There is a book contest that awards 50,000 books to the state with the most votes.  As of today, Hawaii is in 3rd place.  If you want Hawaii to make the leap to number one, or at least be competitive, please take a little minute to vote. 

It is easy peasy to vote.  All you have to do is visit the website once a day (14 days left) and choose Hawaii, and click to vote.  You don’t have to fill in the other spots. Just go to the box that asks where you want 50,000 books to be sent, find Hawaii and click.  AND YES, YOU ONLY HAVE TO PRESS ON  *WHERE DO YOU WANT THE BOOKS TO GO….IT IS THE ONLY REQUIRED FIELD

 Here is the link:  http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/whatbook/about.php

 If you will, please send the link to all your family and friends who will vote for Hawaii.  Our Hawaii kids could benefit.

Aloha and much Mahalo

It is 9am on 09/09/09. Because of our Hawaiian Standard Time Zone, I believe  it is one of the last places in the world to hit 09/09/09. The day is still young and plenty of time to make some good memories whether private or public. Do Good!!

non klutter kitty

Office romance. Nooooo, not that kind. I need to love my office again. It may not be  love per se, but I need to enjoy spending time and working in there again. How about just moving around in there again. Boxes-some with my giveaway items I may add-haphazzardly tilted, papers untidily grouped-ok I just completed my taxes(I am sooo proud of myself pat-pat), shelves with stuff, desktop with stuff, drawers filled with more stuff for office stuff, booksbooksbooks, all sorts of ephemera perilously growing with a life of its own I can only surmise since I don’t know who or why anyone would put THAT in my office…and then just leave it there! Walk over it, squeeze past it, pile it higher. No more.

The attack on the office dis-organization has begun. For the month of February, and I believe it will take all month, I am going to clean my office one drawer or shelf  or tray a day. My office courtship commences.

02/02

Heading into the final days of my January Resolution to recycle or toss 3 items every day proved slightly more difficult. I had already relieved myself of 79 things although the unofficial count was about a dozen more. I had to search and dig and root around through possessions and the back of closets and drawers rarely navigated. Saturday night at 11p found me rummaging for the final 3 extraneous former treasures to rid myself of. Yay, hooray, the deed was done and I had donated or purged over 100 items that had taken up space in my little bungalow.

My very deh duh astute observations are as follows; pfuffh! 100 little possessions of what? Their absence not in the least noticable, removing 3 a day made the task manageable and limiting myself to only 3 items daily resulted in what I can only describe as my eagerness in the physical act of finding articles to relinquish.

All this tossing and trashing and recycling and relinquishing happened only inside my house. I never got to the garage or my ’sewing shed’ both in desperate need of chaos control, and I limited myself to mine or ours-I kept my purging little paws off my husband’s stuff(note that his belongings are stuff as opposed to mine which are heirloom treasures).

This was such an overwhelmingly successful resolution that I am continuing this January experiment into February -with just a tiny bit of tweaking. So, I will continue to recycle or remove a minimum of 1 item every day. Of course I have the primary February resolution cooking, but I will update on that later.

For the month of January I am recycling or tossing 3 items every day. This year I decided to try a January only New Year’s Resolution.  On January 1st however I had to discard/recycle 7 items. The total at the end of the month will be 100 less pieces of detrius cluttering my house. So far so great. As expected the first 10 days or so were easy. I blithely and eagerly found things to discard without much searching. I could stand in the middle of a room and without even a muscle twitch my eyes would alight on yet another piece of junk that need to GO. Week two proved a bit more of a challenge. Fewer of the obvious and more digging for the discards. Week three found me musing over my objects d’art and weighing my emotional attachments to various gifts and former treasures and occasionally taking the easy road and donating some magazines off to the library.

There are rules…

• all items must leave the house
• recycle and donate when possible
• regular recycling doesn’t count ie bottles, cans, newspaper
• the same goes for general trash
• pairs and sets count as 1
• 3 (or more) items EVERY day-if I throw away 4 things I am not allowed to ‘bank’ that 1 extra for the next day
• no replacing of a discarded item for a newer version

Week four begins. Stay tuned.

President Barack Obama displayed his Hawaii roots as the Punahou School marching band passed his reviewing stand.

ObamAloha. We are so proud of our Island born President. Hawaii gave a whopping 72% vote to Barrack Obama in the presidential election-more than any state in the Union.  1.8 million plus people attended the inauguration and parade…wow! our entire population of the State of Hawaii meaning every single woman, man and child could have fit in the National Mall-plus all the visitors in our State on Janurary 20 plus every adult could have brought a friend too. Obama’s first signed proclamation was declaring Tuesday January 20, 2009 a Day of Renewal and Reconcilliation. Aahhhhhh…so Pono. I am just smitten. Photo by JACK GRUBER | USA Today

Happy New Year. Hauoli Makahiki Hou! It’s not really January 11. It’s January 19. Martin Luther King Day. I just like writing 1/11. The great news…only 1 more day until our native born son Obama becomes president. The anticipation of hope for enlightenment is deliciously palatable. It is deeply heartening to see the many citizens make the time to come out of their cozy houses or break the routine of their lives to witness the presidential train pass by their neighborhoods. And it is chilly outside. These folks are bundled up. Their decisions are deliberate. This is action not accident. Not only are people  gathering by the thousands but handfulls of Americans are standing on hillsides, bridges, parks, countryside dirt roads. They are in clusters, in throngs, families and with new found friends all willing to step out of their ordinary schedules to witness history…to be a part of history. I have not seen such optimism in many a decade. It give me chicken-skin. It gives me hope. In fact I am so enthused that I am willing to wake up really early tomorrow morning to watch the inauguration as the festivities start at 5:30a Hawaii time. I am busting with pride. Hooray for US!

June 4

MIBA. Missing In Blog Action. But stridently enjoying life as it/me whirls, jogs, sings, soars, dances, flares, catapults, blooms, consumes and giggles with incredible vitality. There is much work and play these past few months. I’ll catch you up as soon as I can catch up myself. My New Year’s Resolutions are going strong.

In the first days of the New Year a small group of fishermen gather in Haleiwa Harbor for the annual boat blessing. The priest from the Haleiwa Shingon Mission gives a traditional Shinto blessing for happiness, prosperity and safety. Offerings of a bowl each of  oranges, cookies and a white rice and rock salt mixture are arrayed on a table. We each extend our cupped left hand where aromatic incense is sprinkled and guarded like a guilded fledgling. The Shinto priest chants, mesmerizing yet energizing  us as we place our right palms over left then left over right three times. He speaks of our eternal Spirits and their passages through our various mortal life forms. Each of us are individually blessesed-we call it the ‘wacking.’ It makes me smile. We file onto the dock and throw the rice-salt mixture three times into the ocean as the priest continues his chanting. Our diverse group forms again as the Reverend reminds us of the harmonic nature of the ocean and its creatures including us. The blessing brings me freshness, reflection and energy.

Then the real fun begins…the sake toasting!! Here is how we do it. Each person pours a small cup of sake for another and then for themselves. You toast to health, the New Year whatever, then drink. Then the other person pours a cup of sake for you and then one for themself. You toast again and drink. You do this for EVERY single person there! Yikes!! And you must consume everything in your cup lest there be any good luck neglected from your toasting vessel. Did I mention e-v-e-r-y single person must toast each other? Did I neglect to inform you Dear Reader that the Shinto boat blessing takes place at 11 am.?! Of course we have an array of local food with plenty of sashimi and various ono fish dishes which helps in the inevitable nap. I try and get blessed every year regardless that I am not Shinto. Growing up in Hawaii exposes you to many different cultures and their respective beliefs. Surely it can only enhance your knowlede and perspective. And you know what, I have noticed an increased happier state and certainly a  level of newly energized prosperity.

Happy New Year!

We lit the mandatory handfull of firecrackers at the entrances to our driveway gate, front and back house doors and workshop to ward away the bad spirits. We then needed to escape the obnoxious odors and unbelievably jarring blasts of illegial mortor type rockets and long banned yet easily available aerials that bombard our neighborhood for a more peaceful and fairly fireworks free hideaway on the North Shore. Made sure that the Kitties were safe and secure in the house then loaded up the Doggers, champagne and lots of special  yummy pupu for the Eve and a quiet celebration.

Some resolutions for 2008

Do Good. I like this one. I make it a resolution every year beacause it is the only one that I enthusiastically keep.

Think-Act. Also called procrastinate less or shorter time span of procratination.

Keep in Touch. Somehow connected to the above procrastination. 

Learn a New Skill or Polish a Current Talent. Classes or practice practice. hmmm I like this one too.

Have more fun. Unbelievable as it seems,  I often feel as if I am  caught up in busy work and chore mundania.  Yay, I really like this one.

My wish to all:  Good Health, Prosperity, Understanding, Time to Enjoy.

Aloha Nui Loa ~A Hui Hou