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??