Words and Birds and Work and Music

Scrabble Tournament!   My first job in Unalaska (besides subbing at school) was working at the Community Center.   Along with other duties, I was usually there to help run the after school programs for kids and teens.  The younger kids and older kids alternated between the gym and the "teen room," a rec room containing a big TV, Xbox games, pool, foosball, etc.   Since I am so non-athletic, my gym days were not my favorites and I would often try to trade with another staff member for the teen room.   When the kids complained that they were bored, I would try to get them to play board games rather than Xbox.   At first, they thought I was crazy but somehow we eventually built up a good sized group of kids who really got into playing Scrabble.   We had some very competitive games going, prizes for playing harder-to-use letters or creating longer words or getting a large number of points on one word.   After a while, we were holding regular tournaments and the kids were even going to the Senior Center at night to play Scrabble with the elders.   
After I left the Community Center, it kinda fell by the wayside so I was really excited when I went to the school a few weeks ago and saw some flyers advertising a tournament for this week. One of the 6th grade teachers found out about a school based Scrabble tournament program and set one up for our 5th to 8th graders.

I didn't make it to the first night of the tournament when 44 kids on 22 teams faced off! Wow! Now that's a successful event!

  
Last night I spent three hours in the school library watching the quarter-finals.   I was proud to note that many of the contestants were the same kids from my old Scrabble playing group.   :)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the semi finals and finals tonight but I am sure there were some interesting words being played!   Last night we had to laugh several times at the words that did not get challenged.  :)

This morning, I was getting ready for work while a  juvenile eagle was sitting on our porch railing,  looking in the window.    Ajax and Chuckie (the neighborhood stray cat) were hanging out on the porch and that eagle was twice as big as they were.  I could not get Ajax to come in the house no matter how hard I tried.  He was very interested in the bird and I think he was contemplating his chances of taking it down.  

The eagle did not budge even when I went outside and tried to shoo him off.  I left the cats sitting there and hoped for the best.  Rich went by later and said the eagle had moved to our neighbor's.
It's been a busy week.   Tuesday, I was seriously thinking about calling in to say I was not going to make it to our 8 AM staff meeting, but I got myself together and showed up about 10 minutes late to find that my coworkers had brought a ton of food and planned a little going away party for me.   It was completely unexpected since I still have a week to go and it hadn't even occurred to me that they might do something early.    Thanks, everyone!  I will miss y'all but it's not like I am going very far!

I've been staying up late to watch Letterman since one of my all time favorite bands, U2, is on his show EVERY night this week.  And their new CD came out on the 3rd so I had to get it downloaded.   Great tunes!  Now I am waiting to see if they will be on tour anywhere near where we might be next time we are down south.  :)

Meanwhile, I am loving my new job--I've learned how to download radio shows to insert into our schedule and I'm working on the upcoming membership meeting, trying to track people down to come in and pick up their auction winnings, and even got to pick a few songs to play on the radio yesterday.   I'm sure my family and friends can easily guess at least which artists I chose, if not which songs.  

We had a little snow today so I suppose winter is not quite done with us.  

Spring Fever

I came home the other day to find an eagle party going on outside our house.  Most of them flew off when I walked onto the porch but this is a picture from last spring when they ignored us long enough to catch some photos.   

These eagles were far enough away that they didn't care if I was on the porch or not.  They were having a little rumble with the ravens at the time.

We've had sunny days lately, which makes me long for the shining green hills, splashing waterfalls, and brilliantly colored wildflowers of spring and summer.   I can't wait to get out on the hiking trails again!  

What a gorgeous place!  

Rich and I were both off yesterday and felt very productive after a full day of "chores" and taking care of several items that had been languishing for weeks.   We cranked up the music (is "shuffle songs" on the ipod the greatest thing ever?!)  and kept working till supper time (Rich made a delicious lasagna, which was enough of a reward for my trials!)  Dusting...man, don't you hate it?   What a thankless job that just has to be done over and over again!   

I'd rather be hiking!  Hopefully our Unalaska Biggest Winner crew will plan some group hikes--now wouldn't that be a blast, and healthy, too?

I am doing great on the "no refined sugar" thing.  Friday, my coworkers and I had our weekly breakfast planning meeting and I just had oatmeal with blueberries in it.  Perfect!  As long as there are no sugary products in the house, I am fine at home.  I did decide not to go to Sunday Brunch today in case the temptation was too huge.  :)

Tomorrow I begin my new job in earnest, as well as still working 18 hours a week at my old job till March 12.   It will be a little hectic juggling both, but I am completely excited about getting started at UCB!

Bye, Bye, Sugar

We were watching "Top Chef" last week and one of the guys made a cucumber mojito.  Y'all know that I am not a drinker at all but I was washing dishes one night and suddenly a cucumber mojito sounded really appealing to me.  I've had a grand total of two 'regular' mojitos in my life, both when we were in Puerto Rico a couple of years ago, so Rich  had a little bit of a puzzled look on his face when I turned from the sink and said, "hey, you know what sounds good?"   We must have been pretty bored that night because we made a special trip to the grocery store and the liquor store to get the ingredients.   Here you see his extra special cucumber/fresh ginger mojito, which was crisp and clean and very tasty.   

Rich has been taking photos of some of the desserts they've been making at the hotel.  These are from Wednesday night's Seafood Buffet.    Here we have a lemon-blueberry meringue shot, a layered pistachio-lime custard and coconut tapioca mini parfait, and a macaroon crust tart with banana brulee.

Cheesecake, caramel, chocolate mousse verrines.

A mouth-watering enticement.

Man, I love this stuff.   Since joining the Unalaska Biggest Winner Challenge,  I have to admit that I have not yet tried all that hard to get myself motivated.  I was checking the local blogs tonight and read with some dismay that Melanie and Alena are doing without sugar of any kind for 30 days.   Oh. my. gosh.   Sugar, especially white sugar, is oh-so-unhealthy for us, I know.   Sometimes I don't really care if I have it; I drink my iced tea "straight up" with just lemon; Rich and I have gone for months without eating many sweets at all.  But lately I seem to be back on a dessert kick--I blame it on vacation (which ended a month ago).  So, okay, gals, I accept the challenge you have thrown down.   There's that little devil sitting on my shoulder whispering "there's no way you can maintain for 30 days," so we'll see who wins this battle of the wills. Wish me luck.

Polar Bear Run (or Walk for some of us)

What a gorgeous day for the Polar Bear Run/Walk!   I've volunteered to help in the past and there have been years when the snow and wind were blowing like crazy and we just couldn't wait to get inside!   Today it was cold but sunny and a perfect day for a walk outside.  I'm not a runner so was happy that Melanie and Lauri wanted to walk.   There were actually quite a few walkers and I heard that a total of 71 people had signed up, which is big!   (I promised Lauri I would note that we are all wearing layers of clothes so we are actually MUCH smaller than we appear.  LOL)
Anne and I taking photos of each other while Matt waits for the race to begin.

Some of the entrants.   We always have a bunch of kids take part.

Danrick--it's a little cold with just shorts and a tshirt on!

Looking back toward town.   Our route took us from Tutiakoff Park to the landfill and back, for a total of 5K.   

Melanie and I were enjoying our stroll back when these kids swooshed right past us.

Approaching the finish line

We did it, and earned our Polar Bear Run hoodies!  Rich got off work in time to document our finish.   

Tonight is book club so I need to get a few things done before I go.   Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Girls Night Out and The Death Penalty Question

Work has been very hectic and busy lately.   A couple of weeks ago, after a particularly stressful day,  my coworker Judi suggested we find a night that we could all go out for sushi.  The conversation devolved into silliness and laughter as we contemplated ordering several "bitchin' rolls" to match our moods.  With too much going on, we didn't make it out till last night, a bad choice since we arrived at Harbor Sushi only to find it is closed on Wednesdays.  We sure were set on that "bitchin' roll," but decided to stay and order from the Harbor View Grill instead.   Judi, Donna and I grabbed a table looking out onto the beautiful evening (sunny, blue skies, calm water, people working on their boats, seals swimming by) and had such a great time just talking and laughing and unwinding from all the stress.   At some point, Donna mentioned sitting at my desk at work and noticing a quote on my bulletin board, "why do we kill people to teach people that killing people is wrong?"  We were discussing parents hitting kids to teach kids not to hit each other,  or parents hitting kids while they are crying, saying, "Okay, I will give you something to cry ABOUT!"    None of that ever made any sense to me.   

After our nice evening,  imagine how weird it was when I came home to find an email from the Alaska ACLU stating that the AK Legislature is considering implementation of the death penalty in our state.    What in the world could they be thinking?  In these times when officials in one state after another admit the folly of applying the death penalty, more and more individuals are being released after DNA evidence clears them, and increasing numbers of prosecutors and police chiefs are speaking out about the many issues associated with this ultimate form of punishment, Alaska wants to go the other way?   I worked on death penalty cases in Texas for a few years before moving here (yes, Texas, the death penalty capitol of the US) and, although it put me out of a job when I relocated, I was happy that Alaska did not use such a horrifying sentence.    There are many arguments against the death penalty:  that it is applied unevenly and unfairly, that individuals are convicted because of ineffective representation, mistakes and outright lies, that it has never been shown to be a deterrent, and that keeping someone on death row (including the costs of appeals) costs a whole lot more than life in prison.   Most civilized societies have done away with the death penalty.  We are left in the company of countries like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, which most of us would agree do not have the best records on human rights.    Alaska has been on the right side of this equation and I hope that our Legislature will not send us back to the Dark Ages.   I emailed Bryce Edgmon, my district Representative, and I was pleased to get an email back stating that he is opposed to the proposed bill.   Thanks, Bryce!   For the rest of you Alaskans, please educate yourself about the issue.  Sometimes people tend to have opinions based on emotion rather than facts, so it's good to do some research.  For more facts, see the Death Penalty Information Center link on the right side of my blog.   Let your Representative know that we don't want Alaska to start executing people.

Flowers and Flab

We have flowers on our minds.   Leftover bulbs are waiting to be planted and we have some Wyoming wildflower seeds my mom sent. Rich also needs to plant a new crop of herbs or tomatoes in his aerogarden.  I have never had much of a green thumb but we've actually done pretty well with keeping green plants alive in our house and growing some flowers in the spring and summer.   These are from two years ago--I was so thrilled to see their vibrant colors after a long winter.

After Rich's long day yesterday, he actually took off work today, we both slept in this morning and then went out to breakfast at Amelia's.   We also stopped by the Community Center to sign up for the Unalaska Biggest Winner Challenge.   This is going to be a lot of fun and will help us to stay on track to a healthier lifestyle.   We weighed in and picked up our materials from Alena, who was having a great time signing people up.  I hear that 41 people had enrolled  by the end of the afternoon--what a fantastic response!  For more info, look at www.unalaskabiggestwinner.blogspot.com or at Alena's blog, www.therealunalaska.blogspot.com.   If you are local, I think you can still sign up by contacting Alena or Char at 581-2742.  Rich and I are so inconsistent in our "healthiness." We will go for months on end eating such healthy  meals at home, rarely eating out, and working out regularly at the gym.  We are usually thrown off by going on vacation and even though we swear we will use moderation while we are traveling, we end up eating lots of wonderful (calorie laden) food, insisting on dessert with every meal (we have to TRY it, right?!) and never removing our work-out clothes from the suitcase.  We do try to walk a lot when we are on vacation, but that's about it. Then we get back home, look at our bellies with disgust and promise ourselves we will go RIGHT back to the gym.  For some reason, it is just so hard to get back into the habit again and we find the weeks flying by.   This is the most I have ever weighed except when I was pregnant with my girls!    (I used to blame any extra pounds on "the three kid spread," but how many years can I claim that when the youngest is now 26? LOL) However, it's not just about the weight but about having strong bones and good muscle tone and strength and flexibility as I get older.   To keep myself honest and motivated, I have put out a 20 pound challenge to the other folks out there who need to get rid of some belly flab and get in shape!   Who wants to join me?

I'm trying to read my book club book, The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig, but I am finding it a little tedious and actually kinda boring.   Anyone else have an opinion about it?  Since I am falling behind on my 100 book challenge, I hate to waste my time on something I'm not that interested in.  :)

How I spent my Valentine's Day

Driving across the bridge

I went with my friend Judi to record for Story Corps.   She wanted to preserve some stories about her father and I got to have a conversation with her.  It was neat to hear about her dad and some of her memories.

Sharon, Judi and Kristine after doing Judi's story.

Then I stopped by the hotel to see my hard working husband who is prepping for the special Valentine's dinner tonight.

Click on the photos of the menus if you can't quite see the print.    I know it will be a delicious treat for those who attend.   Unfortunately, when the chef is working, his wife doesn't get to go out to dinner with him.    :(

Creme Brulee--my favorite!

Despite my whining, I am really having a good day just doing my thing and trying to get my house in order.   Funny how working part time has not helped me to stay on top of things any better.  I can always find something more interesting to do than dusting and sweeping, imagine that.     :)   

Rich bought me some of Sharon's fabulous chocolates last night so I am thinking about having one or two or three in a little while.   Mmmmm, mmmmm, good!    Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!