Rylan has graduated from swim class. He took the Infant Swim Resource program for about six weeks. They had classes in Aina Haina and Joni took him there every morning for a 10 minute session in the pool with the ISR instructor. For weeks it seemed we were just torturing our Baby Rylan. In the end he made a dramatic improvement and now swims well – well for a 22 month old anyway, its not like he is going to set any world records yet. As a graduation test they threw him in the pool with his clothes on; he had to make it back to the edge of the pool unaided. No problem. This is a video of us a few weeks later at the Palolo Valley pool. Based on the number of views on You Tube maybe a bunch of you have watched this already, but here it is again…
What you don’t see in the video is how well he can float on his back. He does that thing where he flips over to catch a breath of air as he swims. Once he started to get tired he spends more and more time on his back catching his breath. This video shows a short rest, he can float on his back for minutes at a time (never tested how long he can sustain it). He uses these swimming skills to get away from us and avoid soap during his bath. When the soap comes out he get as much of his body under the water as he can to avoid the cleaning – which is odd because he likes being clean. When he lies on his back his ears are well under water – he likes this because of the way things sound, he will start singing and yelling just to hear how it sounds underwater.
The only problem with swimming at the city pools is that they don’t allow jumping in from the side, which is one of Rylan’s favorite things to do. We typically do it a few time and see how long we can get away with it before the life guard comes over and scolds us.
Had another first this weekend with Rylan. At least it seemed like a first – he played pretend. He handed me imaginary items at the dinner table. It started by him handing me his plastic animals one at a time, then when he ran out of those, he paused and then just pretended to pick up something with his fingers and hand it off to me. I would put the imaginary thing away and he would reach for another and give it to me. This went on for some time and he asked for them back after awhile. I would pretend to give them back and then he would get all excited. He has done a few other things like this since then that seems to indicate a new part of his brain becoming active. Always entertaining.
At the same dinner table, in a diner in Kihei, Maui the day after Thanksgiving, Rylan would only eat fries if I stuck them on the sword of his Indiana Jones-like plastic swashbuckler action figure. He calls the action figure Daddy. He would stick the loaded sword in his mouth and eat the fries like that. What ever it takes to get food into him. Maybe he will eat enough to grow hair some day.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Animals
Long time no post. As usual for this year, work has been hectic. Put together a group of photos taken in August and September with Rylan visiting animals. The first one is from the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki where they have a number of relatively exotic animals, including a penguin:
His favorite animal is a cow. He can't get enough Mooooooo. Here Rylan visits a cow at the Honolulu zoo (I think that's where it is):
On Kauai we ate at an old restaraunt in Lihue/Puhi for Jodie and Ron's wedding that had a horse ride through the old plantation. Didn't go on the ride but Rylan and I got to feed the horse:
And our favorite animal, the rooster:
Actually, as you can tell from Rylan's face, roosters are not our favorite. A rooster moved into our nice quiet neighborhood about a month ago or so. He took up residence in a tree across the street and woke us up every morning at 5am and again at 6am. This was when I was traveling for the TMT project and was always very tired. I wanted to deep fry that rooster every morning. I was not alone, all the neighbors felt the same way about the rooster, but no one seemed to have an answer.
So I borrowed Jayden’s airsoft gun and scouted out that rooster’s roost. Joni, Joel, and I put on our camo outfits and drew a bead on that rooster. I hit him square with the gun but he flew off with Joni giving chase. The bird took shelter under a bush down the street. I couldn’t get the gun ready to fire again so I took out the machete and took a swing at him. But he had too much life left in him and he ran off at the last moment before the blade severed his head from his body.
The whole neighborhood rejoiced that next morning though because the rooster did not sound off at 5am. For a few days all was quiet and everyone hoped that the rooster had suffered a fatal blow and crawled off and passed away after I hit him with the airsoft gun.
There was not a peaceful third morning though. The rooster was back. He moved to the other side of the house and decided 4:30, 5:30, and 6:10am were more appropriate times to sound off. This inspired neighbor Hector to get involved in the hunt and I obtained a more powerful pellet gun from Michael. Hector and I would prowl around various back yards before the sun came up searching for that damn rooster. The rooster would always take off just before we could draw a bead on him and take a shot. He was one smart rooster: as soon as we got near he would stop crowing, as soon as we pointed the gun in his direction he would take flight, and every night he would change his roost just enough so we couldn’t find him.
A couple times I did get a shot off and hit him. Each time he would get quiet for a few days again. But he always came back. Now it seems like he has slowly faded away. I made one last shot at him that hurt him, a few days later neighbor Bob got his hands on him but couldn’t get a good grip, and a few other run ins seem to have taught him to keep his big beak shut. I still think he will come back and haunt us so we continue to maintain a trap borrowed from North Shore Michael in another neighbor’s back yard. The hunt continues…
His favorite animal is a cow. He can't get enough Mooooooo. Here Rylan visits a cow at the Honolulu zoo (I think that's where it is):
On Kauai we ate at an old restaraunt in Lihue/Puhi for Jodie and Ron's wedding that had a horse ride through the old plantation. Didn't go on the ride but Rylan and I got to feed the horse:
And our favorite animal, the rooster:
Actually, as you can tell from Rylan's face, roosters are not our favorite. A rooster moved into our nice quiet neighborhood about a month ago or so. He took up residence in a tree across the street and woke us up every morning at 5am and again at 6am. This was when I was traveling for the TMT project and was always very tired. I wanted to deep fry that rooster every morning. I was not alone, all the neighbors felt the same way about the rooster, but no one seemed to have an answer.
So I borrowed Jayden’s airsoft gun and scouted out that rooster’s roost. Joni, Joel, and I put on our camo outfits and drew a bead on that rooster. I hit him square with the gun but he flew off with Joni giving chase. The bird took shelter under a bush down the street. I couldn’t get the gun ready to fire again so I took out the machete and took a swing at him. But he had too much life left in him and he ran off at the last moment before the blade severed his head from his body.
The whole neighborhood rejoiced that next morning though because the rooster did not sound off at 5am. For a few days all was quiet and everyone hoped that the rooster had suffered a fatal blow and crawled off and passed away after I hit him with the airsoft gun.
There was not a peaceful third morning though. The rooster was back. He moved to the other side of the house and decided 4:30, 5:30, and 6:10am were more appropriate times to sound off. This inspired neighbor Hector to get involved in the hunt and I obtained a more powerful pellet gun from Michael. Hector and I would prowl around various back yards before the sun came up searching for that damn rooster. The rooster would always take off just before we could draw a bead on him and take a shot. He was one smart rooster: as soon as we got near he would stop crowing, as soon as we pointed the gun in his direction he would take flight, and every night he would change his roost just enough so we couldn’t find him.
A couple times I did get a shot off and hit him. Each time he would get quiet for a few days again. But he always came back. Now it seems like he has slowly faded away. I made one last shot at him that hurt him, a few days later neighbor Bob got his hands on him but couldn’t get a good grip, and a few other run ins seem to have taught him to keep his big beak shut. I still think he will come back and haunt us so we continue to maintain a trap borrowed from North Shore Michael in another neighbor’s back yard. The hunt continues…
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Memorial Day
For Memorial Day I worked around the house most of the day and got out the American flag from my Grandfather Hayes' funeral a few years back. He served in North Africa and Europe during WWII. He was a railroad guy so I don't think he ever saw the front lines, but was right behind it. When he passed away a few years ago he was placed in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in a military funeral. This is actually the first time we flew the flag. It was hard to find a place for it because it is so big; the only place it worked was the hooks I have for hanging Christmas lights outside. Guess we need to invest in a flag pole for next year. Anyway, the flag is still a beautiful thing and this one has a special significance for us. Felt good to finally fly it, if only for a day. Still my reluctance to be overly patriotic remains. If presidential candidates and their wives get in trouble for this then I guess I can too. Here are the photos from the holiday afternoon.
This was the entire family gathered for the holiday. I didn't consiously pick the got karma shirt when I woke up in the morning but consiously left it on for the photos.
Rylan with Joni, being very American.
Unrelated to Memorial Day but a nice shot form the morning after the holiday.
This was the entire family gathered for the holiday. I didn't consiously pick the got karma shirt when I woke up in the morning but consiously left it on for the photos.
This one worked out well. It uses the other prop for the photo shoot - the gas can on the wall in the background. Rylan did his job and started to march.
Rylan with Joni, being very American.
Unrelated to Memorial Day but a nice shot form the morning after the holiday.
Detect a Leak
So being on the Sierra Club (SC) Executive Committee has a few perks, or rather responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is to attend certain events and be a face for SC. I volunteered to do this for the Detect-a-Leak Week event. Detect a leak week is something the Honolulu Board of Water Supply started and SC has supported for a number of years. The idea is to raise awareness and get people to fix leaking faucets and such to save water. O‘ahu has a fairly tight water budget. Being a small volcanic island in the middle of the Pacific we can’t just import water from the Colorado River. So conservation is a good thing and SC supports conservation and the proper management of watershed areas to promote groundwater recharge. We have some desalination pilot projects but nothing too big. It seems too expensive to do large scale desalination, especially when conservation can solve many/all of our problems. Funny thing is that there are these businesses the sell desalinated deep ocean sea water. They are located at and get their deep cold sea water from the National Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority (NELHA), desalinate it and then sell it in Japan.
SC also supports transit, but doesn’t talk about it too much. I think the rest of the SC Executive Committee see transit as sort of a double edged sword and want to avoid being too supportive of the project or the Mayor. Obviously I like the project and thing SC should support it, regardless of how they feel about the mayor on other issues. It took a long time to get the Executive Committee to agree that I could speak at a pro-rail rally, provided I just identify myself as a SC member, not an Executive Committee member. So I spoke at the rally and gave the SC spiel and whooped up the crowd. Actually, I didn’t do too much whooping because right after me they had a few local radio DJs come up and take care of that.
Anyway here are a few photos from the Detect-a-Leak Week ceremonies – the political photo-ops.
SC also supports transit, but doesn’t talk about it too much. I think the rest of the SC Executive Committee see transit as sort of a double edged sword and want to avoid being too supportive of the project or the Mayor. Obviously I like the project and thing SC should support it, regardless of how they feel about the mayor on other issues. It took a long time to get the Executive Committee to agree that I could speak at a pro-rail rally, provided I just identify myself as a SC member, not an Executive Committee member. So I spoke at the rally and gave the SC spiel and whooped up the crowd. Actually, I didn’t do too much whooping because right after me they had a few local radio DJs come up and take care of that.
Anyway here are a few photos from the Detect-a-Leak Week ceremonies – the political photo-ops.
Here I am with the City Council. My representative is the woman (Ann Kobayashi) behind and to the right of me. She is running for mayor now and orchestrated her announcement to run for major in such as way as only one guy, her friend apparently (Duke Bainum), was able to submit paperwork to run to replace her. The guy most people wanted to run (Kirk Caldwell) did not get his paper work in on time so we do not have a choice in the election. Silly.
So here we are with the major. The "we" is the Board of Water Supply people and representatives from other organizations and business supporting the Detect-a-Leak event. The major is the tall guy in the middle.
The Pang-Cordero Wedding
We went to a wedding between Joni's high school friend Jodie Pang and surfer friend Ron Cordero. It was a great event and seemed to go off without a hitch - no sprinklers going off and soaking everyone, or someone forgetting the ring, or anything like that. One weekend the actually ceremony was performed on a small and relatively under utilized Kauai beach with a small lunch party at a restaurant after the ceremony. Actually, come to think of it, there was a little altercation on Kauai because a home owner along the beach where the ceremony was performed got pissed because he didn't want us walking over his property as we went from the beach to our cars. Didn't seem to be a big deal to me but he was insistent and called the police. It was an odd situation but seemed to be over before the police arrived. There has been a lot of news recently about weddings on the beach and how permits are necessary. This situation seemed to illustrate why permits for such things are probably not such a bad idea – provided the permit considers the beach access question.
The following weekend was a bigger party on Oahu. The photos below are from the Oahu party at a golf course on the windward side on August 19, 2008.
Val Loh took this shot, and the others. Nice to have a professional on hand.
Rylan was running around with the other kids. Of cource the outdoors was the biggest attraction for the kids and Rylan was always trying to get out. Him and his snot nose aching for release. Another thing he learned at the party was what microphones are for. He made his own announcements a few times during the Oahu party and since then has always begged to get at the microphone when ever he sees one.
Playing peak-a-boo under mom's dress.
The following weekend was a bigger party on Oahu. The photos below are from the Oahu party at a golf course on the windward side on August 19, 2008.
Val Loh took this shot, and the others. Nice to have a professional on hand.
Rylan was running around with the other kids. Of cource the outdoors was the biggest attraction for the kids and Rylan was always trying to get out. Him and his snot nose aching for release. Another thing he learned at the party was what microphones are for. He made his own announcements a few times during the Oahu party and since then has always begged to get at the microphone when ever he sees one.
Playing peak-a-boo under mom's dress.
Point Panic
It has been some time since we got around the posting anything. Sorry to people that had built up some expectations that we would continue at the pace we started. Probably don’t need to say that I’ve been really busy, primarily with work. But I have managed to sneak away a few times here and there to catch a wave or two. The surf this summer continue to be much better than the last few summers. Unfortunately I’ve been too busy to get the board to the beach very often. Here are a few shots of me at Point Panic bodysurfing – something I can do on the bike ride to the office in the morning or at lunch, or anytime I can sneak away for that matter. Everyone once in a while things just pile up to the point you got to run away to the ocean, I'm sure you understand. More posts coming soon (I hope).
Those first two are same wave back on June 5. This guy James takes photos every day, either at Sandy's or Point Panic. He puts the photos up on Shutterfly so you can check them out if you see him on the beach. This last photo is from August 17.
Those first two are same wave back on June 5. This guy James takes photos every day, either at Sandy's or Point Panic. He puts the photos up on Shutterfly so you can check them out if you see him on the beach. This last photo is from August 17.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Demas-Hahn Wedding
Monday, May 12, 2008 was the big day for Joni's cousin Myra Hahn and long time man Chris Demas. Joni helped prepare for the wedding and was a bridesmaid. It was a great time out at Paradise Cove Luau in Ko Olina. I guess something has to go wrong at every wedding, and this one was no exception. Things were humming along just as they should until, just before dinner started, the sprinklers came on and soaked anyone already sitting down and half the dinner tables. Luckily the Hayes' were outside the strike zone. The place had to move and reset the tables once they figured out how to turn the sprinklers off. It seemed to turn out ok in the end because the bridal party got free drinks after that. Here are some photos:
This is the happily married family.
Here we have all the Fernandez children together. All were part of the wedding and Joel even sang a song to open the ceremony.
The next generation of Fernandez were on hand too (except the eldest, Jordan).
We were all looking good but didn't take many photos of ourselves so this is the best we got. My bad posture while trying to hold Rylan and my appetizer plate in one hand and hide my wine glass with the other hand makes me look fat. My new haircut didn't make up for all that. Joni looks great though.
Rylan was made to pose with other babies at the party of course. He got a good look at the future here.
This is the happily married family.
Here we have all the Fernandez children together. All were part of the wedding and Joel even sang a song to open the ceremony.
The next generation of Fernandez were on hand too (except the eldest, Jordan).
We were all looking good but didn't take many photos of ourselves so this is the best we got. My bad posture while trying to hold Rylan and my appetizer plate in one hand and hide my wine glass with the other hand makes me look fat. My new haircut didn't make up for all that. Joni looks great though.
Rylan was made to pose with other babies at the party of course. He got a good look at the future here.
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