Running Around

This weekend found us finishing up the Christmas shopping and heading to Windward Ohau for a 5k trail run. It was up in a valley where most of the filming locations are (Lost, 50 First Dates, Mighty Joe Young, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and more), and wow was it beautiful!! Aquaman and I have been busy gearing up for a move across the island, as well as the Holidays, so running has fallen down the priority list and we were hurting a bit for the first 2.5k, which was a steady uphill climb. But we rounded the corner headed down hill and put it on slow cruise control to the finish (~39 min). It was great to get outside and the weather was cool and overcast making for great running conditions. We definitely want to make this event next year, and who knows maybe a 10k is in our future.

Holidays in the Tropics

It is so weird that it is December and it is still 80º out. I am definitely missing the snow this holiday season. But I have to admit that it was nice to head to the beach this weekend to take our holiday pictures in "summer" clothes. Our friends were kind enough to take pictures for us, and take us to a new pub where we had dinner. The pub actually had mainland prices for food and drinks, which is awesome! They also had great wings!

This weekend was relaxing, but busy. Aquaman and I braved the crowds and headed out at 4:15 am to wait in "line" for a new microwave. We are moving to a new unfurnished apartment in January, so took advantage of Black Friday to get a microwave for $25 (originally $72). It was pretty nuts to see the crowds at 4:30am, and hear the roar of voices in the store as the sale started at 5. But wildest of all was the way people went at the sale items. There were workers lined up to cut open the pallets, and as soon as the worker nearest me started, people whipped out their own razor blades and started ripping at the wrapping like crazy. I felt like I was watching people looting somewhere. It was great to get our microwave and get out of there by 5:05!

Thank you Veterans!!

Especially you Aquaman!

Weekend Update: Fun but scary

This weekend Aquaman and I borrowed a kayak and paddled out to Chinamans hat (a tiny but tall island). Just to give you some perspective as to the size (and steepness) of the island here is a picture from the paddle out. There are three people on the top of the island about as tall as the yellow I. It was a great paddle despite the fact we consistently drifted to the right and we hit paddles more than once. The climb to the top of the island looked like no worries... until we got there. Let's just say it was not ideal to be wearing wetsuit booties and if I were to do it again I would feel 1000 times more comfortable to be wearing a harness and being roped off. So despite thinking it was a stupid idea to climb the last 20 feet of sheer cliff to the top, we clambered up and the view was pretty great. We took some pictures and I spliced them together old school for you. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Great Haupia Pie Disaster

Disclaimer: This all takes place after a long day at work, a 20 mile drive to get a new XBox 360 game for Aquaman, and a 3-4 mile run....

For those of you that have never had it, Chocolate Haupia Pie is great. It also happens to be a variation of Aquaman's favorite pie (chocolate pudding pie). So the other night he wanted to have Haupia Pie, and I thought it would be much more fun to make one than to buy one. So off to the store to get all the ingredients and a new pyrex glass pie pan.

We bring the ingredients home, make tacos, and start to watch the Hulk. While making tacos I roll out the pie crust (with a can of spaghetti sauce wrapped in saran wrap because we have no rolling pin, so a can of sauce is obviously the next best thing!), and place the crust in the new freshly washed pie pan. After the pie crust cooks (while I am eating tacos and watching the Hulk) I decide it is a good idea to start cooking the chocolate pudding and Haupia portion of the pie, so I place the cooked pie crust on top of the oven on one of the burners to cool down. Then I turn on a different burner (or so I thought) to boil water and milk for the Haupia and pudding, and I go back to shoving tacos into my face while watching the Hulk. In between bites (a few minutes later) I realize I never shut the oven off after baking the pie crust, so I carry my dinner plate back over to the oven to shut it off when I see my pie crust smoking and realize OH CRAP, I had turned on the burner underneath the glass pie pan instead of the pot I was trying to boil my water in!

Now this is not my first rodeo... I have done almost this same exact thing with a glass pyrex oven casserole dish cover when Aquaman was living in Washington, and I knew what was about to happen, but I had to try to stop it anyway. So I quickly shout OH CRAP! Grab the pie pan off the hot burner and set it down on another. Aquaman is on the move to see what is wrong when BANG!!!! It is like a gunshot went off, the pie pan explodes, and flying glass debris is shot everywhere! Most unfortunately into the tacos I still wanted to eat :(

Morals of the story 1) even though Pyrex is tough as nails, YOU CANNOT HEAT IT DIRECTLY OR IT WILL SHATTER! 2) It is probably not a good idea to shove food in your face while baking, and cooking, and watching a move. So no pie, no more tacos, and glass everywhere, even embedded in my legs. I was just lucky that it didn't hit me in the face and burn and cut me at the same time!

But don't worry, all this fuss did not stop Aquaman from quickly reminding me we should have just bought the premade pie to begin with, and driving to the store to get one, while I obsessed about glass being stuck on the counters and in my shoes. In all fairness he helped clean up the majority of the glass.

Hope you all get a chance to enjoy Chocolate Haupia Pie. Maybe I will try again with a metal pie pan!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Coconut-Haupia-and-Chocolate-Pie/Detail.aspx

Crash Bang

Pay Attention!!! To your driving that is! Aquaman and I went for a nice run up in the valley today. We did a few mile loop and then drove back through to clock the distance and get manapua for dinner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manapua). As we came up on an intersection we heard a loud crashing tearing noise and looked down the street to see a car jump a curb and flip up on its roof. This is a city street we are talking about... 25mph speed limit. We pulled over quickly and ran down the streets while calling 911. There was a guy stuck in the car and he was in total shock. I ran down to direct traffic out of the way until the medics and cops showed up, while Aquaman helped out at the scene. I think the guy was ok, he was moving around inside and they pulled him out. How scary!! He just drifted to the right curb, hit the curb and then a small tree (8-10 inches diameter and 15ft tall), and flipped over. It really makes you realize how important it is to pay attention to your driving all the time, even at slow speeds!! Be careful out there!

Happy 3rd Anniversary Aquaman!! I love you!!

Our third anniversary was also our first anniversary back in Hawaii. We both took a half day off and headed out to Waikiki where we first met, followed up by dinner at the Cheesecake Factory... Yum! We were going to head to our wedding spot on the west coast of Oahu, but the traffic is so bad we would have had to spend the whole time in the car. So we are waiting for the weekend to head up to the wedding site and watch the sunset. Thanks Hun! It has been a great 3 years! Love You!

Back in the saddle again!!

After a VERY long absence I am back on the basketball court! It felt great to get out and play again. After some nervous jitters (please don't let me break my ACL again, and please don't let me collapse because I am soo out of shape) I felt right at home on the court again. I am not sure if it was the best decision ever to join the Men's 5'10" and over league, not to mention losing a few hours a week of work time, but it just feels right get out and exercise and hoop it up again. I am glad to report the first game went very well. We won 45-30, I managed not to get crushed by some very large Hawaiian men, and I even scored some points. So all in all a good day!

Out with the old, in with the new!!!

So the bug problem is in the process of being resolved. I guess fleas live in carpets and are really hard to get rid of cause they lay lots of eggs... YUCK! Aquaman spent the afternoon moving all the furniture out of the apartment so that the carpet can be replaced tomorrow and then the exterminators will bomb/poison the heck out of everything on Friday. WOO HOO! Pack up your eggs and move it on out fleas!... and anything else that might be living in the carpet. I am so excited not to have any more bug bites while I sleep!!! I think they were even more annoying than poison ivy. No pictures to post today. Last weekend's adventures did not include taking the camera out of the car, but I did read the manual so that counts for something right??

Before and After

Aquaman and I had a good weekend of fun in the sun. In his case way too much sun = a burned back. This Saturday we went snorkeling, to the beach and for a hike. We had a great time! Bummer was I forgot the underwater housing for the camera, so no water pictures this time. Instead I thought I would bust out and old picture I had accidentally "recreated" this weekend. First a disclaimer: It is not the same swim suit. Being in the water so much and in wet suits a lot I go through swim suits pretty fast so my fav place to shop for cheap sturdy suits is newport news (http://www.newport-news.com) and they had this suit on sale (<$10) for a while, so this is my 3rd or 4th iteration (I swear)! Second disclaimer: The 2003 picture was just after a 2 week stint in the hospital where I only had liquid food from an IV, so the 2008 picture is much more realistic. But as you may notice I do have a huge smile in both pictures because this is one of my favorite places (by the ocean in a swim suit)!


And another big smile on my face for my favorite place of all... by Aquaman's side!

Good night, sleep tight, oh wait there are bed bugs

Well after a few weeks of unexplained bites on my ankles, legs, and now arms I have deduced that we have a bug problem :( SO this morning I let off 4 bug "bombs" in the house... Before you get too worried or think twice about visiting us let me say that bugs thrive in the tropics! It is really pretty common to have roaches, fleas, and or bedbugs at some point in time. So back to the bombs. Well we decided it would be a good idea to set them off as we left for work so the air would be cleared out by the evening. What I forgot to take into account however is that smoke alarms do not just sense smoke. I set the first bomb in the bedroom and the next thing I know the smoke alarm is going off like crazy. You would think after all this time I have spent in school I could figure it out, but like a fool I charged the bomb with a piece of cardboard wafting away the spraying poison like a maniac. I grabbed the bomb and managed to get it all over my hands and in my nails, and Unfortunately in my lungs. Dashing back out to the living room for some fresh air I managed to run to the 2 other smoke detectors and rip out their batteries and set off 3 more bombs. But I think the damage has been done. I know feel like I have been running my lungs off all day. First lesson learned: don't let the bugs get in, Second: Don't spray the smoke detector with a bug bomb, and Third: Whatever you do don't breathe until you are outside.

First Dive

Today I went diving with Husband (aka Aquaman) and a good friend. It was a beautiful day, which was good because traffic to the North Shore was bad. After a bit of a wait we made it to a place called Shark's Cove. The only down side to this dive was a rocky beach entry. So after climbing down the hill with weight belt and tank on it felt to good to jump on in. It was Aquaman's first dive with me and I felt a little bit like I do when I take students out, but he was great. He had a few problems with his BC leaking air, too much weight, and his mask fogging up, but he handled it like a pro. We made a 50 minute dive and saw fish, coral, crabs, sea cucumbers... and he even saw an octopus. The trip was finished off by pizza in Haleiwa, shopping at Patagonia (where almost everything was 40-60% off), and dessert (mango cheesecake and a brownie sunday). All in all a fun day I would love to repeat anytime. However we have decided our next outdoor adventure will be a hike on the ridge up the hill from here. So until next time...

New Home

Well I really can't complain about this new place I call home. It is sunny and ~80ºF all the time, I can see the ocean from my front door, and it is surrounded by coral reefs. What a difference from LA. I have not been honked at yet while driving, someone actually backed up out of the crosswalk for me while I was walking, and there is no smog. Sad but true, I was so used to the nasty stuff that when I drove to work the other day and saw how hazy it was it took me a few minutes to realized it was a small rain shower... NOT SMOG! There is the possibility to get vog which I guess would be some kind of volcanic induced smog. And mother nature's vog (in my opinion) beats pollution caused smog any day. So I took the camera out for the first time to an overlook on the other side of the island. Hopefully the picture quality will get better as I learn how to use the camera better, but for now here is what I call home.