High winds

Looks like we should tie down...everything tonight and tomorrow!

From NOAA weather Kodiak:

KODIAK ISLAND
INCLUDING...KODIAK CITY
950 AM AKST TUE DEC 14 2010

...HIGH WIND WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON...
.TODAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY IN THE MORNING THEN BECOMING PARTLY CLOUDY.
TEMPERATURES DROPPING INTO THE MID 20S. NORTHWEST WIND 25 TO 40 MPH
WITH LOCAL GUSTS TO 55 MPH. 
.TONIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS AROUND 15. NORTHWEST WIND 40 TO 50 MPH
WITH GUSTS TO 75 MPH POSSIBLE AFTER MIDNIGHT. 
.WEDNESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. ISOLATED SNOW SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON.
HIGHS IN THE UPPER 20S. NORTH WIND 40 TO 50 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 75 MPH
POSSIBLE.

Snow

From a few days ago...Since it started raining almost immediately after it snowed, we took advantage of the opportunity to get the girls outside and play, though it was well past dark. Marshmallows, snowballs, sledding and a snowman!

done. really.

I am almost afraid to say it, for fear of making it not true.  After all, the diploma is not yet in hand.  But yesterday, my final requirement for graduating - my printed dissertation copies - were mailed to the UAF graduate school.  It doesn't seem real yet. I am not jumping for joy. I am not demanding that everyone call me Doctor!  Maybe the thrill that everyone thinks I will feel upon graduating will never materialize.  That's not to say I am not happy and relieved.  I am ready to get on with the next chapter of my life.  I want to be able to focus on work when I am at work, and my family when I am at home.  I want to start taking my gardening more seriously again, and do something creative.  It will be nice to do nothing sometimes and not feel guilty about it.

In the short term, it is time to consider the holidays and the family trip to Tennessee and Indiana coming up in just a week.  And there is much to be done at work before then.  And how many presents to wrap? The end of one thing does not mean I will become less busy. At least not yet.

Emmy's Christmas Dress

Ultrasound #2

Looks like Baby is going to be a girl!  Emmy is very excited to be getting a sister to play with.  I am getting what I wanted, and Jeremy is getting used to the idea.

Some think it's better to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender, but I find it so much easier to plan now that I know.  For instance, it looks like we can keep those garbage bags full of baby girl clothes that were left over from Emmy and her cousins.

Day after Thanksgiving

Since we won't be here on Christmas, we set up our tree early so we have time to enjoy it before our trip.  Emmy is so excited.

Thanksgiving on Kodiak

Ima-mi April?

Why have I not been posting since September?  Well I have a couple of reasons.  The first reason is that I am pregnant!  I had an extremely rough first trimester, with severe morning sickness, smell sensitivity, and general hopelessness for about the first 4 months.  During that time I also had the severe hacking chest cold that went around Kodiak, followed by bronchitis.  As soon as the bronchitis cleared up, and the nausea started to fade I had three weeks of headaches, which turned out to be an untreated sinus infection.  I don't even want to say I am feeling better for fear I'll jinx myself.

Here's the little one at the last ultrasound, which unfortunately did not reveal the gender.  We are having an elective ultrasound next week to hopefully find out if this is a little boy or girl.

And then there is the dissertation.  My final draft is due to the graduate school on Dec. 3rd if I want to graduate this semester.  And yes, I do very much want to graduate.  The editing phase of the dissertation has been much more difficult than I had thought possible.  Finally I am nearing the end, but am still not DONE, so you can expect to hear more from me in a few weeks.

Christmas will be so great this year.

Almost Camping

We almost went camping on Saturday.  We packed up, quite a lot of work for the whole family with the dogs.  Well, Jeremy did the majority of that.  We went out to Kalsin Bay where Mom and Tony and a number of their friends camp every year.  It was pouring rain.  We had a dry tent, but there was just nowhere good to go for shelter.  So after all of our raingear had failed us, even though we still had a dry tent, we decided to head home at about 9 pm.

The one exciting thing that happened involved bears and cattle.  We saw three bears upstream in the distance fishing, inland from our camp.  Our camp was along the top of the beach.  They seemed to be getting a bit closer and Tony had just cooked some steaks, so we were keeping an eye on them.  As Emmy and I went down the beach to check on the halibut Jeremy caught, we heard some commotion and realized everyone had jumped in their trucks.  Jeremy yelled to me to get Emmy in our truck, just as I saw a herd of cattle come barreling in from the side - they were chasing off the bears who had been running full speed towards our camp.   I never got to see the bears get close, but the cattle were imposing - they must have developed an instinct to chase bears off when they got too close to their grazing area.  The bears never came back that night, but there were some jumpy campers, rumor has it.

Romania Trip #2

It has been a while since I posted more photos from Romania.  Here is a nice selection.  There were so many great things to see and photos can hardly capture how subjects looked in real life, but these are some of the better ones...

Metalworking detail on an entry gate.

Outside of the house where Vlad Tepesh is rumored to have been born.

The nice lady who made the purse I got for Emmy.

Sign outside of Voronets monastary. Those wearing shorts, including men, were given long wrap skirts to wear inside the gates by the nuns.

"The Last Judgement" painting on Voronets Monastery.