hot lava!

if i was smarter, i could figure out how to make Chef start singing Hot Lava when you open this page. oh well!

so yesterday they ran a picture of the RIVER OF LAVA in Royal Gardens subdivision (near Kalapana, already been lava-ed a few times, population 2), then told people not to come gawk at it. Yeah, right!!! as if. It was about a mile hike to this action, the bottom of the river. We encountered people who'd gone further upstream, but what we saw was so awesome we didn't bother. They told us we were at the best place for lava appreciation anyway.

I hung back a bit while the kids (Corinna, Ginger, and Matt) got All Up Innit with a couple of dudes that were cooking apples and hot dogs in the lava. They had cameras on long sticks, which I'm totally doing when/if I ever go in search of hot lava again.

This picture was in case that hill they're all standing on melted into the lava sea. Luckily, they all survived, but my sissy status is solid now.

The other kids have pix of rescuing my camera, which fell (ok, i dropped it) into a crack (in cold lava) and was a bee-yotch to get out! We had to break some rocks and get a little scraped up, but the camera lived to deliver you these pics. i was halfway hoping we wouldn't be able to retrieve it so I can get the Olympus underwater digital camera i'm in love with.

Then we went to the black sand beach. I don't miss Louisiana as much today. :)

Oh! and it's my 1 year anniversary in hawai'i today! woo! happy anniversary to me!

oink oink

so yesterday i decided to hit the Garden Snack Club. I haven't had a restaurant meal in a while, and I wanted green papaya salad. But I was so hungry that I also ordered the sticky rice with mango, even though it only comes as a "Family Size" order -- you know, the *big* square takeout container. Well. That was less than 24 hours ago and it's almost all gone. Good thing papaya salad has, like, zero calories.

i'm a little piggy.

but i went up to Hakalau this week so I earned it, I think. We got to our field cabin on Tuesday, and learned from the nene intern, Ryan, that there was a total lunar eclipse that night. And there I was, halfway up the biggest mountain in the world, to watch! I have some pictures but, as always, they fail to convey the Awesomeness Of The Event.

Friday night I got to go to my boss's wife's dodgeball tournament. It was so much fun! A little scrawny team of barefoot math geeks went up against a team of buff, solid hawaiian guys -- and while Team Math did not win in the end, they played an amazing game. it was the dodgeball equivalent of the napolean dynamite dance.

so now i'm off to the beach. it's a little hazy today but if i see any good photo ops i'll takem. i'm coming up on my 1st anniversary, and i thought i was going to need to move to save money, but my landlord has graciously reduced my rent so that i'll stay. that makes me happy, cause i hate moving, and i do love this little apartment. i've started a garden now that i know i'll be around for a while, and who knows, i may even get some furniture!

happy sunday, everybody!