…but not at the same time… ^_^

We recently acquired four of these little soup bowls and I am thoroughly pleased with them. I wouldn’t normally broadcast a kitchen purchase (especially a small one), but these stoneware pot-style bowls are wonderful and if you’re near a Crate and Barrel you should go look at them. They’re good serving size, are microwave, dishwasher AND oven safe, and have two handles– which means I can make individual casseroles and bake them IN the bowls! This makes me very excited. Their inaugural use? Chili. ^_^ Tonight I had macaroni and cheese in one of them and it was nice to be able to hold the bowl while I ate.

Okay, maybe I’m a little too excited about the soup bowls… Heh.

It’s been raining for four days, and finally let up some this afternoon. It’s still overcast, though, so I’m thinking the rain will be back tonight. I guess this means it’s officially rainy season. The only reasons this isn’t a good thing are A) zoo exhibits tend to flood and B) we have company coming soon and I don’t want it to rain the whole time they’re here. There’s a lot more good about the rain than bad, though.

Happy rainy things… Diamond Head (and various other places) have almost magically transformed in the last week to be lush and green and beautiful. I’ll have to take a photo for you. Not that Diamond Head isn’t normally pretty, but when it’s the dry season it looks like layers of rock. Check out the park website, though, and you’ll see how green it can get. ^_^ This is Diamond Head before rainy season from last November:

You can tell there’s a difference. The other thing I like about rainy season is the return of the waterfalls on the Ko’olau mountains. The start at the tops of the peaks and carve the accordion-like ridges as they run down the windward side of the mountains. In heavy rain you can see that they are water, but in light rain (or for a while just after), they look like silver ribbons laying across the green forest. I also like how the clouds roll down the mountains and sink into the valleys and how flowers bloom and how the temperature at night is cool enough for jackets and maybe sweatshirts and how the sky looks so much closer. I walked around by the new (under construction) zoo entrance and looked out at the ocean and thought that the horizon looked closer, like I could almost see it bending down to touch the water in a slate gray dome. I like that. It makes the world feel smaller, but not in a bad way.

Oh, and the muddy rhinos? Well, even though flooded zoo exhibits can be difficult (nearly impossible sometimes) to clean, the rhinos have a ball splashing in the mud, so that makes another happy rainy thing on this otherwise sopping wet week. ^_^