The Funeral

After our best chicken Jenny's death, Vince helped Marina feel better by talking about the funeral. Falcom wanted to dig a big hole, but we still have 2 feet of snow at our house. Vince wanted to take her to the dump, but with a great chicken like that, lets just say that he knew better than to mention it out loud. He also hesitated with the idea of leaving her under a tree in the woods somewhere for fear that what ever creature might stumble upon her might decide they really enjoy the taste of chicken. And so, instead he had the idea to have a cremation for Jenny. That really appealed to Marina's punk rock heart.

Too bad he was leaving town on the day that he came up with that great idea.

All the omens of the day seemed auspicious. We saw an eagle retrieving hay from a field for it's nest. We saw these moose brothers strolling around town.
We spent a lot of good time at Priscilla's until it was time to go see Horton Hears a Who.

When we got home we knew that it was time to get on with the funeral. DeeJay built us a fire. Marina, Falcom and DeeJay decorated the casket. I educated the children about different cultures and how this is a common practice in other parts of the world. The kids said a touching prayer for her and we talked about impermanence.

Unfortunately, the wood was wet. The area that we were making the fire on was snow and it quickly turned to muck. The casket burned. The wood fell down upon the heap. The kids started wandering around.

DeeJay and I looked into the fire and out poked a charred chicken foot. I quickly shoved it back into the fire before anyone could see it. DeeJay and I fanned that fire for what seemed to be an hour. DeeJay broke into the gasoline and was trying to entice it into burning really hot. I kept fanning. Falcom was off rolling down the hill into the snow (thank God!) and Marina was fighting with us to get to play in the fire: 'can I poke it?', 'can we roast marshmallows', 'can I put some gasoline on it myself?'

It was at this point DeeJay and I walked around the fire trying to get away from the smoke and saw poking out was the completely unburned barely singed feathers of our beloved chicken. At this point, Marina had traipsed off to play with Falcom and DeeJay looked at me and in his beautiful Island accent says;

"Oh My God! Mom! Jenny has turned into totally burned nasty dongus chicken with the head still on and guts hanging out! What are we going to do!?"(Dongus is an island word which refers to a type of BBQ style)

It was at this point that I started laughing my head off. This experience had crossed the line to where it could not get worse. My laughter at this disgusting situation drew Marina immediately over to see. DeeJay moved a piece of wood over to cover the part with the feathers still showing, but I tried to help and made a leg bone hang out of the partially cooked flesh.

DeeJay looked at me horrified but laughing. I decided I'd better pull out all the stops and said, "Fal, why don't you go in and watch a movie! Take your sister with you!" Falcom was on that, but Marina wanted to help put out the fire. She made a snowball and threw it into the now barely burning embers and said, "I see her in there still."

"No you don't hon, that is just the wood." She looked at me unconvinced.

Fortunately by this time, DeeJay had poured another dose of gasoline onto the fire and the head was now gone.

"Yea Marina it's just wood. Go with Falcom and watch." They went into the house and DeeJay and I started laughing. He was wiping tears when he ran to get the shovel. I got a bucket of snow and we scooped the charred chicken and I drove it to the dump, getting there right before closing time.

You know, that chicken did not even melt the snow in the bucket. I unceremoniously evacuated her into the dumpster.

Good-bye Jenny, We've Loved You!

A Sad Day

Sunrise at our house

This morning, our best chicken, Jenny passed away. After a week or so of trying to cope with 'the dropsies' Marina was sad to feed the chickens and discover her passed away. Here is a tribute to the layer, setter, and fantastic mother to three great chicks!

And then in the evening, Vince left for his two week trip the Caribbean island of St. Maartin.


People have asked, "What the heck? Why aren't you going?" Believe me, we are thinking that too, but there is too much domestic responsibility I fear. Have fun Vince!

Another Day Revolving Around Food

I had so many fascinating thoughts this morning. The sun, the moon, the sunlight reflecting off the ocean. The way our road is still covered in snow. The way my daughter is already wanting to take a day off from everything. Of course, all these lofty thoughts escaped me during the throng of the day.

Veggie boxes came right on time! Great things are happening at Moose Run Metal Smithing (where I pick up the boxes). Their creative energy is awesome. And then off to Two Sisters where the women have repainted their oven room and the place looks and smells out of this world! I told Marina that I would not buy her a sticky bun today and she said, "I'd better stay in the car so I'm not tempted." Two Sisters has a great blog which I've listed on the side of this. As many of you know, most of my early days in Homer were spent in this very bakery eating those white trash rolls. Ah! The life PK (pre-kids). By the way, that baker in the picture is the infamous Sharon of delicious coffee and mud driveway lore.

Many people are shocked to learn that although we live in what they think of as a palace on the hill we still have to haul water each week for drinking and cooking. We carry jugs to town and load up at the free water spicket at the Safeway. This is what I love about Alaska, there are some truly great class equalizers that still hold us together as a community. These include: the dark, the cold, the ocean, and iron and arsenic in the water. I used to think that the atmosphere of our community would change the day they installed a traffic light. Now, I believe the atmosphere will change when Safeway gets rid of this spicket or starts charging people to use it.

Calimari with Ginger Martini

Irene and Matt scheduled a birthday party for Vince and I last night. They brought all the kids and their own personal babysitter to our house and then we drove to Wasabi's for dinner. I'm pretty much getting over the idea that my Weight Watchers 10% celebration is going to happen anytime in the next month. Irene got drunk very quickly. We ordered salads and sushi. The salads came quickly...and then we waited...and waited...and waited... and the waiter kept coming to apologize, and then it arrived. Looking lovely, but on an over sized plate. Yes, it was good, but then Irene said, "Not as good as that that we had in the 5Th Avenue Mall. You know when we went there to celebrate your weaning Marina?" and I suddenly remembered some kind of kick ass thing we ate there, and then Matt said, "It's been so long since you two have gone on a trip alone together. You should do that this weekend. And do some shopping." I am always playing straight man for that guy. I said, "Matt there is no way we can do that before you leave for Vietnam?" and then after like a minute it all came together...
When Irene and I were last in Anchorage I made her and K.R. take me to an adult store on Spenard (a seedy part of town). It was part of my weaning ceremony plan. That and bra shopping. Anyway, K.R. found it un-Christian and decided to stay in the car. Irene and I hopped out and before we knew it Kim had come into the store as she realized there was more 'un-Christian' folk roaming around the outside of the store than inside.
I looked over at Matt who had a definite smirk on his face knowing that I realized what he was talking about. I looked at the tipsy Irene and we both started totally laughing. We finished the evening with a great story from Matt about how he and his wrestling team used to harass the hookers in Anchorage whenever they went there for a meet.

As we were walking out we ran into Sharon's massage/Jacuzzi friend Red and Red told us that we could have the birthday party at the preschool that she owns. Might be a solution! Time will tell. (I want to mention here that their food was ordered after ours, was way more, and way more beautiful and arrived before ours did. Next time I go I will get the Poke Martini. It looked killer!)

Thanks Matt and Irene for another great night out!

Regular Tuesday with Irene

Regular Tuesday with Irene is going to have to change for a while. Read this email I got last night:


Tuesday does not look good
From: m. w.
Add contact
Sent:Tue 4/15/08 12:03 AM
Reply-to:


To: Alana Greear





Okay, I’m off to a bad start. Tuesday’s agenda:

Get new fillings at 11:00am

Staff meeting 12:00 to 1:00pm

Chris’ spring concert 1:00 to 2:00 pm.



Maybe we can have coffee Thursday?



TO DO LIST:

Buy plane tickets

Get travel visa

Organize Maya’s room

Organize guest room

SET UP WISE FAMILY BLOGSPOT!



Irene

It is funny, I always complain about how the routine in raising young children is mind numbing to me and how routine just takes all the magic out of life. I've said more than once, that having too much routine disables God's ability to slip miracles into the day. Now look at me, my Regular Tuesday gets messed up and I become a little sullen. Well, we will have to see what the day brings!

Later

Is this salad starting to look familiar?

Right after I wrote that the phone started ringing. First C.P. called asking me to meet up to hang out with her daughter and her new grand baby. I hung up with her and my wonderful husband called and asked me to go out to lunch with him-without any of our children! So, I went to town hooked up with C.P. and family, (who are very cute and healthy!) and then dropped Marina off at school and then picked up Vince and off to Fat Olives I went.

Wouldn't you know that in the middle of all that Irene calls me to tell me that all of her day plans got changed and so she would be home and I could drop by.

Lunch with Vince did not go as I had hoped. He has too much on his mind and was doing that man thing where they can't talk and they can't hardly look at you because they are thinking too much. I took him back to work and proceeded directly to Irene's.

I couldn't stay long, and we couldn't really get down to business because Chris was sick and listening to our every word. We did get Maya's room clean a bit.

From there I was off to the Council of the Arts where I signed both kids up for Bluegrass camp and to find out the news we'd all been waiting for.... Did Falcom make the show?

Yes and no. He and Mystique made it in for the Proud Mary. He did not make it for his interpretation of Hallelujah. I was bummed. I really wanted him to do something different. But, this is the life as a preforming artist. I am sure that James Taylor would love to do something different...but... Look what happened to Garth Brooks when he tried to go top 40 from country western. Falcom cried the whole way home when I told him but we focused on the positive and both he and Mystique are very excited to be doing their show at the Jubilee.

Sweet and Sour Life

Sharon's Driveway or Breakup Is Here at Last


While I was in Illinois getting ready to see Cats Musical with no shoes to wear other than my UGGS, my dear friend Laurie said to me, "You can not tell me that there is never a time in Homer Alaska that you do not need a nice pair of black pumps?!" I scanned my internal database and said, "No, there is really never a time one would need a pair of nice black pumps. Black Stilettos yes... and you'd change into them at the door of the bar."

This proves my point.

It was a sweet day with the news of Maya finally coming home from Vietnam, and Falcom doing well during his special education time with Amy, and Marina being taken to Sharon's for a play date at the same time. I had a delicious cup of coffee with Sharon and she told me the funniest story about a massage and a hot tub at the Homer Day Spa. Not a very 'Family Friendly' story. A real classic. I left there so happy. Trudged back down the mud path to my car with sweet feet.

And then I heard from Suzanne that her brother died this weekend. It had been coming on for some time. A brain tumor. There was gobs of time to prepare and finish and heal. But when the event finally plays out, it is a sad anxious time. The sour bite in life.

In light of this, I decided to drive us to Weight Watchers!

It could have been a big night for me. The reaching of my 10% goal! That means that they will give me a key chain and I will get to stand in front of the group with my hands held high in a Hallelujah pose while my friends applaud! I couldn't let Suzanne miss that.

Um, no it did not happen this week. How could it when I eat like a professional boxer? I did loose 1/2 a pound, so maybe next week.

Then I drug Suzanne to the Youth Summer Activity Fair at Paul Banks School. I was wondering why I would put her through something like that, with all those throngs of people, and especially when my ADD is bad and I didn't bring a calendar or anything, but... She found Karen who had just the right thing to say about her grief and so it was worth it. It was also worth it because Joslyn told me the gossip she heard from her son about how great Falcom was at the Jubilee. Totally worth it.



And to finish up the night we went to see this:



since we read the book for the book group and we had to see how it was going to condense into 2 hours. Yes, a slight disappointment. But still lovely. Especially when you watch it while eating this:
It might be a few more weeks until I reach that 10% goal.

On the way home, Suzanne asked me about the Retina A that we got from Dr. C. during our dermatology day. "How is that going for you?" she asked.

I flashed in my mind about how he gave me samples and how they were still sitting in my purse, even though I had asked him for a prescription, and even though Irene said to me when I told her I got that, 'What's the point? You won't use it.' and I swore that I would use it and become the hot babe the doctor promised I would be. "Um, I haven't gotten around to trying it yet."

Suzanne looked at me, probably remembering how she asked the Dr for some when he went on about how it was going to help get rid of wrinkles and everything else and since I was getting some she wanted to be a hot babe too, and said, "Me neither!" We started both laughing so hard. We laughed all the way past that hot spot of sweets; the Fritz Creek Store.

When we parted ways Suzanne said the evening was good medicine. I left her feeling that life was getting back to a little bit of sweet.

It's Happening!

Great News From Irene This Morning!

They got the call. Matt and Irene are off to Vietnam to pick up Maya. They have to be there May 4 and pick her up May 5.

Hallelujah is right! Hallelujah!

This also means that all Regular Tuesdays will become work sessions and that I have to figure out where to have my party. I will accept all recommendations. I'm so excited about the new baby. Congratulations Matt and Irene!

Pictures of the Weekend

This has been a slow and calm weekend. Friday was mellow, and I spent a lot of time on the phone. S.G.(-So cool). Mom (My nephews birthday was good), Danny (It costs $5 to cross the Bay Bridge now), Cherish (who told me I did fine with Falcom and that he is like a small flame that is constantly moving around, but when he sits still, he burns HOT! She really cheered me up.), Dawn called (it was $45 a night to camp in the Florida Keys!), Aunt Phyllis, Mom, K.S.,

Saturday we went to Riley's birthday! A home run for Irene! A bowling party. Very easy, very simple and she cleaned everything right up and had an easy time of it. Very fun. And not very expensive, only $60 for all that bowling and cake eating.

Afterwards the Wise's came to our house so that the men and boys could go snow machine riding for Riley's birthday. It was nice to hang out with Irene in the sunny window of my house. At one point she said, "Alana, you know how you are always asking me how much stuff costs?" I said, "Oh Irene, I am so sorry that I have been such a rude bore, I'm just always thinking of things." And she said, "Oh no Alana, I'm trying to rub off a little of that onto me because I never ask I just spend" I thought, "Whew! Gotta love a best friend!" I mention this now because as I proof this I realize I am still mentioning how much stuff costs. Frugal, fearful or freakish....hum....

We made a nice dinner of MEAT and GREENS. The littlest kids played around outside in the cold sunny bliss of late winter. In fact Chris would rather play in the mud than go snow machine riding. Chris and Marina played limbo. Falcom and Riley made a karate and dancing show. The men drank a beer or two and we all laughed and visited.

At one point Vince took Matt to show him our upstairs. Now, I will mention here that this is the ultimate out of sight/out of mind location for me and the place was just trashed! I turned to Irene and said, "you know, I just haven't had the energy to turn that room into a sanctuary of love lately." Well, just saying that out loud was enough to motivate me to spend the day cleaning those rooms. No, it's still not done, but it is on it's way.


Grandma Kathy had these shots taken while we were in Illinois. There is a whole proof book of pictures I have to pick. How am I going to do that?

I found this shrine to mermaids in our living room.<