Melekeliki Maka

That's 'Merry Christmas' in Hawaiian--I may have butchered the spelling. Anyway, I've always loved that Hawaiian Christmas song from 'Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation', so even though it's April, I keep singing it in my head over here.

This morning Kimberly and I went for a walk to the farmers market, one of my favorite things to do at home and just as fun in Maui. We got some banana bread, guacamole and honey bananas--it's so great to have local, fresh food again. I'm tired of winter veggies in Seattle, but I still miss it there. The weather in Hawaii really isn't that difficult to adjust to when you wear a bathing suit most of the time and your hair is pulled back and there really is no reason to wear makeup because it just melts off. Very beachy, I guess. I'm an island girl at heart when it comes to wearing flip flops and just hanging out and eating fresh fruit, but that's about as far as it goes.

Last night we stayed out late on a sunset cruise where we saw some whales, then we went back to Whaler's Village and watched Kimberly try on 100 bikinis. The sales clerk loved us since we were being funny and we were tired and sweaty. Also, a bird pooped on Kimberly twice in one day--that was a highlight of mine. Well, I'm off to the pool and then the beach for snorkeling. Pray I don't get eaten by a shark.

Aloha!

Here I am with Kimberly and Mom in beautiful Maui. It's really much nicer than I thought it would be--I know you are all thinking, 'Umm, of course it's nice'. But I am the whitest girl on earth and I don't tan, therefore I'm not a big fan of the sun, which is why I love Seattle!! I also don't do well in the heat, it sort of puts me in an instant bad mood. So Hawaii is generally not my favorite place. I'd prefer Ireland or London or even our home back in Seattle. This time in Hawaii is different though (I've been here several times and haven't seen the draw)-- I actually like it. Last night I couldn't stop saying how romantic and breezy and cool and beautiful it looked. I even think Lee would like it when it's cooler like this--now I've got visions of us coming here as well as every other place we dream of, the list is getting bigger. We took a quick flight where I got a movie and a nap in, plus marveled at the amount my seat-mate could drink. I've never seen a man drink that much, that fast, on land, much less on a plane. Then we did some local shopping for papayas and pineapples and snacks, arrived at the condo and had mahi mahi and a blue hawaiian under the bright moon with the palm trees and waves right in front of us. Just like the movies.

Today we are renting a cabana next to the pool and going to a nice restaurant for dinner. Tomorrow I'm going to do yoga in the morning and mostly the same schedule for the rest of the week. There are lots of foo foo drinks here, so I plan on drinking those as well. In the shade of course.

I think we are finally settling into our new home and really, a new lifestyle. I caught a mild cold again, strangely enough, so I still haven't been walking around every day or going out and blogging about Greenwood life. I was supposed to walk around Greenlake tonight with my sister, Sarah, but it's raining and I can't get to my rain jacket yet (it's deep in the closet behinds 6 feet of boxes of books). Good excuse though, eh? Most everything is unpacked and I'm very proud to say that we've taken about five Suburban full loads to the Goodwill--I refuse to be a pack rat anymore! Lee and I are starting fresh and have many things we've meshed nicely together plus we have furnishings to get for our house which makes each weekend a little more exciting. Our first purchases were a new flat screen LCD TV and a wall hanging Lee found that we fell in love with. I have a picture of it above--it's a wrought iron framed chalk board that says 'Bon Apetit' where we can write quotes that inspire us or what we will be having for dinner when guests come over. Every time I look at it, it makes me smile.

Tonight we are ordering in from a local Chinese place, Chef Liao. The first one we tried before we had anything unpacked was Greenwood Mandarin Chinese, which was that old school kind of Chinese food that's good for hangovers. I will definitely be ordering from there again, but we have to test out the other two that deliver to see what the final verdict is. I am so fascinated with delivery after living in Montana and Wyoming for way too long. Most people take this for granted, but growing up, I never had a pizza guy come to my door. Even in college, we had to drive to some chain restaurant before 8pm to get some grub. I was always an urban girl at heart and I'd watched many shows where the hip city girl had chinese food delivered while she watched movies with her man, or the group of guys that had their favorite pizza delivered when the big game was on. I longed to be one of those people. I just like knowing there are people around me, awake, living, eating and hanging out with their loved ones. I don't like feeling like I'm out in the middle of nowhere and everyone falls asleep before 9pm-- freaky and weird. Then someone comes out of the woods and kills you with their ax. Hate that!

Today is also our 10 month anniversary and Lee brought me home a lovely bouquet of pink roses. I have met the sweetest, funniest guy on earth and he's all mine! I'm leaving for Hawaii next week for a girls trip with my Mom and Kimberly, so I'm getting all the hugs and kisses I can from him since I know I'll miss him like crazy. I know he will be thoroughly entertained by all of our friends plus busy with house stuff. Like cleaning the closet out. And taking the garbage out. And changing the cat litter. (Hint, hint).

Greenwood is my hood

I've always wanted one of these t-shirts! You know, the ones they have for all the 'hot' neighborhoods around Seattle. Well, they have one for Greenwood and Lee came home and surprised me with a little gift--a Greenwood tee. Pretty cute, ya? It's sort of a busty picture, sorry.

In the thick of it

I'm so exhausted, but I have internet now and therefore I have at least one thing that reminds me a normal life. I'm not going to make this a depressing blog entry because I'm pretty darn happy, I'm just trying to figure out how to get settled in this new place and new neighborhood. We've unpacked the kitchen stuff and most things we use on a daily basis, other than that we are kinda just looking at stuff and thinking of putting it somewhere at some point. I'm sure it will get done, after all, I've made a list of 'things to do' so they will be done! I am going to Maui with my Mom and Kimberly in a week and I'm going to try to make this place comfortable and homey for Lee by then. We've gone walking around the neighborhood a bit, visiting coffee shops and grocery stores and eating gyros. Oh, and drinking malts from Red Mill. It's been pretty wild this first week and I know things are looking up now that I've caught up on sleep and I'm not sick anymore.

The cats are all out of sorts as well. They sleep on several different spots on the couches and beds every day, just to make sure any free time I have is spent cleaning cat hair off things. And Puzzo makes this satanic noise that scared our friend last night because he's still not used to his surroundings. They don't even want to go outside yet, so their litter box is full by the end of every day. It's a lovely treat that I get to clean the litter before going to bed. And to think we are going to get another one of these soon! They are awfully cute though.

I made our first dinner the other night and the sight of my sandwiches ready to be put into the panini press was such a happy one for me--it definitely made me feel more at home. We walked to the store and also went to the Ballard Market this past Sunday, so I decided to make panini's with mozzerella, tomato, basil, avacado and peppery salami. Kind of pretty and spring-y. We also picked up fresh local feta cheese and some homemade fennel pasta for a traditional spaghetti dinner we had last night. It was very tasty.

By the way, I do love our home. I'm excited for a garden, for dinner parties with friends and family, to explore and take walks around our neighborhood and to build all these new things together with Lee. Plus just coming home every day is so wonderful, this place is starting to shape up quite well.

Update!

I'm currently hiding out in my car, stealing internet from our neighbor at our old condo. You see, we don't have internet connected yet at our new place and I don't have time at this point to hang out leisurely at a cafe, so I'm doing this on the sly. Just wanted to let you all know we've moved into our new place, everything went amazingly well (aside from still being a bit sick) and I finally found the bag with my underwear in it last night. Yay!!