30 Days of Lists Day 4: When I need a time out, I ...

I'm not really one to need time-outs very often.  Boring, huh?  If I had to choose, I suppose I would

*read a book
*soak in the tub
*listen to music
*have a sugary snack  :)

We had major high winds last night--sure was blowing out there!  The rain was pouring over the top of our front door--guess it's not sealed very well.  I imagine Ajax is glad he's back in the house. We certainly are glad he's back so we don't have to worry about him being miserable out in the weather.

I went to my ESL class tonight and had 18 students!  I keep getting new students almost every night. It's so exciting!  It's great to see how they all support each other and welcome new learners. Even when I am tired, I don't mind going to class and end up enjoying every minute of it.
 

Nice enough for a hike

It was still sunny and warmish when I got home from work so we decided to hike up Bunker Hill after supper.  It felt so good to be out in the fresh air after all of our nasty weather.  I could tell I haven't had much exercise lately. This is NOT a tough hike but I could feel my muscles protesting working hard.  :)

 Looking down on the new boat harbor

We spotted two ptarmigans...or maybe it was the same one twice.  A little hard to see in the grass.  Nice camouflage!

 Still lots of snow on the mountains

Sitting at the top and taking in the view.  It was a lovely day but I still needed a hat to keep my ears warm.

When will it end?!

So we had a couple of sunny, almost warmish days and then this!  I am so OVER winter.  It's May!  I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to face yet another morning covered in white, continuing flurries throughout the day, and the sound of the poor maintenance men's shovels outside the door.  If I think I am fed up, what about them?!

I got up early this morning when Rich went to work, did a few things around the house, and then napped on the couch for a couple of hours, due to 1) not sleeping much last night, 2) being all congested and headachy and 3) general malaise.  I had the weirdest dream that I was sleeping on a plane traveling to Anchorage. In the dream, I woke up with a start to the realization that we were flying very low.  I looked out the window and determined that we were coming in for a landing in downtown Anchorage, which seemed curious and a little confusing. There were people on the streets clearing the way so we could land, which the pilot accomplished with no problem.  I have no idea what this means but at least it ended well and was not even very scary.  :)  Even though we still have several weeks till vacation, it's probably my typical Nervous Nellie lead-up to flying out of here.

Blogger Steve is back, much to his fans' delight.  :)  Check out his blog and the info about The Tutu Project here.   What an idea!  You have to admire a guy who's willing to have himself photographed in a pink tutu to cheer up his wife and to raise money to fight breast cancer. Every time I see something creative like this, I wonder, "why didn't I think of that?"  Not that I really want to have myself photographed in a pink tutu and nothing else, but you'd think I could come up with another idea that would do some good and go somewhere. Apparently not.  Or not yet.  :) But I digress.  Bob Carey did think of it and leaped (or pirouetted) into it body and soul.   Go to Bob's website here, look at the photos, and make a donation--you can buy a print, his self-published book Ballerina, a T-shirt, or send money for the cause.  Here's his Facebook page, too.  Thanks, Steve, for telling us about The Tutu Project and I think you are just the kind of guy who would do the same thing if your lovely wife needed cheering up.  For the record, I think my husband would, too, but I know when he reads this he will really be hoping he never has to prove me right.  :)

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.

Seriously? It's almost April!

I am trying not to be grumpy about the never-ending snow. It is March 31st, right?! I am so ready for a break in this weather! Meanwhile, happy birthday to my daughter Bonnie, above, with David and Emery. This is from last fall when I was in Texas, but she's now very pregnant with baby #2 whom we are anxious to meet in June! Bonnie's birthday was yesterday and we're sending out much love and many good wishes for a very happy year ahead.

And today is grandson Aidan's 9th birthday--I find it very hard to believe that he could already be 9 years old! He's my first grandchild and set the bar pretty high for being a very sweet and happy baby. Having only three girls in our family, we had no idea what to do with a boy but he did a good job of breaking in his mom, his Gigi and his two aunties. Now he's riding dirt bikes, playing baseball, hanging out with friends, and growing up before our eyes. We love you, Aidan, and can't wait to see you in the summer time!

Happy Spring!

Yes, the calendar says it's now spring but Ajax doesn't quite believe it and neither do I!

Here's the view from our bedroom window a few days ago.

I know I am not supposed to complain about the weather but I am really OVER winter this year! I looked out the window today and it was snowing again. I am sure it's the harshest winter since I've lived here and Rich agrees it's one of the worst in his 18+ years on the island. And it hasn't hurt that I've usually managed to be off somewhere during at least part of the coldest/dreariest times in the past, so my perspective is probably skewed. I am having to tough it out this year and it's making me a little moody! I know it's not the biggest thing in the world to be whining about, so I will leave it at that and hope for a sunny, warmish day soon.

I came across this inspiring video the other day and LOVED it. What a different world we would have if we adopted a giftivistic attitude. Check it out by clicking here.

Oh, July, where art thou?

My non-Alaska car was iced and snowed into our parking area last week so Rich was driving me to work and picking me up at the end of the day. We kept noticing this view on the way home between 5:3o and 6. One day after I was back to driving myself, Rich went out to take some photos. What a gorgeous sunset over the water!

The Unangan culture teaches us not to speak ill of the weather so I am trying to keep a smile on my face. Still, it seems very cold this winter. The snow is lovely if I don't have to go out in it so I've been a little bit into hibernation mode and I am not much of an Alaska gal at times like these. Many of my friends are very outdoorsy and don't even mind the cold but I haven't quite made it that far. No, I don't bundle up nearly as much as I used to, I can drive our stick shift truck under just about any conditions, and I'm pretty good at scraping the windshield. But I can't say I am enjoying it! :)

Still, there's lots going on, as always. Besides work, I'm doing my nonviolence studies, I've started practicing piano again after buying a DVD instruction set that I really like, and I just signed up to teach an ESL class starting next week. I'm looking forward to it, though I thought it would be held in the evening and I just found out it's from 7-9 AM on T-Th. You know I am *not* a morning person! I hesitated for a moment and then decided, "I can do this! It will be good for me." Right?!

Winter Doldrums

We've had cold, wind, rain, sleet, snow and ice for the last couple of weeks. I have hardly left the house except to go to my part-time job in the afternoon, when the sun has already come up and I don't have to negotiate the steep iced-over steps and the icy parking lot in the dark. We did catch a break in the ice and wind one day and took a little drive.

This is a cool old WWII building. It would be perfect for our commune, but I hear it's condemned.

Crab pots, eagles and the Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

January 11th was my youngest daughter Susan's birthday. Here she is with her husband, Corey, when I saw them last September. I can hardly believe my baby is now 29! Where have the years gone? Happy belated birthday to my girl. We love you and miss you!

Tonight my thoughtful husband surprised me with pot pies for dinner. You might wonder what is so special about pot pies, besides the very important fact that they're homemade. The truth is that I have many food peccadillos, not the best situation for the wife of a chef, or for the chef (maybe especially for the chef). What a treat for me to have a delicious pot pie with lots of veggies that I WILL eat and none of the ones I can't stand. No onions, no rubbery little square carrots, no canned-tasting peas. We were laughing about how I must have had to maneuver those little frozen pot pies as a kid--I'd eat all of the crust, pick out the chicken and potatoes, and whatever juice I could get that was not tainted by those nasty carrots, and leave the rest. I probably got in trouble for not cleaning my plate.

And it's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This quote is from the '60s but I think it is just as relevant now, maybe more so. "We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing' oriented society to a 'person' oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered." This makes me think so much of the income inequality of our country, the rich only becoming richer while the poor continue to struggle for dignity and a living wage and the middle class see their jobs and security slipping away. Corporations are deemed "people" and control every aspect of our society. I wonder what Dr. King would have to say today.

We top off the night with a tsunami evacuation

I'm not sure where my "Little House on the Prairie" attitude is coming from but I had a major urge to make scones last night. This is funny since I pretty much never cook or bake. If Rich is not home, I usually make a sandwich or warm up leftovers. Maybe scrambled eggs. He can probably count on one hand the number of times I have made anything on my own, so I think he was surprised when I said I wanted scones and YES, I would make them. :) I don't think this activity even occurred to me, nor did I get started, till after 9 PM. They were very plain, fairly quick and easy, and tasted great! At 10 PM, we were eating hot scones with peach preserves and salmonberry jam (from a previous year...we haven't made this year's yet). Yum, yum. And I did have some Earl Grey tea with mine.

Fast forward to 3:00 AM, when the "on call" phone from work began to ring. Many times, it's a wrong number or just someone with a question, and I almost never get a call at that time of night. This time it was a guy from a news outlet in Anchorage, wanting to get an update on what was happening out here. What? I was asleep and confused. He told me that we'd had an earthquake nearby (which, as usual, I slept through) and were under a tsunami warning. Uh-oh! Here we go again! I called my boss and the emergency notification system was put into place. Soon I could hear sirens and voices over loudspeakers saying "tsunami warning--evacuate! tsunami warning--evacuate!" as people from UniSea began climbing the road up to our house. We got dressed and ready to move, but we live on fairly high ground so were not going to leave home unless advised to do so. Still, it was a little freaky in the middle of the night. Fairly soon, the all clear was called and we went back to bed. Just another little Aleutian adventure! Click here for the story.

August winds down

Lots going on, as always! Both of us are busy at work, for one thing. Wednesday night, I went back in to host Flash! Unalaska, our weekly news/community events show, with Alyssa from the CVB. We had a lot of fun and she is just so cute and enthusiastic! I told her she is definitely in the right job! Thursday night, I went out for sushi with Andrea, Sonia, Tammy and Melanie to celebrate Melanie's birthday a little late. We have not all been in town at the same time for MONTHS so it was fun to catch up. Tammy and I were lamenting our lack of exercise so joined Mel at the gym on Friday morning. Melanie is pretty dedicated--I am not! I don't always sleep in but even if I am up early, I like to putter around the house in my pj's for hours on end. I might be working, mind you, but I am not showered and dressed. So it was a chore to make myself throw on some workout clothes, stick my hair in a ponytail and drive across town to the community center at--horrors!--9 AM! But we got in a good workout and I was glad I did it. I took the weekend off, but am planning to go in again tomorrow morning. I think I've done all I can do on the weight loss thing by just adjusting my diet so need to get serious about exercising.

Friday night we met some other friends, Kelly and Elaine, at the second-to-last deck bbq of the season. It was fun to hang out with them! Blogger Steve was supposed to come but got tied up at the eye doctor's office. Or so he says. :) I can't believe the bbq is about done for this year. That makes me think that fall and winter are fast approaching.

Rich had to work Saturday but managed to take most of today off. We had a quiet day and got a few things accomplished around the house but that's about it. Checked in with my mom, who got a bit of Hurricane Irene in NJ but nothing major, thankfully. You can tell we're a little jaded out here when all the locals say that it would be "just another day in Unalaska." :)

Evacuation video

Rich videotaped some of the people heading up the hill behind our house. We are not sure why there's a purple tint...maybe there were some sort of weird earthquake/tsunami particles in the air.

A Little Excitement

Somehow Rich and I both managed to snooze through a 7.4 earthquake that happened about 80 miles away. He in his recliner and I on the couch...both of us had been reading and dropped off to sleep. I woke up and got on Facebook only to see lots of chatter about an earthquake.
I looked online and sure enough, it had happened about 15 minutes earlier. Can't believe we didn't feel a thing. Next thing ya know, Rich called me over to the door to see our parking lot and our yard filling up with people. We'd heard sirens but did not realize we were under a tsunami warning! Since we live in UniSea housing, many of the employees had been evacuated to the hills behind our house.

Here's our parking area. We asked our upstairs neighbor if she'd felt the earthquake and she said it was pretty strong. How could we have not noticed?!
We kept an eye out but didn't feel a need to climb the hill. We are on high ground as it is and figured we'd be safe. I did put my shoes on, just in case. :) Rich and I both took photos and he also got some video which I will try to upload.

These guys were waiting it out in our front yard. Guess they were not too keen to make the big climb, either.

The water looked calm from here.

Everyone hung out for about an hour and then the warning was cancelled. Whew! Just another little Aleutian adventure!

"What is going on and why are all these people surrounding our house?!!"

I don't know if I was in denial or what, but I really was not worried. Of course, if I'd seen the water start to rise and rush toward land, I would have been hauling butt up the hill. :)

Mundane

Yes, it's April, late April, but it's been snowing in Unalaska. Ajax wishes for a fireplace but the best he can do is lie in front of the space heater to warm up. I regularly join him, plopping down on the floor with a pillow and a blanket. Toasty!

Friday I was supposed to walk in the Earth Day 5K with some friends but everything seemed very disorganized and it was cold and rainy outside which, along with my sore throat and sniffles, were sufficient excuses for me to blow it off. I had considered going to the community center and walking the track instead but did not do that either. Let's see, since I've been home, my good intentions to get back into the gym have resulted in attendance at one cardio kickboxing class on Wednesday. Ugh.

It snowed for several days, we had a "white Easter" and I spent the whole weekend in the house, battling the aforementioned cold/flu/whatever I have that only seems to be getting worse. After enjoying the rest of his vacation days around the house, Rich went back to work on Saturday to prep for Easter brunch and had to go in very early on Sunday to assure that everything went well for the customers. I didn't feel like getting out at all so I contented myself with getting some chores done, reading, messing around on the computer, playing numerous games of Scrabble on Facebook with my mom, sister, and friends, and catching up on my postcrossing postcards. Easter was pretty quiet with no kids or grandkids around but I was able to talk with everyone on the phone, at least, and thanks to the wonders of Facebook, to see their cute photos almost immediately. It would have been fun to have them here, dressed up in their Easter clothes, hunting eggs (in the snow?) and oohing and aahing over their Easter baskets. :)

Random Stuff without Photos

We've been having exciting weather--high winds pretty much all weekend. Not just high winds, hurricane force winds, up to 115 mph. It's sort of lame to say because it's been repeated so much, but I still like the comment (said with pride, of course) "down south, they'd give that a name, but here we just call it Saturday." :) There was some damage done but no one was hurt, thankfully. I didn't even want to leave the house but I am newly appointed to the board of USAFV (Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence) and our annual Soup Off fundraiser was being held on Saturday night. I kept reading comments on Facebook about people getting knocked around by the wind and some saying "don't go outside" and "don't drive." We have a bunch of steps that we have to climb to get up to our house or down to the parking lot and I was kinda worried that I might get blown over. Rich was working but took pity on me, came to get me and dropped me off across town at the high school.

The fundraiser was good--we had a nice turnout despite the howling winds, though more than one person came in drenched and several noted that their soup entries sloshed out of their pots between the parking lot and the gym. Rich came over after he got off, we enjoyed lots of tasty soups, watched contestants get their awards, and stayed for the fundraising auction.

We've been planning our vacation and I am very excited about leaving on Saturday. We tried to priceline a room in San Francisco but can't seem to get one for the bargain price(s) we are proposing. Guess we will have to go up a bit more. Also looking for rental cars, another hassle. :) It will all come together in the next few days, though, I am sure! Now I am onto my next dilemma, which is my usual one: what clothes to take. I really want to pare down and mix & match and layer and not bring a stack of things I never actually wear. I always think "but I might need that." And, of course, I am not sure what the weather will be like. I wish I could be more like those folks who throw two outfits in a backpack and still feel like they've overdone it.

Since we've been to San Francisco a few times already, we've decided we are going to concentrate our activities by visiting different areas of the city that we haven't seen before. So we've been reading up on various neighborhoods, making notes of restaurants and shops and things to see and do. We plan to get in lots of walking (unless, as I whined to Rich, "it's too cold or rainy"--yes, I can be a little wimpy).

Changing the subject: I've met the nicest people on Postcrossing.com. I've mentioned before that I've struck up an ongoing correspondence with a few of them. One day last week Rich called to say that I had a box in the mail at the hotel. I hadn't ordered anything and couldn't think of what it could be but Raelyn, a postcrossing friend from New Zealand, had sent a whole box of sweet presents for Emery after learning about her story. What a very nice thing to do for a perfect stranger. I think we just have to look around to realize that most people have kind hearts and only want the best for each other. Well, that's what I choose to believe, anyway. Thanks, Raelyn!

One of my other fairly regular correspondents lives in Nara, Japan. I looked it up on the map and it doesn't seem like an area that's been affected by the horrors there; at least I hope not. I sent Noriko an email but I have no idea if communication is even getting through. I hope she and her loved ones are all okay. It certainly seems like the world is spinning out of control right now with the effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disasters in Japan along with the fighting in Libya and other countries. I could get into a big political dissertation right now but I don't have the emotional energy for it. I suppose my thoughts can be summed up like this:

I don't want us to get into another war.
I thought we didn't have any money and the country was going broke.
If we can't pay teachers and government workers, why are we going to get into another overseas adventure?

Very discouraging.

We still have to do our taxes before we leave. We started them weeks ago but were still waiting for some documents from our investment accounts before we could wrap it up. Those arrived awhile back and we can't seem to get motivated to resume the process. We've made a pact that we will finish tomorrow. That's postponed from our agreement that we would do it tonight.
haha

I've been a big insomniac again lately. Last night I was up till 4 AM reading. Then I slept really late this morning so now, of course, I am not tired. Ugh. It's a vicious cycle. I wish we didn't need sleep. :)

On the other hand, I am really happy about this: My houseplants are thriving. I love seeing them every day, nice and green and getting bigger all the time. Those of you who know my history with plants will be amazed and astonished. I have been accused of having a "brown thumb" and never, ever, ever had success growing plants in the house or flowers outside. It's funny how thrilled and excited I am about this. I have a daily ritual now, checking each of them like they're my little children. Is this one too dry? Does that one need to be pruned a little bit? Would the other one prefer being turned in a different direction? (Do I have too much time on my hands?)

Well, friends, have a good Tuesday and if I don't post before we leave, I'll catch up with you from California!

It's beginning to look a lot like

I posted on Facebook yesterday that I was dreaming of a white Christmas. I don't know if it will still be snowy on Christmas, but we certainly got a lot of it overnight and today, not to mention big winds to go along with it. Ajax (and Kali, not shown here) sat in the bedroom window and surveyed the scene but didn't want to go outside. They used to go out in all kinds of weather when we lived in our other house but they have been more skittish here.

I think I have a romanticized notion of snow and the white Christmas thing because I really did not enjoy fighting the wind and slipping around in the snow and ice today. I'm borrowing a friend's car while she's out of town because mine is "unsafe to drive" at the moment. It needs new tie rods and we've been waiting for the shipment to arrive. We live on a hill; after work today, I managed to get most of the way up before sliding back down. Luckily I did not hit anything (sorry, Jeanette, if you are reading this--nothing happened, really!) After recovering my senses, I parked at the "mall" and trudged up the hill on foot. Rich then trudged over to get the vehicle. Of course, he had no trouble getting up the hill. It's still snowing and blowing so we will see what tomorrow brings.

It may be snowing but we have lots of cherry tomatoes in our aerogarden. Nice! Just a little taste of summer when it's cold outside.

This is Donald, whom I've known pretty much since I moved to town. He joined the Marines after graduating from high school a couple of years ago and just finished a tour of duty in Afghanistan. That teenager I knew turned into a fine young man, funny how that happens. We worried about his safety, sent him a couple of care packages and tried to stay in touch while he was there. Last Saturday he came home for a four day visit before returning to Japan, where he's been stationed. I was so happy to see him and to know he made it out okay. And let me tell you, there's nothing better than a small town to do up a homecoming right. The high school band greeted him with the Marine Hymn. The Scouts formed an honor guard and saluted him. The mayor spoke and presented him with a key to the city. Family and friends showed up in droves to hug him and pat him on the back and shake his hand. Those of you who know me know that I am not nationalistic nor a fan of military adventures, but this was personal--one of our own had come home. It wasn't about politics. And many of us had great big tears in our eyes.

Summer Flowers Make Me Happy

I love the flowers growing in boxes in the front yard. They take awhile to bloom and they don't last long, but they're so pretty while they're here!

My friend Tammy has a greenhouse full of flowers and plants...I want one! We have enough room in our yard. In fact, there used to be a greenhouse on the property when my friend Andrea's family lived here. I understand it's a little spendy to build something like that, what with shipping in lumber, etc. Maybe we can find some scrap around town, you think?

Friday night we went to the deck BBQ with friends and rushed out before 7 to attend a magic show, which ended up being sold out so we couldn't get in! Should have headed over there earlier.

We decided to have a "Lazy Day of Fun" on Saturday. Rich has been working a lot of hours and although he offered to get pictures hung on walls and finish some more of our decorating, I thought he should have a real day off. Well, he did go in to work for a few hours on his Saturday off, which is typical. Once he got home, we went to the store to stock up on snacks and movies.

He did make us some breakfast tacos but that was the end of the cooking for the day. We had sandwiches for lunch, then we were really naughty and munched on candy and popcorn while watching "Crazy Heart" and "A Serious Man." We gave "Crazy Heart" four thumbs up and thought Jeff Bridges did an amazing job. I don't really like country music but I even enjoyed the songs. We like movies with some resolution, redemption or hope...so this one qualified. "A Serious Man" was less satisfying...the usual Coen Brothers quirkiness with some really funny and poignant parts but I wanted something a little more definite at the end.

After two movies, we needed a nap. Later, we ordered pizza while watching "The Road." I thought the book was excellent and I'd heard the movie was pretty true to the book. It was a heavy story but I thought the film was well done and ultimately uplifting. So we enjoyed our movie day--can't remember the last time we have watched three in a row (or even one!) and not conked out. Well, we did have that nap!

Sunday Rich worked and I took some clothes and bed linens to the Methodist Church for their Second Blessings sale which will happen next weekend. We were invited to dinner with friends Sunday night and completely enjoyed our visit with them.

I just heard that we had 3 minutes and 45 seconds less sunlight today. I am sad to see the long days slowly disappear. It was cold and rainy today. I am sorta dreading the winter, I have to admit.

But for now we can enjoy the green hills and the blooming flowers. This is our lovely new front yard!

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

It's dreary outside; we've been having lots of rain and wind for the past several days, difficulties with planes getting in and generally unpleasant weather. I kinda like a good rainstorm as long as I don't have to get out in it but am not a big fan of hard rain blowing right into my face. Ajax is dejected since he loves to go outside. Actually, he does not usually let the weather get him down and will venture out at times when we think he is a little bit koo-koo. He went out when Rich left for work this morning but came back in soon after and has been moping on the chair ever since.

So I started working on elevating my health and wellness yesterday by having some good ole oatmeal for breakfast, fruit for lunch and Rich's homemade bean/veg soup for dinner. I really feel much better when I eat healthy and definitely need to drop a few pounds. Now if we can just get ourselves back to the gym.

As you know, I started taking piano lessons a few months ago. Between my own and my teacher's schedules, I think I missed more lessons than I actually attended. Then she was out for several weeks. Then we went on vacation. I almost feel like I will be starting from scratch when we get back together this Thursday. My biggest issue is that I will not make myself practice! I had to go to the community center to practice and scheduling was always a problem. My friend Karen in Abilene plays piano and I was giving her all my excuses when she jumped right in to say she had a roll up keyboard that I could use! We packed it in our suitcase and brought it home with us. So no more whining! I finally got it out yesterday--here's the proof! And, yes, I actually practiced for about 30 minutes before going to work. I took a few photos of one of my hands on the keyboard but, oh my gosh, I couldn't post any of them. Okay, I did not realize how horrible my knuckles look. I swear, they are getting that old person crooked, bent appearance. I was shocked. So, no, you do not get to see them.

I added the flag counter and live feed to my blog the other day and it's been fun to see people checking in, even if you are not leaving comments! Glad you are stopping by and hope you will say hello sometime.

How's everyone's 2010 going so far?

Winning photos, an annoying cat, and an exciting opportunity

Congrats to Rich, who continued his UniSea photo contest winning streak by taking two prizes again this year for the photos above. The theme was "faces of Unalaska," but he didn't have too many people photos and entered these faces instead. All of the winning shots will be going into a calendar. And I think he gets a little bit of money, too. Nice! (Sorry, if you looked earlier, I had the wrong eagle picture posted!)

Just imagine lots of wind, rain, sleet and hail outside. Ajax is driving us crazy because he loves to go out and he cannot believe that the weather is so nasty. He cries, we let him out, he looks around for two seconds and then cries to come back in. Repeatedly. You might remember that the cats tore up the bedroom window screen last summer and made it into their personal "kitty door." When we were at home, we'd leave the window open enough that they could come and go through the screen. Then our house was being painted and the maintenance guys took down all the screens. We went without screens for four months or so, totally spoiling those cats. Again, if we were home, we left the window open wide enough so they could go in and out independently. Now, to their dismay, we have new screens, AND the weather has turned. Rich likes to have the bedroom window open when we're sleeping, even in winter time, so we are dealing with Ajax scratching at the screen all night long. I am tempted to take it off and store it somewhere before he ruins another one, not to mention ruining our sleep!

A couple of months ago, the Behavioral Health Program at my former workplace decided to apply for a program called the Healthy Native Communities Fellowship. It requires a team of three people, including one from outside the agency. Char, the community wellness advocate, and Donna, a behavioral health clinician, were chosen for the team, and I was asked to be the third member from the community. It's been an interesting process--we had to complete a letter of intent, followed by team and individual written applications, then a fairly intense phone interview with previous members of the Fellowship. It's competitive and there are teams from all over the country who apply each year so we did not know what our chances might be. This week, we were very excited to find out that our team was one of 16 who were accepted! We will be going to quarterly week-long retreats in various locations around the US to work on skills that we can apply to community health and wellness efforts. Our first retreat is at the end of January in Scottsdale, AZ. I am looking forward to meeting people from all over the country and having new experiences that will help our work here in Unalaska. Here's more info on the Fellowship:

http://http://www.hncpartners.org/HNCP/Fellowship.html

The Museum of the Aleutians is having its annual auction fundraiser Saturday night--another "can't miss" event. You wouldn't believe all of the fabulous items up for bidding--though the best ones go way too high for us. We just like being in the middle of it all, even if we don't bring anything home.

Otherwise, we are just counting down the days till vacation--15 to go! Can't wait to see everyone back in Texas, especially those grandkids!