Shortest walk ever

Wow. Our evening walk was about this short: front door of hotel -- beach walk -- back. Yet it took as long as our usual meandering stroll. I blame humom, of course. First, she put a red, white and green lei on me. This did not exactly decrease the number of people needing to stop and coo over the "snow dog" and exchange Mele Kalikimakas.

Then, she took me out just before sunset, when every visitor and resident on Oahu hangs out in Waikiki. Everyone and his Boston terrier.

And strangest of all, she was in a very patient mood. She didn't try to march me along, and let everyone pet me who wanted to. Even the sticky kids eating shave ice. Did she let me eat their shave ice? Not so much.

We visited Deena and the circus performers practicing in the park. Handsome Tony the juggler was there and remembered to greet me. I enjoy the jugglers -- tossing balls to themselves. There are a lot of unskilled humans in the parks who toss balls away and expect their dogs to bring them back. They could take lessons in juggling.

Among the onlookers was a family with a young girl in one of those wheelchairs, like the old men in the park hang out in, or the fat lady in the hotel who always smells like cigarette smoke. But this was a super-fancy motorized job. The girl didn't smell like smoke, and looked at me, so I moseyed on over to say hi. The mom and other kids gushed over me, of course, and the mom moved the girl's hand to approximate petting me. I rested my head in her lap so she could feel the weight on her legs and she grinned from ear to ear. For some reason, I felt happy. Weird.

On the way home we met a couple of kids in a "stroller" -- stupid name, the kids are specifically NOT strolling, but sitting down. The little sister had her leg in a cast, a most unusual aroma -- quite musty and unwashed, with bits of food and some plaster and Vetrap. Humom didn't let me get a good lick in. I did get some good snootfuls, causing the mom to coo how sweet that the doggie was trying to heal her little girl. Whatever.

--- Merry Christmas, Missy out

Trades

Today Missy is arrow-shaped, all sleek and pointed. Her ears are plastered back, fur ruffled, eyes slitted. She is moving almost faster than I can keep up -- making her sniff stops joint-wrenching. This is one frisky canine. What roiled the Malamute blood? Cool, even cold trade winds tearing down the mountains, blowing out the vog and sending the sand stinging, rows of sailboats line-dancing back and forth in front of the setting sun, the palm trees tossing ... Missy is loving it!

Our Marathon

Thanks, Jerry, for the img. We had a great Honolulu Marathon. For the first time on Oahu, we got to wake up naturally -- no screech, crash or howl of dumpster trucks, no construction hammering and roaring ... just silence! A blissful foretaste of mornings on Maui, I hope.

Rhoda and I took beach stuff in her convertible and zoomed up to the North Shore, stopping in cute Haleiwa. We watched some excellent surfing at Banzai Pipeline -- Kauai's Sea Bass triple crown champion -- and had decent Mexican food at Chollo's.

On our return, I had a call from Visa that my credit card was being used fraudulently. Dealt with that for a couple of days, then realized that my car was gone. Urk. That's where my card had been. While Rhoda and I were on the shore, someone was busy stealing my car and racking up charges. Nice.

It took Missy several days to recover from all the spandex-clad hugs, kisses and squeals of So Cuuuuute! after the marathon. The neon sneakers are a bit hard to take, but do wake us up in the morning. It'll be nice to get back to regular, casual runners on our morning walks -- it's been weird being invisible to the hard-core runners who are so into their iPods, their pulse or whatever that they don't notice they're about to crash into a Malamute or a substantial redhead.

My poor ears, Part II

So humom is celebrating the end of the semester. Last day of class, rather -- grading still to come, as she never tires of reminding me. Anywooo, now she's running around strewing lists and cash, trying to catch up with holiday obligations. I'm contributing much Malafluff to the proceedings. Smirk.

Today the antique Autumn Gold fire alarm went off and wouldn't stop. EARSPLITTING for the delicate Malamute ears, and not happy-making for the migraine-prone huperson either. So what better idea than to visit the groomer? Humom searched for a Petco online, since all I really need is a nail and Sam-I-Am-hair trim. Got directions and everything. We had a fun drive through downtown HNL, me in the front seat. One way streets, not exactly a crow-flight, but I managed not to barf all over the car. So we get to the address, by several adventurous and not entirely legal maneuvers, and there's not a Petco in sight. Humom drives around a while, but downtown is clearly Petco-free.

When we get home, the damn fire alarm is still screaming! Humom lets me hang out in the hall while the Front Desk gets around to sending up the nice maintenance guy, who sends up the manager, at which point we head for the park ... Good, if slow, thinking, humom! When we get home, the silence is thick. We curl up for a cuddle. Humom does sneak in a paw trim, then it's relaxation time!

--- Missy out

Into the Vog ...

We are seriously vogged in today -- the ships are all ghosts, and the waves roll in out of yellowish soup. Missy snarked at Leo, her Golden buddy, this morning. Where are the Trade winds when we need them?

I had my buds at The Bench on the beach walk hold Missy for me so I could take pictures. They thought it was hilarious that, when I called her name, she would woooooo. Well duh. She's a Mallie, not a dachshund. As usual, the Mallie photo shoot attracted quite the crowd, with the Miss hamming it up and the guys insisting that she's a wolf/werewolf and posing her with her butt to the camera. The current Twilight movie is not doing much for the Mallie's reputation -- to the consternation of Oahu's youth, she consistently fails to transform into a handsome young man ...

Irma

Monk seals -- humom thinks they're soooooo cuuute. Urgh. I'd like to take a nibble, but humom is strongly opposed.

So is NOAA and the Marine Mammal response team: 1-888-256-9840

Today we walked past the Natatorium and Aquarium, and were somewhat taken aback to see some police cruisers and cops at Sushi Beach. They quickly left without doing a thing, and voila! a chubby, very large banana-slug-shaped creature smelling of fish reclining on the beach, surrounded by a large crowd cooing a chorus of "aaaw." I'm familiar.

My Uncle Steve was there telling telling the hupeople what a monk seal is and why they couldn't go up and cuddle with her. He also petted us people and mentioned to us that we could go up and chew on her because she would bite us too, which was considerate.

My humom lent Steve her phone to call the Seal Response Team, who needed to drop off their kids at school but would then come by and cordon off the area. We've never seen monk seals on Maui without cordons and posters, so I was thrown off at first. Uncle Steve, humom and I stayed for a while to protect the seal -- Irma -- but then humom had to leave to get ready for work. We were happy to see on our evening walk that Irma was still there, sleeping on her back with her whiskers in the air. I had a good chat with the GSD seal guard dog (he doesn't know how she tastes either, lame).

--- Missy out

Akroteria

We walk past the zoo every morning on our way to the beach. There are many subtle Mallie ways to lead the huperson in the direction one wishes to go, but alas! I have yet to enter the enticing precincts where so obviously reside many fragrant and vocal people of many species, some no doubt delicious. We have tried the

My this fence is fascinating; the

Shouldn't we visit the homeless person sleeping behind these well-placed bushes? and the

Nobody here but us Japanese tourists

ploys, but so far, humom has proven strangely adamant, a material that is, I believe, stubborn and nasty-tasting. This morning, to our delight, but perhaps for different reasons, we noticed silhouetted against the sunrise the usual outline of the roof, canted upward to east and west, and perched on the ridge line a handsome duck, motionless as if carved of the best koa wood, doing his King of the World impression. Humom was laughing her fool head off, but I kept mine and just looked further, and indeed, more ducks were out, a few perched on the rooftop greeting the dawn, but others out in the park, a-a-a-a-lmost within reach. Drat.

--- Missy out