Hey, lookie there

It snowed yesterday! I guess it doesn't seem particularly early for snow, considering it's already been snowing back in Wisconsin, and I do remember a few "white Halloweens" from my childhood. What is starting to feel a little strange is how short the days are getting. We're losing arond 5 minutes of daylight a day, and the sun's coming up around 10am and setting around 7pm. It's stange to wake up after Sara's already left for work, and have it still pitch dark outside. Though it is nice not to have it still light out at 10:30 or 11 at night. Makes it hard to get to bed at a decent hour, that's for sure.

Anyways, just wanted to post a picture of the snow :-)

Moderately productive, as weekends go

I'm in at school, playing online while Sara does her Sunday evening lesson planning, so here are a few pictures from this weekend as long as I have a couple minutes...


Christina and Carey were both in Bethel Friday night, so we had Bailey over for a little bit of dogsitting/playtime with Loki. This shot just happened to catch them in a fairly, um, playful moment. They look downright evil, don't they? I think it's the red background. But don't worry, they're still friends...


See, I told you...still buddies. So they hung out and wrestled and slobbered on one another most of the night. A little the next day as well. As for Sara and I, we were on call to help pick people up from the airport. Which was good, because I had yet to really drive the school boat (mostly because I'm a chicken, and have far, far too little experience driving boats considering where I was born and raised), and this was the necessary push I needed to get me comfortable behind the wheel of the thing.


See? That's me, driving. Not a big deal, I know. But I got over that little hump of actually *doing it*, you know? And you know what? Pretty easy. And fun, too.

Oh, and we finally built shelves yesterday, too. No pictures of them yet ('cuz really, how interesting is that? Just shelves on a wall), but they turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. We had gotten the materials in Bethel way back when and had been basically waiting to get up the motivation to get into the woodshop and get them done, and for some reason inspiration struck Saturday. Now that they're done, I'm looking for a new project already...thinking about turning an old door that's just sitting off its hinges in out apartment into a table...or an island in the kitchen...or into fold-up counter space....or we'll see ;-)

And oh, before I forget, I have a link to post, too. Here's a story I found linked on Drudge from the L.A. Times, regarding the possibilities of bird flu migrating from Asia into Alaska through the villages in this area of the state. Interesting stuff, but mostly I'm posting it because it's a national article about this area, with pictures and descriptions done by, you know, an actual, professional writer-type person.

Takedowns and tickets

Well, hello there. How's it going? Yes, I know it's been over a week. Sorry 'bout that. Let's see, what's been up lately?

Well, first let me explain this picture you see to the left. Last weekend Nunapitchuk hosted a wrestling tournament. Very cool. Wrestlers and their coaches flew in from various villages (and Bethel, of course) for the two-day event, stayed in classrooms at the school, had a good time, and...oh yeah...wrestled. Now, I've never been a huge fan of wrestling. Unless you count the period of time back when I was, oh, in elementary school, when my brother and I watched professional wrestling (ah, the glory days of the Junkyard Dog and the Bushwackers). But anyways, yeah, honest-to-goodness wrestling never appealed to me. Maybe it was the unitards, maybe the sweaty, groping dudes. I don't know. But in the short time I was there on Saturday afternoon watching the kids' matches, I have to say...very cool. It was neat to see some of the kids who are, how shall I put this...not the most behaved, engaged students...really doing something they enjoy, being intense, caring about something. I dunno, I might put sports on a slightly higher plane than some, but to me it's about more than phy-ed and an excuse to travel on weekends, you know? Plus, watching matches that I actually cared about (considering I knew some of the kids from subbing), I was able to really get into them, and as such started to understand the rules and the scoring, etc. More interesting sport then I previously thought, I'll give it that.

Anyways, another reason it was cool was that it brought a lot of people in to town that Sara hadn't seen in a while, and others we had seen recently but that it's always good to see. Some of the wrestlers from Quinhagak (the village she was in the last 2 years) were students of hers, so she got to see them again, which I know she enjoyed. Huzzah.

Let's see, what else? Oh, we got our tickets mostly taken care of for getting back to Wisconsin for the holidays. It's going to be an adventure, of course...but it always is, I guess, so at least we know what to expect. I'll be flying back a little early with the dog, to save both a little cash and a little headache that would ensue with both of us traveling, with Loki, a day or two before Christmas. This way, we figure, I can deal with the dog and not be rushed (in case weather causes problems for dog-flight), and Sara can hop on whatever plane is going the right direction without worry about such issues, seeing as the earliest she can possibly get out of here is the 22nd. Like I said, it'll be an adventure, but hey...that's how it goes.

Other than that, not much to report from the not-yet-frozen tundra. Days are getting noticeably shorter, but no sticking snow so far. Don't worry, pictures of Loki romping through the white stuff are surely not far away...

ESPN Article

Okay, I can't remember if I posted this when they ran part one (and right now I'm too lazy to go back and check), but here's part two of an ESPN story on the Barrow Highschool football team. Pretty sweet.

A thousand words...

Yeah, don't really have much to post, so I thought I'd share some pictures. It started snowing last night and into today, but if what I hear is true, it's doing the same in Wisconsin this week, so we're really not all that ahead of the curve. Just wait a few months, though...I have a feeling I'll have some good winter pictures and stories by then!

Anyways, to the pictures:

Here's one I just liked, taken while walking the "long way" home from school one evening. Sun setting over the village and all, I just thought it was a nice shot.


If you'll humor my "outdoorsman" fantasies, here's one of me from last week, taken while we were out fishing. I've been taking my shotgun along in case any ducks or geese decided to fly too close for their own good. Mind you, I've gotten exactly zero so far in the few times I've been out, but I just felt it necessary to pose a bit for this picture considering I am, you know, in Alaska and everything.

Here's an obligatory picture of Loki, demonstrating one of his newly aquired hobbies...climbing on top of the couches like a mountain goat. He doesn't really do anything onced he's up there, just looks around and comes back down, but I think he's really just testing our limits and seeing what we'll let him get away with. Sara says his recent...excitement...is normal, "puppy adolecence", but I'm starting to wonder if he's not just slightly retarded.

And! As a special bonus (lucky, lucky you), here's a link to a video of what happens when you purchase neoprene boots for your dog to protect his paws from the ice and snow when it gets to be real, honest-to-goodness winter in Alaska...and you try to put them on him for the first time. It's not that he hates them, so much, as it is that he doesn't know what the heck is going on. Sorry about the goonish laughter from behind the camera, days can be long and entertainment is at a premiuim. That, or I'm just going a little crazy up here. You can decide.

Randomness

Hey there! Not much of a post here, sorry about that. Much of my week has consisted of watching my teams lose...The Packers got blown out in the second half Monday night (and the next day released Ahmad Carroll, thank god), and then the Twins have played flat and lost their first two ALDS game the last couple of mornings. I'm the kiss-of-death as a fan. I'm aware of this. It's how it works.

Anywho, here's a picture from last weekend before all the losing started! Peter, Jenny, Sara and I went out fishing Saturday evening. We weren't out long, as we had gotten out pretty late, but it was a good time despite the wind and rain. Ran into some kids that were out hunting and chatted a while and got some tips on spots to try later, and had another bit of excitement involving the river and a finicky motor. Everything was fine, but I'll admit to a brief moment of thinking "here we go again..."

Otherwise, all's well here. Sara and I went on a bit of an online shopping spree the other night. Nothing extravagant mind you, all entirely necessary and reasonable purchases (well, ok...maybe the Twins Division Championship shirt was a bit of overkill), but it does make for a daily dose of excitement while walking to the postoffice. Between Amazon, Target, Cabelas, MLB.com, and others, the odds of each day being a little like Christmas rise quite nicely. And opening that PO box and seeing that little yellow ticket is always a highlight of the day.

Oh, in other news...looked at the forecast yesterday, and supposedly there's a chance of getting snow in the next couple of days! Woohoo!

And, it's PFD day! :-)