The dogs: Rascal (in front) and Trout

My birthday was low-key, but still really great. I went to the whale office in the morning and strung gangions, then labeled fish in the afternoon for ALFA's fresh seafood marketing initiative. They have a "share" program where people pick up a box of fish every wednesday so I was labeling and packing fish for this week's pick-up. In the afternoon I did get a chance to sit for several hours at The Backdoor and read my book and eat an obscene amount of pastries. It was fabulous. The next day the whale research ladies brought in a cake for me and we had a little office party; it was really nice of them.

I attended another North Pacific Fisheries Management Council meeting. At this meeting they were taking public testimony on a policy change that is really important to ALFA, so I got to hear many longliners testify about their views. Linda's been working hard to change the councilmen's minds on this issue and I think she has succeeded to a certain extent. Afterwords there was a big fundraiser for the Sitka Sound Science Center that all the councilmen and their families attended. I helped set up and hand out hors d'oeuvres (some of which were the cod collars that I helped cut last week!!). It was a great event, and it was fun to see all the councilmen let loose and have fun after seeing them all so serious that morning. The science center made 10,000 dollars too!

The dogs haven't been interested in running with me, but today I brought a ton of treats along and now I think they're warming up to me. They need to get used to running with me so I can exercise them when Linda and the family go fishing in just a week or two. I also need them for scaring away the bears!