Who's Yo Mama? Peek Into Paradise and Discover what Real World Maui Is Really Like!

Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Visitors Out: Total Visitors Out: 134 1271 4805 4805

Happy Valentine's Day
2008-02-14 22:46:41
I've had a horrible case of Spring Fever these past weeks, and the last thing I've wanted to do is spend time on my computer. The weather has finally turned beautiful here on Maui! Because of my Spring Fever, my email and messages from other social networking sites such as Facebook, My Blog Log, Pownce, Xanga, Blog Catalog, and others have stacked up which makes me want to avoid the computer even more. Yikes! I'm so far behind in my responses!Beach anyone? Hike? Swim?But I must share this hilarious video clip sent by my blog buddy from Life In The Fast Lane because it's so funny. But before you click on the link below on the Hawaii Chair, be sure to read Deborah's post of the day titled "Anti-Valentine's Day--Love Really Stinks". Simply click on the link above.I'm happy to read that not everyone is stoked about Valentine's Day! Me included. There's nothing wrong with LOVE. Hey, I'm all for Love, but the cutesy commercial love witnessed and marketed for V.Day is a bit much, dontcha thin ...

Sunday At The Beach
2008-02-11 21:56:07
...

The Chinese New Year Celebration in Kihei
2008-02-10 21:17:00
Yesterday at the Safeway Shopping Center in Kihei (South Maui), two giant dragons danced made their way from store to store amid the rhythmic pounding of drums, clanging gongs, and throngs of people feeding them money in little red envelopes. The dragons are considered auspicious and when you you give a dragon a donation, you're ensuring your good luck for the coming year.Every year we make this our custom. Enjoy the images below! ...
Celebration  New Year 

A Day At The Swap Meet In Photos
2008-02-10 02:35:59
Every Saturday on Maui a large Swap Meet takes place in Kahului. There are lots of booths selling everything under the Sun. I joined a friend who's visiting Maui. This was her first time to shop at the swap meet, so she had a blast checking out all the goodies and buying gifts for family and friends. Since I hadn't been there in a long, long time (when I had another out-of-state guest!), I had fun taking photos.Here are two of the cutest kids of the day:And here was my delicious treat of the day, one of my favorite drinks: fresh coconut juice. Here is how it's done (with a very sharp, long knife and skilled hacker!) and then served: ...
Photos 

Carnaval Dreaming
2008-02-06 23:31:14
Yesterday began the "World's Biggest Party"--the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I've never been to Carnaval, but I've always wanted to attend to experience this amazing celebration. Just once in my life would be enough because I'm not a happy crowd person. I'm a curious person though, and I like to experience amazing events."For Brazilians, it's the 4th of July and the Super Bowl rolled into one," says the following video, one of the best I discovered on YouTube about Carnaval. Can you imagine?Have you been to Carnaval? Tell us about it. ...

Not Quite What I Was Planning Book
2008-02-05 22:08:44
Yesterday was a very exciting day for me because the contributor copy of the book I'm published in arrived in the mail! The title of the book is "Not Quite What I Was Planning....Six Word Memoirs" by Writers Famous and Obscure. I'm thrilled to be included because it is such a cool book. It is published by Harper Perennial. I'm somewhere in the middle between being a famous author and obscure author. My first and only book is still in print and available on Amazon and through distributors. Even though this book is in it's Second Edition, it feels REALLY old to me and needs updating. But this NEW 2008 Book is Fresh. Clever. Fun!The proposition put forth by online storytelling Smith Magazine is this: "what would a six-word memoir look like?" Here's more:"When Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using half a dozen words."If you would like to contribute your six line story for consideration in the next edition, click her ...
Book 

Lost--At Last!
2008-02-01 02:33:54
Lost is the most confounding show on television. And I feel that's precisely why it's so popular. People like perplexing puzzles! And we've waited eight long months to receive more clues tonight--the beginning of the long-awaited ABC series season, and like so many other fans of the show, we're puzzling over what's going to happen next to the castaways. Will the rescue party from the freighter anchored offshore turn out to be the bad guys after all? It certainly seems that we're being set-up to think this.This show tortures my partner with it's twists and turns, flash-backs--or is it flash forwards? We won't know for sure what the writers of the show have in mind until the series finale in 2010! I don't know if we can stand the suspense that long. We'll have no nails left to bite.I discovered a link for fans of Lost who speculate on the meaning and direction of the show, and after reading many of their far-out thoughts, I'm even more confused. Here's the link if you would like to join ...

It Snowed On Maui!
2008-01-30 04:53:33
Will wonders ever cease?Yes, snow fell on Haleakala, and the roadway at the top was closed! Several people I know have told me they saw the silvery snowfall from the distance, and some have even taken photos of it. I wasn't whistling Dixie when I posted it was COLD on Maui!Lelabear--post your photos of the snow so that we can see them!Back to sniffling and cuddling and shivering....Later in the day I received a phone call from my mate who called me from his cell, and he said the clouds had now cleared. So I climbed on my roof to capture a photo of the snow on Haleakala, and here it is--ta da! ...
Maui 

Weathering The Maui Chill
2008-01-28 20:20:40
This blog is almost neck-to-neck to compete for the 500th Post with my photoblog, Wailea Daily Photo. The countdown is on, and soon one of them will cross the finish line for the Big 500!I haven't been posting as much on this blog because I recently caught a cold and have felt icky. It's much easier to post a photo and write a couple of sentences as I usually do in the Wailea Daily Photo than to write paragraphs! :Smile:Everyone I know on Maui has caught a horrible cold, and it has been passed around Maui like a hot potato. Of course, the chilly weather hasn't helped. Maui folks aren't used to temperatures in the 60's! As I write this post today, I'm still in my warm, fluffy robe with my warm slippers. For those of us who live in South and West Maui, we can't remember a colder winter. The sun comes out in the day, and the beaches are packed with sunbathers, but at night, brrrrrrrr! Is this global warming or global chilling? A local remedy which really helps my friends and me with our s ...
Maui 

A Makawao Margarita Makes Me Smile
2008-01-25 01:19:05
I posted recently about how much I love funky restaurants--and yesterday we made a trip from South Maui over to the North Shore and Makawao--something we haven't done for quite a long while. We were dropping a special person off in Haiku, and my partner was starving. So we squeezed in a visit to one of my favorite funky restaurants in Makawao, Pollis.It was pouring, so we raced inside for some spicy, warming Mexican food. Located at the corner of Baldwin and Makawao Avenue, this restaurant is always packed no matter what time of day you show up. We were lucky to get a table in the back room when we arrived about 4 pm. After we had ordered, the place completely filled up with customers. This isn't hard to do because Polli's isn't big. It's cozy, and that's one more reason I like it.Pollis--a long established restaurant--has a family atmosphere with food that would probably fit into the category of Tex-Mex. It's not the greatest Mexican food I've ever had in my life, but it works for me ...

Lazy Mornings
2008-01-21 21:36:28
Yesterday was one of those rare, lazy mornings in our home where we just hung-out with no rushing-rushing-rushing. When I write 'rare', I mean it!Here's how it happened: my partner received a phone call at 5 am from one of his golfing buddies whose sore throat and sickness prevented him from their scheduled early morning golf date. And since my partner usually (more like always!) has at least two or three golf dates scheduled per week and since the (now canceled) golf game was scheduled for 6:30 am which meant it was too late to try and round-up another golfer, he had ZERO choice but to relax. Relaxing isn't easy for him. Oh no!He's a Type A all the way, but he's learning to manage this get-up-and-go tendency as he's maturing. I've watched him relax more through the years without feeling anxiety that's he's not DOING something. He talks about retiring--someday. However, I'm not convinced that retirement is his style--at least, not the way most people envision retirement. My nickname f ...

What Can Be Better?
2008-01-20 19:41:24
What can be better than "breaking the bread" with good friends over dinner? Warm bread dipped into olive oil and vinegar was simply divine last evening. This bread was not your ordinary bread either--oranges were mixed into it. It melted into our mouths as we chatted and quickly disappeared to be replaced by another loaf.Where can you find this delicious bread?Here: ...

Give Me Funky
2008-01-18 02:13:07
There are many times when I wish Maui had more funky restaurants with great food. I have this kind of fantasy restaurant in my mind which derives from memories of restaurants in third world countries I've visited--the kind of restaurant where you walk straight from the beach and plop down on a rickety wooden chair...maybe there's an oil tablecloth or maybe just a beat-up old wood table...no fanfare...and the waiter brings you a delicious dinner for a small price.But there's no such animal on Maui. Food is expensive here. Dining out is even more expensive--well, maybe not for Europeans now!Last night I wasn't in the mood for even getting half-way dressed for dining. I just wanted a Seriously Funky restaurant (with really good food!), and my pod-ner and I put our thinking-caps on and threw out names of different, familiar restaurants which promptly got shot-down by the other for one reason or another. Finally we decided on Pita Paradise.Located in Kihei Kalama Village, it had just enough ...
Funky 

Memories
2008-01-13 20:34:04
My daughter and I spent THREE hours yesterday viewing and sifting through old photos in our home office. I've tried doing this process alone, but I become too melancholy looking at old photos, so it helps me to have someone to joke around with. Even then with good company, we both finally said, "Enough Already!".It's clear that our photo organization project is going to proceed in stages or else the melancholy brought on by our bittersweet memories overwhelms us and puts us into a funk.As an avid photographer (I've now switched to digital photography), I have LOTS of hard-copy photo memories stored in photo albums and boxes. Each one of these photos is precious to me because I'm very sentimental. At different times in my life, my old photos were either destroyed by fire or water or lost or went missing--and I grieved their loss.Funny thing about old photos though. My daughter and I both experienced a strange 'feeling' and expressed it to each other after our photo expedition was finish ...
Memories 

On Chaos and Reading
2008-01-12 19:07:48
I may very well be one of the last females in America to read the bestseller "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. And I have a perfectly good alibi: I've been busy with my OWN writing projects.As I'm working on checking off my To Do List for 2008, I finally ordered this book from Amazon.com so I could see what everyone and their dog have been raving about. The box from Amazon arrived yesterday. Naturally, I ordered OTHER books too since I'm a devout bookaholic and if you order more than $25 worth, you get free shipping. So how could I merely order one book?!Looking over my new books, I wondered which one I was going to devour first. They all called to me, but Elizabeth's book won the eeny-meeny-miney-mo contest, and I began reading--all the while telling myself I only planned to read a chapter or two to catch the flavor since I had lots of other things to do.Yesterday was a perfect day to dip into a delicious book as my day had started on a bad note.Here's what happened: my partner di ...

Dream Home....Or Not?
2008-01-11 18:43:13
For many years, I have dutifully entered the online HGTV Dream Home Giveaway:"Enter once a day for a chance to win a gorgeous home in the Florida Keys. The grand prize — worth more than $2.2 million — includes designer furnishings and a new GMC® Yukon Hybrid," advertises the entry on the HGTV website.And I have yet to win....along with MANY others. This Give Away is huge, so the odds must be tremendous, but that doesn't keep me and others from taking a few seconds out of our day to enter the daily contest. Why not I tell myself--it's free!In years past I have taken the tour of the rooms, wondered what I would do with the dog house they provide, re-arranged furniture in the rooms in my imagination, visualized MY artwork on certain walls, and went the whole nine yards imagining myself being the winner. For the most part, I've been impressed with the homes they give away.However, this year's home is somehow 'lacking' to me. It's located in the Florida Keys...Islamorada. Since the Ke ...

Home Score
2008-01-08 21:14:34
My partner took off several days ago to attend the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans. He had tickets, and was he jazzed, being the rabid Ohio State University football fan he is! I could barely hold him down from floating away pre-game, and so I put magnets in his sneakers to keep him earth-bound. Just kidding.Yesterday his team lost. I haven't heard from him. His cellphone probably died. Or he's depressed. He takes HIS football very seriously. I'm not too worried as I know he'll eventually wend his way home again with photos and stories to tell about New Orleans, the crazy party atmosphere, and the game. Ugghh. The Game!In the meantime, I scored a win for him, and I'm waiting to be notified via email about it. In our mutual email folder we share, I saw there was a contest for the points for the game, and so I entered it. The prize was a set of OSU DVD's which I thought he might like to have. And guess what, I picked right! I WON!It's been extremely peaceful around here wit ...

Time To Let Out A Sigh Of Relief
2008-01-03 01:01:15
I'm always delighted when the Holiday Season is over! Today--January 2, 2008--I'm sighing a deep sigh of relief having survived another Maui Holiday Season! There is always so much MORE to do and accomplish during this season, so now that we're finished with the holidays, I'm looking forward to more leisure time!Yesterday my partner and his friends watched the Hawaii Warriors play a very bad game of football at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, and when my girlfriend and I left to enjoy a bit of beach time, their faces were already growing longer. Georgia took the lead quickly, and they never gave up! Of course, everyone and their dog in Hawaii was rooting for the Warriors, so it was a very sad day for Hawaii! By the time we returned home from the beach, there was such a gloomy vibe in our home because by that time, the Warriors had taken a beating. Final Score was Hawaii 10 and Georgia 41! My partner is one of those 'Football' kind of guys, and nothing gives him any more joy (except mayb ...
Time 

A Maui New Year's Eve
2008-01-01 02:23:46
Photo: Charles PfeilIt's raining...it's pouring...the old man is snoring! Did you ever sing this song as a kid?Yes friends...it's raining again on Maui! Of course, this screws up my New Year's Eve plan to have a Letting Go Ceremony at the beach before midnight (of course!). So I guess I'll do the ceremony snug as a bug indoors. Who wants to be on the roads after midnight on New Year's Eve? I'm sure crazy folks and cops will be out and about. New Year's Eve is not a time I care to be on a road.I'm catching up on email, posting on blogs, and I see that Evelyn has already posted the Carnival of Aloha on her blog Homespun Honolulu. This is the second time I've participated in this carnival, and if you'd like to read some other Hawaii bloggers, this is a great place to start.Our New Year's Eve plans got changed more than once. We were planning a party, but my partner is buried-under with a heavy work load right now, so we canceled the party since we don't have any idea when he'll make it h ...
Maui  New Year 

The "Busy Season" Has Arrived
2007-12-30 21:49:13
My daughter invited me the other evening to join her at the Maui Film Festival at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. She had been given a "Pass" as a Christmas gift which enabled her to invite others to join her for the films at the film festival. She had never attended a Maui Film Festival before, so she was unprepared and surprised at the large crowd and the long lines.Since neither of us have the patience to wait in lines, we hung out in the cafe until the line dwindled down, and then we easily walked in with our tickets. We couldn't help but laugh as the people in the lines literally ran into the theater once the doors were opened. There were plenty of seats left inside, but I guess it's human nature to bolt for the gate if you've been standing in line long enough.Yes, the "Busy Season" on Maui has arrived, and it's not just the theaters which are packed--it's the roadways, the malls, the resorts, and the beaches. Paris Hilton made another trip back here to Maui. Through one of ...

Of Cowboys and Blogging
2007-12-28 19:28:26
My daughter came over for a visit yesterday, and during our conversation, she mentioned that she had heard a woman blogger being interviewed on television. The blogger said that she believed her blog success was due to the fact that she posted a lot of photos on her blog.My daughter remembered enough of the name of the blog for me to locate it by googling it, and sure 'nuf, this woman did post a lot of photos. Good ones. Cowboy ones. Middle-class, farm-style photos with horses, cows, and COWBOYS! There were way more photos than text.Obviously this blog had struck a nerve with the blog public, and the calendar the woman sold of her photos was probably selling very well by the look of the huge amount of comments.With that said, I'm going to post MORE photos here on this blog. Call me a copy cat. I don't care. Since I already take so many photos, I might as well use them, eh? And Maui has cowboys too! And Maui has lots of good-looking men in general. My daughter said that she recalled the ...
Blogging  Cowboys 

A Poinsettia Remembers Christmas
2007-12-24 22:06:24
I've been inspired by a brilliant post written by a fellow blogger, Jim Suldog. The link to this post will be at the end of this one, but first I wanted to share MY own poinsettia's story:Aloha and Christmas Cheer to All! My photo is shown above, and my name is Poinsettiakiki. I know I don't look like much now, but once I was fluffy and red--that was last Christmas 2006. It was at that time that I was adopted from a grocery store by a loving family who admired my fluffy red leaves and lush green foliage.After the Christmas Season was over, I was put outside in the warm Maui sunshine with other plants. However, my owners/friends traveled a lot last year, and even though my caretakers tried their best to water me while my owners were away, I nearly died in the sweltering heat of a South Maui summer. My leaves disappeared, and all that was left of me were stumps.My lovely friend, Kuanyin, who is a plant lover refused to let me die. She kept telling me that I would be beautiful again and r ...
Christmas 

Christmas Tree Ornaments
2007-12-23 23:01:38
One of the many things I love about the Christmas Season is viewing our collection of Christmas tree ornaments. These ornaments are diverse, and I've gathered them from all around the world at various times, so our Christmas tree is EXTREMELY eclectic. And that's the way I like it!Others have gifted us ornaments through the years as well--and I treasure these ones! We have a most unusual Christmas tree with many memories hanging from it. If these ornaments could talk, they'd have some fabulous adventures and stories to share.We have ornaments from the Canadian Rockies, Bali, Thailand, Hopi-land, Hawaii (naturally!), France, England, Spain, Portugal, and more. We have dolphins with Christmas hats....mermaids, angels galore....teddybears...elves...faeries...stars....turtles...and football figurines. Many of these items are hand-crafted. How about you? Do you have a themed tree or an eclectic ornament collection as we do? ...
Christmas  Tree 

Thursday Thirteen
2007-12-20 20:17:23
I haven't played Thursday Thirteen in awhile because I was slowed down with pneumonia for about three months, but now that my energy has returned (mostly!), I am ready to play along again!My Thursday Thirteen today is: 13 Reasons Why I'm Overjoyed To Be On Maui During the Christmas Holiday:1. The weather is perfect: sweater weather at night, and bikini weather during the day!2. The Humpback Whales have returned as they do every year about this time! Yeh! Who doesn't love the Humpback Whales?3. Since I live on Maui, it's good to be HOME for the holidays!4. This is the season when the tourists return in droves, and all the island business's flourish!5. The island is Emerald Green & Lush because of the recent rain storms and so beautiful to behold!6. I get to see friends at Christmas parties whom I only run into once a year at these parties. Maui can at the same time be a very big island and also a very small one. Some people I run into all the time, and others I see only once a year ...

Catching Up To Christmas
2007-12-16 19:47:31
Christmas always comes too fast for me. But this year, the Christmas Season came WAY too fast. Having been slowed down by illness in Autumn which put me behind the 8-ball, I'm doing my best with playing Catch-up To Christmas!What does this mean for me? I'm a traditionalist, and I STILL mail out Christmas cards! Fewer people are sending cards in the mail, but I am sticking with this tradition as I love to both receive and send snail-mail cards. I feel a sense of relief when I've mailed out the last Christmas cards, so relief hasn't set-in yet because in my purse are the last remains of foreign Christmas cards.... which now most likely won't arrive until 2008! Oh well!I've got a stack of freshly wrapped Christmas gifts which now require the artistry of bows. This stack of gifts is sitting on a table awaiting their turn with my limited time.Emails, blogs, and returned phone calls are backed-up awaiting my attention. If you're like me, you receive LOTS of emails, and during these holy daze ...
Christmas 

Christmas Cheer
2007-12-13 05:02:08
Having recently experienced the discomfort of a power outage that lasted for three days during the Big Maui Super Storm, my heart goes out for those in the Midwest who are without power and freezing their bippies off in their homes while waiting for their electricity to be restored. At least, we Maui folk were warm while we waited for the power to be restored! The photos I've seen on the net of the bad weather conditions in the Midwest are terrifying!I read today that this icy storm is now heading for the Northeast just in time for Christmas. Click here for the MSNBC story "Northeast braces for double winter whammy". Ouch!So when I get my Christmas Grinch going-on as sometimes I do during this season, I remind myself of the misery so many others are currently experiencing, and this speedily chases my Grinch away! ...
Cheer  Christmas 

At The Movies
2007-12-11 21:14:40
We saw two movies over the weekend, and we liked them BOTH which is a rarity for us as we are hard to please when it comes to the movies, especially my partner who is known to talk loudly to the movie screen if he's unhappy with the movie! Who knew my picky partner would go crazy for the movie "Enchanted"!? When I saw the preview for this movie, my vibe was that the movie was made for kids and teenagers, but now I know it was made for the inner child in all of us. Maybe that's why it's been Number One at the box office this season?My daughter and I dragged my partner to this movie, and he was sure this movie would bore him. I think he liked it better than my daughter and me combined! He likes movies with happy, certain (and not subtle) endings with everything tied up with a pretty bow, and Enchanted had this kind of ending in spades. I suppose in these years of profound transformation and uncertainty, a movie like Enchanted fills a great need for many.I was more drawn to the second mov ...
Movies 

Did I Really Wish For Rain?
2007-12-08 21:29:42
As the saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for". In my Dec. 2nd posting, I wished for rain, and has Maui ever had the rain--way more than what I had wished for!There's been flash floods, endless rain, power outages (for three days in some areas), trees toppling over, road closures, traffic chaos, and revenue lost for many companies! According to some, it has been the worst weather disaster to hit Maui County for fifty years.Maui is just now finally recovering, or so I thought until I got a phone call. The news is that there are more power outages in some parts of Maui, and as I look out my window, the rain is beginning again! I'm posting now just in case the electricity goes out here again. ...
Rain 

The Gift Giving Mystery
2007-12-04 18:41:22
Every year the stress happens: what to give others for Christmas? This is no easy task for many, and certainly not for me! I deliberate long and hard on what gifts to buy for others in my life, and even after the package is wrapped and the bow is placed on top, I'm still wondering if I made the right decision!Will they like the gift? Do they need it? Is it the right size, style or color? Is it too boring? Too outrageous? And so the doubts rattle around in my head during the Season of Joy, and no doubt for many others as well!Worse still is when others ask me what I would like for Christmas, and all I can think of is very expensive items or charitable donations to charities I favor--something obviously not in the budget for most I know! And then I ponder again...what can I suggest as a gift idea that is affordable for them? More stress!If you've read this blog for very long, you know how I feel about STUFF! As I've matured, I've realized how much happier I am with a more minimal decorat ...
Gift  Mystery 

Let It Rain Some More
2007-12-02 23:59:12
Even though I feel (somewhat) badly for tourists with a short time to spend on Maui, I'm thrilled we're finally getting rain on Maui again today! Bring on MORE rain! The Maui landscape looks so much more beautiful once it's been blessed and greened by the rain. And Heaven Knows, the island certainly could USE the rain!Rain puts me into a philosophical mood and also takes away my guilt of not being outside. When it's sunny and beautiful on Maui, it's extremely challenging to be indoors. Today is the perfect day to curl up with a good book, eat hot soup, and attend to indoor matters with zero guilt. Yeh!Yesterday we made a trip to Baby Beach in Spreckelsville, and the beach was packed with happy families enjoying the sun and the warm, turquoise water. This beach is nicknamed Baby Beach because it's protected by two reefs, and so the shallow water is perfect for babies. It's at the far end of Baldwin Beach, and even though there aren't facilities like showers, lifeguards or bathrooms, pe ...
Rain