iPhone shadow portrait of Margie and I approaching the movie theatre; Kalib and cousin Gracie, cooking eggs down in the Navajo Nation

Sometimes, no matter what one is working on, the soul begins to feel overwhelmed and kind of dead from hours and hours and days and days and weeks and weeks and months and months and years and years of time spent sitting where I sit right now, peering into a computer screen.

It happened last night. My soul became overwhelmed to the point that I simply could do it no longer.

The only thing that I could think of was to go to a movie. But I did not want to drive to Anchorage, the new theatre they are building in Wasilla looks complete but is not yet open, the older theatre here is tiny and sticky and awful and one can get proselyted there and it is no place to go for an enjoyable evening of relaxation.

I checked online to see what was playing in Eagle River, but the indication was that the Eagle River threatre was closed for some reason.

So I did not know what to do. I just did not want to drive all the way to Anchorage, where we still have another free movie coming at Century 16 - thanks to Melanie.

But then Margie argued that we could just drive to the very edge of Anchorage - the close edge - where stands the new Tikahtnu Stadium 16 theatres and pay for the movie ourselves. We would not really have to drive into Anchorage at all. It is not that hard of a trip just to drive to the edge of Anchorage if you do not then venture in to the wild and wooly city.

So that is what we did. Without even checking to see what was playing and at what time, we just got in the car and drove. We left Wasilla about 7:20 PM and arrived at the theatre about 8:00 PM - right between the main showing times.

So we bought tickets for the 9:15 pm showing of Lincoln Lawyer, and then went walking into the nearby new mall, which neither of us had explored, found a place called PHO Saigon, and went in. We ordered an appetizer of 3 spring rolls and one noodle plate, which we shared between us.

I didn't take any pictures, because I had left my camera hidden in the car, but the food...

I'm going back!

Really good.

Then, a few minutes before nine, as we walked back to the theatre and on the wall I saw us, just like this.

And me, without my camera! Then I remembered that my iPhone has a perfectly decent little camera and so I did the self-portrait.

We enjoyed the movie, too. We ate too much popcorn - especially after PHO Saigon.

This morning, I was awakened to the sound of text messages coming into my iPhone. Lavina was sending me pictures and a movie from Shonto, Arizona, in the Navajo Nation of Kalib teaching cousin Gracie how to break and cook eggs.

So here they are, and I am pretty sure that is Elias looking on.

I then got out of bed and came into the kitchen wanting eggs, but Margie already had steel-cut oatmeal cooking and it was just about done.

So I ate it and it was good.

I still have a hankering for eggs. Maybe for lunch.

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Margie and I babysit Jobe; I pay a visit to Jason, Iqaluk, Raquel and Aanavak, down from Wainwright

I am in the car with Margie and we are nearing Jacob and Lavina's house. As is plain to see, there is more snow in Anchorage than there is here. I think it is because the way the mountains around us are situated. They scrape a lot of the snow out of the sky before it can fall on us.

That's my theory, anyway.

Laverne and Gracie must check in at the airport late Saturday night for their very early Sunday morning departure back to Arizona. The Anchorage Fur Rendezvous began today and Lavina wanted to show her sister the sights, so Margie and I went in to babysit Jobe and Gracie.

Lavina with Jobe, shortly before she and Laverne set out to explore the Rendez.

What do you think he was dreaming about?

Soon, Margie had Jobe. Jacob came home for lunch and checked him out. Gracie played with Muzzy. Those two hit it off big time.

Gracie is a great admirer of my mustache and beard. Nobody has one in her household down in Shonto, Arizona, in the Navajo Nation.

Gracie became sleepy, and went into her room to take a nap. Nobody had to put her down, she just did it on her own.

Every now and then you meet someone in this life who you wish could be there all the time, a person that you would like to see nearly every day, and say, "Hi. How you doing? Wanna go get an ice cream?" but you know that can't be. You know you will see this only every now and then, in visits separated by years.

Still, you wish.

Gracie is such a person. I will hate to see her go.

Farrell, her dad, will be thrilled to see her come home. He has spent so much time overseas in places like Kuwait, wearing the uniform for Uncle Sam, that he deserves all the time he can get with his little daughter.

Pretty soon, Jobe needed to be fed, so I held him and gave him the bottle. He guzzled it. In fact, he would guzzle three bottles before Margie and I would head home in the evening.

Margie and Jobe, Take 1.

Margie and Jobe, Take 2.

I had a few other people to see, I had to leave Margie with Jobe and the sleeping Gracie. I headed out into the heavy traffic of Anchorage.

I made a couple of stops, then headed over to the Dimond Center Hotel, because Jason Ahmaogak of Iceberg 14 and a member of my Wainwright family had come down to get some dental work done on his daughters, Raquel and Aanavak, here with their mother, Iqaluk.

The family had been out to Fur Rendez, where the temperature was a warm 20 compared to in the -25 to -40 range back in Wainwright, where it had been mighty windy, too. So they wandered about dressed in light clothing, marveling at the warmth, and they say they got a few stares.

Because of their dental work, the girls had to eat soft food, but when they saw some Chicken McNuggets, they wanted them. Jason bought them some and cut them into tiny, tiny, pieces.

Soon, Jason says, they will be eating maktak and other Iñupiaq foods. They will need their teeth for that.

Jason and Aanavak, Take 1.

Jason and Aanavak, Take 2.

I then went back to Jacob and Lavina's, hoping to get a shot of Kalib and Jobe together, but Jobe was asleep. Kalib was helping his dad prepare dinner.

He was making enough for all of us, but Margie and I had to leave, so we didn't get to eat any of it.

We will go back Saturday, to do some more baby-sitting while Laverne and Lavina go watch the sled dog races.

I still hope that maybe some of that cold air will slip down here before Laverne and Gracie leave, but I saw a picture on the news of a low-pressure system spinning this way from out of the South Pacific, so I doubt it.

Super Bowl madness - two two-year olds, Kalib and his cousin, Gracie, visiting from the Navajo Nation, tear up the home turf

A couple of two-year olds were coming out to the house to take in the Super Bowl, so Margie and I headed to Carr's, to buy some Super Bowl food. Here's Margie, passing by some of our locally-grown Alaska pineapples as she takes the Super Bowl food to the counter.

Here's one of the two year-old's right here: Gracie, with her mother, Laverne, who is Lavina's sister. They traveled all the way up from Shonto, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation so that Laverne can help Lavina out with the new baby, which we hope will be born very soon.

Jacob and Kalib dropped these two and Lavina off and then headed back to Piccolino's to pick up pizza.

The game has already started and the Colts have taken an early lead.

Jacob enters, with pizza and Kalib in hand. Kalib holds a football, but quickly hurls it.

Gracie comes up with the football. Yet, she soon spots something of far greater interest to her...

...a black cat! Jim, to be precise. She goes chasing after him.

Gracie catches Jim by the back door window. Before she can put her hands on him, he will leap over to some magazines atop a nearby end-table. If I had been shooting with my DSLR's, I could have got that leap, but the pocket camera is just too slow to recycle quick enough.

Still, I love the pocket camera. It is not only small and light, but much less disruptive.

There, Gracie reaches out and touches him.

Gracie is very pleased. Jim licks his chops.

Readers who have been here long enough will remember that we did not get around to putting up Christmas decorations until almost the last minute. We still have not taken down the lights by the front room window. Most of the time, we leave them off, but we turned them on for Gracie.

And on the screen, the Colts and the Saints battled on.

Kalib did some showing off for his cousin. He pretended to know all about this bicycle tire pump and how it is used. He showed her how to push down the handle, and then he pulled it up to push it down again. This time, Gracie helped out.

Gracie takes in the game. For the moment, Margie and Jacob occupy the living room couch. Originally, Laverne and Gracie did, and then I was there, too, but Gracie forced me to leave when she went off to the places pictured above and did cute things with Kalib.

There was a great deal of musical chairs going on. For the moment, Kalib and his parents occupy the living room couch.

Then, the two year old cousins disappear and I watch a couple of minutes of football. The Saints battle from behind to take the lead, but the score is close and the game could go either way.

Next, I hear commotion in the back room - the one where Jacob, Kalib and Lavina used to sleep.

Pulled away from the game once again, I go back and this is what I find. The big person bouncing is Lisa.

Gracie watches in awe as Kalib demonstrates his well-honed bouncing technique.

Then the two cousins play a game where they repeatedly dash off down the hall, then come charging back, one at a time, past Kalib's grandma. Here comes Gracie...

...and here comes Kalib!

They collapse, laughing, upon the bed. Most of the time, these two cousins are separated by 2400 miles. I hope, though, that things work out that they can always know each other well, that they can be close cousins and good friends.

It is a joy to see them together. They get along well.

Next, they go into my office to feed the fish. Kalib considers himself to be the expert here, and lets Gracie know how its done.

One of these days, should I succeed at keeping this blog going and building it into what I want it to be, I will post the history behind the German Messerschmitt that hangs on my wall, alongside an American Mustang - but no British Spitfire.

It is a painful, tragic story, but one of great import to my life.

It is a story that I must tell. I had imagined making a book of it and maybe I still will, but maybe I will blog about it, first.

My working title:

Two Airplanes on The Wall

To be quite honest, I saw very little of the Super Bowl - although I did see that moment when the Saints beat back the Peyton Manning drive that almost kept the Colts in the game. Instead the Colts fell, 31-17, to the Saints. I'll bet no reader knew this before coming to this blog.

Shortly after, Gracie put on her hat and then she, Kalib, Laverne, Lavina and Jacob all left.

"It sure is quiet in here now," Margie said, afterward.

I know. I changed the tense again.

I don't care. This ain't no English class. 

This is my blog and if I want to change tense, then I damn well did.