Glass Beach!

My treasures after 3 walks on "glass beach" My secret --bring lots of teens and the occasional tween to help spot glass!
I'm just not sure this was a great idea, but he felt the need to do it and survived (whew!) He climbed up the hill, ran over and climbed down by the vehicle...only about a minute later than when we got there after following the path around the base --I'm impressed.
This kid loves picking up random dead creatures! That is a huge hermit crab!
AG, Manderzz & ABob sifting the rocks for glass...we ran out of beach, but didn't want to leave, it was sunny!
Dills found a marble...it's new. Someone must've had extra ones that ended up in the ocean?? Jsut guessing...
Ohhhh this seaweed is going to smell bad when it starts to rot!! YUK!!!!! I bet there is a lot of glass under all of that though...

I did deduct which beach "Glass Beach" was...the only one I'd never been too! It's so fun I walked there three times in 2 days this weekend. It was decent-enough weather on Saturday evening with CB. But WONDERFUL on Sunday when we went with AG and then with CB too....4 hours of beach time in one day! It was 62 degrees with barely a breeze....probably the best day of the summer.
It's drizzly tonight, and feels like a Monday (blah!) But I did play cribbage with Jr and PT...PT won, that's OK, I won SORRY on Friday night when my husband popped in for 28 hours -- I NEVER win games!! I'll be happy for years :)
They came back from patrol, then he headed out moose hunting.

Beware Thifty or Dollar Rent a Car in ANC

It's me..and Heder...we've been posing for 26 years now...hmmm you'd think we'd tire of it --nope!
HB & SB...he found us at the airport, helped with my bags and said goodbye -- I swore I'd be up at 3:30 or 4am to say bye, but Heder and I were up past midnight visiting.
HD looking cute cute cute with a Penguin
Huge zucchini and rhubarb from their garden to take home with me!
I don't know much about gardening...but that rhubarb looks impressive to me!
Just not right, Anchorage is usually gorgeous in August.
A complete deluge, we hardly ever see rain like this.

I won't even say anything about PenAir...I'm sure they have perfectly legitimate reasons for making me sit around the airport for hours...then taking just 23 passengers and no luggage! Hello!!! Tell me there isn't a chance of me getting out early and let me go home and see my family, maybe do something constructive --or not. But no....they tell me to wait. Then do they even say ANYTHING after the flight goes..NO! I had to go back up to the counter and try to be nice.
So, I didn't get out one flight early to make it to ANC at a decent hour. I left at 4pm got there at 7. Waited in line for over an hour in the Thrifty Car Rental line to be told that there is no longer a car available for me. (I really didn't think trying to go one flight earlier would be such a hassle!) I was over 2 hours late, ANYONE over 2 hours late simply will not get their car. The customer in front of me was on military orders, he was delayed due to weather, they didn't budge. Flights are so RARELY delayed in Alaska, this is a great new rule --NOT! The ever-so bored, but fairly polite agent said to call if I'm goign to be later, not sure if that means call Anchorage or the 800#??
It was raining so hard it was difficult to see while driving, that is weird Anchorage is generally so much nicer than Unalaska...but it was nice on Monday and Tuesday.
I had to have Heder run out to get me, I love Heder, she is so good to me, always! I ate a small portion of caribu steak --told her I don't eat steak. OMG...was it because I was starved or was it just that good?? It was chicken fried and was better than moose...sorry T. Go out to Adak, get some caribu! Her husbad is an amazing cook. I'm going to make some of our moose steak the same way tomorrow --except Dills will have gluten-free flour. The kids are jealous that I had steak made that way...they're definately carnivores (Dills and Manderzz...not Jr. all I see him eat is Life cereal)

Happy Birthday To Me....

That cake is just too bright! They need to quite counting out candles.
Jr and Manderzz made me a chocolate cake from scratch! Can anyone read the words?
I just had one, it was my birthday! that's going to last me years of visits to Heder. Thanks EEEEEEE, vanilla vodka is handy.
My adorable gifts from HD & MB!!!

Heder made a yummy pineapple-upside down cake, I haven't had that in YEARS!! Soooo delicious!
SB made one of my many delicious meals he makes --shrimp fettuccine --not what someone who was told they need to eat less, exercise more needs to eat, but I had a bit. They even caught the shrimp themselves!

My Mom and Sister had a bunch of gifts for me from last year (long story...) so we had a little party in Wrangell before coming home, we had a little dinner with a couple friends right before the boat left. Then I went to Anchorage for less than 40 hours over my birthday to find out my thyroid is still not working very well, but it's slowly improving. And I've gained A TON of weight since May 1st hooray for that.
Heather and family made it a great day after all. I had a delicious dinner (just a bit), a light beverage and a tiny sniglet of the yummy pineapple upside down cake. Ohh I saw the latest Harry Potter movie in the theater after my appointments...that's the 1st Harry Potter movie I've seen in a theater. I did see #1 on a big screen in a gym, but that doesn't count, the sounds was AWFUL.
Thanks everyone for spoiling me!!

That's Just INSANE!!! Bad AK Ship Supply.

My buddy AG bought some trail mix at Alaska Ship Supply before we went camping a couple weekends ago, she didn't notice the price until after she'd paid. $26 for a bag of trail mix!! We thought $15 sounded more reasonable.

I was at Costco on Monday I found the same exact bag for $11.59 I'm not even sure of the math... a 220% mark up? I still think $15 sounds reasonable, that's 30% more than Costco in Anchorage and you know it came from Seattle not Anchorage, so was even cheaper...ughhh!!!!

I Thought I Had a Quiet Day Planned....

Dills is quite the host --found lots of food for the girls and made the fire too! Nice way to spend the last weekend night of summer vacation!
They ate s'mores before the regular food...I was on the phone didn't even notice until afterward.
All we got...we usually get several gallons of salmonberries every August.
I'm so curious...what is behind the ginornous (10ft?) locked doors??? Probably nothing lol.
I've never noticed this weird bunko/parking area with locked doors on one side at Little South America.
CB found the largest piece of sea glass ever, it's gray the only color I admitted to NOT having..and YES he's extremely smug about it.
Date night!
They're awesome singers....I should've recorded it...ohh that's just mean, I wouldn't do that!
Look it's Chef Jeff NOT making omelets!!
Ohhhh why can't we find gallons and gallons of these?? We love the smoothies and won't have any this year.
CB deep in the bushes on Ballyhoo.
A fishing vessel and the runway from Ballyhoo.

I thought it'd be a great day to get some projects completed around the house --ha! I dropped Dills off at swimming practice, picked him up, ran 5 errands, ate Chinese food for lunch, attempted to find a good amount of salmonberries (failed, it just isn't a good year for berries.) we ended up looking for sea glass for a little while instead.... then the boys had friends over until 11pm.
I've got to check in for my flight to Anchorage in 2 1/2 hours...haven't even showered or packed. It's just 2 days I'll make it simple. Not even bringing a computer --really not even my mini. A couple magazines and a big book will be just fine! I need a break I think.

Our Regular Friday Night With Friends

Manderzz
All anyone is seeing of me at midnight is my feet. I'm sure I looked very tired and had some scary hair going on.
Dills...
Manderzz was entertaining the 10 year olds while the moms watched a movie.
AS fits Dills' Carhart suit --sooo cute for going in the skiff or working with dad outside.
Everyone was too hungry to look up!
It only cost me $12.50 on X-Box Live to get my car washed.

I slept for 3 hours after the picnic....was on the go from 5am until 3pm....only 10 hours, but I needed to rest my eyes...3 h ours later I woke up! Oops. I straightened up a bit and made dinner for my buddy AG and various kiddos. She had a super busy day (until 8pm) without a 3 hour nap.

We watched a cute movie then Dills made a little fire. It was so calm and warm, I've said it before....I love the month August!!

Our Yummiest Work Picnic...so far...

AS is always a crack-up...playing with one of those party blowers off of the cake.
The kids from the picnic and about every random kid at the park enjoying the sidewalk chalk we had for them.

Good 'ol Dills...we sent him to our house (just around the corner) for more hamburgers (AG's actually...thanks for sharing!)
It wouldn't be a party of AG didn't stop by!!

What would we have done without Ron who didn't complain about cooking meat for 45 and veggies burgers for 2 (guess which 2!)
Co-Workers and their families.
They got the Diet Coke table...live was so simple back when diet soda was "OK" to drink, now I feel terribly guilty.
Manderzz..there were too many people for her.
Wow! They're both smiling AND looking at the camera...that's the first time since Wrangell.
I see my mother posing like this LOL to help with the chins! Anyone notice how many different Camp Q hoodies I've aquired from the kids over the years??
Kathy is making sure she gets her fair share of Alena!'s honey-mustard-curry chicken wings, my portion too. No curry or anything with bones, skin, gristle or veins for me...EVER! (fish bones and skin don't count I can work around them!)
Fun stuff for the kids!
A cake, s'more fixings (the marshmallow sticks from Margarita are there too!) My delicious macaroni salad err. umm Marie's delicious macaroni salad that she graciously shared her recipe for. And a giant bowl of fruit with strawberry yogurt.
Cheese-crackers-doughnuts (?? they were gone)-deviled eggs (yum)-hummus and 3 kinds of chips. We chose jalapeño potato chips of course...Making the big decisions is FUN!

Our office always take one Friday afternoon off in August and have a picnic. Usually it's freezing cold! last year we were warming our hands on the coals!!
This year Alena! (remember her?? She USED TO blog...) and I got the food and each made a few dishes, everyone else was just treated to a nice afternoon. It was 61 (a scorcher here) and I don't remember any wind?? Thanks to Lillian's husband Ron for manning the bbq grill (we tried to get Jr to do it....no way, he DID have to start work at 2pm and would be working the BBQ at the Grand)
We invited the Head start employees too as they work for the same parent company as we do and Sonia too 'cause we miss her. OK, I do see her almost every day but not ALL DAY like when she was at the office with us.

Random thoughts 1) Yes they DO call me "Blondie" at work...and the patients referred to me as "the blond one" or "the blond girl" for a long time...I've been there 5 years now, most everyone knows my name, finally!
2) Anyone spot SP? He's fast-moving at the park!