A Honolulu Halloween

Come, oh, Labor Day or so, all our local stores started featuring Halloween-wares. Maybe that does not seem so different than 'back home", but, as Liz pointed out, this is a place where missionaries came early and worked hard to eradicate all worship of spirits and multiple gods, etc.

So, it is a bit interesting that Halloween is a such a big deal here.

Many of you were asking, "What will your kids be for Halloween"? We were asking that, too, and we got performance artists in a manner of speaking:


















We got one "Abby Montana", and one Joker-like Zachary. They each had fun, as they have friends with whom they were able to go around trick or treating.

That was Sunday evening, but there was also Sunday AM at Zach's soccer game - no, Zach could not dress up, but Liz and Abby did (Steve had to coach). You see, here, when parents supply "snacks" for their kid's soccer game, it is NOT simply orange slices at half-time and donuts at the end.

No ... it is a full blown, four course meal. No one bothers with half-time snacks. Apparently, the feeling is that the kids can do with just water at the break.

But, toward the end of the game, the parents break out the collapsible tables, and all the necessary accoutrements.

So, given that the Sunday game for which we were one of the snack-supplying parents landed on Halloween, we decided that our contribution had to have a special Halloween flavor.

Well, for one, Mummy Dogs. Yes, that's right; don't they look treaty?



















A particularly frightening one - just staring back up at you, yeah? I do not think this one went down all that easily......
















It just takes some dough, some dogs, and two earnest cooks wrapping them up for a quick bake, and ....















Voila, a platter of mummies!
















But, that was not all we decided to make for our post-soccer game goodies. I was the brains behind this one (stolen recipes from the Web, not an original idea here).

To prepare brains, like below ....


















You must start with a nice round watermelon, and peel it. Yes, peel it (I never had done this before.......). It seemed so, un-carrot-like:














Then, take your favorite CARVING knife ..... with deft handling, incisive manipulations and not too much surgical precision ...















You got something to move into cold storage 'til the morrow:

















Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Steve, Liz, Zach & Abby

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, wonderful Spam......

October 4, 2010

There is another key Hawaiian treat we had to try, "SPAM Musubi" with the accent on the first "oo".

First .. a little interlude, to establish atmosphere ....




So, why SPAM, you might ask? Liz looked it up: During WWII, it was quite difficult to get meat in Hawai'i. The military stationed here received SPAM as part of their rations ("Meatloaf without basic training"), and then frequently traded it on the black market. Islands in and around the Pacific consume the most SPAM per capita, and recipes abound. It does not have the negative perception that it does on the mainland. Much more info can be found on the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food)

Steve here: My cardiologist makes me post the following: "One serving of SPAM contains 50% of your daily "requirement" of saturated fats". My response is, "Dr. Dan, we sometimes do buy 'SPAM Lite' ".


And, now:

Welcome to .....
The Chef Abby Show

Starring Abby
with Assistant chef Boyardee (Liz)














The Toolkit
















Fry 'em up!















Lookin' good














A little Soy Sauce / Sugar seasoning














Meanwhile .... on the nori (wrapper), place the Musubi packing tool:














A small scoop of rice; some seasoning (Wasabi, some other goodies...); the Spam; some more seasoning; finished with another small scoop of rice




































































That says it all!















One cannot end a post on "SPAM" without this, of course:

So far behind....

I know...... it has been FOREVER.

We can promise to be better, but, that might be tough. I'll drop a few short posts to catch up (hopefully), and then get on with more current things.

Here's one from August.

We were invited for a Saturday afternoon boating. It was an invite from an acquaintance of Zach's that he met through soccer, named Tyler. He was at the time an acquaintance, but now a good friend. We did not know exactly what to expect, nor exactly what to bring.

Whoa! Way cool.

They have a house that opens out the back to a Marina; not a ton-of-boats type of marina, but a dock from their house (and each house around this island). The dock opens onto a bay (that opens to the ocean, but who needs that!). You see, they have a nice speed boat, and the pictures tell it all. What a blast!

There are the boys,Tyler (standing) Zach (to the left), and Bobby and Michael, loaded on a floating, spinning thing, towed by the boat. They are already being pulled through the boat's wake.










Gettin' wet:















So, the idea is that you stand up on this thing, and hold on (for dear life), then Uncle Tre guns the boat, and also serpentine's it, so you start 1) spinning like crazy and 2) are flying back and forth across the wake. So, it is water skiing, but with four people latched together, AND turning around as fast as you can, AND bumping up and down with the swells of the wake.

Let me give you a little better sense of this (if I can upload this.....):


Then this sequence happens:











































So, what do you do next? Scramble back on and go again, of course!

Not just the "boys" did this, of course. We even got Abby on:


The family is ready:














We've launched:
















We are spinning:















We're in the "thick" of it:

Everybody's been surfing ... Surfin' USA

It was time. Slick-looking board, eh?

The particular board we got is 6' 4", with a "soft top" covered with that yellow vinyl. The soft top is because it is safer - when you lose it, and it comes crashing down on you, the soft top might save you.

Like I said, it's slick. Too slick, actually, to stay on. You might need to view our You Tube video to see just how slick (unless I can post it here). The vinyl atop that soft top is the thing that is super slick (a downside - definitely).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-bR390i5lQ

Anyway, like I said, we learned some things. Board wax, for one.

Yes - Parafin, and you apply it to the **top** of your board to keep you from slipping into the deep. Here, Zach is working hard to get his board sticky.

Well, to make a long story short, trial #2, Sunday August 29th with this board was a bust, too. But, for a different reason. Because, see, we're smarter now (more on that below). We realized the board is too short (6' 4") for stability.

Now, how did we get so smart? Because our wife / mother read *every* review on surfing lesson places around Honolulu and presented us (Z and I) with a gift of a lesson this past Tuesday with the: "Hawaii Fire Surf".

I know, it sounds like it is part of a Luau or something. But, it's not.

It is a group of Honolulu firefighters, who, on their off days, run this surfing lesson enterprise. You have to see these men and women - you just cannot feel safer, I must say. They are big, and trained. They supply the boards, they drive you to the place, and give you a 45min on the beach and on the board lesson (both in safety and how-to), and then and hour and a half in the water, with them right there helping. (That is the feel safe part).

They pretty much guarantee you'll get up on the board ... and we did!

Here's a couple of the old guy:

And, ... look at him grabbing this board like a snow boarder:

Not to be outdone, look at Zach's form:

So, at the end of our lesson, the photographer goes over to Zachary and says, "You know, kid, you know how when your playing basketball with your dad and you just beat him, but you're not sure whether he LET you beat him or it was legit? You know that feeling? Well, let me tell you something ... today, you ain't gotta have that worry. You killed! Outdid him at every turn. I know, and I got the proof in pixels".

We had a total blast.

A SHOUT OUT to Liz for that experience!

So, we know our own board is tough (right now). It is too short - those boards we were ridin' last Tuesday were 10 footers; no measly 6'4" popsicle sticks. Our plan -- well, Liz' idea, go down to Waikiki, and rent long boards for a few turns. See if we really can do it. Then we buy the big(ger) ones.

Meanwhile, I have been pricing car roof board carriers (we cannot fit more than this 6-footer in out Prius' hatch). But, two big boards we can carry on top with the right carrier!

So, I feel like we have been doing a reasonable job chronicling our activities...but perhaps not what it is really "like" to be here.

I am encouraged to do this by the holiday cards that Eric and Julie, as well as my friend Karen, send.  Many people receive holiday cards which describe all the very stunning positive accomplishments of the senders and their progeny.  Of course, I am glad to hear about all those wonderful things.  But I especially value those cards that give some honest insight into what the year was really like - what things are hard or surprising or challenging.

I am also encouraged to do this by my cousin, Ann Velenchik, and her blog.  She was diagnosed with leukemia in May, and has been chronicling her thoughts and reflections, as well as keeping us up to date on the medical end of things with it.  Reading her blog has given me, and a number of other people, a lot to think about - about friends, about opportunities, about what is important and valuable and how to prioritize things.  You can see her blog at http://www.carepages.com/carepages/MyLeukemiaBlog.  I believe that you may need to register at carepages, but I don't think that you need to get an invitation to read it.  The pages with alphabet letters were from a talk that she hoped to give to the Wellesley senior class at graduation (she teaches there) and have some interesting life advice.

One of her most recent postings was about her struggles with 'grief versus gratitude' and that also got me thinking.  I am happy (and grateful) that our current adventures don't have grief or gratitude on the scale that Ann is discussing, but we do have a bit....I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to be here.  It is a great adventure.  But there is some grief too.  Very much of it still revolves about my mom not being here to share this experience with us.  But a bunch of it also is about missing friends and family and feeling lonely.....

So anyway, I am not as eloquent or insightful or funny as Ann, but I have been thinking a bit about what it is like to be here - the good and the bad.

There are a lot of things that are great and you have heard about some of them already.

The weather.  It really is idyllic.  It is very warm, but rarely hot where we live or at the beach.  At this time of year, there are nice breezes.  It is sunny, except, of course, when it is not, and then it rains.  The rain during the day is mostly warm and gentle and generally does not last more than 30 minutes.  At night, it rains harder, but mostly we have been inside for those and we have a sturdy roof over our heads and louvered windows and stay dry.

The beaches.  We have been to a bunch.  We can be at a very nice beach in 20 minutes and at even nicer beaches in about 35. 

While some are more gorgeous than others, they are generally pretty spectacular.  At most of the beaches we have been to, the sand has been very fine and soft.  Yes, some have have rocky (dead) coral and some have sea grass, but really overall pretty stunning.  The water temperature at the beach we went today is listed on the NOAA site as 81oF.  It is close to that temperature all year round, at all of the beaches on the island.  There are beaches that have nice waves for boogie boarding and some that are unbelievably calm.  We learned today where to get some soft boards for some new surfers.  There are beaches with big waves where we can watch other people surf.  And I think that in the winter, there will be beaches with REALLY big waves where we can watch even more accomplished people surf. 

The cliffs and the mountains and the plants.  We haven't done too much hiking yet, but the hiking that we have done has been beautiful.  Generally, hiking up gives beautiful views of the coast and the water.  Sometimes Honolulu as well.  There are interesting trees and striking flowers.  It is amazingly cool to be able to "see" the lava flows still in the topography of the mountains.  You can get some sense of the ridges made by the flow in these pictures.

The local library branch.  It is small because the real building that will house the branch collection is currently under construction and it is housed in two trailers.  It has good fiction, non-fiction including cookbooks (helpful since we did not bring any) and travel books (again helpful because there are many books about Oahu and neighboring islands) and Hawaiiana books (published by more local authors).  I definitely get overwhelmed by too many choices (see The Paradox of Choice by Swarthmore faculty member Barry Schwartz) and so the library is perfect for me.  The librarians thought carefully about what books to keep at the branch during this construction period and I think that they did a great job.  The librarians are also very friendly.  All the library branches in the state share their collection, so you can get books and DVDs from other branches (even from other islands) in a few days if there is something that you know that you want.  They have a pretty good video collection (and since we have decided to do without cable or Netflix, this is a big deal) and also books and old radio shows (i.e., Dragnet and The Martian Chronicles) on CD which have been nice for the car rides to the beach.  The library reminds me of the Swarthmore Co-op.  It doesn't have everything that Genuardi's has, but really, it has everything that you need....


Some things are more challenging.  These are not listed in any particular order and the length of the description is not really proportional to the issue described.

Birds land on our windowsills and chirp starting at about 5:45 AM.  A particularly noisy one favors Abby's window.  The sanitation workers that collect the trash in a very noisy truck come at a similar time on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Those of you who know my preferred hours of being awake and sleeping know that this would not be my preference, but we are all getting used to it.  And since the kids both start school at 8AM (not yet clear how they are going to be at schools 1.5 miles apart at the same time), we need to be on an earlier morning schedule anyway....this really isn't a big deal at all, but I thought I should give some details about what our life was like....

My daughter will not go in the ocean if there are any waves or if she has observed any sort of marine life in the water and she refuses to snorkel.  So any beach that is suitable for boogie boarding or snorkeling is pretty much out at this point.  She *may* walk along the beach close enough to the water's edge to get her feel splashed, unless it is a day when she will not do that.  I will admit that she has been in the very calm and still waters at Waikiki.

She is signed up for swimming lessons that will start in a few weeks and we anticipate that these will be continued if the swim school seems decent.  I have no idea if feeling more confident in a pool with water will mean that she will be more enthusiastic about going into the ocean.  I think that the big issues are the waves and worries that crabs are going to eat her toes and so I am not sure that being a more confident swimmer is going to help much.

As a result, we have not gone snorkeling yet.  We plan on going one day this week when she is at school.  There are of course, other work arounds as well.  We went to the beach today and we boogie boarded and she hung out on the beach.  It seems possible that if the water were calm at a place where we were snorkeling, she might be willing to lie on a boogie board and float around.  I don't know whether she will look into the water or not.

Somehow this whole situation is extremely frustrating and it is hard not to make a big deal of it.  I give myself talks about not making a big deal about it and trying not to care if she goes into the water or not, and then we get to the beach and it seems impossible not to at least TRY to get her to go into the water.  And then we get into some complicated negotiation and she never goes in the water and Steve and I get frustrated and angry and then can't really agree on what to do. 

Some of these arguments have ended with Abby crying that she hates herself and that she is sad that she came here.  She has also complained that no one plays with her at recess.  I think that these things are not really true.  We've seen her playing with friends when we pick her up after school and during the school's open house.  And she generally acts like a reasonably happy kid.  But I am sure that it is challenging for her and hard at times.  I know that she misses her friends in Swarthmore and that having to do new things is challenging.  I am not so sure about the "hate myself"and wishing that we never came to Hawaii.  She is pretty emotionally savvy and definitely can see and act on things that get a response. So is she just saying these things because then I cave???  Probably.  But it is hard to hear her say these things.

Back to the specific ocean water issue: I think that I am frustrated both in a selfish and unselfish way.  In a selfish way, I want her to go into the water because then I can go into the water more - doing the things that I want to do.  It is hard to imagine going to neighboring islands or really out snorkeling for a good run without her doing it too.  Yes, we can leave her on the beach for short amounts of time on her own, and Steve and I can take turns going out with Zach, but it just won't be as fun for me....(all about me, for that point).  But I am also frustrated because it seems completely ridiculous to be IN HAWAI'I and not be enjoying the water - the waves and the sights to be seen and I feel like she is missing out on some big fun and will feel sad in the future. 

I miss my mom tremendously.  I think about her so much.  For so many of the things that we do, I think about what she would have thought about them, whether she would have liked them or been entertained by them, or been bored.  I know that she would not like the ants in the kitchen, but perhaps there would be fewer of them if she were here.  I know that she would be much more patient with Abby at the beach (and if she were there I could be more selfish and do what I wanted to do at the beach).  I do not think that she would be more patient with Abby when she tries to cheat at Monopoly (she had zero tolerance for cheating, even for children who she loved tremendously).  And I know that she would be better at teaching Zach bridge than Steve and I are.  If she were here, I think that we would all be having a better time.  I can hear her telling me not to cry for her or be sad, but I really can't help it.  I miss her so much.  I miss her wisdom and her humor and her love. 

Another hard thing is that I feel lonely.  I miss having family and friends to talk to and share things with and complain to and listen to.  It is really really hard to feel so alone.  We really still don't know anyone. I won't leave the kids at home by themselves because I can't even imagine what they would do if something happened to Steve and I if we were out.  Who would they call??

I think that at least one mom of a classmate of Abby's is hesitant to have her daughter get too friendly with Abby since we will only be here for a year.  I don't know if that is going to be the case for other folks as well. 

I feel frustrated that my children bicker so much with one another.  Others of you who have gone on sabbaticals said that your families got closer as a result and that your children became braver eaters and more worldy people.  I am wondering if any of this was obviously true at the time, or only in retrospect.  Or if it happened at the beginning or only part way through.  Because right now, I don't think that being here and spending all this time together has helped Zachary and Abby get closer at all and you have already read about the eating issues.  If anything, I think that they may be even more short-tempered or annoyed with one another than they were 6 months ago.  Maybe not, but definitely not much closer....perhaps it would be different if they were closer in age, or the same gender.  Maybe once they have some other people to play with, they will become more patient with one another.  But pretty much they don't do much together.  Maybe we aren't setting up the right opportunities or situations.  But it seems fairly hopeless right now.



Well.  There you have at least some of it.  Yes, we are fortunate to have this amazing adventure.  There is really plenty that is good and overall, I am still glad that we are here and proud that made this trip happen and all that we have accomplished in getting ourselves here and settled.  We have been telling you about many of those things and of course there are lots more that we haven't blogged about.

I knew some things were going to be hard and I really did anticipate a bunch of them, although perhaps not to the degree that I am feeling some of them right now.  I hope that upon our return to Swarthmore, I can remember to feel grateful for the things that I feel so sad about not having now.  And that when a soon-to-be-graduated Swarthmore College senior tells me that s/he feels hesitant to move to city X because "I don't know ANYone there," that I am a little more understanding and patient.  It IS hard.

dear everybody

we are having fun here.  We went to the beach a couple times, and my mom typed in Waikiki mini-golf, and we found glow in the dark 3-D, indoor miinigolf.  I may want to go there for my Birthday!  Since tereare no lights, there is a glow in the dark ball and the club is 3-D.

I got my hair cut, and started school August 2nd.  I am having a fun time.  My teacher is Mrs. Giesseman, and she's very nice. I am in room B7; that means I am in an upstairs classroom.  The school has two floors.  Afterschool, I go to "A+".  Just like at SRS, which is my school in Swarthmore.

On Plate Lunches - or, Calories 'n Salt

It is possible that we're not the healthiest eaters, I guess, but we do pretty well. It's all relative, right? However, we do try to seek out cultural favs, irrespective of their health quotient. (Julie and Eric: think of all those great Vieques lunches.....).

"Plate Lunches" are the specialty around here; think, Japanese "Bento". The architectural base is two scoops of white rice, and one of macaroni salad. The entree is what varies, and can be pork, chicken, shrimp, fish, etc. But, it is the way the entree is prepared that is the thing (back to that in a moment).

Liz tells me that our President's favorite place is "the Rainbow Diner". As this establishment is on the way to and fro the kids' last week soccer camp, we visited. We took a photo, we might not go back.

We also had a plate lunch at the ookelele festival (see back a few blogs); ditto at the farm fair. Though we might not have realized the centrality of plate lunch to the cuisine at that time.

The sum total of these experiences have left us wondering about the reviews in our tour books.

Still, we are game, and came upon "Keneke's" the other day after a morning of calorie-burning boogie boarding.




Plate lunch verdict: so-so. It is mostly salty, marinated entree.

But......

Shave Ice verdict: Voila!!! we found the real thing. The place had a sign that said it all:
"Unless it's shaved from a block of ice, it's only a snow cone!"

So, Dan Atkins, we found the place for you!


"Keneke's" had one other thing going for it -- the interior decor. Oh....um, "interior", means, in most establishments along the coastal highways, a partially enclosed seating area (it is the islands, you know...). So, there was this enclosed area with about eight picnic-type tables to sit at. One finds oneself surrounded by three walls, painted with biblical sayings, and representations, like that below:


The proprietors obviously allow customers to add to the ambiance, as there were many additions to the original artwork -- many customers had added in their own favorite Chapter and Verse. A very solemn place.






There was a sense of humor, too, as one noble diner added a chapter and verse (lower case, some would say) from Mike Love:















Oh.... ah, if you do not know who that is, perhaps you are too young to read Steve's postings.....but, the intrepid among you will look it up.


And as for Plates, Steve has not given up; next up, ones with the fish entrees.......

Wish us "Happy dining!"

Lots of updates from Liz.  And for those of you who have wanted to comment, but not give blogspot any information, I think that I have changed the settings so that anyone can comment - you will have to enter a word to show that you are a real person, but I think that you don't need to sign up or anything else like that.  Please give it a try!

The reason that I am using Zach's account to blog is because I didn't feel like signing up with them either!  :)

Also formating the pictures and text is surprisingly frustrating.  It seems impossible to have two pictures next to one another, except when it is not.   I really have no idea how to make them be adjacent.  So, I am sorry about the white space and the text that may not be really relevant to the pictures.  My usual compulsive, detail-oriented self....

First, the food, since that was where we left you.  First, the big news.  No one got food poisoning or burnt themselves.  Upon reflecting, at the end of the week, Zach thought that making dinner itself wasn't so bad; the work was actually figuring out what to make.  I agree.  We may work in various combinations of teams during the upcoming weeks.  Next up: Abby and Liz.  

Tuesday, we successfully ate dinner out.  Very good Vietnamese place on the Northeast side of the island, near Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology.  Liz had her tofu - in a very delicious Vietnamese curry, Steve had pretty decent pho and the kids had soup - Zachary, meatball soup and Abby, chicken soup with a poached egg.  Truce.  Maybe I can eat my tofu out instead of at home....



Details about what Liz did at HIMB are below.  While Steve and the kids were waiting for her on Tuesday, they got to see the pirate ship (the Black Pearl??) that is being used for the filming of the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Alas, no sightings of Johnny Depp yet, but apparently that is big work these days on Oahu - trying to see/get close to the ship and figure out where the crew/actors are hanging out.

Dinners, BLAH!!! (or, it's not Julie and Julia)

So, what does one cook for the evening meal, each day every day? If you hear our kids tell it, it is, "nothing but stir fry; yuch!".

I never thought of it, but perhaps Liz and I do have a bit of a restricted repertoire. To be fair (to us), we have made various pasta dishes. And, Liz did some great things with lentils that the kids even liked.

But, there was that first Friday evening when Steve made a tofu stir fry. Then during the next week, we made chicken thighs - oh, yes, that was as a stir fry. And, then, finally, last night Liz made tofu (ooops ... again a stir fry).

It's not so much the idea of the stir fry, we think. (The "we" being Liz and Steve). But, what is "IN" the stir fry. Stir fries (spelling?) tend to have to have all those green things diced up. So the kids refuse to just dig in and eat the stir fry. They pick out the parts that they deign edible (i.e. string beans, peanuts and carrots. They eat the rice separately. They leave a lot of food on their plates. The seasonings don't seem to matter - more, less, all the same from their perspective. They look grumpy and moan. They push food around on their plates. And Zach asserts that he just really really really doesn't like tofu.

The big victory yesterday was cutting up the onion so very small and describing it (during the chopping process) as a root vegetable whose name I did not know in Chinese (true, I don't know how to say 'onion' in either Mandarin or Cantonese) that it was not recognized and removed. However, not much of the total stir fry was eaten, so in all, upon reflection, a pretty small victory.

So, push came to shove last night, and the kids rebelled.

They had had enough --
THEY'RE MAKING DINNER!

So, here is their menu for this week:
(Tuesday & Friday are "Dinner out" days, they decided. Tuesday is "to be determined", the Friday one is "Shabu Shabu" (so, our kids have some taste, yes?). There can be no substitutions. If you don't like macaroni and cheese or if you don't want scrambled eggs for dinner, you still need to eat it. You cannot make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich.

You can barely make out on the left side an arrow switching Penne pasta and rice&beans so that the burritos and rice&beans are not on adjacent evenings because they knew that they were too similar to one another. We were also told that there would be some vegetable served at every meal.

Finally, a shopping list was generated after much peering in the pantry and refrigerator. Because we have many of the items necessary for these menus on hand, the shopping list for the week was:
one can of black beans
ice cream
chocolate sauce
sprinkles
maraschino cherries

Well...today was Monday, so here was their first decision point:














They took turns cooking it up:















Don't forget to add the "special sauce"!














How shall we set our table?














The vegetable dish (cucumber)....















Happy faces during our meal:















BUT ....
There was a problem.

.....the Mac N Cheese box contained all of about 7.5 oz, leaving some diners a might bit HUNGRY afterwards and requiring a preview trial of Saturday's burrito meal (ZD) as well as a late evening cheese sandwhich (SD):



















The evening ended, after a hard fought game of hearts, with some chocolate ice cream, decorated with various jimmies and chocolate sauce. How can u go wrong.......














Where was Liz during all this? Out watching coral spawn. Missed the whole meal. Will post pictures of the coral and the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology ASAP.