Aloha!

Holy moly, I can't believe it's May already. May 4, in fact. I am SO sorry for being a lax poster. Have I been busy? Yes, I suppose. The last week just went by so FAST.

We are leaving on Friday for Hawai'i to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We try to go on a trip every year, so it's the same thing we did last year on our 9th anniversary, with a few changes. This time we are checking out the Big Island, which we've never been to, and trying out an inter-island flight. We had a bit of a scare a couple weeks ago when Aloha Airlines went bankrupt and we lost all of our reservations, but we managed to put the trip back together and stay on schedule on Hawai'ian. Snagged the last two seats on at least one flight.

The shopping is done, lodging arrangements are made, cars are rented. Swimsuits, check. Sandals, check. Hat, check. Sunscreen has been purchased. We've been trying to locate "reef safe" sunscreen for sale here, but it looks like we'll have to buy it there. We've used Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group's cosmetics database, to try to find the least toxic options for lotions and bug repellants, too. Looking good.

I swear this time I'm going to pack light, calculating how many things I need to bring for half the trip, with a trip to the washing machine in the middle. Usually, I pack my bag a couple of days before and then spend the next 48 hours stuffing miscellaneous items into all of the crevices as I encounter them, so that in the end my suitcase requires the sit-on treatment to be zipped shut and would explode like a joke can of snakes if one of the fragile zippers failed. I really am going to try to do better this time. I mean, how many t-shirts and pairs of shorts do I actually wear when I'm there? I pick my favorites and the rest of the stuff hangs in the closet. If only I could know in advance what I was going to feel like wearing the most. I suppose I could narrow the choices of what I feel like wearing by eliminating half of it.

The hardest part is always what to wear on the plane, and how to make that work. We arrive at the San Francisco airport at some ungodly hour, in the cold and fog, and walk to a bus with our luggage, requiring pants, shoes and jackets. We then get into a freezing airplane and arrive five hours later in Honolulu, sit an hour and land in Kona 30 minutes after re-loading, where it will be a humid 80 degrees. I always want to be comfortable and also look respectable enough that I stand a chance of being bumped to first class should the need arise. But I don't think I ever quite manage. Maybe I should buy a pink velour tracksuit and some giant sunglasses?

You know, I'm a bit insecure about writing right now, because I came across a book titled, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog and it made me nervous. (I guess this guy at rickyslunch.com hasn't read it. And he's pretty damn funny.) I do write about what I have for lunch, and also sometimes breakfast. Are you bored? In case you were curious, the second hemp protein powder smoothie was pretty good. (Apparently it's the "gold standard of plant protein"!) So good I bought a whole container, and I'm telling you, if I have that for breakfast, it lasts right up to lunch and I feel energetic and not hungry. My smoothie is usually yogurt, soy or non-fat milk, frozen strawberries, and this new stuff. I feel like I'm putting good, healthy fuel in me. Am I boring you?

I've been lagging on This Week in The Garden posts and Vegetable of the Week this year. The garden has exploded with flowers. The trumpet vines are going, the pink dogwood is done and the white ones are budding up and getting ready. There are lilies and irises and azaleas like crazy. You are not getting any pictures because I set the camera to take really giant pictures so that I can blow them up, and I needed to consolidate. Until that was done, I was reluctant to add to the load dragging down my processing speed. I have a boatload of pictures on my computer. A Titanic-load.

Oh look! Abbie has updated the appearance of her blog! They grow up so fast-- pretty soon she'll have flash animations and her own google ads. This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. If you get busy, if you don't blog, if you don't sit down at the computer and read gofugyourself and neatorama and dooce and icanhascheezeburger every day you will get behind and have to catch up. Which leaves you staring out the window over the screen at the waning light, wondering where all your garden photographing hours have gone. Then in three days you will have to go on vacation and there will be no hope for you. Am I boring you?

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