Losing the Butter Bars

Stephen has now gone from a 2nd Lieutenant to a 1st Lieutenant. It’s not a very big promotion but it is a move past being “the newbie”. He is no longer the lowest ranking officer in the Army. His on paper promotion happened in the end of November but they didn’t get around to the ceremony until January. This is how Stephen fills me in on his life, “oh yeah, I have my promotion ceremony tomorrow, but I don’t know where or what time.” Yeah, thanks for the notice. So I take time off work to do the ceremony and I am very nervous because I have no idea what to expect or what I am supposed to do.

It’s the day of the ceremony and I get all primped and pretty and it’s getting later and later in the afternoon and Stephen still hasn’t told me where and when it is. So at 2:30 he texts me to say it’s at 3:00 but he doesn’t know where yet. So I frantically finish getting ready and I am driving to post, running late, and I still don’t know where its going to be or what I am supposed to do. Stephen of course isn’t answering his phone. Finally I am about to drive on post when he lets me know its going to be outside of his office building. I show up 5 minutes late. Everyone (by everyone I mean the whole company, including Stephen’s Colonel) is waiting on me. One of the other officers quickly tells me what to do and everyone gets into formation and the ceremony starts. Stephen and another Lieutenant are call up in front of the formation then I am called up and I switch out Stephen’s old patches for his new ones. Then I go back and stand near the other soldiers while Stephen gives a thank you speech that includes thanking me for putting up with him (and yes those were his exact words). This is of course the time that my allergies kick up and my eyes start watering. And when I say watering, I mean tears running down my face! So everyone else thinks I am crying! I felt so silly! Anyways, in about fifteen minutes it was all over and Stephen had to go back to work. The End.

Lilo's New Haircut

Well just when you thought Lilo couldn't look any goofy-er...We got her completely shaved. It was Stephen's idea. He wanted her to look more like a poodle. Also she kept getting really matted so we figured this would be lower maintenance. When I picked her up at the groomer I almost didn't recognize her! I started laughing so hard! She looks so different that we got an email from our landlords accusing us of having another dog at the house! So here she is, the new, improved? Lilo!

Welcoming 2010

We have been living in Waipahu, Hawaii for almost a year now. Every night fireworks go off in our neighborhood. I am not talking black cat or even bottle rocket type fireworks, but the house rattling, car alarm setting off, sounds like a gunshot, up in the air, 4th of July type fireworks. People refer to them as “The Waipahu Fireworks”. Elementary school kids sing songs about them. Well we had heard a lot about the New Years fireworks but nothing could have prepared us for what we experienced.

I got home around 7pm on the 31st. Driving into our neighborhood I saw people everywhere in their driveways, setting off every kind of firework you could imagine. There wasn’t a millisecond that went by that a firework was not going off. These non-stop fireworks went from 7pm till 1am! At midnight it was like a never ending finale. People were on their roofs watching. Our usual view of Honolulu was completely blocked by smoke and we could barely see past the house tops in front of us. It was crazy. And no its not legal, its just accepted as a fact of life here. Lilo, surprisingly, was not bothered by it at all, which is so silly considering the next day we figured out that she is afraid of the dust pan, goofy dog.

The Eddie

Well its surfing season here in Hawaii. I have never watching surfing in my life or paid any attention to surfing what-so-ever. I had always seen the pictures though of surfers in a huge wave and all you can think is “wow”. Well since we moved to Hawaii I was determined to see it with my own eyes. Well the Vans Triple Crown surfing competition started and I kept on eye on it to see about going. Unfortunately the surf wasn’t very good and when it was decent enough to ride, it always seemed to be a weekday. Well two of the three Triple Crown competitions were over and I had yet to see any surfing myself. I was starting to worry that I would miss it all, but then… News reporters started to predict huge surf, enough to post pone the Triple Crown. Then I heard about the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Surf Competition. It is a competition is in honor of Eddie Aikau who was a surfer and lifeguard in the 60s who went out to rescue someone and never came back. (If you ever see a bumper sticker that says “Eddie would go”, that’s what it is referring to). This competition is only held when the waves are over 20 feet. The last time the Eddie had been held was in 2004. So here I was, with a once in a lifetime opportunity presented to me, so what did I do? I ditched work and went of course! Stephen couldn’t so I had to go by myself. I had to park 3 miles away from the beach where it was held. It was awesome! There were 30-50 ft waves. They were far away so it’s not like it looks in the pictures, its more like watching little stick figures in the distance. All the same, it was awesome. I got to see Greg Long, the winner, score a 100 points on a wave that he rode all the way to the beach. Here are some pictures of what I saw. What I wouldn’t give to have had a telephoto lens!