Why I Didn’t Wake When Feral Pigs Ate our Trash (And a Weekend Ebook Sale for Syd Fans)

Hey, stranger—remember me? There’s a reason I’ve been incommunicado. And it’s not just to give you a Jimmy Buffett earworm. The title kinda says it all, doesn’t it? Yes, I’m sleeping like a mostly dead person (time to watch The Princess Bride again?) when I get around to sleeping. And yes, a few nights ago a feral pig and her ridiculously cute piglet woke my husband—but not me—rooting around in our trash like a slightly shorter, more casually dressed Yogi Bear with Boo-Boo in tow. Last night, they were snore-chuffing under our house almost directly under our bed. After one Read more…

Friday Five: The I Told You I Wasn’t Exaggerating Edition

Happy Friday, y’all! How’s it going in your neck of the woods? I should be water-loading (is that a thing?) because I’m heading to Las Vegas for a conference next week and I know my East Hawaii body will dry up and blow away like a tumbleweed. Except I’ll probably never leave the hotel, so I’ll just drift from floor to floor, getting caught up in the one-armed bandits and unoccupied stools. I was planning to do a Pack Update (I haven’t done one of those in quite a while), but for some reason the post was really fighting me. Read more…

Friday Five: the Fricking Hot Edition

I had planned to write a Stories I Love post this week—even had the subject picked out. (No spoilers, I’m not saying.) But you know what? I can’t think straight. You know why? I’m assuming you read the title and can guess. Everyone together now—it’s too fricking hot! We had a few blessedly cool, overcast days over the past couple of weeks for a taste of much-needed relief, but not enough. I was chatting with a local woman the other day who said, “I never thought I’d see the day we needed air conditioning in Hawaii.” Of course, no matter Read more…

The Blog is Back, with Tales of Summer Colds and Succulent Coconuts

It’s alive! Or maybe I should say, she’s alive! She being me. I know, I know, long time without a blog post. Before the floggings begin, I have to ask… So what do you think of the new website? Spiffy, huh? I’ve still got a few things to tweak, but it should be mostly functional. Let me know if anything makes your eyes cross or exiles you to 404 Error Land. In addition to being pretty, the new design is a lot more user-friendly under the hood. In other words, you won’t hear me swearing while trying to make new Read more…

Checking In, After Checking Out

I missed the blog post last week—for reasons I’ll share below—and I’ve been mostly off email and social media lately, so I wanted to at least do a quick check-in today. How is everybody? Between the ridiculous cold in the United States and the ridiculous heat in Australia, I’m guessing a decent number of responses would be, “Fairly shitty, but thanks for asking.” Or at least, fairly uncomfortable. I can’t complain about comfort. Here in East Hawaii, we’ve had nothing extraordinary temperature- or precipitation-wise (although we could use some rain as our roads and catchment tanks are feeling parched). But Read more…