Worst Date EVER

Brian and I went on our worst date of all time on Friday. Well....other than the time we both got food poisoning at the Thai restaurant in Michigan 7 years ago. We decided to go to the Bishop museum which is the main museum in Hawaii. It it listed as the best museum in Honolulu and as having tons of Hawaiian artifacts. We get in the car to go and realize its been 7000 miles since Brian's last oil change and that the coolant light is on. So we go to get an oil change and it takes an hour. Then I realized I left the directions at home, luckily we had the GPS. We followed the GPS directions and it took us to a hotel in Waikiki instead of the museum...great! The parking attendant told us it happens all the time because there used to be a Bishop museum store by the hotel and that we have to get back to the highway and go back 5 miles to the museum. This is a lot easier than it sounds. We finally get to the museum at 1:50pm (we started our journey at 10:45am and the museum is 20 miles from our apartment). We go to the lava demo and tour the buildings....and it was interesting. But to be honest....the museum was disappointing. There wasn't much there and it most of it was in an old house that was so dusty that we were having allergy attacks. I thought they would have old surf boards, all sorts of pictures of hawaii before....a hula display...or how to make poi...or history of fishing in hawaii....they could have had lots of things. Unfortunately, they did not. Then we went to the planetarium show. It smelled like feet and I didn't want to put my head on the seats. Also because lice is common in Hawaii (creepy!). The show was at least 20 years old. Everything was really outdated and Brian fell asleep and it was only 35 minutes! On the way out of the museum I did hold a $360 Koa wood soup bowl. That was exciting. I figure I'll never hold another bowl that expensive in my life.

After the museum, we continued with our plan to go to this restaurant that is supposed to be fab. Its called the "Garlic restaurant" (buts its in japanese). It has all sorts of foods...american, italian, japanese but everything has garlic in it. People have told us how good it is. The restaurant is 5 miles from the museum. I voted for us to take the highway, Brian wanted to take the city streets. I did not voice my opinion strongly enough about how the city roads are terrible...because I've been stuck in them before. So we took Brian's route....it took us an hour to get to the restaurant! Then we couldn't find parking. We drove past the restaurant twice trying to find the parking lot and ended up parking across the street at a grocery store. We finally get in the door. The restaurant is adorable...mainly outdoor seating. Really cute. Its 6pm and we've beat the dinner rush. There were only 2 tables taken. The waiter comes up to us and asks us if we have a reservation. We say no. He says..."oh, we aren't taking any walk ins tonight until 8:30pm, we are booked". We just about died! We turned around and walked to the car and got in and said...lets go home! We are never leaving our Ko Olina bubble again!!!

She's coming to the mainland

"She's comin to the mainland..." ( to the tune of Neil Diamond..."Comin to America")

I got my time off from work approved so I'm looking into flights. I plan on spending about 4 days in Dekalb visiting with dad and edie and grandpa. Then I will fly to NC and meet the moore crew at topsail for like tues thru sat.

I will plan another mainland trip for maybe next Jan (hope someone has all my sweaters stored).

I'm working on my flight stuff. I'll find my way to the beach on my own...no worrying allowed about someone having to pick me up!

I am looking forward to Ollie's, Rositas, The Villa......shark teeth, body boarding without worry of being smashed to death by waves, the fudge!!!!

No Thingyan Festival

We aren't at the Thingyan Festival...bummer. I have another terrible cold. Its like I am catching all of the island fevers this year. Yesterday when I woke up I didn't feel that great and by the time I was at work, I knew I was in trouble. Even my ears are plugged up. We got up this morning and I just knew I couldn't handle being outside in the sun eating weirdo food. Thingyan festival is the Burmese Water Festival (Buddist New Year). They have food booths, face painting, crafts and then shoot each other with water guns (water throwing).

I layed down on my chaise lounge and fell asleep for 3 hours. When I woke up Brian had gone to Home Depot to get wood and had already created an entire new support system for the new bed. We have a terrible foundation for our mattress (what they used to call a boxspring), so there needs to be good support for our mattress to not leave us in traction. You would think that $1000 could buy you a good nights rest on a good mattress...not so. Of course after twisting around in people's mouths all day, maybe we require more back support than the average person.

Been watching the Merrie Monarch Festival on TV. I have it DVR'd. It is amazing!!! It is held every year on the Big Island and is a HUGE hula competition. It runs for three days, 6 hours each day. First is the individual women's competition for Miss Aloha Hula. Then there is a group competition with ancient hula dances and chanting and last they have more contemporary hula in groups. The ancient hula is so amazing. I am sooo impressed. There are both groups of men and women. They dance to traditional music and chant in Hawaiian, then they dance. They are all in complete unision. Then after three groups go, the commentary goes back and shows part of the dance and tells you what it means. People train for this their entire lives. Each Halau (hula school) has its own Kumu (teacher) who teaches them the language and dances that have been passed down through generations. I'm going to try to buy the dvd of it when it comes out since it takes up so much of our DVR space. But I'm really inspired to find someplace to learn hula now....

Just another day in the H-I

We finally made it out to Lanikai beach today. I've been harassing Brian about it for a few weeks, but the one time it we couldn't find parking and then the weather on that side hasn't been ideal. But for the next week we have Kona weather. That means that its hazy and the wind has died down. On the side we live on it rains, and its muggy. On the other side (where Lanikai is) the wind dies down and then you can go there without setting pelted by sand.

So the day was a great success. No winds and nice weather on the beach. A bit crowded and for some reason there were 4 completely naked toddlers playing in the sand and swimming (different families), but other than that..perfect. I went snorkling and saw a 4 foot long trumpet fish. It was cool (long and skinny).

I will post some pictures.....Sunday we may go to the Thingyan festival...

Wildfire

Yesterday, after work I had an appt to get a haircut. On my way there all these firetrucks starting going by into Waianae. I saw maybe 4 trucks. During my appointment I kept hearing more and more trucks. After my appointment, we went to look at a new bedroom set in Maili. Our bedroom set is good, but we don't love it and when Brian spotted a beautiful sleigh bed with matching dresser and mirror we were hooked. A nice military couple who is being transferred to S. Carolina owned it. We loved it, and on our way home we saw the fire. It was the side of the mountain. It was erie and beautiful at the same time. It was bright flames creaping up the side of one of the mountains in darkness since there aren't a lot of street lights or anything in that area. Today when I read the paper it said that over 200 acres burned and 14 firetrucks and 60 firemen were there fighting the fire before it was under control. Brian had seen helicopters earlier carrying big tarps full of water. Rather exciting. The fire was about 4 miles from here. Sounds close, but really it wasn't. It barely made the paper. I guess in the Waianae Valley, brush fires happen from time to time.

Today I came home from work to find a whole new bedroom set up. Brian had picked up a UHaul, picked up the bedroom set, brought it to the house, and with the help of the other couple...got it up to our room. It looks really nice. Its a nice dark wood. They had gotten it in North Carolina from a small family owned furniture store before it was bought up by Ashley. Brian's pretty tired. So I have to run to make dinner...very Hawaiian....spaghetti.

Times flies

I can't believe that nearly a year ago Brian and I traveled to Oahu on a mission....a mission to move. Of course if we had that to do over again we'd do quite a few things differently....unload the money pit, take board exams, bring an extra POD. But I think we did pretty well for two people with a crazy idea and not an idea of how to accomplish it. Funny how when we visited last April (20-28th), we thought it was super hot and I was having to put on sunscreen every 30 minutes to keep from bursting into flames.

Yesterday we had Easter brunch with some friends of ours on the other side of the island. It was wonderful. We had ham, mashed potatoes and I made a salad and deviled eggs. We had about 4 desserts...which I had all of. We ate outside on a picnic table. There was the nicest breeze and the had banana and papaya trees in their yard along with some pineapple plants growing from ones they've eaten. It was a nice day...79 with a light breeze. Perfect.

Bracket Winner

Another year of NCAA tournament watching and another year where I have beat Brian at predicting the future of basketball. I predicted NC and MS in the finals. Hours and hours of basketball watching failed to help him yet again. I beat him by about the same amount that Michigan State got beat by NC. That was hard to watch...the complete demise of the team.

On another note, we went to watch a college baseball game on Sun afternoon and went out for drinks and dinner after with some friends. It was nice to get out of the house. Plus, its the first greek food I've gotten to eat since I've been here other than what I make at home.

Work has been good. Close to a full moon today so lots of toothaches. Target has transformed our lives. Everything from clothes to cheese for less than $5. I even picked up OJ yesterday which is the first I've had since we moved and it was under $3.

My orchid plant is blooming. I can't believe I got an orchid to bloom. Apparently the secret is to leave it in the garage for a couple months with no water. My pineapple plant is also growing. My mystery cocoon has not hatched yet.

We rearranged the furniture on Sun am to create a reading nook where the dining area used to be. We moved the dining table to the back of the living room..I guess you have to see it to picture it. But its much better now. I like the reading area with my chaise lounge and books. The other bonus was that in moving furniture around I found some junior mints that santa left for me at xmas and they are still good- yummers.

Gotta go, our marlin is on the grill....