that song stuck in my head!

this song is stuck in my head. over and over and over.

which isn't bad, really. i have some great memories of the delicious anticipation of being able to watch all the christmas cartoons every year around this time. well, back then, i think they let us make it thru thanksgiving at least until we were bombarded with the holiday seasonal stuff. or maybe i am just getting old and my memory is not serving me correctly.

we stored all of our holiday stuff in huge boxes in our garage, hidden way way WAY in back. i remember asking my dad, "can we get it out now? how about NOW? soon?" it was only a matter of time until he ventured into the deep, dark crevices of the garage and dug out those boxes (cussing his head off as he tripped over everything; everything HE had stacked in there). every year, i savored the moment i could open those boxes and look at last year's cards, last year's remnants of tinsel and pine tree branches and usually, some little treasure i had hidden away. i remember the clothes pin angels my sister and i made. the shrinky-dink ornaments. the old nativity scene that we had carefully wrapped in newspaper every year.

it was usually during those old christmas cartoons that i decorated our house; for some reason, mr. magoo's christmas carol always seemed to be on. (rudolph or frosty required FULL attention; at least with mr. magoo you could half-watch it). we didn't just decorate the tree; we decorated the whole livingroom and diningroom, plus the outside of the house including the huge lights (that would probably be banned nowadays because they were totally electrically unsafe). there was garland that had to be wrapped around the banisters going to the second floor; the fresh pine boughs that had to be arranged on the (fake) fireplace mantel. it was a day-long event, leading well into the evening...but i will always remember stepping back and surveying the scene and thinking "NOW it feels like Christmas."

i look forward to digging our boxes out of our storage shed and celebrating our first official christmas in our house, married, together. i am not sure that i will watch any christmas cartoons...but maybe the husband will sing "we are santa's elves" for me.

happy holidays!

happy do-whatever-you-wannakah

we don't have a GAP here, but what the hell...i love this anyway.

random notes

- it is fall here on the islands, and that means some cooler mornings and evenings/night-times for us. when i lived on the east side of the island, it was more sweatshirt-like weather around this time of year, but i will settle for what i can get: pulling the comforter up in the middle of the night because the fan(s) are blowing in a little chill from outside. i just looked on weather.com and thought, everyone would think i am crazy by saying a low of 73 at night is a "chill". i know, be quiet!

- i can NOT believe christmas is right around the corner. i used to dread the holidays when i was in the advertising field, and have found it is no better in retail, of course. fortunately (on some levels), i work nights so i am not full-on confronted with customers and such. but still, we are working behind the scenes to make it all "happen". i found out the husband has to work both thanksgiving day AND the day after, so we are postponing our thanksgiving dinner until that saturday when we will have our realtor and her husband over for turkey and such. and richard makes some awesome turkey, stuffed with citrus and garlic. i am looking forward to a live tree this year in our house, compared to the fake lighted palm tree we got at the neighborhood drugstore last year. i was in the midst of paint and exposed subfloors then and living out of one room of our house. funny how far you can come in a year. my plan is to hang the (new) outside lights on the house the day after thanksgiving and stay far, far away from any kind of shopping experience. how about you?

- we have gotten in some awesome paddling lately, complete with sea turtle sitings and paddling in and around schools of dolphins, complete with babies arcing and jumping right in front of us. it was a perfect day on sunday, with glassy waters that you could see clear down to the bottom in REALLY deep areas. the husband wants to buy a stand up paddle board after the holidays so we will see.

- one of the husband's coworkers is looking to buy a house, so we have been going with him and our realtor (who we suggested and who is awesome and fun and great and truly a great friend now, too) to look at houses. today we looked at one that he and i looked at over a year ago; still on the market. they have done some improvements to it, kicked the renters out and LOWERED THE PRICE BY ABOUT $100,000. geez. from what the realtor is saying, there are still so many more properties coming down the pike as foreclosures and short sells.

- last year i puzzled over what to get the bf/now husband for christmas, but this year it is smooth sailing as i have lots of ideas and already have one gift bought. woo hoo! mostly it is repeats of things i have gotten him in the past that i realized he liked (gift certificate for massage) and learning more about the things i just need to stay away from (clothes? forget it. he has everything in every color and style. plus, i want to keep the little closet space i have stolen for myself compared to the three closets he has...hehehe.).

- we saw the movie "2012" the other night and both thought it was stupid as all hell. special effects were cool, but the storyline? what storyline? however, we bought "up" and that was awesome. loved it and would watch it again and again.

- can you believe thanksgiving is next week?

"the paw"

jeep loves his daddy richard, as you can see here.
richard lays on the couch, watching tv. jeep is close by on the rug. this game of "scratch me, stop, i grab you with my paw" can go on for HOURS.
and richard asks, "do you think he REALLY likes me?"
oh. come. ON.

sometimes, i feel like i live in a bubble...

...and it's a good bubble.

my family and my husband's family both know about us, are loving and accepting, ask how the other is doing when they phone. his family flew in and did so much for our wedding, it was amazing. (my family is just millions of miles away! thousands? ok, not millions.)

i have become good friends with his coworkers and from moment one of meeting me, they have greeted me with open arms and treated me as if i have known them for years. wonderful local people who invite us to beach hangouts, bbq's, kid's parties, luau's...you name it, we get invited. i go into his place of business and all of his coworkers kiss and hug me as a greeting.

my coworkers always ask how he is doing, ask what *we* are doing on shared days off. (we don't hang out with them for no other reason than i think we all have not worked with each other long enough yet).

and the point of this?

i guess i am just always amazed when i read stories in the news or on other blogs about marriage rights being voted down, or stupid governors who want to deny partner's burial rights, or supposed christians who want to spew hatred disguised as bible quotes at same sex couples or gays in general. i feel bad for the christians who i know are accepting and loving and are taking a bad rap for the homophobes. i feel sad that so many people can vote to take away my basic civil rights; rights THEY enjoy everyday. and i feel angry to the point of sometimes just having to shut the computer down, walking away and losing myself in a day paddling with my amazing husband out on the water, tuning out the hate of the world.

i wish those people who claim that i "chose" this "lifestyle" could answer the simple question of why on EARTH i would "choose" a life where strangers would hate me for no reason, and i am denied many civil (and human) rights. WHY WOULD I CHOOSE THIS?

i am grateful every day for this bubble i live in.

i spy a jeepie eye

the "other" daddy does not approve of doggie-on-the-bed, but what he does not understand is that for years before he came along, jeep's rightful place was on my bed snuggling his doggie butt in my face.
so he is banned from the tempurpedic in the main house master bedroom; however, when we sleep in the ohana daytime while the other daddy is at work before *i* go to work on nightshift, the dynamic duo snooze in luxurious a/c comfort.
shhh. don't tell.

food porn: crab sushi

the husband was on a roll last night and made this plus kamaboko dip.

i'm so not good at this

so the store had these gill porcelain statues ON CLEARANCE for awhile and i have been patiently eyeballing them (actually, since day one of work). they are representations of the gill repro-art that we have hanging throughout the house (i wish we could afford an original piece of the art. i think i saw one here locally for about $4,000 or some high number i knew i could never afford).
anyway, as i have watched them sell-down because i could not justify their somewhat high price, then get marked on clearance, then wait for them to go 75% off so i could swing buying two instead of just one...i kept thinking, "i don't want to wait too long and miss out." which, yea...i missed out on a few of the ones i *really* wanted. but the two pictured above i was pretty happy with getting at a fraction of what their actual cost is.
in any event, lo and behold: ONE of the kim taylor reece hula statues i have also been eyeballing WENT ON CLEARANCE for some strange reason this past week. ok, so i was hyperventilating. we already have the kane hula kahiko and the hoe wa'a canoe paddler. the only kane statue left is the kekoa spear dancer. i called the husband immediately when i noticed and told him and he said, "hmmmm...i never really thought about whether we should get that one or not." which, you KNOW he wants it, but his shopping interests generally skew toward: a) food. b) clothes. c) more clothes. d) more food.
i stayed on the fence for about five minutes before i just decided to get it. AND SURPRISE HIM WITH IT FOR CHRISTMAS.
which brings us back to the title of this post: i'm so not good at this. the whole "buy something ahead of time and hold onto it for a few months so i can surprise someone."
the funny thing is, i left it out in the jeep and didn't say anything. yet. and when i woke up the other day from my daytime sleep (ick. nightshift.), he said to me, "do you notice anything different in the livingroom?"
so i looked around and noticed he had added one of the clearance gill porcelain statues to the other two: the kane posing with the spear (no pictures yet). and i hear him say, "i looked for that kim taylor reece statue, but it was already sold out."
hahaha, sucker. I BOUGHT THE LAST ONE!!!
mr. "i haven't thought about getting that one yet."
now if i can just last until christmas.

late wedding gift by williams sonoma

honestly, i spent more time drooling over the wrapping/packaging than i did about what was inside the box. they could have left nothing in there and i would have gotten just as much enjoyment out of this when it arrived via UPS the other day.
notice how the pineapple shaped molds complement the pineapple design on the wrapping paper. look at how lovingly that green ribbon caresses the box.
i should have taken a picture of the INFLATABLE bubble-wrap-or-whatever-you-would-call-it inner packaging that surrounded the gift item(s). INFLATABLE. a little plastic sleeve that INFLATED. (did i mention it inflated?)
and oh yea, the salt and pepper grinders were pretty awesome, too.
i am sure richard is going to tell his friends that sent this how i grabbed the boxes and started photographing them when i took 'em out of the UPS box. and kept saying, "wow, williams sonoma. wow. would you look at this?"
you know what they say: it's all about the packaging.

whiskers

i love that little patch of pink by jeep's nose.

is it ever ok to say?

so, my boss one-up higher from my direct boss is talking to me the other morning as i am rushing around, trying to finish up ad set. we are talking about the company changing a certain sign that we hang up and which is now going to be "phased out", yet will be used in other areas because there is nothing else to put there.

i kind of roll my eyes when i hear we have been given a "red" because the sign was up everywhere (you are graded as green, yellow or red), and she responds, "i know...THAT'S SO GAY."

i don't know if i got a "look" on my face, but i was so stunned and she paused for a moment and we both moved on in the conversation.

afterward, i thought of everything i *wanted* to say at that moment. and yes, she knows about me, my wedding, who i am married to...everything. we have talked about it. she even says, "oh, i would really like to meet him." she KNOWS. but she is also relatively young and it seems that phrase is still somewhat popular with younger people. sometimes.

but considering the fact that her title is "Executive Team Lead", one would think she would know that a phrase like that could be considered derogatory, inflammatory and even downright rude. and wrong. and i could bring it up to someone above her and i am certain she would get "coached".

so. is it EVER ok to say? do you ever say it? WOULD you ever say it? it would have probably been better to deal with it at the moment it happened, but sometimes you know how you are so taken by surprise, you don't remember to open your mouth and say something?

just curious.

on my way home from work this morning

it is only a short walk down our street then onto the crossroad and you can get to the water. there are a few beaches up and down this main stretch of road that goes into town, although most are not very large and more locals and surfers with a few tourist stragglers. actually, up and down, there are some awesome sunset views.

peanut butter boy

dogs and peanut butter. doesn't get much better than this.
by the way, this went on for about 5 minutes BEFORE i started filming and for another few minutes AFTER i finished. all from one spoonful of adams natural-style creamy peanut butter.
(and he was begging for more as soon as he was finished licking. and licking. and licking.)

my favorite beach

above is a still shot from the afternoon at the beach; this honu crawled up as i was chilling with my itunes to take a break from his feeding. you can click on the youtube links below to check out some views of this beach and the honu. there is a little hike involved to get here, but well worth it: the water is great to just chill out in, paddle in or further out, surf at. not a lot of people. granted, no real "amenities", but my idea of perfect.

this one is the honu.
here is the beach and the view as you first walk in from your short lava hike.
and i apologize for the chopiness of this, but i was walking and taking video at the same time. at the end of this video, you can see where i shot this from.

jus' chillin'.

everything old is new again

i dunno, i think it retains just enough of its original flavor, with a little dose of 2000's. works for me.