June 2007 Archives

The next morning we grabbed breakfast at an ABC store again but this time ate it on our lanai. We checked out of the hotel and drove back to Hanauma Bay, but when we got there the parking lot was full. So, we drove further and stopped at a nice viewpoint and took some pictures. We headed back to Hanauma Bay and this time the lot was open!

When we snorkeled at Hanauma Bay two days earlier, we didn’t see much. But as we were leaving last time we saw some nice looking areas, so we decided to try those spots this time. The snorkeling was much better this time, lots more fish and lots less waves. At one spot we were swimming right over the reef, and it dropped out and there was a turtle hanging out like four feet below us. Kara did the obligatory snorkel scream which freaked out the turtle a bit (I think). We dried off and read on the beach for a while, then we went back out again to snorkel a different area.

By two o’clock we were pretty hungry for lunch, so we drove back to Honolulu and had BBQ (another under-represented food genre on Maui). My food was only so-so, but Kara’s baby back ribs were YUMMY!

With lunch eaten, our trip was almost over. We had to drive back to our hotel to pick up our bags, fill the gas tank up, return the car, and check in at the airport. The landing in Kahului was less bumpy than it usually was… I swear that airport has the scariest landings ever...

You can see all the pictures we took on our trip here.

Have you ever heard of Pic-a-Pix puzzles? How about Nonogram? Picross? Griddlers?

All different names for the same type of puzzle, one which I'm hopelessly addicted to. The puzzle is basically a grid that once solved displays a picture of some sort. There are numerical clues on the horizontal and vertical which mark how many adjacent squares are 'filled' for each row and column. To get an idea of how it works, check out this animated GIF which shows a time-lapse of someone solving one.

I stumbled across these puzzles over a year ago when a saw a link to Conceptis Puzzles. This site posts a number of free puzzles each week including Sudoku, Pic-a-pix, and many more (there are even complex connect-the-dot puzzles that you can print out).

The problem is, Conceptis only releases 4 Pic-a-pix puzzles of varying difficulty each week which I burn though fairly quickly (either by completing the puzzles, or deciding not to do them because they are too large and would take too long to finish). So, although I'm addicted, my access to them was metered and I remained a functioning human being.

Until I found Griddlers.net... This site has thousands and thousands of these puzzles which you can sort by size, popularity, colors, etc. On top of that, there are multi-griddlers which contain half-and-half colored squares and a weird but similar triangular grid puzzle called triddlers.

With unfettered access to these puzzles, I have become a useless grid filling machine.

i lock up my bike
another work day begins
chickens surround me

sun enters my room
can i get up out of bed?
no, i will sleep in

the patch has installed
are my friends online today?
vosotros will do

writing a haiku
this is seven syllables
now wasn't that fun?

i open the shade
lightning, a boy, umbrella
it was all a dream?

I couldn't stop... These are videogame themed...

suited man unthaws
he'll save us from Covenant
oh, the Flood is worse

little boy in green
grab your sword and boomerang
it is time to play

you lost all your skills
fight and fight to get them back
wait, you are a girl?

i run much faster
i have twice as many bits
still, he is more loved

Last weekend was a three day weekend thanks to King Kamehameha. We decided to stay home and do a Maui vacation this time. On Saturday morning we went to the Sugar Museum in Pu’unene and learned about sugar milling. The museum was pretty small, but it had an interesting 10 minute video about how they extract all that yummy sweetness from the cane.

Later in the day we went to Wailea Beach to wade in the water and read our books. The water felt warmer than it has in a while... Summer is here! Brooke was at the beach too, so we talked to her a bit while we cooled down in the ocean.

Saturday night was Maria’s birthday party; we went to Sansei for some half-priced sushi and full priced drinks. The bill came to over $300! Pics are here.

On Sunday we bummed around the house for most of the day, but we also did a 3 mile bike ride down at La Perouse Bay.

On Monday, we packed a cooler full of food and headed out to Ulua Beach. We snorkeled all around the reef which was great because the water was VERY clear. Then we hung out at the beach for a while reading, eating, and laying in the sun.

After a while we decided to pack up and head over to Polo Beach to do some boogie boarding. The waves there weren’t very big though so we only got a few good rides in… Every time we headed back to our chairs, we had to run because the sand was insanely hot!

At 7pm we went out to Mulligan’s to listen to Gypsy Pacific a gypsy jazz band that we discovered last week. Our table overlooked the ocean and we watched the sun set behind Lana’i.

A pretty great 3 day weekend…