Purple Potatoes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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..."

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

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.