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!

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!

special dedication sunday

well, it seems as though the Doodle's friends miss him too. i received a plea for a dedicated Doodle posting, so here you go!

(this post is dedicated with mad luuuv to amy in nigeria. i love and miss you!!)


and here's a teaser for next time. Urnge v. 2.0???

it's funny because it's true.

not to be *too* much of a cat lady, but cuteoverload.com just re-posted this little gem, and wasn't i just saying how i get no sleep on account of Herr Doodle? Enjoy!

well okAY then.

so i'm sitting at work yesterday at about 3:00 when somebody says, "Hey, does anybody know who won the Superbowl?" nobody. that was in a roomful of girls. So I hollered the question to the boys, to the response "Who was playing?"

(An aside: We couldn't ask the interwebs because rain and lightning knocked out our connection and our phones.)

Y'all sports fans will call me a loser. but this truly is heaven. with maybe a little too much rain.

Aaaanywho. Look at this shiznit!!! Hilo hasn't had this much rain since 1969, the year I was born, strangely enough.... This photo remind you of anything? reminded me of something. on a smaller scale. and there's no hurricane. or levee. but still. it's kinda freaky. The boss brought in the newspaper with the rainfall amounts: almost 48 inches in 72 hours. An apartment building on the river (see: yesterday's pic) partially collapsed. Streams flowed through people's houses. One lady had to swim to the kennel she owns to free the dogs, whose kennels had 6 feet of water in them. good thing they all knew the doggie paddle.

Even the desert flooded. The Jeep has now been dubbed "Queen McSteam" because it has a leak somewhere and I have to keep bailing it out. I am white as a larva. Next year I'm going on vacation for the month of february. I mean, this is obviously an anomaly, but Feb. is one of the rainiest months here, historically speaking. of course, if rain/monsoons/hurricanes follow me wherever I go next February, I'm going back to Nawlins to get the juju offa me.

so i wussed out on justin's cake -- after slogging around in the rain for a few hours i lost my artistic motivation, so he just got a chocolate cake with little caterpillars and butterflies on it. i know i promised, but oh well. i do have this lovely photo of a mangosteen, though, to please your little eyeballs. Mangosteen is a fruit which complements the Doodle nicely:

the pics of the inside of the mangosteen aren't real pretty, cause i ate it about 2 days after its peak. i must confess that this is not my first mangosteen. the mangosteen, in case you haven't heard, is the "Queen of Fruits" (the king being the nasty ol' Durian) and the new pomegranate, or something. it's in expensive drinks and perfumes and seems to be the It Girl of the fruit scene right now. but my personal Fruit Monarch is the atemoya, which is huge and juicy and tastes like a pina colada. Mangosteens are good but they have this bitter chalky rind that holds about 3 grape-sized fruity things with big seeds inside. I think the seed-to-fruit ratio should be very small. who cares how good it tastes if it's full of annoying seeds?

wow, it's way past bedtime. just one more thing. anybody else think this is kindly racist? it's california rice, and i think somebody had to talk somebody else into removing the railroad from the background:

okay, hawaii out. special message for billy: HBD!!!!!!! hope you got my card in time.

aloha,
k

puppies and froggies and more weird fruit

first, let me say how interesting it is to me that i used to post almost Every Single Day, and now it's every month at best?? jeez. oh well.

the neighbors have a breeding pair of miniature dachshunds. that means little wrinkly hot dog babies!! here's one of them at 6 days old (with worried mama in the background). awwuh!! the puppy neighbors, incidentally, are moving away so they can be the caretakers of Kenny Loggins' big self-sustaining homestead he built for his family in Hawi on the north side of the island. It was a Y2K retreat, apparently. Kenny's apparently been yacht-rockin' lots of benefit concerts for schools and environmental protection organizations. (wonder if he does Footloose?)anyway, he's going to pay my soon-to be ex-neighbor lots of money to keep up his solar power station and to eat organic fruit from his hippie wife's orchards. sweet.

but i digress. in other Cute News, another coqui frog got in the house. I got to this one before Doodle did (unlike the last several, who became Cat Toys and then Dead Cat Toys). I suppose i really should let him have them, since i'm working on the invasive species and all, but look at those sticky feet! i just can't bring myself to do it.

dragonfruit are pretty. see?

but they taste like nothing. watery and a tiny bit sweet with crunchy poppyseed-esque action. no more dragonfruit for me, thanks. i'm still eagerly anticipating meeting my first mangosteen. and i have discovered that lilikoi, or passionfruit, a fruit once too strong for my tender taste buds, has become super-addictive. it's a megadose of vitamin C. really perks ya up. and the homemade ice cream place up the street makes sorbet out of them. i never tasted anything so yummy (especially when paired with mango ice cream).

i haven't posted a picture of the doodle lately. he's getting fat again! gained 2 pounds last month. we're going to have to take measures if this trend continues. south beach diet has been suggested. i'm going to have to make him his own naptry! there ain't no room for me!

arright kids, i'm off to the tidepools to molest the marine creatures. i'm trying to make sure i hit the mainland with some semblance of a tan, but i may disappoint some people. since that burn i got, sunscreen is my friend.

happy rocktober, everybody! special birthday shoutouts to amy (oct 2), grandma (91 on oct 4), and molly (oct 5). october's a big birthday month. so happy b-day in advance to: kee, eleanor, rob, summer, ian, brandy, and ME!!!!!

Road Trip!

yesterday chris and i went to Puna. we stopped in at the Painted Church, which i'd never bothered to do before. it's so pretty! look!

today we're headed to waterfalls, up the hamakua coast, north kahala, and then down to captain cook. i'll try to post from there as well.

aloha!

i found something soft and fuzzy to decorate the shelves in the naptry

hi kids, sorry for the silence. i have been battling a Colony of Evil Somethings that have colonized my interior and terrorized my posterior since thursday, when i believe i drank some tainted carrot juice in an attempt to recover from the cold/sinus thing. no food for 4 days = kill me now. tim sent me this lovely get-well card that seems to sum up the world's feelings about sick ppl.

will write more when better. or if not, send condolences to: Don and Sylvia Snook, 833 Cutter Court, Kure Beach NC 28449. and somebody please come get the Doodle.

doodle hates it outside as well

hi kids,

well, the job interview went well, i talked to the PI for an hour and a half. i was his first interview for the position. he said he had 2 phone interviews and 2 other interviews to do, and then he rates all the applicants and submits his "recommendation" to the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, and they make the final determination (based, one hopes, on his recommendation). if i get the job, the earliest i would start is june first, so i better start soakin up the scenery! actually, i'll be doing some of that at the job as well, but it's often quite cold at the volcano so i need to Maximize My Time Being Warm.

of course i will keep you posted on how that turns out. again, please to make with the finger-crossing for me. pretty please!

yesterday was lei day. May Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i. i missed most of the festivities but did see a few ladies making leis at the volcano. today i went to the bank, tho, and when i walked in, i was like, omg what smells so good in here? turns out they had a gazillion fresh flowers from lei day, including a massive amount of gardenias. it smelled sooo good.

nothing much else to report here. oh wait, we did have another teeny earthquake this morning. i almost slept through it. it wasn't nearly as Exorcist-y as that last one. other than that, there have been no turtles, no menehune sightings, no weird fruit. next on the list are dragonfruit and mangosteen. we'll see when those turn up at the market.

oh and what is up with the honeybees disappearing? y'all, if we don't have any bees, we're all going to have to eat, i donno, soylent green or something. let's all pray for the honeybees to come back and pollinate our everythings. i mean, okay, part of me hopes they just got sick of being pimped out and treated like slaves by people all these years and went native. but still, them crops needs them bees. it kinda doesn't look good for ol' mankind right now, what with the oil situation and the global warming and the bees and everything. let's all raise a glass to Future Generations Fixing Everything.