I am way behind and falling farther, but here, standing in the wind, is Miss Teen Top of The World and the two talented beauties who competed with her

These are the three who competed for this year's Miss Teen Top OF The World title: Rochelle Oyagak, Selma Khan and Freida Nageak. As you can see, they had to stand against a strong wind.

Selma Kahn was the winner and is the new Miss Teen Top of the World. I did not get a chance to interview her, but I can tell you that she did sew her own parka. And she did an excellent job. This is not my judgement alone, but that of the Elder women judges who have been skin-sewing all their lives and know quality when they see it.

Congratulations, Selma.

Me, I would not ever want to be a judge. No, I just couldn't do it. I thought all three were wonderful and that includes you, Frieda Nageak.

And you too, Rochelle Oyagak.

The three do a pageant walk.

And don't worry, mothers of the babies. I will still put all the little darlings in this blog. All nine of them, not a single one of whom I could have awarded anything less than first prize to.

That is why people who organize such events would always judge me incompetent to be a judge.

I must note that I am doing a very poor job of keeping up with myself on this blog. I have so much that I have so far photographed on this trip from a successful ugruk (bearded seal) hunt to flying around in airplanes to Eskimo dancing to local basketball players preparing to go to a tournament in Hawaii - and other things, too.

Maybe I will yet post some of this material. Maybe not.

I am pretty busy and the project that I am working on is time consuming and does not leave much time for me to fool around with this blog.

July 4 in Barrow: Two who fought in Iraq and expect to fight in Afghanistan led the parade

Alaska Army National Guard soldiers Steven Kaleak Jr and Owen Nowpakahok led the parade. Both men served together with the Guard in Iraq, both men reenlisted and both expect to be deployed to Afghanistan in one year. "I love my job," Kaleak said of his reenlistment. Kaleak is Iñupiat of Barrow and Nowpakahok is St. Lawrence Island Yup'ik, and comes from the village of Gambell, 40 miles from Russia.

And truly, back in his hometown, he can walk out the door to the house and see Russia.

Kaleak and Nowpakahok were follwed by veterans of Barrow, many of whom experienced combat in Vietnam and elsewhere. Alaska Natives and American Indians have the highest rate of military service of anyone in the country.

The parade works its way past the Chukchi Sea of the Arctic Ocean.

There were many games and races and I'm afraid eggs got broken.

With some encouragment from her Aaka, four-year old Jacklyn Sceeles dashed to third place.

And Amaya Williams won first in the same category.

All contestants over the age of 60 won first place. Knowing that they were going to get in the money did not stop them from competing full-force.

Spectators, including the very famous and athletic Spiderman, watch the Elders compete in the gunny sack race. Well, three of them watch. The fourth admires his own new face in the driver's side rearview mirror.

Many other things happened, including a baby contest, Miss Teen Top of the World and an Eskimo dance to close out the day, but I have not had time to do anything but barely touch the photos that I took.

I may still try to add in some of this material. If I succeed, I will not pile it on top of this in the usual blog fashion, but will run it below. This because I want to keep the American Flag at the top of any Fourth of July material that I post. So if you come back looking for babies, pageant contestants and Eskimo dancing, be sure to scroll all the way down past this entry that you have already read.

Happy New Year! New Wasilla Dairy Queen opens to sell ice cream at 30 degrees below zero; neighborhood fireworks, cop stop

Waiting in line in the drive-through at the new Wasilla Dairy Queen.

It being New Year's Eve, I was looking for a wild time. I was driving about in our Ford Taurus with its smashed-in rear end wondering what I could do. I drove past an electronic marque that showed the temperature at 26 below* - okay, so I exaggerated just a bit in the title. Unless you think in Celsius. In Celsius, it was -32.  As I approached the Dairy Queen that has been under construction for the past couple of months, I wondered when it would open. And then I saw the sign that said "open - 24 hours a day"!

Yeah, this would be wild! I had never been to a Dairy Queen in Wasilla before! No one had! This would be great!

*This is pretty warm compared to the cold regions of Alaska, where temperatures right now are in the -40s and -50s; wouldn't be surprised to hear of some dips into the -60's.

So I hurried home to see who might want to share in this adventure with me, then returned with Margie and Lavina. We got in line at the drivethrough. We placed our order - a Butterfinger blizzard for Lavina, a Hawaiian Blizzard for Margie and a small vanilla cone dipped in chocolate for me. As you can see, whoever was in the vehicle in front of us also ordered a cone.

You could click on the picture and see it a little bigger.

I refused to accept the ice cream cone, because it had not been dipped in chocolate. The girl is looking at their electronic copy of my order to see if, in fact, I had ordered a cone dipped in chocolate. She saw that I had. She sent the cone back. It came back dipped in chocolate.

It was good, but it was exceptionally small - the smallest small cone that I have ever had. If I had realized it was going to be that small, I would have ordered a medium.

It was probably better for me that I didn't know.

As midnight approached, I was back in the house. People were tired and had already gone to bed. I was appalled by this, but that's how it was. Jacob was still up, watching football, running back and forth to take care of toddler Lafe, Kalib's friend, who is spending the night but who does not seem to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a stretch.

I could hear fireworks going off all around. So I decided to go out and get a few pictures. These are not official fireworks, just fireworks people shoot off in their yard. It is not legal to do this, but they sell fireworks just up the road in Houston and nobody cares that it is not legal, including the cops, who could not possibly arrest everybody shooting off fireworks.

So I took a short drive, and shot a few frames through the window, when I would see a rocket going up in front of me.

The car was just about out of gas, so I went and put $5.50 (at $2.45 a gallon) in, because this car will not be with us long enough for us to burn much more gas than that.

On the way back home, I saw this car pulled over, with two police cars parked behind it. 

Despite the fact it was very early New Year's morning, I will not speculate as to what cause our good Wasilla police had found to pull the car over.

Oddly enough, it was directly across the street from where I got rear-ended just before Christmas.

Christmas Day, 2008, Wasilla, Alaska - post 2: we eat, give gifts, and go to the movie

We sat down to eat our Christmas dinner about 4:00 PM. Baby Kalib was in the bedroom he shares with his parents, fast asleep.

About half-way through, we heard him cry. His mom went back to get him. Everyone was pleased to see him. See the picture of Kalib on the cabinet? I took that on the day that he was born - December 26, 2007.

Guess who's going to be the big star of tomorrow's entry?

The first gift that I grabbed from under the tree was addressed to Stephanie, from Charlie. Everyone watched as she opened it. It was ear rings. After that, the gift unwrapping became a free-for-all.

Everyone cheered when baby Kalib sat down in his new sled.

I got a new pair of snowshoes. Ever since the snow stuck in early October, I have been longing to put on my cross-country skis and head into the mountains. But the doctor told me to be patient, to wait until next year. Lately, the kids heard me talking about how I was going to get my skiis out, and go, and they thought it would be safer for me to be on snowshoes.

I have a pair, somewhere, but who knows where? Maybe one of my kids borrowed them. I don't think I am in good enough shape right now to go very far on snowshoes. But I will soon go, anyway.

After the gift-giving, we went to the 7:00 PM showing of "Marley and Me" at the Wasilla theatre. I usually avoid this theatre, because the movie rooms are very small and the tiny screens cannot hold the full image, but none of us felt like driving to Anchorage or even Eagle River, so here we went.

Baby Kalib started to cry after awhile. His Dad took him out into the hall until he quieted down, then brought him back in. Soon, he started to cry again. Dad again got up, but Margie wanted him to be able to enjoy the movie, so she got up and spent the rest of it out in the hall with baby Kalib.

This is how I found them when the movie was over.

Afterward, we returned to the house and ate pumpkin chiffon pie and raspberry goup. Melanie made the pie. It was superb! Lavina whipped up the goup. It was the best goup that I have ever eaten.

I should have taken a picture, but I was too busy eating pie and goup.

note: A click will reveal a larger copy of any photo.

Christmas Day, Wasilla, Alaska, 2008 - post # 1: we walk

Despite all the destruction by construction that has taken place in this community in the 27 years that we have lived here, there are days when a walk in Wasilla feels just like a walk in paradise. Today, Christmas, 2008, has been such a day.

I should note that the little dog that has distracted Muzzy is the same one that mauled its owners pet bunny nearly to death, down on the corner where the chicken crossed the road, the rooster got shot and the drunken good humor lady crashed her ice cream truck.

I love this place. I can't help it. I just do.

Wasilla, Alaska, Christmas Day, 2008. "Merry Christmas!" I shouted to the three people on the snowmachine as they drove past.

"Merry Christmas!" the woman in the rear shouted back, her voice muffled by her helmet and the roar of the machine.

note: A click will reveal a larger copy of any photo.