The Pali Trail

A couple months ago I hiked the Pali trail, but I forgot to post the photos.


Here's the start of the trail, looking across Papalaua Beach with the island of Lanai in the distance.


Looking down into the water at the reef. It looked a lot better through my polarized sunglasses. Unfortunately, I do not have a polarized lens for my camera :(


Notice the grass and the rocks in the foreground? You'll see more in the next couple photos. People laugh at me when I tell them a lot of Maui looks like Nevada with an ocean, but seriously, don't you think all the brown grass and rock is reminiscent of Nevada?


I live in Kihei, which is on the far side of this bay.

My place is about an inch to the right of the marshland pond/lake you see on the edge of the bay.

Man I Love the Olympics!

I love the Olympics and I look forward to it every other year when it comes around. These games are off to a great start. The opening ceremonies were something else- I especially loved the drummers at the beginning, the Taiji circles and the performers running around the globe. The events this weekend have been great too. Both the Men's and Women's Road Cycling were nail biters the last ten minutes even though the American's weren't in the running for medals at that point. The men's basketball game against China was awesome. Beach volleyball has been good, swimming has been great, synchronized diving was good even if the Americans just missed a medal, and of course, I always love the gymnastics. And I must mention the men's 4 x 100m relay- way to kick France's ass and make them eat their words!

Great job team USA! Keep up the great work, you make us proud!

Burn the House Down!

.




What would you do if you woke up and saw this above your bed?









Many of you are aware of my feelings about spiders. In fact, some of you have been around when I have found one (or you have come running thinking someone must surely be dead for there to be that loud of a scream).  Although I believe Christy is the only one who has had the misfortune of being on the phone with me when I discovered a spider (sorry Christy!).
It's been a while since I first saw this photo (no, this did not come from my house- Thank the Lord!), but I think about it every so often. My thoughts revolve around one issue- what would I do if I found this in my house? I have not come up with a satisfactory answer yet. The most logical thing I can come up with would be Chemicals- LOTS of chemicals. But I can tell you burning down the house or simply abandoning it and all of it's contents are high on my list.
So- what would you do?

Fascinating- or maybe not.

Well, my week has been anything but fascinating. There is also a good chance that this post will be anything but fascinating, but hey, it's my blog and I'll post whatever I want to.

It's been one of those weeks that starts out good and ends good, but the middle really sucked. All I can say is TGIF! I was really starting to contemplate the merits of drinking on the job, and I don't even drink. To make this week even worse, I think my iPod is dying. Yes, at almost 4 years old it is a dinosaur in the world of iPod's. Yes, it does get significantly more use than the average iPod (I can't deal with all of the radio signal issues associated with having mountains in the middle of the island and it's a long commute each day). Still, you would think that a piece of electronics costing several hundred dollars would last more than 4 years, wouldn't you? I paid less for my television, DVD player and surround sound combined and they are all still with me (and older than my iPod!).

Tonight as a celebration for not driving my car into or off the Pali (cliffs) on the way to or from work this week (No, I'm not serious and yes, I do understand the traffic situation that ensues having been stuck numerous times when they close the road), I decided to give this Italian place in Wailea one more try. Two friends have eaten there recently. One thought it was great, the other didn't rave, but her family did seem to enjoy it. My first experience there was not so good. I don't know much Italian, but I do know that Fettuccine Alfredo is not Italian for pasta in a lake of clarified butter. I have also never experienced garlic bread with red powder on it before, nor do I care to do so again. I still haven't figured out what the red stuff was. This time I went for the pizza as that is supposed to be one of their specialties. It was okay, but certainly not worth the high price. I believe I have finally consigned Mateo's to my "Thanks, but, no thanks" list of restaurants. It's sad really because we have no good or even mediocre Italian restaurants on the island (probably why I was trying so hard to find something good about it).

New Cartoon on JibJab!

If you have never seen a JibJab cartoon, check it out. If you're familiar with them, here's the latest:

http://www.jibjab.com/originals/time_for_some_campaignin