I’m back in Hawaii of course. And I’ve had a few days of relaxation. On one of those days, I was able to take Gavin to Temple Valley. The last time I took Gavin there was quite a while ago. It was so relaxing. Gavin was naturally awesome. We walked on over and just took in the sights. We looked at headstones and noted the dates that some of these people had died. There were a few that were really recent. Just in the past few years. And there were a few that had died almost 100 years ago. Gavin found this very fascinating. We finally made it to the temple after almost 1/2 hour. It is amazing how suddenly calm you feel when you step on the temple grounds. We put in some change and Gavin and I rang the 5 foot tall bell. Such a calming sound. We walked the path for a bit, following a few tourists. When we made it to the temple doors, we removed our slippers and walked in. Gavin was no longer scared of the giant Buddha. 🙂 Following up on a conversation we had with Gavin a few days ago, I was more accurately able to explain to him what incense was. After leaving the temple, we came face to face with a local wild peacock and it’s two babies. The peacock was very beautiful and elegant. The babies were a little less beautiful and less elegant, but it was quite mesmerizing to watch them walk around an be curious. After witnessing those fine birds, we walked to the opposite side of the temple to where all the Koi gather for feeding and where the birds swarm for dropped food and where the gift shop preys on tourists. 🙂 As we crossed the wee bridge where the Koi gather, a nice tourist (as opposed to those really mean tourists) gave Gavin half a bag of fish/bird food. Gavin politely said thank you and proceeded to feed the fish and swans and turtles. Usually he does this for the whole time, but this day he decided he’d rather spend most of his time feeding the birds. So that is what he did. And he loved it. I bought him another bag of food so he could continue being the bird boy. He was so cute. At the end of our stay, we stopped at the autograph tree to sign Gavin’s name. So next time we go to Temple Valley, we must find his name again and take a picture of it. In the mean time, here are some pictures of our most recent Temple Valley trip.

Well it’s two days before the big move and I’m sick. That is not so good. When you have a sick guy and a pregnant women, packing tends to go a little slow. Hopefully I’ll be over this 101? temperature for tomorrow so we can get some real packing done. On the plus side, I am typing this blog on a nice Macbook Pro that my work sent me. 🙂 I told them I was thinking of buying one so that when I travel inter-island for holidays or whatever, I’d be able to work. He said don’t bother, they will send me the one they bought for me before. Yay. I’m high tech now. But bleh, I feel hot. Must find liquid.

Here I am in Hawaii. Got in on Thursday night. It’s been real hectic, but I feel so much better now. Just over a week ago, the movers showed up and took all our stuff away. That in itself was an experience. Three guys (two who don’t speak english), came in and started throwing stuff in boxes and wrapping boxes with tape. “No no, that’s garbage!! Don’t pack that!” It was exciting. Then on Saturday (the 31st) I drove Holly and Gavin down to LAX. The result was 5 days of missing them in an empty house with nothing but an air-mattress and a laptop. At least I got to watch the season finale of “Lost”. So in those 5 days, I drove the car down to Long Beach to stick it onto a boat, rode the bus up from Long Beach (a good 5 hour bus ride), emptied the fridge, bbq’ed for the last time out by the pool, worked, and spent my last night at my last open mic night at Sandrini’s. Waking up in the morning next to a red bucket, I prepared myself for my departure. A few Tylonol, packing the suitcase, deflating the air-mattress, calling the cab, and handing in my keys. Here comes another bus ride. This one was much easier. I slept most of the way and it was half as short as the last bus ride, coming in to LAX after only 2 1/2 hours. So there I sat 4 hours before my flight with a back-pack, a suitcase, a tent, a pillow and a cat. Moura was not excited. But we all made it to Hawaii ok. Moura is unfortunately sitting in quarantine where she will remain until early October. Poor cat. But I went to visit her yesterday. She was very happy to see me. I was able to spend about 45 minutes with her before I had to leave to go to a wedding.

It’s been nice being here. I missed Hawaii so much. The weather is perfect. The mountains are visible and absolutely beautiful. The food is good. The gas is actually cheaper than what it was in Bakersfield when I left. It’s just really nice being back. And in only 8 weeks, I will have two sons that will have been born in Hawaii. That makes me happy.

So Gavin has been taking karate now for a few months. He kept telling us he wanted to do karate and ballet. He settled on karate. It’s amazing watching him in class. He does really well. He’s learning all kinds of things. I’m surprised at how quickly little kids can pick up things. Like, lets say, Japanese. lol. His teacher gives them some instructions in Japanese. And Gavin just picked up on what he was saying. He was shy at first, but has quickly learned to be a little more aggressive. And I mean a little. He does his “keeyah’s” much louder than when he started. He punches and kicks stronger. And his memory is great. He has a camouflage belt that accumulates little colored tape strips after each class. Each color has a meaning. One color is balance, one is fitness, one is memory, etc. There are a total of 8 colors. Now he is only about 2 or 3 stripes away from getting his next level belt, which is, I believe, a camouflage belt whit a long white strip down the center of it. He really enjoys it, and it is certainly showing. He’s awesome.

Here is Gavin after karate class admiring one of the local cars.

So I went to Las Vegas on the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day. It was fun. A few of my friends from Hawaii went for spring break, so I met them there. It was a very cold and mildly wet 4 hour drive out there through the mountains and across the dessert. It was a good experience though. It was my first time in Las Vegas. I played about $10 in slot machines before deciding that they are just no good. Unless of course you drop in like $50. Then you can play for hours. But in the end, you still end up losing money. Did you know you can play “War” at a casino table in Las Vegas? It was awesome. All that playing War with Jean payed off. Well, no it didn’t. I lost like $20 overall. But it was fun. And if I had walked away a little earlier (isn’t that always the case), I could have won about 175 bucks. Oh well. It was a good trip anyway. We saw “Mamma Mia” while we were there. So that was my fill of Abba for a good long while. Wasn’t too bad though. Not as good as Hawaii Oprah Theatre I might add. We saw Klingons and the Borg. I even went to a buffet dinner while I was there. I think I covered a lot while there. I had a good time. The worse part was the drive back. I left Monday morning (St. Patrick’s day). About 30-40 minutes out, my motorcycle started making an extremely loud noise. At first I thought it was another motorcycle, possibly two, passing me by. But when I realized it was me, I headed for the nearest exit to check it out. As I got off my bike and checked it out I realized one of my mufflers had fallen off. It just up and rattled off. WTF? Right then and there I took the following photo and called Yamaha to make an appointment to get it fixed.

So it was a very loud rest of the drive home. I scared the poor sheep on the side of the highway.

I have a new muffler now. After some hassle with the warrenty people, they replaced it free of charge. Apparently muffler bolts are something that are supposed to be checked at around 4,000 miles. My motorcycle has 2,800 miles on it. Hmmmm. Sounds like their fault to me. Anyway, I have my bike back. It’s shiny. It runs great. It’s fast. And I love to ride it. 🙂 Happy days are here again.