This Monday's One Fun Thing

Pinterest. That's all I have to say. Check it out. www.pinterest.com.

This Monday's One Fun Thing

Money management is not my idea of fun. Who wants to budget or pay bills or examine where all the money goes? Wouldn't you rather be out picking berries in the sunshine? Yes, I would.

But I am liking this site called Bundle, which actually makes all of the above a lot easier. Well, not the berry picking part but the money part. After signing up, you link all of your accounts, which allows you to log on to Bundle and see what's happening with your bank, your credit cards, and your retirement funds. It's so much easier than logging onto each one separately. You can't make payments or transfer money on Bundle and it's *supposedly* safe and secure. In addition to checking your balances, it shows you all of your expenditures (which you can categorize) and gives you a tool for setting up a budget. It's been pretty interesting to see everything in one place. There are also price and spending comparisons for different parts of the country, which I have really not delved into since we live in a rather unique place and I'm not sure what good it would do me to know that bread costs a lot less somewhere else.

Check it out here.

This Monday's One Fun Thing

Tundra Golf! Each August, Unalaska Community Broadcasting hosts a crazy golf tournament fundraiser in the hills of Pyramid Valley. As most of you know, there is no *real* golf course here, so we lay one out on the tundra and everyone has a blast trying to play golf as never intended. The weather is unpredictable--the last two years were mostly chilly and rainy and I was semi-miserable working the event for two full days.

This year we were blessed with fabulous sunshine and warm temps on Friday night and all day Saturday. Some of our local firefighters sunbathed during lulls in grilling food for the crowd. You don't see this sight very often in Unalaska!


I was very happy to be out in the sunshine all day!


Fireweed blooming
Sunday was a bit of a different story. The fog was so thick in the morning that no one could see where their golf balls landed. The first team tried to play and decided to come back later. Several more teams came in and made the same decision.

We had our own little "weather hold" for a few hours--it was just as enjoyable sitting and chatting with everyone-- and then the sun came out. The rest of Sunday was gorgeous and we were back on track!

Rich was working but stopped by to say hi after he got off, and brought me some iced tea. Our friend Tammy and her girls also popped in and soaked up some sunshine with us for awhile.

In the "it's a small world" department, some guys came by off a boat and asked if they could play even though they had not registered. I said, "sure!" and found them a tee time. They came back later to play and I was doing my usual promoting of Unalaska by telling them all the things that are going on in town. One guy looked at me and laughingly asked me something about whether I'd been in NJ recently. I was confused, like, how would this person have any idea that I'd been in NJ? I said, "Yeah, actually, I was just in Ocean City in July." He starts laughing and says, "I think you were sitting next to my wife on the plane!" Sure enough, I'd been sitting next to a woman who'd lived out here years ago so we'd been chatting about all things Unalaska and how there's so much going on all the time. She told me that her husband brought his boat out here fishing on a regular basis and maybe she'd come out sometime while he was here. I think I even gave her my card and told her to call me if she did. He was on the same plane but sitting further back and after they got off, she was telling him about our conversation. So he took my picture waving and saying "Hi Robin!" What are the odds?!

It was a very busy, hectic weekend but it went extremely well and I did not even mind all the hours of work because the weather was so fabulous! There are a ton of photos on KUCB's Facebook page (KUCB) if you want to check them out. Or go to KUCB's blog by clicking here.

This Monday's One Fun Thing

I wasn't sure what I was going to post this Monday but we do not have to look any further than right here in Unalaska. The sun is shining, I read online that it's 58 degrees, though it feels warmer to me, I am wearing a short sleeved shirt (U2 concert--woohoo!), and, yes, Rich made us some fabulous fresh peach mojitos. No, they are not on our diet. Life is grand, and fun....

This Monday's One Fun Thing

I was always a George girl. Well, till I got to be a radical teenager and discovered John Lennon...but even then, George was still in my heart. When I was 10, the Beatles took on the world via the Ed Sullivan Show and my fate as a rock 'n roller was sealed. Ever the one to root for the underdog, I did not choose the "cute" Paul McCartney with his baby face and sweet smile, nor the "funny" Ringo Starr shaking his mop-top in time to his drumbeats, nor even the intellectual and sarcastic John Lennon (I think, partly, because these words flashed across the TV screen: "Sorry, girls, he's married.") I picked George Harrison because he was quiet and shy and not too many other girls seemed to pick him. I didn't want him to be left out. Once I took him on as my fave, the deal was done and I was a George girl through thick and thin. He turned out to be smart and funny and spiritual and probably the least caught up in all of the fame and hype, a private guy who eventually lived his life as he thought life should be lived.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Concert for Bangladesh, largely seen as the first celebrity fundraiser for a cause. George's friend, the fabulous Bengali sitar player Ravi Shankar, asked for help in supporting the people of Bangladesh who had been greatly affected by a civil war and a cyclone in the early 1970's. Within five weeks, the concert was organized and presented at Madison Square Garden, featuring Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, and a variety of other musicians and backup singers. It was a spectacle, an extravaganza, an amazing coming together of talent and energy like nothing we'd seen before.

At the time, I was a 17 year old high school student living at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas. On occasion, I babysat for some family friends who lived around the corner and at Christmas time, they presented me with the double album from the concert. I had wished hard for it but didn't think I could afford to buy it myself. What a wonderful gift! I loved that album and played it constantly! And I loved George for this:

The opening of the film features footage from a press conference in which Harrison and Shankar announce the concert. Harrison is asked by a reporter: "With all the enormous problems in the world, how did you happen to choose this one to do something about?"

"Because I was asked by a friend if I would help, you know, that's all," was Harrison's reply. -- from Wikipedia

Even as a young married woman, I had a huge poster of the long-haired and bearded George on my wall. :) And I was thrilled to see him (and some of his friends) in concert later in the 1970's, my consolation for never seeing the Beatles when they were together. I bought all of his albums, good and bad, out of true George-girl loyalty over the years. He had a few hits and lots of obscure tunes that never made the radio, but those George songs are still a part of the soundtrack of my life.

40 years later, I hadn't thought about the Concert for Bangladesh in many moons. George has been dead for a number of years, another one gone sooner than he should have been. It's funny but I was listening to his album "Brainwashed" recently and remembering how much I liked it. Last week I saw mention of the 40th anniversary, went to Itunes, and added the songs to my collection again. It's good to have them back.

This Monday's One Fun Thing

I just re-discovered stumbleupon.com. I used to love it, lost interest somewhere along the way, and now I am back into the fun of finding lots of new and interesting websites. So I was browsing along tonight and found Out of Print--a site with shirts that "feature iconic and often out of print book covers." I had to order this Animal Farm shirt! Check out the site--you might find something you can't live without. And the additionally cool thing is that they send a book to a community in need (through Books for Africa) for every shirt sold.

So every Monday, I am going to post one fun thing I've come across (not necessarily through stumbleupon, but wherever!) and maybe more if I can't decide on just one. :) Two other fun things this week are the new blogs I've added to my blogroll on the sidebar, written by two fabulous young women. Saving November is by Audra, daughter of one of my best friends ever, and someone I've known since she was born. She's documenting the lead-up to her wedding next year, and life along the way. And she's just the cutest and sweetest! :) The other is Alyssa in Alaska, by Alyssa who runs our Convention and Visitors Bureau. She is another sweetheart who overflows with friendliness, enthusiasm and talent. Take a look at both of their blogs!