Lei Pua Kenikeni

Catie comes in tonight fairly late; it will probably be around midnight when we get back to the house. I made a lei for her this morning with flowers from the pua kenikeni tree (Fragraea berteroana) in the front yard. Not counting the picking of the flowers, it took about 20 minutes to make the lei. There are 42 flowers in this lei because that is how many I could reach even with the ladder; it's a good thing they are large flowers! The lei  is about 22 inches long which is a good length. It is very fragrant; I hope she is not allergic to pollen! (FYI I used dental floss because I did not have ribbon easily available. It's some where ... in a box ...) Unlike other lei, pua kenikeni should NOT be refrigerated.

The white flowers quickly start to change color.

Thin ribbon should be used for lei pua kenikeni but all I had was dental floss.

The needle is a piece of wire fishing leader that Dad put a hook on the end of.

Piece of stem is used to keep flowers from falling off end of thread.

A few flowers are strung at a time.

Then moved down the thread to the end.

The finished lei pua kenikeni. (Multiple shadows are from multiple bulbs on LED light strip.)

The guest bedroom is ready for Catie; I just need to remove the sheet that is covering the bed to keep it clean. The 2 empty drawers in the dresser are ready. The window fan seems to be doing a good job keeping the room cooler as the day heats up. There's an extra blanket for her if it gets too cold at night. The boxes, however, will be staying

I checked the Alaska Airlines website when I was done with the lei; they have a link to Flight Aware so you only need to click on Flight Status & enter the flight number to see the Flight Tracker. At 9:30 this morning the flight was going to leave on time; I had another 13 hours to wait ...

Because I wanted to pick the pua kenikeni before it got hot, the cats had a shorter feeding window this morning. It was only about an hour long. They will have to adjust to different feeding times for the next week or so since Catie & I will be leaving & returning at times that will affect their feeding schedule.

(L to R) Olomea, Hahai, & Holoi at 7:01 a.m.

(L to R) Hahai & Holoi at 7:16 a.m.

Holoi ignoring me at 7:32 a.m.

(L to R) Mom Cat (at and of ramp), Hahai, & Holoi at 7:46 a.m.

I made a guava proothie today with one of the guavas that I froze last week. It looked delicious!

Everything was going really good until the very end, when I knocked over the canister! Auē! I quickly grabbed the bleach cloth & a couple dishtowels & created a dam around the spill; the proothie is so thick it had not spread much. I figured the best way to clean up the spill would be with a turkey baster.

So I went on the hunt for the turkey baster since I knew I had seen one. But which of the kitchen boxes was it in? I decided on #264 because those were the things that came out of the kitchen last; not there. So may be #265? Which I noted had sharp things; not there either. Maybe I am remembering a turkey baster in Honolulu? Auē! 

Is it in here?

Nope.

How about this one?

Not in this layer.

A Warning!

A bunch of sharp things but no turkey baster.

I ended up using a straw & sucking up a little at a time; it took me about 20 minutes to get the mess cleaned up. I am really glad I started the day by making the lei; at least something of value was accomplished before the spill!

Straw at work.

I kept moving the towels in to keep the "pond" deep enough for efficient sucking.

Almost done!

Ready for the compost pile.

Fortunately the sliding doors for the spice cabinet are tight-fitting but also can be easily removed. I had immediately wiped up the part that had splattered on the doors & had started to dribble down towards the groove. When I was finally able to check, I found that there was really not much in there. Hulõ! That would have been really difficult to clean well. As it is I wiped down the counter & sprayed it with Microban so no microorganism would have a chance on that surface; I was also hoping it would deter any ants in the neighborhood.

Looks good so far.

Hulō! No proothie in the grooves.

The silver lining to this ordeal is that, while I was looking for the turkey baster, I found several useful things & pulled them out of the boxes. There is now a butter dish which will keep the ants out, a vegetable peeler for the next time I am gifted a hyotan or something else that needs a peeler, & a funnel to more easily get large amounts of liquid in to bottles with small openings. I also have a better idea where additional useful things might be found for the future. 

I rinsed the towels out in the kitchen sink, then threw them in to the washer. I was hoping that the spirulina in the proothie would not turn those spots bright green like it does to the proothies! When the towels came out you wouldn't really be able to tell what they had just experienced unless you had been there, too. But there were a couple of slightly dingier spots; no worries. That's what Oxi-Clean is for!

Before.

After.

Future.

I took a break & checked my email & found one from Kohala Zipline; we need to fill out a waiver prior to arriving for the zipline adventure we will be taking next Tuesday! I forwarded the email to Caite so she could fill out her information.

For lunch I finished off the remaining proothie; I spilled about 2/3 of it. I also finished off the lonely piece of ahi from yesterday. Because I order my ahi seared on the 1st day, when I reheat the 2nd piece it is still moist & flavorful instead of hard & dry like the mahimahi I had for breakfast the other day. I also had some salad along with the ahi.

This is what was left after the spill.

The leftover ahi with some new salad.

After lunch I checked on Catie's flight again. It was still scheduled to leave on time.

I was going to take a short nap right after lunch but as I was doing dishes I heard what sounded like a little kid's ATV. It turned out to be a weed whacker; Masa was in the front doing the edges of Jessie's yard. He usually then does the edges of my yard. And finally he gets out the riding mower & does both yards. So no nap for an hour or so. Oh, well; the lawn will look presentable when Catie arrives! (He usually mows the lawn every other week. But in the 3 weeks I have been here, Masa was either sick or the weather was too wet when he had time, so the lawn was starting to get a little tall.)

I checked out the road closure list to see what was happening next week. I needed to find out if we had to allow for more time in our driving around the island. It looked like there would be slow downs on the trips to Hilo & the volcano due to work on several bridges on the Hawaiʻi Belt Road; but usually those are pretty short waits.

In the late afternoon I took the sheet off the bed in the guest room. Uncovered & in the warm afternoon light it looked much more hospitable. Even with all the boxes! Note to Self: If I ever run a Bed & Breakfast, use afternoon lighting for photos.

Looks more inviting than in the morning light!

Just before dinner I started more closely monitoring Catie's flight on Flight Tracker. At 4:02 p.m. it looked like they pushed the departure time back 15 minutes but planned to make it up in flight & arrive 10 minutes early. Then at 5:17 p.m. they changed the departure time again, now leaving 10 minutes later than originally scheduled & arriving about 15 minutes earlier. The plane actually took off at 6:22 p.m., about half an hour after its original departure time. Throughout the flight it showed an arrival time of 9:53 p.m., about 20 minutes earlier than originally scheduled. I left the house around 8:30 p.m. just in case it was coming in even earlier.

At 4:02 p.m.

At 5:17 p.m.

At 5:17 p.m.

At 7:00 p.m.

At 8:05 p.m.

At 8:30 p.m.; I left shortly after this.

For dinner I had the last of the Grandma's Hyotan Squash with Ginger Garlic Chicken along with a salad.

The cats will also have to get used to more noises coming from the guest bedroom which is right next to the ramp. They will also have to get used to the noises of 2 people & a Roomba moving around the house.

(L to R) Mom Cat, Holoi, & Hahai at 5:31 p.m.

(L to R) Holoi, Olomea, & Hahai at 5:45 p.m.

Holoi lounging around waiting for food at 5:59 p.m.

(L to R) Olomea, Hahai, & a bold Holoi at 6:15 p.m.

Hahai at 6:30 p.m.

Later, when I was washing the dinner dishes, I heard a sound in the garage; it sounded like Mom Cat calling the kittens. I put the phone up by the window & saw the cats in the garage. I have heard them playing in there before but never had a good look at them like I did this evening. Since they were in the garage, I went to close the window in the front door so I would not scare them. Apparently Holoi thought I was going to put out more food & raced to the front!

Mom Cat at 7:12 p.m.

Hahai at 7:12 p.m.

Holoi at 7:15 p.m.

Holoi at end of ramp at 7:16 p.m. hoping for more food!

The Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea helped discover a rare brown dwarf binary system. The ability of the Keck telescope to measure data in the near-infrared spectrum assisted in the discovery. 

Kīlauea volcano is still erupting; I hope it continues long enough for Catie to see it. And there is still some snow on Mauna Kea; we will try to at least get to the visitor's center on Mauna Kea.

At 2:10 p.m.

At 2:10 p.m.

At 2:10 p.m.

At 2:06 p.m.

For Kapaʻau, Big Island Now forecast mostly sunny with isolated showers & a 20% chance of rain; it was accurate. Both Honolulu & Marysville looked like they might have had a similar forecast.

Nine minutes before sunrise in Kapaʻau.

Kapaʻau looking northeasterly 4 minutes after sunrise.

Kapaʻau looking northerly at 11:41 a.m.

Kapaʻau looking northerly at 12:45 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 1:56 p.m.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 2:07 p.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 2:08 p.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 2:09 p.m. HST.

Kapaʻau looking northeasterly at 6:35 p.m.

North facing shorelines seemed to have the best surf conditions today.

Laniākea (N) at 2:06 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 2:06 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 2:07 p.m.

Banyans (W) at 2:08 p.m.

 

There were 184 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 237,167. There were also 5 new deaths reported today, increasing the death toll to 1353; currently there are 2732 cases considered active. The 7-day new case average for the State is 165 with a test positivity rate of 2.5%. The 7-day new case average for Hawaiʻi Island is 23 with a test positivity rate of 3.2%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Mr. Omiya (who is 99 today!) & Alina!