What makes Kyle happy?

Pork Laulau and other Hawaiian luau foods:

and....
The Gamecocks winning their season opener.

What a relief...

Gamecocks!

Kyle's beloved Gamecocks are playing today, 2pm Hawaii time. Which means he gets to leave work early, and I have the convenient excuse of having to work. Don't get me wrong. I love football. I may even love the Gamecocks. But I do not love the agony or ecstasy that will no doubt ensue. Win or lose, the drama will be thick, every play will be analyzed over and over again.

Some may appreciate this. Some of you grew up with a team, went to a college with a great team, or even marched in a band for a team. I envy you because you have what it takes to watch these battles. I fear my heart is just too weak, my ego just to fragile, my excuses just not polished enough to explain away the possible losses that could be due to luck alone.

Good luck, Gamecocks. I will try to be there for you. Maybe someday I'll even be willing to leave work early to watch you play. Maybe that day will be today if I can get my act together. I promise I will try to do my best to be a fan.

Andre Agassi is the man too!

Did anyone catch the Agassi / Pavel match last night? I was more excited than I had been in years to watch tennis. Long points. Aces. Net play. This game had it all. Not to mention Agassi coming back from a 0-4 deficit in the 3rd set to win in the third tiebreaker of the match! Wow. Agassi, of course, will retire after this US Open which means any of his games could be his last. But he isn't going out with a wimper, that's for sure.

I was a Sampras fan in the days of the Agassi / Sampras battles. But I fear that Agassi may just have more heart than Sampras. I read yesterday that Sampras has come back from retirement and is playing some competitive tennis once again. Maybe we'll be treated to a reunion tour someday. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Mark Twain is the man!

Mark Twain spent a considerable amount of time in good ol' Hawaii (btw, please send back the Sandwich Island book you borrowed, soon to be Mr. and Mrs. you know who!). Yesterday, I was trying to remember his famous statistics quote ("There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics") when I found these other gems:

I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

See this page for more Mark Twain quotes if he makes you giggle. Happy Friday!

Changes

I remember learning all the planets in the solar system when I was 10. I made a model of it right after I made a model of a black hole (fold a piece of black posterboard in a conical shape, and voila! A black hole!) Now, according to the powers that be, we have to relearn the planets of the solar system. Pluto is officially no longer a planet.

Percival Lowell, who the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff was founded by, was the first to predict that Pluto existed in 1905, but never saw it before he died in 1916. Only in 1930 was it discovered, and named after the god of the underworld (and the name was also fitting because it contained Lowell's initials). Now, 76 years later, we have to say goodbye to planet Pluto and hello to dwarf planet Pluto.

I'm not sure why it bothers me so much. After all, it is merely a logical change in definition (Pluto's orbit overlaps that of Neptune's and thus it can't stand alone as a planet). We are constantly learning more thanks to new technologies and ideas. We have to accept these changes and move on:

After you've done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over. ~Alfred Edward Perlman, New York Times, 3 July 1958

I can't wait until someone redefines a neuron in a whole new way. . .

Freshmen frenzy!

Not too much going on in paradise. K went back to work yesterday with the start of the UofH fall semester (he's so psyched to teach everyday of the week!). The campus, shown above, is bogged down with thousands of floundering freshmen. Yesterday, I was walking down the hall when someone ran up to me and asked "Where is Biology 101 held?" I guess I looked like I knew because I was wearing a lab coat.


Ah, to be a freshmen again. I have great memories from that year at Allegheny, but alas, a lot of terrible ones too. So, in honor of the start of the school year, I am listing the top five things I wish I would have known when I was a freshmen:

1. Ride a bicycle everywhere (this wasn't really possible in Meadville during the winter, but for four months of the year, it would have been fine)
   
2. Study outside, preferably by a pool or body of water
   
3. Drinking on weekdays is bad for Chemisty grades
4. Find a friend with a car and get off campus
   
5. Relax and savor your time

Lame list. Oh well. Feel free to list your own advice for the Class of 2010!

Long live the King!

The history of Hawaii today in the Advertiser includes this factoid:

1977: Elvis Presley dies at the age of 42. His first Island appearance was on Nov. 10, 1957, in a concert at Honolulu Stadium. His Bloch Arena concert on March 25, 1961, was a fundraiser for the Arizona Memorial.

Elvis made three movies in Hawaii (Blue Hawaii, Girls Girls Girls and Paradise, Hawaiian Style) and apparently visited here several times on vacation. Check out this site for more information on the King's time in Hawaii.

I am not a huge Elvis fan, but I think I should try to watch at least one of these movies. Does anyone have a favorite?

Almost paradise

I just finished reading Paul Theroux's Hotel Honolulu. Apparently it is a true story about his time as a manager in a worn-down Waikiki hotel. He tells funny short stories about his employees, guests of the hotel, and locals which made me laugh out loud. Some of the stories end kind of darkly with at least 5 of these forlorn souls committing suicide, and also there was considerable talk of the pests around Hawaii.

Recently, I posted on our mouse problem, which apparently wasn't the last of the pests to enter into our lives. I discovered something that looked like a tick on Gaffney about 2 weeks ago, and I took it to work to look at it under the microscope. This "tick" only had 6 legs, which was strange, since ticks are arachnids, so they should have 8 legs. I asked around and found out that ticks were pretty uncommon in Hawaii, besides Gaffney is on medicine that is supposed to prevent them.

Yesterday, the AP ran a story on bed bugs. Apparently they are making a comeback, especially in hotels in, gasp, Waikiki. I looked at the pictures carefully, and sure enough, that is definitely the insect I found on poor G. Today, K&I got bit for the first time, which led us to completely go crazy washing everything in our bedroom in really hot water and vacuuming the entire house. Hopefully they go away, but they are apparently really hard to kill without professional intervention. Sigh.

Theroux makes light of the pests of Hawaii, so perhaps I should too. As he writes:

In Hawaii there are always rats, and always sharks just offshore, and cockroaches patterned like tortoiseshell, and geckos and moths and ten kinds of ants. These were the certain proof and reminder that Hawaii was paradise.

Aloha, bed bugs...

Big Island Pictures

The pictures from our Big Island trip have been posted on Flickr. Some of my favorites:

The lone tree on the pali; we backpacked down the pali to Halape Shelter Beach where we camped here:

It was paradise.

We hiked out to the car, the last 1.5 miles was over 1984 lava:


We spent the next day exploring waterfalls,
watching sunsets over Maui,
and drinking Budweisers:
The final day we snorkeled and visited the lava trees:

K & I get to go back to the Big Island in October, when my parents are going to rent a house south of Hilo. I can't wait!

Fun with photoshop!

Look familiar to anyone?
Thanks to Anne-Marie for the panda image. If anyone wants to see more photo-shopped animals, let me know and I'll send you the forward.

I hope to post more pictures this weekend, especially of our Big Island Trip and our new addition to the family (suspense , no?). Have a great Friday!

Old Diamondhead

My favorite thing to do every morning is to check out the Honolulu Advertiser's daily photo diary of Hawaii's history. They post old pictures of the islands, such as the railroad picture I posted awhile back. Today, there was a picture of Diamondhead, looking down Kalakaua Avenue, which, today, is lined with high rise hotels:

1898:


Today:








Inspiration from the book, Arizona Then and Now. Happy Wednesday!

The best way to beat the summer heat!

Everyone knows by now that I am a super-nerd and I enjoy things like making ice cream by utilizing the freezing power of liquid nitrogen (-195.8ºC). Last Friday, I finally convinced the lab to do it. Tina, our microscopy lab manager, braved the terrible Honolulu traffic and bought our ingredients: heavy cream, half and half, sugar, strawberries, vanilla, and cocoa. The recipe is easy: take half as much cream as milk or half and half, add 1c sugar and 8 tbsp vanilla per every gallon. Add fruit or cocoa and mix well. Then slowly, add liquid nitrogen (5 x the amount of ice cream you want to make or until you can't stir the ice cream anymore), as shown above by Tyler (Kim's boyfriend), Kim (Tina's daughter), Tina, and Lisa (the astrobiologist who uses the microscopes). It took about a minute to have homemade ice cream and boy was it delicious! Here's what the strawberry looked like:

And here are happy Anna and Kyle eating it:
It was easily some of the tastiest ice cream I have ever had, although next time I think I would use half and half and milk instead of heavy cream, because it was a bit, well, heavy. If you have access to LN, I highly recommend doing this before the summer is over. Ai ā hewa ka waha (eat until the mouth can have no more)!

I need a pied piper...

I recently read that Western Oahu was having a mice problem, but now apparently the mice have migrated south and Diamondhead is inundated. Well, at least my house is. Kyle found the mouse about three weeks ago, and I didn't believe it existed until a week ago, when it scampered right under my nose in the cupboard where we keep the trash. I told my landlords last week and they claimed they had never seen mice in the house. Interesting story, until my sister found mice traps in the cupboard. So someone who lived in the house before us also had this problem.

So, on Saturday, I set out to catch the mouse. The traps in the cupboard were the type that are just sticky pads that the mice runs across and adheres to, thus ensnaring the poor bastard. "No poison", it proclaims! Well, that sounded great so I set one out behind the trash can. Not two minutes later, Gaffney perks up, we start to hear squeals! We caught him! Then, the horror ensues. What do you do with a mouse that is caught to a big sticky pad? I won't fill you in on the details, but let's just say it was not pretty and I was terribly sad about the whole ordeal. I had cats growing up, so I never had to deal with this before. Am I getting weaker as I age?

Anyway, I had pretty much gotten over it by Sunday, but then something happened. I was sitting around doing work, when Gaffney suddenly perked up her ears and ran to the cupboard. I laughed at her, saying, "Oh, there's nothing there." Just to make her happy, I opened the cupboard and suddenly another mouse runs across the trash can! I tell you, it's a plague! Two mice in one weekend! I couldn't bare to use the sticky pads again, so I set up an elaborate booby trap system and blocked off the holes it normally goes through. I fear that I will have to trap it soon, but I think I will use a good old fashion trap this time. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Goodbye, KK!

Sadness. My sister leaves today. We have had a really great time partying all around Oahu, but today she leaves me to go back to DC.

Here are some pictures from our adventures. Shown on the left: Katy at the Halona blow hole, although the blow hole itself is on the opposite side of this lookout.


The waves on Wednesday, when this picture was taken, were up to 8'. The eastern winds were gusting up to 50mph which causes some pretty erratic swells, making for some awesome smashing of waves against these volcanic rocks. This is the newest part of Oahu, so there is no reef to protect the cliffs here.

And here's a picture of me climbing down to the cove by the blowhole:

That's all for now. I am going to Waimanalo to play frisbee beach league after dropping Katy off at the airport. Back to da grind, bruddah.

We like to live in expensive places...

Hey y'all. I have been incognito this week due to my sister, Katy's visit. I will post pictures later (as well as Big Island pics that are still on Kyle's camera which is currently somewhere on a beach on the east coast).

Anywho, in some random news, it turns out that Forbes ranked Tucson #7 in the list of the most overpriced places in the United States. Tucson?!? I mean, I know that the housing costs have increased drastically in the last few years, but come on? Overpriced? I would die for Tucson prices again, given my current #4 ranking on the list. Check out Honolulu's median home price of $625k compared to Tucson's measly $250k! Maybe the prices really gone up that much in the six months I have been gone? Help me understand!

Potlatch!

Some of you may remember the first league team that Taryn created way back when, in what, 2002?


I have such fond memories of that team even though we only won probably one game the whole season. My favorite memories include: JT getting into fist fights in the end zone, the yellow team guy giving me a concussion, and Coach Steve. Chuck mentioned recently that almost everyone on the team are doctors now! We've come a long way (perhaps...)

With that in mind, I am very excited to announce a mini-reunion of sorts of the Orange Jail Team of yore. Taryn has put together a new team, the 30 year old Virgins! Some of the old team, plus some other Tucson folks and their random friends, get to play together this weekend at perhaps the biggest frisbee tournament in the country, Potlatch. The competition should be pretty fierce, but I have heard that it is mostly about having fun. So, off I go, north to Seattle tonight on a red-eye flight! It will be my first time off the islands since I moved here. As an added bonus: Miss Meg will be in Seattle too! Party, party, party! And hopefully no concussions...

Hot rail, hot rail!

One of the things I miss about Tucson is the sound of the train whistle at night and in the early morning. Oahu used to have a working railroad, the Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) shown above, built in 1889. The train was primarily used for the transporation of pineapple and sugar cane from the inland to the port. During WWII, the train was used to transport troops across the island, but was used little after 1947. In 1972, it closed down all remaining operations.

Now the city is proposing to develop a light rail system, which at the cost of $3-4 billion has a lot of people talking about the future of transportation in Hawaii. When you come to visit, you will realize that the transportation in and around Honolulu is a mess. The highways were all built around the already developed city, and it is easily one of the most confusing and difficult places to drive in the country. For instance, the airport is approximately 10 miles from our house. On a good day, it will take 20 minutes to drive there. On a bad day (like the day we had to catch our plane to the Big Island) it can take 1 1/2 hours. There are just too many cars here and not enough road. I have heard that during tsunumi warnings, there are more cars than roads, so people end up just sitting in their cars waiting for the big wave to come take them away...

With more housing developments outside of town, and more people commuting into town for work, the light rail system makes sense. But where will the money come from? I don't know enough about it yet to have any sort of opinion, but I just wanted to bring up the topic to see if anyone has any ideas.

Have a great weekend! Kyle is away for a week, so I am going camping with Anna in Kualoa valley where they shot Jurassic Park and the tv show Lost. So exciting!!

Back to reality...

The Big Island trip was amazing! Above is a picture of the Ohia tree growing in 1984 lava (courtesy of Carolina). We walked for a mile on this to get to our car after 7 miles of uphill climbing with 40 pound packs! But what fun it was to reach the car, full of ice cold budweisers and fresh papaya.

Unfortunately, I am swamped this week with work, so I will most likely have to wait to post details and pictures. In the meantime, Carolina has already downloaded her pics from the trip which can be found here. Enjoy!

Big Island Bound

Tomorrow we are off to the Big Island to meet up with Brian and Carolina and do some serious backpacking. And by serious, I mean hiking on a volcano! Our rough itinerary of where we are going is on the map above. Pictures to follow the trip.

Love is in the air...

Presenting the future Dr. Mr. and Dr. Mrs. Dacks! Smiles abound! He asked her this morning on a beautiful summer day on top of Diamondhead! How romantic! Congratulations!

They are now the 4th couple we know to get engaged this year. I see lots of weddings in our future....

Here's the real picture, in case you want to actually see the view:

An accidental visit from Sam!

I have been meaning to update the blog, but things got hectic this week. Last Saturday, we were playing our last regular season game of the league frisbee, when I get a call from Sam, my brother. He is always flying somewhere in the world with the Air Force, and often times, they stop in Hawaii on their way to far off lands. This means that I actually get to see my brother more now than I ever did when I lived on the mainland. On this trip, he was supposed to come Sunday, gas up a jet on Monday, and leave by Tuesday. But, luckily for us, one of the jets was broken for three days. So instead of a quick visit, we got to spend some quality sibling time together. I also got to show Sam that Oahu is not just Hickam Air Force Base and Waikiki. We spent the week cruising around, basically going around the entire island except the Leeward side. His favorite part was the mountains, as we took him up to our favorite picnicking and grilling spot on top of St. Louis Heights. Here's a picture of us with Diamondhead in the background:

We also got to go snorkeling with the turtles at Shark's Cove, where we also took Ryan when he visited. It was more beautiful this time, and we saw 5 turtles, and touched the backs of 2. Sam's plane finally was fixed on Friday, so we had our final goodbyes after breakfast at Wailana Coffee House, our new favorite place to eat pancakes covered with coconut syrup! Yesterday was the Spring League Ultimate championships, where I am proud to announce, Team Brazil won the Beer (Loser's) Bracket! We were last place in the regular season, so this was quite a feat!


Back to the grind today, as I will have to work on a Sunday to get prepared for taking off to the Big Island next Saturday. Penny and Dacks come on Tuesday, which means cleaning the house and getting Gaffney ready for the kennel as well today. Ah well, I live in Hawaii, right? No complaints!

Page under construction...

bear with me, please!!!

Collection day!

Ah, science! Yesterday was copepod collection day, which is my favorite part of my new job. I have gone out on the boat three times since I've been here, and this was the best trip by far. Why was it so great, you ask? Well, this was no ordinary collection day. No, this time, everyone got to come out to see how to gather the little guys. The crew included our fearless copepod collecting veteran, Kyle (a grad student, not Dr. H), Anna, our German banana, Jenn, our summer undergrad, and me. We met at 8am sharp, and drove over the Pali to Kaneohe Bay, which is on the Windward side of the island. Kaneohe Bay is home to numerous copepod species as well as other zooplankton, and our mission was to find a particular type, the Undinula. The bay is huge, but we were meeting our boat captain, Fritz, at the end of the Hawaii Institute for Marine Biology (HIMB) pier. The boats leaving from the pier are the only way to get to Coconut Island, the home of HIMB. The picture above shows the pier that I drive my car across to meet Fritz (it is terrifying) and the tip of Coconut on the right.

We loaded up the gear, and we were off on our adventure. Our first plankton tow in 45' of water somewhere north of the sandbar. Let me back up a step: to catch the copepods, we drop nets with cod ends into the water and tow them behind the boat as we slowly move forward at about 2mph. Any plankton that happens to get drawn into the net will siphon down into the cod end and get trapped for us to collect. Here is a picture of our first catch (from L to R: Jenn, Fritz, Kyle, Anna):

Inside that little glass jar (the cod end) are thousands upon thousands of tiny invertebrates: shrimp larva, crab larva, copepods, baby squid, arrow worms, jellyfish, you name it, we found it! We did a total of 6 tows and I ended up getting soaking wet, since our 4th and 5th tows were done at the entrance of the bay with the ocean. The waves there were a bit bigger than the boat, and I was sitting on the front edge, so they came over right onto me! I made Kyle switch places with me on the way back but quickly found out that the waves are only bad when you're going into them. Curses....

It was a lovely time, and I can't wait for our next collection day. Plus, as a bonus, next week the Coast Guard is offering a boat safety class and I am thinking about taking it so I can captain my own copepod collection boat next time. Gone are the days of rearing Manduca moths down the hall in a stuffy culture room (sorry, Suzanne!) Now, I get to go OUT IN THE FIELD to collect my animals! Science = Happiness!?! That's CRAZY!!

Thursday, already?

I have lost track of time this week. Between Ryan's visit and entering thousands of pictures into the lab database, I forgot to post on the rest of last weekend's festivities.

We drove up to the Western Coast of Oahu, or Wai'anae, as it is called. I was a little freaked out about going up there as, Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman's Oahu Revealed write, "Wai'anae is one of the poorer sections of the island, and it has a reputation of being a rough place." We had no problems, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

The first stop was the limestone beach at 'Ohikilolo, across the street from the Kaneana (see below). The limestone here is constantly tormented by the waves which makes for some awesome tide pools. And the water was the bluest I have seen so far. Here are K and G hanging out on the reef:

Next, we went across the road to see the results of the erosion from ancient waves, when the world was warmer and the sea was high enough to reach the high cliffs formed from the original Oahu lava flows. Here, a cave was formed, and when the Hawaiians discovered it, they called it Kaneana which is named after "Kane", the god of creation, and "ana", which means cave. The cave is a symbol for the earth goddess's womb, and this is where Hawaiians believe all mankind came from. In ancient times, the cave was kapu (forbidden), and was home to the shark man, Nanaue. The Hawaiians are big on their animal gods in case you haven't picked up on that yet. Here are Kyle, Gaffney, and I entering into the womb:


We explored a bit (the cave wasn't more than 50-100 yards deep, unless you wanted to crawl into the abyss). Then we decided to go to the beach and try our hand in some boogy boarding and relaxing. The sand storms finally made us retreat, but not before Ryan and Kyle caught some waves (they are the little white dots in the middle of the water on the left side).

Ryan leaves tonight, and I am a little sad since I don't know when I'll get to see ol' Sac again. Plus, I don't know when we'll get the next chance to go driving around the island to see all of the beauty outside of Honolulu. I guess we'll go again when the next guests arrive, which I just found out will likely be either G-rant and Brad-lay Dean over Memorial Day Weekend or Dacks and Penny in June before our Big Island trip. And KK, my sistah comes in July! Yeah!

Until next time....aloha.

La o na makua-hine!

Happy Mother's (Makuahine's) Day! Mother's Day / Graduation weekend has been a memorable one here on Oahu. (Happy Graduation to Jessica Bell-Blair as well, who just graduated from WVU law school this weekend!)

We decided to take Ryan to the North Shore on Saturday. It was in a word, AWESOME! We started our trip with some Hawaii shaved Ice in the town of Haleiwa. Haleiwa is what Ryan thought Hawaii would be like: a small strip of road with some sleepy shops, a cute church covered with succulents and an old Ace Hardware with a wooden facade. I would love to live there, but the commute to the University would be too much for me. From there, we headed to the Pu'u o Mahuka Heiau. This is an old Hawaiian temple on the ridge at Waimea Bay where human sacrifices used to take place. I am currently reading James Michener's Hawaii which describes some of the traditions of old Hawaii. Burying people alive under rocks seemed to be a popular choice, along with poking out the eyes, pulling off the arms, and then offering the still-living slave or captured Westerners on the alter. Ouch.

Just across the road from the ruins lies Shark's Cove. In the summer, this little cove is a haven for snorkeling. Crystal clear Shark's Cove was full of people, but it didn't keep the turtles from coming in and swimming with us (photo by Ryan on the underwater Kodak camera). Here is Ryan plunging into the depths:














After we snorkeled for about 3 hours or so, we were famished. Good thing that just around the corner, on the Northern most point of the island is Kahuku, which is famous for its shrimp trucks and shacks, not to mention the fresh fruit stands in which we purchased pre-cut pineapple, coconut, mango, and guava. The shrimp stands are like Mexican hot dog stands of South Tucson: good, good food, and super, super cheap. We had what was probably my favorite meal in Hawaii thus far: Coconut, garlic-butter, and hot and spicy shrimp, with rice, salad, and sweet Kahuku grown corn, all for $39. Top it off with a Sam Adams Summer Ale and it was heaven.

Our stomachs full, we continued to drive around the island, taking in the beautiful beaches on the Windward side of the island. As the sun began to set, we started back to Honolulu via the H-3 (see also this page), which is an engineers' dream. Here is a photo, courtesy of the linked website:

The twin viaducts run for miles, and then enter the tunnels, which go almost a mile through the mountain. The road hits the land only after about 3 more miles on the other side. The road was apparently built to link the Kaneohe military base to Pearl Harbor, and the tunnels are big enough to run tanks through. It truly is an amazing road.

We came out of the tunnels and watched the sun go down. A perfect ending to a perfect day. Today was pretty awesome too, but I will wait until tomorrow to tell that tale.

Happy Graduation!

Today is my official graduation from University of Arizona. I am officially awarded a PhD, but I am not attending the ceremony because I live in Hawaii. Dave Herman is also graduating, Congrats! Dave is house-hunting in San Diego, so he is not attending the ceremony either. So, I took it upon myself to (poorly) photoshop ourselves into graduation regalia. I need to put some tortillas in the background (a U of A tradition), but I don't think I will have time today.

Take me to the other side.

Aloha. We have had a busy weekend, full of lots of little adventures. On Saturday, our league frisbee game was moved from the normal Diamondhead grass-covered lava rock park to Waimanalo Beach, perhaps our favorite sand beach so far. Up until about two weeks ago, the beach had been shut down due to sewage spills and runoff problems caused by the March rains. Only a few people braved the the bacteria, not to mention the 3ft. boogie boarding waves that ended up getting the better of both Kyle and I (the waves, not the bacteria).

On the way back, we descended the cliffs, or Pali (scale bar for Andrew, one cliff = 500-700ft):

The Pali Highway was apparently built by one Mr. John Wilson, which makes me giggle because that was my grandfather's name:








We also saw an awesome waterfall on the way back down:



What we didn't know about the Pali was that you are not supposed to have pork or pork products in your car when you go through there. Apparently, local custom says that the area used to be home of Kamapua'a, a demigod who was half man and half pig. So, if you are carrying some pig, he takes offense to it and curses you with bad luck. Ryan read this in a book when we got back from the Pali, followed by a prompt, "Didn't we have bacon on our sandwiches from lunch?" Neither Kyle nor I finished our lunch sandwiches, so we knew that bad luck was about to come our way.

So, today, what happens? We go to Chinatown (pictures later) and have awesome dim sum, only to find our our bill was a whopping $21! Okay, so no bad luck there. On our way back from Chinatown, we decided to take Ryan through Waikiki. Kyle suddenly turns left onto one of the side streets. I promptly snip, "What are you doing!"

Kyle, panickly, "Trying to get this cop of my a**. Uhoh, too late." We hadn't registered the car yet in Hawaii. Oops. Kamapua'a strikes.

We shake it off, knowing that it was bound to happen sooner or later. We go home, have a nap, and decide to go have a picnic on top of St. Louis Heights, or Waahila Ridge. Ryan and Kyle picked a lovely assortment of fish, sausages (chicken flavored, as to not further upset our demi-god) and asparagus, only to find, lo and behold, Kamapua'a had stolen all of the grills at the park! We had to make do with what we had: the sausages are on the remains of the grate, the salmon held precariously between two with a chop stick!







And, leftover from yesterday's beach excursion, our very own handmade, trays and covers, from Miller Lite cans:













The rest of the evening was beautiful, among the tall trees that I haven't bothered to find the name of yet... and we had a beautiful sunset overlooking the ocean. We're hoping we've heard the last of Kamapua'a. Maybe he's forgotten us and moved on to the next poor bacon-carrying tourists that went over the Pali today.

Hamuhamu what?

Yesterday we took Ryan to Hanauma Bay, the fish and marine sanctuary here on Oahu. The bay was formed when one side of Kokohead Crater got eaten away by the waves, leaving a perfect little cove for reef fish and turtles . Sadly, we saw no turtles yesterday, but we did see a lot of awesome reef fish, including the state fish of Hawaii, the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, or Hawaiian trigger fish if you're a haole and don't want to bother saying that. (I hope the June Big Island Campers are practicing how to say it for the prize!) There was a nice sculpture of it at the Vistor's center. Here's Ryan and the fish:


And Kyle and the fish:

Always chasing tail, Kyle?

I only have eyes for you...

A couple of months ago, Cheryl and Sam sent the family an ultrasound picture of Megan, and my parents allegedly hung it on the wall with the other pictures of the kids. Knowing that the competition for the "perfect child" was going to be tough this year, I sent my parents a picture of my "kid", a copepod nauplius. A nauplius is the larval stage of the planktonic copepod, the marine invertebrate that I spend each and every day examining under a microscope. I will post that picture later, but in the meantime, I just entered a microscopy contest with some fluorescent confocal (laser-scanning microscope) images of the adults. Here's one that didn't make the cut. Each image shows a different fluoroscent antibody bound to a particular antigen, and the fourth image is a composite of the other three. If you are interested in what each antibody is labeling, just email me and I'll let you know. ENJOY!

Happy Lei Day!

Happy Lei Day! Leis are everywhere on the island. The statues of old Hawaiian royalty all have fresh leis around their necks (put there by tourists, locals, who knows?). When you give a presentation at the University, you are first presented with a lei to wear during your talk. On your birthday, your coworkers and loved ones will sometimes give you leis. And, of course, when you arrive on the island your friends will put a lei around your neck and say, "Aloha".

The linked article above mentions the more subtle and spiritual side of leis. Each flower represents a different meaning, each lei maker concentrates on a spiritual and historical narrative while they are threading each flower in each lei. And you should see some of the amazing leis they make! Ben Franklin's, our local craft store, has a lei making guide and I think Lei Day may inspire me to try to make a few of my own. I'll let you know how they turn out!