Roaming Magnum, G.I.

Bonaire, Netherland Antilles -- February 5,2011

2011-02-05T19:22:00.005-05:00

AHA! Flamingo Airport just outside Kralendijk, Bonaire, Netherland Antilles Below is the view from our second-story porch at Sand Dollar Condominiums:

And here I am sitting there:

More to come! Stay tuned!

August 11 -- Jamaica, mon!

2010-08-13T20:20:00.012-04:00

Here we are at Club Ambiance in Runaway Bay in Jamaica. The views along our "boardwalk":

Larry and golf tried snorkeling on both sides, but it was murky on the left (east) side, so they took most of their videos while snorkeling on the right (west) side.

Takes forever to upload a video on this Blogger site, so golf put it on youtube. Cut and paste this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU7JwylF3RQ to see their snorkeling video.

Below is the outside veranda where we ate almost every meal -- the spiral staircase is to one of the "honeymoon suites" above the restaurant.

One view off the balcony of our room, another honeymoon suite, but at the west end of the complex. The "hut" at the end of that pier in the distance is the Legend's Bar, which was never open while we were there, because there were only about 25 guests there during our two-day stay -- it was pretty quiet and certainly not crowded! But after dinner each evening, golf and Larry went out to that hut and sat there and enjoyed the fresh air -- all by themselves at a Caribbean resort. Rather nice, actually . . . .
and the room itself:

The "people-size" (??) chess board where golf and Larry had to walk around to move the pieces. Let me say that Larry won the first game and golf won the second one. At that point, they decided to call it a draw.

Sunset July 28, 2010

2010-07-29T15:20:00.004-04:00

Just can't resist taking pictures of pretty sunsets. And these aren't from anywhere special, just outside out front door south of Atlanta.

Aruba! May 23, 2010

2010-05-24T19:04:00.034-04:00

Hot dang! Off to another (semi-)Caribbean location for beach time! We flew out on Sunday, May 23, arriving about 1:30 p.m., picking up our rental car at the airport, and golf drove (since she'd signed out the rental car and had done all the map research) southeast along the coast to Savaneta, where we stayed at the Aruba Reef. Here's the view from our porch/deck to the water.

If you click on the above picture to enlarge it, you will see there is a reef way out, showing about at the horizon on the picture above. There was a reef out there, and the owner of the place where we were staying said we could use their kayaks to paddle out there and go on the outside of that reef and there was excellent snorkeling there. But it was probably about a thousand yards or more out, and golf just isn't strong enough to fight a current and the wind to paddle out that far, go snorkeling, and then paddle back. She tried kayaking, and she could do it.

But she told Larry that she just wasn't in shape enough to go all the way out and there and back, and she didn't want to wear herself out doing that when there were other places they could drive to and not have to work so hard to get to in order to do some good snorkeling. So they decided not to go out to the reef off in the distance from their "home base."
Looking back at our apartment from the dock down by the water:
Here I am on the rail of our porch, our private "beach shack" in the background on the right (more on that below)

But down on the deck/dock, there was a covered, three-sided shack open to the water, which was great for relaxing and where we spent every evening. And, by the way, all the Aruba tourism advertisements said Aruba has no mosquitoes -- but apparently they flew 25 miles across the water from Venezuela just to chow down on golf! Last time SHE goes to the Caribbean without bug spray . . . .
However, it was quite hot and steamy when we arrived. That Sunday, the owners of our apartment were having a "family" birthday party on the docks and in the water, and since all the stores were closed so we couldn't go grocery shopping, we just settled in and enjoyed being by the water.

Side view of our "beach shack" from our dock (where the later moved the lounges back and danced -- further explanation of that below):

The next day, Monday, we started exploring. We had read that Baby Beach, down on the far southeast end of the island was good for snorkeling, so we drove down there. It was a very nice beach, but it didn't look a likely snorkeling spot.

Oh, yeah, on the way there, we sort of got lost when we went too far, all the way to the southeast end of the island at Colorado Point, and on the way to finding Baby Beach, we found this rather "rustic" (that's giving it the benefit of the doubt) cemetery. Not exactly picturesque but so different from all the lovely little burial plots scattered around Grand Cayman (oh, yes, golf finally got that trip's pictures posted -- go down three or four posts after this one for the full Grand Cayman report of January 2010) that she felt she had to get a picture of it. Not a big budget for gravestones in Aruba, apparently.

Aruba's Potters' Field?
Right next to Baby Beach is Rodgers' Beach -- very lovely. More on it later.

Then we went looking for Mangel Halto, another recommended snorkeling spot. Larry and golf went in, but there wasn't much to see. Mostly sea grass, a few grunts, and it was pretty shallow (only about hip-deep for about 200 yards out). There is a supposedly a big drop-off where scuba divers go (and we saw a group of about six of them coming in), but apparently this location is for scuba diving, just not that good for snorkeling (at least they found that to be the case). But here I am at one of the palapas at Mangel Halto:

The east side of Mangel Halto:

A nice little sunset Monday night, but nothing like the dramatic red/orange/pink sunsets Aruba is famous for. We didn't have a single one of those while we were there.

Back at the apartment, we went down to the beach shack, where Larry and golf had their preprandial margaritas before grilling a steak. Our deck/dock was right beside the Flying Fishbone Restaurant, and below you can see the folks eating out there, on the beach.
Look who we found out on our porch the next morning, before we started exploring north toward Oranjestad, Palm Beach, high-rise hotel area, and north all the way to the north end of the island, where there is the California lighthouse, Arashi Beach, and Malmok Beach.

Driving through town was entertaining -- here's a casino.

And this is the Riu Resort along the high-rise hotel road.

Actually, I think this picture of these pelicans was from Baby Beach. Sorry about its being out of sequence . . . .

Here's Larry at the California lighthouse:

At LAST, at Arashi Beach, they found the RIGHT place to snorkel! Here I am, awaiting their return from the water.

A trunk fish:
A French Angel -- this fish was SO WONDERFUL! He was about the size of a turkey platter! And he kept following Larry and golf around in the water, seemingly wanting to be photographed or filmed.

A school of grunts hanging around a rock:

And, see? Look who shows up again!

A couple of surgeon fish and a wrasse:

Trunk fish and grunt:

A yellow tang juvenile:

Back at the apartment that evening, they checked all their pictures and were delighted at what they had gotten. They cooked out another steak, and then golf brought the laptop out to the beach shack and they played Jimmy Buffett and beach music. She was able to persuade Larry to trying shagging (that's a Carolina beach dance -- Google it!) with her on the dock -- and they earned rounds of applause from the diners at the Flying Fishbone! They had NO idea they had a audience!!! Aruba's "Dancing with the Stars"? -- NOT!

Back to Arashi on Wednesday -- they had just enjoyed it SO much and golf wanted to try the video function on her camera this time, since they had determined that the waterproof housings they had gotten for their cameras DID actually work! Videos take too long to upload to Blogger (unfortunately) and golf hasn't gotten a good video editing program yet. But here's a sample. Just remember this is their first effort at filming underwater, so there's still somewhat of a learning curve, ya know?

http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/golfmobile/?action=view¤t=Snorkel.flv

Drat! That link won't work, so just block and copy this into your path in another window:
What IS it with Blogger that it won't take a link to somewhere else? Try this?
http://img200.imageshack.us/i/snorkel.mp4/

Still, here are some more still pictures. A banded butterfly:

More grunts at the stone block:

with one red squirrel fish

Bright blue tangs:

A school of brown and blue tangs:

A HUGE sphere of brain coral, about the size of a fully stuffed beanbag chair:

Look who shows up on Wednesday too!!

A damselfish:

More juvenile grunts with an adult barging in:

Grunts with sponge coral in the background:

Palometas:

A parrotfish:

A school of thousands of little silver/blue fish -- I don't know what they are:

Spotfin butterflies:

Yellowtail surgeonfish:

joined by the banded butterfly:

Surgeonfishes, damsel fishes, sergeant majors, and blue tang:

Bluefin surgeonfish:

Close-up of the trunk fish:

Grunts and a wrasse (you'd think it was all mostly grunts, and there were a lot of them, but there were as many sergeant majors, also called convict tangs, I think, but there were so many of those, they didn't take many pictures of them):

Wrasse and damsel:

Some brain coral and a variety of fish:

A parrot fish Larry couldn't quite get a sideways view of, but at least these two pictures stitched together show his color (click on the picture for a larger view of it):

After snorkeling at Arashi Beach, they went down to Malmok Beach to try there. But all the "guided snorkel trip" boats were there, and the water was crowded with boats, not with people in the water. They went in but didn't see as many nice fish there as had been at Arashi, so they didn't stay in long and took very few pictures at Malmok. It was mostly sergeants majors there.

Thursday, they wanted to try to go snorkeling before they had to leave on a 3 p.m. flight (meaning being at the airport by 1 p.m.). They went down to Baby Beach but again, it still didn't look like a good place to snorkel. They went over to Rodgers' Beach, and it seemed to have a little more potential. So golf told Larry to go in and if it was good, she'd come in too. But Larry gave it a shot and came back very quickly, advising her that the water was very murky because the sand was so fine, it was almost like mud. A nice, calm beach for kiddies but not the place to snorkel.

golf remembered how the beach at Colorado Point had looked really nice -- and deserted. So they drove back down there. But when they got there, they realized the surf was too strong -- not the place for snorkeling either. The picture below doesn't show it well, but there were large breakers coming in, and at this point, they'd been driving around trying to find a place for so long that they were out of time to do anything and still get back to the apartment and pack up and get to the airport. They realized they'd lost so much time trying to find some place to snorkel that they would have had time to go all the way back up to Arashi Beach and snorkel for a half-hour or 45 minutes and have seen more of the good stuff there -- but too late now.

However, back at the apartment to load up, they were suddenly hit with a tremendous rain storm. Now, Aruba isn't known for being rainy - I mean, it gets something like 16 inches a year. They must have gotten five inches of that allotment in about 10 minutes! It was REALLY blowing and pouring, and the video looks really mild to the way it looked "in person."

Storm video

Link won't work again (what is WRONG with Blogger that it won't allow a link??)

Block and copy this:

http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/golfmobile/Aruba/?action=view¤t=StormAruba.flv

That didn't work for me either. Try this:

http://img412.imageshack.us/i/stormaruba.mp4/

They were worried (1) about getting from the rental car drop-off to the airport terminal for departure and (2) would the plane be allowed to take off in such a storm. It WAS that strong. But then after about a half hour it stopped, and the weather was still overcast, but no rain. So they made it to the airport without getting drenched just getting to the car, and no rain after dropping off the rental car. And then we were flying home.

I think we're going to Bonaire next. Stay tuned

Larry Has His Own Version of MGI

2010-04-05T19:36:00.006-04:00

I don't know if I have ever talked about Sundance and his propensity to retrieve . . . cat toys. We started noticing this as he would bat various toys to the bottom of the stairs and then pick them up in his mouth and bring them up to us, to show us his great "hunting" skills (really easy when they're already "dead"!). We then started giving him different toys to see just what he would retrieve. From the little rabbit-fur-covered one-inch mice, we advanced to larger toys and eventually even covered an empty toilet paper cardboard tube with rabbit fur -- oh! his new favorite to retrieve! Then a little toy teddy bear that golf had amputated the arms and legs off of for some project or other -- ta-da! new, NEW favorite (Larry pointed out how easy it was to "kill" and tote a quadruple amputee!). Okay, a little more weight: a beanie Furby Baby. No problem for this Great Colorpoint Hunter. The rabbit fur toilet paper tube was such a favorite, golf decided Sundance needed more of a challenge, so she covered a paper towel cardboard tube with rabbit fur. No problemo!

When searching for something else on eBay, golf found that Ty made beanie babies in the form of little cats, so if Sundance is retrieving a Furby Baby beanie, he could retrieve a Ty beanie, right? Unfortunately, golf knew nothing about Beanies Babies, so when she bought a supposedly Himalayan beanie, it was 14" long and a little large for Sundance to retrieve -- at least to this point in time, he has shown no interest in doing such. In the meantime, Larry started moving the Himmie beanie around to different places around the house where the cats hang out. AHA! Larry has his own prop to move around. golf can't WAIT to take me AND the beanie Himmie on vacation for pictures! Hey, it WAS Larry's idea to move the little critter around . . . .

First, however, here I am with Himmie Beanie (HB):

I think you can see that his size might make it a bit intimidating for Sundance to tote him around in his mouth.

Sundance's first exposure to HB -- obviously not very pleased that HB is encroaching on HIS space on the back of the loveseat!

Still a little testy on the kitty condo. Though Sundance is not overly aggressive to this, in effect, stuffed animal, he still needs to check out just WHO this is in his territory.

"Okay, I can tolerate him here for now."

"Uhhhhh, golf, . . . . what is this and what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Okay, if he'll just sit there, I may accept a limited co-existence."

"As long as it doesn't interfere with or interrupt my naps . . . . . "

(big, resigned sigh . . . .)

So, now, if Larry is enjoying moving HB around the house to tickle golf's funny bone as to where he places him where the cats are usually seen. Okay, this is the first step toward "posing" addiction. Once you start putting something . . . somewhere and thinking the placement is really cute and clever, you're a sick puppe and THEN you start taking it on vacation -- you're either a slight eccentric who doesn't care what anyone thinks -- or a total nutcase . . . .

Now I have to live with TWO nutcases???? :-o!!!

Friday, March 19 -- New Tapestry

2010-03-19T19:39:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's been a long time since I posted anything, but I haven't done anything much or gone anywhere (Helloooooooo, GOLF! It's time to plan the next vacation!!!!!), so I haven't had a lot to say. The potential explanation for same is below.

Remember the bargello needlepoint risers golf posted pictures of last July? Well, she enjoyed doing that needlepoint so much that she decided to embark on another bargello needlepoint project (at the suggestion of her older sister). She was going to make a large "tapestry" wall hanging for the 20-foot entry/foyer of our house. She ordered the needlepoint canvas and figured it would probably be a year-long project -- or more. Ha! Notice the date: She finished it seven months later! It's 3' x 6' -- ye gads, that's really big! She spent the past couple of weekends figuring out how to get it up on the wall -- it's about 15' up the wall. Getting it in place was not easy. I won't even GO into the details of how she had to bungee-cord herself to the top of the ladder when it was nearly vertical, just so she could use both hands to mark the wall while holding a level tool . . . . . However, here is the tapestry in place! The pineapple quilt beside it was made by golf's 88-year-old mother (because she loves making quilts and Larry loves pineapples, in memory of all their Hawaii vacations. He wanted golf to make a pineapple needlepoint piece, but she couldn't figure out a pattern for that -- yet!).

First, a picture of the two pieces in place -- this picture may show some proportion to the height of the entryhall.

Here is a picture "straight on" to show a little more detail and a better view without distortion. If you like examining for detail, you will notice that the pattern is rather "checkerboard," with "four-way" bargello squares every other square ("four-way" means the pattern goes out in four triangles to the edges from a center point -- look for it).

So this is all for now. And speaking of "now," golf is currently working on a new needlepoint chair seat for her paternal grandfather's rocking chair (he was a sheriff in Arkansas in the late 1800s) -- she already made the needlepoint seat and back for her maternal grandmother's rocking chair. She is a needlepointing fool!

Hopefully the next time I post something, it will be from somewhere . . . . not here! But the only thing golf has planned in the near future is a trip to the Tennessee Mountains for a "sibling retreat" in April. Well, maybe there'll be some kind of photo op . . . . .

Cayman Islands -- January 9-11, 2010

2010-01-10T20:35:00.032-05:00

Map of Grand Cayman:

Here we are on Grand Cayman. It's sprinkling when we arrive, not a good sign. And as it turns out, rather prophetic.

We get out lefthand drive rental car and drive from the airport to The Reef, our condo complex on the East End, more along the northeast corner of the island (see map above, where it has the label from a Panoramio photo "Reef Resort Sunrise").
When we get to the resort, we are delighted with our condo, but the wind is fierce and very chilly. We find out this is the coldest Cayman has been for years. And it stays this way for our entire visit, and Larry and golf are very disappointed that it is never warm enough for them to try snorkeling, even if the water were calm enough, which it isn't.
The rough surf at our beach is shown above:

The view to the right outside our condo above:

The Reef''s pier above:

Morritt's Tortuga Resort is to our right; above is its pier.

The view to the left outside our door above (the grill Larry will use to cook the steaks).
The parking lot side of the complex:

The view out our condo sliding glass doors:
The view from the sidewalk toward our condo:

We ended up opening the window in the bathroom for a cross-breeze and left the condo doors wide open all night and having the strong window and rough surf lull us to sleep every night.

Saturday afternoon golf and Larry just got their bearings, grocery shopped (things are EXPENSIVE on Grand Cayman), and cooked one of the big steaks they'd brought (in their checked bag, frozen to thaw during flight and eat for dinner -- that worked!) and tried to enjoy the view and stay warm.

Come Sunday morning, it's still cold and windy; so Larry and golf just went exploring. They drove up to Rum Point and looked around there. There are some REALLY big houses on Grand Cayman (even more pictures of them around the island later down the blog), but here's one at the Rum Point Harbor.
And those along the way there:

Signs at Rum Point: list of hurricanes:

Destination distances:

Looking west from Rum Point toward Sting Ray City area:

Rum Point Pier (where golf's visor blew off on Tuesday, and we walked about a half mile down the beach till it floated in close enough to shore so golf could wade in hip-deep and retrieve it):

Can you spot Larry in the middle of the picture below, wearing khaki slacks and a long-sleeved black sweatshirt? That's how chilly it was -- golf and Larry never had a chance to wear shorts! (Thank goodness there were laundry facilities on-site at the condo, because they wore the same winter clothes every day till the last day!)

Monday, they headed south and east toward Bodden Town, passing the blow hole:

Brain coral fossil near the blow hole:
In Bodden Town, they visited the historic Pedro Castle, one of the oldest houses on Grand Cayman. It was really impressive, with wonderful porches all around, stairs, shutters -- what you WANT to see as a 19th-century tropical house.

Note Larry is STILL in long pants and a long-sleeved sweatshirt -- odd to see in such a tropical environment. But that's how it was STILL so chilly.

Then Larry and golf continue east, looking for Smith's Cove, supposedly a good place to snorkel (they still have hope the weather will warm up -- it doesn't). On the way there, they see still more huge houses:

In heading back toward the condo, they stop and view a rather silly little tourist trap called the "Pirates' Caves" (but what else did they have to do since they couldn't snorkel?!?!?), where there was sort of small petting zoo and photo ops with some tropical birds (okay, okay, they were desperate for entertainment). golf with Brutus, the cockatoo:

January 6, 2010 -- "Lonely" Bettas

2010-01-06T16:29:00.003-05:00

To understand this post, you need to understand that golf has a phobia about keeping the house "over-heated" (over 66 degrees F) in the winter. Atlanta has had an exceptionally cold winter this year (if you haven't seen all the news reports!). Her bettas are just in bowls normally kept on the kitchen bar/counter. However, that area is pretty chilly in the house, and, ideally, bettas are supposed to be in water that is 82 degrees F. Not golf's poor bettas! They have to learn to adapt to cold water or perish. Well, the bedroom where the goldfish tank is stays a lot warmer (due to the architecture of the house), so golf moved the bettas (in their vases) into the bedroom beside the goldfish tank. When Larry saw them in their new location after he got home from work that night around midnight, he then sent golf an email at work the next day, asking if she had moved the bettas to be beside the goldfish tank because she thought they were "lonely" and needed company! Cracked her up! She guessed he wasn't aware how cold the little buggers were! Here they are in their "warmer" climes (with a couple of the goldfish showing behind them, as distorted by the curvature of the betta vases):

January 5, 2010 -- FotoSketcher -- Cool app!

2010-01-05T13:09:00.003-05:00

golf got an email today with an app that changes your pictures to watercolors or oil paintings. I wasn't that impressed with the "oil paintings" but the pictures converted to watercolors are pretty cool. Can you spot me in the picture below, sitting on the wall at the tidal pool at "Robin's Nest" -- from our Oahu trip in September '08?
Here's golf walking along Nurses' Beach on Kauai:

This is the eucalyptus tunnel on Kauai:

Ta-da! Obviously the boathouse (Magnum's residence) at the Anderson Estate/Robin's Nest:

And an old deserted/abandoned building near the Kualoa Ranch on Oahu -- a former hospital? We never could find out what it is/was. If anyone knows, please advise.

If you would like this free app, just go to www.fotosketcher.com.

An Old Video golf Just Found from this Summer

2010-01-01T18:16:00.004-05:00

Here's a short video golf just found tonight that she forgot she had made right after she got the new Sony W220 that takes videos and still shots. Mildly entertaining . . . .

Dec. 28 -- Semi-decent Kitty Cam Results

2009-12-27T18:50:00.008-05:00

Here is Wyatt, the Ramar of the Jungle of our house in terms of adventuring out and about. He is not wearing the camera here but is wearing a golf bag medallion that shows how the camera would rest against his chest when put on a collar around his neck, so it is from this angle that the Kitty Cam will take pictures as he explores.

This was such a fun experience for us today, as we have not known just where Wyatt goes when he disappears. We had assumed he was heading toward the front of our house, where we have frequently found him under the bushes up against the foundation of the house, after going out the back door onto the deck and then down to the patio. But here is evidence that he goes to the neighbor's front porch (east of our house). This picture below is on our patio heading east. He then cut to his left (north -- our backyard faces south), heading up to the neighbor's back yard.

Then he went even farther to the left (north) over the dirt on the neighbor's hill.

Below, he seemed to pause and turn around and look back at our house (that's the front northeast corner of our house, showing the holly bushes where we usually find him hiding, WHEN we can find him at all!) to see if we were watching where he went (of course, we weren't -- we had the camera on him!).

Then he zipped on up onto the neighbor's front porch.

It seems he paused and checked out his view from here, looking to his right (northeast).

Then he looked directly at the house across the street from the neighbor's house.

He then apparently looked for a minute or so to his left (northwest) and a picture was snapped of the house across the street from his (our) house.

This was quite enlightening to us, as we had no idea that he was going over to the neighbor's front porch. We have seen him looking in the koi pond in the house behind this neighbor's house (which is catty-cornered to our back yard due to the corner on our street). Hopefully the next time he goes out with the camera, we can get pictures of him watching the koi pond.

The camera was set to take a picture every 60 seconds, and he was out and about for only about 26 minutes (we got 26 pictures, most of which were either duplicative of the above shots or too blurry during movement to be useful). But in this one trip, the camera has served its purpose and has tattle-tailed on where the little bugger went. Larry and golf agree that this episode was DEE-lightful to follow via pictures, and they look forward to further Kitty Cam Adventures. golf was LOL as she tracked his journey by the pictures and calling to Larry to "come look at this one." ;-) She is going to SO enjoy spring when the weather is nicer and Wyatt can be outside longer.

Dec. 20 -- Yet Again a Few More Christmas Pictures

2009-12-20T18:41:00.002-05:00

Here is the tree late this afternoon, after golf finished wrapping all the presents -- for a Christmas when it has been agreed we (family) aren't going to exchange presents. Oh, well, golf just can't do that. But she just has little stuff for her family -- putting little bags of chocolate candy or pistachio nuts in a box and then giving it as a gift, just so everyone will have something to open -- really no big deal. But since she wrapped all the gifts for herself and Larry (new camera, memory stick, spare battery, etc., plus other little stuff she doesn't even remember! Check the end of this post for the Saga of the Missing Marine Pack.), Larry gets to open all the presents Christmas Eve (he has to work Christmas, so they'll "do Christmas" on Christmas Eve. Close-up of the presents -- note the Breyer palomino Western horse at the center just left of Quigley Down Under "action figure" and 8" Madame Alexander Scarlett doll (Christmas present for golf in 1955).

Another picture of the lights outside since golf added the six little candy cane lights by the sidewalk -- already on sale at Wal-Mart at 50% off.

And last night golf moved all the knick-knacks off the mantle and put all her little china Victorian houses with batting for snow there.

Saga of the Missing Marine Pack: golf initially asked "Santa" for the Sony MPK-WE marine pack for her camera. Then Larry's camera broke and golf found out her Sony W220 has no option for any manual settings, but the W290 does ("semi-manual") so Larry agreed he would "get" her new W220 as his new camera for a present (because his MAIN Santa present was his new HDTV) and golf can get the W290 -- because she had already ordered the marine pack. THEN, first vendor she ordered it from canceled the order because the pack is no longer manufactured by Sony --"discontinued." So the Great White Whale Hunt (no pun intended!) began to find a vendor with leftover inventory of the marine pack. She went through three more orders that got canceled -- and every time after waiting a week to so inform her!! DON'T tell her you have something and then A WEEK LATER send an email canceling the order because you DON'T have it! golf was getting really p.o.'ed. She has SUPPOSEDLY now found it at Ace Photo Digital who promised her "100%" they have it in stock because their inventory control shows 36 in inventory. Obviously, it is now far too late to get it by Christmas, but right now she can live with that -- she's not going snorkeling on Christmas or the weekend after -- she just wants to GET the danged thing. However, she will not be surprised -- though greatly disappointed again -- if she hears from Ace that they don't have it after all. If it's discontinued, why does Sony still have this item on ITS website for $229?? She was hoping to pay less than that (she saw it from a seller on eBay for $135 this summer, and that's when she got the idea to get it -- and apparently WHEN she should have bought the bloody thing if she actually expected to receive it). If Ace cancels, Sony might be the only option. Right now she and Larry are probably willing to pay the $229, just to get it. They're getting stubborn and determined to get it now. Will keep you posted. Big sigh . . . . . (from golf) . . . . .

December 13, 2009 -- I Am Not Amused . . . .

2009-12-13T16:41:00.007-05:00

But Larry is. This was his big idea. As a Christmas gift last year, golf was given a bottle of wine placed in this gorgeous wooden box. The wine has long since disappeared, but golf always puts the box under the tree because it's so pretty.
THIS year, Larry asked if I would fit in the box! WHY would he want to know that??

. Is he trying to get rid of me??

Not very subtle, is he?

In the meantime, here are a couple of other ornaments golf has put on the tree -- a needlepoint version of our house here (visited by the 308 Ferrari and TC's heli, along with Santa in a 1995 Chevy Blazer [our previous Golfmobile -- now it's a red Rodeo]).

And here's the house at 383 Park Avenue, as it looked when golf and Larry lived there. golf still loves her time spent at that house. The Ferrari put in an appearance here too.

And so that Santa doesn't think the "coffin" pictures above are a Christmas request:

Happy Holidays!!

Wednesday, December 9 -- Kitty Cam!

2009-12-09T14:18:00.003-05:00

Well, not yet. Just practicing. golf has asked Santa for the pet's eye view camera:

Kitty Cam

The purpose of same is to find out where the HECK Wyatt goes when he disappears for a couple of hours when golf and Larry let Sundance and Wyatt go outside for a while. Sundance sticks fairly close and will readily come flying up the deck stairs when called or whistled for. Wyatt will do that SOMETIMES. Other times he just disappears and we have NO idea where he is. He always comes back within an hour or two. Still and all, golf found that camera and thought it would be enlightening and entertaining to have Wyatt wear a "kitty cam." The trick, however, is to get him used to wearing something around his neck, as he normally doesn't even wear a collar. Since we have no pet collars around the house, golf linked two luggage tag "belts" together to make a temporary collar for Wyatt. She tried that first, and he didn't object after just a couple of minutes of puzzlement. Then she needed something about the size and weight of what she figures the camera will be. What would work? Well, she and Larry has been given a couple of metal golf bag tags when they were at Maui Dunes -- she just needed to find one. Not on the golf bags. Not in the golf bags. She had seen one recently . . . . . Okay, on a table downstairs. Attach to collar. Wyatt does NOT like. Too heavy for initial orientation. Remove it, attach a spare key to the collar instead, much less weight but still a dangling object. Okay, no objection, and he adjusted to that fine. That was Monday night. Tuesday night when she came home for work, she switched out the key for the heavier and larger golf bag tag. A little disconcerting to Wyatt for a few minutes, but then he adjusted and paid no attention to it, not even when it was clunking against the hardwood floor while he was eating the kitty treats she gave him for being such a good boy and not objecting to his new "badge." He played around the rest of the night with this rather weighty "iron" hanging on his neck, but there was no evidence of trauma or even discomfort. So he's ready for the camera, whenever it comes in. I have a feeling golf won't be able to wait till she receives it as Christmas present to use it.

So, here's how Wyatt looks - the sheriff in town:

He may look slightly annoyed here, but I think he was objecting more to the picture-taking that his necklace.
Eventually, after he wore himself out playing round the house, he went to sleep. Yes, I can see the badge is REALLY bothering him and stressing him out . . . . .

One more Christmas lights picture -- November 30

2009-11-30T18:34:00.005-05:00

golf forgot the little lighted Christmas presents boxes:

She also can't figure out why her fancy-schmancy new Sony camera can't focus on the lights regardless of which setting she uses. She has asked Larry to see if he can get a better picture with his Canon. If so, we'll post one of his pictures.

Friday, November 27, 2009

2009-11-27T18:06:00.004-05:00

Sorry it's been a month since we posted anything. We had a great Thanksgiving with golf's parents. Then today she was out in the cold decorating the house. She is SUCH a Christmas freak!

But, hey! In the meantime, I forgot to mention, Larry already HAS his Christmas present -- a 46" Sony Bravia HDTV. Really cool! I'll try to get a picture later of golf using it for her flight simming -- yes! Flight Simulator with a 46" monitor!! Actually, kind of freaky.

In the meantime, here's our tree.

I hadn't exactly planned on becoming a Christmas ornament. But I don't really mind sitting beside the needlepoint ornament golf made as a "representation" of our house.

Here I am with the needlepoint version of the 383 Park Avenue house (remember that post? But I never lived there . . . .)

Doncha love the bubble lights?!?!?

Happy Holidays!

Early Sunday morning, October 25 (Happy Anniversary, Dad and Mother!)

2009-10-27T18:27:00.007-04:00

EARLY (7 a.m.) Sunday morning, golf was out on the beach with her snorkel equipment (and me). Basing her decision on where to snorkel on the placement of the jetty of rocks and her research on Google Earth, she figured the best place for snorkeling was the east end of the beach.

Of course, I had to oversee it a little bit. I suggested she go out on the west side (between me and the rocks) of the jetty of rocks, just a little farther along the beach from where I'm sitting on the beach chair here.

She did so -- and found very shallow water and the "dark" areas she saw on Google Earth were just seagrass (or whatever you call that underwater "grass" -- not coral, unfortunately). She paddled around for a little while but didn't see many fish -- not even any convict tang, which are usually rather prevalent in Caribbean waters. Finally, when she got out about 50 yards beyond the rock jetty, she started seeing the neon blue tang. Frustratingly, at that point, she noticed that her new air mattress was losing air. Granted, she wasn't really in very deep water but she was rather far out, so she paddled on back to shore (to find the reason the mattress was deflating was not because of a leak but because she had not fully inserted the plug -- yes, she felt rather . . . . . embarrassed/dumb/hey-she's-a-blonde -- never mind . . . . )

So she just gave up (since she wasn't spotting any special fish) and just took pictures of the beach for Larry, since he hasn't seen Bolongo Beach. Below I'm sitting at the rock jetty and this is the east end of the beach.

Sun is coming up a little more in the picture below.
From where she was at the east end of the beach, looking back toward the west end, this is the edge of the bay farthest out into the sea.

One camera turn in toward shore . . .

And for the third part of triptech, the shore west to east to the rock jetty.

She retired back to the condo unit to pack up and get ready to head out. Out on the balcony, she was fooling around on the laptop, checking email and flight status, etc., and took these pictures of her view of the west end of the bay, over the beach outside her second floor condo unit. Note the "wedding arch" trellis where there had been a wedding on Saturday evening at sunset.
Nice little boat in the bay. But note the waves -- a little too much surf for snorkeling here, but maybe that's where one is supposed to snorkel to see the good fish. They sure weren't where she tried on the east end!

So after this rather disappointing morning (in terms of snorkeling -- she was still enjoying a very nice morning beachside on a tropical island, for crying out loud!), she packed up and checked out and headed to the airport for the trip home.

Which leads to an ENTIRELY different story that she's not ready to deal with right now (at least in the public domain). Maybe in a few days, she'll come to see the humor of the episode. (I'm LMAO!) But for right now, let's give her a little "come to grips" time and I'll reveal all as soon as she is willing to concede her stupidity and 'fess up. She usually has a good sense of "black humor" and the ability to ridicule herself. Right now, she's just too embarrassed. I'll cut her some slack -- this time!

Saturday, October 24 -- Back in St. Thomas! Yea!

2009-10-24T18:05:00.015-04:00

We are back in St. Thomas, this time at Bolongo Bay Beach Resort. This resort "ain't much to write home about" -- the buildings are pretty old, but the furnishings seem updated and it does have a kingsize bed. And the beach itself is nice, though from what golf found out when she waded a little bit into the water just before sundown, once past the sand, it's rather rocky. Here's the view from our balcony.

Bath is rather small, but the resort does furnish little bottles of shampoo and conditioner, little bars of soap and a hair dryer (Sapphire Village didn't in every unit, depended on the owner, I guess). (Yes, that's golf's laptop on the bathroom counter -- the bathroom had the only available electrical plug she could find to re-charge the battery on the laptop, which she ran down on the flight down, using GoGo internet ["free for one flight for new user" for which she signed up so she could email Larry about the flight, but then he wasn't paying attention to email because he didn't know golf was using it! [gnash teeth] AAAAGGGGHH!!!)
Kitchen, though, hardly qualifies as a kitchen. A tiny wet-bar size sink, a small microwave, and a half refrigerator with no ice trays, much less an ice-maker. golf had to go buy a little styrofoam cooler and a bag of ice (she didn't take a picture of those).
By the way, St. Thomas is on Atlantic time, so it's an hour ahead of Atlanta except when Daylight Savings Time is in effect, and then it's the same time.

Now, as to how we (golf and I) got here. Larry and golf, with their smoking vice, had used up all the cigarettes golf got when she was down here in August, so it was time for another cigarette run. golf was able to get on the 10 a.m. flight down here (stand-by) without an problem, but this time she wasn't in First/Business Class. Bummer! (Is she spoiled or what?) Picked up her rental car, made it through "downtown" Charlotte Amalie (she's learning her way around pretty well) and to the resort without any major setbacks. Got all her stuff into the rental unit and seriously thought about going snorkeling first, BEFORE the cigarette run to K-Mart, but then she decided maybe she ought to do that run before dark, since this time she was taking a cross-island road that she hadn't driven (on the left side of the road, remember!) before, plus the water looked pretty surf-y (i.e., larger waves than she wanted to deal with while snorkeling).

So, golf figured she'd make the K-Mart run and be back in time to snorkel for a little while. "The best laid plans . . . " and all that. The extra stop to have to get ice and the styrofoam cooler added a little too much time to the trip. Nevertheless, golf gave it her best shot and changed into her swimsuit, blew up her inflatable raft, loaded up the snorkel gear, and headed for the east end of the beach. Where she discovered that the loopy thingy that holds the snorkel to the mask -- was MISSING! Had she been able to get her equipment in order, I think she would have gone in the water for 10 minutes or so, just to see if there were any fish there. But without that one little piece of equipment, she reluctantly resigned herself to no snorkeling today. HOWEVER, the resort does have its own dive shop, so she diddly-bopped over there and purchased a new loopy thingy for $2. Of course, by this time, it was too late to go in the water, but she's set for tomorrow morning (YES, she did check her luggage to be sure the loopy thingy hadn't just fallen off in the bag, but, alas, it had not -- or yea! it had not, since she had just spent two bucks to buy another one). Oh, yes, along the line of talking about buying things, the unit may have little bottles of shampoo, etc., but it has virtually NO drinking glasses -- only three mini-orange juice size glasses. So along with the cigs at K-Mart, golf also bought a cheapo set of four "old fashioned" drink size glasses (good for margaritas) and a souvenir-stamped West Indies plastic insulated mug for her diet orange Sunkist in the morning (okay, okay, she KNOWS she can't buy Diet Sunkist here, so she packed four cans of that in the bag she checked [extra bag to be checked for more cigarette cartons room] -- and they made it through the flight without exploding! So she has her version of "morning coffee" -- she never learned to like coffee).

Also, since she hadn't had anything to eat all day but a few grapes before she went to the airport this morning, a Burger King croissandwich at the airport, a couple of cinnamon cookies on the airplane, and a handful of peanuts, she figured she ought get something for dinner. She bought a frozen (what her generation calls a "TV dinner") at the grocery store, so I guess she better go cook it in her little mini-microwave . . . . though now she's not hungry . . . . good thing she decided against the $40 lobster dinner at the restaurant here at the resort. That $40 will buy a lot more than one 1-lb. lobster at our local Kroger . . . .

Signing off for tonight (while I still have whatever internet connection she's managed to piggy-back onto for tonight). !

October 17, 2009 -- Another Arachnid

2009-10-21T08:49:00.011-04:00

No, this is not turning into a Nat Geo blog -- we just haven't been anywhere to DO anything recently (though I believe golf has something stirred up for this weekend . . . . )

Anyway . . . . although Larry and golf keep "losing" their argiopes, they seem to keep an eye out for potential new visitors. On about October 13-14, Larry found a HUGE web in the back yard -- it stretched from the river birch tree to the ground and over to the patio, a span of about 15 feet. The web didn't cover all that area -- it was just in the center of the area for about a span of 3 feet, but the strands stretched that far. Never found the spider though, and the web didn't look like Ariadne's, Venus', or Emily's as it didn't have the center zigzag stabilizer - it just had a hole in the middle. And it was a very "disorganized" web -- but then it was pretty big to be very detailed. We had a lot of rain over this time period, and I think it was after midnight one night (Thursday, October 15) that Larry went outside looking for the spider and finally found her on the web, busily repairing and respinning the web. He tried to get pictures, but his camera wouldn't focus in the dark. The next night he went out with our old Sony video camera that has a light and filmed the spider again. Our spider expert advised us this is an Eriophora ravilla, a southern orb weaver, usually found in the tropics. Here's a picture of one (not ours, we didn't take this picture).

However, HERE is the video Larry shot. It's not all that good because we don't have professional night-time photography or video equipment. But it's clear enough to see this little lady. We didn't have time to name her before she blew away in a storm the next day and since then the temperature has dropped below freezing at the house (yes, fairly unusual for October in Atlanta), she's probably long gone. Don't know that we'll find any more this year . . . . :-(

(Now what is really neat about this video is that the spider drops and starts swinging on a strand and Larry is able to follow her [in the dark!] and track her as she swings, gets to the ground and moves along in the grass a little, then skitters back up the thread [or another one] -- he was really good at following her in the first place, even if the video is not totally in focus all the time. That he got this much action at all is very commendable, in my opinion.)

http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i42/golfmobile/Spiders/?action=view&current=NoctSpider.flv

October 8: We interrupt this program . . . .

2009-10-08T19:32:00.006-04:00

Are you getting tired of reading about Hawaii? Well, that's fine, I'm tired of writing about it. So I'll get golf to stick some other "news" in here. First of all, we have a new spider!!! If you followed along for the sagas of Ariadne and Venus . . . ., well, now we have Emily (golf flatly refused to name her Charlotte -- "Everyone names his/her spider Charlotte!!" -- so she decided on Emily -- get it?) And here she is (Emily, not golf), in all her glory.

Now, secondly, October 1 was golf's birthday. As usual, she got for herself what she wanted sometime back in March and just kept it hidden until her birthday, when she advised Larry of what HE had gotten for her. Ta-da!!

Is that a good birthday present, or what? It is an actual jacket given out to the crew during the filming of the show. She got it on eBay from a former crew member. She's stoked! Her Magnum-Mania.com buddies asked her if she was going to frame it. Uhhhhh, she never thought of that. She's planning to WEAR it -- when it gets cool enough to need a jacket.

So, whaddaya think?

Maui, Sunday, September 20 - Boat Snorkel Trip

2009-10-04T18:28:00.009-04:00

Here is the Pacific Whale Organization catamaran boat that we headed out on at 8:30 Sunday morning. golf catches a quick shot of me with the wake of the boat behind me.

Coming up on Molokini, a crescent-moon-shaped crater that is a nature reserve and therefore protected.

Aerial view (obviously not taken by us)

Approaching the area where our boat tied up and we were allowed to snorkel within a triangular area from the boat reaching out left and right to the cliffs where the landmass goes down into the water -- couldn't actually anchor or touch anything there due to preservation rules.

Here we FINALLY saw a few more yellow tangs and a few Moorish idols. But mostly we saw a lot of black Hawaiian triggers. These look pretty cool "live," as that white band on their bodies looks almost neon light blue in the water. Here is a rock formation at Lana'i, where we headed after about 45 minutes of snorkeling at Molokini. It took about an hour and a half of boat ride to get from Molokini to Lana'i.

There we snorkeled for about another 45 minutes or so. It was very nice snorkeling in terms of fish seen, but it's hard to beat the manta rays and the spotted eagle rays . . . . . which, by the way, we never saw again. Larry told golf not to be unhappy about not seeing them again, as it was almost a "once in a lifetime" experience to see them at all!

After their return and another steak at home, they went back to the beach for the sunset (EVERYONE does this on the west sides of the island every night!), where this time there was a wedding going on.
golf again attempted to get big splashes of the waves breaking on the rocks.

And more color in the sky as the sun descends.

Another Day in Paradise

2009-10-04T17:09:00.006-04:00

Saturday, September 29:

Since apparently snorkeling was so disappointing around Kihei, Larry and golf decided to go north again this morning, this time up around and past Lahaina and Kapalua, attempting to find Honolua Bay, which is recommended in the guide books as a good place to snorkel, but hard to find. They went as far as Honokohau Bay before they figured they had actually passed it. Went too far back south to D. T. Bleming Beach Park, where there was some kind of canoeing race going on, so it was crowded, headed back north and finally found the stairway going down to Honolua. But the water was WAY too rough for swimming, much less snorkeling. So they gave up and went back to Kaanapali Parkway and parked at the beach access underground parking for Black Rock. That was really crowded (not the parking -- the beach), and hoards of kids were leaping off the rock into the pathway of snorkelers trying to view the fish! This was not conducive to snorkeling around the area for the obvious reason of risking getting landed on by the kids leaping into the water and then the fish aren't likely to be hanging around where big objects are leaping into the water. So they paddled out past that distraction and explored around the rocks there. Still no yellow tang or Moorish idols (well, later Larry said he saw a couple of each but golf never did) BUT they DID see TWO spotted eagle rays, swimming together with the smaller one under the larger one, as in mother protecting youngster. They have NO knowledge that this might be the case, but it was lovely to see! (Again, not their picture, but here's a spotted eagle ray so you can see what they saw.)

Oddly enough, they didn't take any pictures during this foray north!

When they got back to the condo, the travel time on Tuesday and the excited going-going-going for the next three days caught up with them, and they crashed. They didn't have the energy to do anything much. Larry started browsing some of their tourist magazines and found the Pacific Whale Organization boat trip for snorkeling to Molokini and Lana'i for less than some of the usual tourist boat trips, plus the proceeds go to the Whale Organization and benefit the Pacific environs and sea life. So he booked them a trip for Sunday.

One more sunset at the Keakawapaku Beach park . . . .

Another Maui Report

2009-10-03T22:37:00.018-04:00

Friday, September 18: Larry and golf are still getting up early. And here I am on the lanai of our condo waiting for them to get ready for snorkeling first.This morning, they went back to Waimea Beach, where they had explored on Wednesday but didn't go in the water. They didn't see anything here as impressive as the manta rays at Ulua; still, they enjoyed it, though they are beginning to conclude that the number of fish are greatly reduced, compared to what they used to see around Maui and on the Big Island. They are seeing virtually NO yellow tangs or Moorish idols. These cut little yellow tangs

( Moorish idol below)
used to be so prolific, you got tired of seeing the schools of them swim by. Where have they all gone??? Now they are seeing convict tangs, instead, and not even huge schools of them.

They are used to seeing the convict tangs around St. Thomas (along with blue tangs and brown tangs) but not in Hawaii.

Anyway, here I am on Waimea Beach.

After snorkeling, they decided to go way north past Wailuku and play at the Waiehu Muni golf course. They had played here once before, when they were on Maui in October 2004, and it was VERY windy. They got there earlier than they expected, so they stopped at the beach park just north of the course.

Waiehu was still as windy, but not as crowded as it had been when they played it before. Here I am in the cart on the first tee.

This is golf, swinging hard to drive off the tee into the wind.

She stopped at the top of a hill to get a picture of me with the ocean in the background, but the wind was so strong, it kept blowing me off the fence before she could get me placed and the picture snapped!
Again, she's repeating her thing about putting me in trees . . . . . but I really don't object to this one. This is one unusual tree!
And she keeps posing me with her Himalayan cat driver club cover -- named Kia after a sealpoint Himmie she had from 1976 till 1990.

After golf, Larry grilled a steak for them and then they went down to watch the sunset at Keakapaku Beach Park, which was across the street from our condo at Maui Hill (right in front of the Days Inn, which used to be the Best Western, where they stayed one night in 2004, and where they snorkeled then and saw all the things they haven't seen this time!) Watching the sun set . . . . .

Larry took a picture of golf taking a picture of me.

And Larry got a picture of Larry walking along the lava rocks on the shore.

Sunday, September 27 -- Maui Report

2009-09-27T18:41:00.043-04:00

I'll try to do this on a day-by-day basis. First of all, we were unable to get on the flights to LAX on Monday, September 14, as originally planned -- all the flights were sold out and NO non-revenue passengers were seated. Based on that information, Larry and golf thought their best chance was to get to the airport very early (do we HAVE to get up at 4:30 a.m.???) on Tuesday, September 15, and catch the first flight to LAX, if we could get on it. We were able to get on that early flight (and flying over Arizona, golf got this shot of the crater that is east of Flagstaff -- looks more like the moon than the good ole US of A . . . .) (as usual, click on any picture for a larger version of it)

but unfortunately, the one daily flight from LAX to Maui (OGG) didn't leave LAX until 5:15 p.m. in the afternoon. So we were able to get on the early flight to LAX, but then we had an eight-hour layover in LAX!!! Fortunately, we were able to "piggy-back" on the wireless internet from the Continental President's Club on Concourse 6, so at least golf and Larry had the internet to play with while they waited out the eight hours. But this makes for a really LOOOOOOONG day, by the time they got to Kahului, Maui, at roughly 5:10 p.m., Hawaii time, which made it 11:10 p.m. to golf and Larry's body time, and since they had been up since 4:30 a.m., well, they figured it was close to 21 hours without sleep by the time they got to their condo in Kihei and got settled in and ready to retire for this first night in Paradise. So here's the condo at the Kihei Bay Surf (the next morning) and me out on the railing of the porch there (not much of a view of the tennis courts, but there was a nice plumeria tree right there).

So . . . . bright and early Wednesday morning, September 16, golf and Larry went exploring south of where they were staying. First, they found the condo to which they would move on Thursday, Maui Hill (more pictures of the inside of this condo later).
Basically, we explored down the coast from Kihei down past Wailea and Makena all the way to the Ahihi-Kinau Reserve (underwater reserve for spinner dolphins, etc.), the land of which is mostly piles of lava rock.
You'll note golf got a picture of me sitting beside little rocks that tourists stack up and leave everywhere. This stacking of rocks, which you will see all over all of the Hawaiian Islands, is done by tourists because they think it means something. It doesn't.
Anyway, we were stopping at several of the beaches along this route to check out where to snorkel the next day -- stopped at Keawakapu, Mokapu, Ulua, Wailea, Polo, Makena, Big Beach, and Little Beach. By the way, golf didn't think to put on sunblock since they really weren't stopping and staying anywhere for any length of time, but the combination of all the stops and walks resulted in a bit of a "red neck" for golf, though not a bad burn. By about 3 p.m., they were already fading, so they stopped in Kihei and ate an early dinner at Oceans, then headed back to the little condo, had a margarita, went across the street from the condo to watch the sunset at Kalepolepo Beach, and then crashed for the evening.

Thursday, September 16: They couldn't check into the Maui Hill until 3 p.m., so they figured a good way to spend the time waiting was -- to go snorkeling!! After breakfast at Denny's, we headed for Ulua Beach first, as it is highly recommended for snorkeling.

Above, that's Larry on the beach at Ulua, and in the picture below, I'm waiting on the beach towels for them to return from their venture into the water at Ulua.

Now, below are pictures that we did not take (because Larry wouldn't let golf get the underwater adapter pack for her camera), but they were THRILLED to see a manta ray coming RIGHT AT THEM at Ulua Beach!! They later found out that it is pretty rare to see one of these, so golf searched the internet for pictures so you could see what they saw (well, sort of).

The one they saw coming right toward them was about five feet wide. They later saw another one that was further away, but it appeared smaller. So this turned out to be a rather unusual snorkel venture with a very special "sighting"!!

However, they were highly disappointed not to see any yellow tang, which previously had been so prolific they were almost boring. Where have they all gone?? They didn't see any Moorish Idols either. They found this very odd after their previous snorkeling on Maui and the Big Island. The rays made up for the lack of yellow tang spotting, but that same lack seemed to indicate something bad happening in the waters around Hawaii.

So after this snorkeling excursion, they headed back to the first condo, cleaned up, packed up, and headed to check in at the Maui Hill. There they discovered that the unit assigned to them had been, by mistake, given to someone else with a similar name, and they were assigned a different (and we think better) unit. It was certainly more conveniently located -- in just about the first building after the entrance, so it was very convenient for ingress and egress, plus it had a view toward the ocean (though you really couldn't see the ocean due to all the vegetation, but at least it wasn't facing the back of the complex, as the one they should have gotten was). Here I am sitting on the nose of the whale at the entrance sign (hey, this photo op was Larry's idea!!)

And here's our HUGE condo unit, #49, where they had free internet (but not wireless, they had to plug in the DSL cable, no big deal). The only slightly disappointing feature of this very large unit was the fact that it had only a queensize bed instead of a king bed. Pretty unusual, in their condo-swapping experience. Almost every good size condo has a king bed, if not one in each bedroom (e.g., the condo they have in Hilton Head has two king beds, one in each bedroom, and the two-bedroom condo where they stayed the first time on the Big Island, Mauna Loa, had a king bed in each bedroom; and where they stayed the second time on the Big Island in a one-bedroom had a king bed).

Okay, this is enough for tonight. golf is doing the typing for me and she's ready to stop for the evening since she has to get up early to go to work tomorrow :-( even though she went into the office for four hours today (Sunday) to get a head-start on what was waiting for her after nearly two weeks out of the office. I'll try to finish up more over the next few days. Stay tuned, folks!

Sunday, September 13 -- Prepping for Maui

2009-09-13T18:42:00.008-04:00

We are packing for Maui!!! We were scheduled to go out Monday, September 14, but remember golf and Larry are flying standby and all those annoying business travelers have already booked up (actually OVERbooked!) ALL the flights from ATL-LAX on Monday morning. So golf and Larry have decided to leave Tuesday instead, when available seats seem (at least right now) to be more attainable. In the meantime, they continue to pack their one-carryon-each and the golf bags. Here I am in Larry's bag -- however, do note that the fabric with the palm trees showing behind me is one of golf's dresses wrapped around her snorkel mask -- typical female, she ran out of room in her bag.

Here I am in golf's bag -- along with Virgie, whose curiosity was cat-typical about what was going on while golf was allowing me to crawl into the bag.

Here is golf's golf bag, all packed up. I think it is not a good idea to plan for this mode of transportation for myself.

Can I stow away here?

Or here?

Probably not . . . . I think I'll settle for being stashed in golf's tote bag.

Virgie! Will ya cut it out? golf is trying to get a picture of MOI!

Yes, it is her tote bag from St. Thomas . . . .

Okay, Virg, it's all yours . . . . You stay here and hog the camera. I'll go to Maui -- ha!

August 29-30 Weekend in St. Thomas.

2009-08-31T20:35:00.014-04:00

If you want to be technical, this probably could not qualify as a "weekend" in St. Thomas, as we arrived at 2 p.m. on Saturday and departed at 3 p.m. on Sunday. But we had fun while we were there! And golf was the ONLY non-revenue (employee travel pass) passenger to get on the flight from Atlanta to St. Thomas -- and in first class. Whew!

First, golf picked up our rental car -- a dinky little Toyota Yaris. The rental agent said she would love this little car because she's little -- well, she might have if (1) she'd been able to figure out how to open the hatchback, (2) it had had power windows and locks, and (3) it hadn't smelled like kitty pee. But it served its purpose and it did have air conditioning -- the weather was hot and humid while she was there.

Traffic was very crowded going though Charlotte Amalie. Maybe the cruise ship in port contributed to this (but how? Those people aren't driving cars! ??), but she was able to get to Hwy. 38 East and headed cross-island toward her condo at Sapphire Beach (where we stayed in June with her friend, Kathy). Of course, K-Mart was on the way, so she stopped and got five cartons of Mores for Larry and five Cartons of Marlboros for herself. Remember the cost of these at K-Mart in STT (airport-speak for St. Thomas) is $17.99 per carton (when Larry has made the same-day runs to STT to get them at the duty-free shop at the airport [because he didn't have time between arrival and same-day departure to get to K-Mart], the cartons at the airport are $26.95, which is a $10 savings [at least!] over Atlanta prices--but still $10 more than they are at K-Mart!) and she had coupons from Marlboro for $4 off per carton, so she was able to get her Marlboros at $13.99/carton. Unbelievable in terms of current U.S. prices! She also got a couple of litres of Bailey's Irish Cream and a litre of Lunazul tequila, which she and Larry think is better than Jose Cuervo, though slightly more expensive at $16.99/litre where JC is $14.99. But they can't find Lunazul in the U.S. She was delighted to return to her car and find it had not been broken into, even though the two bags she had brought were right out in the open on the back seat (remember she couldn't figure out how to open the hatch!). No problem for her after that stop in getting to Sapphire Village -- even the same gate guard as when she and Kathy were there. BUT the SV office isn't open on weekends! AAGGH!! How does she find out which unit she has and how to get in? The gate guard sent her down to the reception desk at Sapphire Beach Resort, and they did have her check-in information. And, would you believe, her unit was in the same building where we had stayed in June, so she knew exactly where to go! Two thumbs up for that.

While she was getting settled in, Kathy just happened to call her on her cell phone! golf was able to report on the differences in her current unit and the one in which we had stayed in June. E.g., this one had NO beach towels (the June one had about six), but this one had a hair dryer (June didn't), and a TV with satellite (in June, it was promised by the owner that it was supposed to be installed the day they moved in, or the next day -- and it never was), but golf wasn't planning on watching much TV anyway. Other comparisons: Kathy and golf were able to get an internet connection while on the balcony in June, golf could not pick up any wireless internet on this balcony and had to break down and pay $9.95 for 24 hours' worth of internet, but she needed it to communicate with Larry (at work that evening and at home Sunday morning) and to check availability for her return non-rev flight.

In the meantime, golf had realized she has nothing to eat or drink. She had been so lucky at K-Mart in getting the clerk to take her $4 coupons on the cartons of cigarettes, she'd forgotten to add Diet Cokes to her purchase. But she wasn't about to go back to K-Mart and fight the crowds that had been there, so she got back in the car and headed to the Food Market on the east end of the island past Red Hook. There she got a nice New York strip steak for dinner, some English muffins and butter for breakfast, but the only caffeine-free Diet Coke the store had was a 12-pack of cans. golf figured she probably wouldn't drink all 12 cans in less than 24 hours, but the 12-pack was $4.99, and a couple of big soda drinks at a fast-food joint would have been nearly that, so she decided she'd just get the 12-pack and leave whatever was left for the cleaning folks.

She got back to the condo around 5:00 and realized we needed a photo op while she still had good daylight. So I graciously agreed to pose for a few shots.

All this taken care of, golf still really wanted to go snorkeling, though STT gets dark by about 6:45. But she wanted to snorkel as much as she could while she was there, so she donned her swimsuit and headed down to Sapphire Beach, where she was able to snorkel for about 20 minutes before it started getting a little too twilight-y and she thought it was safer to head back to the condo.

Well, there she got involved in internet stuff, had a margarita (which got her pretty loopy on an empty stomach), and at that point wasn't hungry enough to broil the steak she had bought! So she had enough presence of mind to stick it in the freezer so she could at least take it home starting in frozen form (along with 3/4 of the butter, 1/4 of which she kept out for her English muffins for Sunday morning).

Oh, yes, I need to explain how she planned to get all this liquid back to the U.S.: She brought a virtually empty piece of luggage, filled with empty plastic liquor flasks and a huge clothes-packing "baggie" that she inflated to "fill" the empty bag. So she packed all ten cartons of cigarettes in this to-be-checked bag, along with filling the flasks with the two litres of Bailey's and the one litre of Lunazul. Gotta give her credit -- she can plan! And incidentally speaking of which, golf likes a really FLAT pillow and pillows at condos are always too thick for her -- so she had kept the little pillow given to passengers on the aircraft on the way down, so she had little flat pillow to sleep on that night!

I didn't have a problem . . . .

Because golf had crashed and burned by about 10 p.m. on Saturday night, she didn't have a problem getting up early on Sunday morning. She had to check out by 11 a.m., so she wanted to get in a snorkel before she had to clean up and pack everything for the return. And she did enjoy her snorkel!! She never found the squid she saw in June, but she did have a disposable underwater camera with her and got pictures of schools of tang, some butterfly fish, and, she thinks, a queen emperor fish. Can't post the pictures yet, as she had to send the film off for developing (boy, does she want an underwater case for her new Sony W220, but the underwater case costs more than she paid for the camera! She still has to figure out how she can get that case prior to the Sept. 14 trip to Maui . . . . .), and she's not sure how good the pictures will be -- the last time she took underwater pictures with one of these cameras, well, the pictures were very good. But hope springs eternal . . . . and all that.

I watched while she packed everything she could into the bag to be checked -- the flasks of booze, 10 cartons of cigarettes, the snorkel gear, and anything else she could fit in the bag. Larry had sent her an email to stop by K-Mart on her way to the airport and get more cigarettes. I need to explain here that golf needed to get enough cigarettes to, in essence, generate enough savings over what would be spent in Georgia for cigarettes and booze to pay for her trip (condo, rental car, internet, etc.) to STT to get these things and still have a little "profit" to justify the trip. To cut to the chase on that subject, totaling what she spent, the cigarettes and booze at home would have cost $140 more than she spent while in STT in accommodations, rental car, cigarettes, and booze. So it was for the most part, a successful foray, AND she got to have fun snorkeling!!

So that's enough for this report. I know you're getting tired of hearing about all their "coffin nails." But just to end with a little "hah"! Here's her "loot."

Friday, August 21, 2009 -- More Venus News

2009-08-21T18:22:00.007-04:00

golf hasn't posted because she was bummed that Venus disappeared in a storm Sunday night, just after Larry had found her and golf got pictures of her and her gorgeous web. But then on Thursday, August 20, Larry found Venus in the tomato garden close to where Ariadne had been most of the summer. At first, Larry and golf weren't sure it was the same spider (and golf was dreading coming up with a name for another spider), but golf checked with her Argiope expert (Jerry Cates of http://www.bugsinthenews.com/); and with the pictures she sent to him, he confirmed (1) that it would be fairly unusual to have three different Argiopes in their gardens in one summer and (2) the spider in the lily garden, pictured with the web on August 16, is the same spider pictured yesterday in the tomato garden. He assured her of this by pointing out that Venus has unusual coloring on the second left leg, which should be yellow/gold for half the length of the leg and it is not. Click on the pictures below to enlarge them and see the markings as pointed out by the arrows. Then compare the coloring with Ariadne's leg. First picture below is Venus in her new location.

Here is a picture of Ariadne after she laid her eggs and just before she disappeared, with an arrow pointing to her second left leg, and you can see how it is gold for half the length of the leg (the entire first "segment" [?] of her leg):

Now here are the two pictures of Venus, with her new location on the left and the first location on the right, with arrows pointing to her second left leg, so you can see (1) how it is different from Ariadne's and (2) how it is the same in both pictures so it IS the same spider.

So golf is currently a happy camper, now that she has a new spider to track. She's hoping that Venus will also make an egg sac (and hoping she and Larry can find it!) to see what it looks like compared to Ariadne's, as Ariadne's egg sac is an unusual shape and placement for an Argiope aurantia. So we need to see what Venus creates. In the meantime, we hope to watch her increase in size and she fills up with eggs.

In the meantime, I haven't been going anywhere interesting, so this is all you get. golf may go back to St. Thomas next weekend to make a "cigarette and booze run." The next trip should be Maui, starting September 15. Yippee!!

Sunday, August 16 P.S.

2009-08-16T16:38:00.005-04:00

Well, an argiope expert and golf have determined that the pictures we've posted recently are NOT Ariadne. This is a different spider. golf has named her Venus Lubentia (Roman goddess of gardens). So apparently Ariadne is R.I.P., but at least golf has a new spider buddy to entertain her. Yes, apparently, she is easily entertained . . . .

Comparison pictures shown below (click to see enlarged pictures). Now my little voice tells me we just might have a new egg sac to look forward to. Ariadne's was an unusual shape for an argiope aurantia, so we'll wait and see what Venus produces. It will be interesting to see if our garden lends itself to distorting spiders' instincts so they build egg sacs that are the wrong shape for the spiders' species.

Sunday, August 16 -- more Ariadne

2009-08-16T08:51:00.005-04:00

Okay, I know you're probably not interested in the daily activities of a spider, but we're having fun tracking it. So put up with it, or don't check in with us until September 15 when we go to Maui.

It rained pretty hard yesterday evening and apparently wiped out Ariadne's web. But you gotta admire her stubbornness and hard work in continuing to re-establish her home. Here's what I found this morning; and when I first moved in close for the pictures, she started pumping the web like crazy, making it rock back and forth. So cute -- though I think she was trying to look tough -- didn't work ;-). Then she ran up to the top, and she tore the web on the way -- now that surprised me, that she damaged her own web so much. Hmmm, I wonder if that is indicative of anything, e.g., she's still building but the strands are weaker?
Above, Ariadne after running up to the top and tearing her web. Note the dew you can see on the web.

Just at the top, will try to get a more focused picture later.
Below, the right upper side of the web.

The lower left side of the web below:

The stabilizer in the middle -- a double zigzag this time:

Lower center shown below:

We would really love to see her DOING all this building, but since she does it at night, we'll probably never see that. Even if we put a spotlight on her, she'd probably freeze and not do anything while the light is on her. May try tonight and see. But then there are a lot of mosquitoes out there . . . . so . . . . maybe not.

Saturday, August 15 -- Ariadne Update

2009-08-15T12:45:00.003-04:00

Now we're trying not to get all excited here, but Ariadne seems to be doing much better. She built a very detailed and extensive web overnight! golf couldn't get really good pictures because there was a breeze and the web kept moving. She'll try to get better pictures later. But if you look closely, you can see the strands of the web. I don't know that she is supposed to be THIS industrious after depositing her eggs.

August 14, 2009 -- We're Losing Ariadne . . .

2009-08-14T19:50:00.005-04:00

See how thin she looks??? She's wasting away.

But that is the cycle of life.

Ariadne disappeared off her web on the stairs to the deck on Thursday. Larry found her today (Friday) in a rather skimpy web between the struts supporting the deck and a gardenia bush in the yard beside the deck. She's losing her strength and no longer able to create a properly "organized" web. But then she's not even expected to be creating webs at all at this point. So she's certainly hanging in there and performing "over and above" the standard for her species!

Still . . . . from what we have been able to find out via internet research, it is "her time" -- she has performed her purpose in life by procreating (though HER egg sac is the wrong shape . . . . don't know that that means). Larry emailed golf today that golf needed to "salt" Ariadne's web with bugs because Ariadne seemed to be losing weight and Larry felt she needed assistance in obtaining sustenance. But our research now indicates she is supposed to lose her appetite after laying her eggs and is then supposed to fade away and expire. This is also SUPPOSED not to happen till autumn. But Ariadne always seemed to be a bit precocious!

Well, golf's "R.I.P." may have been premature -- but apparently it was prognosticative.

Tuesday, August 11 -- Ariadne Redux!!

2009-08-11T16:10:00.006-04:00

Okay, not the clearest picture in the world (will try to get another one later), but the best Larry could do on short notice. Ariadne has relocated to the stairs between the deck and the patio, where, on one side's railing, we have an Oriental carpet hanging out to wash and dry. Apparently, Ariadne wanted plusher digs than the garden and the house wall. Larry found her this morning when he went out to check on all his orchids outside and the garden -- and found he couldn't walk down the stairs from the deck to the patio without going through her new web! He retired back inside and went outside through the downstairs back door.

Golf is SO HAPPY Ariadne is okay!!!

About mid-afternoon golf emailed Larry from work and asked how Ariadne was doing. Larry responded that he would go check. Upon his return, he reported, "She said she is not real sure her new web was placed correctly, the wind is blowing the rug and she has to keep repairing [her web]. She is now in between the folds of the rug making another one."

We may have to do an intervention to assist her.

Later: Now, here's our girl at 6 p.m. this evening, under the rug to get out of the 94-degree sunlight, we guess. Welcome home, Ariadne!

P.S. After the sun went down, she came out from under the rug and showed off on her web again. Isn't she gorgeous? Click on the pictures for a big view, particularly the second picture below and you can even see all the little hairs on her legs!

Monday, August 10 -- :-(

2009-08-10T16:12:00.001-04:00

I am sorry to report that Ariadne disappeared sometime Saturday night. We have not been able to find her since. The garden is such a mess, I doubt we would ever spot her poor, shriveled corpse among all the vines. We will raise a margarita toast in her honor this evening. We will miss her (See? golf TOLD Larry we should bring her in . . . .)

"Alas, poor Ariadne . . . . I knew her well."

Saturday, August 8

2009-08-08T13:56:00.014-04:00

First of all, update on Ariadne: She has obviously created her egg sac and filled it. Boy, just like any other pregnant female who births her offspring, her size has reduced by about 2/3! Good girl, Ariadne! You aren't like the humans who get big with babies and then stay big. She's sticking close to the sac, so we'll keep an eye on it. But I don't know how much longer Ariadne will be around. According to one source on the internet, "female orb-weavers die soon after producing egg sacs containing several hundred eggs. Eggs may hatch soon after or not until the following spring." So based on that, I'll let you know when and if Ariadne stays around or not, and if the egg sac hatches this season. If not, maybe Larry will let golf bring it in and put in a big, empty 55-gallon aquarium they have. Ooops, Larry says "no dice" to that idea. (He says golf can take it to work with her, to keep her two bettas she has there company. Probably not . . . . Her bosses tolerate her two big bowls for the bettas [and one even feeds Frito and Concord, the bettas, while she's on vacation], but I have a feeling they might object to a 55-gallon fish tank, especially if it's full of thousands of spiderlings. Picky, picky, picky.)

In the meantime, golf and Larry received their replacement video card that died, and since they had ordered a replacement anyway, in case the manufacturer didn't replace the one that died, they had a spare, so golf asked Larry to put it in the gaming computer on which Flight Simulator 9 and 10 are installed. golf didn't see a significant jump in fps, as she had hoped, but the graphics were better. Of course, then she went flying around Oahu in T.C.'s chopper. Here she is approaching T.C.'s Island Hoppers homebase, which is actually the Makai Research Pier. Whoever created it for FSX didn't know what it really looks like. Not even close to the real thing.

Also, though golf successfully landed on it, it wasn't an easy task, as visually, where FSX allowed the "touch-down" of the chopper's skids, the "landing zone" was about 5-6 feet ABOVE the pier.

AHA! The picture below probably shows this best. She has landed here and isn't just hovering there. Nice little airplane with floats there, to the left.

The far east end of the pier where the helipad actually is has been turned into a sort of fishing boardwalk.

Where she touched down does not exist on the actual pier, and that "leg" of the pier off to the right below is also inaccurate.

Another addition of a motorboat beside the pier.

She then took off, heading for Robin's Nest, to see what it looks like in this scenery. Well, the tidal pool shows up (I guess it should, since Google Earth is the basis for the scenery).

But the buildings -- the main house -- on the estate are conspicuously absent.

Nice to see Rabbit Island off in the distance though.

Apparently, with this scenery, the only building on the estate is the boathouse, which is far too large.

In the picture below, the boathouse is on the far right. Well, at least the doors are correct . . . . sort of -- there are two doors on the boathouse that face the shore.

But no fence or sea wall.

Beside the boathouse, where in reality there's no room for a helicopter to land or even come close.

No way could a helicopter be here at the actual estate. But I just wanted to show you what it looks like in FSX.

Monday, August 3, 2009 -- New Camera

2009-08-03T18:28:00.026-04:00

Poor golf! She has a new camera and nothing special to take pictures of! She got a Sony CyberShot DSC W220, and she really likes it. So she takes pictures of Ariadne and her "home" (click on the pictures to get a bigger view and you can see this WONDERFUL spider web and detail of Ariadne sucking the innards out of something-or-other!) (and "dinner," I think) and tries to create dioramas for me. Sad efforts . . . . .

The camera also takes videos, so she tried a little of that while out playing golf with Larry on Friday and Saturday, but she had more success with posting something here by just capturing a frame from the videos. (After waiting 12 hours [started last night before 8 p.m., STILL "processing" at 8 a.m. the next morning!!!] for a 6-second video to upload, she gave up. What kind of junk program is Google running here? They don't even have a support desk where you can actually contact someone and ask a question. She is seriously irritated.)

Sunday, August 2, 2009 -- The Return of the Arachnid

2009-08-02T14:56:00.007-04:00

Well, not exactly the return -- more of an update. Note the size of Ariadne's abdomen (that's what golf named her -- don't know why, maybe because the name seems rather similar to Arachnid?) compared to her cephalothorax in the picture below. The two outside views are from yesterday, the center one is from July 22. She has also moved her web from the middle of the garden to the end of the garden, reaching from potted pepper plants on the opposite side of the walkway from the garden, which is up against the house wall, so the stretches about four feet wide by about six feet high, in a sort of triangle shape. We've tried to get a picture of it, but it just doesn't show up. We're hoping for an early morning view with dew on it, but that hasn't happened yet. We even tried spraying it with water, but it's so hot, the mist evaporates almost as soon as it lands on the lines of the web. golf just went outside and got a couple of more pictures. Ariadne was positioned the wrong way for golf to get a picture of her, top-down view, and golf could get pictures her only from the underside of her body. Still . . . shows her size pretty well. Plus, you can really see the size difference between her abdomen and cephalothorax.

July 25, 2009 -- Final Appearance of Risers

2009-07-25T15:22:00.008-04:00

Remember golf's bargello needlepoint risers she made that she showed a while back? They are now in final form and in place. Her father (bless his 90-year-old and pace-maker'ed heart!) was kind enough to "lace" (with carpet thread) the canvas pieces on strips of masonite, cut by golf and Larry (with great care on the table saw -- do you know how hard it is to cut a straight line along masonite for 52"??) to fit the height of each individual step (necessary because each step was a different height by +/-1/4" , which they really never had felt when just walking up and down the carpeted stairs). golf was able to tack the covered strips in place on the stairs with brass nails and had to paint the heads of only two nails to match the color of yarn where the nail went in. Where she could, she put the nail in through gold yarn so it wouldn't show when in place (I asked her just WHO did she think was going to get down on his/her hands and knees and LOOK for the nail heads, at which time she told me the unpainted ones against burgundy and navy blue yarn would catch the light and visually "announce" where they were if they weren't covered, so I backed off questioning her installation attempts). Here I am, standing about midway, showing the top four risers. Click on the picture for a bigger view and you can see more detail of the bargello needlepoint patterns -- and keep in mind that every single stitch was done by golf by hand!

Here I am on the foyer tile floor at the bottom step, showing the first five steps' risers going up the stairway.

And here I am in the middle, so you can see almost all of them in place (not showing is the bottom one, which you can see better in the picture just above, anyway).

It took golf about eight months to make these (not counting the time when we were in Oahu in September and the Dominican Republic in January). golf came up with this idea last summer when she ran out of projects to do and recalled a time during college (40 years ago!) when she had visited a friend's house and the stairs down to the basement game room had needlepoint pieces on the risers. For all this time, she has remembered those stairs and finally was in a house where she could make the pieces and install them in her own house. She is pleased with them -- and hey, it'll make her keep the stairs vacuumed more often! And that can only be a good thing, with three long-haired cats (two bluepoint Himalayans and one sealpoint Himmie) running up and down the stairs all the time, leaving cat hair all over them. It's also a good thing Larry and golf had dark green carpet installed when they built the house. Imagine how less dramatic these would look with tan or beige carpet. BORING! Now, these will stand out and showcase themselves.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 -- A Little Bit of Nature

2009-07-22T18:28:00.004-04:00

We have had a spider in our garden since spring. When we first noticed him several months ago, he was just a little thing, about 3/8" body. He's grown. I'm surprised he's still around. But he obviously is!
I told golf to get a ruler to measure him. Doncha just love the little stringy thing in his web?

I wonder how much longer he'll be hanging around. Anyone know what kind of spider this is? Leave me a Comment if you know anything about him.

Sunday, June 28, 2009, St. Thomas, USVI

2009-06-28T16:32:00.021-04:00

Okay, here I am, kicking back on Sapphire Beach on St. Thomas. Actually, you probably already know that I am there. But now I need to tell you how we got here.

Larry has been urging golf to use his Delta flight privileges, so she decided to do so. She emailed a buddy of hers -- let's call her . . . . Kathy. So golf invited Kathy to come down to Atlanta and then go on to St. Thomas with her (you may recall that golf is still on her "wanting to snorkel" jag, and this is about the closest place to her to go to, and she knows her way around St. Thomas). Well, Kathy was happy to join her, so golf got her set up as a Delta Buddy for flight privileges (NOT free, just significantly reduced cost, but still flying stand-by), and Kathy came down from the Chicago area to meet up with golf at the Atlanta airport. UNFORTUNATELY for them, the 10 a.m. flight to St. Thomas (STT) wasn't able to seat all its stand-by passengers, so they rolled over to golf and Kathy's 11:30 flight -- and bumped them off that flight. BUMMER!!! The next flight was at 5:30 p.m. on that day, Thursday, June 25 (and they couldn't fly the NEXT day if they got bumped again because Delta had an embargo on Buddy pass travel on June 26-27 -- we don't know why). So with a six-hour wait, they left the airport and went to golf's house to check things and then headed back to the airport.

Where they WERE seated on the 5:30 flight and did arrive in St. Thomas after 9 p.m. Thurs. night. This is not an ideal time to arrive in STT, as you may know if you ever been there -- the roads aren't the best or the best marked, not like roads and highways in the continental U.S. of A. However, having been here twice before, golf had a relatively good idea of how to get where they were scheduled to go for their accommodations. And without more than one minor missed turn, they did arrive safely over the "roller coaster" road to Sapphire Beach on the northeast side of STT. Whew! A slight stutter with finding the right condo building, but finally in and able to unpack.

Promptly the next morning golf wanted to go snorkeling, so they went down to Sapphire Beach, to check out the options. It was a bit of a hike down there from where they were staying, so they hiked BACK up to the condo and decided to run errands first -- groceries, etc. -- and they were delighted to find cartons of cigarettes at K-Mart for $18 a carton (compare to $35-50 in Georgia!!). They stocked up -- DUH!

Back to the condo, where they donned swimwear and headed for Sapphire Beach (driving down this time). They snorkeled east, middle, and west ends of the beach. They had the most luck in seeing sealife on the far west end of the beach, where, among all the tangs, parrotfish, grunts, damsels, butterflies, etc., golf spotted 6-9 little squid. She didn't have an underwater camera with her to get a picture of them, but this is what they looked like, about 12" long.

She promptly called me for assistance . . . .

Yeah, right . . . .

Kathy was having a bit of a difficult time because she didn't have fins to help her with snorkeling, so golf kept paddling off on her little air mattress and rather leaving her behind, so Kathy decided just to sit in the sun and get a tan and read her book. golf took a break too and decided that I needed some photo ops. Kathy was rather dismayed initially, while golf did her usual looking-for-places-to-pose-me routine.

There was a lot of beach volleyball in "Magnum, p.i.," wasn't there? So, of course, we had to get me at the volleyball net.

And golf just can't resist putting me in the water . . . .

And she always sticks me up in a seagrape tree (though this tree had a rather intriguing look, but, then, don't they all? They are great trees - and it doesn't hurt that they're always down on the beach).

But then Kathy started to catch on to the idea -- rather the way Larry does when HE suggests a good place to take a picture. And Kathy came up with a GREAT idea!!

golf's snorkeling air mattress looks just like a "my-size" dinghy! Not exactly a surf-ski, but then golf can't find one of those for me. So since this appears to be my only chance to get out on the water, I'll take it.

Soon they headed back to the condo where they cooked a steak and baked potato for dinner.

Luckily for them, golf was able to get the laptop to pick up an internet connection out on the balcony. The individual units didn't have WiFi and it was supposed to be available only down at or by the office. But golf's laptop piggybacked on something so it worked for them on the balcony. As I said, that was a good thing because there was no TV! Well, there was a TV, there just wasn't any cable connection. SUPPOSEDLY, it was being changed to a new company and should have been installed on Friday. Wasn't. Or Saturday. Not. So the internet connection was an major entertainment asset (Kathy's just about as internet-addicted as golf!).

Soooooooooooooom, all in all, it was a good first day in St. Thomas.

June 26, 2009 -- Back in St. Thomas, USVI

2009-06-26T17:28:00.002-04:00

And you're not! More pictures and "travelog" later, but I thought I would give you a taste (it's HOT and HUMID here . . . .)

That's the view off our balcony at Sapphire Village at Sapphire Beach, where golf and her buddy Kathy went snorkeling (and had a BLAST!) for several hours this afternoon. Don't know how many pictures we'll get of me, as golf isn't quite as willing to carry me around and take pictures -- some people aren't as tolerant of me as Larry is (poor baby, stuck at home working while WE'RE here!)

Stay tuned. More later. ;-)

Last Day on St. Thomas, May 20

2009-05-23T19:09:00.006-04:00

Wednesday: We have a flight at 2:45 p.m., but that still gives us enough time for one more snorkel trip at Secret Harbour. This time, golf takes me down to the beach with her. I do so enjoy watching the waves.

So many places for me to sit on the rocks and take in the scenery.

And I get a kick out of how golf always tries to catch a good wave right as it comes at me!

So after taking pictures of me, golf heads for the water with her "noodles," since her air mattress is now flat. The noodles serve the purpose but are a little more . . . . obvious.On the way back, there's a gate at a driveway. Larry says it's only for a waterfront lot, but we need to check it out. Sigh . . . . it's not Robin's Nest. But it has a nice gate -- just no turtle on the gate.

So, farewell, St. Thomas. When's the next trip, golf?

Tuesday, May 19 -- Boating!!

2009-05-19T19:32:00.015-04:00

I know what you're thinking -- and, yes, this is a lot more powerful than a surfski, but a lot smaller than the King Kamehameha Club yacht. But Skipper Larry was in his element. Whatever the equivalent to the "happy biker" with bugs on his teeth, that was Skipper Larry at the helm.

Here he is moving wakeless out of the harbor.

Then, whoa, we picked up speed and we're on our way! We're heading to St. John's and the bays or coves where they can snorkel there.

I think I better sit back or I'm likely to be flung overboard. Does this thing have a seatbelt???

Ahhhh, this is the life . . . .

At the first cove/bay on St. John's that Larry went to, way around to the north side of that island, where they stopped to check out snorkeling,

(Note: that's a pretty goodly distance for a non-swimmer to attempt to get close enough to the shore to snorkel.) I was left on board with golf while Larry snorkeled toward shore to see if it was worth golf's getting in the water. I tried my hand at the helm . . . .

I could handle this little rowboat on steroids . . . .

Oh, Larry? What's the report?

This is a LOOOOOOOONG way out from the shore for golf to paddle in on her little Window Surf Rider Kid's Raft (see the 7th item down the list here http://www.poolcenter.com/pooltoys_inflatable_mattresses.htm) -- you may recall she can't swim, so she has to float and just put her face down in the water. Larry decided this was too far for her to have to paddle all the way in, snorkel along the shore, and then paddle back. And he reported he didn't see much at this point worth her making the tiring (for her!) effort.

In the meantime, . . . . "I'm king of the world!!!"

No, it CAN'T be time to head back yet!!

No, it wasn't. They went to several other coves/bays and finally found one where Larry could tie up to a mooring that wasn't too far for golf to go in, so she was out of the boat in a flash and paddling toward shore. She got close in and headed down the shore awhile, seeing lots of fish and coral. But she realized going along the shore that she was going with the current and therefore getting back might be a bit of a problem, so she turned around and came back to the boat.

As she was getting out of the water and handing her fins, snorkel, mask, and float up to Larry, Larry told her, "You realize your air mattress has a leak?" It was half-deflated. golf looked with horror at Larry. It was a good thing she had headed back when she did or she would have ended up flailing to the shore where she would have had to wait for Larry to swim in and bring her a life jacket. She could not have gotten back to the boat without assistance.

With the Band-Aids they had in golf's tote, they attempted to "patch" the float. No dice, couldn't get an airtight seal. golf was beginning to get a little depressed, as the purpose of this trip to motor over to St. John's was to find places to snorkel. If she didn't have a float, she couldn't snorkel. Larry pulled out an inflatable life vest and simply inflated it by blowing into the nozzle. Not ideal, but it would support her. They headed back toward St. Thomas and on the way found another cove where boats were moored closer to shore. So they went in there and golf had a blast!!

So, they ended up spending most of this day motoring around looking for places to snorkel and not really finding any good places, mostly due to the distance from mooring to shoreline. Still, it was a pretty day, Skipper Larry was happy, and they enjoyed about five hours out on the water seeing the scenery of St. John.

Heading back to St. Thomas, Larry wanted to get a picture of his First Mate (not me . . . . obviously, this is golf.)

Then they drove around to the bay below the apartment where they were staying. So here's the view up from the water to the deck of their apartment (shown in Sunday's pictures, which showed the view down from their deck):

So back to the harbor and turn the boat it. A fun day for all -- I was the only one who didn't get a little sunburned.

Monday . . . evening

2009-05-18T18:49:00.007-04:00

First exploration this morning: We went to Secret Harbour, where Larry and golf snorkeled. Now, golf was quite happy with that (in the process, gleefully finding out her "replica" gold Rolex Yachtmaster is, actually, water resistant!! [I had a hard time believing she would go in the water with it at all, if she didn't know it would "survive," considering what she paid for it]), but apparently Larry felt he had not seen enough sealife, so he wanted to go to Sapphire Beach, where they had snorkeled the last time they were here.

Unforunately, when they got there, they found the seas running very high, and the conditions were not ideal for snorkeling. But they stayed there for a while and enjoyed the strong ocean breeze. Since I didn't have anything much to so while they were wasting their time . . . .

I ran around collecting interesting pieces of broken coral and built a wall.

We had a rather interesting visitor to the beach while we were there, and I tried to lure him over toward me so I could have golf take a picture of me with him, but he would have none of that. Larry suggested wrapping a leaf of lettuce around my head and throwing me at him, which would have resulted in my immediate and personally undesirable dismemberment. Fortunately, golf vetoed that suggestion.

Okay, now tomorrow for the boat rental, since today there were small craft warnings with rough seas due to the strong wind.

Monday, May 18, St. Thomas, USVI

2009-05-18T07:13:00.003-04:00

Okay, I'm ready to go on our adventures today. I think we're going snorkeling. Hopefully, boat rental tomorrow!

But last night we went to Duffy's Love Shack for burgers for dinner. I appreciated the little plastic marlins used for swizzle sticks -- just my size!

But sleep was difficult for golf last night -- she and Larry didn't realize that while they had all the door open yesterday upon approval, nine million mosquitos had taken up residence in their apartment, every one of whom feasted on golf all night long. She got very little sleep and was miserable. She says tonight she'll bathe in deet before retiring. Probably not conducive to romance on a tropical island . . . . .

St. Thomas, USVI, May 17, 2009

2009-05-17T16:57:00.007-04:00

I'm here! I made it this time -- was not misdirected to St. Croix (though I do have fond memories of those margarita-debauched days on the beach without Larry and golf . . . .)

Anyhoo . . . golf was up early this morning for the final packing - due to the lost luggage LAST time, Larry was skeptical of checking any bag, but they checked only nearly empty bag for bringing back duty-free stuff -- and this time the extra bag arrived just fine.

Their rental is along the east end of St. Thomas near Red Hook and Secret Harbour (Google it). And after a safe arrival and acquiring the rental car, we arrived at our destination off Ridge Road.

Here I am on our front porch.

Once we moved inside and Larry got pictures of the place (to be posted later) before we ransacked it with our stuff, here I am on the kitchen counter as Larry unpacks the important stuff:

Then out to our deck to see the view (after a short detour to a tree in the yard):

The view from the deck:

north end

south end

another south end view

More tomorrow, after we explore a bit and find out where to snorkel!

May 12, 2009 -- Cats on the Deck

2009-05-12T20:35:00.004-04:00

I persuaded golf to take pictures of Sundance, Wyatt, and Virgie out on the deck tonight -- she lets them go out almost every evening after she gets home from work -- I just got her to take pictures this evening.

Sundance just HAS to jump up on the railing and give Larry and golf a heart attack!

Virgie is the sweetheart of the crew.

"I'm king of the world!"

Wyatt stayed inside (after being "shot" with the watergun to round him up to come back home after he wandered too far. He does NOT like the watergun!) and just sat in the window -- he decided fresh air through the screen was safer -- and drier!

May 9, 2009, Update

2009-05-09T19:38:00.009-04:00

Saturday, May 9, 2009:

Sorry, but golf and I haven't been doing much worth reporting lately. golf has been working on a "home improvement" project -- since last August! She was making strips of bargello needlepoint to use on the risers of the stairs in the house. Each has to be six-seven inches tall -- and 52 inches wide! That was a lot of stitching. As it turns out, all the stairs were a different height by a half-inch or so. So in order to finalize the materials, she needed to measure each step. Sundance and Virgie had to help.

She then just placed the completed pieces on the stairs to test to see how they would look when laced to masonite and then put in place. This is just a rough idea of their appearance when all is accomplished, but she thinks the needlepoint will add to the interior decor of the house.

However, after she finished the needlepoint work and while staying in touch with http://www.magnum-mania.com/, she found out the moderator there is also a Microsoft Links (computer golf) fan, and he told her how to play on line and how to customize clothes for her players. So, OF COURSE, she had to put the red parrot/jungle shirt on her player. Naturally, I had to check it out and play a couple of holes with my female counterpart:

Here I am at the first tee at Parrot Landing Golf Course.

I realize that at this distance, the detail of the golfer's outfit is not very visible as the parrot shirt, so here are some close-ups. Can you spot the golfer's red glove and patterned shoes?

Checking her grip on her backswing:

Doing a little stretching:

golf is really having a good time playing Devil's Island, Jungle Island, and Parrot Landing.

For what it's worth, golf sent an email with the picture of Larry and her at the Byoto In Temple to the talent agency here in town (Atlanta) to "apply" for being an extra on the Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Tom Selleck movie that is filming in town for the next couple of months. She was called one day at work and asked if she and Larry could be extras that very afternoon, but Larry couldn't get off work so golf had to turn that down (dumb broad!). She's hoping she will get called again -- reportedly the production company is in town until July -- but that was probably her one shot at it -- and she said no! She was so surprised to be called that she didn't think to ask if it was a scene with Tom Selleck (she thinks he didn't get into town until a few days later) or if she could come without Larry, since the agent calling asked for both.

Tom Selleck was in town the following Friday, as he apparently ate dinner at Chops in Buckhead (ritzy area of town). She's been checking Ashton Kutcher's and (director) Rob Luketic's twitter posts to try to keep up with what's going on, but she hasn't found out anything specific yet about going somewhere where they are filiming so she could watch (frankly, after following those tweets for a couple of weeks, they get rather boring). Of course, working Monday-Friday doesn't give her a lot of time to go star-hunting . . . . . I've got to figure out how to hide in her purse or pocket if she does get called to be an extra.

A few Saturdays ago, golf also drove out to Douglasville, where there was a "cattle call" extras casting session. Good heavens, it took her an hour to drive there. I did go along but she made me wait in the car.

She hasn't heard anything else about this. I will, of course, promptly post an update, should she be asked to be an extra. No cameras are allowed on the set, so even if she gets there, she won't have any pictures to show off. So no pictures of me there either!!! Bummer! :-(

March 15,2009 -- Last Fire of the Season

2009-03-15T21:11:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note -- it's been an interesting last 30 days due to the weather here in Atlanta -- a little over three weeks ago, we had that "giant" hail; then the snow two weeks ago; one week ago golf was out on the golf course in 79 degree weather; today was 46 degrees all day and rainy and cold, so golf made the last fire of the season. Actually, she made what she THOUGHT was the last fire yesterday when the weather was the same, but then there was a repeat cold, rainy day today. So today's fire will probably be the last of the season. Yesterday the temperature in the house never got over 65 degrees, even with the fire. It must have been a little warmer today, as the fire got the temperature in the house up to 69 degrees -- which is probably the highest it's been all winter because golf won't turn the thermostat above 66 (Larry keeps sneaking to it and turning it up to -- whoo whoo -- 68!).

P.S. golf made a new Rolex GMT for me today. Whaddaya think of it?

Snow Day! March 1, 2009

2009-03-01T21:14:00.019-05:00

Well, before we get to the snow, we need to backtrack to Wednesday, February 18, when several very large storms came through Atlanta and environs. South of the city, where golf and Larry (and I) reside, was hit pretty hard and the TV weather on local stations was telling those in golf's and Larry's area that there was a tornado warning and everyone should take cover. It seemed pretty quiet at the house -- it was barely sprinkling and there was no wind. THEN the wind and the hail started in earnest! It was so loud hitting the house from all sides that it scared the cats and they all fled downstairs to hide under the bed. Larry and golf were trying to get the cameras working so they could get pictures, but everytime they opened a door or when golf went down the garage and opened those doors, the rain and hail was blowing in so strongly that it obscured the lens on the camera. And golf didn't know what to try to take a movie of so that she could at least picture up the sound of the hail hitting the house on the audio of the videocamera. So they ended up with no usable/viewable/audible video or audio of the storm.

After it was all over, though, Larry went outside to see if he could see any damage to the house. It was getting dark, so he didn't have long to look, but he didn't see anything significant. All he found was a yard littered with giant hailstones!! Later research on the internet provided the information that hailstones larger than 4 inches are considered "giant" hailstones and are fairly rare, especially in Georgia and more especially in February! However, that's what golf and Larry had in their yard. Below are pictures of a few, after some melting and thus reduction in size. What seemed unusual to golf and Larry was their shape -- like a flower with a center and then petals sticking out. Interesting how that would form . . . but it wasn't just a few of them that were like this. Most were! (Well, of the ones that got to that large size)

No wimpy "golfball size" hail for us!

As it turns out, there was damage to the roof and the screens on the front of the house. We called our insurance carrier and an adjuster came out and recommended a new roof and new gutters! That giant hail did a number on the screens on the front of the house -- probably what helped keep the windows from getting cracked or broken. Yikes! We had no idea! But we now have a new roof. Not bad in the long run, considering it was ten years old. So in this lousy economy, it certainly doesn't HURT the value of the house to have a new roof!

Then, eleven days later: Come Sunday morning, March 1, Larry is preparing to go to work. A few snow flurries have been predicted, and Larry is more worried about whether or not to wear his thermal underwear than he is about snow. Besides, it was still raining at 11 a.m. Then suddenly the rain turned to snow -- those big, wet, heavy flakes -- the really pretty ones. And it started sticking. Fortunately, it wasn't cold enough to make the roads icy, but Larry was pretty careful backing out of the garage and heading down the street. (golf's major problem throughout the afternoon was trying to keep the snow from building up on the satellite dish -- she finally figured out to put a large cardboard box on it, which kept the building snow from being directly in the line of the beam coming in.) Here's Larry, leaving for work.

The picture below was taken about a half-hour after Larry left. You'll note his tracks on the driveway are already covered.

Odd to have such a "winter wonderland" in Georgia! Picture below looks like New England!

If you want to watch through the video below, you may notice how the sound of the rain finally fades out to the silence of the snow falling (well, except for the TV noises in the background)

Note in the picture below how the nail seems to have first been coated with ice, then the snow accumulates on top.

I think perhaps the pampas grass never anticipated being snow-covered.

Much less a yellow, already-blooming forsythia bush in the back yard (though the wrought-iron park bench looks appropriate).

It snowed pretty steadily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., when it stopped and the skies started clearing -- and the snow started melting. I think perhaps it never really got any colder than 33-34 degrees all day, so it was surprising that so much snow actually stuck. But not for long. By sunset, the roads were mostly clear.

though the rooftops remained white . . . .

As full dark came, the temperature did drop down into the high 20s; fortunately most of the roads were already clear and dry by then so there were very few problems with "black ice" the next morning. But our shaded front yard kept its snow cover around for a few days.

Here I am climbing up the plate metal turtle sculpture in the front garden.

And the front steps still have a little snow.

Even by Tuesday there was still this much snow left in the back yard!

Yeah, I know, it looks as though I'm standing either in soap suds or the clouds, but it really is snow in the back yard.

And, now, as of the date of this writing (March 9), I needs must report that it was 78 degrees yesterday when golf went out to play golf in the afternoon. Quite a change from only seven days before!! It was a heckuva February!!

383 Park Avenue -- Now and Then

2009-02-23T09:50:00.025-05:00

Recently golf went to visit a Victorian house she and Larry lived in about 17 years ago. They were only renting the house, but they had painted the interior rooms and decorated it to fit its age. It has since been sold, allowed to deteriorate, went into foreclosure, and was purchased in 2001 to be renovated. The current owners have adapted it to modern use, in a way that makes the house much more livable in terms of insulation, new windows (but the old wavy glass original windows were replaced), new wiring and plumbing (apparently the original copper pipes were all removed for profit) but virtually removes much of the original footprint and interior of the house. Below are pictures of the house now and then. golf feels that the "period" appearance of the "then" pictures will be fairly obvious.

The current appearance is the yellow house on the left; the right is how the house looked when golf and Larry lived there.

On the left is the current foyer, wherein the paneling under the stairs has been removed to open up a door to a bathroom. During golf's tenure, that bathroom was a "mud" room with a closet under the stairs. golf doesn't have a major problem with this usage, as it is more practical and could actually be the original plan.

This is a view from the current parlor on the right side of the house (as you enter it) looking back into the foyer. The previous owner who went into foreclosure removed a single pocket door that was about 48 inches wide and simply put an open double-door-wide opening here.

Below is a view from the dining room into the parlor during golf's occupancy. This doorway has pocket doors, which fortunately remain.

Below is a similar view today, showing the fireplace, which has been stripped of years of paint. This is good.

Below is the same fireplace when golf decorated the room for Christmas.

A simliar perspective view of the current parlor.

One more view of golf's parlor from the dining room, not at Christmas. Note the large wooden door on the right. This was originally a pocket door (note the wide door frame) that had been cut off at the top and hung on hinges. This is the door that has been removed and the doorway widened.

Below is the current dining room on the left, with golf's dining room on the right. golf had a WONDERFUL 10-foot tall sideboard in the angled corner where there had originally been a fireplace (the house had a coal-burning fireplace in every room).

Just "behind" the dining room was a very large room that golf and Larry used as the master bedroom. They had a half tester bed. Today is is merely a bedroom.

Across the hall from the dinng room was another bedroom during golf's occupancy. This room has been virtually removed, with the hall wall torn down, along with the wall behind the headboard of the brass bed shown below and a new kitchen constructed. (This formerly white-painted fireplace has also been stripped, which is good, basically.)

This is a lovely, usable, open, airy, modern space. But it really doesn't fit in this house, in golf's opinion. The kitchen could have been made with the former kitchen and an old bathroom behind it, leaving this bedroom in place. Now it's a "media" room in a 1900-era house, when no one knew what that word meant . . . .

Below is the upstairs hall, now and then. The "sleeping porch" at the end of the hall at the back of the house has been converted to a modern tile, chrome, and mirrors bath. golf had wall paper and wainscotting in the hall, along with a stained glass table and an Oriental runner.

The former sleeping porch, now a modern bathroom.

At the top of the stairs is the first upstairs bedroom. When golf lived there, she turned it into a study/library. It is now simply another bedroom. Here's golf's library:

The current bedroom is on the left; a view of the fireplace in golf's library on the right.

Down the hall to the left is another bedroom. This became golf's "rose room." That was the kindest thing that could be said about the paint in the room that was supposed to be "dusty rose." It turned out, once on the walls, to be more Pepto-Bismol pink! Fortunately her walnut furniture and Jacobean curtains made it look at least semi-planned . . . . (Note another stripped fireplace surround.)

"Behind" golf's green room/library study is another bedroom. This became the "blue room." This is currently the master bedroom of the house because the attic that was beyond the white door in the picture on the right below has been turned into a huge, stoned master bath with large walk-in closet beyond. (Note this formerly white-painted fireplace has also been stripped, which does look better. ) (All these stripped fireplaces surrounds are, golf supposes, good in that they are back to the probable original wood condition. The problem is that stripped wood LOOKS stripped! It looks bleached out and dry. It might takes years of mink oil and elbow grease to get the fireplaces looking really pretty.)

The "attic" bathroom. It is lovely . . . . .

When golf and Larry lived there, the house needed a LOT of work -- they fixed it up merely cosmetically because they were only renting and the landlord wouldn't give credit for anything done to the house. Most of the "basics" HAVE now been done, which is good for the house -- and the owners, apparently -- as the landlord would have sold the house to golf and Larry for $125,000 in 1992. At that time, they wouldn't pay that much for it. Even in foreclosure in 2001, the value placed on the house was around $300,000, when it needed at least as much work if not more than it needed in 1992. Now, with current renovations, it is valued by Zillow at more than $1 million. "Location, location, location" and size -- around 6,000 square feet -- in the historic area of Grant Park in Atlanta has a lot to do with that value. But I frankly doubt that the house will sell for anywhere close (within $200,000 or so) of that amount. In golf's opinion, the "historic" value of the house has been corrupted with the current renovations, which could hurt its value. Most people who want to buy in the Grant Park area want the "history" of the house. This house no longer has it. And probably, technically, it needs as much exterior work as has been done structurally for the interior. golf thinks it is still probably one of the four largest original houses in Grant Park -- but it is no longer "original."

Time will tell. The owners expect to put the house on the market sometime in the next few months. golf has ideas about how to re-structure the "media" room to be more "period" than it currently is and get the Victorian "design" back in place. What a pity that the potential new owners don't know to get in touch with her and take advantage of her ideas . . . . oh, well.

Our trip to Riu Merengue, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

2009-02-08T15:38:00.010-05:00

Larry and golf decided on another trip! Yea! And, of course, golf insisted I come along. Fortunately, Larry is very tolerant . . .

We had a great time on the beach, and I particularly enjoyed the seagrape trees that lined the beach.

You'll see in the slideshow below that I was spotted while climbing the tree and it seems that I really amused one guy -- or else he was laughing at golf . . . .

I also sneaked out of the bag golf had me in and crept up on Larry (and his beer!) before I went out and sat on the beach -- and got caught in the surf.

Don't know where or when our next trip will be -- maybe Hilton Head or better yet Maui! Haven't been to Maui. Actually I haven't been to Hilton Head either, but I'd rather go to Maui (so would golf!).

December 5, 2008: 'Tis the Season . . . .

2008-12-05T08:32:00.003-05:00

Okay, I agree, not all that exciting, considering Larry just got back from Dublin, Ireland, and he didn't even take me -- but to entertain myself while he was gone, I went down to golf's office to cavort with her Christmas girls. Actually, that could be more fun than hanging out with Larry, but, then, he WAS in Dublin, where I've never been. Maybe next time . . . .

Merry Christmas!!

(Am glad that's fake snow I'm standing on, or it could get a tad chilly on bare feet. But -- been there, done that! Remember the snowman pictures from last year?)

November 14, 2008 -- Interesting Juxtaposition

2008-11-14T08:28:00.004-05:00

Recently golf was given a picture of herself that her sister had (for some unknown reason!). Can you guess the date of it by the hair style, clothes, cars, etc.? Good thing golf never ran into Ted Bundy during those days -- she looks like his typical victim!

Saturday, November 8

2008-11-08T17:01:00.003-05:00

This may be the one time of the year when I don't mind not being in Hawaii.

Autumn in north Georgia can be gorgeous.

And this is only golf's rather boring neighborhood subdivision.

Wednesday, September 17 -- Last Day :-(

2008-11-01T15:24:00.010-04:00

It is a very sad thing to wake up one morning and realize it is your last day in paradise. The flight golf and Larry needed to catch left at 1:10 p.m., so they didn't have a lot of time to do much this morning. Fortunately golf had done most of the packing up the night before, because she wanted to make one more pilgramage to the tidal pool this morning, and Larry agreed to go with her because they could snorkel at the beach a little northwest of the tidal pool, where they had briefly snorkeled before. So they gathered their gear and headed toward south Waimanalo Beach.

When they arrived and parked, they walked down to the beach to check out the conditions. There was a local fisherman there, pulling on his wading boots. When he found out they were planning on going in the water, he advised that they might want to reconsider or be very careful because a 15-foot tiger shark had been spotted off Waimanalo Beach on Tuesday (the day before). Since golf had not be able to snorkel the day before at Pupukea Beach, she still wanted to go snorkeling today in spite of the cautionary reminder. She went back to the car to get her equipment.

When she got back to the beach, Larry was nowhere to be seen! Frankly, golf had gotten the impression from him that he wasn't the least bit interested in seeing the tidal pool, but there was nowhere else from him to have gone, so she traipsed around the wall, wading a bit (it wasn't full low tide) and found him there. "This place is a dump!" He was appalled at the condition that the estate was in. Nevertheless, when golf pulled out the video camera, he said he wanted to shoot the movies, so she turned the camera over to him.

The Tidal Pool

While Larry filmed, golf started gathering up little broken pieces of dead coral that were lying around on the beach. Larry stopped filming and asked what in the world she was doing. She told him that she was collecting pieces of coral to take back and offer to the folks on Magnum Mania (magnum-mania.com). If SHE couldn't have gotten there herself, she would still love to have a piece of broken and worn coral actually FROM there. Larry did his usual eye-roll at golf's antics and continued to film what he could, which wasn't much -- too much foliage to protect Ms. Anderson's privacy. Can't fault her too much, there are many Magnum fans who could present a bit of a problem for her, but for us respectful ones, it's rather sad.

The Boathouse/Guesthouse

Back over at the beach where they parked, golf decided to go in the water to snorkel in spite of the shark warning. Larry said he would watch. golf had a high ole time snorkeling in what she thought was about 3-4 feet of water, not worrying about the shark, because a 15-foot shark couldn't fit into water that shallow without being spotted before he got too close for comfort. However, after she came out and mentioned that to Larry, he told her the water was closer to 15-20 feet deep, not as shallow as she thought, and the shark, if it had still been around, could have very well swum under her before she realized it was there. At that point, golf decided maybe she was glad she was safely out of the water. (But she really didn't think the shark was hanging around just waiting for her -- it was long gone -- well, that's what she convinced herself of).

Back at the ranch, final packing up and heading to the airport. Michael called to check in and see what their schedule was because it was possible that, flying standby, they might not have been able to get on the 1:10 direct flight from Honolulu to Atlanta. Michael told golf to call him from the airport and let him know if they were able to get on the flight. golf agreed to do so, because if they hadn't made that flight, they would have to wait until 10:30 that night for the next flight, and they might have needed a little "entertainment" instead of waiting for 9 hours at the airport. Michael didn't SAY he was willing to come pick them up and take them driving around to MPI filming locations, but golf considered making the request, if they were not able to get on the flight.

However, when they got to the airport, they were able to get on the flight home. golf was rather ambivalent about making the flight. Who wants to leave Hawaii?

So . . . . aloha till the next time! In the meantime, golf intends to expose Larry to a lot more MPI episodes so maybe for the next trip, he may be willing to "explore" and find other filming locations. There are SO many they didn't get to! If you would like to see them on Google Earth, leave me a Comment, and golf can provide the Google Earth "map" that rubberchicken on Magnum Mania created that shows over 300 filming locations from the show.

Life back here on the mainland isn't nearly so entertaining. But I'll try to keep busy with . . . . something or other.

Tuesday, September 16: Finally A Gorgeous Day!

2008-10-31T13:38:00.026-04:00

And, of course, it doesn’t come until our next-to-last day here. No vog, no rain, no drizzle, not a cloud in the sky. Larry and golf were still determined to snorkel, and now that they know where the Shark’s Cove is, they decided to head that way again, even if it was about an hour and a half drive. Quite a difference in number of people at the beaches from Saturday when they drove there. A weekday is apparently the correct time to go to the beaches. And for this trip, Larry stopped and let golf take pictures of the sugar mill ruins at Kualoa Ranch:

and the abandoned hospital (or whatever it is, they never found out -- if anyone knows, please add a comment and tell me).

The pretty weather resulted apparently from the winds driving the vog away, but it also resulted in a much rougher surf on the north shore. golf stood and looked at Shark’s Cove a long time before deciding it was simply too rough for her to go into the water and plan to survive. Even Larry agreed it was a little iffy.

So they repaired to Pupukea Beach, where I finally got to explore. However, the surf here was pretty strong too. Larry went in swimming and recommended that golf not do so.

Below is Larry standing on the shore on the right in the picture. You can see the surf breaking over the reefs further out, somewhat protecting the beach from the worst waves.

So she and I stayed on the beach where she took pictures of me. I was a little cautious at first,

but soon the sound of the surf was too much of a draw, and I finally got my feet sandy and wet!

Oops! Washed away! Water sneaked up and grabbed me before golf could rescue me!

After golf and I played with the pictures, she went back and sat on the beach towel and was just enjoying the view. It dawned on her that her phone might work and she could call her office and instill a little envy in those stuck in an office. So she called one of her bosses. When he answered his phone, she just started laughing because she hadn't really expected her cell phone to work there on the beach. She then talked to a couple of her co-workers, who were sufficiently annoyed at her to make the call worthwhile. She then decided to send them a picture; however, she wasn't very familiar with her own cell phone usage, and while she was trying to figure it out, the phone rang! It was Michael, just calling to see how she and Larry were doing and what they were up to.

Larry and golf wrapped it up here and headed south to change clothes and go play golf for the afternoon. Today they played at Hawaii Kai. At least their game there was better than at Ko'olau, and the weather was much nicer! But at the last green, Larry got a little silly.

Monday, September 15, 2008

2008-10-24T19:33:00.009-04:00

Well, here I am at Ko’olau Golf Course.

This was NOT a fun day for golf and Larry. It was dreary, foggy, gray – and though they didn’t get rained on, it wasn’t the best “paradise” day. It was so bad, if they didn’t have pictures of golf at Ko’olau, they don’t even remember what they did this day. Unusual for them, they believe they just stayed at the horse ranch this morning and played on the internet, caught up on email, etc. golf remembers that Michael called to check in and see how they were doing, and she told him they were going to Ko’olau this afternoon.

golf was really looking forward to playing Ko’olau because of what she had read about it, and her game is so pitiful, it couldn’t get much worse. Unfortunately, her one strong point – her drive – did her no good here, because on this course, a good drive (on any other course) got her in trouble here because the fairways don’t “go” where you expect them to go – there are chasms of bushes and trees that will eat up your golf ball and not even burp to give you a hint as to where it got swallowed! And they found it frustrating that they would hit a good shot and see where it landed – they thought! – but when they got to where they had seen the ball land, it couldn’t be found. Both of them lost at least ten of the dozen balls they had bought with Michael at K-Mart on Sunday.

Note Larry's cheerful expression after this tee shot (no, that's not his ball just over his left shoulder or he would be walking in that direction to hit it again -- I think that's a flower petal or a piece of trash).

The arrow below points to a HUGE chasm that you really can't even see from this vantage point, so you think you can drive up close and then hit over it -- maybe it was closer than golf could tell or she had a longer drive than she normally does. Whatever the case, her ball disappeared into it. :-(

Frankly, I think a sunnier, prettier day made have made them more cheerful about the difficulty of this course, but the dreariness of the day just wore them down. For example, this is supposed to be a glorious view. Not on this day . . . .

golf did find some interesting flowers that she couldn’t identify, but she picked some and stuck them in an empty Diet Coke can to bring home and put on the coffee table in the apartment – after she knocked all the ants off them!
But . . . for a day in “paradise,” this was not the best one, okay? So I’m wrapping the report for this day up now. It’s too depressing to continue to contemplate.

More cheerful reports for the next day in Hawaii (Tuesday, September 16), I promise!

Interruption! A Bit of Catch-up . . . .

2008-10-20T19:15:00.008-04:00

After my last post, there were a couple of questions, so I'm interrupting the chronological sequence of the Oahu report to stand here at my laptop and clarify a bit about the tape Michael showed us at K-Mart.

When Larry and golf had picked out their golf balls and found Michael in the electronics section, showing the Frank Sinatra tape, they were really surprised. golf told me later that she had no idea Michael had even brought the tape along (she was sitting in the back seat in the car, so she didn't see that he was holding it). Michael had actually taken the tape to the restaurant in the hope that it had a VCR, but it didn't, so he took it along when he led Larry and golf to K-Mart. He said he was lucky there was that combination TV/VCR/DVD where he could play it -- and I think he was probably very brave to try it in the first place! The tape could have or been defective after not being played for 20 years and could possibly have jammed and gotten stuck in the player! But it didn't -- whew!! -- so they were able to view it safely and see an example the kind of "home movies" Michael has.

And they certainly enjoyed seeing it! (golf didn't notice any customers paying any attention to them or the video that was showing, but then with three people grouped around the TV watching it, there wasn't much room for anyone else to see anything!)

The tape showed, basically, some "behind the scenes" shots of the crew and the actors setting up different scenes. The ones with Frank Sinatra showed him setting up with lighting and sets to do the scene where he punches the mirror with his fist. He was chatting with the crew and helping get things set up. There were a couple of test shots where he was working on getting the movement correct and then he does the punch and shakes his fist in pain from "hitting" the mirror. It seemed rather chaotic and crowded, but I guess that's what it looks like on a real filming set (as I don't personally know anything about this, unfortunately). Then there were some videos of the setting up for the still picture of TS and FS for the cover of TV Guide -- you remember that cover picture, don't you? In Michael's video, Tom and Frank were moving around in different positions for different shots, one right, one left, one high, one low, etc. So it left the impression that the guys posed for a lot of shots and then one was later chosen to be the cover picture. At one point in their moving around to try different angles, it looked as though Tom, who was sitting at a higher level than Frank right then, leaned over and kissed Frank on the top of his head! What a disarmingly sincere way to show his admiration and respect!

In addition, there were some scenes with Carol Burnett where she was in the set for Magnum's guesthouse apartment. She was moving around and chatting with people, then she got up in what looked like a tall director's chair and sat there, while, we guess, they were checking the lighting on what she was wearing and so on.

That's about it for this post. More later.

Sunday, September 14 – Viewing the Lost MPI Treasures and the Byodo In Temple

2008-10-19T10:03:00.132-04:00

Last night, I said to golf, “golf, aren’t you supposed to be getting in touch with the MPI crew member who still lives here? You know, he has props and stuff that you’re supposed to look at, right?” golf looked at me in total shock: “My god! I forgot! How could I forget when all I’ve been doing is looking for filming locations?”

First thing this morning, she emailed this gentleman (whose email address she already had from previous email contact) and then hoped to hear from him sometime today. She had given him her cell phone number, and when she finally turned the laptop over to Larry, she went back inside and found two missed calls on her cell phone. Good grief! How embarrassing! She hadn’t expected to hear that quickly. She returned the call and spoke with him for a while, arranging when and where they could meet. She and Larry were to meet him at his storage facility at 10:30. He was reluctant to reveal his identity, so golf just “named” him Michael – and Michael he shall stay for the duration.

Larry said golf had to drive this time, since she was always picking at his navigational skills, so again she didn’t get pictures of the Pali tunnels or have the chance (or the time!) to look for the Walker Estate. Now Larry was the navigator, and they got lost anyway!! Had something to do with the H-1 splitting and they took the north leg instead of the south one and ended up about six blocks north of where they needed to be. Apparently golf can read a map (sort of), so when she stopped and looked at the map, she was able to figure out where they went wrong, where they were, and where they needed to go. Well done, old girl (except for the getting lost in the first place part, and she’s still blaming Larry for that and sticking to that story).

At the storage facility (they were expected something like the grouping of garages we see around here), they found a HUGE building. Apparently storage is a big business in Hawaii (or at least Honolulu). They left the car (and me!) out on the street and went in to the office where they were advised that they were expected and that Michael was gathering things from his area and would be joining them shortly. They also had time to realize that they could park in the building (probably safer in this industrial area, at least according to what everyone told us while we were there), so golf moved the car into the parking area inside.

I think Larry went out for a cigarette, then as he was coming back in, there was suddenly a man there with a hand cart and some boxes and Larry was helping him get the door open and into the lobby area. They introduced themselves, then golf was brought into the loop, and Michael led them back to a conference room. He pointed out the VCR player but apologized that it wasn’t hooked up so he could show them some of the VHS tapes he had. He said there was one he particularly wanted them to see, but . . . .

At that time, he began putting things on the large conference table. The first was a Hawaiian shirt that he identified as being from “Memories Are Forever” (the print of this shirt was used in two different versions in MAF; and James, the moderator for Magnum-Mania.com, was able to point out that this actual shirt, though perhaps used in Memories Are Forever, was definitely worn by TM in “Foiled Again,” with the exact arrangement of the print as in the shirt Michael had). Golf can’t remember the exact order of how all these magical things were presented, but the following items were brought out and shown to Larry and golf:

Shooting scripts with different colored pages showing the different revisions; the three “Robin-1” license plates (the actual state-issued one, the mock-up because the actual plate was at risk of being stolen any time the car was parked and not guarded, and a duplicate of the mock-up in case the mock-up did get stolen, the first two of which had cropped corners so the corners wouldn’t stick out and show around the license plate frame on the Ferrari); TM’s MIA bracelet with Kenneth Lancaster’s name and date; the broken Ray-bans from “Solo Flight”; the base and stub of broken glass from the A.A.P.I. award Magnum (TM) won in “A.A.P.I.,” which, it was implied, was broken at the end of the episode, and an unbroken version of the same award in case the first one got broken by accident (Michael told us that he suggested that the unbroken one be rigged to look as though it had been glued back together, and it was agreed that that should be done, and Michael put squiggly lines of glue on the back of the unbroken glass to imitate the appearance of glass pieces’ being glued back together; he said he thought it was on display in the guest house in the following episode [but so far golf has been unable to spot it in a subsequent episode, but everyone is still looking – so if anyone reading this has spotted it, please post a “Comment” and let me know in which episode to look for it so I can tell golf and she can try to get a screenshot of it]); Larry Manetti’s original team ring, which was lost and replaced, then the original was found; a brass team ring used by stunt doubles; the black onyx pinkie ring worn by Alan Hale in “All Thieves on Deck” and the test tube with a strip of film in it, hidden in the tiki statue in the same episode; numerous crew Christmas or wrap gifts (gimme cap, key ring, watch, belt buckle, etc. – all “personalized” to MPI logos/themes); Mac’s military identification; Magnum’s wallet containing driver’s license, PI license, picture of him and Michele – with “filler” of gas cards of Tom Selleck, along with his SAG card and an insurance card; some cough drop wrappers when TS was sick during the filming once and kept having to suck on the cough drops; a keyring (and duplicate back-up) of a key ring with an ornament shaped like a basketball player with his arm raised to dunk; the paperback book used in “The Treasure of Kalaniopu’u” (the “guts” of which was actually a Joyce Brothers book – Michael told us that the art department back in Los Angeles would work up cover art such as this for a book needed on the set and would use anything on hand as the actual pages of the book [Magnum-Mania folk have found similar conditions when a newspaper is shown – the article being used in the show is worded correctly – other columns around the main article are usually nonsense]); a military combat knife used in one episode; a brass Doberman Pinscher dog statue that appeared to have been broken off some kind of award; pieces of Higgins’ balsa wood “Bridge over the River Kwai” (blown up by TM in “Paper War”); the headless rubber chicken and the head from “Paper War” (Higgins’ payback to TM for blowing up the River Kwai model) (but these had “petrified” and the body was a wadded up lump since it had been stored for 20 years stuffed in a bag) (Michael also explained that the taped-neck one later used was not the one whose head had been cut off but an intact one on whose neck they just put tape to make it look as though the head had been cut off and taped back on); a clapboard from March 4, 1988; the necklace worn by the ghost boy in “Rapture,” plus another one with sand glued on it to be used when the necklace was retrieved from the ocean floor (but the clean one ended up being used); a cardboard sign used by Higgins to protect one of his orchids, the Cereus Mandevillus; the hockey mask from “I Never Wanted to Go to France Anyway”; TM’s hospital wrist tag from “Limbo”; the earring lost by Linda Lee Ellison in the first episode of “Resolutions” that she picked up from the gutter; a couple of stainless steel pocket knives used in one episode, one sharp, one dull so it wouldn’t cut a neck when held up against the neck; the brass lighter TM used in “Murder by Night” to light his cigars; a brass pocket knife still in its box; uncut pictures of cast and crew baseball games; Betamax tapes of discarded dailies; VHS tapes of miscellaneous folks’ “home movies” on the set taken with a full-size VHS-tape camcorder; a couple of pairs of gag glasses that Tom Selleck used to play practice jokes on other cast members while filming – Michael recalled one time that the close-up was to be on John Hillerman, opening a door to Tom Selleck and Selleck was wearing the gag glasses and cracked Hillerman up. golf did ask about the bearded lady picture discussed on the Magnum-Mania site and was able to determine that it was only the picture of the Queen over the safe that had the added beard (in "Paper War"); therefore, a closer look at the picture that looks like it has a beard IS only a shadow.

Pictures of individual items can be seen if you click on the link below my picture. (can you see the miniature team ring I'm wearing on MY ring finger??)

Click here

Larry and golf looked at all these things as Michael pulled them out and discussed them. Golf was just in awe, thinking of all the Magnum-Mania folk who would have fits to see and perhaps own some of these things. Once they had everything spread out on the table, Michael suggested that Larry and golf take pictures of everything, and they did so, as they both had cameras. In the middle of the picture-taking, Michael asked where I was!!! Golf told him I was out in the car, and he suggested she should get some pictures of MGI (me, me, ME!!) with all this stuff. She was delighted to take him up on his offer, and I was THRILLED that I got included. I was also very flattered that Michael remembered me and asked about me.

Golf decided the best picture for me was to be wearing Manetti’s ring with the MIA bracelet around my waist. The ring, of course, wouldn't fit over my hand, so she rather unceremoniously popped my hand out of my wrist socket, stuck the ring on my arm, and punched my hand back in place. But I didn’t really care. I was wearing a team ring! And the MIA bracelet! And sitting with the remains of Higgins’ bridge; a decapitated, ossified rubber chicken; Magnum’s wallet; and his broken Ray-bans. Two really exciting experiences for me on this trip – first the tidal pool and now actual props from the show itself! Wow!

Michael and golf discussed what he planned to do with the items. He would like to sell them all as one lot, if possible. However, at this point, he simply does not know what all he has because he hasn’t been through all the boxes in storage and won’t be able to get to them until late in October. Golf suggested that he get a little portable dictator; and as he goes through the boxes, he can describe/identify what he has – she thought it would be a lot less trouble simply to say something that to stop and have to write everything down. She has the equipment to transcribe his dictation, so she told him if he would like to do that and mail her the tapes, she will be happy to work up an “inventory list” for him.

Golf had asked questions of Michael while they were looking at the items. After seeing the film strip in the test tube from ATOD, she asked if he had the ki’i from the Simon & Simon cross-over episodes. Michael advised that he hadn’t been with the show during the filming of that episode; he was with the show only after the first couple of seasons and stayed through till the end. One thing she asked about was the story in Larry Manetti’s book that the Ferrari was towed almost all the time. Michael advised that that was not accurate, the only time the Ferrari was really towed was when they were filming close-ups of TM driving, e.g., a shot where he was doing his voice-over narration but he was driving the car. With that going on, all the cameras and lights and equipment would be strapped/hooked to the car so he couldn't see where he was going, of course, so in those instances, the car would be towed so the viewer saw the scenery moving behind him. Golf assumes this would be the case also, if there were close-ups of him with someone riding with him in the car. I believe he also said that he never watched the show when it was on and hasn’t seen it that much in syndication, so his memories of certain episodes are only from what he remembers of being there, not of watching the episode later on TV.

Michael explained that there were usually four of each Hawaiian shirt for Selleck. Two for shooting scenes, one for back-up in case of damage to the shirts, and one for the stunt double. He said there were occasions when Selleck would mess up a shirt at the lunch break and have to switch to a back-up.

Michael said that Ms. Anderson was a real animal lover and had many different animals at the estate frequently, pigs, goats, dogs, etc. He said that, because of this, the crew would have to clean up the estate grounds before they could film. He told that the production company was always very generous with gifts to the crew at Christmas and at wrap (end of the season) each season, with some little gifts and some a little more significant (the final wrap gift after the end of the eighth season was a Rolex watch).

Golf asked about Lt. Tanaka, and Michael said, yes, he had been a lawyer when the show was filming and he used to see him around town, but he thought he was retired now. He almost always saw Tom Selleck when Tom would come back to Honolulu, but he had had virtually no contact with the rest of the cast since the show ended. I believe he said Tom would usually find out where he was working and come visit him on a set.

Golf told him about how they might go to some filming locations if they could find them and that rubber chicken from the MM site had created the filming locations “map” on Google Earth. She went out to the car and got her laptop and showed RC’s locations guide to him.

At this point, I guess golf, Larry, and I had spent a couple of hours with him. Michael asked what they were doing that afternoon and they told him they would probably go play golf. He asked if they had been to the Byodo In Temple yet; they had not; he highly recommended it. Michael then asked if they were hungry. Larry said, “I can always eat.” So Michael asked if he could take them to lunch – how very gracious! He called a restaurant whose number was programmed into his cell phone, found out mahi-mahi was the catch the day, asked if they needed reservations (they did not), so he asked golf and Larry to wait while he put all the stuff back in his storage unit and then they could go to lunch. Larry said he would be happy to drive and Michael could direct them to the restaurant.

Michael directed us to Sam Choy’s at 580 North Nimitz Highway. Food ignoramus that golf is, she didn’t know it was the restaurant of the celebrity chef, cookbook author, TV show host and award-winning restaurateur. Michael seemed to be known there, so Larry and golf guessed that he was a regular.

(I was left in the car, but I really wanted to go in for pictures inside the restaurant; however, I acknowledge that such a photo op for me might have been pushing Larry just a LITTLE too far.) Michael told golf to take her laptop in so it wasn’t stolen out of the car. Oahu residents seem to be really worried about rental car thefts! Michael told golf and Larry that, if they are going to leave anything in the car, which he strongly advised against, what they need to do is put the stuff in the trunk before they get to their destination, because the thieves watch people get out of their cars, stash the valuables in the trunk, then the thieves know which cars to break into.

In the restaurant, there was a huge lunch buffet spread for $27.99, but both golf and Larry decided they couldn’t eat $28 worth of food for lunch, so they decided to order from the menu. Everyone got the mahi-mahi. During lunch, Michael told golf and Larry a little about his background and how he came to work with Magnum, P.I. golf asked him about some other stories she’d heard about the show – for example, the regular guys got rather annoyed with Angela Lansbury and her female cohorts during the shooting of “Novel Connection” because the ladies always took so much time with their makeup and slowed down shooting. Michael said he didn’t remember that, particularly, but Ms. Lansbury brought a large, old-fashioned alarm clock to the set on her first day there – the kind with the bell caps on top and the little hammer that ricochets between them for the sound – set it for 6 p.m., and when it went off, she simply got up and left. He explained that this was very unusual on the MPI set because almost everyone there was very dedicated to the show and would spend the extra time to help each other finish up a scene. He elucidated with the example that they’re shooting a scene where everyone is sitting down having lunch, as we were, for example, and they do the full shots, then the close-ups for certain lines. Generally, the other actors who were not having close-ups shot would stay and say their lines so the close-up-ee would have the correct dialog to react and respond to. Ms. Lansbury wouldn’t do this, of course, not if it went to after 6 p.m.

Michael asked what golf and Larry would be doing for the rest of the day, and Larry responded that they might go play golf if they could find somewhere to buy golf balls, they were running low. Michael said there was a K-Mart right across the street, did K-Mart carry golf balls? Then they went through this long involved spiel of Larry’s explaining he usually played with Maxfli golf balls, Michael tried to find K-Mart’s phone number in his cell phone, not there, got a phone book, called K-Mart and determined that they didn’t carry the Maxfli balls. At this point, golf and Larry couldn’t be picky. So after lunch, Michael directed Larry to K-Mart, which was sort of across the street, it was just a one-way street in front of the restaurant so they had to go around the block to get there. (The red arrow in the picture below is Sam Choy's; the yellow arrow is K-Mart.)

At K-Mart, Michael again insisted that golf carry her laptop in, just in case, and explained again how thieves look for the bar code on the front window to identify rental cars so they know whom to steal from. Once in the store, golf and Larry went to get golf balls and then found Michael in the electronics section, where he had found an all-in-one TV-cum-DVD-and-VHS-player, and he had brought in his VHS tape of Frank Sinatra and Carol Burnett “behind the scenes” – he really wanted golf and Larry to see this so they would know the kind of videos he had on tape. He told them how, when Frank Sinatra was on the set, everyone was told to always call Sinatra, “Mr. Sinatra.” The first time someone said this, Sinatra said, “Call me Frank.” And then everyone did. Even though Michael was working with Tom Selleck, et al., he seemed to be pleased and rather awed to have been around Frank Sinatra. I certainly can understand that! Of course, not being in show business themselves, golf and Larry would probably have been plenty impressed, just to have been around “TV star” Tom Selleck. (Well, maybe not Larry, he’s pretty laid back about things like that.) While they were in the check-out lane, golf doesn’t remember how it came up, but she mentioned that Larry looked rather like a cross between Gerald McRaney and Jeff Foxworthy. Michael said he knew Gerald McRaney. Then he was kind enough to say golf looked a little like Hope Lange – “Do you know who that is?” golf said she did and thank you very much!
Michael directed them back to the storage facility to drop him off. As Michael got out of the front seat and golf got out of the back to move to the front, she asked Michael if she could give him a “thank you” hug. He consented, and she was delighted to hug him and thank him for his time and lunch – and just all the fun they had had with him. As she got in the car, he said, “Cute shoes!” (she was wearing her lime green sneakers that Larry makes so much fun of!)

So golf and Larry headed back to the windward side of the island. Golf was really stoked! She had had SO much fun meeting Michael and seeing the MPI stuff (that’s what Michael calls it – he said it meant a lot to him when he collected it but now, twenty years later, it was just “stuff”). This was everyday work to him – to MPI fans, it’s the most unusual, unique, and one-of-a-kind (that’s redundant, isn’t it?) things to see. Okay, it’s not like the most valuable stamp in the world to a philatelist, but these things are very special to MPI fans because they’ve seen them in the show, followed their “history” in the show (for some props repeatedly seen – license tag, River Kwai bridge, rubber chicken). Just think of some item – a favorite toy for your childhood, a piece of clothing that always made you feel good/pretty/handsome when you wore it -- just something you owned in the past that was really special to you but you no longer have it. It doesn’t have to be unusual or valuable, but it’s meaningful to you. That’s what these props would be to MPI fans. And golf cannot adequately express how lucky and fortunate she felt to have been on Oahu when Michael was available and had the time to show these items to a representative of the Magnum-Mania site.

It seemed to be getting cloudy again as they headed back over the mountains, but based on Michael’s recommendations, they went to the Valley of the Temples to see the Byodo In Temple.

Golf particularly wanted to see it because of the scene with TC in the Little Bird (MD500) and TM in the Kiowa (Bell 206) hovering over the pool in front of the temple.

Wow! Look at the difference between the growth of the trees -- current picture on the left, the scene from Part 2 of "Did You See the Sunrise?" with TC in the Little Bird on the left and the Kiowa (Bell 206) on the right!!

And now for some pictures of some of the "critters" at the Temple:

The temple was beautiful, though it was gray and cloudy, and it probably would have looked better in full sunlight. And poor golf was dinner to every mosquito there! So – fair warning – if you go there – use bug spray. But golf did let me go see it too. I was quite the hit when sitting here:

(Is this sacrilege?)

I’m not sure anyone knew who I was, but as golf was taking pictures, they stopped and took pictures too.

Well, this is enough for today. golf says she doesn't even remember what they did that evening, because she was still so excited about having seen all the MPI stuff. So . . . . "CUT! That's a wrap."

Saturday, September 13, 2008 – The Tidal Pool, Chinaman’s Hat, and Shrimp on the Barby

2008-10-14T15:47:00.019-04:00

My little patch of heaven in paradise -- on the wall at the tidal pool.

The gate to the estate, sand-covered stairs no longer visible in any form.

Larry expressed no interest in an early morning trip to the tidal pool (Philistine!!), so golf and I got up early to go by ourselves. We didn’t make it by sunrise, but it was shortly thereafter. At least it was low tide. Unfortunately, there were some locals around pole fishing, along with a couple of kids, who rather interrupted photo ops, but she worked around it as best she could.

Even though it was low tide, the beach was still only about 12-15 wide, and the sand was wet all the way up to the retaining wall and half-way up to the gate. Not much beach at all. So no one could sunbathe there now for any length of time or they would have to be willing to lie on wet sand under a towel or mat.

Even at low tide, the water is all the way up to the wall Magnum sneaked around to break into the gate on the beach and make the run to the Ferrari. "Work the lock. Don't look at the dogs."

From what golf could see of the tennis courts through the leaves, it looks as though no one has played tennis there for a long time – a lot of debris on the courts. The gates at the ramp to the boathouse look rather shabby, but the boathouse itself didn’t look that bad – wood doors or covers that she remembered as being broken or scattered or tilted in other pictures seemed to be intact and neat, at least, with the area around the base of the building cleaned up, though there were some cracks in the stucco (if that’s what it is).

(There is supposed to be a video here of the tennis courts, etc., but it's having a hard time loading. Check at the end of this post and see if it showed up there eventually.)

Try this:

Video of what little I could get on film

See the discarded clothes on the boathouse ramp and the trash on the wall to the left?

I would kill to get up on that porch (but I'm too small to show up in a picture taken from here.)

In the long run, I doubt that we saw much of anything more than everyone has been able to see (or not see) at the estate due to the overgrown foliage. Golf did get up and walk along the top of the retaining wall in front of the boathouse, and she was appalled to notice all the trash along there where people had just left food wrappers or empty cans. She didn’t have a bag with her to carry the trash away or she would have cleaned it up. The wall has several substantial cracks.

The most excitement was right after the picture of her above was taken. Her back was toward the fence, to walk back to the camera she has left on the wall, when suddenly there was this rustling behind her and “Woof! Woof! Woof!” She nearly jumped out of her parrot shirt! She whipped around and there were two retrievers (best guess), a black one and a cream one. A voice called them back, and golf looked through the leaves to see a white-haired lady walking around to the side of the house. A hand went up in a sort of wave, that golf interpreted as, “There’s another Magnum nut . . . .”

Now, see, THIS was when golf should have called out, “Good morning, Ms. Anderson!” But the wimpy little doofus didn’t. She claimed she didn’t want to intrude, but those four words are hardly offensive, and Ms. A. might have stopped and spoken (she has been known to do so occasionally). Of course, if she HAD, golf wouldn’t have asked the right questions because she probably would have been too flustered. Dweeb . . . . Next time we go, I’m sticking a list of questions in her pocket or somewhere, write out a script for her – something!

I was going to try to get over the gate to chase Ms. A. down, but golf called me back and higher principles prevailed. In the meantime, the kids just would NOT stop playing on the concrete slab. Golf hadn’t particularly wanted to take pictures of me in front of a couple of kids (I can’t imagine why!), but she finally asked the kids if they would get off the slab so she could take pictures (they were putting gravel and sand on top of it – when asked why, they told her it was too slippery [with moss] to stand on so they were trying to get grit up there for traction [they didn’t use that word exactly]). When she put me up on the slab, the boys asked, “What is that?” She just responded that it was a Magnum action figure. Fortunately, the boys seemed to accept that without flinching noticeably (they probably didn’t know who Magnum was/is and were thinking “crazy haole”), but one found a big rock and put it up on the slab so it could be a chair for me to sit on while golf took a picture of me while I watched the sun rise.

Golf looked inside the slab to see if she could spot any way water or debris would be flowing into the tidal pool, but the “floor” inside the slab was totally sand – the drainage hole must have filled up with sand the way the stairs at the gate have been covered.

So we had a good time, but it would have been more fun to just be by ourselves.

Back at the ranch, Larry was up and about, so Larry and golf put on the swimsuits, went through Kailua and got golf a new snorkel mask and headed north, the long way, driving all around Kaneohe Bay on Kaneohe Bay Drive until it intersected with Kamehameha Highway, where they turned north. It was great, just driving along the coastline.

The first stop was Kualoa Regional Park (after passing the Kualoa Ranch, a filming location – do I see macaw feathers flying around? [“Oops!” (“Birdman of Budapest”)], which is the beach park off which Chinaman’s Hat (technically Mokoli’i Island) rests. A lot of locals were camping and cooking out here, but we got pictures, of course.

We sure couldn't see how you could walk out to the island at low tide! Hard to believe that long stretch of water is only 3-4 feet deep?

This is when we started noticing the haze over and around the mountains and the dark clouds. We later found out this haze is what is known locally as “vog” – volcano ash blowing over from the Big Island via the Kona winds and mixing with local fog to make vog. Mixed with the rain clouds and humidity, this was what was making so many areas seem so dreary and rainy/drizzly.

Right on the road north of the ranch entrance are the ruins shown below. We weren’t sure if these were from an early ranch house or what. Map says “Sugar mill ruins – in operation 1863-1871” but it doesn’t look like a very big sugar mill.

(Don't you hate how electric lines so frequently ruin a good picture in Hawaii?)

Back in the car, golf was reading off the map, looking for all the beach parks along the route, and id’ing them as we drove by. There were about a dozen or so that we could identify, and most were quite crowded with locals out camping for the weekend. Parking was at a premium. Went through Hau’ula and Laie, passing the Polynesian Cultural Center. Passed Kahuku (municipal) golf course, but never did figure out how to get to it, as it seems to merge with the golf courses at Turtle Bay (but golf and Larry weren’t planning on coming this far north just to play golf, with four courses close by the ranch). Finally past Sunset Beach Park (no available parking spaces), Ehukai Beach, then Pupukea Beach (no parking spaces).

We were able to get one as someone left at Ehukai Beach, and we believed the Shark’s Cove was to the right of where we parked. We walked down there, but the rock-enclosed area of the cove looked too shallow for snorkeling – there were parents and toddlers there. Beyond that was Shark’s Cove, but it didn’t look very inviting (with respect to golf's limited swimming skills [or lack thereof], and golf and Larry weren’t sure that was where they were supposed to find good snorkeling, so at this point, they weren’t going to try.

They went back to the car, got their towels and snorkel gear, and walked over to Pupukea Beach, where they did go in.

They found the snorkeling much better here than at Hanauma Bay, so they stayed in the water for about an hour. Due to the crowd, golf wouldn’t take any pictures of me here, but she did when they came back here on Tuesday, September 16.

Rather ungracefully, both golf and Larry shed their swimsuits behind car doors and beach towels in the parking lot, putting on their dry clothes for the long ride home, while I snickered at their antics because there were concrete block restrooms (where they could shower and change) 20 yards from where they were parked!

On the way back, they kept noticing all these roadside trailers selling shrimp. They thought it would be a good idea to stop and get some to take home and cook, but all of these were little restaurants (though that's rather complimentary as to the structures) and were serving the cooked meals, not selling raw shrimp. :-( So they just went to the Safeway in Kailua on the way home and got some fresh shrimp at the seafood section there and went home and had surf'n'turf in their outdoor dining room.

And, thus, the end of another day in paradise.

Friday, September 12 – Hanauma and Olomana

2008-10-13T19:48:00.010-04:00

HANAUMA BAY

Okay, I’ve messed up this report miserably. In going through the pictures and previous notes, I find out I’ve screwed up the chronology. Golf did NOT get to the tidal pool on Wednesday, as previously reported -- that day she got only the pictures of me on the gate, then they went to the Pali Golf Course. She went to the tidal pool on Thursday, after they had been driving all over Kailua as previously reported, and that was when they snorkeled at Kaupo Beach, the beach that’s four buildings northwest of Robin’s Nest, found the anchor chain, and found out her mask was leaking – or she assumed there was something wrong with the way she was using it. So that’s when, after she “lured” Larry there under the guise of “let’s snorkel here,” she was able to struggle through the tide to get to the tidal pool while Larry, kindly and patiently, waited at Kaupo Beach.

So actually her joy in her first visit to the tidal pool was Thursday, not Wednesday, as was posted earlier. So I apologize for any confusion – believe me, she’s confused ME now more than you! And I was there. I tried to correct her, but she wouldn’t listen to me. . . . . I am shocked, shocked and appalled that golf would forget the date she first made it to the tidal pool. Abysmal . . . .

Now pick up Friday:

golf was excited. She was very eager to get to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling this morning. For a non-swimmer, she just loves snorkeling.

Larry and golf arrived at the parking lot around 9:30. It was already pretty crowded, but not miserably so. They paid their entry fee, at which time they found at that, if it’s one’s first visit there, one has to view the video to learn not to feed the fish nor damage the reef. So they waited 15 minutes for that. The history part of the bay was somewhat interesting, but they were so eager to get in the water, it was mildly annoying. Then the long walk down. There is a little shuttle that runs up and down ($0.50 for the trip down, $1.00 for the trip up). But they didn’t mind walking down.

They found a place on the beach to spread out one towel and pile the other stuff on it (they’ve been taking their cameras with them to the beach because EVERYONE keeps saying NOT to leave anything of value in your car. They figured it was probably safer on the beach with a lot of people around to witness any theft, but technically, probably, if a thief wants it, the stuff is gone. Nevertheless, they never had anything stolen from car or beach.)

How to express golf’s total frustration . . . . her masked leaked terribly, even worse than yesterday. She was fighting the incoming water all the time, and she was close to miserable. She kept tightening it but all that did was give her a headache and then it would fog up. Poor thing nearly drowned, fighting with it.

And there were very few fish! Just a few little convict tangs. Nothing like what they were expecting, such as they had seen at Maui and the Big Island. And where they were, there WASN’T any reef, there wasn’t even any “live” rock. It was all just “dead” rock. They didn’t know if it had all been so damaged by over-use or what, but they both agreed it wasn’t worth fighting golf’s problems to stay in the water as they felt there was not much to see. Perhaps if they had gone farther out, there might have been more fish, but golf probably truly would have drowned if they’d done that. So they came out of the water, and Larry walked to the other end of the beach to see if he could determine if the snorkeling would be better there. While golf waited for him to return, she started examining her mask to see if she could find anything really wrong with it (generally, if something doesn’t work, she assumes it’s probably her fault). AHA! She found a kink in the plastic seal around the edge of the mask. It looked as though it has been pinned under the packaging and been damaged while it stayed so long in the packaging with this edge caught. Well, that was somewhat a relief. Just get a new mask (it had hardly been a major investment) and then she could snorkel again. But they felt they might as well retire from here for this morning, so they caught the shuttle up the hill and left, after taking a few pictures from the top of the hill, looking down on the bay. Below is golf in her men's large MPI parrot shirt -- it rather dwarfs her!

The bay was beautiful, no doubt about it. They just didn’t find a lot of fish there – and no reef TO damage. But maybe they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

When they had been at the Makai Research Pier on Wednesday, they had seen some divers with scuba gear going in the water there. They had been told that that was a place where scuba lessons were giving so maybe the snorkeling was good there? But they didn’t stop at this point in time. What point was there in trying again? The mask would just leak again. She needed a new one.

So they gave up on snorkeling until they could get golf a new mask. But on the way back to the ranch, they stopped at the Halona overlook/blow hole (between Hanauma Bay and Sandy Beach) and took pictures there.

Then they stopped one more time at Waimanalo Beach. This beach is so gorgeous! (though the jellyfish warning was posted!)

It was still relatively early in the day, so back at the “ranch,” golf called the golf course right around the corner from where they were, Olomana Golf Course, and they got a tee time and went over there to play.

Larry on the first tee

They had a good time playing there. They got paired up with a man and his wife who were fun and entertaining. That couple was on a cruise, and this was the first time his wife had been out on the golf course with him (she didn’t play) (they were both retired and she’d never seen him play golf! The mind boggles . . . . but this may be more prevalent than golf would have thought because she plays more than Larry does!).

Anyway, the course was very pretty, but apparently Oahu has been experiencing a kind of drought because every water pond, stream, etc. (and there were a lot of them!) was all dried up and was just a dried alligator surface of dirt! Easy to retrieve those stray balls that should have been lost in a water hazard – but then not so easy after all, because there were SO many balls left after the water dried up that you couldn’t find YOUR ball!

Still, there were some interesting scenery of trees and rocks that Larry and golf DON'T see in Georgia!

By late in the game, though, it was starting to get cloudy again.

After playing golf, they went back into Kailua and since they were tired after a long day, they just ate pizza at a restaurant in the shopping center where the Safeway was.

Thursday, September 11 -- Acquisitions and One More Shooting Location

2008-10-11T13:22:00.008-04:00

Thursday, September 11, 2008:

Time to find snorkel equipment. Larry and golf had decided just to buy it instead of renting it, as when they have rented for a week in the past, the cost had been about $100 (including the prescription mask for Larry, the extra long fins, and a boogie board for golf, who can’t swim). However, golf now has her little air mattress, so she didn’t need the boogie board anymore; Larry said he was fine without the prescription mask, and the free snorkel equipment they had used in St. Thomas with the regular size fins had been fine, so they figured they didn’t really need the special fins.

They had seen relatively inexpensive masks and snorkels at Long’s Drugs, running from $9.99 up to about $19.99, so they checked there first. Larry found a set for $10 and golf got the $12 set. Long’s didn’t have fins. In driving around downtown Kailua, they spotted a dive shop that advertised it was going out of business, so that was worth checking out. The store had fins in the sizes they needed, so for $20 each pair, they bought fins -- a little more than they had wanted to pay, but . . . .

Since we were in Kailua (I was, of course, with them in case any photo opportunities arose), and there is a Kailua Beach, they drove around trying to find it. We found many little “beach access” paths among all the residences, but any space along the residential streets where one could park already had a car/cars in place, and they certainly couldn't block driveways or fire plugs. So we never got to Kailua Beach, but we spent a lot of time exploring.

Since Larry and golf now had their snorkel equipment but didn’t wnt to try Hanauma Bay this late in the day and decided they’d hit there early the next morning, what to do with the rest of the day?

GOLF, of course! Golf called the Pali Golf Course and found out this municipal course was allowing play only on nine holes. Well, it was late enough in the afternoon and beginning to be cloudy, so they figured nine holes would be enough for this afternoon.

So they loaded up the clubs and the beer (for Larry) and headed back up the Pali Highway to a turn west onto Kamehameha Highway, and the first turn to the left was the entrance to the golf course. It’s really silly, I think, because golf is so lousy at the game, but she’s told me that she gets a real thrill just driving up the road approaching a golf course. Every time, she thinks she’s going to shoot brilliantly. Of course, she never does, well, she might get a few pars, but for every one of her good shots, there’s a disastrous one to follow. Never fails. Oh, well, according to her, that’s the lure of the game. One always thinks if one can hit one good shot, he/she can hit another. Larry and golf tend to void this theory resoundingly.

It was actually starting to get pretty cloudy and looked like rain, but it never rained, so they couldn’t use that as an excuse for their play. But, as usual, they had a good time hacking around, enjoying the scenery, checking out the local critters, and generally just having a high old time with their “big sticks, swinging in the dirt.”

Of course, they’re used to viewing slightly different critters back home – e.g., deer and rabbits instead of mongooses (mongeese?) and pigs (never got a picture of a mongoose, they’re just too fast).

Back at the ranch for the evening. Oh, yes, I need to point this out. A mildly interesting MPI tie-in of sorts to the ranch. Remember in “Did You See the Sunrise,” when Nuzo is at TC’s house and TC tells him how his (TC's house) is on the flight line for the military helicopters flying down the Ko’olau Valley (or something similar to that)? And, of course, from rubberchicken (of Magnum-Mania fame)’s finding via Google Earth the actual location of the house used in this episode as TC’s house, we know that house is actually not anywhere NEAR the Ko'olau Valley. But, at the ranch, we ARE at the southeast end of the valley so we DO have the helis flying over us quite frequently! golf just delights in this. Of course, we’re gone most of the day, but our first afternoon/evening here, we had three helis fly over us, and golf notes everyone that goes over.

And speaking of helicopters, while golf was slogging around at the tidal pool, a helicopter flew over. It wasn’t, of course, TC’s or even an MD500D (she thought it was a EuroStar EC130), just a tourist helicopter. But you just KNOW that the pilot was pointing out the estate.