Franu phobia #10

This post is dedicated to one of my top 10 phobias- Falling out of an amusement park ride. I have a huge fear of roller coaster rides mostly because I always feel like I'm about to fall out. I know that's one of the points of rides, you feel like you're going to fall but honestly I feel that I'm always falling more than anyone else. I found this clip of a fat kid slipping out of his harness and then his face gets stuck in it...it could happen to me, I know it.
Enjoy

day 3 hilo holiday- our anniversary!

December 28th, Hilo Hawaii

hilo vacation day 3- tidepools & volcano

Today is our 3rd anniversary & we managed to get a little car from Enterprise! We picked up the rental at 8am and drove straight to Champagne pond. If you ever get a chance, I strongly recommend heading out to the Puna district on the Big Island and making your way over to Champagne Pond. The drive out to Puna is beautiful.

Champagne pond is a geothermally heated lagoon filled with fish and turtles. The trick is getting there. You'll need a 4 x 4 vehicle and head towards the pond from the lighthouse in Puna or you can choose to walk the hike which is beautiful, but its a long hike over lava boulders. The other option is to park at the gated community and pretend you're staying in the area. The community is built all around the pond and some people have their own private pool. Its still a couple blocks to walk from the gate, and if you get lost you can't count of the people staying there to help or give directions. The photo looks a little dark but under the water it looks like this:
We also made our way to the Kapoho Tidepools which are close by. The tidepools are amazing and you can swim in most of them. They are filled with sea life! Here's a picture Anson took of a slate pencil urchin:
The wildlife varies from pool to pool. Sometimes you'll find yourself in a sea cucumber pool or a sea urchin pool. I don't know how they segregate themselves. Its probably coincidental. Here's what the tidepools look like:
Its neat because there's so many rocks to climb on and explore.
Next we hit the volcano and drove down the Chain of Craters road to get to the lava. Every trip to the Big Island we vow to make our way to the lava. But we always get to the hike too late and after about 1 and a half hours of hiking in the dark, volcano madness sets in and we decide to turn back. We did get farther this time and made it out to the second ledge and viewing area.

Let me show you some pictures

Happy Holidays 2006

Hilo Holiday day 2

December 27th, Hilo Hawaii

Today was Wednesday, which in Hilo to my mom only means one thing: Farmers Market. The Hilo Farmer's Market is a combo of swap meet & produce. You can get funky sarongs and fresh strawberry papaya here and it all seems pretty cheap. We still haven't been able to get a car rental which is a bummer. My folks' car isn't reliable enough to take us out to see turtles, champagne pond, or the volcano...

Day 1 of Hilo Vacation 2006

We made it to the Big Island for Christmas to visit my mom & dad & baxter. We love the Big Island because there is so much to do. The beaches here feel cleaner (and sometimes colder) than on Oahu but it is always worth it. This trip we hope to 1) make it to the Volcano and this time walk all the way to view the lave 2)spend some time at Champagne pond 3)swim with some sea turtles 4) eat at Ken's House of pancakes.

Christmas 2006

Christmas time in Hawaii is beautiful. This Christmas was extra special because Anson's sister came down with her new baby. We had breakfast at the house before opening up some presents.

We spent the rest of the day getting ready for our family trip to the Big Island to see my mom & dad (and baxter). The cats came with us again.The only thing under my seat was Turkey, who by the way, was a good little fuzzy traveler with no complaints. Rosie on the other hand crapped in her carrier and had in short, a very horrible christmas day.

Here is Turkey showing me love once we got to Hilo:
But most of the time he was scratching me like this:

It’s not porn, its English class

Another reason Japanese culture intrigues me. Here's a sample of the aerobics series from Japan (aired 1992) that teaches people aerobics & english. If you can fast forward the clip, or stand to watch it, it gets crazy about a minute into the excersize and then again at 1:50min. It makes you realize that there's enough Japanese people visiting English speaking countries that phrases like "Spare me my life" is an important phrase to learn.

Christmas Eve 2006

Grandma with Delana & Diana (Ans' sister)

Ans with Achilles

and we made it to the North Shore today to see the turtles. There were a lot swimming but none were resting on the beach like the last time. Still it was a very beautiful Christmas Eve.

White & Nerdy

Okay so this video has been out for awhile but it never ceases to amaze me...Wierd Al can rap! Also the video cracks me up because I think its about my brother in law.

Check out Daniel Tammet, who can recite pi to its 22,514th digit (see White & Nerdy lyrics). He says we sees the numbers as visual landscapes...very interesting fellow.

gratuitous cat picture

thanks e...got this from your links ;)

Holiday Shopping leads to bull riding

The best part of this holiday season was watching Ado try out a mechanical bull at a store.
Here's the clip:


What you're watching is my nephew ride what Brookstone calls a mechanical fitness machine. It's a iGallop and its supposed to be work out your abs. This is from their website:

Looking good and feeling great just got a whole lot easier.
The OSIM® iGallop™ is the revolutionary exerciser that can help you shape and tone your tummy, hips, seat and thighs. The secret is in its zero-impact, tri-axial riding action. Your body automatically responds to its multidirectional movement, and this balancing engages certain muscle groups and may help improve coordination and posture.

Too bad the video quality is so poor- it was hysterical watching this guy ride the iGallop, especially with the live music in the background. It was perfect.

Welcome baby D!!

Today our niece was born at 1pm! We are so excited to have enter this world! I was thinking all week she'd come early and it is really funny how things turn out. She made it just in time for Hanukkah!! Congrats L. & S on your first baby!

and just for fun...

Your Birthdate: December 7

You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy. And though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you. Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights. You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice! Your strength: Your self sufficiency Your weakness: You despise authority Your power color: Maroon Your power symbol: Hammer Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Growing up Foreign

This is what they do to buses in Pakistan

While much of America is getting ready for the holiday season, I’ve found myself thinking of friends and families but also of the places I’ve lived. It’s hard to really put into words how growing up expatriate has affected me. I do believe that riding on the buses in Kenya and Pakistan for 2 hours a day, 7 days a week are to blame for my hard of hearing. And I am extremely jealous of the younger generation’s access to the internet...what I would have given for underwear that fit while living in Africa, or a bra in Pakistan! Yes, we did have mail order from JC Penny’s and Sears and the highly anticipated once a year trip to America (when you were young and grew up overseas, you would say “America” not the “U.S”), aslo I might add that JCPenny and Sears for all their guarantees, were not reliable in their APO shipments during the 80’s and early 90’s- you were lucky to receive anything within 3 months, which was usually just another catalog

My parents for what ever reason, maybe it was due to stress, had left out thoughts like proper fitting clothing and pads for their children...Please take a moment to imagine what it would be like for a half Okinawan, half German girl to buy “sanitary napkins” in a store in Islamabad in the late 80’s...see that’s me wanting to die. Did you know that pads in foreign countries are 100 times larger than the ones here in the US? It’s true. Believe me.

This is a photo of Jinnah Supermarket. You could buy pirated music here for, if I remember correctly, for 25 rupees (?) I could be wrong. Thanks to Pakistan, I was able to grow up listening to Guns and Roses, Metallica, Tone-Loc (can you believe I got Funky Cold Medina in Islamabad?!), Madonna, and Mr. Big (there’s more, don’t worry). The best thing about pirated music in Pakistan is that the dude recorded the tapes would substitute whatever he felt like or maybe while sitting in his room with hundreds of music tapes, he would get confused to which tape was what. So sometimes you got what you paid for, sometimes it would be a Michael Bolton album in a Skid Row (handwritten or photocopied) cover. Other times if there was space left on the tape after the album, you could also sample some other random music that wouldn't be listed on the tape cover. But most of the time you really did get the right album. Those were good times.

Another entry about the cats

This photo was taken a few weeks back when I got a package from e in australia. She included a huge mouse toy for turkey & rosie. Here's Rosie checking it out:

Looks real, huh? This was taken in the bathroom where, I believe, Rosie dragged the mouse to because I gave it to her the night before in the living room and in the morning I found her in the bathroom checking it out.

Turkey on the other hand, well he just wanted to sleep and here I am harassing him with the mouse:

His mouth is slightly open in the photo because he's talking to me...

And here's a picture of a bufo that's made house in the front pond. I've named him Bunda:

A little bit about me

Your Birthdate: October 15

You take life as it is, and you find happiness in a variety of things. You tend to be close to family and friends. But it's hard to get into your inner circle. Making the little things wonderful is important to you, and you probably have an inviting home. You seek harmony with others, but occasionally you have a very stubborn streak. Your strength: Your intense optimism Your weakness: You shy away from exploring your talents Your power color: Jade Your power symbol: Flower Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

It's all true! Check out Ans. birthday:

Your Birthdate: September 6

You tend to be a the rock in relationships - people depend on you. Thoughtful and caring, you often put others needs first. You aren't content to help those you know... you want to give to the world. An idealist, you strive for positive change and dream about how much better things could be. Your strength: Your intuition Your weakness: You put yourself last Your power color: Rose Your power symbol: Cloud Your power month: June

Star Fruit Season!

After a very dry winter ('05), spring, and summer, Hawaii almost seemed to have bypassed starfruit season. But perhaps it is never too late for the star fruit and our tree has finally produced this year's harvest! Three years ago I would have easily passed up any opportunity to eat star fruit. It just didn't taste good to me, but now I really can't get enough of it. I swear our star fruit tree is producing fruit that tastes different from before! Some people say it tastes like pineapple meets orange or even a lemon, but it really isn't about the taste...it feels rubbery and watery at the same time. It really is a bizzare and wonderful fruit.

We even found two mutants- one fruit with only three sides;

and we found one with 6 sides!

(Sliced- looks like the Star of David. Maybe Ans & I shouldn't have eaten it...)



Front View of 6 sided most holy star fuit




Another shot of the 6 sided star fruit!

and here is a photo of a normal star fruit


Intoxication by star fruit?

Saturday

Well today we went out in search of sea turtles. I've been sick the last 3 days and I've been indoors watching a lot of movies (Bridget Jone's Diary, The Island, Madagascar, to name a few). So we went out to get some fresh air and visited my favorite beach, Cockroaches (official name is Halona Beach). Here are some photos from the cliff.

You can't see him, but there is a sea turtle in the first picture. We also spotted the little baby turtle with three "fins". I've seen him once before (I think when All Carbon came out to visit actually, so maybe you can verify Shares) and he's still swimming pretty good.

The drive out to Cockroaches is beautiful and probably my favorite drive on the island. On one side of the road you have the cliffs and pacific ocean and on the other is green mountains.

New Favorite Cleanser

Okay, so I'm not sure exactly when I become obsessed with make up and beauty products, but it happened. I just discovered DHC's Olive Oil make up remover/ cleanser. It is awesome. I was very suspicious at first of using any type of oil to clean my face but there's something so crazy about the idea that I love it. All you need to do to make this product works for you is to make sure your face is completely dry before you put on the oil. Do not wet your face first and then try it. Trust me. Here are the instructions from the DHC website:

Use dry hands to massage 1-2 pumps of Deep Cleansing Oil onto dry face to dissolve dirt, makeup, and other impurities. Rinse with lukewarm water. Do not add water to this product until ready to rinse off.

I've been using this product for a week now and my face is clearing up nicely. I've also been following up with the mild soap after the oil and it feels very good!

Halloween 2006

Well folks, it was another fun Halloween in Hawaii. Ans, Ado, and I went trick or treating again in the Kahala neighborhoods. I don't know if its normal anywhere else, but in Hawaii it is totally acceptable to actually drive to another neighborhood and go trick or treating there. People go to Manoa and the Bishop Museum neighborhoods because the houses there give out sick amounts of candy and go all out in their decorating. We stuck in the Kahala area because it was close to home and it was rainy. Here are some pictures:

This is me in my ballerina outfit. Don't I look purty?!

Me and Ans and our monkey love

Where do you live?

I wish I could say I live in Dildo, but I don't. I live in Honolulu. But maybe you've heard of these two towns:


True story. Guess which town is older? Fucking. It was founded in 1070- or that was when it was named Fucking in honor of Focko (not Fucko) of Austria. Dildo Arm on the other hand (I believe the full name is Dildo Arm and its just Dildo for short) was settled in the late 1700's by Canucks.

I can't wait till I can name my own town...

Danu

Danu has left the U.S today. She is on her way to Syria where dental care is cheap and thorough. Please write in Danu when you arrive in Damascus and post anything you'd like! I've been thinking of places to move to and maybe I will end up in Syria too. We can take care of all the feral cats and drink tea.

2 days and counting

We have two more days until our show. We have made about 200 earrings and 40 necklaces and I haven't counted the bracelets yet. Its been a very busy month! Setup and opening day are on the same day which causes some added stress. Usually they give you a day in advance to set up your booth and work out the displays but for what ever reason, this event has jammed set-up and opening on the same day. Here is a photo of one of our necklaces from our new "Origami" Line.Wish us luck!

Whaaa? Wait, how disappointing

So scientists are claiming they've finally made an invisible cloak. Sounds high tech but it's not what you're thinking. It's not Harry Potter or even similar to Wonder Woman's jet. Check out all carbon's blog entry, "Quick, Hide me" for a good summary of the Cloak.

Here's a short list of what invisibility might do in the future:
-Invisible nursing blankets
-public masturbation
-invisible walls that can go "on" and "off"
-instant porn
-more reality TV shows about catching cheating spouses, pedophiles, & jackasses

Genius

South Park enters into their 10th episode, Miss Teacher Bangs A Boy, which should also be called the "Dog" episode. As some of you know, I have been following the Dog's shows for a while because:
1)I live in Hawaii and I sometimes have to dodge the Dog's cameras in Chinatown to avoid being in the shots. I hate being on TV. Hey did you know that this guy is HUGE! Not kidding.
2) He wears feathers, man. feathers! and
3) I've been to his house for Trick or treating. No joke.

Last year I went Trick or Treating with Ans and Adn and we found ourselves in Dog's driveway (yes we live in an uppity area- sometimes its good for Trick or Treating, sometimes not. That was a good year). Beth, or "Boobs", kept asking us if we we old enough for Halloween, but really she was teasing us for being too old. But we (Adn and me were devils of some sort and Ans went as Jesus sans mask) had masks on and we figured hey, free candy. Plus we've been trick or treating with Adn. for years now, how could we break the tradition now that we're approaching 30 and he's 13? She called Dog over to check our age but he was doing something (drinking?) in the garage and wouldn't approach us. Anyhoot Boobs didn't give us candy but said we could have the "Adult" treat which freaked me out. Since we were wearing masks, I couldn't see so well and plus it was dark. I had no idea what type of "adult" treat she pushed into my hand. Only later, about half a block away we figured out they were rubber bracelets that said "Dog the Bounty Hunter" on it. Such good memories!

Uhmm...Do we need to be concerned?

So apparently, there have been somewhere between 10-15 other earthquakes since the three big ones on Sunday. I don't know but should we be worried that we're going to get another earthquake or something? I haven't read anything where the scientists say something like, "This is typical of a major earthquake, nothing to be alarmed about" which I thought they normally say. I guess it is normal.

Bush's Letter

I've never seen one of these "Disaster Declarations" before. In fact, I never even thought about the president writing such a thing. I always thought it would be spoken and then I don't know, someone else would write it down...which is still a possibility and more likely. But it's funny that there's paperwork for this type of thing, I guess.

How I Spent my Birthday

By now most people have heard that Hawaii had a significant earthquake on Sunday ("at 7:07, a 6.6 in the 808", as they are saying here). Yes it was a big earthquake and it was very long. The cat tried to kill himself by trying to jump out of the bedroom window. Luckily he was stopped by the glass and the screen. I also heard reports that people's pet fish also attempted jumping out of their fish tanks. All I remember was thinking at like, 7:06:56 (yes, I knew exactly what second it was) "Why am I up?" and then it hit. Then I remember saying, "I'm scared" to my hubby to which he replied, "Go back to bed". Almost right after he told me to go back to bed a second earthquake hit, much faster and shorter than the previous one. Okay, that's when I freaked out.

Once the shaking and rumbling stopped I ran downstairs to see about everyone else in the house (all in-laws, by the way) and to my embarrassment my mother in law kept saying she thought that I and her son were having "sexy sexy" and "crazies" up above her (our bedroom is right above hers). Meanwhile we are all verifying that we felt it and no one is hurt.

I think very short term, meaning, I really don't think. Everyone almost immediately said to go call my parents on the Big Island to check if they're okay. Oh, crap. There IS a volcano on that island. So I ran upstairs and called my mom and dad and they were laughing. My Dad said he thought that it was the end. That that's how they were going to "go", death by volcanic eruption. After I got off the phone, the power went off. A few minutes later I called my parents back to see if they were still okay. They told me that the mayor of Hilo had already said on the radio it was a 6.5 earthquake. I called my sister on the Mainland and she told me it was a 4.5 earthquake that they were reporting. I've been through enough earthquakes to know the difference between a 4 and 6...This was definitely not a 4. Strange how the information was behind and yet ahead. At least in California they were reporting something. But because they said it was a 4.5 my sister thought it was "nothing" even though I tried to tell her it was a "big one".

The worst thing about the whole situation is that it took Civil Defense in Honolulu took a full 30-40min to communicate via radio to the public what exactly had happened. It may not seem like a long time, but when you don't know what exactly is going on and you know we live in the 21st (? is that right? Aren't we supposed to be in flying cars by now?) century you think we could hurry things up a bit during an emergency. Maybe that's just me. Anyways, luckily I had called my parents and they could inform us that no tsunami was generated, which was the main concern. But for everyone else there was no news. And actually, the initial reports in Honolulu were not given by any officials, and it for the first 4 to 5 hours no specific information about the power situation could be given. Maybe they kept us in the dark to dampen any rioting. I don't know. I do know that only a handful of supermarkets where open hours after the quake and they were escorting people into the store one by one by flashlight. You could only buy things with cash and you had to wait outside until it was your turn. The mall near my house was actually pretty organized and within 2 hours at least, we noticed they had sealed off the entire mall and had security patrolling like crazy. I find it hard to believe that HECO could not even comment or suggest that the power would be out for so long.

But since it was my birthday, my family had previously made arrangements for dinner at The Kahala
(was the Kahala Mandarin hotel). This is the hotel where presidents from all over the world stay at when they have a lay over or they are visiting the islands and it's only like 5 min. away from us. When we got to the hotel we found that they were turning away their own hotel guests at the restaurant and were only taking people with reservations. They opened up another room in the hotel and made makeshift tables for the overflow. It was really strange because there really was no overflow since they were rejecting everyone. I guess because they had put in the effort to make a second dining area they put some people in there, like us. The makeshift dining area was very stuffy and you had to carry your buffet food across the patio from the restaurant to your seat. It was awkward because they would have angry people yelling at the front of the restaurant about how they should be served and that this was an emergency and then you'd have to walk by them with a plate full of food. I believe the hotel told everyone without reservations that the earliest they could take people would be 9pm. I heard a lot of people take the 9pm slot...Dinner was $300+ for 6 people.

All in all it was a peaceful day. Very relaxing and the weather was cool. Lately it has been very hot here, but on Sunday it was breezy and cloudy. Thanks to everyone who checked in on us! My phone was dying and it was very difficult during the whole day to get calls through. Texting worked great though, something to remember next time. A fourth earthquake hit this morning on the Big Island but it was much smaller. I belive we've had something over 68 aftershocked since Sunday. My mother in law is planning on selling her second car now and investing in a generator and emergency supplies. We were poorly prepared for Sunday's events but better off than many other people. It would have been a difference situation if the power was out longer or if we didn't have running water. I think we were really lucky.

Woman tries to sell skeleton on eBay

Uhmm, What other types of skeletons are there? This lady says:

“It’s an anatomical, medical-use skeleton,” Sterling told The Times Herald of Port Huron. “I would never have put it on (eBay) if I thought it was anything other than an anatomical, medical thing.”

Cookie Chronicles

Okay, sorry folks, this is another entry about cats. It's about one cat, actually- Cookie Mamish. She is a Maine Coon mix that started life up in Yonkers and now, before the day is done, will find herself (*hopefully*) in Pinetop, Arizona. Danu is in the process, I'm sure, of preparing for the trip. She and Cookie are actually in Florida chilling with some gators. Seriously.
See, Danu, her mom, and Cookie left their dwelling in Connecticut last month and took a road trip down to Florida with Cookie. Cookie is not your ordinary cat. For one thing, she's huge. While she only weights 11 pounds, she looks close to 20lb. I'm not kidding. Plus she acts like a combination of a well trained bird and a poorly trained dog. Anyhoot, Danu, her mom, and Cookie drove down to Florida with this ginourmous cat that likes to sit on shoulders. They had to sneek her into hotel rooms and Cookie hung out with truckers at gas stations.
Today Cookie will be going through Immigration and Security like a regular person. I hope she stays calm throughout the whole ordeal. Once Danu and Cookie make it to Arizona, they have another 3-4 hour car ride to Cookie's new home somewhere in the mountains with three dudes. Why is Cookie going to Arizona? Because, she can't very well go to Syria! Cookie understand very basic Arabic. Mostly "Get off my bed", and "You are trying to ruin me". She would not fit in there.
Good luck Danu & Cookie!

Update! Cookie and Danu made it all the way to Pinetop. They braved lightening storms and dead car batteries but they made in one peice. One word of advice for future cat travelers: do not wear black when you take your cat to the airport.

Nevermind. The talking cat came home

And he slept on my head all night. I was too scared to move because sometimes when you pull away from him, his claws dig deeper. He was very tired from his trip. I wonder where he went.

Turkey's on Vacation

Hey Guys,
Sad news, Turkey-chan has been missing now for two days. Last time he went missing he was gone for about 5 days and I suspect he went camping at the beach and just didn't think to phone us. Rosie is out right now looking for him.
Here is a photo of Turkey trying to figure out how to build a pergola:
:(

Yay me!

This is a short brag blog entry...I sold my first resin peice! I was secretly hoping that it wouldn't sell because I loved it so much but someone picked it up! I am going through a rollercoaster ride now, i'm happy but then i get nervous, what if they receive it and think it's crap? ugh. what can you do, right? just wait it out. Here's a picture of the necklace:

Update*** The person who bought the pendant DID like it very much! Yay!