Please excuse the delay

Please excuse the delay in posting! It's been an interesting week and a half, and ever since work computers stopped allowing me to blog, this whole project has been a challenge!
The last week was fantastic. Last Friday I went fishing for what was intended to be a couple of hours. We were going out at 6pm, and sure to be in by 8pm. You know how fishermen have an unspoken rule that you are allowed to increase the size of your fish by 10% when you tell other people about it? (This explains Kristie's "45" pound salmon.) Well, there's another rule that when you say "one more time down the river" you really mean "let's never stop fishing!" So, that's how I ended up fishing until well after midnight last Friday night. Your next question might be to inquire about how many fish I caught. Well, indulging my Jewish side as always, I've been too cheap to get a fishing license, and have refused to fish all summer. It's been interesting. Seriously, though, the fishing up here is a whole different culture. Coda and I took a drive down the river, stopping by his favorite fishing spots, and watching the fishermen to see how active it was. I saw little children that could rip filets out of a fish with more expertise than your average sushi chef. Later that night, Coda took me down to the river to watch the dipnetters. Dipnetting is a suprisingly effective method of fishing that involves, as one might guess, a large net dipped in the water. People stand in the water, holding the net, and WAIT for fish to swim into it. I can't make this stuff up! You know what's even more ridiculous? The fish actually DO swim into the nets, and because this technique is so effective, only residents are legally allowed to dipnet.
We went for a short hike back to Russian River Falls (most well-maintained trail, ever) and Kristie participated in a fishing derby. Last night Coda convinced me that I need to go shooting with him, and today, my shoulder is killing me from the kickback of his shotgun. Gosh I love Alaska! But you know what I don't love? Those little clay things that get slung out of a big, metal, glorified slingshot for us to shoot at. Pesky little suckers!
So I'll try to post photos in the next day or so of all these adventures. As a final note, for those of you following my housing crisis, I got an apartment! I learned that being proactive isn't just for motivational-speaker types that are always encouraging you to think outside of the box. I went wild. I found a place in a good location. I liked the price. I decided it would be my apartment. I e-mailed the girl who posted the ad, telling her, "I want to rent this apartment." I got my info to the landlord for the credit check, and was in good contact with the landlord before the open house even happened. By the time my darling boyfriend (who earned about 100 relationship points during this whole house-hunting adventure) made it to the open house, I already had the address to send a deposit to. I have a home when I get back to DC, and I am VERY excited!