Halloween

I was a ringmaster cause my life is a circus!

 The night started late with dancing at Patrick and Zoya's house!

 The highlight of the night was the flame thrower Timmy made (and the dancing!)

 Moved on to Tony's for costume contest.

 This is really how everything looked after the beverages. I recall dancing with Timmy, and then "gracefully" falling into a nice leather chair on top of him at the end of the song.  We meant to do that, really.

 

Really, it was SUCH a fun night!  I think the most fun I've had in a long time. Seeing my friends dance to Gangnam Style, taking advantage of drunk men and making them dance at Tony's, the flame thrower (!!!), it was all good!  It was, dare I say, epic.

Me Birthday

 I feel so fortunate to know such awesome people!

 I had a very memorable birthday.  I feel very lucky.

 My two loves! Ok, three if you count Joey!!

All hands on deck!

Extreme highs and lows

 Enough rope to circle the earth - all trash. It's hard to tell how big the pile is - it extends all the way back and far far up!

 Weekend started out like any good weekend. Timmy and I drove out the road to look at a property for sale - a 10 foot by 30 foot rock that is about ready to fall in the ocean with no access, for $50,000.  Right.  Kind of a low being in a hopeless position of not being able to make our dream happen.
That night we went to the "country store", which is always an interesting experience. Retrieved some garbage bags, dish soap, and hangers out of a trailer, with everything still in it pretty much. Timmy of course acquired lots of stuff, like stainless steel whatever, and yadda yadda.

 Took Lou on an early morning walk followed by Abby's dance.

 

Also squeezed in cleaning up the Thelma C.  It was awesome to see everyone again, especially Brian. 

I smile from ear to ear when I get to spend time with him. He inspires me. He is such an enlightened human being.

That evening was the brewery and dance. Cache with Miso-Chorizo, Amy's Chihuahua. Amy being Tomcat's new girlfriend, and Cache being Cache.

Where's Waldo again?! That's me and Brian on the front page of the paper dancing.  Brian had to leave early to catch the ferry. I only got two dances with him, but they were both awesome!

Stella and an SKS = good times.

 Timmy and I went out shooting the day after what is described below. We did a lot of things, just to feel alive I think.

Timmy and I are rather passionate about each other, and we can go from golden eggs to turds in nano seconds. We always talk it out and end up in a better place than we were. A particularly low point was punctuated by the death of a really cool cat.  Drummer boy dread lock Brandon, lover of Rush, was hit and killed by a car in Anchorage. What are the odds?  What are the odds that not only did this tragedy happen, but it was a co-worker of mine who was visiting Anchorage who first came upon the scene and called 911, not even knowing it was Brandon until the next day. I am still digesting this. I cannot imagine how she feels.

Although I did not know him very well, I knew him. We hung out a few times. One time when I was down, he cheered me up. We sat at Tony's and made clay ears for a bust of Judge Roy Madsen someone was making. Random I know. We had a good talk. He talked about going to the birth of his niece, and it makes me really sad to know that his niece will not ever get to know him.  A lot of people are going to miss him. 

Sitka - the rest

I can ASSURE you the conference was not all whale watching and going to the P-bar, Sitka's "dive" bar. Ironically, if it was in Kodiak, it would be Kodiak's nicest bar!

 Me with a Bruker Tracer - aka Star Trek tricorder. Mr. Kaiser and his partner spent 17 million developing this machine. It tells you the elemental composition of an object using light!  I learned a lot about photons, electron volts, and the periodic chart.  It was not a trickle of information he shared, but a firehose! What can you do with this you may ask, well duh, how did the Treky's use it?

It was a busy conference. Sessions were back to back and it was a lot to absorb!  For this blog's purpose, pics of people sitting around are not very interesting.  There were some really good sessions. Scott Carrlee's session Strengthening Interpretation through Compelling Stories was amazing - not just a session of presenters presenting. He showed a video, had group exercises, etc.  It was really engaging, and for me taught me a lot about how to interest people in your message.

I also got to see others collections and spaces, which is always a learning experience. This is actually in the NPS managed (Russian) Bishop's house, in which there was a chapel.

This just made my heart ooze - a mother's love for her child.

Funny - we have this same late 19th century bottle in our collections. The above from excavated from the Bishop house site, and ours was recovered (miraculously unbroken) when human remains where being reburied on Afognak a few years ago.  Kentucky whiskey got around!

The Sitka Tribe's Sbeet'ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi community house, which is used for cultural events, community events, guest performances, City and Bor­ough meetings, Tribal Council meetings, Naa Kahidi Dance practices and performances, graduations, weddings, and funerals. The floor where I was sitting is recessed and the floor opens up for a fire.  The ceiling opens for venting.  

Mt Edgecumbe gym - such a nice facility in an old WWII hanger.  Mt. Edgecumbe hosts high school students from all over the state.

I have lots of pictures of a harbor just because I had to walk past it daily to get to the dorm housing I was staying in. The only reason I got to go to the conference was that my benefactor, aka a very generous co-worker donated airline miles, I was awarded a scholarship, work paid for the registration, and I stayed in a $25 a night shared room!

Yep - sculptures in the harbor, covered picnic areas, and restrooms not with transients!

Sitka day 1

 "What?!" you just said to yourself as you saw the above photo.  "Yes", I reply, this is Sitka. This is where I spent my first day during the Museums Alaska / Alaska Historical Society annual meeting.  I left in just the nick of time (flights after that were cancelled for days) and made it there to participate in the Angels project - where museum professionals volunteer at another museum.  It just happened this museum had some offsite storage at a re-purposed pulp mill. 

 It was freaky at first, but then I realized this is just the space that Kodiak so desperately needs.

 In this part someone is making paper. In another space someone was tanning furs...Kodiak artists sooooo need a multipurpose shared space like this!

 The doggie who loved us being there!

We finished with enough time to go see the Sheldon Jackson Museum and a little bit of evening to walk around Sitka.

Amazing fish skin pouches!

 I went to this old cemetery in the woods. Very cool.

 Most of the graves are all sunken in, leaning every which direction!

 Then, a beautiful sunset with a magic rainbow, followed by an awesome meal at a little cafe pictured in the lower right. Sitka too has "a bridge" just like Kodiak!

 This is Castle Hill, as in the Castle Hill with which ceramics I am familiar as we use the archaeological report from the site to identify archaeological ceramics from Kodiak.  I did not realize that this is "the Castle Hill" till the next day!

This is the cafe I loved - The Larkspur! One night they served (it may sound gross, but so delicious) coconut curry popcorn and we watched The Birds! It was awesome. Fond memory - two of my favorites - popcorn the Hitchcock. 

Overall, Sitka is ridiculously clean and organized. Even the canneries stack everything neatly.  It's weird! I just thought many places in Alaska look like Kodiak!  How wrong I was. Sitka is literally the nicest place I have ever been.  I didn't realize how much I liked Kodiak's bawdiness though! Sitka felt weird - sculptures in the harbor, designated bike racks, nice signage around town, heck, nice buildings! Crazy.

 

 

The only real bummer about Sitka is that there are no beaches!  Kodiak has such awesome beaches - so many, so close, and sandy!  It's a cold Hawaii, and really, the beaches in Kodiak are better!