Veteran's Day

It's not until tomorrow but I scanned a couple of pictures of me from my active duty days. I'll be using one as my profile picture on Facebook. I am 20 in both pictures. The thing you see in my mouth in the second picture is my oboe reed and the reason I look like I feel awful is that I did feel awful. I was pregnant although I didn't know it yet. I threw up every day for five months with that pregnancy; if I'd known then how long I was going to be sick, I might have chewed that reed in half.

Little pyro kitty

Since we have just the one bathroom, we use a candle to help remove certain unwanted odors. That keeps things a little more civilized. Right now we're using a candle that smells like pumpkin pie, although normally I'd just get a vanilla one.

At any rate, Wally is thoroughly obsessed with the lit candle. He likes to get on the counter and just watch it. I hope he never gets too close, he could really singe his whiskers.

More about the feral kitties

I apologize in advance for the graininess and the wobbles; I'd just finished running and wanted to get shots of the feral cats before I went inside. I also removed the sound because it was just traffic noise and wind, and also pretty annoying.

What I did with an unexpected day off

I drove up to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.



I wasn't really dressed for hiking around (skirt and flip flops) but I did walk down the pretty steep path to see the Thurston Lava Tubes. What the website fails to mention is how HUGE that tube is--it's easily 20 feet tall.

A room with a view

Here's my hotel view in Waikiki. It's a lot noisier here because I am, after all, in Honolulu and the number of tourists roaming around is truly staggering.

What I actually took

Here's what I actually packed this week (items I wore are still italicized, removed items are struck out and new items are bolded):

Suitcase:

• Suit jacket
• Suit pants
• Five short-sleeved tops
• One dress tank top
• One very light-weight wool sweater
• Dress pants
• Underwear
• Running shorts
• Exercise top
• Sports bra
• Running socks
• Yoga pants (also sleep in them, hey I don’t sweat THAT much)
• Sleep top
• Running shoes
• Black dress shoes
• Dress sandals
• Flip flops 
• New lace up dress shoes
• Hair dryer
• Two brushes
• Cosmetics
• Shampoo etc (in the 3-1-1 bag)
• One large scarf (like a pashmina)
• Zip up fleece jacket for the hotel room
• My Circa notebook
• Small purse (empty)
• Probably my yoga mat although I’m thinking about taking a yoga class or two there
• Via and sweetener (this hotel gives you ONE free day of coffee--the rest cost $2 each)
• A casual skirt for at night when I'm actually NOT on a mountain and am near the beach
• A bathing suit.

Backpack:

• Netbook
• Kindle
• Camera
• All power cords
• Baby extension cord
• Wallet
• Small bag for things like lip balm
• Zune
• Noise-canceling ear buds
• Phone
• Folder with boarding passes etc in it
• Pen
• Two granola bars
• An apple
• Carrot sticks
• A boiled egg
 

Everything fit just fine and the only thing I would change is I miss having my slippers. They are from LL Bean and look like terrycloth covered flip flops. The flip flops I brought are OK but I like my slippers better.

Wally the nut

He loves to get into things.