Sunday, July 1, 2007
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!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
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.
* 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.
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.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
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.
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 :)
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 :)
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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! 
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