Larry Update.

There have been some considerable changes in Larry's life in the last couple of weeks. A week ago Saturday, Larry and I were happily enjoying an afternoon of gumbo-making in preparation for the next day's party. Larry especially liked it when I was peeling shrimp because the couple of flies in the house were immediately drawn to the yummy raw shrimp smell. That meant that Larry had a clear advantage since he knew exactly where the flies would be. Most of the day he was running around on the kitchen window curtains, but a couple of times he made a flying leap into the bag of shrimp shells. If I hadn't been covered to my elbows in shrimpy grossness, I would have gotten a picture. As it is, I like the one I got of him on the curtains.

After making the gumbo, I headed off to my friend Gwen's house. She spent her day slaving over a hot pot of jai, which is the monk's food that is eaten to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Each year, she cooks up a ton and invites family and close friends to pick some up. (It is difficult to make well, like gumbo.) Last year, we were so honored to be included in her doling out of good luck! I traded her some black-eyed peas last year because they are the significant New Year's food in Southern culture. This year, I brought over some gumbo and had a great time catching up. When I returned home, I sat down on the sofa to enjoy some of the yummy jai and to watch some TV. All of a sudden, I realized that I was not alone on the couch. When I looked to my right, here's what I saw:


For the next half hour or so, Larry and I watched TV together, which was very sweet, but I was a bit worried about smooshing him since pets are not supposed to live in one's couch cushions. (Things that live inside furniture are definitely classified as pests, no matter what kind of animal they are.) Jeff and I have a strict do-not-mess-with-Larry policy which keeps us from trying to move Larry, "see what Larry will do if I do this...", or otherwise influence Larry's behavior. Still, I was worried that I would hurt him. So I moved a pillow, snapped the following picture, and left the room hoping that he would find another less busy spot to hang out.

Turns out, Larry was on the move. I had apparently bothered him with all my ruckus in the kitchen, so he decided to move to the living room. He now lives in the curtains of one of our windows. Sometimes he sits on the window sill sunning himself, but most of the time he likes to be in the curtains peeking out at the world. When he sits in the sun, he turns brown. Otherwise, he's bright green.

I'm not sure how he was doing on the fly-eating in the kitchen since we never actually witnessed him catch one, but he is a MASTER at fly catching now that he lives in the living room. I have seen him catch and eat at least 3 flies in the last week; Jeff has seen him eat even more. One of our favorite games is to stun flies by swatting them with a kitchen towel and to then release them near Larry's window. It's kind of like cheating, but we don't care, and neither does Larry!

The very best part about Larry living in his new place is the way he gets up to the window. Larry is a lizard who likes to travel, so every now and then we'll see him on the living room floor no doubt cleaning up after us. When it's time to get back to safety, he hops on the curtain cords and shimmies up like he's in Mission Impossible. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but in the meantime, this one will have to suffice.

The guy who came the other day to install our airconditioner said that Larry was lucky. I think he's right! Forget the year of the pig, this is the Year of the Lizard - or at least the first few months of the lizard...!

It's a...

Honestly, Jeff and I have no idea what little Butter Bean is. All we know is that he/she is perfectly happy in my uterus at the moment and seems to be faring well. In fact, we don't plan on finding out whether Butter Bean is a boy or a girl until the big day sometime this summer. I know that some people think we're insane, but we feel that with so much technology these days, we've robed ourselves of the opportunity for surprise. Don't get us wrong, we don't have any moral objection to people knowing the sex of their babies before they're born, we just don't want to take advantage of the option.

So if, in the next few months, we refer to little Butter Bean as a boy, or a girl, know that it is likely more because of the limits of our language - and the fatigue of trying to refer at all times to the he/she/it - than it is of our certainty of the little one's anatomy. There has been some expression of concern over the colors that we might chose to surround the baby with, since we might confuse a little boy with pink sheets, but we think everything will be fine.

We're thinking of decorating the baby's room with lots of green and yellow, in an effort to avoid the whole topic. Butter Bean received his/her first present the other day (Thanks, Abby!): it's the cutest little yellow shirt that says, "Sweet Pea". And then we got an awesome set of yellow and green hooded towels (Thanks, Sina!) so we're off to a good start.

Otherwise, things are going well. Jeff and I finally have an air-conditioner (Thanks, MA & Paul!) which is really helping in the afternoons when our living room turns into the surface of the sun. Larry has moved to the living room and now lives in the curtains and comes out to eat flies. We've seen him eat over 5 flies in the last week! It's a very cool thing to see, even if it does imply that our house is full of nasty bugs. I'm not going to think about that right now, though. We're headed to Molokai this weekend, lots of great pics ahead!

Happy Mardi Gras!

This has been the best Mardi Gras yet spent outside the Gulf Coast! Jeff and I hosted our second annual Mardi Gras party, which was the best party we've thrown yet, bar none. Our friends Tara & Gabe (the reigning Mardi Gras king from last year), Trisha & Morgan, and Nick & Denice all came over on Joe Cain Day for homemade seafood gumbo and king cake. This year, I managed to keep yet another tradition which is the "Sarah ruined the king cake" tradition. Last year, I just overcooked the cake, this year I overcooked the first one, undercooked the second one and managed to both melt and dismember the little baby Jesus doll by cooking it at 400 degrees and then trying to shave off his melted parts. Next year, I'm having one overnighted from New Orleans - no matter the cost. It'll be good for the economy and easier on my ego. Did I mention that I'm throwing next year's party, too??? That's right, after all that fretting over the cake, I managed to find the prize (a quarter) in MY piece. It's probably just as well since I love hosting the party, but I would have loved seeing Mardi Gras reinterpreted by our friends, too!

As usual, we played "Throw Me Somethin' Mister", which is our version of a parade and is how we crown the Mardi Gras king and queen. After the second year, I think the game is too hard since most people don't score at all, so next year Jeff and I are thinking of making it easier. We won't give away how it will be different, of course, but we will say that it will be easier for drunk people. I spanked everyone at the game by hitting the mark with a doubloon and a necklace, but I was the only sober one at the party. The best part was score-keeper Jeff who was too tipsy to remember the rules or to follow the game closely enough to keep accurate score. Still, he was everyone's biggest cheering section and I loved seeing him have fun! Nick and Denice were crowned this year's Mardi Gras king and queen while Tara had to wear the jester hat for being the worst player. Poor thing!

Today I took another pot of gumbo to work where some of the volunteers and I had a Mardi Gras luncheon. They were so sweet and asked lots of good questions about Mardi Gras and it's customs. They were so psyched about getting beads of their own! Tonight, Jeff and I walked downtown for the Honolulu Mardi Gras celebration. There was more samba than zydeco, but that's because of the large Portuguese population here. Besides, the samba was great! The best part was that Gordon Biersch served boiled crawfish again this year! I let it slide that they were calling them mudbugs and relished every bite!

Our newest pet.

In keeping with my recent descriptions of our Hawaiian livestock, Jeff and I would like to introduce everyone to our new pet Butter Bean. He lives in my uterus. We discovered he was there in late December after a disruption in services, if you know what we mean. He is very strong, as he has survived a few glasses of wine, a hot tub, goat cheese, triathlon training, and various medications.

He is growing by the day but has refused to come out and play with us. He sent word that by the end of August he might be ready. Luckily, we were able to snap a picture of him during a recent visit to the doctor. We think he looks a little like a cartoon pig in this shot, but we assure you that in others he is the spitting image of a butter bean. Hence the name. We can't wait to see him as he grows, and we'll continue to post more pictures.

December Maui Trip.

Long ago I promised to catch up on photographs from the months that Jeff and I were technology-less. Here is the first of those catch-up blog entries!

In December, my mom and Peter came out to visit for Christmas. We headed to Maui for a whirlwind tour of Upcountry, the area around the Haleakala Volcano. Here's a shot of the happy family at 10,000 feet:


No trip to Upcountry Maui would be complete without a visit to the Surfing Goat Dairy. We went on the afternoon chores tour and got to participate in bringing the herd in from pasture, feeding and milking, and stuffing our faces with delicious goat cheese!

We also got to feed the baby goats, which was almost too cute for words...

We stayed at this great house called The Star Lookout. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to enjoy Hawaii but isn't interested in the beach scene. The place is breathtaking and not far from Oprah's home on the island! Here's a shot of sunset from the deck:

Because the climate and terrain Upcountry is very much like parts of Europe, especially France, lavender thrives there. The Ali'i Kula Lavender has taken advantage of the climate, soil, and tourism to create quite an industry. We went for a tour of the farm, pictured below, and had lavender scones, lavender tea, lavender jelly, tested the lavender hand lotion, lavender gardeners' salve, lavender spices... and then we tried lavender lemonade. It was at that point that we all decided that we had had enough. Though I highly recommend the tour, I would just keep in mind your lavender threshold. I didn't realize I had one until I was way, way past it.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. When we returned to Oahu, we spent Christmas Day surfing with friends. My mom even caught a couple of waves!

Hawaiian Weekend.

Above is a picture of the view from the hike Jeff and I did this morning. The Maunawili trail is over on the windward side of the island, so it's super lush and beautiful. Lots of people were running the trail which I think proves insanity because the whole thing is rocky and muddy, but secretly I'm just jealous that I can't do it. Wait, no I'm not. They're crazy.

Later in the day we headed to the beach. It was a perfect winter beach day in Hawaii: cool and sunny! Of course, that means that we both look a bit like crawfish tonight, but it was well worth it. After the beach, I got my hair cut - isn't it cute?! I have been trying to grow it out for the Locks of Love group that makes wigs for children with cancer and other diseases that cause hairloss, but I just couldn't do it anymore. More about that later....

Lastly, I'll include some new photos of Larry. He is still the best pet ever. Yesterday he was trying to wash the dishes...

After I told Larry that he didn't need to do the dishes, he decided to sit in the sun waiting for a fly to cross his path. What a sweetie!

Larry the Lizard.

We have a pet lizard. His name is Larry. He lives in our kitchen, in the corner where the cookbooks are. I know that some of you might be skeptical about whether or not Larry really is our pet. The fact remains that since the end of December, Larry has been a daily fixture in our life. Like a pet, he does not run away from us when we enter the room. Instead, he likes to watch us make lunch, or dinner, or doing the dishes. Sometimes, he ventures out onto the counter to chase flies or his girlfriend Clarisse (a gecko who only comes around a night) or to get a drink of water from the sink. The sink is the scariest place for Larry because sometimes we don't see him hiding under some dirty dishes and we turn the water on. I'm telling you now: lizards do NOT like water, at least not for anything other than drinking. Larry is very afraid of water, but even after a couple of frightening encounters (for Larry and us), he still trusts us to get close enough for the following portraits.

This first one is a classic Larry pose. He turns brown when he's on the cookbooks, but you can see the bright green around his eyes. Isn't he handsome?

This next one is a full body shot of Larry. He was posing for us because I told him that I wanted to make him as famous as the Geicko gecko by putting his pictures up on my blog. That really got him excited!

This last shot is of Larry after a sink incident. Sometimes when he's scared, or when he's sleeping, he'll sneak under the Joy of Cooking book. It's his favorite place to chill.

We can't be sure how long Larry will choose to make nuestra casa su casa, but we sure do feel special that he chose us. Plus, Larry doesn't make me sneeze, so he is officially the best pet ever!

Hummingbird.

Check out these pictures Jeff took of our neighborhood hummingbird! He showed up one day, apparently very excited about the hedge of plumbago I planted out front a while back, and he's been back a few times a week ever since. At first we thought it was a moth, but then we realized how special this little guy is! (Not that there's anything wrong with moths.) It makes me feel very green-thumbed to see my little garden attracting such beautiful celebrities.

Happy New Year!

I'm back! After many, many months without a computer at home, Jeff and I have finally re-entered the age of technology. I won't attempt to catch up too much on events of the last few months, but I will post some of the best pics to catch everyone up.

New Year's Eve in Honolulu is something to behold. It's less like New Year's and more like a war. From 5PM yesterday until about 2AM this morning, all of our neighbors participated in an assault on silence. The really interesting part is that these are major, serious fireworks being set off by normal people. I'm talking over-your-head, exploding in a burst of light, trailing twinkly lights on the float-down fireworks. My personal favorite are the ones that sound like popcorn popping, only at 100 times the decibel level of Jiffy-Pop.

I'll let it be known now that I am not a huge fan of New Year's Eve in general. It always turns out lamer than your expected and leaves you disappointed that your life isn't more like the movies. [Which is not to say that I have not been part of some good celebrations: My favorite was the start of the millennium which I spent with friends and family at a house in the woods in south Alabama. The best part of that day was 1) most of the people at the party actually stayed up until midnight, 2) my best friends and family were all there, and 3) we burned stuff.] My friend Alessandro also knows how to throw a kick-ass party, and I have happily rung in the new year with him a couple of times, too. But, for the most part, I think that excellent New Year's Eve memories are hard to come by, while I have almost exclusively positive memories of, say, Thanksgiving and Halloween.

So things weren't shaping up well for last night when I realized at about 8PM, only three hours into the chaos, that I was not going to be able to make it awake to the stroke of midnight. Needless to say, I was awoken many, many times last night from dreams of high-capacity water hoses raining down water on my neighborhood by things I thought were bombs. Jeff was smart and stayed up reading all night. Next year, we have both vowed to spend New Year's Eve somewhere else, preferably NOT in Hawaii! If anyone is planning a big party for next year, let me know and I'll promise to take a nap that afternoon...

Katherine Lanaux

I just HAD to include these shots of my newest second cousin, Katherine Lanaux! Who needs Tickle Me Elmo with a face like this. Just looking at her makes me smile. Thanks for sending these, Aunt Rose!