North Shore Outing

Yesterday on my day off I wandered up to Oahu's North Shore. It's just about a 20-min drive from where we live, and I could feel my heart lift, lighten, and start to dance as I began to see the mountains and ocean. Also, it was wonderful to see so much blue sky. Our part of the island has been very cloudy lately and I was hungry for some sunshine.

The North Shore is famous for its winter surf, but it's too early for the really big 20-30 foot waves yet. It's also a world away from Waikiki. Some folks call it the "real Hawaii." Don't know about that myself. They're both fun places to go experience, just very, very different in character.

The North Shore doesn't have much in the way of infrastructure. All the roads are two-lane, no shoulder. If there's an accident, traffic can literally be held up for eight hours. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of building codes, either! Houses that look like shacks can sit next to multi-million dollar homes. There's no major shopping up there, such as a Walmart.

It's very rural and very relaxing. Even many of the famous beaches don't really have parking lots --people just pull over to the side of the road in a clump.

I started out my day by heading to Waimea Valley. It's an area of ancient Hawaiian tradition and religion, but also an important botanical garden. Its recent history has been a bit tumultuous and recently it's been transferred to a public/private ownership plan to preserve its best qualities.

To me, it sounded pretty, so off I went. The gardens were very pretty, but mostly consisting of lots of different green plants. I'm not sure if it's the time of year and not much is in bloom, or if that's just the way this place is... I remember from other trips here that there's actually not a lot of color to indigenous Hawaiian plants, due to the lack of predators and pollinators, since the islands are so isolated.

But it was still interesting; in some cases, I was seeing huge versions of plants I associate with just being little potted house plants. Had NO idea a philodendron could get that big. There was also a hibiscus garden that showed the evolution of that plant, and there were some blooms there. But still, there were also plants I would have never guessed were part of that family.

One attraction I was looking forward to was the waterfall at the end of the valley. I'd call it more of a waterin' hole than a waterfall. It was pretty, but more of a trickle over a hill than a waterfall on that particular day. I was surprised to see changing rooms so you could get into your swimsuit; didn't realize they encouraged that kind of participation! It was an unusually humid day, and if I'd brought a suit, I would have jumped in.

I walked back and bought some turtle-themed items at the gift shop. I made a restroom stop before leaving and haven't seen my face that red in a long time! The humidity and warm morning had taken a toll.

Then I drove back towards the two towns of Haleiwa and Waialua. I stopped at a place in Waialua and bought the dark chocolate they make there, eating it as I drove along. My next stopping point, if I could find it again, was going to be a beach where they go kite surfing.

The kites dancing around in the air helped me see that I was in the right spot. I missed the entrance to the parking lot, so just went in the one-way exit instead. It's the North Shore; people do that there... No rules, dude...

I walked down to the beach with my camera, but couldn't really get a good picture, so just enjoyed the moment. I watched one woman walk down the beach holding her kite which was already airborne, surfboard under her arm. She made it look so easy as she walked into the water, turned the surfboard at a 30-45 degree angle, stuck her feet on it, and just let the kite pull her up and off. They go so fast. It's really neat to watch. I had fun just watching them and the waves. It was really therpeutic.

Our real estate agent showed us that beach when we were house hunting, and it wasn't any more occupied that day. But it's rocky and very windy, and not a great place to really just chill and enjoy the ocean, so the kite surfers pretty much have it to themselves.

Also nearby is the Dillingham air field, for small planes, gliders, parasailers and parachuters. As I was driving by, several tandem parasailers were coming in to land, so I pulled over to watch. That looked like a lot of fun, too. "Maybe a Christmas present idea," I thought to myself. As I pulled away, though, I saw a cross by the side of the road with flowers around it, so, er, maybe not such a good idea...

I enjoyed poking around on the two-lane roads coming home in all the sunshine. It was really a gorgeous day, and I felt so relaxed and mellow. Definitely going to have to do that again, but maybe bring a suit and stop at the beach for a bit next time.

A few random Thursday thoughts

I'm taking tomorrow off to use what's called use-or-lose vacation time. Even though I don't want to lose time off, I feel uneasy about being off work - so much to do!

I plan to wander around the avant garde North Shore tomorrow. Perhaps I'll get a tattoo...

One of the things they do here strikes me as a bit odd as electioneering and campaigning goes. Supporters stand on the sides of the streets and highways holding "Vote for Joe" signs and waving at traffic in the early mornings. I don't see them in the afternoons.

The past two mornings, the supporters for the two mayoral candidates have been out at one of the major intersections I have to drive through. As I sat in the left turn lane this morning, the supporter for Anne Kobayashi made a lot of efforts to get my attention. I was not in the mood to wave and whoop, and besides, I'M voting for Mayor Mufi, the incumbent. I somehow resisted the temptation to roll down the window and yell that since she struck me as the type to hit me with the sign...

Well, I need to plan my outing! More later...

Brrr! Fall is in the air!

Yes, fall is in the air here in Hawaii. First, it's starting raining a lot more. Today is another day with a lot of dark gray cloud cover instead of the white fluffy clouds and blue sky that I'm more used to. We're not using our ceiling fans much these days and I've got all the patio doors shut, too. I might even have to put on a sweater!

We got our first full monthly electric bill, so I called Mama to compare those costs as well. "Ours was five eighty five," I said. "Five dollars and eighty five cents?" asked my mother. Mama's so cute. "No, five hundred eighty five dollars."

"My goodness!" she said, using that strong language again. So she starts poking thru her records, looking for her old bills. The highest she could find was $95 for July.

"What do you have your thermostat set at?" she asked.

"We don't have air conditioning. We don't have a thermostat."

"Oh."

Our pool pump is the culprit for a big part of our costs. But still, my office mate said his electric bill was $270 last month, and his 3-bedroom place is half the square footage of our house. So even with our pool pump, we're not completely off the bell curve.

I jumped on the electric company's site and did an energy survey, and we're doing all the right things. So just one more part of the price of living in paradise.

Speaking of prices, I needed eggs this week. They had cheaper ones, but I decided to support local farmers, and bought the local dozen for $4.29. But as I put them in my cart, I thought "wait a minute." Why are the local chickens charging me $4.29 when I can buy mainland eggs for $2.94? But I bought the local ones anyway.

I'm trying to take my own cloth bags to the stores here. Discovered one store gives me .03 cents credit per bag I bring in, and the other gives me .05 for using my own bag. Whoo hoo! I can put that towards the electric bill...

Well, UT won a football game yesterday, 34-3, probably saving Phil Fulmer's job. Vandy lost to Georgia, but they're still in good shape. The Titans are winning so far today. My fantasy team is doing abysmally, but I've gotten used to that this year. It's still fun. Winning is more fun, though...

We're still making progress on the house, a little bit every week. I took a lot of stuff to Goodwill yesterday, pillows, old bedspreads, shoes, purses, CDs and DVDs. There's an attendant there who made comments on all my stuff. He wanted to know why I was getting rid of the DVD's and CD's. I told him I had the music on my iPod and didn't want the CDs any more. When I brought out all the bags of bedding, he said, "you're really cleaning out." Oh, for an un-attended Goodwill drop point...

Some of this stuff, I don't know how it made it out of Australia. But once it got to England and was in our flat there with its 25 steps up to the front door, it pretty much stayed there. However, here, it's easy to get rid of extra stuff, so I'm trying to do that, have more room for Hawaii souvenirs!

Next time - more on the curtains (might even manage some pix) and more on the symphony chorus!

Domestic Happenings

First, a new picture of the pool and the new ugly, but imminently useful, chaise lounge. I have enjoyed both very much this weekend.

I have also purchased a "floor buddy", which looks a bit like a cloth hot pad. Mine is in the shape of a turtle and has a flip-flop-like thong top to it. The bottom is terry cloth. It's designed to help you wipe up water or spills on the floor using your foot. Very handy... Some of you might find one in your Xmas package...

By the way, whatever made wood floors so popular... Ours are very pretty, but the bottom of my white socks makes me wince. No more on that...

I bought Cooking Light's "5 ingredient 15 minute" cookbook recently and have had very good luck with that. In England, the stores were great with packaging main dishes already seasoned that just needed to be popped in the oven. I don't think I cooked a "normal" meal the whole two years we were there.

Alas, those days are gone. But this cookbook helps greatly with the gap. Not only does it have recipes for main dishes, but it also suggests side dishes, and sometimes a bread or dessert. Chris asked "why all the cooking?", and I told him it was easy. Everything's right there for me. I don't have to figure out what put with what.

Now, the book does mislead a bit... Some of the recipes definitely have more than 5 ingredients. And I can't really do any of them in 15 minutes, but I can do most in less than 30. Some dishes have been better than others, but none have been bad.

Tonight, I put diced chicken and salsa in a skillet and heated that up, while boiling wagon wheel pasta. When the pasta was ready, I put the chicken/salsa mixture over the wagon wheels and then topped it with Monterey Jack cheese. Chris went back for seconds.

I opened up a pita bread and put it in the oven to crisp it (never would have thought of that on my own). Dessert was blueberries and strawberries topped with a mixture of vanilla yogurt and honey. Chris wasn't too fond of the yogurt mixture, but I thought it was pretty good.



I also made a balsamic-and-honey sauce for chicken with a broccoli-couscous mixture. Another dish was similar to the wagon wheel pasta, where I used elbow macaroni, ground turkey, diced tomatoes, corn, and taco seasoning. Another winner.

And since we live so close to several take-out restaurants and the Safeway which is open 24 hours, it's virtually risk-free cooking. If dinner doesn't work out, help is just across the street...

I'll close with another shot of the pool. I did have one of me on the chaise lounge, but there was just too much large white leg. Not a good picture to go along with a posting largely about food....

Next posting - we get even more domestic and hang curtains...

Celebrating Columbus Day

I've already satisfied a couple of quests of my own (like Columbus), and fortunately didn't have to travel that far to do so.

I had looked for a nice chaise lounge for the poolside and finally gave up and decided to just get something cheap that could be easily folded away. Our pool deck area is so lovely the way it is, and I was afraid a large piece of furniture would just mar the tranquility. So I looked at Kmart, Home Depot, but finally found the perfect thing at Walmart (where else). It's cheap, plastic, ugly, but looks great with a towel on it and fits nicely in one of our outdoor closets. I bought two.

Yesterday afternoon after a hard day of shopping (took Friday off), I enjoy my new chaise lounge by the pool, reading a book and drifting in and out of naps. I jumped in the pool first to cool off and then just lounged. It was lovely.

I fulfilled another quest by buying a Vera Bradley purse with some birthday money from a cousin (thanks, Jo Ann!). And I finally found Crazy Mike's furniture.

We still need several pieces of furniture to make the place more liveable, and there aren't a lot of choices on the island. I found a pretty bedside table last week, but not for $599. And since we'd need two, I'm definitely not spending $1200 just for two little tables. So while poking around on the internet, I found Crazy Mike's website.

Finding Crazy Mike's storefront, though, was another story. The address is a major street that I travel on often, and I vaguely remembered seeing a truck with "Crazy Mike's" on the side. On my way back from the fancy Ala Moana mall (where the Vera Bradley store is), I crawled along, sticking to the right, looking for the truck.

I finally saw not one Crazy Mike truck but two, so pulled into a side street and into the parking lot. The entrance was tucked away in a corner, with lots of furniture piled around it. Signs indicated the showroom was upstairs.

It was what I expected from a discount furniture showroom with stuff everywhere. But there was a little cohesion to their stuff and I found where the bedroom furniture was. Mike had several options for a chest of drawers and nightstand, but I didn't think any of them would look good with our sleigh bed. I could hear a man and little boy goofing around in the main part of the showroom as I left the bedroom area.

I thought they were customers, but apparently he was some kind of salesman (perhaps even Mike himself) since he started in the furniture salesman bit. "What are you looking for," and when I said, "just poking around," he started to guess what I was looking for.

A note on furniture salespeople - I find them creepy. I've gone into several stores here, and there's usually one manning the door. They welcome me to the store and ask what I'm looking for. I do my usual "just looking around." Then they follow me for a few steps, and often ask another question, and I give them no eye contact and another "Just poking around."

Then they follow me, in a surveillance kind of way. Every time I look around, they're somewhere nearby. But they'll seem to be polishing a table or something. I wonder if this is part of the application for furniture salesmen. Do they stick applicants on the street and have them tail somebody for twenty minutes? Then they'll hire them? I feel like sticking a wig in my purse and putting it on around a corner, just to shake 'em.

Anyway, Crazy Mike's salesman was no more subtle than Crazy Mike's ads. He seemed irritated at my "just poking around" comments, yelling things after me. "They custom fit these sofas if you want a sofa." Besides, the fact that he was babysitting a 2-year-old boy who was literally bouncing off the sofas didn't exactly make me want to deal with him either.

So, yes, I found Crazy Mike's and can now mark it off my list as a place for furniture. I will close for the moment to watch the agonies of UT football since the UT-Georgia came has just begun, but stay tuned for more Columbus Day weekend happenings and some pictures...

Election thougths and news on the 'hood

If you're looking for balanced coverage on the candidates that actually discusses and contrasts their views and policies, as opposed to what Sara Palin's wardrobe says about her (yes, I found an article like that on some American news site... *sigh*) , try www.economist.com. They have a lengthy briefing on the American election that I found very useful.

Now for some more info on the general neighborhood where we live. We are in the middle of Oahu. We’re surrounded by lush mountain views, though in places we can also look down to the Pearl Harbor area and see some ocean. In off-peak traffic, Waikiki is abt 45 minutes away. If we drive about 10 minutes north, we can start to see the North Shore coastline, and in 20 minutes we can be at those beaches. (In case those facts are of interest for any prospective visitors…)

We’re also about 12 minutes from work, and just 1.5 miles away from the Town Center shopping area. We’ve got a lot of convenience right nearby, and it’s not a bad trip to go do something more fun. And there’s so much beauty around us. There are a couple of places on the way to work that are just breathtakingly gorgeous with mountains and trees. It’s a nice way to start the day.

Our particular neighborhood was built in the mid-70’s, so most of the houses are 30-35 years old. Ours has been added onto over the years and completely remodeled in the last year, so it looks like a new house. We have almost 2300 square feet, but the houses were originally built with about 1100. Most are one-story, though some people have remodeled and added a second floor or a garage.

Most of us in this neighborhood have carports instead of garages, and most of them seem full of cars! With living here being so expensive, and with Hawaiian family tradition, a lot of people seem to live in one house! And they all seem to have a car. We have a different one parked in front of our house every night. Sometimes it’s a white Mercedes. Today it was a blue Lexus.

The age and condition of some of the houses made me a little nervous about our neighborhood the first time I saw it, but the nice cars were reassuring that we weren’t moving into a dicey area. Still, we’re one of the few houses that only has two cars in its parking area. Many have three or four crammed into the carport. And of course most people seem to have a big fancy pickup, too, another way in which we are behind the neighbors…

One of our next door neighbors has one of the worst looking houses. The one redeeming factor is the cute family of dogs that they have, though we never see anyone pay attention to the dogs, besides me. I hang over the fence and say “hello” to them. There’s a mom, dad and 3 half-grown pups. They’re sweethearts and rarely bark, but the owner doesn’t keep up after them. Dog poop is everywhere all over the back yard, and the grass is almost non-existent.

The neighbor doesn’t have much in the way of grass in the front yard, either, but the other Saturday he was up at 8:30 with a weed whacker. We couldn’t figure out why he was disturbing our morning… They also have an old Toyota truck parked on the street that never moves, complete with blocks under the back wheels.

We don’t have central a/c in our house, which is fairly common for Hawaii (also a fact any prospective visitors may want to note…). It can get warm in the afternoon, but there's always a breeze and the mornings and evenings are very pleasant.

But the one thing about living with your windows open all the time – you hear everything that goes on! We know when our neighbor goes to work every morning. Early. Another neighbor likes to party and has a friend or relative with a really, really annoying laugh.

And of course there’s the pool when you need to cool off! I was swimming at night a few days ago, and still can’t quite believe we have this wonderful pool. Even when we’re not in it, it’s great to just sit here and enjoy looking at it.

But all our houses are close together, so I probably won’t be doing any skinny dipping. There are usually fences between each house, but they’re not really high. We have a back fence, too, that hides us from the main road, but people can see over it.

We live right across the street from a small strip shopping center. It has a Safeway, a Longs Drugs, several takeout places, a nail salon (Chris often comments on the number of nail salons in Hawaii), and the Palace Buffet Korean BBQ (which mars our view of the mountains. *sigh*) But I’m lovin’ the convenience of having those things so close by!

I walked up to the Town Center for grins to see how long that took on foot, and I was there in a leisurely 27 minutes. There’s a larger grocery store there, a WalMart, several sitdown restaurants including Chilis and Ruby Tuesdays, and lots of small shops, several banks, and several doctors. The main bus pickup point is also there, and I might try that sometime to get to the big fancy mall, to see how that is instead of fighting the traffic myself.

And for those of you who look forward to my weekend football report, UT won, Vanderbilt is a historic 5-0, the Titans are also 5-0 and as I write, Dallas is beating up on Cincinnati.

Random Saturday thoughts...

It was a pleasure watching college football today, because I was watching Vanderbilt go a historic 5-0 over Auburn, as opposed to Tennessee, who appeared to struggle against its non-conference Northern Illinois opponent. I'm actually grateful that one wasn't on television... Still, I am glad to be able to cheer for some college team from the state of Tennessee.

I went grocery shopping today and then called my mom to do a price check. She spent $500 in all of September to buy groceries and other supplies (laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc.) for three people. My trip to Safeway today cost me $197.94, and that was using my Club card to get discounts, and that was for 2 people for one week.

When I told her my grocery bill, she paused a moment, and asked me for how many months was I buying these provisions?

Then we went through a few items. A box of Nutrigrain bars - $5.55. "I think I pay about $2.50 for mine," she said. A 10 oz box of couscous - $3.89. "I know I didn't pay that." A half gallon of whole milk - $4.79. A pause on her end. "That's really expensive." A 4-pack of Charmin toilet paper - $4.99. "Were those at least the double rolls?" I think so. A variety pack of melon chunks - $9.99 "Good heavens." That's about as strong a talk as Mama gets.

I told her that I got one thing that I thought was a bargain, a can of diced tomatoes for $1.25. A pause on her end. I can sense this was no bargain. "Was that a name brand?" Yes, Hunt's. The Safeway brand was $2.59 a can. "Good heavens. I think I paid .58 at Walmart for their store brand."

I think I'm going to have to just go home and bring back a suitcase of staples. As a United frequent flyer, I can check bags for free.

Really rantin' now about Citibank...

I'm at Sears shopping for curtain rods. I pull out my Citibank United Airlines Miles card. It is denied, for a relatively small charge of $95.24. This is odd. I just checked the account a few days ago and paid the bill.

When I get home, I call the number on my card. I talk to Phillip. He tells me the fraud advisor saw something on the card, tried to call me, couldn't reach me, and has closed the account. Phillip and I go through the usual drill, address, phone number, last payment, mother's maiden name, day of my last period, the whole bit. Then we go through the last few charges, again, all small, and all legit.

But my account is still canceled and they will be sending me another card with a new number.

Next, I get a recording telling me some kind of mess. That really makes me mad. Don't cost me cell phone minutes for that.

I call back to talk to a fraud advisor. When I finally get through to one, I explain that I want to know what caused them to cancel my card. He won't or can't tell me. He says even though there were no fraudulent charges on my card, they receive "reports," one of which indicated that my card was a possibility for fraud. But no further information.

I suspect it's the fact that I have updated the address info twice on the card in the past three months. Once for the temporary PO box address we set up before we moved, and then more recently for the move to our house. But I just want someone to tell me that. And if that's what caused them to make the decision, fine.

Or has something happened because of the Macy's card that I just applied for this week? Now, without knowing their concern, I feel like I have to check all my financial records and possibly even sign up for one of those identity theft services. It's unnerving not knowing what they saw that spooked them.

I can't believe I'm not entitled to know more details about some potential fraudulent situation so threatening that they just closed my account. Didn't even send me an e-mail, which is odd, too, since I get lots of e-mail from Citibank about my account.

So that's what I'll be doing for part of my weekend. Here's hoping you have more fun with yours....