NEW YEARS EVE DAY

Our day today was so beautiful.  We started out at the beach and spent quite a long time there.  But....there was no bathroom.  Now I can do a quick squat but longer....no no no!! Too old, too fat and fragile knees!!

So....we moved.   To beautiful Rainbow Park.  It is absolutely nowhere near the ocean but it is surrealy beautiful.  The birds, the chickens, the peace....I absolutely love it here.

 and.... most importantly it had a bathroom!!  This is where I almost lost my camera!

 This is where the chicken family was.  You can't see them but they were nesting in one of those bathtubs.

Sunset time!!  The obligatory glass of wine

 The obligatory camera clickers

    What a wonderful amazing day.  Happy New Year everyone!!  TTYL!!

I ATE SALAD...SO TECHNICALLY NOT JUICING

Ah well.  I had a giant salad tonight.  I was making food for tomorrow...we are going on another BBQ beach day, different beach than Xmas.  So I was making all the food tonight and I couldn't stand it.  So I have eaten a huge raw salad.  What can I say.  Jan 1st it will be six days juicing til the girls come.

Had a great day today.  We went to Macy's and it was a bust.  Silly crap.  All Martha Stewart stuff and I just wasn't interested.  So then we went to Lahaina Cannery Mall.  I bought more plastic cups, the coolest cups you ever saw, and picked up necessaries at Longs Drugs.  I finally met up with Bill outside of Starbucks, drinking coffee and reading a book.  So I sat down.  There are about ten tables and chairs out there, all full.  I was about five feet away from a table with a middleaged man and woman.  They were sitting there quite quietly when out of the blue (or so it seemed) he suddenly smacked the metal table and yelled at the top of his voice, "  you are nothing but a lazy f...ing bitch!!!!"  And she immediately screamed right back, " How the f-- would you know you son of a bitch...."  They both were lunging over the little table, into each other's faces just screaming at each other.  Can you say "no filter'??  So we got the hell out of there.  Later in the mall Bill was in the john and I walked down the mall to a store I wanted to see.  Suddenly  two younger ones, with a wee little girl, started to yell at each other.  What the hell?  He kept saying, "but you kept arguing with him.  You should have just been quiet."  And she screamed back, so loud you could hear it everywhere, "I DID EXACTLY WHAT I WAS TOLD.  WHAT THE F... WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO.  I DID EXCACTLY WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO."  He would quietly but forcefully try to tell her something but she wasn't having any of that.  Later when we went outside they were out there still going at it.  The little girl, probably about 4, kept telling them to stop.  Honestly, I think it was fight day on Maui today!

MY LITTLE FRIEND...HE WAS SO FRIENDLY...HE LIVES ON OUR DECK

 FRONT STREET AT NIGHT..THE BEST TIME TO GO

 THE FAMOUS CHEESEBURGER PLACE

 THE BANYAN TREE, COVERED IN XMAS LIGHTS.....THATS ALL ONE TREE

We then proceeded to do Front Street...always fun.  I found the jewelry I wanted.  I will post a pic tomorrow.  I am too tired tonite.  It was a fun good day.  This morning I made friends with a pretty good sized gecko.  I don't mind them now.  This one was right up on her front legs and her eyes and head would follow me around.  I was almost able to touch her!  Well thats it for today.  TTYL

DAY THREE....OPRAH'S FARMHOUSE

I braved the scale this morning and I am down one pound from before Christmas!!  Go figure!  I haven't had any live juice today. I was lazy and mixed low sodium v8 with costco carrot juice.  Its really good but not recommended.  Tomorrow I will have to make fresh juice.

Had a really busy morning, family business etc... but as soon as all that was settled I made like a true stalker and got onto the internet and really figured out exactly where Oprah's house is.  I found out another interesting bit.  We live in Kihei.  Her place is what they call "upcountry".  Its a long long way from here. You have to travel back to Kahalui, then up through the middle of cane fields to the 3000 foot altitude and follow a road out along the mountain.  On your left is the mountain, with Oprah's house up another couple thousand feet.  On your right you look down the slope to Kihei about ten miles down to the ocean.  The people of Maui have been begging and praying for a direct road up to that mountain highway.  You have no idea how much time and gas that would save.  The land is owned by an old time family here and its called Haleakala Ranch.

Last year Oprah made a deal with Bob Green (yes THAT Bob Green from Biggest Loser) who owns a large parcel of land up on the border of her ranch and  Haleakala's land and with the Haleakala people.  She got permission to build a four mile concrete road, 12 feet wide for a four mile stretch from Kihei.  It runs into a well travelled dirt road (travelled by Haleakala ranch peeps) then right up to her place.  The Maui people are bitter.  This is a private road only used by the electric company, water company, Haleakala ranch people, Bob Green and Oprah.  Not the public.  So we took off to find all this today.  So much fun and we were successful!

AN OLD CATTLE CHUTE

 THOSE ARE OLD BATHTUBS USED FOR WATER

 BILL...TAKING A PICTURE....AGAIN....AND AGAIN...AND AGAIN ....AND AGAIN

 THE GATE TO THE DIRT PART OF OPRAH'S ROAD THAT CONNECTS WITH THE CONCRETE ONE SHE BUILT

 THE ROAD THAT CONNECTS TO THE UPPER HIGHWAY FROM THE DIRT ROAD

 HER HOUSE, OR AT LEAST WHAT WE COULD SEE OF IT

Tomorrow I am out to find black jewelry.  We are planning to go to Mamma's Fish House the evening of the first day the girls are here.  I need to dress up some.  I have the shirt and pants but it needs jewelry.  So off to Kihei tomorrow to start looking.  I might have to go to Front street in Lahaina.  I don't want to go there if I can help it as I shall want to eat.  Anyway, have a great night and TTL!!

DAY TWO.....HUNGRY HUNGRY HUNGRY

I think I referred to my hunger as my "dark passenger".  And it truly is.  Especially in the first few days.  I find this hunger distracting, painful and makes me sad then angry then sad again.  Achhhh...I just have to keep reminding myself of how I got to this point in my life.  I have definitely eaten my fill over the years so I can't complain.  That being said, I really do like the challenge though.  Every night when I go to bed I feel so accomplished!   But I will be glad when Jan. 6th gets here!!

So, have you ever seen two oldish really fat people fall right over into traffic whilst they were riding a tandem bicycle?  I did.  Today.  On busy South Kihei road, two cars in front of us.  I spotted them wobbling along the edge of the road.  Man, they couldn't really be quite right in the head.  They were really unsteady and the front wheel was twisting back and forth quickly, too quickly.  The lady was on the back seat and she had to be at least 400 pounds!  She had on a huge sack like dress (I can't imagine the sight every time her leg peddled up) and seriously, you couldn't see the bike seat at all.  The man on the front was also very huge, not as big as her but still really huge.  And right before our very eyes, they slowly but oh so surely fell over, right on the road.  Fortunately, the traffic is very very slow at this spot.  It was like watching a slow motion train wreck.  Down they went and her upper leg flew up into the air exposing way more than we ever wanted to see....but in a sick way you just can't stop looking.  All traffic completely stopped and people went running over to help.  And, even with about four or five people, they simply could not get her up.  He eventually got up enough to sit and they managed to extricate the bike, but no matter what they and she did, she could not get up.  About twenty minutes later a firetruck came and using a sling of some sort they managed to pull her up and got her into a giant size wheelchair that materialized from somewhere.  The poor thing was crying and hiding her face and he just sat there staring at his feet.  The police got us all moving at this point.  So on we went with such mixed feelings of horror, pity and a tiny tiny bit of humour.  Just tiny though.  But you know Bill....I won't repeat some of the things he was saying.......

Today we stopped at Costco, crazy Costco, and pushed our way through to get a folding table, wok, coke zero and almond milk.  Then we went through Paia to our favourite beach and spent a couple of hours there reading and watching the kite surfers and turtles and rainbows and fishermen.  Awesome time (at least it would be if I wasn't so hungry!!LOL!!)  TTYL

DAY ONE....AGAIN

Well here we go again!  Eating over the last couple of days wasn't quite such a panicky thing this time as I knew I would be juicing again shortly.  I missed the hunger!  As Dexter says, its my dark passenger and I missed sniffing out bbq's and looking for the food posters in the fast food windows!!  I know....sick.

I went swimming today!  We went down to the beach across from the Maui Banyon, where we used to stay.  The beach is awesome and calm.  Relatively speaking that is.  This IS the beach where I got tossed upside down and lost my glasses!  But today it was gentle and warm.  The water was warmer than our pool for heaven's sake!  I think I will go back again tomorrow.  April and Aryn will be here in nine days.  I know I will never be as skinny as them or as pretty but I can sure as hell be browner!!!


I RANDOMLY SPUN THE PHOTO DIAL AND CAME UP WITH A COUPLE OF PICS.  I DIDN'T EVEN TAKE THIS ONE OF MOLLY ...APRIL DID...ON KEATS!!

 WHAT AN AWFUL PICTURE....IT LOOKS LIKE I AM LACTATING...WHERE IS DELETE FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE?

 BEER PONG...I WAS REALLY GOOD AT IT...WHO KNEW?

 TONITE'S OFFERING

 WINE AND SUNSETS...SCREAMS MAUI!!

Tonite we hopped into the car and zoomed down to Makenna Landing to watch the sun go down.  It is so so pretty there and a nice little crowd always gathers to drink wine and wait for the sun splash.  Its kind of comraderyish and fun.  A shared moment.  Now we are back home and I am watching a Chopped marathon on the Food Network.  Torture!!  Random pics tonite!  TTYL

BOXING DAY

Talk about lazy layabout time.  I didn't move from the condo today.  Ate leftovers, read a book, watched Housewives of New Jersey, drank coffee, talked to the kids, sat in the sun and generally had a fantastic day.

I am putting pics on of that Bully's Burger Shack that I mentioned in an earlier blog entry.  It truly is the coolest burger joint you will ever encounter!  Gotta go there when Cookie and Brian come over!  TTYL!!

CHRISTMAS DAY

This has to be one of the most amazing Christmases I have ever had.  The only downside was missing the family back home.  But I know they were all enjoying themselves so that was good.



THAT IS THE BEACH WE HAD OUR PICNIC AT, RIGHT DOWN AT THE FAR END

 THIS PIC DOESN'T SHOW IT, BUT THE RUTS AND BOULDERS WE HAD TO DRIVE OVER WERE SCARY BAD

 LITTLE SMOKEY SMOKIN' LIKE CRAZY

 MMMMM, IT AINT TURKEY BUT IT WAS SURE GOOD!!!

 THAT WAS VENUS AND A SLIVER MOON

We packed up and took off just after lunch time.  We drove way out to a favourite spot of ours on the island.  It is a very isolated beach (not a swimming one), under the mesquite trees about forty miles down the backside of Haleakala, the volcano.  Its so wild and isolated.  I absolutely love it there.  We arrived there about 2:30 in the afternoon.  We set out our chairs and sat under the trees, wind blowing them gently, no human sounds anywhere.  It was pure heaven.  A tiny family did show up and set up camp a fair ways over from us, but they promptly disappeared on a hike so we were completely alone.  At five we set up the bbq, cooked our steaks, ate potato salad and horrible cupcakes and eventually watched the sun go down.  The best most awesome day.  TTYL