Dinner tonight

Dinner tonight, originally uploaded by allysther.

Cream of Wheat with butter and raw sugar. Just the thing for a
blustery night.

We are in the middle if a cold snap. The reports say it will be in the
mid sixties tonight. What a nice way to welcome November!

Afternoon drive

Afternoon drive, originally uploaded by allysther.

Koko Head

A perfect Saturday morning

A perfect Saturday morning, originally uploaded by allysther.

Wendall and his girls watch Wallace and Grommit in "The Wrong
Trousers".

Nulu helps Wendall Wii

Nulu helps Wendall Wii, originally uploaded by allysther.

Quijana

Surfer Boy

Surfer Boy, originally uploaded by allysther.

When Wendall saw this photo, he said it looked as if I had two photos, one of a perfect sunset, and one of him, and I put the two together. I told him that sometimes the pictures of him really are this good all on their own.

My sweet Nulu Girl

DSC08241, originally uploaded by allysther.

Chickens under the mango tree

Chickens under the mango tree, originally uploaded by allysther.

Sunset

Sunset, originally uploaded by allysther.

Haleiwa

Lunch!

Lunch!, originally uploaded by allysther.

Some saimin for the boy. You probably know it as ramen. He skipped the
noodles and went straight for the broth.

Evening stroll

Evening stroll, originally uploaded by allysther.

After dinner at Cholos we sat on the sand at Haleiwa Beach. Just what
we needed this evening.

Morning commute

Morning commute, originally uploaded by allysther.

We made it in last night, after 21 hours of travel. We are exhausted
and oh so happy to be home after so long.

My husband met me at the airport, my kitties met me at the door of my
house. Life is very good.

Getting the car ready to ship

Getting the car ready to ship, originally uploaded by allysther.

Well that's it, then. Our final duty before hopping a flight west. The
car has been cleaned and processed and is oficially someone else's
responsability until the end of July.

I was able to find a Chevy Impala to drive up to Dulles for our flight
on Saturday. The radio has an input jack for my iPhone, so we are
looking forward to the 200 mile drive. I have the radio production of
"The Return of the Jedi" queued up and ready to go.

Wendall will pick the girls up tomorrow, so I will walk into a house
filled with kitties. They left on Tuesday and are spending a few days
in a kennel until things are set up at the house.

Time to go pack the bags once again.

A life filled with Aloha

It is time for us to return home. Time to feel the sun on our skin and smell the ginger in the air. It is time for us to stop wishing we were there and just be there.

On Thursday, Boy Wendall and I will head to Oahu. Elder Wendall has been there for two weeks, getting everything ready for us. In a truly spectacular fashion he has found a car and a house, meaning that we will spend only one night in a hotel before we move into our new home. We won’t have furniture for the first month, but we will have our own roof, and plenty of space.

Our cats will spend a few days in a kennel so we can have everything ready for them at the house. We have not yet told them that they will be kenneled, but they are well aware that a trip is in the near future. The travel crates and suitcases are the closest things we have to furniture at the moment, so they are impossible to ignore.

Virginia has been a lovely place to call home this past year. We are so grateful for the chance to explore the East Coast and to visit so many people. If we did not get the chance to see you this year, we are sorry, and we invite you to visit us in Hawaii. We do not plan on coming back to the Mainland for at least a year, and our guest room fills up fast, so start planning your trips soon! I can already tell you that July 2009, Holiday 2009-2010, and July 2010 are booked.

See you on the beach!
Quijana and the Wendalls

Happy Anniversary

I have been married to my best friend for 15 years now.

Chocolate supply

My chocolate supply, originally uploaded by allysther.

This is proof that chocolate is my ultimate weakness.

I am organizing my pantry, and figured I would show the amount of chocolate I currently have on hand.

It isn't usually this bad. Some of this is to be packaged and sent to a few friends. Some. The Lindt and three of the Milka bars are for the boy, and the Kisses are for the candy dish and for school lunches. Still--I had no idea that I had this much chocolate in the house!

Click on the photo for details of what is in the box.

Honu Girl

Honu Girl, originally uploaded by allysther.

At 10:45 Friday night, Honu suffered what we have agreed was a heart attack, and died instantly. Wendall and I tried CPR, including blowing air into her mouth, but we could do nothing to bring her back to us. I called the emergency veterinary clinic who told me that they were located downtown, and were the only place open in a 75-mile radius. They wished me luck, and that was all.

Honu came to live with us on Father’s day, 2003. She was honestly too young to be separated from her mother when we saw her dropped off at the pet store, and we knew immediately that there was something not right about her. These things worked together to assure her place in our family. That she was a tortoiseshell cemented the deal. We called her Honu, the Hawaiian name for a sea turtle, because of her tortoiseshell markings, but we joked that she was a "Ho-nu (whole new) kitty!".

Honu was our special girl. Anyone who has ever had the luck to see her would agree. She weighed 18 pounds at her heaviest, and generally hovered around 16 pounds. All of her weight was carried in her stomach, leaving her with a small head and shoulders, a round belly, and small back legs. Her tail was kinked in four places, and formed a spiral, which was pressed up against her legs, making it hard to see at first. We have always assumed, and have had vets confirm, that she was injured during birth, and that though she looked and felt and was healthy, she would always have problems. She had difficulty sitting comfortably, could not curl into a ball, and could not jump well. All in all, she managed to be both lovely and absurd, a perfect combination for our funny girl.

At six years old (as of next month), Honu was just beginning to play and to crave our company. She was a skittish kitten who became an even more skittish cat, and was ever so slowly coming out of that shell. We joked that she was afraid of everything, including air. We celebrated each time she would allow us to walk past her without flinching, and reveled in the times she stayed put upon hearing a sudden noise.

Just last month I reached over her to pick up something on my bed. She reached out for the string tie on my pajama pants, and I stopped everything to play with her. The next morning I told Wendall, and he ran for the kitty fishing rod. That morning he told everyone at the bus stop and at school that his kitty was finally learning to play. I had to explain to everyone that she was six years old.

Wendall’s kitty. Wendall’s Honu Girl. I’m finding it hard to believe she is gone, though she was not sleeping on my feet this morning, did not join the kitty parade to the food dish, and has not tapped me on the elbow as I sit at the computer, I am still having a difficult time thinking of us as a two cat household.

We have always said that we have three humans and three cats. We all love all three girls, but each of us had a cat that was “our” kitty. Honu was most definitely The Boy’s girl. She did not sleep with him, because she could not jump up on his bed, but she loved to be near him and would run out to flop at his feet so he could pet her. Friday morning she found him sitting on the floor tying his shoes. She circled around him, purring and trilling and oh so happy. I had to remind him twice to go back to tying his shoes, as he would happily have pet her until she tired of the attention.

So this is goodbye to the sweetest little Honu Girl I’ll ever meet. We plan to take her ashes with us to Hawaii, as we were so looking forward to bringing all three of our Hawaiian girls home with us. I’m not sure what we will do from there, but I’m sure that the right thing will come to us in time.

For now, we will spend today learning to adjust to life without our sweet girl. We will be happy for the six years she spent with us, and we will take comfort in the knowledge that she was truly happy with us, and that our love for her was returned. Mostly, though, we will be sad. We will be missing Honu.

Family laughter

While walking through the living room, my calf brushed an open box, leaving a scratch. It hurt, so I said "Ow!" The boy asked what happened, and I explained.

Then quietly, I said to the Elder Wendall, "So is this the true definition of a box cutter?"
He laughed. A moment later the Younger Wendall called out from the other room.

"So was it a box cutter?"

He probably thought his joke was much funnier than it really was, because we were laughing quite a bit.

Then his father asked, "What are you two, related?"

"Since the day I was born!" yelled the boy.

Team Shoveling 2

Team Shoveling 2, originally uploaded by allysther.
March, 2009

Team shoveling

Team shoveling, originally uploaded by allysther.
December, 2005

Blood tests--done!

The cats are now legal for Hawaii. We just have to wait 120 days to take them, which puts us at just where we wanted to be. Next week they get their yearly check-ups and shots, and then we all just wait.

It is all starting to feel a bit more real.

Phone number

In case you still have the Pennsylvania number we have used for the past few years--

Please throw it away. I have stopped payment on it and we will no longer use it as of now. Please update to the new phone numbers.

Thanks!

Supreme Court Justice David Souter meets Wendall

Supreme Court Justice David Souter (and me)., originally uploaded by Zanla.

In case you have not yet seen this photo....

Wendall is still grinning.

"Holey, moley, I'm in chocolate heaven!"

Holey, moley, I'm in chocolate heaven!, originally uploaded by allysther.

We had a chance to visit a friend this weekend, and then stopped in Hershey, PA on the way home. The park was not open, but the "factory" and the museum were open and filled with people.

We came home with quite a few of the 9,000,000 kisses that they had made so far that day. Wendall took a bag in to his classroom along with a handful of facts he had learned about the Hershey products and philosophy.

Not surprisingly, he has asked that we head back on a day that the park is open. He has been to amusement parks, but does not really remember going, and would love to ride a roller coaster. Unfortunately the park does not open until shortly before we leave, but I promised that we would try.

http://www.hersheys.com/kisses/about/making.asp

Inauguration Day

Song for the day—“We Are the Ones” by Sweet Honey in the Rock

On the way to the 20th-Traffic warnings on Route 66, headed towards the city- “DC Event, Expect Delays”. Because the event only affected the DC area. Of course it would have been hard to put- “Worldwide Party, Expect Joy”.

Helping my friend O set up her party downtown, we left Chinatown near midnight on Sunday. Traffic was as tight as I have ever seen it during rush hour, but the horns were honking in celebration. Despite wind and freezing temperatures people had their windows down and were calling out to one another. The line outside Ben’s Chili Bowl went halfway down the block, as people added a stop to their tour.

Monday we spent the day near the Convention Center. We visited the spy museum, learned a bit, and spent a bunch of money in the gift shop. Lunch was in a small restaurant a few blocks away from the crowd, and I found myself feeling bad for anyone who had an actual job to do that day. Federal holidays usually mean a deserted downtown, but the city was jumping! By the time we left the Balls had started, and the streets were filled with couples in formal dress. We passed through the security fence and hopped on the Metro, also filled with beautiful people. Dupont Circle made us laugh as a young man leaned out of the window his friend’s car and called out “If you voted for McCain, it will be ok, we love you anyway!”

The excitement had built and we could barely make it through dinner. We picked a restaurant near O’s apartment. The waitress told us that the kitchen was closing in a few minutes, but soon after we sat down a group of 10 young men came in and begged for service. How could she refuse? O and I stumbled home and made ourselves go to bed around 3am.

Tuesday began with O rushing out the door, trying to get to her office before the security lines became too long. She was hosting a party and had to be there before any guests arrived. Her office is on the 12th floor, overlooking the parade route. The security fences began at her building, and in the end it took her three hours to get the last half block to her door. We would be stuck in that line later, but not until we had done a bit of walking.

My first instinct had been to leave at dawn, trying to beat the crowds and to get into the center of the Mall. When O told me that the Metro had recorded over 300,000 people by 6am, my plans changed. I realized that there was no way to get from the Mall in time for the party unless we were all the way in the back, so we spent a few extra minutes in the warmth of the apartment.

We parked at the Tenlytown Metro station and ran into Whole Foods for food to get us through the morning. Our cashier was a lovely woman who was smitten with Wendall, and asked to take a photo with him. He was happy to oblige, and then we were on our way.

The Metro was packed with happy people. Every seat was filled, and passengers swapped advice and showed off souvenirs. There were police officers and soldiers on every platform, making sure that all went smoothly. People who had never been in DC were helped through the turnstiles, and no one minded the still riders on the left hand side of the escalators.

Metro Center was still open, so we hopped off and began to walk. I discovered later that the distance from Metro Center to the entrance of the Mall was 1.7 miles. The boy did his best, but I ended up carrying him a large part of the time. We made it to the Mall with a few minutes to spare, and had a few moments to find a good spot.

After Obama took the Oath, we walked around for a bit, just enjoying all of the happy people. The moment we saw that people were leaving we turned and left, trying to be at the head of this particular group. There were people singing and laughing as we helped each other over the concrete barriers and around the parked metro busses. As we walked we discovered that vendors had either halved their prices or doubled their prices, depending on what they sold. One man was selling Metro fare cards. A woman near me said to her companion “Why would I buy a tee shirt now? It’s over.” Her friend corrected her “It has just begun!”

Back on the Metro we chatted with a man who had been at work all morning and was on his way home to host a party. The car was filled with people, smiling and happy to be in one another’s company.

The security line was much longer now; as people realized that it was their last chance to get into the parade route. We spent an hour moving less than five feet, and then I called O. I asked her to step onto her balcony and Wendall and I waved and waved as I told her that there was no way we would make it past security before security sealed the building. She had a quick word with the armed men in her lobby and was allowed to bring me in through the only door outside the security line. It was only to be used for people who had a key to the building, so I did my best to look very important as we walked through the lobby.

The party was small, giving us all a view through the windows. The buildings near us were filled with people, and I can only imagine that the floors below us were also in use. People lined the balconies and jostled for space as we ate delicious food and stayed warm. Finally CNN announced that the President’s car was just a block away and we all ran for the windows. When it took him longer to arrive than we expected an adult wondered aloud what the hold-up might be. My dear child piped up with “Maybe he is stuck in traffic!”, and then wondered why we were all laughing so hard.

Finally we saw the vehicle, and the cameras buzzed. They stepped out of the car just a few too many feet to the right, and the trees obscured our view, but we passed around a se of binoculars and danced with joy anyway, because we had seen the yellow dress. We turned to the TV to show us what we could not see, and I rushed back to the window as they announced that he Bidens had stepped out of their car. Sure enough a red dress was just visible, and my smile somehow became even wider.

Much, much later, as the last of the party guests left, we went downstairs hoping that the roads were opened again. Some of them were, but we were sent straight into an unhappy traffic jam as the busses and police cruisers were slowly cleared away. All of the parking garages had been on lockdown for 24 hours, and everyone was trying to drive home at the same time.

Unfortunately the Metro was also filled to capacity, for we had a passenger who needed to catch her 8pm train at Union Station. Traffic would move a few feet and then a squad car would push its way through and everything would stop. Just as we were telling our friend that there was no way she would make her train a Pedi cab operator passed by, going the wrong way. O rolled down her window and called out for him to stop. He promised to pedal as fast as he could, and we pressed money into his hands as our friend jumped onto the seat. She called us 30 minutes later to tell us that the train doors had shut as she entered, and that she had the very last seat on the train. We had managed to move a few blocks, and high-fived each other for seeing the solution.

All in all, as I drove home, my sleeping child in the back seat, I am so happy we spent those few days in DC. I have never seen the city so energized, or so filled with people who just wanted to be together. What a wonderful thing to have witnessed, what a wonderful thing to share with my son.

My favorite speech during the ceremony was Rev. Lowery’s benediction. I think he managed to pull the past 40 years straight into the day, and I laughed out loud as I heard words from my youth used to introduce our future.

“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.” –From the benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery during President Barack Obama's inauguration.

"This is what I call a good day!"

"This is what I call a good day!", originally uploaded by allysther.

Taking a tip from a few of our friends, we have started to volunteer at our local no kill animal shelter, Caring For Creatures. So for the next few months the elder W will walk as many dogs as he can while the younger W and I pet as many kitties as we can get our hands on at one time.

Shortly after this photo was taken, the cats pushed him down so that they could sit on his chest and lap at the same time. He was sad that I did not take a picture of him then, but I've promised to do so if it happens again next week.

This shows only half of the cats in this room. The other half were on my lap. It was a wonderful way to spend our morning.

Going home

A friend asked why I love Hawaii as much as I do. There isn’t really an answer I can give him, or anyone. I asked the Wendalls if they could help me put it into words, and all we could come up with is “aloha”. Then we tried to define aloha, and we were stuck again. We stopped only after we started singing.

So what is it about this place? Why does it have such an amazing hold on our hearts?

It isn’t Waikiki, though some of our favorite times have been spent sitting on the beach there, surrounded by a few hundred people as we watched a movie.

It isn’t the Arizona Memorial, though that is a moving and thought provoking place.

It isn’t Haleiwa, the surf capital, though sunsets from those shores are among the best we’ve ever shared.

My love of Hawaii is a combination of the land and the people. It is the sun and the sand and the mountains. It is the daily rainbows and the magnificent sunsets. It is the music and the dance. It is the joy that people are not afraid to let you see. It is the idea that family and connections are what make a person whole.

We moved to Hawaii in the fall of 2001. We loved it immediately, but is did not become “home” until at least a year later. By the time we left in 2005, we knew that we would spend the rest of our lives working our way back to the islands. Part of that was time, and part of that were the friendships we had formed. Part of it was the time we had been able to spend with my brothers, both of whom moved to Hawaii shortly after we did.

Leaving Hawaii was much harder than we thought it could be. I am an emotional person, and had expected a few tears, but I remember crying most of the way to L.A., where we caught our connecting flight to Germany. Being away has been much more like being away from a person than a place.

When we were told that there was a 20-hour layover on our way from Germany to Korea, I burst into tears at the travel agent’s desk. The idea of heading back there next summer has me in tears again. The realization that it will be for years instead of days has my heart soaring, and the thought that I will be HOME is pushing all other thoughts out of my head.

So here we come, Hawaii. Our little family is coming home. Mom, Dad, Local Boy, and three Polynesian Kitties. We are truly the luckiest people in the world, so happy to live Hawaii again!

Wendall has his assignment, but does not yet know what his position will be. What we do know is that we will leave Virginia in June or July and we will be in Hawaii for 3-4 years. And of course we will have room for guests! We look forward to sharing the aloha.

We have news

And it is the best kind of news. The BEST!

This summer we will head home.

Aloha!

Where have I been?

Ive been here:

Live Journal

My life is way too boring to post in multiple places. It is too boring to post in one place, honestly, so at the moment I am mostly posting memes. So sad. Come visit me there, though, and if you have an lj account, please let me know. About half of what I write


Today's excitement was making sweet potato biscuits. In an hour or so we will pack up the car and head to Dover for Thanksgiving with family. It will be a nice change from our usual table of three. Last year we spent Thanksgiving at the Hartell House, so we were not alone, but a buffet is no excuse for family. The cameras are charged, and I am looking forward to introducing the boy to a bunch of cousins he has never met.

Have a wonderful holiday!

14 months away from home

I'm thinking of a friend who made it home today. This isn't him, but I know that his family is just as happy to see him.

So proud of my boy

This weekend was all about the boy. It was about us as well, but really the boy was the main focus.

Friday night we watched Speed Racer. We saw this in the theater when it came out, and the boy mentioned wanting to see it a few hundred times. Astonishingly enough, Wendall and I both agreed that we would like to see it again and again and again as well. The story and writing are not-so-good, but the visual aspects of this movie are truly amazing. It is animation brought to life in the most wonderful way, and I am thinking seriously about owning this in Blu-ray.


On Saturday we went ice skating and then watched Igor. OK, the boy watched the movie and we took a nap. This is not a movie that anyone needs to see in a theater. It was a good reminder to us that movies are expensive, and we need to be more selective. Three years of no choice but cheap prices has us programmed to run to the theater without thinking. We will get better, but it is taking a while (and a bunch of really bad movies).

After the movie we went shopping, and the boy picked out his latest LEGO set. We told him that he would have to build it all on his own, as Wendall had to study and LEGOs make me scream. I promised that I would stay in the room with him and I would help when I could, but we both know that I am restricted to a three minute window when it comes to LEGO, so he was really on his own.

He picked this set which has 333 pieces. And he put every piece together on his own. I was called in to help tighten things and to realign a few sections, but he did the rest of it. Three hours of steady concentration, no tantrums, and a perfect finished product. I'm super duper impressed by my boy.