Quentin’s 11th Birthday

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Nanette Harter

Quentin turned 11 years old this month. He celebrated with a sleep over and small parties with family. On his birthday day, Neil and I stopped at his after school program to bring his gifts from the Beamer side of family. We sat outside with him as he opened his presents and soon there was a larger group of his friends watching and wishing him happy birthday.

On the website, click on any photo in the gallery to view them larger and with commentary. Use the arrow keys to move through the rest of the gallery. Photos by Neil.

$Quentin\'s new backpack$

My Birthday Month

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Nanette Harter

What a wonderful birthday day, week, and month I am having. So many wonderful thoughts and wishes sent my way. Thank you!

At the beginning of the month, Neil asked “How would you like an aquarium for your birthday?” I was leery but a few hours later he found a fully operational 55 gallon fresh water aquarium from someone moving to the mainland and by the end of that same day it is was sitting on the lanai! It is perched up so we can see both the aquarium as well as the ocean from our computer desks. We sit outside on the couch each morning with our tea and watch the fish enjoy their breakfast. The real gift is that he does all the maintenance! (That’s no small thing since it sits outside and gets a few hours of direct sunshine each day.) Neil posted some videos of the fish at different times of the day on youtube. New Aquarium 05 – Evening Feeding is link to one of them and you can view any of the others from there.

Tuesday, we drove up country to Ulupalakua for the winery tour, wine tasting, and picnic lunch. My great nephew, Quentin, turned 11 that day, so on the way home we visited him at his after-school boys and girls club to have him open his presents. Neil and I sat with him outside with the present pile from the grand and great-grandparents plus his dad and ours. Soon there was a whole group gathered around him to watch him and wish him happy birthday. He was loving being the center of attention as well as getting all the gifts. He had a cake Saturday night at his birthday sleepover and was getting another cake birthday night with mom and Grandma Marjorie, so I just brought some birthday cookies thinking he could share with some friends. I had to break them in half so make enough to go around for the whole group!

Since I don’t really need things, Neil has spent the month pampering me with delicious dinners and special chores. On my birthday, he beautifully detailed the inside and out of our convertible. He said he did it on my actual day because that was the only way he could make sure I didn’t come out to help 🙂 It really shines! Well speaking of things, we have gotten a few new technology items this month that are taking time to learn. We needed a new camera in time for birthday photos and got a new Sony Cyber-shot to replace our old broken one. Plus our phone contract was up, so now we both have new phones to learn. And my real treat was getting a new Android tablet. It arrived the day before my birthday and I only had it on twice. I can now spend the rest of my birthday month playing with it.

My birthday morning, Neil put a candle in my scone and we had our tea on the lanai with the fishes. We drove south for the day visiting several beaches and just enjoying our Maui home. We shared another picnic on Makena Beach and played in the sand. For dinner we went to one of our favorites, Monsoon India, and enjoyed the sunset as well as the food. Oh, and the day wasn’t complete until we made a stop at Ono Gelato for birthday ice cream!

Thank you for all your love and wishes. What a special birthday!

Quentin and Sophie

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Nanette Harter

Quentin, my 10 year old great nephew, is now in 6^th grade at the Kalama Middle School in Makawao. This means having a locker and the rotating class schedule. There was a little up front anxiety but he is now loving it. He requested some new wardrobe items from his mom so he didn’t look like a little kid. This photo was the first day I spent with him after he had his new clothes. Notice the cargo shorts and the cool T-shirt. Glad his mom took him clothes shopping because I wouldn’t know what’s in. At least I had a list from the school when I took him school supply shopping. Can’t believe the kids have to take Kleenex and paper towels to class on the first day (along with all their notebooks and pencils)!

Sophie, his sister, is now living in Oregon with her dad and came to Maui for a month visit this summer. Mother Vajra and brother Quentin were so excited about her being here with them for a month. They Skype with her a few times a week but not that same as having her here. Sophie turned 8 years old July 19 right after she arrived and they had a big party for her. Neil and I were able to attend to enjoy pizza and archery and watch the kids loving the pool. I also enjoyed spending every Friday with Quentin and Sophie while she was here. Even got to see the Smurf movie 😉

Every year, the elementary schools in Hawaii celebrate May Day with a Hawaiian pageant and production including dances from all the classes. Quentin’s being in the 5^th grade and the highest grade in the school performed with his class for the finale dance. He did a great job. He also had a graduation banquet and dance the last day of school! Parents got to come at the beginning to take photos but then left to allow the kids to have their party time supervised by the teachers. Quentin reported to me that he is a great dancer and had a good time!

$Quentin\'s May Day$

Firefox Live Bookmarks

Aside

A technical aside for those of you who use Firefox. If you don’t care about the computer tech stuff, you can stop reading now. I use Firefox internet browser and I created a Live Bookmark link to my site that shows up on my bookmark toolbar. The Live Bookmark is a connection to the RSS feed so when something new is posted, it will show up on the bookmark. What I expected was for the bookmark title to become bold when there was something new. But it didn’t! Frustrated, I started searching and finally found an addon which will do just that: Boox 3.0. I installed it on my Windows XP version and it is working great! Turns the bookmark title to bold when there is a new post so you don’t have to continually check the site (my posts will be less frequent now that the trip report is finished.) I also like that my new little favicon shows up in the list once a post is read (Thanks Neil).

I found another great tip if you use Google Reader: Mixing Google Reader and Live Bookmarks. This page describes how you can set up a Live Bookmark to point at your Google Reader feed list without having to login to Google. The article points out the plus is a quick look at what’s new in your Reader; the negative is it doesn’t mark the items as read in Google Reader as you read because you aren’t logged. I have just read a good review of NewsBlur so I am going to take a look at it as a reader alternative.

Our Flowering Plants

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Nanette Harter

Three years ago, we started two projects: getting some greenery along the new white fence out our kitchen window and planting a vegetable garden. Our efforts were documented on a past gardening web page. (You can look at the photos on that page to see how empty the ground looked around the cottage.) As I commented in that page, between the salt air and the Kihei bugs, we gave up on vegetable gardening and have migrated to the flowering plants. With great satisfaction, our efforts have paid off with lush greenery and lovely flowers around our home.

We enjoy the vibrant green of our back garden under the spreading branches of our favorite mango tree. It is filled with golden torch heliconia, ferns, blue ginger, and indian head ginger bushes. Farther back are two lilikoi (passion fruit) plants with vines creating a canopy where they can reach more sun. Fortunately it’s a low maintenance garden requiring occasional weeding and raking out the fallen mango leaves!

I am proud that the red ginger flowers have done so well out the kitchen window. And in addition to the flowers, we enjoy watching the numerous gekos and anole lizards sunning themselves and racing after insects. I can’t believe how the heliconia have taken off. Not only have they grown tall and colorful, they have spread to dominate the back half of the garden and continue to try to spread out into the small path. Every few weeks I need to dig out the starts in the path and work to find a place to replant them in the contained border. Plus I cut out the stocks that have finished with their blooms and are starting to turn brown. The purple flower Mexican Petunia plants are also in continual flower. They open new blossoms every morning and the wind blows them off every afternoon.

We have a ficus tree that has grown so huge and spread its branches so wide you would think it wants to be the Lahaina banyan tree. And we are love having so many coconuts and palm trees on the property. But we have to be careful about where we park as sometimes the coconuts have grown pretty large and can do some real damage to a car or a head!

Nan Harter

Sharing my adventures with family and friends