Tiny Dancer

Here is a video clip of the best dancer at my birthday party. Can you tell she's the daughter of a dance teacher?! She was just a hoot. I joked with her mother that maybe 28 is the year.....

I have to admit, seeing that I had 27 friends at my party, it reminded me of a middle school dance at times. People looking at the ground shuffling feet reluctant to get onto the dance floor. Most guests located themselves in the kitchen for chatting and food. I felt that if I stopped dancing, then NOBODY would dance. So I danced for 4 hours straight. Hence, I could barely walk the next day. But I have to say, my 28th birthday was by far my most favorite birthday in the history of Jessica. Should I make 28 year resolutions? To exercise more, eat healthy more, enjoy life in Hawaii (I.E. stop and smell the lehua blossoms), and have friends and relatives visit me as often as possible! Thanks to all for making my birthday a special one!

Salerno Strings Recital

While I am the music teacher to 65 private students, I can truly say it is my STUDENTS who have taught me what it means to love music. I am so proud of my 35 students who performed today. We covered everything from piano, voice, steel drum, and violin as well as classical, blues, popular hits, and rock and roll music. Including a Mick Jagger cover! I was amazed at the amount of talent in my music studio today. I am so moved by the amount of enthusiasm and love for music each of my students portray.  

Shave and a Hair Cut...2 Bits!

My subject title is the little tune they play at the end of cartoons. (As a musician I feel the need to explain my humor)

Today the hair came off. You would never guess I had it cut because once my hair is long enough, it automatically gets pulled into the daily pony tail. But I've come to the conclusion that I am a shorter haired type of person. And I envy all you long haired beauties.

So here's a riddle for you to solve. I come home yesterday after a VERY windy day. I walk up to our master bathroom and find the window open. During the day, the strong gusts of wind knocked over a vase of flowers and water in the bathroom. Yet strangely enough, there was not a drop of water to be found, just the flowers. I looked on the counter, I looked on the floor, but there was NO water. How did that happen? The only things on the counter were my toothbrush, my hair brush, an extra roll of toilet paper, and make up. But no pool of water. 

Give up? Or was it obvious to you and not me at the time? 

Later that night I decided to clean off the counter. I reached out to put the extra toilet paper roll under the counter and it was SOAKED. It had neatly and unassumingly soaked up that mystery puddle I couldn't find. And maintained the perfect shape of a toilet paper roll.   

Mystery solved. And no, I am not an artificial brunette. 

Moki Tails

I swear, Moki makes me laugh out loud every day. He is such a funny dog. On Sunday, we sang Happy Birthday to Grandma Ruth, and Moki decided to sing along too and howled. He normally saves his singing for my steel drum, but the song "Happy Birthday" does it for him too. Everytime.

But this week, he's in a very strange mood. He'll stand there and stomp his front foot at me and "hmmph" (like a silent air grunt) and look at me with eyes that scream "Well?!" I have no idea what he wants. And lately he's doing this thing where anytime I sit down at the piano to practice myself, he thinks a student MUST be outside waiting for a lesson and he runs to the door and whines and looks at me intently like "WELL?! The piano is making music..I need to let the students in!" 

Moki has learned that when I say "OK Kiddo. You did a great job today", he jumps up from his bed by my piano and leads the student to the door; then he runs out to the next car waiting and leads the student inside. This process repeats itself all day long while I teach. And usually he can calculate when my last lesson is and he'll bring me his frisbee to me as if to say "OK mom, now it's my turn for individual attention". But yesterday he miscalculated when I was done by an hour so I sent him downstairs to daddy. I truly believe Moki is a human soul trapped in a dog's body. 

Enough about Vog on my Blog

Need a quick recipe idea for dinner tonight? Alex and I created the perfect once a week meal that we will never get sick of. So here's my dinner recommendation:

Organic Chicken Burritos with Poblano Chiles and Corn.

Ingredients: 3 tablespoons olive oil; 3 medium size fresh poblano chiles (seeded and chopped); 1.5 lbs organic skinless boneless chicken thighs cut into strips; 3/4 teaspoons ground cumin; 3/4 teaspoons chili powder; a packet of organic taco seasoning; 2 cups frozen organic corn thawed, patted dry; burrito flour tortillas; grated Mexican blend cheese; 1 cup fresh cilantro.

Directions: heat oil in nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add poblano chiles; saute 3 mins; add chicken, cumin, taco seasoning; sprinkle with salt and pepper; add a splash of beer to moisten the sauce. Saute 4 mins; stir in corn; heat 1 min. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm. Add cilantro and serve!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's VOG

VOG as seen from Highway 11 looking down onto Kailua Kona, HI. Notice you can barely make out the cruise ship in the bay, and the complete lack of a HORIZON! 

While people in Los Angeles have to deal with ugly brown smog, residents of Hawaii have to deal with hazy irritating VOG. I decided to do as much research on VOG as possible, since I am a sufferer of Pele's wrath. 

Vog is formed when sulfur dioxide and other pollutants emitted by an erupting volcano mix with oxygen. CO2, arsenic, and other deadly chemicals are found in VOG (which explains the burning sensation in my sinuses, the 100 sneezes I am blessed for daily, and the incredibly itchy dry eyes that have me blinking like a toad caught in a hail storm) Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983. And Kilauea emits an estimate of 2,00 tons of Vog every day. While my parents informed me that the Seattle Times ran a cover page article about Hawaii's abnormally high levels of VOG, I don't expect conditions to get as worse as the deadly London fog of December 1952.