3-Part Inspiration, Part 3

This post is for yesterday, Easter. The first and second images have already been posted, but I wanted to keep the continuity going.

So this is part 1

part 2

part 3

Although this is actually part 4, I didn't think about it when I decided to do a 3-parter.

This photo below is for Leah. Hope you had a nice Easter, even though I think you were traveling. Britt remarked about how your entrance with the Bunny Cake was quite a bit more dramatic than mine. But at least I kept up the tradition. (ps--the mouth was created from 'dark chocolate' Cadbury Eggs!)

To my MVP partners: I'll be leaving the house pretty soon and I don't know when I'll be back online--but I guarantee that the photos I post will have been taken on the appropriate days. See you all soon.

By the way, anyone who is leaving me comments as "anonymous", I appreciate hearing from you. If you're an acquaintance, or even if not, please leave your name so I know who you are. Thanks.

Fireworks

This isn't my post for today. I just wanted to share these with you. Yesterday, when I had to trash the idea of going to the Lighthouse because of rain, I still had to go to Honolulu to run some last minute errands. As I arrived, the rain stopped and I thought I might be able to get some fireworks shots if the rain held off.

The weather did cooperate. Just as the fireworks began it started drizzling very lightly. Since the "show" only lasts about 5 minutes, it was okay. It still didn't rain for my entire ride home, but it poured all night.

The image below is a cropped portion of the above image. I shot wider views last night because I wanted to see how the scene would look if I included some of the buildings surrounding the fireworks site. Which do you like better? the horizontal or vertical?

The image below is also a crop of an horizontal image. I shot all of them horizontal just to insure I'd get the entire firework burst.

Posted 9:45 am on Sat, April 11, 2009.

check back later to see my post for today.

By the way, I probably won't be posting Sunday's post until very late tomorrow (Sunday) or maybe not until Monday morning. So let me wish you all a happy and Blessed Easter. God is risen!

Some Small Miracles

This is not my photo post for today. I woke up this morning way too early, and in the process of not being able to fall back to sleep began thinking about what happened to me the other day. So now I share it with you. This might be long, but if you need a little reminder of how good God is, read on.

I went to the zoo the other day (see the post for April 2 if you're interested). It took me three months to finally get motivated to go. The guidebooks I have don't give the Honolulu Zoo a very good review, and neither did any of the people I spoke with who have been there. So I was torn as to whether I should bother or not. But the lure of possible photo ops overcame my hesitancy, and I made the trip. The zoo is in Waikiki, right across the street from the beach. Another two-for-one opportunity.

As I drove into the parking lot, I remembered that I needed quarters to feed the parking meters with. Sure enough, I forgot to get some before leaving home. I thought I might be able to find a meter with some time left on it so I could go to the store, get change and feed the meter before going into the zoo. Well, eureka, I found a meter with 1 hour and 15 minutes left! And as I put my keys into my pocket I found a quarter which then extended my time to 2 hrs 15 min. (miracle #1). Each quarter is good for 1 hour. That certainly wouldn't happen in NY. It was 3 pm and the zoo closed at 5 pm. Perfect timing.

So off to the zoo entrance, where I discovered that the kama 'aina fee was 1/2 the regular fee. (miracle #2) (kama 'aina is local resident and I have a local checking account) I also discovered that the zoo was open till 5:30 so I had some extra time.

The weather was great-anyone who knows me knows how I basically fall apart if it's too hot or muggy. That day was cool, brightly overcast, with a nice breeze. Wonderful! (miracle #3)

The animals were moving around. (miracle #4)

It wasn't crowded. (miracle #5)

My camera worked! In light of all the camera mishaps I've had this trip, it was refreshing to get through the entire zoo without a problem. (miracle #6)

On my way out of the zoo, I remembered to get some quarters because I wanted to spend some time at the beach before heading off to my friend's house. When I arrived at my car, with only minutes to spare (since I stayed inside the zoo longer than I originally intended to), I was ready to feed another quarter into the meter. However, I noticed that the meter in front of the empty space next to me had an hour and 15 minutes still left. (miracle #7) So being basically cheap (gotta save those quarters, dontcha know), I moved the car over and headed off to the beach.

When I finally looked at my watch, I disappointedly realized I needed to head back to the car and wished I had put that silly quarter in the meter. I arrived at the car with only 1 (one) minute left. (miracle #8)

I started driving to my friend's house and between my GPS and her directions I arrived there without getting lost! (BIG miracle #9)

Well, in light of all the tragedy and sorrow in our world, i.e. our new president, the economy, the mass shootings, the jobless rate, the high cost of everything, cancer, pollution, rude people, bail outs, wars, death, etc., you're probably wondering why I'm writing about parking meters and not getting lost in Honolulu, etc., as miracles.

It's just that I'm constantly reminded by my loving God that He is still in control--not just of the big things, but also of the little things. He reminds me that He can bless me big-time or in the myriad of the quiet, unseen, almost unnoticed details that make up my life. I hope I never lose my appreciation of these Small Miracles.

We will soon be celebrating the greatest miracle of all--Easter. Jesus died to atone for our sins and was resurrected. Praise God.

Sunday, Mar 23, 2008

EASTER

Well, Easter morning dawned bright, beautiful and warm. Never thought I'd be able to say that, living in upstate NY. But here in Hawaii, that's the way it was. What a glorious day to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We had a great church service.

Then in the afternoon, we had our usual Bible Study at the Bayles' home, followed by Easter dinner. The menu was Ham, Lamb and Yam, plus, of course, all manner of other things. But I thought the Ham, Lamb and Yam was cute. Okay, so it doesn't take much to amuse me!

There were dyed hard-boiled eggs which were used by everyone in an old Greek tradition, that our Japanese hostess wanted us to participate in. Okay, Greek tradition in Hawaii sponsored by our Japanese hostess. Fun. You find someone and the two exchange Easter Greetings (if you've seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it's the phrase Ian is trying to learn in the restaurant the first time he's meeting the family==Christos Onazzi [or something to that effect]). Once you've exchanged greetings, you're supposed to tap your eggs together and whichever one breaks, that person is out of the "game". You continue on, finding people whose eggs are not broken, until, hopefully, there is one person left with an intact egg. That person won a little prize.

My egg cracked on the first go-around, okay, no wise cracks, oops, no pun intended! So I just did what I like to do best and went around taking photos.

And here's the bunny cake, Leah's contribution to the dinner.

It was a really fun evening. After eating, people hang around and visit, no one seems to be in a hurry to leave. My friend, Chelsea, attended church with me in the morning, and the dinner also. She was very impressed by how friendly everyone was and said she felt very comfortable. Way to go, OPCers! Christ in us at work.

Easter=Ka la i ala hou ai ka Haku

ham=Pua'a hame

lamb=keiki hipa

cake= Mea 'ono

Aloha