Archive for June, 2009

The evolution of our garage: Cleaning out the garage (again)

When we first moved in, our garage was a disaster.  We had boxes and junk piled high, and no organization.  We had boxes from Oregon that were unpacked, boxes that were partially unpacked for finding a few crucial kitchen gadets, and boxes full of other boxes that we wanted save.

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December 2007- The all junk stage.  Can’t really tell what’s truly junk, or whats non-junk!

After moving in, I assembled a set of shelves from Costco.  They’re pretty big, but we still had a ton of stuff all over the ground.

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February 2008- The junk and non-junk on a nice shelves stage.

So I finally got back to Costco and bought a new set of shelves, and built up on our existing units.  It took me all day, but after a ton of huffing and puffing, we now have shelving units that extend up to the ceiling.

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June 2009-  The junk is now physically removed from the non-junk.

Woo hoo for having space for the non junk on the shelves!

The shelves look great– we finally have a place to put everything.    I’m still looking for a large tool bin for our mishmosh of tools and home improvement equipment (the really big ones with wheels and multiple drawers– If anyone wanted to buy us a present!) and nice hooks to hang our fishing and gardening stuff.  I like the pegboard idea from Martha Stewart Living, but we still have a ton of stuff we need to sort though.

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July 1, 2009-  The junk has migrated to the floor and exploded.

We can only hope that goodwill will take our old photo albums, Jonathnas old printers, and no one gets injured walking through this disaster zone.

Check out our Goodwill donation pile.  I spent a good part of the evening weeding through my old med school books and pictures from college and Jonathan still needs to sort through all of his electronics and gadgets.  Jonathan actually found a couple of good computer recycling places for our old computers:  http://catii.com/comp4kids.html Trust me, it looks like a mess, but it’s progress.  Hopefully, we’ll have enough room to be able to park our cars in the garage!

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More Ice Palace Pictures

More pictures from the birthday party this weekend.

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Jarrin and the birthday boy, Bradin.  The party was at Ice Palace, the one and only ice skating rink in the state.

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Getting ready to go back on the ice!

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Jarrin zipping by on his skates.  I couldn’t get a good photo of him because he was going so fast!

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Video: Jarrin Ice Skating at Ice Palace

Mom and I took Jarrin to Ice Palace for his friend Bradin’s Birthday party.  Jarrin’s a pretty good ice skater for a kid from Hawaii.  :)

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The kids are on a diet…

…So no puppy treats (or buttercream) for them!

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Elton weighs a whopping 30 pounds (that’s 12 more than breed standard!!!), and Rafa weighs 16 pounds!  Ooomph, I think we equate food with love, but from now on, no overfeeding the pups!

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Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day, Dad Sato and Dad Ping!

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We had Father’s Day dinner at our house.  Jonathan and Crystal enjoying a drink outside.  Check out the Hello Kitty beer coozy.  We think it’s pretty classy.

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As a pre-dinner activity, we decided to decorate cupcakes…

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Jarrin decided to eat his cupcake as soon as he finished decorating them!

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Jalvin finished decorating the fastest…

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And as always, Janell took her time and made the most beautiful designs on her cupcakes…

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Grant manned the grill. I love the apron and hat.  It makes him look so professional.

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After dinner, we competed in a watermelon eating contest.  Jonathan put in a valiant effort, but Janell won by 2 seeds.

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Check out the dessert spread… so, so much food. :)

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Official Hawaii Kai Dog Walk Photo!

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They had a photo booth at the Dog Walk, so I took a photo with the boys!   I think they look very dashing with their red leis.

http://www.hui-ilio.org/

http://web.me.com/mws9/Monica_Schwartz_Photography/MSP_HKDW09.html

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Rafa, post op

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Our littlest baby, Rafa, got neutered yesterday.  We took him to our normal vet, Dr. Yoon, in Hawaii Kai.  The surgery went well, although he is still crying at night and when we move it a little roughly.  He has a lot of antiinflammatory medications that we are giving to him, but his little puppy whimper completely melts us… :)

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Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

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Jonathan turned thirty-one-derful today!

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We had a low key celebration for Jonathan at home– Just Jonathan, me, Rafa, Elton and a Blueberry cheesecake (Jonathan’s favorite!  Happy Birthday!

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Tennis ball cupcakes!

Jonathan and I went to a tennis potluck last night and I decided to make tennis themed cupcakes!

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Yellow cake (Jonathan’s favorite),  my butter cream frosting, and yellow sprinkles.   Rafa and Elton thought the best part was  the frosting…. mmmm…

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I got the idea from Martha Stewart Cupcakes.  It doesn’t look as good as the picture in the book, but it tasted yummy.

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Jenny makes a compost bin! (Easy peasy trash bin composter)

We spent a good part of the day attending to our very neglected yard.  We finally fixed the sprinkler head that Jonathan ran over with the mower.  Thankfully, we didn’t glue the original piece in and we didn’t need to chop down entire patches of grass.  Rafa enjoyed checkout the new sprinkler head and got really muddy and grassy.

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Onto the really great garden news: I finally got around to making a composter!  OK, it’s not the best news, but I’m super excited about my new green bin.  I’ve been wanting a composter for the last few months.  Dad normally gets us bags of compost from the Manoa gardens and it’s great for our garden.  Also, I wanted to go “green” and I hate throwing away green wastes.

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I did some internet research and decided to use a 30 gallon container from Target.  I probably should have gone bigger, but I wanted to start small.

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I drilled holes allover the sides for aeration and to let the bugs crawl in.  I filled it with 66% brown waste (carbon) and 33% green stuff (nitrogen), and watered it.

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It’s still half empty, but I figured it’s a work in progress– we’ll add more as we go.   Hopefully we’ll have a nutrient rich pile of compost in 3-6 months!

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