Obey Zolac!

Oh look I'm actually doing this two days in a row, I'M SO AWESOME, YEEEEAAAHHH~!!

THING ONE! Talked my darling dear friend Chris on the phone today, which I don't do nearly often enough. (She was one of my closest friends at college practically from day one.) It was her birthday on Saturday, which prompted a wee bit of phone tag, and we finally caught each other at a good time tonight. So that was nice.

THING TWO! There's this thing in Hawai‘i where we have chickens just sort of wandering around, wild, don't belong to anyone. Mostly they're moa, or Red Junglefowl, that the Hawaiians brought with them, but all kinda interbred with other domestic chicken breeds. Since we a) don't have a dog or a cat anymore, and b) we throw papaya skins around under our trees to encourage chickens to dig coqui frogs out of the leaf litter and eat them, hens and chickies like to come and hang out in our yard and forage where it's friendly and safe. ANYWAY, there's this one black silkie chicken that's been wandering around the last couple years or so, and she's got her second clutch of little half-silkie chicks, TINY BLACK PEEPING RIDICULOUS FLOOFBALLS AAAAAAAAAAAHHH they make me so happy. T__T

THING THREE! Forrest wanted to have a "found foods" dinner, so I'm sitting on a lawn chair in the dark, drinking a beer while he pokes at the grill. I brought a breadfruit, and he's got some oysters from his job at the aquaculture research facility and lobsters from his lobster dive and heart of palm that he brought back from his kayak camping trip up on the north coast last weekend and it's gonna be awesome, basically.

I'm back! Sort of. It's definitely going to be a busy few days of holiday shenanigans with friends and family, but I'll at least occasionally be checking in.

O'ahu was awesome, as usual. I actually got to hang out with Maile, which, oh my god, it's been a few years. And I got to spend some time with Jen and Adam and Tommy, too, and stay up to 3 a.m. drinking Scotch and losing all my money at poker. So that was fun.

Mostly I hung out with family a lot and ate alarming amounts of food and set some stuff on fire (okay, mostly just wood, in a fireplace...and candles) and opened presents, and I bonded with an adorable teenager over Doctor Who and other nerdy things. And there was, of course, the requisite afternoon of hanging out in Pauoa with the Nerf arsenal shooting range and ping pong tournament (I think I've established myself fairly securely as the worst ping pong player in the family, although I didn't get a chance to prove myself against Nova). Aside from all of that it was a lot of quietly lounging around Granny's house, reading National Geographic and writing.

Also IT'S ACTUALLY BEEN SUNNY, HOLY CRAP. IT'S LIKE A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.

Last night Mom and I got home in time to have a light dinner and open presents with Alex (the bro, not the bf... this is just always going to be awkward) and Nova. I ended up with SO MUCH FOOD I can't even (mostly candy), and Alex and Nova got me a new camera, because they love me. I also opened the packages from look_alive and platoapproved... platoapproved sent me lollipops and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and a mix CD I haven't had time to listen to yet and a whole pile of Batman swag– tiny notepads! Bat symbol bracelets! foam Batarangs!– because she loves me, and look_alive sent me OMG AMAZING DELICIOUS homemade caramel and toffee and a whole pile of Trader Joe's swag (LEMUR TEEEEEEEAAAA~!! :D) and a Patrick Stump tuxedo shirt, because omg she loves me.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE~!!

Oh and I watched the Doctor Who Christmas episode last night. I was going to flail about it immediately, but there was a random blackout at, like, one in the morning that cut off my wireless signal, so I was forced to go to sleep, woe. Squee and spoilers under the cut.

( Spaceman angel with his head on backwards! )

Okay, another drive-by post... for serious, I really need to get some quality sleep tonight.

Work was kind of FAILBOAT today. We went to Kahuku to try to finish our last three monitoring plots. This should've been the end of the matter; usually we can do five in one day. Instead, we did one, ONE, and then fruitlessly searched for the corner poles of Plot S2M0L, wandering mournfully in circles and digging through unnecessarily thick pasture grass before giving up in disgust and going home on the theory that consulting the photo documentation will help us find it next time. Oh, and it rained on us. Quite heavily. The whole incident was rather demoralizing. *shakes fist* DAMN YOU EXCLOSURE TWO. DAMN YOU KIKUYU GRASS. ...On the plus side, acquired iced Ka‘ū coffee, cinnamon-raisin-macadamia nut sweet bread, and lemon-salt marlin jerky at the Punalu‘u Bakery, so the day wasn't a total waste. :D

Anyway, Ted and Lea seemed to have an enjoyable day. In between working they managed to make it down to the Hilo Farmer's Market and came back laden with rambutan, kaskaron, and assorted exotic greens. Andolie, bless her, took them to ‘Akaka Falls in the late afternoon, where they also acquired a stalk of sugarcane (Ted wants to borrow a machete and carry it with him everywhere, in case of future sugarcane incidents), and thence to Chiang Mai Thai Restaurant. So I feel gratified that they have been well taken care of in my absence. They also accepted my invitation to join us for Folk Dancing and had a lot of fun, so... yay!

Tomorrow after my private lesson with Ted we're heading up the hill for the requisite Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park visit, and then straight on into the first night of the workshop. So that will be fun.

Whoo!

Stolen from apple_pathways:



For all you comic nerds on my Flist. And everyone else, too. We don't like to discriminate.

I would dearly love to see an Apokolips holiday "celebration" of Anti-Life. WORST HOLIDAY EVER. ...Also I find it interesting that we have three heroes from Marvel and one bad guy, one of the worst villains ever, of all time, from DC. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY HERE, GUYS?

So what's new in my life.

Adorable Southern Boy Update (it will be a hilarious day when he discovers my Livejournal and finds out this is how I refer to him): Alex and I went on a Sexy Beach Date on Saturday. There were sea turtles, it didn't even rain on us, and I learned how to stand on a paddleboard. Alex was impressed by my mad not-falling-off skills... I fell off three times, and then I didn't fall off again. (Years of walking on railings at the peril of my elementary school administrators' frowny faces pays off!) Next stop: surfing! (Maybe.)

CHALLENGE: Kiss someone seated behind you without toppling both of you off of the paddleboard and into the sea. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. SUCCESS!

Later that evening he played with the Island Swing Band and I danced, and when the canned music came on at intermission we danced a little, and then I bought him a drink. After the party I was talking to James and Andolie and they were like, "That keyboardist is incredible! Who is he? Do you know him? We think they should have featured him more, he's fantastic!" I got to pass on their comments to Alex and he got all aw shucks embarrassed. It was cute. ^_^

And then this guy wanted to know more about our swing club and he gave Mom his card, and she was like, "...Wait a minute, I already have this card," and he turned out to be Rodger, our pilot from our Blue Hawaiian helicopter tour. The one where Mom and I ran the tour ourselves, and Rodger asked us to please please please contact him later so he could take notes. SO THAT WAS A HILARIOUS COINCIDENCE.

Alex and I will see each other again on Friday night when he plays for Jazz Mele, and we have vague plans for me to show him the good hiking trails in the National Park at some point over the weekend.

...Okay so what else. It's Thanksgiving week, which means today Maintenance brought in a backhoe and dug a GIGANTIC PIT behind our greenhouses for use as an imu. Tomorrow afternoon we're loading it up with about ten metric shit-tons of food, and Wednesday we'll take all the food out and have an awesome Thanksgiving potluck. For my contribution to the imu I cut up a breadfruit and an Okinawan sweet potato, put the pieces in a pan, and dumped a can of coconut milk over it; I have no idea what will happen but I imagine it will be DELICIOUS.

( Finally, trailers. )

Okay, that is all, I am very tired, goodbye now.

So, Super 8? Super GREAT! *rimshot!*

No seriously this movie was awesome. Speaking of fucking charming. The scary parts were the right kind of scary, and the funny parts had the whole audience laughing helplessly. Good script, good directing, good acting, ADORABLE KIDS. No seriously where did they get these kids, they should give them all Oscars. Did I mention the good acting?

The movie was a fun mystery; I had a great time trying to piece things together as it went along. As a period piece it was charming; there were all of these little nods to the time period that were like, "LOL GUYS CHECK IT OUT IT'S 1979, ISN'T IT HILARIOUS?!" Although I am seriously starting to think "My Sharona" is stalking me today. Can we make "My Sharona" today's official theme song? Okay? Yes. It's official.

Favorite moment:
"He's too stoned!"
"DRUGS ARE SO BAD!"

Do stay for the credits, oh my god.

...You know, this movie is kind of exactly what I should have expected, considering ( SPOILERS. Mild and very brief spoilers, but stay out if you'd rather go into the movie with nothing more than the trailer gave you. )

Tell you what, though, if I see people slashing Charles and Martin I am going to stab my eyes out.

...So anyway. That happened. And then I got home and put on a pair of pink polka-dot pants and ate an organic vegetable-pie pocket sandwich and blue jello, and watched Doctor Who. So that was fabulous. And I mean, like, really fabulous. THAT EPISODE. SO AMAZING. And I was starting to worry, too, with the second half of the season starting off with two thoroughly mediocre episodes. And next week: "The God Complex"! I am excite! (Everyone saw the trailer for "The God Complex" back in July, right?) I hope it's as good as I want it to be. I can't stop thinking of it as the House. I mean– minotaur! Dude raving in decidedly Johnny Truant manner! As I have commented before, I will be disappointed if the episode doesn't start playing upside-down or sideways or backwards or in Braïlle, even if I have no idea how that would work.

It is sooooo full of pineapple right now. :D

It's two in the morning and tomorrow's going to be a looooong day, so I will be brief.

Chris and Campbell spent the day at the Orchid Show and the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens; I spent the day bloodying myself on sharp lava in Southwest Kahuku. ...Well, okay, there was only a little blood. And afterwards we stopped at Punalu‘u Bakery (the Southernmost Bakery in the United States!) and sampled their sweetbread, and I bought pineapple ice cream, iced Ka‘u coffee (I can vouch for Ka‘u coffee, it is FANTASTIC), kukui nut oil chapstick, and organic dark chocolate with pineapple, lime, curry, and KAVA in it. So, yes, I have now consumed kava. (How has it taken me 25 years of living in Hawai‘i to do so?)

After work I abruptly abducted my French coworker Laurèen; she'll be staying with us all weekend. She took one of the Blues classes this evening; had a blast. Then she, Chris, Campbell, Mom, and I piled into a rental car (the Previa's brakes are on the fritz) and drove up to Hale Pohaku, the astronomy dorms and visitor center at 9000 feet up Mauna Kea. We wrapped ourselves in fleece and down and wool and drank hot apple cider and hot chocolate, and climbed to the top of a nearby cinder cone to stargaze, forming a ring with our heads on each other's stomachs. We had a stunning view of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai in the moonlight, and the eruption was visible as an orange glow on the horizon. The moon sank into the vog and turned yellow, then red, and then the stars really came out. We identified a few constellations (and made up a few of our own– The Chris Dipper and The Skunk are favorites), and saw about a gazillion and a half meteors. Many of them had trails and were green or red in color; we would sometimes see several a minute, sometimes even three in ten seconds. We started to get cold/get tired/have to pee, and we left a little after midnight with Jupiter rising in the east.

Tomorrow: Hilo Farmer's Market, full afternoon of Blues classes, dance party at Don's.

Tonight: Not enough sleep.

Man, at this rate I'm never going to have time to make my post about all the many exciting things that happened in July. Stuff keeps happening!

Campbell and Chris are in town, and I didn't have work today (Did I mention I'm only working part-time now? I'm only working part time now.), so I took them up Hamakua for the day. It was a gorgeous day (a few light, brief showers notwithstanding) and we had a blast.

We took the little four mile Old Highway Scenic Route between Papaikou and Pepe‘ekeo, stopping and pulling over at Onomea Bay and taking the shoreline access trail. I taught them about One Lane Bridges, ‘awapuhi battles, kukae pua‘a vanishing caterpillar tricks, native and non-native plants, Hawaiian myths and legends, how to collect and eat shoreline foods, how to sex a crab, and how to greet people like a local. We poked around the streams and wild shoreline, climbed a banyan tree, and obtained a coconut.

We stopped in for lunch at The Fruit Stand a.k.a. The Smoothie Place a.k.a. What's Shakin' (I think it's actually called) for lunch and smoothies. This place has become famous, and deservedly so. Their smoothies are 100% fruit and fruit juice, no added sweetener, and most of the fruit is picked fresh from their own gardens. I had a delicious wrap too, with chicken and black beans and salsa and melted cheese, and green salad and fresh papaya, pineapple, and banana on the side. DELICIOUS.

Next we drove down to the shoreline access trail in Pepe‘ekeo, which was fabulous. We had the place to ourselves, and enjoyed walking along the tops of the cliffs under the ironwood trees, watching the massive breakers roll in and hurl themselves onto the rocks. We saw koa‘e kea (white-tailed tropicbirds) and sea turtles. We watched a massive pod of dolphins swim by, intent on reaching their destination to the south, with one (duly christened 'Bob') lagging behind the group to goof off, jumping and spinning and flipping. We visited the sea arch and poked in streams, and we scrambled down the cliffs to the shore and explored caves and tidepools and discussed constructing beach homes out of live ironwoods. I taught them about blue-eyed hermit crabs and rock-boring urchins and tubeworms and sea cucumbers, and Chris and I enjoyed a refreshing impromptu soaking courtesy of a rogue wave. We collected a strange orange fruit with bright red seeds (later determined to be a kind of bittermelon) and headed back to Hilo, stopping off for malasadas in Papaikou on the way in.

Chris had been slowly deconstructing the coconut, using only his hands and spare rocks and fenceposts. He continued this exhibition of manliness at the end of our driveway– with great success!– and we enjoyed fresh coconut and coconut water.

And then we had the first Blues class of the workshop, and lots of people showed up and there was awesome fun and dancing. Really really looking forward to the rest of the workshop. And tomorrow night, after classes... Hale Pohaku for stargazing! :DDD

In other news, the lava has slowed down since the initial outpouring. But HVO's got the cool pics and videos up!

HAPPY AMURRICAN SUPREMACY DAY!

Today involves wedding set-up and then a barbecue/potluck/dance party/fireworks viewing at the Hockers' farm in Pu‘ueo.

That's all I have to say for the moment, because my brother is downstairs in the kitchen making CRÈPES and I need to be eating some of them RIGHT NOW. *best brother EVER*

Hope y'all have an excellent day, even if your country didn't give you the day off to blow shit up and grill things. ♥

Mom was on O‘ahu for work today, wasn't going to be home until almost 8. So I cooked. I made chili with quinoa and a salad. The chili was motherfucking delicious if I do say so myself~.

Soooo full of chili, soooooo full.