sunburns and white dresses

somehow i got my face sunburnt at the beach this morning, even though it was cloudy so much of the time, and even a bit rainy - so much so that i was thinking maybe we should just leave

didn't leave cause it is relaxing, and there is sea glass to pick up, and Jasper does so love to run loose there

didn't realize i'd burnt my face until i took a shower (just how much beach sand can we wash down that drain before we have a major problem I wonder?)

face bright red in the mirror, with a white line inside the crease of my neck, and that too tight feeling that makes you want to just keep splashing cold water on your face

now sitting on the bamboo sofa in the living room, in a white denim sundress that's too big for me so I had to safety pin the sides in a bit

it's raining in the front yard (still sunny in the back - Hawaii-style weather) and there's a nice cool breeze coming in the windows

it's very de-stressing (as in the opposite of stressing) to look out those windows at lush green vegetation. I never tire of it.

now i need someone to bring me a refreshing drink and some pupus

peanut m&m's and fritos

seem like a pretty good snack combination when you're really hungry and not at the moment concerned about fat calories.

or at least that's what I was thinking when I bought them from the vending machine on the first floor of Saunders.

the first few bites were so good - savoring one peanut m&m at a time, while walking across Manoa campus in the warm afternoon son

but even before I got to my car, it began to seem less of a good idea.

perhaps if i'd eaten less of each.

but they tasted so good together (not in the same mouthful, but alernating more or less between a single m&M or two followed by 2 or 3 Fritos).

my brain said to stop eating them but my fingers kept reaching in the bags and my mouth kept chewing

by the time I got to Ciy Mill - to get Zachary sandpaper for his mask, and lamp parts for the lamp he knocked over with that "lets swing the hockey bag wide when we come in the door"" move - I'd injested 500 calories of crap.

so i went home and made us big salads for dinner.

creamsicles...

...are my latest addiction. Only one will never do. I have to have one, then another, and then - ideally - a third. I guess I'm a serial creamsiclist.

Boxes of 6 disappear rapidly.

And tonight, when I opened the freezer the last one was...G..O..N..E.

Zachary ate it. He didn't know it was the last one.

But if I'd eaten it, I'd be wishing there was at least one more - and there wouldn't be.

limes grow on trees

one of the differences between cambridge and honolulu is when you're walking the dog in Cambridge you can't stop and pick a lime, take it home and squeeze it on the fresh papaya and local bananas you're having for breakfast.

really, I promise to resume blogging

after all, who could resist sharing the random thoughts and observations that swarm my mind each day? or perhaps the events of my busy summer, great times in June and July in Virginia, Cambridge, Cape Cod, and New York City. Or travel trivia facts such as, in the week between August 21 and 28 I was (in alphabetical order) in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, and Wyoming. Okay, Minnesota, California, and Arizona were only airports, I didn't actually touch terra firma - but its a fun list to make.

Z wants to know what's for dinner. How would I know? I just got home last night*. I had to teach this morning. Do I have to cook too?

* got here at 10:45 so MISSED earthquake felt across island at 7:30. Maybe next time...

baking as procrastination

This morning there was blue sky. We ate breakfast outside for the first time in eons. Also uncharacteristically Nicholas was awake. So I indulged my domestic urges and made blueberry streusel muffins (from scratch but with frozen blueberries), mushroom, ham & cheese omelets, and strawberry-banana smoothies (from real fresh strawberries and bananas). Making all this for four people (plus cute plate fruit garnishes of kiwi and plums) takes a long time. A person could go out to eat in that amount of time.

And after that I made coffee, had another muffin and read the paper. Damn the Sunday papers. There's just so much to read. I try to limit my NYTimes reading to the Week in Review and the Book Review and maybe the NYTimes magazine. And I try to just skim the Advertiser. But I should have been doing all the course-related stuff I didn't do all this week. Not that I didn't do stuff - but I didn't do much of that.

...and once again is heard the rumble of thunder.

It stopped raining

Yeah, finally. But not without an amazing last day of torrential rains on Friday. Such intense heavy rain I didn't want to leave the house. But some people did - and got caught in the flooding that was all over the place. I wouldn't have minded being part of the shades of global warming event at Kahala Mall.

it's still raining

we're in our SIXTH week of "one in a hundred years" rainfall (in terms of intensity, duration, & consistency).

running to cover the daybed on the deck with a tarp everytime it turns into torrential sideways-blowing rain is getting old.

They say we might get a break in the rain in the middle of next week. Or not.

Real bummer for the tourists, for people whose houses are flooded, Jasper whose walks are fewer and shorter, my walls that are molding, parents whose kids are going stir crazy from cabin fever.........

and my tan is fading.