Snow and Bread

For the last few days the skiing has been good at the golf course, but I fear that today's forecasted hard rain will put an end to it.  Oh well, hopefully we'll just have to climb higher to find snow.

Yesterday, I wasn't sure if the skiing at the golf course would be good and after work I brought along 3 different pairs of skis - classic cross country skis, downhill skis, and skate skis.  That way I covered all my potential options.  I ended up skate skiing.

In the past few days we have had to come up with the kid's Science Fair projects.  I've also been baking a lot of bread using the the 'No Kneed 2' Cooks Illustrated recipe.  Basically you add vinegar and beer to the classic 'no knead' recipe to add better 'bread' flavor.  I've been trying out various types of beer to see what makes the best bread and Stuey has decided to make this his science experiment.  'Which ingredients make the best bread?' is his question.

Nora's experiment has to do with our Christmas tree.   She plans on putting spruce boughs in various types of liquids and seeing which one keeps the boughs from drying out and needling.  Next year we will know what to put in the pot under our Christmas tree!  Patrick

I've already altered the recipe to suit our family tastes - this bread was too crusty so we now leave the lid on the dutch oven while baking rather than removing it half way through

Volcano and starry fun!

My first day on the big island of Hawaii couldn't have gone better. I got some work on my final paper for writing class done at a lovely cafe in Hilo. Eggs bennies with salmon hit the spot!

It had been on my mind to do an evening volcano hike, so I called a company which looked reputable and they had a spot for 1 person yesterday. It was a small group-just myself and another older couple on the tour.

Our guide, Rich, has lived in Hawaii since the 80's and knew SO much about the volcano history, lava flow history, and a great sense of humor. I could tell right away he would make the tour a fun one!

 We drove to the coast where a lava flow ran over a town in the 90's and wiped out one of the nice white coral beaches. The rapid regrowth on the lava flow is quite something else-how plants can grow in the dense rock.

We drove to Volcano National Park for a dinner overlooking the volcano spewing away (about 3 miles away). Just lovely-the sunset, glow from the volcano. The whole experience was more impressive than I expected. Its one thing to read about seeing an active volcano, but quite another to be so close nearby.

Next stop was  a lava tube~a structure formed as the lava rolled down hill towards the ocean. Tour leader Rich said the lava tube we were in went for 26 miles. Its a cave like feature with water dripping from the ceiling and stalactites in the baby formations.  I'd never before heard of anything such as this!  Was fun and spooky to walk in it and think of it meandering on for 26 miles underground. Nora and Stuey would've loved seeing that!

The evening ended with a visit to the volcano museum and a nighttime glimpse of the fiery action.

The volcano was indeed spectacular but what I found even more spectacular were the stars.

As the moon set completely behind a far peak, the sky was lit up like I've never before seen. Rich pointed out The North Star, Orion, Beatelgeus (new to me…a red star!), galaxies, satellites, shooting stars. I suddenly felt so small and inconsequential looking at all those galaxies.

Rich pointed out the stars in their positions and how they were different from how I would see them in Alaska. I appreciated this perspective. The north star was much lower on the horizon than in Alaska.

Rich and the other couple along encouraged me to go to the Hawaii Observatory Center tonight to look at the stars. It wasn't something I had been initially planning on, but after seeing the night sky yesterday-I'm all over it.

Zoya

Hawaii Times

This morning a frog landed on me and last night I went to sleep with the songs of loud tropical birds outside my window. Definitely not Alaskan moments!

Yesterday I flew to Hawaii for a 1 week trip. My  plan is to take a 3 day drumming retreat with other women and have some reading and writing time alone.

I heard about the drumming retreat last August from a physical therapist, Tami Kent, in Oregon who I took classes with and it sounded appealing. Something TOTALLY different for me.

So here I am, in Hilo Hawaii for several days before my retreat.

This morning after discovering my BNB has very poor, sketchy WIFI, I had to search for it. I"m finishing up my 10 week writing class and my 10 page final paper is due tomorrow. Within walking distance of my BNB is a wonderful breakfast cafe.

A serving of eggs bennie with salmon, some coffee was all i needed to start editing away on my paper! Yay for WIFI at fun breakfast cafes!

Zoya

Sledding at the Golf Course

Yesterday was quite eventful.  Zoya left in the dark for an Hawaiian vacation, we had the annual burger grind from 9 to 3 PM, went sledding at the golf course, and ended the day at the Alutiiq Museum staff Christmas party.  Phwew.

Mike S, Lindsey, Lisa, Gregg and I ground 250 pounds of meat in our new 1.75 horse power grinder.  That thing is a monster and we could not feed it fast enough.  I think we could have thrown small trees into that thing and they'd come out the other end as wood dust.  I had anticipated grinding all day but with the new grinder we finished in the early afternoon.

And then we rushed off to the golf course to go sledding.  I was a little bummed I did not have time to get together our ski gear because the cross country skiing looked excellent.  But the kids and dogs had a great time sledding with their cousins.  Today we'll try cross country skiing.

Nora ended up with a box of cereal at the Staff Christmas party white elephant gift exchange.  But that's OK because someone ended up with a 'cat bib' from us.  The cat bib is supposed to keep cats from killing birds outside.  Busy Day.  Patrick

Some final Vacation Moments

Stuey and George go at it in checkers

It already seems like forever since we were out East for Thanksgiving.  2 Weeks is a long time once you are back in the routine.

Stuey and Nora learned about checkers from their Aunt Lynnie.  I was amazed how they took to it.  The game got 'ipad' like attention.  Grandpa 'coco' was the resident checkers guru, and near the end of the trip checkers was all that Stuey wanted to do.  'Want to play checkers?' he'd ask repeatedly.

At dinner while at the airport hotel on the way home we asked the kids for their favorite memory of the vacation.  Nora immediately replied going to the Peabody Museum and Harvard.  I think Stuey enjoyed the checkers the most.
Patrick

The building in the background - Memorial Hall - is where I took exams and attended an expository writing class

The game of the vacation was checkers

Panoramic view from the top of Maiden's Cliff

Panoramic view of the Camden Hills area

Cousins on bikes pre big meal

Family photo and then off to the airport

Our bedroom view at the airport Hilton - 4:20AM wakeup call!

Some Winter?

Yesterday I woke up to a white lawn and snow coming down out of the sky.  After work out of habit I still climbed Pyramid and went downhill skiing.  Usually the only snow we got is up high on the mountain.  But on the way there I drove by the golf course and saw that it was covered with snow.  I could have gone cross country skiing!

The past few winters this has not been happening all that frequently.  And for the next week the weather report looks good for winter.  Could it be that we'll actually have some winter weather? I have my fingers crossed but hopes not too high.  Patrick

Ice on the mountain

Yesterday when I climbed up the mountain to go skiing I was hoping for powder.  What I got was ice and sunshine.  In the latest storm we actually picked up quite a bit of new snow, but near the end of it there was also an ice event.  A 1/2 inch of dry powder fell on the 1/4 inch of new ice at the very end of the storm.  The ice, powder, and sunshine made for some dramatic visuals.  The ice was all glinting in the low angled sunlight, and the new snow crystals sparkling.  Impossible to capture in a photograph.
Patrick

During the last storm it was a little windy too!

Little Dribbler Champs

Champs with vanquished team in background

On Sunday Stuey's Little Dribblers Basketball team won the league championship.  Just 2 weeks ago this seemed like an impossibility.  And while driving back from the game I realized that Stuey's team has an amazing number of similarities with the Bad News Bears  - another team that went from nowhere to the top.

Zoya's business A Balanced Approach (ABA) sponsored Stuey's team, and the coach is the father of one of Stuey's classmates at St Mary's.  All the other teams in the league seemed far more well established.  Banks, fishing vessels, and storage companies sponsored the other teams.

And for the first couple of games A Balanced Approach had it bad - Really, Really Bad.

In the early game I went to they lost 24 to 2 and we had to console Stuey after the blowout.  Stuey only came close to making one basket when he drove and shot at his own basket by mistake.  ABA players would stand there and let passes fly right by them out of bounds.  The other team scored at will as ABA players failed to cover anyone.

And then, just like with the 'Bad News Bears' the team got their mojo - thanks to a little bit of coaching (make that a lot!) and the return of a star player who had been on vacation.  The return of the star player, who also played in the older Little Dribblers league, revitalized the team.  They actually won a few games and gained some confidence.  And with confidence and coaching came a clamp-down, smothering defense.

In the tournament they did not let the other teams score or even shoot.  Hands in the face and lots of fouls.  In the semi finals they played the best team in the tournament (ABA was the only team to ever beat them) to a scoreless first quarter, and then lost by one on a technical free throw in the final minute of the game.  By then Stuey had fouled out.

Still they got their second chance when they won the 'loser's bracket' and got to re play the 'best team' in the finals.  It was a nail biting defensive struggle.  ABA got the only basket in the first quarter and it was only 7-6 ABA at the half.    The other team was frustrated by the smothering defense and could not seem to hit any of their free throws.  In the penultimate minute ABA built a 4 point lead. But both Stuey and another player fouled out - hey that's what happens when you are aggressive on defense - And the final minute and a half was agony for supporters of ABA in the stands.

And then the final buzzer sounded and Stuey and his teammates were champs!
Patrick

Family Photo Rejects

Squint, Squint

Thanksgiving is past and it is time to send out the annual Holiday card with the family photo on it.  This is a stressful process.  Getting a decent family photo is just one step in the process.  You also have to get the cards printed, addressed, written, and mailed off before Christmas.  I will freely admit that most of the latter is up to Zoya.  My job is getting a decent family photo.

And for some reason this year I totally failed.  We had numerous opportunities in gorgeous places, but something is wrong with every photo.  In the end Zoya had to create a 'composite' Christmas card - one of those cards with multiple family activity pictures.

Seeking out this year's family photo got me thinking back to simpler days.  Back to the days when I printed out the card myself on heavy paper from the home printer.  I'd put 2 pictures side by side so that I could get 2 cards per sheet.  I always left half the page blank and measured it so that it would fold into a card correctly.  I remember the hard part was printing the 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Holidays' on the inside.  You had to put the paper thru the printer a second time for this with the proper orientation. Almost inevitably the 'Happy Holidays' would be printed on top of the photos (put in tray upside down) or upside down to the fold (wrong direction in tray).

In those days it was simpler to find a photo.  Pre Zoya I was only mailing cards to my guy friends, maybe 15 tops, and only cared about showing them what I was up to - I also always wanted to make it funny and to shock a bit.  So the cards tended to portray dead things.  I remember I titled the card that went with the bottom photo something like 'Santa's going to have a hard time finding someone to pull his sled - Merry Christmas'.

Post Zoya there was a change to the more traditional card photo.  Also Zoya wanted the cards to be more inclusive; so instead of 'Merry Christmas' we went to 'Happy Holidays'.  Zoya also took over the mailing and writing aspects. Still with only 2 of us and a dog, taking the happy family photo was not all that difficult - although since it was the pre digital era we did have to send the pictures off to get them developed and then scan them to print.

With kids things got much more difficult.  More people and animals in the photo made it harder to catch everyone looking good and with their eyes open.  I think this is the reason we stopped trying to include the dogs in the photo.  One year we took the photo with a tripod and in the best picture my eyes were closed.  I fixed it by taking my head with eyes open from one of the other pictures and then stitching it over the eyes closed image (see bottom photo).  I remember that getting the background to align was the most difficult part of the process.

Happy Holidays!

Patrick

No we don't own a plane

Boring, grainy and washed out - same card as last year anyway

Pre Zoya Christmas Card - for real

Post Zoya Christmas Card - our first one together

2008 family photo - we went out in the new snow to capture the 'White Christmas' feeling

Thanksgiving with the cousins

Patrick, Gretchen and Bart

The whole point of our trip out East was to attend the family Thanksgiving dinner.  The last big family Thanksgiving that we attended was back in 2007(click here for old blog post about event) - eight years ago!  So it was clearly time to hang out with some of the extended cousins and uncles.  And it was a big event - I counted 32 people in photos.  Uncle George had the event catered and the food was really good.  I can't imagine cooking and doing dishes for over 30 people!

For me it was interesting how the uncles and cousins had not really changed all that much since I last saw them.  But the nieces and nephews had all grown up and totally changed!  Patrick

Grandma Coco and namesake Coco the dog

Uncle Bart shucks oysters

Nora and Aunt Polly

My Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanksgiving

Another table of cousins and uncles

Anisha, Nora, Madeline, and Bo

Zoya and George

Grandma Coco, Polly and Patrick

Crazy eights with Nora, Anisha, and Maggy

Sherborn Walks

Ticks not withstanding, we loved our walks while out East on vacation.  In Alaska with our evergreen forests we just don't have the tree trunks glowing in the sunshine as they stick up through a blanket of leaves.  

For Nora and Stuey everything was new and different.  In the picture above Stuey is picking up an acorn that fell from an oak tree, 'Daddy, what's this?' he asked.  Nora and I picked some watercress growing in a spring.  I grew up out East so I take the decidious forest for granted, but for Nora and Stuey we might as well have been in Costa Rica.  Patrick

Powder in the sunshine

Generally, here on Kodiak, snow does not tend to last as powder very long.  It get windy and turns to drifts or gets a wind crust, or, more typically it rains.  But our recent powder has not just stuck around it has gotten drier and more powder like.  The cold conditions with no wind has sucked the moisture out of the snow.  So the skiing has just gotten better!

No wind and sunshine made for a glorious day of skiing!

Patrick