Hooligandays

Finally loaded some photos from the Holidays.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Turkey Day Ya'll

Sorry for the delay in updates, but not much has happened.

Work is work, nothing new to mention.

Marcie has been substituting when she can.  I think she has about 5 days out of 3 weeks so far...not the best situation but it helps.  She has fallen in love with one of the local schools here in Eagle River and they, of course, have fallen in love with her.  She found out she can't be a full-blown teacher for at least 3 months...she has to take and pass ANOTHER test before she can even be considered.  It's ridiculous.

Her mom came up for Thanksgiving.  She is here for 10 days (about 7 days too long).  She leaves on Monday.  She has done nothing but crossword puzzles and smoke cigarettes since she got here, oh, and complain about whatever we do.  Why come to Alaska to stay indoors and read newspapers? I just don't get it.

I volunteered to work the Great Alaskan Shootout this week.  It's a 5 day college basketgball tournament in which I work a couple of days (7 games).  I worked last night  and have to work Friday.  Not a bad gig, I got a nice new shirt/jacket and tournament pass just for keeping people out of where they are not supposed to be.  I got to sweep the basketball floor last night...highlight of my week.  For you Sooner fans...they got whooped by San Diego last night, HA!

The photo below is the snow we got last night...about 5 or 6 inches.

Hope you all have a good t-day and better black friday.  Remember, throwing elbows is allowed on Black Friday.

11/14/09

Some more pics.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween everyone.
We went to the Zoo Boo in Anchorage. We got spiffed up (well, not Marcie...she didn't have time) and went to the zoo to freak out the animals. There were a lot of kids there, mostly younguns under 10 years old, but it was fun. We saw our first wolverine, a pack of very large grey wolves eating rib cages, lots of owls, some eagles, yaks, musk ox, snow leopards, lynx, tiger, foxes of differing varieties, grizzly bear, sheep, caribou, giant bull moose, polar bear, seals, hawks and others. The strangest were the camels (huh?) and of course the rarely seen magpies and ravens...go figure. We got back to Eagle River around 7:00 and "trick-or-treated" until about 8:00 in 20-degree weather. The boys got a nice stash of booty. Here are some pics:

Tavyrn and stuff

Here are some pics of Tav and the cat and a table we bought when we first got here. We have since painted the edge of the table and Marcie is working on recovering and painting the chairs. When it's done, I will put more pictures in this album.



The snow is trying to fall...the snowline is visible at about 500' above our house but has yet to fall in town. Maybe tomorrow.

Marcie is upset with the whole educational system (me too, vicariously) as they keep making her jump through the paper hoops and basic lack of thoroughness on their part. She went on a field-trip with Tavyrn's class to see a play in Anchorage (Frankenstein). She is not impressed with the caliber of kid in Tav's sixth grade class, but we were very spoiled with the great kids in the Albany schools. Tav is good about weeding out the bad seeds and using his best judgement, so we don't worry too much about it, other than he may not have many friends. Bryer, on the other hand...:)

What else? I don't know. Gotta figure out what i am going to be for Halloween. Any ideas?
Snowman?

Oct. 27th

Hey all,
Went to Naknek, Alaska yesterday for work. Its roughly an hour flight from Anchorage to the southwest...on the eastern edge of the Bearing Sea. First established as fishing camps hundreds of years ago, it has since flourished as a fishing community, washed away by tsunamis, built back up, flourished again, and is recently suffering a downturn in their community. There are 3 communities in the area, 2 on the north side of the Neknak River and 1 on the south. There is no road across the river (3/4 mile wide) except in the winter when they can build an ice bridge, so the main mode of transpo is flight. This means they fly kids to school as well...creepy huh? So we went to look at the place. It's quite gorgeous...flat and wet, but I hear the fishing is outstanding.

Oct 18th a.m.

Here are the visitors we had in our yard this morning. We could have reached out and touched them, if we had any guts.