Some photos

Leslie and I holding a bunch of orchids that we were taking to our friend, Casey, who invited us over for a delicious meal at her home in Volcano last night. $5 for all those orchids! What a deal!

Our hero, Robert

We were making progress on our house - buying a few things here, friends giving us a lot of things there. But, two days ago we hit the mother load: we purchased the lion's share of the household of our new best friend, Robert! He is leaving the island so his entire household's contents were for sale. We really liked his taste in everything, so we made a long list of all the furniture we were interested in that he had for sale: a queen bed, three dressers, two end tables, a futon, a table and chairs, a desk and desk chairs, a bookshelf, an area rug, a lounge chair, a coffee table and more. Leslie handed him the list and asked: "How much for it all?" He came back with the quote of $300! Wow! Did I mention that most everything was in good shape? Driving our typical hard bargain, we countered with $600. At that point, he agreed but threw in everything but the kitchen sink - his tools, ladders, lawn mower, chemicals, lamps, etc. etc.

The Sally shop comes through

Leslie found a cheap-ass old exercise bike (and a few other items pictured below) at the Hilo "Sally shop" ($18). She was thrilled and took it for it's first spin yesterday. Beyond the smell of burning rubber, worked like a charm. And, here I said bad things about the shop in my last post. I am so sorry, please forgive me!

Our first trip to Kona

There is one Costco on the island but it is 100 miles away in Kona. We made our pilgrimage there yesterday to stock up. Now, unlike Walmart, I am not embarrassed to shop at Costco. As corporations go, they are fairly good – though not perfect by any means. Read this if you are interested in what is both right and wrong with the company: http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/04.30.08/feature-0818.html
Anyway, we bought a lot of food, drink and sundries there yesterday. Here are the non-food purchases (total:$127.30):

Here's to Cindy and Joe!

I have to give a shout out to Cindy and Joe – our fabulous former tenants – who sold us a bunch of their stuff when they moved back to their home in Texas. See above photo. They didn't sell us the computer (or Leslie) - but they did sell us everything else pictured and more! The little trash cans they left have doubled as both end tables and step stools (see the coffee on the trash can next to Leslie.) Invaluable!

The Rainbow Isle

Lots of rainbows all the time here! Like this. This is actually a double rainbow but the upper rainbow is hard to see...

Let’s Help the USA: Go shopping!

Yes, we are in another crisis and, while Bush hasn’t yet repeated his exhortation to “go shopping” to solve this particular crisis – I will! Come on, Americans – let’s do what we do best and hit the stores. But, this time, please don’t do it with credit. That isn't going so well.

We are here doing our part in Hawaii. We have been so busy shopping that I haven’t had time to really write this blog. And, I must confess – oh, please forgive us for we have sinned – that we bought most new stuff at Walmart. Hey, did you know that they have every day low prices? We were seduced by their evil empire. Below is our Walmart junk. Click on the picture for a screen sized view if you want to see what it all is in more detail. (Total bill: $165)

Poor Rosie

We are now in Hilo. Let the blog begin!

We brought Rosie with us. I don’t want to go into the complications of the “direct release” program for dogs but, suffice it to say, it is a complicated and expensive way to avoid quarantine. If anyone ever wants to bring an animal here – we can help you! Just ask! But, just know that the cost of bringing her about equaled our two plane fares together. And, unfortunately, it might be torture for your beloved animal – as it was for Rosie.