J - O - B

Well, my life as a Martha Stewart wannabe is coming to a close, at least temporarily.
Despite all the tales of woe about newcomers having difficulty finding jobs in Hawaii, I have gone and gotten myself employed.
My days of getting up with the birds, dinners that take hours to prepare, lunches with Mark, taking pictures of bugs, and an over-all feeling of relaxation are limited.

I completed my three-month class in tax preparation, passed the final exam, and am scheduled to report to H&R Block Friday, December 8.

It all happened kind of fast. I was really enjoying the class; plodding along in my number crunching, happily suffocating in the piles of tax forms. Then, suddenly, my pencil erasers had reached their nubs, I turned the page of my text and saw only the back cover, and no new case study was being assigned. The only way to continue was to throw my name in the ring and get paid.

So, on the 8th I'll work for my second employer since graduating college more than ten years ago. (Not exactly employer-hopping.) I'll step into a whole new puzzle of politics and personalities. Should be interesting.

Helping to maintain perspective during any bumps in the road will be the knowledge that come April 15th it will end. Once the hustle and bustle of tax season comes to an end, so do the pay checks.

Ah...but that's another post...one that I have months to figure out.

Cool Bug

Nothing earth shattering going on. Just wanted to share a neat moment.

A really cool, shiny bug showed up in our driveway today. Check it out. Looks like it has a metallic armor on.

It also gave me a chance to play with the digital macro setting on my fab new camera. I was never able to get this close with the older Canon.



I had to stop taking pictures when Teeny, mighty bug hunter of D Road, clued in.

Greenboard Making Me Blue

Ugh. Drywall sucks.
We just finished our first drywall task, the ceiling of the studio bathroom (hence the greenboard).

My friend, James, has a great dislike for painting. I'm starting to think its just because he hasn't done enough drywall. More time with this crumbly, HEAVY, dusty stuff and he'd love that paint.

Here's a pic of the finished product.
It's about an 8' x 8' space made a bit more complicated by the four skylights we needed to account for.


Cutting down a tree with our neighbor's chainsaw was much more fun.

How the Garden Grows

As you have probably noticed from prior posts, I totally dig the plants here.
Last month Mark and I took a class on native plant propagation from local plant guru, Tim Tunnison. The guy knows his plants and seems to be a pretty righteous character all around.

The class brought my enthusiasm beyond ferns and ohi'a. I learned about some of the lesser known (at least to me) plants that should inhabit our native upper-elevation rain forest.

I ran out and got the recommended book, supplies for propagation (mainly little pots, cinder and peat moss), and have started a little nursery experiment.
So far, I have:
Pilo in transplants of two ages, a couple of small ones from the class and a few more from a friend;
Koa in keiki form from the class
Oha wai, also in keiki form and also from the class
Some variety of Hawaiian mint which, by the way, doesn't smell "minty" because it didn't need to ward off hungry buggers;
Mamaki which I am trying to grow from cuttings from one of our trees.

We'll see how they grow. At the very least, I'll have extra mulch material. If I'm lucky, I'll have native plants to add to our forest and to share with neighbors.

Here is the current collection. Teeny was helping.