New Year's Eve

Once again, Barbara, Steve, Megan, and Shannon were here for their annual New Year's visit. We had New Year's Eve dinner here at home and watched the neighbors shoot off fireworks. It's the Wild Wild West here on New Year's Eve!

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, this is what we see at Costco:

EVERY cart except mine is loaded for bare:

We had a lovely dinner with a few good friends, and most of us were in bed before midnight. 

Steve C, Donna, Megan, Barbara, Steve S, and Dana

Barbara and Steve

Dana and Barbara

Happy Birthday, Sophie

Saturday the 13th was Sophie's 2nd birthday.

Her California cousins -- Hannah, McKenna, and Walter --  sent her indestructible dog toys, which she promptly destroyed. This made her VERY happy.

This toy:                                                 Quickly became this:

The rope toy presented more of a challenge.
Instructions for playing with a rope toy...

Step 1: Grasp rope with teeth

Step 2: Get a firm grasp with hands

Step 3: Begin pulling...

Step 4: KEEP pulling!

SUCCESS: Notice tiny thread between teeth.

Mele Kalikimaka!!!

It's Christmas time again and I am miraculously ahead of the curve! I have already finished my decorations and shopping, and I'm doing my best to get Christmas cards to everyone.

This year, I went with a small tree and a tropical theme...

In the front yard, we have vacationing penguins enjoying the wonderful Hawaii weather...

Mele Kalikimaka!

Tenting for Termites

I now live in the tropics. Bugs love the tropics. Termites are bugs. Ergo...

Was it a Halloween prank? Did the circus come to town? I'm sure very few people were even curious, as these tents are a common sight. Everyone here gets termites sooner or later.

It took a week to pack up the house, move out for two days, and then move everything back. And by everything, I mean:

• Anything edible from the kitchen and pantry, and also anything from the bathroom that might ever be ingested - toothpaste, medications, cough syrup, even aspirin..., and all the dog/fish/bird food.
• All my lanai plants. Apparently the gas is very hard on orchids in particular.
• I have huge flower pots that serve as fish ponds on both the upper and lower lanais. I had to relocate the fish to a makeshift pond far away from the house. They did not go willingly.

Sophie spent two days at Paws having fun. Except for all the commotion of the packing and unpacking, she wasn't bothered by this at all. I spent the one night at the Royal Kona trying not to worry about a thing. Here was the view from my room:

Aloha y'all!

Queen Sophie

Sophie just gets better and better every day. She is quite queenly, as you can see...

I recently had my lounge chairs refurbished, and of course she had to check them out...

Sophie at the Beach

Most beaches on the island don't allow dogs, but not too far from our house is a dedicated dog beach. Here are pics of Sophie making a new friend, a Rottweiler girl named Isis.

 
  


Aloha, y'all!

Hurricane Iselle

Mahalo to everyone who emailed or texted to check up on me during Hurricane Iselle. She certainly threatened to bring heavy wind and rain to the Kona area, but she totally missed us. The Hilo side of the island got hit pretty hard, and Maui got its fair share, but Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa protected us here in Kona.

We got virtually NO rain, and here's a little video of the most windy afternoon of the entire hurricane.

Nothing to get excited about, huh?