Lucky's final hurrah

Well, Lucky is no more. I feel guilty as hell about. I know I probably should not, but technically he could have lived another 2 weeks, a month, don' t know, and I feel bad. But don't get sniffly too quick, he's not totally out of my life yet.

I really didn't know what to do with his remains. I have no idea where I would bury him. I doubt I would be successful in digging a deep hole on someone else's property as I do not even have a shovel. I used to just get my pets cremated. Silly perhaps, but that's my preferred disposal. So, on the island, this is not an option, unless you're rich. $150 and his ashes are dumped at the dump? $350 and you get him back. I then heard about a place in Anchorage, Harthaven. $35 for a group, and $95 for private, plus shipping. This seems fine to me, just have to ship him to Anchorage. Everyone assures me this is fine, people do this. So I call AK airlines to find out details. Blah blah blah no styrofoam, wait, no, that was he has to be in a styrofoam box, which I find out when I arrive at the airport.

Shit, were do I get a styrofoam lined box? After 6 phone calls, Island Seafoods has them. I go, get one that seems to be not really the best size, but that's all there is. I get home and go to put Lucky in the box, and he doesn't fit! I kind of push a little, no, he's not fitting. Are you kidding me?! What kind of bad sitcom is this?

So, he goes back to the vet's freezer. All of this on a day where I am (really, really) sick, Shawen yells at me, and Abby has the worst temper tantrum ever.

Correction, Lucky's group cremation in Kodiak is only $20. Sold!

Crab Fest entries

I DID IT, I DID IT, HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, a view like this.

Patrick often proudly shows me the pans he stitches together, where's there no seems, and I think they are really nice, but "I have done good pans before". However, as you can see here, maybe they aren't as easy as I recall. I didn't try stitching these because it would have taken forever! Kudos to Patrick and his nice pans. He takes the best pics of Kodiak.

She la-la'd and "sorted" clothes for twenty minutes or more. She started out with a very sweet high pitched la-la, but by this time she started using her mezzo instead of her soprano.

Make-up time

Abby's favorite new activity is painting "hake-up" on herself, and daddy when we can convince her (a better alternative to painting it on herself as she gets it everywhere!). Our neighbor gave her the Bratz make-up kit as a gift (appropriate name). I tried to put it away so she would forget about it until she was older, but no luck. One day I opened the closet and she saw it. That was it - hake-up or bust. She does not need it, but she loves it!

Uh, ok....mmm hmm.

15th

It's been a busy week, but next will be more hectic. This week I was interviewed on camera. That will be interesting to see later...urgh. It was also the museum's 15th b-day. I gave just three collections tours, but the people who do come in to see the collections are always impressed or even awestruck (I have my tour speech down!). They often ask me questions about myself, how long I have been here, and I got here and say what a cool job it is, and it is.

Funhouse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdjtqu3XK4U

"This museum full of ash, once a tickle, now a rash. This used to be a a funhouse, but now it's full of evil clowns."

MILF day

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Brag Board

Why does he cut off my feet? Oh, not paying attention, thinking of something else.

Don't mess with a Registrar who's got Badang in her pocket.

I tired to run away from Shawen when he wanted to take my pic, but you know, I'm kind of glad I indulged him. I am not trying for the brag board, it's just been awhile since certain people have seen me. Heck, it's been awhile since I've even seen my backside. Yes, that is my leaner bod and smoother skin in a leather trimmed skirt. I know I am not gorgeous, but later in life I will look back and say to myself, girl, you shouda flaunted it! So Abby girl, flaunt it! You ARE gorgeous.

Hey, at least she's using a spoon.

We had a visitor. Abby welcomed him with some stones. He totally fell for it. He was dinner (just kidding).

Lots (too much) yummy food over the weekend. Just some leftover tortillas with sugar and cinnamon, but after a hard day at the beach they were yummy. Shawen made some oh so delicioso tacos with all the fixins'.

Beach toys rock. Without them Abby's all over the place, running in circles, making mommy crazy, but with beach toys we sit in the sun and and make turtles and castles. The one good thing about Abby's 10:30pm bedtime is that we are out much later than the rest of the populace and we get to the beach to ourselves, well, us and the teenagers. It feels naughty being out late with a 2.5 year old - rebels are we!

Wow that's lots of beach crap. It was a three foot high pile of mucky, stinky, slimy rotting ocean stuff. It smelled so bad up top and covered the path down so thickly a lot of people decided not to venture down, but the smell was wafting up, so it was ok from the beach, and walking through it was in some weird way fun. "Ewwwww" said Abby.

Mental chaff III

I went to school for seven years to pursue a museum career. Not only do I have a Master's degree, which included a position working with UC's collections, but I also earned a Museum Studies Graduate Certificate. I left my family and friends, everything I knew and loved, to move here for a museum position, for a museum career......

You took it to a level you did not have to. It did not have to be that way.

That little motion she does with her fingers, so funny.

Abby's new pet

Move over Lucky and Venus, there's a new furry pet in the house.

Amelia Peabody again

I remembered something Nefret once said. “Is it wrong to care so much about someone that nothing else matters?” In the last extremity, when a loved one is at risk, nothing else matters. Certainly nothing so abstract as justice. It is, after all, a concept defined by men.

A woman who would accept meekly the rudeness to which he had subjected her was not a woman I could admire.

Not many new words:

Insouciant

Interpolate

Postprandial libation (oh that's funny)

Harbor Walking Tour

Above is the Kilkenny, an old wood scallop boat. Not many boats are green. I guess it's a bad luck boat color or some such. And why is the bathroom called "the head"?

On my lunch break I went to the Whale Fest harbor walking tour. It ended up being a boat tour of the harbor thanks to Marty Owen! How cool. I had always longingly looked at Sea Breeze, with its stately looking wood, thinking it would fun to take a tour on it. The boat also functions as Galley Gourmet's dinner cruise, which I have always thought about going on, and perhaps that's something that my parents and us can do this summer when they visit!

Qunukamken unguwatemnek - I love you from my heart

Whale Fest entries, last year's leftovers.

Beach find du jour.

This one sold first day of show. It's a different one, same technique, made at the same time. I like low bowls, but recent ones are more vertical so decoration will be more visible. Also have made pieces more three-dimensional. Check it out at Crab Fest, I hope.

One of my Gothic pimp cups, unrelated, just throwing it in.

I found out today that my friend has cancer. Of all the people on Earth, she doesn't deserve it. Constantly upbeat and inwardly decent and nice, it doesn't seem fair.

It makes moments like those pictured above (like just hanging out at the beach with Abby and Shawen) seem oh so much more special, and makes other people and other things seem so much more trite and shallow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3XZH6UIsE8

Nice lil' ditty.

Just turn your head.

Grooooove.

What a laugh.

Mill Bay beach, birthday party, bittersweet

Abby wanted in on the action.

Had to give the gift to its rightful recipient.

Jumping fun!

Playing doctor.

Shy.

Little hands.

Hard to get picture with squirming daughter.

At church, the sermon was about mountain top experiences, the experiences when you feel most spiritual. The first thought that popped in my head is when Gideon and I were in Hocking Hills, high up on a the ridge of a gorge, sitting in the sun, panting from hiking up there, endorphins running through us. It was very beautiful, and we were happy. So, being free to relax in the sun with those I love.....

On Sunday, Shawen dropped me off at Mill Bay beach while he and Abby went to the video store. At 9pm it was still light out, but getting dark. The waves were big and foamy, a dark charcoal, with higlights of aqua and orange as the sun was still hitting a giant cloud, which reflected on the water. There should be a disclosure like there is on mirrors, the waves appear much bigger when on the beach - a little intimidating. Just the four inches of foam that brushed my feet had some serious power to it. The south section of beach that was once rocky is totally sandy and smooth. All the rocks were pushed up against the "rock house" as Abby's calls in, into a huge five foot high pile. There were chunks of logs wedged in between and under boulders, and rocks I used to sit on are just gone - moved or buried. Monday morning it was way warmer and sunny! The huge rock pile is gone and some new rocks are exposed, but for the most part it's the same ol' beach, but still impressive to see the effects of the waves.

While my visits to Mill Bay beach were exciting, and reminded me of the forces at work, sometimes it's the little things, like going to a birthday party, going to the playground, or just reading books where I find I am content. Abby has fun, and I have fun. Watching Ni Hao Kai Lan, the same show where Rintoo wouldn't forgive Tully, the focus was "think of what you can do, not what you can't do". And although I did all the things I can do, and was content at the time, I find myself still being bitter and sad. I don't understand what I did that is so unforgivable.

Yo yo yo, Grumpy is name and fussing is my game.  

It's been a week.  A week of feeling like I have a weight pressing on my chest. But this blog is supposed to be about......  

My cat! Well, he's still kickin', but I can see him starting to slow down, so his time in near.  Soon enough I will no longer hear his impetuous mewing, but will be inflicted with his white shed fur forever.

Still looking for trouble.

Kodiak - holy cow, it's Spring?! Not warm, but light out all the hours I am awake. I enjoy hearing the seagulls squawk as they hover over the channel.  Kodiak is quiet when the wind isn't blowing.  I can hear someone's footsteps a block away (a form of measurement of someone who obviously grew up in the city).  The cool air feels good on my face, but I still need gloves and a scarf.  Abby and I have hit the playground twice already.  She loves it, and screams and kicks when we leave.

Abby is amazing.  So bella, and so hyper.

Do I need a caption for this?! 

 Perhaps you can come up with something funny....

Although the problem with niceties from Shawen is that I have to take them with a grain of salt.  For example, he took care of Abby for four days when she was sick, and I only had to take off one day of work, and that's great, but he doesn't give me poopery (pottery) time and can be a little disagreeable sometimes when I have a problem (e.g. my back hurts and I'm tured - ha ha freudian -when I'm a turd, I think I meant tired, same thing)  Too selfish am I? Probably. But the thing with pottery, is that I am actually pretty good at it and am FINALLY producing work to exhibit, and it's no totally selfish, I am making a few urns.  (Shawen later added something like - I am selfish, I am a mom, and I complain about "self" time too much. He later semi-retracted and apologized, sort of).

On the other hand, no pottery tonight, but plenty of Abby, who talks up a freakin storm - literally does not stop talking it seems - "oh my goodness" (so funny the way she says that).  She has learned sooooo much lately.  She knows shapes, with just a little trouble with rectangle.  She knows more new words than I can possibly jot down.  Tonight I managed to trim her fingernails and paint them metallic pink.

Shawen called me from Anchorage (he had to go to a specialist), and said he just called to say hi. He said that I have timeshares in his head, with entire condo complexes, and the time came and he thought of me.

Accreditation work complete!!! Well, sort of, the writing and number crunching is done, it may have to be redone later if we are not accredited, but happy to be done with it for now!  And Alutiiq ancestors are being returned to villages to be reburied. Yeah. Maybe I won't work in a room with the deceased one day.

Watching that movie made me think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbs64GvGgPU

In the Swedish film Fanny and Alexander (I think I got the title wrong in the previous entry), it starts out at Christmas, 1906 or 1907, with of course candlelit trees.  Lighting Christmas trees with candles would obviously been the norm in 1907, and did you know it was the norm in the Howard household as well, that I grew up with candlelit Christmas trees?
In case you did not know, my parents were rehabbers and I grew up in historic homes.  The lovely Colonial Revival behemoth on the Park Dr. Boulevard was our home for most of my youth.  I am sure my mom could tell the story more accurately, but it was there we began this tradition. The man who lived in my mom's first Victorian rehab lit his trees with candles, and we likewise adopted this tradition.
Christmas trees look very different lit with candles.  Electric lights light from the inside out, where as candles light from the outside in. If you have never done this, I recommend it provided you fallow some basic rules:  The tree should be fresh and moist, you should have a fire extinguisher nearby and an appointed fire marshal, you should light from the top down, be careful not to place candles so low as they ignite dogs' tails, children, or flowing dresses, and turn out all the rest of the electric lights - it's just detracts - and enjoy.

Oh yes, and Happy Easter.