My Oven

Since moving here, I have been trying to figure out my oven. I know that every oven cooks differently so I was all sett to have a couple of first frustrating baking experiences before I figured it out. I just didn't expect what I got.

Everything burned! Or came out on the dark side and dry if I pulled it out when it started to smell done rather then when the timer went off. I had the feeling that it was running a little hot so I started with just turning the temperature down 25 degrees from whatever the recipe called for. It didn't seem to be enough.

Remembering the sage advice of my sister-in-law Marrisse, I got an oven thermometer so I could see what was actually going on. On Friday I braved the heat, turned on the oven and did some testing. Here are my results:

Where it's set The Actual Temperature

150 225

200 275/300

250 350

275 375

300 425

350 450

Well no wonder I kept burning stuff. I didn't go any higher because when do you need to cook at a higher temperature than 450? What surprised me with these results was that the temperature didn't stay a simple 75 degrees too high, it was more like a sliding scale. I think I'll post my chart next to the oven so I'm not swayed by the numbers on the dial.

Dancing...WithTheStars

Last week they announced the new cast of Dancing With The Stars. I don't really have anything to say about any of them because I don't really know who they are. When I first read the list of the new cast, they very helpfully said how each person was known. That helped me recognize the person who was on The Hills (seeing as I have never seen that show but have heard of it) or who the different athletes are. One thing that struck me this season is that there don't seem to be very many athletes. I think that's too bad because they tend to do quite well.

In reading the announcements, I also read some of the comments on the articles. They are so funny. The general gist is that these are just a bunch of has-beens or not real stars who are known for stupid reasons. Well, duh! My thought is, real stars are too busy for the time commitment it takes to do the show. It's like the people forget that at the start of previous seasons, they didn't know who the people were either.

Funky Tree Friday

I know it's been a while since I've done one of these. This is left over from Hilo. I thought I wold get those ones done (I have at least one other one) before we moved onto Oahu funkiness.

This is the end of a line of these trees that went every which way. I was only able to get the last few because of my angle. Bummer. The truly funky thing about them was they curved all kinds of different ways. If they all went the same way we could say it was because of the wind but they didn't. Some even went more than one way.

Dishes

We bought dishes this past weekend. Since we first came here, we have been looking at dishes. Looking for something we like. Apparently, we're picky. Who knew? Then we went and added all kinds of limitations on ourselves. It started with a general concept of how we want our dining room to be decorated - with an Asian vibe. Then we got cups and flatware with circles (some might call them dots on the cups) so the dishes we got had to at least go with those a little bit. As you can tell with these restrictions, we didn't find much at our usual places of WalMart, Target and Ross. There was one at WalMart that might have worked but there were strange speckles on them that Jason thought would bother him.

So, needless to say, we've been using paper plates and bowls for a while. Then on Saturday morning, we used the last plates and for some reason, I just didn't want to buy more. I guess I was done and ready for real dishes. Of course, I think it helped that we had gone to Pier 1 earlier in the week and found some that we liked.

So we went and bought service for 4 to start. We didn't get the mugs because I thought the handle was a little too small to be comfortable to me. We think they're fun and like them enough to get even if they don't totally match with what we already have. As Jason said, he likes the dishes more than the cups. We also have a red tablecloth that will have to go but it's the plastic kind and I burned it the other day so we have a more valid reason to get rid of it.

It's always interesting when you shop for things and learn something new about the person you've known for 13 years. Apparently, Jason prefers wide shallow bowls. I was so surprised because they are not my favorite and I had no idea he liked them better. I guess we'd never had that conversation before. So in the store we looked at some other bowl options but Jason agreed to get these ones for me because I prefer the deep bowl style. He's so good to me.

Funny Girl

Anna has been pretty funny lately. Here are some of our favorite things she's said.

Moms are great. They are better than chocolate cookies! - In a song sung by one of her dolls

Happiness ensues! - When we were at a store and told her something she wanted

I see blue sky. It's smiling at me. I see more blue sky. It's smiling at me too. - This is something Jason and I say a lot when it's a cloudy day and we see a little patch of blue sky. Anna said this on a completely clear day.

Daddy, where's the rainbow? - Completely out of the blue. There wasn't one this time but around here, it's always a possibility.

A: Why aren't all these people going to church? J: Because they don't know about Jesus. A: (yelling) You should all come to Jesus' church! - A conversation Jason and Anna had on the way to church last week.

Please bless all the people who don't know you. Please bless all the people who don't like you. - In her prayers lately.

Well let's just play with blocks then. - To Jason if he doesn't feel like playing. She knows he's a sucker for building things with blocks.

Some kids don't like vegetables. - As she's eating hers with gusto. We often follow up with that's sad for them.

My mommy's tummy is big because there's a baby in it. - To a stranger in the library. The poor lady didn't know how to respond because while I am pregnant, I'm barely showing.

Here I Am!

Look at that view! This is from on the way up Tantalus.

(Zorro the Gay Blade) We are now officially living in Honolulu. The move went mostly smoothly, if fast. We found out we got the apartment on Tuesday, packed up on Friday, got our stuff on the boat on Monday, flew to our new place on Wednesday and got our stuff off the boat on Thursday (the plan was to fly the same day we could pick up the stuff but I misread the schedule, oops). As you can see, we don't like to waste time once we have made a decision. I have to say, one nice thing about living on an island is that the whole moving process, while a bit more of a pain because you have to deal with boats, is conveniently stretched out so there is plenty of time to recover before the next step.

We have been spending our time buying things to go in our new place. Jason's parents very kindly gave us some furniture (the bed we were using at their house, the dresser, their couch) and a few kitchen things to get us started. Of course that meant we got to get everything else (the stuff we had before we lived with people for two years is still in a storage unit in Philadelphia). My days have been spent at WalMart, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Ross. While we don't have everything yet, we are making good progress and only have a few kitchen gadgets and bookshelves left.

So, here are the pictures of our new place. Anna kindly offered to be the tour guide, in her tutu.

Here is the living room from the front door. As you can see, we have boxes of books on the floor until we get a bookshelf to put them on.

Next comes the kitchen. Sorry the picture is so dark. A couple of things that we bought that I love are the green colander (it's plastic) and a dish drainer that hangs into the sink. It has a decent amount of storage between what you see and there are cupboards under and abover the low counter that you see in the living room picture. If you turn around from this picture, you see this:

Behind the door on the right there are shelves where we keep food and behind the one on the left is just open so we put out ironing board and broom there. The top ones are too tall for me to reach.

Here is our lanai that is out the kitchen door. It runs the whole length of the apartment and we think it's about 25 feet long, to give you an idea of how big our place is (hint: not big). Out here there are washer and dryer (I think) hookups and a clothesline. As you can see, we don't have a washer yet but we would like to get one. Until then, the apartment across the way has coin laundry that we can use. It's been kind of fun to have the clothesline and I'm working on figuring out how long things take to dry here and how many clothes I can get up on it at once (not more than one load).

To the left of the front door is a little hallway to the bedrooms.

Here is our bedroom, the closet to left. It's really too hot here for a blanket so we just use our sheet. We're thinking that since it's shown off, we might want to get patterned sheets. The rigs on the floor are technically bath mats but they were so soft we just had to get them.

Next to our room is Anna's room. We put her art work up on the walls and her toys are in the boxes. We also brought her kitchen and little dresser with us, they're behind the camera. The day after this picture, Anna dumped out all the toys and we haven't gotten them put back together since. It miss it being so clean.

This is in our bathroom and the reason I'm including this in our tour is for these two things. First, check out that bathroom storage. There is also a little cabinet behind the mirror and under the sink so we have plenty of space for everything. I love then. Then, notice we only have a shower and a small one at that. Cleaning Anna was rough for a while there but we have since gotten a little kid shower head that is attached to a tube so it reaches down to where she is. After using the first time, Anna declared, "I love my new shower!" Definitely better than the previous torture session.

And that is our place. As I said, not big but it has tall ceilings and is big enough for us. I have yet to really feel cramped. Plus, we have great neighbors. I wish I could say you could come visit but all we really have to offer is an air mattress on the floor of the living room.

Venting

This is driving me crazy and telling Anna about it just doesn't seem to help. I'm trying to pay the security deposit for our electric company online because I lost track of time and it's due today (oops). Well, their company uses a third party bill pay company to do that. No problem, I just set up an account, add the company and pay the bill.

The problem comes when I try to add the company to my account. It says my account number or zip code don't match the format. It doesn't even say which one is wrong but they both look exactly the same as on my paper statement. Then, they have an online chat if you need help but apparently it doesn't work with either firefox or chrome. So then, it suggests contacting them by phone or email but doesn't actually give a phone or an email address to contact them on. On the contact page all it says is to use the live chat option. Grrr! I guess I'll have to pay it a different way that includes a fee.