glacier and a museum. We even visited the town dump to photograph eagles, before we were eventually thrown out by Juneau dump officials (No problem, I have been thrown out of worse dumps). I never before realized that the noble symbol of our proud nation loves to eat refuse, rotting carcasses and scavenge dumps.

INJUNEAU and her husband hosted a party at their house. BEARWOMAN’ brought a huge freshly caught king salmon. I took a picture of BEARWOMAN’s son holding the salmon as my youngest daughter looked on. INJUNEAU seasoned and grilled the hefty fish to perfection. Several other mudflats devotees came to the party. I was very sad when our ship had to pull out of port that night with us aboard.

After we got off the ship in Whittier, four of our group split off and went straight to the airport for early flights while the remaining four of us rented a car for the day. We drove first to Seward to experience a summer dog sled ride at the Seavey’s. Very cool. Then we drove towards Anchorage.

I’ve never seen a moose in the wild and so we were all searching the woods as I drove. I spotted something brown moving through the trees along the edge of the road. I stopped to investigate and realized that it was a grizzly bear. It turned and began to go down a hillside. I then noticed there was a pull off area nearby. I parked the car in the pull off area and got out with my camera thinking that I was going to peer down into the valley and take a picture of the retreating bear.

My back to the woods while I was digging around for my camera equipment. My wife got out of the other side of the car and looked towards me. Suddenly she exclaimed that there was a bear standing behind me. The bear had reversed course and had not gone down into the valley, but had instead had wondered into the rest area. I turned around and instantly I make direct eye contact with the grizzly, which was no more than 10 feet away. It kind of reminded me of a bored stay dog. He gazed at me for a moment and then looked away in apparent disinterest while he dug around in the grass. I was mesmerized. I stood motionless and took a few pictures.

About this time cars began pulling off everywhere and people began running towards me with their cameras. One man waved at the bear and shouted for it to look towards him. People were yelling things like “Somebody throw it a candy bar.” Fortunately no one did. It is said that a fed bear is a dead bear Anyway, the bear was a little intimidated by all of these two legged mammals rushing it and so it turned and headed back into the woods. I saw one man follow the bear off into the brush with his camera.

We never did see a moose. After the bear experience we drove up through Anchorage to Wasilla for a brief visit and dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. I could not help but get my picture taken in front of the Wasilla Public Library. That evening we drove to the Anchorage airport and caught our overnight redeye flight back to Pittsburgh.

From Mudpuppy Mlaiuppa:

5. Bento Lunches

This livejournal community is focused on bento lunches. I’m just starting to explore it as an observer and haven’t joined in yet. I want to get some practice bentos under my belt first.

4. Adventures in Bentomaking

A recent find of mine, I’m still exploring the archives of past posts. It’s not that easy to find bento lunch sites that cater to adults. I’ve skipped quite a few that seem to focus on cartoon kid’s lunches.

3. Kitchen Cow

Kitchen Cow offers some nice adult bentos but isn’t strictly bento only. And even the bentos aren’t always traditional. My dining is eclectic and so are my leftovers, so when I’m not making something specifically for lunch, I’ll be making a non-traditional bento from what’s left over from dinner.

2. Lunch in a Box

Lunch in a box offers some really great resources. I used their links store locator to find five stores in my area that have bento supplies. I’ll be checking them out today. Also has recipe links and other fun stuff.

1. Just Bento

The very first bento site I found and still my all time favorite site. Clean, attractive and informative. This is what inspired me to start to get into bento. I brown bagged the entire school year and if I have to continue to do that (which looks likely) I’d like a little something special at lunch. It also seems to be very conducive to a healthy diet and portion sizing. My bento boxes haven’t arrived yet (eBay), but in looking at the pictures on this and other sites, I’m worried that I can’t eat all of this food, not that I’ll go hungry.

If you’d like to submit your own five faves list, please click here.