H2Oasis

The indoor water park here is called H2Oasis. I took the girls once last year, but it was kind of a nightmare. Not only did I go on the busiest day of the week (Friday), but BB was only an infant then (and in her Baby Bjorn) so it was really hard for me to, say, go down the slide with G, or go stand in the wave pool. Plus, I also remember it as being some of the coldest days of the winter so the whole time we're getting ready to leave, I'm thinking, my kids are going to get hypothermia just walking out to the car.

This time was considerably better. Of course just coming back from Hawai'i, the girls were excited when I pulled out their swimming suits and swim diapers, and being Monday and the first day back to school (from all the various spring breaks), H2Oasis was pretty quiet. They have a parent/toddler time every M-W-F for a few hours. You can't ride any of the big slides, only the pirate ship wading pool is open, but there's plenty to do and you'll have your hands full anyway – I did, so I couldn't get any pictures of the girls actively frolicking.

I was literally pulled in two directions the entire time. G wanted to ride the biggest slide they had (for kids), which was one of those tube slides – and she kept running off by herself to check things out. (She ended up going down twice, feet first on her belly.) And once BB discovered there was a "deep" pool, she kept pulling me in that direction so I could float her in the water. BB is probably more of a water baby than G is. She loves the sensation of floating weightless, seemingly very comfortable in water, and, if she knew how to swim properly, I have no doubt she would swim away without looking back.

After about an hour and a half, BB started getting that glazed look on her face so it was time to pack up and go home. Out in the car I gave them some crackers to munch on, and when I pulled into the garage, I turned around just in time to see BB shoving a cracker into her mouth as her eyes were closing. As you can see, the cracker only made it halfway into her mouth before she was fast asleep – she was that tired! H2Oasis had the same effect on G: after lunch, I had her quietly reading some books until I realized she had fallen asleep sitting up. And I was exhausted too – I felt it esp in my legs. We had our first apt wide, family nap in a long while.

First Up

I was reading in a parenting magazine recently that at about 1-year of age, kids like to drag toys behind them. I forget now what the reason why was, but as it happens, BB's been dragging toys about of late. We actually have a phone on a string that we bought when G was a babe – she didn't start pulling it along until she was almost 2 –, and just this week BB's been getting the hang of that one. (It tends to flip over when she runs over things, or the string gets caught up in the wheel: she hasn't quite mastered the fact that it has to be pulled smoothly and across a flat surface.)



Anyway I wanted to catch her on video pulling along her toy of the week: a half bag of diapers. Before I had the camera out, she had been up and down the living room and hallway at least half a dozen times with it. But of course she noticed I had the camera, stopped doing the cute thing, and the following resulted. (Sorry it's kind of dark-ish. It's not like these cameras come with a little spotlight for better footage.)



Note: "Ma-ma" has a double meaning for BB. It refers to me and "I want". Clearly, she's salivating to touch the camera. You can imagine, in a given day, I hear "ma-ma" about a bazillion times, plus whatever ma-ma-ing I get from G. Some days I reach my ma-ma limit and I have to leave the house – alone.

About That Time

It's one of those nights when I should be working, but here I am blogging instead. And it's the end of the month to boot! So here are the pictures for this month. In looking back over them, I realize there's a lot of things I didn't get around to posting (in detail) about so I might have to revisit some topics within the next couple of weeks, i.e. you'll be seeing these pictures again (but you'll be rewarded also with some video clips).

Another Year on Dada

Dashed by Clouds

We didn't get to see the aurora last night because of cloud cover – just to the north. :( I drove pretty far up the hill hoping to get a better view only to realize that I couldn't see the stars. And what gets me is that we had perfectly clear skies all day, and the clouds probably rolled in just after dark. (The aurora tends to happen after midnight.) What's worse is all night I had dreams about seeing the aurora.

The Aurora Forecast

What am I doing up so late? Doing laundry? Okay, I have some sheets in the dryer. Working? Only sort of. ...I'm waiting for this. Last night a (single) friend of ours was out and about, called to say that the northern lights were visible. Unfortunately, that was at 1 in the morning, and I wasn't about to get out of bed to answer the phone. (We heard the voice mail message this morning at breakfast.) But as it turns out, we're in luck because the forecast says that the aurora will be active tonight and tomorrow as well, weather permitting. This is quite literally probably our last chance to see them before we leave so I'm sacrificing a little on the sleep in order to do so.

Cinderella Pull-Ups

Hypothesis: G only uses the potty in order to get to wear Cinderella Pull-Ups, thereby completing her Cinderella outfit. (The deal was that she could wear the Pull-Ups as a reward if she used the potty.) I explained to her yesterday that she had to use the potty *every time* she has to go. Of course she disagreed fervently with me – she's like that – but I've seen an improvement. This morning she even let me hustle her out of the bathtub in order to use the potty!

Finally Undeniably Broken

The heater has finally gone kaput! No kidding! And unmistakably so. (Thank goodness it's decently "warm" out.) Since my last post about this particular topic, we've just kept the heater running pretty much nonstop with the override switch down and the flow valve half open. When it gets too hot, I simply open some windows and the porch door. Admittedly, it's very wasteful, but I'm not going to running up and down stairs burning my fingers on the override switch in an attempt to regulate the temperature in my apt. That's what I'm supposed to have a thermostat for.

So this morning before leaving for work, Drew had turned off the heater thinking that it was going to be a warm day out, full sunshine, the works. But the forenoon turned up mostly overcast so that the thermometer just kept dipping. At lunch I called Drew for directions on how to turn the override switch – turns out I had been looking at the wrong one – and voila, no heat! Well, of the seven heating units, only *half* of one is warm to the touch. So that leads me to believe that my dad was right in thinking that one of the water pipes is clogged. I wonder if our landlord will understand any of this.

Shopping: Etsy

I've always been a bit of a window-shop-aholic. It suits me in that I can "shop" the expensive, luxurious stuff that I like and still remain the penny-pincher that I am at heart. Shopping on the internet, of course, is a window shopper's dream. All those stores at the click of a button. My latest passion/addiction is a site that sells handmade goods. One of the blogs that I sometimes read did a post on some really cute jewelry – and the rest got me hooked. It's set up a lot like eBay, except of course you don't bid on anything. What I like are the different themed items that are showcased at the top of the homepage, and further down, the "Recently Listed Items" that scroll by every fifteen seconds. I can tell you, I've wasted many a fifteen seconds looking at all the cool stuff. And if you get an account, you can save favorite items or sellers to a list. :)

Enemy #1

One thing I'm definitely not looking forward to in our move to KCMO is getting reacquainted with all the creepy crawlies that *don't* live in Alaska. There's something (good) to be said about cold and high altitude places to live. Anyway some friends of ours that just moved from Anc to KCMO in early February wrote to warn us about spiders! In particular, the brown recluse. Wiki it for yourself, i.e. I'm purposely not providing a link in order to temporarily spare myself the thought of living so close to such a thing and sullying my pretty blog, and see why it's at the top of Drew's "kill without mercy" list. (If you don't already know the story, Drew got bit by one while training with the Army in Kentucky and was lucky his leg didn't rot off.) I'm sure there are other unmentionable creepy crawlies that I'll have to kill in my time, but only the BR comes to mind right now. I just hope I don't have any nightmares tonight...

TOPh: Dusty Rose

I think it was in either 1990 or 1991 – my mom can correct me later – that Dusty Rose came to us. Through some friends in town, who had chows of their own, we got into contact with a professional chow breeder in Colorado, who also trained her dogs for show. Dusty, for short – AKC registration requires at least two names –, was bred and trained for showing, but because of the coloration of her tongue, she would have been disqualified. A trait of the (pure) breed is a completely blue/purple tongue and mouth. Dusty had little bits of pink on her upper gums and on the side of her tongue, so the breeder Louise was looking to place Dusty with a family with the stipulation that she be whelped once, and L would get first pick of the litter.

The first time we visited L's farm outside of Denver (we would return at least a dozen times in subsequent years), we were immediately struck by the noise. Aside from the main house, where L kept a handful of other breeds (as pets), ones needing medical care, and the puppies, there's a large garage like structure (bigger than the house even) housing some 26 chows, all barking and yelping and excited to see who's coming up the drive. L gave us a tour of the facilities, introducing us to all her "babies" as she called them. Nearly every dog had its own kennel with a flip door access to an indoor and outdoor space. Several were paired together in a kennel for mating. I remember one dog in particular named Rocket. Standing on his hind legs he was nearly as tall as me! And when we finally met Dusty, she was like this ball of fire. I'd never seen such an energetic little two-year-old, and such a lovely coat. As a trained show dog, she also knew when to get down to business: when L gave the command, she had the perfect inspection stance, looking straight ahead and hardly moving. It was quite impressive.

As per the agreement, when Dusty went into heat that first year, she went back to L's to be paired with a male. Possibly because of her small size, Dusty's litter consisted of only two puppies, both male, the first of which died in the birthing canal. I remember the day she went into labor, we had several people experienced in birthing puppies on hand, which saved Dusty's second puppy whom we kept and named Chief. (L wanted a female from the litter.) Thinking back on the experience, I realize now that a dog's pregnancy and labor and delivery is not all that dissimilar from a human's. There's the swelling and apparent discomfort; the vocal pain during the labor and delivery; the extreme exhaustion in postpartum; the loss of hair/fur in the later postpartum months; the trouble of weaning the little one.

This is picture of Dusty at 15-1/2 years (c. 2005?), taken when she went to go stay with L for a couple of weeks while my mom was out of town. L didn't believe it at first, couldn't believe Dusty could be so old (me neither!), but she pulled up the certificate and verified it, making Dusty the longest living chow L's ever had. (Chows typically live to be about 10-12 years old.) Sadly, L knew that this would probably be the last time that Dusty would come to visit. My mom didn't really realize it at first, but after Dusty returned home, her health problems and ailments started to manifest themselves faster – until one day, my mom had Dusty put down.

Something Like It

In the last couple of weeks, I've been discerning words from BB, which has made communications between us just the slightest bit smoother. (For awhile, I think she thought that shaking her head meant "yes", which was really confusing.) Specifically, she can respond "yeah" or "no" when I ask if she has a dirty diaper, or if she wants a cracker. But more interestingly, if she wants more of something, she'll say what sounds like "hai-yow", which in Chinese means "want more"; and if she doesn't want it, she'll say what sounds like "buu-yow", which is Chinese for "don't want". Now, if I could just figure out what "mah-no" means...

The Alaskan Sleep

I tell you, I've really been losing sleep over this longer daylight thing. The first (partial) summer we were here, G slept pretty good after we hung a blanket over the window. We always had problems with getting her to bed (cutting out her afternoon nap helped a lot! – G just doesn't require as much sleep), and sometimes with night waking, but once she was at it, she would stay at it. Last summer, with BB being just a baby, she slept really well during the summer hours. Drew always marveled at how she could be put down to bed and be asleep without much fuss – a marked contrast from G at that age.

But now that BB's older and her sleeping habits are changing a bit – we're transitioning from two naps to one – I'm also seeing that she's not a very sound sleeper. Maybe it's just the age of wanting to see and be apart of everything, but her earlier wake up times are starting to get to me. Usually she'll stay in bed with me, sucking on her pacifier and staring off into space, but she's always fidgeting too, which makes it difficult for me to go back to sleep. These last couple of weeks with AhGong here has been nice because when she gets up, she goes to keep him company, playing with the toys out in the living room. When she wakes in the night, sometimes I wonder that she's just checking to see if it's light out yet. And if she sees any light, natural or artificial, she's wide awake – until nap time.

Some moms in my group have this book on getting your child to sleep, staying asleep, sleeping longer, swear by it. A couple weeks ago they were passing it round to a woman who just had her 4th, and she was saying she was having limited success with it. They all joked that even though it was a pretty good book with sound advice, it needed a special chapter on keeping your kids asleep during the Alaskan summer. (Hanging blackout curtains helps, but it's not always a perfect solution, depending on the kid.) This would be one small reason to move sooner rather than later.

Happy Easter!

Potty Milestone

Potty training is a slow business at our house partially because G refuses any kind of help and would rather go on her own terms, if you know what I mean. I've mentioned before that consistency is our biggest issue. G will sporadically give a thought to peeing on the potty, but mostly, the potty sits vacant and empty – and I change diapers. Maybe a week ago G started using the big potty as kind of a special interest thing, but now we're back to the little potty as a general rule.

But today was some big news! G pooped in the potty! For some kids, that's a huge deal, the last thing to happen. I rather think it was an accident in that she had only meant to pee and stayed too long, but I played it up like it was the coolest thing ever. Of course a few hours later we were back to the diaper so again, consistency consistency consistency.

My Blog

Throughout my life, in fits and spurts, I've kept a diary/journal for the usual things: as a way to remember past big events, as an outlet for thoughts and feelings. (I remember, for awhile, I even dabbled in poetry writing.) The last time I was home (in Cheyenne), I found some of my old journals and I had a good laugh re-reading what I wrote. Part of it is a more mature me examining the less mature me; part of it is finding that I've re-prioritized and essentially become a different person. Anyway I was reflecting on this the other day and on how much I've enjoyed keeping a "public" journal, and wishing that I'd started one sooner. Because I find in the chaos of kids that, more and more, I need to keep some sort of record, not only so I won't forget, but also to make room for other and new things.

...Ohmigosh, it just occurred to me that this, i.e. this post, is 1) my pregnancy brain on the fritz; and 2) the beginnings of my getting sentimental on Alaska.

The Baby Omen

You may not have put two and two together yet, but it seems when we got pregnant with #3 that cinched our future: another move. You thought we were settled in Alaska? So did we! But it wasn't meant to be...

About a year or so ago, the FAA decided they were going to restructure, regionalise all their engineers into four or five offices across the nation. The northwest office, which includes Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, probably Idaho, will be in Seattle. (Would you believe the job description requires 90% travel?) Early on, we knew that we didn't want to go to Seattle. For one thing, it would be a move back to big city life which we purposely left behind in coming to Alaska. So we decided to look for another job.

Maybe not so surprisingly, Alaska doesn't have much to offer in terms of electronics engineering jobs – and with the fed gov't. (Believe me, despite all the headaches we've endured, the fed gov't offers benefits that can't easily be beat by the private sector.) So then it became a matter of making a (longer) list of places to look for a job. Number 1: Anchorage; number 2: Kansas City; number 3: Cheyenne, WY; number 4: anywhere else. Admittedly, it's a very short long list, but there aren't exactly a lot of places that I want to go either.

Almost six months ago now, the FCC (in KCMO) called for an interview and things were looking quite promising. But in the tradition of moving at the speed of gov't, they only just made their (verbal) offer today – and it's likely that we'll get all the details hashed out to our liking. By the sounds of it, Drew's future boss would like to have us down as soon as possible, i.e. by the end of April (!!!), so we're in a bit of a scramble now to get everything in order. Of course it's not completely unexpected so we've had a few things kind of in the works these last couple of weeks. Now it's just a matter of getting everything else rolling.

So what does this have to do with the baby, you ask? Well, it seems for as many times as we've been pregnant, we've had to move. We were in the process of moving to DC when we found out we were pregnant with G; with BB, it was Alaska; and now Kansas. (I can't say Missouri without calling it "misery".) I asked Drew to see if we might push things off until after the baby's born, but it sounds like Drew's future boss is pretty insistent. And truth be known, Drew doesn't really want to stick around his current job anymore either. So we're moving...

After the Break-Up

Spring is an ugly time of year in Alaska. I don't know if we're still considered to be in "break-up", but the snow and ice is fading fast. There were a few days earlier this month when there were super puddles everywhere, potholes galore, and mud. And now that the drifts along the side of the road and the snow piles are starting to dwindle (last year there was one on the side of New Seward that didn't finish off until almost August!), the trash that's been stuck in there all winter is reappearing. Sometimes you wish that it would warm up and just melt away all in one shot so we wouldn't have to keep negotiating the ice, but I have no objections to 40 degree weather and 12+ hours of daylight and clear skies.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

TOPh: Bear

Since I had planned on a bit of a series here, I think I should finish that off before I forget about it entirely – and maybe start another feature.

So our second dog we named Shiao-Shong, which translates to "little bear". We saw him in a pet store one day and brought him home. As I stated in the post about Yuan-Yuan, he and Y got along pretty well, maybe partially because of the age difference. Precisely because he was a puppy, and with not a lot of formalized obedience training, he was quite a handful compared to Y.

I have a lot of spotty recollections about his years with us. I remember he used to wander the house at night resting in different parts of the house, probably more the watchdog than any of the other ones we had or would have. But in particular, whenever I would wake up at night, he would usually manage to be at his post in my bedroom doorway, keeping an eye on me.

He was also really fond of music. At the time there were several instruments in practice in the house. My mom was active on the violin; I was taking lessons for piano and within three years I went through the recorder, the flute and the violin as part of the school's music program. Depending on who was practicing, B would go to that part of the house and listen. (He usually preferred my mom's music.)

Chows require a lot of maintenance for their coat. Twice a year chows blow their coat. In this picture, the lighter stuff is about to fall out in large chunks so this must have been B's change from winter to spring. As fast as it falls out, it can be quite overwhelming and sometimes it's just easier to send the dog off to the groomer. Interestingly, some people have their dog's fur made into sweaters and rugs, which we once looked into, and as you can imagine it certainly wouldn't be hard to collect enough material from a chow.

Some dogs have bad breath. Bear had bad breath, but it was nothing compared to what came out the other end! The silent deadly kind!!! We'd often be sitting on the couch watching TV, and if you were lucky, you'd hear the sound of it before the smell hit you. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before or since. Skunks could come close, but it was so darned concentrated that you would have to run from the vicinity just to keep from "suffocating". But the intense concentration also meant that it dissipated quickly. I remember once he happened to catch a whiff of his own gas. The expression on his face was one I'll never forget, but it didn't phase him one bit. :)

This is Bear with my Uncle Paul, my mom's baby brother. For some reason B despised Uncle Paul. Uncle P and my mom's sister Gabrielle came to visit one year, and B growled and bared his teeth at the former whenever he approached. Maybe B was used to being the only male in the house and he didn't like the competition. So this is one of the few pictures, towards the end of their stay, that Uncle P was able to get close enough for a decent temp-ceasefire picture.

I know my mom would recall fondly the obedience classes that she took B through, ill equipped and a little overwhelmed by his strength. We had this ridiculously long chain that my mom carried around in an inefficient wad, always trailing bits here and there. And I don't know if it was later, but we also had a spiked choke collar for him. He had so much fur that a regular collar wouldn't be effective in giving him direction, and he was a stubborn one. But my mom will tell you that the two of them bonded through all those sessions, eventually culminating in the ultimate sign of dog-affection-possession: B lifting his leg and peeing on my mom's.

Again, I don't have an exact year, but maybe a year after my parents' divorce was final and my dad had been living in Denver for awhile, B went to go live with my dad. That was a hard time at our end because it was such an abrupt change. After that I only got to see B every other summer vacation, and every other alternate Christmas break. He lived there for some years before he started having problems, health and disciplinary, and so eventually the story goes that my dad gave him away to a rancher somewhere on the Front Range.

Hawai'i: Day 11 (cont)

I'm sure you're tired hearing about Hawai'i already, but I just wanted to throw in this one last clip. It's of us at the beach near Goat Island. There were these huge chunks of coral and rocks all over the place, and G was single-handedly trying to return them all to the ocean whence they came. And I was holding BB's arm because I was afraid she was going to sit down in the surf and get water and sand everywhere. It was really windy that day so I recommend turning the sound down – you're not missing much in that respect.

Hawai'i: Day 11

This being our last day, we decided to rent a car and see the rest of the island. We had originally planned this excursion for earlier in the week, but with the girls being sick and our flight not leaving until 10pm, this scheme turned out to be quite convenient (wrt to luggage and checkout time).

Our first stop was at Leonard's for hot malasadas, a Portuguese donut. (Look, Leonard's is even mentioned on the Wiki!) They come in original (sugar), cinnamon sugar, and filled with different flavor custards – I had a chocolate, but they also had vanilla and haupia, among others. Like any other donut, I think they're just a very good excuse for having fried carbohydrates and sugar.

This is La'ie Point just outside of La'ie, where the Polynesian Cultural Center is located. That island in the background is notable for the hole in the center, which was created when a tsunami wave (from our Aleutian Islands) hit it on 01 April 1946.

That's Moku'auia/Goat Island in the background. On a good day, it's possible to wade out to the island in chest deep water and have the beach there, protected in a kind of crescent moon shape, mostly to yourself (during the weekday). But because of the wind, the water was too choppy and the currents probably a little too strong – so we had to view it from a distance...

...and play in the sand and water on Oahu.

Kohuku is known for their fresh shrimp, usually sold off trucks, so we stop at a place called Romy's Shrimp Hut for their sweet and spicy shrimp platter. For the squeamish, they were kind enough to cut off the eyes, but they left enough of the head for those who like what's inside that part. :)

The wind turned out to be a good thing, even if we had to forgo the "private" beach part: the waves were happening out at Sunset Beach, and in particular at Banzai Pipeline. There must have been about a hundred spectators when we pulled up, some with those large telephoto lens cameras, and about 50 surfers out on the water. I don't think it was one of those perfect-conditions kind of days, but that wasn't going to stop them from trying.

This was one of two guys that we saw walking away with a broken board.

A little further down the beach, we stop at Shark's Cove. Back in the day, this is where they hung out, but now it's just in name. There's a natural tide pool here with some great summer snorkeling. Before we came, Drew bought some snorkeling equipment hoping he'd get a chance to use it, and unfortunately this was his only opportunity and for a very short time. Because of the waves in winter, it's maybe not the best place to be since, as Drew tells it, your chest is literally inches from the coral. As it happens, he decided to get out of the water right before this huge wave washed over the wall of the tide pool causing little swells.

The appropriately named Turtle Beach actually delivered. Turtles collect here for sunbathing(?) and apparently are known for cutting swimmers off on their way to and from the beach. I'm not sure what this one was doing, but there was a crowd of onlookers and two women with a red rope trying to make sure no one got too close. We didn't stay long since we were parked illegally. But after driving away, we decided to turn back since this was going to be our last look at sand and sea – we were headed inland back towards Honolulu and our plane – and G wanted to play some more.

We stop in Hale'iwa for killer tacos at Killer Tacos; and shave ice at Aoki's. As we were sitting outside at the former, we happened to strike up a conversation with a local and her granddaughter, who was a little younger than BB. The grandmother had been there all her life, the child of Japanese immigrants, and it was interesting to hear how things had changed during her lifetime.

Before this trip, I didn't know that you couldn't actually drive all the way around Oahu. There's a portion in the upper northwest corner that is accessible only with 4WD and only to a certain point. So from Hale'iwa, the fastest route back to HNL is through the middle of the island, which takes you passed the Dole Plantation near Wahiawa. (Also see the official website.) Though they don't grow pineapples commercially here anymore, they're known for supposedly the world's largest maze, which we skipped. The Rs made a trip here earlier in the week and recommended the train ride so that's what we did.

It's just one of those little kiddie rides, but it was quite informative. For one thing, you ride passed all these different crops like cacao, lychee, longan, carambola, and papaya, all of which I didn't known grew on trees/bushes. Of course the highlight is their bit on pineapples. Did you know that pineapples are planted by hand and hand-picked even now? Them are some spiky plants esp up close so workers have to wear some heavy and thick clothing even in the hot summer months. What was fascinating to me though was that a skilled worker can plant over 10,000 pineapples a day, which is about either 1/8 or 1/4 of an acre, I can't remember. The gift shop is quite impressive as well. Just about everything pineapple including pineapple cutting demos. I managed to hold myself back since there was the already bursting luggage to consider.

Before going to the airport, we stopped in Pearl City, just north of Pearl Harbor to get gas for the rental and maybe find some dinner. We tried our luck at the Pearlridge Shopping Center, but as it turns out, it's one of those places that you don't really want to stop at after it gets dark. So we changed into our Alaska clothes in the parking lot – lots of dried sand stuck everywhere – there and headed for the airport.

Do you like the plumeria lei that Drew bought me (at the Dole Plantation)? Unfortunately I couldn't keep it because it was making me sneeze. And I wasn't sure I could guarantee its survival on the plane ride home. (Whenever the girls handled it, handfuls of petals would get ripped off so I'm not sure it would have looked this pretty after 6 hours.) An interesting little tidbit about Hawai'i: You can't transport any plant or animal in *or out of* the state. Maybe I'm out of travel-practice, but is this true for international travel as well? I thought it was okay to take, say, fruit out of the country, or in this case state, as long as it was consumed by the time you landed. But maybe they're worried about having the genetics of their flora and fauna "stolen". To prevent such things from occurring, they have a kind of customs station that you have to pass on the way into the airport – and you have to make and sign a declaration before you land in Hawai'i.

Anyway by the time we get seated at the gate, I'm hoping and praying that the girls fall asleep quickly because I'm just exhausted! Mercifully, all four of us are asleep even before takeoff. I have a vague recollection of BB going limp in my arms only moments before I go limp myself. And the next thing I remember is waking up midway through the beverage and snack announcement.

My Baby's Three!

If we ever thought that G was still too young to grasp the idea of her birthday, we were wrong. I told her about the big day yesterday and she talked nonstop about it all day. She even went so far as to say that *everyday* was her birthday. Our birthday gift to her was supposed to be a new pair of Cinderella slippers, but AhGong insisted on paying for them. So I was thinking a pair of leg warmers might be nice – G's always wanting to wear BB's.

So we celebrated with pizza for dinner, a Cold Stone Mmmint Chip cake, and a movie Pillow Talk – and the girls got to stay up late. All in all, I think G was very pleased at being the center of attention (see video). :)

Signboard Messages

There's a nondenominational Christian church that I sometimes drive by that I always have to read what's posted on their sign – I went by there today. You know I have to hand it to the Protestants for coming up with some pretty witty stuff. I'm wondering if they come up with this stuff on their own, independent of other churches around the country, or if there's some sort of national registry of quotes that they pass around. So the one on the board for this week:

"The original tomb raider. Come join the adventure every Sunday in March."

Incidentally, I've only ever seen one witty saying on a Catholic board:

"Under the same management for over 2000 years."

The Human Experience

Drew and I had our first movie date night in a long while. (I went to see Bella back in January, and it was the first time I'd been to the theater in at least almost four years.) Anchorage had a pre-screening of this documentary-ish film called The Human Experience that we really wanted to see, and with my dad here, it was a perfect time to get out. It's about these two brothers who go on adventure experiences to find the answers to life's burning questions. It sounds cheesy and done before, but it was powerful nonetheless. (Warning: If you're prone to crying, bring lots of tissue.) In particular they have three experiences: living on the streets of NYC for a week as a homeless person; volunteering in a home for abandoned and disabled children in Peru; and visiting in a leper colony in Africa. This film is still in "rough" cut so it didn't flow as well as I think it could have, but it got its point across. And being that they're a small production company, their resources are fairly limited – they're still trying to get someone to distribute the movie on a larger scale. I recommend this one if it comes to your town.

The Continuing Thermostat Saga

These last few weeks, I've been learning to live with less heat – you can only complain so much to a person who doesn't understand English very well – but I draw the line when there's no heat at all. I only figured it out late last night as I was deliriously tending to BB, who couldn't find her pacifier. It was brutally cold, colder than usual, and a look at the thermostat told me either it was below zero outside or our heater was broken. When Drew got up to go to work this morning, he confirmed the latter. Thinking back, our problem probably first manifested itself yesterday morning, but because it's been fairly warm out these last couple of days with full sun, I didn't think to check the heater. And during the night, it just got steadily colder.

My dad, who's here visiting for a few weeks, went down and had a look at the furnace. Not being any sort of professional furnace/plumbing fixer, he hypothesizes that something's broken or plugged because only when we flip the override valve, which is normally in the up position, does the heater start to put out heat again. When the landlord finally came around, my dad explained the situation to him, and S only nodded his head. I'm guessing S has no idea what we're talking about, doesn't even know that his furnace has a problem. For a new landlord, I think he's in a little over his head. I just hope we're not here when the furnace finally goes kaput – and the ceiling falls in from water damage and rot.

Hawai'i: Day 10

Since G is feeling so much better, Drew decides to take advantage of the day and heads over to Pearl Harbor early early in the morning. The guidebook recommends getting there at about 7am to minimize wait time for the USS Arizona Memorial. He's gone for most of the day visiting the new aircraft museum, the USS Missouri, and the USS Bowfin. (Before going to Hawai'i, we decided it might be best not to take the girls to Pearl Harbor because 1) no one under the age of four is allowed on the Bowfin; 2) there might be a lot of waiting around in the sun and hot; and 3) they probably wouldn't be interested anyway, which would take away from the experience for the adults.)

The guidebook makes an interesting sidebar comment on the attack on Pearl Harbor regarding an oversight that the Japanese made that could have kept us out of the war for more than a year. Apparently, as the Japanese were flying around the island doing their damage at the various installations, i.e. there are several airfields and the Marine Corp Base at Kaneohe besides all the ships and submarines in Pearl Harbor, they neglected to bomb the large white tanks of fuel, our supply for the Pacific fleet. (I no longer have the book so some of the details might be inaccurate, but the gist is the same.) So the guidebook makes the argument that if the Japanese had hit even one, sending the whole lot up in smoke, it would have taken us at least a year to ferry more fuel from the mainland to Hawai'i in order to run the ships and aircraft that remained. After the war, we prudently begin building an underground fuel silo.

I actually visited Oahu with my mom back in 1996 when my grandparents were there with my mom's sister. We saw most of the island by tour bus including the Polynesian Cultural Center (did you know it's run by the Mormons?); snorkeling in famed Hanauma Bay (below); and Pearl Harbor. Evidently, the USS Missouri hadn't come to Pearl Harbor yet (not until 1998), so I only got to see the USS Arizona.

If you squint a bit, you might be able to make me out in the blue swimsuit.

The above two pictures are of Hanauma Bay as you're coming up/down from the parking lot.

The gold statue is of one of the kings of Hawai'i.

Meanwhile back at the Hawaiian King, I kept busy with the girls having a leisurely breakfast, making calls to the rental car companies (for our last day on the island: day 11), and getting groceries for hosting the Rs over to BBQ. I put the girls in the pool for a little while, but it's difficult to keep an active eye on them both in such a situation so I'm glad when BB's ready for her nap. Afterwards, e grab lunch at the International Market food court, and I spend the rest of the afternoon prepping our BBQ and packing our suitcases.

Before the Rs arrive for dinner, G starts complaining of stomach pain again so we give her another dose of the MofM and she falls asleep on the couch. We learn later, after we get home, that a common mistake parents make in treating their kid's constipation is stopping treatment too soon. Even though we see some short term improvement, it seems treating her for several weeks (and sometimes even months) through diet is recommended. When G wakes up, we put on a movie for her, but when she realizes there's a party going on outside, she loses interest even though she still doesn't seem entirely pain-free.

Hawai'i: Day 9

Even though the bottle of Milk of Magnesia says it works within 8 to 12 hours, we wait around most of the morning and nothing. But G is noticeably better: improved appetite and energy.

In the afternoon we head to the Waikiki Aquarium. The place is quite smallish compared to most aquariums that you see on the mainland, with only one building and nothing bigger than a reef shark on exhibit. (There was Hawaiian monk seal enclosure, but none were out that day.) But I was pretty impressed with what I saw, and I learned quite a bit (for once). They had those little audio tour wands, and with the size of the building, Drew and I could actually concentrate on listening and looking.

We saw Nemo; Dory; supposedly the oldest giant clam in captivity (behind us), and other smaller ones that they were breeding; a large tank with fish larger (and probably heavier) than G, reef sharks, and some zebra sharks swimming around inside; several species of jellyfish; and the sea dragon, although I can't remember if it was "leafy" or "weedy".

When we return to the Hawaiian King, we sit out in the pool area enjoying some cool drinks and the company of the Canadian retirees. Afterwards, we head to Kuhio Beach and hang out until just before sunset. On the way home, we consider eating at the Cheese Burger in Paradise, but end up having Vietnamese rice noodle bowls at the International Market food court, with a side of French fries for the girls. For dessert, we get bags of Kahala Nuts, which just end up being sugar-covered pecans. Yum! Back at the HK, the girls both fall asleep before Finding Nemo is over.