Tom and I just finished making a pineapple upside down cake. He does not like it when I am in the kitchen doing anything. He considers the kitchen his now. So making the cake together was stressful and I have retreated to my little office room! We rearranged the furniture in the living area this morning and that was stressful too.

We are taking care of Libby (black lab) till Jeanne gets back from her trip. Then we are taking care of three other dogs just for the weekend their owners get back. It has been especially cold the last few days - just biting cold air - so Tom is walking all these dogs in this weather.

My friend from Decatur, Mary, and I are doing a Flat Stanley Read Across America project. Her students send their Flat Stanley up to Chevak and we send ours down to DeKalb County. Flat Stanley is a book about a little fellow who gets flattened by a bulletin board and as a result can do such things as slide under doors and get mailed to California. Hence we mail Stanley to different places in the project the students get involved by writing journal entries about his adventures with them and then mailing him back to his original locations. Mary has a blog where the students will post the journal entries. So if you are interested, check it ouy during the month of March. The address is http://flatstanley2008.blogspot.com/

Last week Tom's friend, Gary - who bought our snow machine from us last fall, asked Tom to ride over to Hooper Bay with him. They've been talking about this for a while. So last Saturday was the big day. It took them a while to get going - everything has to be checked, clothing, gas, etc. I was just a little anxious until another teacher decided to go with them. Stewart has made that trip many times and as soon as I heard he was going too, I was not as worried - well maybe about the cold hitting Tom as they drove. It is really cold here - and if you are on a snow machine for an hour traveling with the wind hitting one part of your face, or leg - where something is not as protected as it should be - well you're in for some trouble. They finally took off and a fleeting thought came into my head - if they got lost in the snow and disappeared - well would the insurance company consider that an accident and would I get double insurance. The thought left my head as soon as it came. I felt really bad. When they returned almost an hour a half later (not near enough time to get to Hooper Bay and back) they had wild tale to tell. Seems as soon as they got a little far on the way to Hooper Bay - the clouds, fog, snow, whatever it is out there, closed in on them - almost blizzard conditions. Tom said him and Gary rolled over twice. They kept going and it became close to a whiteout - not a true one because they could still see about ten to fifteen feet - but beyond that no vision. They came to the realization that they were driving in circles and decided to head back to Chevak. Now they had the GPS's but the way they got home was heading in the direction of the wind cause the wind was blowing towards Chevak. They took off with Stewart in front leading and he promptly disappeared from sight. Tom and Gary couldn't see him or hear him. Tom said he had just one anxious moment - but Gary, bless his heart, reminds me of my Uncle Henry, and he just kept going not worrying about a thing, fully assuring Tom that they were heading in the right direction. Stewart of course got back to Chevak, realized the old guys were not behind him and started back out to find them. They met just outside of the village! I was hoping that would be the end of it, but Tom ad Gary took off by themselves the next day, great weather and they had a great time shopping and touring around Hooper Bay. Tom got me some packs of Diet Coke that were on sale there and most of them made the trip back intact. He also picked up lettuce and carrots - lots cheaper than in Chevak.