The Cake in Pancake

Last night we went out to dinner with some friends. We went to a place that really takes their pancakes seriously. Especially the cake part of the word. I have to admit that I was skeptical when Jay told us the pancakes were as big as pizzas, stacked three high. As you can see, I shouldn't have doubted. It was honestly like eating a three layer cake.
I don't want to brag or anything, but I totally out-ate the three guys at the table. I give Simon all the credit.

SOLD!

We no longer own:Don't ask me how much I like sitting (and nursing while sitting) on the floor all of the time or how we are managing to eat without any dishes, but the discomfort and inconvenience are small prices to pay for having a few more dollars in our pocket as we board the plane next week.

Still to sell: Baby Beluga (our car), our computer, and $65 worth of random household stuff (although prices may drop dramatically as July 4th draws closer).

We put Baby Beluga up on Craigslist tonight and got three phone calls and two e-mails within two hours, so things are looking good there . . . keep your fingers crossed for us.

Last Chance at Sea Life Park

Since Micah only has a week left of employment at the PCC, we thought we would take advantage of the fact that PCC employees get free admission to Sea Life Park while we still could. Yesterday was the big day. We saw dolphins and sea lions and penguins and all sorts of other sea life. I was kind of surprised at how sparsely attended the park was because dolphins are cool and sea lions are cool and penguins are super cool, so certainly everybody on the island would want to check it out, right? I guess not. Of course, it did take us 2 1/2 years to get there, so maybe coolness is not the issue. Maybe it is just that they don't market themselves very well or maybe it is that people don't come to Hawaii to see dolphins in tanks do flips or penguins waddle through hoops or even to see sea lions do handstands (not that sea lions actually have hands). I'd say that Simon loved it, but honestly he was staring at the ceiling/sky most of the time. Just can't keep his nose out of the air.

As a side note, afterwards we went out to dinner at a pizza place we had a gift certificate to (also courtesy of the PCC). It happened to be the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Vegas, so they had probably seven screens playing the fight. We're not really interested in fighting so much, but it isn't everyday that someone loses a fight because they knock themselves out, now is it? If you want to see a concrete reason why we will never let Simon be a fighter, check out this clip from YouTube. Jump to 5:40 to see the start of the round, and notice what happens to the guy in the gray shorts at about 5:50. He would have had it if he hadn't knocked himself unconscious. Oops!

95th in weight, 25th in height*

When you gain nearly 7 pounds and grow 3 1/2 inches in 2 months, you deserve to nap wherever, whenever. Even if it is while you are getting shots.

He hardly cried, even after they stuck three needles in his legs.

*According to some websites I consulted he is actually closer to 80th in weight and 15th in height. Either way, he's a solid, stocky little boy.

Turkey Surprise

Because it was his last week at work, Micah's intern, Jay, decided to throw himself a "surprise" party. And because Micah is leaving soon as well, he invited Micah to be one of the guests of honor at the party--which also meant providing one of the main dishes for the potluck. Somehow, as this "surprise" party was being planned word got out that Micah can cook up a mean turkey and someone in the office volunteered to provide one if Micah would work his magic on it. So that is what he did. On Monday he got started by brining the turkey in the office fridge, and on Tuesday he roasted it in the office oven for the lunchtime party. His co-workers were terribly impressed and so sad that they only found out about Micah's cooking talents at the end of his reign as graphic genius and technoguru of the PCC. If they'd known earlier, he could have added "Office Caterer" to his resume and probably made a killing off of his skills. I think one of his co-workers even offered to let him further develop his turkey-roasting talents on the bird she has had in her freezer since Christmas.

After tasting it myself, I wouldn't mind if Micah were feeling a little Thanksgiving-ish more frequently (as long as someone else is willing to foot the bill, of course). Many thanks go out to Kareena as well, for providing the spices for the turkey. They caused quite the stir. Everyone wanted to know where they could get some Spike and Greek.

The picture is actually from Thanksgiving, but I was busy with Simon and forgot to take one of Micah at the party. They were prepared and cooked exactly the same way, just in different ovens.

A Great First Father's Day

For Father's Day Micah decided to start teaching his son the craft of photography. Although Simon does not yet have the manual dexterity to hold a camera, he did a great job as the photographer's assistant by keeping the other babies looking at the camera. It was hilarious. I don't even want to know how many times I heard, "Look at the baby's toes! Look at the baby's toes!" in the 45-minute shoot Micah did for his boss's family reunion. It seemed to go well, and it was fun for me to see Micah in art director mode, even if it was just for a couple of group shots--nothing fancy.
We also had the delightful experience of running into some "family" of sorts at church. Our sister-in-law, Missy, has a twin sister, Liz, who was in Hawaii with her family for her brother-in-law's wedding. (Put a gold star on your forehead if you followed that little chain.) Out of all of the sacrament meetings they could have gone to, they some how found their way to ours. They were kind enough to let us crash their Father's Day festivities, and I can't tell you how great it was to be invited over for Sunday dinner. We had such a great time. The Harmons really made us feel like family, and since Liz and Missy look and sound so much alike, I totally forgot that I'd actually only met her briefly three years ago and we were not, in fact, best friends. We decided that Simon and her son Reid would probably be great friends as well if given a little more time together.
Reid is actually three months older than Simon, and although he is taller than Simon, they probably weigh about the same. Simon behaved himself throughout the night, which we took to mean that he was having as much fun as we were. What a great way to start the week.

I ran a 5K

And I enjoyed every step of it. My friend Diana (who is the person who turned me on to running in the first place) told me about it, and because of the timing we thought it was going to be the Laie Days 5K (which we were in charge of last year) but it wasn't. It was the 1st Annual BYU-H 5K. Or at least they hope it becomes an annual event. I wish them well.

Diana and her brother and I ran together and did fairly well, I thought, coming in during the 25 minute range, which led to some important discoveries. Well,mostly the discovery that I need to recalibrate my Nike+ sometime because I was using it during the run and it said we only ran 4.26K, but I believe the race organizers measured correctly. This, in turn, led me to realize that I've been running a lot faster than I thought, since we were doing about an 8.5 minute mile and my Nike+ tells me I run about a 9.5 minute mile usually. Good to know. I thought I'd lost all my speed when Simon entered the picture.

Micah and Simon cheered us on the whole way, which wasn't too hard since the course was just running up and down Kulanui Street three times, and then making a lap around the flag circle. So Micah just kept crossing the street so he could offer encouraging words, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Of course, he was so busy cheering he forgot to take pictures, but that is okay because nobody wants to see me in my running clothes anyway.

It was my first 5K and I was pretty excited about it. That's all.

Calling All Cars

Hello All. I have a big favor to ask of you.

Because we are moving and I have to find a new job, I thought that I would update my online portfolio in order to impress any would-be employers. I have just finished, but I am worried that we have missed something. So, if you wouldn't mind looking over my new site and checking it for typos, inconsistencies, and mistakes of any kind, that would be grand. Please give any user input that you can think of. Also, feel free to send it on to anybody else who would be willing to test it (or give me a high paying job) as well.

Yes, I did work really hard on this and I want to show it off, but mostly I want your help so that it is perfect for those I interview with.

Oh yeah. The site was designed for a market that has both reasonably fast internet connections and fairly high resolution monitors. If either or neither of these sound like you, I am especially interested in your feedback. How was the download time and how did it look on your screen?

Thank you so much. You can get to my site from the link on the left or at micah.heiselt.org

Highlight Reel

It's been exciting around here these past few weeks. I'm just going to hit the high points for you since there are too many things to blog about.

• Micah got a contact stuck in his eye for five days. It only came out after he put another contact and took it out. (You didn't you could wear two contacts in one eye at the same time, did you?)
• Lizzie and Becca did a bunch of Christmas shopping for Mom Blackhurst in less than two hours at the swap meet. We were so pleased with ourselves. It isn't easy to find gifts for 15 people at that place.
  
• We ate breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe. This was on our To Do Before We Leave Hawaii and It Is Too Late list, and it was very good. However, I do not recommend going on a day you need to drop somebody off at the airport before noon. There just aren't enough good breakfast places in Laie, so the whole town was in there at once. Luckily, Will's flight was delayed and we managed to get to town in plenty of time.
• Micah made ricotta cheese (and buttermilk) for our ravioli party with Martin, Diana, and Myra Palmer. It has become Micah's new goal (obsession?) to make all sorts of cheese. His first try was 100% successful.
  
• Lizzie drove down to town three times in one week and didn't even get lost once. This is probably surprising to no one but herself. It just amazes me that the streets actually are laid out the same way they were the last time I drove down to town
  
• Becca set a new high score at Mexican Train. Will was giving her a run for her money the first few rounds, but then he gave up trying to get the high score and Becca wasted us all.
  
• Simon started smiling. Happy day! We think he's working on the giggle, but it still has a ways to go before it is perfected.
  
• We snorkeled with turtles at Sharks Cove--another thing that was on our To Do list for Hawaii. It was well worth it. Turtles are cool.
  
• Becca took hundreds of pictures of Simon for the benefit of his other aunts and uncles. They had better appreciate it. I'm sure it wasn't easy for the little guy to be cute for such a very long time, yet he somehow managed it.
  

And the Little One said, "Roll over, roll over!"

I've been waiting to catch this moment on camera since Simon first rolled over last week, and I finally did it. Our little guy is so talented. As you can see, he doesn't really like being put on his stomach, which is why it took me so long to get it on camera. Sorry, Simon! I was just so proud of him.

Filler Post

Sorry for the lack of new posts these past weeks. Micah has been hogging the computer so he can work on his portfolio. He thinks getting a job is more important than showing off pictures of Simon. Silly Micah. But even if he hadn't been working so hard, we've been playing pretty hard with Will and Becca and who has time to blog when there are waters to snorkel, beaches to sun at, mountains to climb, and only a few days in which to cram it all. So, here is a new picture to look at until we are no longer working and playing so hard.