San Jose Visit Postmortem

Thank you to everyone who made time to visit with me when I was in San Jose. You kept me busy with lunches and dinners, and Jen and I even had our normal movie night! I got to visit many of my favorite restaurants and enjoyed a few new ones! (I highly recommend DishDash at McCarthy Ranch.)

And special thanks to Barbara, who put me up for the week while she was sick with a nasty Bay Area Sickness. And she was kind enough not to give it to me!

My suitcase was full of edible Hawaiian goodies on the way TO San Jose, and on the way back home, it was full of birthday presents. 

It was a very busy week, and I loved seeing all of you, but I was happy to come home to Sophie and our quiet island life. Sophie spent the week at Paws playing with all her friends from dawn to dusk, and she was one tired puppy when I got her home. She and I both took lots of naps those first couple of days.

Now we're looking forward to visits from YOU!

Aloha y'all!

Dengue Fever Update

We're almost out of the woods with the Dengue Fever outbreak on the Big Island. Kona and Hilo are no longer considered "hot spots," and, in another week or so with no new infections, they will give the entire island a clean bill of health. It takes 4 weeks of no new cases for the CDC to declare the outbreak officially over.

This outbreak started in October, and, according to Dr. Barbara, five months is typical for the life of an outbreak.

As ominous as the name "Dengue Fever" sounds, it really wasn't that bad. Apparently Dengue is nothing compared to the Zika virus that we're hearing about now. THERE IS NO ZIKA ON THE BIG ISLAND!!

The Big Island is safe - plan your vacations!

Aloha y'all!

Visiting San Jose in February

I'll be in San Jose for work from February 13th-18th.
Let's try to get together for lunch or dinner!

Here's my current schedule:
I arrive late in the evening on Friday the 12th.

13th Saturday        Lunch: Beth               Dinner: Barbara L

14th Sunday           Lunch: Carol & Gary   Dinner: Patsy

15th Monday          Lunch: in Training      Dinner: Daniela

16th Tuesday         Lunch: in Training      Dinner: Anita & Jacquelyn

17th Wednesday    Lunch: Barbara G        Dinner: Pride+Prejudice+Zombies

18th Thursday       Lunch: Jana                Dinner: Jen & Emma

I leave early Friday morning.

Hope to see you soon!

Typical Sunday at the Beach

Winter time here is excellent beach time. And nobody loves the beach more than Sophie. I got a little carried away with videos this weekend...

((Duke is Sophie's boyfriend du jour.))

Sophie demands that somebody throw her toy!
Duke's dad comes to the rescue.

Sophie and Duke do NOT eat the babies

Don't blink or you'll miss Duke and Sophie streaking by

Sophie Swims!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been taking Sophie to the dog beach for almost her entire life. She loves to play with the many dogs there and, after the first couple of visits, she was happy to get in the water... up to a point. She has always refused to go in over her head. I knew that she could swim from the occasional times when a wave lifted her up and forced her to swim back to shallower water. But until Christmas Day she never went in far enough to bring back the toys we threw. She always let other dogs win that prize.

And then this week, a Christmas miracle happened! She suddenly decided that it was time to swim in the deep end. And there was no stopping her !

Kitchen Remodel Completion

It took forever, but the kitchen is finally done!

Among other delays, my cabinet guy was out sick for three weeks with Dengue Fever. Yes, you heard right... to date, there have been 180 cases of Dengue Fever on the island since October. They think that one of the many visitors on the island for the Ironman competition was infected, and, almost immediately, the local mosquitoes got busy spreading it around. It might sound like a Dark Ages disease but I now know that 400 million people each year get Dengue. It's practically rare in the United States, but it's happened in the past on Maui and Oahu and even in Florida. Fortunately, it's not often fatal and all descriptions make it sound like a really really bad flu. It seems to be seriously dangerous only the second time you get it. 

But I digress...

Here are some pictures of the new kitchen...

New vented hood, three-dimensional tile wall, gas range


Koa cabinetry above the new refrigerator

Jen and Donna Visit

Jen and Donna were here for a week just before Christmas. We had a busy schedule:

• A Mark Twain Christmas play at the Aloha Theater
• The Kona Christmas parade
• Snorkeling
• A visit to a seahorse farm

Then they drove to the Hilo side to visit with Jane and Kathy (isn't it nice to have friends all over Hawaii?)

It was a high-surf day, but the fish were awesome and they debated over how many dozens of spinner dolphins they saw. Coming back to shore was rough, and Donna's legs were dripping blood from being banged around on the rocks. No, I didn't go out with them - I stayed on shore with Sophie.

The sea was angry that day, my friends...

Sophie's 3rd birthday

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!