My Christmas Catch

Here's a blast from Christmas Past. Photos from Zoya and I's first Christmas together in 2000. The top photo was our first holiday card. You know your relationship is serious when you put out cards together (I think I still sent out a few 'dead animal' cards to close friends). We met just prior to Christmas 1999 at Jenny Steven's Christmas block party. So I always associate Christmas with meeting Zoya. My best present ever.

And yes, for all you super observant post readers, that is not Zoya in the bottom photo, but her sister Ella. We spent that Christmas (December of 2000) in Homer, and then Ella and her sister Anne came back with us to Kodiak for New Years. Ella had just moved back to Alaska from San Diego. Patrick

Looking Forward to a low-key Christmas

I"m looking forward to a low key Christmas. Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree sits tilted in the living room with just a few presents under the tree from family. Patrick and I didn't buy anything for the kids. Between various family members, they'll have a nice little bunch of presents to open.

For the first time since Patrick and I have celebrated Christmas together in Kodiak, we're not having dinner here and I"m so excited for the break!! Roxann and Mike invited us over to their place--it'll be fun to have the kids all hang out together and to not have to prep our house for a dinner.

This comes at a perfect time, because frankly-I'm zapped.

With working 40 hour weeks, teaching spinning and doing so much business start-up work I"m ready for some down time. Next week I have carved my schedule out so I only see clients 20 hours during the week--and on Jan. 5th, a part time office manager will help. So there is MAJOR light at the end of the tunnel. Adrenaline has been pulling me through for 6 weeks but now I"m feeling the effects of all the energy dispensed to my new venture.

That said, I love every minute of my work. I'm energized by the physical place-its quiet, calming. I'm excited to see my clients every day-to meet new people. The lady, Becky, who does my medical billing rocks. She is so organized and has great ideas on how to best set up the office. And she is a whiz with the medical billing program she had to set up. (If it had been me, the computer would've been thrown out the window a loooonnnnggg time ago... :) I am completely 200% loving having my own PT business and am through the worst of the set-up phase, I believe.

2009 will arrive, the dust will be settled and I"ll be a happy camper...

Zoya

Winter Solstice

Today Winter Solstice brought some sunshine to Kodiak.It was sunshine I didn't even realize I needed until it arrived so beautifully at 10ish this morning!

Patrick, Nora, Stuey and myself walked down to Mill Bay beach. I promised my sister Ella I would take advantage of Mill Bay Beach more often, as it is so close to us. And so we did-and enjoyed every moment. Stuey sat and played in the sand. Nora pretended to make soup with the cups and spoons we brought. The sound of the surf was so relaxing---and a big surf it was. The sound of the waves crashing against the beach is one I never get tired of...

Zoya

Some photos from the trip...

Whooville Trees & First Tracks

For the past week or so it has been pretty dismal in town - temperatures in the 30's and rain. But it has been dumping down snow up high. Above about 700 feet we have received around 2 to 3 feet of new snow. And better yet - it's the heavy stuff that will not blow away.

Yesterday I went up with Dale N to find ptarmigan for the Audubon Christmas bird count. We did it 'old school Audubon' style with shotguns. Afterall, the only way to tell the difference between a Willow and Rock ptarmigan is if you have both in hand - and they are TASTY too. We saw 26 ptarmigan and 23 of those are still flying around. Jack Withrow will take the 3 we collected (sans meat) to UAF where biologists are trying to determine if Kodiak ptarmigan are genetically different from the Rock and Willow ptarmigan found on other Alaskan islands.

Anyway, it was dumping down snow and all the snow had weighed down all the spruce tree boughs. Dale commented that they looked like 'Whooville' trees - like the ones in a Dr Seuss book. I like the description - see top photo of Dale with shotgun and trees loaded down with snow.

Today I went up at dawn and had Pyramid Mountain to myself (bottom 2 photos). Nothing like first tracks after a big storm. I skied the North Bowl and it was good, but when I went home via the South Bowl it was spectacular. Sunny, warm, calm and no other tracks but mine. The kind of powder where the harder you bounced the deeper you sank (bottom photo). Unfortunately, the snow changed consistency in about 3 turns around 300 feet up from the road. Heaven to Hell in 3 easy turns. I did a serious face plant. Patrick

Canned Salmon

Imagine what Alaska’s fishing industry would be like if Americans ate as much canned salmon as they do canned tuna. And why don’t Americans eat more canned salmon? The answer to the latter question is obvious to anyone who has ever opened a can of commercial grade, canned salmon – with all the skin, bones, and smell it’s more akin something you would feed the pet cat than something you would want to pop open and eat for lunch. Perhaps this is why the market for canned salmon is so poor – and the only people who can stomach the stuff are elderly Brits (a group not well-known for their epicurean tastes).

I know I was dead set against canned salmon, until one day on a whim I opened a can of Fields Wild Salmon ‘premium’ sockeye. I was shocked to find that it was actually pretty darn good stuff. Zoya and the kids liked it too. It even inspired Zoya and I to start canning our own salmon. Now we regularly eat canned salmon, and we supplement our own supply with the store bought Fields Wild Salmon brand. It compares favorably with our own (it is pretty darn good stuff). It got me thinking why isn’t all canned salmon as good and could the canneries put out and market something even better? I think they could.

A few years ago Zoya and I visited my college roommate in Costa Rica. Tomas runs a tuna canning company. We got to visit his plant on the coast at Puntarenas, and, expecting a run-down, third world operation, we were shocked to find a state of the art canning facility. A canning facility that makes Kodiak’s plants look third world. And they are – Kodiak’s canneries are basically doing the same thing with canned salmon that they did 50 years ago.

The Costa Rican facility was so high tech my friend would not allow us to take pictures of the machinery and operations inside for fear his competitors would see it and he’d lose his competitive edge. I found out that he has been canning silver salmon from Kodiak in glass jars to sell in high-end stores in San Francisco. He told me that Ocean Beauty puts the frozen fish in a container and sends them to his plant in Costa Rica because none of the Kodiak canneries have the ability to make such a high end product. Sadly enough, he has since stopped using Kodiak fish and now uses Chilean farmed salmon because he could not get enough fish from Kodiak to meet his demand. What’s wrong here?

Moving the subject back to Kodiak, why don’t we have state of the art canneries? It seems that lately the fishing industry has been moving to improve fish quality with ice water in the holds etc. But those improvements really don’t help much if you’re still canning the stuff the same old way. The improvements do help with frozen filets etc, but can you imagine how much bigger the market for Alaskan salmon would be if people started to like eating canned salmon? And to be honest, good canned salmon blows canned tuna fish away. I know my kids prefer it. Patrick

Holiday Time

The Holidays are in full swing and I'm enjoying our lights up in the house and our ornament-stripped-tree. Our version of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Stuey kept taking all the ornaments off so rather than have it be a problem, our tree now only has a strand of simple white lights. My saying, "Less is more." This year it goes for the tree, too.

Today I was home sick. I think I got a watered down version of what Nora and Patrick had. It is my first sick day at my business--not bad for 3 months of being open. The good thing is that people are very understanding about rescheduling-as the crud has really been hitting lots of people in town. I sent Stuey and Nora off to their day programs as I laid in bed and wished that I could gather energy to get something accomplished. It didn't happen. Instead I dazed in and out of sleep and watched the trees and rain outside. Big storm today.

Reading Patrick's last entry about him being home with the kids lots made me sad. Made me feel like I"m not doing my wife/mom duties well enough. He reassures me that this isn't the case.
He is such a great dad and husband and has really been doing 110% as I have been working more lately. I can only hope I convey my appreciation for his attention to the kids after work. So often I come home at 5:30, there is dinner warm and ready to eat and the kids are running happily around the house. He hasn't complained about the added responsibility at all. Bless his heart. My goal is to work 20ish hours after the new year, then I'll have time to do dinner prep and take more time with the kids in the morning.

Zoya

Kodiak Landscapes

Yesterday Zoya asked if I could pick out some Kodiak landscapes to put up on the wall of clinic. So I went back through the years and found some 'blasts from the past'. I decided that since they are to be blown up large, and the detail would not look too great that I should just turn them into dry brush paintings in photoshop. I think they look cool. They do not look any different from the original at a distance, but when you look close you see an impressionistic painting.

Top photo is of the mountains reflecting in Upper Olga Lake in early May. Middle photo is Zoya's picture of a mountain goat taken on an Audubon hike with a point and shoot that had no zoom - she got REALLY close (we'll make a bowhunter out of her yet). Third photo is of the mountains behind the antenna field reflecting in the outlet to Buskin Lake in early December. Finally the last photo is one I took last weekend of dawn on Sheratin. Zoya likes the last one because it's just like the logo for her clinic. Enjoy. Patrick

House Husband

Lately, Zoya's private physical therapy practice has taken off, and, more and more, I've been a house husband. I'm still skiing and getting to work, but more kid and house duties in the morning and evening have been falling on me. Babysitters have been our Godsend during the middle of the day. Every evening I find myself feeding the kids and waiting for Zoya to get home. It seems appropriate that I take over the 'how the kiddos are doing' blog posts.

Today Nora starting throwing up at around 4 AM, and right now I am staying home from work and nursing her back up to speed. Daddy's helper Megan is helping with Stuie. Stuie got up with the rest of us at 4 AM and is feeling a little tired and acting 'needy' this morning.

Photos: Top - Nora's bed on the couch this morning. Middle - Stuie and Nora trying on their Xmas hats (if you click on it to enlarge you will note that I turned it into a 'dry point' painting in Photoshop). Bottom - CeCe and Nora playing on Mike and Roxanne's window seat. They pull the curtains and it becomes their little house.

Patrick

Sheratin at Dawn

Today I went skiing a little earlier than usual and watched the sun rise while I climbed Pyramid. I could not stop taking pictures. And believe me - in reality the dawn light was far richer and more sublime than it appears in my photos. My little point and shoot met its match - a true light show. North bowl still had good powder on the face. Patrick

The Joys of Photoshop

When is too much of Photoshop a bad thing? I've been wondering about this lately as I've been using Photoshop more and more to fix up photos. I believe photos should be 'real' and reflect reality as accurately as possible, and I try and tweak my images in Photoshop to achieve this goal. However, more and more I've been using Photoshop to fix up 'bad' images. Images that a year ago would never have seen the light of day. For instance, these two of Gregg skiing yesterday in the North Bowl on Pyramid. While 'compositionally sound', the originals were all washed out, blurry and grainy because the light had been low and I used the rapid fire shutter on my camera which creates much lower quality images. So I played with them in photoshop and turned them into 'dry point' paintings. Now they look pretty good - but have I gone too far? Note that they both have a different color balance. I think I like the top one better. Patrick

A Perfect Saturday

Recipe for a perfect Saturday
-1/2 hour of sleeping in. Thanks to Patrick for occupying kiddos.
-1 hour of putting up christmas decorations, singing O Christmas Tree over and over again, and watching Stuey scheme how to pull down ornaments.
-5 minutes of watching Patrick chop down our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree on the cliff and "add on" to its trunk so it would be big enough to fit the tree stand.
-1 hour of time with Mary Jane before my party began this afternoon. I always enjoy doing last minute party preps with her...
-2 hours of time with fabulous girlfriends. Yummy spinach dip, salmon dip, baked brie, chocolate fondue, variety of delicious drinks. Plain old good, fun conversation with awesome women.
-Many moments looking at the full, striking moon high in the sky.

Zoya

Photos: Jenny, Adelia and Theresa
Myself, MJ and Balika
Jenny, Roxann, Peggy, Kelly, Jessica and Shannon
Mary Jane and Balika

Skiing under the full moon

What's that? A big ball bouncing down the side of Pyramid? No - it's the full moon at dawn. And while I did ski under a full moon - I did so at dawn and not at night. However, I do remember skiing on Pyramid at night under the last full moon of the last millennium - no headlamp needed. But today Gregg and I just headed up for a simple 2 hour tour. Nothing too exciting. The snow is surprisingly good. We even found some powder in the north bowl. Patrick

Good Goat Sausage

Eighty six pounds of mountain goat meat, 38 pounds of pork shoulder, 12 pounds of pig fat, 12 pounds of water and about a pound of spice - add sweat equity and you got 149 pounds of goat sausage. That's a lot of sausage!

Annually, the 'goat grind' marks the end of the Fall hunting season. Just as the 'Deer liver, new potatoes, and beets' feast begins the season in August, the 'goat grind' ends it in December. We've all stopped hunting deer, elk, goat, and reindeer, and there is nothing left to grind up into sausage or burger. It's over, and our freezers are all well stocked. Patrick

Deer liver with bacon and onions

One of the best things about hunting deer is the opportunity to eat fresh deer liver. Nothing else with the exception of seals has a liver to match a deer for its sublime taste (and I guess I better specify that I am talking about 'Kodiak Island, Sitka Blacktail' deer). I think my favorite meal of the whole year - one I look forward to all spring and early summer - is the liver of the first deer of hunting season (usually during the first week of August). It has become a tradition in our house to accompany this meal with the first new potatoes and beets out of the garden. It's the kickoff of my annual subsistence season.

Good deer liver starts with butchering the deer, and I believe this is why you can't just buy good liver. It has to be fresh and well taken care of - you either have to do this yourself or trust a good hunter to do it well. I always carefully remove the deer liver making sure not to puncture the gall bladder or contaminate it with anything untoward. I then immediately cool it and wash it off in a nearby stream. I take my time with this and the liver always bleeds out a lot of blood.

Next is to get it home as quickly as possible. Once home I put it in the fridge in a bowl of water with a lot of salt in it, and leave it there overnight. This soaks out more of the blood and gives the liver a more mild flavor. Once it has been soaked in salt I pat it dry with paper towels, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate on a plate (cause it might still drip a bit). It's ready to cook. I generally try to cook it within two days.

What is needed for the meal:

At least 1/3 of a good sized deer liver or a whole yearling deer liver
1 cup of good sherry or madeira
1 packet of quality bacon (I prefer the thick strips)
4 or 5 medium sized onions (chopped into strips across the grain)
3 handfuls of flour
2 tablespoons of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of seasoned salt
5 tablespoons of canola or vegetable oil
2 large cast iron skillets

How to:

1) In one skillet cook the bacon over low heat. While in the other skillet cook the onions in half the oil also over low heat. You are caramelizing the onions and trying to create chewy, yet crunchy bacon and high heat is not the best way to do either. Take your time with both the onions and the bacon. The natural sugars in the onions actually will caramelize and burn a little. Near the end of the process (about a half hour) I generally add about 1/2 cup of sherry. Some people even add sugar to help with the caramelizing. I hope you know how to cook bacon.

2) Mix all the flour together on a plate with the spices. Basically, you are making seasoned flour so try whatever spices strike your fancy. On a cutting board slice the deer liver into thin slices (@ 1/4 inch thick). Try to make the slices as uniform in thickness as possible. Dredge the slices in your seasoned flour and set aside to cook later.

3) Remove the cooked bacon from frying pan and place on a paper towel on a plate. Pour all of the bacon fat into a glass or gravy boat. Then clean the frying pan (remove all the burnt bacon etc) and return to heat on the stove. Get this pan good and hot and add some of the bacon fat back to the pan 2 tablespoons or so, and maybe another 2 tablespoons of canola oil.

4) Once the oil in the frying pan is good and hot (sizzles when you touch liver to it), quickly add 4 or 5 slices of liver. DO NOT OVERCOOK! Maybe 45 seconds on each side. You want the liver to be pink all the way through and not grey color of high school cafeteria liver, and remember that it will continue to cook after you remove it from the skillet and place on a platter. Once you have cooked all the liver, 4-5 slices at a time, de-glaze the pan with 1/2 cup of sherry and scrape up all the good bits and pieces and pour this liquid over the liver on the platter.

5) Serve the meal immediately. No one likes cold liver. Serve everyone 1 or 2 slices of liver with a few strips of bacon and a good dollop of caramelized onions. Try to eat each piece of liver with a bit of bacon and onion on top. This meal goes together as a whole. Enjoy!

Patrick

Photo: The liver slices, onions (I added some sliced bell peppers for variety) and bacon after step two in the above process. I took this photo earlier tonight. Both Stuie and Nora scarfed down their liver, and even Zoya had a slice.

Homer Weekend Visit & Ferry Ride

Today Nora and I returned from Homer on the ferry-after a fun 3 day visit. The ferry ride over was as SMOOTH as could be, and the ferry ride home was the exact opposite. Oh Joy.

Nora is so fun to travel with-she has her fathers organizational skills and loved helping me pack here in Kodiak. She was very thoughtful about which clothes to bring and helped pile everything into the bag. She went to the spare bedroom and knew exactly where to get my suitcase from. Upon arriving on the Kennicot cabin room, she immediately pulled her blankie out of the bag and was way into getting into her bed.

In Homer, Cathy and I took her to the Nutcracker performance, which was the first auditorium performance Nora has ever been to. She sucked away on her binky, twisted her head to watch all the action and even got up and did a few pirouttes in the aisle. She also loved clapping when others clapped. Her enthusiasm and smiles for the show were contagious.
The one on one time with Nora was good for she and I. I have a better understanding of her, as she does me. And I think Patrick has a better understanding of Stuey.

Nora got sick on the ferry ride home-poor thing. 22 foot seas proved to be too much for her little system. Fortunately, as soon as Kodiak city came into view, the waters were calm and her appetite returned. The trip ended with us sharing an order or chicken strips and fries together. All was well.

Zoya

Sheratin - Mountain of Many Moods

Judging by this photo taken yesterday afternoon at around 2:30PM, it is hard to believe that less than 3 hours later the mountain was socked in with clouds, leaving a team of workers setting up a cell phone tower on top stranded.

All day yesterday as I hunted deer down below I listened to the helicopter going back and forth to the top of Sheratin as the workers went about their business of setting up the cell tower. On my way home in the kayak It was flat calm but I noted that the top of Sheratin was already wrapped in fog and that the helicopter was circling and seemingly trying to land. I thought to myself - 'oh well, I guess they'll have to climb down on their own'. And thought nothing more about it. If you look at yesterday's blog post photo of my kayak and the water on my way back you will notice how calm and beautiful it was (@ 3:15 PM) - how could anyone be in real trouble on the top of Sheratin? But look in the distance and you will see the approaching clouds. The storm came in unbelievably quickly, by the time I got to the Anton Larsen Pass on my way home (@ 4:45 PM) it was already raining and totally socked in with fog.

By dawn the winds on top of Sheratin were approaching 100 MPH (sustained 40 MPH at the sheltered Kodiak airport), and it was snowing hard on the top of Sheratin. The barometric pressure dropped almost an inch and a half of mercury in 24 hours (29.8 to 28.55). Right now there is on ongoing rescue operation to get those guys off of the mountain. I am praying for their safety.

What a capricious mountain - in my photos from yesterday she looks so beautiful and serene it's hard to believe she'd already changed her mind. There's a lesson there, and I'm hoping I've learned it. Tonight I'm saying my prayers for those caught on her flank. Patrick

In Homer with Nora

Our trip to Homer has been a fun one. The ferry ride was very smooth-the only hitch was that the intercom didn't work in our cabin. So the ferry arrived, and Nora and I slept and slept and slept. And Cathy and Mike waited, and waited, and waited on the dock. They talked to the ferry people and finally someone came and knocked on our door. I woke up, looked out the window to see that we had arrived. Nora was very excited and we scampered off the ferry at 3:30AM. I believe the ferry had been docked about 1/2 hour before we departed it.. (Sidenote...Patrick says there is a storm on the way-so we may be looking at 20-22 foot seas on the return trip--arghhh....hopefully this storm bypasses our crossing back over to Kodiak)

On the first day, Nora was quite tired and she would say, "Lets go home. See Stuey..."--espcecially at nap and bed time. Now she is quite acclimated and she went down to bed easily tonight.
The mornings begin with Nora opening a door on the wooden advent calender Cathy and Mike have-inside is a treat of trail mix with M&M's with nuts. The advent calender is followed by a breakfast of fruits loops or Apple Jacks-cereals which Nora never gets at home--another big treat! We took Nora to the library-checked out some good books and Madeline's 1st Christmas video-another big hit especially since Patrick reads the Madeline book to Nora at home and she is already familiar with the characters.

Today we went to the local production of The Nutcracker-and this was Nora's first auditorium performance. We stayed for 1 hour of it--up until the intermission. Nora enjoyed watching all the action on the stage and she even danced in the aisle for a few moments at one point.

It really is fun to travel with Nora and see all of the new things that she is excited about. Cathys car--she loves riding in it. She loves pushing the button for the garage door to go up and down. She likes having her routines even when travelling. And she has been helpful in picking up and cleaning up after we do an activity. From reading the blog and talking to Patrick, it sounds like things are going well with he and Stuey and likewise with Nora and I.

Zoya

My 9 1/2 hour adventure

I know my adventure was 9 1/2 hours long because that's how long I left Stuie with the babysitter. We left the house at 7:50 AM, kayak on the back of the truck, and I dropped Stu off in the pre dawn dark at the babysitter's house. I picked him up 9 and one half hours later in the gloaming of the evening. In between I had my adventure.

Most of my adventure consisted of driving and then paddling the kayak, seemingly forever. I drove over the pass and got to Anton Larsen Bay at dawn and started to paddle. And I paddled and paddled - about 6 miles in all (each way). I am not in paddling shape either - my shoulders killed and both hands developed blisters. But as I paddled I thought about how much better boat travel is than walking. Whenever I got close to shore I realized how quickly I was moving - at the pace of a quick jog! It was only when I looked up at distant landmarks and they moved forward ever so slowly forward that I cursed my floating wheelchair and wished for something propelled by fossil fuels.

But eventually I did get off of the 'road system' and into an area where I could legally hunt deer. Then it was just a question of finding a deer. I did not see anything for about two and a half hours and I must admit I was getting a little discouraged. Then I walked around the bend and there were deer everywhere. A big three point, obviously in rut, a doe and fawn, and a lone deer without antlers. I opted for the lone deer and it turned out to be a button buck. The big 3 just stood skylined on the ridge and watched me for about an hour while I worked on the button buck. Almost as if he wanted to tempt me into shooting something my family would not eat - 'look I got huge antlers - harvest me!' I stayed away from the rutty meat - Zoya, Stu and Nora will be thankful.

The coolest thing about the kayak ride home was that Anton Larsen Bay had developed skim ice while i was away for the day. I had to lean way back to get the bow of the kayak to ride up on the ice and sheer it. Awesome noise. Crrrrunch. Picked Stu up at the babysitter and my adventure was over. Then I had baby at home feeding adventure, but that is another story.

Photos: Top: on the way home in my kayak - Kizhuyak Bay is glassed off. Second: Cottonwood trees silhouetted against Sheratin Mountain. Bottom: Sheratin Bay and Mountain panoramic.

Patrick

Home alone with Stu and dogs

Yesterday Zoya and Nora took the ferry to Homer to visit with Grandma, and its just been Stuie, the dogs and me holding down the fort (along with a lot of help from babysitters). It's funny but I've gotten to know Stuie a lot better without Nora and Zoya around. Lots of one on one time, and I've been reading to him a lot more. If Nora was around she would not be happy with that! It has made me realize that Stuie has missed out on some things because he did come along number 2. I still carry Nora for walks in the backpack - but if I try and take Stuie, and Nora is around. ... .. It just would not fly (some serious screaming). Stuie does not seem to mind - he's very laid back. I think he'll be the diplomat of the family. I bet most family diplomats are the second or third born.

In the last few days we have had a serious pineapple express hit Kodiak - rain and warm temperatures. All the snow has melted away down low. But as you can see from the top photo of the summit of Pyramid - we have not lost much snow up high. But in the meantime, the cross country skiing is done. Tomorrow I plan on taking advantage of the ice free roads to take my kayak over to Anton Larsen Bay and go deer hunting. It'll be an hour and a half paddle to get off of the 'road system' and to where I can legally take a deer. Lots of work and it is not very likely that I'll return with a deer. But at least I'll get to go kayaking. And yes I do appreciate good babysitters! I know I'll be coming home to a happy Stuie. Patrick

Photos: Top is the summit of Pyramid appearing during a surprising break in the gloom, wind and rain on a recent quick ski trip (not surprisingly - nobody else seems to be skiing). Bottom - eagles hanging out in the trees near the outlet to Buskin Lake. Lots of silvers spawning in the river below, and the eagles are just waiting for them to die.

Quality Mommy-Daughter, Father-son time

Tomorrow Nora and I leave on the ferry to Homer to see Cathy and Mike. When I tell Nora about it this week, she smiles with glee and says, "Thank you, Mamma. I love you" accompanied by a big hug. I don't know that she has any idea about the ferry ride or what its about but I think it all represents a special outing/trip for her. The ferry ride is a 9 hour ride on the Kennicott and the weather forecast is good-PHEW. The big storm that was just here has worked its way out of the Kodiak archipealago system. It'll be good to see Cathy and Mike-it has been over a year since I've been there.

I"m really looking forward to having some mommy daughter time and I think it will be good for Patrick to have a little 1:1 Stuey time. As of late, Stuey's stubborn streak has been shining through...and he tests Patrick's patience. Patrick's saying when he gets frusturated with Stuey is "Clam it, clownie." Its a pretty funny saying, actually and I find myself laughing when Patrick says it to Stuey. Helps bring humor to the moment.

Work has been awesome and busy. I LOVE my clinic and things are going smoothly. This week I worked some long hours and went to sleep way early last night out of exhaustion. Felt great to do, however, because I actually got 8+ hours of sleep. Halleluiah!! Stuey was a 5:15 wake up call this morning. Arghhh...he wakes between 5 and 6 AM. He is our morning child and Nora is the night owl in the family.

Zoya

Pictures:

A friend made Nora and Stuey these hat/scarf sets. SO CUTE! The kids loved them.
Bottom photo--Stuey and Hannah had fun with the washable markers. Word on the street is that Stuey drew on Hannah's face too--although we didn't get a photo of it!

"You Happy Mommy? You Happy?" Nora phrase of the month

Thankfully, Nora word of the week has progressed to Nora phrase of the month.

Lately Nora will spontaneously ask, "You happy, Mommy? You happy?" Her eyes look at me inquisitively-studying my face- and she spits the words out from behind her binky. She started asking this about a month ago, sort of out of the blue. Often she'll ask it if I'm visibly happy, dancing to music or laughing, or if I"m visibly NOT happy-raising my voice to her or Stuey. She seems to know the answer but likes to know where I stand. If I reply, "Yes, I'm happy Nora." She'll respond with "Oooookkkkaaaayyyy." And if I reply "No, I'm not really happy" she'll ask a few minutes later, to see if my status has changed.

Zoya

Life without kids

When Zoya and were looking through the pictures of Thanksgivings past we noticed that we spent Thanksgiving 2004 in South Africa. This was our last vacation without kids. Shortly afterwards Zoya became pregnant and life was never quite the same again. Not worse just totally different. We've evolved to a new period in our lives.

Photos: Top - view from the porch of our rondoval (thatched hut) at Oliphants Campground, Kruger National park. Second - penguins at Simonstown at the Cape. Third - Camps Bay where we stayed while at the Cape. Bottom - Zoya, Philip and Charlie cooking a braivleis breakfast at a Kruger Campground (Zoya got to meet all Patrick's old friends from when he lived and worked in South Africa in 1989/1990).