Top 10 things to do without power

Top 10 things to do without power (for Earth Hour):

10:  Try to figure out what time it is on the mainland without using world clocks on my iPhone.
9:  Use words to describe things instead of just "hey look at this!" attached to digital photo.
8:  Step way from the seductive glow of the laptop screen & look out an actual window.
7:  Concoct libations without blender. Check. Martini shaker allowed. :)
6:  Concoct libations without ice. AK! :( Wait, where's the corkscrew?
5:  Ponder environmental impact of whale oil lamps. How far does the no-power regress go?
4:  Strike "clean bathroom" off to-do list because no light. Embrace power of procrastination.
3:  Wonder how to tell when hour is over. Sundial not functional in dark.
2:  Wonder if drinking warm wine in the dark without consulting Twitter counts as meditation.
1:  Oh come on, the hard thing was coming up the the other 9!

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Kuhio Day at the beach

Today is a state holiday in Hawaii, in honor of Prince Kuhio. We took an afternoon walk to the beach. It was pretty windy, which is good kite boarding weather. Kites were lined up all down the beach waiting for their turn to take off.
Some of the kite surfers jumped up in the air.


Kuhio Day at the beach

Multiple boat day

I stopped by Aloha Tower this afternoon after work for a martini before catching a bus across the Pali back to Kailua. A fairly large private sail boat was tied up just next to my table.
To my right, TheBoat was loading. It is part of the Honolulu transit system, along with TheBus.
Behind the private boat, a large cargo ship came into the harbor.
It was turned around by a very small tug boat.

Cargo ship moved by tug into place in Honolulu harbor

Just then, TheBoat returned for its second trip.
On my left, a large cruise ship prepared to depart.
This is SO fun!

Formerly Famous Amos

The man who founded Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, Wally Amos, has a store in Kailua, Hawaii called Chip & Cookie.  He was standing in front of the store delivery truck at a local car dealership when we walked home just now.  Every Saturday, he comes to the store to read stories to children.

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Food trucks

[This was originally posted in December, but a news story today discussed the same thing so I'm reposting it with the story linked.]

At noon, a truck pulls up behind the building where I work. Next to the UPS, FedEx and other delivery trucks, it opens a side window and begins to serve lunch.Across the island, lunch trucks sell plate lunches.
An AP story today described what plate lunches are when talking about Obama food favorites:

Eat at Obama Favorite Isle Spots Link

This one in Kailua specializes in curry. It also provides an outdoor table or two with umbrellas.The truck next to it provides tacos!This is my favorite, though. It is in Honolulu just down Kapiolani from the Ala Moana Mall.The guy inside opens the window and reaches out to the grill to cook steaks. See anything you like on the menu?

Wild things

A bunch of bird-duck feathered things live in the Hamakua Marsh in Kailua.They wander around the area. One morning, a couple was in the Foodland parking lot.The male pretended to be cleaning his feathers but he actually was giving me what they call here "stink eye".
Official wildlife areas aren't the only places you find animals wandering around the island. This canal runs through Kailua. There are a bunch of ducks who live there.
These women were feeding water birds near the Kailua dam.
Chickens live all over the island. Feral chickens that just hang out along roadsides. Feral roosters tend to annoy people with their random crowing but a lot of people leave food out for them.
There are new signs on campus not to feed the cats or birds.Even though cats hang out all over campus, the birds are pretty aggressive pan-handlers. Maybe it's because the cats don't seem all that interested in eating them.

Spring weather

The weather has been a little unpredictable lately, unlike the steady stream of 80 degree days through summer and fall. Several days in a row were rainy. It felt cold and I broke out the winter hoodie, but really it was just in the upper 70's. When the sun returned, it was like spring after a long, harsh winter :)

Football playing on the UH lawn near the bus stop.

Games at the Y where I change to the bus headed for the windward side of the island.

Guitar jam on the lawn outside my condo.

And the tree outside my door, again. It's still pretty.

Sculpture friends

Since the statues of people talking outside the law school were in the "direction" post and Elvis has made an appearance, I decided to show a couple more of my favorite people. First, "The Conversation" folks wearing decorations:


Someone also put a hat on the tubing girl in Kailua. She was wearing swim goggles recently and frequently has a lei.

There is a dancer resting outside the auditorium across from the arts academy.

But this is my absolute favorite -- unposed and accidentally perfect.

The Coolest Tree Ever

I walk by this tree every morning from the bus to campus but today I noticed flowers blooming amid the "branches".

The trunk looks like a normal tree, and there are leaves way up high but in the middle is this bramble bush. It was just above my head.
I think I took a picture of the small, round pods awhile ago and I wondered what they would turn into.

According to its name tag, the tree is protected by a city ordinance and was planted by Thornton Wilder. I wonder where he got it?

I should look up more often!

Diamond Head is a direction

I love directions on Hawaii! It is hard to tell which way is North because the island is odd shaped and not set on an axis. But it is easy to tell if you are headed for towards the mountains or the sea. So those are the directions: makai is toward the sea and mauka is towards the mountains.
This sign in the Ala Moana parking lot tells me my car is on the side nearest the mountains (mauka). See, there are the mountains!
In Honolulu, the other two directions are towards Diamond Head or towards Ewa (which used to be a plantation so has been a landmark for a long time before it turned into a neighborhood). So, the sign also says my hypothetical car is on the side towards Diamond Head (easterly).
The food court doors also tell you which side of the mall you are on.
This directional sign is on campus near the law school. It points to the mountains. The other side points west-ish.

"Diamond Head" or "Eva" don't really make sense outside Honolulu but mauka and makai are used everywhere. "Kai" means ocean so it is part of many words in Hawaii.

The King

There is a huge statue of King Kamehameha in downtown Honolulu. I caught the bus nearby this morning. In keeping with the bilingual nature of Honolulu, the "Keep off the Grass" signs are in English and Japanese.Just last week, I passed by the other King statue in Honolulu.Elvis is closer to the ground -- it would take a crane to get leis around Kamehameha's neck.The plaques note that "Aloha from Hawaii" was the world's first satellite concert January 14, 1973. That concert was the first time I was interested in Elvis -- he was old school when I was growing up. I was far more interested in the Beatles. The statue sure recalls his white star-studded suit!