Auction (and Snow)

We've been negligent about blog posting again. Our apologies. We'll do this update chronologically.

First up are some pictures we took last week. It was a very cold day, but there was still a lot of puddles around from the big thaw we'd had. We were driving out of town towards the flats, and I drove right through a puddle of icy water.

Problem was, as soon as it hit the windshield, it froze.

I couldn't see AT ALL. I pulled over almost immediately into the fire station parking lot. It's good thing there isn't much traffic in Dillingham. Then I had to scrape the ice off the windshield.

That brings us, then, to this weekend. Samara had been tasked with planning an auction to benefit SAFE. It involved lots of planning on her part. There were donations to get, tickets to print and sell, sponsors to wrangle, catering to arrange, and an elementary school gym to decorate. I'm sure there was plenty more to it, as well, but I didn't have to be involved in all that.

I was involved in the grunt labor on auction weekend, though. After work on Friday, I helped move prom decorations from the Middle School gym to the elementary school, where the auction was being held. There was a crap load of gossamer, lots of Christmas lights, some rolled-up slightly-rusty chicken wire, and some street lamps.

Once that stuff was safely in the elementary school gym, we got to decorating. We had lots of volunteers to help. Besides the SAFE board members, some of our friends like Erin and Saramay showed up to help. In fact, Saramay helped hung out all weekend and was a big help.

I was surprised that the decorations turned out so nicely, given what we had to work with, but they were really good. We had gossamer hung between all the basketball hoops, along with strings of lights. Once the tables were set up and the lights turned down, it looked pretty classy. On Saturday morning, we got up early and Samara cooked a good breakfast, and then we went to work setting up the silent auction items and putting the finishing touches on things. After that, it was home again for showers and getting dressed up in our nicest clothes.

Samara had to work the whole auction, of course. Saramay, Anthony, Erin and I got to sit down at a table and enjoy it.

Here's Anthony chowing down on the tasty catered food.

And Saramay, relaxing after the meal.

And here's Samara, running off to collect more dollar bills during the "Chinese auction."

And finally, a long shot that shows a bit more of the room.

The event was probably one of the ritzier moments in Dillingham. We had catered food, with thin-sliced been tritips, glazed baby carrots and potatoes. There was a silent auction, a live "Chinese" auction (explanation to follow...), a live dessert auction (good way to get people to bid--don't provide dessert!) and various raffles and door prizes. It was an entertaining night.

I only bid on one thing--a giant, stuffed toy horse donated by Wells Fargo Bank. I didn't expect to win it, mind you. This was the "Chinese" auction, though, so there was a set price and people bid $1 at a time until the secret price was met. Each dollar bid was collected, and when the bidding reached the secret, pre-set price, the person making the last bid won the auction. I bid $5 just for fun, and happened to hit upon the winning price. So for $5, I got a giant stuffed horse.

I set it up at my table in a chair--too bad I didn't get any pictures. It was rather amusing. Then Samara happened to notice that I'd won. She wasn't as amused that we'd have a giant stuffed horse at the apartment. She suggested I give it to one of the kids of a lady she works with. I think I made that kid's whole week.

After the auction was over, we got everyone to put up their own chairs, and had some folks help out with putting tables away. Then we retreated home to lounge on the couch, exhausted, and count the proceeds from the night. SAFE ended up make over $6000 for its programs, which is great!

Of course, then we had to finish taking down the decorations on Sunday. We got Saramay and Erin to help again. It was a whole lot easier to take things down than to put them up, and we were done in a few hours.

By Sunday night, you can imagine that we were pretty worn out. We slept in Monday morning, right through the eruption of Mount Redoubt. Apparently it spewed out ash 4 different times on Sunday night and Monday morning. The ash isn't falling anywhere near Dillingham, though, so we're safe.

Something else did fall today, though.

That's the view outside after lunch. Here's my co-worker's truck after a day at the courthouse.

And my car, after the work day.

Stupid snow. It's icky. I thought the thaw was on, but apparently it's still winter.