Leeward Planning Commission

Today Kai got a break from me; I spent most of the day in Kona at the Leeward Planning Commission meeting. I got a lot of compliments on my blue hair! If you want to watch the 5-hour long meeting, click here.

Can't really see the blue in this screen shot; it's more visible in some other views.

After the meeting I ran my usual errands in Kona. Today I also stopped at Sally Beauty where I bought another hair dye. Since I want a darker shade of blue, I looked at several options. I will be trying Blue Smoke next month to see if it will be darker blue. Also met May; besides working at Sally Beauty, she is also a hula practitioner & fluent in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi!

The options.

On the drive back I talked to hoa hānau Laurel. She & Bill came over for dinner when she got back from work. We had a great visit catching up with what's been happening for each of us since our last visit in November. Laurel also told us about Pono Pastries which has filled malasadas with lots of filing! If we have time tomorrow, Kai wants to go there for breakfast. Another blow to the weight loss plan. 🙄

Duo the Duolingo mascot is so easy to please! I didn't do any thing significant this morning, but Duo was sooooo happy!

I am hoping to create a long streak in Lingopie just like I have done in Duolingo. I think consistent daily work is the best way for me to learn a new language. Lingopie is a lot slower since I watch the video, then create the flash card deck which is then presented to me using spaced repetition where I am seeing the most learning results. I think I have only watched about 5 minutes of Good Morning, Breakfast so far. It is really slow but I seem to be learning new words more easily.

Kīlauea is back in the re-inflation phase after yesterday's Episode 51 eruption. There is no prediction yet of when the next episode is likely to begin; they need more data.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e hoa hānau Leilani! 

Early Birthday Pie

When I went to drop off a plate of dinner from the Kohala Jodo Mission potluck with my friend Libby, she gave me an early b-day pie! Specifically chocolate ganache pie with raspberry drizzle! A wonderful addition to my acceptable sources of lipids for the anything-but-boiled-vegetables meal plan! (She knows I like dark chocolate.)

There were too many things going on today! The Kohala Jodo Mission's Obon observance started this morning with the blessing of the graves at 10 am. It was then followed by a veterans memorial, then the Hatsubon service for people who have passed away since last year's Hatsubon service. At nearly the same time there was a service for hoa hānau Lem's buddy Clifford & also a service for Marcia, the wife of Joe, one of the very active kūpuna leaders I have come to know in the community. Joe was also a classmate of my Aunty Judy. Fran & I stuck around for the lunch after Clifford's service; he had specifically told Fran he wanted her to be there. I strategically chose my carbs & proteins. With the blessings of Clifford's wife Cynthia & half-sister Lehua, I made a plate to take home for Kai.

Top row - carbs including culturally significant ones; Bottom row - proteins.

In the evening we had a choice between going to the ʻOhana Kilo Hōkū stargazing at Moʻokini Heiau or the dinner potluck at the Kohala Jodo Mission. We ended up deciding on the potluck since the weather was turning & a bunch of clouds were moving in that would make stargazing less than ideal. In the end, Kai did not go to either; he was too burned out from the morning activities at KJM where he was representing the family. It was a little too much for him & he was out of spoons.  

I went to the potluck, & like the lunch, tried to be selective with my protein & carb choices for dinner. I made plates to take home for Kai & Libby who had also been invited to this potluck but was too busy preparing for a trip to Oʻahu.

I did the bare minimum in Mandarin in Duolingo to keep up my streak. But Lingopie takes more time & effort, I was unable do anything so I ended up losing my 4 day streak. I will have to avoid starting so late in the evening with Lingopie so that I can finish a decent amount of Mandarin to keep the streak going.

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is likely between now & the 13th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Kasimir! 

Automated Traffic

Kai has explained to me what is happening with the number of views on the Stats pages. Apparently what I am experiencing is re-indexing by search engines. And since I am posting almost daily it needs to "see" what I am posting so that it "knows" what's there if anyone happens to be searching for that particular bit of information that I posted. So its just machines looking at stuff for future reference that is causing the number of views I am seeing rather than real people. I will not longer pay any attention to the stats. 

Kai likes to go to breakfast at Hawaiian Style Cafe in Waimea when he is here, so that's where we went this morning. He had the Chorizo & Lup Cheong Omelet & I had the Pulehu Short Ribs.  

Chorizo & Lup Cheong Omelette.

Pulehu Short Ribs.

After that we ran errands, stopping at Longs Drugs, HPM Building Supply, Mauna Kea Feed Supply, KTA Grocery Store, & The Waimea Butcher Shop. Waimea is a 45-minute drive away; so like going to Kona, when I am there I go to the places that have things I can't find in Kohala & pick them up if I need them. 

Found these interesting containers of oat milk at KTA.

It was still raining when we got back home. In fact, it was raining harder than when we left. Usually on Friday afternoons Marian & I get together with our dogs Poppy & Moʻo for a puppy play date; it was too wet today to do that. We'll try again next week.

Kai opening the gate in the rain.

Instead, we went to Motek to pick up some pastries for the potluck tomorrow night. We also went to the church to put up the chochin at the gravesites.

My pronunciation in the Duolingo exercises is sometimes hit or miss. And I am not quite sure why. To me it sounds like I am saying it properly. But I guess its not quite right. 

In the evening, when I went through the emails I had neglected throughout the day, I found I had an email from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Team eBird. They have updated how they present ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi on their birding app! Since I started using the eBird app, I have used their option that provides the names of birds in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, which was originally listed as "English (Hawaiʻi)". It is now listed as "ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi". Hūlō!

SPOILER ALERT - This evening during Episode 4 of Fights Break Sphere, Xiao Zhan's character Lin Xiuya appears as a 1st year student along with the other 1st years heading to the Jianan Fight Academy. Somewhat like the train full of 1st years on their way to Hogwarts, except that here the senior students ambush them & steal their energy talismans. It is after all a fight academy so might as well start fighting as early as possible, I guess. At one point the 1st years trick the seniors by making a savory soup with fish & morels!

The 1st years.

The 5 at right are main characters in 1st years

Morchella is another name for morels.

Earlier in the episode Xiao Yan's father also tells him that he has grown up so he needs to change his hairstyle. Like I said earlier, the hairstyle makes a difference in how age is perceived. Leo Wu now looks like his 19-year old self. And Xiao Zhan looks like a late teens guy though he was 27 when this was filmed. They both have what I call K-Pop Boy Band hair! Which I don't think was really a thing during this particular historical time period. 

Xiao Yan's new hairstyle.

Wise advice from Dad that I have heard in a couple other series.

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea has been narrowed to between the 11th & the 13th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Anders! 

IASA #4-22

Weapons rack now installed !

 

Kai's Travels

While I was doing my Mandarin lessons on Duolingo this morning, I started getting a bunch of texts from Kai as he began his trip here for Obon. The 1st was that he had to pay for his luggage; oops! Forgot to check him in yesterday. The merger  between Alaska & Hawaiian has not gone smoothly, normally I would get a reminder the previous day to check-in; did not get that yesterday.

He also informed me that TSA in Seattle is catching up to Kona!

Then he sent me a photo of his breakfast. And also told me about needing to get cutlery from somewhere else since there was curry sauce on the katsu patty.

I'm pretty sure I will gain weight while Kai is here since we are always trying new places to eat. And also some of his old favorites. My pre-Kai's arrival weight is 129.2 pounds, which is 3 pounds less than when I started on the solstice. Or about 1.2#/week weight loss. We shall see what it is after he leaves. And whether I can get back down to losing anything I might gain before August 1st.

On the way back from the airport, his 1st stop was at Our Founding Farmers for some ice cream! When we went across the street to K.O. Pizza for the chef's special for dinner. Already more calories than I have been eating!

We watched Good Morning, Breakfast on Lingopie just to watch all the good food. Kai is also thinking of taking advantage of the lifetime subscription so he can learn another language. 

The new series I started watching today is Fights Break Sphere. In this series released in 2018, a 19-year old Leo Wu plays 16-year old Xiao Yun, an aspiring martial arts practitioner. (He was 21 in Guardians of the Ancient Oath, playing 20-something General Baili Hongshuo aka Water deity. It is really interesting to me how the hairstyle can change the perception of age. But maybe that's a biologist thing since we look for characteristics of animals that can give us a clue as to their age.) Baron Chen plays the Grand Old Master who is training Xiao Yun. It's got a lot of martial arts but also has humor & funky music. No romance yet, but in the 1st episode they are already planning 16-year old Xiao Yun's wedding that will be happening in 5 days! Did they marry them off really young because their life expectancy was short?

I had mentioned earlier how I was able to recognize 水（shuǐ, water) after 3 days learning Mandarin on Duolingo. I have since learned the character for ice (冰, bīng), which I noticed in the word for refrigerator today! (冰相, bīngxiāng)

I am still doing well on the flashcards in Duolingo. I also learned the word for "messy" which really does describe my kitchen right now! And I finally learned how to introduce myself! 

These stats are unreal! There are now 8 countries showing more than 1000 views! And 3 of them have over 2000 views! 

 

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea remains between the 11th & the 15th.

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jim & Adrian! 

Prepping for Kaiʻs Arrival

As part of the clean up today in preparation for Kai's arrival tomorrow, I boiled the ulu, cut it up in chunks & put it in the freezer. I had a couple pieces with dinner before I froze it. I like it! I can't wait for the national food preservers group to figure out a safe recipe for canning ulu. Right now the only verified safe way to keep it is to freeze it.

While I was checking Moʻoʻs water bowl, I spotted part of a broken shell. Someone recently hatched out of an egg.

I also saw a lone jaboticaba berry. The trunk was bare; but the higher branches had fruit!  

I finished watching Guardians of the Ancient Oath this evening. SPOILER ALERT - Hou Zhengze was a piece of rotted wood (that was somewhat human-shaped) that Baili Hongshou as the Water deity unknowingly brought to life after keeping it with him for 1000 years. Hou Zhengze was half human, half wood, both god & demon; a complicated guy! Like Princess Jin Yang aka Zhen Bird, he also sacrifices himself to help with the cause of the Five Deities. The demon Ling Jun sacrifices herself so her lover (& demon hunter) the Metal deity An Tingfeng can absorb her spiritual energy to become stronger. During the final battle, the Demon Empress Jiuying reveals herself as Baili Hongyi whom she has infested & stabs Water deity Baili Hongshou, who then pulls himself along the sword to get close enough to Baili Hongyi to place the necklace with the white tiger tooth & obsidian around her neck, embraces her, & encases all of them in a block of ice to seal off Jiuying & prevent her from destroying everything. In the end, An Tingfeng is once again the only survivor, waiting for his friends (the other deities) to be resurrected. The thing I don't understand is why does the main demon always want to destroy everything? Because if they do, that means there is nothing for them either. Doesn't make any sense to me. I guess I could not be the quintessential demon! 

L-R: An Tingfeng, Baili Hongshou, Ming Yefeng, & Baili Hongxuan.

They try to vaporize the Demon Empress Jiuyang.

Baili Hongshou embraces Baili Hongyi whom Demon Jiuying has infested & seals them all in block of ice.

An Tingfeng toasts his departed friends.

Wu Zhen, one of the Ten Wizards of Spirit Mountain, seems to feel the same as I do about the romance thread in a lot of these Chinese TV series I have been watching.

For my Lingopie homework today, I reviewed the transcript for Good Morning, Breakfast as recommended by LanguageJones. It was somewhat distracting! I now want to go to China to eat! It looked like a dim sum place, which here is more a lunch thing than a breakfast thing. Interestingly, they had a pineapple bao that was made with what they call tree pineapple; it is known here as jackfruit. There was a huge tree that grew across the road from my grandparents house in Hālawa Camp; I enjoyed eating it. 

There was also a portion of the video where they were milking camels in the Gobi Desert & making camel milk liquor. And naan. Really savory, yummy looking naan! I need to go to China to eat! I will have to check out the Gastro Obscura tours to see if they have any in China. I will likely be viewing this particular video quite a number of times. 😋

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea has moved to between the 11th & the 15th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jessica, Zsofia, Jill, & Molly Mahalo!