Barbeque pics from last night

Had a grand ol’ BBQ last night. a metric ton of meat was cooked, lots of beer consumed, kids played, girls talked, guys talked, all ate and were merry. A great time, and a darn good unofficial housewarming/birthday party thing.

My regular readers will take advantage of this opportunity to compare my tree to my neighbor’s. From the white guy counterclockwise: Alan, John, Tali, and Kalama.

Lora, Katrina, Sala, Sica, and Kia

Tiny pic size unexplained.. I didn’t take these. Photo credits to any of the people named above since I don’t know who took em.

Awesome fun, and we’ll be doing a lot of that stuff. Thanks to everyone for coming over, and if you’re thinking of visiting we’ll make sure to get some charcoal

Moped hunt = conditional success!

Picked up this 2005 ZIP R4i for 400 bucks (compare to 1200 new). It runs, and it’s fun, but it’ll need a good tuneup and stuff before I trust it to solve the Transportation Conundrum™. Leaks some oil at transmission point and alternator. Electric start is screwy. 4 stroke 1 cylinder of roaring thunder. I’ve gotten it up to 20 mph.. know it’ll go better than that, but not in its current run down condition. Enough. Here’s the pics.

For those of you that haven’t met John, this is John. Knowing that he was going outover the interwebs I was able to get him to smile pretty.

And, I got a bonus pic of one of our geckos!

Not a great pic, but I had to paparazzi the poor little guy. Don’t be fooled. He’s about 1/4 the size of the pic. Love ‘em!

For new reader Carol, I’m planning on getting the ‘ped in to Quick Fix for the Works.. It’s ratty looking which suits me fine. But I want it running good in the very near future.

Gotta run. We have a BBQ to get ready. Housewarming sort of gig. Maybe I’ll get some pics and do an EXTRA edition tonight.

Moped Hunt = FAIL

No luck today.. Learned some things, but didn’t find anything to buy. Had a fun day of chasing around the island though.

Got a couple couches wrestled into the house preparatory to our BBQ party tomorrow. You’re all invited, of course. Otherwise not too much to say about today.

For those that don’t already know I officially start work on Wednesday. I passed my drug test and whatnot with flying colors. Funny how that happens when you don’t use drugs.

Photo courtesy of Mopeds Direct, Honolulu

Check this thing out. It’s a 50cc moped. Saw one pulling out of one place.. it looks pretty cool in real life. Not sure that that’s the direction I want to go, but it’s cool, non?

edit: Not in that color, though.. the all-black or yellow/black are nice..

Moped Hunt begins tomorrow.

Yep. Gonna hit the dealers and see what they have (used and new) and any Craigslist type deals that pop up.. Hopefully I’ll be scootin’ around by tomorrow night. I’m in the market, so Oahu ‘ped owners that chance upon the site, drop a comment so I can put you on the list of places to visit!

A note to relocators, for whom this site was originally intended.. Banking. It can be a massive pain if you keep your mainland bank. I did (still am for now) and the 2.25 withdrawal charges are starting to grate on my nerves. Not to mention withdrawal limits which I didn’t have to deal with on the mainland and all sorts of stuff like that. Irritating. So irritating in fact that I might just open a local account. Since many of my bills autopay from my W*lls-F*rg* account I will likely keep that running and set up some sort of percentage deposited into each. Not sure what the best strategy long-term for that is.. If you know banking tricks, please comment as well.

Otherwise, things are unchanged. Another day in paradise and all that.

Here’s a pic of today’s plate lunch. Good deal since a plate lunch goes for about the cost of a can of soup! (two meal’s worth of plate lunch vs. two cans of soup at Star Markets)

Not a very good pic as I was shaking with hunger when I took it and it took all my resolve not to skip the pic and tear into it right away!

Tree envy

This is my neighbor’s tree.

I won’t even show mine. It’s just so sad. The geckos seem to like it and it’s fine I suppose, but that’s sure a fine tree my neighbor has. ain’t it?

Gonna try to look at a moped tonight. Probably going to be a bus odyssey, followed by a mopeding odyssey.  I would say that daily moped commuting is the culmination of my love of tiny, underpowered vehicles. I hope I like the thing. Transportation Conundrum has gone on long enough. If it does what it needs to until I decide to get a car or real motorcycle I will be satisfied. Besides, good gas mileage + outdoor fun time = reasonably good commute. Right?

Love mopeds? Hate mopeds? Leave a note in the comments. Your input is appreciated.

Palm tree (with cameo of Alan as Killroy)

Alan Sc***z is Kilroy in the Action Still Photo of the Summer!

Edited to reduce name spam. And to stay incognito.

Make a swim for the border?

Holding pattern concludes!

I was offered and accepted a job with Blood Banks of Hawaii as a phlebotomist. Have to do drug tests and all that junk, but I’ll be starting next week. So now I can start my Living in Hawaii phase of the trip.

Just a quick update. Pretty darn happy about it. Sort of a career step backwards, but I’m ok with that. I just need enough to pay the bills and keep me snorkeling and eating and looking at plants.

Yay!

Holding pattern continues

Still just waiting for BBH to do what they need to do and get a hold of me..

Called them yesterday and they were waiting on callbacks. Seemed happy to hear from me, if nothing else.

So yesterday (and likely today) will be spent hoping to hear from them. That’s it. Maybe I’ll find something cool to take a picture of..

The Artifact

As promised in my last entry, here’s a pic of John’s artifact.

Cool find, huh?