whale whars

Here is some photo documentation of my whale excursion yesterday.....


Ishmael and Cpt. Ahab
.

Scurvy crew aboard the Pequod.

Maui Morning.

Mom in foreground, baby in background.

Waving.... or maybe this is the whale version of giving the finger?

*SSSpspshhhhhhhfffppphhoooossss*

A whale of a tail.... har har har.

There were 4 or 5 times when the whales fully breached clear out of the water.... with in spitting distance of the boat...... soon after my camera battery died. *sigh*

Was fun though. We saw a pod get in a fight and heard the males growling and trumpeting. And no one puked. But i did spill a nasty cup of coffee all over the deck. oops.

Till next time....

listen to me very carefully... with all your might

well its a whole new year again... who'd a thunk it.
it always amazes me how quickly time passes by. In fact just the other day I got a hair cut .... for the first time in a year and 5 months... wowee. i mean if i were a hermit fellow or something that would mean a VERY impressive beard.
Been trying to get plans together for the international convention coming up. I'm not too stressed about making travel arrangements and all that, so much as having to come up with some hand-made little trinkits to exchange with the foreigners. I mean geez, ive only got 9 months to create a sweatshop, hire some little children from asia, and produce a number of nifty little gifts that cost very little to make but that convey feelings of "hi there foreign brother/sister, here's something to remember us here in hawaii, even though im just a transplant myself- it'll probably sit on your shelf and collect dust, but hey! isnt it cute?" So if any of you have any ideas... please.... relay them to me. i thank you.
I guess its just a mandatory thing to do when you go to an international. (Maybe i'll just give out colorful pairs of foam earplugs so they can all sleep well on their plane rides back to wherever they came from)

Well, I get to go on a whale watch this friday.... FOR FREE! Thats right... free. so im excited, especially because i finally broke down and purchased a functional camera... so maybe i'll get a few ambiguous shots of little black triangular protrusions barely jutting out from between the waves. if im lucky.

OH! and for those of you out there that i havent informed(as if there are so many of you... in fact... your all probably asleep at the switch by now.. anyway) .. im going to be up in april... VERY briefly... so if i dont get to see you.. i apologize in advance. but will try.

Shower time… goodnight

Svefn-G-Englar

December 25th... otherwise known as christ mas.


Stayed on the other side of the island last night after a full day in service and a big Hapa-style dinner. I spend Christmans morning eating pancakes and editing my talk.


Then walking around what appeared to be a ghost-town, harassed an employee of the 'Crocs' store. Then fell asleep face down in the sand on the beach. Pretty good chrismus i say.


ALSO!!! I must have been good this year because I got the best present I could have imagined today.... I got to witness one of my most favorite and coveted meteorological sights today.... a full on water spout right off the Pali. I NEARLY WET MYSELF IN JOY. (and for those of you who dont share my enthusiasm in spinning columns of rising moist air and dont have a clue what a water spout is.... it looks a little something like this....)

I seriously could have cried i was so happy. I will never forget this day.

Later this evening I had to give my talk. Which is fine. But i realised something interesting about giving talks... it warps your sense of time. Yes. thats right. Allow me to explain: During the first portion of the school while you are anxiously awaiting your turn- your bladder miraculously fills to the brim and creates a very sudden and unexpected urge to pee. Call it nervous physical response or whatever you like, but..... it never fails. Problem is, at least for myself... I have this horrible fear that if I decide to take a chance and make a run for it, that the 25 min. I have before my part with disappear and I will re-emerge from the restroom to hear 'Sister Paquet?? Has anyone seen sister Paquet??' and see my householder sitting on stage nervously waiting for my appearance. Its as though the bathroom is some sort of time warping vacuum that distorts your sense of reality, so that you enter with 25 min. to do your business, thinking you've got plenty of time, and exit the bathroom to find out its like... next tuesday and everyone else left hours ago. days even. Does anyone else have this phobia?!

Anyway, in other news. Im still sick. I feel a bit like a 12 yr. old girl in an arm wrestling match against hulk hogan. And hulk Hogan is my sinus infection. Im getting my butt kicked. And consuming nearly a gallon of orange juice a day is doing other unpleasant things to me. I think its a lot to do with working too much, and sleeping too little. The pattern tends to be this: 3 or 4 days of no sleep is enough to make you cranky and tired, but after about day 5 or 6 it starts to feel like 'normal'. The fun kicks in after day 8 or so because at this point you're probably sick so you've consumed a number of cold medicines and sleeping pills. The end result being you now have a VERY hard time determining what has actually happened in real life, and what was a dream, or something you saw on TV. Delirium- Its very confusing but makes daily life much more interesting.

Oh, and I celebrated the sale of my car by purchasing myself some new sweatpants.

So life's pretty good.

the office

Step into my office.

Its Saturday night. And after slaving away at my 'day job', I decided to spend some time in the home office.
Description:
Location: 2nd floor apartment balcany
Furnishings: Lawn chairs, beach towel (to prevent any pinching), and pillow.
Secretary: The gecko hanging out above my head, recording everything i do in its tiny mental files. (Not very good at taking calls)
Cup of joe: NewCastle Brown Ale
Reading Material: Idoru
Dress Code: P.Js and mr.rogers sweater
Duties: Downloading all CD's to computer

Its a tough job. But I'm a dilligent employee.

fish platter

Here we go.... again

I am back on the island. The trip home went very well. I accomplished some very important things... namely bowling, visiting some rather nice cats, and eating a lot of pie. So much so, that i was forced to join a gym upon my return. The rest of the trip was just tedious details.

..... nooo. im kidding. im reallly glad i got to see everyone that i did. It went by entirely too fast. I wish I could have spent more time just lounging. Hopefully the next visit will be in warmer weather. wouldnt that be novel?

But back to reality as they say. (As if Washington is some parallel universe in my mind where reality does not exist.) Its hard to come home from vacation... even if it is a sunny island place. Its kind of like being pushed into a revolving door when your not quite ready. You just fly inbetween doors, pause to try to figure out why you were so forcibly pushed into this spot, and in an instant get hit from behind with an oncoming glass door panel. If you're not already moving at the pace of life.... its a harsh mistress.

I got to come back to 6 days in a row of work. With no breaks. But I suppose it will end up for my benefit because I am inevitably going to be broke from missing 3 weeks of work.

OOH! and for those who I havent told... yes.... my car FINALLY sold. Only took a year and 4 months. I think thats a new record. So thats a big relief. Also, I now have a computer. So yay for that. I can check email and whatnot. As my first duty on this new machine... I will grace you all with some photos from my trip. You may or may not recognize these events....

Until next time... im out.

limey

greetings! well the standard coons age has passed so time to update. plus i got an upgraded phone so now i can access the ol' intrenet. yahoo. so now i can get your emails in a timely manner. the story goes that i will be arriving on the mainland in one week. So im very excited to see all of you. Not so sure how i will handle the fridged temperatures but i figure if i consume and wear enough cayane pepper i might do ok. This ought to be an eventful trip. Lets see, in other new news ive changed my name to Kagness and now only eat potatos. [Thats a lie] But i DID get 3rd Degree Yam Burns the other day. That was a first. Anyhow, i wont spoil ALL the fun right now. I can fill you all in on the exciting details of my non-eventful life when i arrive. In the mean time think warm thoughts & eat your vegetables. And i will see you all very soon!

i bet the toxic gold fish epidemic is the problem

Im not going to continue to appologize for the delays in between updates anymore because clearly... Im not that sorry. hehe. Well in any case, I just havent had the means lately... or any thoughts to publish. However, I have a whopping 5 min. left before my purchased internet time is up. I hope all is well back on the 'main' land. I will be there soon enough.. November to be precise. and im looking forward to it. The sister was here for a week so that was a nice diversion. We camped... boy did we camp. And she got to see sharks in their natural habitat... the beach. Well, not much new to note here... at least not that comes to mind. but i miss everyone and look forward to seeing your bright beaming faces again soon. (after all i hear some of you have been tanning.... yikes)

till next time.
the katy