I was going to say something similar - some people are crankier than others around here. It sounds like you have a good handle on it, though, April R. And welcome!
Wait… You haven’t been hazed yet? How did we miss that? Someone get the party hats and wake up the goat.
Welcome April R. I spend a lot of time in political threads, so you probably won’t like me. 
Where in Alaska did you live? There are a few of us on the board.
I was in Fairbanks for 3 years when I was little. My dad was stationed at Ft. Wainwright. I went to Chena Elementary. We lived in the house on base on the corner right across the big field from the school. I walked to school on top of 8 foot snow pack for about 4 months out of the year. We had fox, moose, rabbits, etc. in our back yard. I learned to ski and snow mobile when I was 9. I loved it.
If you say that you could see the Soviet Union out your window, I will slap you with a Wet Trout.:mad:
haha, no. Unlike SP, I had a pretty good grasp on geography as a child and realized I lived inland and couldn’t even see the ocean where I lived, haha.
Well. . .your memory may be a little fuzzy regarding the snow. Fairbanks doesn’t get a lot, because it’s inland and very dry and very cold. Perhaps eight feet over the entire winter, though that would be unusual. Damn brutal climate, that.
Lol, Well, in my 9 year old mind it was 8 feet. I do remember the snow melting in the spring and making muddy, dirty puddles everywhere. One year I decided to take a swim in one particularly large melt puddle in my back yard before my mom caught me. Who knows what was stewing in there? I had the worse rash all over my body for about 5 days. Gross, 
I also remember my mom having to rescue a few kids every year who walked across the snow from school after it started to melt and they would fall through and get stuck up to their arm pits. She had to crawl out on her stomach to them and pull them out. They almost always lost one or both boots until the melting snow reveled them.
We also had wild strawberries growing in the filed next to our house and me and my silly friends would pick them and use ziplock bags to smash them in and add sugar. We thought we were making jam. One really weird thing was the clovers in the field always had way more than 4 leaves so we used to say the clovers with odd numbered leaves were unlucky and the even leaved clovers were lucky. The most leaves I ever found on a clover was 12! I wonder if it was the long days of sunshine which mutated the clovers?
I used to go here to ski with my dad
I also went to Denali National Park a few times but NEVER saw a grizzly bear 
My brother and mom both saw 3 on a tour bus while there while my dad and I decided to go back packing. Ergh
I’ve nothing against April, but have to say I agree with this. The SDMB has about, what, a hundred new members everyday? If even a quarter of them decided to start a “please welcome me!” thread, MPSIMS would be a very dull place very quickly.
Of course, I might just be jealous because I never thought to start one and grab the limelight for myself 
Maybe they were 8 feet - just 9-year-old sized, rather than standard
Nava, whose adult feet are shorter than a standard foot.
Welcome April R! Did you remember to bring chocolate for the moderators? And don’t worry about the goat. Yet. 
Cinnamon Imp I am planning an introductory thread for myself two years from now if I remain on pace to reach my 200th post on my 10th anniversary. At that point I can officially welcome April R, plus other newbies like myself will be welcome to hijack it so we can get a lot of intros out of the way.
I think there are some fun size MnMs left over from Halloween. But they have to share
And I love goat, goes good with curry and naan:p
Welcome, April R!
Sounds yummy!
Er, I mean, what a thing to say about our goats, who, along with the squid, nobly sacrifice their free time to ‘welcome’ new arrivals.
[Sub]Crap. I’m gonna get it now…[/sub]
Hey, I don’t discriminate. I like Calamari too
Welcome April R, glad your here, I’m from Texas now. but have traveled in Tennessee, its a lovely place with trees and water and hills, all the stuff I havent got here in the flat land. Glad your here.
Thanks. My hubs is from DFW. He went to UNT for a year. Texas is alright
So is Tenneesseee-uns.
But the English invented a language they cannot speak.
:dubious: