Sunday, April 12, 2009

It's a BOY!!!!!

Welcome to the family Benson!!

Sunday, January 4, 2009



So Aquaman and I were just talking about how bad of a blogger I am. I have been thinking about this lately because I feel like i should/want to blog, but don't feel like I have anything interesting to write about. So this weekend after our move to a new place we were making dinner when I went to use the oven and it didn't turn on. The stove top worked fine, but the oven has an electronic timer setting option that wasn't working. After dinner we took the cover off the oven to see inside and try to replace a battery or fix any problem we could. Aquaman thought he saw an extra wire, pulled on it and a dead dried gecko popped out. Then jokingly Aquaman said "this would make a perfect blog post for you if the gecko had shorted out the stove and now it will work when we plug it back in!"... and proceeded to throw the gecko away in the garbage. We put the stove back together, plugged it in, and .... It worked!

We had to fish the gecko out of the garbage and take a picture of it for the post. You can even see the burn marks on its back from where it was touching the wires.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

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.



Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Holidays in the Tropics

It is so weird that it is December and it is still 80ยบ 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!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Thank you Veterans!!

Especially you Aquaman!

Monday, November 10, 2008

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!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

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