I only have eyes for you

Wednesday evening, my BFF and I went to a spa for her very delayed Christmas present (and yes, I realize it's May). I've been to this particular spa and esthetician before and never had any problems but this time, some product got in my eyes. The esthetician washed out my eyes very thoroughly so I thought nothing more of it.

Until Friday morning, when I woke up with my eyes swollen nearly shut. As I've learned from Dr. Google, there's a real difference between puffy and swollen eyes, and my eyes were in Swollenville, population me. I took benadryl yesterday, alternated with cold and hot compresses on my eyes and all that happened was the swelling moved further down my face and then got red areas. I told Kent if things weren't improved this morning, I'd go to a Minute Clinic.

Well they weren't improved, not one little bit. So off I went. The nurse practitioner at the Minute Clinic took one look at the insides of my lower eye lids (which are a brilliant red) and sent me off to an urgent care place. She was pretty confident I would need a steroid shot and she couldn't do that at her clinic.

So off I went again. Sure enough, I'm having a dilly of an allergic reaction. No shot (yay!) but I am taking predisone and continuing the benadryl. I'm pleased to say I've already improved although you probably couldn't tell from this picture. FYI, none of that blotchiness or swelling is normal for me.

Monorail cat redux

He's doing it again.

Freeze frame

All I wanted to do when I knelt down on the floor was to take a picture of Eddie, who looked particularly beautiful as he snoozed on the chair. But I had no sooner knelt down when this occurred:




I guess I really am the Pied Piper of our cats.

He goes where he wants to go

Wally shoved some papers aside so he could curl up in the inbox. Well of course he did.

Our yard

One of the things that I loved the best about our new home was the landscaping. Connie, the previous owner, had done amazing things and clearly loved her yard. Well I'm not nearly the gardener she is but I sure want to keep this yard in the best shape possible. It's like living in a park.

Damn squirrels

With apologies to my friend Donna Sue, I hate squirrels. I've hated them for years, ever since they ate all my geraniums out of the pots on my balcony in midtown Kansas City. I hated them vicariously when they chewed the wires in my son's car, causing I don't even remember how much damage -- just recall that it cost a lot.

Now they are biting through the wires for the lights on our pergola. Just look:

Click the picture so you can see ALL the dangling wires

See the three wires here??

So now I think we get serious with our squirrels. Only I don't know how to stop them from biting wires. Anyone have any good suggestions?

Of leis, rain, and the Arizona

Last Friday it was raining in Honolulu, but as I posted on Facebook, rain in Honolulu sure beat the freaky out of season snow that was going on in Kansas City.

Here's what we received as we got out of our car at our hotel:

Mine is the one on the left;
Kent's is made from kukui nuts

I'm not a juice girl, but at check in we were given some juice that was amazing. It was a mixture of pineapple, lemon juice and hibiscus flowers -- so good and refreshing that I was a pig and had two glasses. I've searched online to see if I could find the recipe, but alas I've had no luck.

Our room faced the ocean and instead of having curtains over the glass doors, the balcony had sliding louvered doors that let in the air but kept out the (very persistent) birds. We could hear the sounds of the waves so we left the glass doors open the entire time we were there. Oddly, our toilet had -- well it wasn't exactly a bidet although it operated in a similar fashion. Suffice it to say you could get a nice cleansing for light, medium or heavy situations. I didn't try it.

Saturday morning, we decided to try to see the USS Arizona. Kent had done some research and learned that the tickets generally get fully booked a good six months in advance. Well six months ago, we didn't know we wanted to go to Hawaii. But the website also said that some day of tickets would be available. So off we went and stood in line to get into the park the moment it opened. And to our utter surprise, we got tickets to the first boat ride of the day! I am so very glad we were able to see the park and the Arizona.

The rest of the day, we spent on the beach under a big sun umbrella reading and people watching. You see some amazing things at beaches, that's for sure.