Finally posting my pix!!

Pix we took today (Feb 28) on our hike up the hill. First one you can just see the goose taking off! The second a prefect pic of town. And in the 3rd is of the 4 loves of my life! (Note Dante not wanting to sit and wait for the pic, he kept going up the hill!)



Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009
My pot of Halibut chowder, ready to be served (we ate out of it aleady or it would be a full pot!! LOL)

Pix of the stormy windy day. We had recordings of 120+MPH in our bay! You can see the wind picking up a misty wall of water and blowing it around. The bottom pic is the sunrise that day.




Some Pix of the guys tearing the old store down - One of the last standing old wood buildings left in town.



Pix from Tuesday, Feb 24, 2009
Sunrise then I turned around and took a pic of town from the hydro hill...


My Two baby boys - so hard to get a pic of these two with out one of them moving!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Yay, got to sleep in, but it didn't come eaily, I swear I get that RLS (restless leg syndrome) once and a while. Last night my legs were hurting a big, and it felt like I just wanted to run... I drew a hot bubble bath and soaked until I felt relaxed, then fell back asleep.

Woke up to a beautiful day, the sun is out, patches of blue sky only about 38F out though, a very light breeze wafting through the air. We took the dogs out a couple ties this AM, Dante is starting to go pee outside, but he prefers the pee pads I think.

We stayed inside until about 2:30, then we went down to the cafe and got a bite to eat. I had my usual French dip (I know, I know, I eat that a lot there... but it's one of the only things I like that they offer.), the hubby had a chicken burger with no cheese.

After we ate we went took the dogs out for a walk down towards the incinerator, then decided to walk up the hill a bit. Dante loves being able to run around with Tug and Roscoe! They all had a blast, we walked up quiet a way, then made our way down right behind our house. Some how my hubby lost his hat... hopefully we can back track and find it, it was the had I got him from Disneyland... Hope we can find it... :(

My hubby got a call out for the barge tonight, it should be in between midnight and 2AM, so we'll make sure to listen up for the Gyrfalcon tonight and take him up to work. It was a 2 guy call out, so I believe my bro should be going up with my hubby.

We don't have nothing much planned for the day, relax at home with the pups and see what's on TV now I guess. That hike can be my exercise for the day, I didn't really do a workout last night, but I did steam clean my carpets. Which was kind of like a workout, I broke a sweat! LOL....

Well have a great Saturday, TTFN

Friday, February 27, 2009

Well went from windy as hell one day, to calm yesterday, back to blowing a good 40+ from the south this morning! Wow, it’s like 52F out, feels good, even in the wind! I think it’s super cute to wake up with my little “mouse” curled up all close to me with his head up on my pillow. Roscoe prefers to sleep in his kennel at night, Dante’s been sneaking into the blankets middle of the night, I don’t mind, my hubby is just scared to roll over on to him! The dogs went out and enjoyed the warm wind, sometimes they want to just play and not come back inside, so we make sure to play with them enough so that they can be happy!

I got down to work this morning, wow there was a line of Trident people going up the stairs to my office, all waiting to get their checks cashed. My mom looked a little relieved that I arrived; I took over cashing everyone’s checks as soon as I got in. My mom got back to what she was doing; I think she’s looking for a bank transfer from last summer. I cashed everyone’s checks, including a couple locals who also put money on their store accounts. End of the month, salary employees for the City and my mom get paid today. Usually the 15th and the end of the month are paydays for salary employees, most of them are showing up for cash today. :)

This morning seemed to drag by, even though I was busy the whole time. Lunch time finally rolled around, and I went home and cooked us up some French toast with sausage links. I love my French toast with lots of powdered sugar, a little bit of butter and of course syrup! The school is having their fundraiser dinner tonight, so I’m going to make sure to call the school and put in my two orders to go. I heard it’s turkey dinner with all the fixings, just have to supply my own soda for $12.00 per plate. So I don’t have to worry about cooking dinner tonight, plus that gives me plenty of time to get my butt up and do one of my exercise DVDs. I’m trying to aim at working out every other day like I used to….. so we’ll see how long I keep this up for :P LOL…… We put our pop cans out at lunch and they were picked up for recycling at about 12:15PM. I usually miss the pickup and have to take them down myself, so I’m happy we caught them this time!

Went back to work after lunch and there were more people standing outside waiting to get their checks cashed. It’s funny when people come up here with their credit/debit cards and ask for cash… We don’t have an ATM and we don’t do cash back from our machines. But the Post office will take credit/debit to make money orders that we can cash for 10%. So there are little ways to working around to getting cash from your credit/debit cards here. By 3PM I had counted the checks in the till, I dealt with 19 checks already today, that’s a busy day..., we usually only have like 3-6 a day…

The wind died down a bit, but I’m not sure if it’s going to get nice enough for any planes today. Cooled down to 48F at 3PM. There are a lot of Trident employees walking around town today, that or the Independence (Indy-a processing boat) is tied up at the dock and letting their people wander. Either way there is actually a lot of people out and about today. The store’s been pretty busy, getting waves of people at a time, then it will get quiet and another group will show up. I have that list of stuff that the store needs to order, but I don’t have to have the order in to our vendors until the 4th of March for the next sailing out of Seattle. I’m waiting to make sure we have everything we need, I’ll make sure to get that in to them on Tuesday, they like it by no later than the Wednesday before sailing.

I can’t believe it’s already end of the month and another week that I’ve been blogging! I’ve been enjoying writing in this everyday! Oh, the barge came in yesterday at 3, but they couldn’t get to the dock until like 4:30 because the Indy was tied up to where they needed to go, so they had to wait like a whole hour and a half for everyone to get back on that processor and for it to move out of the way. There was a callout for one guy, Raymond’s turn this time. My bro’s turn next, then my hubby. We try to rotate them all so that they get equal hours. They finished up by 10:15PM and we heard them heading out the bay at about 11PM (We call it the Big Monster Gyrfalcon, she has some powerful engines up under her skirt! We can hear her growling from our house {more like a sweet hum}. I think she’s one bad a$$ beautiful tug, that’s why we named our blk Lab after her!).

Well I’m going to make my way down to the laundry mat and finally empty out those machines like I’ve been saying I was going to do (what was that like beginning of the week or something). I count up how much bills are in the change machine, and then count up the quarters from the laundry. I eventually go back down and put the total amount of quarters into the change machine that I got out from the bill collector. (Did I say that right?) The rest of the quarters get added to our daily sheet and get put away in the safe. I like to make sure to go down and check all the machines at least once a month. I also have to refill the laundry soap/bounce dispensing machine so people can buy those if they forgot or don’t have any. :) I hate how black my hands turn from all those dirty quarters after I am done counting them! I make sure to clean any part of my desk that had them on them, too. I got a couple calls for hotel reservations for middle of next month; we are already filling up quick for March!

I pick my dinner up from the school on my way home. Not sure what’s going to be on TV tonight, I just know that I want to get my butt in gear and get another workout in for this week! Every other day, unless I’m still sore from the day before, no less than 30 mins per workout is what I’m hoping to do once again.

Oh and to the comment about our church, yes we have a church here. Most of everyone here in town is Russian Orthodox Christians, we have a small church located not far from my office (If you go back in my blog I have a map of the village and the church is circled in pink.) They have services at our church on most of the Russian Orthodox holidays, and whenever a priest, father, deacon, or bishop comes to the island. We also have special ceremonies for marriages, births and deaths. I hope to have my church wedding here at home next year, I got all my court marriage paperwork done up last year thru the Dutch Harbor Court House. In order to get married in church I was told that I had to get married legally first. Almost everyone I know here has a court anniversary and their church anniversary. I want mine to be on the same date, just different years. :D Our church is named after St. Alexander Nevsky. For more information contact John or Zenia Borenin at (907) 698-2304 (this number is listed in the phone book), they both take care of our church (not sure of their official titles so I won’t attempt it because I know I’ll be wrong). Hope that was a little more informative about our church. Trident has a non-denominational church located next to the plane ramp that has church services every Sunday at 7PM, I believe. They currently do not have a pastor, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get together and pray (at least that’s what their signs say).

Well TGIF, I’m super happy that I get to stay up as late as I want and sleep in tomorrow! Already going to be the last day of February tomorrow… where did this month go??? My younger sis’ b-day is sneaking up on me… I need to find a gift for her, I like to try to surprise my sisters and get them stuff they usually wouldn’t get for themselves, although they know they’ve always wanted it… just didn’t want to spend on it kind of thing… so I have to find out what my sis has been wanting and go see what I can do ;) (That means drop me some clues sis!!) I’m going to sit here and hold my chair down, cash any checks that people might bring up, answer the phone if it rings, do up paperwork at the end of the day, then go pick my food up from the school and eventually make my way home!
I hope everyone has a great Friday and an even better weekend! TTFN

Thrusday, February 26, 2009

I think we woke up in the eye of the storm. Yesterday it was blowing at least 100+ and today a dead calm. Clear and sunny out, a chilly feeling 30F. The dogs ran out and enjoyed the beautiful weather this morning, all the boats (there were at least 20 or more that we counted) are gone today. I heard that it’s supposed to pick back up by tonight and be blowing at least 40MPH tomorrow. Been pretty dry storms, we got a little hail around 5, then had small snow squalls come and go, but none of the snow stayed on the ground long before melting.

Got down to work, entered the charge slips into the books. Bought the Post Office’s cash and made them a check. I had 2 people come up and cash checks, one of them putting money on their store account. The plane is actually here early, I hope they are bringing the Dentist’s equipment with them and any other mail that might be over there (not like I’m waiting for anything :P), It’s only 11:20AM and the plane is already pulled up on the plane ramp! Great day for flying today anyways!

I worked out last night (a 50 min yoga session) before cooking dinner, trying to get myself back into a routine again... After vacationing I kind of slacked off, but slowly trying to get back on the ball again. Well, I am going to have leftovers for lunch today! I made a pretty good size pot of halibut chowder last night! So at least I don’t have to worry about cooking or nothing at lunch, just reheat and eat! Hmm... Warmed up 4 degrees since I went to work this morning, just before going home for lunch it was 34F outside, clear with no wind, sunny, blue skies with tiny patches of clouds in like 2-3 spots. Actually a lot of people out walking around on the boardwalks today!

Well nothing much is going on in the office this afternoon. A couple more people came up and cashed their checks. I heard there was just mail and people on the first plane, I guess the Dentist air freighted their stuff down, so once people and mail are done, freight comes over. Wonder if their stuff will come in this afternoon or not? I got a box in the mail from my younger sis, she sent me all of Dante’s stuff that she still had with her from the lady I got him from; lots of cute clothes, a bag full of toys and some other doggy essentials! Was excited to get something in the mail! I looked over one of the Chihuahua books that the lady had; I already own one of them.

The second flight came in at about 4:05PM I heard it fly over, then 2 mins later it was pulling up on the plane ramp (I can hear it from my office). Fred finished the first coat of paint, now the walls are a beautiful bright white! I have a couple charge slips I have to look for and make copies and resend the bill. I guess I missed a couple of the slips when I did billing, the City won’t pay for their store bill if they don’t have the corresponding charge slip that goes with the total due. (I think I worded that right).

Oh Oh Oh… I forgot to tell everyone… Dante knows “Speak”!! He will bark on command now!! Didn’t take him long, every time he barked I’d get all excited and tell him “Speak!” and tell him he’s such a good boy. He eventually put two and two together!! YAY!! I’m so proud of him! He’s slowly getting “sit” down too! He comes to both “Dante” and “mouse” lol!! He’s pretty must adjusted to living with us, and I couldn’t be any happier with my little pups. Dante is super good at going on his potty pads, he doesn’t exactly understand that he’s supposed to potty outside, he just wants to play (even if he see/smells his bros peeing outside!) . I don’t mind him going on pads, as long as he’s going where I want him too!

Well I got some Hebrew National Kosher hot dogs for dinner tonight. I didn’t find anything else appetizing down at the store today that I wanted to cook up tonight. We have new episodes of Gangland on History Channel and Hell’s Kitchen on Fox tonight! Beautiful out so I might take my lab out for a swim, I know he’s been patiently waiting to get back in the water, even if it’s only for a couple throws then go warm back up at home on the couch (my dog of course, not me!)! LOL… it’s about 37F out at 4:30PM. This last hour of the day usually goes by pretty fast for me; I’ll be doing paperwork and on way home here soon!

Have a great Thursday night everyone!! TTFN

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Well what a windy morning to wake up to. It’s blowing a good 100+ mph outside today. There are a lot of boats trying to hide in our harbor. Woke up to hearing there was a boat beached on the North side of our island. Not a very great place to be in this kind of weather. The Bering Sea can carry tremendous 15-30 foot waves crashing on to the beaches, the ground swell can be huge on both sides of the island! The dogs went out this morning and didn’t want anything to do with being outside. They tried their best to hide behind anything they can find in order to do their business!

The ride to work this morning was kind of hilarious, well I kind of thought it was… So I get on the 4-wheeler and start to ride to work, riding straight into the hurricane force winds. I had a little box I was bringing down, right… well I know I was holding on to it good, but I only got to the library and it popped out of my hands and went flying in the wind down the road. I hurried up hit the brakes, engaged the park break and went running after my box. I almost made it back to my house, ran back to the bike. Just started to get going on the bike and my hat went flying off, so I abruptly stopped again and proceeded to chase my hat down the road, again almost making it the way back to my house! I ran back to the bike, and stuffed all the stuff I had into my coat and made sure it wasn’t going anywhere anymore! Damn it’s blowing like hell out there! I got to work on time, the store was just opening at 10AM.

Fred is almost done painting, he has parts of the ceiling to do and one of the walls (he has to wait until they repair the sheetrock first before doing that wall). That paint perfect was a piece of junk, didn’t work nothing like the commercial. What a waste! We had like 4 people try it out to see if it was just how we were using it, but nope, damn thing don’t hold much paint, and it don’t work good on a pole, the edge part doesn’t even get close to the wall, only the side of the painting thing, which is rounded and doesn’t go close enough! Oh well, doesn’t hurt to try junk, some of it is cool, while others like this paint thing is a piece of junk not worth getting!! LMAO! Figured I’d let everyone know what we thought of it….

This morning seemed to blow by. People talking about all the same info about that boat that beached on the North side of our island. I hope all the guys on that boat got off ok! The weather out there is howling! Temps have been 39F all morning, not bad.

Well, I heard there is a potluck thing at the school, but my hubby is already cooking me cheese sticks and he said he was having Dinty Moore. No need to waste what he’s already cooking at home, at least he was trying to be super nice and cook me lunch today! So I’m eating at home and passing up the potluck (sorry Darryl). I got a call from CB at lunch, I guess a couple big Jayhawk Helicopters landed in Dutch. I hope that boat crew were in one of those!

I had a very windy ride back to work, not as eventfull as this morning’s ride down, LOL. I got a couple checks in from the City, paying on their store and hotel bills. I’m going to get hotel billing done up. We had one guy who didn’t show up for his reservations yesterday, wonder what happened… The City office let us know that the guy they had in the hotel also checked out and left the key locked in the room last night on that last plane. So that’s 3 available rooms for now. I have to eventually make it down to the laundry mat and get all the quarters out of all the machines and get quarters back in the change machine. No rush for that, I just want to get it done. We made a check for the cash we bought from the post office, so that was something to do really quick.

Hopefully this afternoon blows by as fast as the wind outside! Today was garbage day, we made sure to get that out this morning. My hubby said he waited for the garbage guy to go by and he ran out and gave it to him, that way it didn’t just get blown away or all over the place! I was so surprised and happy to come home to the house looking spic and span! My hubby even got on his hands and knees and scrubbed our floor clean (we use Clorox clean up and a scouring sponge so we know it’s getting super clean!) Happy I didn’t have to do it this time (I usually do it). We got some Tupperware I ordered in the mail, and some more stuff for our dogs yesterday in all the mail that came in.

I also got my pink and white Plumeria cuttings from Hawaii (growhawaii.com) that I ordered, I had a white Plumeria cutting that I brought home from our trip to Hawaii, but I think I planted it too early and the roots didn’t get established and it ended up rotting so I reordered a couple more cuttings (which isn’t the same as picking it up down there, but it’s good enough). I also have a sprouting coconut tree that I picked up when I went to Hawaii in 2007, it’s been growing good, other than the fact that in the last couple weeks it seems to be wanting to grow mold. I don’t over water it… and I’m worried that the mold is going to kill it… I don’t know what to do and the mold is like inside the coconut…. I think I’m going to try to re-pot it in new dirt…. I don’t want to have to order a new one and start over, this one is going to be 2 years old!

We bought some pineapples and brought them home, planted the crowns (top of the pineapple) and they are growing good still… getting huge… hoping they flower and make little pineapples soon, they say 18-24 months, and its coming up on that much time! I also have some Sago Palms that I’m trying to grow (seeds I ordered online off ebay). I also planted a red delicious apple seed from an apple I was eating one day, that’s like 2 feet tall (I don’t know crap about growing an apple tree). I never got my Bird of Paradise seeds to sprout, and I tried everything written out there! I have a cutting of a Braided Money Tree, but mines not braided because it’s just one plant… lol… but I still have one! They only ship them to the lower 48 and I’ve never had a chance to pick one up and bring it home, other than the cutting I got from a friend in Anchorage (thanks Laura!). Can say I try to have a green thumb, I just like to have plants in my house, makes it feel more comforting I guess (My mom has a lot of plants, so I grew up watering and taking care of them, her living room is like a mini jungle-which I think is awesome!). I hope I am growing my plumeria cuttings right… I think I messed up but I will try to grow them anyways :P I didn’t know that you’re supposed to put it in dirt and just water lightly and let it dry out and water again and dry out and roots will start. I’m used to putting my cuttings in water and waiting for roots… So I cut the bottoms and put them in cups in water… I just got done reading how to plant them and it says DO NOT PUT IN WATER to root… oh well, I know my last one rooted that way, but the dirt I had it in didn’t let it drain and it rotted. So this time I’m putting like sand in my dirt so it can drain better! I hope these root though… if not I’ll just order 2 more cuttings :P Trial and error I guess.. lol…

Our store manager got a small store order ready for me, so I am going to get that into our spreadsheet that I email in to our vendor in Seattle. I need to find more vendors, find better prices for stuff. I know there has to be a better way to get the stuff we need. The ones we have now are ok, just getting tired of dealing with different people all the time (either they quit or got fired or something) at the same company. I don’t like to deal with people who have communication skills between everyone who is dealing with our account sometimes… But it’s just part of the job that I deal with. I should be happy that we get what we do get in I guess…

Well I'm going to finish up the day here at work, get the paperwork done up end of the day and go home. Pretty quiet here in the office this afternoon, guess no one wants to be out in the wind! It's not blowing quiet as hard as it was this morning, but it's still blowing hard enough to pick up water off the bay and spray it everywhere, it take it at least a hundred feet or more up in the air and just blows like a huge wall of salty mist! Nothing really planned for dinner tonight... Think I'll just make some good 'ole halibut chowder to warm me up in this windy day, plus it's quick and easy! My freezer is slowly getting empty from all the fish I put away last year, I can't wait until the weather is warm and nice enough to get out and get the hand line in the water and pull some fresh halibut and cod out of the water! Nothing better than having the fish meat to be quivving a bit as your cooking it, can't get it any fresher than that, unless you're eating it raw (which I would never do)! Most of the fish in my freezer, other than the dry fish, was practically still alive when I stuck it in the freezer! Coming to the term "Fresh-Frozen". I never heard anyone use the term "fresh-frozen" before until we were watching Kitchen Nightmares one day and this one cook was trying to tell Chef Ramsey that his food is cooked, packaged and "fresh-frozen". Then thawed when a customer orders it. Chef said "what the hell is fresh-frozen, it's either fresh or it's frozen!!!" Then I heard Nutrisystem's commercials using the term "fresh-frozen". I agree with chef, yeah sure it was fresh when you froze it, but depending on how long its frozen, it can't be considered fresh!! Any comments???? :D

Ok, I'm leaving it at that... I don't have any plans for tonight, oh and LOL, so my mom just got wind of that old rumor of me and my cousin being prego (which we're not). It was so funny to see her trying to beat around the bush to ask me if I was prego.... LOL... I let her know that NOPE, No baby growing in my yet! I thought I'd comment on that, I told her that was "old news", LMAO!!!

Have a great Wednesday, TTFN!

Fishing Boat grounded on North Head...

So with this huge storm, packing winds punching up wards of more than 120MPH in our bay, decided to take one of the crabbing boats and throw her on the North side of our island. Not sure what they can do in these winds to help them, but hopefully there is something they can do. The radio has been pretty busy with all the hectic going on with that boat on the north side of our island.

Here is some info from the Alaska Daily News:
Fishing boat aground in Aleutians; 4 aboard
Daily News staff and wire reports

Published: February 25th, 2009 09:04 AM
Last Modified: February 25th, 2009 10:18 AM

A commercial fishing boat ran aground early today in the Aleutian Islands and was in danger of breaking up, putting four crewmen in danger.A Coast Guard cutter and three rescue helicopters were sent to aid the crew of the Icy Mist, which ran aground off the rocky coast of Akutan Island, about 40 miles east of Dutch Harbor, a major Aleutians fishing port.

The 58-foot Icy Mist is based in Kodiak and is equipped for crabbing and trawling. The boat has participated in many Alaska fisheries including crab, salmon and herring, state records show.

Foul weather and high winds were hampering rescue efforts, Coast Guard Petty Officer Walter Shinn said. The first helicopter sent, a HH-65 Dolphin launched from Dutch Harbor, was forced to turn back because of the wind, which was blowing at 45 mph, with gusts reaching 80 mph, Shinn said.

Ocean conditions are rough, with swells up to 15 feet, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard Cutter Munro, on patrol in the Bering Sea, was ordered to Akutan. A C130 airplane is already on scene and waiting for the arrival of two larger helicopters, MH-60 Jayhawks, which launched from St. Paul Island, about 265 miles northwest of Akutan, at about 8 a.m
Shinn said the Coast Guard received a mayday call early Wednesday reporting that the boat was taking on water.

Communications are limited in the region. The mayday call was received by the vessel Arctic Fox and relayed to the Northern Glacier, whose crew contacted the Coast Guard.

The vessel was later reported aground on the island.

Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios in Juneau said he did not have an estimate when the cutter or the two larger helicopters could arrive to hoist crewmen off the vessel.

We are located about 766 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Wow, woke up to the most beautiful clear morning, with this slight haze hanging high in the sky. Blue skies with low laying fog on areas of the island, but pretty much clear out. The sun making its way up over the mountains. On my way to work I stopped by the hydro and took a pic of town then turned around and took a pic of the sun rising! (hopefully I can post those and the rest I have). I also took a pic of a couple of the guys tearing the roof off the old store. Doesn't seem like it's taking them that long to take that building down!

It's a nice temp this morning, hanging at 37F. There is frost on the board walks, making for a "fun" walk down. I swear I got 3 cramps in different parts of my body from the walk down. I was sliding and skidding down the boardwalk like a little kid! LOL! The sun looked beautiful coming up this morning in that haze!

Fred is still out painting the hallway to the offices up here above the store. Really making it look nice now! Just has to work on the stairs here soon! I heard that there was a lot of mail that came in on that last plane yesterday. So I'm going to make my way down to the Post office and check my mail. My mom was already down there and back with the corp mail. I guess we got a couple new dolly/hand carts for the store. The ones we had were so old, I don't even know what happened to them. Back when I was a kid there were like 3 of them, the the store had one, but I think it finally broke. So we got 2 new ones so we can move boxes and stuff around.

The store opened at 10AM. I was about 5 mins late, I didn't expect the boardwalks to be so frosty! My mom had already gotten almost everything done in the office this morning. So I guess I'll just hold my chair down, work on a future store order (not sure what they need but I can get the basics ready) and answer the phone when it rings. I got one reservation for the hotel for this coming April. Yes, we book up early! That's why I always tell people to make sure to call in early! The dentist, his wife and assistant should be in today, that take 2 of our rooms for 2 weeks. The AK Marine pilot is in one room, Lisa and Duy have their room. The City had one guy come in yesterday who is going to be here for about a week, and NMF (National Marine Fisheries, I believe) has a guy taking our last room for a couple days. So as of today our lil 6 room hotel is full for the next week or so. I hope no one just shows up and expects to get a room.... And our Salmonberry Inn (the bunkhouse) is being leased out to Trident right now, and the front apartment is being taken by the Cattle Company manager.

The first scheduled flight is supposed to be here around 11:30AM, right on schedule this morning. Not sure what they are bringing this morning. All I know is my deposit that I mailed yesterday is going to make it out today! Not sure if the dentist is on this first flight or not either... hmmm...

Not sure what I want to have for lunch... Grilled cheese sounds good. Ended up not cooking that sweet n sour pork for dinner last night, we had king crab legs instead. I like mine with butter, the hubby likes his plain straight from the leg! Awesome dinner though!! We wanted bbq halibut but we have to order a new grill, ours didn't make it through the winter! We ended up having Stouffers French Bread Pepperoni pizza for lunch, not bad - but not exactly that great... I only really ate a couple bites and all the toppings :P

The plane is flying a lot today, I heard that a couple of the flights are charters. There are a lot of seagulls in the harbor today, especially out in front of town. Beautiful out there still, the sun is shining - offering little heat, but it still feels good! I left my big coat at home and wore just my sweater to work this afternoon :)

We have a couple guys up on the roof doing some repairs to the furnace stack and parts of the roof. I guess there are some leaks in places that they need to fix and today happens to be a perfect day to get up there and do it. Fred is moving along on painting the hallway, should be making his way down towards the stairs hopefully by later this afternoon.

Sounds like the store is staying busy today, I guess people are enjoying the weather and getting out today. I got a flyer from one of the school kids, I guess the school is having a fundraiser for one of their trips they are taking. They are having a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for $12.00 a plate on Friday, says they deliver, LOL!! Sounds like I don't have to worry about dinner on Friday!

Oh so I forgot to say I took my dog nail clippers over to my neighbor's house, she just got a 2yr old Min-pin female and her nails needed to be cut badly! I don't think that dog has ever had her nails clipped, she was so pissy towards me, snapping and growling. She's usually very loving towards me. Even with treats she didn't want nothing to do with getting her nails clipped. I have those quick guillotine kind, one quick motion and it's done and over with. I have styptic powder too just in case I cut the quick and she bleeds. So I got all four main claws on the front feet done, I'm going to go back later tonight and get her dew claws clipped. She nipped me once pretty good in the hand, I iced it and it barely left a mark, but she bit pretty hard. Poor girl... that must have been one of the worst moments she's had yet. She'll eventually get used to it hopefully. I have to go back and get her back feet someday. I'm only doing so many at a time so we don't have to try to hold her and scare her too much, that way she don't think of it as a miserable experience!

Well I guess the tramper is done filling up at Trident and the marine pilot is checking out of the hotel. So that opens back up one room for now. So that's good just in case someone shows up unexpectedly. I guess the Cattle Co is using the 4-wheeler to move their skiff around, I guess Trident is done working on it, so they are going to probably put that back in the water today.

I went down to the store and indulged a bit and got a Reese's peanut butter cups candy bar and a Cream soda. I try not to eat much candy anymore. I realized that as I was getting older and not spending as much time running around outside like I used to that it's harder to watch my weight. I've always been on the slightly heavier side, but after traveling to some warm places the last couple years - which required me wearing a bathing suit - I figured it was time to watch what I eat, which meant cutting out all candy and most pop that I drank throughout the day. I stopped munching on junk food and just try to stick to eating at lunch time and dinner, and I try to get at least 1-2/30 min total workouts (as long as I try to break a sweat) I like to get out with my dogs, I found that the easiest way. I'm a procrastinator when it comes to actually keeping a work out schedule, I feel accomplished if I at least stay at my weight now and/or lose any, but I hate putting weight back on. So far I've been holding steady for the last 6 months, but over the last two and half years I've lost a total of about 35 lbs so far!
It takes a life time commitment to change the way you live, and it hasn't exactly been that easy, but I just think about how it felt to not be able to fit anything that I owned because I was too big for it. Now I feel great that I don't fit anything I own because it's all too big on me now! Now one of my good problems is that I get to go shopping for new clothes!! I fit a lot of stuff now that I probably would have never put on before (either I knew it would be ugly on me, I felt too fat for it, it would never fit or I didn't feel comfortable at all in it). Yeah sure I love my hubby for the fact that he tells me he loves me and it doesn't matter what weight I'm at... I want him to support me in a healthier lifestyle and to help motivate me to keep up on watching cravings and what we eat, but I want tough love from him right now, and I don't know if he knows or even wants to be that way towards me. I will always love him though!
Right now I am at the lightest I have ever been in my whole life since like Junior High (I've been holding steady at 170lbs for the past 6 months, I would like to eventually lose at least 20-30 more pounds, how ever long that takes...) I have a couple weddings to attend this year, so I want to look my best for the pictures! :)

So, my dad brought me a copy of this awesome book. Its called "The Aleutian Islands of Alaska - Living on the edge by Kenneth F Wilson). Ken came here and my dad took him, my hubby, 2 of my cousins and me and we all went out whale watching and then went sea gull egg picking. My pictures is in his book! Pretty awesome book! I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know a little about the Aleutians!!! Please go get that book, I am going to find a way to get myself a copy!!! I wanted to let everyone know about it!! (some people in Dutch/Unalaska should know what I'm talking about!!)

Well today seemed to blow by fast again. I think only thing I need to get is pop from the store tonight, I got everything I needed for dinner yesterday, I'll cook that up today. I have to used damn crushed pineapple, there are no circle cut ones in the can down in the store. Oh well as long as I have pineapple, brown sugar and vinegar for my sweet n sour sauce!

Fred is moving along great painting. He is already moving down the stairs. I offered him to try out that Paint Perfect thing I bought off TV. Perfect time to be able to check it out and see what it's all about! They say it can do ceilings good, so we'll see tomorrow! I'll be sure to comment on how things go with that thing! LOL... I only paid like 25 with shipping for it, I think shipping was like 7.00 too!! :P

Another plane came in right at 4:20PM, wonder what's coming in?? Ok well have a great Tuesday! I don't have any plans for tonight, nor do I know what is going to be on TV. Hopefully something good! Much luv, TTFN!!!


AGGRRRR... when am I going to be able to post pix with out it saying I'm not online.. how can I not be online if I'm on messenger???? so dumb.. oh well.. I will post all my pics one day :P

Monday, February 23, 2009

So what a morning to wake up to… The weather is flat calm beautiful and the sun seems like it already wants to come up over the mountains! The temps don’t feel too bad in the high 30’s. The dogs loved their morning outing. We didn’t get out of bed until 9:15AM today, slept in. I realized we ran out of power again and had to run down to the City office before 9:30 (that’s when our power will shut off if we haven’t gotten any by then, it won’t shut off over the weekend – waits until 9:30 the following Monday). So I had to book my butt down there, I thought I had the 4-wheeler, so I got dressed and ran outside and then remembered that my mom took it last night. So I just decided the hell with it and jumped on my hubby’s BMX bicycle! I made it down to the City office and back before my power shut off! What a workout! The chain slipped twice on me :P On my way down though I happened to see two of the Stimpton Troopers leaving the school. I noticed one as Dennis Kyle!! He used to be a VPSO here for a year or so! I ran up gave him a hug, it was really good to see him, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen him – always seem like I get to see his wife Pam and the kids!

After getting back to the house, I found both my damn chi’s peeing on the box spring mattress. Oh was I pissed off to see that… I don’t know exactly how long they have been doing that… From the looks of it, they haven’t really been doing it that long, hopefully… So I pulled out my carpet steam cleaner and used the hand attachments to scrub and clean off my bed, then I covered that corner in pee pads in case the lil bastards decide to pee on it again. I don’t know what else to try to put up to stop them from doing it… so I figured pee pads are replaceable and waterproof on the back… so it’s was the best idea I had at the time…..

I made it down to work at about 10:15AM. Was a little late because cleaning my bed with the steam cleaner took a little longer than I expected it to. My mom got all the charge slips entered into the books. Monday is payroll day, so we’re making sure we have everyone’s timecards. A lot of employees this week, a lot of construction and demo going on for us. (I took a couple pix of the old store being torn down on my way back to work from lunch.) I had to help my mom with some stuff on QuickBooks. For some reason it has the wrong check number to be printed, but in the register it doesn’t show a check for the previous number, so I’m wondering why it’s skipping a number. Isn’t hard to change the check number for the computer before you print them. Then I had to help her with some of the employee’s pay because she wasn’t here last week, I let her know that demo was posted as $12/hr. We got payroll done just before lunch, and I cashed like 5 checks before going to lunch! I also had a couple City employee’s come up and cash their payroll checks at the same time. I had 3 people who put money on their store bills. We the first plane come in at 11:30, nothing but people and their bags.

Went to lunch and ate at the Café again. I had my usual French Dip and the hubby had chicken nuggets. I only eat less than half my sandwich and some of the fries and take the rest home. I split the meat between my dogs, spoiled brats… I try to watch how much I eat so I don’t over eat. Before I used to eat the whole thing and all the fries, but I’m learning to eat slow and small portions or I’ll pig out :P I forgot to grab my camera before going to work, and wasn’t able to get any pictures of the Stimpson, we noticed it heading out of the bay like right after we were done eating and going home (about 12:30PM or so)

So now back at work this afternoon, I have my own personal deposit that I want to get out in the mail. There is a tramper (Japanese/Russian freighter boat) sitting up at Trident filling up with product. There are a bunch of Russian’s walking around town today. We have the AK Marine Pilot staying the hotel while they are here loading the ship. They used to employ people from town to do “steve-a-dore” (I think that’s what it’s called) but no one here has done it in a long time that I know of. My hubby’s cousin I think was one of the last to work there… like 3-4 years ago.

We got a couple faxes in to post. I’m going to go down and empty the quarters out of the washers and dryers down at the laundry mat (it’s small but at least we have one – there are 2 washers and 2 dryers). I also have to check the Change making machine and make sure it has enough quarters in it, if not I’ll go back down after I count up the ones out of the washers and dryers and go put them back down in that change machine! So that gives me something else I can get done. I need to get some hotel billing done up and mailed and like usual enter the daily paperwork into the spreadsheets. I have to go thru last fiscal year’s spreadsheets and find the total amount our store made last year in order for us to reapply for our participation in the Gov’t Food Stamp program. That will be super easy! :D I love knowing I have it all on the computer and can just pull info up and find what I need!

We have a guy working out in the hall way of our office, taking down all the posters and removing the trim. Then I guess he’s going to tape everything off and they are going to finally paint the walls white. I swear for as long as I can remember they have always had a funny paint scheme going on up here. At one time the office I’m in now was painted light blue/green, the hallway is this ugly peach-orange color, the Cattle Co and Fisheries office is this bright lime green like color, and the bathroom still has a coating of light blue. I don’t know who originally came up with those ideas, but I’m happy the finally decided to paint it all white! My mom and the person who I replaced painted what is now my mom’s and my office white because they were tired of the blue/green color in here. When we have time my mom said we could paint our own office, yay something to look forward to later this year!! I need to finish painting the interior of my house… I started to slack off when it came to my living room… I really don’t want to try to move everything off my walls and try to bunch it all in the center and try to get all the walls painted. I ordered that Paint Perfect thingy off tv… it was only like 25 with shipping… so see if that works like it says it does… if it does good on the walls I’ll see how it does on the ceiling like the infomercial said! LOL… I’ll be sure to comment on it here one day once I use it… ha ha ha

Monday night, not sure what is on TV tonight, I know there are a couple new shows that are on VH1 tonight. I didn’t really watch the Oscars last night. We watched the Gangland marathon on History Channel. But I did go on VH1’s live online blog about the Oscars and on commercial breaks would change channels and blog/chat live with everyone about what people were wearing, who was winning, who was there, ect…. I have to admit that was pretty cool… I don’t have anything in picked out for dinner tonight… everything has been sounding so boring. Maybe I’ll just fry up some pork with onions and make a sweet ‘n sour sauce and put that all over rice. Maybe throw in some veggies (like broccoli and carrots). I have to make sure I have vinegar though… I don’t know if we have any down at the store… I haven’t had to order any in a while…. Hmmmm…..

Well posting my blog early today. The weather is definitely staying nice enough for the 2nd scheduled flight to come in. Not sure what they might bring over, as long as my deposit makes it out in the mail! :) I’m going to hold down my seat, answer the phone, cash checks, wait for end of the work day and get all the paperwork done up then make it home for the day!

Blogger still isn't letting me post pics... AGGGRRRHHH... Darn it... well I will post all the pix I have when it lets me... sorry....

I hope everyone had a great Monday and an even better Monday night!! TTFN

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Well... I tried to sleep good last night, I know the dogs enjoyed hogging up the bed! My hubby texted me at quarter to 10AM. He just wanted to say good morning :) I love him! He said they should be done by lunch time, so I'll just sit around and wait for his call. Hopefully he stayed warm all night in that wind! I let the dogs out for their walk, they liked it better this afternoon when the weather was nicer!

It was still blowing pretty good out in the morning but it's warm. Stayed 43F all day today. By noon the weather had pretty much calmed down and cleared up. Ended up being a pretty nice day. No planes though.

My hubby called quarter to 12PM and let me know I can head up in 15-20 mins to pick him and my brother up from work. So I put the little ones away and brought Tug with me. He loves being able to go for a run, especially with a 4-wheeler! He got really really muddy, but I let him wash off in the creek on our way home.

After getting my hubby home, my mom needed the bike back. So I ran down to the store first and got everything I need to enjoy tacos once again (yay, Fire sauce!!), I also had to pick up some soda for my hubby. After my mom dropped me off, we just hung out at home and watched the Gangland marathon on History Channel until about 5, then I cooked up our tacos.

Now we're just going to sit around the house and relax, my hubby is going to sleep so good tonight, and so am I!! I think we'll just keep watching Gangland until they stop playing it... then hopefully go to sleep early and catch up on our ZZZZ's!!

Oh, I forgot to mention, on my way down to the store I noticed this very beautiful blue, white and black boat at our dock... I just LOVE how the Stimpson looks, my hubby and I always say that boat could do a killing if it went crabbing (but a killing in getting all the money... or a killing in fuel prices if you did take it fishing??) Either way that is a beautiful boat! I was able to get a tour of it back when I was in school, I think that was about when they first got it... I don't remember how old I was exactly, but I was around high school age (my class being like the oldest ones there... so it had to be in like 98-99 or something...). The Stimpson is a Trooper Vessel that is based out of Dutch Harbor. (I believe Cookie Dough's hubby is the El Capitan!)

I had pix to post, but blogger isn't cooperating right now... but I have a couple pix of my 2 chi's and one looking out our bedroom window looking down towards town at 7:30PM I will post them when I can

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Well woke up to a very windy morning. Blowing a good 60 MPH out there, temps in the low 40's. A low fog not really letting any precipitation out.

I was expecting to sleep in this morning, but my phone was ringing before 9AM. I had the 4-wheeler and I guess the Cattle Company needed to use it to take their skiff up to Trident for repairs to the bottom. I let them know the key was in the bike and they could have just taken it. The dogs got up and didn't let us fall back asleep, so we got up and took them out for their morning outing. Dante doesn't like the wind, I don't blame him - he's so small!

We didn't really do much all day today. Got a call out for the barge tonight. My hubby will go up and work this one! They said they should be here around 11:30PM tonight, so I'm going to make sure he gets a nap later. We ate cereal this morning, I have a weak spot for Lucky Charms (I think I just like the sugary marshmallows :P). Nothing really on TV all day today, how boring! At least Cops and America's Most Wanted is going to be on tonight. Got a little teary eyed last night watching the last Late Night with Conan O'Brian.

Went to the cafe tonight for dinner. Ended up having a Philly Cheese hold the mushrooms. The hubby had a big breakfast. Need to eat something hearty to hold him off until he has to go to work tonight. I like to send him up with snacks and drinks, we went to Trident store and got some beef jerkey(2 of them - one for each of us), Cheeze Its (for him) and ice cream (for both of us....not like I need it...)

Spent most the day at home. My dogs are so cute when they are playing nice together and not being jealous of what the other one has! I like when they are quiet and just laying around being lovey. Then they get into this hyper mode where they practically run in circles around the whole house until they get tired... Dante has taken a liking to trying to "make babies" or rape any part of Tug that he can get his little legs around. Tug will just lay there and look at him... LOL!

The hubby laid down to take a nap around 8PM, the barge ended up getting here a little early (maybe the wind helped push them this way) so I had to wake him up at 10:15PM and get him ready. Made him tea and put it in his thermos, put the munchies in his bag and made sure everything he needed was ready. We rode up on the 4-wheeler and I dropped him off at about 10:30PM.

The time is 11:50PM right now, it's still blowing hard out there, and the temp is 37F. I figured I'd get my blog in before it's Sunday :D I'm going to stay up and flip channels and watch my pups then eventually try to fall asleep. I have such a hard time sleeping by myself, but the pups love being able to hog up as much space as the want on the bed (they usually have to sleep in their beds located above our pillows on our bed!)! So have a great night and we'll see what's going on tomorrow.

Oh and of course no planes today, 50-60MPH is way too windy for a plane here!!! (shoot 25MPH is even pushing it).....

Ok, well Good night... TTFN

A Little Alaska Native Info

Alaska's Native people are divided into three ethnic groups, eleven distinct cultures, speak twenty different languages, live in five geographical locations in Alaska, in 200 villages and communities, and make up nearly 20% of the total population of Alaska.

There are three types of Alaskan Natives

There are three types of Alaskan Natives with different cultural and linquistic history. They are Indian, Eskimo and Aleut.

The terms “Inuit” and “Native American” are sometimes used in place of “Eskimo” and “Indian” in an effort to be politically correct, but in Alaska, Eskimo and Indian are not generally considered derogatory terms.

The term "Alaskan natives" came into use with the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, but the term "alaskan native culture includes all three ethnic groupings.
Footnote:
Above was taken from http://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/2395




Alaska Natives are the indigenous peoples of Alaska. They include: Inupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Eyak, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures.

In 1912 the Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded. In 1971 Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which settled land and financial claims, and provided for the establishment of 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations to administer those claims. Similar to the status of the Canadian Inuit and First Nations, which are recognized as distinct peoples, Alaska Natives are in some respects treated separately from Native Americans in the United States. An example of this separate treatment is that Alaska Natives are allowed the harvesting of whales and other marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

In addition, Alaska Natives were not given title to land under the Dawes Act but were instead treated under the Alaska Native Allotment Act until it was repealed in 1971. Another characteristic difference is that Alaska Native tribal governments do not have the power to collect taxes for business transacted on tribal land, per the United States Supreme Court decision in Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government because Alaska Natives (except for Tsimshians) do not hold reservations.

CULTURES:
Below is a full list of the different Alaska Native cultures. Within each culture are many different tribes.

Athabascan
--Ahtna
--Deg Hit’an
--Dena'ina
--Gwich’in
--Hän
--Holikachuk
--Kolchan
--Koyukon
--Lower Tanana
--Tanacross
--Upper Tanana
Eyak
Haida
Tlingit
Tsimshian
Eskimo
--Inupiat (an Inuit people)
--Yupik
----Siberian Yupik
----Yup'ik
------Cup'ik
----Sugpiaq (Alutiiq)
------Chugach
------Koniag
Aleut (in their own language they refer to themselves as Unangan)
Alutiiq

Footnote:
Above was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Natives

Friday Night, Feb 20, 2009

So, the 2nd flight didn't come back in today, started to blow pretty hard, supposed to blow a constant 50MPH, gusting higher. Still 37F out.

So we went to steam bath, rushed there. Ordered at the cafe, ran home and made it down to bingo on time (before start time at 6:30PM). We ate our dinner at bingo, my hubby had today's special, spaghetti with a salad and garlic bread. I had my usual French dip. I brought Dante to bingo with me, I didn't want to leave him home...plus it was good to get him out around a bunch of people! But tonight was a pretty fun night at bingo for me!! I ended up winning the big jackpot!!! I was so excited! I have never won jackpot, and I've been playing here since I turned 19! My mom was so excited for me, she yelled BINGO! too with me!!! :D I thought that was super cool!! YAY for me!!!! :D

So we're going to stay up and watch Jay Leno. Then watch the final show of Late Night with Conan O'Brian. I think they said something that Jimmy Falon is supposed to replace Conan, and Conan is going to replace Jay Leno... all I know is that late night is never going to be the same anymore!

Have a great Friday Night and an awesome weekend!!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Wow.. so it's already the one month anniversary of my blog! Can't believe I've been blogging for over a month now! Hopefully I'm doing ok and everyone has been enjoying it. :) I have been having fun doing this so far and actually look forward to writing in it everyday! I love getting comments from people!

Well, I woke up feeling a little nauseous... not sure why I feel sick, probably from not eating a big dinner last night - I had a can of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs :P So I was about 15 mins late for work this morning. But wow what a morning! It's clear, blue skies, the sun came up over the mountains before 10 today! The rock ducks, sea gulls and eagles all making the morning sound that much more beautiful. Once and a while you hear the sweet singing of a tweety bird (Rosy Finch). It was clear skies all night, making it really cold - we actually got fresh frost on the the boardwalks and almost everything else this morning. Feels almost like spring, but it's way too early for us to be getting weather like this. I heard we have another big storm headed our way, nothing new....

I got to work this morning, my mom was putting carpet fresh down getting ready to vacuum the office. I guess the Cattle Co moved some musty smelling office supplies to their office, making it smell kind of "old" up here. So she's trying to freshen it up by vacuuming. I got the charge slips entered into the books and turned my computer on. I have the store order to price today (really small order), so I'm hoping to get that done before lunch.

The doctor and assistant checked out of the hotel, so I have one room to be cleaned. They had authorization on the company's credit card, so I just charged their account and gave them the receipts to take back to Anchorage with them. I guess they are out of here on the first plane, which is on schedule and should be here at 11:30AM. Wonder if they are bringing more mail, I didn't get everything I was waiting for.... all my newer stuff came in, but none of the stuff I've been waiting longer for has come in... so they must have sent over the new mail that's probably piled on top of the old mail over in Dutch Harbor. Sometimes I wonder where they store all our mail. One year we were getting major rat holes and cat pee all over our packages... Then we started to get them in all wet and frozen.... makes me wonder where exactly do they store all our mail when it gets stuck over there for a week at a time!

Yay, my mom brought me back a good size bag of Taco Bell Fire Sauce!! (THANKS SIS!) So we are going to have tacos for lunch today!!! :D It's still clear and sunny out at lunch time... hanging at around 36F right now! A slight breeze, but not much.

Lunch was great! Came back to work, brought Dante down with me this afternoon. The weather is starting to pick up, the winds are starting to blow a constant 15-20 from the SW. I heard it's supposed to blow 50MPH by tomorrow. Here is the forecase from NOAA:
TODAY...SE WIND 25 KT BECOMING SE 40 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS
BUILDING TO 14 FT.
.TONIGHT...SE WIND 50 KT. SEAS BUILDING TO 21 FT PACIFIC SIDE. SEAS
14 FT BERING SIDE. RAIN AND SNOW.
.SAT...S WIND 40 KT DIMINISHING TO 30 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS
19 FT PACIFIC SIDE. SEAS 12 FT BERING SIDE. RAIN.
.SAT NIGHT...S WIND 25 KT. SEAS 14 FT.

So I don't think the 2nd scheduled flight is going to make it in today. At least we got one plane this morning while it was nice out. The doctor and assistant were able to make it in and out with out getting stuck here this time (only stuck in Dutch waiting to get here!). My mom got the deposit done and it should have gotten out on that plane.

My hubby is cooking steam bath today! Sounds really good, my nails are nice and long too (makes for good scratching!). Nice day for bath, it'll get windy and help for getting a breeze into the cooling room to keep it ventilated/cooled. So that's something to look forward to afterward!

The Corp got some paint on that plane, freight. I guess the paint is for the hotels, not sure if it's for the exterior or interior. So one of the guys grabbed the 4-wheeler to move all the paint to the Corp garage for now. I have to get the gas figured out with that bike. I went down to the City office one day and paid for 5 gallons gas... well they guys took the bike and said they would fill it for me and they would be using it. I had already dropped the jerry jug off down at the City's storage area to be filled, then I went to work and they took the bike. So I didn't get the bike back from them until end of the day, and I asked if they put the rest of the gas in the jerry jug away or not. They told me "oh that was our, we left it down there." Ok, so after work I take the bike down to pick up the rest of the gas, because the bike doesn't hold 5 gallons, the tank only holds like 2.5 gallons. So I should have had a whole tank full in the jug for next time we run out. But, NO... I go down to pick it the jerry jug up after work and it was still sitting where I put it, empty... The City office is closed, I have no one to complain to. On my way home I saw the guys who filled the bike and I asked them where the gas was, because it wasn't in our jerry jug. I paid for it and I want to know where the rest was. They said that they would talk with the City's fuel guy. I don't know who did what, all I know is that I'm missing gas and the bike needs to be re-filled again... So hopefully they get their crap figured out soon.

Other than that pretty quiet here in the office. A couple people stopping by to see if the Cattle Co is open or not. I don't know what their hours are exactly... he's up here at some weird hours of the night is all I know... The phone rings and sometimes it's just the dial tone... hmmmm... So far I cashed a couple checks, people must have gotten checks in the mail. I'm going to go check my mail and put some bills out in the mail.

I heard people are all excited to be going to bingo tonight. 19 numbers for Jackpot, the amount has to be up there if it's up to that many numbers... I haven't gone in a long time. I got offended when I was told I wasn't a regular bingo player. I've been playing since I was old enough (19)!! What the hell are they talking about???? So I said F**K IT! and haven't gone since... I don't know what they consider a regular player if I'm not one... so I keep my money and me at home :) Although I can said I did always look forward to Darryl's cookies that he occasionally brought! Bingo sounds fun, but we wouldn't be out of bath before it starts at 6:30, and even if we got out quick enough, I don't know if we'd have enough time to eat dinner! So I don't think we'll be going.

Hopefully find something to do tonight, see if there is anything good on TV. Not sure what we're going to have for dinner. I haven't really been cooking lately, on strike I guess you can say... LOL! I just get tired of cooking the same stuff all the time, and it's so hard to change it up when we don't really have everything to do that with. I guess I could get creative, but then that just takes more time.... maybe go have the usual at the cafe tonight. I'm going to see if I can get off work early and maybe just go to bingo.... we'll see.. not sure if bath is going to be ready if I try to get off early... the hubby usually has it ready right at 5 when he knows I'm off work! Don't hurt to ask though.... Well it's TGIF, so I get to enjoy the weekend and sleep in, YAY! My mom is home so I don't have to worry about the store's paperwork over the weekend!

Never know about this weather, might hold up to be nice enough for the 2nd flight to come in, but we have some pretty good size waves out in the bay with a good breeze. I'll make sure to comment tomorrow whether or not that flight came in. :)

Well, have a great weekend everyone!!! TTFN...

Thrusday, February 19, 2009

Woke up to a kinda of beautiful morning. Slight variable 15 like it was forecasted to be, about 37F out. Maybe we'll actually get a plane in today.

HA, only because my mom, store manager, and a bunch of other people came over on Trident's freighter boat the Eastern Wind last night, the weather happens to be beautiful today! They made it in at about 9:30PM last night. I saw Darryl (our PA) and another guy from town (to pick up his wife) up at Trident last night. Our store manager got her new dog in, she rescued a 2 year old fixed min-pin female, beautiful dog!

Nothing much going on in the office. Felt good to be able to sleep in and head to work at my usual time of 10AM. The dogs enjoyed their morning outing, Dante is enjoying running around with Tug and Roscoe. I had to clean rooms last night after getting off work from the office. No one has signed up for the housekeeping job, so I'm making my hubby do it. I told him it's really no different than cleaning our own house (since he cleans up at home!). And doing hotel laundry isn't hard either, so I think I talked him into doing it. As long as he isn't called a maid, housekeeping manager will work ;) LOL So at least my mom and I don't have to stress over who's going to be cleaning. I think I'm going to bring it up to the Corp board that we need to revamp our rooms with all new beds, towels, linens, blankets and what not. We should also be keeping inventory on all the cooking supplies and everything else in those rooms. I'm tired of all the people who have done housekeeping for us before and so many of our towels have walked out. Towels are supposed to be a $10.00 charge to your room if you decide to take them, but none of my housekeeping ever enforced that rule. So I'm hoping to get some changes made up there. We'll see how far I actually get on that one...

So, the plane came in at 11:30AM. Not sure what is coming in since all the people took a boat last night. Probably a whole bunch of mail sitting over there! I'm waiting on a bunch of supplies for my dogs. I also had my sister Ivy do a COD for me from Wal-Mart.

We had chicken nuggets for lunch. I don't really eat chicken, well not off the bone. But I've been trying to open back up to eating it. Ok the story of why I don't like to eat chicken:

Back when I was like 8 years old, my parents thought it would be cool to teach us the responsibility of raising and owning chickens. So my dad built a chicken coop out in our back yard, right out my bedroom window! At first I got to order 25 Rhode Island Reds, including one rooster, Big Red! (25 was the min order). The next 25 chicks a year later were a mix of Araucanas, Black Australorp's, a couple Leghorns, and a good amount of Plymouth Rock's, including my Roosty Rocky(who got way too big, must of jumped and got his neck tangled in something, I found him dead with his neck broken in the corner of the fenced yard, farthest from the coop one day..) I loved raising those chickens from little just born chicks to ones that laid eggs and knew who I was (or at least knew I meant food!) I mean yeah I named like half of them, tagged them and told my parents not to touch those ones, and the rest would be for eating on whenever. So they must have mixed up what I said and thought I said to only take the ones with the bands.... so one night we're eating dinner and I asked which ones did they take (because of how many diff breeds of chickens we had out back), and they told me they just grabbed a couple with the bands like I said... I freaked out...It was too late.. I had already eaten one of my pets... I swore off eating chicken since and raised the ones I had left... I didn't let them eat anymore of them, I told them to go to the store!! So for 5 years, until I was 13, I raised chickens in my back yard, by the 4th year they were "free range" and were able to walk around town in little groups, bumming scraps from certain houses! We had put like a door in the side of the fence where they can get out and go roam. It was pretty cool! But it sucked that they started to lay eggs outside! But then this person in town decided they were going to try to save this dog that they were going to put down over in Dutch (for being a menace and couldn't be "saved" over there by anyone because of how it acted..), and he let the stupid dog loose here... a stupid dog that attacks everything... just let it out!!!!! I'm still steaming over that one.... So, one night I woke up and that damn f-ing dog was in my chicken coop ripping up and killing all but my one rooster and a hen in the nest box, I mean that's like over 40 birds that dog killed/mortally wounded in less than 20 mins or so!! I was so heart broken... I knew how to shoot a gun... I knew what I was doing... I ran in the house, grabbed a shell, grabbed the gun...I went back out there... all the same time my parents realizing what I was doing and running behind me - but they were too late... I took one look at the bloody dog with one of my chickens all ripped up in its mouth, and shot the f-ing right there in my chickens fenced off yard. I didn't want to step back inside that coop, and my dad had to care for the last 2 surviving chickens. It took me almost 5 years to even walk back in that building, see the writings I did on the walls. See the feathers I had collected. It didn't seem not to long after the brutal killing of my chickens, about 2 years later, we went on a family vacation (my parents, lil sis and me) My older sis and bro stayed home, and they totally forgot to take care of them, and my last 2 chickens (the rooster and hen) died in November of 1998. Ever since then I've kind of been wanting like 5-10... but I have enough animals to deal with, but it would be cool to get fresh eggs again!

So that's why I don't really eat chicken. I will eat chicken nuggets, chicken strips from the deli, and once and a while a chicken burger. But I will not eat anything right off the bone; my childhood memory of that dinner still mortifies me! When I was 19 there was these people who were ministering the church that Trident has, and they wanted to raise chickens. So we ripped almost everything out of our coop (nest boxes, roosts, walkways) and gave it all to them for their little coop they were building. Now the coop is cleaned out and is being used for storage. When I went to UAF during the 01-02 year, my dad had taken a bulldozer and flattened out the whole back yard, removing the fence from the back yard but keeping the coop. Now the back yard is nice green grass (it used to be all full of tall grass and grown in with all kinds of local plants until my dad flattened it and threw grass seed down).

A lot has actually changed in the village since I was a little girl. In 1995 there was a house fire in one of the old wooden houses where one guy died. Then a year later my uncle's old wooden house caught on fire and he died. So the Tribe here worked on getting there Emercore (like snap together) houses for all the people who lived in any of the old wooden buildings (most of the houses here are HUD houses) and offered to tear down their old house and build those ones for a good cheap price. Since the Tribe was just helping get rid of all the buildings that weren't up to today's fire code laws. Everyone agreed and about 5 of the Emercore houses built here, with one that was scheduled to be built, but the owner passed away and no one did anything. They ended up tearing down a total of 10 old houses down (including the 2 that were burnt) and 3 people built their own houses back up. I forgot what year it was exactly, 1999 I think, we had our church torn down and rebuilt and restored. And now the last old building that’s practically left standing, our old store, is being torn down right now. I still want to paint my house all white with light blue trim like all the houses here used to be "back in the day."
In 1994 they extended and made our school bigger, the same construction company then build the East end of Akutan right after the school project (the house I live in is one of those houses). We also got our hydro electric building that year (which ended up being a total waste of money! someone let it break and turned the building with all the electronics and stuff into a big fish tank!)
Last year, well starting in 2007, the Aleutian Housing Authority (AHA) started to build a 4 plex "up on the hill" (as I call it). They finished it in August last year and 4 families got to move in! We also got cell phone service last year.
Just to name a few changes that gone on around here.....

So did I mention how HAPPY I was to have my mom back at work and not to mention our Store manager back! They are getting ready for the freighter that we have coming in this weekend, guess it's a small order. Nice and quiet in the office this afternoon. The clinic returned a key and said the doctor and assistant are sharing a room, so they only needed one room not two. We got a couple phone calls in, nothing really important. Vendors seeing if we needed anything. I guess the Post Office closed the counter for a bit to get all the mail sorted. Hard to get mail sorted, and deal with people asking if mail came in, easier to just shut the gate and get the mail done up, then tell everyone mail came in! People will even call and bug and ask if mail came in. HELLO, busy sorting it, can't get it sorted if they are busy doing something like answering if there was mail or not... I would know I work down there part time!! I will go end of the day and check my mail... :D

Not sure what we're going to plan for dinner tonight. I brought Dante to work with me today. Damn got some stuff in from an order and they sent the wrong product. Never fails to either have something not come in, the wrong item come in, or something you know! Well I'm going to show my mom the video professor CD's on QuickBooks. Show her that I can learn do the bank reconciliations if she don't want to deal with them, I just want to have her go along with me as a refresher for her, and help in case I don't know what something is!

Not sure if the plane is going to come back this afternoon or not, it's still sunny and blue skies and beautiful, but once and a while a little like misty squall will go by, not really rain, but a light mist that gets everything wet! It's only about 39F out, but it feels good in the sun! I'm happy we have boardwalks, the ground is completely saturated in rain and melted snow. Making for a dirty/wet walk once you step off the boardwalk. The store sounds nice and busy today, that's a good thing!

Tonight I have a couple shows I've been waiting 2 weeks to see (Hell’s Kitchen didn't come on last week, it was like some NCAA awards or something like that), so I'm waiting for HK to come on Fox tonight, and all new Gangland on History Channel. I love watching that show, educates you on the dangers in some of the city’s that I travel to (or would like to travel to). I accidentally got us in the wrong part of LA, took us to Watts and went to Inglewood... not on purpose, I screwed up on manually entering the address in my GPS unit.... we could have gotten shot, killed, robbed... who knows what.... all I know is that we weren't were we should have been! Then going to Vegas and seeing the gang tattoos on some people, those are dangerous f-ing people that I don't want to cross the wrong way! Or like how we met Chuck Zito, it wasn't until after we met him that I found out that he's like on the top in the New York chapter of the Hells Angels. So Gangland is a good way for me to keep myself aware of my surroundings and the dangers that some people will put them or other people in and not give a damn...... Other than catching those shows I don't have anything special planned for this evening.

I'm going to go check my mail, wait until 4:30 when the store closes, and get the store’s paperwork then my daily paperwork counted and done up and head home hopefully by 5PM! Then enjoy the rest of the day at home with my hubby and 3 pups! Only other thing I have to get done is price the stuff that’s coming in on the freighter, but I think I’ll just do that in the AM. We got our business licenses in, so I have to go hang those up. Got a couple faxes out, nothing too important. Ok well I'm just going to wait for my work day to end so I can go home. Oh and I heard at 4PM that the second plane is on it's way, not sure what's coming in... maybe more mail! :D

TTFN - Always, April Dawn

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wednesday already... garbage day today... woke up the the weather is blowing hard from the South, really warm feeling out there about 46F! A heavy misty fog blowing in the air, no matter what you're going to get wet outside! The dogs ran out and enjoyed the warm weather this morning. Dante is still really wanting to walk with them, but he doesn't understand that they are going "potty" outside.

Got to work at 9:30AM. Entered the charge slips into the charge book, checked the incoming faxes. The store opened at 10AM today, on time! Quiet morning, cashed a couple checks. Had one person use their credit/debit card to put money on their store account. We accept credit/debit cards with the Visa or MasterCard logo on them both here in the Corp office and down in the store. We also take Quest Cards (food stamp card) down at the store.

Went home and had cereal for lunch. I didn't want to bother with cooking and the hubby couldn't think of anything. So we just had cereal :P. Stir fry for dinner tonight, well I'm just going to make meat and onions over rice.

It's started to rain pretty hard, big rain drops! Nice and warm feeling at 48F outside, most of all the snow on the hills has melted. Feels like a spring day out there! A pretty good amount of people out in the rain today, the store actually sounds pretty busy today. The guys painting the Cattle Co's office must be done, I haven't seen them all day today. I guess they want to re-paint my office white too. So I'm going to have to take everything off the walls and get all our stuff to the center of the office so that they can maneuver around to get the walls painted correctly. Hopefully they want to do that on the weekend...

I still have to get a deposit worked on... the weather sounds likes it's supposed to get nice tomorrow. We'll just have to see about that now... other than the little break forecasted for tomorrow, we have nothing but more crappy weather headed our way. How long has it been since we had a plane anyways? I lost count of how many days ago that was! Over a week now at least!

Well hopefully the day goes by as quiet as it's been. A couple phone calls for hotel reservations. The Dentist is coming out with his wife and maybe an assistant. They wanted to know what all is in the room and if they have to cook for themselves or not. I let them know the cafe is currently open, they sounded happy about that. I think I'm going to vacuum the office since I don't have any of the pups with me (they hate the vacuum!)

Hopefully there is something interesting on TV tonight. Getting tired of watching reruns of Dog the Bounty hunter and PPA (they used to play new episodes on Wednesdays, but lately just re-runs). I'm going to give my little babies a bath tonight, I gave my lab Tug a bath last night after I soaked in the tub! He loves the water! (probably can't wait for summer time to go swimming!)

Wow talk about a difference from this morning, at quarter to 8 the weather calmed down and is switching wind direction now. Its about 39F out now.

Well have a great Wednesday, TTFN

Tuesday, February 12, 2009

Woke up to a beautiful morning, red sky again this morning. Damn I hope the weather holds up to let my mom come home! My dogs enjoyed their morning outing, Dante is getting brave enough to put the harness on and go see what they are doing outside. Hopefully he learns that they are peeing outside and he can too!

I'll eventually get around to step by step how to make dry fish. Would be easier when the fish are actually running and I can take pics of the process.

This morning at work was the most stressfull that I have ever had to deal with in my 5 years working here. I am the only one in the office (with my mom being stuck in Dutch) and I have only one person who fills in for the store when our store manager is gone (she's stuck in Dutch too). And my store temp. decided not to call in and let me know that she didn't want to come in to work today. So the store is supposed to open at 10AM and it's 10:20 and I don't have anyone to open the store for me. I can't do it, I have the office to take care of. I can't be doing two things at once. Then on top of that crap, my hotel maid decided to quit. She left the room doors open (but claims she shut them, but they were wide open!) and I guess some cats decided to make our rooms home. My maintenance person ended up finding the cats in the rooms this morning, pee and all... and locked the doors for me. So now I have to post signs for a new maid... And we have people who are supposed to be coming in for those rooms as soon as the plane flys... and now I either have to go up there and clean it myself.. or hopefully someone comes up today and says they will take the job! I can't be doing the office, store and maid! I can't stand irresponsible people.... Wish I had more dependable people..... I can't do it all on my own (well I probably could I just don't want to).

I don't know how to deal with stress... my body gets sick from stress... that's how the DR.s said I got my ulcers. Eating myself from the inside out. I just feel like hiding away and crying for some reason. I get that sick feeling in my tummy, like I want to throw up. I get light headed and dizzy. And I just don't want to do anything. So I called my mom and had her calm me down and reassure me that everything is going to be ok. I don't know how my mom deals with the stress of this job, but she does an awesome job!

So after talking with my mom, and letting her cry and vent back to me about how she wanted so bad to make it home and now it's snowing - white out conditions. The temps are hanging in the high 20's. Damn I was hoping the weather would stay clear so she can make it home :( I got the charge slips entered into the book from over the weekend. I had one person come up and pay on their store bill this morning, another came in but I wasn't done entering the slips, so they said they will be back later. Because the store opened a half our late, my temp showed up at 10:30AM, I had a bunch of people sitting in my office waiting for the store to open.

I have to get a deposit done, but no real rush if the weather is going to go back to crap and not let the plane come in. I printed a couple checks and got the COD's out of the Post Office, building supplies I guess.

Going to have grilled cheese and soup for lunch today. Hopefully my afternoon goes better than this morning....

This afternoon went by quick and smoothly compared to this morning. The plane didn't fly today, but I'm keeping my hopes up so my mom and store manager can make it home. I ordered a bunch of Alaska flower seeds for my Grannie's memory gardens that her 3 living children are going to grow for her. She loved her gardens! Like I said before, she had these grapes that she would make her own wine out of!! Then I helped my younger sis find a place to order flowers from to be sent to the funeral home that her service is located at tomorrow. She really wanted to go down, but can't make it. She's happy that at least she's sending flowers, happy that I could help her with that!

Thinking about going down the cafe for dinner. I'm thinking about an egg flower soup, not sure what the hubby has decided on yet. See if they have a special today or not... temp is about 41F out now, still snow squalls then clears up then more snow squalls.... I hope the weather is nice tomorrow!

Other than that, I'm going to take a long relaxing bubble bath after we eat... shake off the day and get ready for tomorrow.... (thank you for the hug Kim, it was much needed!) TTFN...

Monday, February 16, 2009

Well it's President's Day and I officially have the day off from work. I'm getting calls from people asking for the store to open, didn't they notice the signs up for the past week saying both the Office and the Store is going to be closed? Everything else is closed! I don't want to have to take time out of my day off to walk down and do paperwork and get the store open. Can't people read signs saying we were going to be closed? That means for a week now I let everyone know that today is my day off, and I'm not going to go anywhere today. I'm just sit around and enjoy being with my hubby and our pups like I planned to do....

I was expecting to sleep in.... but NO... my stupid phone is ringing off the hook and I'm not answering... that's what my answering machine is for!

I guess you can say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed... I was not in the best of moods knowing that I couldn't fall back asleep, and I planned on not leaving the house today unless I absolutely had to, like emergency's only kinda reason.

The weather is a bit chilly with a Northerly breeze (about 20MPH), I don't think the plane is going to fly in this crap. The temps are hanging at about 28F. I'm gonna snuggle up on our couch, see what's on tv, and "window" shop online!

Hopefully the rest of the day goes as planned... sitting here with my family at home! :D

My mom and our store manager are stuck in Dutch, I believe there are a couple other people stuck over there too.... so hopefully the weather clears up and lets them come over sometime soon...

Not sure what we're going to eat today... look in the fridge/freezer and cupboards I guess ;) have a great President's Day! TTFN

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Well woke up to a beautiful morning. A weird calm out, I think the weather is switching. When the wind direction switches we get a calm before it picks back up again. It was blowing from the South all night. We let the dogs out for their morning walk. It was about 35F out this morning.

At about 11:30AM I ran down to the office and got the paperwork ready for the store for today. The weather has gone to crap again, blowing from the East - out the bay. Slight hail that stung my face while riding down on the 4-wheeler. Didn't see anyone again except my in-laws - my mother-in-law works at the store on the weekends and I had to give her the cash and keys. Other than that didn't see anyone on my ride down and back home.

We ate PB&J sandwiches for lunch. Gangland marathon on History Channel, so at least I have something to watch today. Happy that I don't have to leave the house tomorrow unless I want to. No need to go down to the office if we're closed! I think we have everything we need until Tuesday.

Not sure what to have for dinner tonight. Thinking about getting "native" and eating some dry fish with seal blubber/oil, bread and tea. I dry my own fish every summer, but I don't know how to make the blubber/oil, so I trade the dry fish I make for it. (usually from my mom, lol). We didn't really have any red salmon (Sockeye) last year, so I had to dry up pinks (humpies). I had to learn to make dry fish on my own practically with trial and error... I'm really happy to be able to know how to do it right and get it stored away for winter, instead of bumming it from our parents!

My hubby is still feeling under the weather with a head/chest cold. I don't feel too bad, so hopefully my immune system is holding strong! (knocking on wood).

Almost looked like a plane was going to come in with how the weather looked this morning, but now it's gone back to crap. I doubt the planes in Dutch are landing either with this sideways blowing snow! Damn I think my mom and our storekeeper were scheduled to fly back today too... hmmmm....

I have to go back down to the store once it closes to get the paperwork done up and put away until Tuesday! Yay, at least I know for sure I can sleep in tomorrow and not have to worry about going anywhere!! :D We're going to just sit around the house, play the game, screw around online, watch tv and the pups and just relax at home! Hope eveyone is having a great weekend! TTFN

F/V Northwestern Pix

Figured I'd post some pix of the Northwestern when they were tendering for the F/V Karen Evich for herring season one year here in our harbor... I think the date was July 19, 2005... Hope you like :) Oh and in order to get some of these shots, I had to climb on the boat!



The F/V Northwestern tendering herring for the F/V Karen Evich in Akutan Harbor. Just out of view is the spotter plane parked and tied to the stern, you can just see the power skiff.

A Front view of the NW, back view of the KE. There is the spotter plane.

A little eye candy (for Kim), the handsome Edgar Hanson..

I had to get this shot! The life ring hanging by the shelter deck


My hubby standing with Edgar and another guy, watching the herring fill the tanks...


Herring coming aboard.