For Laurel

See what we got yesterday?

Ryan and I finally got our Hawaii driver's licenses, complete with rainbow illustrations. As soon as we picked up Soph from school, she and I went straight to the library to get our library cards. We've been singlehandedly supporting our local branch's used book sales for the last two weeks (this is how I picked up the Dark is Rising sequence for $1.25) - now we can get our books for free again! Well, free-ish. I have trouble returning books on time, and Sophie has trouble finding them so she can return them. We get a lot of fines.

Ryan and I had to pass a written test in order to get our Hawaii licenses. We needed to score 26 out of 30 to pass. Ryan scored 28. I scored 26. I'm usually a good test-taker. I don't think driving is a good subject in which to become a C student. (Insert snide comment by Ryan about how my driving is actually much worse than that.)

Ryan wants to name our Flying Tofu Box "Sponge Bob Square Car." I think we should just call it "TB." That way I can say things like, "I can't bring Sophie and Daniel to church today. Her dad has TB."

You may throw virtual tomatoes as you please.

This morning, while I was volunteering in Sophie's classroom -- which, incidentally, sports more trendy names than a Manhattan preschool prep program (Harmoni. Braden. Skyler. Emerald. Alyssia, pronounced "Alisha.") -- Ryan and Daniel started a garden. Ryan sawed off the tops of plastic soda bottles and used the bases to plant roma tomatoes, sweet basil, Korean hot peppers, and eggplant seeds. He used a fork to poke holes in the bottom of his makeshift pots - and he only stabbed himself in the hand once! A small-scale version of the time he drilled a hole in his leg while putting together our kitchen cupboards.

My job will be the composting. The Waikiki Worm Company sells starter kits, complete with a supply of the wiggly perionyx excavatus (sounds like a gum-eating disease), a spaghetti-like purple-hued worm that is not native to Hawaii, but has long been established here for agricultural use. Importing your own worms, which could carry invasive species and threaten Hawaii's isolated ecosystem, is a serious crime.

See picture of the little critters here: http://www.waikikiworm.com/3wwaboutwms.html

By the way, if you're wondering why Sophie looks a little . . . ruddy in her photo, it's not because she's sunburned. It's because ever since she got her face painted at Downtown Disney while we were in California, she's been trying to recreate the effect. With Crayola markers. They say they are washable. They must not have tested them on face.