Aloha Travelblog, Days 1 & 2

OK, so I'm feeling a teeny tiny bit guilty in beginning to detail our gorgeous trip to the islands so soon after the eastern seaboard was hammered by what sounds like the greatest snowfall in history, but maybe you readers covered in two-plus feet of snow can find some vicarious warmth in these images and tales.

Here goes:

Day One: Travel day from Orange County airport to Kona airport. DIRECT! Yeah, baby! With two kids, a carseat, a booster seat, two carry-on backpacks, one stuffed puppy, and two collapsible strollers in tow, even a five-minute layover would have sucked.

The flight went as well as could be expected--no major meltdowns, and the kids were good, too--and we soon arrived in amazing Kona to the smiley, warm reception of our lovely friend Olivia (at right), who gave each of us hugs, kisses and lovely ti leaf leis. (By the way, it's true: Whatever warm and fuzzy feeling you get by landing in the state of Hawaii is always somehow enhanced when someone greets you with a lei. It's like coming home. And Olivia? She's just brimming with the aloha. But more on that later.)

We checked into our rental condo across the street from an inviting beach described as Magic Sands Beach. We soon learned that it's also called Disappearing Sands Beach because--guess what?!?--the sand that's so plentiful and hospitable during the summer months vanishes during the winter and it's entirely lava rock and crashing waves (see photo at left). Presto chango! Gone like my tan will be by tomorrow.

Sure, it's still breathtaking and made for a great view from our lanai. But not to worry, because the cool thing about Hawaii is that there are about, oh, four thousand other beaches and pockets of serene beauty on which to park yourself and absorb the warm sun and water. Hell, the parking lots are even beautiful in Hawaii. (Guess where I took most of the scenery shots on yesterday's post?)

Anyway, back to Day One for those of you who are actually still interested in this stuff (Hi, Peggy!) After a quick dip in the condo pool, where we promptly broke Unforgiving Pool Rule #4 (No Children Permitted In Pool Who Are Not Pottytrained, Not Even With Swim Diapers, And We Mean It. Even If She's Cute), we dragged our drenched, gradually more weary, and stunningly starving selves out for a quick bite of Thai food. Once in the restaurant, baby Shea decided to finally end her two-day bout of constipation at the precise moment our food was delivered to the table. The girl's got some timing! And we soon wondered if maybe the condo pool Gestapo knew something we didn't when they kicked little Shea out of their pool. You know, fearful of her Magic Sands, and all....

Day Two: Five o'clock in the morning, February 1st. It's John's 40th birthday and, due to the two-hour time change and excitement of being in paradise, EVERYONE in our condo is awake. To really take advantage of every moment of his birthday celebration, John was picked up promptly at 6am by our friend Kirk (No way! I don't have a single photo of Kirk! Bummer...), who took him surfing at a break called Pinetrees. A great way to start any birthday, but especially so for John, who hasn't seen a regular surf schedule since before Shea was born.

Later that morning, after John returned wearing one of the biggest post-surfing smiles that I've seen on his face in a long time, we all met up with our friend Heather (at right, in blue top) and her two beautiful kids, Jasper and Ila, at a little slip of a docile beach they called Harbor Beach. Finn and Jasper, who are only three months apart in age and were only about 18 months old the last time they saw each other (see top of two photos of the boys, circa December 2003), got along famously once again and, proving that boys will be boys no matter the terrain, were quickly dashing to the far reaches of the beach to unearth sticks, hunt for bugs, and hurl rocks into the water.

Baby girls Ila and Shea, who are only four months apart in age, met for the first time at Harbor Beach and I'm hoping that it's the photo at right that they look at and laugh at years from now when they're great friends because the prickly expressions on their faces and their guarded body language suggest anything but at this point in the game.

Home Again

Wow, that was pretty cool.

We've just returned from spending 10 lovely days in Hawaii visiting family and friends. While there we celebrated John's 40th birthday; witnessed Shea hitting numerous "first" milestones; experienced only a few hours of rain the entire trip; and managed to avoid any major sunburns or trips to the emergency room. All in all, it was a great success!

I'm hoping to dedicate this next week's worth of blog posts to detailing the chronology of our trip, complete with photos. As soon as I finish sorting the laundry and watching Olympic highlights, that is. Mahalo for your patience; I'm still on island time, brah.

Four Tickets To Paradise

We made our way from Kona to Hilo today, passing by the southern-most point in the United States. The weather's been great, the company's wonderful, and the fish and fruit are tremendous; the Big Island of Hawaii is showing us a grand time.

More details to follow when we return to California, but here are a few photos of our adventures so far.

We'll Be Back Before You Know It

Double Duty Diary will be hitting the proverbial pause button as we take a little family vacation to celebrate the the big guy's 40th birthday.

We'll be back again soon, most likely with some fun pictures, traveling-with-kids horror stories, acute jetlag, and sunburns.

Ah, life is good!

100 Things About Me

I tried to add this self-indulgent list to my main profile page, as I've seen posted on blogs elsewhere, but it went well beyond the established character allotment.

Good thing they don't have a photo limit on this system, eh?

1. My name is Karin.
2. It usually gets misspelled.
3. I’m 35 years old and this still bugs me a little, like someone dialing a wrong number.
4. From all accounts and memories, I was a pretty timid child.
5. Once, while staying overnight at a friend’s house, I played quietly by myself in another room while my friend and the rest of her family watched “CHiPs”—because the car explosions upset me.
6. That same family once took me to see a Blue Angels flight performance; the incredible noise of the aircraft overhead frightened me so much that I went to the parking lot and sat in the car with the windows rolled up for two hours. Alone.
7. That same childhood friend was Chinese and whenever I played at her house I would secretly wish that she would invite me to stay for dinner because her mother made the most delicious, authentic and, to my underexposed palate, mind-blowing Chinese meals.
8. To this day, my favorite foods are Asian in origin: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc.
9. I take half and half and real sugar in my coffee.
10. I don’t drink enough water.
11. I waited for the right guy.
12. I’m thankful every single day that I did.
13. I hardly ever cry.
14. In the late ’90s I cried once for hours and hours after a little boy I knew drowned in a pool. At his Little League end-of-season pool party. It still chokes me up when I think about it.
15. My husband has known me for 11 years and has seen me give birth twice but has never seen me cry. I like to think that he’s a large part of the reason that I don’t need to.
16. It doesn't bother me when other people cry, but I look forward to the time when my children don’t cry so much.
17. The birth of my children represent the two best days of my life.
18. My wedding day is a close third.
19. At our wedding my husband, John, and I provided a keg of Guinness for our guests. We drank the keg’s last pitcher together in our room at the Hotel Laguna (the Bacall suite, named so because Bogart and Bacall used to rendezvous there), immediately after the wedding ended.
20. My married initials are KEG.
21. Finnegan, our son, is named after a book I have never read.
22. Shea, our daughter, is named after a stadium I have never visited.
23. I use Shea butter, however, in unbridled amounts and think the Shea tree of Africa is lovely.
24. I absolutely love both of my kids’ names and think they fit their personalities perfectly.
25. I can’t watch scary or violent movies. Despite hearing repeatedly how great they were, I have never seen Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, Braveheart, Reservoir Dogs, Platoon, The Deerhunter, Seven, Kill Bill, or Unforgiven.
26. I saw Psycho at age 10 and was shaken for months.
27. I flirted with some OCD-type rituals as a child but gave them up because I found them to be too exhausting to maintain.
28. I have jumped off of more than one pier into the Pacific Ocean.
29. Once I did so at night with a group of my friends, wearing only my panties.
30. That night I was wearing more clothing than most of the other people in the group.
31. I used to prefer salty over sweet, but since I gave birth I prefer sweet over salty.
32. I was accepted to UC Berkeley but attended college at UCLA. I had a great time, learned a lot, and made some lifelong friends, but still sometimes wonder, “What if?”
33. I lived in London for six months after college and worked at Harrods, shucking oysters and serving champagne in the store’s gorgeous, tiled food halls.
34. Handling hundreds of coarse oyster shells each day gradually wore away my fingerprints.
35. They eventually came back.
36. I was standing about 90 feet away from windows that exploded when an IRA bomb, placed in a public trash can outside Harrods, detonated. Thankfully, nobody died. That time.
37. I went to at least one play, museum, or historical building every week while living in London.
38. I think about the city of London almost every single day.
39. My parents have lived in the same house for more than 30 years.
40. When my children visit my parents, they play and sleep in the same little room I called my own for nearly 20 years.
41. I’m not the best housekeeper.
42. I get better at cooking each year.
43. I used to procrastinate but I’ll get to the rest of that story later.
44. I can’t be away from the ocean for too long with getting a little batty.
45. I’d much rather be too hot than too cold.
46. Opening Day of baseball season is my favorite day of the year.
47. While I do love baseball and the romance and lore that surround it as an all-American pastime, it’s mostly because the arrival of Opening Day signals the end of winter and the beginning of warmer weather.
48. The first song I taught my son to sing was “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
49. My least favorite day of the year is when the clocks are turned back for Daylight Savings.
50. Not so coincidentally, this usually falls around the same time as the World Series, thus marking the end of baseball season—and the beginning of colder weather.
51. I could never live (happily) somewhere where it snows.
52. I know; I’m a huge wimp.
53. I’m allergic to cats.
54. Although I like cats, I’m glad I’m allergic because I wouldn’t ever want to have one of my own.
55. One day, I’d like to have a dog.
56. After driving a series of used cars for 14 years, I bought myself my first new car at the age of 30.
57. Even though it’s a Chrysler, it felt like it was a Ferrari.
58. On the way home from the dealership I played Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” as loud as it would go. And for the first time in my personal driving experience the speakers didn’t distort.
59. I have been to no fewer than 150 concerts, large and small.
60. Remarkably, I still have fantastic hearing.
61. I’ve seen Beck in concert seven times; the second time I saw him, he opened for Johnny Cash.
62. The first album I knew intimately from start to finish was John Denver’s “Poems, Prayers & Promises.” Although he dabbled in cheese later in his career, I still find this early album to be earnest and beautiful, and the title song can make me a little misty if it catches me in the right mood.
63. I owned a metallic blue 1975 Cadillac Coupe de Ville de Elegance for about two years while I was still single. I bought it for $450, which I figured came out to about 10 cents a pound. It had five ash trays in it and sailed like a dream.
64. I read magazines from front to back, without exception.
65. John reads the obituaries department in Time magazine first.
66. The only thing I really miss about having a corporate job is the paycheck.
67. I’m perfectly happy with two children and don’t want any more.
68. When I imagine my life without kids I imagine myself pining for my kids.
69. I’ve needed my Mom more in my thirties than I did during my twenties.
70. I talk to my grandmother about once a week. She’s one of my favorite people. Ever.
71. As frustrating and blood-boiling as it is when my son is willful and defiant, a little part of me is secretly relieved that he isn’t as timid as I was.
72. It wasn’t until I had children that I felt I had anything to write about; I never felt close enough to the subject matter.
73. If I was given two hours to nap or read, it would be a tough choice deciding which to do.
74. I’d like to visit Japan.
75. John and I often talk about retiring in Hawaii.
76. Good writing quickens my heart rate.
77. I made most of the best friends I have today in Junior High. That was really the only good thing about Junior High.
78. When I was in seventh grade, a vapid rockabilly girl mistook me for a boy. I was wearing a grey crew-neck sweater, cords, and a bowl-cut hairdo. The next day before school, after I put on a skirt and blouse, my mom curled my hair for me.
79. In eighth grade, while eating the lunch my Mom packed for me, I unwrapped the aluminum foil from what I thought was a soda can and discovered it was a can of Coors. I giggled about it with my friends and threw it in the trashcan.
80. My Mom was mortified when I told her what she had done.
81. I cannot draw to save my life.
82. My brother was an art major.
83. I’m starting to get gray hair.
84. I don’t want to start coloring my hair. Yet.
85. John has sexy salt and pepper sideburns. I don’t think there’s anything sexy about my grays but he doesn’t seem to mind.
86. I love how John, one of those strong, silent types, will begin four separate sentences at the same time when excitedly trying to tell a story.
87. Sometimes, when he’s sleepy, he’ll begin a sentence and then just end it before completing his
88. When things are too hard to learn I give up more often than I’d like to admit.
89. I wish I had more perseverance.
90. As a girl I loved Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett.
91. It makes me sad that they’ve now both had so much plastic surgery that they’re hard to recognize until they speak.
92. The two hardest classes I’ve ever taken were Chemistry and Geology.
93. My friend Michelle is a getting her master’s degree in chemical geology, or something like that. Her talents boggle me.
94. I love destination aquariums.
95. The desert bores me.
96. I have a low threshold for personal drama.
97. I hate ironing.
98. I miss having time to read.
99. I miss having time to do crafts.
100. I know when my children get bigger I will have time to do these things again and I’ll miss the days when my children were little. I’m just that way.
     
     

Mini-Swap

I've been poking around the blog world lately and have come across some pretty impressive women out there who have the time and organization to both raise their children and remain dedicated to their arty crafts. First of all, let me just say how impressed I always am at people who manage to do both well. I'm still working on finding that happy balance.

So I enrolled our family in a "Mini-Swap" with a lovely group of other mothers around the world.

Sometimes She Reminds Me Of Moe Howard

The Clothes Are Still Killing Me

I really thought this girl clothing "thing" would wane after the initial shock of actually giving birth to a female child but, truth be told, it's only getting worse.

I'm so sad when Shea finally outgrows her cuter outfits and separates--and shoes!--that I almost always put them on her one last time, just because I can. Sure, they're a little short at the ankle and a little tight around the neck, but I'm able to cling onto the baby doll fantasy a little longer.

Sorry, sweet girl, to put you through the mild discomfort, but you're just too cute. And the clothes? Well, they're just too cute, too. Put them together and I'm toast; I can't help myself.

Just consider it harmless payback for all your needy caterwauling.

Sometimes She Reminds Me Of "That Girl," Ann Marie

For Your Convenience

In case you've ever had the inclination to conduct an online search while reading Double Duty Diary (you know, during those moments when you ask yourself, "Who the hell is Linda Fiorentino?" or "What does she mean by calling Gerhard Richter an abstract expressionist? I've only ever studied his figurative work!"), I've added a fun Google search bar at the bottom right-hand column of the blog. Enjoy!

Social Climber

Get Your Insulin Ready, 'Cause This Is A Sweet One

"I had a dream last night that Shea could talk."

"Really, buddy? What did she say?"

"She said she wanted her brother to hold her."

A Tale As Old As Time

Maytag, You're It!

Morning Routine:

Brew coffee...prepare Shea's breakfast...prepare Finn's breakfast...pour coffee...feed Shea while sipping coffee...nag Finn to start eating...savor coffee and all its coffee goodness...clean up Shea...put dirty bib and rest of load of clothes in washer...nag Finn to put down toy already and finish breakfast...put Shea in playpen...ignore Shea's squeals of protest...take clothes out of dryer and bring them upstairs to be folded later...continue nagging Finn to -- Wait! Where's Finn?

Finney? Where are you?

Finnegan?!?

[remotely] I'm in here, Mom!

Here's Your Free Subscription

Sometimes She Reminds Me Of Linda Fiorentino

Like Christmas In July

Our Christmas tree was disassembled and laid to rest at the curb nearly two weeks ago...

The lights that twinkled outside for a month have been taken down and put away...

And the reams of holiday lore that we spewed at Finn in the weeks preceding the Big Day have now scrambled around in his spongey brain like a tangle of Christmas lights, causing him to tell me today that Santa Claus lives in our chimney...

But we're still living the La Vida Noel since we realized--oops!--that we forgot to open the gingerbread house that we received as a gift two days before Christmas. Our solution? Open it, decorate it, photograph it, break it up, and get started on the big job that will be eating it--all in the same night.

Papabilities

Karin: "Shea, say Mama."

Shea: "Papa."

Karin: "Say Mama."

Shea: "Papa."

Karin: "Say MAMA."

Shea: "Papa."

Karin, pathetically attempting reverse psychology:
"OK, Shea. Say Papa."

pause

pause

Shea: "Papapapapapa....."

You Talkin' To ME?!?

Did you know that this is the official "De-lurking" week in the blog world? No? I didn't either. Until I read a few of my favorite blogs today, that is.

Apparently, this is the week when blog audiences who tune in regularly to read posts on their favorite blogs in quiet anonymity are encouraged to post their comments/questions/critiques.

Been wondering about something in a recent post? Now's the time to ask. (On that note, by the way, NO--we didn't name our son Finnegan after a beer, as the link at right might suggest. He was named after the James Joyce novel Finnegans Wake, but I seriously toyed with the middle name of Guinness for about a minute because how cool would it be to have a beer name? My name is Karin and sometimes, especially at the sushi bar, I imagine it's KIRIN, but I digress...)

Anyway, now's a great time to reach out and say hello. For the record, I take issue with the term "De-lurking" because it sounds kind of menacing--reading isn't lurking, duh!--so let's just say it's Reader Feedback Week. (OK, I admit that's not as catchy as "De-lurking," but you get the point.) So, start clicking that keyboard and say hi. It'll make me feel a little less like I'm writing in a vacuum each day. De-lurking is delightful!

Things They Don't Tell You In The Mommy Handbook

There will be times when you'll be bitten, kicked, karate chopped, and headbutted by your children.

All in the same day.

All in the name of love.

Yeah.