And still we wait....

We were so excited to see these little flowers bursting through as the snow receded from our yard a couple of weeks ago.

Unfortunately, this was the view yesterday! We've had more snow, wind, rain and sleet ever since. I am not sure if those flowers are still hanging in there under the latest drift, but I really hope so.

What can we do but keep busy! Last week, Melanie, Tammy and I attended an aromatherapy workshop taught by our friend Sharon, who knows everything there is to know about local plants and their traditional uses and medicinal value, Unangan culture, and (maybe best of all) making fabulous chocolate confections (her sea salt caramels are *to die for*).

Tammy was excited to mix up some sweet smelling bath salts.

Mel and I with our concoctions--bath salts, massage oils, and room sprays. Nice! We had a great time and learned a lot. Thanks, Sharon! We had to leave class a little early because we'd made an appointment to stop by the hotel and say hi to Nils Andreassen from the Institute of the North, who was in town helping to facilitate some training. It was for "young leaders" of the Aleutian Islands and we were a little miffed to find out we were, yes, too old. :) Not really miffed but it's kinda sad to think we are not considered YOUNG any more. Anyway, we read that Nils had a degree in peace and development so we wanted to chat a bit. He was gracious and kind enough to meet us for an hour of discussion about all of our favorite topics. No photo, though. :)

The Lions Club holds an annual Easter breakfast and this year added a "cutie cupcake contest." I'd seen cupcakes like this on pinterest and decided to give them a try. The shaved chocolate is supposed to look like a bird's nest but, of course, mine did not turn out nearly as well as the example recipe I saw. It was pretty hard to shave that chocolate and make it actually look like twigs. Rich was enlisted to do the shaving since it was a little rough on my weakling arms and hands. And no, I did not win. :)

This is such a busy little town!We also attended the annual Soup Off fundraiser for USAFV (Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence), which is always lots of fun and supports a very worthwhile local organization. Speaking of winning, Rich took top honors in the Chili category with his Rib Eye Corn Chili. It was delish! And we won several door prizes so we were happy campers.

Then I went to a Saturday class on starting tomatoes in the house. We already have a bunch of basil growing in our aerogarden and have grown cherry tomatoes in it in the past but I thought I'd try to grow some tomatoes in pots. We planted some seeds in containers and also brought home a few little seedlings that were already started. My seeds have sprouted so we will see if I can keep them alive!

Our photo printer bit the dust about a month ago. (And is it a coincidence that we tried some repurposed printer ink around the same time? We didn't realize it when we ordered it, just thought we'd found a bargain. We should have known better but gave it a try, leading to runny ink in the printer and messed up photos. Ugh.) The printer had done well for us for quite a few years and we'd been talking about getting a new one anyway so it was time. It arrived on Friday and we went to a garage sale yesterday where we found a small table that we thought we could use to hold the printer.

Of course it was raining/snowing when we loaded the table into the back of the truck. Rich hauled it up the steps after taking out the drawer to make it easier to carry. We laid the drawer on the living room floor and I went off to the Democratic caucus we were holding at the library. When I returned a couple of hours later, Rich was at work, the drawer was in the kitchen, and there was a HUGE red stain on the carpet, along with three smaller red "drippy" spots. I was so upset! We realized there was some red ink or magic marker on one corner of the drawer and it must have started running when it got wet. I've tried carpet stain remover and every home remedy suggested by my Facebook friends :) managing to get the stain from bright red to muted orange but I don't think it's going away. And it's not in a place where it can be easily camouflaged or covered up--pretty close to the middle of the floor. I even tried cutting the fibers, which did take care of the smaller spots, hurray, but not the big one. I know it's a silly thing but I just can't stand looking at it. I am going to try the steam cleaning guy and if that doesn't work, guess I will be buying an area rug. For now, I moved our little entryway rug into the room to cover it. It looks pretty funny and totally out of place. But it keeps me from obsessing over the glaring orange circle on the floor.