Water Skiing in Unalaska?

No, that's not either of us!  We watched this guy from our house the other day.  You would not find me in this cold water...no way!

Since we live in company housing, we have an inspection once a year to check fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and look for any problems.  It should really be no big deal, right?  Maybe it's my left-over anxiety from growing up in an Air Force family and remembering the marathon scrubbing of walls and baseboards that took place before we could move to our next destination, but I had dreams last night of finding the head of Unisea housing vacuuming up kitty litter in our duplex.  I felt obligated to make the bed this morning, and finish last night's dishes and sweep the arctic entry and, yes, vacuum up any stray kitty litter, not to mention wiping down the venta-hood over the stove and cleaning the toilet.  I don't know, it just feels a little weird to be aware that someone is coming into the house and checking things out.  Are they judging my choice of peanut butter or the magnet on our fridge that says "what would Jesus bomb?"  It's pretty narcissistic to think that they even notice, much less care, but I do feel a little bit violated just the same.  I suppose it is a small exchange for free housing, though, so I am really not complaining.

The blog has been neglected.  Rich has had more banquets and special events than he's had in awhile, long days and no day off till he finally took one yesterday.  It's a good thing he loves his job. Saturday I helped set up and then attended the annual Women's Conference all day--it's always a nice opportunity to see people that I don't see regularly, to hear interesting speakers and to learn new things.  This time, one of the new things was "Zumba."  My daughter Sarah told me about this Latin dance/exercise class that she's been taking in Dallas, but till now, we had nothing of the sort in Unalaska. Our local instructor is young, cute and in great shape, not to mention very enthusiastic.  She had all of us trying out our moves to varying degrees of success.  I am not a natural, let's just say.  But it was lots of fun and maybe I will consider her class if I can squeeze it in with all of my other activities.  Who am I kidding? The odds are not good that I will ever make it to class but it sounds nice to say that I am thinking about it. From the conference, I rushed to my piano lesson (high five! I have not missed one yet!) and then back to the hotel for a reception for some of our visiting Alaska legislators.  I'd never met my State Representative Bryce Edgmon in person, though we'd talked on the phone and emailed a few times during the last election cycle.  I figured I'd stop by long enough to say hello and see what was happening.  After an hour and a half of chatting with people, I finally came back home and crashed. 

It looks like we've seen the last of summer; the green on the hills has peaked and started moving back to brown. We've had wind and rain and the outside of our house is still not painted since the weather is not cooperating.  I hear we need to wait till after the first frost to pick blueberries and I am pondering recipes for the Blueberry Bash at the end of the month...