{{{YAWN}}}

I have been sleepy allll daaaay looooong.

Maybe it's this weather....we have switched

back from dry and sunny to wet and grey

and it is difficult for me to get motivated.

Of course, it doesn't help that it is still

light out at 11:00 pm, gets dark for about

4 hours and then it is light again at 3:00 am.

We tried closing the blinds all the way, but

then we slept in until 8:00 am--not good!

So far the best solution is to close the blinds

about halfway, then the light creeps in about

6:00 am. Now if we could just do something

about the songbird chorus at 3:30 am...

My husband went out fishing today and had

a great (but very wet and chilly) time. The

Kings are really hitting right now and he

was able to keep 2:

He looks a little shell-shocked because he

got pretty cold out there. It rained non-stop

the entire time out in the boat and the wind

really made it cold.

Some days you go out in the boat and don't really

catch anything or see any wildlife. Today was a

viewing day! The picture below shows a sow

and 3 cubs walking along the beach. I loaded

it large sized, so hopefully you can click it and

see them. My husband said the sow was up on

her hind legs looking at the boat and then the

cubs stood up next to her and watched her

closely until she gave the signal to run into

the woods.

The next thing he spotted was a deer swimming in the

water. This is common here; lots of animals swim

between the hundreds of small islands. Our neighbor

came upon a large bear swimming and said it was

really something to see such a large animal swimming

in the water. Hopefully you can click these pictures

and make them larger to see the deer in the water.

The last set of pictures were taken here in town. See

the little fuzzy wuzzy fella in the middle climbing over

the fence? That is why my younger daughter doesn't walk

home from babysitting at the neighbor's this time of year.

Is it bad when the wildlife is bigger than your car?

TAKING BACK OUR COUNTRY

PRAISING GOD

Well, folks I just talked to my mom and she

was pronounced in remission and cancer

free yesterday! Thank you so much to

everyone for their prayers and thoughts

during this last year. She will go back

on July 20th for another check up and

then she is O.K. to take a trip up here

to visit everyone.

In the beginning it is difficult to think

ahead to a positive end result, but she

has worked really hard at taking care

of herself, following the doctor's orders

and keeping a positive attitude. God

hears the prayers of His people and

we are so grateful for His intervention.

The weather has been really nice this

spring and now beginning of summer

so we have been working in the yard,

going on the boat and hiking a bit.

One of the cool plants we saw over on

a short hike:

Makes you want to just grab ahold and run your hand

down it, doesn't it--yeesh.

Our Golden Chain was gorgeous this year with all

of the sun we have had. My husband almost murdered

it last year by building a fire too close to it, but it

seems to have recovered nicely even if it is

leaning a little to the right.

The Coast Guard has been busy out in front of our house:

We went out to Camp Coogan for my husband to look

at a repair to a boathouse. These boats have seen

better days.

We went in one of the back bays and found my

dream house. Click the picture to make large:

I don't think I would ever go to town except for groceries.

Can you even imagine living here? The lady that owns the

floathouse we were looking at said when they got there

in the morning there was a sow with 2 cubs walking

on the beach next to the house and when they woke

up in the morning there was a huge male grizzly

walking along the meadow.

Back at the harbor "Spot" was sitting in the tree

watching us get the boat ready to leave. Check

out all the pinecones on that tree! If I could only

find a recipe to use them in...

My husband went out with a friend to check his

halibut skate. Look what was hooked:

He said the mouth had 2 large teeth like a

parrot and the body is shaped like a shark.

Look at the size of the eyeball! It didn't

have regular scales, they were more like

plated armour. Weird.

Then they had this hooked on there:

A skate. Can you even imagine what is living out there

in those billions of gallons of salt water?

So then this went floating by our house:

This is the mega-yacht Turmoil. I looked it up online

and it is one of the largest yachts in the world. Those

are islands behind it and it makes the islands look small.

It was in the harbor all week and it dwarfed anything

else there except the Coast Guard cutter. The front

has 4 regular sized boats on it and there is a

helicopter in the back under it's own cover.

I read online that the owner took possession of it and

then died a few months later so his family uses it to

sail around the world. He was the man that started

the clothing company Land's End.

Lotsa cakes to do and cookies to bake, so I better

go get the ovens fired up!

DO YOUR KIDS WATCH NICKELODEON?

I received this article in an email this morning from

World Net Daily and I thought I would pass it along.

I have always liked Nickelodeon, but it looks like they

are more interested in advertiser's money than in the

moral content of what is on their show for millions of

young, impressionable viewer's to see.

Nickelodeon promotes 'naughty' games to kids

Players peek up teacher's skirt, ogle buxom women in public places

---

By Chelsea Schilling

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

The children's network Nickelodeon is now offering a selection of naughty games that allow players to look up teachers' skirts and perform a variety of sexual acts – prominently linking to the sexy games from its popular websites for young kids.

Nickelodeon links to AddictingGames.com from its websites for children, including Neopets.com and Nick.com. AddictingGames, a website owned by Nickelodeon parent company Viacom, features the Nickelodeon logo and has approximately 34 million monthly users.

The NewsBusters blog noted that the Nickelodeon website features racy games such as "Naughty Babysitter," "Booty Rider" and "You da Sperm!"

"You da Sperm" was set to inactive at the time of this report. Several other games, including "Asstroys," "Vanessa Naughty Toys," "Magic Fingers," "Perry the Sneak" and "Naughty Starlets" have been removed.

AddictingGames' "Naughty Classroom" allows players to glimpse under a teacher's skirt and inside her blouse.

However, one game that remains active on the website allows players to glimpse under a teacher's skirt and inside her blouse.

The game, called "Naughty Classroom," begins with three young boys sitting at the front of a classroom and admiring a photo of their female teacher.

"Remember that hot school teacher you has a crush on in high school?" the game asks. "The subject of your adolescent dreams, the only teacher who could get your undivided attention in class? Presenting our mouth watering version of the ultimate teacher-goddess! Here's your chance to fulfill your ultimate childhood fantasy! Naughty Classroom will leave you begging for more homework!"

A teacher walks into the classroom wearing a mini skirt and spike heels. At one point, she unbuttons her shirt and flashes her undergarments at her students. Players can prompt one of the male students to turn on a fan, and a gush of air lifts the teacher's skirt.

Another game, "Naughty Gym Teacher," asks, "Why should boys have all the fun? The giggly schoolgirls cannot get enough of their hot male gym instructor, and they will resort to the naughtiest tricks to get what they want."

"I would love to be Coach Rodder's 'dumb belle,'" one girl says.

"Naughty Babysitter" allows a boy character to shoot ice cubes down his babysitter's blouse. The babysitter gets physical with her boyfriend on the sofa and even kisses the boy she is babysitting.

"Perry the Perv" depicts a cartoon man ogling large-breasted, scantily clad women in public places.

"Perry the Perv" depicts a cartoon man ogling large-breasted, scantily clad women in public places.

"Perry the Sneak loves women," the description states. "The only problem is that women don't love Perry. … Help Perry get an eyeful without getting a handful for being the world's best Serial Peeker!"

Other games include "Naughty Detective," "Naughty Airplane," "Naughty Elevator," "Naughty Beach," "Naughty Park," "Naughty Supermarket" and "Naughty Summer Camp."

AddictingGames also features "Stick Dude Killing Arena," where players "Train to kill until you die." The game features splatters of blood and offers a suicide option. Likewise, "Dark Cut" and "Dark Cut 2" feature "More macho surgery! No anesthetic. No antiseptics. Just rusty knives, corn whiskey, and lots of blood!"

AddictingGames also features "Stick Dude Killing Arena," where players "Train to kill until you die."

AddictingGames warns of "mature content" by featuring a very small image of a bomb near game titles.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a national coalition of health-care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and parents, has spoken out against Nickelodeon's promotion of AddictingGames, noting that thousands of parents have written the company to demand it remove links to AddictingGames from its children's websites. Members of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood overwhelmingly chose AddictingGames as 2010's winner of the Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children Award, also known as the TOADY, for the worst toy of the year.

"Nickelodeon's cynical disregard of pleas from parents is troubling," said Dr. Diane Levin, professor at Wheelock College and co-author of "So Sexy So Soon." "It seems that keeping children's eyes glued to advertiser-supported screens by providing edgy content is much more important to Nick than honoring parents' trust."

Newsbusters writer Alana Goodman noted, "Nick.com describes itself as 'THE place for kids to play games online!' There will even be an entire show devoted to promoting an AddictingGames.com contest airing on Nickelodeon's TV station on June 19."

"With widespread concern over teachers sexually abusing children, it's bizarre that Nickelodeon would partner with a website that seemingly endorses that type of behavior," Goodman wrote. "Also troubling are the lessons that some of the video games seem to teach children – namely, that it's acceptable to sexually harass women."

(Note: Concerned individuals may contact Nickelodeon and parent company Viacom.)

CAKE FAIL

Blech.

Every once in awhile this happens. I hardly ever figure

out what went wrong, I just throw it out and start over.

A bad egg? A forgotten ingredient? I have no idea and

I don't have time to dwell on it.

Lucky for me it burned so bad on the oven floor that it

was like charcoal and just wiped off with a damp cloth.

I left the kitchen window open all night to air it out

because I had cakes to do in the morning.

Friends of ours celebrated their little girl's

first birthday on Friday. It was a very special

cake because this is the little girl I wrote about

last year that was born very premature. Her

mom was airlifted down to Seattle and she

was there for weeks and weeks.

They were advised by the doctors that when

a baby is born so premature they do not

develop resistance to disease very fast. They

recommended that the baby be kept home

for a full year so she isn't exposed to so

many sicknesses at once. They have been

very faithful to keeping that advice and

she has been kept isolated for a full year

except for individual family members

coming and going.

So little Abigail is just starting to come

out and meet everyone at one year old.

Funny, when I delivered the cake we

realized I had made it to match the

party invitations, which I didn't get

to see before I made the cake. Looks

like it was just meant to be!

This was a carrot cake for a lady in the Pioneer

Home turning 85 years old. Lots of pretty

flowers for a pretty lady!

This was a fun cake for a bride getting married

in Hawaii in July. They had the shower decorated

so cute when I dropped the cake off! It was a Luau

theme and they had palm trees set up, leis everywhere

and lots of neat touches. The cake was Italian Creme

so there was coconut inside for a tropical flavor.

I tried to make the flowers look like lei flowers,

but I don't know if I succeeded:

This was a 50th anniversary cake that we

delivered in the pouring rain. My husband

held a huge cardboard over me as I carried

it from the car into the building, then I waited

in the lobby while he ran back to the car for

the granite cake stand.

We went up 2 stories in an elevator,

then up 2 staircases with me carrying the

assembled cake and him carrying the

14" granite cake stand.

By the time I set the cake down my arms

were shaking so bad and I still had to set

the topper in place with everybody

watching. Nothing like pressure!

I love how this cake turned out with

all of the gold and I made the sugar flowers

to match the pretty topper the daughter's

provided:

I have a light week coming up as far as cakes,

which is good because our church is having

a breakfast fundraiser next weekend to raise

money for sending the younger kids to camp

in July. I volunteered to make cinnamon

rolls with cream cheese frosting to serve

at the breakfast.

Yum. Is there anything better than freshly

baked cinnamon rolls?

ARE YOU A CAT OWNER?

Just so you know...

http://www.wimp.com/catsthinking/

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY

It was sooo warm yesterday! It felt so good

to sit out on the deck after church and just

soak up the sun. I had a cake to start and

I find it way too easy to see a hundred other

things I would rather do than go down to

the kitchen and fire up the ovens on such

a beautiful day.

Our pastor called about 2:00pm and said

he and his wife were going out on their

boat for a little bit--would we like to go?

Hmmm, gorgeous, sunny day, flat ocean,

nice boat, great friends, oven avoidance

--sure!

Plus, we get to enjoy Missy's company--score!

There was one ship in town. Boy did those passengers

have a beautiful day to visit.

We passed by the local lighthouse that was built by

our veterinarian. He is in the process of building

another one at the other end of town, so if anybody

is in the market for a lighthouse this one is for sale.

1.2 million.

Dollars, not clamshells.

Any takers?

Having fun...

We passed by this cabin on the very tip of Long Island.

I was wondering how in the world they got the

building supplies up there. Helicopter? What an

amazing location, they look right over the ocean

and some of the best fishing grounds.

Of course, the ever-present whales were around us. We

heard this week that there is a dead Humpback whale

over at Kruzoff, which is the island Mt. Edegcumbe is on.

Fish & Game was checking it out and they think it was

hit by a cruise ship. That is so sad to me.

This kind of looks like a postcard to me. I caught Alaska

Airlines coming in for the 6:00pm flight. I have flown

in on clear days like this and the beauty almost makes

your heart stop. Lucky passengers!

And a drumroll please....

My niece graduating from academy.

High five and congratulations on

4 years of dedication & hard work!

Our older daughter was able to attend

the ceremony in WA, so I can't wait to

see more pictures and hear the details!

2nd HONEYMOON?

We dropped our younger daughter off at the

church so they can catch the ferry to Juneau

for a week at camp. The youth pastor heard

both of our kids will be out of town for a week

and said A second honeymoon for you!

Umm, we didn't have a first honeymoon dude.

When we got married we had just purchased

a house and property and had flown my

mother in law in from Poland for the wedding.

We had enough money left to buy tickets to

state fair and we used some of our wedding

money to buy ourselves an oil painting at

the fair for our new house.

One day we will take time for a real vacation

to someplace warm and interesting and we'll

call that our honeymoon.

So after dropping our daughter off at church

we went down to have lunch at Kenny's. They

have the best lunchbowls! My favorite is the

Sweet & Sour Chicken bowl.

We left there and were walking along downtown

when we came across a raptor eating something

on the grass of the public area. I thought at first

it was an immature Bald Eagle because of the

feather coloring, but it is a Red Tailed Hawk.

Turns out this man is visiting from Valdez and

he is a falconer. The bird he had with him is

apparently hard to deal with so when he leaves

he has to take him along. He had a dog kennel

in the back of his truck that the bird stayed in,

but he had him out on the grass so he could eat.

He is a one year old Red Tail Hawk that he saved up

in Valdez. This bird had been knocked out of the nest

and was dying on the ground when he found him.

He named him Lucky.

He is devouring a quail that this man has flown in from

a quail reserve in WA state. He eats every bit of the bird,

even the feathers (for roughage) and the bones (calcium)

I asked why not feed him moose or deer meat and he

said it doesn't have enough calcium. Their diet in the

wild consists of mainly voles. We watched him eat

the head in one gulp. Wow, you learn something

everyday, don't you?

It was drizzling--see the rain drops accumulating on

the feathers? Kind cool the way it was beading up and

rolling off.

He had a little stand that he carries with him and just

puts the bird out on it with a tether. He didn't care

we were watching, he just ate the whole bird.

See how full his chest is from eating? Now he

is fine for the man to pick up without any arm

protection. He said when the bird is hungry he

has to wear arm protection because he is very

agitated and the talons really dig in and hurt.

This man was interesting to talk to--very

informed and turns out he is also a 4th

degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do at 59

years old.

I doubt anybody messes with

these two.

He's all--Back Off Lady, Sheesh.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS JUNE ALREADY

Can you? Weren't we just talking about spring?

It is so nice and warm here, very different than

the usual weather in a rain forest. Everyday we

wake up to birds singing their lungs out and

the sun shining. There is evidence that it rains

during the night when we wake up, but it has

stopped by morning. I'm good with that!

Something woke me up in what I thought was

morning and I was like Man, it feels like I barely

slept. I looked at the clock and it was 3:00am.

It is fully light outside with birds singing and

everything awake at that time. What makes it

hard is it is still light at 11:00pm too. I think

we have something like 17 hours of full

daylight now.

Tourists are now back in full force. Yesterday

we had 3 full sized cruise ships in town, which

makes for a lot of extra bodies roaming the

sidewalks. I made the mistake of having to go

downtown for something and got caught in

the wave of people randomly wandering in

front of the car while looking at the sights.

Have you ever seen those movies of people

trying to drive cars in the countryside and

huge herds of sheep and cattle are blocking

the road and just standing there? That's

what we have here, only the sheep and

cattle are carrying Holland America

tote bags and wearing bright pink and

green stickers on their clothes telling

them which ship to get back on.

Here's the goofy part--the people they

meet when they get off the ship are

selling things like fishing trips, ATV

day trips, etc and they don't even

live here! No kidding! I drove past

there and the people lined up along

the sidewalk hawking their wares

are people that come into town for

the summer and deal with the tourists.

Then they go home, wherever home is.

Most of the tourist shops here are owned

by out of state people and a lot of the

people that work in them don't live here.

We have several that stay boarded up

all year and the owners show up just

in time to open them up for the tourists.

Then they leave the same day the

last cruise ship is here and take all that

money with them back to wherever

it is they call home.

It's like when you travel somewhere and

buy something that you thought was unique

to that area. Then you pull it out of the bag

later and realize there is a tiny Made in China

sticker on the bottom. Blech.

If you are ever planning on taking a

cruise to SE Alaska you may want to

contact a bed and breakfast or the

Chamber of Commerce in the towns

you are going to and just ask them

if they can recommend any LOCALS

to take you around. ASK before you

spend your money if that store is

owned by locals. That way the

money you spend there actually stays

there and benefits the local economy.

Plus you are going to see a whole

different part of Alaska than you will

see on a tourist bus.

O.K., sorry, got that little rant off my chest.

It was busy last week with my older

daughter's birthday party. She turned 19

and just left for a month to stay with

Grandma and visit friends. Her cake was

a bit of a challenge for me...she had a

piece of artwork that she drew of a

lady's mask and we decided to duplicate

that onto her cake:

Kind of a Picasso. In cake.

I didn't realize until I saw the pictures that the 19 I put

on there looks like a nose.

These were for the local high school's graduation party:

A fun birthday cake:

This coming week I will be making several fun

cakes, one of them is for a 50th anniversary, so

lots of gold.

I have a new car coming up this month on the

ferry for the bakery. My jeep has just gotten

too small to do deliveries from, so my husband

scouted around online and found a nice used

Ford Bronco that will work really well for me.

The back opens up nice and flat to hold lots of

food and is easy for me to get to. Plus it's 4 wheel

drive, which is essential. Our good friend

drove it from Kelso, WA all the way up to

Arlington for us and now my daughter will

drive it up to Bellingham to the ferry for us.

First she is going to fill it to the gills with

things like dog food that is soooo expensive

here because of the weight.

Off to the kitchen to start making some

flowers for a Hawaiian bridal shower

cake next week...