Did you know there is a fall season in Hawaii?

When I have to pull out the wool Pendleton blanket to keep us warm at night, I know it is officially fall time in Waimea. Saturday we woke up to a dusting of snow on Mauna Kea, possibly indicating that we are skipping fall and going straight to winter. We raked a big pile of leaves in our front yard, wore ski hats, and took pictures. (causing people walking by to smile at our staged mock fall setting). Sunday was an all day Pumpkin Patch fair. Alex had his Woodbury Green Building Consultation booth set up and I walked around handing out business cards advertising "Save up to 40% on your energy bills! Come visit our booth and enter to win a free Energy audit!" (Luckily since I was dressed so cute I got smiles instead of salesmen rejection like I normally receive when I try to sell a product!) My cousin Ryan came up for cousin bonding family time Saturday night. (He's the tall skinny boy next to me at the Pumpkin patch...I still wonder what Salerno genes HE got to be over 6 feet tall and under 115 pounds! Why didn't I get those Salerno genes?!)

나의 새로 발견된 한국 자매 및 형제 (My newfound Korean sister and brother)

I have not written on my blog about a very incredible current event taking place in my family. Several months ago out of the blue, my parents were contacted by the woman who placed Kimi in the United States. She had information regarding her Korean family. Within days we had the e-mail address of Kimi's older sister Mi-Jeong! Since then our family has been in touch with her and my parents are taking Kimi to Korea next month to reunite with her sister and brother. I recently wrote to Mi-Jeong and told her about my blog website. So this post is dedicated to Mi-Jeong, my newfound Korean sister! I hope one day to travel to Korea and meet my extended family! (I have translated this message into Korean directly below)

나는 가족에 일어나는 아주 믿을 수 없는 시사에 관하여 나의 블로그에 쓰지 않았다. 몇 달 전에 갑자기, 나의 부모와 미국에 있는 Kimi를 둔 여자에 의해 연락되었다. 그녀는 그녀의 한국 가족에 대하여 정보가 있었다. 일 안에 우리는 Kimi'의 이메일 주소가 있었다; s 더 오래된 자매 Mi Jeong! 그 이후로 우리의 가족은 그녀와 연락하고 나의 부모는 한국에 그녀의 자매 및 형제와 재결합하기 위하여 Kimi를 다음달 가지고 가고 있다. 나는 Mi Jeong에 최근에 쓰고 나의 블로그 웹사이트에 관하여 그녀에게 말했다. 따라서 이 포스트는 Mi Jeong 의 나의 새로 발견된 한국 자매에 전념한다! 나는 한국에 여행하고 나의 확대 가족을 만나기 위하여 1 일을 희망한다! (나는 한국어로 이 메시지를 아래에 직접 번역했다)

The Full Monty Show!

I am shocked, SHOCKED by some of my readers! So far, SIX readers accused me of staging Moki the Wonderdog's toy performance by accusing ALEX of hiding behind the bed handing Moki the toys I requested. How low do you people think I would stoop for attention? Is it not obvious that poor Moki is humiliated on a daily basis? Forced to perform mindless entertaining skits simply for his owners musings. Being dressed up for every holiday? Getting goofy mowhawk haircuts when the weather is too hot for his wooly pantaloons? It's one thing to question MY integrity, but for you to betray Moki and not believe he is the Wonderdog! He is hurt. He is offended. He lost all trust and faith in his fans. And he is expecting fed ex'ed scooby snacks as an acceptable letter of appology.
Now I'm not saying Moki is ALWAYS the Wonderdog. He is a very opinionated, stubborn, and independent soul. Many times, when I request the Dino, he thinks "Hmm, I'd rather bring you the frisbee and cut to the chase". And when I request the froggy he thinks "Eh, I like the squeek of the Hedgehog better." He has favorite toys of the moment, and anytime you ask him to bring a particular toy, it will ALWAYS be the squirrel for the entire week. Moki will evaluate a command and decide whether or not to obey. Usually the only commands he obeys have to have a greater purpose, or benefit him somehow. If I seriously demand he come up on the bed to cuddle, he thinks about it for a moment and realizes that this command will only benefit me, and walks away.
I am not a crazy pet owner. I have simply raised my dog like a child since he was 7 weeks old. I have worked hard to educate him. Since I work from home, he spends all day herding children to and from the piano bench. He has a job. He has a purpose. And he constantly looks at me with eyes that scream "WHY AM I A DOG? Can't you see I'm a real boy trapped in a dog's body?!"
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I insisted to Alex that my next car needed to run on biodiesel, but this wasn't what I had in mind

About a month ago Alex won an e-bay auction for a Toro Dingo. It shipped all the way from the east coast. It came with a grapple and a bucket. The grapple reminds me of the quarter games you see in the arcades where a child tries to grab the stuffed animal with the claw (and in the arcade it never works. In this particular video, Alex doesn't grab the rock either, but this is his first day using his new toy so we'll give him room for trial and error). This machine can also be outfitted with a stump grinder, a garden bed tiller, and many other attachments as well (but this is all VERY boy talk for me so I tend to tune out after "wide load track". I did pay attention when he talked about the speed, and for those who are wondering, the Dingo drives at 5 mph. Alex plans to volunteer with the Dingo for Waimea Parks and Trails in the near future to continue making a path along the river bed for joggers, bikers, and dog walkers. There's bound to be more Dingo on my blog, so I'll listen carefully and get more facts about the machine. We named him "Bad Robot".

A little public property defacing never hurt anybody

This weekend also included Fire Hydrant face lifts. The dalmation fire hydrant was originally painted about 3 years ago and needed some touch up. I also decided while I was at it to give our lot's rusty fire hydrant a spiffy new cheetah look. Now I'm thinking since our house is on a popular mommy-stroller 1 mile loop, I might go around to ALL the hydrants in our inner urban trail and give them make overs. I'm thinking there needs to be a zebra hydrant, penguin hydrant, tiger hydrant, black cat hydrant, OH and I was thinking of painting the hydrant directly in front of the Mormon Church parking lot Jesus! Instead of a fire hat there could be a halo or a crown of thorns. It would be perfect! Hmm, I might have to do some of my make over hydrant painting in the dark....

Fire Hydrant on our property BEFORE and AFTER Operation Sergeant Cheetah face lift

Moki the Wonderdog

This video is for you dad! To make you feel better and cheer you up! And to know that Moki the Wonderdog and I are thinking about you!

Moki started his day with 30 minutes of frisbee and tennis ball. He was panting and worn out and happy. So for him to focus and bring me his toys was a miracle! For some reason when I hop into the bathtub I become his perfect captive audience and he tends to listen to me more. So yes, I am in the bathtub in this video, but fully clothed and ready to teach lessons right after our game. I could tell he was pretty worn out, so I didn't push for him to bring me his other toys: Artichoke, Eggplant, Orange Frisbee, Squiz (Squirrel shaped frisbee), Carebear, slipper monkey, chicken, and ball. But he knows those toys too. Yes we have an Idiot Savant on our hands. I should have been teaching him useful things like "Get the mail, pay my bills, grab my cell phone if I need to call 911, rotate my tires, make me an espresso..."

Would you like some cheese with that wine?

Sunday night marked our first social gathering of the school year not involving a birthday, holiday, or wedding. Our friends need to literally pry our bodies out of our house to remind us how FUN it is being social! We gathered with 2 other families and brought wine, cheese, appetizers, and a baked salmon. It was quite a feast! The 2 families each have daughters in 9th grade who are best friends, so everyone has a buddy to hang out with. The last picture of my friend Hilke was at my birthday party (April blog post), and as you can see since then she has had her beautiful baby girl Pomai. The park where we are having our picnic is the parks and trails project Alex and I volunteered a few Saturdays ago. It is a lovely spot to take evening walks, have picnics, and run or bike the dog!
Living in the tropics with no seasonal changes, people tend to exaggerate the holidays to compensate. Walking into Ace Hardware this month feels like walking into a Haunted House decorated for Halloween. At Christmas time, you should see the elaborate decorations all over town; some folks taking their trucks up to Mauna Kea and bringing pick up beds of snow back home. VERY strange to see a beach on one side of the street, and children making a snowman on the other. (The snowmen have an average lifespan of 30 minutes in Hawaii. But the snowWOMEN tend to have a slightly longer lifespan) I wanted to have a Halloween dance party this year. Friends dancing to Thriller and the Monster Mash. I wanted our front yard to be a graveyard. I wanted children and friends to walk through my music room door and see a mummy playing spooky tunes on the piano, and then walk into the living room to play Halloween games like bobbing for apples, or wearing a blind fold and sticking your hands in mysterious things like cold spaghetti and peeled grapes. I also wanted to have a recital a week before Halloween and have my students wear their costumes. But this month is just FLYING by already. I'm not prepared to do those things! So my goal is to be ready NEXT year! Where DOES the time go?!

Happy Birthday Terry Bo Berry

(On the off chance you don't check my blog on your actual birthday tomorrow, I'll give you an early birthday present today!)

OCTOBER 10, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRY BO BERRY!

So I'm not sure if it's because I smell bad....or maybe I said something wrong....but you have been MIA for awhile now! I hope you still exist! I always say that no news is good news.
I couldn't get it together enough this year to mail you a birthday present. So instead I thought of an even BETTER gift! The gift of watching unseen precious footage of Little Man cooking with his Fairy Godmother Aunt Jettika! Three years ago today you and Joe were visiting us in Hawaii on your birthday. Now you are a busy mother with a 2 year old toddler! We wish you a wonderful birthday Terry!

And while I am on my blog I will give a quick update on the current events taking place in Hawaii for the Woodbury duo. Last Saturday we poured a cement footing for another wall going up on the lot. There was a huge cement truck and four burly men were supposed to show up to help relay race wheelbarrow's full of cement to various places along the footing. Well it turns out we were down two "men". I use the word "men" loosely because apparently I am perfectly suitable for substituting in for a big strong burly Tongan man (in the eyes of Alex). But Alex was a gentleman and spared me from having to race heavy cement filled wheelbarrows and let me take the position of being chief cement raker. I would rake the cement and pat it down smoothly.

The Talented Mr. Gregory!

Just like NPR, I thought I would post a little musical interlude in between postings. Tonight's mini performance is brought to you by one of my shining star students, Gregory age 14. He has been my student for almost 5 years. Translation: he has only had serious piano training for FIVE years. This kid went from beginning Faber method books, to Green Corn Dance, to Fur Elise, to college level Sonata's, to Franz Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. I asked him at one point if his goal is to become MY teacher. While it would require much more personal practice to gain demonstration comfortability on my part as the teacher, luckily I am still able to inspire him to practice; constantly believe that he is capable of playing absolutely anything (when others may discourage him from attempting such mature pieces at his age); help with shaping and phrasing; and simply be an extra set of eyeballs and hands at times to help him reach all his goals and dreams. I am so proud to have such wonderful and talented students. My entire day is full of singing, ringing, and stringing!