I'm back, sigh . . .

So I'm back in L**** now, freezing and trying to keep the dry cold from cracking my flesh open. My efforts are only marginally successful.

Anyway, yay for the Hawaii numbers game!

6: Days without eye twitches

1: Impulse to blog. That was on the first day. Quelled it successfully. Plus there aren't a lot of Internet cafes on Kauai. Which is one more reason to love the place.

3: Minutes spent thinking about work, and those were by accident in response to direct questioning

36: Chocolate-covered macadamia nuts eaten

0: Local youths seduced (tragic)

78: Sighs of contentment and/or bliss

1: Sunburned nose (on the last day, of course)

4: Pounds of fresh pineapple eaten

2: Books read--The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson, which had me giggling on the plane there, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which made me sob on the plane home.

8: Naps on the beach

80: The age of the sweet couple next to me on the plane, who kept urging me to share their food with them. "Here, have a sausage, it's really good. You'll need a cracker to put it on, here you go. I bet you'll like these trail mix bars, they come from Costco." For the last 5 years they've spent a month every spring on Oahu. I can get behind that.

1: Kayaking adventure on the Wailua River

6: Separate humpback whale sightings

3,429: Chicken sightings on Kauai. A bunch of them got loose during the last hurricane and now they're everywhere, with no real predators. The guy at the kayaking place says you can eat them but they're so lean you don't get much meat. He says they're great for stewing, though. But to be sure to get them from the mountains where you know they haven't been raised on tourist food and cigarette butts.

0: Good hair days in Hawaii. My hair does not like that place, but I don't really care what it thinks.

So yes. Blissful, heavenly vacation. And now I need to go to work. Will post pics soon.