Basketball Season Once Again

Once again it's that time of year when Joey plays basketball. I love to watch him play.

He just keeps getting better and better and this year he is really doing great!

He is number 4 (in the black shirt) and here he is making a great shot.

Once again, the ball is sailing from Joey's arms toward the basket.






At this league in Kauai, there are boys and girls on the teams. Joey says it's a little different playing with girls but he's getting used to it. There's a little girl named Zoe on his team and she is a scrapper!


She and Joey are the best players.

I love this picture of Joey getting the tip-off. Look at that graceful form!

Anyone who knows me knows I am not a sports fan, but I really do love watching my boy play. I am so proud of him.

Not Completely Paradise

While Kauai is amazingly beautiful and the weather is always nice and beautiful things grow everywhere and there are no snakes and people have a wonderful spirit of aloha and it looks like heaven, I don't believe it is actually heaven and this is why:

Life's Burning Questions

Today at work my friend Carol asked me, "Why does splenectomy only have one E when spleen has two?" And I answered, "Why is Filipino spelled with an F when Philippine is spelled with a Ph?" Anyone know the answers to these questions? Because Carol and I are stumped.

What We've Been Up To

We have been very busy and that's why I'm behind on my blogging. Saturday we went to a birthday party for the daughter of my BF from work. My friend Carol does birthday parties for her kids like no one I've ever met before. There were probably 100 people there.

I LIKE PIZZA!!

Here is my BF Carol and her daughter Tierney. If you look closely, you'll see some old geezer in the background that you might know.

Waiting for the feast. After we ate salad, pizza and pasta, Carol kept bringing out desserts. She's amazing! Not only birthday cake but also marshmallow cupcakes, chocolates, lollipops, cascaras, cream puffs, and other Filipino desserts that I can't remember the names of.

Here are a couple of pictures taken in our new condo. We are loving it. It is a lot newer than our old one and it seems cleaner and a lot more open. Joey has the upstairs (which is just a bedroom, bathroom and walk-in closet) and he thinks he's in his own man cave now. BTW, Joey's room is the perfect guest room... hint... hint...

The move was pretty easy, as far as moves go. We didn't have too much stuff to take, since most of what we own is in storage in Colorado. Our old landlord said he'd never seen renters leave a place as clean as we left ours. I was not surprised to hear this, and I guarantee that the new place is cleaner now than it was when we signed the rental papers.

This I know because I cleaned it!

An Explanation For My Absence

Mindy commented that I need to blog more, so I'm going to try to do better on that one. There are two reasons I have not been blogging lately. The first is that we moved to a different part of the island. I'll post details about that in another post, but the short story is that we went without the internet for more than a week, besides the work of moving. The second reason is that I have been spending WAY too much time with these people: I really do like my job and my co-workers, but we have been very busy and lately I have been working more hours than I like to. This picture is a repeat from when Flat James was here.

Here's a picture of Mike that I wanted to post just cuz he's so cute in it. This one was taken at Anini Beach, which we used to be able to walk to from home. Now we have to DRIVE to the beach. Oh, woe is me!!!

I know this post is lame, but I just wanted to put something quick on the blog for now. Maybe tomorrow I'll do a real update on what's going on in our neck of the woods.

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, the picture in the previous post was taken by our son-in-law Ryan when they were here. Yes, it really is that beautiful here. That was taken on their hike along the NaPali coast. I love the picture so much that I had it enlarged and framed and now it is hanging in our bedroom.

Tsunami? What Tsunami?

Thursday night we were up all night watching the news of Japan's earthquake and listening to the local tsunami sirens go off every hour. It was quite exciting listening to the news reporters talk about the wave that was heading directly to our little island. When the sirens started, we noticed a lot of our neighbors getting into their cars to go who-knows-where, even though we are in a safe zone. I think they were heading for the grocery store since the news reporters kept stressing the need to have at least a week's worth of food on hand.

Joey was a little afraid and wanted to spend the night in our room. We all watched TV until the wee hours. The tsunami was expected to hit Kauai around 3:00 a.m.

I fell asleep before anything happened other than the sirens.

About 4:00 a.m. our phone started ringing, a couple of people from the mainland (where it was later) asking if we were okay.

We were fine.

I thought maybe things would be interesting at work on Friday. I wondered if I'd do ER-type work. I wondered if I'd even be able to get to work since the road there goes right along the beach.

Well, the drive was totally normal. The road was totally normal. Then work was totally normal. The strangest thing about the tsunami was that it didn't seem to hit Kauai at all, at least from my point of view.

So it turned out to be kind of fun, because we had all the excitement with none of the bad stuff. Kauai is still heaven on earth!

Flat James

We love having visitors from the mainland, and we've had quite a few lately. One of our very special visitors was Flat James. He is my nephew, who is related to my other nephews James, Aaron, and Alex. Flat James arrived via the US Mail and we're enjoying his visit very much.

Here is Flat James at the Kileauea wildlife sanctuary, looking at pictures of whales. He did get to see real whales, too.

Our condo has a pool, where Flat James loved to sun-bathe.

Here is Flat James enjoying the water. He didn't have a swimming suit, so he had to swim in his clothes, but he didn't mind.

One day, I took Flat James to work with me. He helped me care for my patients, including this cute little girl.

Back at the Kilauea Lighthouse.

Sorry the pictures are out of order, but while Flat James was at work with me, he felt a little sick so we put him on the monitors, but he was fine, just a little Island Fever.

Flat James went with us to a luau. The hula dancers thought he was so cute!

These boys did the Imu Ceremony and Flat James helped them.

Flat James loved the playground at Lydgate Park. He played all day.

We have been to the beach several times since Flat James arrived, but, for some reason, he never goes with us. I think he's afraid of the water. Once we can talk him into going to the beach, he will be ready to return to the mainland to tell his school class all about his Hawaiian adventures!