YUM YUM YUM! We had our friends, Clint and KK and their baby Jet, over for a little barbecue then afterwards we went to the State Fair. Since there is very little agriculture left on Oahu, it's more of a state carnival.
The boys had fun trying to beat rigged games:
They all did eventually win a few cute little stuffed animals.
My favorite part was the PIG RACES!
KK got to be the cheer leader for the blue team pigs!
They were INSANELY Fast!
Here is some footage:
At the fair we met up with KK's friends Andrew, Susanne, and their little girl Sonya. Clint, KK, Susanne, and Andrew all wanted to ride the carnival rides. We stayed with these cute little kiddies while they did.
I'm no longer buying his "I never want kids" story:
They all had so much fun:
They were so thankful to have someone to watch their babies that they insisted on giving Richard and I their last 2 ride tickets. We went on the FiRE BALL:
It was intense!
It was really fun spending time with friends again :) Clint and KK are going to be moving down to Honolulu next month so we'll be able to see them more often! Now that I'm working and we've gotten settled I'm excited to start entertaining again.
We went up to North Shore on Saturday. The ocean was unusually calm. We almost always see a turtle or two on this beach, but this time there was a plethora of them
Walking down to find a good spot I found this huge female basking on the shore.
you can tell its female by the size of her tail:
I found a good little spot nestled under a palm tree:
Here is the view from our blanket!
In this tiny stretch we saw over 15 different turtles
The water was so calm we were able to do some snorkeling. After a while I got too cold so I came out and watched the Richard and turtles from shore. Because of the way the water was it was actually easier to see them from up top. There were all sizes, Ones that probably outweighed Richard down to some baby ones that were only 18inches in diameter. It was nice to spend some quality time with them. Each one has such a different personality. Some were curious, others shy, and some were totally indifferent.
On the way home we saw this on the freeway:
They look far less appetizing before they are cooked, Kalua Pork anyone?
When I was a teenager my family lived on an apple orchard. My dad made Bee Blocks to encourage some more pollinators to stick around. They climb into the little holes and lay their eggs and then seal it with a spit/sawdust/mud mix:
At the time, my dad was working as a mechanic/handyman at one of the local ranches. He was making some for them as well. One of his co workers came in and was asking about it. My dad explained and his co-worker replied in horror "AGH! Those bees are MEAN!" This confused my dad because this particular variety of bee was known for its docile nature. So he responded,
"Why do you think they are mean?"
"They bite! THEY BITE HARD!!"
Puzzled my dad asked, "When did this happen?"
Then with a kind of sheepish look his co-worker responded, "..Well, I was digging him out of his hole"
This story is my 'Well, I was digging him out of his hole' confession:
Saturday was another negative tide. So we were at our favorite tide pool spot. We found the usuals bristle stars, cucumbers, red eyed rock crabs, etc but new to this trip were the Sally Light Foot Crabs:
Aren't they pretty! Richard says they sold these in the pet store where he used to work.
Also we found this very cool shrimp thing:
The picture doesn't do him justice, he was the most beautiful deep emerald color you ever saw.
It kept making a popping noise against the side of the tub so I put some shells and rocks in there to calm it down. After examining every thing else we had caught, we couldn't find our cool shrimpy thing. Then we looked in the urchin shell and TADA!
We poked him out because we really wanted a good picture of him but then he qucikly swam and hid in a different rock.
Finally we got him out of there and where we could pick him up and take a good picture of him. Richard was hesitant to pick it up... "Here", I said, "I'm not a scaredy-cat I'll hold it and you can take the picture."
AGHAGH!!! OWE OWE OWE!!!
It punched me so hard I started bleeding instantly:
This was right after it happened, by the time I got to the car to get a band-aide my finger was covered in blood.
Needless to say it got away.
When we got home, we looked it up. It is a type of Mantis Shrimp or Stomatopod. They have the world's fastest punch and have been known to break 1/4inch aquarium glass. Its 'smashers' fold up at its chest kinda like these things:
(yes cause' nothing says Merry Christmas like a 'punching Santa'...who makes this stuff?)
Here is a great article talking all about how they can punch so hard.
And here is one breaking a clam shell:
Directly after the 'attack' I was offended that it would hurt me! That shrimp is MEAN! but, then it occurred to me...
I was cruzin through the internet with no particular intent when I discovered these amazing cookies! Sadly it was a link, from a link, to a link sort of situation and the original creator's credit was lost. Whoever they are, they are a genius!
How to make Piñata Cookies:
I was thinking you could easily use the left over scraps to make 'Tie-Dye' cookie shirts.
It will be awhile 'til I get around to doing it myself so if any of you guys decide to try it first let me know how it goes :)
