The Armadillo Tales

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University of Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan (shown above) currently has his photo on Yahoo's front page.    I am pleasantly surprised as the University of Hawaii is my alma matter.   UH is currently ranked #14 in the BCS (College football rankings).   I think that's one of the or the highest standings in their history.     I could just imagine what it must feel like to be a University of Hawaii student right now.   I had a fabulous time going to football games when I was a student.  Now that UH is ranked and undefeated, it must be extra special.    I wish I was there.   I can smell the spam musubi's and bottles of cold Bud Lite now ... Go BOWS!

Photo: Yahoo.

Get Your Hands Out of My Cookie Jar

Okay I'm just a bit livid.   Everytime I think about it I get all irritated.   Every Friday we have our house cleaned.   We are normally out of the house as I hate to hang around with the boys as we try not to get in their way.    Today we got home and I noticed that the ziploc bag of cookies B-Dad and I opened last night was open.  It wasn't closed, but sat where the other bag of cookies was.   I asked B-Dad, did you forget to close the bag.  "No", he answered.  Well I didn't eat the cookies since last night and neither did B-Dad.   The boys couldn't have ate the cookies, neither could the dogs and cats of course.   Well that only left one pair of suspects, the house cleaners.   

Two things that upset me about this.  One, these cookies were specially ordered from Hawaii.  You pay just as much for shipping as the actual item itself.    Two, it was so blatantly obvious that someone ate these cookies.   Over half the bag was gone.   B-Dad and I only had one cookie each, so we know we didn't make that huge dent in the bag.    It wouldn't be so bad if they ate a box of Cheeze-It's.   But it's my cookies, my special cornflake cookies from Hawaii.   I'm so tempted to call the woman we hired and ask her about this.   Unfortunately we don't have proof and the woman we hired wasn't even here.  It was her two helpers.    Aargh!      

Everytime I think about it I can feel my blood pressure rising.   Next week I think I'm going to put tags on all of our food items that reads "DON'T TOUCH!".   

Photo credit: Big Island Hawaii Delights

Almost Pau Hana Time

Two weeks ago B-Dad and I were saying that wow, one week down, and now we have two weeks left on our vacation.   One week ago we were marveling at the fact that it felt weird that we are here for another week.   Normally our trips back home last for about two weeks.   Now we're down to a few more days.    How quickly time flies is so true.    

Take Out the Garbage

While we are in Oahu we are staying in a condo.  It's pretty nice ... 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen, living room, etc ...      Decent amount of space and cheaper than renting two rooms in a hotel.   But there is a drawback.    There is no housekeeping service.    What am I going to do?   There is no one to pick up after us while we are on Oahu.    I know I am spoiled.   Back home we have a cleaning woman who comes once a week to vacuum, dust, take out the garbage, clean the toilets, etc ...   Here it's just us.   

Due to the fact that we have to rely on ourselves to clean I feel I'm becoming obsessive about certain things.    From the first day we were here I noticed the sumo baby's feet were becoming increasingly dirty.   His little chubby feet were starting to blacken underneath.   No where else was he barefoot than in this condo.   Yuck.   The armadillo's feet were also starting to look a bit filthy as well.   Double yuck.   That meant that the carpets and tile floors were dirty.   Therefore I nagged B-Dad to call the property management people to have the floors clean.  It took a day to schedule but they supposedly came and cleaned the floors.    Well that was two days ago and the bottoms of my new slippers are starting to blacken.   I have not worn those slippers outside so where the hell is the dirty coming from.   I think it's the tile but to me, the floors are still dirty.    

SInce there is no one to vacuum that means to food on the ground.    Pick this up, pick that up I tell the boys and B-Dad ... no leaving food around.   Especially since we are in cockroach heaven, unlike back home where a roach sighting is as frequent as seeing Brad Pitt sunning in my backyard.    All the crumbs are picked up and thrown away.  I heard B-Dad vacuuming this morning ... good job B-Dad.   

Garbage ... no one to throw that away.   So I'm constantly making sure that the garbage bins don't overflow and that we throw out our waste every couple of days.    I also don't want garbage in the condo sitting for more than a couple of days so that another factor for me to consider.   

I thought a vacation was supposed to be relaxing but making sure this place is clean is exhausting.  I'd much rather pay someone to come clean every few days.  Know anyone?

Can't Stop Sweating

Our family has been on the lovely island of Maui for the past five days and I've about almost stopped sweating.   With the heat and humidity here I feel as I've been dripping perspiration non-stop.     Yuck.    Thankfully our condo here as a washer and dryer inside so that I can change my outfits at least three times a day.   Aside from the sweating we've been having a blast since we got here.   Most of our time has been spent with my relatives, eating, hanging out, eating, etc ...     Both the armadillo and sumo baby love spending time at their great-grandma's house.   Which is a good thing as we only see them about once a year.   

Last night we had a belated birthday celebration for the armadillo.   I think that was probably his third or fourth birthday cake so far.    The armadillo's grandma picked up a yummy ice cream cake that just melted so quickly in this weather.      

We took the boys to the pool here at the resort and it was kind of rough in the beginning.   The sumo baby protested to being in his floatie for the first 10 minutes.   The armadillo slipped off a step and his face ended up in the water.   That mishap cause the armadillo to not want to venture into the pool unless he was strapped onto his daddy.   Even though the armadillo was wearing a floatie vest, he didn't want to try to float on his own.   In all we spent about an hour there which was good enough for me.   I'm hoping to get enough of a tan to cover my shirt sleeve tan lines.   Double yuck.   

I'm hoping to post photos soon because of course it is beautiful here.

Charity or Alternative Motive?

Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto offered eight of his twenty luxury homes to Native Hawaiian families to live.    This arrangement involves his homes in the lavish Kahala neighborhood on the island of Oahu.   These families will live in the homes rent-free for up to 10 years.   I believe the families are responsible for their own utility bills.     Sounds nice, but why not just sell some of your twenty million dollar homes and give the money to charities?    What happens after 10 years?  Do you kick them out?    Where will these families go then?   

There are some skeptics, of course.   Some believe that Mr. Kawamoto was trying to decrease the property values in the neighborhood to buy more Kahala homes.   Others deem that he is trying to upset the community due to previous disagreements.

However I shouldn't critize.   At least someone is doing something.   It's better than nothing.

To learn more about Mr. Kawamoto's program click here.

Photo credit: The Honolulu Advertiser

No Place Like Home

I miss home.   It has been about 9 months since we were last in my birthplace, Honolulu.    I'm hoping we can go back soon.  Especially since reading this article.   I'm looking forward to seeing the changes that Waikiki has undergone.   I agree with Mr. Don Ho ... Waikiki was looking shabby.  But hopefully no more!

Photo credit SFGate