NEWS FLASH

As promised, here's my report from the front lines of my life:

I’M IN LOVE!

Unmistakably, undeniably, certainly, patently, definitely and whole heartedly.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell the world thank you for being there for my entertainment, but as of this writing I would like to officially take myself off the market of availability, reservation, composure, and sanity.

Thank you for your attention, I now return you to your regularly scheduled lives.

Giving Thanks!

An early Thanksgiving wish to all: Hope yours is warm, happy, and full of love and family or friends.

That's how mine will go, I will be with friends this holiday, I made them promise it wouldn't be a sympathy invite knowing I wasn't hosting a family "do" of my own. Instead, we will join up at their vacation house in Parker AZ to celebrate by the Colorado River!

And in thinking about what this holiday is about, I have these things to be thankful for this year:

My outlook is cheerful and optimistic
I'm content with my lifestyle and my "things"
My fitness level is optimum
My strength of attitude and body allows me to approach almost anything
My work keeps me self supportive
To entertain myself I have travel, adventure, and romance
My family has been instrumental to me this year, especially sis, in coping with moms being gone
My step daughter is now happily married and moving forward
I have friends who support and include me
I also have lots of friends with horses
And friends with boats!

2004? WOW! What a ride!

TMI? Or not enough...

So, after having asked EVERYONE I know about wasps, we called a pest guy to come out and give his advice and an estimate this morning. Well, as we stood under the 50 foot palm, having poked at the fronds with an extension pole, looking straight up in the air we saw nothing. Not a buzz. Not a swoop. Not even one wasp. So what's up with that? Why is it that your car will stop making "that" noise when you go to the garage, and the wasps disappear, making me look like an idiot?

In fairness to the explanation, I have come to understand that wasps go to bed in the early evening, and don't reappear until late morning or afternoon when it gets a little warmer. And so thereby lies the operative word, warmer, which it is NOT. It's been freakin' COLD here, and the bad part is that I had to work in it all day yesterday. Rain too. And it had snowed the nite before. SNOWED!

So now I'm still in a quandary, do I call a tree trimmer and make sure that the appointment is early in the day, and pretend that I don't know anything about wasps?

Home Sweet Home

My yard is a shambles. After having neglected it for way more than my 9 days of travel, it went from crispy brown to knee high green. It's almost as if you can watch the weeds as they grow. My beloved Plumaria in Pots are taking a certain amount of satisfaction in joining the melee, getting in on the action by extending their inevitable leaf dropping by going all kind of sickly yellow first. Oh, how I wish I had a digital camera to show you I'm not making it up. To make the mess worse, after a deluge of rain, we had our famous Santa Ana winds blow in from the opposing direction, hot and dry. This brought a combination of mud, ruts and heavy soggy leaf piles, to instant dry, static electricity and more leaf fall. Thankfully the tumbleweeds were out of the equation, but other neighborhood debris filled the part. So now, on top of an acre of thick green weeds, there are leaves everywhere, little seed pod things coming from the awful palm tree out front, a plastic child's swimming pool, and me armed with a 6.75 horsepower mower, a 2 gallon gas can, and a pair of gloves. Oh, and lest we forget to mention the best part, while getting swooped by wasps while I mowed, I followed their flight and found that they were joining a party up inside the dead fronds of the palm tree. A BIG party. WAY up in the palm tree. So I've got a little project on my hands, kind of chicken-and-eggish about who to call first, the tree trimmer or the pest control because neither wants to come without the other.

I had the windows open to air out the house, and from inside I thought I saw the house plant peeking over the ledge, giggling.

O, to be back in Hawaii.

Did you miss me?

Hello BlogWorld! I’m home again!
And in the immortal words of someone so wise, "Wow! What a Ride!"

Hawaii is beautiful as ever, although this time I saw why it stays so green, it's the rain, and this wasn't the it-rains-every-day kind of argument that you hear from every tourist, but a stalled out weather pattern over the islands that had no trade winds to keep it moving. So when it rained it rained buckets, and for days and nites at time. But it would break periodically and when it did we basked in Tropical sun on the beach or moseyed through botanical gardens, flea markets, the Arizona memorial, the E.R. at Kailua Hospital, or snorkeled at Hanauma Bay.

So a lot got accomplished in a relatively short amount of time but mostly it was an opportunity to visit with family, my aunt and uncle who have lived there since about 1968 and my way cool cousins and their now growing families.

And as always, I have returned with a renewed wish to make my life, my home and my yard a Tropical Paradise. Sheesh. Here we go again. I saw new Plumaria colors I'd never seen before, and Hibisci the size of trees! I saw all manner of palms, flowering vines, and things that looked like giant house plants that grew wild. And, ever my bane, I pictured every one of them carried across 2600 miles of ocean and transplanted into my dry crispy yard. I was awakened from this dream by the Agricultural inspection check at the airport. They did however allow us to wear our tuberose leis home.

Besides pictures and stories I didn't bring much home with me. No aloha shirts or thong bikinis. No chocolate covered macadamia nuts. No snow globes with the snowman melted and floating. And no coffee cups. I did manage to bring home a pretty significant head cold though. Don't you just love recirculated air on the plane?

It's good to be home!

Now, let's talk about what's been going on here….

Have you all been reading sis' story?! It's HOT! Wow that girl can write! I'm waiting rather impatiently for what comes next about an explanation for the weird behavior of the animals, but got just as sidetracked with the naughtiness as I think the author did!! Who's the stranger? Whew! Funnily enough I recognize some of the characters, I don't recognize the green eyed mystery man. Or do I…?

And the best part is knowing that the author doesn't know where it's going next, either!! Hahah! It's like a ride that we're ALL on! Blindfolded!

Bravo sis! More! More!