Tom goes digging

Just for Daniel!

Don't you have a gecko in your dishwasher?

The ladies come to call....

Hibiscus on parade

Let's go luau!

Tom and I got tickets a couple of weeks ago for the annual luau at the Keawalai Church at Makena. We had no idea what to expect, but we don't go to commercial luaus anymore, and this looked like a good bet. It was unusual, being held in the middle of the day rather than in the evening, but that seemed like a good thing, especially in such a glorious setting. And we had a swell time.

We found two seats at a long table under a ginormous tent (apparently last year it rained, so this time the Church was prepared). As we chatted with our seat-mates, we were treated to some really good slack key guitar and singing before lunch. Around noon we made our way to the food tent.


They served us rice, kalua pig, chicken long rice, squid luau, potato mac salad, purple sweet potatoes and poi. We passed on the poi. Dessert was haupia, and chocolate cake.

Meanwhile we were treated to a 20 minute chant in Hawaiian, tracing the history of the islands from the beginnings to unification by King Kamehameha.





Finally, we enjoyed hula by everyone from the tutus (grannies and aunties) to the keiki (kids), in this case 3 and 4 years old (and there were lots of beaming moms in the crowd!).










We may not have had flaming torches or coconut cake, but that's a luau!

Tom's project!

In our yard next to our pool is a tea house which has seen better days.  The structure itself is sound, and it has a good roof, but the shoji screens are battered, broken and worn.  For some time Tom has been working toward replacing them.  Himself. 

The first step was an experiment to see how to make them.  In Berkeley a couple of years ago he started by building a model, about half size.  Then last year he took it up a notch by making two screens to serve as closet doors in his office.  A stunning success.  So now, without further ado, he is working on the three screens for the tea house, two with rice paper, and another with mesh screening.

After that, can the recliner, beer fridge and flat screen tv be far behind?  

We are so excited! 

Waiting for the tsunami....

We were watching a movie on netflix for missed the Friday 10 PM news about the tsunami warning. I happened to be up at about 3:00 AM when friend Tom who lives on the beach called to ask if he could come to our house; he arrived about 4:30, just when the moon was setting.

Tourists staying in condos on the beach road were awakened at 4:30AM and told where to go -- most could get to safe high ground in a 15 minute walk. The sirens began at 6 AM, and blasted a couple of times before the final warning at 10 AM. By then all the beach roads were to be closed and people were to be wherever they needed to be for safety. Everyone took it very seriously. The malls never opened, stored remained closed. We filled a few buckets and pitchers with water (we didn't get too crazy -- we do have a pool), but we had plenty of food, so no need to leave the house.

Nothing at all was visible to us from our vantage, so we watched one station on TV and another on the computer. By 1:30 PM it was pretty much all over, although what was not reported anywhere I saw, the dramatic ebbs and flows of the tide continued for over 24 hours.

Miraculously we did not lose power, or telephone or water service.  A quiet day was enjoyed by all.