Mama On The Move

The views of our video on YouTube jumped by several thousand views a day since it was on CNN and HLN. This morning, I got a message saying it was now " as seen on KISS COUNTRY 93.7 ". I have a famous dog.

TheBus is the primary means of public transportation on the island. With gas high as a cat's back, it makes much more sense to ride TheBus than it does to drive your car. We have never used TheBus and decided we really ought to figure it out. With that in mind, we took a field trip with our friends to go ride TheBus into Honolulu and back. We have friends who know how TheBus works so I went to them to ask all my questions - "Do you use tokens or money?" "Do you pay the bus driver or put it in a machine?" "How do you know which bus to get on?" Then we went out and promptly did everything wrong. We got to the bus stop a little early, but our bus arrived early as well. Because I was unsure exactly how this worked, I assumed the bus would wait until its scheduled departure time so that no one would miss their ride to work. That is incorrect. Our friends were pulling up as the bus started to pull away (five minutes early) and we all had to ...

Last week, we actually went to a beach I've never been to before. This is Kailua Beach, over on the Windward side of the island (that means the west side if you don't know). The water of there was an amazing shade of turquoise. It's very very blue in most places - before we moved here, I thought all pictures of Hawaii were photoshopped because I'd only seen east coast beaches and the water is never that blue. There was a little island not to far out. Ben and two friends decided to swim out to it. I wasn't a fan of this plan because I figured it was farther away than it looked. I didn't want them to get halfway there and realize it was too far. But they insisted, and they did it. After they made it back, they did admit that it had been farther than they thought. But the closest Ben would get to saying it was difficult was when he said, "I'm going to sleep well tonight!" A short squall ran over us soon after we got there. As is typica...

Kerry logged in to Facebook yesterday and had a message from a friend saying, "Hey I saw you and your dogs on CNN!" He had taken a picture of his TV with Kerry and the dogs on the screen. Wow! Who knew?? Our video is on YouTube and anyone can use videos from YouTube so they didn't need to ask - and I don't mind - but I do wish they had let us know so we could tell people to watch. Luckily because we are six hours behind the friend who advised us about it, we were able to tune in and catch it. They are right near the end of the segment, and only a small bit of our video is in it, but hey, I'm not complaining! Fortunately, YouTube has an "insight" feature where I can see how people are finding our video to watch. I've often found that our video has been shared on other blogs or news sites. It's been embedded on sites where all the stories were written in Japanese or Russian (I think). Luckily, it doesn't require knowing English...

We were walking down the beach today and these two women in string bikinis walked past us. Once we were out of ear-shot, Ben said, "Did you see those two old ladies in bikinis???" "Old ladies?" I said, astounded. "They looked like they were in their mid-twenties!" "I thought they looked at least thirty !" Ben replied.

We were rambling about the other day and we stopped in a store to pick up a few things. Ben mentioned that he needed deodorant and trotted off to find some. He came back with Old Spice Deodorant which is not a brand I've bought him before. "What made you choose that one?" I asked. "Their commercials are hilarious," he told me. Ah. Always my top priority in choosing products - the amount of humor in the commercial. He showed me the deodorant. He had chosen "Matterhorn" scent which claims to smell like "Ice, Wind, and Freedom". The description reads like so: The actual Matterhorn is comparable to one thing on this planet: Old Spice Matterhorn. Here is what they have in common: 1) Both smell as fresh and crisp as snow. 2) Both can be found in cold regions. The actual Matterhorn is in the Alps. Old Spice Matterhorn is in drugstores and supermarkets, which always seem to be freezing for some reason. 3) Both have peaks. The Matterho...

Today's post ends like this: Let me assure you, it doesn't get worse than this. This is as bad as it gets. So if you're squeamish, frankly, you've already seen the worst part, you should be able to handle the rest. I'm letting Ben tell the story in his own words today: "Camp Wainae is in the middle of the mountains, so there are many interesting places to hike and climb. One of the more popular hiking trails leads up a mountain overlooking our camp. Many of the counselors take the kids up this trail, as it is a safe and easy hike.... mostly.... The thing is, we usually end the hike before it gets rough to keep the kids safe but we don't always have kids with us. The trail is made up of four small mountains which are connected to each other. We always take the kids to the peak of the fourth mountain and then head back down, but there is another mountain range beyond that. At the end of the week, all of the children left and the leaders stayed at the ...