HAY Video!

Cool they have the video posting feature up. Let's give it a whirl eh?



And the stills since my camera takes only so-so video.

Garden Envy

My dad had the most awesome landscaping at his house. I guess it's the result of him being a Landscape Architect by trade. It still makes me jealous. Add to the fact that he has plants growing that I covet, and will never have, since they have no chance of surviving here in Zone 8! The thing is that these are the kinds of plants I grew up around, so when I think of a garden I think of these.

This is the courtyard between the main house and the garage. It's so lush and green, and every room that faces it has huge sliding glass doors, so when you wake up this is the first thing that you see.


Again, those mutant mangoes that he is growing, and I guess he is going to keep the tree small like this to make the fruit easy to pick. My mom makes some of the best pickled mango and mango chutney. Yum.


Piko doing her best Bear Grylls impersonation with the help of Sarge. Though after trying the water and flesh of this one, she has decided that she will not be able to survive a week on coconuts alone.


Orchids, orchids everywhere.


And huge wonderful jade green Agave scattered all over his property, planted in and around great contrasting volcanic stone. This has got to be one of my most favorite plants of all time.


What I love is the garden, what I wouldn't love would be the upkeep. Dad loves it though, you gotta envy a person who loves their job that much.

So I lied.

Well, ok, I lied a little bit. There is something that is pissing me off about Piko's school.

"Mr. Money"

Who is Mr. Money? you ask. Well, Mr. Money brings toys and prizes to kids in Piko's school. Piko was VERY excited to meet Mr. Money and he showed them a fancy light up set, a remote control blimp, a giant inflatable puffer ball, and a Wii!! You can have them all!!! he said.

But.

Youhavetosell150ormoreitemsfromthisincredibllycrappycatalogtoyourfamilyandfriends.

That's right my friends. Fundraising.

I understand that the school Piko attends is in a very depressed and low-income neighborhood, and I'm happy to help however I can. But I thought that this was really quite underhanded. Lead these little kids, into a room with all these flashy toys and gizmo's, tell them that they can have them, and leave it up to the parents to disappoint them because they can only sell 4 or 5 things. That's just mean.

Sarge and I have decided that we will spend $100 on wrapping paper and chocolate to support the cause. But like several other family members and friends who I have spoken to about this, I'm wondering why I just can't give a check for $100 directly to the school. AND have it count towards Piko's item count. Nope, instead, I have to pay $100 for stuff I don't really want, and the school will only get about $60 of that.

So far she has 13 items towards that 150 goal, and 10 of those items we bought ourselves. BAH!

Oh yeah, and if you sell 50 items, you get to go have a pizza lunch in a Hummer Limo! Huh, go figure.

Nothing to see here...

Seriously nothing.

Well, I did lose 2 lbs of my summer blubber. Sarge has a new "Whip Big Mama Into Shape" program all plotted out. Including, much to my dismay a day of Plyometrics. EGADS!!

School is going well for Piko, so no complaints there.

Oh, well, soccer practice begins tonight. I'm sure it will be chock-a-block full of LULZ. Or not.

Sucker de Gallo

Well, tonight was the Fall sports kickoff for our community. Piko de Gallo is playing soccer this year, she has her cleats, shin guards, and soccer socks (I just can't get her to call it football, or fuut-bol), and she's ready to go.

Tonight Sarge and I picked up our coaching packet. Yes, you read that right, we picked up our coaching packet. Apparently Piko's team had no coach, and the athletic director was trying to guilt, I mean get parents to volunteer.

**sound of chirping crickets**

Finally Sarge and I came to the conclusion that if we didn't do it, our kid would get screwed. So beginning next week we are going to be in charge of seven 5-6 year olds three times a week. Yay.

I played AYSO in Hawaii several years when I was in elementary school, and Sarge was a pretty outstanding striker in his high school days. So I guess we'll muddle through it. And it's not so much bratty kids and parents I'm worried about, it's how am I going to keep a bunch of 5 and 6 years olds interested and having fun. Especially seeing as I'm not much of a sports person. GAH!!! However it's incentive to hit the gym a bit more since it will be quite embarrassing when these kids run me into the ground.

And, expect Sarge to definetly be scheduling his vasectomy as soon as the season is over.

Did you know?

That the White Tree of Gondor is in fact NOT made of polystyrene.

It's growing on a beach in Kona.

Home at last!

Finally, home at last. I know, cry me a river, but who knew that a three week vacation in Hawaii could be too much.

We're tanner, actaully Sarge is "not white", fatter, well, I'm fatter, and ready for school to start.

Tanner (not white) because Piko wanted to go to the beach every day. So this was our view for about 75% of our vacation.



Piko turned out to be a swimming champ, she even learned how to use a snorkel.

Fatter, well, I'm fatter, because Sarge is a sadists and went exercising every other day. Boo-hoo for him, he gained 4 lbs, he weighed himself on the scale at the airport check in counter. I refused, because I am "Big Mama" indeed! This is the reason why.

This was my lunch one day from Aloha Poi Bowl at the Ala Moana food court. The Laulau and Kalua Pork plate lunch, with mac salad and two scoops rice.


This is my lunch 20 minutes later. It hardly looks like I had eaten anything. I had to take that big boy home and have it for breakfast a couple of times.


Genki Sushi in Kaneohe with my brother did not help either. Who can resist sushi flying at you on a conveyor belt?


Shave Ice! Only about 8 times. Sarge and I are boring and have settled on Strawberry with a scoop of ice cream as our go to flavor. And no we did not share.

And finally, grandpa's mutant fruit.

So this looks like a normal mango right?


Well, given the right scale, you can see that it's as big as Piko's head! And that's a small one. Grandpa would bring home buckets of these.

Yes, the eating was out of control.

What was not out of control however was "Hurricane" Flossie. This was the view from my parents back yard at 6pm on the night it "hit".

Some island areas got heavy rain and wind, but it did not rain at all where we were.

So now to unpack and refill my fridge.

Piko-isms

Well, we're not home yet, but I thought that I would amuse you all a little with some of the funny things that Piko has said on this vacation.

Piko and Sarge were lying in bed one morning and I came in to see what they were doing. As I was climbing onto the bed she says "Make way for BIG MAMA!". Ok, so maybe she's being sassy by calling me fat, but it was still funny. Then later while I was getting dressed to have dinner with some of my friends, I say to her, "I'm feeling a bit 'Big Mama' today". She looks at me and says "See. I told you!"

Brat.

And maybe this should fall under the category of bad parenting, but it was still funny. Piko and I were driving home from ice skating with my friends AJ, and Aunty Red (yep, there's an ice rink in Hawaii), and we were coming down the Likelike (Leekay-leekay) highway, which is very steep (it's coming off the mountain). And we saw a guy on a bicycle shoot past us. Look at that! I say, a guy on a bike on the highway! Piko looks at him and says "Is he high?" I forsee an increase in Sarge's random drug tests in the future.