Believe it or not, things have been good. We took our trip to New York which was fantastic. We spent time with my family, the kids all had a wonderful time playing together, my brother and I interacted probably the most we ever have, the bachelor party was a grand success, and Lorenz had an absolutely wonderfully beautiful wedding. Maybe I’ll even write a whole post for that.

Back home, things returned to normal quick enough. I got a call back from a job I applied for before the trip. It was on the other side of the island and would be a crazy commute, but it was a full job with benefits and all that. I set up and went for an interview last Thursday. It seemed to go well, but I guess I was wring, because they have yet to get back to me. Its a good start though. In the mean time, I’m continuing work on my iPhone app and looking for work.

Than there was the whole business of the tenting. That was just all craziness. Our land lady scheduled a house tenting for ten days after our return from NY. Our friend who works at some rentals said she would see if there were openings that night. Of course there weren’t. So I called the landlady about a place to stay since she preciously said she could arrange something. When I asked her about our cats, she said it wasn’t her problem. She did rent us a night at the rental place across the street. Fortunately we have some awesome friends who said they would watch the cats for us over night. They couldn’t stay inside the house over night though, so they spent the night in little cages. In the morning, when I went to check on them, I found that Moira managed to escape during the night. Not good. The rest of the cats though, were let out to stretch their legs and relax a bit in our friend’s yurt. They were nervous, but happy.

I hung out there for the rest of the day with the cats and Sam. It was a little stressful, but could have been worse. When the kids got home from school (Leif and Sam’s son go to the same preschool) they accidentally let the kitten out. She didn’t go far. I found her with Moura just off the porch.

Shortly later Gavin arrived home from school with Sam’s other son. This marked the time to get ready to head back home. At 4 o’clock, I grabbed the kids and the cats and headed back home. The fumigation sign that marked our house as toxic and deadly was now gone. We cautiously entered the house to find it looked exactly like we left it. I think I was expecting devastation. For the couch cover to be eaten away, the floor to be lined with termite bodies, and the air that came out of the door for the first time to be green. None of that happened. There were two dead cockroaches in the kitchen and a dead rat on the porch.

I spent the rest of the evening putting away all the bagged goods back to their respectful places. I made the kids some mac and cheese, then went to the library to pick Holly up from work. It was the next day I noticed the withered up tomato and hop plants. So much for that. That is the end of the tenting story.

This past weekend was really nice. Saturday, the kids were a bit stir crazy at the beginning of the day, so we decided to get out. We went over to the Ranch Store to get a snack and kill time and figure out what to do. We called a few friends with kids that Gavin and Leif could play with, but it turned out they were busy. Either in town, or just had something else going on. But that didn’t stop us. We were determined to do something. We decided we would go down to the beach to swim, but when we got there, there were “No Swimming! Jellyfish in water” signs posted. From there we went to see how Koki beach was. There was a surf competition going on, so it was a bit overcrowded. Luckily, we drove around to Hamoa, where the beach population was low and the water was beautiful. We spent the afternoon there splashing in the waves and digging in the sand. The waves were perfect for a bit of body boarding. I got to spend some time in the water with Gavin which was a good change. I often spend my time in the sand with Leif. This time, I got to do both.

On Sunday, we hung out with some friends in the afternoon and played dominos and drank some Sunday Margaritas. The kids played some Wii, trains, cars, and all kinds of fun kid things. We ate Thai food for lunch. We had a really nice time. Towards dinner time, we went down to Hana Bay to let the kids play in the water and watch the sky turn colors as the sun went down. It was a very relaxing, and quite wonderful day.

So what’s been happening over in my world? Nothing major to speak of. Finally. Although there are all those little things that, in themselves, aren’t worthy of an entire post. That is what this post is for.

I’ve revved up the beer making a bit this month. I experimented by trying to make a light beer for Holly. The idea of course was to create a light calorie beer that tastes better than Bud Light, Coors Light or any of those other mass produced light beers (which come in at between 100 and 110 calories). I sat, buried in my beer books and magazines, and came up with a recipe for a light beer that comes in at a whopping 95 calories. I brewed it up and ran it through the whole process and bottled it a few weeks later. I poured it up and who knew? I succeeded. It tasted quite good. I shared it with some friend and had multiple comments stating that this was the best tasting light beer they ever had. Yay!

After brewing up a light american lager, I thought I’d balance things out a bit by making a premium american lager. Only I’d put a slight twist on it and added a bit of lilikoi. I just bottled it, and it should be ready to drink in about 2 weeks.

Next up I decided to brew a session beer. It’s an Irish Red. It’s currently sitting in the fermenter. With any luck I’ll have it finished up in time to bring on our trip to NY. I haven’t tasted it yet though, but it smelled delicious when I brewed it.

Which brings me to my next item. In a few weeks, we’ll be heading out to NY for my best friend’s wedding. I’m super excited for the trip. It’s going to be an amazing trip. The wedding is in a beautiful park in NYC and will be an amazing day. Prior to the wedding, me, the groom to be, and another 7 of our friends will be heading to Lake George for a few days for his bachelor party. I’ll get to go paint balling for the first time. That should be fun.

Moving backwards, Leif has started pre-school. He had his first day of school on August 5th. The school started the year off easing the kids into everything. His first day was only 2 hours long and I was allowed (and encouraged) to stay with him for the day. We had fun and I got to see what a day at pre-school was like. This past Thursday was the first day that I left Leif by himself at school. He cried and it broke my heart to leave. But he stopped crying shortly after I was out of sight and went on playing with the other kids. Today he was excited to go back to school. I signed him in and played with him for a few minutes while the rest of the class showed up. When it was time, I told him I was going to leave and that I’d be back shortly. He looked at me in a thoughtful way and replied, “Ok dad. Bye”. He walked off with his class and went to go play. He’s growing up so fast.

Between the move and not having a job, and Leif starting school, I’ve found myself with a lot more time on my hands. I’m searching for jobs pretty much daily. I’ve put an ad in the paper to sell our car. I’ve made lots of beer. I walk Leif to school and back. I’ve updated my website. I’ve found myself down at the beach a lot more often. It’s a 10 minute walk from our house and it’s been beautiful out. I’m thinking that a few times a week, I’ll drop Leif off and then spend an hour or so at the beach before heading home (Leif’s preschool is just past the beach). If I end up getting a surf board (which I am trying to do), I could even spend some time surfing while he’s at school. Wouldn’t that be something?

This past Saturday, Leif has turned 3. He is now a big boy going to school, talking in sentences, using the potty by himself, having opinions (usually strong ones), sleeping in his own bed, and all kinds of other big boy things. And to celebrate his big boyness, we had him a little birthday party at the park.

We invited a few of his friends over (I know right. He has friends too), and found ways to entertain them all. Starting with water balloons. There weren’t many of them and each kid got only about 6 balloons. Only one balloon out of the bunch actually exploded on a child. The rest either missed or bounced off and exploded on the ground. Totally lame as far as water sports go. Luckily I had Holly come and save the day with some pizzas out of the oven.

Shortly after, it was my turn to make a trip. Holly got the easy job of letting the kids have a whack at piñata Spongebob while I went to fetch the buttercream cake from the fridge. I grabbed what I needed and went back hoping to catch some of the action, but by the time I arrived, Spongebob had met his death and the kids were all trading innards. Delicious.

But now it’s cake and presents time. Yay! Leif was excited by this notion of course. What 3 year old doesn’t like cake and presents? So we proceeded. The cake was topped with chocolate cream icing and little Spongebob characters (as if life-size ones would fit). We sang happy birthday to the boy and he blew out his candles with enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, the kids were all into their cheap store bought piñata candy to fully appreciate the lilikoi butter cream chocolate cake that Holly made. Poor Holly was sad about that. But once the kids weren’t allowed to have cheap candy anymore, they all snarfed slice after slice of the yummy cake. Good kids.

Back to the presents. Leif tore open many presents, which he paused after each one to play with. This made for a longer present opening ceremony, but the other kids didn’t mind once he opened the strange flower water sprinkler Gavin picked for him. I quickly set up the sprinkler so that the kids can all run around and finally get that water-logged feeling they were hoping for with water balloons. Leif joined the sprinkler fun as well. He returned shortly to finish opening up his presents. Besides, he was getting shot heavily in the face which he wasn’t all that fond of.

Once all the major activities were over, we let the kids run wild. At this point it didn’t take too much on our part to entertain them. They had enough to keep them busy for a while. They played through the day until the sun threatened to disappear. That was when the cows stampeded to the roadside and started a thunderous mooing competition. This was our sign to wind down and pack up. We cleaned up all broken water balloons, dirty cups, candy wrappers, napkins, plates and bottles. We packed up all the leftover cake and supplies. We folded up and discarded the table cloth. We joked about all the gruesomely silly things we could do with the Spongebob carnage. Then we buried him good and proper.

Ok, not that good and proper. But we didn’t have a lot of time. The cows were shooing us away and we had to rush over to catch the sunset before it faded away.

Leif was very pleased with his birthday and all the presents he received. At the end of the day, the floor was sprawled with trucks, cars, planes, and little plastic Angry Birds, which he refused to stop launching at things as Holly “bathed” him with wet wipes. When all was said and done, Leif crawled into bed, teeth brushed and potty utilized, and was sang half a song by Holly before his eyes were closed and he was snoring.

Happy 3rd birthday kiddo.

The day has finally come. Today was Leif’s first day of school.

Granted, it was only 2 1/2 hours long, but that seemed to be just enough time for the boy. The first 1/2 hour or so was time for Leif to warm up to things. He clung to my leg and watched the other kids and teachers as they played with all the cool toys. There were wooden cars and trucks, plastic food, puzzles, little drums, books, blocks, and all kinds of other fun things.

After a short while, class started and they did a follow the leader thing to bring the kids around the classroom and show them the different areas. We ended at the sink and toilet area. We made all the kids wash their hands and then it was snack time. They had yogurt and crackers. I think Leif was a little to nervous and excited to care about food, but he ate a bit anyway.

When they were done eating, it was time to check out the playground outside. The kids all picked up avocados from tree in back on their way to the playground. It was like treasure hunting. Once they learned all the rules of the grounds, they were set free. This is where Leif started to open up and play freely with other kids and exploring without having to be near dad at every moment. He was intrigued by the slide. He really wanted to go down it, but the only way to get there was through a plastic tube (which was all full of rain water), or by walking over the little wiggly bridge. He didn’t want to get wet in the tunnel and was real weary of the shaky bridge. He finally decided that he would skip both and climb a small ledge at the end of the bridge. The other kids were tromping over the bridge yelling, “Watch out for the sharks! Uncle, you’re in the sharks! Watch out! Oh. I scared them away for you. You’re safe”. I thanked them and they were on their way. Leif followed behind and finally got his turn down the slide exclaiming “Yaaaaay! I did it!”. Such a great kid.

It started to drizzle at the point and it was time to head back inside. Leif was fitting right in with the other kids now. He skip/hopped back to the classroom where he was eager to wash his hands and get back into the toys. He was now much more open and free. He was clapping, sliding down slides, banging drums, and jumping for joy. It was quite a good first day of school.