Lindsay and Jarrod Go to Hawaii

Hiking with Hawaiian Christmas trees

2011-06-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Jarrod and I recently hiked the Aiea Loop trail. While it wasn't my favorite hike on Oahu, it was very enjoyable and the view of H-3 (a highway that spans the Ko'olau mountain range and connects the east and west sides of the island) was stunning. There weren't a ton of flowers to look at on this hike, but we did see plenty of what we generally refer to as "those weird Hawaiian pine trees." They're actually called Norfolk pines (after their native land of Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean) and there's actually a farm on Oahu that sells them as Christmas trees!

Electric Beach

2011-06-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Jarrod and I went snorkeling at a new spot on Monday called Electric Beach. It's on the west side of Oahu and named such because it's right across the street from a power plant. The power plant was two huge pipes that spit hot air or water (not sure which) out into the ocean and the fishies love it. Getting out to the open ocean was a bit rough as we had to basically get clobbered in the face by huge, very salty waves first. And then it was about a quarter-mile swim out to the pipes. There weren't as many neat fish as Hanauma Bay, but we did see a few new ones. Spinner dolphins and sea turtles frequent this area, but unfortunately we didn't see either. We did encounter a school of neat little squid, though, which was a first for us. Next up for snorkeling: Shark's Cove on the North Shore and Chinaman's Hat on the east side.

Thai iced tea

2011-05-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

One thing I absolutely adore about Hawaii life is the jaw-dropping abundance of Thai restaurants. Pretty much they're like Starbucks -- one on every corner. And this is fantastic for Jarrod and me because we both love Thai. Our favorite dish (yes, both of us -- we're boring) is pad Thai, but lately we've been trying to branch out more into Thai curries (which are intriguingly similar but different from the typical Indian curries). Anyway, Jarrod and I have sampled the fare at many Thai restaurants in our year and a half here, but none have been as good as our favorite, Champa Thai. We almost always order the same thing there -- the spring roll appetizer, pad Thai with chicken (medium spice level) and Thai iced teas to drink.

What's a thai iced tea? That, friends, is what this blog post is about. For months, Jarrod and I would stare curiously when waiters would deliver a tall orange drink to our neighbor tables. Finally, we realized this was the menu offering called a Thai iced tea and decided to sample one for ourselves. We fell in love and have not eaten at Champa (or any other Thai restaurant) since without ordering the Thai iced tea (which means a lot coming from me; I hate paying $3 for a beverage at a restaurant so I'm forever ordering water). At first sip, I thought the Thai iced tea tasted like a mixture of iced tea and coffee creamer. Turns out the sweetness actually comes from sweetened condensed milk. The cool, refreshing and slightly milky drink is a perfect foil for the spicy Thai food.

On a different note, I recently started a second blog about books and such. Check it out!

Geckos galore!

2011-04-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

The picture above is of a mutant two-tailed gecko in our storage closet. There are a LOT geckos in Hawaii and many look just like that one, although the typical (non-mutant) gecko only owns one tail. They come in a variety of colors and sizes and make a strange clicking/knocking noise to communicate, especially at night. These friendly (if rather skittish) creatures supposedly eat bugs, so we always try to put them back outside (away from the stalking eyes of the cat!) if they make their way into the house. Unfortunately, they are also very attracted the bug zapper we put up out back in hopes of curtailing our mosquito problem. Instead of zapped mosquitoes, our zapper still holds the remnants of three zapped geckos. When I say that geckos are very prolific here, it's not an exaggeration. For example, after the tsunami hit last month, there was a news report on the effectiveness of the siren warning system. Most of the sirens went off without a problem, but a handful remained silent because they had been "shorted out by geckos"!

We finally see a "dog that runs in rough water"

2011-04-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

One of my goals in life is to see various wildlife in its natural habitat in person, (things like bears, toucans and puffins), and in Hawaii specifically I wanted to see sea turtles, whales and monk seals. I've been lucky enough to have several sea turtle encounters in Hawaii, and we took an amazing whale-watching cruise in February, but I had never seen a monk seal until last weekend. We hiked Ka'ena Point on Saturday and were thrilled to see two of the creatures. I think there's some rule about how close you're allowed to get to them, but being blissfully without crowds of onlookers we were able to get about 10 feet away without the seals even twitching a whisker in our direction. They're one of Hawaii's two native mammals (the other being the hoary bat) and, sadly, they're endangered. Jarrod and I felt it was a great treat to observe these two seals. In Hawaiian, the monk seals are known as 'ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua or "dog that runs in rough water." I'm glad we're not the only ones who think the seals resemble our boxer, Conan! The other seal we saw was basking in the sun with its head under the water. Here's a look at the scenery... the hike takes you to the northwestern tip of Oahu and can be accessed on both the west and north sides. We took the west (Waianae) side and it was spectacular. At the end of the trail is a bird sanctuary of sorts with tons of albatross nests. We saw several adult birds and two babies.

Kona Brewing Company

2011-03-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to become a beer drinker. It seems like every place we go has different and unique regional beers and I want to be able to partake in the beer-sampling fun with Jarrod! Hawaii boasts a couple brewing companies, the most famous of which is Kona Brewing Company. The brewery and main pub are located in Kona on the Big Island, but there's also a KBC restaurant on Oahu featuring delicious food and the whole variety of brews. Longboard Lager is the most popular choice; it can be found in some stores on the Mainland and was featured in a recent episode of "Hawaii 5-0." While the various beers are still growing on me, I absolutely love the beautiful Hawaiian-themed artwork on all the bottles and packages of KBC's "liquid aloha."

"Murder on Moloka'i"

2011-03-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

A friend and fellow fiction fan from work loaned me "Murder on Moloka'i," the first in the "Surfing Detective" series by local author Chip Hughes. The book features Kai Cooke, a PI whose other passion in life is surfing. The book is a murder-mystery about an environmental activist who dies while on Moloka'i's mule tour to the leper colony at Kalaupapa. Her mule trips and falls, pitching her off a cliff, and her (estranged) sister doesn't think it was an accident.

The writing and plot were decent, not the best or most original murder-mystery I've ever read but still an enjoyable book. I really liked the Hawaiian element, though. I watch "Hawaii 5-0" (not quite the best show on TV right now) occasionally for the same reason -- it's neat to read about and see places we've been or want to go. This book includes scenes on several Hawaiian islands. Incidentally, my friend gave me the book at the exact time I had been researching a quick getaway to Moloka'i. The island sounds like the antithesis to bustling, over-populated Oahu. It's uncrowded, has pristine and unspoiled beaches, and doesn't even have a stoplight. The scenery appears to be stunning, and I have no doubt that the atmosphere would be relaxing. Other than lounging on the beach, we'd like to take the mule ride to Kalaupapa and visit the leper colony there. "Murder on Moloka'i" includes some history on Saint Damien and the colony, which I'll be glad to know going into the tour. Conditions at Kalaupapa were horrible for the exiled lepers, until Saint Damien began caring for patients there in 1873 and made it his mission to drastically improve their quality of life. After years of dedication to the quarantined patients, he succumbed to the disease himself and died in 1889.

Aside from giving readers a history lesson, Hughes does a great job depicting Hawaiian culture and the atmosphere of the islands. I enjoyed his usage of Pidgen and Hawaiian words, although readers unfamiliar with the language might need to look up a few terms. Hughes does italicize most Hawaiian words, and they can often be figured out in context. Here are some common Hawaiian words used in the novel:
-akamai: smart
-moke: big, local Polynesian guy (as in physically huge)
-ono: delicious, as in food (i.e. ono grinds); hot/sexy, as in physical attractiveness (ono wahine)
-wahine: woman
-kane: man
-mahu: homosexual
-haole: white/Caucasian person
-pali: cliffs
-paniolo: Hawaiian cowboy
-ohana: family
-aina: land
-mahalo: thank you

I'm planning to soon read the next two books in the series, "Wipeout" and "Kula." The latter book deals with a surfing dog, and since dogs are a topic close to my heart I'm looking forward to this book in particular. I'd definitely recommend reading Chip Hughes' series for a taste of the islands!

The Anatomy of a Mochi Ice Cream

2011-03-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

Since we arrived in Hawaii nearly a year and a half ago, we'd often seen mochi ice cream for sale but had never tried it. I was once tempted to order one at Bubbie's, our favorite ice cream place, but since Bubbie's is really far away and an extra-special treat I just had to go with my usual haupia chip ice cream. (Haupia is Hawaiian coconut pudding, and Bubbie's homemade ice cream is absolutely amazing.) My only other experience with mochi was so-so, as blogged here, so I was reluctant to spend much to sample mochi ice cream. However, I recently noticed that the commissary carries a brand of mochi ice cream and last week my curiosity finally overcame my frugality and I forked over $3.50 for a box of six.

As soon as the first bites were in our mouths, our tongues were saying, "How could you go 18 months without treating us to this amazing melding of flavors?" and meanwhile our waistlines were saying, "Uh-oh..."

Each mochi ice cream is about the size of a small clementine. The mochi itself -- made of smashed, sweetened rice -- is a bit sticky, so each ball is dusted in flour. The mochi is sweet, chewy and has a mellow but unique flavor. And inside that is a ball of vanilla ice cream. (Or whatever flavor you choose.)

Mochi ice cream, as my husband so succinctly put it, is addicting! The box of six I bought on Thursday has long since been demolished, and our taste buds are already craving more!

Swimming with the fishies

2011-03-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

Jarrod and I recently went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and had a fantastic time. We had fun taking pictures with our underwater camera and got some really great shots this time. Unfortunately, the camera battery died just before a sea turtle went swimming past us! As we were swimming with our turtle friend, we happened upon a huge blue and yellow eel with his mouth open and teeth pointed at us; it would've been an awesome picture. I guess I learned my lesson about making sure the camera battery is fully charged before all excursions! Nevertheless, we still managed to take over 200 pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites:

A humuhumunukunukuapua'a, Hawaii's state fish:

A pencil urchin, my all-time favorite picture with the underwater camera (taken by Jarrod, of course):

Bright pink coral:

Dogs like the beach too!

2011-02-27T19:41:00.000-08:00

One thing I love about Hickam AFB is the dog beach. It's unofficially dog friendly and on any given day one can find several friendly canines chasing each other on the sand bar if the tide is low, or swimming and frolicking in the ocean if the water is up. Since it's right near the harbor inlet, it's not uncommon to see ships or submarines heading by on their way to Pearl Harbor, which also adds to the excitement. Last weekend we took Conan to the beach for the first time in several months (we had been holding off to make sure his chronic ear infections weren't caused by water) and were delighted to see the joy in his eyes as he ran full out, chasing and being chased by his new furry friends. He even got to play with another boxer! I sometimes wonder if Conan can recognize that another dog is the same breed as he is; he seemed to gravitate toward the other boxer, but perhaps that's just because they share the same style of play.

I often feel guilty that our yard isn't bigger (backyard space -- and space in general -- is at a premium in Hawaii) so Conan can run around to his heart's content. That's one reason I like taking him to the dog beach. He gets to run off the leash and experience the freedom to go where he wants and socialize with the dogs he wants. I love to watch Conan run wide open, full speed ahead, with his long tongue hanging out, his ears flopping every which way, and his face caught in an expression of bliss.

The Lt. Dan Band

2011-02-19T12:24:00.000-08:00

Last Friday night, Jarrod and I went to a fantastic USO concert at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base: Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band. The music was great and it was really cool to be so close to a movie star! You'll recognize Gary Sinise from "CSI: New York," "Apollo 13" and of course "Forrest Gump." Standing just feet from him, I reminisced back to elementary school when "Apollo 13" came out and I thought Gary Sinise was so good-looking that I clipped his picture out of a magazine!

Gary Sinise has been called the Bob Hope of the 21st century for all the work he does with the USO. He travels around the country and the world -- including the war zone -- performing for the troops and their families. I was struck by two things: how happy Gary Sinise and his bandmates seemed up on stage and how sincerely patriotic they seemed. The last song the group performed was "God Bless the USA" and it was done with such heart that it left me attempting to hide the fact that my eyes had gotten slightly watery. I guess such songs will always mean more when you've got a military connection; I was surrounded by Marines and people from other service branches, my dad was in the Air Force for 20 years and still works there as a civilian, and my husband is in the Air Force and extremely likely to be deployed to the Middle East sometime in the next 12 months. The passionately delivered lines, "And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me, And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today," seemed particularly applicable.

A Whale of a Tale

2011-02-17T16:43:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago, Jarrod and I did one of the most fun activities of our time on Oahu so far: a whale-watching cruise to see the humpback whales that inhabit Hawaiian waters from December to March. We got up bright and early to do the Early Bird cruise on the Star of Honolulu. The weather was fantastic and I guess the humpbacks agreed because they were out in full force. We saw three different pods, one of which was only 100 yards from the boat (which I believe is the closest a boat can legally get to a whale).

We were so lucky to see the whales breach several times, as well as do a bit of a mating ritual involving splashing their flippers and tails on top of the water. The naturalist on board told us breaches are usually seen a couple times a week, but it's rare to see so many breaches in a row. The naturalist also explained to us how absolutely massive humpbacks are. They weigh about 1 ton for every foot in length; the average humpback is 45 feet long so that means it weighs 45 tons!

Diamond Head and Waikiki from the whale-watching boat. This is about the farthest we got from shore; really not that far at all.

A "plume" coming from a whale's blowhole.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day. I wish I had shot the photo just a split second later, when the tail was straight up in the air.

Jarrod and I had an absolutely fantastic time on the two-hour whale-watching excursion and would definitely recommend it, although I think we were especially lucky to see so much activity. So we've now seen sea turtles and whales; next up are dolphins and monk seals!

I posted two videos from the day on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcw08axm2BQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MqM5kgoU9E

Pro Bowl 2011

2011-02-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

Jarrod and I were bummed when the 2010 Pro Bowl was in Miami and were excited that it was returning to Hawaii this year. But when the time to buy tickets came, we wavered. Did we really want to pay $130 for so-so seats? No, not really. But then at the very last minute (the Friday before the game) Jarrod decided to check Craigslist for tickets. We found several decent seats and decided to go with fourth-row seats on the 20-yard-line of the AFC side. We negotiated a price of $100 per ticket, which ended up being a fantastic deal. The game wasn't exactly a stunner, but sitting just feet away from the players was amazing! I was too busy taking pictures and staring at the alternately hulking/way-shorter-than-I-thought/super-famous/sooo good-looking guys on the sidelines that I didn't even pay much attention to the actual game.

Aside from the players, we also got to see the tail-end of the Goo Goo Dolls pregame performance, Kris Allen from "American Idol" singing the national anthem, Dog the Bounty Hunter sitting on the sidelines and Daniel Dae Kim of "Lost" and "Hawaii 5-0" fame walking just feet away from us. These are a few of my favorite pictures from the game:

Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers quarterback.

Brandon Lloyd (Denver Broncos), Reggie Wayne (Indianapolis Colts), Peyton Manning (Colts), and Philip Rivers.

Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys.

Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Jarrod and I went to Chinatown in Honolulu for the annual Chinese New Year celebration. The event included vendors and food booths as well as a parade. The parade was by far the best part; the dragon and lion dancers were so neat!

This is the Year of the Rabbit and I loved the rabbit-themed signs the kids were carrying. Jarrod and I were born in the Year of the Ox, 1985. According to Wikipedia (the foremost source on everything, of course) that makes us more prone to be: dependable, ambitious, calm, methodical, a born leader, patient, hard-working, conventional, steady, modest, logical, resolute, tenacious; can be stubborn, dogmatic, hot-tempered, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid and demanding. Do you think that sounds like us? Besides Ox and Rabbit, the other Chinese zodiacs are Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.

Me with a lion dancer.Jarrod and the 150-foot long dragon. This was the grand finale of the parade.

Purple Potatoes

2010-09-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

At the commissary last week, I spotted something I had to have -- a 1-pound bag of Okinawan sweet potatoes. The packaging proclaimed that these tiny sweet potatoes had purple flesh. I've had purple sweet potatoes at the Polynesian Cultural Center's luau and they were pretty good, so I snagged a bag to make alongside our meal of maple-garlic pork chops. The $1.64 the bag cost was pretty much worth the hilarious picture on the package -- a purple sweet potato dressed as a superhero. I peeled and boiled the potatoes, then served them with a gluttinous amount of butter. They were indeed purple and turned an even darker shade of violet after they were cooked.

The potatoes had a much thicker texture than typical sweet potatoes and a slightly different, less sweet flavor. I enjoyed the novelty of purple potatoes, but I didn't think they tasted as good as traditional orange sweet potatoes. However, I think serving both types together would make a good (and very colorful) side dish.

Sumida Farm

2010-09-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Jarrod and I frequently drive down Kamehameha Highway in Pearl City to go out to eat or to go shopping. That often-congested expanse of road is filled with restaurants, stores, and the Pearl Ridge Mall. And nestled in among all the commerce is a most unlikely thing: a few acres of bright green watercress fields, complete with scarecrows and a little thatched-roof hut. I've been fascinated by Sumida Farm since we first drove by it last October, and I finally remembered to take my camera with me so I could snap a few pictures as we passed it.

I was curious about the farm and a quick Google search turned up some interesting information. According to the Hawaii Indpendent (which recently ran a profile on the farm), it sits on 10 acres of land and produces 70 percent of Hawaii's watercress. Sumida Farms has been in business since 1928 and somehow managed to avoid being overtaken by shipping centers or bought out by developers.

I've always been annoyed that the Pearl Ridge Mall is in two separate wings, so you either have to pay 50 cents to take the monorail or get in your car and drive the distance (maybe a quarter mile + traffic and stop lights) to get to the other part. But now I realize that Sumida Farm, a green oasis situated perfectly between the two sections of the mall, is the likely reason for the inconvenience. And I have to respect the farm owners who probably withstood multiple haranguings by developers and offers of millions of dollars for their prime acreage so they could keep their 10-acre farm that was there long before Macy's and Sears and Chili's ever thought of expanding to Hawaii, before Kamehameha Highway was even a paved road.

Caramel Apple Bliss

2010-09-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to pine for fall. Living in warm climates for the last three years has really made me miss seasons, especially fall, which has always been my favorite. All year long, I look forward to pumpkins, apples, sweaters, boots, the first snow, spice-scented candles, watching Sunday afternoon football while the chili simmers on the stove, the changing colors of fall foliage, the crunch of stepping on dried fallen leaves, the crispness in the air, then Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (which is not technically a part of fall, but it's the culmination of the most festive few months of the year). As a kid I even loved starting back to school (and college!).

Mid-September is about the time I start getting jealous of all my "foul-weather" family and friends. In Hawaii, the daily high rarely ventures out of the 80s and it can be a bit hard to get in the fall spirit. But in an effort to create a fall-like atmopshere, I put out all my fall decor this weekend and I decided to bake a treat to match the season: caramel apple cupcakes from the October Rachael Ray magazine.

The "cake" part of these cupcakes is really more of an apple-cinnamon muffin. But these treats earn their "cupcake" title from the decadent, gooey caramel topping. The cupcakes are about 1/2 shredded apple and 1/2 cupcake batter; the result is a cupcake full of sweet, tart apple bits. The flavor melds perfectly with the caramel topping and each bite really is reminiscent of a caramel apple. These are the unfrosted cupcakes:

And here they are after they've been smeared with a big dollop of melted caramel and cream. They're absolutely perfect after heating in the microwave for 15 or 20 seconds. Yum! It's caramel apple bliss.

It Broke Da Mouth

2010-09-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Jarrod and I recently discovered (with the help of some friends) an amazingly good Hawaiian pizza parlor. The full name is Da Big Kahuna's Pizza -n- Stuffs, but we just call it "Big Kahuna's." The two best things about Big Kahuna's are the delicious, one-of-a-kind crust and the unique toppings with an island flair. We ordered Da Sumo Special, which came loaded with kalua pork, Portuguese sausage, pepperoni, ham, Italian sausage, bacon, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and black olives. The menu delcares: "this one broke da mouth." (That's Hawaiian for "amazingly good.")

Next time, we're going to order the kalua pork pizza. It comes topped with Hawaiian barbeque sauce, chunks of pork and green onions. The menu includes over a dozen other specialty pizzas like beef brisket, chicken stir fry, eggplant, Mexican (it even has pinto beans!), Jamaican jerk chicken, and one I'm especially intrigued by: Da California Club. It's a five-cheese pizza, topped with chicken, bacon, ham and tomatoes. When it comes out of the oven, it gets mounded with chilled shredded lettuce and ranch dressing. Judging by the first three pizzas we've had from Big Kahuna's (two Da Sumos and a vegetarian) every pizza on the menu will probably "break da mouth."

Taro Pie -- I'm Lovin' It

2010-08-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I saw a commerical advertising the return of taro pies at the McDonalds restaurants here in Hawaii. I love pies and I love sampling unique (and yummy) Hawaiian foods, so of course I told Jarrod that we had to try them.

Here's a look at the TV commercial:
And here's me about to take my first mouthful of taro pie: Yum! The taro has a really mellow flavor, kind of like eating a potato. (Which makes sense, because taro is a root vegetable, just like potatoes.) The commercial showed the taro looking purple, but it had a much more pinkish hue in our pies. Taro is also used to make poi, which is popular here. I guess it's supposed to be healthy, but as with many healthy foods it doesn't taste all that great. It's purple and sort of a runny paste. Imagine Cream of Wheat being really watery and purple with a bland but slightly bitter taste, and you've got poi. I tried poi at our last luau and I don't think I'll be wasting plate space on it again (why would I, when I can have all the kalua pork and haupia I want?) but the taro pies were definitely tasty. And how can you beat a fried, sugar-and-taro filled creation for just $1?

Mochi

2010-08-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

I love a good bargain and I'm a sucker for any and all unique Hawaiian foods (not involving meat or seafood, of course). So when I saw a glistening red box of mochi treats for 99 cents at the commissary a few weeks ago, I immediately snatched them up.

"Mochi" -- defined as white rice smashed into a paste and sweetened -- is pretty popular here. I selected the chocolate-coated coffee flavor.

I had no idea what to expect, this being my first actual encounter with mochi, but a bunch of individually-wrapped thin candies about the size of Oreos was not what I had in mind. The mochi "rice cake" was hardly a cake -- it was more like a really thick, gelatinous, chewy marshmallow. And the coffee flavoring was a tan paste in the center of the whole thing.

At first my tastebuds were confused by this completely new set of flavors, but after a few bites it really grew on me. I'm not sure I would choose these over another sweet snack, but they were certainly interesting while they lasted.

More Hawaii Flora

2010-08-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Hawaii has so many gorgeous flowers and plants, and one of my favorite hobbies here is taking pictures of them. Here are some recent favorites... all the photos except the first one were taken right here in our neighborhood:

Heliconia

Plumeria

Hibiscus

Bougainvillea

Bird of Paradise

Man-o-wars!

2010-07-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Ever since I stumbled upon my first one at Navarre Beach, I've been fascinated by Portuguese man-o-wars. They're so bright and colorful and interesting-looking, but so dangerous! Here are a few pictures of a little man-o-war we saw on the North Shore yesterday:

The clear bubble part sits on top of the water while the stinging tentacles (or whatever you'd call them) dangle down. Man-o-wars are different from jellyfish because they have no way to propel themselves through the water -- they just go where the waves take them. The very first man-o-war I saw (pictured below) was the biggest one I've seen yet. It's body was about a foot long and the tentacles stretched five or six feet! (Look at that white shell for perspective.)

The dragon of the fruit world

2010-07-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

The commissary has recently been putting out a selection of in-season Hawaiian fruits and Jarrod and I decided to try this bad boy yesterday -- a dragonfruit, possibly the most interesting-looking fruit I've ever seen! You prepare a dragonfruit like you would an avocado (incidentally, not counting the green parts that stick up, it's about the same size as a large avocado) -- slice it in half lengthwise, then scoop out the fruit with a fork and slice it into chunks. The flesh is bright pink with black seeds and has a very unique taste and texture. It was sort of like a mushy watermelon combined with a kiwi. Very sweet and juicy, but with a slight undertone of something else. I'm glad we got our dragonfruit, just to say we tried it, but at $4.49 a pound I don't think we'll be sampling another one until next summer!

The Lighthouse People

2010-06-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we drove over to the west side of the island to cross a few things off our Hawaii to-do list. We wanted to see the Black Pearl (from "Pirates of the Caribbean") which is docked at a harbor over there, and we wanted to see Barber's Point Lighthouse. I really liked the red, white and blue paint job on the doorway.

Unfortunately, like most things in Hawaii, it just wouldn't be complete without some graffiti marring its appearance (on the left door).

Visiting this lighthouse reminded me of one of my favorite stories I wrote at the "Navarre Press." It was about a couple who lived in the area and were known as The Lighthouse People. After visiting a few lighthouses on their honeymoon, they developed a love for the structures and made it a goal to photograph every standing lighthouse in the U.S. They accomplished that goal and, when I wrote the article, had moved on to Canada and the Caribbean. They were the nicest people and had a fascinating story. Here's their website, which includes pictures of every lighthouse they've visited: http://www.thelighthousepeople.com/

Hot Slaw Amazingness

2010-06-08T16:21:00.001-07:00

This weekend, Jarrod introduced me to a delicious Southern condiment called hot slaw. It's definitely still coleslaw, but it's very different from all other coleslaws I've had. (Which isn't many, since I'm not usually a coleslaw fan.) This slaw contains quite a list of ingredients: bagged coleslaw mix, green bell pepper, onion, mustard, lemon juice, hot sauce, sugar, cider vinegar, celery seed, salt and pepper. Jarrod put slaw on his brats, and I mounded some atop my Boca Burger. YUM! Last night we had burgers again, and I dressed mine with melted colby cheese, tomato, lettuce, bacon and lots of slaw, and it was amazing.

The flavor of the slaw is really unique... it's unexpectedly sweet, but with a kick. I would describe the taste as multi-dimensional. If you'd care to view the recipe we worked off of (with a few modifications), go to http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/salad_mustardslaw.shtml. Jarrod said it didn't produce the exact look or taste of the slaw he's used to, but we agreed that the end result was pretty darn good.

P.S. Sorry the brat picture is vertical instead of horizontal. Try as I might, I couldn't get it to rotate, even after saving it as a whole new file. Sometimes I just don't understand computers!

"Lost" at the Byodo-in Temple

2010-06-01T13:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Jarrod and I finally got around to visiting the Byodo-in Temple over on the east side of the island. It was absolutely gorgeous! We did learn, however, the Memorial Day is not the best time to go anywhere near a cemetery in Hawaii (and, unfortunately for us, the temple is in the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, which contains several cemeteries). Apparently, that's the day everyone goes to visit their loved ones' graves. Gorgeous tropical flowers were for sale all over the sides of the road and nearly every single grave had fresh flowers on it. Many people even set up tents or canopies to spend the day there! Guards were directing traffic and hundreds of cars clogged the cemetery road. It was fascinating to me, since that's not really a Memorial Day tradition on the Mainland.

Anyway, aside from the beauty of the temple and the moutain setting, the serene and relaxing atmosphere, and the really neat 18-foot Buddha statue, I enjoyed our trip because the Byodo-in Temple was a "Lost" filming site. It's Sun's father's house, where Sun and Jin were married.

I'm a Georigia Peach at heart

2010-05-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

As you know, I love to bake. So it was only fitting that I make some sort of delicious dessert to welcome Jarrod home. I chose a peach cobbler, even though I'd never made a cobbler before. It just sounded so good! I used this recipe from All Recipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Southern-Peach-Cobbler-2/Detail.aspx and it was a great success. I used frozen peaches instead of fresh; I didn't know exactly how much eight peaches would be in cups, so I used 1 1/2 bags. Next time, I think I'll use two entire bags, and add a little more cornstarch. The cobbler was perfectly sweet and peachy (and I even used a bit less white sugar than called for), and the topping was soft, sweet and had an amazing slightly crisp crust on top. YUM!!! This is definitely a keeper.

Time flies!

2010-05-28T01:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we've had Conan for three years this summer. And he's almost 4 years old! I was looking through some old pictures the other day and came across this top photo, from right after we first got him. This picture actually appeared in the Northwest Florida Daily News as a "pet of the day" photo. And it even got printed in color!

It's amazing to me how different Conan looks now. He's clearly still a puppy in the first photo. And in the second picture, from a few weeks ago, he's clearly an adult dog. Just look at how much of the white fur on his muzzle has changed to black, and how much of the pink skin by his nose has vanished. These are things that you don't really notice as they're happening, because they're gradual.

I'm assuming these same things happen with human children too. That's why parents say, "It seems like just yesterday that I was changing her diapers, and now she's starting kindergarten! Sniffle, sniffle..." Maybe it's symbolic of a larger factor in our society. Things happen so fast these days. We're busy, and going going going. We wake up one day and all of a sudden, a whole month has passed. Where did it go?! And then, seemingly the next day, we wake up and it's New Year's! I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but it's important that we stop and appreciate each day. I try to take a few moments every day to be thankful for my great life, my wonderful husband, my loving family, and of course my furry little boy, who (just like real kids do) is growing up too fast!

Becoming a pack leader

2010-05-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite picture that I've taken recently of Conan. :)

When we first got Conan in August 0f 2007, he was completely different from the Conan we know now. He never, ever, ever barked. For months, the only time I even heard his bark was when I ran the vacuum, which he was afraid of for some reason. (Now he loves to chase the vacuum and even likes it when I use the crevice tool to suck off all his shedded fur!) He was shyer, far more timid. He would never bark at another dog or person (except the mailman or UPS deliverer); he was always the one getting barked at. Eventually, Jarrod decided it wasn't normal that he wasn't barking and actually encouraged Conan to bark at people when they walked past the house. Then we moved to Del Rio, and Conan all of a sudden started barking certain dogs on our walks. Then we moved to San Angelo, and Conan all of a sudden started barking at certain dogs and certain people on our walks, specifically two ladies who got around with walkers and moms pushing strollers or pulling wagons. Toward the end of our time there, he occasionally would lunge and growl at another person for what I deemed "no reason." They appeared to simply be minding their own business, but somehow managed to offend Conan.

Then we moved here to Hawaii in October and Conan's aggression shot to a whole other level. He began snarling and lunging at any other dog we passed on our walks. Not only was this mortifying, but Conan is pretty strong and I've sustained plenty of scratches, smashed feet, arms ripped half out of the socket, and leash burns. And after we'd been here for a couple months, he began snarling and lunging at nearly all the people we passed on our walks. Mind you, I don't mean he'd growl at the person tending their garden up by their house who didn't even glance our way, but he'd get aggressive whenever another person was walking toward or near us. And sometimes, bizzarely, he'd lunge and snarl at someone for what seemed like no reason at all. One time, a kid on rollerblades skated up to us and started up a conversation about a beloved pet boxer his family had. Their dog had to be put down because it had gotten sick. He and Conan got along great, until the kid started to skate off. Then, out of nowhere, Conan lunged and growled at him, scaring the poor kid half to death.

The problem escalated so much in the past few months -- and so quickly -- that I started to dread walking Conan, especially at times when I knew lots of of other people would be outside. And I new instinctively that I wasn't helping the problem, because every time we'd see a person coming toward us, or whom we'd have to pass close to, my heart rate would go up and I'd feel anxious. I know how intuitive dogs are, and I could tell that Conan was picking up on my nervous energy. It created a vicious cycle (literally!). I noticed that his behavior on walks had gotten worse than ever since I came back from Florida (partly, I think, because Jarrod isn't here. Jarrod never has these problems with Conan, because Conan clearly respects him as the alpha of the family.) And my friend Jessica, who watched Conan for me, said she didn't really have any problems with him on walks. That lead me to a revelation: the problem must be me!

So I started reading one of the books by Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. Turns out I've been doing everything all wrong. I think Conan's aggression on walks stems from three things:
1. My weak, unconfident, anxious "energy" (i.e. not calm-assertive, confident energy), causing Conan to view himself as dominant over me and feel the need to become my "pack leader."
2. Cesar thinks that most problems with American dogs are at least in part a result of their owners humanizing them. Obviously, we think of Conan as our furry kid. I even have a cute little decoration that says, "A dog is a furry person." Well, not according to Cesar! And his logic makes perfect sense. Dogs don't think like humans. They aren't humans. They're not better or worse than humans, just different. And it's unfair to them to treat them like humans, just to get the affection and attention that WE crave.
3. Not enough exercise and too much affection. Cesar talks in detail about how wild dogs would spend hours and hours walking and hunting every single day. Unfortunately, Conan isn't getting nearly as much exericse as he should, or as he has in the past. In San Angelo, we had a much bigger yard where he'd run and run and run every day. And we had a decent-sized neighborhood with plenty of walking routes, so we'd walk at least a mile everyday. Here in Hawaii, barely anybody has a "large" yard. Our yard is pitifully small for Conan, but it's better than what we would have gotten off-base. And our neighborhood is very small -- just a loop -- and the adjoining neighborhood is currently undergoing remodeling, so the streets are blocked off right now. And Cesar says most Americans give their dogs way too much affection. His model of what a dog needs is 50% exericse, 25% discipline and 25% affection. Conan has definitely been getting 50% (or more) affection!

I haven't finished the book yet (I got quite depresssed and frustrated and resentful and decided to put it down for a few days... I see where Cesar is coming from, but I don't necessarily agree with every single assertion he makes) but I've already started putting some of his advice in effect. It's very, very hard to start treating Conan differently after three years, and I don't feel like I'm a natural leader (I am constantly struggling with low self-confidence). But I am doing my best to assert myself as Conan's pack leader. I made him sit and stay seated as I put his collar and leash on. Then I made sure to exit the door before he did (Cesar says this is very important). I attempted to think confident, in-control thoughts and I made him walk next to or behind me the entire time, only allowing him to stop and sniff poles or bushes ocassionally (rather than him pulling me over to every single lamp post, tree or bush in the neighborhood). Any time he started to pull the slightest bit ahead of me, I tugged on his leash. He's pretty good at heeling anyway, but he'd still veer off whenever he wanted to pee on a pole or sniff something. And, miraculously, today he pretty much ignored all the things he normally stops to sniff. We passed three people and he barely even looked at them (granted, they weren't walking on the same side of the street, coming toward us -- those are Conan's most frequent victims). I also took Conan around the block twice, giving him some extra exercise, and didn't give him any affection until we got back inside the house. I felt it was a great success! I still have a long, long, long way to go to make him see me as his leader and stop being vicious to other dogs and people on our walks, but I feel like I made a great step forward today. Wish me luck!

Success with yeast!

2010-05-17T01:29:00.000-07:00

My favorite website for recipes is http://smittenkitchen.com/. I discovered it a few months ago, and it's a blog written by a woman in New York City who somehow has time to juggle a husband, a baby, and making several gourmet recipes a week. She gets the recipes from other places -- cookbooks, magazines, newspapers -- but always adds her own twist and advice. And she takes gorgeous pictures of every step of the process. I've made a few recipes from the site, including the absolutely heavenly Best Cocoa Brownies, which will be my go-to brownie recipe for life. A few days ago, a recipe was posted for Braided Lemon Bread, a project that just looked so delectable I had to go ahead and make it this weekend, even though I know there's no way I can eat an entire loaf on my own (since Jarrod is not here to share it with me) and the neighbor with whom I usually share treats just had weight-loss surgery. I think I'll put a few slices in the freezer to take out and have with a cup of coffee here and there.

Anyway, I was a bit intimidated, since the bread looked gorgeous and complicated, and also I don't have much experience working with yeast. But I decided to give it my best shot. I had no trouble making the lemon curd (and for the first time ever, I didn't zest the skin on my knuckles along with the lemon peel!), the cream cheese filling, and the bread dough. Luckily I had an entire afternoon at my disposal, because it was quite time-consuming. Of course, I had to sample the cream cheese filling and lemon curd as I was assembling the bread (and Conan and I enjoyed licking the beaters and spatula!) and they were amazing, especially the lemon curd. (Why is it called curd? That's such a gross-sounding word. I'd rather call it lemon pudding.) The finished product came out beautifully (even if my braid did come a bit undone at the end) and I couldn't wait to sample it!

I was a bit disappointed, unfortunately. As I expected, the filling was delectable. But there was just too much bread! I know the recipe is supposed to showcase the yeasty, slightly-sweet bread, but I felt like it was weighing down the light, fluffy, sweet-tangy, lemony filling. I almost wanted to scrape all the filling off and just eat that (talk about nutritious!), but I spent so much time making the bread that I forced myself to eat every last bite (ok, except the pieces I fed to Conan). I even made more filling (almost twice as much) than the recipe called for. Maybe I would like the bread more if it were sweeter? I'm sure plenty of people thought there was a perfect ratio of bread to filling and that the bread was a perfect flavor. But I have realized over time that I'm much more of a filling person than a crust (or bread) person. Sometimes I would rather just do without crust altogether. I'm not sure I would be disappointed if I never ate another graham cracker crust. I'll happily take all the filling, though!

Overall, I'm glad I attempted this recipe. For one thing, it gave me confidence to work with yeast. I've only used yeast once before when I made a disastrous recipe from a book I bought this winter called "Kneadlessly Simple." My loaf of bread turned out to be brick-like with a scorced bottom. I was so disillusioned that I've been avoiding trying another yeast recipe for months now. But in the future when I'm craving something lemon-flavored, I think I'll stick with my trusty recipe for lemon bars: tons of mouthwatering lemon filling, only slightly interrupted by the mandatory crust.

Ponderings on a Gorgeous Dress

2010-04-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

I was watching a Netflix rental, "An Education," the other night and actually had to pause the movie and take a picture of this dress because I loved it so much. The movie was set in the '60s and the characters always got dressed up to go out to a show or party or a nightclub. I don't have any complaints about wearing my favorite pair of jeans wherever I want, but how come we stopped wearing fancy dresses and "dressing up" to go out? I saw a news story yesterday about a restaurant in Darwin, Australia, that is going to charge every patron wearing flip-flips $10. Apparently Dawin is considered the most laid-back city in Australia and the restaurant owner wants to change that image and "class up" his town. I LOVELOVELOVE wearing flip-flops, but in a way I can see where he's coming from. It seems like our clothes have gotten more and more casual (sloppy?) as the decades have gone by; a "casual" outfit in the '50s or '60s is miles different from the "casual" outfit of today, which might consist of some yoga pants, a t-shirt and flip-flops. Is this a bad thing? I'm not sure. But I AM sure that I love this dress!

And here's an adorable picture of Conan. You can see that we got new pillows for the sofa and loveseat. I wonder how long it'll be before these are covered in dog fur? Conan is so funny, the way he lays on pillows like a person would. I think it's a boxer thing. Or maybe boxer parents are just more likely to let their furry children up on the furniture...

The Mouthwatering Confection Known As Malasadas

2010-04-01T12:58:00.001-07:00

Last night we made a very fortuitous drive down to Old Navy in Waikele to return something and sampled a delicious Hawaiian treat. Old Navy is in a fairly large shopping center and in the parking lot sat a Leonard's Bakery trailer selling "hot malasadas." I'd heard about malasadas on the news, and on Fat Tuesday the news crews were all at Leonard's Bakery in downtown Honolulu because that's the day everyone goes and buys malasadas. Apparently Leonard's Bakery is famous for its malasadas, and now I know why. They're served piping hot, and the top layer is sugar-coated, paper-thin and amazingly crisp. Ensconed inside is a yeasty, puffy dough that almost melted in my mouth. These. Were. SO. Good! The taste kind of reminded me of a funnel cake, except 1 million times better. We bought half a dozen and brought them home for later. Luckily we ate plenty on the way home, so they were still hot and fresh and perfect. At home, they were still good but the fried layer on the outside hat lost a bit of its crispiness. I think next time we'll just get one each and savor it in the car.

Unfilled with a dusting of white sugar is the "original," but there were a several different flavors to choose from -- you could get them filled with chocolate, custard or haupia (coconut pudding), which is what we decided to get, but unfortunately they were sold out. They also come dusted cinnamon sugar or li hing mui sugar, which is a tart-sweet Chinese plum sugar. I think the actual Leonard's Bakery (as opposed to the traveling trailer) offers even more of a selection. For better (more moutwatering) pictures and a history of how malasadas (which originated in Portugual) came to be popular in Hawaii, go to to http://www.leonardshawaii.com/index.html

"And your books will be due..."

2010-03-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

When's the last time you saw one of those in a library book?? It's been over a decade since I've gotten a due date stamped in a library book, but that's how they do things here in Hawaii. At first I thought it was extremely old-school. But the more I thought about it, I realized it's genius. They still scan the books' barcodes into the computer, but they stamp your books instead of printing out a receipt with the due date. This is great for two reasons:

a) It saves tons of paper. Think how many trees are used to make paper for library receipts that most people don't even use? And then that paper goes into the trash, which adds to the already packed landfills. Obviously one reciept in a bag of trash doesn't make a difference, but imagine how many bags would be filled if you combined all the thrown-away library receipts in America in one year!

b) Printed receipts are easy to lose. I often used to end up checking my online account to see when my books were due because I'd misplaced or accidentally tossed the receipt. This way, you always know exactly when your book is due because the date is right inside the cover.

Not many of Hawaii's policies seem to be things other states would want to emulate (Furlough Fridays for example!), but I think this is an excellent idea. I wonder why libraries moved away from date-stamping in the first place?

And here's a picture I just snapped of Conan, lounging with his newest toy. I hate taking his picture with the flash because it always makes his eyes look weird. I wish photo editing programs would come with a pet-eye feature similar to the red-eye feature for humans.

The Tagic Tale of a Warty Squash

2010-03-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

You'd think Hawaii would be a great place to grow flowers and vegetables since it's warm all year round. Jarrod was super excited to plant some veggies when we got here and he bought some pots, soil and seed packets in December. Three months later, I'm thinking Jarrod might wish we had never made that fateful trip to Home Depot, because it's just been one problem after another for him. He chose tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini. The tomatoes had sprouted and were doing great until... they got eaten by birds! They scarfed down plants, as well as the squash spouts, and Jarrod was devastated. So he erected an elaborate labyrinth of string and stakes to keep the birds out, as seen in the first picture.

That worked great -- no more bird attacks -- but then the bazillion ants we have living out back decided the plants would make a perfect habitat. We tried a few home remedies before finally forking over $7 for a bottle of veggie-safe insecticide. That made mediocre progress in curbing the ant problem, but then huge holes started appearing the leaves. Inchworm/caterpillar critters had staged an invasion! They munched holes in all the tomatoes and Jarrod ruthlessly fed live inchworms to the hordes of vicious ants! (I told him that was exceedingly cruel and made him squish the inchworms first.)

Finally, this week we were able to pick off our first completed vegetable, a decent-sized yellow squash. But it's shiny and covered in warts and resembles a decorative fall gourd. Is it edible? We'll find out soon! If it were me, I'd probably throw in the towel and resign myself to buying all our veggies from the grocery store (but I have a black thumb anyway and could never grow veggies to begin with ) but knowing Jarrod, he won't give up until he's raised a crop of perfect, prize-winning tomatoes, squash and zucchini.

Haupia

2010-03-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

One of the things we enjoyed most at our first Hawaiian luau was haupia, a type of coconut pudding. The pudding had a consistency close to Jello and was served in pieces about 2 inches by 1 inch. We tried a few haupia recipes and mix packets before finding the perfect recipe. It has the light, delicious coconut flavor we both loved from the haupia at the luau. Jarrod actually preferred the firm, gelatinous texture the luau haupia, but I like this recipe because it's creates a more creamy pudding. It's a LOT of work though. Tons of stirring, but well worth the effort. Here's a link to the recipe: http://gohawaii.about.com/od/luaurecipes/r/haupia.htm

And a word of advice if you do decide to give it a try: dissolve the cornstarch in the cocount milk before cooking. I used a large measuring cup and vigourously mixed 3 Tbsp. of cornstarch with 1/2 cup coconut milk, then repeated the process with the remaining 1/2 cup coconut milk and 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch. Yum!

Hawaiian Centipede

2010-03-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

I discovered an interesting visitor in our living room when I woke up yesterday morning. We'd heard about Hawaiian centipedes, but this was our first encounter with one. Other than looking super creepy, they're apparently posionous to young kids and pets. And their bite is supposed to be extremely painful. Luckily, this one was on his way to centipede heaven/hell already so he didn't protest too much when Jarrod scooped him up in a plastic bag. (Yes, I woke Jarrod up and made him come deal with it.) The protrusions off the back end looked like stingers to me, but I later read that's actually just a defense mechanism to fool predators into thinking that's its head. The business end is definitely the front. I've also heard and read that they're extremely hard to kill and no amount of stomping or smashing will do away with one; you have to chop it apart somehow. Luckily, since this one was pretty much beyond fighting back, we didn't have to deal with making a mess on the carpet. (Or, more likely, transporting him outside and away from our yard to go frighten another family.) They can supposedly grow to around six inches long and two inches across. Our 42-legged friend was about four or five inches long.

Plumeria

2010-03-06T15:26:00.001-08:00

My neighbor's plumeria tree is full of blooms right now and I took a few pictures of it the other day. Plumeria flowers smell amazing and are very common in leis.

Spam

2010-02-25T11:24:00.000-08:00

Spam is really popluar here. I read that in Hawaii, more cans are comsumed per person than in any other state. We haven't eaten at a Burger King (off base) or McDonalds since we've been here, but I've read that they actually have Spam on the menu. There's a Spam Jam festival in Waikiki every spring. The grocery stores have huge displays of Spam. Target and Wal-Mart have large sections of Spam cookbooks and keychains and hats. We've even seen Spam sushi. Inspired by the myriad Spam products, Jarrod actually bought a can. And fried it up and ate it. He seemed to think it was alright, but I won't even eat meat from TV dinners or chicken bits from my Chicken Noodle O's soup, much less processed meat that's been in a can for who-knows-how-long. When we first got here, we were intrigued by the abundance of Spam and Googled it. Apparently Spam is popular in many of the Pacific Islands; it brought to the region by WWII soldiers as part of their food rations and it became an instant hit with the locals.

High Surf Advisory

2010-02-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

There honestly aren't many things I enjoy about the local Hawaii news, but I do like the weather segment. They always show sunset pictures and talk about surfing conditions and wave heights. My favorite thing is the "high surf advisory" icon on the forecast. It cracks me up every time, the way the guy fell off his surf board and looks like he's about to get eaten by a massive, ferocious wave!

Hawaiian Vocabulary

2010-02-14T13:18:00.000-08:00

We've had to learn some new words since we arrived here in Hawaii. These are some of the most common Hawaiian words and phrases we've come across:

Kama'aina: locals
Ohana: family
Keiki: kids
Mahalo: thank you
Pupus: appetizers
Aloha: hi, bye, farewell, also used to describe the atmopshere of the islands as in "aloha spirit"
Tutu: grandmother
Slippers: flip-flops
Mele Kalikimaka: Merry Christmas
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou: Happy New Year

I've noticed that many of the Hawaiian-sounding cities and street names start with W, K, P or A, which can make things very confusing... for instance, Waipio, Waipahu, Waimea, Wahiawa, Waialua and Waimanalo are a few of the many towns that start with the letter W. But that makes sense to me now; I recently read that the Hawaiian alphabet only has 12 letters: all the typical vowels, plus H, K, L, M, N, P, W.

My Favorite Super Bowl Ad

2010-02-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

I thought there were a few really funny commericals on the Super Bowl this year, but my favorite was actually NOT a funny ad, it was a cute one. I loved the Google "Parisian Love" commercial. What a clever idea! Here it is:

The ad I liked best from last year -- the Bridgestone commercial with the Potato Heads -- is one of my all-time favorite commericals ever.

One thing that really confuses me is how the FCC and the networks decide what is appropriate for TV. There was so much hullabaloo over the gay dating website commerical, which didn't make the cut. I don't know what the gay dating site ad entailed, but could it really have been that much more potentially offensive than some of the ads that DID air? There were two ads that centered around people in their underwear -- with plenty of close-ups -- and two ads showing women giving birth ("Mommy, I thought you said babies came from storks?"), an ad with a sperm fertilizing an egg, and another with talking babies who cheat each other and are "milkaholics." I understand homosexuality is a very divisive topic, but how come no one is outraged that their children saw a woman screaming in an inflatable pool during a water birth? That practically traumatized ME!

Another thing that annoyed me was all the controversy over the Tim Tebow "anti-abortion" ad. Having lived in the same town as Focus on the Family for many years -- and hearing about the supposed "controversy" for days -- I was a little afraid it would be an in-your-face "abortion is evil" type of commerical. But then it aired, and it was definitely not an in-yout-face ad. In fact, if I hadn't been bombarded with news stories about the ad for the past week, I wouldn't even have realized it had anything to do with abortion. I was already ticked off when I realized that all that blather over the commerical being offensive was simply a media invention. There WAS no controversy... until the media manufactured some (which is what today's media does best... take things out of context, blow things out of proportion, etc.). That, ultimately, was probably a FAR better advertisement for Focus on the Family's message than if the commerical had just aired without all the debate. Then I turn on the TV this morning and hear all about how the president of NOW, the National Organization for Women, said the Tebow commercial was promoting violence against women. What?! I understood their concern about such an ad airing during the Super Bowl (and agreed, actually), but now they're just making the organization look stupid.

The news was also full of complaints about the Career Builder commercial featuring an office full of people clad only in their underwear. People griped about how horrible it was to see those fat, pasty white people spilling out of their undergarments. But I actually applaud the ad for using ACTUAL, NORMAL people with REAL bodies, something we pretty much never see in the media these days.

P.S. This is my first time trying to post movies on the blog. Hope it works out!

Beach Video

2010-02-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, my parents got us a wonderful gift -- a pocket-sized video camera. I've been trying it out for two months now and finally got around to putting the videos on the computer. I was a little disappointed in how they came out -- kind of blurry and choppy. I know this is a good camera though, so I'm sure the error was on my end. I'm going to sit down with the instruction manual and see what I can figure out. One video came out pretty good, though, and I posted it on YouTube. It's from one of our trips to the beach. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMP5h_y4gs0 Enjoy!

Flora

2010-02-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love about Hawaii is the adundance of beautiful flowers. They are everywhere -- and I'm so jealous of people who have gorgeous flowering shrubs or trees in their yards. (We just have palm trees.) I read somewhere that many of Hawaii's plants and flowers are actually not native but were brought here by settlers. Interesting! Apparently Hawaii doesn't have all that many native species. In fact, there are only two mammals native to Hawaii, the monk seal (which I really hope to see in the wild here at some point) and the hoary bat. But back to the topic at hand: below are pictures of some common Hawaiian flowers as well as a few really neat, not-as-common ones.

This is my favorite flower that I've come across so far. We passed it when we were driving up Mount Tantalus and I made Jarrod stop the car so I could run back and take a picture of it. Despite tons of Googling, I can't figure out what it's called, but I think it's so gorgeous!

Hibiscus -- these are EVERYWHERE and come in an amazing array of colors.

Ginger flower. These are semi-common. I think they're used a lot in landscaping and gardening.

Canna -- this reminds me of blown glass.

Hawaiian cactus. (I don't know why this picture insisted on turning sideways -- sorry.)

Bougainvillea -- these flowering bushes are extremely common and come in all sorts of colors ranging from light orange to bright pink to purple. I loved them so much I bought a small plant for our front porch.

Bird of paradise. These are also fairly common.

One flower I really wanted to include is the plumeria, but I didn't have a good picture of one. The common ones are white with a yellow center and grow on trees. (There are some similar flowers in colors like pink and purple, and I assume those are also in the plumeria family.) They smell DIVINE and are very popular in leis. My neighbor has a plumeria tree in her yard, so I might have to sneak over and take some pictures!

Boiled P-Nuts

2010-02-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

Until I started dating Jarrod, I'd never really sampled much authentic Southern cooking. Some things didn't agree with my tongue, like collard greens. Yuck! But two Southern foods I fell in love with are fried okra and boiled peanuts. In case you don't know what a boiled peanut is, it's an extremely delicious, extremely high-sodium, extremely non-nutritious snack created by simmering raw peanuts in *very* salty water for several hours. (You can also add other spices -- I've seen Cajun and garlic flavors sold on the side of the road -- but Jarrod typically sticks with just salt.) This gives the peanuts a delightful firm-but-mushy consistency and a very unique flavor. Even Conan loves them! There is one thing I don't like about boiled peanuts though: they're totally addicting and there is absolutely no way you can eat just one!

It's raining, it's pouring, Conan is snoring...

2010-01-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

In case any of you were still up in the air on whether Conan is the most spoiled dog ever, here's some proof. We've been getting rain this weekend, which is not too common on our side of the island. Last night, Conan acted like he needed to go out but balked when he saw that peeing would entail getting wet -- one of his least favorite things. He decided he could hold it for awhile. A couple hours later, he needed to go out so urgently that he actually stepped out into the rain. But then he ran back up to the door! I pushed him back and told him to go potty, and after a few repeats of this procedure he actually made it all the way to the grass! But then he turned around and scurried for the door.

I could tell he really needed to go -- and I was having flashbacks to the time when he was about a year old and didn't want to pee in the rain, so he actually peed in the house, right in front of me -- and I grabbed my umbrella. I actually went out in the pouring rain, getting half-soaked myself, so I could hold an umbrella over my dog while he relieved himself. I felt like a butler or footman in one of those period movies who gets drenched while holding an umbrella over their snobbish, wealthy master, or the queen or somebody. Guess we know who rules this roost!

"Nub On The Ground"

2010-01-28T20:26:00.000-08:00

So Jarrod and I were watching "American Idol" a few weeks ago when the infamous (and hilarious) "Pants On The Ground" audition was first heard. Ever since then, Jarrod has been singing an improvised song he made up about Conan. First, watch the real "POTG" video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwhl4IrPNc

Then read Jarrod's lyrics with that tune in your head:
Nub on the ground, nub on the ground, lookin' like a fool with your nub on the ground
With the chompers in yo' mouth, collar turned sideways
Nub hit the ground, call yourself a cool dog
Lookin' like a fool, walkin' downtown with your nub on the ground
Give it up
Hey, get yo' nub off the ground
Lookin' like a fool
Walkin', talkin' with yo' nub on the ground

Ah, poor Conan.

Birds, Birds and More Birds!

2010-01-27T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hawaii has tons of amazing birds and I've been working on taking pictures of them since we got here. My pictures aren't that good and I hope to take better ones eventually, but this will give you an idea of some of the birds who frequent our yard (except the last one, who frequents the dog beach). The coolest bird I've seen so far is an albatross on our hike to Makapu'u Lighthouse. I tried to photograph him but he was too far away, and by the time we hiked closer he had decided to tuck his head into his wing and take an afternoon nap.

Another bird I really like is the Hawaiian Cardinal. It looks somewhat similar to typical cardinals (which also live in Hawaii) but in addition to a bright red head, it has a white breast, gray wings and tail, and a huge mohawk.

The only birds I really don't like are the morning doves. They're so small I actually thought they were babies at first. They are EVERYwhere and apparently have no fear of people, dogs or cars. Since it seems like their favorite place to hang out is in the middle of the road, and there are zillions of them in our neighborhood, I'm sure I'll probably hit one with the Escape eventually. (Although I have to admit, I'm somewhat biased against doves since they were the cause of the Great Bird Mite Infestation in our San Angelo house.) Without further ado, here are a few photos:

Hawaiian Cardinal

Despite searching and searching on the internet, I can't figure out what this guy is. At first I assumed it was a female Hawaiian Cardinal, but I read that male and female Hawaiian Cardinals are both red. Hmm... Anyway, I love his hairdo.

Myna Bird (It's a little hard to see, but he has BRIGHT yellow feet, bill and mask across his eyes.)

Saffron Finch

Java Sparrow (The coloring kind of reminds me of a puffin, my favorite bird. I can't wait to drag Jarrod to Maine someday to see them.)

Hawaiian Stilt (His legs were super pink, but the color kind of got lost since I had to zoom x16 to get a close enough shot without him flying off.)

Greetings and VOG

2010-01-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

Aloha! Jarrod and I (well, mostly I) have decided to start a blog to document our Hawaii adventures. (And for some spice, I'll probably also blabber on about topics like Conan's antics, my knitting projects and how hard it is to find a job.) We have been in Hawaii for just over three months now and it's definitely been an interesting experience. We've seen some cool sights and eaten at some delicious restaurants, but we also miss our old favorite stores and eateries and weather that actually changes. Maybe if everyone tries really hard, we can wish some Hawaii sunshine into existence in Indiana and some Indiana frozen-ness in Hawaii!

So I thought I'd start off the blog with an interesting phenomenon Jarrod and I discovered almost immediately after we arrived. We were sitting at home one night, having just gotten our TV (finally!!!) hooked up to cable, and collapsed in laughter at the news channel's horrendous error. They misspelled FOG and wrote VOG! "Haha," we laughed, "what idiots!" Except... when the weather portion of the news started, there it was again. And again. And we realized they hadn't accidentally typed a "v" when they meant hit "f." We learned that vog -- or volcanic smog -- is apparently what you get when sulfur dioxide emitted from a volcano, Mt. Kilauea on the Big Island in this case, mixes with dust and sun. We hadn't really experienced vog until this weekend. The wind was blowing northwest from the Big Island, causing Oahu to be blanketed in a strange haze. This is visible in the picture above of Honolulu's skyline, which is typically crystal clear. (I tried and tried to get the pictures to post BELOW this paragraph but finally gave up.)