a week already?

It has already been a week since my last update?? Oops... I guess I have been working too hard or something. Since I know the answer to that question falls into the "or something" category, I will go ahead and give you a few details.

Thursday night, as you know, the guys left. We hit up a diner in anchorage while Sydney finished taking her written test. She passed with a 73!! We are all really proud of her for that. I started having a conversation with Dwayne about what life after college looks like for me. I need to finish that conversation, but it did get me thinking and looking into a few more options.

In addition to dropping the boys off, we picked up Emma from the airport. She is in her 40s, single, from the church Dwayne worked with in Russia. She works at a crisis pregnancy center there in far east Russia. I have really enjoyed talking to her some (she is working on her english). I love having the Russians around; I have been learning a few words in Russian, and hope to learn more.

We didn't get back from the airport until after midnight, so it was a very late night. I stayed awake to help keep the driver awake as well as aide in the moose hunt. Bonus points if you spot the moose before we hit it.

Friday I started to not feel well, but it didn't hit me hard until Saturday. I went to bed really early, and stayed in bed for over 12 hours. On Saturday, we had a short wing Piper fly in. Only two planes showed up in addition to the guy who organized it, but it was fun to see their planes. For those of you non-pilot types (I didn't know till i asked either!) all Pipers are short-winged. I am not sure on the line between short and long wings, but apparently Piper fits in the short side.
The rest of Saturday and Sunday were pretty miserable. It turns out that about 4 of us picked up some food poisoning from the diner on Thursday. Two of those guys had a 7 hour flight, too. I felt bad for Phil, who was dealing with it on the plane. No fun at all. Mark showed up I think Saturday evening.

Sunday morning, Dwayne went in to pick up Kostya, the last of the Russians coming. I don't know all the details about him, but what I gather from Dwayne is that they (Russia) want him to help start an aviation program at the University of Moscow. This is a HUGE step to opening up general aviation in Russia. But again, this is all what I get from Dwayne, so I don't know how accurate it is. Kostya is currently working on his instrument rating.

On Monday, a new couple showed up. They are with a group that is coming in September. I guess they are here to prepare for that group. They helped build Hodge Podge Lodge on past trips here. They stayed in the guy's old cabin Monday night, but moved in to Hodge Podge Tuesday after lunch. Which means the girls got displaced... We moved into the room downstairs in the hangar. It is really nice to be close; to not have a long walk up to breakfast. There are other complaints, but I will leave them be.

The rest of the week has gone all right. I have started feeling better. We are working on Hal's plane, trying to get that gear box in. It is in now, so all we have to do is torque it down, and rivet everything closed. We will probably get the riveting done tomorrow, and might get the gear in on Saturday. Mark has been a big help on it. I taught him how to rivet, so I don't have to do it :) I will still be doing some of it, but he is doing the easy riveting.

The people across the runway (dwayne's son's (David) business) got the helicopter working last night, and have been flying it to prepare for the film crew that is coming next week. They are filming something about "experience Alaska." I think it is a discovery channel program. This film crew has filmed things like Survivor.

Today Syd, Lydia, and I are headed to victory Bible camp to learn some ballooning and mime stuff for camp. I have done some of it before, but it will be good to learn a few new skits and get my hands on some balloons again.

Well, thats about it, thanks for checking in!