Oooo! Oooo! If you are willing to stay up late, you can watch the Merrie Monarch Festival. It’s the annual hula competition in Hawaii and goes all week. Rob just turned it on and I’ve abandoned my work to watch with him.

We just returned from the winebar Vino, run by Rob’s old chum Chuck Furuya. May I say, that if you are in Honolulu and want to have a nice range of wines and a pleasant evening, go to Vino. We’re hoping to take Rob’s folks back to the main restaurant, Hiroshi’s on Saturday.

We also went to the Honolulu Academy of the Arts today, which is always gratifying. They had an exhibit on Wearing Propaganda which dealt with the textiles surrounding WWII in Japan, Britain and the US. Very interesting stuff which will doubtless turn up in a story at some point. I mean, I don’t think I’d ever thought about how the textile designs of a region would be affected in a time of war.

It was particularly intersting because we had gone to see the USS Arizona Memorial yesterday. We can see the memorial from Rob’s folks’ window, but I knew embarrasingly little about it. I knew it was a memorial to a battleship that went down during the attack on Pearl Harbor, but I didn’t realize that it was the final resting place for over 1000 people. Learning this during a film right before going out to the ship was, um, a little unsettling. My expectations had been based on my previous experience with touring a battleship in Wilmington. To say the least that visiting a battleship which has been decommisioned is nothing like visiting one that sank under fire with her crew. I was not prepared. Nor was I prepared for the film with footage of the ship exploding. Definitely go when you visit Oahu, but just know that you are visiting a graveyard.

I think that catches you up on the past two days.

Just a reminder, Rob and I leave for Hawaii tomorrow to visit his folks. I should be online, but probably not as frequently.

Oh huzzah! Oh glorious day!

My old scanner would not work with my new computer and I’ve been going mad trying to get work done without one. I just got it. I did some research and decided that I wanted an HP Scanjet 4670, and turned to ebay where I lost ten different auctions trying to win it. The eleventh time was the charm.

The scanner was in Hawaii so I was going to pick it up while we were out visiting. Alas, Rob’s illness intervened. Then, miracle of miracles, Rob’s folks shipped it to me. It arrived today and I am very, very happy.

The photo is my test scan; it’s my dad when he was about thirteen. The sofa is still in Woodthrush Woods and under the same window, although it’s been reupholstered.

Now, I’ll go scan some of the illustrations that have been languishing in my sketchpad.

I made it back with no trouble. Rob and I went to go pick up some of his wine in McMinnville, so he could do some deliveries. Now, I’m off to the pharmacy, because he went and got a headcold while I was gone. Tomorrow we leave for Hawaii.

Rob and I will be in Hawaii from March 19th - March 26th to visit his parents.

So. The day after I get back from New York, Rob and I will get on a plane and go to Hawaii. I can’t think of a better way to recover from building monkeys, can you? We’ll be there from February 23-March 1.

While I clean the basement, why don’t you all play with the Interactive Hula Dancer.

We got a package from Rob’s folks today. They take such good care of us; this package included coffee beans, macademia nuts, some of Pat’s phenomenal cookies, chocolate covered macademia nuts… I gave one of the boxes of the chocolate-covered macademia nuts to the puppet shop and you’d have thought that I had given them a raise. Such happiness. Rob divied up a bag of macademia nuts amoung the different departments, but we’re taking the other bag home.

Thanks, Pat and Glenn!

We got a care package from Hawaii this week. Yay, Pat and Glenn! Besides yummy treats like macademia nuts, this box included a Norwegian hand-knitted sweater that a cousin from Norway made for Glenn in 1962. Rob is wearing it to work today. He should be the envy of our colleagues.

Well, the two things aren’t related, but I feel like they are. I had my third PT session today. Some of the exercises I’m doing at home seemed to be making things worse, and I had tried backing off, but we decided to cut them for the moment. So I have some gentler ones to do. I spend an hour and a half there, being prodded and repositioned. Today I leaned on walls doing isometric exercises to try to build strength with out placing stress on the arm. I also got ultrasound therapy–yep. Last time they tried to heal me with electricity, this time they tried shooting sound into my arm.

What’s next, wind?

But, you haven’t heard the best of it yet. When I got home, the postman came with a box from Hawaii. Somehow my angel of mercy knew that I needed something sweet and sent a box of cookies. This is Rob’s mom, for those who are puzzled. And cleverly, she put the cookies in two equal bags. One for Rob and one for me to hide. I love my husband, but he has the most amazing sweet tooth and his mom’s cookies are really good.

I forgot to mention that we got the modeling shots back. As a tease, I’ll let our parents know that we’ve sent a photo off to Hawaii and Tennessee, but I won’t post a copy of it.

Cruel, I know.

Here’s a couple to tide you over.

Thank you Pat and Glenn. Breaking all records your package arrived a mere seven days after you mailed it. Man, the Red Sox win the World Series and the whole world gets turned upside down.

I just got a package from Hawaii with some very yummy cookies. Thank you, Pat! I might share them with my fellow puppeteers, if they’re nice.