Tourism and cake

I've become less of a tourist and more of a resident. I realized this when I scoffed at the car in front of me because the driver slammed on his brakes and swerved to the side of the road to look at a moose. You know you're a resident when the tourists are in your way. I thought there was an accident or something because of the to-do. There were 2 RVs and 5 cars stopped. I should have known right away what they were there for. A moose of course!

Speaking of being a tourist, I spent hours this morning looking for a box of chocolates from Alaska Wild Berry Products. I checked every gift shop I could find. I wanted to get Frenchy a box of those chocolates for her Birthday because of the box of chocolates that I ate a while back. I know I mentioned it in one of my posts before, but I'll reiterate. She won a gift basket that went along with a 'date night' gift certificate. The gift basket had wine in it and since she doesn't drink, she gave it to me. She left it in my car for me before she headed back up to Anchorage one day. When I went to get it, I was delighted to find that there were chocolates in there, too. A while later she asked me if I had the chocolates because she had left them in there by mistake. I told her she must not know me that well, they were looooong gone. Now we joke about it. She asks me where the chocolates are and I tell her they were gone minutes after she pulled away to head back to Anchorage. Because of this I thought it would be funny (and nice) to get her a box of their chocolates. And not a stinky 9 piece box like the one that was in the gift basket! I ended up just getting her some other kind of chocolate, but it'll do.

I got a red velvet cake because I figured it's something different. It was either that or carrot. I really wanted cheesecake, but I figured that isn't neutral enough. I love how when I get a cake for someone I pick out what I want. I don't really know what kind of cake she likes, so that's the way it's gonna be! I considered making a cake but I really just don't have time today. Guests arriving and leaving today so I've got to rush to get things done in the interim. Penuche frosting would have been delicious, though. I could eat that stuff by the spoonful. Oh, wait. . . I do.

In other news, I burned my foot with a piece of rice. I was toasting rice in a pan and when I flipped it one of the times a single grain went flying out and landed on my foot. It burned so I kicked my foot to get it off. A second later I was wondering why it still hurt so much and I realized it was because it landed underneath the strap of my sandal so it was pressed against my foot burning me. I always get trivial cuts and injuries in the weirdest ways. I'm a walking disaster.

The reds are in! And so are the guests.

This place is crazy right now! The salmon come through here in runs, which is when they spawn, so it'll be dead on the river and suddenly there are thousands of fish coming through. The other day there were 2000 coming through every hour! Wow. There are 4 different types of salmon in the river, so there's fishing pretty much throughout the summer because each type has a few runs. The reds are the big ones, so people go crazy around here for them.

News travels fast about their arrival. The other day it was all I heard about. "the reds are in, the reds are in!" Every time I hear someone say that I always think, "the redcoats are coming, the redcoats are coming!" I'm definitely from Boston. Since then, the population has seriously swelled around here. There is nonstop traffic. Not real traffic, it's just that there are a lot more cars around - the main road is always buzzing. There's river access right on our road, so there have been a lot of trucks parked around here to go fishing. Soldotna ('town' to me) is crazy busy. I went to the grocery store today and boy was that a mistake. Wall to wall people. It's just amazing how this place suddenly gets a pulse when the fish are in.

I considered going fishing tonight, but decided against it because I'm extremely tired. Kevin and Ed moved out of their cabin because we had a group coming in that was slated to stay there, which means I spent half the day getting it ready for the group's arrival. Boys are messy. It was the 'Bruce Bustamante group' that was arriving. What a name! Bruce was in charge of the chamber of commerce, or something like that. He's now the director of Princess Cruises Tours. . . or something like that. Wow, I'm so detail oriented! I just can't remember the specifics, but Frenchy told me, "If you're gonna suck up to anyone, he's the one," because of the possible Princess Cruises perks. Yeah. . . no thanks. I'm going to treat him like I would any guest! He seems like a nice enough guy, but I didn't really get to talk with them much, so we'll see.

We also have another guest, Matt, that just arrived tonight. I like how he ended up here. He had a flight issue with a connection and he didn't want to wait so he told them to just give him a connection through Anchorage for a few days. . . because he had never been to Alaska. He came yesterday and stayed at the B&B for a night and when he mentioned he was thinking of going fishing, Frenchy told him to come on down here, so here he is. Frenchy kept telling me that he's cute and that she told him to tip me. . . then she said, "who knows, maybe he'll tip you by taking you out to dinner!" Ever the matchmaker she is. I need to break her of that habit. She knows I'm not looking, but she's the type that figures a date is good for dinner if nothing else. I'm just not that type. If I'm not interested, I'm not going to pretend that I am! Even if I were looking, this guy just isn't my type. Not in the least. He's good looking, but that alone just doesn't cut it for me. He's attractive, but I'm not attracted to him. Follow me? I just don't understand people that can go on looks alone. There has to be substance!

Frenchy will be down tomorrow. It's her birthday and she's ordered me to create a to-do. I told her I'd give her a s'more. She told me she needed a cake and presents and cards and, and, and. I told her that I don't really do birthdays. She repeated her requests. I told her she's not supposed to ask for a birthday celebration. She told me that she knew I'd take care of it without her asking, but she didn't want to be disappointed so she figured she'd doublecheck with me. So tomorrow I have to go buy a cake. . . and I'm thinking of making the guys wear cheesy party hats while they work. I hate pretending to act excited for people's birthdays. They just don't excite me for some reason. Some birthdays excite me I guess, but most don't. My own birthday doesn't even excite me. I woudn't be surprised if I forget my own birthday someday. Seriously. I just hate when people expect to be treated like royalty and given freebies on their birthday. "But, it's my birthday," is one of the worst lines ever uttered. I'm not a complete birthday grinch, I mean, I like a good birthday celebration and all because I like that it's an excuse for people to get together. I just don't like when it's an excuse to grovel at the feet of a person because it's the anniversary of their birth. Who says I want to celebrate that fateful day you were spawned?! Okay, maybe I am a grinch. Whatever.