A ski with Gregg & Lisa

Today I went up Pyramid with Lisa and Gregg for my birthday ski.  The snow is finally starting to get deep up there and we actually found a seam of deep powder in the South Bowl.  For the most part, the skiing up there is not all that great.  Lots of drifts and patches of ice etc., but it sure was beautiful!

I forgot my camera so Lisa and Gregg took all the trip photos with their iphones.  Initially, I was sad that I forgot my camera - such a great day for photography.  But by the end of the day I was glad I did forget it.  Since I did not have to worry about getting the picture I just sat back and enjoyed the scenery.  Also, since I usually take most of the photographs on trips there are never any pictures of me - Not this time. Thank You Lisa and Gregg for the great day of skiing!  Patrick

Small Fish in Big Tank

At times, with being from Alaska, professionally...its easy to feel like a small fish in a big tank.

Last month when I was at the Sections of Women Health conference, I went to a Section of Women's Health chapter happy hour. It was held in a very loud, hip bar serving electric colored  martinis and there were lots of women there with a shared enthusiasm for women's health. It was a step outside my comfort zone...entering a party where I didn't know anyone. When I entered the Women's Health host put a string of mardi gras beads around my neck and introduced me to someone and from that moment conversations took off. But, as I"m discovering...its those moments when growth happens!

Throughout the night I exchanged  a few business cards, and gave away a couple. I articulated to a couple of women how I wanted to check out the national scene somehow-something that could make a difference for women. I was vague...wasn't even sure if I wanted to do anything on the national scene.

After the conference, I didn't follow up with any of the women and thought that perhaps I didn't have the time, anyhow, to take on such an endeavor.

Or, more honestly, perhaps I didn't even know where to start or who to bug.   At conferences where you meet the "movers and shakers"...the women who are big on the collegiate level or research levels, I left wondering if I really have anything to offer.


A week ago I received an e-mail from a woman, Susan, who is on the board of Section of Women's Health. She said she had received my name as a person who would be  interested in helping develop clinical practice guidelines for women in the post-partum time.

As I re-read the e-mail, I kept thinking, "Wow....how did she find me, or remember me?" I didn't remember giving her my card, or if I did, she said very confidently, "Plesae contact me if you're interested in helping."

She found me. And my name was along with two other women I didn't know on the e-mail.

Today we had a conference call....3 other women on the other line from Pittsburg, Denver and New Jersey. All very accomplished, newly graduated with research and women's health experience.

"Just to let you all know, I've been up here in Alaska doing clinical practice, but I've had very little contact with new research since graduating." I informed them in full disclosure.
 "I won't be much help if what you are looking for is someone to obtain research articles."

It felt good to be honest about who I am, what I am and am not capable of. The ladies immediately responded that they are glad to have someone who is a sole clinician on the team to help decide what articles are clinically pertinent or not, and they are all in university setting with access to articles.

At the end of the conversation, the leader asked that we share a little bit about ourselves, where we are, what we do, etc. The other ladies are professors, accomplished researchers. Then there was me...

My story of being raised in Alaska. Returning. Becoming a Doula. Attending 50 births in that capacity. Teaching birth classse. Caring very much for women. Feeling like women are neglected in the post-partum time.

And a career A-ha moment followed when the women on the other end of the line responded so excitedly at my experience. "Oh I want a doula for the birth of my next child, " one piped in. They kept saying "Wow!". It took me by surprise and I somehow felt validated for doing the small town rural work that I've been doing. Its not that I need validation for the work...the work I do is incredibly rewarding to me. Its just that I never imagined that researcher PT's in the big city would necessarily see it that way.

The women on the other ends of the phone line this morning all want to see the care of women change in the post-partum time. Our similar passion drives us in this project.

I got off the phone feeling like I DO have something to offer this group. A few tears of excitement welled in my eyes. I really liked the energy of the ladies on the phone.  And in this process of helping develop the guidelines, I"m going to learn a lot about the current womens health research.

Feeling pleased.... because the 'Big Tank' isn't quite so big, afterall.


Zoya

Funny Pictures

Stuey and mommy do a 'watercolor' 'selfie'

Stuey and Nora love to take pictures on our point-shoot cameras' special settings.  Their favorite of late has been the 'reflection' setting.  This creates mirror images that can create some funny and bizarre pictures.  Some of their pictures are quite well composed and could even be considered art.  I really like Stuey's reflection picture of the sky with just the chimney of the house next door sticking up out of what looks like water.  When they are playing on the cameras you will hear giggles and then an explosion of laughter as someone catches a really funny one.  Patrick

Stuey creates reflection image of his face - which side is real? Hint: check the writing 

Double brownie by Nora

Sky reflection by Stuey

Tank the dog

Julie in 'fish eye' mode doing the 'scream'

Ray as an obese cyclops

New Snow

It was one of those days when I did not expect much of my after work ski.  It was raining in town and looked grey.  I only drove out the road because I needed the exercise.  And then I got to the pass and found a 1/2 foot of new powder and sunshine.  When I started up the mountain it was so bright I had to keep my eyes shut and open them every once in a while just to orient myself.  Where did the rain and grey go? Then a few clouds came in and obscured the sun.  Still, I'm putting some sunglasses in the car for the next time this happens.

I got to the top and then ripped on down through the new powder to the car without stopping.  Whoo weeeee what a day!  Patrick

Downhill Ski Season

The view near the top of Pyramid yesterday - still pretty icy!

Every year about this time I start to do more and more downhill skiing and less and less cross country skiing.  The Tour of Anchorage is over so there is no need to train anymore, and this is also the time of year when we tend to get most of our snow up high.  Spring on Kodiak is when the downhill skiing starts to get really good.  It is also when we get some of our best cross country skiing - great crust cruising.  But these days more and more often I will find myself climbing up Pyramid rather than cross country skiing at the golf course.  Patrick

Fairbanks

Last night I got back from my sojourn at the Alaskan Anthropology Annual meeting in Fairbanks.  It was a small conference, but most of my 'archaeo' friends were there. It was good to hang out with old friends and talk shop.

Everyday I also managed to get away to go for a cross country ski at Birch Hill.  I wish I'd taken a picture of where I skiied through the birches - hundreds of vertical tree trunks and shadows on the snow.  As I skiied along the shadows and trunks would shift.  The 'White Bear' loop in the sunlight with fresh snow is really one of my all time favorite ski trails.

One of the conference highlights was a guided visit to the Museum of the North ornithology collections.  Jack W who accompanied Catherine, Sam and I to Chirikof Island last summer showed us the lab and collections.  I particularly liked seeing some of the very birds he collected during our Chirikof trip last summer.  Bob K came along for the visit too, and as a 'fauna' guy I think he liked perusing the collections too.  He certainly took a lot of photos with his iphone!

I was surprised how cold it got at night.  I left the rental car extension cord at the airport by accident and  so I could not plug my car in at night and keep the battery warm.  Every morning there was a bit of drama when I tried to start the car.  Would the battery turn over?  The last morning the car thermometer read negative 18 degrees Fahrenheit and it went, 'wughhh wughhhh' twice before it barely caught and started up.

But despite the cold night time temps it warmed up everyday into the teens.  Beautiful weather.  Fairbanks is a great place to visit in March.  It's an even better place to visit when all your friends are there.  Patrick

Bob, Sam and Catherine at a corroding ice sculpture in front of the Museum of the North

The car thermometer on the second morning of my visit - will the car start?

Jack did not collect these 2 birds and explained that new permits were required on a regular basis just to keep them in the collections

Catherine and BIRD bones 

All About Fat Globules

St. Mary's recently had their annual science fair which all students in the school participate in. 

Admittedly, when the first round of instructions for the science fair came home, my initial thought was "really? 2nd grade is so young". But then I quickly learned that  Grades 2-3 can do demonstrations and the older students do experiments. 

At home,  we had recently made butter from whipping cream,  so Nora decided to do a demonstration on how to make butter and show the difference in quality of butter between light whipping cream and goat milk. Stuey's horsebackriding teacher has goats and goat milk, so Nora got the milk from her (she very much enjoyed petting the goats!)

At the last step of the project, Nora laid out her board, and I helped her tape everything on in the right place. She was quite pleased with how it all turned out and wanted us to transport it very carefully to school for the big presentation day.  Her demonstration took 3rd place in the demonstration category and she was so excited that she was telling random strangers this in the grocery store! Gotta love the science fair enthusiasm, at least! 

It was interesting looking at the final projects, because you could tell which students had parents who helped some, who had parents who maybe helped too much as well as who had parents who most likely didn't help at all (or very little). Next year I'd love to help some of the students who didn't have any home help with their projects so they can really have fun with it and get a lot out of the process. 

Even at the second grade level, it was neat to see the scientific discovery wheels thinking. 

And Nora learned what the word "fat globule" means! 

Zoya

The cute source of the goat milk at the Fairgrounds. 

Putting a marble in the jar to facilitate the butter making process. 

After 1 hour of shaking the Nalgene bottle, the goat milk was put into the blender to get the final product. 

Cow milk butter on left, goat milk on right. 

Buttermilk by-product on far right. Yummy for pancakes the next day!

3rd place in the demonstration category. The final product presentation board ready for the big day!

Patrick vs. The Apollo

As we walked by the somewhat ominous ride at the Fur Rondy Carnival in Anchorage, Nora asked, "Can I go on that one? Can daddy go with me?" 

Initially Patrick replied, "no, I can't do that" and then several minutes later, he was agreeing to go on it with Nora. Next thing I knew, Nora and Patrick were buckled in, caged up and moving into the air around and around-upside down. 

The few moments I saw Patrick, he had his hands in a prayer position and his eyes were closed.

(He told me later that he was praying he would not get sick and that it would stop soon). 

Nora and Patrick got off quite queasy and neither of them felt 100% for a while afterwards. Nora's exact quote later that evening when talking about the Apollo ride, "That ride should be executed". 

Bless Nora's little adventurer spirit to give it a try! And Bless Patrick's heart for giving it a go right along with Nora. 

Zoya

The Apollo. Patrick and Nora upside down, at the top of the ride.  Wow. 

Lars and Stuey with the Gravitron behind them. Stuey did it 2x in a row. 

Group family picture at the Arctic Roadrunner. Favorite weekend lunch spot. 

At the carnival 

Double Reflections

Lately Stuey and Nora have been having a lot of fun playing with the 'reflection' special setting on their cameras.  Their favorite effect is split a person in half and create a whole person/dog with 3 eyes etc.  In this way, they come up with some bizarre and often very funny images.

So on Monday when I was walking Tank in Abercrombie I saw that Lake Gertrude was flat calm and that the trees were reflected on the surface.  It struck me that this is 'effect' the special 'reflection' setting was designed to achieve - not the bizarre images the kids have been coming up with.  I also thought, 'what will it look like if I play with reflections on the 'reflection' setting?'

I came up with some pretty weird double reflections - that's what.  Patrick

Anchorwage

Last weekend we made our annual trip to Anchorage for the Tour of Anchorage ski race. I really, really enjoyed not doing the ski race and just chillin' with friends and family. I felt so relaxed. So relaxed. 

This year, I realized how much of an annual tradition the Tour has become for our family. For several months, I was planning on not going along with Patrick….especially since I wasn't doing the race. And then I started thinking about all the wonderful memories from years past and how much fun the kids have seeing friends and family. And I decided I didn't want to miss it. And I'm so glad we all went over to cheer Patrick on in his race!

A few old  and new traditions….

Post race hot tub at Julie and Rays…cold air, warm water and wonderful company of friends. 

Dinner at Marx brothers on Friday night! good times planning future adventures (Afognak! and Montana!) over dinner in the warm, cozy Marx Brothers restaurant. 

Cheering on  Iditarod teams. We watched 2 teams pass by in the woods near  the Alaska Native Medical Center. Nora and I "high-fived" one of the mushers! :) The dogs are SO happy!

The kids all have such a fun time playing together. happy kids=happy parents!

Skiing in the backyard…the kids had little races making loops around the course! 

Tradition of enjoying pizza together in the evening after the race. Julie makes amazing pizzas from Mooses' Tooth crust. With Brian D., Ray and Julie.  

Fur Rendezvous Carnival. A fun bonus for Nora and Stuey this year! Fun times in the sunny, 35 degree weather!

Zoya

PS I called the post Anchorwage b/c Stuey for a while called Anchorage, "Anchorwage" because his "r" difficulties! 

Ocean Bay as an Archaic Tradition

Tomorrow I am off to Fairbanks to attend the annual meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association.  This is my yearly chance to hobnob with other Alaskan archaeo-nerds.  It actually is very much like a high school or college reunion in that we all have something in common - but rather than a particular school we all care about Alaskan Anthropology.  Maybe a better analogy would be a 'Dungeons and Dragons' convention?  But it is funny - I do care about what the other attendees think about my research.  Being able to present cool research is sort of like arriving at the High School reunion with a good looking wife, successful kids, and a respectable job.

I have gone to the conference practically every year since 1996 and I see the same people year after year.  I generally ONLY see these people at this particular conference.  These are my colleagues in Alaskan Archaeology.  It is a strong connection.

This year I am presenting on 2 of the sites we excavated last summer as part of a mitigation project.  The village of Old Harbor is extending its airport runway and the Alutiiq Museum was called in to excavate the archaeological sites slated to be damaged by the project. (click here, here and here for older blog posts on last summer's Old Harbor excavations).  I am only presenting on the older sites that we excavated.

Anyway, here are a few of the powerpoint slides for my upcoming talk at the conference.  I am scheduled to talk Friday morning.  The conference is at the Wedgewood Hotel in Fairbanks, AK - (click here for a  hotlink for particulars).  So if you are in the area, and are interested in the topic - then drop on by.  Patrick

My Tour of Anchorage

Nora had been playing with the camera settings and all our race pictures ended up on the 'reflection setting' 

This year due to low snow they decided to shorten the Tour of Anchorage.  So instead of a 25K, 40K, and 50K race that ends at Kincaid Park, they just had 19K and 26K options that started at Service High School and ended at Alaska Pacific University.  The 25K races became 19K races and the 40K and 50K races became 26K.  Originally I had wanted to do the 40K race on classic gear because I would avoid the very hilly and tough Spencer Loop portion of the 50K race.  In the end both the 40K and 50K had to do the Spencer Loop - so no break there!

Anyway, I think I was the only racer in the 26K race on classic skis.  Everybody but me was on skate skis using the inherently faster freestyle technique.  So in the final results it looks like I did terrible - placing 329th out of 565 male and female racers.  But if you look at my pace per kilometer (26K in 1:39 or 3.8 minutes a kilometer) and compare it to times of the classic technique racers in the 19K race I would have been about 20th out of 200 (at around 1:10 for 19K), and that is in a shorter race that lacked the REALLY tough Spencer Loop.  So I did well, and I found out what it is like to do the Spencer Loop in a race on classic skis, and go mano a mano with the freestyle skate skiiers.

It was an eye-opening experience.  As skate skiers blew by me, I learned just how much faster the freestyle technique is than classic.  I'd work really hard to climb up a slope I'd have just glided up on skate gear.  The weird part was that I ended up racing with people who had pretty bad technique.  They would blow by me on the flats and slight up hills, but they did not know how to efficiently climb up steep hills or negotiate steep downhills.  They would all pass me on the uphill and then I'd slam back into them when they started snow plowing and wiping out all over the place on the downhills.  Normally I am up near the front of the race where no one snow plows on the downhills and everyone flies up the uphills.

As racers with pretty bad technique blew by me I found myself wanting to cheat and skate ski on my classic skis. I'd show them!  But I curbed my ego and stuck to the classic technique the whole race.  And I now appreciate how much work it is to go fast using the classic technique.  My upper body is completely spent.  Patrick

A note on the pictures:  Nora and Stuey have been playing around with the different settings on the cameras, and one of their favorites is the 'reflective' setting.  Zoya forgot to change it for the race finish and it looks like I skiing past a lake or something.  I actually kind of like them, and then there is me and Zoya standing in the lake at the end of the race (Nora is there under water).

Tour of Anchorage Goals

View from the top of my run today on Pyramid

The Tour of Anchorage cross country ski race takes place next Sunday, and I'm all ready to race in it. Despite the warm winter I actually got in a lot of training - more than I did in 2009/2010 when I last did the 40K race.  As I said in an earlier post I am going to do the 40K race on classic skis.

In the past, when I've raced in the 25K classic race my pace was around 3 1/2 minutes per kilometer.  At that pace I'd do 40K in around 2:24.  Except I KNOW I could not go at that pace for a full 40K.  So my goals are a bit more modest - I want to average a kilometer every 4 minutes.  That's 5K every 20 minutes, and would get me across the finish line in 2:40.  Even that is a bit ambitious. So I'll be REALLY happy if I break 2:40, and satisfied if I finish in under 3 hours.

Anyway, today was my last day of training.  From now until the race I'll take it easy and save up some energy.  This afternoon I climbed up Pyramid and went downhill skiing.  It was the first time I've been downhill skiing in 3 weeks.  Patrick

The snow conditions were actually pretty good for downhill skiing