Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Local vermin



Took this picture from our lanai. There is one papaya tree that is part of our "view" to the coast. This not so little guy apparently enjoys the view as well. He spent about half an hour chewing on the leaves. Too bad we can't let the Zazz out to take care of our rodent population!!

Lobster Fest - Aloha Style!


Wanted to share my fave pic from our first annual Lobsterfest-Aloha Style. We missed our annual lobsterfest so much we shelled out a ridiculous amount of money to show our new Hawaiian friends how great a Maine lobster can be. They reciprocated by showing us how great Kona Brew Pub kegs can be!!! Aloha!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Hale ma'u ma'u


Wanted to share some pix of the vent on Kilauea. This particular plume is causing MAJOR air quality problems on the Big Island as well as Oahu. Haven't heard much about Maui but I can't imagine it's any better. Apparently the vog in Honolulu is trapping all of the regular pollution (cars, industry, etc) so the air quality is even worse there than it is here. The word from the federal agencies is that the sulfur dioxide levels are the highest they've recorded in ten years. So glad we moved to Hawaii!!!!!


Sunday, May 4, 2008

Ambassadors of Aloha

Please note the change of scenery here at the Hawaiian O'Gradys blog. Monty and Trip were tired of being left out so often. Since we have moved (and are moving again!) I thought it would be nice to have our Ambassadors of Aloha grace our blog permanently. Monty was much happier to wear the lei than Trip but who can blame him? He looks sooooooo cute! Aloha!

Visitors

We're really lucky this week because the O'Gradys (Big Dan and Susan) are flying in tonight to visit. YAY! Danny was home in January but I haven't seen them since before I moved. We've got a week of adventures planned so hopefully we'll have some good pix to post.

LA told me about their brush with death and Ashley's reaction to her first tornado warning. All I have to say is there is nothing wrong with a HEALTHY fear of tornados! (: Like Auntie like niece!

We did get to see a little sun today and the water was looking pretty blue from 1600 feet. Bout time. It didn't last though...back to the voggy gloom. ): Otherwise, not much to say here. Hope all is well on the mainland!!!!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

VOG






Aloha! Sorry for being MIA but we really haven't been doing anything all that exciting lately. Work, work, work! Believe it or not, living in Hawaii has not been the weather paradise you all imagine. True, we haven't had any snow, AND the temperature hasn't dipped below 80 during the day but we've been dealing with the VOG. Vog is essentially volcanic fog. There is a scientific definition that basically shakes down to this - as lava enters the ocean it creates plumes of smoke that emit, among other things, sulfur dioxide. The sulfur dioxide mixes with normal precipitation in the atmosphere (ie clouds) which then creates a gray haze that settles in and around the area. Obviously these pix were taken on different dates. The one on the right is what it used to be like around late afternoon. Now it's like the one on the left all the time. It's been like this for the past couple of months and I think we've had a nice, sunny day like the one above only once since Kilauea started up again. I'm planning on posting some of the cool shots we got when we went to see the lava.
All the animals have been doing well. For those who hadn't heard, Shmama came to live in Hawaii as Mimi and Granpa decided to move to Kansas City, MO and split their time between there and South Carolina. Their place in KCMO is only 3 miles from the grandkids so times are good there in the midwest!
The only big news here is that we're planning a trip home to Boston in August with a stop in KCMO to see the Schlorff fam AND the sox. No one really needs to know that we planned our entire trip around the sox series in KC....

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

MELE KALIKIMAKA!

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on this fine hawaiian christmas day! Hope you are all enjoying the holidays with friends and family. My parents came in a week ago so we were lucky enough to have family to spend the holidays with.

A little shout out to my neice and nephew, Ashley and Philly, who learned the correct pronounciation of Mele Kalikimaka and called to wish us one before they were put to bed for Santa. Pretty impressive considering my mom has been here for a week and STILL can't pronounce it correctly! :)

Love you and miss you all,
Danny and Lindsay