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 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Farhana and Family Visit

My friend and coworker, Farhana, brought her family to the islands last week. They spent a few days on O'ahu and then a few more here in Kona.

Rayyan, Hasan, Emaan, and Farhana

One day, they took the whole-island bus tour and really loved it. Among other stops, they visited the volcano, 'Akaka Falls, Rainbow Falls, and Black Sands Beach. If any of you come to the island for the first time, I might take that tour with you.

Hasan and a painted eucalyptus tree

On their last night, we drove to the harbor to watch the sunset before having dinner at Bite Me...

Kitchen Remodel -- Phase 1

I finally pulled the trigger and started on my kitchen remodel. It will require many steps and many participants. The first step was hiring the tile installer. Here's a photo journal of that first step.

Before you ask.... that little hole in the middle of the tile is where the vented hood will get power. The next step (the BIGGEST step) will be getting the new appliances purchased/shipped/installed. You might recall that I had the kitchen plumbed for gas when I remodeled the laundry room. Very soon, I will be cooking with GAS!

Aloha y'all!

You think YOU'VE got snails??????????

I've found a few discarded shells in my garden before, but this is the first live (now very dead) one that I've come across.

He's not a native to Hawaii. I think his official name is Big Beautiful African Snail.

His DNA made him beautiful, but my garden plants made him BIG. I had no choice but to put an end to that. Sorry, Mr Snail.

Dana

The Latest Addition to Our Family

Dogs in the tropics don't shed just in the summer. They shed 365 days a year!

99% of my vacuuming is just to stay on top of all the Sophie hair on my floors.

After much hesitation -- and suspicion that it would be more trouble than it was worth -- I got a new pet.

I find that I DO treat it like a pet: I talk to it (and it talks to me), I make sure that it's doing OK and hasn't wandered outside where it could fall to its death, I give it regular potty breaks. The talking is the strangest part -- it tells me when it needs something, and I find I talk back to it a LOT. Sophie is a little jealous.

Aloha!

Dana