Who are you? Where am I? What year is it?

Shoots. Happy 2009, y'all!

Since I last blogged waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in what, October, let's recap wha-tall has happened (big kine)...

- Went to Cambodia and Thailand for a month

- Went to Kauai for thanksgiving with G's family

- Went to Honolulu for New Years (real fireworks in the street! woo! Grant's brother Kyle brought these aerials for the finale.)

- Oh yeah, and I lost my job (funding ran out! booo.) My old lab went from 7 people to 2 people. :o(

Yup, that's all you missed. Exciting! Pix are going to be on Flickr and Facebook, I can't keep up with all this interwebbage no more!

Grant's building is getting to the final stages of done-ness now, and he's crazy busy trying to juggle a full schedule *and* keep up with the zillions of little details that revolve around opening a brand new practice (with optical shop, which he didn't have before). So instead of laying around watching Oprah and eating bonbons, I've been trying to help out with that as much as I can. So I don't *feel* unemployed, I just, err, am.

Yeah. I'm going to use my time helping Grant, planting things, and doing things round the house that have been neglected for-evah, like fencing doodle's yard, lol. Oh yeah, that's another thing that happened -- Doodle moved outside! He now has a house of his own and my only worry is the bad dogs will get out. (They have killed 6 of our chickens and, worst of all, a teeny baby kitten they found in the yard. That was my christmas heartbreak kitty. don't want to talk about it.) I would love to have Doodle inside safe and sound, snuggle-able 24/7, but in the three months he was inside, he refused to use the litter box and made life more than a little difficult. And the way the house is set up, the dogs have full run of the perimeter, so there's no way to sneak him outside to do his kitty business. So there ya have it.

So I did the best thing I could think of for my outdoorsy little guy. He's even got a lanai to sun himself on! Pix of El Casa de Doodle to come.

I'm also getting to cook more than I have since I moved here. After eating some delicious onaga (just one of many delectable dishes) at Grant's family's New Years celebration, I found out from G's mom that Aunty Marcia used a Sam Choy recipe and have devoted myself to getting his cookbooks and trying out some new dishes. Choy's recipes are famous for being ono *and* easy to make. That's what I'm talking about! For my birthday one of my presents from Grant was Audrey Wilson's What The Big Island Likes To Eat, so I'm cooking from that as well. Oh and for Christmas "Santa" brought me a musubi maker, so I get to make my own Spam Musubi!

I'm also wishing somebody would come visit! It's great that I have time on my hands now, but with Grant working ~18 hours a day, not much playtime is happening. I need a fwend! All mine are working! (Losers.) Okay, Grant and I did stop at Honaunau to snorkel on our way to his belated holiday staff dinner in Kona last sunday, which was great. There was a huge puffer fish (about 18 inches, biggest i've seen up close) that kept coming around me, right up by the surface. Of course I had to chase it and try to get it to puff up. But i guess it thought playing was fun so it started following me! there were also turtles and parrotfish and the usual suspects, but puffers are my favorite :o). Of course I forgot my camera, too. old well.

So, maybe I'll have more time to blog and maybe not (you would not believe the amount of work Grant has to deal with, just the runoff I get is nuts). But I'll try to be better! Facebook seems to be the venue of least resistance these days. And I'm so far behind on Personal Communications it ain't even funny. (Right, Timmy? Oh yeah, I'm dead to you. sigh.)

so pixtures, maybe, soon. Links to them, at least. here's one, anyway, from Mauna Kea at the end of the first snowfall's life (we got lots more snow the week after).

okay, once again, happy new year! I'll try to blog again before 2010!

i didn't fall in no volcano

but if i did it might look something like this:

at the "dollar plus" store

naptry, we hardly knew ye

yes, it's true, i moved and have and disassembled the Naptry. See?

This ephemeral occurrence also went extinct. Much like this old Edison phonograph the Salvation Army was selling. (no, i didn't buy it. it was tempting though!)

But now I have more time to do fun stuff like go to the Naalehu music festival, where I got to see Ledward Kaapana (with his nephew Ikaika) and other great slack-key guitarists. There was great food too. And hula!

Here are some ali'i for you. They're very fancy and important.

After the festival, we enjoyed a late lunch at this cafe, Hana Hou. It is the southernmost restaurant in the united states, and if you come visit me I will take you there for their incredible desserts. (See the sign? "Eat Dessert First"? Awww yeeuh :)

And look, here is some hawaiian sovereignty bling i found at the mall!

And in job news, this is what a *good* day at work looks like these days. That rocky stuff is a'a, the crumbly, hard-to-walk-on version of lava. (Pahoehoe is the smooth ropy variety -- much easier on the feet.) This is Melody atop the a'a mountain. The view of the sulfur dioxide plumes coming out of the volcano vents was amazing from up there (~6000 feet).

I know you're wondering: How is the doodle transitioning? Well, apparently he hates it here too. He has his own room, an assortment of kitty toys, gets a lot more snuggles than when he was a latch-key kitten, and seems to be quite happy. He hasn't been outside in two weeks and seems fine with that, so this is Kitty Retirement Home!

um.

this awesome little dude, Sungha Jung, will be 12 next month. he started playing guitar less than three years ago.

Great White Shark off Honolulu

Get This Widget!TOPP.org

HCC/Oahu trip

Okay, where to start?? Let's start at the rental car agency, where they upgraded me to a convertible (the HaoleMobile from that moment forth). Red Chrysler Sebring. You'll meet her in a moment. So my first stop is picking up Heather at a sushi joint where she has already befriended a young man. (She flew in an hour before I did.) I broke up the happy couple to get us both to Kailua, where Corinna graciously hosted us in her mom's house.

This is a random family taking a souvenir shot at Lanikai "Beach" on Oahu at high tide.

Luckily Krina, being all local and stuff, knew that if we just kept walking we would find some sand. That's her and Heather strolling t'wards the briny blue. Quite different from the feel of our Big Island beaches, that's for sure.

I set up my poster that evening with the help of some generous Velcro-toting co-presenters, then we had a mai tai (what else?) and some dinner at a beachfront bar in Waikiki, and headed back to Kailua for a good night's sleep before Presentation Day at the Hawaii Conservation Conference.

I can't show you my top-secret poster presentation (rules rules rules) but I will tell you that it was well-received. This year's conference theme was "The Year Of The Reef" and Sylvia Earle was there so I'm lucky I got any play at all. (She's the one who put the fear of God in me about eating sushi, btw.)

Okay, so I moved to my swank $84/night hotel near Diamond Head (close to the beach! a bargain, actually. Look, I could see the ocean from my room... kind of, if I leaned out over the lanai). I couldn't bear another city-locked Ala Moana hotel after last year, so I chose beachfront property. Enjoyed another day of conference (even though it was rather depressing to hear about the state of the ocean these days, people did try to keep it positive and focus on what can still be done to preserve what we have left), picked Grant up, and after one more night in the ghetto, moved to the slightly more upscale Moana Surfrider hotel in Waikiki.

And here is the new view from the new hotel room. No neck-craning necessary. But the service was TERRIBLE. Okay, at checkin they gave us leis and cold drinks and cold cloths for our sweaty brows. But after that? Fuhgeddaboudit. Housekeeping knocked 3 times when we had the do not disturb thingy up, failed to clean our room on the first day, and was generally unresponsive to all our requests. But yeah the view rocked and the bed was huge and comfy. :)

And here's Grant in the Haolemobile. He kept saying "Okay, get out of our way" and "Get out of our way, we don't know where we're going". He makes quite a good haole, actually. I got to meet his folks, who live in Pearl City and are very nice. They invited me for Thanksgiving! I think I passed the test. Or maybe G bribed them, I donno.

We hit First Friday in Chinatown and saw this theater, where I think Tom Waits should seriously consider playing on his next tour.

And here are my favorite souvenirs (Doodle modeling my favorite)

Let's take a closer look at that...

Mom and Dad happily on vacation... while the kids are in puppy jail....

I've been meaning to post an evacuation sign. I heart them.

Okay, running out of time and steam. More later, kids. HBD to Blake!

but wait! there's still hope!!

http://seachoice.org/

imma go eat me sum SOOSHI!!!! :)

well, poop.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0515_030515_fishdecline.html

cultural bonanza

This weekend is a slack-key/ukulele extravaganza. As if that weren't enough for sleepy little hilo town, it's time for Shakespeare In The Rain. This year's performance is Hamlet! Woo!

Oh, and we have two new restaurants: a sushi bar and a "Mongolian BBQ" joint as well. I must try them.

I've been very un-posty lately and you must forgive me. See, I'm trying to get my poster done for the HCC in a week and a half. It's real pretty right now... if you don't look at the data very closely.... :( I promise I will be more posty when that's done with.

And I'd like to wish a happy late birthday to my sistruh and to my aunt sonja. Should have posted those on Tuesday so they wouldn't be late shout-outs! d'oh!

Vaycrayshunzzzz

Okay, so first I have to tell you about the Dolphin Days Food And Booze Extravaganza. I got to take my princess boat to our room, which was quite nice but apparently "O-cean View" actually means "View of Mountain with Food Tables". But whatever.

We drank so much wine and ate so much food in so short a time that my head is still spinning. We thought the food was served until 10, but found out upon our arrival (at 6:30) that it actually got taken away at 8! And booze at 9! Holy Schmolies, we better hurry up, we thought! and so we did. We had carapaccio and chocolate mousse and roast beast and.. i don't even remember what we ate, except that most of it was damn tasty. After the food ran out, we got our drink on and tasted a lot of really nice red wines, none of whose names I remember.

Then, after we were feelin' all right despite the Smoove Jazz on-stage, Mr. Whatshisbucket gets up for his final number and does.... GHOSTBUSTERS! I took a video, which i shall not post, but you should have heard me and grant laughing our asses off at the first "I ain't afraid of no ghost"! I was crying. There were fireworks and then the bar for an afterparty, where I bet Grant that my shot of Patron would be at least 2x what it costs in Nawlins, and sho nuf, it cost 3x as much. buzzkill. but it went down easy as always. I made fun of white people dancing, and then danced. Slow-danced, no less, to a band covering Al Green. Ah, the things alcohol will make you do....

Sunday was a blur. We slept in, then checked out, then went to the beach and slept some more. (Grant illustrates the sleepy vibe, below.) Then we went home. On the way home we saw a byootiful rainbow.

Four short days later, we were rising at 4 am to hit the road for Waipi'o Valley, where our backpacking adventure was to begin. We started with a hearty breakfast (should have timed our feeding frenzy, I'm sure we broke records) and headed up the Hamakua Coast, taking in a beautiful sunrise on the way. The first thing we did was ford a river (they call it a "stream") and I got vertigo because the water is really rushing into the ocean there, and I was full of aaaallll that breakfast, but I didn't fall over first thing. Whew!

Our next task was to ascend our first ridge on the Muliwai trail in the hot sun. Dusty and crumbly and steep and hot, but oh my, what a view of waipi'o! I was scared it was going to be up and down hot escarpments like that the whole way and was about to ask Grant if we could just go back and camp in Waipi'o, when we rounded the crest and... boom! cool breeze, ironwoods and pines.... a much different hiking situation, much more to my liking. We went up and down I don't know how many valleys and hills, and then, finally, we saw our destination: Waimanu Valley. (Queue choral music) The sign at our final landmark told us it was only 0.9 more miles!! (We'd been hiking six hours at that point, and I for one was pretty pooped.) So we got all excited and started our descent.

Well. What a steep freekin descent it was, and it started raining and got slippery, and we walked and walked and the beach still looked just as far away as it did from the top. That was a real morale-buster. Grant had to pep-talk me through the last one and a half hours. He's a very patient man.

FINALLY we got to the bottom and all we had to do then, after 8 miles and 8 hours, was cross another river with slippery rocks all up in it, and then walk on more rocks to the veeeeery last campsite on the furthest end of the beach. I guess we set up camp then. I don't really remember, because I was so tired! Somehow the tent got set up and we went to get water from a nearby stream. [Waimanu hikers: Campsites 6, 8, and 9 are the best ones. Campsite 1 is AWFUL, you have to sleep on rocks!! I am so glad we got assigned #9, even if it was a bit of a walk. Also, there is a Mango Minefield on the way to the water source on the west side of the valley, and (in season, of course) you have to cover your head to not get mango-bombed. but oh, the mango-ey goodness!]

[In the cliff shot here, Grant is the little speck in the water about 1/4 from the right. He's boogie-boarding on one of two boogie boards that fortuitously (and ominously) washed up on the beach for us. ]

We loaded up on water and mangoes and made ourselves a little Dr. Bronners Peppermint Ho-Bath, and washed up. There was one other camper there, but he left in the morning, leaving us this whole valley and beach to our lonesomes. it was awesome.

some other campers showed up at night, as did a pighunter and his lady friend and their six dogs, who proceeded to hunt down a pig at 4 a.m. our second (and last) night there. Yeah, we woke up to the sound of a huge pig being dragged thru our campsite!



[these shells contain opihi, considered a delicacy by the hawaiians. I ate one that Grant pried off the rock and cut out of its shell with his Rambo knife. I guess it was pretty much still alive when I ate it. It didn't go down very easy and I think I still have its little soul lodged in my throat.]

We broke camp pretty early and headed back, unpleasantly surprised that, despite all the food we ate, our packs were still Really Freaking Heavy. Oh well. The hike back was not as grueling as the way in, and the day was beautiful, turning overcast as we reached Waipi'o again and giving us a lucky break on the dry (but not broiling like it could have been) descent. It felt good crossing the river and seeing that the truck was still there. But of course it was --we left Kung Fu Panda to guard it! Nobody dared touch it. We stopped at Tex Drive In for dinner and then headed back to home for a long soak in the tub and a good night's sleep.

Playing Tourist At Home

Airfare, schmarefare! me and G are going to the Hilton Waikoloa Village for the Great Waikoloa Food, Wine, and Music Festival. It's a benefit for the Children's Hospital and the Pacific Marine Research Institute.

Basically all the best chefs on the island get together and make a bunch of food and you go eat it and drink copiously while listening to Ray "GhostBusters" Parker Jr, and Jeffrey Osborne, who Grant is still trying to explain to me. I keep thinking he's Billy Ocean. Grant keeps thinking he's James Ingram. Anybody remember this dude from the 80s? at any rate, I'm looking forward to the food and booze, and especially to taking a mahogany boat thru the flower-ridden waterways to our room. Apparently this place is so big (or its guests so lazy) that you have to get around its 62 acres by tram or by boat.



And they have a dolphin show, for god's sake. Maybe you can check us out on the live webcam.

I'm a little princess. :) Pix to follow! Next week is a much different excursion: the 18-mile r/t hike to Waimanu Valley via the Muliwai Trail.