I am Le Nerd

I made my website this weekend - well the guts anyway. And I made it with PHP. Oooooh la la....all the nerdy joys of templates without DTL. It started with one php snippet, then of course I had to bust out the TYPE-A and make it as 'streamlined' as possible. I can't leave well enough alone. Kinda cool though. Two small templates generate the entire site, with one file holding the settings to make each page look different, then the unique content pages. GEEK GEEK GEEK.

Other big news is that the container is on the ground! It's been raining every day so I can't play with it yet. First job is to harvest 20' bamboo up the hill & make a rain structure to keep the container dry while I'm fussing with it. Bamboo is free, renewable and compostable folks, so please refrain from lecturing me about how much easier/cheaper/faster it'll be to make my shade structure out of lumber or the metal carports! I appreciate the advice, but I can't grow Doug Fir or Steel in my back yard - but bamboo.... that I can do.

rain, rain gone away...

FINALLY! We just had 5 days of massive rain & storms. I've never seen so much water fall from the sky, so much, for so long. We were going stir crazy. However, the storm finally broke last night & today was clear blue sky, trade wind breezes & 90 degrees in the shade. Back to Normal :) December in Kapoho is right up my alley.

AIM login change!

Heya, if I'm in your AIM buddy list, please change my AIM ID to:

hawaii hooligal

:) Erin

aloha friday

woot! Just got back from the architect's in Hilo. My second (ever) set of plans got stamped with NO corrections needed...I'm learning fast!

I'm 99% sure I've decided where I'm going to drop my container - comes in Monday & I'm so excited to be almost done!

I've been working like nuts this week & trying to get my life re-organized and unpacked. I know I've worked 40 hours, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Wake up at 6am, work for a few hours, go snorkeling, take a nap, dink around on the porch with Brent & Cat, work for a few hours when the sun goes down. NICE.

Monday I met up with Jaime Vaida. He's an amazing metal artist from NIMBY & he's in Hilo! Looks like we may do some work together, yee haw!

I've been at the tidepools every day with Brent re-freshing my tan & we went to Kalapana to check out property on Wednesday. The lava lake is perched about 400' right above the lots we like, so I'm a tad (lol) concerned. I still love a 2.5 acre lot here in Kapoho, we'll see.

Puna's even better the second time around. Being away for 2 months made me love it even more. Folks are complaining that we're having a cold winter...ha! It's down to 74 degrees at night - I think I can hack it.

Off to celebrate Aloha Friday!

9:30 pm 76 degrees

Oh oh oh. It's 9:30 at night & I'm lounging around in a tank top... a lusciously humid 75 degrees. Ahhhhhhhhh. I am so happy to be home. Still decompressing from the stress and go-go-go of CA. Sloooow down, relax, don't jump at every gecko and cochroach - you home in Hawaii now & it's all good. I fell asleep last night to the sound of the ocean, light trade winds & coqui frogs. Best sleep I've had in months. DOG, pronounced "dee-oh-gee" (one of the greyhounds I live with) came in periodically throughout the night to make sure I was really here and hadn't abandoned him again. How I've missed snuggly greyhound therapy!

I flew in under a full moon on the Pacific & was treated to an insane sunset 1/2 way through the flight. Sigh, so beautiful.

Hawaii is even more stunning than I remembered it. It smells good. Clean clean air. It's warm. Clouds, lava, pounding surf, flowers, colors, jungle..gahhhhh. I woke up this morning & the front driveway was covered in Plumerias (the best smelling flower on earth, IMHO). We watched the moonrise through massive -pillared clouds from Jack & Glady's new house site. Lovely. Absolutely lovely.

Off to sleep once I get the gecko out of my sheets.

fun day

yesterday was too fun. I drove down to HighWire to see everyone. * waves to huttites*. I missed a few friends & it reminded me how much I miss the comraderie, dry wit and flying toy cubicle wars! It was funny to walk past folks, they'd look up & say hi, then do a double take "ERIN!! you're here!". There were moments when I felt like I hadn't even left. 8 years will do that to ya. I miss you guys lots.

Brian let me take the M Roadster convertible to Palo Alto. That level of fun is probably illegal somewhere. I was very well behaved, considering the horsepower available to me. I didn't speed, but there's no law that says I can't get from Zero to the speed limit as fast as possible. Man that thing hauls ass. Whee! Kinda made up for missing my ride in the Ferrari last month :)

I *think* I can finally go home next Friday. God willing, there will be no further fiascos with the shipping company. In the meantime I'm sitting on my duff trolling Craigslist for more free stuff (that'll fit in the spots left in the container). Today I'm picking up a bunch of metal grating so I can make a plasma cutting table. Yay Free!

1000 lbs of steel later...

Oy. I just loaded 1000 lbs of steel into the container. My god I hurt. The body, she is the old.

The good news is that I found all of my steel in the 'scrap' leftovers so it was 1/3 the price of new steel. If you ever need metal, go to Alco in San Leandro - a virtual candy store for metal whores. Bad news...I started the day off by loading 6 seventy pound batteries - so I pissed off my back from the get-go. I sheared a nice chunk out of my right hand too, complete with profuse bleeding. So why not piss my back off more! By all means! I'll go drag steel off the racks at the Alco yard, , load into the truck, load off the truck, load into the container...so I guess I lifted 4000 lbs of steel - ugh.

As of 10pm my hands, arms and legs have stopped co-operating...the nerves are not firing quite right, so I'm managing to drop 1/2 of everything I pick up or randomly veer off course, into insidiously placed corners, when walking. Who put a frigging wall there!

For all my tired complaining, I really am thrilled that I'm almost done. Solar panels & batteries are packed, crap is packed, storage is empty. Tomorrow I'm lugging the windows, plamsa cutter, welder & genny down to the container..strap it all in and call it done.

Super tired woot.

egads, I'm still here

My shipping company bites. I had to pull out the legaleese nastygram on Monday. Grrr! I am still here in CA fixing things, but finally moving forward. My storage units are empty & the container is packed to the gills. The good news is that I've scavenged everything on my list except a bathtub and a ladder. I even sold the Tipi (yay craigslist). I think I'm going to just saw a 55 gallon drum longways for a tub & rough it for a while... any excuse to use the new (to me) plasma cutter, heh.

I'm picking up my solar panels in Petaluma tomorrow then off to Alco Metals to pick up scrap steel. I can't wait to play, er WORK, with the welder. First project will probably be making the adjustable roof mounts for the solar panels - we'll see.

Great news this afternoon... One of my neighbors in Puna is going to help me set it up my solar system so I don't zap myself :) Brian is getting all of my batteries wholesale too, so that rocks - to the tune of a couple hundred bucks! Learning the little details of solar is making my brain hurt, but it's finally starting to make sense. Kinda wish I'd paid more attention to all of the electrical crap Phil's tried to teach me over the past 5 years on the playa - Amp Shmamp...oh well :P

Hopefully the container will be on the boat by Friday. Then I have a whirlwind tour of the Peninsula to visit HighWire pals, Amacker & play polo in La Honda. I thought I had given away my polo mallet & riding boots but I found them yesterday - yee haw!

Oooohh! And our new lava flow just did the 'bad thing' folks have been dreading. It created a lava tube & became pehoehoe (aka travels long distances, can't tell where it'll pop up and travels fast). The folks back home are shitting their shorts. Me not so much cuz my house MOVES :) woot! Here's to hoping that land prices plummit.

And a big shout out to my friends in Puna who keep calling me to tell me how COLD it is - 74 degrees at night, oh the horror.

Oh, and I was *THIS* close to getting a ride in a 16 million dollar Ferrari GTO at Sears Point last week - I'm still kicking myself. I have to say that seeing 30 GTOs in one place was quite a site. There are only about 45 in the entire world, so seeing 30 at Sears was a once in a lifetime experience. It was cool tho to stand right on the start finish as the GTO's whizzed by. One wrong move & all the spectators would have been splatted. I spent a good amount of the session up in the start/finish tower -what a view! Somebody hired a helicopter to film & I swear, the pilot flew so low that he was 10' feet above my head. We're still debating how he got permission to do that or if it was insanely illegal. My guess is that it's a licensed stunt pilot from LA who's licensed to do that kind of shit. Honestly it was right out of Mission Impossible... Big black unmarked helicopter chasing down hot sports cars 40' off the ground - it gave me the willies.

On a sorta sad note, I've noticed I'm pessimistic, snarky and impatient here...I can't tell you how many drivers and pedestrians I've cursed at. I always figured that's just what I'm like, but I'm not like that in Puna. I'm a completely different person. I'm defintely cut out for Island time & Aloha. Wierd, but good.

PS. Mercury retrograde can bite my hiney.

oh NO WAY

So, today I sold my Ducati to two nice (hot) brothers from Equador. While we were loading the bike into their truck I notice a "Desert Polo" bumper sticker. "Oh Desert Polo?" Yes, they are both in the states to play polo. Get the fuck out of town! So yeah, they know the folks I used to train for, and I get to go play with them next week if I want. Heck yeah! This should be hilarious since I haven't been on a horse in 7 years...haven't played polo (badly) for 15!!! but hot damn, the smile on my face is 10 miles wide! I'm gonna play poooollooooo, I'm gonna play poooolllloooo. whee!

well, make that 5 weeks

I want to go home where it's warm, but I'm staying in the Bay Area for 2 extra weeks. Shipping plans got munged at the last minute & I had to stay to fix em.

As It turns out... I can scavenge most of my 'house' off of Craiglist for 1/10 the price of buying things in Hawaii! Hot Damn! So far I've found a propane stove, 2 huge solar hot water collectors, 5 gigantic aluminum windows, a flat panel monitor, water purifier and 15 solar lights. All for super cheap or free. Egads I love SF Craigslist. Total savings so far is $3000.

Still searching for Mig Welder, Plasma Cutter, generator, Inverter, Solar Charge Controller, Solar Panels, clawfoot tub, dead water heaters, collapsable above ground pool, pvc & copper pipe & fittings, manual bilge pump, exterior doors, heavy duty hinges, barn door sliding hardware & tracks, kitchen sink w/faucet & kitchen cabinets. Woo, isn't my life thrilling? hee hee. I'm probably going to prefab a lot of my steel 'thingies' for the container here, so all I have to do is cut holes & weld stuff on when I get home. Should save a lot of time & energy since I have all the metalworking experts on hand in Berkeley.

wish me luck! and yes, I'm coming to visit folks I promised to visit. Things just got a little hectic last week :)

in the bay area for 3 weeks

just landed at oakland for a 3 week visit. already stressed out by the noise & so many people. holy cow I went 'country' soooo fast :)

3 + 5.3 = ???

I figured I'd finally post while we still have net. Lots of fun adventures over the past month..but most of you are probably wondering about the hurricane heading our way. Flossie was finally downgraded to a Category 3 a few hours ago. That's much better than Cat 4, but still warrants a heck of a lot of scrambling. I'm babysitting two greyhounds as of this morning, so storm prep has been a little extra interesting! We just settled down after a long day of prepping the house & stuffing the cars to dash to higher ground....and BANG - a 5.3 earthquake! We got quite a shake. It's the first earthquake ever for our 'kids' from Chicago (four twenty year olds)...poor things....at least they got a good one :)

So we're taking bets on the next scourge to grace us this evening. Locust (mosquitos) or perhaps the earthquake was another new fissure opening up on the flanks of Kilauea?!?! Lava? Woot.

Let's see. recap of the last month... lots of adventures around the island. The most memorable is that Daniel and I went to Honolulu & got all of our stuff stolen on the way to the airport. Thank goodness for insurance and xeroxed copies of my driver's license. Much as I'd love to post pics of the past month's adventures, they were in the camera that was snatched. Ah well.

Everything's going great otherwise. I have my eye on a lot 2 miles from where I am now, but prices are plummeting due to a new lava flow heading in that direction. I'm going to sit tight for a few more weeks to see which way the lava goes.

Radio just reported no tsunami threat from our earthquake... yay, since we only have a 10 minute tsunami window when the earthquake originates *here*.

Off for now to track Flossie (again). Wish us luck & pray that this silly storm turns south :)

still alive !

It's been play & adventure week so I haven't been home to blog. Quick Highlights: Jen, Daniel and I went to Kona for 3 days for a helicopter ride and beach hopping + sunburn, went to Volcano Park to see Kilehuea's caldera, caught full moon & sunrise at the summit of Mauna Kea, mango cobbler & real estate shopping. Pics and full report should be up on Wednesday after my first paying deadline is ovah!

The Recipes for DeSicking

* hot water, Tumeric & Salt in a Neti Pot (from Cat). This cleared my sinuses right out...and I got the added bonus of smelling like cheap Curry all day. But hell, I was grateful that I could SMELL at all.

* quinine tea: boil quartered orange, lemon & grapefruit for 15 minutes (minimum). You have to leave the peels ON because that's where the good stuff comes from. (Cat) I drank this all day to reduce my fever, worked in about an hour after the first dose. Tastes like ass.

* fenugrin: boil fenugreek seeds and thyme for 20 minutes ( from Daniel). Helped with all symptoms... also tastes like ass.

* shot of lemon juice with Cayenne. You'll defintely breathe after this one. This supposedly puts hair on your chest but I didn't have the constitution to check.

* garlic supplements. To fend off vampire coachroaches...and it's supposed to be good for you or sumpthin.

* steam vents (sauna) to clear the lungs.

Or better yet, don't get sick.

sick and tidal of being sick

So...Monday I was still dog sick. I slept out on the porch to enjoy the fresh breeze...it does help dissipate the cloud of ook parked around my head. I managed to get up at 2pm & go to Kea'ua with Cat. I was hoping I could find a Neti Pot at Natural Foods but they were all out. I lasted all of 10 minutes in the car & sunk right back into the land of ill. When I got home I faked a Neti Pot by using a straw... I poured Tumeric Salt water into my sinuses, per Cat's advice. It hurt like a mother but totally worked. I was snot-free within 20 minutes.

I felt a lot better Tuesday morning - thank goodness, since we had our first meeting with Mark. I forgot how much I like first design meetings with new clients. Cat, Mark and I got everything set with his site & house plans, then shot the breeze on the porch for a few hours. Daniel dropped by around 4 and took me to the thermal steam vents. Man, I wish I had known about them over the weekend. My lungs and sinuses cleared right up and I got to sweat out all my sick. The vents are so beautiful...dark dimly lit lava caves covered in moss. The steam condenses on the ceiling & falls back down on you as a gentle rain. There was already one fellow in the vent we chose & we shimmied in the tiny opening to join him. He played harmonica for a while & shared his lavender oil. I crawled out at one point to pick a wild gardenia growing next to the entrance. Lavender & Gardenia is a lovely scent combo, fwiw. We stuck around for half an hour total I think. I'm definitely going back often :) When we got home I threw the 'real' Tri-Tip Fred Steaks on the grill. They've been marinating for 4 days & I couldn't wait any more! It wasn't an exact match.... but damn close and it was cooked to perfection! I think I'm going to bump down the red wine & coffee and add more molasses for the next batch.

This morning (Wed) I finally felt energized...still coughing up a lung, but at least I wanted to get off the couch :) Daniel, Jen, Cristina and I piled into my car & headed to Hilo. We went a gorgeous theater from the 20's called the Palace to see a weekly show called Hawaii-ana. It's hula, singing, storytelling & Hawaiian crafts. Jen and I are going to try to get into Hula lessons before she leaves on July 4th. Next we headed down to the Farmer's Market to do my weekly shopping, then it was off to Wal-Mart to buy Taboo - cuz I'm sick of getting my ass kicked at Scrabble. Turns out Jen LOVES Taboo too. We got home & immediately parked it on the porch playing Taboo with Daniel. We decided to hit the tide pools around 4 & had them all to ourselves. The first fish kind enough to hold still was this lovely Saddlewrasse.

Jen immediately found an Eagle Ray that I swam with for a while...it's nice and slow so I got lots of nice pics!


Then Jen took the camera & got a shot of me swimming with it.

I got foot cramps again so I handed the camera off to Daniel. He has a knack for finding turtles...


When we got home cristina made amazing fried Hawaiian 'donuty things' (Masalata) & Jen and I made Scharfenberger Ganache covered bananas. Poor us. Cat & Robert just made a fabulous dinner & I'm about to head off to bed.

orchids & earthquakes

I keep forgetting to mention that orchids are everywhere here. In old Pahoa town there's a lady who puts out orchids every tuesday for two dollars...so I now have 7 :) I'm in heaven! Then there's the wild apple-bananas. They're about 1/3 the size of a regular banana & soooo good....this coming from a woman who doesn't like bananas. We got a few ripe pineapples from the back yard & are still looking for ripe avocados on the highway. Supposedly Avos will be ripe with the month. You definitely can't starve here, so long as you can walk...all of the roads are lined with wild avo, papaya, mango, bananas & pineapple. If you can shoot there's wild pig.

Kilauea is going nuts today. We've had over 230 earthquakes in the last 20 hours. We had a 4.0 at 6pm and I didn't even feel it....very different from the rock & roll we got in the old house in Berkeley. They've closed the road out to the lava flow because cracks have opened..no wonder Pele was cranking out lava on Tuesday night! We spent a few minutes tonight reviewing the disaster plan in case she blows and/or there's a tsunami. Apparently we have 30 seconds max to grab the keys and the cat & haul ass up to Pahoa if there's a big quake on the Big Island. Needless to say I have my keys right by the bed. Nobody seems to bothered by it & we're secretly hoping something happens so that land prices drop, lol. Honestly, now that I'm here I wouldn't mind living out on one of the old flows. There are small oaisis of jungle surrounded by vast black lava...it's gorgeous and peaceful. No neighboors, quiet and there's something intangible I can't describe about the awesome energy of a lava field.

Off to bed. I think I'm going to sleep out on the porch to enjoy the breeze & fresh air. It's 11:15pm & I'm still nice and comfortable in a tank top. Ah bliss.

sorry for the radio silence

So where was I....oh yeah, LAVA!

Tuesday night we heard that Kilauea was cranking out lava so Rob, Corinne, Daniel, Cody and I jumped in my car (yay) & headed down the road. We hoofed it out to where Pu'uO'o vent was flowing into the ocean. You could see the steam plume for miles it was so huge! Here's our 'Survivor Hawaii' Promo shot, lol. That big cloud in the background is the steam plume a mile away!

We made it out to the flow right as the sun was going down. Lots of folks were out there. This is my favorite shot from the evening.


I can't post video on this blog so the pix and video are on my site here: http://www.kohledfusion.com/hawaii/puuoo06122007/puuoo06122007.html.

We each left offerings to Pele..tobacco wrapped in Ti leaves. Here's a pic of Rob carrying the Ti as we trekked in from the 'parking lot'.

We ended up out on the flows for four hours & were pretty exhausted and sore when we got back. There was one 'interesting' moment when we were coming back... it suddenly got very very hot & we looked down to see glowing cracks below our feet. DUMB. Literally deep cracks with a red glow six inches under the surface. Freaked me out. The soles on our shoes were melted when we got home - yikes!

Wednesday day was fairly uneventful except my abdomen siezed up. Luckily Cat's friend Mark was visiting & got me on the massage table. One hour of massage & I was good to go. Dinner got a bit crazy & drinking ensued. At 9 we headed out to Chaka's for Kareoke. Names will be changed to protect the guilty and thankfully no cameras were present :P

Thursday was household hangover day. Our designated drivers got to point and laugh while the rest of us skunked about the house looking miserable. I did manage to make a Fred-Steak knockoff for dinner which went over well. I was bummed that I didn't have the right cut of meat but no one else knew the difference.

Friday Cat & ran all over Hilo running errands. My car finally has Hawaii plates, woo! We picked Jen up at the airport around 1pm & dragged her to two client meetings in Hawaii Paradise Park. Funny I was so worried about finding work and I already have 3 clients (house plans) qeued up. When we arrived home we found Cristina beaming in the driveway & rubbing here tummy. She's Pregnant & absolutely thrilled! I found Tri tip cuts at the market so they're brewing in the Fred Steak Marinade - should be ready for Tuesday night. Cat made "snaktivity" sushi dinner & we all had a great time making fun of each other's sushi rolls (insert size jokes here). Daniel seared up local Ahi that was to die for.

Saturday morning Rob and Corinne (our crazy Aussies) left :( I was hoping to wake up to say goodbye to them but slept right through the alarm because I had magically gotten the flu overnight >:| I went into Pahoa with Daniel and Cristina to pick up the raw fixins of Daniel's magic sick-conconction of Fengreek & thyme. It tastes like ass but it works like a charm. I spent most of the day trying to convince myself that I wasn't sick but to no avail. By 8pm it was clear I had caught the bug going around the house. Cody mommied me up with garlic & vitamins then we crashed in the living room to watch Moulin Rouge on the new tv. I ended up sleeping on the couch because I was too feverish and shakey to safely make it up the attic stairs into my loft :)

I spent all of today crashed out on the porch futon being sick. I must say that it feels great to be sick out on a shady deck with 80 degree heat, 70 percent humidity and a stiff breeze. Daniel, Jen and Cody headed into Pahoa for the farmer's market & stopped by Natural Foods to pick up more home-remedy stuff for me. More stuff that tasted like backside but really work well. I was sorta bummed that I couldn't go out on such a gorgeous, clear day but oh well. Cat just brought me home a huge tub of wonton soup & everyone is making sure I eat/drink/sleep/vitamin/drug enough, it's kinda cute & I have to remind myself it's ok to let folks take care of me. The hardest part has sitting still...I'm bored out of my mind!

Off to make another batch of fenugreek/thyme tea + a pot of natural quinine (?) from boiled grapefruit peels-yuck....then a date with the dvd player on the living room floor :)

Hey Family

Despite all the fun I am having I miss you all!! Love ya!

pix!

Here's a few pics from our day at Champagne Ponds. No pictures of us girlies tho :(

I'd imagine this is the face Rob will make when he gets that revenge wedgie....

OMG whatEVER! (Daniel)

Talk to the Hand! (Robert)

Turtle!

weekend hoo-ha

I've survived my first week in Hawaii! It already feels like I've been here for months. I'm mildly amused that half of the hot-weather clothes I brought with me probably won't ever be used :) Sometimes a bathing suit feels like too much clothing. Note that I am NOT complaining. I love hot and humid, I just forgot how to dress for it :)

I cooked breakfast for the house on Saturday morning. Shakshouka, goat cheese bruscetta & oven-baked bacon. Damn tasty. I also cooked up a half-pound of bacon & popped a batch of bacon vodka in the freezer. We all piled into Daniel's monster old-school Suburban & headed out to Champagne ponds. It's actually one subdivision over, so a short walk, but we chose to drive around the back way over the Kaphoho lava fields since we had boogie boards, snorkel gear and a cooler full of beer in tow. What a trip..the lava fields are gorgeous and the scenery is stunning!

The Champagne Ponds are more open water than the tide pools next to the house. I found one quiet pool & dinked around with the new H2O digital camera while Jen, Rob & Daniel played football in the shallow spots. At one point Rob swam up right behind me and roared - scared the piss out of me. Rob has a date with a stealth wedgie - damn shit disturber Aussie :P Anyway, the camera works great... the fish, however, wouldn't hold still long enough to get stills. Daniel suggested I shoot video instead & pull stills but I couldn't figure out how to change the setting...grrr. RTFM! After a beer & snack break, Rob and Daniel headed out into open break to spearfish so I tagged along to see if I could handle rougher current. We ran into three turtles & I got some fuzzy shots. Thankfully they are a lot slower and easier to photograph :) The swim out there was definitely a lot tougher. It makes the tide pool current seem like a cake walk. I turned back when I got 'half-way-tired' & thank god I did...the swim back in took every bot of energy I had left. I think we stayed at Champagne until 2pm or so, then we decided to hit the hot ponds, so back into the Suburban we went, with a hot bumpy ride back over the lava. The hot ponds were fantastic, nice and warm. I love having natural hot tubs right down the road! Some local kids were jumping out of a tree into the pond so the boys had to try too. First Daniel and Rob jumped, then Robert hauled up into the tree too. Needless to say the girls were all fretting over who'd hit rocks & kill themself first. I was relieved every time a live head would pop up after each jump. We stuck around the Hot Ponds until dark then headed home. I promptly took my beer-saturated self to bed.

Sunday morning Jen and I were up early & went to the Pahoa Farmer's Market. Lots of great stuff and I got a blooming magnolia for $8 ! Hopefully I will have a fresh magnolia for my hair every day. Now I need a Plumeria tree & I'm set. We came back to a delicious dose of Cat's bisquits & gravy. YUM. Cody and Jen headed over to Kona for the day. Rob, Daniel, Corrine & I sat out the heat in the living room watching movies. We made the mistake of trying out the vodka. It was really good, even better with martini olives - yikes. Next thing you know we'd emptied 2/3 of the bottle. Ooops. Well, Monday's a state holiday anyway, so what the hell. (Monday is King Kamehameha Day). Daniel and I decided to go for a swim at the tide pools & well, that third of a bottle looked lonely so we took it with us & finished it off. Everything tastes better in front of a Kapoho Sunset anyway!

Oh Monday morning how you hate me! Actually, I woke up feeling great. No hangover, no tired, nuthin. I went into Pahoa with Corinned & Jen to hit Malama Market (grocery store). We stopped off at Jungle Love to shop for swim suits & whammo! my hangover hit me like a brick wall. I crawled out to the car & curled up in the back seat while to gals finished shopping. I spent the rest of the day sleeping and feeling generally crappy. Bacon Vodka you are the spawn of satan! Thankfully someone woke me up for dinner. Rob and Corrine made an incredible Aussie Meat Pies served in split pea soup. THey also made a few shepard's pies but I was too stuffed with meat pie to try it. We tied up the evening parked on the porch shooting the breeze, per the usual.

It's now 6:30am on Tuesday. I get my car today, woot! Something very large and black just sauntered into the yard. I think it was a wild pig! I'm off to Hilo in a few minutes to take Jen to the airport. Then back here for breakfast, a nap & then some work in the garden!

Sea Turtle!

Yesterday afternoon we were all firmly ensconced in porch-flop-mode. Poor Jen kept trying to get us out swimming but it was too darn hot...and half the household was still hung over. Around sunset Daniel, Cristina and I decided to hit the pools. Cristina had to stay out of the water since she burner & blistered her feet on hot pavement. It took me a while to get all my new snorkel gear adjusted but after 10 minutes of fumbling I was in the water. I made it further through the current this time - yay! - but still only half way :( I perched on some coral & passed the time spitting in my mask (to keep it from fogging up). Suddenly Daniel popped up in the outer pool & yelled "TURTLE!!!". Woo! It took me a few minutes to crawl over the coral, past the current, to get over there and wow, a lovely sea turtle! It was probably 3 feet long. We swam with it for a few minutes then let it go on it's way. At one point it turned and headed right for me. All I could think is "ramming speed scotty!" and I got the giggles - not smart with a snorkel & a bit of water in your mask :) It got within 2 feet of me then veered off. Quite amazing.

The new snorkel gear worked great, but I got foot cramps again. I'm going to take potassium before I swim every day to see if it helps.

So it seems that no one in this house can beat Cat at Scrabble. We'll see what happens first in Kapoho....will I gain 20 pounds or beat Cat at this infernal game??? And by the way "QAT" is a real word. Got me out of quite a pickle during game 3 last night!

On tap for today...learning my new CAD software & starting on my first paying gig. Yee Haw! But first I have to file my Business License so it's all legally-poo for the IRS :)

Pictures!

Cat kindly pointed out that there are tons of pix on Mark's, Peter's & Cat's Blogs:

Peter's : http://www.likewisesun.com/hawaii/photos.html

Mark's: http://picasaweb.google.com/marksz/BigIslandVacation2007

and on Cat's Blog: http://360.yahoo.com/kapohocat

These should tide folks over until my H2O camera arrives!

Also, Cat made leis for the girls yesterday. Kinda cool to see Hawaiian crafting in action. There's a gorgeous, fragrant flower down the street called Plumeria that she made the leis with. We smelled fantastic all night!

Cat and I just sat on the deck talking life for 3 hours :) It's great to bond with her & share our war stories. We talked about my paying gig for all of 5 minutes cuz life stories are so much more interesting, lol! However, I'm going to start on the new project tonight. It's the CAD drafting for one of her client's homes. WOO HOO. Back into architecture I go, while still getting to be a computer nerd. I'm sure I'll design a database in here someplace, hee hee.

Off to make guacamole with one avocado that, I shit you not, is the size of a baby's head & cost me $2 at the farmer's market. There are 5 or 6 varieties that grow here & some of them are HUGE.

Report from the Tide Pools + Birthday Aftermath

I'm officially out-of-shape old lady. Daniel swung by at 1pm for my first spearfishing training session. We hit the tidepools at the end of the street (same pools I was in Sunday) but this time we went all the way out. Turns out there's a wicked current at the outer pools...try as I might I couldn't swim it. I just thrashed like hell and stood still. I had to give up half way out & grab a piece of coral to rest. Thank god it's only two feet deep there. I grabbed coral & sat down in disgust :) Daniel said it took him two months of practicing every day before he built up the strength to get through it. I felt like less of a wuss, but still! We did see an eagle ray & fish that blew my mind. Nothing can outdo the color mother nature dreams up on a coral reef. I have an underwater digicam on the way from Amazon so I'll have pix soon!

I hit the Hilo farmer's market this morning & was *greatly* relieved to find everything I could get in Berkeley - organic, fresh and inexpensive. I won't starve here after all! After that I popped into Nautilus dive shop to get my own snorkel gear. I borrowed fins yesterday & got a wicked foot cramps in the deepest pool. It's pretty alarming to loose the use of your legs in 20 feet of water! Definitely made me glad I was snorkeling with a buddy! Luckily I hit a spanking sale at Nautilus so I was able to get prime gear that I'll be able to use when I scuba certify. woot!

So last night was Karine's birthday. We all went into old town Pahoa & got too drunk on margaritas (save our three designated drivers). We have a great shot of the hung over youngsters strewn around the porch with packages of frozen peas on their heads & half eaten omlettes resting on their bellies.

Back in a bit, Cat just got me my first paying gig! LOVE IT! Now I can pay for my snorkeling gear :)

you might be a Hawaii Newbie if...

1. you ask 'which way is the ocean'? To my credit everyone did point the same direction at first... then they all pointed in a different direction and laughed. It's an ISLAND kids, Har har.

2. I included my area code when asked for my phone number (all of Hawaii is the same...808). Thankfully the woman giggled and said "ah, just got here, huh?" with a big grin.

oh poor me

well, it's day three. I am in love. Our merry household rocks. There are 9 of us right now & we're usually found on the big wrap around porch shooting the breeze & brainstorming the garden or databases, lol.

My first night here, Cody and Jennifer met me at the airport with a beautiful orchid lei. We went straight out to the lava flows at Po-o-o vent (i'm spelling that wrong) on Kileua. We got there in time to see lava shooting out of the vent & a break at the ocean where the steam flared up orange. STUNNING.

Sunday we walked to the end of the street & snorkeled in the tide pools. My god...coral and fish I've only seen in National Geographic...right there in front of me! Angelfish, parrot fish, sea urchins....inches away. I'm told sea turtles get in there every so often when the tides are high. I seriously need to throw down for an underwater camera. Cody took Jennifer and I to the UH Agriculture farm to see his babies...insanely colorful angelfish he's sutdying for his thesis. We helped him take his daily stats, then got a full tour of the farm. They're even raising Stureon for caviar! After that Cody gave us the big tour of Hilo...we drove out to the waterfalls & the boiling pot swimming holes.

So I've only been here 2 whole days and I have more computer jobs than I can beat with a stick. I'm seriously considering going back into CAD drafting..there's a serious shortage & I can make the same $$ that I made in Silly Valley. Cat (my fabulous house-hostess) is a builder & can throw a lot of work my way. I'm going to talk to her main draftsperson tomorrow to get the low-down on the software they use. I'm going to keep reaching myself Python tho - it's just too damn cool to put down. I also want to help Cody set up a PHP/MySQL db for his UH Master's Thesis so I can learn PHP. Should be super cool since it'll be a database of indigenous tropical reef fish!

Today was a hoot, all the girls piled into the car & went to Hilo. Much as a swore I'd never set foot in a Wal Mart & Safeway again, that's my only choice at the moment! On the way home we hunted for wild Avocados along the road but only found a million mango trees. We'll look again tomorrow - for now we have to settle with the spoils from our Sunday Lychee tree raid :)

We all just got back from the thermal tide pools down the road. A football field sized hot tub - yee haw...and oh my god, the stars. Holy cow.

Big day tomorrow - we're heading into town to meet up with Cat's Architect, then Daniel's going to teach me spearfishing so I can catch some dinner for the grill...after that we're ripping into the garden & putting in used-tire raised beds.

I still have to unpack completely & find my dang camera. I'm in the third floor loft with an attic staircase so it's slow going to get all 200 lbs of my luggage up the little stairs. But, I am getting settled and relaxing like a pro. This was definitely a good move!

flying out tonight!

Hooray! I finally have a flight. Tomorrow morning I will wake up in Hawaii. Hard to believe. I wonder how long it'll take to really sink in once I get there...I'm not on vacation...I'm HOME. Woo!

serendipity strikes again

So...I'm not in Hawaii yet. I couldn't get things tied up in time to catch my plane on Monday. Everything is now officially done & I get to relax! Last Friday I was walking to morning coffee & thought "man, what I wouldn't give to have my mom here for this move!" She's a master packer & moves every family member & friend she has. One hour later she called me - suprise! she's coming for 36 hours to help - WOW. Psychic mommy!

Right now I'm sitting outside the warehouse on the wireless & one of my warehouse-mates walked up. "Erin I just heard you are moving to Hawaii!" Yup! Turns out he had dinner with a friend last night who just bought 5 acres by me and is packing his first container up. Whoa! I'm boing to call to see if I can get some of my stuff in his container (my preciiousssss schwanky bed) and if I he'll have room in his contaiers he's sending later. How cool! It makes missing my flight on monday worth it for sure!

Off to look for flights!

Hawaii bound

Holy Cow. 3 weeks from now I'll be living in Hawaii. 6 days left at work. *boggle*