Owen, Holly, Spock, frat boys, editing, parents, tantalizing, stupid expensive gas, Loretta

Snapshots of the last week or so:

Owen Wilson was in town again. We stalked his house (climbed a tree right by his property—we are SO creepy) but never saw him. I did, however, see Laird Hamilton (a surfer), who’s fairly famous, so that’s cool I guess.

Holly is here, just for a week. Jeanie and I have visited with her a bit. Today we were over at Maria’s with her and met Kieva’s two new cats, whom he named Marshmallow and Roasted Marshmallow. He is convinced that those two names are completely distinct.

I saw Star Trek. Not my choice, and not my favorite, but still fairly entertaining. I have a little thing for Spock.

We cleaned this terribly nasty six-bedroom house (which we actually almost ended up living in, way back at the beginning of our time here) that has been full of terribly nasty frat-like boys who do things like pee on rugs (to be fair to them, they are really nice boys). We feel that it is NOT our duty to clean up after them and are a little irritated, especially because we ended up putting in too many hours last week.

I’m editing another manuscript, a children’s story written by a man whose parents know my parents. Once again, the process is both enjoyable and frustrating. I love editing, but I’d love it even more if the writers knew how to use a computer properly so I don’t have to put so much effort into fixing their formatting errors.

I’ve spent some solid time with my parents. Last Sunday I went to Kihei in the evening and had dinner (yummy Thai food) and ice cream with them, and this Sunday for mother’s day, I did the same thing and we had Indian food and cheesecake and walked on the beach. Saturday was a perfect day because I had it completely off, and Jeanie, David, and I met up with my parents and drove to the west side of the island to an area we’d never been. We went hiking on this old, huge plantation and then went to a beach, where we had the most spectacular snorkeling and rock-scrambling experiences. Even after five months of living here, it stuns me how incredible it is that I live in such a beautiful place with so much to offer.

Jeanie and I made up a fun work game where we come up with words or phrases for the other person to have to say to customers. We played with Sunny, and she had to say “tantalizing.” It was hilarious. She did not appreciate the game.

Gas went up TEN cents today. Which brings it to almost $3, almost 60c more than when we moved here. Bummer.

Loretta and Onassis are moving to Texas in a week. It'll be hard to say goodbye to them. Loretta came up to Paia yesterday and spent the morning/afternoon with us.