painting the town (or rather, the bunks...) red

At the main base house in Haiku (just a short drive from where i live in Paia) we have a girls dormitory room with three tier bunks for the students of our discipleship training school. Since erecting these necessary, albeit unfortunate, structures we have not the room emptied of occupants long enough to slap on a coat of paint to at least make the beds less of an eyesore. This week was a miraculous window of time for us to get the job done. With the students arriving in just a week to fill these beds, we recruited every staff member that could be spared from their usual work and we painted the bunks a mean shade of "dusty brick mauve", as we christened our curious colored paint. It was quite an undertaking, and there is bound to be some more time put in tomorrow, however the bulk of the task got accomplished in a single afternoon. We painted our darnedest- and, as you can see, had a decent amount of fun in the process:)

(Good thing it wasn't an oil based paint:)

Cool cats of all stripes

Just a few shots of the cool cats I hang with around here...

Vivian is the base cat and i like to pet her whenever I am up at the offices- its theraputic. She spends her days lazily stalking rats and geckos. We recently have suspected she has taken up snorkeling...?

These be-coin-skirted ones are the girls that i do zumba class with... yeah, we're wild ones;) Stoked to have the opportunity to spend time with these women, even if most of the time we are busy sweating- and shaking those coins!

Whether camping, painting a bathroom, or sitting on the roof of the van watching the stars, I seemed to find myself in the company of both Jasmine and Jason all summer. And i wouldn't have had it any other way- these friendships have proved as sweet as the summer day is long.

101 times posting blogs on the web, 101 postings of blog...

...Take one down, pass it around, 101 postings of blogs on the web!

For 101 ways to write a blog, please review the entirety of my blog archives- because this is my 101-st blog post since starting my Squirrel Vision site last year. Welcome to Blog 101!

And with that brief brilliant bar song salute to the relative longevity of this blog out of the way, I will maybe post a few recent random pics as an after-party in the form of blog 102.

See you there!

(And thanks for reading!!!)

Geo-caching!

If you have never heard of geo-caching, thats fairly normal.

Its an activity popularized by the widespread availability of GPS technology on the consumer market in recent years. Geo-caching is basically running around with a GPS device, visiting location coordinates people have posted on a main internet website. People post coordinates after stashing something at a given location...so you are there to find their hidden treasure! Once you reach the location directed by the GPS coordinates, you hunt around for anything that looks slightly unusual...sometimes the website even gives you a clue of what to look for. Once you find the treasure you open it (its often a small container of some kind) sign the visitors log, and then have the option of taking something out or leaving something inside (at one we took a keychain and left a guitar pick). Our several stops ranged from a tupperware hidden under some coral rock by a beach parking lot, and an ice cream bucket covered in a heap of pine needles in a vacant lot, to a thimble sized magnetic capsule at a crosswalk in the middle of town! It was like a scavenger hunt trying to find these hidden items, since the GPS coordinates only get you within about twenty feet of the target! I even have battle scars- I walked into a tree branch in the vacant lot and gave myself a bruise/cut my forehead! Haha. It was worth it- we had a good time:)

Our GPS device

Jason and I in a sea of dune plants- right where the coordinates led us.

Discovering the cache under a stump and some coral rocks!

Investigating the contents of the small tupperware container...

And signing the visitors log! Our first geo-cache success! Yay!

Interestingly, my family has been doing a low-tech version of this activity for years! We had a "family treasure" hidden in the Black Hills that we would revisit regularly on vacations- film capsules full of notes and coins etc. buried under a rock, after a cattle grate, off a certain scenic road... we would pace off the steps from the fence post and find the rock and reclaim our treasure. And we even would give family friends that vacationed there our cryptic directions and let them participate in our tradition. They could hunt down the treasure, and then leave their own notes and mementos. Haha- guess we have been low tech geo-caching for awhile!

Just another evidence that there is nothing new under the sun, I guess. Not even geo-caching.

On a very very different note

Its not often anymore that I just sit down and spin out poetry, and it seems most of my prose and short stories languish half written in infrequently visited folders on my laptop. But the other day as I was praying, the following verses just sort of flew out and I thought that as a relief from all the tales of pedes in paradise, I would share these thoughts with you.

To the Sun;

How can you keep rising

beholding all you do?

Why still do you shed your light

seeing all thats done under you?

Generation after generation,

you go on arching overhead,

watching from on high

as the living become the dead.

How can you keep silent,

will all you behold from the skies?

How is it that we hear no sound,

do you stifle all your cries?

No one would blame you,

if you spun away in wrath,

if you veered away in anger

from your ancient vaulted path.

Regardless of earth’s depravity,

you have persevered and kept your peace,

despite the mounting sins of man,

and evil that does not cease.

Surely you have been grieved

by our transgressions as we pass around,

You stand by in your silence,

like a witness gagged and bound.

No one could blame you,

if you came down from on high,

if burning you consumed us,

in indignation blazing from the sky.

Do you indeed keep silent watch,

patient with the affront that is our race?

Or does He daily comfort you

and restrain you in your place?

maybe its me

So to add to all the fun around the house, the bathroom is having one of its fits. Our shower drain never gets clogged without our toilet suddenly turning on us as well- like they coordinate their sabotage efforts. When it rains it pours. But then, maybe its a blessing in disguise: if they break at the same time, I only have to make one call to the head of the maintenance crew:) Anyhow, the bathroom is having a tantrum. The shower won't drain and the toilet is wildly seeping water from its base, unless we turn off the water and then we can't flush it. (This is a chronic condition we have pulled the whole unit out to fix more times than i can count.) Happily there is an alternate toilet and shower in another part of the house to get us by- so no worries...the situation is inconvenient but not dire.

Well, this evening I went to the mall with my friend and decided to use the restroom quickly. When I was preparing to leave my stall, i flushed the toilet and suddenly water was gushing from the base of the toilet! I grabbed my purse and fled before the tide reached my cowboy booted feet. So there I was, miles from my creaky old house with its runny toilet- and the mall toilet malfunctions the exact same way? Seriously? What are the chances? I mean, what's the common denominator here? I always thought it was just the nature of the house- our rustic shower, the ancient plumbing... but maybe its me!

I am sure the maintenance crew will get to our toilet soon- they already plunged the shower back to functionality. But after the mall incident, I am left with lingering suspicions...wondering if behind the duplicate toilet tantrums runs a theme something like a stereotypical relationship conversation: its not you- its me.

Birthday no.29- the dinner with friends

The finale for the day was a late dinner at the Flatbread Co. down the street- their kalua pork and goat cheese wood fire oven pizza is amazing. My friends made it so much fun and very memorable- every one of them made me feel special:) I am very blessed to have these people around me...and to have the amazing family and other friends that texted, called and emailed all day as well! Thank you each for a wonderful day.

In closing, it wouldn't be a true story unless I mentioned that when it was all over and we finally said goodnight- Jasmine and I killed yet another centipede...and then killed a scorpion about than ten minutes later. Sheesh. The exoskeletal contingent really came out in force to recognize my birthday today... horrid little party crashers.

But even a spike in the Kill Tally (posted on Jasmine's door) isn't enough to put a damper on my great day- just really was pleased with the low key quality time with friends, and all their little tokens of thoughtfulness were sweet too.

Pedes and other beasts aside, I have to say- I have really enjoyed my first day of being 29.

Birthday no.29- the cake(s)

The folks at the base made me a cake...but apparently that process is kind of a long story. The basic tale they told is that last night maybe one too many people got involved in the baking and it turned into a crumbling fiasco that some people tried to fix with frosting. Three cans of it. It got ridiculous so they made another cake altogether. They gave me both cakes this morning and after our prayer meeting we all ate cake for breakfast. Haha.

Haha- the cakes are amazing. It looks like i should be turning four or something:)

Yay for cake for breakfast!

Birthday no.29- the day's first gift

Today I turned 29. I woke up to a sweet text message from a friend, and went to wash my face. There on the mirror was a message from Jasmine:

If you struggle to read that, it says: "Liz- for your birthday, Pterodactyl [our running joke-a plastic dinosaur] caught something for you! Love you and Happy Birthday! Check my door- oh, and its safe."

Jasmine's door:

Mmm. Happy birthday to me from Pterodactyl. Like when your cat brings you a dead lizard.

I thought you may need a size reference so I added this picture. Even without his head (and however much of his body she discarded, he is so disturbing. He is almost as fat as a Sharpie and a bit longer (even headless.) The worst is that they still move and stuff without their heads- they just can't bite. But its still very disturbing.

(Con: exoskeletal creeper tacked to your friend's door. Pro: It can only get better from there ;)

Birthday no. 29 is officially underway.

the reluctant enthusiast

Once upon a time, my friend Holly from church told me she had gotten certified as a Zumba fitness instructor- and the conversation led to someone proposing a group of us girls be her guinea pig class. Wanting to be supportive (and plotting to bail out later once she felt confident and established in her instructing skills) I volunteered enthusiastically to attend a Zumba class to be held in our other friend Mandy's house. Well, I hardly knew what i was in for.

If you aren't familiar with Zumba you may be a little out of touch. Its a fitness craze (like a fad thats good for you) thats had ridiculous success worldwide- a fusion of aerobics and latin/hiphop/world dance to a blend of house mixed international rhythms, Zumba's slogan is: Ditch the workout, join the party!

Well, I joined the party alright.

Of all the people to end up doing Zumba, I nominate myself among the least likely. I used to do cardio kick boxing and enjoyed that, but...Zumba? Really? But once i got going with Holly's class, i started looking forward to meeting all the women to talk story, sweat like mad for an hour trying to keep up with the impossible tempo, and laugh ALOT. I may not look amazing when i try to shake it, but once i got over myself it was just plain fun to dance around and know i was getting serious exercise in the process!

Now we come to the most hilarious part of the story, where you will want to laugh. I can't really get into the whole story of why this is so funny, but heres the gist of it. Zumba flavor is modified slightly by every different locality and even every instructor- thats part of the nature of it. Well, the Maui version tends to have a little bit of extra hula hips thrown in, and in addition they like to highlight that shaking with tying arabian style coin scarfs around their hips. I outright refused- that was far too silly. I mean, doing an aerobic hip hop cha-cha with jingly things swishing around my backside? You have to draw the line somewhere, right? Well, i consented to try it one night just to have authority to it. Unfortunately, it turns out that i felt it improved my ability to keep in time with the rhythm and know if i was doing the motions right...the little "swish, swish, snap!" was oddly helpful. I relented.

To console myself, i ordered my coin scarf in leopard print. (It felt more like quirky me, and marginally less like an out of place arabian nights costume.) It arrived today. And I hate to admit it, but it makes me really excited for my next class:)

fun with da fishes

So, I missed the first round of fish dinner the other day due to an unfortunate series of events mostly centering on missed text messages.... but I need never have feared- round two was near! Yes, tonight the fish cooking party resumed in our kitchen- and not only did it provide our dinner, but also hours of entertainment! Haha. Maybe too much entertainment...

Trevor took on attempting to fillet the sea beasts (with knives borrowed from our neighbors since all of ours were too dull)

While Jasmine was on skin removal duty and Mary-ann cut fresh mangoes. (What was I doing during all this culinary fiasco? Mixing a marinade for one of our dishes called poke- the hawaiian name for marinated raw seafood!)

Um, is it supposed to look like this? (Emeril would cry.) What matters is that we succeeded.

Fish dentistry?

Fishy kissy faces (Like i said: maybe too much fun.)

The food all turned out great- we even took mangoes and poke over to the neighbors when we returned their knives. (Dubious moral of the story: If your non-criminal neighbor asks to borrow a knife, loan it to them- they may bring you tropical fruit and fresh fish when they return it!)

the journey of the red fish (or A night in the life of a dead fish)

Dead...

chosen...

prepared...

cooked...

eaten...

gone!

bigger fish to fry

The guys continue to spend Saturday mornings out spearfishing- and have enjoyed the occasional bountiful catch. But today was decidedly an impressive haul. Apparently, it was a little like the story in the gospels-

"Sons, have you caught any fish?"

"No sir, we have swam two miles and caught nothing all morning."

"Shoot your spears by the outer reef. You will catch some there. Come in my boat. I will take you. Would you like a donut?"

Okay- so it kind of diverges from the Luke 5 account at that point, but still:) Thats to be expected when its not the Lord himself talking...but one of His own. While fishing the guys were picked up by a Fijian man that turned out to be a believer, fishing guru, and former YWAMer (back in his country). He befriended Brett and Trevor- and under his easy going and generous tutelage, they brought back a catch that, if not nearly sinking the man's boat, easily overflowed his cooler. Giddy with excitement, they regaled my friend Sue and I with the stories of the morning while we cleaned the fish. Yes, I say we because I myself gutted and scaled a fish. Effectively and quickly, I might add. (And Trevor owes me a coffee for it.)

I am just excited to cook them later on- i like cooking, and fresh fish grilled or broiled is always amazing.

The guys with their impressive catch from a morning at the outer reef.

Easily the largest fish I have seen they bring home...all the better for cooking up!

Fish scaling: Watch 'em fly! Its all fun and games until someone gets a scale in the eye...

(seems we should be more worried about the knife in his hand!)

Paia-ites want to have their (gluten free) cake and eat it too

O, the ironies of "tolerance". Welcome to Paia.

the shower situation

Since my shower is something of a legend, and so many people struggle to picture the arrangement which i frequently describe in passing... i thought this may be one of those cases when a picture is worth a thousand words.

So now, by popular demand, i give you... my shower.