If it's Saturday, it must be time to make some cookies and go to a Coffee House

The Aleutian Arts Council's Coffee House is always a great event showcasing lots of local talent. Rich and I decided to make some "glittery" lemon sandwich cookies to take with us. Here's Rich zesting some lemon.

I'm rolling cookies in sprinkles.

Ready to go into the oven.

Piping lemon frosting between the two halves.

The finished product.

Sharon and Kristine were our MC's at the Coffee House. These two should take their act on the road!

We had a packed house, and in fact, people had to be turned away at the door because we were "at capacity." My friend Donna was meeting us there and she never got in! Rich and I learned last year that the event would be full so we went early and got good seats right up front. Above, you see part of "Our Band." It's always fun to see how much talent we have right here in our own little community. We took a lot of photos but I am annoyed that our small camera does not do well inside with variable lighting. I am including just a sampling but wish the pictures had been better.

Chris is also part of "Our Band."

Shawna and Wendy

Some of our teens, Ryan and Samuel, show off their musical talents. Prestan is back there on the drums.

Vinnie James, musician and recording artist, blew the crowd away. You can definitely tell he's a pro.

Another talented teenager, Kyle.

The house was still rockin' at nearly 11 PM. I think we are going to have to expand to two nights and a bigger venue next time!

I went to the eye doctor on Friday and ordered new glasses, but they won't be here till I get back from Texas. The good news is that my eyes haven't changed much and the bad news is that new glasses cost a fortune in Unalaska! The other good news is that Rich's insurance paid most of the bill. How do people make it if they don't have insurance?? That's a topic for another day.

I also went back to Story Corps on Friday afternoon and recorded another 40 minutes with Anne about social action and social justice work. Oh, my gosh, you know I am a talker when I still did not say everything I could have said. It's so funny to me that some people (Richard Bye included) think they have nothing interesting to say and won't go record their stories. Maybe I am just a narcissist. :) P.S. Susan, now the Abilene Peace and Justice Center and our Peace Camp will be immortalized in the Library of Congress. Who would have thought?!

Saturday I got a haircut and a touch-up on my highlights. It was a little bit of a comedy with a language barrier and someone other than my hairstylist taking my appointment on the phone earlier in the week. The gist of it is that no one seemed to know I was coming, but they worked me in anyway. Now I need to get busy preparing for my trip out on Tuesday! I have lots to do today, a planning meeting for several hours at work tomorrow, and then off to Texas. It is looking like another whirlwind trip with seeing my three girls and families in three different towns, traveling to Bonnie's regional track meet, attending my friend Karen's MSW graduation, and squeezing in visits with lots of friends. I will love every hectic minute of it and am hoping for WARM, if not HOT, weather. Can't wait to see those grandkids!

Book Club

Monthly book club is a great time to get together with friends and talk about books and life. This month, we read Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer by Patrick French. Unfortunately, most of us had not had time to finish the book! What does that tell you about our busy lives?! Shawn, seated on the left, was the only one who completed it and she gave us some interesting morsels to look forward to reading. I have had a little bit of trouble getting into it, but I do like biographies and I am now more motivated to finish. Judi and Steve round out the photo with Shawn. It is always interesting to hear everyone's interpretation of the same reading and I appreciate insights that I might not have necessarily picked up.

My fabulous husband volunteered to make some food for our gathering. This after working late last night and getting up super early this morning, working Brunch, and then spending the afternoon on these little items. Am I spoiled or what? Above, we have several treats--a grilled zucchini roll-up with French chevre, mint and Japanese mustard leaf, harissa and red bell pepper; Spanish piquillo red peppers with rosemary, basil leaf, fresh mozzarella and a balsamic reduction; and a little skewer of tomato, cucumber, olive, and cheese. Delicious! I failed to get a photo before we dug in. :)

A lovely mini salad of greens and Japanese mizuna, asian brown pears, candied pecans, dried black mission figs, Danish bleu, and a raspberry walnut vinaigrette.

Here are Sonia and Anne talking about imperialism, trying to kill a sibling, hovercraft v. boat, moving to Antarctica or something along one of those lines. :) Our conversations may start with the book but we get pretty far afield at times. Which makes it all the more fun.

Though we tried to have healthy food for the vegetarian, the gluten intolerant, and the Biggest Winner members, I just couldn't resist a little dessert parfait to top off the veggies. I know, I know, it kinda cancels everything out, doesn't it? Starting from the bottom of the glass, we have a ginger snap, banana pudding, chunks of fudge cream cake, whipped cream, ligonberry sauce, bavarian cream and a candied walnut. Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm. Thanks, Rich!

We only have one more meeting of Book Club and that's at Steve's house before we take the summer off. It's looking like spring and everyone is itching to spend more time outside than inside. Then in August, we will meet again to choose books for the next year and start all over again.

Lots going on, as usual

We have lots of very talented local artists, many of whom are participating in the annual Community Art Show which opened at the hotel tonight. I am always impressed with the quality of their work, whether paintings, photography, sculpture or quilting.

Char signing in. She has had a cast on her foot for the longest time but is now in a walking boot. Hopefully she will be all healed up soon.

Darlene, one of the servers in the Chart Room. Thanks, Darlene!

Rich has been up since 4 AM, bless his little heart, but went with me to the opening anyway. Not everyone got his "Shrute Farms Beets" reference (it's from The Office, in case you didn't get it either!)

We are teasing Bailey about being an Unalaska model since her photo keeps popping up on various blogs. She's being a good sport. I am holding my never-ending glass of iced tea.

Last night, we had a little cheese tasting party, but I forgot my camera so you will just have to imagine how good it was. One of the Food and Beverage managers, Laurie, discovered some great bleu cheese while she was down south and had the company send some samples to the restaurant. Rich put together a nice selection of items to be paired with the cheeses and Lisa, the other F&B manager, chose some appropriate wines. Joining us were the General Manager, Tom, his lovely wife Erin, and Michelle from HR. We had a great time tasting, talking and laughing. Erin invited me to come to her bunco party as a sub on Saturday night--in all of these many years, I have never played bunco and told her I didn't want anyone making fun of me if I don't know what I am doing. She asked, "can you roll dice and can you count?!" so I guess I am good to go. As long as I don't have to count too high. LOL Then later I found out that fellow blogger Cookie Dough and her new best friend Sonia will also be there. Looking forward to hanging out with the gals and having some of my husband's special chocolate bread pudding that Erin always requests for her parties.

This morning I met my friends and former coworkers, Darcel, Donna and Judi, for breakfast. We had fun catching up on all the news; I miss them but I have to say I am happy that I am no longer working there! I had lunch with the new Convention and Visitors Bureau Director, who just moved here from Texas. My gosh, I need to quit eating so much! Does every gathering have to revolve around food?? (Yes!) The CVB is hosting its annual wine tasting in a couple of weeks; Rich will be working so Anne and Jeannette are going to be my dates for the evening. Tomorrow morning the Lions Club is having its yearly Pancake Breakfast. My head is spinning with everything happening!

Work has been going great--I love, love, love my new job! I have fun there every day. How refreshing! Watch for a blog and a facebook page for the station in the next couple of weeks.

Sun and Fun

What a gorgeous day in Seattle! For some reason, we were both awake at 5 AM. Maybe we were practicing for tomorrow, when we have to be at the airport super early. After showering, checking emails and finishing off the rest of the cookies from Two Tarts, we decided to check out of the hotel and take a look at the Fremont and Ballard sections of town. We also wanted to drive through the Queen Anne area, which is where we went first, but got a little lost and confused and didn't really see a lot there. Eventually we found our way to Fremont and they were having a big outdoor market. Hurray, one of our favorite things!

We also walked down several streets near the market and saw this store.

Why, you ask, would a statue of Lenin be standing in Seattle, WA? Hmmmm, good question. Maybe you would like to do a google search. Very interesting story.

One of the booths had some very tasty Mexican food. We started out with a snack as we walked through, then went back and ate our lunch there, too.

Lots of people enjoying the sunshine and the shopping.

We were excited to see Full Circle Farms represented! We stopped to chat with Peter about receiving our weekly box of produce in Unalaska. A guy who writes the blog for the market took down our names so he could mention our visit. I was wearing my Polar Bear Run hoodie, which has the words "City of Unalaska" on it--several people asked me what that "meant." They were amused/surprised to learn that there really is a place called Unalaska, Alaska.

These young ladies had great singing voices; one was playing the accordion and the other a saw with some sort of electric bow. Very cool.

Then to the Ballard section, where there was ANOTHER market, even bigger and more crowded!

Some drummers in the park. (See the attached video as well)

Funky art work.

We strolled the streets and had some mini cupcakes at a bakery before driving back to the center of the city. Here are a couple of shots of the Space Needle from the car.


We checked into the Edgewater, which looks more like a lodge than a city hotel. Rich says the Beatles stayed here once upon a time. :) We have a cute little balcony where we can sit and read a book. It got downright hot today, probably in the 70's. LOVE IT!! I hope we got enough Vitamin D to help us stay healthy.

We missed the barbeque cook-off, which apparently ended at 4 PM. We have a dinner reservation here at the hotel at 6. I checked on our flights and everything appears to be on schedule for tomorrow. We fly out at 8 and should get all the way home by late afternoon if all goes well.

Spring in Seattle

Had a great conference in Portland. I am so glad I was able to attend and that the volcano didn't prevent the trip altogether. Friday night was a little cool and rainy so I stayed in, had some room service and read my book. Nice and relaxing! Had breakfast and some meetings on Saturday morning, then Rich drove in from Sutherlin to pick me up. He had fun with George and Nadine, hung out, went out to dinner and gambling at a casino (no, he did not win our retirement for us) and enjoyed his time with them. Five miles out of town, he realized he hadn't taken any photos. What kind of blogger is he??!! Really sorry I didn't get to see George and Nadine AT ALL, thanks to the darned volcano. Next time!!

We'd read about a little bakery in Portland called Two Tarts, which makes a wide variety of mini-cookies and pastries. Of course, we had to find it! It was in a cool little neighborhood called the Alphabet District, which we'd never heard about. After finding Two Tarts and purchasing a baker's dozen of goodies, we walked around the area till we found a place to eat lunch. We decided on a restaurant called Papa Haydn's and the food was delicious! They also had a fabulous looking pastry section but we felt we should pass since we'd just bought all those little cookies! After lunch, back in the car and on to Seattle. The day was sunny and warm and we had a nice drive, though I kept being amazed by all the traffic.

We were busy pricelining rooms again so we are staying at the Sheraton a few blocks from Pike's Place Market right now but moving to the Edgewater today. We made a dinner reservation at McCormick and Schmick's, partly because we had a $20-off certificate from Alaska Air (which was actually from having delays on our trip to Sedona in December....they didn't give us a darned thing for all those cancellations we just experienced!). Prior to dinner, we walked down to the market, where this guy was making balloon animals.

First of the season fresh Alaskan halibut! Looks like they are excited about that!

Mmmmm fresh fruit

Love these colors

Spring must be here--look at all these tulips!

Goodies at a chocolate shop

The Art Museum, on the way to the restaurant. The arm holding the hammer moves up and down.

The Market was closing when we got there so we had almost an hour to kill before our dinner reservation. We got a lot of walking in, which we both needed. Had a very nice meal and the friendly waitress also comped my dessert (creme brulee, of course) on top of our $20 off. Nice! We made up for it with the tip, though, so not sure how much we really came out ahead.

We both woke up really early today (5 AM--what is wrong with me??) While we were at the Market, people were bringing in huge bbq pits and we heard there's going to be some sort of cook-off today so we have to go check that out. We are going to find some different parts of town to explore and move to our next hotel. I heard the volcano went off yesterday but it didn't appear to affect a lot of travel so maybe we will be safe to go home tomorrow. We have one of those early flights, which I HATE but I don't think I can be too picky. We are definitely hoping if we get stranded, it will be in Seattle and not Anchorage.

No, I have not disappeared, but...

I think this is the longest I have ever gone without posting!  We are having major internet troubles at our house and I have not been able to get them resolved through Tech Support over the phone.  Took our modem to the local office to have it checked that was not the problem. Now we are waiting for someone to come to the house and troubleshoot.  Meanwhile, I can't be messing with all of my "personal" online stuff at work so the blog and facebook and emails have fallen by the wayside.  It is very frustrating!!  But bear with me and hopefully I will soon be back in cyberspace.

There's lots going on and I have some photos to post when I get back on. We had live local theater last Friday and Saturday night with Linda Ellsworth and Anne Hillman putting on a two woman show called "Grace and Glorie." They both did a great job with a story that was a mixture of sweet and funny and sad. Really fun to get to see live theater for a change, too!

Saturday I was busy all day with Unalaska Community Broadcasting's annual membership meeting. We celebrated 25 years since our articles of incorporation were filed, though local TV and radio have actually been around since the mid-1970's. We had food, games, a silent auction and election of Board members.

Sunday I tried to get some work done for my "old" job, still a few things pending even though I am officially off the payroll. I may never really leave. LOL The main office in Anchorage sent me a gorgeous print called "Aleut Town Girl" as a going-away present. I was surprised and touched since I had only been with the agency for four years and did not expect that I was "entitled" to anything upon leaving. Rich and I had just purchased some frames and tried to find some spots in our limited wall space to hang the other artwork we've accumulated lately. Now I am not sure where to put this new piece! My coworker Anne suggested what she calls "the Scottish method," which entails hanging artwork up to the ceiling. It kinda made me laugh after I had just been lecturing Rich about hanging everything at eye level.

I've been reading a lot more lately and haven't had time to enter the titles on my 100 book challenge list, but there will be several more books added soon. My sister recommended A Private History of Awe, which I just finished and loved. I was going to post a paragraph from the book but don't have it with me so that will wait.

Rich and I are going to Portland on the 26th but hopefully I will be back online before that day arrives!

And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Bonnie and David tomorrow, March 18th! We love you and wish you the best year yet!

Friday Roundup

Chocolate Extravaganza at the Museum of the Aleutians tonight.  We are so miserably full but it was well worth it.   :)    Here are some of Sharon's fabulous treats.

Kristine, Jane and Sharon 
More goodies

Bailey, not wanting to have her picture taken

A nice crowd inside the Museum

What a challenge to try everything!

The Museum is exhibiting Karel Machalek's amazing metalworks.  Rich and I both loved all of his unique sculptures.

It's been a full day.    In recognition of "Random Acts of Kindness Week,"  my coworkers and I distributed Hershey bars to unsuspecting folks around town.   On each candy bar, we taped a note that said, "It's Random Acts of Kindness Week!  Do something nice for someone--pass it on!"    It was great fun to see the smiles on people's faces when they read the note and realized what we were up to.

Tonight, Rich and I went to the Chocolate Extravaganza at the Museum.  As you can see from the photos, there was way too much chocolate and not enough tummy space.   We didn't get enough pictures to capture the full measure of all the scrumptious offerings, but you get the idea.  

On another note, I gave my notice at work today and am really excited that I will soon be starting a new job as the Development Director for Unalaska Community Broadcasting!   It's a step in a different direction for me, after being a social worker in various settings for all of my professional life.    I really can't wait to jump in!