Well, I have tired of waiting and troubleshooting and then failing and then starting all over with uploading my iWeb. I'm pretty mad but don't know who to be mad at. iWeb is simply not going to upload on the wireless network I am using, not at home, not at school - and I have no idea why. Apple is of no help. So, Google is now my blog spot of choice. I'll be able to go in right online and type and add my entries. I don't know how much space I will have yet - but I'm sure I'll find out soon. I'll try not to post too many photo - or maybe I can make them small.

I'm going to to copy the information from the last three blogs that I have not been able to upload (and I have spent hours trying to problem solve this).

November 4, 2006 Tom the Terror
Halloween was wild. We had hundreds of kids come to the door - some came two and three times. There were many with two sacks - one for a little brother or sister, or cousin, or friend - well you get the picture. The high schoolers came as well - all in costume. Tom was decked out as a zombie, I guess. We had haunting ghost sounds on the Cd player going out the window and he had a knife and a bone and he took out his lower front teeth. Pretty spooky. Some of the children really got scared but as soon as I started putting candy in their sacks, the fear diminished quickly. Tom had purchased over $100 worth of candy in Anchorage and we used just about all of it - I was just throwin’ that candy at ‘em. Lots of gleeful smiles the next morning.

We had Eskimo Dancing night on Halloween Eve. Pretty nice - lots of folks there.What I really like is all the young folks dancing with their parents, even the teenage boys. It is a real issue here - preserving the traditional language and culture - and here these cool teenage boys are Eskimo Dancing and loving every minute of it. You can see mothers and sons together on the stage. They served Eskimo Ice cream again - I think I have described that earlier.This time - everyone knew us and all the kids came up to talk. They want to know if Tom and I sleep together in the same bed, how much I weigh and what size I wear. It’s a hoot. And all the females, young and old, and many of the men, wear their most beautiful cuspiks ( I have not spelled that correctly), a traditional dress - sometimes short and worn over pants and sometimes long worn over pants.I have one that was made for me as a new teacher. I took my camera this time. Remember they are not doing this for the teachers or tourists - it is their way of life, a traditional celebration. They do it for themselves only. We were just guests.

Have I mentioned that we have no trees here, not one, not one solitary tree.

Got my library web page up - it isn’t finished but you can check it out at http://vak.gcisa.net/~libary/

The heat was out for about four days before the repairman could fly in from Anchorage. Our custodians rigged up this interesting thing to keep the building at a reasonable temp (55-60) while we waited. We just put on coats and went about our business.

Friday, October 27, 2006 Halloween

We’re gearing up for a big Halloween here. The elementary school is having a Halloween party Sunday afternoon, the kids trick or treat from 4 -6 on Tuesday and then the entire community has a Halloween Costume Party at the community center from 7-9 pm with dancing. I can hardly wait. Tom and I are both dressing up and decorating for trick or treaters. He is going to be stationed in front of the picture window staged like a Zombie. I’ll be a witch and answer the door. I have a tape with eerie sounds and I’ll be carrying a skeleton. Should be fun.

It is much colder, snow is staying on the ground, lots of icy patches. I have to be really careful in my steps. The lake has begun to freeze and the kids are throwing things out on it so it looks a bit like the moon surface. Several have fallen through the ice playing out there.

We went to the wrestling tournament tonight - the whole village was there. Chevak was winning everything. Their boys flew in on a chartered plane from Nome, and then our girl’s volleyball team flew back to Nome on the same plane to compete in a tournament there.

Hope this entry uploads okay. The internet connection drops a lot and causes me much stress.

Tuesday October 24, 2006 They're Yummy

We’re still here. I got the books in - the $59,000 worth of books. I’ve been shelving and shifting shelves and unpacking boxes for at least two weeks now. Great books - I’m so glad to have them! A lot has been going on at school too - well, Halloween mainly. I’ve been celebrating all month - and it is still seven days away.

Tom got his Arctic parka and it is really warm. He sat out on the porch today pretending he was an Eskimo. While he and Roxy were sunning, the two Great Danes and our neighbor Kim dropped by. Roxy was nuts enough with those two dogs but then another dog dropped by and he is hyperactive. All three of those huge dogs started barking and play fighting with each other. Me, Tom and Roxy moved further and further into the corner of the porch. My head could fit inside that Great Dane’s mouth. Our porch is around 3 feet by 10 feet and there were four adults and four dogs - three of them super huge. Lot of fun...

A little girl came up to show me her book the other day. She opened it up to a beautiful illustration of Beluga whales swimming in the ocean. My first thought was how beautiful they were and then I thought of the gorgeous Beluga whales in the Atlanta Aquarium. ‘Bout that time the little girl said, They’re yummy! Specially the baby ones!” She was rubbing her tummy at the same time. I nearly fell over with horror and laughter at the same time. I’m not in Georgia anymore!