k-brow: spring breakin'

My spring break is winding down to a close. I'm trying to get last minute bills paid, laundry done, lunches for the week planned and organized, and am doing a fair job of working through my to-do list.

After we recovered from the jet lag and sorrow of losing the beloved Modern, spring break has turned out pretty nice.

We went to Blogless Michelle's art opening at the Chinatown Boardroom on Wednesday night. She'd painted an ukulele that was in a show of local artists. The Blogless One was fresh in from Wisconsin, and didn't seem worse for the wear, though I wonder if she crashed later? I gave her tea and a shower and she trundled on down the hill with husband and baby to her opening, which we attended later. Great fun, and it's amusing to see how different artists painted the ukeleles.

We put an offer in on our backup house, and it was accepted. Though this is a pricier house, it needs far less work than the Modern would have, in terms of updates, fencing, flooring, etc. so we are pretty much breaking even on what we'd spend. Which is far less expensive than housing in Hawaii, Northern VA or California, given the adjustments for the times. The new house, which we shall call El Rancho Sur (remember, now, I'm currently living in Chez Nuuanu Estate) for want of a better name. So El Rancho Sur is a ranch house, with a big tree-filled yard, a screened in porch, and a white brick fireplace. Assuming everything goes well, we'll own it by mid-May, and P moves in at the end of the month. I'll follow in late June or early July, depending on when Chez Nuuanu Estate sells or when I've had enough of sun and sea...

We took a road trip on Friday:

We went to the North Shore, via the H-1, coming through Wahiawa, stopping for excellent Mexican food at La Palenque, then through Haleiwa and on to Shark's cove and Sunset Beach. We made a stop at Ted's bakery for chocolate haupia pie, and I spotted Pamela Sue Martin, the actress who used to play Fallon on Dynasty. She was eating pie and looked happy to be doing so. Then we proceeded to drive, through Kahuku, stopping to get banannas at a roadside stand; hoping for lilikoi - passionfruits, but no luck, and on around the Windward side of the island.

We stopped at this gorgeous beach park, that looks like a scene out of "Lost". Not sure what it was, maybe Heia?

It was getting stormy.

The sand was very hard and packed, a perfect place for a walk down the beach.

We were alone, except for a few surfers and these two, who were trying to warm up after a swim. We walked too far down the beach, and got caught in a rather cold rain, and raced back to the car, absolutely soaking, and drove on home, to warmer clothes and potato-kale soup for dinner.

There has been knitting going on, and even the attending of the Mocha Java Knit Night last Thursday, after a cheering dinner at Genki Sushi, with Opal and her mom, and Dayna and Barbara. I've been on a knit night hiatus, of late, preferring to cocoon in my own house with my own food, but spring break has me feeling resilient and social, for a change.

I'm finishing up the button band of Must Have, and will stitch it together tonight or tomorrow, for a final completion of this sweater which has been too long on the needles. I fear it may be too short, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have just added 3 or 4 inches to the pattern, right after the ribbing, since there's no shaping whatsoever on this thing. My final verdict is that it is a fun knit, with some design flaws, namely the fact that it wouldn't have killed the designer to mirror the cables, and add a little waist shaping. When I began the pattern, I had no idea how to really plan for those things, and so didn't do them, followed the pattern verbatim. It's been 1.5 years on the needles, though, so I'm happy to power through this UFO. I think I'll be able to squeeze some more length out of it with wet-blocking, and will certainly wear it, as it's soft and cozy, and utterly comforting in color and demeanor.

Whiteout conditions and sheeting rain coming off the pali have me worried about my planned grilled chicken and asparagus and red pepper dinner...Really, it's white outside, with a fine mist pouring into the bedroom windows before I shut them. Arrgh. Will this winter never end?

Gonna go put some rice on, now, and pretend that it's just a passing shower.