Stuff and Things: The First One

+ Anchorage last weekend was fantastic! It was nice to just get out of town for a few days. If you live in a small town in the middle of nowhere or on an island or both (like me) you know how important it is just to get away for a break sometimes. Trip highlights: Hiking Mt. Eklutna, the Alaska State Fair, test driving potential new vehicles to replace our Jeep with 215K miles on it, and allllllll the shopping. We crammed both the hike and the fair into the first day we were there (after getting up at 3AM to catch our flight), and I'm glad we did - it was 70 degrees and partly sunny. The rest of the trip? Almost constant rain. Figures.

The view from the top of Mt. Eklutna, Anchorage

3 hours, 40 minutes // 6.27 miles // 2933 feet of elevation gain // 4100' summit

If we look tired, it's because we were.

I was unimpressed with Target, however. They were out of so many things! They only had XL/XXL in most of the clothes we liked, their shoe selection was abysmal, and every toiletry/beauty item I wanted to buy, that's the one they didn't have restocked. I don't know if this is just an Alaska thing or not, but we encounter the same problem in Sitka constantly.

+ The iPhone 7 was announced yesterday. Color me unimpressed. "Fastest yet!" "Best battery life yet!" "Best camera yet!" Um, it better be, considering it's a brand new iPhone. Also, they did get rid of the headphone jack. At least they're including a lightning port adapter in the box so those of us who live in the Stone Age can still use our regular headphones.

Also, they're releasing wireless earbuds called AirPods (ha ha ha) that will cost $159. I was following the #AppleEvent hashtag on Twitter and dying of laughter at some of the things people were Tweeting.

— neontaster (@neontaster) September 7, 2016

iPhone camera makes 100 billion calculations per second to take photos of your latte. Thank a processor today. #AppleEvent

— Mark Bao (@markbao) September 7, 2016

I would also like to know why, with all this wireless technology they're bragging about, they still couldn't figure out how to make a wireless charger. I think people would rather have that than Apple brand wireless earphones (which aren't exactly innovative, you know?).

+ I still have not gotten my Etsy shop back up and running! Our house is basically a cave and so I have to wait for just the right amount of light to take photos, otherwise everything looks like garbage. My goal is to have it reopened by October 1st. That gives me a little over three weeks to finish making some new stuff and take pictures/write descriptions of everything. I did make a new shop banner, though. Progress.

+ I have to share something. While we were in Anchorage, Isaiah and I went to Cabelas and bought a new Glock 43/9 mm compact handgun. Currently, he's carrying it as his new off-duty firearm until he orders one for himself, but then it'll be my new concealed carry weapon. The only reason I'm sharing this is because I'm a firm believer in complete and total Second Amendment rights, and I can't help but feel a sense of American pride when I look at our growing collection. It's really nice to know that we don't have to rely on anybody but ourselves to protect our home and family (and maybe others someday, who knows).

Linking up with Kristin and Joey for Stuff & Things!