k-brow: blood of the lamp

Happy Belated Valentine's Day. We usually celebrate in a low-key, homecooked meal way. Today, lower-key than ever. Ate school party chocolate, and walked the dogs. Otherwise, we spent the day cleaning house, purging stuff, preparing for the mother of all Goodwill runs. Not as bad as it sounds. P kept threatening to make a chocolate souffle and never got around to it.

I was driving in Manoa today and saw a truck with a spray painted message on its tailgate. Now I think the writer in question meant to write "Blood of the lamb" on it. But they got a little carried away with the can and it ended up reading "Blood of the lamp." I am so sorry not to have a pic of this fabulousness, but I was driving fast and he (not sure why I'm assuming this is a man) was driving faster. Blood of the lamp. May it illuminate your life.

Two weeks ago, I was going to Mocha Java for knit night, and I saw a racy black car with a big decal on the back windshield that said "Hemo Yo Panty." At the time, I had no idea what it meant, only that someone was driving around with the word panty decalled on the back windshield. Later, after mutual confusion, Opal asked her mom what it meant, and her mom gently informed her that "hemo" is Hawaiian for "take off." sigh. So damn tacky. On a car. Out on the street. Pah! I know tacky isn't the word for it, but at the moment I have no better.

We've had howling winds all day here, and our power was out for several hours after the dog walk, say from 6pm to about 11:00. We were cold and tired, so we just went to bed. Then the power came back on, and we'd done nothing about dinner, so we ate leftover salad and wine. Now, I'm wide awake and it's 1:30 am. Glad it's a 3-day weekend.

Knitting mojo remains dicey at best. I'm plugging on Clapotis, though suspecting that I should concentrate on earlier UFO's instead. Just so I don't have to haul the Wicker Basket of Shame to the mainland. I've made so much progress on the clapper, anyway, that it's become a UFO in and of itself.

I went to a great dog training seminar last week. Greg and Laura Derrett, these international agility superstars were en route back from Melbourne, Oz, and stopped by Hawaii to give a 2 day seminar in Mililani. I audited the first day, which was all about agility foundation work. Foundation work is all the games and tricks and techniques you do with the dog before you ever introduce it to the obstacles. The Derretts believe that taking a long time with foundation work makes training the obstacles easy-peasy, and makes for speed and control in competition. I did a fair amount of foundation work with Ella, but know that the person with whom I trained here did not empahasize it, mostly because her clients didn't want it; they wanted to go to the obstacles. I kinda understand that, the obstacles are FUN! Now, having Cricket, who is so bratty, and out-of-control, I realize that we'll probably never run courses, except maybe in private lessons. So the foundation games become a way to build control, and bond with my difficult dog through training. Anyway the Derretts were incredibly funny and I felt really lucky to have a day with them. It made me a little regretful, for a tiny moment, that I had retired Ella, but I'm enjoying the not-training with her so much that I can't really regret.

In Mililani, I visited Blogless Michelle in her new home. She made me an avocado shake. Not something I would have ordered myself, but hey, I drink Nettle infusion, who am I to turn down someone else's idea of green heaven? It had coriander in it and was actually quite nice. I also saw that awesome baby Max, who has definitely raised the bar for looks in a baby. He is just a gorgeous child!
Me and the avocado goodness:

There's been some knitting at Joy's place, as well. But no pix, because I keep forgetting the camera. Suffice to say, I'm out and about and having fun, these days. Gotta taste that rainbow.