the eames lounge chair

One of my favorite pieces of furniture of all time is the Eames lounge chair.
I saw this picture of one that had been reupholstered and had to blog it.


If you ever see one, at design (not)within reach or someplace, sit in it. It'll change your life.

Awesome. Add it to my wish list.

best cookies ever.

We recently bought Ghirardelli chocolate chips cause they were on sale and thought we could try (to)see if they were different from Nestle ones. I take pride in my appreciation and understanding of quality chocolate chip cookies. I call myself a connoisseur, Shandra calls me a cookie monster. Either way, the resulting cookies were amazing. Probably among the top 5 best batches of all time. Fresh and warm from the oven, it was unreal.

Do yourself a favor and buy a bag (use the recipe on the package) and test it out. It will blow your mind. We added some pecans for added goodness.
Here's a photo for the record books:

pictures of the week

One of our favorite things to do when the surf is up is watch the big waves at pipe. This was actually not a huge day but still really fun to watch. We also got to enjoy this amazing sunset:







Sunset from Pipeline, North Shore Oahu.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So many things to be thankful for. We had the opportunity to fly out to CA and spend time with my fam at the Lake Arrowhead cabin. It was such a nice and relaxing weekend. We had no place we had to be, which means we could take naps, eat, read our books, play wii, go on walks, watch movies, eat, visit with the fam, crash on the hammock, and eat. Loved it. It was quite chilly up there, low 40s. Cold for our Hawaiian blood. All of the food was unreal. Thanks mom and dad (and Alisa) for all of the wonderful meals and planning such a fun trip.


Amazing little feast they put together. I was in charge of the deviled eggs this year. They were a big hit. Probably everyone's favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal.


Dish duty. The dishwasher was having some technical difficulties, so all of the Thanksgiving dishes were washed and dried by hand. Brookie's poor hands were shriveled up by the end of dish patrol. And don't be fooled by these pictures, Christian was there long enough for these pictures to be taken, then he heard the Wii turn on down stairs and had to jet. But he did dry those plates in front of him. Thanks C and B.


Hi Belly!


Cute Nana. Cousin's Ryan and Lisa and Aunt Lina Bean were there too.


One of the highlights of our trip. Miss Addi Boo. She kept everyone so entertained. We just love this little girl.




Alisa is due in a couple of weeks!!! She looks fantastic. She is 10 weeks ahead of me. I'm 26 weeks here.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

big island trip

Two weekends ago we went to the B.I. for some R & R and time with the parents. Was a great trip, very relaxing. I got up super early and surfed some fun little waves, ran home to grab Shandra, went straight back down to the beach for some body surfing and tanning, then back in time for lunch. bam! That's how you do it. Of course the food is always plentiful and unreal at home. Like an all you can eat buffet with chocolate chip cookies and fudge. Thanks Mom, you're the best! Then I got the idea to further utilize our time by going golfing. Mom couldn't be convinced (too much housework!), but Dad is always ready to go. I called my friend Ian because there would be an extra seat if we got two carts and he and his Mom were down. Within a matter of minutes we were out the door on another mission to have some fun. We got out to the course by about 3:00 or so and were pretty much the last people around so we could take our time which was great. It's so peaceful and relaxing and cool out there. Nothing like playing some leisurely golf in shorts and slippas. It's good times even if most of us suck. I just love trying to hit the ball off the tee as hard as humanly possible. I only lost one or two balls and even Shandra was out there with baby getting it done. I was so glad she came with and with Meg there, she wasn't the only girl. I got to show off my mad skillz for my lady.
Here are some pictures of what took place:


don't mess with the locals.........................me stoked

the crew...........................................................lost ball
shandra. perfect form


schooled by the master...................................dad. rollin' solo
da boyz


shandra checking me out

focus and restraint........................................sheer aggression and power

final hole. sunset. I made par with a crazy long putt.

I miss having cats around. me and cats are super close (yes, all cats).


thanks M&D for letting us come hang out ! see you again soon!

the passing of imac G5

Sad news from the hastings project: while apple offered to proceed with more tests and operations to revive our computer, it was decided that it was too expensive to be worthwhile. We had to say goodbye to a good friend and pull the plug. We had good times: long nights during school working on presentations, wedding and surf movie production work, song recording, etc. But he was finally growing old- with ever-decreasing hard drive space, some programs were becoming slower and we knew his time of service may be drawing to a close soon. With a solid 4.5 year performance, we had hopes of a bit more life, but also are grateful to have known him and feel we got our money's worth.

But life will continue, and we're pleased to announce we expect a new addition to our home as early as tomorrow! Looking to save some money, we went the adoption route- buying a refurbished imac. We're so excited to begin this new chapter in our life and get the computer dependent hastings projects back up and running efficiently.

thanks imac G5 and R.I.P.

computer down

We didn't want to leave our fans out there wondering what's happening here, so here's a quick update. Mac is down. He wasn't feeling well on Sunday morning last week, wouldn't even turn on. It was horrible to see him that way. We took him in to the Apple store on Monday, they think it's just the power source, so they're fixing him right now. Thanks to our friend Derek, we were able to borrow a lap top to keep us connected to the world while Mac is in the hospital. Hopefully we'll get to bring him home soon.

Almost self-sufficient

Check out what we've got growing in our yard.


When we first moved here, I thought this was a lime tree. There were so many "limes" on the tree, I picked them when they were bright green to use as my green decor for the kitchen. And to attempt to find use out of them for cooking. Turns out I prematurely picked tangerine oranges. It's a Tangerine Tree! We get so many and it's that time of year where they are almost ripe.


Our Apple Banana Tree. We need to pick these before the birds get to them.


Cotton Tree? What? For the longest time we were wondering why there was so much cotton on the lawn. We thought that the neighbor's dog liked to chew up patio furniture or dolls and the cotton would just blow into our yard. I'm still not convinced that this is real cotton, it's probably something poisonous so if you know what this is, let us know! Or if you get sick from one of our Arkotec pillows, please let us know.

Belly Shots

Baby's half baked, I'm 20 weeks now! Picture on the left 18 weeks, on the right 20 weeks (and a little nerdy looking). Time is flying and it's only going to get faster. I am starting to feel him move a little, which is fun. Back pains have lessened, thanks to some back exercises I have learned. And I have been sleeping a lot better at night with NO pit stops to the bathroom. I've learned not to drink a lot right before bed. 2nd trimester has been treating me pretty good.

The Ramsey Scale

Thumbs up:


Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie - Ice Cream of the Week. -SH


The month of Halloween means nothing but scary/horror movies. -CH


Thanks for discovering America Mr. Columbus, I get a 3 day weekend. -CH


Economic troubles means fewer of these people walking around, less people in the water, less crowds everywhere you go! -CH

Thumbs Down:


Panda Express was gnarly the other night. Tried to help the economy, but don't want to go back anytime soon. -CH & SH


Constant back pain and shooting pains down the leg, nerve crushing and achy-ness. It will only get better as the belly grows, right? -SH


Airlines, all of them! They suck. Inter-island tickets are now like $500 for the two of us to go to the B.I. for the weekend...if we book it a month or so in advance it's cheaper, but still not what it used to be.
"Thumbs down on the Ramsey scale." -CH & SH