Who You Really Want to See; Our Flying Tofu Box

So, here at long last are photos of the people that ACCers are really interested in: Rocky and DeShannon. We've seen them a few times this week, and finally got pictures on Sunday. Rocky stopped by our house a few days earlier to surprise us, but fell on the way over and took a dime-size chunk out of her knee. It was literally hanging off her knee by a shred of skin. Depending on your age and gender, it was either incredibly gross, or really, really cool.

On Saturday, DeShannon took us to lunch at Rainbow Diner, a favorite spot for plate lunch - a combination of meat (DeShannon had chili, Ryan had

barbeque beef, the kids had shoyu [soy sauce] chicken), rice, what passes in local food for green salad (usually a few shreds of cabbage), and the ubiquitous mac salad, made with large quantities of mayonnaise and not much else.

The church welcomed us officially during Sunday's service with floral leis for Ryan and I, a haku (floral headpiece) for me, and candy leis for Daniel and Sophie. I think Pastor Andy was trying for minor ceremonial splendor, but Daniel ruined it by
refusing to have anything to do with his lei. As soon as it was put over his head, he shrugged it to the floor. Ryan and I both tried to pull it back up, but no matter what we did or said, he kept shrugging and pouting and stepping on it. The congregation was howling. Pastor Andy couldn't see anything from behind his podium; all he knew was that he had totally lost his audience.

In return for the leis, Ryan distributed Mets baseball caps. I'm sure there's a profound cultural commentary right there, but I can't seem to come up with it.

Later that day, we learned something about island living: Whatever you do, don't try to find street parking at the beach on a Sunday at 4 pm. It's impossible. We did make it to the water finally, by parking in the zoo parking lot at Waikiki, which was not the beach we were aiming for. It has more surf, and is better for body boarding, but has a ton of rocks: not just the large ones underfoot, but golf ball sized ones that get picked up by the surf and pelt your ankles. I got a nasty bruise earlier in the week. The beach we meant to go to, San Souci, is slightly east of Waikiki, just past the Honolulu Aquarium; it has smoother sand and calmer water and is off the tourist-beaten track.

Monday, we picked up our new / old car, a 2005 Toyota Scion with 24,000 miles on it. It's got a roomy interior and good mileage, and Ryan likes its design even better than his recent favorite, the PT Cruiser. The locals call it the Flying Tofu Box.

This afternoon, we tried out the outdoor community pool. As soon as we got there, it started raining cats and dogs. Nobody got out of the water, so we stayed long enough for Daniel to get cold, get wrapped up in a towel like a burrito to keep warm, and get a nice scrape on his chin when he fell going up some stairs and didn't have any hands free to catch himself.

Now that I've managed to insert injuries into nearly every section of our post, I'm going to sign off and spend some time listening to the musical sound of my very own portable dishwasher. It's my anniversary present! Isn't love grand?