So I brewed a new batch of beer last week. It’s going to be a Hefeweizen. At least I hope so. A few days after brewing it, the lid of the fermenter exploded off and beer bubbles kind of oozed out the top. Beer was all over the cupboard. I was supposed to be putting Gavin to bed when I made the discovery. Gavin and I worked on a solution to this.  A plastic container, scissors, a rubber nipple and a few minutes later and I had a temporary solution that may or may not save this batch of beer. Bottling will take place in a few days. I can taste it then to see if it is completely bad. If not I will bottle it for consumption in about a week or so. Either way, it’s time to get some more temporary beer supplies. 🙂

This past weekend was the Hana Taro Festival. On Sunday they held a taro-pancake breakfast. We didn’t go to that. We went to the Saturday festivities. Food, shopping, activities, hula and tourists. Delicious. The parking wasn’t all that great, but it was a beautiful day. Holly immediately mentally spent about $150. In the end we actually spent around $100. And by we, I really mean her. 🙂 For lunch we ate a place of chicken curry with pumpkin along with a plate of kalua pig. Oh yeah. Totally delicious. The food was so good. Gavin got to run around and play with some of his school friends. We picked up a gift for Mary as a mother’s day present. Very lovely. We didn’t grind poi or shave sticks, but we enjoyed ourselves. The grass was green and the sky was blue. Even if there were a few light showers. We walked away with full stomachs, pillows, a skirt and a gift for granny. That evening was spent admiring our pillows, eating, drinking and knitting.

The following day we had a very important mission. When bottling my  last batch of beer, I very sadly ran out of glass bottles. Finding nothing else to bottle my beer with, I took the classy route and use a 2 liter sprite bottle. Once opened, it couldn’t sit in the fridge too long. So our plan was to drink it all when it was opened. And this was our mission. Beer for lunch, beer for dinner, beer for snacks. Holly started a sewing project. It was kind of a make-it-up-as-you-go-along kind of project. It didn’t get very far. She was feeling like she hadn’t accomplished anything lately, so she threw together her first quilt using “Hungry Caterpillar” fabric that she picked up a week prior. It was quite lurvly. I did some knitting. I’m working on a love lace filled, bead filled project. If all goes well, it will be very beautiful. Gavin played games and watched Robotech. He’s been very much enjoying Holly’s Robotech dvd collection. At the end of the night there was only one glass full of beer left in the bottle. We (I) almost did it. No problem. Makes for a good brunch the next day. 🙂 And that was that.

Sookie went into heat last week for the first time. She seemed very uncomfortable. As soon as we realized she was in heat, which didn’t take long, we kept her locked up inside. Moura was a bit mad at us for keeping the door closed, but she’s managed. We found out that there is a vet right here in Hana that will do the surgery for us. As it turns out, he also happened to have an opening this past Tuesday. So in Sookie went. She happily crawled in her cage not knowing where she was going. I dropped her of at 9:30 am on Tuesday. She spent the night at the vet. When I picked her up on Wednesday, the vet gave me antibiotics for her as well as some flea medicine. He brought her out in her little carrier and she looked so sad. She was curled up in the back of the carrier. 

When I got her home, I let her out of her cage and she meandered around a bit looking for a place to lay down and hide. We pet her and soothed her and tried to comfort her as best we could. She spent a lot of time curled up on a towel that was laying on the floor. 

Today she is looking a tiny bit better, but still very sore. I hadn’t seen her most of the morning and decided to look for her and make sure she was ok. I found her in a cupboard sleeping behind 15 cans of corn and beans. She woke up and came out to see what was up. She ate a little. I gave her one of her antibiotics while she was eating. Now she is back into some other hiding spot resting up and trying to recover. Poor Sookie.

This pas weekend was beautiful. On Saturday we reluctantly drove up to Kahului to do our shopping for the next few weeks. We really didn’t want to go. We were tired and lazy and wanting to rest. But if we didn’t go Saturday, we’d have to go Sunday. And if we went Sunday, then it would only feel like a one day weekend. And that is no fun. So we dragged ourselves up to spend a few hundred bucks in Kahului. Bah. It was a good trip though.

Sunday was another beautiful day. Full of warmth and sunshine. The kind of day that makes you restless if you stay indoors. So we did some tidying around the house. Holly and I in the living room and Gavin in his room. It didn’t take all that long. After vacuuming up mounds of cat hair and scooping up mounds of cat poops, Holly spent some time trimming Gavin’s hair. Our neighbor from downstairs came up to see if I had a Beatles album he could borrow. I didn’t. I don’t keep albums anymore. But I did burn him a Beatles cd from my computer. He was crazy excited. So far I’ve given him 3 cd’s of music and many bottles of home brewed beer. What a good neighbor I am. 🙂 

So after all was said and done in the house, we hiked up our swimming trunks, collected towels and slathered up our bodies in preparation for a trip to the beach. Leif’s first beach adventure. He discovered the wonderful attributes of sand. Like how gritty it is in your mouth. Yum. I walked him into the ocean a bit and he wasn’t sure what to think of the crashing waves. When he got tired of that, Holly took him up to play on the towel for a bit while Gavin and I did some splashing and wave crashing. Fun had by all. 

On our way out, a north shore visitor gave Gavin a bowl of ice cream. “We bought too much”, she said. Leif thought it was too cold, but Gavin had no complaints. Ahh, the advantages to having handsome and cute little boys. We finished the day with some baths, a delicious meat dinner, a few cocktail drinks (for the grown ups), putting the kids to bed, and spending some quality alone time together. Just another one of those perfect days. They are getting to be much more frequent.

The weekend was mostly a good one. We arrived late on Thursday night and all was well. The boys were perfect travel companions. Leif traveled without a peep. Gavin was sleepy, but handled the late trip very well. 

Friday was a relatively quite day. We spent half the day out shopping, getting things such as easter dinner supplies, beer ingredients and a few miscellaneous items, after which we ate some dinner, bought some ice cream and headed home for a little relaxation.

Saturday was quite a day. Mary and I headed back out on the town to pick up some things that we failed to get the previous day. It involved a trip to Sam’s Club, the Apple store, Wal Mart, Ross, and back to Sam’s Club. A quick trip that was didn’t actually get us back home for 5 or 6 hours. So when we got home, we finished the cleaning up that Holly had been working on all the time we were out. Then it was time for easter egg dying. Gavin had a blast. We colored and marked and dyed over a dozen eggs. They came out great. But then I had to leave. 🙁 I was drafted to go to a dance practice for one of the dancers who is preparing for a teaching exam. I didn’t know how long it was supposed to take. It started at 5:30. I told Holly I would call when I left to let her know I was on my way  home. As anyone might have guessed, this all went wrong. The practice did not end around 8 or 9 like we thought. It ended closer to 10:30 pm. And stupid me did not call Holly to let her know it was going late. We had 12 dances to review. Then to make things worse, I thought maybe Holly and Mary would take care of easter going-ons and go to bed. So when I ended up chatting with M in the parking lot for 2 hours, Holly was up with her mom waiting for me worrying and contemplating whether or not she’d rather me dead or in the arms of a lover. And on top of it, I had some basket makings and held the location of the secret holiday stash. So they couldn’t even take care of easter goin-ons. Gavin woke up and saw baskets on the living room table half filled. 

When I left M’s house, the cell phone reception picked back up and the phone immediately rang. It was Mary wondering where I was and when I was coming home. I told her I was on my way. Before hanging up, she told me that Holly was upset and I should be prepared. When I arrived at home at approximately 12:30 in the morning, Mary met me at the door. Holly was upstairs in bed with Gavin. She was not asleep. When I walked into the bedroom, I knelt down on the bed knowing she was upset. The severity of her feelings was explained in a very quick, not expected slap to my cheek. “WTF” I exclaimed. Not the short version either. She told me to just leave her, and with a long pause and some hesitation I did. I grabbed the stash of candy and went downstairs to finish up the easter going-ons. Holly came down moments later to talk about the evening. Feeling more composed, she explained to me all the things that went and were going through her mind. I felt so incredibly horrible for doing this to her. For not calling when I knew it was going to go long. For not calling after it had gone long. For not leaving directly after it ended. For disappearing for hours without her not being able to contact me in any way, shape, or form. She didn’t need that. And I shouldn’t be so stupid. After apologizing as best I could and reassuring her that I was where I said I was and did what I said I did , things were a little better between us. We finished the basket and managed to laugh a bit and went to bed.

Easter morning arrived and Gavin found a basket full of candy and gifts and eggs buried under some blankets by the table. Leif found his basket as well. Or rather it was given to him to gnaw on. I searched high and low after Gavin decided I should find my own basket. We all enjoyed being able to eat basket loads of chocolate. So yum. I hugged Holly and apologized to her again followed by expressing my love for her. The rest of the day went very smooth. There were guests, cheese, lamb, pie, cake, artichokes, candy, wine and candy. Hmmm. It was very much a good evening. I didn’t even mind doing dished at the end.

To top off the weekend, Leif decided that Gavin’s toys were worth crawling for. And on easter sunday no less. What an awesome child.

Well, I’ve made it. On my previous post I posted some sexy car pictures. Holly had posted some of these on her flickr page as well. And the picture of me washing the car with no shirt on has so far received 55 views. But the best part is that someone has favorited that picture. But it gets better. You have to check out this guys other favorites and see the other pictures I’ve been placed on the wall of favorites with. It’s awesome. I feel so special. 🙂