What I Saw in Kodiak This Week

In between the sideways downpours this week (yep, fall has come to Kodiak), I was lucky enough to glipse a gorgeous sunrise, and some local wildlife. It's a good thing this kind of stuff rolls across the camera lens, or I think I'd go running for the hills!

Speaking of running, we're out of here this week for our Florida/St. Thomas trip. We're looking forward to the sun and heat, but, mostly we can't wait to finally meet our niece, Regan! She's only six and a half monts old now, so it's about frickin' time! I can't wait to get my baby fix!! (Oh, and see Josh and Erin, too, of course!... and Nana in Florida, and our friends Mary (and hopefully Keith), and their kids, and also my friend Lisa and her daughter, Abby who recently moved to St. Croix.) This vacation couldn't come soon enough!!!

Holy cow! I can't believe I almost forgot... Big news happened this weekend! The results of our promotion board FINALLY came out, about a month after they actually met. It was a happy day here yesterday when Jason and I both found out that we've been selected for Lieutenant Commander (O-4)!! This is a big one since you get officially "tenured" at O-4 - unless we screw up completely, they have to keep us til we hit 20 years now! Of course, it'll be quite a while (probably at least 8 months) until we actually pin the rank on (and get the pay raise to go with it), but being selected is good enough for right now! We're pretty excited! Though, at the same time, it makes us feel a little bit old...

In addition to the promotion, I also accomplished a major goal at work over the past few weeks. We're still in the trial-run phase of it, but I've succeeded in getting four days for our cutter training instead of just three. This is HUGE, and I'm pretty proud of myself! For YEARS (long before my time), there have been complaints about the short period of time allowed for training, and how rushed the whole process is. Many of my predecessors have done what they could to try to overcome the hurdle, and I've been asking for another day since I got to the school. Over the past few weeks, I've been working with my bosses to make my case, and it looks like the next cutter to come through will get four days of training!! We haven't made it permanent yet, but that should be easier to do once we get the feedback form the students. So, that's my latest news!

On to the pictures now... That one at the top was the sun just coming up on my way into work the other morning. The day showed such promise, and then by the end of the day, it was raining sideways again! Oh well!!

The rest can speak for themselves! I spent about a half hour or so just watching these two enjoy an early morning meal! (I DEFINITELY need a bigger telephoto lens!!!)

That's it from here. I can't promise any other updates between now and when we leave for vacation, but we'll try to update on the road. Just be aware that any pictures that have US in them from vacation could blind you with all the pasty whiteness that is the Alaskans in Florida!