Yukon Quest

I'm back after a wonderful weekend. I didn't post on Friday, because I was up Pinkham with Brina. We had a lovely time. To recap the weekend:
Thursday night I had piano lessons with Gail. I learned about blues chord progressions, the I, IV and V7 chords, and played a blues song. It was hard at first, but, like most things, got easier with practice. After piano, I went to dance. I take Irish dance classes in Kalispell from a lady named Sally Conrad. She teaches Celtic Cross Dance School, and also gives guitar lessons. She's an amazing teacher, really laid back, and quite entertaining. Dance is 45 minutes, but goes by incredibly fast. We do hardshoe and softshoe. I couldn't tell you which I liked better. In softshoe we get to do very lovely dances and pretty moves, and it seems to flow. But in hardshoe we get to make lots and lots of noise with our feet! which is always fun.
Then after dance I went to Erika's house where she was housesitting. We looked at pictures, ate cookies, and watched the movie "That Thing You Do". We started another movie, but didn't finish it. Anyway, on Friday Brina and I left for Pinkham. We drove up there and started a fire right away, and spent a good while bringing in firewood. After that we sat in front of the fire and talked for 8 hours. We got up to make dinner, which just consisted of burning hammukukko, and rapidly stuffing jalepeno poppers into our mouths.
Saturday morning we went up to Grandma's and ate lots of shaped hotcakes, and talked with her and Grandpa. Then we went to 4 Corners for beer battered fries and gravy, and came home. And Sunday being just the usual sunday it is, that was my weekend.

Today, Monday, I woke up and spent a good many hours reading "Yukon Quest: Treasure of the North" by Tracie Peterson. I felt silly wasting so many hours sitting there telling myself a story, but reading is so addicting. The book is the first in a series (of four, I think) about women who travel to Alaska. This one is mostly about Grace Hawkins and Karen Pierce. Karen is Grace's governess, and together they travel to Alaska to escape Grace from an arranged marriage to a man who beat and threatened her. While in Alaska they meet Bill Barringer and his two children, and Peter Colton. Both the Colton and Barringer famalies have a story of their own. The book takes the story on from the point all three parties meet.

I decided to get a few things accomplished today that have been needing attention for a while. Such as the mess that happens to occupy my room, and the matter of Erika's broken jacket I needed to send back to Arc'Teryx to be repaired. It had snowed all day today as well, so Elly and I went out to play with the dog and the new inches of white. Snow angels are definitely the best. Elly set up a dance studio in the kitchen, so we spent much time dancing together. We wrote out dance moves, and I showed her a few of my Irish moves, a bit slower, and she loved learning them.

Algebra continued to make me frustated, and then elated when I actually figured out how to do it. I didn't finish my entire lesson, but got a fair amount done, with lots and lots of help from Mom. We spend a bit of time talking and scribbling through our different learning styles before we actually get through a problem. But it's all for the better, we learn how to do it. It's kind of fun when you get the hang of it. (I never thought I'd say that)

Well, I think that's all for now. I might go watch part of the movie Riverdance. I'll tell you how it goes tomorrow.