Pretend working

I have a stock of photos of staff pretending to work. It's amazing how many requests we get for pics of us doing our daily tasks.

Here I am posing with a box I am particularly proud of.

I do not pretend work, in fact, I have been very busy the past few months. I know I don't write about work, but it's pretty much the only reason I am in Kodiak. It's surely not because of the weather! Working in a small museum is great, I get to do a lot. It also means I have a lot to do! Overall, it's all good. I manage the collections, yadda yadda, except, it's not just managing any ol'regular collection. First, what makes the Alutiiq Museum special is the fact that we are an archaeological repository, as our name implies. We do not own most of the collections, we are the steward. And we do a level of outreach and are involved in the Kodiak Is. communities, in fact the world, in ways that are not typical of most museums. I'll talk more about these things later. I have to start at the beginning....

I was originally hired to complete a two-year extremely comprehensive registration project: researching over 100 different plots of land to determine ownership, get legal paperwork from donors and lenders, complete loan agreements with native corporations, federal, state, municipal agencies, re-do a part of storage with adding more drawers (which of course meant I had to appropriately catalog, store and document those collections), enter coll. info into Past Perfect museum software, etc. In this process I also worked with our Dep. Dir. to complete NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) Notices of Inventory Completion for human remains and funerary objects in our care (there's still a few left to do).

After my two-year project was up, they some how decided they could tolerate me and I continued to work on the project, but also worked on the formation of the Kodiak Alutiiq Repatriation Commission. While not very functional, it definitely has helped raise awareness about repatriation. One village submitted a repatriation request earlier this year, and three groups are working together to submit a joint claim, so yeah, Alutiiq ancestors are actually going to be reburied this year!!! I have been working on NAGPRA for three years, and I don't really want to work in a graveyard, so respectfully reburying these people is quite satisfying.

I'll write more about my work later. There is stil way more to brag about - because we rock! (I intend to fully prove this point.)

Surfing in the USA

I was hoping the Shawens and Abby and I would go out to Surfing Beach together before Jr. left, but Jr. was mad at me and Sr., well, was unmotivated by Jr. and my bickering. I decided then that Abby and I would go, or at least we would head out that way. I get there, Abby has just fallen asleep in the back finally(!), and as I pull into the parking area another car pulls in right behind me, a little on my ass. I pull over, stop, and plan on sitting there, letting Abby sleep for awhile. I am in no hurry.

The other car is blasting metal, I mean blasting (I didn't know Escorts has such loud speakers). This irritates me because I just drove an hour to get away from noise, but Abby seems to be sleeping well, so whatever. I sit there. The two occupants are very aware of my presence, and kind of try to hide their beer drinking, but then they figure they better check me out to make sure I am not calling the cops I guess (of course I have no cell and if people leave me alone then whatever), so the guy comes up and knocks on my window, wakes up Abby, and asks for food. I say ok, he goes away for a moment. They proceed to smoke something out of a pipe that is not pot. They scraped the bowl with a freakin animal butchering knife, which hello, this is Kodiak, but crap, I am thinking fuck do I just leave? But this is Kodiak, not a lot of bad things happen here, and while they are deranged, they seemed fairly harmless, and I am apparently stupidly stubborn.

Abby and I eat, the driver leaves, leaving the guy who knocked on my window there. Abby and I are eating in the car, and the guy comes back and says he'll give me a bottle of perfume if I give him food. I say ok to the food and tell him he doesn't have to give me the perfume, but he gives it to me anyway. He says he stole the perfume from his mom. Great. I give him him food, he asks for the perfume back so he can start a fire, and says some other weird things. He seems happy to get the food, and thus, I decide that we will stay.

Abby and I hit the beach, with all of my id and cards, work keys, etc. We play around on the beach for awhile, good fun. Low tide, not sunny, but fairly warm despite the occasional plop of raindrops on the head, and of course there's no one else out there.

We go back to the car. Expectedly, Abby has a wet sandy butt, so I want to change her diaper and pants. I see the guy heading back my way. Ahhh. I am racing to get her pants back on so I can get out of there! Her feet are wet, I am fumbling because I am trying to move fast, I get her in the car seat and there he is. He asks if I have any more food. He leans on my car (he is drunk and just can barely stand), but in my mind he is trapping me there. I firmly tell him I have to go. He finally stumbles away and I leave!

This is by no means a scary story for me, especially coming from Cincinnati, but something I would not expect on Kodiak, in the afternoon, at a remote beach!

Everybody is doing it.

If they haven't done it, they're doing it now, going on top of Pillar to see the wind turbines. Sorry, still not figured out why pics upload out of order, nor how to reorder them.

If you know me, then you know my house and work are there - just a stone throws away.

Looking towards Gibson Cove and the Base.

The Near Is. harbor Dog Bay.

The lens cover gets stuck, and sometimes I forget to open it manually.

Scale is definitely not captured here.

Not such good light for a pic of Abby and I, but shows scale.

My baby is cute

My baby is cute. My baby is cute! My baby is cute!!!

Sorry, but my baby IS cute!

One Year Later

One year later, or so. For some reason, pics upload out of order..... Here is Abby abo. 9 mos. at White Sands.

Here is Abby abo. 6 mos. at White Sands.

Here is the fam. two weeks ago at White Sands. In case you haven't heard Jr. is leaving. Means more work for me, but spending less $$!

Trying to put something up daddy's nose. She says "nose" now, and no.

Wow, big phallus atop Pillar. May not look big from the pics, but size is relative - it's huge!

That's it!

This is it.

I was researching Palau and when I read this on someone's' blog - "Saturday was another beautiful and sunny day." - I made up my mind. I want something like this in my future.

Ha ha, I'm in paradise and you're not! Well, not really, but it looks nice, eh? This is about 10pm btw.

It's finally Spring. Here's the proof. Keep in mind I was wearing long underoos on Monday.

Freaky thick fog rolled in the other night. It may not look so impressive in the pic, but I assure you it was neat.  It was all the talk the next day.

Wai Lana = kick my a$$ (women's special)

I have been doing yoga since about March.  On Sat. mornings (way before I wake up) is yoga with Wai Lana on PBS.  I tape it and have been doing it several days a week before lunch.  I LOVE IT! I really feel like I am shaping up, and boys, don't knock it until you try it.  Shawen was making fun of yoga and was playing around pretending to do "duck walking" and pulled his groin, so......

Anyway, the past four episodes have been pregnancy and after birth specials.  Boy, if I had just been doing those when I was preggers and after, I would be in much better shape.  I also would have been more equipped to give birth.  She concentrates on strengthening the pelvic floor, which is good for women anytime so I still have been doing the asanas, and she does the exercise where you squeeze the muscles down there in a way I can understand.  I read in numerous publications on how to do that, and although I kind of could, I would always forget, anyway, she just does these really great exercises in a manner safe for pregnant women.  I seriously highly recommend checking it out.  She actually makes me feel like gee, maybe I could do that birth thing.