Monk Seal Count Recap

On the Saturday of the monk seal count, I ended up being assigned the KoOlina zone. I'd never heard of any seals hanging out there, but I was told that every once in a while they spotted one. So, remembering that all of Oahu's coastline was to be surveyed and happy that I could do my part, I cheerfully took the assignment and hit the...rocks. Yep, KoOlina is an area of man-made coves and most of the natural coastline is rocky. Very rocky! The odds were stacked against me that I'd see anything I could report, but I got a great workout climbing on and around the rocks. You couldn't help but admire the views, either. I kept wondering if it would be more efficient to check out the area via kayak. Maybe I'll try to team up with somebody to do that next time.
Of all the Leeward areas, there was only one report of a seal that morning, on the lava rocks near a beach in an area known as "Tracks." It wasn't too far from KoOlina, and I was itching to get a picture with the camera gear I had with me, so I ended up driving out there and looking for the already-counted seal myself. I even struck out with that.

Diamond Head views

My Mom has been visiting this past week. We've been busy (and that means I haven't been studying much) and we're having fun. Yesterday morning headed east and walked/hiked up to the top of the Diamond Head crater. A short walk, a bit challenging but worth it. It feels great at the top! Next time she's here we'll do the Koko Head crater or Ka'ena Point on the western tip. Or both! So much to do, so little time.
The picture posted shows Kapiolani Park and the Waikiki hotels and coastline.

I -heart- Pano!

I was in Waikiki Thursday evening attending a training session for the Monk Seal Count coming up on Saturday. I arrived late and missed most of the brief presentation, but still they deemed me OK to continue. I walked away with two T-shirts: one free, official-looking volunteer shirt, and another "fundraiser shirt" for $15 with the 2009 - 2010 count logo. I'm awaiting an email with my "zone" assignment. For the purpose of the count, Oahu's entire coastline (starting with Kaena Point's North Shore access and working clockwise around to the West side) is divided into 20 more or less equal distances; I think they will be able to honor my request for a Leeward zone.
Had enough time to wander the East end of Waikiki for a few minutes at sunset. Here's the moment, captured with Pano (click the image to see a bigger picture in your browser). The Pano makers recently pushed out an update and they did a good job with the major overhaul. You might not think by looking at it, but the sky merge is pretty accurate. This time of year the sunsets are better on the Leeward side, and from Waikiki you get a partial view due to obstruction from the mountains, as seen here. The Waikiki beachfront hotels are in the middle of the picture, on the right is a private event (dinner and music) on the grounds of the Waikiki Aquarium. They hosted the training session, too, but on the other side of the building in their classroom.

House guest

This feathered fellow showed up in our backyard on Monday morning. At first I thought he was hanging out to harass/hunt the backyard geckos (yes! they're back! I've seen a few along the fences), but he didn't do much of anything. He also looked a bit odd to me with the perma-ruffle feathers. Maybe he's sick? If so, he's come to the right place. We're a sick house here, Robbie was sick Monday and Cub caught it a day later. He sure is an odd visitor. He let me get really close with the iPhone for a picture, and isn't all that worried about the dogs. Even after Cal sort of charged him. Cal was by my side as I took this picture, and he got antsy and barked at the bird, even lunged for him a little. Scared me more than the bird!

Monk Seal Mania!

I stumbled onto a very cool, Hawai'i blog a few months back by clicking the "Next Blog" link from my own site. It's the daily Hawaiian Monk Seal tallies from a group of volunteers who work closely with NOAA officials. They hit the local beaches every day and record and photograph which monk seals they see, whether hauled out on the sand and natural jetties or swimming near the shore. I've become a big fan and check for updates frequently. They're a passionate, dedicated group of people and I hope to soon be one of them! There is an island-wide, bi-annual Hawaiian Monk Seal Count on Oahu in a few weeks, and I've signed up to help on the Leeward side.
Here's the group's mission statement: "We maintain and train volunteers to assist federal, state, and non-governmental organizations in responding to Hawaiian Monk Seal "haul-outs", pupping events, and injuries. Anything we can do to assist in the recovery of the Hawaiian Monk Seal!"
Please check them out here: http://www.hmsrto.org/
Here's the site I found that started it all: http://monksealmania.blogspot.com/
And here's a sister-blog from a blogger who shares his sitings and photos with the Monk Seal Mania site: http://northshoremonks.blogspot.com/
The picture alongside this post is from last month on Kauai. We stayed at a property on Poipu Beach and were lucky to see one, sometimes two, monk seals hauled out on the beach each day. It's an iPhone pic and not very close, but you can still make out a patch on his back. I think at one point he/she had a transmitter attached.

This is way more complicated than it looks...

I spent most of the morning working on my latest homework assignment. We've entered into the world of Java applets, and our instructor wanted us to create a drawing of "an object that makes sense," using programming methods (opposed to "just spare shapes and colors" thrown around the screen). So, here's my object, a train engine. That sort of makes sense. A very simple structure, yet took hours for me to code. Don't worry, this is not the new career path I'm taking! But I will be looking into more classes with the digital arts - possibly photos and drawing for fun. All I could think as I repeatedly opened and closed my browser to check my compiled updates was, "This could have been knocked out in minutes in Illustrator!" :) Our final assignment for the semester is due next week. We have to design and implement a virtual slot machine. Bet on...me!

Adventures with local produce

Lately I've been trying to hit the local farmer's market every week, or at least every other week. I've now found a vendor that consistently brings locally grown romaine lettuce and broccoli in addition to all the other great fruits and veggies, so I find myself there more regularly and even earlier in the morning to ensure I get those before they're gone. (Here "locally grown" means statewide...markets allow produce from farms and growers on the other islands, just not the Mainland.) The same vendor also puts out Okinawan sweet potatoes. They're purple and naturally super-sweet. So far I just make roasted sweet potato fries whenever I pick them up. I thought hard about making a purple sweet potato mash for Thanksgiving last year instead of the traditional type, but opted for tradition for reasons I don't remember now. :) Maybe this year.
I'm on the fence whether or not to eat the skins. Food nutrition lore says skins are good, but when they puff up and separate slightly from the "meat" during roasting, it makes it easy to eat around them. Last night I roasted the potatoes shown here (the potato cut open is about the size of an extra large lemon) and overcooked them about 5-10 minutes. A little tougher than they should have been but still yummy!

Prince Kuhio Day beach run

Hawai'i observed Prince Kuhio on Friday. I had some time off, too, so I hit the beach. Sort of. Packed a camera (yep, a real one!) and went to the White Plains area. Walked up and down a bit, found a monk seal resting in a remote/uncrowded area and took a few pictures. I wouldn't know it until late last night when I was uploading the pictures, but the camera ISO was set to 1600 - left over from a previous indoor shoot at the Waikiki Aquarium. Oops. Oh well, that's why I'm not a pro. No monk seal shots to post today, but I vow to try again!
I was also messing around with the Pano iPhone app and took the beach shot here. You can't tell from the image, but less than a quarter of a mile from this spot, hundreds of people were at White Plains Beach at this exact time. This open stretch of beach was definitely more my style.

What to do...where?

I was tipped-off to the following story from a few Facebook posts: Union City (my California hometown) was featured in Sunset magazine. Really? Was it the April 1 edition?
No, it turns out. No joke! The fine - and normally a bit high-brow - editors at the lifestyle magazine determined our humble city wedged in the southern half of Alameda County was worthy of a high-praising shout-out! Unfortunately for Union City (or is that unfortunately for Fremont??), it turns out they lost their bearings and were actually in Fremont most of the time. OK, yes, we have a BART station, yes, we have good ethnic food, and yes, parts of the Alameda Creek Trail do run through Union City. Just not the parts they write mostly about, nor the picture they included with the story. If you were to follow their directions to the trail from the BART station, you would actually pass a sign on the bridge that says, "Welcome to Fremont." And don't get me started about how they throw Garin Park (Hayward) into the mix of a leisurely day on a bike. I'm confused.
But don't let my pet peeves with Sunset's fact checkers keep you from seeking out the trail and Coyote Hills Park. Just last December, Robbie and I walked along it one afternoon during our Christmas holiday (memento above, Fremont hills in the background). We didn't have to go very far, one of the trail heads is at the end of the block. I spent many a Saturday morning with my bike on that trail after college, sometimes biking with my Dad. Before the days of Facebook, ran into a high school friend and reconnected. And when Noel was in Iraq and I was pregnant with Robbie, I walked the dogs there nearly every morning. So, by all means, if you're in the area this Spring, hit the trail and make your own memories! You won't be disappointed - and you won't care that you might not be in Union City.

More fun with the camera roll

So Robbie is not the only budding photographer in the family! Back on Kauai, Cousin Johnny at some point took this one on his Mom's iPhone...she found it later and sent it to me. I tweaked the original in Mill Colour (Noir again), then created the old school labels with a fun and cheap app, Pocket Labeler. This is totally an app for the 30- and 40- something and above crowd. Will anyone younger remember those retro labels? A great flashback. And all for $.99 cents.

What a week!

Around this time last Friday we were getting out the door and leaving for the airport, and it seems as if we've been on that pace since we returned Monday. My rockstar, super software-selling sister earned a well-deserved trip to Kauai for a corporate event. Family from California were all heading out (plus good friends who just happened to be vacationing there at the same time), so I jumped in and took the boys over. Celebrated a bunch of birthdays, and overall had fun in a condo near Poipu Beach. Funny thing about having fun and being blessed with such great friends and family - the good times make the days pass too quickly. Monday afternoon found the three of us back at home. I did feel pretty bad that family had one more long leg to get back to California. I figured I had unpacked and finished my laundry just as they were deplaning in the Bay Area.
On Sunday morning we treated the boys to the Kauai Plantation Railway train ride. It was our second time on the train; the pics here are from last November. It's a nice ride through a former plantation turned orchard and luau grounds. They make a scheduled stop outside a fenced area where pigs and a few other animals roam. Yes, it's a bit weird. I remember someone asking during our first go-around about the pigs becoming a luau centerpiece. They quietly admitted that they do allow hunters to come in when the population is a wee bit overcrowded. But to tell you the truth, I can't remember if they're actually served at the luau or not.
The rest of the week had me studying (catching up on assignments and homework for my programming class) along with sitting at the satellite City Hall one morning, again cramming for another test. I'm now officially a licensed Hawai'i state driver! Add a birthday to that mix and you can understand why I'm looking forward to slowing way down this weekend.

Self-portrait in Noir

I had to passcode-protect my iPhone from the boys after Robbie deleted all of my Notes. (I will spare you the story of when I found that out!) So this might be the last self-portrait from our budding artist on my phone for a while. I found the original pic a few weeks ago and thought that maybe someday I could do something with it, so it was spared from the trash can. I picked up another free iPhone app for photo processing (Mill Colour) and tweaked the portrait with the "Noir" pre-sets. I'm really glad I saved the image now. :)

"Pineapple Fields" birthday photo

"Koi Pond at Dole" birthday photo

Birthday photos

Last Friday we celebrated Robbie's 5th birthday. We tried to make it a two-train day with the Pineapple Express at the Dole Plantation followed by the monorail at the mall before dinner, but the monorail was down for repairs. Good thing we hit the Dole Plantation first! Robbie was quite upset he couldn't ride the monorail. Or maybe we should have done Dole last? Oh well.

While at Dole, we let Robbie loose with one of our digital cameras. Here are a few of my favorites from his "camera roll." All shots here were taken by him and grabbed right off the card with no post-processing or cropping. His first lesson basically covered the shutter button (camera set on program), using the zoom lens, and a little about checking the image on the LCD screen. It was a lot of fun for us; I hope he enjoyed his birthday as well!

Winter Olympics in review

The 2010 Winter Olympics are pau. It's been a week; has enough time passed that I can make fun of the hats worn by Canadian athletes on the medal podium without folks getting too upset? "Own the Podium" they did by winning the most gold. But really, were those tri-color conehead knits caps an after thought?
There is one thing I don't miss. How glad are you, like me, that we don't have to suffer through any more Marriage Ref commercials!! Here's one of my favorite athlete quotes, from a medalist in freestyle skiing. "I know that a lot of people go through a lot of things in their life, and I just want them to realize they can overcome anything," Peterson said. "There's light at the end of the tunnel and mine was silver and I love it."
And this was my favorite Olympic-related quote on Twitter, from comedian Mo Rocca: "I want Scott Hamilton to be my life coach. He's one of the great positive forces ... in the world."
And did I hear it right when they said the 4-man bobsled sleigh called the "Night Train" weighs 500 lbs? Now that has got to be one heck of an oversize baggage fee!
Sochi (Russia) in 2014. Who's in?

Don't fall for it!

Coconut M&Ms! I saw this new-to-me candy flavor in the market and sadly, I fell for the marketing and packaging. Very cool, very tropical, and like all things M&M, fun if you're in the right mood. I threw two small bags into my basket right before check-out and headed home. I opened a bag while watching the Vancouver Opening Ceremonies and immediately regretted it. I should have known better. They left me feeling lousy and then bummed that I had wasted a treat to myself! Before I ate them, I inspected the food label, and the word coconut isn't even listed. Closest thing? Yep, you guessed it. "Artificial flavor." I can't figure out why I went on to eat them anyway. I think what upset me the most was that after looking at that big coconut split in half and a ring of white coconut inside, I figured that the candy would have a white coconut ring, too, but with regular "plain" chocolate inside. Wrong! It's just a slightly larger than standard M&M with a chocolate center infused with artificial flavor. Fail! I'm only saving you a dollar in the grand scheme of things, but avoid them if you can.

"Whole orange" quick bread

Foodies, I'm back! Second week in a row I've baked something out of the Wednesday food section. Years ago on the Food Network, I watched a baker put an entire orange, peel and all, into a food processor and blend into muffin batter. I'd never tried it, but it was memorable. So this week the food editor had a story about using an orange in quick bread. She casually wrote that she had an orange she needed to use up, and coincidentally, so did I. Time to try it! I bake banana bread about once a week - a product of having two boys who leave various partially-eaten bananas around daily. I started putting together the orange bread and Robbie got excited (he likes to help with the banana bread). I tried to explain that it was "orange" bread and not banana bread, and he understood. Sort of. When it came out of the oven, he exclaimed, "That's not orange bread. That's brown bread!" Not sure if I'll make it again anytime soon. High in sugar and heavy, plus it took over an hour to bake thoroughly. That's much too long to have the oven on around here for a snack.

Black Pearl sailing Hawaiian waters

More shipping news - Hot on the heels of the Queen Victoria coming to town, early last week the Black Pearl sailed into Kalaeloa Harbor. What is the Black Pearl? Well, if you have to ask, you're not a tween! (And I'm guessing that's most of my readers, so I'll explain...) It was announced last month that the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise (#4, again for the non-tweens) will be filmed on and around Hawaii this summer. Johnny Depp is on board (pun intended) for the film, but other stars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly have abandoned ship. It was reported that the boat was heading to the West Oahu harbor (immediately next to the dock where Noel used to take TheBoat ferry downtown) for multiple reasons, one of which is that the harbor is "a secured facility." Umm, close but not really. I guess they mean secured so you can't board it yourself. One morning I pulled right up into the parking lot where I used to wait for Noel and walked around taking pictures. While doing that, another car cruised up, an actual tween hopped out of the passenger seat, snapped a few pictures, too, and then got back in the car and drove off with his mom.
The boat is not ready for it's close-up. It is here early to get spruced up and camera-primed. It sailed from California under it's real name, Sunset, registered out of Long Beach. And it is not a true reproduction of a 17th-century warship either, the masts are all for show and sailed here via a pretty strong engine. But if you want to believe, I can't stop you here.
In more local movie news, if Pirates doesn't doesn't get your heart beating, maybe this will! In other words, GEORGE CLOONEY ALERT! GEORGE CLOONEY ALERT! It has also been announced that Sir George (yep, that's an honor bestowed by me) is coming this Spring to shoot a new film in and around Honolulu with Alexander Payne, director of Sideways. More news to come from me on this one!! I'll be in make-up on, hair down, camera fully charged mode for the next few months and on the look out.

Strike a pose

More fun with Photo Booth! Robbie loves the iPhone and this is one of his favorite apps, too. Last night he made us laugh as he triggered the shutter, turned the phone around so he could shoot himself, and proceeded to make deliberate, unique poses for all four shots. So funny! And the results weren't so bad, either.