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Last night we enjoyed a sumptuous feast at our friends’ home – Nate and Laurie and daughter Cate. Sam really enjoys playing with Catie, well truthfully playing with her toys – he’s still doing parallel play most of the time. Nate and Laurie enjoy cooking as much as we do, so we’ve been trading off hosting dinner. It’s great to have adventure buddies – both for outdoors activities and food – our two favorite things!

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WARNING: above photo is rated R for “really disgusting”…view at your own discretion, preferably not within an hour of eating.

My mom sent me an article to read along with a little present for Sammy. It was about the liberal leaning of the media, and the author shared some interesting statistics to back up this long-held allegation. So I’ve been thinking lately about responsible journalism in the context of news about the war, as well as my own work contributing to scientific articles and poster presentations.

http://www.roachbrooch.com/live-roach-brooch/

I heard about this while chatting with the proprietor of Mary’s Toys in Kailua the other day. I was astounded and actually did a quick Google to find out more. You can get bejeweled leashes for your favorite roach and wear him around with you. I am speechless. Astonished. Check out the pictures, if you dare!

It must be something about being warm all the time. You sweat and don’t even realize it. After living here three months, I’ve finally come to the realization that my constant craving for huge bags of Cheetos has something to do with needing salt. So I’m just going get a salt lick and position it by the door so I can grab some Na on my way 🙂

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Just a quick post with these funny pictures of Sam while concentrating on building something. Dave, Sam and I enjoyed a good 6 mi run today with smoothies for all afterwards. Off to do some errands! Oh – I made bread today – finally carved out some time to do that again. The dough flourishes here. The moist air and warmth really make the starter take off. It was really good! I already chomped a bit with olive oil, salt and pepper, with a dash of leftover red wine 🙂 It’s 3pm and Sam is up from his nap now. Aloha!

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I really owe Dave. He just killed a massive cockroach in the kitchen after a battle to the end, all the way from the pantry, across the counter, down the cabinets to the floor where Dave finally cornered him.

of the B U G that I caught – twice! – this morning. I woke up to find a large creature twirling long antennae and swaggering across my living room floor. He was in no hurry.

Video: “interview” with Sam about the earthquake (and new blocks)

Mom summed up the news well below – thanks for passing the word, mom! I could only get a call out during a brief window when my phone wasn’t on analog looking for service and hogging up the scant battery.

It’s 8 a.m. in Hawaii on Monday, October 16, 2006 and I’m listening to Hawaiian radio via internet.  The radio commentator mentioned power to Oahu came on shortly after 1 a.m. this morning except to some areas in the east — that’s roughly where Dave and Alli live.  Weather is mild, some showers.  Heavy traffic as people go to work, no more shaking has been noted, and all schools are open.

More later — maybe from Alli herself, when her power is restored!

Here’s the latest as of Sunday night, October 15 at 7 p.m. Hawaii time:

I (Oli) was able to get through by telephone just now. All is well,

Video: Sammy starts preschool.

Sammy started preschool this week. He works on a different lesson each day – letters, numbers, colors, shapes, tools, etc. His toys are all organized in cool little cubes by lesson plan. Yesterday was his first day. He was so excited to learn about letters that he dug into his letter magnets before he even had milk. By the end of the day he was making the sounds for letters A-E. Today was “town and country.” He learned all about tractors, animals, the hospital, school, market, etc. He also has phys ed – yesterday he walked a mile, today he swam. Sound rigorous? Nah…he’s in school with mommy! We’re having fun learning together, and being more organized about it.

Tonight I made grilled scallops with bacon and rosemary. Sounded great, but it was tough to get the scallops and bacon equally done on the grill. We had to nuke it. When all was ready to eat, it tasted great!

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Today was fun. Dave was in charge of adventures – he just told me what to bring and pack for Sam and we loaded up. We arrived at Diamond Head crater – a fun (hot) hike to the top for great views. People loved seeing Sammy on the trail. He hiked much of the way down on his own, even insisting on carrying my trekking poles. Then we went to the aquarium to see the monk seals (a favorite!), and many colorful fish. We finished up the day with dinner out at Brew Moon in Honolulu. The crazy thing is our friends (Nate, Laurie and Cate from the tidepool adventure) invited us to hike Diamond Head today but we didn’t roust early enough to go with them! Oh well. We hope they had a great time as well. Do you think Dave will let me be expedition leader this weekend? We shall see 🙂

NOTE: the “ALBUM” link above in the header is new – it takes you to a gallery of all our shots that is much easier for you to navigate than the one built into this blog. Movies are included as well. Enjoy!

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I am tired! And I’m really wondering what is wrong with me! Yeah, I ran 5.5 mi this morning in the heat (it was high 80’s at 9am), so maybe I’m dehydrated. Or maybe it’s working non-stop every second I got this week. We enjoyed this little adventure tonight. Our friend Laurie and her 3 yr old daughter joined us for the tidepools, followed by pizza catered by Dave, who also brought wine for us. (Thanks hubby!) It was quite the adventure. You had to either slip and slide your way over rocks to get to the tidepools, or skid down a steep incline from the road above. We all made it and had a great time. We even caught the full moon rise. Please see the link in the sidebar to the right for “Album” to view all the pictures from this past week, including a movie 🙂

I had a great idea for Fridays…even Dave thinks it’s an intriguing one…you’ve heard of geocaching? Doing navigation based on GPS coordinates and following clues to the ultimate destination/prize? I was thinking maybe I’d do the same thing – pick a location, figure out the GPS coords, send them to Dave and have him show up at the appointed time with pizza for Sam, me and any other intrepid adventurers 🙂 Please comment that you LOVE the idea to build grassroots support for this concept 🙂 Ha ha!

Video: Extreme playtime

As I unpacked my temporary desk (a blue plastic accordion file that has been with me for 5 moves), I realized that we are officially settled in. When even the papers have found their permanent resting place, that’s a good sign!