Ice Classic

Its March, spring is in the air, time for Winter Carnivals. If you want to experience some arctic fun then March is the time of year to come. The Fur Rondy is in Anchorage, Winter Carnival/Dog Days/International Ice Carving Festival in Fairbanks, the Iditarod, & the Nenana Ice Classic. I was at the later last weekend to bellydance. The Ice Classic is also called the Tripod Festival because they put this large tripod on the iced Tanana River. Then they run a line to a clock on the shore. When break-up happens, the tripod falls into the river, snaps the line & stops the clock. You buy tickets that have a date & time that you think the tripod will fall in. Whoever guesses the closest gets the kitty. I think that its been a warm winter, so I'm guessing April 27th.

The Tundra Caravan was hired to dance at the indoor part of the festival. So we drove down to Nenana for two shows. The first time we preformed after the "Crusty Carthart Competetion". Yuck!! After that we went to lunch. There's two restaurants in Nenana, the Rosewood Cafe & The Two-Choice Cafe.....if you're interested the two choices are pizza or hot dogs.

Here's a picture of Jessica, Liz & myself outside the hall. Its -28 degrees with a -61 degree windchill. Christ that's cold!

I took some amusing pictures of Nenana. They have a district court there....which is also the hair salon. Here's a picture of the snow cat repair shop/woodshop.

Update on the Vespa: Now that I don't have to spend every waking moment in the office, I have some time to work on the scooty. So I popped into the Alaska Fun Center for some gear oil. They sell snowmobies, atvs & such so I thought it might be a good chance. They didn't have non-detergent oil. Oh well- but then the clerk asked if there was anything else that I was looking for. Jokingly I asked if they had any Vespa parts. The guy went into the back & brought out two boxes of Vespa parts! They used to be a Vespa dealer 40 years ago. They stocked parts until the last owner left town. The two boxes were the last of the dealership....they sold to me for $20!

Miss you more than runaway Blitzen,
V

Subversive Origami

Its been a while since I last wrote. Mainly because I've been working between 14-21 hour days, everyday, for the last month. But, as of today, I'm done designing the body of the airport. Fourteen months of pure labor have been lifted off of my shoulders. Now I can work on the fun stuff like the sandbox in the airport. Last Spring they sent me to a couple of elementary schools to talk to children about what they thought the airport of the future would look like. Some of their ideas were brilliant like hover-craft suitcases. What they kept on mentioning was how important the dinosaur sandbox was in the greeter lobby. So I pitched an idea, the shareholders liked it & now I'm designing a playbox out of glass. That's the kind of things that I have to look forward to....all the ideas that I pulled out that I thought no one would let me do & now I have to figure out how the hell to do it:)



While I'm sitting at my drafting table for hours upon hours, I have a couple of distractions. One is the Origami-A-Day calendar. Each day or two has folding instructions & the backs of the sheets are coloured so you can use the sheet from the day before to fold with. The instructions for Presidents' Day used a dollar bill. Then came Fat Tuesday that was a half instruction that ended on Ash Wednesday. This was what I completed for Ash Wednesday-

Do you think that the creators of this calendar are making a statement about money & god?

This reminds me of my Yeats? He had an ongoing discussion about a unknown island in the South Pacific with a colleague. He had the 25th edition of an encyclopedia that reported about this island. His colleague's encyclopedia never reported such an island. So they went their seperate ways, periodically searching for evidence. In the end they discovered that the editor that year of the 25th edition of that encyclopedia was an athesist. He believed by adding one page in an encyclopedia of a fictional land was proving that anyone can play creator & disproving the existance of god.

So I still haven't slept....just wanted to share with you that status of my mind after 24 hours without sleep.

Miss you more than reading between the lines,
V

Valentine's Day Gift

Check out the awesome set my sister knitted for me! We have a matching hat, scarf & wrist-warmers (i.e. mitts). She came up with the patterns herself, attached an antique, Chinese coin to the end of the scarf & included gloves inside the mitts so I would know what they were. In one day, I've gotten so many complements on them. My coworkers were saying that I looked quite Alaskan & blurted "I'm that kind of Alaskan that not only kills but also skins their own Muppets."

Anyway- Way to go sis! And to think that the scarf that she knitted me a year ago had spaces in it. Makes me wish that I had bought her this book I saw on knitting called Dominknitrix-Whip Your Knitting Into Shape by Jennifer Stafford...there's a website to it at http://www.domiknitrix.com/.

I will not knit...I leave that repeative motion to my sister but I do appreciate it (especially because my wrists are nice & toasty now in my vintage, leopard fur jacket with 3/4 sleeves). She says that she can now knit socks, so I'm looking forward to some knee-high, bumble-bee socks. I used to have a pair that had bees with little arms that held onto the top of my tanker boots.

Miss you more than a muppet skin suit, Victoria

Cold Fusion

I'm an idot. Two weeks ago I got asked to audition for the local tribal fusion dance troupe called Cold Fusion. A night before hand, I must of channeled some teenage B-boy because attempted to do a corkscrew spin. I was supposed to kick my right leg out, swing it back kicking it into the back of my left knee, crumple down landing on the side of my right foot then spin up unwinding myself....I ate lineoleum in a way never done before. I showed up to the audition with a hyper-extended knee & seriously sore back only to find out that I was an automatic in & DIDN'T HAVE TO AUDITION!

The troupe consists of six awesome girls. We practice two days a week out in the mountains @ (get this) the Quaker Commune:) [Two of the girls rent cabins there.] Its all of these log cabins, with no water ofcourse, & a main house that they all eat their meals at. That first night I tried to hold it as long as I could but eventually I had to go to the outhouse. I almost didn't make it from laughter. There's no running water but there was motion activated lights up to & inside the outhouse! Inside it was a two seater which I didn't find romantic at all. Each hole had a pull out lid that prevents ice from forming & closing up the hole. I held my breath when I had to sit down only to be shocked that it wasn't cold. They had put insulated foam on the seat. Apparently you don't put toilet paper down the holes in Alaska but they have a can that you burn it in. When I returned the girls wanted to know how I liked the insulated foam.

They were also eager to get me joined up then so I could be part of the photoshoot on Sunday. The photoshoot was four hours of poses, followed by screams & running around in circles.This photoshoot will eternally be known as the coldest day of my life! This is a picture of me @ 4 degrees out, a few minutes before I have to take off the coat & pose on an ice sculpture of a polar bear with only the coin bra & fishnet covering me up. Oh, we got to wear our ear muffs:)

Crowns & their Bards

I almost didn't go to the Bard-a-thon this Sunday after I received a $170 parking ticket on Friday. Our office has been encouraging us to frequent the downtown retail, so I went to try out the 2nd Street Station for lunch. They only had three parking spots for this little place so I parked next to it, went inside BECAUSE IT WAS OPEN only to be told that they weren't serving food because the cook was sick. This is a restaurant so I didn't quite understand why anyone was there but there were a couple of tables of people drinking coffee & water. I walked out bewildered 5 minutes later to 2 parking tickets. One, a ticket for parking in someone elses lot (it wasn't a public lot) another because my season pass has expired. Apparently you don't have to do any registration or legal work on you cars in the summer up here but come November you have to get that taken care of. There was also a sticker on the tickets that said I had to pay the tickets in 5 days or the fines double! No chance for contesting in that little time.

I did go to the Bard-a-thon all the same. It was located in the Empress Theatre which is on 2nd Street up a flight of stairs. There were the tables all in a circle with the lights & the editions of Shakespeare. We read the Winter's Tale which said that it was a romance. In the first act the king was jealous of the queen's nice comments about the king of Bohemia so he thinks her unborn child is his & throws her in prison & askes his servant to kill the King of Bohemia. I had to stay around for Act II to see how this turns into a romance.

There weren't any men except a guy from New York that called in, so I ended up being the King of Bohemia. I told my coworker that he should of brought his teenage boys because there were a lot of teenage girls. Which brings up another debate that my friend Juliet & I are having....I believe that you cannot meet men any place that doesn't involve alcohol & she believes otherwise. So the Bard-a-thon is another point on myside of NON-hook-up joints. I brought this up with some local ladies. I put out the point that a Shakespeare reading has never been an occasion to meet men BUT where in Alaska do you meet guys socially? It is crawling with them! So they said that you have to get involved in what local men like to do......WHICH IS: hunting, fishing, skiing, snowmobiling & camping. (This came out of their mouths.) My question is then-- How does one female approach a man hunting in the forest? Because my mother never taught me how.

Anyway, I got a crown put in, my first. It was weird, the dental hygienist did get my lip stuck in the suction tube & sprayed powder adhesive across my face. The office was in a log cabin but like all dentists' offices it still looked like it was designed by Mr. Brady in the inside & hadn't been renovated since the '70s.

Miss you more than chewing gum,
V

The Week of January 20th

The sun returned to Barrow on Tuesday. They haven't had sun since November & now have one hour of sunlight a day. This made me think about the sun that lightly skips across the horizon at my office. This is a picture of the sun at 11 am out my office window & in my office. My office is up on the mezzanine so I have this view.

I know that his sounds gay but I just had my year review & I didn't get fired or get laid off. So I'm skipping across lilly pads right now.

I'm going to try to take some time out of the office this weekend. I might not even go in! Instead I think I'm going to try out the Bard-a-thon. Its put on by the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater @ Empress Theatre. The Bard-a-thon has been running from last Saturday to this Sunday--24 hours a day. That's about four plays a day.

You might be saying, wow, I didn't know there were that many Shakespearing actors in Alaska...well, there aren't. Whoever shows up gets a part & you act it without ever practicing or in my case, reading the play. I'm going to drop in at noon on Sunday for A Winter's Tale because they will be serving free hot chocolate:) If you want to join me you can call in& do a part via the phone. The number is 907-457-4511 or if you just want to listen, its going to be streamed @ http:/sc5.spacialnet.com:18086/listen.plo.

Next week: My first trip to an Alaskan dentist. My accountant brought back macadamia nuts from Hawaii & I cracked a tooth.

Japanese Ingenuity

I have to give a moment of silence for the passing of Momofuko Anno. The man invented Ramen noodles, & yes, they are carb packed, but his invention has kept poor, grad. students alive for many years. Most folks don't know there are recipes for ramen but check them out http://mattfischer.com/ramen/?cat=2. For those times that I lived off Ramen & peanut butter, this moment is for you.

Other things that I love from Japan are their magazines. Japanese magazines for an artist are like run-proof pantihose for women- they have everything, their perfect! It doesn't matter that I can't read Japanese because they have the main titles in English & little signs that help you decipher. What its about is the images & the thousand ideas that you can get from them. My favorite store to go shopping for them are at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Seattle. Itchy & I were pulling off the highway to go to Pike's Place Market for a savory crepe & there it was. I like to grab a boba tea, buy manga half-tone sheets, look at the male hair style magazines then off to the craft magazines. These are a hot commodity & you should snatch them up whenever you see them because they've tapped into something. I like the ones with dolls. Last time I was there I picked up Beans. Glad that I did because when I was hanging out with my friends they all had stuffed dolls. One girl bought a doll of a pork chop with eyes for $75! It must be catching on in the US because when I was in Barnes & Noble last week I saw a book called Plush-O-Rama: Curious Creatures for Immature Adults by Linda Kopp. It had some cute dolls with patterns. I giggled over the half eaten gingerbread dolls.

What I really go ga-ga over are Japanese fashion magazines. I completely rethought the way I designed paperdoll costumes after I picked up FRUITS. FRUITS is a magazine that this photographer started after he daily took pictures of the freaky hipsters that used to hang outside his office in the haruka district in Japan. I bugged my local library for a subscription because a copy only cost $2.45 in Japan. The subscription cost them $200 for a year.....I said thank you. BUT my favorite magazine is Gothic & Lolita Bible. Oh, I'm seriously deranged about this magazine. Not only is it run by a transvestite (Mana)that does a four page modeling in every issue, not only does it have recipes, not only does it have the latest clothing from the designers & maps to their stores, not only do they include a poster/button/patch/stickers/iron-on transfer in every issue, BUT the designers give you a design in every issue WITH THE PATTERN! It will show how to do your nails & how to style a wig & do your makeup. How awesome is that!To tell you how I'm inspired by this magazine, I looked at one of the posters of a ram human, came up with a the design, taught a class & got an article written in it in the Lifestyle section of the newspaper.
This is one of those glad to be in Alaska days. So yeah, its -45 degrees out there today, but the new shipment of Japanese magazines came in yesterday. I couldn't get those in Denver, my sister had to get them on her travels or I once left work early & stood in a line outside the Ramada behind a Cosplayer dressed like Pokemon to buy them at a NanDushiCon (like a Star Trek Convention but for japanese animation).

Respect the Japanese inventions but remember never get interested in J-Rock because the cds are $40 a pop & never eat the shrimp flavored Ramen..its wrong.

I'm going home to try to design a stainglass headband like this girl has:), V

A New Year

The holidays can be a very busy time of the year, even in a little town like Fairbanks. It didn't go below -20 degrees the entire month of December so people were out doing their shopping all over town.

Internet plays a big role in the holidays here but not as much as crafts do. It might be a hold over from the pre-computer/paved roads era or just an inner fiber of Fairbankans but everyone owns hand-made local goods. The best place to shop here is the Ornamentary for those things. Its a special place because its only open two times a year. Christmas & Easter. I went there to see what I can see & there were the goods that I saw in everyone elses house. I thought my mother would love the quilted, halibut pot holders but the lady in line infront of me got the last two.

Another big event is the Winter Solstice. Back in Denver, my friend Juliet & I would try to go to Red Rocks Amphlitheatre every year to watch the sun come up. I say try because most years it was a phonecall around 6am telling each other that one of us wasn't getting out of bed. This year I just looked out my window at the office around 11:25am to watch the sunrise. That's right, & sunset is around 3:30pm. [SIDE NOTE: I felt like a rock star yesterday. I slept in til 1pm, woke up, finished a movie & then made breakfast. I hope you can comprehend how cool I felt having breakfast at sunset. Rockstar!] Anyhow, winter solstice in Fairbanks is when we have fireworks, people exchange gifts & the local custom of launching FLBs. FLBs are Flying Laundry Bags. At the party, people go out side & launch laundry bags over wooden cages with candles inside & they fly off!

I ended up spending my holidays with my parents down in Florida. They helped me get some supplies. So I'm set on bellydancing costumes & grits for the rest of the year. We went to the beach & asian food. Plus we went to the Dry Tortugas on a catamaran. Wonderful masonry fort, warm sun & my first time snorkeling. Snorkeling is not easy if you are not a natural mouth breather. The ride back to Key West was hilarious. We had 10 ft swells so half of the people were puking off the back of the boat. Schmitz's have strong stomachs so when we arrived back in Key West we went to have Key Lime Margaritas & Dolphin Enchilatas.

Miss you more than saying I ate conch, V

Grieving over Brandon

Its been over three weeks since I returned from Denver. After a week of starring at the wall, I unzipped my suitcase to unpack. So its not a shock that it took me so long to blog about what has happened lately.
Tuesday, November 14th I received a call from Wayne that morning. He had been calling Brandon all Sunday without any answers. Monday, he called his work & he hadn't showed up. He went over to his house & the garage was unlocked. The window was rolled down, the battery spent & Brandon was dead in the front seats. This is what he told me that morning sitting infront of my computer at work.
Can anyone ever truely explain what you felt at a moment like that?
Brandon was the brother that I never had. Our dogs & art brought us together several years ago. There hasn't been a week since then that I hadn't seen him or talked with him on the phone. He was my partner @ the gallery, street painting buddy, a fan club of two for manga porn/pink squirrel milkshakes/stop-motion photography & warehouse mate...a constant compainon.
I tried hidding under the blankets with Itchy but the phone never stopped ringing as one person after another discovered about his death. I couldn't deal with it on my own in the Arctic. I flew back to Denver for his memorial. Lauri Lynx Murphy was my hero Friday night as she hung his art, had a band, and slide show. It came the time to talk on a microphone to this crowd. I wanted to tell his family, girlfriend, friends & admirers all the things secert/personal that I only knew about him to share how wonderful he was but instead I only said how much he admirered everyone in that room, that he's never said a single bad thing about anyone.
We cleaned out his house. I won't go into the difficultites of this but it was a changing moment for me. I was shocked how anyone can find good moments during this but there were moments.
My sister was fantastic during this time. We took a Bollywood dance class for her birthday. She threw me a surprise birthday party (well not such a surprise but it was a good thing that someone spilt the beans or I wouldn't of gone). It was good to see the friends that were there for me.
Since I got back I've been working everyday & weekend on the airport. I had my Arctic Engineering final exam. A dance performances. A company Christmas party that I ate muktuk (rancid whale meat). The regular holiday doldrums. Time hasn't healed the hurt. Brandon was one of those friends that I was planning growing old with. You can't fill that loss just carry on with a gap.

How NOT to move in the winter

Donna has been gone for a month & Tina finally got on that plane to Arkansas. Moving time has finally come. Everytime I move it seems to be a bigger transition than I expected. Its like you can't simply pack your boxes & move into a prearranged housing situation, right? The universe wants to shuffle a little variables around.

I had prearranged to move in with my new roommate, Ju Yeong. Great lady, great house, everything was supposed to be great. This first sign was that it started snowing the night before I was going to move in. Snow in the fall is different than the snow in the winter. Its rain that turns to ice once it touches the ground. So I'm trying to move up into the hills with roads like this. I get to the road right before Ju Yeong's house & I can't make it up this little hill. Not only can I not make it up the hill, I'm sliding out of control backwards.....to a ravine. I'm freaking out because I can't drive out of this, so I end up having to get a tow truck. I made one of those prayers that we all do in situations like this. "Please, if I get out of this alive I'll get snow tires put on tomorrow." That was sign number one...well, maybe sign one should of been my truck's topper unablity to keep the bed door up. Its never pleasant to climb in the bed of a truck, have the lid fall down & dump a pile of snow down the back of your pants. I might just invest in a stick to hold that lid up so that never happens again.

Now I have not only studded tires BUT an engine block heater, battery blanket, & oil pan heater. I'm completely winterized.

Sign number two was when Ju Yeong emailed me Wednesday that her family was coming to stay for six months & I would have to find some place else to live.....in less than a week! Oh Crumbs! Ju Yeong thought she was helping me out by introducing me to a friend of her's that had a 300 SF apartment for rent. I was freaking out until a coworker gave me the number of landlord of College Manor. This place for the jet set of Fairbanks; allows dogs, flexible leases, radiant heat floors, dishwasher, no roommate & the best part....a heated garage. Call me Mrs. Jefferson because I am moving on up!

So I was able to relax a little. Take my time in cleaning up the old house, which is different because I have to do things like fill the fuel oil tank before I go. But Saturday night I went out to the Blue Loon for a Halloween party. I must say that Leg Avenue is a wonderful company but their new halloween costumes make idiots out of women. It was 20 degrees waiting in line to get in & women were standing there without coats in their naughty cops outfits ready to drop. I stood next to the shits that were quite warm in their outhouse, hot shit & holy shit costumes.

I'm quite excited about my new place & the garage. I had a coworker help me move the scooter in & said that I could bill my garage as the "Farthest North Vespa Service Station". I replied that also when I'm bored during the winter it will become the "Farthest North Roller Rink."

Miss you more than having something to do on my birthday,
Victoria

Dance in those pants but not the top

Alaska Public Radio is doing its fund raising this week so I changed my channel. The weather broadcast was on of, '20 degrees with a chance of rain & maybe that four letter word that begins with an S.".....but who has time for the weather report. I have get my butt moving packing up the house & winterizing the truck. My calendar is full this week. I'm up to three dance classes a week & three days of dance practice. One evening of arctic engineering......one day to get everything else done.
I've been dancing so much because of all the upcoming performances. Being a rockette of the North is tasking. Tomorrow I have two performances. Friendship day & Haflaween. Then its Diwali, the Indian new years. That community will have their celebration in the beginning of November where I'll dance my first Odissi Dance. I'm so nervous. My costume arrived from India yesterday. The bottom is the right size but the top only fits on Itchy. The costume looks like so & if you know anyone that sells parts let me know. The only mail service in India is DHL & it takes awhile.

Movin' on up

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My parents were in Fairbanks last week staying with me. It was wonderful! I've never had anyone come visit me before so the excitement wore me out. I bought food & a bed..things that I don't normally do. The food was simple, not the bed. We have one sole furniture store; they wanted $900 for a double. The only other place is the grocery store & that was the same. I thought that Sears would have but it was 'we can order it & it will be here in 2-3 weeks.' (That's what everyone says if you can't find something in a store.) Luckily I found a wholesaler that had reasonable prices.
While my parents were here we went cranberry picking, driving to the pipeline, swimming in the hot springs & most importantly...bringing home the Vespa. My Mum lovingly cleaned it then we hauled it down a flight of stairs into the basement so I could work on it during the winter.
We had to take the doors off & tie ropes around ourselves to lower it down..quite the ordeal. When the cowl came off to look at the engine, it looked like 50% engine & 50% black, electrical tape. This is going to be an adventure.
Towards the end of the week my new roommate of a month found out that her job wasn't going to work out & was going to move back to Anchorage- that weekend. If my parents didn't worry enough about me already. Luckily my old roommate came to the rescue & hooked me up with Ju Yeong. I'll be moving in with her at the end of October. So we had to haul the scooter back up the stairs! Ju Yeong is wonderful & she has a heated garage:)
My parents returned back to Denver Saturday morning. I spent the weekend in a bellydance workshop with the amazing Morocco. Morocco is one of the mothers of American Bellydancing. She's been dancing professionally for 47 years. I first balked at her schedule because she was going to have us dancing 6 hours a day. Then I found out that she was 67 & didn't worry about it. How wrong I was?! At the end of the first day I was icing my joints & soaking in a bath. I was even more impressed when she went on to perform in the hafla that night. It was a special night because I got introduced to the community. I auditioned for the professional dance troupe a couple weeks ago & got in. I've never auditioned for anything before & there I was being appaluded while receiving flowers. It was so surreal that I was waitig for the blood to dump on my head like in Carrie.
Miss you more than the all the furniture my roommate took with her,
Victoria

Rejected from High School

Fall doesn't start in Fairbanks until the Tanana Valley Fair. With perfect timing, the day the fair opens it starts raining. It hasn't stopped for weeks. I asked when it would stop & cringed to the response. "It doesn't, it just turns into snow."

The fair was different. Everyone was excited about the rides & the food. There were gyros! $10 to get in to just for Greek food. Atleast I got in for free. I was helping out the Interior AIDS Assoc. by giving them bathroom breaks. One break a man came up to tell me how you cure AIDS by basic cow husbandry. Apparently a calf doesn't have an immune system without three weeks of saturation with milk. He believed you could rebuild immune systems in humans this way. The conversation ended when I got serenaded by the barber shop octet.

Before it started raining I went berry picking with two coworkers. It was disturbing when they called Itchy "bear bait." Bears love blueberries. Luckily they like them at a late ripeness then we do. That doesn't mean that you don't keep a wary eye out. The way to keep a good distance between you & bears is noise. Some people attach sleigh bells to their clothes. I personally think that's like a dinner bell. James likes to do Mr.T impressions while Mike sang. With those two carrying on we spent an afternoon on our bellys picking low-bush blueberries. Then we drove to Chattanika Lodge to eat a Dredge burger while basset hounds lay at your feet.

I have the title on the Vespa now! I got excited to see that there was a course titled "Intro. to Small Engines." In the class you got to dismantle a 2 stroke engine, remantle it then bring in your own project. Just what I needed! When I went to register they wouldn't let me because it is only taught to Hutchison high school students. I was able to register this week to a graduate level Arctic Engineering class without any background checks but I can't get into high school.

Finally fell down the stair ladder up to my bedroom. I miss you more than a hot pad.

World Eskimo Olympics & Regatta

The summer has finally showed its head. It has been raining so much that it’s only risen over 54 degrees one week since May. The dear old plumber at work today told me about his troubles building his cabin in this weather. He told me that he built his tool shed first & was camping in a tent. It got so bad that he moved his table saw into the tent & moved into the shed.

It even down poured on the governor during the ground breaking ceremony at the airport on Wednesday. That's right, we have officially started construction. Just three more years & it will be finished!

This week has been so exciting for me. Wednesday morning I took my roommate's visiting family to a pancake feed in a parking lot down the street. I had my first sourdough pancake from 100 year old pancake mix. I never knew that sourdough is one of those things that you just keep adding flour too & it will last forever. Tasted pretty good.

That evening I went to the preliminary events of the World Eskimo International Olympics. There was the blanket toss, the one hand reach, the one leg kick, the stick pull, knuckle hop & ear pull. There are others but I really don't want to go to the seal skinning competition. There should never be an Olympic sport that sounds like a menu- "dependant on the seals of the season". Other than that one I was quite impressed by the competitions. The blanket toss is like it sounds that a bunch of spectators come out, they move a blanket made out of many seal skins, then someone gets thrown up & down on it. The catch is that they have to land straight up on their feet & does some dance move in the air. The 'blanket' did get holes in it twice during the competition. Historically this was done to see long distances over the tundra & for fun.

The one hand reach is like a push up except only one hand can be on the floor. The rest of the body has to balance on that hand while the other hand in reaching out to grab a dangling ball. This was original a training exercise to learn balance incase the ice breaks up around you.

The one leg kick is like the reach. They balance on one leg, jump in the air & kick a ball on a string & land standing up on that same leg. They can jump up to 8 ft! Why aren't there any Eskimos in the NFL? Anyway, this was a way of signaling far off ships when I whale was killed.

The stick pull was like tug-of-war except with a foot long stick covered in Crisco. It’s supposed to train you how to grab a fish in the water.

The knuckle hop & the ear pull are the pain endurance competitions. The knuckle hop is a push up on knuckles & they see how far they can hop. The knuckles do get bloody. It’s supposed to mimic a seal. The ear pull...well the world champion is an 800 lb. Eskimo named Big Bob.

I might go to Sunday’s competition to watch the Eskimo Women versus White Men tug-of-war.

Also this weekend is the Golden Days celebration. Its kind-of like a founders day celebration. The water activities are what I'm interested. I have bought my Rubber Duckie race ticket & come Saturday, they will release 6,000 rubber duckies into the Chena River. The duckie that arrives at the Welsey Bridge the first wins $10,000. On Sunday is the Red Green Regatta. I don't know if you have seen that show on PBS but it’s about this do-it-yourselfer who gets hurt more often then not by his creations. So you have to build a raft from found objects that somewhere on it uses duct tape to attach something. People have been telling me about rafts made with oil drums & swing sets & one year a man simply paddled down the river in his refrigerator.

So that's for the sunny days. On the rainy days, I have been searching for parts for my winter project. Only in Alaska can I go to a garage sale & find a 1958 Sears 125 Vespa Allstate Super Crusiaire! Not to mention that it’s been owned by the same family for four generations & has a title. I'm sure it needs some work but I won't know until I find a column lock key.

My First Entry

I finally did it, I have my first blog. Since I moved to Alaska I have been sending weekly emails to all of my friends & family about my experiences up North. The emails got too large, crammed with images, so that no one could read them. So the ended up all garbled. A blog is the answer.