I Miss My Poochie

Here I am with Hols and Squirrel Boy. This was taken at B and B's while staying there. She came to stay a night or two with us so we could get her to her grooming appointment or some such thing.

Before the move out . . . I will not miss that sofa! Here she's looking at me longingly; pleading to be played with. I look at this picture and look at her little hind leg and want to pinch her bottom. I have a thing for backsides. Confession: I'll grab her tail and tell her, "Oooooo, I love your butt!" It's an "illness."
Here she is wanting to come out where I am. I just love it.
Pretty soon, baby doll, we'll be in our own home and romping and stomping with you on a daily basis!

Some Poolside Shots

The lovely pool.




This one is to show (primarily my friend, Dawn) all that on occasion I will "suit up". I don't swim - yet. Yet. I'm thinking about learning now that I'm almost 40. I didn't learn when I was young, because I had tubes in my ear drums five different times, spanning the time I would have normally bothered to learn. Then, after the last set of tubes came out, I thought "I'm not missing anything" and "I'm scared to get water in my ears" and "it doesn't look that fun and I hate being wet". Now that I'm in "hot arsed" Hawaii, I'm rethinking this.
Some nice Red Ginger.
A view of a building looming over the pool.
*pics taken by me*
I accidentally, somehow, managed to delete the pic of SB going into the hot tub . . . I'm too lazy to put it back in.

Looking Down

. . . upon a delicious breakfast my girl made herself.

. . . out the wide open window in our living room. . .

. . . try not to puke!

29th Floor View-Tastic

Okay, that beach is endlessly gorgeous. The airport is to the far far right (not in picture), but the drive is less than twenty minutes from here. The long, shorter building is a "mall". We trekked it yesterday and were disappointed.

Loads of buildings . . . condos, apartments (flats, people, flats!), mountains and such. There's a Nordstrom Rack store under the roof of the front "copper" toned roof. Hmmm, maybe I can afford to shop there . . .
More beach.
Close up of beach.
Ah, yes, the prize winning shot: sunset. This never tires me. It's just God's g'night wave to us.
*photos taken by Teenie.

Beautiful Flowers

Coral Hibiscus

Bougainvillea
Hibiscus (red or Chinese, I think)
Bird of Paradise
Queen Mary's Spider Lilly
When/If I can remember I'll put it here, but these are everywhere.
Plumeria
Some really cheeky shite
Parrot's Beak

*top two pics taken by Teenie; others taken by meself*

I Miss These People

Me and "J". I just miss all the giggles! Do you know, whenever I was at her house, she was always cooking. Her heart is pure and light. I will shoot myself if I don't try really hard to keep in touch with her and her family. They are just that decent a family!


LISA! I miss joshing with you, big time! *I haven't worn a sweatshirt since I left Maryland*

The guy on crutches and his wife took in Galadriel, where she is happy to live. I am certain that this was the best thing for her now. The move and the subsequent living arrangements would have been the end of her. (going L to R, of course). "C" - I miss just hearing the Spanish lilt to her speaking and her laugh with it's little squeak. "T" and "L" and "A" - such devoted ladies and hard workers; always at the Church doing -doing - doing. Well, we all were, but I was the least of them.
This is "A". She made me a mantilla. It's gorgeous and I will show it to you all some time.
"J" put together a shindig for our going away. YUM! That's "B" (of "B" and "B") leaning on the wall. She is the go-to planner! Generous beyond mention!! To the right, seated, is "K", "B's" partner in crime. Then there is JoMary leaning in to get some more grub. Her back is to us, but that is "R" (leads the MCCW group with "H") and last is "M" who is at every function helping out everywhere and is the quietest of souls.
All of them, and many not picture . . . I miss them all. They all richly blessed each one of us. God places us among many of His good people. It's His way of loving us along to goodness and generosity ourselves. Because, this life is never about us . . . but Jesus, Others, and then You. Joy is only found in that way. Jesus puts the Others in Your life. How are you loving them today?

Driving About

I think I took this one our second day here. Needless to say, the youngest has new shorts as of today. I couldn't stand seeing him in jeans (he pretty much dislikes the two he brought with him and has never liked shorts to begin with; however, he sweats relentlessly and says it doesn't bother him, but it makes everyone else sweat seeing him sweat). Kissteen: he will not be a future carpet layer. *wink* Got him some shorts from the worlds largest Navy Exchange today in Pearl Harbor. Pretty wicked. He's very pleased with the ones he got.

This is the classic shot most people get on postcards from folks on holiday here: Diamond Head from Waikiki. It's pretty impressive and you get a closer look from the zoo.
Regan may like this picture. It's a Bird of Paradise. There are different colour variations, but they all look like birds. I love birds and I appreciate this flower immensely.
I'm not sure if this is the statue for Duke Kahanamoku (surfing legend) or not. There's another statue across from the entrance to the zoo, which is lovely but we couldn't get a good shot from across the road. The surf is something else at this beach. It will be a long time before my kids surf it . . . if ever.
A view of Northshore from the passenger seat of our car. It was calm according to my husband, who said in the cooler months the waves are impressive. I didn't read that in my O'ahu Revealed book (by Andrew Doughty) - yet. I'm on that section.
That van sorta fit in with my idea of surfer wheels.
H-3 going back to Waikiki/Honolulu. The kids thought it would take a long while (an hour? more?) to get back to the hotel . . . nope . . .
. . . we looked over our shoulders to the right and looked back upon a very beautiful town/city called Kane'ohe Bay. I could see us living on this side of the island.
. . . we approach the tunnel . . .
. . . we pop out the other side about two minutes later (if that!) and about fifteen minutes later we are in our hotel parking garage.
Seriously. O'ahu is not large by any means of the word. But, what makes it special? The weather is always nice, but it's the people. People here are just about the most friendly I have ever met. I'm sure there are some real classic stinkers, too, but I have yet to meet any. I bet when I do, they'll be imports (like us) who haven't learned to relax and let the aloha spirit embrace them. For some it takes a lifetime. I'm so there already.

Honolulu Zoo

With a military discount, we got in for $13! Otherwise it would have been $25 - which in my books is still rather reasonable. It's a small zoo, but a nice walkabout. Some exhibits were without critters . . . I always wonder where the critters have gone off to. Then, some exhibits have shy critters (i.e. the hyena, the lion, the orangutan). But, other than that, it's a quaint little hour to spend. We skipped the kiddie part (basically domestic animals - ah, yeah, they smell terrible) and we skipped the gift shop (don't tell anyone, 'kay?). This sign was cute. I've been to two of the zoos on this sign. If you can guess the two correctly, I may send you some shortbread cookies shaped like pineapples.

Gotta love these turtles. How funny are they?
This honking huge tortoise swam over to check us out partly above water at first, then it disappeared in the water and we could barely make it out when he got to us and popped back up for a peek. We laughed so hard. Look at his nostrils. I love nostrils.
This bird was in the enclosure that was supposed to have some warthog in it, I think. No warthog. There was a mama peacock and chicks though. This bird acted as if it was the proud papa . . . it came over straight away to tell us to mind our own business. I think that's what it was on about. I clucked at it and it "charged" at us and clacked back!
This is one of the five Sumatran tigers at the zoo. So worth seeing. We were lucky they weren't all just lying about. This one got up and moved around and even snarled a bit.
The kids with a peacock. They could name this zoo the Peacock Zoo. There are that many of these things flocking about.
And, this is the gratuitous shot. He's so cute when he gets to experience live animals. My happy boy.

Some Pictures to Beautify this Space

Here's a mama and her ducklings . . . they followed her until she must have signaled them to go to the other side of the chain link fence. They popped through the links . . . but mama couldn't find the opening herself. By this time more people were coming and she panicked and scooted further up the line and her babies popped back out and followed her. Cute stuff!

Here we are on our way to the Zoo (more pics of that tomorrow). Live birds! I love this! We were so hot and sweaty by the time we got to this point (about two blocks from the zoo) I was about to throw in the towel. Come to find out, today has been one of O'ahu's hottest days on record. Yes, that is a cookie bag. Ever eat a shortbread cookie from HI? Yum.
Waikiki beach. The kids were just touching the Pacific for the first time. Awwww shucks.
Okay, I had my turn, too. I don't think it's fair I have a huge arse. Really. I should be able to eat a lot of anything I want (like those Honolulu Cookie Company shortbreads, for example) without such negative consequences. Oh, but if it stays hot, I may sweat out all the calories.
A flower I never tire of: hibiscus. Gorgeous. My girl has a photographers eye.