12 Days of Christmas: Cookie swap

I think it’s about time I took a lesson in baking in low altitude, high humidity environments, or at least invest a few minutes of my time doing some Internet research in the area. I’ve tried to make cookies at least three times now that were supposed to “crackle” like the magazine picture on the left and it didn't work. I even used the shortening the recipes called for and didn’t replace it with butter (I read that this was really the only way to get a good “crackle” a few years back). Still, although these tasted fine, they clearly didn’t get the look I was going for (see my cookies on the right).
Robbie’s Cub Scout group held a small Christmas party for the boys and we were asked to bring cookies for a cookie swap. That sounded like fun to me, so when I saw this chocolate cookie recipe in a magazine I thought they looked festive and swap-worthy. I baked a batch yesterday morning but was disappointed. I vowed to do a few of things differently next time – one thing being dusting the cookies after they were baked and cooled. These cookies were rolled in powdered sugar before baking and it yellowed the sugar coating. Fail.

12 Days of Christmas: Snow globe ornaments

Early last month I braved Macy's holiday department with the boys. I say braved because it stresses me out; they like to pull and tug on the displays and it drives me nuts and makes me nervous. Pre-coaching about store etiquette and then in-store scolding does little good as they get so excited for the lights and all, so I try to make it a quick tour and exit. I was looking for snow globe tree ornaments and I struck gold!
In the 90s I started collecting holiday snow globes – the big, mantel showcase size. Sometime shortly after our move to Maryland I realized that although I still loved them, having a collection of fragile, bulky, and heavy items just wasn’t practical. I switched then to snow globe ornaments. Family had gifted me some over the years knowing I was collecting all snow globe sizes. I quickly realized how much easier they were to unpack, display, and pack up again. So a new collection was born.
Back to Macy’s last month – I went purposely to see if they had any snow globe ornaments. Hallmark has had a few nice ones over the years as part of their Keepsake collections, but this year I struck out with them. At Macy’s I found three! And better yet, they were already 40% off. (In November? I don’t get retail sometimes.) I noticed one had an on/off switch on the bottom, which I assumed was a switch for a music player. Just last week I pulled them out and went to take a picture. I turned the switch and to my surprise and absolute delight it lit up. And not in a simple, classy way, but a tacky, crap-tacular fiber optic rotating light display way. Merry Christmas to me!

12 Days of Christmas: Advent calendar

I'm back! I thought about starting my Christmas posts in October (if the stores can roll out the red and green, why can't I?). I was just kidding myself, it wasn't going to happen. But inspiration struck this week in the form of a gift from my sister: advent calendars for the boys. Arrived in the mail yesterday just in time to open door one. Beautiful!

Happy Thanksgiving

New find

How excited I am? This past weekend a Westside mushroom grower (I know, who knew?) was at my local farmers market. It was perfect timing as I was planning my holiday side dishes and needed some. The vendor was almost out and I took everything she had left. Only enough for one dish. Would it be the green beans or the stuffing? Well, I think they're too good to be paired with mushy bread as much as I like my version of mushy bread, so they will be with the green beans. The mushroom growers show up at the market depending on whether or not they have product to sell. Let's hope that is more often than not.

Happy Halloween

I'm heading to the Apple store later this evening. A new iPhone is reserved for me! So I decided to do a quick dump of pictures from the last month or so before I migrate to my new device. Here's a palm-sized pumpkin from the Farmers Market. No pumpkin patch for us this year. Luckily, a couple of these little ones filled in just fine.

Someone had a birthday...

Cub turned 4 at the beginning of the month. Robbie wanted Cal to wear a party hat but being a dog and all, he refused. Robbie improvised and snapped this picture. Cal ruptured the ACL in his other knee and had surgery this week to repair it (same surgery he had in May for the first busted knee). Broke my heart to take him to the vet clinic the night before and leave him in their kennel for the procedure the next morning. I don't think there was any doubt he knew what was going on and he wouldn't be home for a few days.
It was a bit rough the first 12 hours home, but it is now nearly 48 hours home and he's doing fine. I want to give him a new nickname but I don't know what to call him...RoboDog? What do you call a mid-size Beagle with two surgically repaired knees?

This one makes me a little sad

Here's a drawing from late last month. Robbie drew our new normal - without Brady. We lost her on September 1, about a week later than the vets thought we would. We're sad but adjusting. I do love the detail Robbie put into Cal. He drew the classic Beagle tri-colors plus added a little grey that Cal now has. :)

Late afternoon at the beach

Another side of paradise

Enjoying a relaxed Friday evening with the boys riding their bikes in the driveway. After work today I picked them up from their respective after school programs and headed straight home. Unlike traffic earlier this week (as shown in the satellite picture - that red line is my bumper-to-bumper commute) traffic wasn't so bad today for a Friday. And for that I thank ESPN for the national broadcast of the UH Warrior football game this afternoon. With a 3 o'clock local start time, many folks started their pau hana activities a little earlier than usual. I know my office emptied out! Looking forward to a few more televised games this year.

Parking lot with a view

Here's the view from my parking spot as I pulled into work one morning this week. I got a good look at it as I drove the last mile or so, too. A full, arching rainbow over the area. Now that made me smile. It was fading by the time I was able to shoot this, and my camera couldn't capture the entire length.
Happy to report busy here...and happily employed. :)

Come sail away

Whew! Busy days here. Back to work for me, the usual school days for the boys, and lots of homework for our first grader at night. Add a couple of field trips and a lost baby tooth (literally lost on the school bus!) and I'm happy it's the weekend over here.
Robbie is officially a Tiger Cub (Boy Scout) and we attended the annual Raingutter Regatta for his pack earlier this week. The boys made their own boats out of supplied kits and raced them. One creative mom also made matching cupcakes for post-race snacks. I was impressed! Also concerned. She sets the bar pretty high for the rest of us with a designated snack day is still to come.

Proof!

Well, thanks to the fine journalists here on Oahu, we now have the near-complete White Plains shark bite story. Vindication for the paddler...no longer an "alleged" event! Still a little troublesome is the time gap from when the attack happened and when they actually closed the beach, but I'll let that go. And I guess we will just have to laugh off the initial report that the shark took off with the board. (Are we a human telephone experiment over here or what?)
Here is the scoop from Monday's Star Advertiser:
Federal lifeguards reopened Nimitz Beach this morning after a shark attack damaged a surfer's board on Sunday. The incident happened about noon Sunday as a surfer was paddling on a 10-foot board about 50 yards from shore, according to Ocean Safety personnel.
The shark, of an unreported size and type, bit the rear of the board, missing the man's foot, an Ocean Safety employee said. The man on the surfboard paddled back to shore unhurt. A second unconfirmed sighting was reported about 2:40 p.m. Sunday.
State and federal officials put up warning signs and closed the beach Sunday.
Here's a link to a picture of the board plus the story of what happened in the surfer's own words (local news video).

Weekend water wrap-up

It is a very sad holiday weekend around Hawaiian waters, with a little strange thrown in the mix as well. It started Saturday with reports of two Schofield soldiers drowning after being swept up in currents around Chinaman's Hat. Next a diver drowned off the Waianae coast, plus a freak accident during an organized Maui to Lanai swim left a swimmer critically injured. None of this I would have even been aware of had we not attempted to go to White Plains yesterday afternoon.
We arrived around 4:20 to the sight of a lot of people leaving. It was late in the day and it wasn’t particularly too hot nor too sunny, so seeing families and surfers packing it up in the parking lot and heading home didn’t seem unusual. We pulled in next to one such family pulling out. As we opened the doors and started to unbuckle the kids, they told us the beach was closed due to a shark warning. Whhaaat? Tell us more! Well, they tried and were very kind as we peppered them with questions they didn’t quite know the answers to either. What we gathered was at some point earlier in the day a shark had taken a bite out of a surfer’s board. No known injuries to the surfer, but they hadn’t seen the board either. Not sure why it took lifeguards so long to close the beach, but they finally made the call and asked everyone to get out of the water sometime around 4:00 PM. When we listened, we could hear the sirens wailing, sending the “get out” sign. So we got back in the car and drove off to KoOlina instead. When we got there…jelly fish warning! A first on Leeward beaches for us. Sure, they are regular occurrences in Waikiki, but KoOlina? Well, Lagoon 4 was packed so clearly no one was too worried. Noel and the boys got in and had fun in the water and no one saw a thing.
After KoOlina we hosed everyone off and headed to dinner. While waiting for our meals, we checked out various local news outlets for the shark story and stumbled on all the other bad news from around the island. It was interesting about the shark event - every web story used either “alleged” or “apparent” to describe the shark attack. Seems it was a paddle boarder who was attacked, and it was reported that the shark became entangled in the board’s leash and swam off with the board attached. So the paddle boarder had no physical proof of the attack and is left with a story of an “apparent” attack. Escaped injury, yes, but no trophy for the man cave either. Because you know if you are a boarder and a shark takes a big bite out of your board that is going up on display in the garage!

Market bounty

I spent an unusually high amount at the Farmer's Market this morning but didn't really know why until I got home. The boys were with me and thus helped me shop. Without my noticing, Cub placed every variety of tomato available into our basket, and Robbie doubled my order of Japanese eggplant. I don't know who is responsible for the huge amounts of ginger (two large bags) but at least that freezes, too. Might spend the rest of this lazy Sunday roasting tomatoes and Googling eggplant recipes. No complaints from me.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

This should fall under the category of "Be careful what you wish for." Robbie's writing has reached another level: Signs! He taped this note to the Kleenex box after our dog Cal ate some tissue one afternoon. But my favorite is probably a sign he made just for me. One afternoon I was watching TV with the boys and I fell asleep on the couch. When he saw me nodding off, Robbie created a sign that said, "No sleeping."

Back to school night

We're three weeks into school and tonight was Open House. The family trooped down to school and - what is a record for us - we were early enough to hear the Principal's welcome address from the cafeteria. (In our defense, one year traffic was a nightmare and the normal 15-20 minute drive took an hour!!) Robbie has a great teacher known for bringing animals into the classroom. Robbie loves the guinea pigs and he was very excited for me to see them, too. I let him loose with my phone and he took about two dozen pictures. It wasn't easy shooting through the cage bars. I think he did really well! Kudos to Ms. B for adding carrots and a bright green bowl for very photogenic pops of color.

Hawaiian quilt class

Last Thursday we received very sad news about one of our two dogs. More on Brady's status in future posts, but we expect we will be saying goodbye to her this month. After her initial diagnosis, I left her at the vet clinic so they could conduct one more test. I drove away crying and began what I'm calling a 24-hour "fabric bender." I guess it really started earlier... after finishing the boys' curtains, I decided to sew something for my niece's birthday from some quilt scraps. I couldn't shake the sewing bug and I stumbled upon a website early last week with instructions to make a simple bag that I wanted to try. With that project in mind, I headed straight for the store on Thursday to get some fabric and thread.
On Friday morning I woke up and decided it would be the day to finally attend a Hawaiian quilt class I had read about but hadn't had the free time to attend during the summer. (Local quilt artist Nalani Goard now teaches traditional Hawaiian quilting every Friday at the Marriot Beach Club at KoOlina!) So for a little less than four hours, I stitched and talked story with other quilt enthusiasts overlooking the lagoon at the hotel. I picked the "Papaya" pattern in a bold orange-red. Hawaiian custom says that the first quilt you make you should keep for yourself. I'm torn...if it's for me, what will give me the push to finish it?

Winner, winner eggplant dinner

Another recent find at the Mililani farmer’s market: Globe eggplant. The long, skinny (and some say less bitter) variety of Japanese eggplant is a market staple, but I’d never seen the globe variety until a few weeks ago. It was from the same new vendor that had the yellow watermelon for sale. I’ll be stopping by their tables regularly from now on.
A fancier dish was probably in order for the eggplant, but I went with the not-so-exotic eggplant parmesan. When we eat at our local favorite Italian eatery I typically get one of their baked eggplant offerings, so I thought I’d take a chance and try to recreate it at home. Didn’t fail, but not quite a raging success either. Maybe I should re-think the “I can make this!” approach and just leave this dish a treat to enjoy when dining out.

Tuesday inspiration

This image was floating around the Internet and I stole it - I don't even know who to give credit to. But whoever put this simple collage of words together, thank you! I think a lot of us need to be reminded about daily time drains: "If you don't have enough time, stop watching TV."
One thing though that I probably would never be able to follow would be "If you don't like your job, quit." This would only be after something else was in the pipeline for me (and that's a big maybe) and a six month emergency fund tucked away to pay the bills. I'm just that way. But honestly, I would probably take any job right now!

Fix-it time

Without the boys around to meddle, I’ve started to take on some DIY projects around the house. First up, a mini-demolition of the window blinds in the boys’ room. A few years back before we knew what was going on, Cub went through a significant wood chewing phase. That included a lot of toys as well as the slats of the window blinds. (Yeah, it was not a good time for us. He was diagnosed with an iron deficiency pretty quickly, but the damage was literally already done.) While he got better and we worked to stabilize his iron levels, I tossed out or donated nearly all of the wood toys in the house, damaged or not. I put the problem blinds on the ever-growing back burner and figured I’d think of something when it was necessary. Well, the boys broke the blinds this summer, so figuring out Plan B for the window treatment was now necessary.
I went with simple curtains – cheap and fun. I purchased 2+ yards of inexpensive fish fabric for $5.82 a yard, even cheaper lining fabric, and a $19 tension rod. I dusted off my sewing machine Friday, and by Saturday afternoon the new curtains were up. Mission complete! Next up for that room, re-painting the room and covering up the hand painted bugs that remain from the nursery theme (painted to match a quilt I made when I was pregnant with Robbie). I don’t know if I should channel my inner HGTV Design Star and do some fun painting, or just go for a simple, fresh new color. Or both. Decisions, decisions.

Not-so-welcome house guests

Over the years here (that’s six and counting), we have had the occasional wasp nest in the second floor eaves. I’m not disturbed by them too much, the wasps seem to like to keep their distance and I’ve never seen more than one in the house. But just this past month we started noticing a lot more. When we actually stopped to walk around the house and count all the nests, we realized we had over 12, including this one, the closest one to an opening – right outside our back door. I guess we’ll have to get aggressive about removing them soon.

Back to school

Yes, it's that time again in Hawaii. Classes started for public schools on Monday. Lunches paid for – check. Bus pass purchased – check. School supplies purchased, labeled, and brought to school (sorta) – check. Three mornings into our new normal and we seem to be doing OK. Late last year this kindergarten writing exercise came home in Robbie’s backpack. I visibly shook with laughter when I first read it. “If the dinosaurs come back thay wod help bild train tracks.” I met Robbie’s new teacher last Friday and she said to expect a lot of work on reading and writing in first grade. Well, if more gems like this are the result, I’m on board.
My mornings are alone, but I’m keeping busy. A baby gecko joined me this morning, hanging out near the ceiling above the refrigerator. As if he sensed I needed a little extra company! He is a welcome addition to our kitchen. When one of his cousins showed up last spring, the bugs in our kitchen disappeared for a few months. The kitchen bugs are back now, so I said to the gecko, “Welcome! Live long and prosper here, my little friend.”

Half Dome, May 2011

You just can't take a bad picture of Half Dome - it's stunning no matter how it's shot. That said, I do really love this Yosemite location where Noel and Robbie were in the late Spring with the overhead branches framing the picture. Here's the last of the images grabbed from Noel's files. You can almost meditate to it!

Yosemite, May 2011 - take 2

Here’s another picture of Robbie from Yosemite. I love this one, too, but unlike the other one, Robbie looks about 3! On the first day of the trip, Yosemite was cold, even for the locals. When all bundled up, Robbie transformed into a colorful Michelin man. His puffy ski hat that he picked out for our Tahoe trip in February covers his head and highlights his round cheeks, while he also gets lost in the plaid ski jacket. It’s kind of funny to me to see these images back-to-back, only taken a day apart. Warmer weather = older looking Robbie.

Yosemite, May 2011

Noel and Robbie spent nearly a week in Yosemite National Park this Spring. I haven't seen too many of the pictures, but I was processing a few of my own shots last week when I noticed I was using a card that still had a lot of Noel's Yosemite images. So I stole a few and processed them on my own. I don't know why I love this one of Robbie. It has to be a Mom thing - seeing how big he looks, how much simple fun he's having playing with floating sticks by the river, seeing him in California. Or maybe I just love the long sleeves and heavy boots, which we never wear here!

Beach time at Paradise Cove

Got a call while in Costco yesterday afternoon that two Hawaiian Monk seals were spotted in KoOlina and a volunteer was needed to help keep an eye on the animals at Paradise Cove until sundown. Sure! A perfect two-for-one...helping out and getting the boys to the beach. We dropped off our refrigerated goods at the house, grabbed our beach gear, and headed back down the hill. The two seals were around for about an hour before they headed out of the cove, but I stayed a little longer while the boys played around. They're in the cell phone picture above. If you look close, it looks like Cub is trying to pull Robbie off his boogie board. A very nice family hanging out in the water gave us another one after hearing the boys fight over the one we have. They were flying home today and had received it from another departing family at the beginning of their stay. Wish I could say I'm going to pay it forward, but we're keeping it!

Almost forgot to add a "first" for us: A mongoose ate our beach snacks. Well, one of the snacks. It was raining softly and the clouds were threatening a little more, so I semi-tucked our bags near the bushes lining the sand and covered them with a few towels so our stuff wouldn't get too wet. I made a fatal mistake of including our snack bag in the mix. As I went back to check my phone at one point, I heard some wrestling coming from under the towels, then saw a mongoose run off as I approached. He'd eaten through one Ziploc bag and was working on the contents inside. Luckily it was an easy mess to clean up and one easy lesson learned.

Yellow watermelon

A unique find at the farmers market this weekend…yellow watermelon! New to me, maybe familiar to others around here. A few months back I was excited to see melons (cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon) popping up in the market stalls. Melon season had arrived! I’ve picked up a few of the smaller Thai watermelon variety so far this year, but that’s pretty much all I’d seen. On Sunday I was at the market a bit earlier than usual and was rewarded with the last yellow watermelon from the vendor. I brought it home and it sat on the counter for a day, then it sat in the fridge for two more days so I feel it was prime time for eating when I finally cut it open.
The verdict? Kind of strange, to tell you the truth. I’d love to do the geeky thing and have a blind taste test with a normal pink variety. The yellow tastes sweet like a watermelon and the texture and seeds are definitely the same, but the color really does play games with the mind and taste buds. I thought I tasted a hint of cantaloupe, but I really think it was the color tricking me! I probably won’t buy it again unless I want to literally insert an unexpected pop of color into a summer recipe. Yellow watermelon margaritas anyone?

A morning at the Arizona Memorial

I love it when friends and family come to town. Of course it’s great to see them, but it also usually ends up the time I do a lot of touristy stuff. This happened this weekend when a high school friend came to town and Robbie and I joined her and her boyfriend at the Arizona Memorial. The first time I did the tour was back in late 2000 when I was on vacation. In the last couple of years, the Memorial’s Visitor Center was remodeled and under heavy construction. They did an amazing job providing new museum-quality exhibits, interior and exterior displays, and lots of shaded seating. There is still plenty of space to wander around and take in the history around you in what at times can feel like solitude yet you’re surrounded by folks all around.
I opted not to bring Jacob and was glad. Just too young…Robbie solo was just right. I “sold” the experience to Robbie as “a boat ride” to get up close to the Memorial we usually see from the Mall’s monorail. He had trouble (read: a whining meltdown) when he learned we had to see a short film before taking the boat ride. I still don’t know why. But he settled down for the movie and was really focused and quiet and I was really grateful. He’s not quiet getting the concept of time and history. Of the 1941 attacks, he referenced it as happening “yesterday.” Yet another thing I’m not too worried about right now. Once on the actual Memorial, he seemed more interested in the fish swimming around, but that was also fine with me. The picture attached is the Arizona’s mooring quay, seen from the Memorial, with the Ford Island Bridge in the background.
From the Memorial, we drove the mile to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. The one and only time I’d been there was back in ’06. Once every five years is fine with me! That’s all I’ll say about it. It was all OK in the end as I enjoyed the time with friends and we were able to buy a boogie board for cheap to replace the one we lost a few weeks ago. Win-win!

Arizona Memorial: The tree of life

When I took the tour back in 2000, I completely missed - or it just didn’t stay with me - the boxy, open-air windows cut out of the far end of the Memorial walls. I think I noticed them this time around because in the last 10 years I’ve started quilting and jewelry making and look for patterns more than before. Nevertheless, they struck me as beautiful yet odd because they seemed neither military or naval images, nor Hawaiian symbols. After the tour I walked over to the information desk to get the inside scoop: They are the artistic interpretation of the tree of life from by Honolulu architect Alfred Preis, the architect of the monument.

Tropical beauty or community eyesore?

Whether for good or bad, community associations are here to stay on Oahu. Leeward Oahu is a hotbed of ‘em, and we pay dues to not just one, but two (!) in our area. We dread any sort of correspondence from them and cringe when large legal envelopes show up in our mail box. Don’t get us started about how they are “requesting” that we all (100+ houses) paint the exterior of our homes. It is quite a sore subject around here. They even went so far as to research and provide us with pre-approved paint colors and labor estimates, delivered in said large legal envelope in our mailbox.
I was not surprised when I got a knock on the door late last week and was asked to trim the bougainvillea bush that was growing through our backyard fence and encroaching on the “common area” that consists of ground cover next to our neighbors’ shared driveway. (The picture is a little deceiving - the longest branches would have to grow another 12 or more feet before it would reach the other driveway and get in the way.) No doubt it was not troubling anyone but the grounds keepers, but I like to live by the “know when to pick your battles” approach so this morning I went out and trimmed it. Said a prayer for our little geckos as I was removing their habitat, filled the green barrel, and according to my iPhone app, burned about 200 calories.
Here’s the before shot, with my ever faithful and trusty Cal by my side as he is during all my domestic adventures. Whatever happens here in our little corner of the country won’t ever diminish my love for America, though…Happy Fourth of July all!

KoOlina sunset

I've had friends in town this week, staying at the Marriott KoOlina Beach Club. While we were waiting for them to come back from a Leonard's malasada truck run, we were at the lagoon. Here's a towel-wrapped Cub looking at the water when he didn't know I was taking his picture - the only picture I could get. So frustrating that neither of our little guys liked to be in front of the camera at the same age.

Blackout!

This is one of those posts that should be lumped under, “Lucky you don’t live Hawaii” (a play on the local series “Lucky you live Hawaii” which highlights fun events around town, or just celebrates life in and around the islands). I’m home this morning doing random chores and the like and wanted the Giants / Cubs game on my computer in the background. I logged into mlb.tv using Noel’s paid subscription to watch. Think again! Blackout restriction? Whaaat?
The text reads, “We’re sorry. We have determined that you are located inside one of the applicable Club’s home television territories and are therefore blacked out of watching the game you selected.” We are 5,000+ miles away from any MLB team. Our local cable broadcasts Angels and Dodgers games. Noel has been frustrated with this in the past and I think the blackout applies to ALL West coast teams from Seattle to San Diego. Why does MLB do this? Are they just mean?

Rainbow over Waikiki

We've had a busy few days. We spent Father's Day in Waikiki at the Aquarium and later at dinner. Yesterday we were back in Waikiki for the day as I dropped off the boys with their Grandma while I went to an interview. Later in the afternoon we hit the beach for a little late-day play in the strong waves. Robbie had a blast; Cub just wanted to nap. Light rain showers came and went a few times, which created a thin rainbow over Diamond Head. More rain today so far this morning. That's OK. I've got plenty of chores to catch up on.

An evening on the other side of Oahu

Had a nice micro-night out while the boys were with their grandparents last night. After dropping them off in Waikiki I drove out to Hanauma Bay for a presentation by Dr. Alex Karamanlidis, Greek wildlife biologist with MOm/Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal (www.mom.gr/), a group working to help save the Mediterranean Monk Seal. With a smaller population than the Hawaiian Monk Seal, the Mediterranean Seal is more critically endangered. (There were once three thriving populations of Monk Seals around the world. The Caribbean Monk Seal is extinct. Sadly, the last seal of that species was spotted in 1952.)
Dr. Alex is in Hawaii learning and working alongside scientists and biologists working with the Hawaiian Monk Seal populations, one area in particular is DNA and genetic research (I think. I wasn’t taking notes, and my memory is always shaky when I don’t have a pen in hand). He shared history of the seal, some fascinating stories and videos of present-day seals, and other interesting notes about their organization in Greece.
So what does that have to do with the chocolate, froufrou marshmallows pictured? I’d been busy most of the afternoon and skipped dinner. Heading home through Hawaii Kai, I decided to stop over at Whole Foods and treat myself to a few light items from the buffet bar. I also picked up the marshmallows because I’ve wanted to try them out after multiple segments about artisan marshmallows on the Food Channel, etc. My verdict? Not exciting. Fun for a while, but even with my sweet tooth, I would probably pass on them next time. I had two and felt kind of sick to my stomach almost immediately, to tell you the truth. They are heavily dusted with cocoa powder while the inside is a much lighter brown. I’ll have to figure out a way to use up the rest as I don’t think the boys will go for them.

Green barrel days

Today is my mom's birthday. While we aren't with her celebrating on the West coast, I will be thinking of her later today during a very Mom-like activity: filling the green barrel. A year or two back, our community received green barrels for green waste (finally!). Sadly, I can count on one hand how many times I've actually filled it and left it curbside. One of those days will be today. When the early evening comes around and it's cooler, I'll hit the backyard for a fun game I call, "Did we plant that or is it a weed?" In the picture above, I *think* the green shrub-like plants are weeds. So don't laugh, it's a tricky game! The picture is poor; I think those *plants* look kind of nice and fit cleanly at the base of the tree. I might grant them a stay in the side yard until the next green barrel day in two weeks.
I've mentioned many times I did not inherit my Mom's green thumb. I strongly believe you can overcome this type of genetic deficiency with a little hard work, but so far, I clearly have not worked hard enough.

The escape artist

I woke up Monday morning to find an empty cone at my bedside and a cone-free and very content dog under the bed. I felt sorry for Cal Sunday night and left the cone loose. Too loose! He wiggled out of it and low-crawled under the bed during the night. That can't be good for his surgically repaired knee! The cone has been tighter at night the rest of this week.
Luckily for Cal (and my conscience), he's pretty good about scratching and licking his stitches. When I'm in the room with him, I try to leave the cone off so he gets a break. But when unattended, the cone must go on. We didn't crate him this week per post-procedure instructions. Instead we contained him in the kitchen with a baby gate with a little room to move. My heart sinks when I think we may be doing the wrong thing.

Summertime

I'm giving the title of "Summer Mixed Media" to this work. Robbie made me a flower using rocks and sidewalk chalk on the concrete a few days ago.
Summer is in full swing; warm afternoons and longer days have arrived. We spend a few hours a day in the front yard on our rusting fleet of bikes and big wheels that Robbie has nearly outgrown. We got Robbie a larger bike without training wheels last summer but we don't have enough safe space in the front to ride it. For now, they seem to be happy working with what we have.

Return of the cone

Summer is here; the boys are out of school for the next two months. We started our vacation Friday morning by dropping off Cal at the local pet hospital. A few weeks ago he ruptured his "doggy ACL" and needed it surgically repaired. I was still reeling from the hit to my credit card balance and admittedly did not think about his recovery until after the procedure. It's tough! We brought him home late Saturday night, coned, still a bit drugged, and stressed from more than a day caged in the clinic. It took me about a half-day to realize he won't go to the bathroom (quickly) with his cone on, so we are probably going to have to take it on and off for a week or more until he gets his stitches out. And then for most of the next 4-8 weeks I'm supposed to carry him around to keep him off both legs so he doesn't harm his recovery. Another thing I want to avoid (and I'm told it is common with these injuries) is rupturing the doggy ACL on the other leg, or make it more likely to happen in the future. I'm really going to need a vacation from my vacation this year.

Enough already

OK, this is my last Seattle post. I think! I’m nearly out of post-worthy images on my iPhone 3 camera roll and I think you, my faithful one or two readers, are tired of my Adobe Photoshop Express iPhone app image processing that I've used and abused this week. (I do have to give a shout-out to the Effects > Vignette Blur tool – a combination of its “Vibrant” color tweaking-effect and the classic vignette. I love how it makes the colors deeper and really pop! The vignette gets old fast, but I like it here in the photo of the pig tracks, steps from the pig statue at Pike Place Market.)
I’m considering a new theme for next week – maybe some foodie posts?

Pig at the market

This is a pretty well-known statue that sits at one of the entrances to Seattle landmark Pike Place Market. I know there's a story behind this, but I'm at bit busy at the moment to look it up. Just got back from the boys' elementary school's annual May Day show. Pre-schoolers sang and danced to "Alligators All Around." So cute!

More from the fish market

I'm not much of a seafood eater, but family members that picked up fresh fish and shellfish at the market said it was yummy. We also had rainbow trout but we didn't get it from the market. My nephew (with the help of my uncle) left a fishing line on the dock and he caught a small lake-stocked trout. For the record, seeing a four-year old with the catch he waited fairly patiently for is a lot of fun.

More tulips

Flower vendors at Pike Place Market were selling tulips - and lots of them! They're at the end of the blooming season in the Pacific Northwest and stall after stall had buckets of tulips for sale. I didn't know it until this weekend, but the Pacific Northwest has a similar climate to Holland, therefore tulips thrive in the region this time of year.

At the Pike Place fish market

Holly girl

Holly is my uncle's sweet, loving, and faithful Golden Retriever. She makes the perfect lake dog, safe in and around the water, and always present whether you're in the boats, on the deck, or on the docks. She doesn't need a leash and never wanders.
What a difference from our two beagle mixes who roam at will and we have to keep near-constant tabs on. Twice in the last six weeks one of Robbie's school mates has knocked on our door with our dogs in tow, saying they were on the loose around the neighborhood.
Comparing Holly to our dogs makes me think of the time when we took our dogs to training and dog obedience courses in Maryland. The instructor had a mature, well-behaved, and unleashed Golden by his side to demonstrate training techniques. I cried foul. Come on, a Golden is known to be the perfect, obedient breed. How hard was that to train?

Leaving on a jet plane

Spent the past 4+ days in a mostly sunny Seattle. Only on Saturday night did it start raining and lucky for us, that was hours after we spent a really nice (read: warm, bright, and clear) afternoon walking around Pike Place Market, taste-testing local vendors at the Cheese Festival, and having a fabulous lunch at the Steelhead Diner. Flew home to HNL early today and now settling back in to the local humidity. Here's a shot of a restored plane that hangs just beside the Hawaiian Airlines check-in counter at Sea-Tac. The rest of the week I hope to post more shots of the quick trip from my phone's camera roll.

Pacific Northwest tulips

Happy Mother's Day

It became very clear this week that Robbie is not very good at keeping secrets about what he makes at school. He said one afternoon that he "made a ribbon for me." I didn't know what he was talking about until he came home with this on Friday. A lovely addition to my wall of art, using paper plates - my favorite elementary school craft medium!
Robbie comes home with a lot of not-quite-finished items. Note the white border on the top. He's a very thorough guy and he takes a long time to finish things, especially where solid coloring and painting is involved. I think his classmates finish their items faster and his teacher tells them all frequently to wrap up what they're doing before Robbie has completed his piece.

How do they do that?

Amidst all of the hype surrounding the Royal Wedding, not a single media segment about how those darn hats STAY ON!? Fashion reporters and style watchers, you have let me down. They defy physics and I can't take my eyes off them. This blooming blue crescent moon was stunning; definitely one of my favorites. What sort of surprised me is that hats are required yet there appears to be no requirement for them to match what the woman is wearing! A good portion of the women in attendance were impeccably coordinated, of course, but then a select few hats were laugh-out-loud color and texture clashes. It made for fun television viewing. The actual ceremony? Not so much. All hail...TiVo.

Where's the fruit?

We went to dinner last night at one of the many restaurants around town that offer a "Kids Eat Free" night. They also have a play area for kids right next to the lanai tables which seals the deal for us. They might soon be on our "black" list, although the management and wait staff are so nice it makes it a tough call. Food was so-so last night; they made the kids' chicken fingers with poultry seasoning and they didn't quite taste right. Even the fries were a little off. They also messed up my order. What really might be the final blow? They provide the typical kids menu which doubles as a coloring page. One section features pictures of a couple of fruits with the words, "FRUIT is good for you. What's you're favorite?" Nice, yes? But look over at the side choices for the small plates and there is no fruit offered! Three veggies sides are listed, but for my two picky eaters good luck with the tomato and cucumber salad, green salad, or collard greens options. We are not in an area where fruits are hard to obtain, so this kind of baffles me. If we go again, I just might point this out. As nicely as I can, of course. ;)