Ephemeral Life...

Here is what Koa looks like hanging upside down from his bunkbed. Just in case you were wondering...

Elliott is learning new pieces of violin music. With titles like Etude and Minuet. It is beautiful music to a father's ears...

Today was an incredible day. Spent in the presence of Ke Akua. Reminders about love. Forgiveness. Humility. Being thankful for the abundance of blessings taken for granted everyday. It isn't about stopping to smell the roses. It is about fully understanding the beautiful complexity of the rose in all its true simple essence. And loving the rose with all your heart. And treasuring the simple joys in life. A sloppy tickling kiss on the cheek. All the love in the world for the asking. Wow. I am again humbled. Mahalo no e na kupuna. Mahalo no e Ke Akua...

Here Koa shows me what he will look like as an undercover police officer. I told him that the cut-off jeans jacket was a nice touch but the fake dreadlocks and the police patch are a dead giveaway. As well as the dimples...

This was a perfectly formed fish in the sky. By the time I ran inside to get my camera, it was already morphing and dissipating in spots. Too bad. It was awesome...

I spy a little white truck in the barren desolate moon...I mean volcano scape...

Gold fever at Chuck E. Cheese...

Obama crashed their once-in-a-lifetime photo...

Visiting the Volcano from some far away land...

I try not to condone violence with my boys and I don't like them playing with guns. But at Chuck E. Cheeses, when Zombies attack, I don't mind them protecting life and property...

Too bad this beautiful purple flower belongs to an invasive plant which is destroying the native forests on Hawai'i Island...

Trash bags make quick and easy ponchos in Hawai'i. Not exactly flattering but they do the job...

Elliott holds up his HEX Bug Micro Robotic creature. This one is the ant. Koa has a tiny Nano robot bug. They scurry around and keep on moving when they hit an object or wall. They are fast. They are robotic-ally creepy. I get the urge to stomp on them but the boys would cry. Elliott is normally afraid of bugs but these guys are kind of cute. Still, when they come barreling towards you on the floor, you get the urge to scream and jump out of the way...

A little bit of mom and a little bit of dad. Half and half...

Somewhere in history when mankind started domesticating dogs. A Fantastic Mr. Fox must have slipped into the breeding pool...

A safe vantage point to view the scary world...

Visiting the world's most active volcano...

But for the grace of God...

Chinatown at night...

Mahalo no e Ke Akua. Mahalo no e na kupuna. Mahalo Zippy's takeout dinner...

The Sunset was very strange yesterday. A ring of fire...

They make LEGO angry now...

I wasn't quite sure what a giant wedge of cheese had to do with the Lego Robotics Competition Elliott recently competed in. I thought I saw a giant Ritz Cracker somewhere...

A very old soul indeed...

Yes? May I help you?

We went to Chuck E. Cheese because the boys had been asking for a long time. It was around Koa's birthday so we usually take them there as one of their treats... The Family Saver deal is pretty good with choice of two topping large pizza, four drinks and 100 game tokens which the boys burn through pretty fast... When I inspected the pizza up close, I noticed lots of fat from the pepperoni and cheese... So I ate a salad to soak up the oil...

I absolutely love eating dried aku (skipjack tuna) with poi and sharing it with my boys. We sit down and eat the fish and poi. Just like our ancestors did a thousand years ago. Awesome. I can feel their presence around us. Watching. Smiling. Drooling...

I try to always put myself in my sons' view of the world to remember what it was like being a child. So that I can ensure that I don't impose my own adult expectations on them too much. Here, I take a close up look at what Koa is looking at outside a window...

Another school in the heat of competition...

So students from all over work together in teams at their respective school to design and build a LEGO Robot to accomplish a series of tasks. They have to program the actions and then automate the robot to navigate an obstacle course and accomplish certain missions for points. This is my first experience of this program via Elliott's participation. It turned out to be a wonderful experience. I volunteered to help out and ended up a Teamwork Judge for the competition. I am glad I did. Here some students from Mililani warm up on the practice table...

It is the time of year when a beam of Sunlight at around 10:00 a.m. shoots through my little bathroom window and lights up a little portion of the cascade of water during my shower. With a shutter speed of 8000, I can capture the little droplets of light while the background turns dark. I have discovered the tiny little parallel universe in my shower with sunrises, rainbows and all...

Elliott and his classmates ready for their presentation during the First Lego League competition at Kalani High School. Elliott was supposed to be from Japan to talk about bicycles in that country. There is a new parking system for bikes. It is a massive underground silo that can hold over a thousand bikes. You just ride up and it automatically takes your bike and stores it underground. When you are done, you swipe your card and it retrieves your bike with automated robot machinery within 30 seconds. Very cool...

Lately, it seems that the stronger the light of Ke Akua's goodness shines around, the greater the shadowy blackness tries to hide. Just an observation. On good and evil...

Every once in awhile, I check on the busy bees in front of our apartment building. Just to make sure they are okay. If they are okay. Mankind will be okay. I cheer them on. You go girl...bee...