It has been a while since we have shared anything but it’s not because we are becoming lazy. Darlene and I have been working night and day and have had very few chances for any adventures (even small ones) lately. Luckily things should calm down in the next couple weeks and the second they do we are going to go for our first dive. I managed to sneak out today for an hour of snorkeling today and the entire time I kept thinking about how great it would be going even deeper. The sun was nice and bright today and it lit up the reef and the deep blue ocean in the distance perfectly. I will never grow tired of this ocean, it is impossible not to be overwhelmed by its beauty every time you see it or swim in it.

Plus, it’s whale season and, although so far I have only seen their giant water spouts and the occasional splash from a tail, I’m looking forward to many great sightings right off the beach. Darlene has been lucky enough to see many whales breaching while at her job that overlooks the ocean.

A little over a week ago some friends from San Fransisco were here for visit and they stayed just up the road. We joined them for dinner at the house they rented with a few other couples and had a great time.

Winter clouds are creating some amazing sunsets lately so get used to seeing pictures of them!

Greg and Petra from San Francisco enduring one of our boring sunsets.

Gross, look at this crap!

Yuck.

Sickening.

The West Maui Mountains looking towards Wailuku shrouded in a giant cloud.

What do you do when it’s time to buy a Christmas tree and you have 13 foot ceilings? Buy a tree that is 24 inches tall! Obviously.

Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year. Thanksgiving happens to be Kent’s favorite day of the year too. As luck would have it, the third Thursday of 2011 happened to be worst day of the year for both of us.

Because I had to work this year on Thanksgiving, we scheduled our Thanksgiving to be on Tuesday before the big day. We had no problem with this. We could shove those pictures of our turkey and stuffing in everyone’s facebook faces a few days before they were able to experience it. (Side note, I usually don’t like bragging on facebook but it was the only way I could feel better about having to work at a busy restaurant on my favorite day of the year. Please, don’t judge my social network style revenge to harshly.)

So, not only was the original date of Thanksgiving ruined with my work schedule, our re-scheduled, early Thanksgiving was ruined with a debilitating sore throat/cold/flu. It was absolute misery for the both of us. Sick and weak, we spent almost a week in bed and trying to take care of each other. To top it off, it’s warm here. Imagine having a fever in the summer. It was hell. After gallons of tea, juice, Nyquil, Codeine, and homemade chicken noodle soup were consumed…well, we still felt like crap!

Early Thanksgiving passed, the real Thanksgiving had passed, my dad finished his famous smoked turkey, candy was being made at Rita’s, and photos of everyone’s special day were posted and liked about a million times on facebook. Both of us really started to feel so far away from it all. Even though Thanksgiving was over for everyone else, I had an undeniable urge to cook. Although still homesick, our coughing was starting to fade, so we rescheduled our glorious day for this past Monday, the third Monday of November.

I started my cooking on Sunday. We had a vegan friend coming, so I wanted to make her something special. I made a red-wine braised veggie shepherd’s pie with carrot, potato (yes, I know it’s topped with mashed potatoes, but come on, can you ever have enough?) green beans, onion, and local purple Makawao sweet potatoes. I used some Milwaukee Ave. seasoning purchased from The Spice House, which I thought gave it a very “meaty” and savory flavor. I was really happy with the way it came out. I made my pumpkin pie on Sunday too before I called it a night.

On Monday I started by brining my turkey. Up at 5:30am, I put on my only apron, which we purchased on our road trip, and was able to check nearly everything off of my list before I went to work at 11. Mashed potatoes, candied purple sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, shortcakes for our papaya and grape shortcake, whipped cream for the desserts, crescent rolls and turkey in the oven. Cooking all of it made me so happy!

By the time I got back from work Kent and I had a nice snacking lunch of cheese and crackers, summer sausage, and bloody marys. Finally, I made the gravy (the most important part of the meal) and we were good to go. Thanksgiving had arrived! We feasted and drank with good friends, what could be better than that?

I wish everyday was Thanksgiving.

Why does this keep happening? Why do we keep stealing cats?

We were both so sad to leave “our cat” Skunky behind in Wailuku but I guess that feline void has been filled by our latest acquisition, Sophie. Sophie is a neighbor’s cat who recently started hanging out by our door and meowing at us. That’s about as hard as a cat needs to try with us before the front door is open. With Skunky, we at least waited 3 weeks before we started letting her in, but with Sophie we were like “why play games, just let her in now because we know it’s going to happen eventually.”

Sophie’s real owner is a very nice woman who lives down the street, so at least we know she has a home this time. But do you think that’s going to stop us? Hell no, we are professional cat seducers now. Our lease states we are not allowed to have pets but it says nothing about having OTHER people’s pets. LOOPHOLE!

Like Skunky, Sophie is incredibly sweet and has big clumsy thumbs. Also like Skunky, who was missing a chunk from her tongue, Sophie has a notch cut from her ear from some past battle. The other day I saw her with a lizard in her mouth and said hello. When she meowed back her meal ran away and I’ve never seen a sadder, more confused look on an animal. I felt bad that I made her loose her lizard, but on the other hand we love all our little lizards so it was kind of an emotional wash.

Welcome to the family, Sophie!

P.S. Skunky is well taken care of back in Wailuku, our friends feed her twice a day with the cat food we supply them with :)

We’ve been told these trees are nicknamed Filipino or Australian Christmas trees but their fancy pants name is Bursaria Spinosa. Who cares what they are called because after almost 4 days in bed I’m feeling better and looking forward to becoming human again. I think Darlene saved my life with the most amazing homemade chicken soup ever and a hefty dose of sympathy. I’m a guy, I need sympathy to get well.

Anyway, the trees are blooming and they smell as pretty as they look.

I’m sick, Darlene is sick, the entire island is sick. Although I was desperately tired, I didn’t fall asleep until 5am and that sleep only lasted a couple hours. So I’m stuck on the couch all day, fighting the urge to punch the TV. Wow, daytime TV is DUMB!