I found that when in Hawaii, you often feel the urge to go to ABC Stores - The Stores With Aloha. The urge is best fought off
by examining your spending thus far on your trip, and thinking about the fact that you owe no one anything, and that this gift-giving that goes on in your circle of friends is really a bit much. But then you see darling little bags of macadamia nuts or some decently priced and kind of cute t-shirts, and in you go.

My daughter and son only liked the ABC stores because of their ubiquity. They chose to shop elsewhere. Like at Billabong. (Please note: they prefer the one on Kalakaua.) They are really little fashion hounds, and in my son's case he feels the need to try everything on, compare products, and talk with the salespeople.

We tried to buy him a t-shirt at the actual Monster Pipeline competition site, but he got in trouble with a vendor for putting his gnarly, sandy, dirty hands all over the merch, so we had to leave quickly. These are the retail life lessons everyone must learn, I suppose.

A week from today we were at the North Shore looking at monster mess and baking in the sun. Trying to decide whether or not to eat at Cholo's again. Heavy, heavy sigh.

Possibly the most heart-pounding moment I had in Oahu was when I saw the cages...well, that and the whale sighting.

Being back is not so much fun. I totally get the whole Hawaii thing now.

We're home. We learned a lot. The children learned to surf in about 5 minutes. And I learned some secrets about a certain popular entertainment that airs on television. But mainly we learned to do what this gesture means...let's hope we can keep it up through the dreary winter months.

Golden Globes Well-Played: America Ferrera as described by the Fug sisters...I agree wholeheartedly. I didn't watch the Golden Globes, as I was completely engrossed in the four hour season premiere of 24, and I don't TiVo, and I don't have DVR, and I won't buy the newly released version of the season premiere, so I sat glued to the telly for four hours over two consecutive nights whilst my children called out to me to read to them, or tuck them in, and I ignored my lesson planning, and hey! Screw packing!

Packing we did eventually have to do, for tomorrow we leave for Hawaii. Good times. Or so we hope. Ice storm expected tomorrow...and I've flown out of one of those before and know the horror. And money is tight (did you know it costs about $2500 to get your wisdom teeth removed??????? WTF????). And I'm a big ball of worry as usual. But the children are game and excited, we've had more than our share of lovely wishes and sentiments for our travels, and we'll go to see the dearest of friends in a tropical paradise. Really, now -- how bad can it be?

No. You're not imaginging things. I'm now the Recycling Block Leader for my two-block section of McMansion Manor, and have been "witnessing" to my children's choir about recycling...we're singing "For the Beauty of the Earth" the Sunday before Earth Day.

As you may have guessed, despite Al Gore or maybe because of him, I found this movie very galvanizing and I hope to God the rest of the population does too.

Congratulations to R.E.M. on their much-deserved inclusion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Have I mentioned they are my favorite band? And that they are from my home state, and even my home town? My mom even played bridge with one of their moms... thus my backstage pass at a show in Boston circa 1996.

Go listen to some R.E.M., cause I know you have some. Or go watch this. Or this. (THE BASS MY GOD!) And ignore the bassist's backup flatness on this. And this is great...it is consistently one of my favorite songs of theirs live, if not on record.

Well, my over-eagerness at the gym for five days straight got me a day in the bed with a thrown-out back. Two things of note about this latest ailment: one, I have now been to a chiropractor! And it is so super-awesome! I will admit that I was a total wuss and screamed when she popped my back the first time....and the neck thing was truly terrifying, but I felt taller and in less pain after.

(I have a new theory: that chiropractory will be the new psychotherapy for the twenty-somethings of today. During my first adjustment, hipsters and emo-kids were flocking into the office in droves, and they were asking about nutrition, exercise, marriage advice, restaurant recommendations, real estate value, etc. etc. I just went to feel better, and feel better I do. It remains to be seen if I will let the holistic healing truly begin ((like, can Dr. Hall tell me if we should renovate or hold firm in this post-bubble market?)) I signed up for an additional 6 sessions. Time will tell.)

Secondly, my daughter seems to have inherited my less-than-perfect health, and I'm so sorry about it. She is still a serious athlete, despite her asthma and her cramping limbs, and her headaches, and her occasional constipation (DEAR DAUGHTER IN THE YEAR 2017: I APOLOGIZE FOR MENTIONING ALL THAT AND HOPE YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT VERY FEW PEOPLE READ OR CARED ABOUT THAT LAST PART AND YOU ARE STILL LOVELY AND DELICATE IF NOT REGULAR). But I hate that she is limited at all. Today she played in a soccer tourney with her elite team (made up of several members of the best teams in her age group) and she played tough and well even at 7:30 a.m.! She dominated defensively and was fast and coordinated and scared of no one....but her hips hurt, and she had to have her inhaler, and her feet were all blistered and bloody with the new, indoor soccer shoes. All the while I was limping and smelled of the biofreeze on my back and was having a little bout of tachycardia and also a residual effect of the salmonella. SUCKS. And SUCKS that I have passed it on to her. (And yes, I have a dr's appointment tomorrow to follow up on all this crap)

I feel the need to add an emoticon here: :-(

I'm busy working out and improving my diet in the new year, but now am wondering what I did to make this happen: I look like Dakota Fanning.

Also kind of like two Asian actors. And two actors who maybe aren't completely dissimilar to me, Lauren Graham and M-L Parker. (Ok, maybe I just like their work better than, say, Sharon Osbourne's. No offense Dakota! You were bril in "Charlotte's Web"!)