News for the week???

*grin* I suppose it has been that long since I posted.

Ok. First, my neck is feeling immensely better. Still a twinge now and again, but much better. I haven't taken painkillers for it (or anything else for that matter) since Wednesday, and even then I was down to a dose of Extra-strength (on shelf, not OTC) Tylenol maybe once during the day. So, no lasting damage. And should that muscle start flaring up again, I've got a couple of valium and vicodin left to see me through to a visit to a REAL doctor, next time. *wry smile*

**********

No moose as yet. Scott came back to town yesterday and picked up Tay, and took her out with him and his dad. She actually got to go OUT HUNTING with her daddy yesterday for a couple of hours. (About 2-1/2, he said.) She did well sitting quietly, while they were waiting to see if any moose crossed their path. Thing is, it's been somewhat rainy, so they're not sure how much longer they're going to stay out. (Not sure, but tomorrow -- the 15th -- may be the last day of moose season for gun-hunting, though Scott and Al both have bow permits and can continue to hunt with bow in and around town even, till Nov. 1st.) Scott promised Tay that even if it was too rainy to hunt, he'd take her fishing. They're hunting somewhere along the Tanana (river), and where they're at, it's also legal to keep any berbot and grayling you catch. I hope they catch some, I've only tried grayling once, and I've never had berbot. We're hoping that next year I can take a week off for hunting myself. I didn't want to this year, because I wasn't sure what would be going on with the NP Branch Lib. job, and I didn't want to schedual for hunting right when I might be starting that position. But, I'd LOVE to get to go back out hunting next year. I'll be applying for all the caribou and bison and such permits when the time comes next spring, in hopes that my name gets drawn as one of the lucky few each year who gets the chance to go out hunting for that particular animal in that particular area. (To keep too many animals from being taken in areas where they may be somewhat limited anyway, while still allowing for SOME hunting of them, the state of Alaska issues a small number of permits for caribou for example, taken from the Ferry and Rex Trail area. Or Bison from an area near Delta Jct. Or cow moose -without baby in tow. Other areas, like the North Slope for caribou, may have considerably more open hunting rules - 2 per registered hunter, till the Fish & Game officials decide that enough have been taken -and they monitor closely- that they shut down the hunting altogether in that area.) Anyway, so next year I'll be getting my hunting liscense for the year, and applying for a Ferry permit, and a Bison permit, maybe one or two others as well. (It does cost a bit, 30 or 40 bucks, to apply, beside the cost of a hunting liscense.)

**********

I finally got the word from HR yesterday that I did NOT get the job. By this time, I'd rather strongly suspected that would be the case, so while a bit disappointed, I'm rather past the point of grief.

I actually called early yesterday morning, to ask what had been decided and Renee answered her line almost sounding like she knew it was me, and what I was going to ask. It's funny, because talking to Renee and Bonnie has become almost so regular, that they're tone is one of semi-familiarity. Even dropping off the application to Bonnie this last time, she took it without more than a cursory "Is everything here?" Unlike her past inquisitions into whether I've met the minimum requirements. *wry smile* They're getting to know me. And when Renee called yesterday to tell me the bad news, she sounded rather disappointed that she WAS passing on bad news. She's seen my application come past her desk time and again, she's talked to me on the phone time & again. I'm beginning to think I've got a couple of folks there in HR pulling for me. *smile* And it certainly makes me feel better about having to call or interact with Bonnie and Renee, or even having to hear bad news from them, knowing that they have SOME inkling of what this means to me by now.

Anyway, so it's going to mean continuing the drive to and from town, 5 days a week for now. *sigh* I'd really, really hoped that this wouldn't be the case this winter. Besides, I could have used that extra 10 hours a week (more, when you factor in the driving time) for schooling Tay and whatever other lessons we decided to sign her up for. As it is, we opted NOT to sign her up for guitar lessons after all. She's rather disappointed, but as Scott and I told her, if she wants to continue to focus on hockey for the ultimate pay-off of a chance at playing in the Olympics, we cannot take time away from that for guitar lessons. Maybe next year will be an option, or lessons during the summer if she wants to take less time for soccer...... But, we've only got a limited amount of time each week, we've got to prioritize, and that goes for her as well.

Her Spanish seems to be going well. I had a chuckle this past week when she came in from playing while I was making dinner and asked me if I knew what "hombre" and "nina" and "hola" and "adios" meant, and I was able to spout the English translations back to her without problem. Then she asked ME what the word for "boy" (nino, of course) is, and was suprised when I told her. She rather accusingly asked me how I knew these if I'd claimed to never take Spanish lessons myself. *grin* I told her that many of these words are actually being used by English speaking folks now as well, and since Spanish (and it's lingual subsets) is the MOST widely spoken language in the world, of COURSE I know the meaning of some of these words. Then she said "Thank You" (Gracias) for something the next day, and was stumped when I responded with "De Nada" ("you're welcome", or more precisely "it's nothing"). *grin* Once again, I caught her off guard by having a Spanish response to her Spanish comment.

I'm kinda considering taking the Spanish course myself, to give her somebody to converse with. But, I think that I've got enough of a problem spending too much time online, as it is, without hooking up to learn Spanish every morning. *wink* And with various bits of French and German knocking around in my brain, from both childhood and my years of lessons in HS, I think adding more of a 3rd language may cause problems with some seriously funny mix-ups in which words I use where. (As it is, I've forgotten how to count in French, as I start out with French and wind up with Spanish. German is a bit easier in the counting, as I've been doing that since toddlerhood.)

I talked to the "teacher" at the Raven headquarters on Thursday, and she said that she'd called Calvert on Monday about our curriculum, and they promised her to have it in the mail by Wednesday. So, it should be HERE any day now. We're still waiting, though.

**********

On the gardening "Front", we've still got a bit in the ground over at the inlaws. We've got several tomatoes over there finally ripening. I took one ripe Stupice off one of my plants here this past week. (I'll enjoy the eatting, but more than that I'm going to save the seed from that ONE tomato for planting next year, in hopes that the plants & fruits grown from THOSE seeds will be hardier to my climate than this parent plant started out being.) I'm still waiting for a Black from Tula, to harvest the seed from. And seeing as I don't even have any more seed from my origional order, the best hope I've got is that one of my Blacks will ripen. We're going to evidently try canning green tomatoes, if they don't ripen before they start rotting on the vine. But, I've got a couple of "Blacks" on the vine still here at home, covered over with plastic that I'm hoping will ripen yet, since that one of my Stupice tomatoes did, that way.

Some great news...... I noticed early on this week that the ONE pepper plant that actually grew (in my kitchen window, here at home) is sporting some flowers!!!!! So, I've been pollinating it by hand with a never-been-used paint brush. I hope that pollinating the flowers from other flowers on the same plant will work. I don't have a second plant to use for cross pollination. IF the flowers produce peppers, they're going to be a sweet-mild (paprika type, I believe) pepper. And, I'll be saving the seeds from those peppers as well, for planting next year. Again, in hopes that any subsequent generations are hardier to the local climate than this single parent-plant has been. It's funny, thinking about Peak Oil, and wondering that the possibility is that I may wind up being able to produce paprika for my own family's consumption. (And, providing seeds to other folks who may also desire to grow some for themselves?!?!?! How cool would that be?!?!?! Being able to provide an Alaskan-hardy spice-plant to folks who didn't think about flavoring the way they might have thought about potatoes, or not thought about providing these things for an oil-scarce future at all.)

I asked Al (my FIL) the other day if we were going to store the pots WITH soil in them for the winter, once we pull the dead tomatoes and cucumbers out of them. He said that he's not going to, he's just going to toss the soil out into the garden and purchase a NEW truck-load of topsoil next year. *shaking head* I'm thinking that the few pots I've got here at home will be allowed to dry out thoroughly, hauled into the car-port in the corners, and kept over-winter. I don't want to have to figure on a POSSIBLE load of soil next year, when that may not be a reality. I won't have as many pots of soil as he's got over there, but I'll have at least a beginning. Which is more than we may have over there for potted plants, next year.

I still have to get my turnips in. I've got one out there that Scott thought had actually popped itself out of the ground, it's so damned big. *grin* Unfortunately I'm sure they'll be incredibly worm-riddled. That rather bums me out, knowing how much I'm throwing away because some sort of worms got into the plants. (And no, I'm not tossing the ENTIRE turnip just because of worms, but a lot of it's getting cut away and tossed, because I refuse to eat worms, as yet.)

**********

I think that pretty well covers it for now.

Have a Blessed Day!