Tuesday, March 31

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Well today isn’t too bad a day. The sky is over cast, the temp is 36F, a northerly breeze, and the ground is still covered in snow/ice. Not sure if this is flying weather today, not with the Northerly winds… I think the longest we went without a plane is about 18 days… then we’d get one plane in and another 12 more days later the weather would clear enough for another flight or two. Living here you get used to it… you can always try to find a boat to travel out of here if you want to go that way – I get sea sick on those big boats… so I prefer to fly…. We had 13 cents on our power stat this morning, so we ran down to the City office just after 9 to buy more power and run back home and put it in the stat machine… we didn’t want the power to turn off at 9:30, so we made sure to head down early today! Today is also garbage day so guess we can go put that out too…

Got down to the office and started to get some files ready for the auditor. I had to burn some of the spreadsheets I have on my computer since they can’t find what I entered in the journal entries on QuickBooks. So that was easy to get done. Then we went on a file hunt… I know there was this little “banker box” for checks that was sitting by the window with our binders holding our check copies… and now all the sudden it’s missing…. So we’re on the hunt for that box. My mom had already gotten the charge slips entered in from yesterday. So after helping look for files, which we found in the office next door, I started to work on the store order I hope to have out this afternoon. This morning seemed to blow by and it was already lunch time!

I went home and had cream of mushroom soup over toast… the hubby said that he’d help make lunch; since it’s so easy to do he can even do it… (How hard is it to heat up a can of soup and make toast?!?!) LOL…. Its cooled down to 32F out there, and the wind is picking up ever so slightly, still from the North. Feels cold out there!

I got back to work this afternoon and started right back up on getting the next store order into the computer and off to our vendors. I was waiting for a couple sheets still that they were busy filling out down in the store, making sure we order everything we need for Easter. We celebrate Russian Easter here too, which is usually a week after American Easter. We make “kulich” Easter Breads, which is white bread with raisins in it baked in coffee cans. Only problem is that they don’t make coffee in the tins anymore it’s all plastic these days, so it’s getting harder and harder to find cans to bake our kulich in. I know there are some people around here who will collect and save up their cans to use over the years! I think my mom might have some cans for me to use… if not I’ll make mini size ones in regular canned food cans! LOL…. At least they will be cute ;) After cooling the bread we frost them and put sprinkles on them then we’ll share them with everyone in town, usually a big one goes to a big size family, and the smaller ones to single people. When I was a little kid I used to love waiting for my mom to get done frosting them so I can go run around and pass them out to everyone! I still enjoy that today, but now I make them!!

I also started to work with the Story Corps Alaska on getting people to sign up to tell their stories! I hope to be able to get a good amount of people gathered and signed up. I need groups of 2 to fill 5-6 sessions a day. I have a list of sample questions for ideas for what to talk about. It can be a story about anything… anyone…. Whatever you’d like to say… It can be a conversation between you and whoever… or fishing stories… anything you’d love to share with the world!! Come on Akutan… sign up now!! They will only be here for a couple days starting April 6th!

I got our store order done and emailed off to the right vendors. A pretty good size order… This afternoon seemed to go by pretty fast. I got an order ready for our hotel. All new sheets, towels, pillows, bedding, shower curtains and anything else I knew we might need. I’m trying to get everything in white so that we can use bleach on everything instead of just powdered Tide w/bleach. Because that tide can be used on non-whites too… I want us to be able to use actual Clorox bleach in the wash loads! So I’m ordering us all new everything in white! Hopefully get that order out tomorrow….

I got us Hamburger helper Cheese burger Mac for dinner tonight. We ended up eating cereal last night for dinner at like 10:30PM…. I know that’s late, but we had to eat something and not just go to bed hungry! I’ll try to get dinner done between 7-8 tonight!

Not bad a day in the office… we had a handful of people come up to cash their checks. Made a couple hotel reservations for this coming month and for May. I helped my mom with anything she needed me with… and we got numerous calls today, way too many to be remembering what they were all for… I know a couple were calls for the Café... their number is -2260 and my office number is -2206... So it’s easy for people to get those numbers mixed up! I put a new toner in our fax machine, so we’ll be able to get incoming faxes now! We were out of toner and we couldn’t find where we put the toner replacements, but when we were looking for that box this morning I happened to run across them. So I made sure to put a new one in before end of the day!

Well until tomorrow, TTFN!!

Monday, March 30

Monday, March 30, 2009

Today was another beautiful day to wake up to. The sky is clear blue without a cloud in the sky; the sun is already coming up over the horizon. There is about 4 inches of fresh powder snow all over everything. Not a breeze in the sky this morning. All the birds making all their sounds: seagulls, ravens, tweety birds, and eagles to name a few. The dogs loved running around in all the new snow… all except Dante (who seems to hate snow, and will even go out of the way to go around or jump over any in his path!) The temp this morning is right at freezing, 32F.

I got down to the office and there were already a couple Trident employees who were coming down the stairs, and my mom sitting at my desk. So she must have been cashing checks for them. My mom was speedy today with Payroll… she was just finishing up making copies before those people came to get their checks cashed. She had already entered the charge slips from over the weekend. And she was working on getting a deposit done. So that left me with getting the next store order ready and to go thru all the incoming mail and take out any checks I see so I can get them entered and put on the right accounts. I had a couple checks come in to pay for some hotel billing that I sent out a while ago, there was one check that was to go on the appropriate store charge account. I had about town people put money on their store accounts.

The first plane arrived on time today, landing in the harbor at almost exactly 11:20AM. It’s a 20 min flight from Dutch Harbor. I heard there was a handful of mail and some people who came in. I had a couple people for the hotel come in; finally… they were supposed to be here like 4-5 days ago… Trident is also done renting the Salmonberry Inn from us. So I went down to check how much money is on the power stat so we can bill the company correctly for electric usage. My mom will work on billing them; she has to get all the utilities added up right, since according to their contract Trident pays for fuel and electric on top of the room fees. Since they are using the whole back part of the building since January until today. I had to go down and kick people out of the building down there, they think they can stand in a line and wait to use the phone. When it isn’t a “public” phone, it’s a phone for whoever is staying in the Salmonberry Inn. It’s a shared phone located on the wall in the hallway. And when I went to check the power there was a ling of people waiting to use the phone. I had to let them all know that they aren’t allowed in there if they aren’t staying in there… and since Trident just turned the keys in… no one is supposed to be in there.

We had grilled cheese and soup for lunch today. I have to start finding something tastier than what I’ve been eating lately…. Makes eating boring when it’s the same crap over and over...

Got back down to the office and we had a good amount of activity on the check cashing scene. I was kind of giggling to myself as this one guy kept calling me “sister”. I was just about to tell him “I’m not your sister.” LOL…… but I kept that comment to myself as I giggled… When they were walking out I heard one of the guys say, “She was laughing at you calling her sister.” Always cool to deal with cashing people’s checks… get to learn a bit about them because I’ll BS about what state their ID is… or ask what it’s like to live there. I LOVE talking with people from Hawaii!! Lots of people from Iowa, Nebraska and New York… most are from Cali and Hawaii though! I get to see a lot of “green cards” and passports too!

We bought cash from the PO and made them a check. At 4:15 PM it is 37F out, still clear and sunny. Some low laying clouds on the horizon. A breeze from the south is picking up a bit, blowing a good 10MPH. The sun feels really good on my skin! The second flight came in and we had the lady I’ve been waiting for the hotel for come in. She’s making it on time with her reservations! She’s hoping to get done in a couple days. I heard the first flight (Saab) to Dutch from Anchorage is stuck over in Dutch because that volcano blew ash again this morning, so that lady was super luck to even make it down today! I don’t know when/if that Saab will leave back to Anchorage today or not… (I actually won’t know unless I find someone to ask from over there… CB?!)

Today seemed like a nice busy day to make the hours pass by quickly without time dragging like it usually seems like it does… especially on nice weather days! I have a bunch of new episodes of a couple shows tonight. So that gives me something to look forward to watching later. Not sure what I’m going to get us for dinner tonight. I’ve been slacking on cooking lately, but I don’t feel like cooking anything that takes long… I don’t know... maybe go eat at the café again, but I don’t feel like French dip either! I’ll figure something out…

I think that was all that happened over the day… I try to keep notes so I don’t forget anything so that when I got around to writing my blog it won’t be that hard to try to remember what or when something happened… like when the plane comes in and what’s on it. I’ve been trying to write my blog at the end of the day…. I don’t think I write as much because I forget to add stuff sometimes… because I don’t remember until much later and I would be like.. oh damn.. I forgot that… it’s ok though.. :P LOL….

Well have a great Monday! TTFN

Sunday, March 29

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Well today is still as crappy as yesterday or worse! Blowing snow from the WNW, constant white out conditions, blowing a good constant 30+MPH.

I was expecting to sleep in again today, but my cell phone kept ringing. Everytime I answered it I was asked for a David... damn Trident people, how many times I have to tell the person from that same phone number (a local cell number) that I am April and I live in the village and that my number isn't some David guy's and to stop calling me at weird hours of the morning. I wasn't very nice... I don't even think I was fully awake... but what a way to "wake up on the wrong side of the bed and ruin a morning... so we got up and took the dogs out - which they didn't really want to do with the blowing white out snow conditions, Roscoe did his "potty" on the porch, he didn't even really go far out the door..... bet he's waiting for nicer, warmer weather too just like me! We don't even take Dante out when it's snowy and cold... he'll go on his pads :P

We didn't really do much today. Sat around the house and watched a lot of TV, there were some good episodes of Plant Earth that I don't remember seeing before, and mostly re-runs of previous shows we've already seen. Other than that, nothing much on TV today.

We got "native" for lunch. Had seal oil, dry fish and tea with slices of the homemade bread I made the other night... I'm out of dried Red salmon, and only have dried humpies (pinks) left... not sure what we're going to make for dinner tonight. Find something in the cupboards/freezer/fridge to whip up....

Well back to work tomorrow.... have a great Sunday night! TTFN

Saturday, March 28

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Well how to explain the weather today. We woke up to the wind blowing a good 35MPH from the NW, snowing hard… an hour later it turned to wet snow-blowing hard from the West. A couple hours later it stopped raining/snowing but started blowing hard from the South. This morning it was at least in the low 30’s, cold enough to let the snow stay. Then it warmed up to the mid 30’s and started the rain/snow (sleet) mix. Then it got up in the low 40’s for our high once the winds started to come from the South. Right now at 10PM the wind is blowing a good 55+MPH out there, with a fog but no precipitation, 39F. Definitely not flying weather today… yesterday was so beautiful compared to today. The wind is blowing so hard I can feel it moving my house around!

We didn’t do much today. Went down to the café and had my usual and the hubby had breakfast. I see a notice on their board saying they will be closing from April 4th until June 5th. Lisa and Duy are heading off on vacation I believe! The internet, cell phones and cable TV were out most of the morning due to the weather – sleet built up on the satellite dishes I guess…

I made a couple loafs of bread… don’t know what we’re going to eat for dinner, probably have cereal again. I don’t really feel like cooking, and the hubby only really likes to boil water… or cook hamburger meat… LOL….

Earlier I cleaned out my fish tank: vacuumed the gravel and wiped the inside of the tank then filled it with fresh water. I also changed the filter. One of my damn bala sharks jumped out of the tank and I had to find him and put the fish back in the tank… he’s doing ok… so I hope he didn’t get hurt too bad… lost a couple scales – but swimming around and acting “normal” so I hope that fish is ok… they seem to like all the grass and ornament where I put them, I moved it around a bit… so at least I got that done and taken care of!

Well I hope everyone has a great Saturday night!!! Until tomorrow, TTFN…

Friday, March 27

Friday, March 27, 2009

Wow, what a beautiful morning to wake up to. There is about 2 inches of powder snow coating everything from the mountain tops down to the beaches! The sky is a beautiful light blue – not a cloud in the sky!! The sun is rising up over the southern part of the harbor, seagulls and other sea birds singing to each other, chasing one another –looks like they are having fun. Since there was snow out we didn’t even attempt to take Dante out, but Tug and Roscoe loved it! Oh, today is the 9th week of me writing my blog! Yay!!

I had the 4-wheeler, so I rode down to the office this morning. A chilly 28F out there today, the sun is blinding, but I can feel some heat from it! I got down to the office and I guess the furnace is having some problems and its super cold in our office today. We have our maintenance man working on it, so hopefully he can get the furnace running before lunch. So I ran back home on the bike and brought my space heater down so my mom and I don’t have to freeze in the office. My mom was entering in the charge slips when I got back, so I finished them up for her. Then we tried to get the Corp’s Home Depot account registered online, but it was saying we were entering the wrong info... that doesn’t make sense… so my mom said she’ll just sent a check or call them and pay over the phone… since the mail here isn’t moving fast enough for companies waiting for their payments. Today is a beautiful today for the plane to be flying! There isn’t really a breeze in the air, it’s clear out with no clouds or fog – and the sun is getting higher and higher in the sky. The plane came in at 11AM, nothing but a plane load of mail is what I heard. I’m waiting for a bunch of stuff I ordered to be coming in by now! I think today is only the 3rd flyable day this month!! At 11:30AM, our maintenance worker said our furnace should be on and working again – so we should be getting heat and warmed up by this afternoon… at least it won’t be freezing up here over the weekend!

We ended up having chicken nuggets for lunch, bought a box from the store and baked them in the oven. They have enough grease in them that they don’t really need to be deep fried! I don’t really like them, but I’ll at least eat 6 of them… the hubby is cooking so I’m not going to complain! Another plane came in at lunch time, I got a couple of my orders in on those planes so far, but not everything I’m waiting for. My hubby let me order some clothes I wanted as an early b-day gift, and those came in too! Yay, everything fit but one really cute shirt (it was just way too small for the size that was stated!), so I gave it to my sister-in-law-she said it fit good but a little tight… so I told her she can wear it at home for her man ;)

I was late coming back to work; I didn’t notice the time flying by as I was going through all the clothes and other junk I ordered. By the time I noticed that it was 10 after 1 already, I hurried up and called down to let my mom know I’m sorry I spaced the time off and was on my way! I dropped what I was doing and hurried out the house, stopping by the City office to give that shirt to my sister-in-law. It’s so beautiful out, and there are actually a lot of people out today! Not used to seeing so many people out, they must be tired of being cooped up inside for the past couple days! On my walk down I got a call from a lady who’ll be staying in the hotel with us, seeing if she needed to pack her hairdryer or not and if we had a fridge in the room or not. We don’t have hairdryers, sorry. But we do have mini-fridge, microwave, oven and all cooking utensils in every room!

After getting back to the office I turned off my space heater since it was nice and toasty in the office and the furnace is working now. My mom had gone and checked the Corp’s mail, nothing too exciting. A couple bills, some payments that I can get entered to the right accounts (hotel, store and building lease), and this small box with some kind of parts that one of the guys must have ordered. Poor I heard my lil bro-in-law went to the plane, anxiously awaiting the UPS box that has his Wii in it. He wants his own and wants to return mine to me so he doesn’t have to worry about breaking mine… LOL… that’s good that he thinks like that now, before when he was younger he would have probably broken it by now… or at least scratched or lost the games. But he’s more mature now at 11 and knows how to treat his own and others property, learned that if you want to use it you have to keep it useable! But I heard he went down and it didn’t come off either flight and well I heard that at the first plane he was all excited and happy watching the mail come off the plane, then when he realized it didn’t come in he broke down into tears and ran home disappointed… poor… I don’t know if it came in on the second plane either, but I know it should have been here by now! Just wait and see I guess…

Well after getting the checks entered onto my daily sheet and put away in the safe, I started to enter paperwork back into the spreadsheets again. Taking my time… gives me something to do I guess…? Eva got our next store order ready. I have to get that out by next Wednesday at the latest, we needed to do a meat order this time around, and everything will ship on the 10th of April and be here a week later. I can’t believe how fast this year is already moving by, it’s already the last Friday of March… my 26th birthday is sneaking up on me……..

At 3:30PM another plane came in, I heard there were only people and their bags… I know they should have a couple weeks of mail sitting over there before the volcano started to act up, not to mention what all must be sitting around in Anchorage. I hope my phone bills make it out, those are like the only ones I do still mail and not do online – their stupid pin doesn’t match what I have and calling them and waiting for 20-30 mins isn’t worth it… so I’ll just mail it and hope it gets there fast enough!

I went to the store and got us cereal for dinner tonight. Lucky charms and Frosted Flakes…. Good enough… I don’t feel like cooking tonight or eating at the café… so cereal is good :) The afternoon seemed to go by pretty quickly today… the weather is still beautiful! It’s about 34F out, and warmer in the sun! The snow on the boardwalks is all melted, but it’s still sticking to the ground. Well I’m going to get paperwork done up and head home and enjoy the rest of the day with my hubby and pups… oh yeah TGIF!! Have a great weekend everyone!!! TTFN

Thursday, March 26

Thursday, March 26, 2009

So this morning isn’t as bad as it was yesterday, but it’s still blowing the snow around, but the fog doesn’t seem so low today… I can see across the bay today! The temps this morning don’t feel too bad, in the low 30’s, hope it starts to warm up and turn to spring… Let the dogs out for a walk, there was a good 4-5 inches of fresh snow on our porch. Dante don’t like anything to do with having to walk in the snow, so he didn’t even leave the door frame today. Roscoe and Tug ran out and enjoyed the new snow drifts, they eventually did their thing (potty) and came running inside… so cute I think Tug thinks he’s an oversized Chihuahua!! That or I wonder if he ever thinks “when are they going to get my size?” LMAO!

I walked down to the office, not too bad a walk. I didn’t really see anyone on my way down. I got down to the corp./store building and said good morning to Eva, our store manager, then proceeded up stairs to the office. I entered in the charge slips from yesterday, got a couple phone calls. 2 were wrong numbers, one was automated and there were at least 2 calls for my mom. Nothing too important, I was expecting hotel reservation calls… we’re supposed to have a couple people come in today. But it all depends on whether or not any flights are going to make it down any time soon with that Mt. Redoubt blowing its top. I heard there were 2 big explosions this morning, sending ash 65 thousand feet in the air… we should be far enough away not to deal with any of the ash fall or anything, winds from that direction and that far away are rare around here. Only way it affects us is with the plane flights being cancelled and no people or mail getting to move, well the people can always take a boat-the mail can’t…. Unless we send like our letters with someone to drop in the mail for us when they get over to Dutch… but that isn’t the best way, sometimes people lose stuff...

We went to the café for lunch today. I had my usual and the hubby had a chicken burger. I portion control and only eat about half of everything and take the rest home, that way I don’t over eat. Then we went home and I bid on some shirts I liked at like 2 mins and won them for like 4.50 a shirt with shipping – not bad for all new with tags. I don’t know there is just that little bit of excitement you get from bidding on something last minute and seeing if you win it or not… I’m not into bidding wars, I put my max amount I want to pay right at like 2-3 mins left and bid once. I like “Buy it now” items :)

Went back down to the office, the hubby decided he’s going to cook steam bath again today. So that will be something to look forward to after work! Tonight an all new Hell’s Kitchen on Fox tonight @8PM, YAY!! I got a couple calls I was waiting for, people reconfirming their reservations since they are still stuck in Anchorage since all the flights are cancelled due to that volcano blowing up, up there. They are still going to try to make it down here whenever the planes start to fly again, then weather permitting to get to here from Dutch Harbor!

So I started to enter paperwork into the spread sheets again when my mom asked for help with the Xerox machine. It’s been printing these lines in the paper and we have to go in back and find the toner and drum replacements so we can figure out which one is making the lines. The machine isn’t telling us to replace any of them yet, but we don’t like the lines in all our copies. So after screwing around with both the toner and drum units, and dusting out the Xerox machine – getting coated in the black powder, making sure I didn’t breathe any of it in. After about 15 mins of screwing around with it and changing parts in and out, we finally got it to make clean copies. My mom couldn’t stop laughing at me, I had black smudge marks on my face from moving my hair out of my way. I went in the bathroom and washed up then vacuumed up the rest of the black powder on the carpet. That stuff can get messy! I went back to entering paperwork into the spreadsheets, until end of the day. Then I got all the paperwork counted up from the store, then do up my daily sheet for the office, then go off to steam bath!

I don’t know what I’m going to make for dinner tonight… I was thinking about making handmade cheese burgers with Easy Fries (microwave) on the side. I think I have buns in my freezer, and we still have a bit of lettuce left over from tacos last night. So I think I might just get a 1# hamburger meat and a couple Easy Fries from down in the store since I have everything else we need at home. I love using my George Foreman Lean Mean Fat reducing Grilling Machine for cheese burgers! It lets all the grease drip out and cooks it from both sides!

Well not too bad a day today… Didn’t seem to drag along like yesterday did… Well I hope everyone had a great Thursday! I lost count of how many weeks it’s going to be for my blog… I think it’s going to be 9 weeks now since I started blogging, and I’ve been enjoying writing in it every day! I can’t wait until summer when there seems like more to write about! Well, until tomorrow, TTFN!

Wednesday, March 25

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Well we woke up to a blizzard this morning. Opened the front door and it was just a wall of snow blowing sideways, white out conditions. Roscoe didn’t even get off the porch and Tug hid behind the porch (a wind break for him) so he could do his thing, then he ran over the bank to take a #2. He was all coated in snow when he got back to the house! Today is garbage day, not sure if we want to put it out if it's just going to get blown away!

I took the morning off to get some business taken care of on the phone. I finally got off the phone at 11:30AM, just in time to clean up and find something to eat for lunch. There wasn’t much to get done at the office today at least. I have out store manager working on the next store order we need to get out, what will ship out April 10th I believe and be here around April 17th or so. We ended up having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.

I got down to the office this afternoon; my mom hadn’t entered the charge slips from yesterday, so I got on that right away. Then she gave me the checks that came in the mail yesterday and I entered those payments to the proper accounts and got the receipts ready to mail back to them. I cashed a couple checks, people actually walking down from the Plant in this weather!!

I made a check for the cash we bought off the USPS, and then started to enter paperwork into the computer… I’m making my way thru it, already knocked a month of paper work out of the way… after getting them entered into my computer I have to go enter them in QuickBooks on my mom’s computer.

This afternoon seemed to drag along, but the end of the day finally came. I got us everything we need for tacos tonight, just have to stop by the café for my salad order so I can have lettuce for my tacos! Temps were in the high 20’s, breezy and snowy all day. No planes today…

Well have a great Wednesday!! TTFN….

Tuesday, March 24

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Well today feels like one of the coldest days of the year! Woke up to 15F this morning, not a breeze in the sky, it’s clear out with a couple clouds. The sun looks as if it wants to jump over the horizon! I don’t think the thin layers of high clouds are going to let the sun’s rays penetrate thru today. The dogs didn’t really want anything to do with being out in the cold this morning, even though it was nice out!

I got down to the office and entered the charge slips in from yesterday. I got a couple calls confirming hotel reservations, cancelling some and making new ones. Then I got a call from Story Corp., I guess my uncle volunteered me to get everything started up for them… Like I don’t already have enough to do… I had a couple Trident employees trying to break their check down. I tried to explain to them that we cash them for 10%, but they kept saying “no, break down” and trying to hand me the list of names and totals. I tried to explain to them again that they are in the wrong office and that they want the city office. And they asked if they have to come back tomorrow, and I kept trying to tell them they were in the office that we cashed them not break down. They eventually got fed up with me… stood there and stared at me for like 5-8 mins (I thought it was really weird and I felt totally uncomfortable) before they eventually just left. I tried to point out the City building to them, but I don’t think they understood me at all!

So I heard the plane is on weather hold this morning, they didn’t come in yesterday because I guess no one was working at the airport over in Dutch Harbor since none of the bigger planes were flying in – So I guess that’s their reason why there was no need to have the airport open– all from that volcano erupting, which cancelled all the flights to Dutch Harbor yesterday.

For lunch we had cream of mushroom soup over toast. Quick and easy!

This afternoon I got a lot of paperwork entered into the spread sheets. At 1:20 PM the plane flew over and landed, pulling up on the ramp mins later. I heard there were 2 people and a bunch of mail. I wonder if I got anything good in… I’m still waiting on some Petco orders to come in, always good to get some good junk magazines in – keep me filled in on what’s going in Hollywood…

I cashed about 6 checks today, and there were about 4 new hotel reservations, 2 cancellations and 1 confirming their dates. Already getting hotel reservations for May, we are pretty open next month right now. I decided to bring Dante down with me this afternoon, really trying to socialize him and get him out of the house. In the house he’s Mr. Tough guy, all barking and standing his ground – but running from anyone if you try to grab him. But outside the house he’s all quiet and shaky, but at least he’ll let people around him. I try not to be holding him the whole time, or just hand him off to someone so he can get used to being around people other than just me and my hubby. So I’m hoping bringing him down once and a while - which I will hope make him a happier, friendlier pup!

Well I got us everything we need for a T-bone steak dinner, with baked potato, sautéed onions and frozen sweet corn (I can’t stand can). I’m kind of getting tired of eating French dips all the time. Plus can tell I’ve been slacking on my exercise and what I’m eating; I put a couple pounds back on. But I’m not too worried as long as those couple pounds don’t turn into like 10-15 lbs!

Well I hope everyone has a great Tuesday. I am looking forward to a couple new episodes of some “reality” TV shows after work. The temps got up to the mid 20's today. Only that one flight came in. Well... Until tomorrow, TTFN.

Pix:
Some pix of sunset last night.

Monday, March 23

Monday, March 23, 2009

Woke up to a beautiful but super cold morning. Temps are in the high 20s this morning. There is still a HUGE flock of sea gulls hanging out in the bay. First thing I did this morning was check on this dress I was bidding on for the last week or so… I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect cute pink dress that I could wear to a wedding, and I think I finally found one! The wedding is in July, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be prepared… plus it’s so hard to find the perfect dress that doesn’t show off too much skin but also not too conservative, I’m super picky… so I’m happy I finally found something that caught my eye.. And I happened to win it for $22 Euros! ($31.75 American). I love being able to find clothes that I know I fit and cute stuff online, since I can’t just go out to the mall like most other people! My hubby was walking the dogs while I was checking and paying on stuff that I was bidding on last night. Found a lot of 7 cute shirts I’m watching for my niece Kenzie which is at 6.00 with shipping right now, ends later today, so I’ll make sure to check that later at lunch or something.

Got down to the office and my mom was stuck on the paperwork from over the weekend. Things weren’t adding up, and I hadn’t been in the office since Thursday. So I looked over the last couple day’s paperwork and found some addition errors that she had made. I guess I hadn’t written the 1 in 1683.54 clearly and she thought it was only 683.54. So at least I got everything fixed up in our paperwork and now we have the right totals. My mom was really happy that I was able to find what was wrong and get it fixed up. Not good to be just missing a thousand, well it wasn’t “missing” – just simple addition errors, that’s why there are two of us who go through the paperwork!

After getting the paperwork worked out, I got all the charge slips from over the weekend entered into the charge book while my mom worked on payroll. After I got all the charge slips entered I started to enter paperwork in to the spreadsheets. I have a bit to catch up on, but it shouldn’t take too long. My mom got payroll done just before lunch time.

We had grilled cheese and soup for lunch today. The weather this morning was beautiful, the sun was out and shining and the sky was a beautiful blue, with barely a breeze whispering through the cold wintery spring day. Now it’s all socked in with snow falling lightly, and it will stay like that for like 30-40 mins or so, then go right back to clear, blue sky and sunshine. I heard that the planes cancelled. Not sure if it’s from the weather or not. I also got a call last night, I guess that Mt. Redoubt blew last night around 10:38PM or so, so no flights from Anchorage will be coming down this way. So looks like all the stuff I ordered will be collecting dust in Anchorage now instead of Dutch Harbor. It’s been what, like two and half weeks now since got our last flight in. This storm packing these Northerly winds almost guarantee that we won’t get any planes, then with the snow and wind… I guess you just get used to it after living out here for so long. I don’t mind too much, I pay most my bills online! If I didn’t me would either get them in way too late, or the payments will just sit here waiting to go out! Only thing that sucks is trying to send my deposits out to the bank because the Corp. doesn’t offer direct deposit…. So sometimes I get stuck with having my money sit here on the island waiting to go to the bank so that I can get payments made! :P Temps are up to the low 30's, still around freezing since nothing thawed today.

Well got back to the office and kept working on entering paperwork into the spreadsheets. Taking my time I don’t want to get a headache from searching and staring at the grid lines on the spread sheet. Not to mention I have it zoomed out a bit so I can see everything that I’m entering in so I know I’m not missing anything, so that probably adds to the visual strain on my eyes. But at least I get it done, it’s not hard to get all the info entered in, just takes time. So when I have time I make sure to catch up.

We had our freighter come in over the weekend. We got most of everything that we ordered a couple weeks ago. Really sucks not to know what they didn’t send until it’s too late to put it on the next order. Because I have to get my orders out in middle of the week and they ship on Friday’s, then I don’t get my invoices until Thursday the following week, and I have to get my orders out on Wednesdays. So they don’t give me enough time to be able to know what wasn’t shipped so I can reorder it for the next shipment. You’d almost think that they know I wanted to order those and if they don’t have it they should put the item on our next order, you know?!?!? But nope, they want me to send it in a completely new order once I find out that it isn’t available…… I need to find new/better vendors to order our groceries from…

My hubby decided that he’s going to cook steam bath today! Yay, gives me something to look forward to after work other than “reality” TV shows. I don’t know what we’re going to have for dinner. Maybe go to the café and have my usual! Oh and sorry for not separating the lasagna rolls, there are two of them in that picture. Imagine a lasagna noodle, with all the fillings laid on it, rolled up and topped with a meat/tomato sauce and cheese! Tasted awesome! I could only eat one roll! I ended up taking the other one home!

Well have a great Monday night! I have some new shows to catch on VH1 tonight… other than that, I have a night filled with relaxing with my hubby and my cute baby pups! Take care all, and until tomorrow, TTFN!

Sunday, March 22

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Yay, we slept in today! Felt good to finally sleep in!! We woke up just before 11AM, and immediately walked the dogs. Weather is still snowy then clear then snowy. Temps in the low-mid 20's, the sun is out but offers no warmth - just bright blinding light. The dogs went out and did their thing then came back in, they don't like to play when it's cold out.

We didn’t do much today, sat around the house and watched a lot of TV. I did some wish listing and bidding on ebay. Trying to find the perfect dress for the wedding I’m going to this summer. Pink and orange is the theme colors, so I’m going to find something cute in pink and just have orange accents in like my hair or jewelry. :)

I fried us up some more alaadikax and my mom brought up some salmon fish pie. So we ate on that today. Didn’t really make any plans for any meals today, whatever we find to eat when we get hungry today I guess, plus all the alaadikax I just made!

Well I hope everyone had a great weekend. TTFN...

Saturday, March 21

Saturday, March 21, 2009

So I didn't shut my oven off until 2AM last night. Got almost all the bread that has cooled wrapped up and put in a box. We ended up sleeping in, I don't know how I missed my alarm clock going off. I ended up not having enough time to make everything I wanted, but I got some bread dough ready at 11AM so I can fry up fresh alaadikax^. My in-laws came up just before noon and grabbed the couple boxes of goodies that I baked up yesterday. My father-in-law came up later after I got done frying up the alaadikax^. He came in at the right time, right when I was pulling the last ones out of the frying pan. I didn't go down to the bake sale because I was still making stuff, but I heard that they had a really good turn out. My cousin called and said she couldn't even get near the tables because of the "crowd" that showed up. That's really good that people showed up to help buy stuff and support the school kids! I'm really happy that I was able to help them! I'm disappointed about not getting any photos of the food or the bake sale...


We took the dogs out on a walk earlier, Dante knows what the harness is and gets all excited, but he's not as excited when he realizes how cold out it is - even with a sweater on! Tug loves the snow, jumping in and out of what's left of the snow drifts. Roscoe likes to be alert and bark at anything that catches his attention, while Dante runs back to me hides and looks at what Roscoe is barking at... LOL


Other than that we didn't really leave the house. We went down to the store around 3PM to see what was left and to get some shopping done. Then we ate at the cafe. Their special today was Lasagna Rolls with au grautin and a salad for $13.95. For dinner I made us ham steaks, peppered bacon, scrambled eggs and toast.


We're just hanging out in the house enjoying the day off. The weather has been snowy and breezy all day. Temps in the low 30's. I guess they are forecasting us to have another blizzard, so we'll see what the weather does. Not too bad out there, just snowy.


Well I hope everyone had a great Saturday! Enjoy the weekend! TTFN...
Pic of lasagna roll special at the cafe.

Alaadikax - Fried Bread

I usually double up this recipe:

2 packets of yeast
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups luke warm water
2 tablespoons of shortening
6-7 cups of flour

I like to mix the yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl, then add the water. I melt the shortening in the microwave, then stir it in with the yeast mixture. Mix until yeast is dissolved, then add 2 cups of flour and mix thoroughly. Keep adding flour until dough is easy to handle. Then kneed on a floured surface until springy (about 2-4 mins). Put dough in a lightly greased large container and let rise for 45-60 min or until doubled. Punch dough down, and shape and fry. I like to use an electric skillet set at 375F. Brown on one side, flip and brown the other side. Set on papertowels to soak any extra grease.
Enjoy!

Hope this was easy to follow.... any simple bread recipe in a cookbook will work, it's practically the same thing, just fried.

Friday, March 20

Friday, March 20, 2009

Well I took the day off from work today. I got almost everything I need to get done, done yesterday. So I called down and asked if I can stay home so I can bake stuff for the school's bake sale tomorrow.

From what I saw outside the weather seemed beautiful, but no planes. There are masses of sea gulls just outside my door down on the beach. Wonderful to wake up hearing them sing to each other! Today is officially the first day of spring, but it sure doesn't feel that way! Temps stayed in the low 30's.

I stayed home to bake up a storm for the school's bake sale tomorrow. I got about 18 loafs of white bread, 10 loafs of cinnamon raisin bread, 140 peanut butter cookies, 50 chocolate chip cookies, about 35 oatmeal raisin cookies and 2 angel food cakes baked up today. Tomorrow I am making corn bread muffins, 2 more angel food cakes, and frying up some alaadikax^ and if I have time I'm going to make some cinnamon rolls, depending on how early I wake up.

So I was pissed and had made 3 big batches of bread dough, when I realized that the yeast I was using wasn't working at all. After a couple hours nothing was going on with my dough. I went back down to the store and they found some Fleishman's yeast, so I bought up some of those and went back home and had no problems with my bread rising. So I was able to get all my bread baked up with out any more headaches of them not rising! I was so pissed to throw away all that dough, they wouldn't have made good alaadikax^ either because they would have been "heavy." What a waste of time and flour!!

Other than that nothing much going on with me today. We ate at the cafe for lunch, had the usual and the hubby had chicken nuggets. Then we had microwave food for dinner, Hungry Man Turkey dinner :P Something quick and easy since I was already busy in the kitchen baking!

So the bake sale is at noon tomorrow, and I believe the kids are setting up somewhere by the store. So make sure you show up and buy up all these goodies and help support our kids! I heard they got some money from some of the local businesses and only need 2 grand now!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! TTFN

Pix:
Mass seagulls on the beach...
I ran over and looked over the ledge of the bank and clicked pix of the sea gulls on the beach infront of my house. Hopefully good egg picking this year!





Thursday, March 19

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Well today is a lot better than the last couple of days. The weather isn’t exactly clear and it’s still cold. The wind has died down considerably and the sounds of seagulls serenading each other fill the morning air. Temps are in the low 30’s this morning. The dogs ran out and enjoyed their morning outing, Dante still won’t go outside when there is snow!

My hubby cooked us bath last night, we didn’t end up going until about 6PM – an hour later than we usually go… so late bath for some people. Felt really good on a nice cold day like yesterday. We ate at the café, got my usual and a chicken burger no cheese for the hubby to go and picked the food up after we got out of steam bath. I went and returned some movies I borrowed and dropped some of mine off to one of my cousins. By the time we got out of bath and ate it was kind of late to be getting creative with cookies in the kitchen, so I’ll postpone that until tomorrow. Maybe I’ll talk the hubby into making me some peanut butter or oatmeal cookies!

I got down to the office and entered in the charge slips from yesterday. I got the letter to Terrasound written up and faxed off to them, giving them permission to put a tide gauge on Akun Island. They are working with NOAA to map out the hydro graphics of Unimak Pass. Or at least that’s what their letter said. I got an email about new postal rates starting in May, so I printed that out for future reference. All I have to say is I highly recommend people go out and buy a bunch of “Forever” stamps – they will forever be first class stamps no matter if the rate changes! So go out and get some now, stamps are going up 2 more pennies on May 11, 2009.

We had Jose Ole Mini Tacos for lunch today. Nothing too big going on at lunch hour…

Got back down to the office after lunch and got the invoices in for what’s coming in this weekend. So I got right on pricing that and getting a copy down to the store. There were a couple things I guess that we’re missing down in the store that I need to order right away: dog food for one and some salad dressing. The dog food is the most import thing that I need to get ordered! I wasn’t told that we were out of bagged dog food. So I made sure to get a hold of a couple vendors and see if they can throw it on our next order.

I got us everything we need for Sloppy Joes tonight. Excited and can’t wait until 8PM tonight for the new episode of Hell’s Kitchen, I love Chef Ramsey! I have to get baking tonight and make some cakes and cookies! It’s starting to get beautiful out, but isn’t warming up much, but the sun is out and the sky is blue with the occasional snow flake floating around. Still low 30’s out.

Well I hope everyone had a great Thursday! TTFN.

Wednesday, March 18

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

So we woke up to another wintery day, the wind is still blowing from the North – gusting pretty hard today. It doesn’t really seem like it’s snowing, but more like blowing all the snow that’s on the ground all around. It’s still super cold out there, low 20 – high teens! When the snow clears you can see blue sky in the distance and the sun is trying to come out – offering only blinding light.

I walked down to the office, straight into the wind practically the whole time – what a cold walk. I walked in the store and talked about anything else we needed to order, because today would be the last day to get anything else in for what’s shipping on the 27th. I went up stairs and helped my mom get a lot of stuff ready for the meeting this afternoon. Trying to make sure that we have 7 copies of everything for each board member. She had some problems with her printer, nothing too big – the cable had come lose and it wasn’t responding. Then we had to make sure there was enough toner in the Xerox machine to make all the copies of everything. I have a letter I have to get written and out to NOAA. I guess they need our permission to put a tide gauge out on a part of Akun Island - they are mapping Unimak Pass I guess.

We decided to have grilled cheese for lunch. I had mine with ham on wheat bread. My hubby had his on white with no ham, but he had soup with his. I let him know about the plans I was stewing up with his mother. I guess the school kids are going to be going on this trip next month, where they learn about parts of Alaska and travel to them. I think they are going to travel up on the ferry Tustemena from here to Homer and drive to Fairbanks and back down to Seward and eventually fly home all within a week’s time period or so. And they are short on funds that they were hoping to have by now. I know I heard that they are writing letters to local businesses asking for any help. But I figured if we all pitched in, then their goals should be met. I heard they are about 3-5 grand short or so. From the letter I saw, I counted 9 people who are supposed to be traveling, including chaperones. They have raised all the other money they needed for their trip, and I am asking everyone to help as much as they can. Please contact the school @ 907-698-2205 and talk with the principal, Mr. Woodard. I am going to try to get some of the parents whose kids are going on that trip and see if they want to get a bake sale fund raiser going for the kids this Saturday at noon. I am willing to make/donate all homemade: cinnamon rolls, asst muffins, cupcakes, angel food cakes, bread – white, cinnamon raison, alaadikax, and If I get some apples I was going to make an apple streusel , I want to make some chocolate chip and oatmeal raison cookies also. If there is anyone else willing to help donate money, baked goods, or anything else, our school kids would greatly appreciate it. I remember what it was like to want to go on a school trip, and how fun and educating those trips would be. All my trips will forever be held in a special place in my heart! I want to be able to give our kids that chance to be able to travel with their classmates, and to learn about new things on the way, making for awesome memories later in life! So let’s get together and help our kids!! I know I don’t have a kid in school, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do my part to help them. If you can’t make anything, be sure to watch for flyers for the location – but for sure, show up at Noon on Saturday with your money and support our children!! They are hoping to leave on the first ferry arriving the weekend of April 18… so let’s do everything we can to help them!

I got back to the office this afternoon. I had started to enter paperwork into the spreadsheets, so I decided I’d just keep doing that until I get caught up. It just makes my eyes hurt and I get a headache staring at those numbers and spreadsheet lines for so long. I have to take little breaks just so I don’t feel like I’m straining to see. Not that it takes that long, just I didn’t enter them in for a while so I have to stare at the spreadsheet longer than if I would have just entered it in the next day! :P It gives me something to do though. I got all our store orders faxed out, and now I’m just waiting for them to get me invoices back on what’s shipped last week.

I think I am going to make cookies tonight, then the cupcakes and muffins tomorrow, breads on Friday that way everything can be sold as fresh as it can be without me having to try to make it all in one day. But I have to be sure to go to the store and get everything that I need. I know for sure I’m going to need a lot of flour, yeast, butter and sugar! Hopefully we have a good turnout for the bake sale! I’m putting a lot of effort in it, so I hope it pays out for the school kids!

Well end of the day and I have to get paperwork done up and head home. The hubby is trying to get steam bath started up, but I don’t know how far he’s going to get with frozen water lines/hose! So hopefully bath get’s going.

Have a great Wednesday!! TTNF!

Pix...

My Chocolate ducky... instead of chocolate bunny - Interesting what they come up with for Easter these days! There is a chocolate Cow and Pig too!

If you look closely, you will see masses of seagulls flying in the sky!

My lil bro-in-law Tom and a couple of his friends playing Mario Kart on my Wii at my in-law's crib.


The Journey of the Crab Cake------ :D

Shucking the crab from the shell, the ripping the meat up (so sad to mutilate it that way.. I prefer mine straight out of the shell dipped in butter, but the hubby wanted crab cakes...)

My Hubby actually crying... LOL.. of course after he got done cutting up the onion, then frying it for me!

Everything I need... missing one thing of Ritz in the pic..

All the ingredients in the bowl waiting to be mixed... lol at the mayo and mustard -looks like an egg!

Frying up one batch while I'm forming my next...

Making the crab cakes, making sure they fit in my palm..

Frying them up

Hot out of the frying pan

3 crab cakes plated and ready to eat!

Tuesday, March 17

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!!! I tried to dress cute in green today; I even matched my eye makeup!



Well we woke up to another blistering cold day. The winds are constant and out of the North. Carrying with it the coldest temps we have seen yet this winter season! The temps are in the very low 20’s, dipping into the teens, and with that wind chill out there it’s even colder! Looks like winter doesn’t want to go anywhere just yet. There are constant snow squalls, but if you look up thru the snow you can see blue sky, and when it clears the sun blindly shines off all the snow. We let the dogs out, Dante doesn’t like anything to do with the cold and won’t even leave the door frame… he’s looking at us shaking like “ARE YOU NUTS?!?!”

We walked down to the office, what a cold and slippery walk. Didn’t really see anyone on our way down. Got to the office at 10, and finished entering the charge slips in the book. Then started to work on the store order that I started yesterday. I ended up getting one of the vendor’s orders done before lunch, so I faxed that out and will finish the second one after lunch. This morning seemed to go by really, really fast! We got some hotel reservations, our hotel is pretty much filled up for this month already and booking up next month.

Today for lunch I had cream of mushroom soup over toasted bread. Something simple, quick and easy to whip up during lunch hour. I’ve been trying to watch what I eat and how much I’ve been eating. I used to be one of those people who would sit down and scarf it all down and get terrible full because I didn’t give my stomach enough time to tell my brain that I’m full! So now I try to make sure our meals last longer than 25 mins to eat, set my fork down and try to talk and not just eat as fast as I’d usually do. It’s really helping me with portion controlling my food too and using smaller plates!

I got back to the office and finished up the second vendor’s order and faxed that off to them. Good now I know I have the orders for what’s leaving on the 27th of this month. Now I have to get my invoices for what just shipped last Friday (the stuff that is coming in this weekend). I was going to pull out an office supply catalog and see what all we need to order for the office. I’m not exactly sure, but I think we might be running a little low on time cards. So I will look around the office and take note of anything else that we might need to order…

My hubby is going to get our brisket boiling for me around 3:30PM, so dinner can be ready hopefully by the time I get off work. All I will have to do is sit down and eat :D I like mine boiled plain with the spices, no cabbage or carrots for me thanks. I’ll have boiled potatoes and cream corn (green beans for my hubby) to go along with our dinner. My hubby likes his brisket with ketchup, I eat it as it is! Ham is more of an Easter dinner… which is coming up next month already! Thank you thank you thank you CB for the brisket, and I know my neighbor is thanking you lots also!!

We were going to cook steam bath today, but we aren’t sure if the water hose was frozen or not, seeing that it’s really cold out. And the fact that dinner takes a while to cook, we decided to maybe cook bath tomorrow instead. Steam bath sounds good though…. It will still sound great tomorrow… steam bath sounds great any day!! :D

Well, the hallway and staircase is completely painted and now they just have to re-attach the hand rails and put the trim back up. It looks really good and we’ve been getting a lot of comments on how it’s really lightened the place up! White paint is a lot better than that dirty peach color that has adorned the walls up here since I can remember!

Oh, we decided to get my little bro-in-law a Wii for his birthday, I just had to wait for deposits to hit the bank and with our mail service, which took a while. The weather hasn’t exactly been flyable lately! So I decided to let him “borrow” mine until his comes in. I don’t use my that much, so I figured his should be in by end of the month or so, so I can go without it until then… :P I went down and set it up for him last night and stayed with him and a couple of his friends while we all played Mario Kart, taking turns because I only have 3 Wii-motes. I thought it was cute racing against those boys as we all took turns and made rules; i.e. whoever is closest to 1st place gets to keep playing while the other 2 Wii-motes are handed over the whoever is waiting to play, and a 5win/1st place limit -you have to pass the Wii-mote to the next person on the 6th race. It was pretty fun; we went home and cooked up our pork chops after hanging out with the boys.

Well I hope everyone had a great Tuesday. TTFN.

I have more pix to post.. when the internet and blogger are happy with me and let me post them I will :D

Monday, March 16

Monday, March 16, 2009

Well woke up to the dogs barking up a storm as my hubby was stomping the snow off his boots out on the front porch. I glanced at the time; 7AM… wonder why he didn’t call me? I don’t even want to comment on how bad a morning we had dealing with some stressful BS up at the barge. I will leave it at that………… …..

The boardwalks are covered in snow and ice. The wind is very cold and blowing out of the North at about 15-20MPH, gusting up to at least 30. The temps this morning are hovering in the low to mid 20’s. There are constant white out snow squalls, the dogs didn’t like nothing about going out. Roscoe didn’t even get off the porch! I got down to work right at 10, Eva was just opening the store, I walked up stairs and my mom was just finishing entering in yesterday’s charge slips.

There is a Corp meeting this afternoon. We weren’t able to get payroll done this morning, waiting for payroll updates to finish downloading. I was able to get a couple checks for the Post Office made out though, bought their cash off them so they can get their deposits done. The payroll updates weren’t finished by the time lunch rolled around, so I figured I’d just wait until after lunch. We decided to eat at the café. I had my usual and the hubby had chicken nuggets.

I got back to work this afternoon and got all the payroll checks printed out, all the reports printed and filed. Now to just wait for everyone to come pick up their checks and cash them for them. I have slowly been able to get people to fill out those Health care support cards, I think I have about half the town already! YAY! So far I have 34 of them filled out and 26 that haven’t filled one out for me, yet… only problem is that I only have 9 of these cards left… and I know a couple people have them but just haven’t brought them back to me just yet…. I’m happy to have as many as I do have filled out! Glad to be of help to our clinic!

Well it was a pretty normal busy Monday. I have a store order that I’m starting and will have out to the vendors by end of the day tomorrow. I have to find something cute and green to wear tomorrow, don’t want anyone to be pinching me now... LOL…

Oh yeah so I made King Crab Cakes last night, they were awesome! I could only eat two and felt too full to try to eat another!! I took pix of the process as I was doing it. I like to use about 1-2 sections of crab (about 1 whole crab, you know 2 claws and 6 legs!), half an onion sautéed, ½ cup mayo, 1 egg, and 2 of those things that Ritz come in (the wrapper full of crackers, but with them smashed into crumbs), and about a teaspoon of mustard. I put a little salt and pepper, and a touch of garlic pepper and lemon pepper. Then I shake about ¼ cup of Lea and Perrin’s sauce over it all, then mix and make patties and pan fried them until they were browned on both sides and cooked all the way thru. Some of them I accidentally burned… no one said I was perfect :P LOL! They tasted awesome though, I love the taste the Ritz gives them!

I got us pork chops for dinner. We’ll have them with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob and some jellied cranberry sauce. Sounds great to me! :D

Ok well I hope everyone had a great Monday! Until tomorrow, TTFN.

Sunday, March 15

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Well we decided to “go out” last night and went “up the other end”, the Roadhouse (local watering hole). Made our appearance just after 10PM and stayed until last call at 12:15AM. Wasn’t too smoky up there, like I was expecting it to be. But it was fun mingling and BS-ing with everyone. I brought my own A&W Cream soda… I don’t drink beer… So I figured I’d at least bring me something to drink on. I actually “dressed up,” I felt bad sitting at home, knowing my fellow bloggers on my neighboring island were all going out. I figured better not just sit around at home while they are all out having a great time! So that was fun and something to do, always great to get that “home body” label removed from us once and a while! Since people think we never leave our house… LOL…. What I love being with my pups at home!

So we actually got to sleep in, only because we were up so late! Got the call out for the barge, first guy goes up around 4PM, then second guy at 8PM. Raymond is going up first, then my hubby. Yay, the brisket is on its way! Oh and thanks CB for picking up one for me too, your such a sweet heart!! We walked the dogs, Dante hates the snow! Its cold today, 30F out with a good 20MPH breeze from the North. Winter looks like it doesn’t want to go anywhere just yet!

I went down to the store and bought some canned red salmon so I can make some salmon patties. I have left over rice from yesterday’s dinner, so I figured I’d use it up today! I was thinking of making crab cakes for dinner, but I have a good plate full of salmon patties. But I still went and bummed some king crab legs from my parents in case I do make the later. So we’ll see when the time comes. I took of the plate full of cooked patties! I think they taste awesome with ketchup!

Well at 3:40PM we watched the Shuttle Discovery launch on CNN from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. They said this is the 36th flight into space for the orbiter! Pretty cool watching what our space program can do. I guess they needed to send supplies up and they are replacing the lady up there with a Japanese astronaut. Makes me emotional every time I watch one of our shuttles get launched into space… it’s pretty amazing what we do, even though you’d think that since we’ve been doing it do long that it would have changed and gotten better, but I guess if it works great, no need changing things huh? You know what I mean?!?!?!

I don’t have much planned for today. A couple new shows to catch on VH1 (Rock of love bus, and the premier of Tough Love). I am going to run up and pick those briskets up from the guys on the tug and drop Ray off at work since I’m heading that way. Obviously no planes today, blowing too hard and it’s from the North – 2 facts that stop the goose from flying over here. I think I might get some house work done if I’m not too “lazy.” I have to vacuum/suction the gravel in my fish tank and give them a water change, but I have to look for the bucket I have for doing that – I don’t know where exactly I put it right now…

Well the barge call out changed – the tug will be here around 6, so Ray will go up when they get here and my hubby will go up 4 hours later (10). The weather is cold with frequent snow squalls, hanging at about 30F, but much colder with the wind chill. It’s gusting up to 40+mph from the north, with a constant 25MPH. I ran up on the 4-wheeler, took Raymond with me and dropped him off while I picked up the brisket. I took a couple pix :) I ran home and put mine in the sink then ran down the boardwalk to my neighbor. Who was extremely camera shy and asked me not to take any picture, so I respected that and put my camera away. I will cook mine on Tuesday, thanks a lot CB!!

So I’m going to get around to getting my crab thawed out, de-shelled and get my crab cakes whipped out for dinner. We still have a good amount of salmon patties left over, but I think I’ll send some up with my hubby to snack on at work! Other than cooking dinner, we’re just going to relax until he has to go to work. Then I will drop him off and probably come home and hang out until I eventually go to sleep.

So have a great Sunday night, and until tomorrow TTFN!
Pix:
Salmon Patties

My Hubby "Boy" and Darryl from Notes from Akutan at the RH

Me enjoying my Cream soda.. my bro in law said the first pic I took that you couldn't tell where I was.. so I turned around and took this one :)

My mother-in-law Alice, my hubby and me :)

My only brother (the oldest out of the 4 of us) Tommy, my mother-in-law Alice and I at the RH
PS. Ladies he's SINGLE and looking, you can see my bro in the first Season of Deadliest Catch - He's on the Farwest Leader. His paperwork didn't get to production in time for them to print his name, but they did get release papers in time so they could publish him in any of the filming they did. So even though his name isn't on there, you can still see him!! :D

Carlos bringing the brisket off the barge.

I set it on the bike, but decided to hold it instead

Me riding home on the 4-wheeler with the brisket safe in my lap...lol

Saturday, March 14

Book review... Night by Elie Wiesel

Night by Elie Wiesel

An heart touching true life story about one man's nightmare living through the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps. He re-lives what it was like to be a Jew or even have Jewish religion or beliefs during the Nazi regime. It is a terrifying journey through his life during that time period. It was a true page turner, I could not put down this "Slim volume of terrifying power" - as said by the New York Times. I finished this book in a little over 5 hours of constant reading!

I recommend this book to everyone. The Holocaust is something we should all never forget! The terror that Hitler put upon those people is truely unbelieveable, but he did it and we can't forgot all the lives lost, and all those who survived. Please read this book and let me know what you think of it! I really liked it!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Well woke up to the phone ringing this morning. I was still hugging my pillow when I finally answered the phone… IT WAS CB!!! YAY! I don’t mind that he’s waking me up! His friendly voice is nothing I can ever get mad at! He was at the store picking up my neighbor’s birthday brisket and going to drop it off at the airport for me to be delivered. Unfortunately the plane never came in today, I guess they didn’t like the little 5MPH breeze from the NW here in our harbor. So plan B… The tug Gyrfalcon should be bringing the barge back hopefully this weekend sometime (weather permitting), so the brisket will be traveling on the Bering Sea here soon! This barge callout, which we didn’t get yet, is going to be Raymond first, and then my hubby, my bro is sitting this one out and waiting for the next barge after this one.

We didn’t do to much today. We went down and had lunch at the café. I had my usual French dip and the hubby had breakfast (scrambled eggs, ham, toast, hash browns). There is a good dusting of snow on the hills, snow squalls moving thru every couple hours, but other than that, pretty much clear out. It’s been about 34F, but it feels much colder than that.

I cleaned and dusted our room a bit. We checked our mail earlier when we went to the café, got a handful of magazines and my Petco order. :) Spoiled pups! We went to the store and get everything for dinner. Going to cook up hamburger meat with spices and onions and make onion gravy and have that all over rice… maybe throw a handful of corn in the meat/gravy mix. A simple dinner in that I can whip out in less than 25 mins! I like to use garlic pepper, lemon pepper, Johnny seasoning, oregano, thyme, basil, onion powder, and a little bit of Worcestershire sauce. I chopped an onion and added half, I’ll add half at the end so I have some that are crisp still!

Other than sitting around watching TV, we don’t have much planned for tonight. I got a call from my little sister; she finally got the diapers we ordered for her! My hubby is my niece’s god father (Krusna-dad) and he likes to send her stuff, just like how I like to send my godchild stuff! We try to spoil them and surprise my sisters with gifts for the girls! We borrowed some movies from my cousin, we watched Max Payne earlier, pretty good movie. Lake View Terrace we pretty weird, wasn’t what I was expecting, but then I didn’t know what to expect. Every time I hear Samuel L Jackson’s voice, I think of Officer Ten Penny off GTA: San Andreas. Pretty funny that he played a crooked cop in that movie just like in that game! Oh GTA:SA is a ps2 game!! I got Beverly Hills Chihuahua in the other day, FINALLY… we watched it in theaters last November, but I watched the DVD as soon as I got it in!

So we’re just going to relax and sit around with our pups. Wait around for the call from the Gyrfalcon for the barge call out, hopefully the weather moves quickly and clears back up so they can make it over here before the 17th! Right now at 8:40PM the brisket should be safely stored in a cool area on the tug, fatefully awaiting the boiling pot of water on St. Patty’s Day (hopefully). Again thanks a lot CB for everything you do, I’ve never really met anyone like you before. And I’m really happy that I was able to find you on here and become great friends! Too bad we can’t hand out because we’re on different islands!

Well I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday night! I am going to stay up and watch TV until we get bored, and then eventually go to sleep… :P TTFN!

How sad.. here is our weather forecast:
EASTERN ALEUTIANS CAPE SARICHEF TO NIKOLSKI
400 PM AKDT SAT MAR 14 2009

...GALE WARNING THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT...
.TONIGHT...NW WIND 30 KT INCREASING TO 40 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS
BUILDING TO 13 FT.
.SUN...NW WIND 40 KT. SEAS 14 FT. FREEZING SPRAY.
.SUN NIGHT...N WIND 35 KT. SEAS 14 FT. FREEZING SPRAY.
.MON...NE WIND 25 KT. SEAS 11 FT.
.MON NIGHT...N WIND 30 KT. SEAS 12 FT.
.TUE AND WED...N WIND 30 KT. SEAS 13 FT.
.THU...NW WIND 25 KT. SEAS 11 FT.

Friday, March 13

Friday, March 13, 2009

Woke up to a beautiful morning once again, although it’s overcast, 38F feels good out there. I love the sound of tweety birds singing their bright and chipper songs loud and clear, I still can’t believe a bird that small can make that much noise, you can still hear them from pretty far away!! They help to give awe to this paradise I call home! The eagles screeching and flying around, goofing off with each other, probably waiting for breeding season to start up, ahh... Spring time… Dante loves going pee outside with his brothers! I still have to keep him on a leash or he won’t want to come back in! Roscoe and Tug know what “inside” means!

I got down to work early again, trying to make it a new habit to leave the house and get to work at least 5 mins before I’m supposed to be here. People always ask me if I’m ok because I’m here earlier… ha ha ha, that funny, just because I’m here and not home they expect something to be wrong. I’m just trying to be early, instead of walking in right at 10 or a little after, I feel it’s a good habit to have! :D

I entered all the charge slips in the book, and gave our store manager the cash for the store for today. I cashed a couple checks and a couple people put money on their store accounts before lunch time rolled around. The plane came in on time today, 11:30AM it was pulling up on the ramp. The dentist and his wife, the dental assistant, and a surveyor check out of the hotel, they should all be taking off on that first plane. There is a slight drizzle feeling like it wants to maybe start to rain, but right now it’s just the occasional rain drop falling from the sky. A small amount of mail came in, and one observer for Trident.

We had chili dogs for lunch today. So it’s going to be my neighbor and good friend’s birthday here on St. Patrick’s Day, and he’s Irish, so he really likes to celebrate his birthday with the traditional dinner of Corned beef brisket, cabbage and potatoes. Well only problem is, we don’t have any corned beef brisket in our store freezers at this time… so I did the only thing I could think and call the one person who instantly came to mind: CB!!!! So I gave him a ring at lunch and asked for a big favor, asked him to pick me one up in Dutch Harbor and send it over on the next plane… He told me that he will do it tomorrow, since we have until the 17th (weather permitting :P). Such a sweetheart to help me help make my neighbor’s birthday!! Thank you so much again CB!! I don’t know what I would do without someone like you!! I love your support, I love bs-ing with you, and I can’t wait until we can actually hang out!! I know we’re going to have a blast! So I will make sure to get pics of the brisket’s journey!! LOL!!

This afternoon I got a lot of hotel billing re-billed. I had to fax copies to some of the businesses. I don’t know if they ever got the ones I mailed to them, even though the address I have for them is correct, they claim that they never got them. So I’m making sure they are getting them this time by faxing them to their accounts receivable. I have to bill the company who sent the dentists down and the surveyors company, since they checked out I may as well get their billing done up since I have everything out for it!
I stopped by the clinic to pick up the dental assistant’s room keys, guess she left them there or someone dropped them off there, either way I went and picked them up. The dentist prescribed some toothpaste to my hubby to help with his teeth. He used to get it before, but his refills ran out and I guess only a dentist can refill it, and it seems like every time the dentist came in we were traveling, not this time! So, yay, he finally gets to get that toothpaste again. I think it’s like really high fluoride toothpaste. I’m just happy he’s finally being serious about his oral health and watching how much soda he really is drinking, which happens to be way too much!

At about 2:30PM it started to rain, finally… you can tell it wanted to earlier! Spring time rain!! But it only rained for like a good 30 mins then stopped and dried back up! I helped our store manager on some stuff we need to get ready for the next store order. As bad as it is, we have to order more soda… running out of the main brands: Pepsi, Mt Dew, Coke and Diet coke! My hubby also decided that he was going to cook steam bath tonight… damn we wanted to try to cook it while the dentists were here... but with our work schedules – me here and him with his dental appt this week, and the barge.. We didn’t really have time to go down and get it started up. But my hubby wasn’t doing anything this afternoon, so he figured he’s go cook and clean bath. So that’s something to look forward to after work!

I don’t know what we want to have for dinner tonight. I cooked meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans for dinner last night. I felt like cooking my hubby a good meal after he got off work! I picked him up at exactly 6PM; he worked for exactly 12 hours!!

Slowly getting people to get these health care support post cards filled out. I just need you to fill out your name, address, phone number, email, the name of our clinic: The Anesia Kudrin Memorial Clinic. Then once I know I have almost everyone I’m going to give them back to our CHA (community health aid), I guess she figured it’d be easier to have people fill them out up here than the clinic. As Darryl has put it, it’s harder than pulling teeth to get people to come down… speaking of which I’ve been meaning to go down there and get my blood work done up. You know, fasting glucose levels, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and whatever else he has planned for me! I will make sure to go in on Monday, I’ve been procrastinating it for over a week or two now…….. Guess I’m another one that it’s hard to get go in just for a simple finger prick and tests! LOL…..

Well I went around and did my apologies to certain people to make sure they knew I wasn’t trying to push their buttons the wrong way. This is way too small a place to be letting people have a grudge against you… way too small… so I made sure to go around and clear everything up (hopefully).

The second flight was right on schedule, it was here on the ramp at 4PM. A couple town people came in and a handful of mail. Steve is flying, we know all our pilots by their first name, and they are family out here! We have a certain love for our bush pilots that is unexplainable!! I can remember almost every single person who has ever flown the goose here to Akutan, and I have a great friendship, at least I believe I do, with all of them over all these years! I always depend on them to get my home when I’m traveling!! No other way to get here, unless I take a boat, which I hate doing, but sometimes you have no choice but to take a boat! I don’t mind as long as I’m getting home… or making it out on time!

Well it’s stayed about 43F out for most the afternoon. The weather has been clear, with the occasional sprinkle falling from the sky. There is barely a breeze whispering thru the still air. There are actually a good amount of people out and about on this Friday the 13th, the boardwalks are actually buzzing with activity, people and 4-wheelers. Most days you barely see anyone outside and you’d think you lived in a ghost town! There just isn’t enough people here to be at work and outside at the same time!

Well I hope everyone has an awesome weekend. Really wish I could be in Dutch tomorrow night to enjoy the night out on the town with CB from Dutch Harbor Dirt, Alena from The Real Dutch Harbor, Cookie Dough from Just a Mom in Unalaska and her friend who came up from the lower 48! I know I’d have fun with you guys, make sure to have a drink for me!! Have a great time guys, take pix!! :D

Much love to everyone, thanks for reading and being interested in what I do! The stress of dealing with stupid crap was getting to me, so that’s why I went out and tried to clear the air from everything… over the last week I’ve lost over 8+lbs from stressing… I get that don’t want to eat and always feel sick feeling and I didn’t know how to get rid of it… so I figured apologizing to the people who I accidentally hurt and argued with over the last couple days would help me feel better. And I already do!! Thank goodness! Stress is not the best way to lose weight… but at least there was something good I got out of it :P And here I was almost about to go to the clinic to see what I can do to help battle my stress, because I know it eats at my body, that why I have ulcers (at least thats what the doctors said). They told me that my body is eating it's self because I'm stressing... at least I feel a lot better now and hopefully life straightens back out and goes back to the way it used to... nice and quiet without pissing off anyone!! LOL...

Ok well have a great weekend!! TTFN!!
A copy of those cards we are trying to people to fill out for helping support our Health Centers. I scanned the front and back of the card with the pic of my mom!!