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February 29th, 2008
12:07 pm - Simple pleasures
I recently discovered that my new Macbook at work allows you to scroll the page by simply swiping with two fingers on the trackpad at the same time. I never have to line up the mouse on the little scroll bar and drag up and down. It has been one of those exciting discoveries that happen every now and then and become a fixation for weeks. Kinda like the time that I learned how I could keep all of my computer files from school in my iPod. Now I have my entire teaching career in that thing.
But no pleasure is as simple and pleasurable as a new dry erase pen... so smooth and dark. I'm so environmental that I tend to stretch them out forever, and then, whenever I open a new one, it's like once-a-year-girl-scout-cookie-gluttony. I'm really mixing my examples here... Back to my peanut butter cremes :)
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February 27th, 2008
07:22 am - Keyless Entry
I wonder how many people have ever walked up to their door at work or their front door at home while pressing the keyless entry remote (for the car) wondering, "Why isn't this opening?" For me? About seven times in the last couple years.
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October 15th, 2007
July 7th, 2007
10:30 pm - Hawaii - Day 5 and 6 (and 7)
I found a couple of pics from our dinner at the Italian restaurant and then later at Tiki's.
7/5 - Nearly every day, K and I remind ourselves that only a short time has passed, and we still have so much vacation ahead of us. At home in the bay area, it's easy to wake up every day and run through the day's plans and even the next day's plans and so on. Of course, we are always greeted by Kit Cat in our little courtyard. Her voice reminds us that we are away from home, but also feeling at home in our little apartment.
Hawaiian time feels different. So we didn't really have plans for Day 5 until the night before. K wanted to continue to check out the tourist areas, so we traveled to the North Shore again to check out the Dole Pineapple plantation. It had a great gift shop full of every possible pineapple themed souvenir you could possibly want, but right next door was a deli with cheap food and a little garden with some photo ops.
K wanted to try the train that takes you on a tour and tells you about the plantation. We also took a run through the largest maze in the world. Both of them are viewable on the video. It's a big file, but you'll see some of the countryside on the plantation and of course some cheesy tourist stuff.
As tourist-y as it was, I have to admit that it was the best--and only--pineapple soft serve I've ever had.
We went from there to Haleiwa on the North Shore. It was such a cool little beach town that we couldn't pass up another walk-through. We shopped a bit and then saw a totally unsanitary cart alongside a local market that advertised malasadas, a common treat in Hawaii. "Sanitary" is subjective on the island, so I had to buy some and show Katie why the risk is worth it. Imagine Hawaiian (or Portuguese) sweet bread that is deep fried and rolled in sugar, something like a doughnut but better. Then we were off to Waikiki again since we thought a swim sounded good. Once we got there, it was a little crowded, so we just wandered in search of a Mexican food place called "La Cucaracha" that we had seen a couple days earlier. Not an appetizing name, but the food was decent, and the beach was just down the street.
Right across the street was the Hyatt, which, like every other hotel, doesn't really take note of people who come and go. We walked right up to the third deck where the pool was located and sat in some rocking chairs overlooking the people coming and going along the beach below us. Next to the pool, people were gathering for drinks at the outdoor bar and some were there to see the movie showing on the big screen right above the pool.
After wandering down through a few other hotels and seeing some of the show at the Waikiki Sheraton, we walked back to the car, warm breeze as beautiful as ever.
7/6 - Trying to hit every tourist spot as soon as possible, we headed to Hanauma Bay where we intended to snorkel for the day. However, our lazy butts were slow moving, and by nine o'clock when we arrived, the parking lot was full. With no other parking options in that area, we decided to head back to Kailua and spend some time on the perfect beach we have here in our little beach town. The beach you see in the video is a ten minute walk from our door. In fact, it has been voted as one of the best beaches in the world, and we loved every minute of our day. Katie walked to a little shop across the beach park that had awesome sandwiches, and afterward I gave her windsurfing lessons for quite some time. She was a trooper considering how most people tire out really early, and by the end of the lesson, she stayed up and started going out to sea with a huge smile on her face.
7/7 - Of course, no matter how many times we re-applied the sunscreen, the sun was sinking in, and by the time we got home, we knew the damage was much worse than we originally thought. We spent the night slathering ourselves in aloe and still woke up today feeling extremely crispy. We're hoping it turns to tan rather than peeling, but that's being optimistic. We stayed in until noon, and then drove to a local theater to see Transformers, which I've been wanting to see all week. When the movie ended, we both agreed that the best part was the air-conditioning in the theater. Wait for the DVD. The script is awful, the same problem with the Spiderman movies. We've been home now all afternoon and evening. "Parenthood" was on t.v. I love that movie. We chuckled together in all the same places and made comments like, "This is helping me to forget how much this sunburn hurts." And it's still Hawaii after all.
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July 4th, 2007
10:00 pm - I smell fireworks - Hawaii Part 2
It's the Fourth of July. From our apartment we can hear non-stop fireworks around the neighborhood, and since Kailua Beach Park is having a fireworks show tonight, the town is packed. The smell of barbecue along with gunpowder attempts to erase the memory that Hawaiians may have when their queen was forced by American businessmen to abdicate her throne and allow Hawaii to eventually become part of the United States. At least for today, they can blow things up... we bought sparklers at Safeway.
The last two days have been as great as the first two.
7/3 - Yesterday, our third day in Hawaii, we went straight to the beach again. K tried out her new skimboard purchased at Walmart, and for a first-timer, she picked it up rather fast. I haven't done it since high school, so I wasn't much of a teacher, and I didn't feel up to the challenge, especially when I had all that warm blue water for swimming. We arrived early enough to beat most of the tourists and locals that show up after 10am, but being teachers, we tend to make it by 8:30. It's already plenty warm enough for sunscreen and swimming at that time of day. In between dunks in the water, we chilled on the soft, white sand--katie had her book and I tried a newly purchased Sudoku book since my mom seems totally addicted. There's no need to towel off in Hawaii and the sand doesn't stick for long. Waiting fifteen minutes takes care of wet skin and the sand falls off with a gentle wipe, so water-to-walking home is a ten minute turn around, and it's just ten minutes to the house. I can't imagine there will be a day without a jaunt to the beach.
After a nap and some pineapple, we headed over the mountains to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. K had a craving for Italian food and we found one on the net that seemed nice. We weren't too crazy about their pasta choices once we got there, but wine, salad, and bread was perfect. This is when we learned that her camera would take short movie clips. Afterward, we sat like tourists next to the hotel pool and watched the cheesy polynesian dance show that performs nightly. Then, we simply sat and stared out to sea for a while, or looked up through palm trees at the blue sky with absolutely no need to be anywhere else... then we wanted beer.
Driving down Waikiki is very different from my trip ten years ago. There are so many upscale shops and it's more developed. The crowds are the same, but the beach is now lined with pathways and benches that remind me of something at a water park. The sand and the water look incredible, but the transition from nature to tourist haven at the edge of the sand is extreme. We finally found parking by the zoo and walked to Tiki's overlooking the beach. We had a beer and listened to live music for a while, and then a craving for nachos hit us, so we stayed a little longer. K almost ordered "Greg Brady's Wipeout," an island drink that comes in a souvenir Tiki cup, but we thought it might be bad luck. It was a great place, so don't pass it up if you visit Waikiki.
The last clip in the movie is grainy, but I had to brighten it up just so you could see Katie's little hula at the end. Needless to say, we wandered for a while to sober up before heading to the car.
7/4 - Today, the chickens in our yard clucked 'good morning' and gathered near our door. We decided to drive up the North Shore to Haleiwa, a little town where Pizza Bob's still exists.
I worked in the downtown branch when I lived here in '96, but that one has disappeared, so we "had" to travel the beautiful coast, past all of the famous surf spots and North Shore towns to historic Haleiwa. Along the way, we saw lots of fisherman casting straight from the beaches, and barbecues were ever present in every beach park. Along the road, there were plenty of roadside vendors selling flowers, fruits, smoked fish, and anything else that you would imagine a Hawaiian grandmother might be able to sell to locals and tourists alike, including pickled mango, which was a commonly advertised item.
Back at home, things got a little crazy outside. It sounded like the whole neighborhood was heading down to the beach for the fireworks show, so we finished off the left-over nachos and it was time for a walk down amongst the crowd of locals who have inhabited the beach park all day with an armada of pop-up shelters and coolers full of beer and ribs ready for the barbecue. A sweatshirt is totally unnecessary. We parked front row on the sand and waited. Hundreds of locals were lined along the beach with their kids, and after the show started from a boat or a platform anchored out on the water, we smiled as we eaves-dropped on parents talking to their children about the various fireworks. "Ooo! Look at the smiley face!" The warm breeze was amazing and the reflection of fireworks on the water can not be given due justice with a camera, but here are a few pictures. Some are really blurry, but you get the idea.
We walked back to our apartment with many people who were wandering back up their parking spaces in the neighborhood, many of them still carrying beer bottles or tossing firecrackers. It reminds me of life in Santa Clara (back home) about twenty-five years ago.
Now we've settled in for the night. K is watching bad television, reruns of Sex in the City, and I'm trying to make the pictures work out. We have absolutely nothing planned for tomorrow, a luxury enjoyed by those who have a month on the island.
And by the way, we still haven't unpacked.
Until next time...
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July 3rd, 2007
03:59 pm - A Month in Hawaii - Part 1
Being teachers, K and I have the summer to explore other avenues, and up until now, we've always worked to make up for the fact that teachers can always use some extra money. This year, we saved up and decided to spend the entire month of July in Hawaii.
This trip was preceded by a week in Oregon babysitting my niece, Emily. I took some great pictures but here are a couple. Please pardon the ones that I took on the cell phone.... grainy but worth the moment.
Telling you about the preceding trip, including diapers, snacks every twenty minutes, nap time difficulties, short-term restaurant excursions, and other challenges of quasi-parenthood, is important considering the contrast we now feel on the island. We wore sweatshirts and jeans nearly every day in Oregon, and we were busy with the little one nearly every moment (entertaining a two-year old by hiding in the pillows and popping out over and over is fun the first forty-seven times, but a little tiring after that).
On the plane to Hawaii, our cheap seats didn't let us sit together, but the time passed quickly knowing that we'd soon be living in paradise for thirty days. We landed on July 1st, and enjoyed that gust of humid air that always signifies how you've finally arrived.
A very... sturdy Hawaiian woman threw our forty-pound bags on the racks of the Dollar rent a car van like they were pillows, and we soon checked in for our car. We took a quick drive to Aloha Tower where the Gordon Biersch overlooks the water, and I thought it might be good to start with something familiar, although we had some garlic edamame that was messy but delicious.
On the other side of the island, after driving The Pali, a highway overgrown with lush vegetation and a having a speed limit of 45, we found our rental unit - a newly remodeled apartment attached to a house in a nice neighborhood. Check out the location from space: google map
Here's the courtyard next to our apartment... a perfect place to have coffee and watch the birds come and go.
The family in the main house next to us has a big yard in the back, and they rehabilitate or adopt injured birds, so we have a couple of Hawaiian chickens (little things) and a peacock wandering around, not to mention doves, magpies, pigeons, etc. Greeting us daily is also Kit Cat, a little calico cat with a friendly voice who loves to sit at our door and meow for attention and doesn't seem the slightest bit interested when a chicken walks past her at a distance of 12 inches. Our first night, we also discovered that giant Hawaiian snails come out. Their shells are cone-shaped on the back, and they are nearly twice the swice of the snails at home, at least as large as a tangerine. Geckos also playfully chirp at all hours, but mostly at dusk. We even saw a baby one today on the wall by the sliding glass door that serves as our entry.
We didn't take much time before we went down to Kailua beach, with sand like soft brown sugar and a breeze that never lets you think of the heat. The clouds roll in occasionally, and a light rain falls at least once a day, but K said it best, "This is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen." Made even more beautiful when she stepped onto it...
We waded in the water for a bit and then drove down to the local market for some supplies.
The next morning, we walked straight down to the beach again, about .3 miles - or ten minutes. Amazing to think that something so beautiful is so close. We swam a bit, but mostly floated, rocked gently by the lack of surf and protected by occasional white, puffy clouds that passed the sun only long enough for a brief respite from the tropical sun. After drying off and taking a nap, there was still plenty of time to explore, so I took K to Waikiki for her first time. Even if it's a tourist haven, everyone has to see it once. We had a beer at Duke's right on the beach and watched the skim boarders for a while. After a trip to Walmart for more supplies (we're here for a month after all), we took in a movie--Evan Almighty, worthy of a laugh especially when we have no worries. Back at our rental until, we drank a little wine, watched a little tv, and dozed as the breeze filled the curtains over every window, over... and over again. The rhythm is hypnotic.
More updates and pictures soon...
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/punquinheads/blue/mellow.gif) content
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May 18th, 2007
07:38 am - Feeling old today...
1. I constantly know actors and actresses on t.v. that people don't seem to know, and they are always the "old" actors and actresses, like Don Rickles on The Daily Show the other night or Lawrence Welk, who was mentioned in a book I'm reading and no one seemed to know a think about him or his show.
2. My hair has been falling out like crazy lately. I know that women have plenty of their own aging issues, but for balding men, the feeling is strange when we wake up to more forehead every day. Also strange is the crop circle developing on the back of my head... It's like I'm always feeling a draft from somewhere. I have my own Arctic Circle.
3. I can't understand cell phone use, or the need for constant cell phone use. When I call someone, and they answer in a restaurant, I'm thinking, "Why are you answering? That's rather rude." I used to do just fine when I was in an airport and needed to find someone without a phone, so now I practically refuse to use my phone to "find each other" --airports, concerts, restaurants, theaters, anywhere. I was able to find people before cell phones, so I'll have no problem now. Lately, every gathering looks like a semaphore convention with all the crazy cell-phone friends standing and waving to the crowd trying to give away their position to an unseen and terrified friend walking around the aisles talking into his/her phone saying, "Where are you? I can't see you? Are you really waving?" It's a great invention, but it has also been debilitating for most of the masses who now think that no matter the problem or crisis, they'll just call someone for help. What about helping themselves? And what about etiquette? I went to be fingerprinted again for a new job (I'm a teacher) and the lady was wearing a bluetooth headset and talked on it throughout the process of processing my fingerprints. It was obviously just a friend of hers, and every now and then she'd tap the hold button to talk to me. Is this the state of courtesy today? Harumph.
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May 14th, 2007
08:54 am - If I could make laws today...
Of course, I'm kidding, but if I could make a laws today:
1. No person shall stand closer than 18 inches in line behind me at the grocery store.
2. Co-workers are banned from eating hard candy in the same room if they cannot avoid slurping aloud.
3. Anyone standing in line at a coffee shop or deli for longer than two minutes must have their minds made up by the time they reach the counter.
4. Cars are NOT allowed to follow a person in the parking lot hoping to get a person's parking spot. It's creepy.
5. People who open their cell phone at the theater or put their feet up next to my head have to wear a blindfold for the rest of the movie.
How about you?
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May 11th, 2007
03:07 pm - So you think you can spell?
Here's a spelling quiz I just made for my class of seventh graders. I teach writing at a private school of mostly affluent children who are normally strong writers and readers with great family situations, but spelling is a lost art.
There are 68 words on the quiz, and after 60 students have taken the quiz, the average score is less than 50%. I could go on about how much I HATE spell check for days...
Give it a try. You might surprise yourself.
If you don't want to enter a name, at least enter "livejournal person" so I'll know it wasn't one of my students.
http://www.quia.com/pages/jasononcay.html
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April 30th, 2007
11:40 am - Proud of Nothing
Are you ever proud of the fact that you know nothing about something?
For example, is there a snobby streak in you that rejects any information about the Simpsons, or other animated television shows that you have deemed banal?
How about an opposite aversion, like a tendency to avoid anything bookish? If a friend mentions how they just read "So and So"s book, do you delight in saying, "Never heard of that person," and once you hear a quick introduction, you take further pleasure in saying, "Yeah, that book sounds like A LOT of fun," in a sarcastic tone normally reserved for telling your girlfriend/spouse how you'd love to see a movie starring Hugh Grant?
So here are some of the topics about which I pretend to know nothing simply because something inside me rears his ugly head. Feel free to respond with your own list:
1. American Idol.
2. Anything related to basketball.
3. Macrobrew beer.
4. Jane Austen.
5. Celebrity weddings.
6. Rap music.
7. Taxes.
8. Drinking games.
9. Howard Stern.
10. Breeds of cats.
11. Names for window dressings.
12. Leonardo DiCaprio.
13. Japanese food.
14. The Real World.
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January 19th, 2007
08:48 am - Primordial Male Genetics
Things that many men suffer while women are spared due to genetic differences:
1. A lack of conscience when staring at body parts of the opposite sex.
2. Discomfort related to cold weather when one testicle crawls up and can't be coaxed into "dropping." Explains constant groping on cold days and some erratic driving.
3. A strong desire to jump up and touch things if only to prove that you can.
4. Pride related to body functions: smells - rancid equals impressive, distance - spitting and urinating, toilet clogging bowel movements, and loud noises - escaping gas.
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December 8th, 2006
01:40 pm - Frustration at the new job
All single-stall bathrooms should be placed far from work areas or at least insulated for sound. I don't like co-workers to be able to hear me making noise in there while they are microwaving their burritos or chatting about reality television!
-For this reason, I will hike off to the furthest bathroom on campus.
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December 7th, 2006
08:32 am - Reality T.V.
Besides her emotional breakdowns, give me two good reasons why Melrose should not have won.
I was rooting for her, much to the dismay of everyone else who watched that show.
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December 1st, 2006
02:22 pm - Era Gone
It's so sad to have recently learned that 30% of my students (I have eighty 7th and 9th graders) have never seen The Wizard of Oz. I couldn't think of anything to blame and had to deal with the fact that I'm just getting old. Other general survey facts of my students:
50% have never had a Twinkie.
10% have never been to the beach. (And they live 30 miles from it!)
80% ride their bikes once a month or less.
And on the test that I typed today, 20% didn't know the word "plump."
I told one of them, "You know, hot dogs 'plump' when you cook them..."
She said, "I've never had a hot dog."
30% had never eated a hot dog. Sigh...
Oh, and did you get my reference in the title of this post? Anyone?
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November 17th, 2006
02:41 pm - A question
Given the chance to be a member of the opposite sex for one hour, what would you want to do with that short amount of time?
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November 3rd, 2006
12:33 pm - Pudding Pop Gladiator
Guess what? I'm going to see Bill Cosby live tonight! I know that may show my age a little, but when I was a kid, I had the best laugh of my life the first time I saw "Bill Cosby: Himself." It was an HBO special, and he simply told stories. I thought he was the greatest storyteller of all time, and to this day, I try to be a good storyteller in my classes. Maybe it's environmental, because I remember my grandmother being a great storyteller, and somewhere in my mental makeup, I must have a great appreciation for the art. She once showed up to my 13th birthday, late as usual, and carrying the biggest present, as usual, and proceeded to tell the story of her battle through the parking lot at Toys-R-Us and her adventure inside. The room was enraptured by her performance, and she was simply sitting on the couch and telling the story. She had everyone in stitches for at least half an hour, and I never felt insulted by the commandeering of my party. "Own the people's favor, own Rome." Bill Cosby is the kind of gladiator that I'll pay to see, any day.
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October 10th, 2006
07:27 am - Birthday 2006
Friday:
5:45-4:00: Worked all day, waking up at 5:45 as usual, being a teacher, and taught classes on my feet. Exhausting because it's a "show" every day where I now have to entertain 7th and 9th graders, the toughest crowd in the world, except maybe the blue-haired ladies that used to come in the restaurant and sit in my station and expect iced-tea refills every 47 seconds.
4:00-6:00: Packed last minute clothes, did the dishes, watered the plants, ignored other kinds of cleaning
6:00-9:30: Traveled to San Jose International Airport for a flight to Vegas, got bumped off a flight that was delayed and then cancelled, had to re-book at the front desk, transferred to another airline, finally took off feeling rather tired since a teacher's bedtime is usually about 10:00, but Katie stayed awake too because Vegas was calling.
11:00-5:00am: Landed, took a taxi to the Luxor where they bumped us up to a suite because they didn't have our original reservation, earned the envy of the people in line behind us, got into our room, changed, and headed for a club called Rum Jungle where half-naked women swing from the ceiling and music plays so loud that you can understand everyone's conversations even from across the room because they all speak a kind of sign language in that environment, drank a Mai-Tai, earning myself a ridiculous and somewhat permanent smile, ate french fries on the way back to the hotel, took a bath in the giant tub in order to scour the smell of the casino from my skin, and eventually fell asleep.
Sat: Woke up at noon, ate breakfast at the Pharoah's Feast Buffet, saw the same envious couple from the night before and the guy even said, "Hey, how's the suite?", ate a random assortment of Italian, Chinese, and American food, shopped at the Forum for a few hours, part of which was occupied with a giant alcoholic slushie, and then came back to the hotel to change into fancy clothes and then catch a cab to the Belaggio to see Cirque du Soleil's "O", which was incredible, and it was followed by a beer and a grilled cheese in Paris.
Sun: After sleeping a scanty four hours, we took a cab to the airport and landed by noon back in San Jose, where we ran some errands and then and then spent the afternoon recuperating.
Mon: Had the day of my actual birthday off from school, wrote in my journal, watched some Tivo'd shows, and then did a speaker phone meeting with my mom and sister while I opened the gifts they sent. Yay for homemade cookies! Later, Katie took me to the Melting Pot downtown where we enjoyed a four-course meal of fondue and other delicious items along with a bottle of wine and some serious giggling.
Overall, a great birthday....
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May 21st, 2006
01:40 pm - Add me
So I finally made a myspace profile.
It's funny how age affects our perceptions of ourselves. The younger crowd is all over myspace...as much a part of their lives as their cell phones. Recently, I had to give up my animosity about cell phones because my girlfriend, who is younger than me... (to make an understatement) convinced me that all of her friends carry their phones everywhere and even put them on the table when they go out to dinner. I used to view it as incredibly rude every time someone answered their phone in front of me. In fact, when I first started dating my girlfriend, I was offended that she even brought the phone along on any of our dates. I always left it at home or in the car to show her that my thoughts revolved around her, and nothing would interrupt that. Then, as we spent more time together, her point was proven as all of her friends would bust out their phones at any given moment. And then it started happening in my circle of friends too. In order not to go the way of the ancient elk who falls behind the pack and is eaten by teenagers wearing baggy pants, I suppose I have to update my perceptions.
I found a high school friend on myspace, and now that she and I are both thirty-something, she said something like, "I really only joined myspace to spy on my daughter's account...." So what's so wrong about myspace? We hate to admit to having anything do with it. Well I'm going to break away from that stigma. We all like box food - Rice A Roni, Kraft Mac N Cheese, scalloped potatoes from a box... and canned food - especially green beans... and frozen food - like hot pockets, corn dogs, and who could live without tater tots? So why not admit that more often than not, you find yourself eating convenient food in front of the television? I say that myspace is the t.v. dinner that we can all enjoy. But not box wine.. that stuff is crap.
So add me to your friends!
http://www.myspace.com/79181376
I haven't picked a url name yet. Any ideas?
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May 5th, 2006
06:57 am
Feeling "at home" is peeing with the door open...
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May 4th, 2006
06:50 am
Love is like leaving a light on....
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